First Lady's Journal

Becoming One With The Word

by Nancy Gates

Nothing in the world brings me greater pleasure than to bury myself in the pages of the Word of God and then to share it to the best of my ability with those who hunger for its powerful,incomparable truths. I haven’t yet reached the place where I can call myself a Bible scholar or even the more colloquial “walking Bible.” Greek and Hebrew are not yet my forte and I have only taken a few Bible courses. But some day, by the grace of God, I will attain. And then I’ll let someone else bestow that grandiose title upon me so that I don’t drown in the sea of arrogance!

In the meantime, I spend my days educating myself on the names, places, and historical facts of the Scripture and anxiously await my next opportunity to impart what I’ve learned to anyone who gets within a foot of me. But I was recently tapped on the shoulder by the Holy Spirit and given a gentle rebuke for my approach to study which focuses primarily on factual learning: “Too much information,” He whispered, “and not enough revelation. You’ve got a boatload of knowledge there, but you’re a little short on insight. What good is logos He chided, without the expectation of rhema?” The only thing missing was “Nancy, Nancy”, the trademark double moniker, a la Abraham, Martha, Simon, and Saul, that in Bible times usually prefaced an admonition. It’s not as though I was not already aware of this shortcoming. But I admit that I chose this avenue to keep from becoming too “deep.” I had received some pretty powerful revelation from God before, and I struggled in my effort to expound it to others in the way that it had been imparted to me. So my new approach to study? Just the facts ma’am, just the facts. But hey, Satan knows the facts! That’s no secret. And he wants nothing more than to keep us in perpetual disconnect from the life-changing force of God’s Word, even if it means shoving the facts down our throats while

By calling us His “bride”, Christ’s expectation of us is to develop a full and lasting relationship with Him through His Word. Remember, He is His word, so if we are ever to lay claim to the blessings of the Scripture, and become full-time, experiential believers, the womb of our spirits must begin to bear fruit.

“My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge”, God said through His prophet Hosea. Those words were spoken centuries and centuries ago, but I submit to you today that we now live in a time when there is certainly no shortage of knowledge. But somehow, even despite our constant exposure to the Word via television, the radio, the web, and the seemingly endless supply of resource materials that are advertised ad infinitum, we still seem to fall short of the promises of God. So we find ourselves in the frustrating position of “ever-learning, but never coming to a knowledge of the truth”. The problem is that we fail to properly meditate on and confess the Word that we know, and the seed of the Word is therefore never planted in our hearts. The human spirit, by God’s design, is a retainer for spoken words and has a built-in ability to eventually bring them to fruition. But until we learn to come into complete agreement with the words of Christ, and utilize the tools of confession and meditation, we remain barren, and bereft of our God-ordained blessings. Remember, it is your voice that activates the Scripture in your life. God has already spoken, so if we learn to rehearse His promises out loud in His presence, in time the Word will become flesh.

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