3 Levels of Interaction with the Word of God

It is my belief that there are 3 levels in which we interact with God in regards to His Word.  The first level is to study it -- which enables us to comprehend His Word with our minds.  The second level is to take that understanding and then prayerfully commune with God about that Truth -- this enables us to believe Truth in our hearts.  The final level is to manifest it -- which is when by the faith in our hearts that we have about God from prayerful meditation, we see a situation in our lives that stands opposed to that Truth -- for instance sickness -- and then by the prayer of faith call for the Promises and Nature of God to manifest in seeing Him bring healing.

I think each level has its own challenges.  Studying the Word is definitely an intellectual exercise and can at times require deep thought and consideration, this can be a difficult task.  I find that much bad theology comes when we don't take the time to deeply consider the Word of God and test every theory we have about God's nature with the rest of the Bible but rather take a couple passages we like and then call that our theology.  This approach to the Word is ultimately a lack of faith as what is really shows is that we lack the belief in the Word of God enough to take seriously what the Bible really has to say about something.

Prayer can be difficult in that it requires us to lean upon the Holy Spirit for strength and allow Him to make God's Word come alive in our hearts.  In my experience prayer can be very difficult for an intellectual -- particularly a Western intellectual because we have been trained to keep a rational distance from all ideas and to not draw conclusions until we have prodded and dissected an issue in full.  The reason why this doesn't work in prayer is because prayer is not really a mental exercise but rather a reach of faith towards God in the expectation that the Holy Spirit will meet us as we reach for Him.

What's interesting about this is that the very thing that would make someone a good theologian -- a mind that is able to "rightly divide the Word of Truth" by considering Scripture as a whole when interpreting isolated verses may find it difficult to turn off the brain and simply trust God to touch Your heart about the Truth that He has shown you in your times of study.  But to simply exercise Your mind and only go deep in study while not approaching God with the expectation of Him enlivening Your heart is also a lack of faith.  It is a lack of faith because you are unwilling to approach God in your particular place of weakness. This ultimately can cause you to not partake of the blessings of the Gospel that are regularly spoken of in the Word -- things like what Romans 15:13 speaks about, saying "Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit".

As glorious as having your heart come alive by the Power of the Holy Spirit -- and I must say that I believe it to be very glorious.  The third level of relationship with the Word is one that can be difficult even for the man of prayer.  It is difficult in that it requires you to stand believing God over a specific issue.  What is difficult about this is that it requires you to maintain faith even when the answer has not fully manifested.  This causes you to hold to what I would call a "painful positivity" -- where you know what God has promised and yet you can see the situation you are facing and you stand still by His Grace looking at that mountain and telling it to move.  It can be "painful" because everything and in some cases everyone would tell you to let it go and to find some justification for why it won't happen and this is without question the easy way out.  Its so much easier being a Cessacionist than a Pentecostal because a Cessacionist doesn't ever have to carry the promise like Abraham did in Romans 4:19-20; where after receiving a promise from God that he -- Abraham a very elderly man would have a baby -- it says "Without becoming weak in faith he contemplated his own body, now as good as dead....yet with respect to the Promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief but grew strong in faith". 

But if we want to actually apprehend or better put -- be apprehended by the Creator of Existence -- then we must face the Truth that God isn't just an idea and that He isn't limited to dwelling in our hearts but that He is ultimately the same God who created and holds power over all things.  To not know Him in such a way is to not know Him in the way that He ought to be known.

I say this as just as much of an indictment against myself, but this is what I believe Paul could partially mean in 1 Timothy 3:5 when he refers to people "holding to a form of godliness but denying its power".  Ultimately we must push for the manifestation of God in our lives and in the world.  Father help us to walk in this.  Amen.