Before the guest speaker, Pastor Cornelio communicated the message, he invited his wife, Deborah to greet the congregation. She proceeded to quote the entire chapter of Isaiah 53. Pastor Cornelio then preached a powerful stirring message and the congregation responded for a touch of God. I was personally blessed by the preaching and especially impressed by the quotation of Isa 53 from memory. During the prayer time, I asked God to enhance my knowledge and memory of God's Word.
Three weeks later, this scripture stood out. It had a fresh new meaning. Isa.55:8,9 'For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,' declares the Lord. 'As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.' I have always understood it as God's thoughts and ways are different, higher, wiser and better than mine (It does not take a wise guy to see that) . This time, I was asking myself, 'What can I do to narrow that gap?' How can I think more like God and therefore act in ways similar to His?
I came to the conclusion that the gap can be narrowed and one means is to have His Word fill my mind. I have been pastoring and preaching the Word for 27 years now. However, there is still so much room for the Word. I need the Word to dwell in me. The Word must live in me, be so alive in me affecting my thoughts, actions, motives, feelings and character at every conscious moment of my day.
I have to commit more of the Word to memory and repeat it throughout the day as often as possible. It is more than an intellectual exercise. I must come to a point that God's Word must saturate my mind, drench my soul and flood my spirit till my every action and reaction be as near as possible to how God would think and act. It is a lifelong quest that I know can never be perfected in this life and even the next. The important thing is I have received a new fire and focus to realign myself to pursue the mind and heart of God through His precious written Word for His Word reveals HIM. My prayer is that with a mind change, there will be a life change - one that resembles more of the life of Jesus.
