By Greg Mauro
According to April Fulton at NPR News, it is estimated that about “45 million Americans go on a diet every year and we spend about $33 billion on weight-loss products, trying to find a magic way to slim down!” (April Fulton, March 25, 2021)
It’s not a surprise that over time, Fulton found, most found frustration and disappointment in their pursuit of miracle weight loss…
I would like to suggest a miracle diet for you to consider this New Year that will cost you nothing but some time, and if you follow it, will produce amazing long-lasting results…
Dr. Morris Cerullo famously said, “Man lives in two worlds: a natural world and a spiritual world.”
While millions are rightfully concerned with how to deal with those unhealthy, unwanted excess pounds on their physical bodies, what if I told you that there is a simple change you could make right now to your current spiritual diet that would guarantee to cause the unhealthy, unwanted excessive weight of guilt, negative habits and anxious thought patterns, doubts, confusion, insecurity, and sin to fall off your life?
1,627 days ago, I made a spiritual dietary decision to add one small daily habit to my morning routine which has become the most consequential discovery of my life.
The no fail miracle diet that I pray you will consider is simply adding the reading of the Word of God to the beginning of each day, and then watch the unhealthy and unwanted emotional, mental, and spiritual weights fall off exponentially in 2023 as you do!
Jesus’ first recorded spoken words to Satan during His temptation in the wilderness, of all things was in response to the devil suggesting Jesus turn a stone into bread to satisfy His physical hunger, were significant for you and I today: “No, the Scriptures say, ‘People do not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God!’” (Matthew 4:4 NLT)
I have been a Christian for over 40 years, but I’ve never been more excited about the Bible in my entire life as I am today. I see it is I have never seen it before. I enjoy it as I have never enjoyed it before. And without reservation I am convinced that the greatest investment you can make in your life this year is spending a little more time in the Word of God!
King David had a love affair with the Word of God and celebrated it by declaring the benefits of hiding God’s word in his heart in the longest chapter in the Bible, Psalms 119!
Jesus declared in Matthew 24:35 that “heaven and earth will pass away but My words will never pass away!” Our natural lives and diets will pass away, but a diet of God’s word will prepare you for a never-ending eternity!
One of my favorite scriptures in the Bible is found in Proverbs 25:2, “It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, but the glory of kings is to discover them!”
The Bible contains hidden treasure that is waiting to be mined. The concealed treasure we discover in the word of God is much more than the Bibles’ great life principles, dos and don’ts, or great miracle stories.
The hidden treasure of the Bible is that it contains the greatest discovery of all – an unveiling of who God says He really is and who God says we really are, and what God says He has really planned for us!
We discover a Jesus we did not know through religion, philosophy, or who or what others have said He is. The Apostle Paul put it this way:
“…At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view, how differently we know Him now!” 2 Corinthians 5:16 NLT
The Bible reveals the Jesus we may not have known!
Jesus said it this way, “You have your heads in your Bibles constantly because you think you’ll find eternal life there. But you miss the forest for the trees. These Scriptures are all about Me! And here I am, standing right before you, and you aren’t willing to receive from me the life you say you want.” John 5:39-40 MSG
Why is the number one best-selling book of all time and in each and every year that book sales have been monitored the Bible? It is estimated that 100 million copies of the Bible will be sold in 2022, and in 2023, and in 2024…
That is because this is not an ordinary book with just a good message, the Bible is a supernatural book that in and of itself has the power to heal, change, and restore mankind to God!
Could it be that the Holy Spirit really did move upon the pens of 40 different men over 1,500 years to give us a book that in fact proceeded from the mouth of God through man, to us?
“Above all, you must realize that no prophecy in Scripture ever came from the prophet’s own understanding, or from human initiative. No, those prophets were moved by the Holy Spirit, and they spoke from God.” (2 Peter 1:20-21 NLT)
While Jesus was on the earth, He referred to the Scriptures often and treated the them as God’s inspired word, as did the disciples and the apostles.
The Gospels record Jesus and Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John authoritatively referring to the Old Testament scriptures over 80 times with the Apostles referring to the Old Testament scriptures over 280 times throughout the Book of Acts and the Epistles!
THE GREATEST WEAPON FORMED FOR YOU TO DESTROY THE GREATEST WEAPON FORMED AGAINST YOU!
I want to share with you today from one of the greatest truths that I have ever discovered in God’s word. It is found in the book of Isaiah chapters 54 and 55, I call it “The greatest weapon formed for you to destroy the greatest weapon formed against you!”
When Isaiah wrote the scriptures under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, there were no chapter or verse breaks…our current Isaiah 54 just continued to run into Isaiah 55.
There is a powerful truth that spanned Isaiah 54 and 55 that I believe can bring great blessing and revelation for us today.
God speaking in Isaiah 54:17 declares: “No weapon formed against you will succeed. You will silence every voice raised up to accuse you!”
Many stop and shout here, instead of continuing to Isaiah 55 to discover the powerful weapon God had in mind to ensure that no weapon formed against us will succeed…
Since the Garden of Eden there have been two opposing voices vying for control over our lives. I call them The Voice of the Accuser and The Voice of The Intercessor.
The stakes couldn’t be higher! The voice you believe will determine the temporal and the eternal trajectory of your life…
Simply put, the greatest battle over your life is what you believe about God and what you believe God believes about you.
And the greatest investment you can make in your life is spending a little more time meditating in the word of God and establishing the voice of God as the greatest voice in your life!
As you do, you will discover that the voice that pushes you away from God is NEVER the voice of God!
There are many legal references in scripture. We read about the courts of heaven. Satan is referred to as your accuser, your prosecuting attorney. While Jesus is described as your Mediator, your Intercessor, your Advocate, your defense attorney.
As we know, every accusation and every defense require the presentation of evidence.
The good news is that the evidence that Jesus is bringing into the courts of Heaven on your behalf declares beyond a shadow of a doubt that you are not guilty as charged or accused!
Isaiah 54:17 addresses this and continues: “These benefits are enjoyed by the servants of the Lord; their vindication will come from Me!” In the Oxford dictionary, vindication is defined as “the action of clearing someone of blame or suspicion.” (Oxford dictionary)
This scripture is telling us that God wants you to enjoy the benefits of what your Mediator, Jesus has done for you — His overwhelming vindication of you as He alone silences the voice of the Accuser/Prosecutor so that you could enjoy living free of blame, suspicion, and accusation…
Look again at Isaiah 54:17. It is telling us that the greatest weapon that is formed against a child of God is the voice of the Accuser. “No weapon formed against you will succeed. You will silence EVERY VOICE raised up to accuse you!”
The sometimes-subtle voices raised up to accuse you can simply be the negative conversation we are having with yourself, the intentional or unintentional voice of condemnation that can be spoken over you by someone you respect, or any thought or impression that makes you feel less than 100% loved, accepted, and empowered by God’s grace.
But now Isaiah 55 will take us from the promise of silencing every voice that rises up to accuse us to bring us into the secret to HOW to effectively silence the voice of the Accuser – and to enjoy complete confidence and total victory over the voice that pushes us away from God, the voice that tells us what we are not, the voice that brings guilt, confusion, shame, fear and separation from God…
So, let’s dig into Isaiah 55. Here we find God not giving an edict, but a glorious invitation to consider:
“Is anyone thirsty? Come and drink— even if you have no money! Come, take your choice of wine or milk— it’s all free! Why spend your money on food that does not give you strength? Why pay for food that does you no good? Listen to me, and you will eat what is good. You will enjoy the finest food. “Come to me with your ears wide open. Listen, and you will find life. I will make an everlasting covenant with you. I will give you all the unfailing love I promised to David.” Isaiah 55:1-3 NLT
God is asking us to consider a better result from the money, energy, and time we spend on so many seemingly good and important activities, diets, entertainments, and pursuits – by asking a question, “For all the effort, are they really nourishing and strengthening your lives?”
Then God gives us this amazing invitation to listen to Him and take in what is good – as we come to Him with our ears wide open, listen, grow our faith, and find life! Gid is inviting us in Isaiah 55 to diet on His word!
The Bible encourages us that “Faith comes by HEARING, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17)
God is inviting you and I to open our ears in a new way, and to grow our faith as we hear what He has to say to us about Himself and what He really says about us through His amazing, life-giving word.
During these past 4 years, I have discovered five powerful truths:
1. There are two voices over your life, the voice of the Accuser and the voice of the Intercessor…
2. The voice that pushes you away from God is NEVER the voice of God…
3. What you believe about God will either attract you to Him or repel you from Him…
4. The greatest battle over your life is in your mind – the battle of what you believe about God and what you believe God believes about us…
5. The greatest investment you can make in your life is spending a little more time in the Word of God…with your ears wide open establishing the real voice of God as the greatest voice in your life!
Romans 12:2 declares. “Let God transform you by changing the way you think!”
Dr David Jeremiah recently said, “The greatest source of good thoughts is the Word of God!”
God’s Isaiah 55 invitation to rise up from stinking thinking and “get a checkup from the neck up” continues in verses 8-11:
“My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so My ways are higher than your ways and My thoughts higher than your thoughts.”
Opening your ears to God’s thoughts for you will empower you to go further and higher…
“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope!” Jeremiah 29:11 NKJV
Psalms 3:3 declares that “He is the glory and THE LIFTER of our head!” God is a lifter and if you let Him, He will use His word to transform you and lift you by changing the way you think about Him!
In 2023, the greatest atomic habit that you could add to your life that will cause you to rise and to grow spiritually – is spending just a little more time mediating in the thoughts of God for you – His Word!
You will discover a God who sees something greater in you and who sees something greater for you than you see yourself.
And it won’t take big dramatic changes on your part to see life changing results as you give His word greater entrance into your life. (Psalms 119:130)
Dr. Morris Cerullo said many times, “Every promise of God contains the seed for your miracle!”
Jesus taught in the parable of the Sower and the seed one of the greatest secrets of His Kingdom – the exponential seed power of the Word of God in and of itself to transform the hearts and the minds of His children. (Matthew 13)
That is why the Bible compares the potential return on your investment in the Word of God to a small mustard seed that produces the greatest tree – a small seed sown in the soil of your heart and mind will do the work of germinating, growing, and producing a great return back to you of faith, confidence, peace, joy, and spiritual strength in your life. (Luke 13:19)
In another place the Word of God is compared to yeast – a small living organism which permeates the whole loaf and causes it to rise! (Luke 13:21)
Isaiah continues along these lines…highlighting the power of the Word of God in and of itself to cause growth and produce fruitfulness and blessing in your life:
“The rain and snow come down from the heavens and stay on the ground to water the earth. They cause the grain to grow, producing seed for the farmer and bread for the hungry.
It is the same with my word. I send it out, and it always produces fruit. It will accomplish all I want it to, and it will prosper everywhere I send it.” Isaiah 55:8-11 NLT
Why not decide to open your life in a greater way to God’s word in 2023 and watch the living seed of His word as you take it in and meditate on it to cause a new level of fruitfulness and prosperity in your thought life – your faith life – your emotions – and your spiritual life – as you discover the greatest miracle diet known to man!!
A great way to add a daily dose of the Word of God into your life is to download the world’s number #1 downloaded Bible app You Version https://www.youversion.com/the-bible-app/which has lots off free add on resources and Bible reading plans including the One Year Bible plan that I highly recommend!
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