Deuteronomy 30:19-20 I call heaven and earth to record this day against you,
that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore
choose life, that both you and your seed may live:
20 That you may love the Lord thy God, and that you may obey His voice, and that
you may cleave unto Him: for He is thy life, and the length of thy days: that
you may dwell in the land which the Lord swore unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to
Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.
II Corinthians 3:5b-6 …our sufficiency is of God;
6 Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter,
but of the Spirit: for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
John 5:39-40 Search the Scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life:
and they are they which testify of Me.
40 And ye will not come to Me, that ye might have life.
How we relate to the Scriptures determines whether we are going to receive life or death. The Lord said, “I set before you life and death – choose life.” Paul said in II Corinthians chapter 3 that the letter of the Word is death and the Spirit is life. Therefore, how you relate to the Scriptures determines what you will receive. Just studying the Bible is not enough. The Pharisees studied the Scriptures. They knew them very well. Some of them could quote the entire Pentateuch, but they didn’t receive Christ. Jesus said in John chapter 5, “You search the Scriptures because in them you think you have eternal life, but they are they which testify of Me and you won’t come to Me that you may have life.” We must learn how to read the Word. It is not the letter of the Scriptures that is most important. The Word is not English; it is not Hebrew, and neither is it Greek. The Word is Spirit!
John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
John 6:63 It is the Spirit that quickens; the flesh profits nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are Spirit, and they are life.
The Word was with God, and the Word was God, and it still is! God is the Word! The Word is Spirit! Jesus said in John chapter 6, “The words that I speak unto you, they are Spirit and they are life.” The Word of God is Spirit and life. It is invisible; it is inaudible. You cannot hear it with the natural ears. You must hear the Word with your spirit. If you receive the Word, it will be with your spirit. We must learn how to hear the Word. That is the reason the Lord said, “He that has ears to hear, let him hear” (Matthew 11:15). And in the Book of Revelation, “He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches” (Revelation 2:7). The realm of the Word is another realm; it is the realm of God. The natural senses of man are not tuned-in to God’s world. So we must learn how to hear that which is inaudible to the human ear.
Revelation 2:17 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcomes will I give to eat of the hidden manna…
The children of Israel found manna when they went out in the morning, and they gathered it from the surface of the ground (Exodus 16:13-17). It is very easy to gather the surface manna; that is, the surface reading, that which is literal and can be comprehended with the natural mind. But reaching below the surface manna to partake of the hidden manna - the Spirit Word of God – is something else entirely. Remember, the Word is God. Therefore, we must learn how to partake of the Word in the Scriptures. How we relate to the Scriptures determines whether we receive life or death – the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life (II Corinthians 3:6). Everybody uses the same Bible, reading the same Scriptures, but everybody doesn’t receive life. We are properly relating to the Scriptures when we are receiving the Word from the Scriptures.
Copyright © 2002 by Henry DuBose