Sowing the Word abundantly into your heart has many benefits that will grow up and bear fruit in your life.
Benefits of God’s Word actively at work in our lives include:
- Nourishment for Spiritual Growth
- Increased Faith
- Victory over sin (sanctification)
- Victory over satan and protection from error
- Prosperity in soul and spirit
“For this reason we also thank God without ceasing, because when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe.”
1Thessalonians 2:13 NKJV
Our faith connects us to the inherent power of God’s Word, which then works effectively in our lives, producing after its own kind.
“Which has come to you. Indeed, in the whole world [that Gospel] is bearing fruit and still is growing [by its own inherent power], even as it has done among yourselves ever since the day you first heard and came to know and understand the grace of God in truth. [You came to know the grace or undeserved favor of God in reality, deeply and clearly and thoroughly, becoming accurately and intimately acquainted with it.]”
Colossians 1:6 AMPLIFIED
From the very beginning this principle has been at work in creation – a seed produces after its own kind (See Genesis chapter 1 and 8:22).
God’s Word as a seed contains His nature and reproduces His nature in the heart of the Believer. The ‘sperma’ (Greek) of God enters the ‘womb’ (the heart) of the Believer, and bears fruit after its own kind; holiness, life, power, health, strength.
God’s nature grows big within us when we, by faith, accept His Word into our heart and act upon it.
The Word of God provides nourishment for Spiritual Growth
From beginning to end the Word of God is the key element in our spiritual growth as Believers. Both Peter and James point to the Word as the ‘seed’ that effects our spiritual re-birth. We are born again through the Word of God.
You have been regenerated (born again), not from a mortal origin (seed, sperm), but from one that is immortal by the ever living and lasting Word of God.”
1Peter 1:23 AMPLIFIED
No one born (begotten) of God [deliberately, knowingly, and habitually] practices sin, for God’s nature abides in him [His principle of life, the divine sperm, remains permanently within him]; and he cannot practice sinning because he is born (begotten) of God.”
1John 3:9 AMPLIFIED
Everything we need in this life for both our natural life and our spiritual growth and well being is present potentially and potently in God’s promises as declared in the Scriptures.
As His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”
2Peter 1:3-4 NKJV
The Bible then refers to the spiritual nourishment that the hungry believer needs in order to grow. The Word of God, the same spiritual substance that brought us alive in the first place, now becomes the very food we need to develop and grow. It is referred to as ‘milk’ (1 Peter 2:2), ‘bread’ (Matthew 4:4) and ‘meat’ (Hebrews 5:12).
The Word produces Faith and builds up the Believer
Another way in which God’s Word effectively works in our lives is to produce faith in its hearers. It is through faith in God’s promise of salvation, the hearing and receiving of the ‘gospel’ message that we are born again.
For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,”
Ephesians 2:8 NKJV
In response to our acceptance of His Word, God graciously grants us ‘the measure of faith’ through which we are miraculously saved and restored to perfect relationship with Himself.
For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.”
Romans 12:3 KJV
This ‘measure’ is then developed as we continue to hear and receive God’s Word into our lives:
So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”
Romans 10:17 KJV
Paul sums up the importance of God’s Word in respect of the believer being built up and developing in God’s ways when he earnestly admonishes his disciples to give themselves to the Word:
So now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified.”
Acts 20:32 NKJV
He says the same to his spiritual son, Timothy:
…and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
2Timothy 3:15-17
The Word provides victory over sin (sanctification)
For us to enjoy a life unhindered by the bondages of sin, unfettered from the unrelenting temptations that the world and satan seek to thrust upon us, we cannot rely upon our good intentions or the strength of our human good will to free or protect us. The power to overcome temptation, to enjoy inner cleanliness and a life set apart to holiness and God’s glory is entirely dependent upon our constant intake of God’s cleansing Word.
How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to Your word.”
Psalms 119:9 NKJV
The Word has a power to purge us, inwardly cleaning and purging our spiritual system of every thing that defiles. It sifts even to the hidden attitudes and motivations of the heart.
that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word,”
Ephesians 5:26 NKJV
For the Word that God speaks is alive and full of power [making it active, operative, energizing, and effective]; it is sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating to the dividing line of the breath of life (soul) and [the immortal] spirit, and of joints and marrow [of the deepest parts of our nature], exposing and sifting and analyzing and judging the very thoughts and purposes of the heart.”
Hebrews 4:12 AMPLIFIED
Not only does the Word cleanse us however, it actively and positively develops holiness, the nature of God, in our lives. This process is called sanctification, and the active ingredient that promotes this holiness is the Truth of the Scriptures:
Sanctify them [purify, consecrate, separate them for Yourself, make them holy] by the Truth; Your Word is Truth.”
John 17:17 AMPLIFIED
The Word of God provides ongoing victory over satan and protects the believer from error
God’s power to overcome has been provided for every Believer through the Word. Even Jesus Himself did not rely upon any inherent power of His privileged Sonship, He used the Word of God as His weapon against the onslaught of satanic power.
Matthew 4 and Luke 4 recount the dramatic confrontation between satan and Jesus in the wilderness. With every temptation, Jesus pulled the sword of God’s Word upon His adversary. He is our example!
Also note that had Jesus not known the Word so thoroughly, he may have been left defenceless. Satan even had the audacity to try and use God’s own Words to deceive and trap Him, quoting Psalm 91 (Matthew 4:6).
We too need the Word to dwell in us richly if we are to live in victory.
“And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.”
Revelation 12:11 KJV
“I have written unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one.”
1John 2:14 KJV
Jesus told us in Matthew 12 that from the abundance of the heart the mouth will always speak. If our heart is full of the Word, the overflow will produce victory in our lives.
We are warned that satan himself, and his armies of demons and human instruments, will seek to twist the true words of God, perverting them in order to entice us away from our faith (2 Corinthians 11:13-15). This was his prime move in the Garden of Eden, casting doubt upon God’s words, and it remains his primary mode of operation today.
In the last days we are told in scripture that doctrines of demons will abound, and that the power of satan to deceive even the elect, will increase.
A thorough personal knowledge of God’s Word protects us from this danger of deception.
The Word is our key to prosperity in body, soul and spirit
Christ’s death on the cross, and resurrection from the dead, provided for our every need. The power of His Word at work in our lives extends to every area, spirit, soul and body.
It has inherent power to give health to the body:
“My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings. Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart. For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh.”
Proverbs 4:20-22 KJV
The Word will prosper the soul (the mind, the will and the emotions).
“Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth. For I rejoiced greatly, when the brethren came and testified of the truth that is in thee, even as thou walkest in the truth.”
3John 1:2-3 KJV
It causes us to prosper inwardly, and as we flourish in our spirit, our whole life is affected, bearing fruit in every area at all times:
Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.”
Psalm 1:1-3 KJV
The key to our victory and success is in God’s Word!
“Only be strong and very courageous, that you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may prosper wherever you go. This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.”
Joshua 1:7-8 NKJV
