God’s Word Needs to Be Digested

God’s Word Needs to Be Digested

John was told to eat the book. “Then I took the little book out of the angel’s hand and ate it, and it was as sweet as honey in my mouth. But when I had eaten it, my stomach became bitter.” Rev. 10:10. If I only receive the word of God as knowledge, it can taste as sweet honey, but if it isn’t digested it will not provide nourishment and growth. “For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it.” Heb. 4:2. If I do not melt together in faith with the word of God that I hear, it will only remain as a sweet taste in my mouth. I can be strengthened by God’s word, and it can make me enthusiastic, without it actually being able to do a work in me.

In the same way that the body needs to digest natural nourishment in order to live and grow, the word needs to come down into my stomach in order for my spirit to be made alive and to grow. James warns about deceiving yourself in Jas. 1:22. “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” When I am satisfied with just having the sweet taste of knowledge in my mouth, and I do not enter into the obedience of faith, then I am living in self-deception and I am unable to come to spiritual development.

For this reason, the word needs to be digested and be put into practice in order for it to become life and truth in me. Then I will experience that it is bitter in my stomach. “Though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered, and having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him.” Heb. 5:8-9. Jesus was in fear and trembling to carry out the Father’s will in all things, and to do His Father’s will was His daily bread. This is where I need to follow Him in the same obedience. I need to eat the same bread as Jesus every day, and I need to take up my cross every day and follow Him on this way that He consecrated for us through His flesh. Heb. 10:19-20. I need to be willing to ensure that everything that rises up from my flesh goes into death. My self-will needs to receive its judgment and its death so that I am able to do God’s will in all my situations.

“That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.” Phil. 3:10. I become conformed to Jesus when the death of Christ is working in my hidden life. Then the life of Christ will radiate from me, and this glorious fragrance of His knowledge will be revealed through my life. 2 Cor. 4:6.