This is the second part of my revamped Wednesday affirmations exhorting believers to, “study God’s word.” Every believer talking to God knows we’re to pray for solutions, the end result, without whining about problems. To do otherwise is just giving Satan a foothold in your life. Remember, praying for the solution and thanking God for it, even if it hasn’t occurred yet, exhibits faith in God and faith is what makes prayer work. No faith (unbelief) will result in unanswered prayers and it’ll give Satan power over you. God can do anything he wants to do and the Bible assures us that God hears the prayers of believers. God promises to answer our prayers and God cannot lie. The secret ingredient in all prayers is we that must “believe” in God and that he will answer our prayers. I’ll tell you another secret. The cure for unbelief is prayer, studying God’s word, and obedience to the commandments of God. Affirmations are prayers of rejoicing to God. The more we say our Bible affirmations out loud to God in prayer, the greater will be our belief in God and our fellowship with him. Our brains are a funny thing. We have to be careful what we feed our minds. Our mind believes what we say if we say it over and over long enough.
It’s what we confess with our lips that dominates our inner being, which is why our Bible affirmations are so effective and why they’re important to keeping our faith strong. If you pray continually to the Lord your fellowship will automatically become stronger which will also please God. Our confession (prayer) is the battleground on which we fight Satan. Our prayers are the only thing we have that reaches across time and space and into the very throne room of God. The Bible is the sword of truth and the only weapon we need to resist and defeat Satan in our lives because we can bring God on the scene to protect us. At the beginning of his ministry, Jesus was in the wilderness for forty days and he was tempted by the devil three times. Each time Jesus defeated Satan by quoting the holy scriptures. That’s the perfect example for us to follow when we’re dealing with Satan. When Satan oppresses us we need to cry out to God in prayer for his protection. The Bible says if we resist Satan he will flee from us and God cannot lie.
PRAYER AFFIRMATION:
Proverbs 1:7 – The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.
Proverbs 2:6 – For the Lord gives wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding.
Proverbs 23:23 – Buy the truth, and do not sell it, also wisdom and instruction and understanding.
MY AFFIRMATION:
I live in fear of the Lord my God. The Lord talks to me through the pages of his word and gives me knowledge, understanding, and wisdom. God has given me his wisdom and his truth. It will not depart from before my eyes because it is health and healing to all my flesh. I will read my Bible every day and meditate on the magnitude and majesty of Almighty God. I will worship my God daily. I will always give the Lord the praise of my lips in prayer. I will continually offer up honor and glory to God in heaven because he is worthy of worship. God is good and God is great and this my spirit knows very well.
NOTE: There are dozens of holy scriptures where God commands all men to study the word of God for knowledge, understanding, and wisdom. This is especially true in the books of Psalms and Proverbs, which are classified as wisdom literature of the Old Testament. I just pulled the verses shown above from my index card file because they are good examples of how important it is to study the Bible. The word “fear” in Proverbs 1:7 means we are to look upon God with awe, reverence, and deep respect. You can’t even begin to know God without that frame of mind. Nonbelievers are fools according to God and they “despise”, or look down upon, the Bible because they think it’s just a book. Nonbelievers fail to see the wisdom and instruction in God’s word.
The Bible is God’s wisdom and there’s no other source of wisdom that compares to it in the entire universe. Not even close. The amazing thing is this; God gives away his wisdom free to all who come to him and read his word. God wants us to know him and what we must do to enter heaven. God wants to share his commandments with us so we can accomplish the “good work” he has planned for us to do (i.e., witnessing for Christ). God wants us to understand that we must turn from sin, reject Satan, and choose God so we end up in heaven instead of hell. God wants us to have the wisdom to obey God and emulate Jesus Christ in our daily lives. God encourages us to purchase the truth of God (wisdom) by studying God’s word continually. We’re to never let the word of God depart from our eyes for any length of time for any reason. It’s our protection from the evil of this world.
PRAYER AFFIRMATION:
Proverbs 23:12 – Apply your heart to instruction, and your ears to words of knowledge.
Proverbs 8:34 – Blessed is the man who listens to Me, watching daily at My gates, waiting at the posts of My doors.
Psalm 119:105 – Your word is a lamp to my feet, a light to my path.
MY AFFIRMATION:
I have an unquenchable thirst for God’s word which was given to me by the Holy Spirit as part of my ministry. I blog because God wants me to give my testimony of him. I will listen attentively to what the Lord has to say so that I can obey his instructions. My heart yearns to please my God. I want to know God and his salvation plan for my life. Daily I will seek out knowledge, understanding, and wisdom from God through the pages of my Bible. I will speak to God continually in prayer and ask him to reveal his truth to me. I am truly blessed by Almighty God because of my obedience to his commandments. Lord, your word shows me the way to heaven and what I must do to please you. With the help of God, I’ll save many lost souls to the kingdom of heaven through my witness for Christ.
NOTE: In Proverbs 23:12 God makes it very clear to all men that we’re to attack, or devour, God’s word with intentionality and purpose, whether we read the Bible or hear it spoken. Approach God’s word like a hungry man would a steak dinner. We’re to absorb the wisdom of the Bible as if our life depended on it; because it does! In Proverbs 8:34 God says he’ll bless those who obey his commandments in the Bible. If you don’t read the Bible you can’t obey God. You have to know what to do before you can do it. Look, we’re all born into this world in total darkness. And by that I mean we don’t know where we came from and what we’re supposed to do. The theory of evolution has been debunked. We also have no idea where we’re going and how to get there. Everything is pitch black.
And then suddenly, we see a point of light. And, as we approach the light out of curiosity what do we see? We see God’s word, our Holy Bible, and out of its pages shines forth the light of God that gives us knowledge, understanding, and wisdom. The brightness of God illuminates the way back home to heaven where we’ll be in the presence of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ forever. If you abide in God’s word you’ll have the flashlight (or torch) that’ll light up your way to heaven. In Matthew 7:13 Jesus says, “Enter by the narrow gate; because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.” Jesus has a message for all the leaders of the fake religions in the world in Matthew 15:14, when he says, “Let them alone. They are blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind leads the blind, both will fall into a ditch.” Make sure you don’t fall into a ditch.
There is only one true God, which is Jehovah, and only one true word of God, which is the Christian Bible. Jesus Christ is the son of God and the only way to heaven is through faith in him. In John 14:6 Jesus says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” God can’t be any clearer than that. Therefore, all other gods are false and all other religions and their holy books are fake. Let me be clear, if you’re not reading your Bible daily or hearing God’s word spoken regularly you’re probably not going to find your way to heaven. If you’re not earnestly studying God’s word for knowledge, understanding, and wisdom you’re probably going to stumble around like a blind man all your life, never knowing how to please God and accrue honor, glory, and riches in heaven on the last day from the hand of God.
PRAYER AFFIRMATION:
Proverbs 13:13 – He who despises the word will be destroyed, but he who fears the commandment will be rewarded.
Ephesians 1:17-18 – That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory on His inheritance in the saints.
Colossians 1:10-11 – That you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with you.
MY AFFIRMATION:
I thirst for the word of God and I’ll be rewarded on the last day for my obedience. I read my Bible daily and I thank you for the knowledge, understanding, and wisdom it contains. I bless you Lord for opening the eyes of my understanding so I can see the truth of God, the salvation of your calling, and the honor, glory, and riches that you will give me on the last day. I pray that you will strengthen me Lord so that I may walk worthy of you; saving many lost souls for the kingdom of heaven.
NOTE: In Provers 13:13 God says those who look upon the Bible with awe, reverence, and respect (i.e., fear) will be rewarded. If you fear the Bible you’ll read it, study it, and do what it commands us to do. At which time God will bless you on this earth and later on in heaven God will shower you with honor, glory, and riches. You would be wise to abide in the word of God. Notice that God refers to the entire Bible as his commandment (singular). Every positive statement in the Bible should be viewed as a commandment from God if it makes plain sense to do so. When I see the word “rewarded” in Proverbs 13:13 I think of salvation unto eternal life in heaven in the presence of Jesus. That’s God’s greatest reward to man.
I love Ephesians 1:17-18 because in these verses God tells us exactly what’ll happen to us if we study his word. God will give us wisdom. How good is that? God will reveal his truth to us. God will open our eyes so we can see him and our salvation unto eternal life in heaven. And lastly, we see the honor, glory, and riches the Lord will give us on the last day. When we look at Colossians 1:10-11, we see that God gives us a different twist to studying his word. God is promising we’ll be fruitful in every good work, which is another way of saying we’ll save many lost souls to heaven by our witness for Christ. On the flip side, if you don’t study your Bible you will not be fruitful and probably won’t save anyone to heaven. If we’re fruitful we’ll please God and if we’re not fruitful we won’t please God. I don’t know about you but I desperately want God to be pleased with me.
Another thing I noticed in Colossians 1:10-11 is that when we study God’s word he promises to strengthen us with the power of God when we share the gospel message of Christ with the nonbeliever. We see this confirmed in 1 Thessalonians 1:5. We know the Holy Spirit is inside us as we witness Christ to the nonbeliever. If we pray for God to strengthen us before, during, and after we witness for Christ it will make us more fruitful. We will save more people to heaven with God than we will without God. You can have God’s strength but you must ask for it in prayer. In James 4:2, God says, “Yet you do not have because you do not ask.” By using the expectant word “yet” God is telling us he’s still waiting patiently for us to ask for what we need in prayer. God is glorified when we pray to him; so what’s stopping you? When God answers our prayers God is also glorified which should tell you that God wants to answer our prayers. Start asking and start receiving.
In my twenty years of serving the Lord, I’ve saved well over 100 lost souls to heaven and my ultimate goal is to save 1000 people during my lifetime. I can’t save anyone unless I’m sharing the gospel message while also praying for God to strengthen me and help me. Believers do 20% of the work of saving a nonbeliever to heaven while the Holy Spirit does the other 80%. The heavy lifting. Only the Holy Spirit can convict a nonbeliever of their sin if their heart is ready to receive God. Only the Holy Spirit can change a person’s eternal destination from hell to heaven and put their name in the Book of Life. God doesn’t need our help to save someone. There’s nothing God can’t do. God allows us to help with his salvation plan for man for our benefit because he wants to bless us with honor, glory, and riches on the last day. Praise God!