Applying God's Word
Matthew 11:15
Message #3
Do you have a Daily Devotion Journal with you this morning? You can get one online at calvarynuevo.org/resources or download a Daily Devotion Journal here. These messages are deeply spiritual, but they are instructional, and so you have to have one of these forms to understand the big picture.
This is message number three in our Alone With God series. We started with “Get Alone With God,” which sets up this form you have now in your hand. And then last week, we talked about “Meditating On God’s Word.”
Today we look at the next step – “Applying God’s Word.”
Last week we said, “Meditating on God’s Word is - marinating, mulling over, reflecting, and dwelling on the Scriptures, - resulting in an engagement with God that will ultimately transform your life.”
THAT is what we need. We need to learn to engage with God in his word until our lives are transformed.
We need to be supernaturally transformed
By God – through his Word
In genuine relationship with Jesus
Empowered by the Holy Spirit
and for HIS glory.
And the most powerful place for this to begin is – Alone With God. Learning how to get alone with God and learning what to do when you get there.
We talked last message about the need to keep our time alone with God in line with the correct “big picture meaning” of the scripture we are looking at (thereby staying off “Crazy Interpretation Road”), and I gave you my favorite quick resource to make sure your thoughts are in the same neighborhood as the correct meaning of the text.
My top recommendation for doing that is With The Word by Warren Wiersbe. (It’s great, simple, easy to use.)
And for a little more background on each book of the Bible, to help keep your engagement with God’s Word on the right track, I also recommend The Essential Bible Companion by John Walton and Mark Strauss.
Why is this so important? Because the Bible means what it means, and it cannot mean what it does not mean. And if we are going to meditate on what the Bible means and then apply to our lives what the Bible means, then we probably need a quick resource to make sure we’re thinking along the same lines as what the Bible means. We want to receive what the Bible actually means and apply that to our lives in a transforming way.
So, let’s learn what it means to “Apply God’s Word” to our lives.
Webster’s Dictionary tells us the word “APPLY” means to put to use, especially for some practical purpose. Isn’t that exactly what we need to do? We need to put God’s Word to use in our lives, especially for some practical purpose. Last message we introduced our foundational scripture for the Alone With God series, Romans 12:2. Let’s turn back there.
Romans 12:2 (NLT)
2 Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.
This entire process is ALLOWING God to transform us by changing the way we think. And as Romans 12:2 says, THEN (then!) Then we will learn to know God’s will for us.
That line - Then we will learn to know God’s will for us is us moving from meditation to application.
As you learn to marinate in God’s Word – as you mull over, reflect and dwell on the Scriptures, the Holy Spirit will impress on you what you, personally and specifically, need to hear in your life, at that moment. And if it is the Holy Spirit, then it will be in line with God’s Word. If you will let him, the Holy Spirit will personally and specifically apply that scripture to your life. As the definition of “apply” says, the Holy Spirit will put that scripture to use (in your life) especially for some practical purpose.
Application is how the Holy Spirit makes the Living Word of God collide with your daily life. Application is where the Word of God and the need you have in your life today meet head-on and it is the Holy Spirit’s role in your life that causes that to happen.
And this application flows naturally out of a correct meditation on God’s Word. In your time alone with God, while you are engaging God’s Word, while you are meditating on the Word (and if you are ready and listening), I promise you the Holy Spirit will begin to apply God’s Word to your life.
It’s the Holy Spirit who SPEAKS to us- IN God’s Word
It’s the Holy Spirit who CONVICTS us- WITH God’s Word
It’s the Holy Spirit who TRANSFORMS us- THROUGH God’s Word.
He will impress on us the right application of God’s Word for our lives and for this moment in our lives.
And so, in order to rightly apply God’s Word to our life, we must have a “working relationship” with the Holy Spirit. In other words, we must have a relationship with the Holy Spirit that works. The Bible is clear. If you belong to Jesus Christ today by putting your complete faith in him as your Savior and Lord, then you have the Holy Spirit within you. But – you still must develop a real “working relationship” with the Holy Spirit, because it is our ability to listen to and to heed the Holy Spirit while we are meditating on God’s Word that leads us to the personal and specific application that God has for us in his Word. Jesus said in John 14:15-16,
John 14:15–16 (NLT)
15 “If you love me, obey my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you.
The two words, “Another Advocate” is a name for the Holy Spirit. In the Greek, it is Allos Parakletos.
ALLOS =One of the same Kind and Quality,
PARAKLETOS = Called alongside to help
The Holy Spirit is a co-equal member of the Godhead. He is God – in the Person of the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is One of the same Kind and Quality (as God) who is called alongside to be our helper, our advocate and our comforter. The Holy Spirit is “called alongside us” to empower us to be transformed by God and the Holy Spirit is “called alongside us” to lead us into all of God’s truth. In the very next verse, notice the very first attribute listed for the Holy Spirit.
John 14:17 (NLT)
17 He (The one called alongside to help) is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth . . .
It is the Holy Spirit’s role to lead us into ALL truth. God’s Word is truth, whether we ever apply it to our lives or not. But the role of the Holy Spirit is to lead us into applying that truth to our own lives. In John 16:13 Jesus says,
John 16:13 (NLT)
13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth...
The Holy Spirit is the “Spirit of Truth,” and he will guide you into the Living Truth of God’s Word that he knows need to be applied to your life today.
Our life in Christ is a life of supernatural transformation. This is not a man-made plan of self-improvement. This is the Almighty God of all creation saying
I WILL MEET YOU–purposefully and specifically
I WILL TRANSFORM YOUR LIFE - supernaturally
But for that to happen, we’ve got to learn to meet God in His Word, in an environment where the Holy Spirit can apply the Word to our lives, where he can speak to us and convict us and where he can ultimately transform our lives.
Here’s something that maybe we don’t hear enough of. God has given us a relationship –based path in order for us to be transformed. He’s given us the ability to have a very real relationship with Jesus Christ, and because of that real relationship with Jesus Christ, we have access to the power and the guidance of the Holy Spirit. And it is within that relationship with Jesus Christ that we are changed more and more into his image, by the Lord who is the Spirit (as 2 Corinthians 3:18 says). But for any of that to happen, we have got to learn how to allow the Holy Spirit to apply God’s Word to very specific areas of our lives.
So what does application look like in the scripture? Well, here’s a great example of application that you can study later. In Luke Chapter 10 an expert in interpreting the Law of Moses challenges Jesus (turn there to mark it) and after Jesus gives him a direct answer, we read in Luke 10:19,
Luke 10:29 (NLT)
29 The man wanted to justify his actions, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
And in response to this question, Jesus tells a parable and at the end of the parable (in Luke 10:37a) Jesus confirms that this expert in religious law understands the correct meaning of the parable. And then we read in Luke 10:37(b),
Luke 10:37(b) (ESV)
37 . . . And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.”
The New Living Translation says Do the same, but the more literal translation is Do likewise. The words translated “DO LIKEWISE” mean to ACT in a similar manner.
So, Jesus says to this “religious big-shot”
Listen closely to my teaching
Understand the truth I’m giving you
Then APPLY that truth to your life (go, and do likewise).
The other thing clearly seen in this teaching in Luke Chapter 10 is that meditation leads to application, and application leads to response. And that is the process of our Daily Devotion Journal. (Meditation – Application – Response)
In MEDITATION, the Holy Spirit impresses on you, certain truths in the scripture.
Then, APPLICATION is your inward acknowledgment of the truths the Holy Spirit is impressing on you
And then RESPONSE is your outward action that comes from your inward acknowledgment of those truths.
Once again,
APPLICATION is the inward acknowledgment of what the Holy Spirit is specifically pointing out to you – that is in-line with the big picture meaning of the text.
RESPONSE is the outward action that you take as a result of that inward acknowledgment of what God is addressing in my life – through this scripture today.
And remember, we must not confuse application with interpretation. The Bible means what it means, and with most scripture, there is only one general (big picture) meaning. However, there can be a dozen applications of that one meaning. We do not get to choose a personal meaning but we get to choose a personal application and it is the Holy Spirit who brings that personal application to us.
But, the Holy Spirit can only bring this personal application – IF we have “ears to hear.” Sixteen times in the New Testament (in the New Living Translation), we read the words “He who has ears to hear.” The Amplified Bible does a fabulous job at “amplifying” what the phrase “He who has ears to hear” means. Watch closely.
Matthew 11:15 (AMP)
15 He who has ears to hear, let him be listening and let him consider and perceive and comprehend by hearing.
Tell me, are you listening to what God is saying to you in his Word? Are you genuinely “considering it”? Do you have a real desire to “perceive and comprehend” what the Holy Spirit is impressing on you in his Word? Because that is what applying God’s Word means, and that is what “having ears to hear” means.
In the Bible, “Having ears to hear” does not refer to the physiological response of our eardrum and cochlea nerve sending signals to our brain. “Having ears to hear” means having a sincere desire and a willingness to listen, and to consider, and perceive, and comprehend what the Spirit is saying in the Living Word of God.
Applying God’s Word is the ah-hah moment, the moment the light goes on. The moment we say, “I hear you, Lord. I perceive and I comprehend what you are saying to me in your Word and by your Holy Spirit.” And when that becomes a regular occurrence in your life, that is when your life begins to be transformed.
And one more thing about having “ears to hear.” Our ability to hear what the Spirit is saying to us in the Word is impacted by the condition of our overall spiritual life with the Lord. Paul says to the believers in 1 Corinthians 3:1-3,
1 Corinthians 3:1–3 (NLT)
1 Dear brothers and sisters, when I was with you I couldn’t talk to you as I would to spiritual people (Literally: Spiritually Mature). I had to talk as though you belonged to this world or as though you were infants in Christ.
2 I had to feed you with milk, not with solid food, because you weren’t ready for anything stronger. And you still aren’t ready,
3 for you are still controlled by your sinful nature . . .
Remember, our ability to truly hear what God is saying to us in his Word is directly impacted by the overall condition of our spiritual life with the Lord.
Can we review the Daily Devotion Journal again? This one is not mine; it is Bruce Gooch’s . Bruce was looking at 1 Thessalonians 2:4. Here is his meditation. He writes, “We speak as messengers approved by God to be entrusted with the Good News. Our purpose is to please God, not people. He alone examines the motives of our heart.”
And then this is the way we teach this, and you can see all of these circles and lines and little notes is the meditation part. Bruce is circling words that stand out to him. We’re messengers “approved” and then “entrusted” is also circled. And then he writes these little notes. He says, “selected,” and there’s a question mark there. And he writes “high responsibility” for the word “entrusted” and then there are two other words there – “made heirs” – we’ve been made heirs; we’ve been chosen by God. It’s a high responsibility we’ve been given with the Good News.
And then, the word “examines” is circled and he writes “inspects.” And then he writes “knows!” with an exclamation point. And then “purpose” is circled and underneath it, he writes, “eternal consequences.” He thinks like I do. This is big, and this is eternal in scope that we’ve been given the gospel and trusted as ambassadors of Christ.
And now the application. He says, “First off, it’s a bit daunting. Just as before I participate in communion, I need to stand back and get on my knees praying for a pure heart and clean hands.”
And then he says this. “To be approved and entrusted with the gospel is a privilege and an honor.” This is now starting to impact Bruce. He’s saying, “Lord, you have entrusted the gospel to me personally. I have a responsibility with the Good News that you have given me.”
And then he says, “He trusts me to share with sincerity without ulterior motives as he knows my heart.” And then he puts an exclamation mark statement, “I cannot trick the Almighty in any way!”
Do you notice the personal application there? He’s taking this verse that says we’ve been entrusted with the gospel that God has entrusted us to take it to others, and he has made it personal. He’s saying, “I have to be ready. I have to be holy, set apart for God. It’s a privilege, it’s an honor, God trusts me to share with sincerity and he knows my heart, I can’t be double-minded or two-faced.”
Do you see it? So he doesn’t say what he’s going to do about it – that’s in the response. He is just making an internal acknowledgment of what this verse speaks to him while he is in communion with the Lord in his Word with the power of the Holy Spirit. He’s listening. He desires to perceive and comprehend. And then he puts the pen on paper and says, okay – it’s a little scary, but I think this is a pretty big responsibility that I’ve been given the gospel.
Do you get it? Now it’s personal. And the next step is what do you do about it, is the response.
So, applying scripture is where God’s Word goes from informational to personal. You know, religion is built on informational understanding, intellectual understanding of God’s Word. Religion is built on informational understanding. Life transformation is personal. It’s in an ongoing relationship with Jesus Christ, lit alive by the power of the Holy Spirit.
It is based on us engaging God in his Word.
Meditating in it.
Applying it.
Responding to it.
And as we do, our lives will change. Application is where the change begins. It is where it starts to get “real.”
Next message, we’ll look at responding, which is where your life actually begins to change.
This is message number three in our Alone With God series. We started with “Get Alone With God,” which sets up this form you have now in your hand. And then last week, we talked about “Meditating On God’s Word.”
Today we look at the next step – “Applying God’s Word.”
Last week we said, “Meditating on God’s Word is - marinating, mulling over, reflecting, and dwelling on the Scriptures, - resulting in an engagement with God that will ultimately transform your life.”
THAT is what we need. We need to learn to engage with God in his word until our lives are transformed.
We need to be supernaturally transformed
By God – through his Word
In genuine relationship with Jesus
Empowered by the Holy Spirit
and for HIS glory.
And the most powerful place for this to begin is – Alone With God. Learning how to get alone with God and learning what to do when you get there.
We talked last message about the need to keep our time alone with God in line with the correct “big picture meaning” of the scripture we are looking at (thereby staying off “Crazy Interpretation Road”), and I gave you my favorite quick resource to make sure your thoughts are in the same neighborhood as the correct meaning of the text.
My top recommendation for doing that is With The Word by Warren Wiersbe. (It’s great, simple, easy to use.)
And for a little more background on each book of the Bible, to help keep your engagement with God’s Word on the right track, I also recommend The Essential Bible Companion by John Walton and Mark Strauss.
Why is this so important? Because the Bible means what it means, and it cannot mean what it does not mean. And if we are going to meditate on what the Bible means and then apply to our lives what the Bible means, then we probably need a quick resource to make sure we’re thinking along the same lines as what the Bible means. We want to receive what the Bible actually means and apply that to our lives in a transforming way.
So, let’s learn what it means to “Apply God’s Word” to our lives.
Webster’s Dictionary tells us the word “APPLY” means to put to use, especially for some practical purpose. Isn’t that exactly what we need to do? We need to put God’s Word to use in our lives, especially for some practical purpose. Last message we introduced our foundational scripture for the Alone With God series, Romans 12:2. Let’s turn back there.
Romans 12:2 (NLT)
2 Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.
This entire process is ALLOWING God to transform us by changing the way we think. And as Romans 12:2 says, THEN (then!) Then we will learn to know God’s will for us.
That line - Then we will learn to know God’s will for us is us moving from meditation to application.
As you learn to marinate in God’s Word – as you mull over, reflect and dwell on the Scriptures, the Holy Spirit will impress on you what you, personally and specifically, need to hear in your life, at that moment. And if it is the Holy Spirit, then it will be in line with God’s Word. If you will let him, the Holy Spirit will personally and specifically apply that scripture to your life. As the definition of “apply” says, the Holy Spirit will put that scripture to use (in your life) especially for some practical purpose.
Application is how the Holy Spirit makes the Living Word of God collide with your daily life. Application is where the Word of God and the need you have in your life today meet head-on and it is the Holy Spirit’s role in your life that causes that to happen.
And this application flows naturally out of a correct meditation on God’s Word. In your time alone with God, while you are engaging God’s Word, while you are meditating on the Word (and if you are ready and listening), I promise you the Holy Spirit will begin to apply God’s Word to your life.
It’s the Holy Spirit who SPEAKS to us- IN God’s Word
It’s the Holy Spirit who CONVICTS us- WITH God’s Word
It’s the Holy Spirit who TRANSFORMS us- THROUGH God’s Word.
He will impress on us the right application of God’s Word for our lives and for this moment in our lives.
And so, in order to rightly apply God’s Word to our life, we must have a “working relationship” with the Holy Spirit. In other words, we must have a relationship with the Holy Spirit that works. The Bible is clear. If you belong to Jesus Christ today by putting your complete faith in him as your Savior and Lord, then you have the Holy Spirit within you. But – you still must develop a real “working relationship” with the Holy Spirit, because it is our ability to listen to and to heed the Holy Spirit while we are meditating on God’s Word that leads us to the personal and specific application that God has for us in his Word. Jesus said in John 14:15-16,
John 14:15–16 (NLT)
15 “If you love me, obey my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you.
The two words, “Another Advocate” is a name for the Holy Spirit. In the Greek, it is Allos Parakletos.
ALLOS =One of the same Kind and Quality,
PARAKLETOS = Called alongside to help
The Holy Spirit is a co-equal member of the Godhead. He is God – in the Person of the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is One of the same Kind and Quality (as God) who is called alongside to be our helper, our advocate and our comforter. The Holy Spirit is “called alongside us” to empower us to be transformed by God and the Holy Spirit is “called alongside us” to lead us into all of God’s truth. In the very next verse, notice the very first attribute listed for the Holy Spirit.
John 14:17 (NLT)
17 He (The one called alongside to help) is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth . . .
It is the Holy Spirit’s role to lead us into ALL truth. God’s Word is truth, whether we ever apply it to our lives or not. But the role of the Holy Spirit is to lead us into applying that truth to our own lives. In John 16:13 Jesus says,
John 16:13 (NLT)
13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth...
The Holy Spirit is the “Spirit of Truth,” and he will guide you into the Living Truth of God’s Word that he knows need to be applied to your life today.
Our life in Christ is a life of supernatural transformation. This is not a man-made plan of self-improvement. This is the Almighty God of all creation saying
I WILL MEET YOU–purposefully and specifically
I WILL TRANSFORM YOUR LIFE - supernaturally
But for that to happen, we’ve got to learn to meet God in His Word, in an environment where the Holy Spirit can apply the Word to our lives, where he can speak to us and convict us and where he can ultimately transform our lives.
Here’s something that maybe we don’t hear enough of. God has given us a relationship –based path in order for us to be transformed. He’s given us the ability to have a very real relationship with Jesus Christ, and because of that real relationship with Jesus Christ, we have access to the power and the guidance of the Holy Spirit. And it is within that relationship with Jesus Christ that we are changed more and more into his image, by the Lord who is the Spirit (as 2 Corinthians 3:18 says). But for any of that to happen, we have got to learn how to allow the Holy Spirit to apply God’s Word to very specific areas of our lives.
So what does application look like in the scripture? Well, here’s a great example of application that you can study later. In Luke Chapter 10 an expert in interpreting the Law of Moses challenges Jesus (turn there to mark it) and after Jesus gives him a direct answer, we read in Luke 10:19,
Luke 10:29 (NLT)
29 The man wanted to justify his actions, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
And in response to this question, Jesus tells a parable and at the end of the parable (in Luke 10:37a) Jesus confirms that this expert in religious law understands the correct meaning of the parable. And then we read in Luke 10:37(b),
Luke 10:37(b) (ESV)
37 . . . And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.”
The New Living Translation says Do the same, but the more literal translation is Do likewise. The words translated “DO LIKEWISE” mean to ACT in a similar manner.
So, Jesus says to this “religious big-shot”
Listen closely to my teaching
Understand the truth I’m giving you
Then APPLY that truth to your life (go, and do likewise).
The other thing clearly seen in this teaching in Luke Chapter 10 is that meditation leads to application, and application leads to response. And that is the process of our Daily Devotion Journal. (Meditation – Application – Response)
In MEDITATION, the Holy Spirit impresses on you, certain truths in the scripture.
Then, APPLICATION is your inward acknowledgment of the truths the Holy Spirit is impressing on you
And then RESPONSE is your outward action that comes from your inward acknowledgment of those truths.
Once again,
APPLICATION is the inward acknowledgment of what the Holy Spirit is specifically pointing out to you – that is in-line with the big picture meaning of the text.
RESPONSE is the outward action that you take as a result of that inward acknowledgment of what God is addressing in my life – through this scripture today.
And remember, we must not confuse application with interpretation. The Bible means what it means, and with most scripture, there is only one general (big picture) meaning. However, there can be a dozen applications of that one meaning. We do not get to choose a personal meaning but we get to choose a personal application and it is the Holy Spirit who brings that personal application to us.
But, the Holy Spirit can only bring this personal application – IF we have “ears to hear.” Sixteen times in the New Testament (in the New Living Translation), we read the words “He who has ears to hear.” The Amplified Bible does a fabulous job at “amplifying” what the phrase “He who has ears to hear” means. Watch closely.
Matthew 11:15 (AMP)
15 He who has ears to hear, let him be listening and let him consider and perceive and comprehend by hearing.
Tell me, are you listening to what God is saying to you in his Word? Are you genuinely “considering it”? Do you have a real desire to “perceive and comprehend” what the Holy Spirit is impressing on you in his Word? Because that is what applying God’s Word means, and that is what “having ears to hear” means.
In the Bible, “Having ears to hear” does not refer to the physiological response of our eardrum and cochlea nerve sending signals to our brain. “Having ears to hear” means having a sincere desire and a willingness to listen, and to consider, and perceive, and comprehend what the Spirit is saying in the Living Word of God.
Applying God’s Word is the ah-hah moment, the moment the light goes on. The moment we say, “I hear you, Lord. I perceive and I comprehend what you are saying to me in your Word and by your Holy Spirit.” And when that becomes a regular occurrence in your life, that is when your life begins to be transformed.
And one more thing about having “ears to hear.” Our ability to hear what the Spirit is saying to us in the Word is impacted by the condition of our overall spiritual life with the Lord. Paul says to the believers in 1 Corinthians 3:1-3,
1 Corinthians 3:1–3 (NLT)
1 Dear brothers and sisters, when I was with you I couldn’t talk to you as I would to spiritual people (Literally: Spiritually Mature). I had to talk as though you belonged to this world or as though you were infants in Christ.
2 I had to feed you with milk, not with solid food, because you weren’t ready for anything stronger. And you still aren’t ready,
3 for you are still controlled by your sinful nature . . .
Remember, our ability to truly hear what God is saying to us in his Word is directly impacted by the overall condition of our spiritual life with the Lord.
Can we review the Daily Devotion Journal again? This one is not mine; it is Bruce Gooch’s . Bruce was looking at 1 Thessalonians 2:4. Here is his meditation. He writes, “We speak as messengers approved by God to be entrusted with the Good News. Our purpose is to please God, not people. He alone examines the motives of our heart.”
And then this is the way we teach this, and you can see all of these circles and lines and little notes is the meditation part. Bruce is circling words that stand out to him. We’re messengers “approved” and then “entrusted” is also circled. And then he writes these little notes. He says, “selected,” and there’s a question mark there. And he writes “high responsibility” for the word “entrusted” and then there are two other words there – “made heirs” – we’ve been made heirs; we’ve been chosen by God. It’s a high responsibility we’ve been given with the Good News.
And then, the word “examines” is circled and he writes “inspects.” And then he writes “knows!” with an exclamation point. And then “purpose” is circled and underneath it, he writes, “eternal consequences.” He thinks like I do. This is big, and this is eternal in scope that we’ve been given the gospel and trusted as ambassadors of Christ.
And now the application. He says, “First off, it’s a bit daunting. Just as before I participate in communion, I need to stand back and get on my knees praying for a pure heart and clean hands.”
And then he says this. “To be approved and entrusted with the gospel is a privilege and an honor.” This is now starting to impact Bruce. He’s saying, “Lord, you have entrusted the gospel to me personally. I have a responsibility with the Good News that you have given me.”
And then he says, “He trusts me to share with sincerity without ulterior motives as he knows my heart.” And then he puts an exclamation mark statement, “I cannot trick the Almighty in any way!”
Do you notice the personal application there? He’s taking this verse that says we’ve been entrusted with the gospel that God has entrusted us to take it to others, and he has made it personal. He’s saying, “I have to be ready. I have to be holy, set apart for God. It’s a privilege, it’s an honor, God trusts me to share with sincerity and he knows my heart, I can’t be double-minded or two-faced.”
Do you see it? So he doesn’t say what he’s going to do about it – that’s in the response. He is just making an internal acknowledgment of what this verse speaks to him while he is in communion with the Lord in his Word with the power of the Holy Spirit. He’s listening. He desires to perceive and comprehend. And then he puts the pen on paper and says, okay – it’s a little scary, but I think this is a pretty big responsibility that I’ve been given the gospel.
Do you get it? Now it’s personal. And the next step is what do you do about it, is the response.
So, applying scripture is where God’s Word goes from informational to personal. You know, religion is built on informational understanding, intellectual understanding of God’s Word. Religion is built on informational understanding. Life transformation is personal. It’s in an ongoing relationship with Jesus Christ, lit alive by the power of the Holy Spirit.
It is based on us engaging God in his Word.
Meditating in it.
Applying it.
Responding to it.
And as we do, our lives will change. Application is where the change begins. It is where it starts to get “real.”
Next message, we’ll look at responding, which is where your life actually begins to change.