Your Life Depends on the Meat of the Word
Volume 6 The Keeping Power for the Mind
by Ernest Angley
June 1992
Jesus came to bridge the gulf between God and mankind, and the Holy Ghost came to bridge the gulf between the soul and mind. From the soul to the mind, the Holy Ghost sheds abroad the love of God. The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us (Romans 5:5). How wonderful to have the Holy Spirit take the greatness of God in our souls and shine it into the mind daily, feeding the mind! True peace of mind is obtained this way. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:7). The peace of God will keep your soul and mind.
Many children of God are without peace of mind. This doesn’t mean they will die lost, but their minds are tormented. God didn’t plan minds to be without peace. He brought everything you need for the whole person—mind, soul and body. The Lord has a keeping power for the mind, power His obedient carry in their souls.
Your life depends on the meat of the Word. For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe. But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil (Hebrews 5:13,14). You are a babe in the Lord, unskillful in handling the Word of righteousness if you are using only the milk of the Word.
Babies do not have much understanding, and babes in Christ don’t either. The Lord, however, wants His children to be able to handle the Word of God and to teach others from His Word.
Strong meat belongs to the mature, to those who have grown up in the Lord. They have come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ (Ephesians 4:13). Finding no trouble in separating good from evil, the mature Christians have come into the knowledge of God. There is no way to really live spiritually without the meat of the Word.
Accept the Strength and Power of the Word
Many Christians merely exist, not demonstrating the fullness of Christ in their lives. Some will always be babes. Because they won’t take anything but the milk of the Word, they lack strength to trample devils underfoot. They aren’t strong enough to have the Jesus overcoming power, the Jesus victory. They can’t be real witnesses for the Lord or wear the whole armor of God, for they don’t go on to receive the baptism in the Holy Spirit and use His power for service. The meat of the Word to make them overcomers is lacking in their lives.
One must accept the strength and the power of the Word in all its fullness. Many read the Word of God and immediately forget what they just read. They read from a sense of obligation in order to ease their consciences. The precious Word of God isn’t permitted to penetrate and do its mighty work.
The Bible is your food, your daily bread, Heaven’s strength and power for you. You need the meat of the Word, not just the letter. Accept the Word in your heart as well as your mind.
Anyone can take the letter of the Word; you need not be saved to accept it. Unless you walk with God, you will bypass the Spirit of the Word in favor of the letter, for you cannot accept the Spirit of the Word if you are unsaved. The Spirit of the Word is what will change your life.
Think of the Word as a delicious meal set before you. Do you dine enthusiastically or do you sleep at the table? Of course, just as there are times you are too tired to eat, there are also times you are so tired your mind won’t work, won’t comprehend what you are reading. When you reach that place, it’s best to take a nap and then start in again. Rest yourself so you can digest the meat of the Word. If you can wake up for a meal, you can wake up for the spiritual meat so essential to you. The food you eat is for your physical well-being, but the Word of God is food for your well-being while you are here on planet Earth and for all eternity. Accept it all. What glorious meat it is!
The Resurrection Changed the Disciples
And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (John 1:14). Have you ever thought what it would have been like had the disciples accepted all the meat of the Word, accepted Jesus from the very beginning for all that He was? The Word had come down from Heaven, but before the Resurrection the disciples were in and out with the Lord. Not until later did they believe all the Lord told them. Like babes, the disciples gave Jesus their attention only from time to time. How can this be? How can that be? Who will sit in this seat? When will you set up your Kingdom? They were without understanding of what Jesus was doing and seeking to do and of what was going to happen. Once in a while they would grow up enough to understand what Jesus was teaching. They heard the Word, but all the Lord could really feed them was the milk of the Word. They didn’t have strength for either the Crucifixion or the Resurrection. Had they possessed the meat of the Word, they would have stood by Jesus when He was being tried; they would have been right there at the foot of the cross encouraging Him with their love, their presence. Fear would not have taken them over and scattered them in all directions.
Many are asleep spiritually because they don’t have the meat of the Word. The tiny bit of life they have is not enough to influence them to do any work for the Lord, not enough to put the desire for understanding in their minds. They have a smattering of knowledge but too little to be of help to others. They are like the disciples before the Crucifixion.
After the Resurrection, a drastic change took place in the disciples. Suddenly it was milk no more; they were ready for meat. A mighty appetite consumed them; they climbed to the Upper Room and were baptized in the Holy Ghost. Jesus had told them about the Holy Ghost. But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you (John 14:26).
On the day of Pentecost, Peter stood up to face the crowd that had so recently crucified Jesus. Now the meat of the Word was working in his soul, and the Holy Ghost could feed his mind. He reached back into the Scripture and pulled out the prophecies of Joel. But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel; And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit (Acts 2:16-18).
The Early Church Fed the Word to Others
Few have been victoriously happy in the Lord; few have even graduated from milk to meat. The Early Church is a grand exception. The meat of the Word was living reality to them, more important than food for their physical bodies. They placed greater value on the Word than on anything else. Wherever they went they talked the Word; they fed people the Word. Through living the Word they were able to do much for the Lord.
Are you a Word-feeder? Do you feed people the Word, or do you feed them your opinions? Do you let your opinions stand between you and God?
In the anointing and power of the Holy Ghost, the Early Church fed others the Word of God. Through the Holy Spirit, this power was shed abroad in their hearts daily, touching all who recognized the greatness of God in vessels made of clay. They had more peace than the richest of people even though they never knew from day to day whether they would be arrested and put to death. They hid away in caves, in secret places. Many were martyred, but in death they glorified God, singing as long as they had breath. The meat of the Word, Heaven’s strength, gave them this miraculous overcoming power. When you have the meat of the Word, you don’t rely on Earth’s strength, but on Heaven’s. Through Heaven’s strength—the meat of the Word—believers can defeat the enemy, cast out devils and trample them underfoot. The meat of the Word is the Christian’s defense against the world and the powers of the devil.
The Meat of the Word Brings Miracles
If you want to know what the Word will really do, trace and retrace the steps of Jesus. He was the very meat of the Word in action in a vessel of clay. After Jesus ascended back into Heaven, the Word walked planet Earth in many vessels of clay who carried on His work. The body of Christ dined on the meat of the Word daily. In one mind, one accord the Early Church stood in awe of the way God moved for them, the way angels came down from Heaven to minister. Great miracles were seen: the few mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles barely scratch the surface. Thousands of miracles and healings must have taken place in the beginning of the Early Church Age, in the first thirty-three years. They lived on the meat of the Word.
When a soul walks in all the strength of the meat of God, that soul helps God make miracles. Many of God’s children today do not help Him make miracles because they do not walk in all of the Lord’s strength. They remain babes, easily deceived and led astray into false doctrine, believing in a god of their own making or of the invention of someone else. Many disgrace the true and living God by not believing in miracles. God is miraculous. Everything about Him is miraculous. To not believe in miracles is to not believe in the God of the Bible, to not believe in the great God of this universe. I believe in miracles because I believe in God.
Instantly Paul Accepted Jesus
Before the apostle Paul’s conversion, he hated the Word made flesh so intensely that he sought to put everyone to death who confessed Jesus to be the Son of God, the Living Word. But on his way to arrest Christians, the power of God knocked Paul to the ground. Instantly Paul accepted Jesus; he didn’t rebel. Paul had been given the wrong information; his parents hadn’t trained him right in the Lord. The greatest teachers of that day had been Paul’s, but they didn’t know Jesus. Paul held a high seat in the courts of his people. One day Paul was important in the eyes of the world, and the next, men in power sought to kill him.
Paul, taught by the Holy Spirit in the desert for three-and-a-half years, was served the meat of the Word. There he grew up in the Lord, learned the reality of God. Instantly when God saved him, he received the milk of the Word; but when he went into the desert, he dined on the meat. Paul learned so much about the meat of the Word that Peter said, Our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you; As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood (II Peter 3:15,16).
Paul, the greatest apostle of them all, did not see Jesus in the flesh, but he was more like Jesus than any of the others. He became that way through the Word; God was able to feed him the meat of the Word.
The Word Became a Part of Paul
Paul, no doubt born into wealth, learned to have no confidence in that wealth, no confidence in the flesh. He wrote, What things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, And be found in him (Philippians 3:7-9). What comforted Paul, what gave him peace and happiness when his riches, prestige, family and friends were gone? The meat of the Word.
The Word became a part of Paul. The more he ate the Word, the greater his appetite. The Word still affects people that way today. The more of the Word you take in, the more you want. The Word is necessary food for the spiritual man, the very best served from Heaven to you.
The Just Shall Live by Faith
Many are running scared because they do not have the meat of the Word that conquers fear. Faith conquers fear; the faith of God is a vital part of the meat of the Word. In fact, faith is so much a part of the Word that the Bible declares, The just shall live by faith (Romans 1:17). Without faith, people don’t believe Jesus is about to come. Every endtime sign recorded in the Bible of Jesus’ second coming is meat for you today, giving you understanding of this hour you live in.
The faith of God is real meat, the true faith of God. Many try to live by human faith and yet proclaim that Christ is their Redeemer and God their Father. But their human faith wavers; it doesn’t grasp the reality of what they insist they believe. Lacking strength to defeat the enemy, to kill the giants, they are babes.
Proclaim the meat of the Holy Spirit to the people today. It strengthens all who will partake, drowns out fear.
A Free-Flowing Channel
The meat of the Word gave David strength to kill Goliath. He dined on it. The meat opened a free-flowing channel between God and David while he cared for the sheep in wild, isolated pastures. As David glorified the Lord, psalms of praise poured through him. King Saul, however, wasn’t too interested in the Word. He wanted his way, not God’s, and his way followed the pattern of a coward. The lad, David, with the meat of the Word was victorious. It wasn’t the young boy who killed a giant; it was the meat of the Word giving strength, power and ability to bring the enemy down.
The meat of the Word gave Daniel strength to stand against the whole kingdom of Babylon. In the den of lions, he received courage from the meat of the Word. The meat of the Word caused Daniel to put his life on the line, and it will be the meat of the Word, saith the Lord, that will cause us to put our lives on the line for Jesus in this our last hour. It will be the meat of the Word flowing freely. From the Word we will get our strength.
Three Hebrew boys had strength to not bow to an idol god even though it meant their lives. The furnace was heated seven times hotter than it had ever been heated, but what did it matter? They had the Word, the strength to say No, we will not bow! We will not bend a knee to an idol god! The meat of the Word declares there is but one God.
A Valley of Dry Bones
Down through the years, those who have worked for God in any measure at all have had the meat of the Word. Biblical prophets used the meat of the Word. Again and again, we read that Ezekiel cried, Thus saith the Lord! Carried by the Spirit of the Lord into a valley of dry bones, he heard the Lord ask, Son of man, can these bones live? The bones—they were very dry—represented the whole house of Israel. Because of their disobedience to God, the Israelites lost hope and were scattered into every nation. But God told Ezekiel He would restore them, bring them back. Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel. And shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall ye know that I the LORD have spoken it, and performed it, saith the LORD (Ezekiel 37:12,14). God told Ezekiel to prophesy, to give those bones the meat of the Word. When you receive the meat of the Word, you receive the life of God, of Heaven. As Ezekiel prophesied the meat of the Word, he saw dry bones coming together in the vision, standing up and living.
Faith Worketh through Love
Just as the body must have meat to develop and grow, the soul must have the meat of Heaven. Any solid food is considered meat for the physical person. The Word of God is solid food; it will make your spirit grow, believe for all the promises of God. Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth (Mark 9:23). The meat of the Word will bring you to the place you can believe. From the Word you receive the meat of wisdom, the meat of knowledge, faith; but the greatest meat is love.
You cannot afford to contaminate God’s love in your heart for others. That meat of love must work, must be shed abroad daily by the Holy Ghost. The meat of faith works through love: Faith which worketh by love (Galatians 5:6). Live by the meat of love and faith.
Man Was Never Meant to Exist on Milk Alone
A baby is happy as long as things go its way, but when they don’t, a loud scream can be heard. Some Christians are like that. They’re content as long as they get their way, but bedlam breaks out when they don’t. Milk is still their main course. It’s the meat of the Word that will give you joy when things go wrong. For the joy of the Lord is your strength (Nehemiah 8:10).
The storm outside cannot shake the soul that contains the peace and joy of God—and remember, there is no limit to the capacity of the soul, no limit on the things of God it can contain. One soul can hold all of Heaven; it can hold God the Son, God the Father and God the Holy Ghost. The soul came from the breath of God; it was made to accommodate God, for God to dwell in. All the peace and greatness of God—the meat of the Word—was forever to be man’s meat. Man was never meant to be without it, never meant to exist only on milk.
We criticize the heathen for making idol gods in the form of animals, monsters or man, but many so-called Christians have made gods in their own minds that take precedence over the great God of the universe. Stripping God of all His power in their lives, robbing Him of His strength toward them, they do not worship the true and living God. It takes the meat of the Word to know that God answered prayers yesterday, He answers them today and will forever. The great and wonderful things God did yesterday He will do today. The meat of the Word is in every promise of God.
A diet consisting of milk uses very few of God’s promises. If you are not using many promises of God, you are either on the milk of the Word or unsaved. The meat of the Word looks on the promises of God as shining lights to help others to the path of God’s righteousness and salvation. Without the meat of the Word, you are like a baby who reaches but is unable to grasp, who can’t walk where it wants to go.
The First Adam
The first Adam lost the meat and was driven out of Eden, helpless, starving, hopeless in the hands of the devil. What sorrow must have gone through Heaven; surely God cried when that first man and woman turned their backs on Him. God had made the soul special, designed for the meat of Heaven, the things of God and for God Himself. Now demons had moved into the souls of mankind. There is no room for God in the soul that contains demons. When people die without God, their souls continue to exist in living death in hell.
The Second Adam
The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit (I Corinthians 15:45). Jesus came—the second Adam, the Lord from Heaven—to bring life back to mankind, to bridge the gulf between man and his God. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive (I Corinthians 15:21,22). Jesus brought meat to serve mankind, to make them strong so they could stand against and overcome all the tricks and vices of the devil. Men and women can live and be like Jesus—the meat of the Word will do it.
The meat from Heaven, the meat of Jesus’ patience is offered you. The same spiritual meat you dine on, Jesus carried. The meat of humility, of self-control—Jesus brought it all from Heaven for the Bride of Christ. The second Adam came to restore that which was lost when the first Adam fell.
Jesus met trials and temptations of all kinds, showing us how to be overcomers. For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted (Hebrews 2:18). Jesus was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin (Hebrews 4:15).
After His resurrection, Jesus invited the disciples to Come and dine (John 21:12). Recognizing Jesus to be the miraculous one, the disciples obeyed. They now had the meat of the Word of the Resurrection.
The Fellowship of His Sufferings
Paul said, That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death (Philippians 3:10). During the terrible ordeals he endured, Paul did not complain. No one but Jesus suffered more than Paul. The meat of the Word of Jesus’ sufferings was in Paul’s heart, for he remembered the time he was one who caused suffering. Once Paul hated everything about Jesus. Now out in the desert, Paul knew an innocent Christ had been falsely accused and killed. Jesus, his Lord and Master, had borne it all.
Without the meat of the Word, people are unwilling to suffer for the sake of Christ. You don’t really have life until you learn to meet through Christ the sufferings and trials of this earth and overcome them. Until you learn how to face life, you will not have the Jesus life. Until you learn to handle discouragement, persecution, suffering, you will not be able to really use the Jesus life.
Paul prayed that he might know Jesus, that he might have the strength to bear up like Jesus did. Through the Lord, Paul was able to face despair, discouragement, persecution, humiliation. Paul knew Jesus in the fellowship of sufferings that came his way. He had great insight into the strength he could receive from God. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need (Hebrews 4:16). Paul was able to overcome his trials, temptations, his times of need by coming boldly before the throne of grace.
You have not really lived on the meat of Heaven with the strength that God has made possible for you to have through Jesus Christ until you can face sufferings for the sake of Christ and bear up under them without murmuring and complaining. Paul learned the fellowship of His sufferings.
A Thorn in the Flesh
Paul at one time sought the Lord for deliverance from a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me…For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness…for when I am weak, then am I strong (II Corinthians 12:7-10). A devil followed Paul everywhere he went, stirring up people against him. Three times Paul sought God to deliver him from that demon spirit. The Lord didn’t deliver him but gave him meat, God’s grace, the strength and power of Heaven to endure. It was sufficient. Never again did Paul ask the Lord to deliver him from that thorn. Gratefully accepting the Lord’s strength, he praised God for it.
The Lord wants us to respond like Paul, to look up and declare that God’s grace is sufficient.
You needn’t fear this hour, sicknesses, diseases, man or the devil. Walk in the light of God without fear. Not dwelling in the night, not stumbling, you have strength, light and the power of Christ’s resurrection.
Use the Power in the Word
What do you get from the Word? Do you get only the letter and not the meat? Do you read the Word and go away defeated as before? When you pick up the Word of God for a problem, the meat is there for you. Not one problem do you have to face without a solution through Christ Jesus. He proved His power of deliverance through the lives of the apostles as they prayed for people in the name of Jesus.
Have you ever studied the significance of the Resurrection? Its benefits are for you. There’s no reason for you to be a weakling in the Lord when the power, the meat of the Resurrection promises lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world (Matthew 28:20). The meat of the Word declares, Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid (John 14:27).
All the power of the Word is for you to use. The strength and nourishment of the Word are mighty in your behalf, but you must learn to reverence the Word and trust it completely. Read the Word realizing that it is your meat, your very life. Never pick it up without accepting the Spirit of the Word. Any time you feel your spirit receiving the letter of the Word only, that no strength is flowing to you, ask God for His help. Your thinking is not right. You need the Holy Spirit to dip from your soul that which God has given you in your salvation and to flood it into your mind so your mind can take in the Spirit of the Word, the meat.
The soul, remember, is the reservoir for your spiritual life, unlimited in what it can store from Heaven. Use the power in the Word that salvation has placed there. Many children of God look only to Heaven for what they need when they already have much of Heaven in the reservoir of the soul. The Holy Spirit brings the promises and greatness of God from the soul to the mind when He is given liberty. He lives on the inside; He is your teacher, your helper and guide.
The mind is very deceiving. It can tell you that you have lost your salvation simply because you can’t feel it. But the meat of the Word in your soul—faith—tells you that salvation is still alive. Instead of being tormented in your mind over your salvation, yield to the power in the meat of the Word through the Holy Spirit and find the truth of the matter.
According to the Power That Worketh Within
The Holy Spirit has come to abide with you as long as you live on Earth, and He will be with you to change you in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye when the Rapture takes place—but you must yield to Him completely. Receive the Holy Spirit baptism, and let Him make you what He wants you to be. You will be changed according to the power that worketh in you. Unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us (Ephesians 3:20). That power of the Holy Ghost is too great to be held in the mind alone. Power to change you at the Rapture is in your soul if, I say again, you are saved, baptized in the Holy Spirit and obedient to the Lord.
Many doubt the Rapture, doubt being changed and taken up into the clouds with Jesus. If the promise of the Rapture is in the mind, not the soul, it will not be enough to bring faith for the change. The meat of the Word says, Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed (I Corinthians 15:51,52). For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord (I Thessalonians 4:16,17).
Store the Word in Your Soul
Don’t dine on the opinions of others but on the infallible Word of the Living God. When He serves you, He dips from the soul that which will gird up your mind. The mind needs to be strengthened daily with the meat of the Word stored in the soul of each child of God.
The Holy Spirit works to encourage you to eat the meat of the Word so it can be stored in your soul for Him to use. He teaches you, deals with you from the Word. When He tries to get you to use more faith or love for lost souls, He uses the meat of the Word, the love of the Word. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love (I John 4:8). For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son (John 3:16). How marvelous to have Heaven’s strength here on Earth stored in the soul to be used by the Holy Spirit! It excites me!
The Bride in this hour, her soul filled with the meat of the Word, is strong. All the types and shadows of the Bride in the Old Testament are strong, powerful. Everyone the Lord used for a type and shadow of the Bride had the greatness of the meat of the Word stored in the soul. Think of it!
Living by Promise
Dine with the Word; the Lord is calling you to His promises. We are people of promise; we live by promise, not feelings, but by faith in the promises of God. Never rely on feelings to direct you to what God wants done. He waits for you to emerge from your feelings so the Holy Spirit can bring to you enough of the Word to clear your mind from misconceptions. Then the Lord is able to serve you as you reach out to accept the promises He is offering.
When you fill up on good food, no one can convince you that you’re still hungry. You know you have just eaten. You’re sure. But when it comes to the soul, the devil can shake your confidence very quickly if you’re not rooted and grounded in the promises of God. The Word is the soil that establishes you. It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God (Matthew 4:4). Every promise out of the mouth of God belongs to you, food for the soul. Every promise of God contains meat for the children of God. Treasure God’s Word above life, for without it you have no life; with it you have everlasting life in the Lord. What joy, what happiness, what peace!
Why look to your surroundings for happiness, to people around you? Why keep searching for Heaven down here? The Lord never promised you Heaven on Earth. However, you can have a heavenly Eden in your soul to feed your mind, bringing a deep settled peace the world does not understand. The peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:7). Don’t claim to understand God’s peace; just accept it.
Depend on the promises of the Word in your soul and you will know the overcoming power the Lord has for you. The meat of the Word tells you these words of Jesus: In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also (John 14:2,3). Jesus will come for His Bride. He promised.
Be Ye Separate
Unbelievers thought Peter and John were unlearned, ignorant men and used their disdain as an excuse to reject what the men of God were saying. Then Paul came with his fine education—his critics said much learning had made him mad. The world will never understand the things of God; don’t court its favor. The meat of the Word says, Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord…and I will receive you (II Corinthians 6:17). But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy (I Peter 1:15,16). Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him (I John 2:15).
Some look to the world for security. When they seem to have less material goods than others, they think God has let them down, that God doesn’t love them. If their carpeting wears out, they decide God’s love must be wearing out, too. The Lord doesn’t show His love, His greatness for mankind with the material things. Jesus, the very Son of God said, Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head (Luke 9:58).
Don’t check your bank account to see how much God loves you, look into your soul. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life (John 3:16). Everlasting life is far greater than the fleeting material wealth of this world.
Seek Ye First the Kingdom
You came into the world with nothing and you will leave the same way. What awaits you in eternity is the important thing. Seek the meat of the Word, the meat of His love, the meat of His faith, patience, longsuffering toward you and the meat of your salvation, of eternal life bubbling in your soul. All the money in the world couldn’t buy any of that. When you are filled with the Holy Ghost and yielded to Him, the Spirit flows through you like mighty gushing rivers of living water. God’s greatness dwells on the inside. He shows His great love by doing the impossible. Because you accept all of Him, He looks out for you.
Jesus told the disciples to not worry about their food, about what they were going to wear. Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed (Matthew 6:25,31)?
Consider the lilies of the valley that neither toil or spin. Solomon with all his glorious possessions was not arrayed like one of these. The birds don’t slave; they don’t worry, yet the Lord feeds them. Birds weren’t made in the likeness of God; they don’t have souls, but the Lord cares for them. Think how much more He loves and cares for you! You were made in God’s likeness; your soul came from His very breath. Don’t discourage yourself by looking at the material things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you (Matthew 6:33).
Are you worried about your old car? Daniel didn’t even have a car, and yet the Lord told him he was greatly loved. Look into your soul and find the incredible love that God has given to you. You have something money can’t buy, something a billionaire on his death bed would give all his money for. A mansion in Heaven is waiting for you, a structure that would make Earth’s grandest palace look like a pile of trash. Why set your heart on Earth’s possessions and become discouraged when you fail to attain them? Seek first the Kingdom of God.
Recognize God’s Love
Jesus tells the story of the beggar Lazarus and the rich man. Every day the rich man ate sumptuous meals; but Lazarus, full of sores, lay at the gate begging for crumbs. They both died. Angels carried Lazarus into Abraham’s bosom, but the rich man was not so fortunate. And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom (Luke 16:23). The rich man cried to Abraham for Lazarus to dip his finger in water and cool his tongue, for he was tormented in the flame. But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented (verse 25). The rich man had a life of ease that was briefer than a blink of the eye in eternity, but Lazarus had eternity in Heaven.
Wake up, Children of God: You are loved by your Maker! God doesn’t put on a display of the material things like man does to show love. Some of those material displays are not sincere, anyway. People, for instance, have been deceived into marriage by suitors putting on a show of possessions, claiming it proved their love. After the wedding, the bitter truth came out. Possessions were valued more than the new spouse. God’s love isn’t like that.
Learn the meat of the Word concerning God’s love. As you learn the meat of God’s love, you learn who and what He is, how great and wonderful. His love assures you that all His plans for you are good and wonderful, that the way of the Lord is perfect.
Be Strong in the Lord
Dine with the Lord; live in His Word. It’s exciting to discover all that the Bible contains! The Word of God is leaping up in this final hour into the hearts and minds of everyone who desires the meat, not the milk. You need meat that will give you strength, clothe you in the greatness of Heaven. With this meat you believe all the Lord has said; you believe in the coming of the Lord, the judgments of the Lord, in Armageddon. The meat of the Word gives you knowledge, wisdom and strength to be ready for the Rapture.
Child of God, get off that milk; it’s for babes! Learn to eat and serve the meat of the Word. Become strong in Him, strong in the ways of the Lord, in His wisdom, knowledge, love, faith, patience, longsuffering, joy and humility. Daily, by the Holy Spirit, the meat is served to your mind if you have the meat of joy in your soul. There is no reason for lack; the Lord is serving all things needed in this last hour, and the need is great.
The Sinners’ Prayer
You who are unsaved, it’s time to come to God. You don’t have long to get your soul right with the Him. The Church Age is about to end. All the endtime signs that the Lord prophesied would be surrounding us at His coming are here. He said, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors (Matthew 24:33). The coming of Jesus is right at the door. The nations are getting ready for Armageddon, but the Bride of Christ is preparing for the Rapture. Oh, Sinner, get ready!
Pray this prayer with me now: Oh, God, save my soul! I’m so sorry that I sinned against you, but I have come home. I’m going to serve you, Lord, the rest of my life. I believe that Jesus died for me, and I will live for Him. And I believe the blood of Jesus washes away all of my sins, all of my sins. Come on in, Jesus. Come on in!
If you meant it, He has come. If you meant that prayer, you have Him. You have eternal life bubbling up on the inside. Serve the Lord. Live for Him. Walk in the paths of righteousness. Take the meat of the Word and become strong like your Lord. Be a Jesus overcomer.
Healing Is the Will of God
You who are sick and afflicted, you who have loved ones who need deliverance—perhaps you have a disabled child—let me pray for you now. You can have a miracle; you can be made whole, well. You can be healed of any affliction, any disease—that’s the meat of the Word. The meat of the word proclaims Jesus to be the healing Christ. The meat promises with God all things are possible (Matthew 19:26). I am not the healer, Jesus is. The meat of the Word declares the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up (James 5:15). That’s the meat, the Spirit of the Word.
Lord, here they are. I bring the sick and afflicted to you. Lay your healing hands upon the sick and afflicted, dear Jesus. Lord, make them all well. From your supernatural gift of miracles, from your supernatural gifts of healing it comes through the power of the Holy Ghost in the name of your Son Jesus. Heal! in the name of the Lord! Heal! in the holy name of Jesus. Heal! and make them completely whole, I pray. Amen.
Let that power work to get you well. Miracles and healings are the meat of the Word. Thank God for the meat of the Word, for the strength of Heaven!
God is giving me His messages for you night and day. He is pouring it into my Spirit; I just deliver that which He gives me.
Thus Saith the Lord
Yea, saith the Spirit of the Lord: I am God, and I will reveal myself as God to a lost world one last time. I will shake the earth with my presence. I will send forth my Spirit of mercy and forgiveness, and then I will bring judgment, saith the Lord.
I will give great, great knowledge and great, great faith and great, great love. I will serve all to my people that they may serve all to those who are in the night. The light of my Word will shine forth to the ends of the earth, and my gracious love and manifestations will turn the multitudes to my Kingdom. I will light up paths that were at one time impossible to have light. I am preparing the peoples, the heathen throughout the earth for this my last visitation before destruction. I will walk the earth with my mercy. I will walk the earth with my power of deliverance, and then the end will come, saith the Lord.
Be not troubled my people. Be not afraid. I the Lord thy God will be with you, and I will make you strong with my greatness. You will be glorious in my sight because of my greatness. You will defeat the powers of the enemy and bring light to multitudes that are now in darkness.
Oh, my people, you are loved, you are loved! saith the Lord. I am with you all the time. I will never, never be away from you. Trust in my love. Trust in my faith. Trust in my promises. Victory is yours, it’s yours. It belongs to my faithful people in this the last hour, saith the Lord.
Lift up your heart and know that the Lord is with you, even the Lord God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of all flesh. Blessed be the name of the Lord! God has much to say to you in this last hour. Open your ears and hear what the Lord is saying to the children of God. He has prepared you for this hour. To be trusted by Him for this last hour is wondrous indeed, a grave responsibility, but the Lord will give you the grace to shoulder it all. He is the Lord; He is with you to instill within you the meat of the Word. Your life depends on it.
YOUR LIFE DEPENDS ON THE MEAT OF THE WORD, All rights reserved. Copyright © 1992 Ernest Angley.
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