Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. Matthew 4:4.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God (אלוהים) says:
To be strong and courageous many of you will have to change your diet. Both strength and courage depend upon what you are feeding your mind. And this will also determine your fruitfulness and whether you experience a life of victory, meaning the miraculous.
I liken My Word to bread. Bread from Heaven. My Word is the realm where Heaven and earth meet. My Son is the Word and He is also the Way, the Truth, and the Life, the Bread of Life, the Light of the World, the door, the Vine, the Resurrection and the Life, and the One who saves you. This means you could substitute My Word for whatever He is, for first and foremost from the beginning, He is My Word generated and birthed from the deepest part of Me—My very bosom, My very heart and soul.
And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. John testified about Him and cried out, saying, “This was He of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me has a higher rank than I, for He existed before me.’” For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace. For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ. No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him. John 1:14-18.
And My Word is the way. You find My ways in My Word for My Word is a light to your path and a lamp to your feet. My Word is the truth and I cleanse your mind and sanctify you in the truth. My Words are life to those who find them and health to all their flesh. I call My Word the Word of life and tell you that there is life in My Word. My Word is your bread. I liken My Word to bread for you that gives you eternal life. The Bread of life. My Son called healing the children’s bread and I sent My Word to heal you and deliver you from all destructions. The revelation of My Word gives light and in My light you see light, for I am My Word. My Word is the light of the world and no follower of Mine walks in darkness for My Word is the light of life. My Word is the door to all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. If you abide in My Word and My Word abides in you, you can draw your strength from that Word like a branch in the vine and produce what is in that word as the fruit of your lips and of your spirit, for My Words are Spirit and life. My Words contain eternal life in them, raising you up to resurrection life. Jesus, My Word, is the resurrection and the life.
My Word is bread to your spirit. It is spirit food. And to be strong and courageous you must eat spirit food and feed it to your soul (mind, will, and emotions) so that it will then quicken your bodies as well. For when your soul prospers, your body and every arena of your life prospers. And your soul prospers by being fed the truth that sets you free.
Beloved, I desire that in all respects you may prosper and be in good health, just as your soul prospers. For I was very glad when brethren came and testified to your truth, that is, how you are walking in truth. I have no greater joy than this, to hear of my children walking in the truth. 3 John 1:2-4.
A strong spirit can get you through any trial. Why? It takes you to a higher dimension where the impossible becomes possible, it is the spirit realm, it is the realm where I work. It is the place of answers, the place of miracles. It is the dimension where the sea parts, manna rains from Heaven, flour oil, bread and fish multiply, the angelic host comes to your aid, the lame walk, the deaf hear, the blind see, the mute speak, the dead come back to life, water gushes out of flinty rock and water turns into wine. It is the realm of My Word, for My Word is Spirit and life. My Word governs the Kingdom and anywhere My Kingdom manifests.
In the spiritual realm, as in the physical realm, you have to feed to be strong, you have to feed to fight. However, you must feed on the right kinds of food if you want to be a strong and courageous. For example, a soldier in combat forces, an athlete, or a ballet dancer knows that he or she must have a lean healthy body and they will not get that without clean healthy food, pure water, and plenty of exercise. Junk food will never do. It will hinder you.
Just so in the spirit realm. You have to feed on the right food to be a champion, a hero with the strength of an army. You cannot get the full impact of what I am saying here except in Hebrew. In Hebrew the word for “bread,” often translated as “food,” is lechem. Where My Son was born, Bethlehem, means house of (Beth) bread (lehem). And this is no coincidence. It was planned by name and place. It was the town of David and of Ruth and Boaz.
In Hebrew, every noun has a verb that is made of the same letters but has a “ah” vowel sound, so the verb of the noun “lehem” is “lacham.” Lacham means to fight. So the verb form of the noun, “lehem,” bread, is “lacham,” to fight. You have to feed to fight. I set a table before you in the sight of your foes.
Feed on the Bread of life. Man does not live on bread alone, that is, physical bread, but on every Word that proceeds out of My mouth, which is spiritual bread to feed your spirit and soul to restore them and make them strong. The bread of life is My Word for a man to eat and never die, for there is life, abundant, joyful, eternal life in My Word. I have the Words of eternal life. Eternal life is in My Son, who is My Word made flesh.
And Words, which are in My Covenant Names and magnificent promises therefrom, are set out as a banquet before you. Make sure you are partaking or you will not be strong to fight the good fight of faith. For faith comes by hearing and hearing My Word, which I liken to eating food.
“For the ear tests words as the palate tastes food.” Job 34:3.
Taste and see My goodness. Psalm 34:8. And you do that by hearing, reading, speaking, and living in and by My Word. My mouth is all sweetness. Song of Songs 5:16. My Word is sweeter than honey dripping from the comb.
How sweet are Your Words to my taste! Yes, sweeter than honey to my mouth! Psalm 119:103. They are more desirable than gold, yes, than much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb. Psalm 19:10.
When you feed on My Words they become part of you, just like the food you eat becomes part of your physical body. By looking at you, people know whether you overeat or undereat and whether you are eating muscle building or muscle destroying food. And they can tell whether you exercise by the shape you are in. The same is true in the spiritual realm with respect to what you are listening to, thinking upon, and speaking which will result in your actions and conversations.
And what words you are giving your attention to make a tremendous difference in how you respond to trials and attacks of the evil one. It makes all the difference in whether you come out the victor or the victim. You face attacks of illness and symptoms of various diseases and pains very differently when you know I am your healer and have already healed you in Christ and that the victory is in your words of response and your faith, which is expressed in your words and actions. You can only count trials as pure joy when you know that you will win every time and get the good result promised in My Word.
Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. James 1:2-4.
Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God. And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. Romans 5:1-5.
You can encourage yourself with My Word. In the physical, what do you know when your body gets weak and shaky? You need food and you need it quick. The same is true in the spirit, when you feel fearful and ready to give up, like you just cannot face another day, you need to eat spiritual food and you need it quickly—you need to get to the table I set before you in the sight of your foes as fast as you can. Grab your Bible and get the psalm you need. Psalm 27, Psalm 34, Psalm 18, Psalm 23, Psalm 57, Psalm 63, Psalm 107, or Psalm 118—these all fed David whenever he felt himself getting weak in the face of his enemies and all the opposition he faced and he encouraged himself until he was ready to run against a troop and leap over a wall. For My Word had lit the lamp of his spirit and illumined the darkness around him. He woke the dawn with his song of praise (psalm) at the midnight hour. The book you call “Psalms” in Hebrew is called “Praises.”
And now I want to tell you how to make My Word work in you and your life. If you learn this and do it, you will never fear anything again, you will be strong and courageous, for you have the answer. If you have the answer, you have no fear of the problem. If you have the key, no locked door can stop you.
The promise and the POWER is in My Word. Just as the plant is in the seed. But a seed sitting on your table or on a concrete path does nothing, though it has the plan (promise) to produce in it and that power in it to produce can be released. So how do you manifest what is in that seed into your world? The power in the seed to produce the plant it contains is set in action by planting it and cultivating it until the plant manifests and yields a harvest of its own kind. And it will grow and the plant will manifest if you plant and cultivate it, there is no question about that. And that was the first parable My Son told. And He said if you do not understand that parable, you will not understand how the Kingdom works.
In the same way, My Word has the life, the plan, and the power to produce in it, but if you do not plant it in your heart and let it grow to fruition by cultivation, it will not manifest. This is what I call meditating on My Word day and night. A farmer is not off the job of watching over the seed day or night if he wants to the seed to give a great harvest. And the more seed he plants and grows the bigger the harvest becomes.
I also, as we have been discussing in this Life Lesson, liken My Words to food that you eat. Know that you cannot just live for physical food alone, Paul spoke about those who make their god their belly, but by every Word that comes from My mouth. Jeremiah said that when My Words were found he devoured them and they became the passion and joy of his heart. And as I already shared, Job and Elihu both said that the ear tastes words as the tongue tastes food.
Now, consider food. As we discussed, what you eat, ingest, and digest becomes your own flesh. You can tell what people eat by looking at them, so obviously though it comes in as a substance that is not them it soon is incorporated into their bodies and becomes them. You know when a person eats too much or too little, and you can tell by their muscular tone whether it is living, healthy food or artificial junk food. There is a difference. And when a person abuses their body by eating all the wrong food the body gets ailments that the doctor keeps telling them could be healed if they just stopped eating what they are eating. I gave My people detailed directions on what to eat for their health and energy.
But aside from that, you can tell what a person is thinking upon in the heart and speaking (for you eat your words, the fruit of your lips) just by their countenance, body posture, and finally by their very appearance. People who are angry, bitter, and harbor vengeful thoughts become elderly and misshapen. Fearful people and depressed people dry up their bones. Wicked people cut their lives short. Your thoughts and words manifest in your physical appearance and your health. If you are not attached to the vine of the grace that is in Jesus, My Word, you wither up and become as the living dead who have no hope but only live to survive.
Do you see what I am telling you? You must use My Word as seed and food. It is seed to the sower and bread to the eater. It is life to those who find it and health to all their flesh. Be careful what you focus on, what you hear, what you dwell on, what you read, and what you speak.
If you want My Word to work for you, if you want your body healed, strong and well, if you want provision, if you want to be delivered out of trouble, I give you the answer: I send MY WORD to heal you and deliver you from all destructions. You must take in My Word by meditating on it till it changes you and your body and the world around you. You must plant it and eat it within you.
But I must show you what I mean by meditate for that is how I am telling you to plant and grow My Word and to eat it as food. And I will now tell you what Biblical meditation is so that My Word can turn everything around for you.
I give you all the directions you need to do this in many places in My Word. So track down the treasure. But today, let Me begin in the fourth chapter of Proverbs. I will go line by line, precept upon precept, until you can reach full maturity so you can accurately handle the Word of truth. 2 Timothy 2:15. There are five steps, the number of grace, and you cannot leave any of them out or you will not fully grow the seed to harvest so the fruit comes in your life and you will not digest the Word you are eating so it manifests in your body and life.
- Focus
Proverbs 4:20 begins: “My son, give attention to My Words.” The first step is to focus on My Word not your problem. What I mean by that is you must find Scriptures that address what you are facing and give you the outcome you desire. And you will find them for I have put them there for you. I send My Word to heal you and deliver you from your destructions, and I have a Word there that may have been originally delivered by, for, or to another person or situation but it will be exactly what you are going through and the Word that you need as the anchor for your soul.
If you know My Word well from reading it and hearing it, My Spirit in you can remind you of it and it will rise up in your heart just when you need it. If you are not used to spending time in My Word, however, you may have to search the Scriptures using the internet for key words on Bible websites or finding lists of Scriptures for particular situations or ailments that others have complied.
A good place to look is the book of Psalms. These address many of the troubles and ills you may be facing and come out with victory by declaring My Name and power to save, heal and deliver.
The book of the prophet Isaiah has a wealth of these treasures. Especially in Chapters 51 through 58. And once you have found your promises, then you must exclude focusing on the fear and focus on the Word you have found. Stop looking at your symptoms and look at My Word that will heal you and deliver you. When you do that, you are opening up your heart to receive the seed of that Word that will produce the result you want and you are beginning to eat from the banquet table I set before you in the sight of your enemies (demonic and otherwise). You are starting to taste the goodness of My Word, sweeter than honey dripping from the cone, and like Jeremiah, you will begin to devour it. The worse your situation, the more you need to eat the Words that resolve it. My Word is medicine to all your flesh.
- Hear
The next line of Proverbs 4:20 is “Incline your ear to my sayings.” Faith comes by hearing and hearing My Word. Romans 10:17. That is the only way faith comes, not by asking Me for it but by hearing and hearing My Word.
My Son told you to be careful what you hear for if it contrary to My Word, it will plant in you and choke out My Word. You should read Scriptures aloud so you hear them and plant them more deeply in your heart. Many only read the Scripture by their eyes but you need to say it out loud.
In the book of Revelation I tell you, “Blessed is one who reads aloud and those who hear the Words of the prophecy and heed the things which are written in it; for the time is near.” Revelation 1:3.
Also listen to the Scripture on an audio reading of the Bible and to anointed preaching and teaching on the subject of My Word and various aspects of it such as healing or deliverance. My apostle Paul explains Scripture in ways you may not find on your own, so read his prayers for you and his revelations, but he also tells you, “How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher?” Romans 10:14. I will guide you to anointed preachers and teachers who will be addressing just what you need and build you up to maturity in the Body of Christ so you can stand on the Word. But you need to be seeking to find, so do not turn on secular movies, news, and shows that do nothing but feed you godless chatter. Another good way to hear is to pray and sing in tongues and ask Me to give you understanding of what the Spirit is speaking in you.
- Read and write
The next step is Proverbs 4:21, “Do not let them depart from your sight.” Here is the counterpart to hearing, you also have to be reading and writing what I tell you down, this will write it on the tablet of your heart and let you go back to reinforce the Word each time you start to slide into fear again.
I told the Israelites to write My Words on the doorposts of their houses and on their wrists and to hang them before their eyes. In other words, make a list of the Scriptures you are planting, growing, and eating and set them where you can see them, especially in places where you tend to let your mind just wander wherever it wants.
I told My prophet Habakkuk to write the vision down so those who read it can run with it. When you find a Word that I give you and focus on it, listen to it aloud, then I will begin to speak to you through that Word and tell you what to do or how it will turn out. You need to write that down in your tablet or journal.
When I told Moses the Ten Commandments, I wrote them for him, but the first five books of the Bible I infused in his heart and mind and showed him visions, but he wrote them down. David told you that the complete plans for the temple that Solomon built came to him in prayer with Me when he began writing them down. Get your Scripture and then just pull up a chair close to Me and let Me speak to your heart and write down what I tell you. Things of the Spirit are hard to recall later in the flesh unless you write them down immediately when you hear them in your heart. And I will talk to you if you will open your heart to Me. I stand knocking at your door and if you let Me in, I will sit down and dine with you.
- Ponder
The next line is, “Keep them in the midst of your heart.” This is the heart of meditation. Here, as you ponder My Word that you have heard, read, and written down, it becomes your vision of the future. You make a mental picture of your new vision from My Words that replaces the vision of defeat and death, captivity, abuse, infirmity, sorrow, incapacity, loss, lack, rebellious children, and broken relationships with the promise of healing, joy, peace, prosperity, long life, renewed youth, deliverance, good relationships, established prosperous children, and victory. I tell you that Mary, the mother of Jesus in the flesh, treasured and pondered My Word in her heart.
- Speak
Here I will jump to lines 23 and 24 and come back to line 22 as the conclusion. Proverbs 4:23-24 directs, “Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life. Put away from you a deceitful mouth and put devious speech far from you.” The mouth speaks from the abundance of your heart and the things you say will come to pass. By your words you are acquitted and by your words you are condemned. Even though it was contrary to My promise to them, I gave the Israelites I redeemed out of Egypt what they said that was stout against My Words for they kept declaring their way over Mine. And they really did not want to wander in the desert for forty years and miss all the wonderful things I had for them in the Promised Land, but they got what they insisted on saying. Do you understand? Do not speak what you do not want in the face of what I have promised you. Agree with My Word and you can have it. I watch over My Word to perform it. Life and death are in the power of your tongue.
The spirit of faith speaks, My preacher Paul wrote, “But having the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, “I believed; therefore I spoke,” we also believe, therefore we also speak.” 2 Corinthians 4:13. My Son (who is the Word) told you that YOU have to speak to the mountain to get it cast out of your way, to level it to a plain, to cast it in the sea. Mark 11:22-24. When the disciples asked Him to increase their faith, He told them to start speaking to things that they did not want in their way. You have to speak to whatever is ailing or attacking your body and cast that out and then you have to speak the healing Scriptures to make the healing and restoration to perfect health that you want grow in and feed your flesh until it conforms to My Word that created it.
All creation recognizes My Word and moves to it. Paul wrote about salvation: “The Word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart”—that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.” Romans 10:8-10. Do you see? You believe My Word in your heart and that results in establishing you in righteousness far from oppression. Isaiah 54:14-15. And you must speak it with you mouth and that results in salvation in every situation over which you are confessing My Word. And the word salvation there in the original Greek does not just mean going to Heaven and having eternal life, though that is the greatest part, but it also means healing, wholeness, provision, deliverance, rescue and help in time of trouble. You have to call things in that you want and rebuke and cancel the things you do not want. And do it all by faith, which means finding the Word that addresses it and knowing whatever I have promised you is “yes” to you in Christ Jesus. Say “amen” to that.
And finally, when you do these things with diligence, for this is a matter of your very life, here is the result of what My Words do in you as set forth in Proverbs 4:22 (a menorah verse in Hebrew): “For they [My Words] are life to those who find them and health to all their body (“flesh” in Hebrew).
Let Me also add that in meditating on My Word you should not be bringing in the distractions of life in your thoughts, such as worry and anxiety about your problem. Worry is actually meditating on your problem instead of My Word and that plants fear in your heart and you are eating depression by the mouthful. When the worry comes, laugh at it, though you don’t feel like it, set your heart to ignore by overcoming it by speaking My Word aloud, and tell it that by the stripes of Jesus you are healed so that cannot stay or that no weapon formed against you can prosper, or whatever other promise from My Word that you are growing. And, as Job stated, without realizing he was stating the root of his problem, “what I feared came on me.” So you must be determined that you are going to shut out the worry by focusing on what My Word says about the situation.
Find the Scripture that has the promise you want to solve your problem that particularly speaks to you. For example, if you are being subject to a lawsuit or some kind of persecution at your job or in your family, find Isaiah 54:17, that no weapon formed against you shall prosper and every tongue raised against you in accusation, you will prove false, for your righteousness and vindication are from Me. Or Scriptures about Me as your deliverer, your helper, your rear guard, and always giving you the victory in Christ Jesus. Consider meditating on Philippians 1:19-20 or Romans 8:33.
If you are sick or have pain in your body, go to Exodus, Isaiah, the Psalms, Proverbs, the Prophets, the Gospels, the Letters of Paul, James, Peter, John, and Jude and get My promises on healing. There are many of them. I tell you I AM the LORD who heals you. I tell you that My Son bore your sickness, your infirmities, your sins, and your pains. It tell you that His stripes (bloody scourging) you were healed, I tell you that I forgive all your sins and heal all your ills. I tell you a lot about health for your bones, your navel, your kidneys and all your inmost parts. I even have Words about your teeth, your hair, your fingers, and your back! Find them like treasure and focus your attention on them instead of on the ailment and let the ailment know it has to go. For I send My Word to heal you. It does good like a medicine. And you cannot overdose and all the side effects are very good.
I encourage you to not be lazy about this. It is a matter of life or death, of the blessing or the curse, of My Will in your life or that of Satan.
But do not think of this as a burdensome, long drawn out process. It will give you joy and hope in what would be an otherwise hopeless situation. Like Abraham and having a child at an old age with Sarah barren for years. And this process can take place in a matter of minutes with all five steps functioning at the same time when you are familiar with My Word. If you spend time with Me each day reading and getting revelation from Me about My Word and are aware of My presence (for I am in you and with you always), My Spirit in you speaks the right Scripture to you to counter what has come against you and if you will open up your Bible right away and take that as your own and take comfort in it as I minister to you by My Word and revive you from your fear and the hit you received, then what I prophesied to you in My Word will come to pass, “Behold, days are coming,” declares the LORD, “When the plowman will overtake the reaper and the treader of grapes him who sows seed; when the mountains will drip sweet wine and all the hills will be dissolved.” Amos 9:13. And My Son said the same, “Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together.” John 4:36. The harvest comes in before you have even plowed the ground and the grapes are ripe as you sow the seed. Let this become your way of living the abundant life that is life indeed. The power is in the Word, do not be looking anywhere else.
I love you. I am My Word. And so is Jesus. And I was in Him reconciling the world to Myself, not counting your sins against you. He made a new and everlasting Covenant with Me and in Him you come in Covenant with Me too. And the Covenant is My instrument of salvation for mankind, raising you up to unite with Me and making all I have yours. But how do I give everything to you? In My Word. I send My Word to heal you and deliver you from all destructions, but you must receive it, plant it, cultivate it, grow it, until the full-blown promise produces its fruit in your life. And you must not just taste My Word now and then, you must take it in, devour it, digest it, and until it becomes your very flesh and bone. You have to put My Word to work and let it work in you. If you do this for every trial, fiery dart of Satan, sickness, loss, or defeat, you will not fear anything for you know you have the seed and the food to cancel it out.
Treat each day as a world of its own in which My Spirit finds a home within you heart to do your part in the vast enterprise that I did start.