In my communion time with the Holy Spirit this morning He reminded me of the importance of the word of God being established in our hearts and us speaking it continuously over our lives as our source of strength. We must not neglect our time of meditating the word and allowing our lives to be washed by the water of the word.

In Ephesians.5:25-27 we read these words : Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, 26 that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, 27 that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.

The Holy Spirit emphasized the importance of the word being the agency of cleansing and sanctification for the whole man which presents us holy and without blemish. We need to remain without blemish and our continued washing in the word of God is necessary for this to be maintained in our lives. In John.15:3 & 4 we read these words from Jesus : You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.

Now just think of how much word Jesus has spoken over His disciples over the three year period and He points out they are now clean because of that bathing of that word spoken to them and over them by Jesus. Jesus however then stresses the importance of continuing this process of abiding in the word to be a bearer of fruit that is connected to the vine.

My beloved you see how important it is to remain saturated in the word and allow the word to wash you daily to maintain your cleansing and purity before the Lord. You would have noticed that I always share the scriptures the Holy Spirit brings to my mind each time when He speaks to me and confirms the word of instruction through truth.

The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth and guides us into all truth. The easiest way for satan to derail our lives is get us out of truth into error and lies and down we will go. Truth of the word ensures we remain fruitful and faithful to the Lord who chose us to serve Him in spirit and truth.

Make it a practice this New Year of taking specific time to read and meditate the word of God on purpose daily and watch what will emerge in your relationship with the Lord.

The Holy Spirit reminded me of the time He instructed me to tell the people I was mentoring in a season to meditate on the psalms each morning for a month and the level of miraculous results each of them who obeyed had in their individual lives and that of their families because of this practice of meditating the word.

Remember that it is Jesus who said blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God in Matthew.5:8. The Lord is pure and holy and for us to draw near to Him we must be pure and holy and washed not in natural water but more so with the water of the word.

I found that from the day the Holy Spirit saved my life I had a strong desire to spend time in the word and get to know Jesus and my father and the Holy Spirit revealed to me later that I was experiencing the grace Peter spoke of in 1 Peter.2:2 as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, 3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious. This process has continued to develop me until now as recorded in Hebrews.5:13&14 For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. 14 But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

We go from glory to glory in the word as we mature into being able like our master Jesus to use the word skillfully as we partake more and more of the meat of the word.

The word is now the solid food of the word of righteousness which is necessary for me to partake of daily to keep my senses exercised to discern good and evil and also good from God. Believe me there is a difference as you walk more closely with the Lord.

We were never promised by the Lord that we would ever become masters, but effective disciples who reflect their Master in all things so we need to remain students of the truth and pursue it with all our hearts so the name of the Lord is glorified through our lives. Be encouraged to pursue the word daily and remain cleansed by the power of the word of God which will produce much fruit in your lives in Jesus name.

My prayer for you as you receive this word is that the grace to go in pursuit for the word will envelope you and propel you to make this pattern your practice in your daily living and expand out your productivity in the Kingdom for the glory of the name of Jesus. Amen.