Find Strength in God’s Word (The Art of Biblical Meditation) - Bill Johnson Sermon | Bethel Church

0:00 To be strong in this hour is going to take more than a few verses of a devotional on a Tuesday morning. You've got to interact with God Himself who is the Word. Have that that is in His heart interwoven to how you think, how you feel, how you react, how you respond, how you plan. Everything is interwoven because I have taken time to meditate. All right. Oh, goodness. Thanks. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks. Sorry. Still, I'm gum in my mouth. Careless. Sorry. Well, good morning. Is it still morning? It is. 27 minutes left of morning. The drought is over. Thank you, Jesus.

0:51 I mean, it's really over. Anybody in that thunderstorm yesterday? That was like God's amen. It's over. It's like it's over. Whew. tonight's going to be so much fun I missed last year I made the gospel night so many of our community were able to minister to us so profoundly and I missed it I forget where I was I was somewhere else besides here and I begged I didn't get pitiful but I begged that they would do it again and I'm so glad They're going to do it again tonight. So it's just going to be outrageous and wonderful. And I'm just thankful in advance. Sunday school teacher was discussing the Ten Commandments with the five and six year olds. After explaining the commandment to honor thy father and mother, she asked, is there a commandment that teaches us how to treat our brothers and sisters?

1:57 Without missing a beat, one little boy, the oldest of the family, answered, thou shall not kill. apparently that really touched him so a kindergarten teacher was observing her classroom while they were drawing she would occasionally walk around and see each child's work as she got to one little girl who was working diligently she asked what she was drawing she replied i'm drawing god the teacher paused and She said, but no one knows what God looks like. She said, they will in a moment.

2:35 That sounds like one of the kids in our school is what it sounds like. Oh yeah, they will in a moment. A little girl was talking to her teacher about whales. The teacher said it was physically impossible for a whale to swallow a human because even though it was a very large mammal, its throat was very small. The little girl stated Jonah was swallowed by a whale. Irritated, the teacher repeated a whale could not swallow a human. is physically impossible. The little girl said, when I get to heaven, I will ask Jonah. Teacher said, what if Jonah went to hell? The little girl replied, then you ask him. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Wow. All right. That one's kind of scary. I'd like for you to open your Bibles to the Gospel of Joshua.

3:44 There we go. Sorry. Apparently, I've been in the Gospel so much lately, it just automatically was coming out of my mouth. To the book of Joshua. And I don't know if you do this. I, Joshua chapter one, especially verses five to nine, are verses I review actually very, very often. It's kind of like, it's kind of like my, it'd be my cabin in the mountains, the place I go to, to find rest and refreshing and, and kill animals. No, no, find rest and refreshing. Sorry, I had to, I started thinking about a cabin in the mountains. It's a place to go to find refreshing. And I have different places throughout Scripture where I go and I will pray and read and meditate on, think about for great periods of time. And this is one of them. This is actually probably one of the top three most important passages in my life for the last 40 plus years. And so it has that kind of a role. I've taught on it before. I've talked about it many times through the years, but I'm not going to take a different twist, but I want to refine my focus for you this morning because I believe that there is a tool in here that is necessary for emotional and mental health. Emotional and mental health. I've never seen a time in my life where there was as great a battle over the mind as in the last few years.

5:17 And the Lord has equipped us with tools that are not just necessary, they're useful, they're edifying, There are wonderful tools that he gives us about life. And one of the byproducts is it helps us in these areas. So that's what we're going to do. Joshua chapter 1. This is about Joshua receiving the baton or the baton, if you're from one of them other places.

5:44 The baton. The baton from Moses. This is where the Lord speaks to Joshua and says, Moses, my servant is dead. His job is now your job. basically. And here's something to remind yourself of. Joshua is now leading the descendants of the people who first received the promise about the promised land. They didn't get it, although God promised it to them. Larry Randolph helped me to understand this much better a number of years ago. He said, God fulfills all of his promises, but he's not obligated to fulfill our potential. And sometimes the Lord gives us a promise that actually carries with it an invitation to a potential, a possibility, to a realm of maturity, development, conquest, whatever it might be.

6:36 And so the kingdom of God in the Old Testament was a, excuse me, the promised land in the Old Testament was a type of the kingdom of God in the new. In the Old Testament, of course, it was a geographical area that we'll read about in a moment. And they inherit this vast piece of land. They were divided up according to tribes, then divided up according to family. That was their inheritance. It was a land that was so prosperous, so rich, so wonderful that the Lord described it as a land flowing with milk and honey. In other words, it had abundance in everything that was right. And it was their inheritance. When the 12 spies went in to check out the land, they came back saying, it's true. It's a land flowing with milk and honey. But there's giants that are there. There's a very well-equipped military all through this land. Much more equipped.

7:28 Remember, these are the children of slaves that are now supposed to go in and have military conquest. They have zero training whatsoever. And so these folks are very, very intimidated. They come back with a port saying, yes, it's a land flowing with milk and honey. The giants are there. And then they said something that's very eye-opening. It says, and we are like grasshoppers in our sight. In other words, we are here and they are there and there's no way we can measure this challenge.

7:58 Because of their unbelief, they disqualified themselves for the very thing God had promised. And there is a part of the promise over your life and mine that actually takes active faith to fully apprehend and step into. this notion that if it's meant to be it will just happen is nonsense it's absolute nonsense it's absolute careless and lazy theology there is a responsibility in this relational journey to continuously exercise faith and pursuit of what God has promised I feel better having said that alright let's just get into this and I'll fix whatever I break later All right, let's go. Verse 1, after the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, it came to pass that the Lord spoke to Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses' assistant, saying, Moses, my servant, is dead. Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I am giving to them, the children of Israel. Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given to you, as I said to Moses. From the wilderness, and this Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, and all the land of the Hittites, to the great sea toward the going down of the sun shall be your territory. No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you nor forsake you. Stop right there. Let me kind of connect the dots concerning the kingdom, and then we'll read verses five through nine is actually the part that I return to on a regular basis. It's my cabin, all right? When we talk about Old Testament promised land, it is in the natural a picture of the New Testament concept of the kingdom of God. It is the fact that when you You enter a realm of maturity, a realm of conquest in some cases.

10:05 It's like a territory that you inherit. When you experience joy, when you experience deliverance, when you experience healing, whatever it might be, it's always an invitation to a realm in God that you actually inherit. Kingdom, king's domain, it's the realms of God's dominion that we step into. Jesus announced to us the kingdom is at hand. and then he would say, if I cast a demon out of you by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. So he's actually describing realms of personal inheritance. Here's somebody who's tormented at night. They don't sleep at night because of abusive upbringing, whatever it might be. They have a rough time with their life. Jesus comes along, or you come along and minister them and break off that power. Suddenly they sleep at night. What is that called? That's called the kingdom of God. That's the realm of God's dominion. Somebody, I just got a report this week of another person that had throat cancer that was healed here. They came and they were delivered, set free of throat cancer. What is that? That's the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God, the realm of God's dominion that has no cancer came upon this person's throat and drove it from them. We recently have had five cases that I know of, of Lyme's disease in the last, I would say, five weeks. It actually happened in a three-week period. Five people with Lyme's disease that were healed. One 38 years. 38 years, 10 years mostly in bed for 10 years. And I watched as the Spirit of God, it was actually like the Holy Spirit flooded everything that was wrong, flooded it out of her body. If you can imagine having a vase and it's got dirt in the bottom and you just keep pouring water until all the dirt is flushed out. That's exactly what happened. The Spirit of God came upon her and I have a video of her running around her swimming pool, which she's been incapable of doing.

11:50 10 years bedridden. And as a result of that, two little girls that were bedridden, 8 and 11, also with juvenile arthritis, were completely healed. I have a video of them doing jumping jacks with their mom, things that they were incapable of doing. So the point is, is we see the kingdom that has no affliction come upon their bodies and literally just flush out everything that the enemy tried to do to steal, kill, and destroy their life. What is the kingdom? It's all of that. It's all of that. And that is the promised land for the believer. It sometimes includes financial blessing, prosperity in a business, but we never want to make the mistake of equating spiritual maturity with income and possessions. Neither do we want to equate spiritual maturity with poverty. Yeah, let's throw out both stupid ideas and And, you know, God wants to bless you more than you can imagine.

12:54 Let's leave it there. All right, I'm going to crawl into a hole and make a mess. I can see it. All right, verse 5. No man will be able to stand before you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you nor forsake you. Be strong. Now, here's where we have the words of instructions. I want you to pay attention here. Be strong and of good courage. to this people you would divide as an inheritance the land which I swore to their fathers to give them. Only be strong and very courageous that you may be able to observe all according to the law which Moses, my servant, commanded you. The law of Moses was the word of God they had at that time. So we can put in its place the word of God, the scriptures that you now hold. How many of you have your Bibles with you? Let me see them. Let me hold them high. All right. I'm just taking a roll. just trying to see. All right. We're talking about the word of God now, okay? So the word of God, in this case, the law which Moses, my servant, commanded you, do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may prosper wherever you go. Please notice prosperity and success are biblical terms. We just can't let Wall Street's definition affect our position, because real prosperity starts on the inside. So the target of the Lord is he wants everybody in this room to be ridiculously prosperous, but his target is the inner world. It's my emotional and mental health.

14:23 All right. Verse eight, the book, this book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you will meditate on it day and night that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. Then you will make your way prosperous and then you will have success.

14:44 Then you will make your way prosperous. I thought the Lord did it. No, he gave you the tools. I got the same response under that drum back there.

15:05 Then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. Say this with me. I am responsible for my own prosperity. I am responsible for my own success. Oh, Jesus, help us. We need a nation of people right now that will take responsibility.

15:31 And not expect some government to do it. All right. I have more to say, but for all of our safety, I will be quiet. Verse 9. Have I not commanded you, be strong and of good courage. Do not be afraid. Do not be dismayed. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. How many of you have ever become so anxious over something, it kept you up at night, and you just had that thing going through your brain all night long, and you couldn't sleep? Put your hands up. All right. So we know that we know how to meditate. so now we just have to change the subject matter all right this passage of scripture gives us like how many times does he have to say it be strong be courageous be very strong be very courageous did you hear me I said be strong be courageous don't be dismayed don't be fearful don't become anxious he gives all these commands in there but not one time does Does he tell you how?

16:37 he just says be strong very courageous and then he says you're going to make your own way prosperous you're going to make your own way successful and then he gives one little sliver extremely profound sliver of advice not advice a command a sliver of instruction that makes everything else in the verses possible he says but you shall meditate on this word day and night I think this is biblical meditation is probably the most neglected area of Christian discipline in the body of Christ in our country. there's Western meditation, which is intellectual. There's Eastern meditation, which is to empty your mind.

17:43 And there's biblical meditation that is unlike either of those two. I want to read to you the definition of this word meditation. by the way, if you're taking notes, I don't know if we'll get to it or not, but the first Psalm, Psalms number one, is a parallel passage to Joshua chapter one. It runs very, very similar themes. All right. So let me read this definition to you. It means to reflect, to moan, to mutter, to ponder, to make a quiet sound such as sighing, to meditate or contemplate something as one repeats the words. It represents something quite unlike the English meditation, which may be a mental exercise only. In Hebrew thought, to meditate upon the scriptures is to quietly repeat them in a soft droning sound while utterly abandoning outside distractions. From this tradition comes a specialized type of Jewish prayer called davening that is reciting texts, praying intense prayers, or getting lost in communion with God while bowing or rocking back and forth. If you've seen people at the wailing wall, this rocking, that is actually a physical response to biblical meditation.

19:20 It is repeating a matter, which is what you do in biblical meditation, all right? So rocking back and forth. Evidently, this dynamic form of meditation prayer goes back to David's time, thus called davening. This is from Dick Mills in his word study book. often what we do is we'll read us we read scripture uh we say amen to what we read we're encouraged by what we read but the lord has actually given us instruction that in in many ways determines the measure of our success our impact our prosperity and again i don't mind talking about money in this context but it's not my focus today at all it's it's not about boats and planes and mansions. It's about being as wealthy as Bill Gates is on the outside, you and me being that wealthy on the inside.

20:23 Is that there's that kind of an abundance here that I have to spend my life trying to figure out how to give all this encouragement away because I've got so much. It's that place of prosperity. Is it possible that God would bless you more on the inside than somebody like a Bill Gates or some of these others are blessed on the outside. Yes, it's possible because we tap into an eternal unlimited kingdom. And it is the design of the Lord that we actually enter into places of personal victory that are equal to the kinds of victories that we see by great corporations, et cetera. All right. So back to the point is that the Lord would cause you and me to be a people that have triumphed in our personal journey with the Lord to such an extent that there are conquests in the same way that there'd be conquest in military, conquest in business, conquest in other parts of life, sports, et cetera. Instead, what he's saying is he's directly tying it to this one tiny little sliver of insight and command, and that is to meditate.

21:32 even where he says this book of the law shall not depart from your mouth that's actually one of the expressions of meditation it is the fact that there there is just i'm not saying you have to rock but i but i want to illustrate it's the fact that there is this repeating god spoke a word to me let's just take i remember times i've been in real a difficult place financially and i needed a miracle breakthrough and i found this verse in psalms 127 in fact for months now i've been reading Psalms 127 to 128 every day because they are family Psalms. And I love to pray them over my household. So let's go back to this verse. So he says, he provides for his beloved even while he sleeps. So I will take this verse in a time of great personal need and I will just pray and say, God, you said in your word that you provide for me even while I'm sleeping. God, I celebrate the fact that I do work hard for you and I give that to you, but your work for me is far greater than my work for myself. You have unlimited resources. You have unlimited resources. You provide for me out of the riches of your glory, which is vast and uncontainable in any vessel. God, I thank you that your abundance pours towards me, that you've actually assigned a measure of breakthrough into my life, my family and my family line. God, I confess, I declare, I sing before you. You provide for me even while I sleep. What is there? There's just this repeated prayer. It's not just this ritual or this religious routine. What's happening is my interaction with what God has said is now becoming a part of the fabric of my being. Lance Wallnau would say it's become cellular in us.

23:15 It becomes something that is so much a part of us that it is woven into our actual personality and it affects how we think, it affects how we live. It's not a two minute reciting of a verse. It's a lifetime of engagement with that which God has said. Now the scriptures tell us, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. God is saying, you're alive because I talk.

23:47 You're alive because I talk. Everything about you thrives because I have spoken. everything about you thrives because I have spoken I have deposited through word I have transferred from my world to yours through a decree and when we take that word seriously and prayerfully consider put it on I've done this put it on three by five card stick it on the dashboard of my car if I have a distance to drive and I just have that to look at just to refresh my mind I maybe can quote it without the card but I look at it anyway because I want everything about me. I speak it because I want my ears to hear it. I see it with my eyes because I want my eyes to see it. I speak with my mouth because I want to participate with God in saying what he is saying. If you want, Jesus only said what his father says. If you want to learn to say what the father is saying, then start saying what he has said. Start declaring what he has already said. Oh, thank you. That's probably a very important. Oh yeah. Very important note. All of my notes are scribbling important notes. All right. So here we have this invitation by the Lord on this relational journey where we do more than simply reading a text. We are alive at a time when we are inundated with words, many words, ideas, concepts, principles that are so anti-Christ in nature. Sometimes they're easy to spot because, you know, the devil wears a red rubber suit and carries a pitchfork and he's not hard to see. Other times it's so interwoven into our culture, maybe our own personal history, that we don't recognize him at all. It's just become a part. And until you get exposed more than just on an eye level, more than just on an intellectual level, but this interaction with God himself, who is the word, suddenly things start standing out to me. Now, wait a minute.

25:39 It's like that abortion movie. It's something that was acceptable and now, no, it's no longer acceptable. Suddenly you start seeing from a different place because the interaction of the word in you actually rewires your capacity to see and to think. Meditation is an ongoing encounter with God. It is ongoing experience where we harness our thoughts. We harness emotion. We put them in line to what God has saying. And suddenly we began to carry the shape of that very word. And here, Joshua was told that his own success, his own personal and corporate prosperity as a nation was dependent upon them not letting this word depart from their mouth. Not letting it depart from their mouth is the expression of biblical meditation. I keep it in front of me. Everything that is commanded here, be strong, be courageous, don't be dismayed, don't be, you know, keep the word in your mouth. All these things are connected to this one simple assignment.

26:42 Meditate on what God has said. It's the lost art of meditation. We are inundated with words, with ideas, with thoughts that are so contrary to the kingdom. And I grieve as I watch people that I know in the body of Christ that will adopt things that are so contrary to the kingdom of God. And they'll not just adopt them in the sense that they no longer resist them. They will even begin to promote these things that work very, very much against Christ. Anti-Christ thoughts and ideas.

27:18 Even if, you know, the internet, I like the internet myself. I love, you can find anything. I sometimes say, what could I find today? You know, I will. I sit there, I go, oh, what can I find? I did this years ago. I thought, oh, I used to shop for this. I'm not even gonna tell you because people tend to buy me stuff. I have to be careful what I say anymore. It makes me nervous. There was an item. I'm not even going to say what it was, but I used to go in the mall and I'd watch by a seat in the window. I'd go, man, I wish I could afford it. It was like 60 bucks, but 60 was like a million to me at that time. And I'd look at that thing and go, boy, that's so nice. And I'd walk right past it. And several years ago, I thought, I have $60. I need to find that thing. So I did. I just did a little research online and I found what I couldn't afford 40 years ago, I can now afford. And it's a little more than 60 now, but it's still all right.

28:10 It's within my reach. I love the internet. I do, but there's so much garbage and there are ways of thinking that are so dangerous. The TV, I mean, Benny and I, you know, there's movies on the planes and, oh, Jesus. Help us with better movies. Yes, yes. Help us with better movies. It's being done, folks. It's being done. Bright Ones is released soon. Come on. Anyway, I'll sit on the plate. I last about five minutes on most movies. I sit there, I watch it. Eh, see where this is going. Dumb. Turn it. Eh, garbage. Turn that. I just don't last very long. there's so much bombardment on our minds and our emotions trying to draw us into emotional weightiness and heaviness that is not a reality it's not really a part of our life even if you don't have the internet even if you don't have a TV you still have to walk into a grocery store and there's stuff everywhere to prophesy to you the values of another world the point I'm trying to make is to be strong in this hour is going to take more than a few verses of a devotional on a Tuesday morning you've got to interact with God himself who is the word Have that that is in his heart interwoven to how you think, how you feel, how you react, how you respond, how you plan. Everything is interwoven because I have taken time to meditate, to utter, to moan, to rehearse, to bring up over and over again, to put in my own words, to put in his words, to gather other scripture, put them together, make them prayers, make them confessions. Sing them as songs. Just don't try to sing a song that Bethel Music could record. That causes a lot of people to not write a good song because they try to make it recordable.

30:13 Listen, it probably stinks as a song to be recorded, but it's one that God will really value. So just let it be honest, authentic, and sing. I'm serious. Sing to him. You are the one who provides while I sleep. I can rest in peace because of your abundance. Your heart for me is beyond anything I could imagine. God, I celebrate who you are. You provide for me even while I sleep. And you just take this. You begin to sing it throughout your day. Why? Because that's meditation. That's biblical meditation. Somehow the heart, the mind, the emotions, everything about us becomes trained in the mind of Christ. The missing art of biblical meditation must be restored. I believe it's the most essential ingredient for this season that we're living in. Why don't you look with me? I almost said look at me. No, don't do that.

31:04 Look with me to Psalms 1, the first Psalm. We're going to read just a couple of verses of it, but I think hopefully it'll make sense to you. Yeah. When I was, I had a challenging physical issue here several years ago. And I got to the place, I had a growth in a small intestine. And I got to where I couldn't eat and then eventually to where I couldn't drink. And sat in a recliner for days and finally moved to a hotel in San Francisco, eventually into a hospital room. and my practice was to sit with the scripture and or to sit with my iPad and to watch, listen to prophetic words over my life.

32:03 This biblical meditation is what has kept me alive and sane. Sanity might be questionable for some of you concerning me, but we'll just leave that where it is. At least in my version of sanity. Honestly, it has been my life source is to take what God has said review it over and over and over again. I don't care if I've read the verse a thousand times, I need it one more time. And you'll take that verse and you just begin to pray. He says in his word, and no one is able to remove you from my hand. God, I give you thanks. I give you thanks that my life is firmly in your hand. Your strength protects me. Your grip on my heart keeps me safe. God, I honor you as the Father who delights in me as a son. And you just take this, you process it. It's more than a two-minute moment in the morning. It's a lifestyle that starts affecting and infecting how we think, how we pray, what we declare, what we say.

33:09 And I sat there by the hour just reviewing, reading it again, watching the video again, turning to Joshua 1 which I did again and again reading this psalm that has been such a life source for me again and again I'm telling you it's a source of mental health for us forever but especially in this season alright Psalms 1 verse 1 blessed is the man or woman who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly nor stands in the path of sinners nor sits in the seat of the scorpion. My grandma, my mom's mom, would quote this first psalm all the time. I can hear her saying it as I'm reading. I think she's a little concerned about me maybe because she would quote this one to me a lot.

34:03 Nor sits in the seat of the scorpion. Yes, grandma. Yes, grandma. Yes, grandma. I'm telling her right now. Yes, grandma. I'm doing my best. Verse two. His delight is in the law of the Lord. In his law he meditates day and night. He will be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that bring forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither. Whatever he does shall prosper. This is a tandem passage to Joshua chapter 1. Now, we've heard recently the drought in all of California is officially over. Thank you, Lord Jesus. Thank you, Lord Jesus. But I'd like to suggest to you, the trees along the Sacramento River, they were never informed that there was actually a drought. the trees along the river never knew never knew there was a drought and the one who meditates in the word does not go through the seasons of drought that others go through because the roots start reaching down into the subterranean streams and taps into the rivers of God where there is always more than enough, always more than enough. The word of God flows from his heart towards you and me continuously. It is 24 seven. It's why David would say, I wake in the night watches and I consider your works. I wake in the night watches while I lie on my bed. I consider your word. And he meditates and he prays over these words that have been spoken over his life. Where? In bed. You wake up at night, you might as well make it useful. You might as well make it useful. I do. If I have a verse that I'm part, let's just say the Psalms 127 verse provides, I'll wake up in the night and go, God, I just thank you. You are providing for me even right now while I sleep or whatever verse seems to fit your situation. And you take that, you prayerfully consider it, you pray it automatically. It's better to wake up with a purpose than to

36:10 wake up in anxiety and fear. I've said it many times. We'd have better days if we had better nights. And this biblical meditation on scripture, engaging with the presence of the Spirit of God is a huge part of our own personal triumph and victory. So here he says it. His delight is in the law of the Lord. In his law, his word, he meditates day and night. He will be like a tree planted by rivers of water that brings forth fruit in its season. The leaf never withers. Whatever he does, he prospers. again I want to connect the bounty of the soul is connected to biblical meditation on his word it's the groaning it's the muttering it's the praying it's the quoting it's the declaring it's broadcasting it's singing it's rehearsing every application of what God has said over your life Something happens to the heart of faith in that atmosphere.

37:21 there's three things that I'm aware of this morning that we have been given an invitation and a command to meditate on one is the word of God whatever God says mark it I can take you to portions of scripture and here I've got one in the book of Nahum that the Lord spoke to me in August of 2009 and I have a little date next to it there's a passage there that I will pray, I will sing it, I will declare it, I will do all those things to this because he spoke to me, he highlighted. Have your history with God in that word. So we meditate on the word. But the second thing is we meditate on his ways. David would talk about waking in the night and considering the goodness of God, the greatness of God, whatever it might be. He would contemplate the person of God himself who had chosen him, who has chosen you, who has chosen me. He would consider, for example, the mercy and the kindness of God.

38:26 God, you are so kind. You could have rejected me a thousand times, time a thousand, and you didn't. Instead, you showed kindness to me. You were patient towards me when I was impatient with myself, when everybody around me deserved to be impatient, and you were kind and patient with me. God, the way you have treated me is like I'm a treasure, and yet I would have been happy just to be an outcast some distance from you that could just at least live and not die, and yet your kindness changed who I am, changed how I think, changed what I believe for. It was your kindness that made it possible for me to actually have a hope-filled future. God, your ways are beyond measurement. What's happening there? You're interacting. Your soul has become interwoven with his own word, with his own nature, his own heart. So we meditate on the word. We meditate on his ways. And then David would say, in the night watch, I consider your works.

39:27 That's the things that God does. It's the pouring in of the presence of God into this dear one who has suffered for 38 years only to watch the crud that had afflicted her for all those years to no fault of her own. The enemy comes to kill, steal, destroy. And the Holy Spirit just poured out upon and we just watched as he kept pouring and kept pouring. And eventually there was none of the crud at the bottom of the vase left in there. It had all been washed out. It was one of the most simple moments of my life, watching him come and flutter. So you stop and you think, it's amazing. It's amazing how you do this. It's amazing. It's amazing that you could just flutter soul. And the end result is 38 years of affliction is over. You amaze me. What's happening? Heart, mind, emotion, everything about us is just becoming interwoven with this very fabric of his own nature, of his own being as we interact with the greatness and the significance of God. I'm telling you, biblical meditation, that little sliver of instruction is the key to making your own way prosperous, finding your own way of success, accomplishing what God has left you on the planet to accomplish.

40:50 Jesus didn't go through what he went through so we could sit in a pew and wait for the rapture. he has assigned us to be overcomers and conquerors but I'm telling you it is not possible without embracing the tool that he gave us called biblical meditation put your hand in your heart help me Jesus help me Jesus yes help me help me right now Lord I do pray for an unusual gift of grace Remember, part of that word, that Dick Mills definition, part of that word meant to rid ourself of distraction so that we can actually give ourselves. What happens is we try to meditate when we're in the middle of chaos. You know, start with a meditation so it shapes the remainder of your day. Father, I pray for this, an unusual gift to be given.

41:46 A gift of biblical meditation to be imparted now through word. every person in the word our online Bethel TV family the same thing in every home every church where this is viewed let there be an anointing for biblical meditation that changes how we think and how we interact with your word thank you Lord in a crowd this size there's always a high probability that we have people here who have never been as the Bible would call born again that's where there's a moment of personal surrender to the absolute lordship of Jesus. It's where we turn from our life, serving ourself, doing all that we can do to be right, to truly being a disciple, following the Lord Jesus Christ. And if there's anybody in the room that would say, Bill, that's me. I don't want to leave this building.

42:39 I don't want to leave this property until I know I've been forgiven of God, that I know that I've been brought into his family, that I know that I have peace with God now and forever. if there's anybody in that position put your hand up right now by doing so you're just saying Bill I don't want to leave until I know I'm right with God put a hand up real fast because I'm just going to wait a moment there may be those even online that are doing this I encourage you respond to Jesus now respond to him now we had two or three this morning for service anybody at all then I'm going to assume you're