Miracles within alignment – 4. The Power of the spoken Word part b

When our lives are aligned to the Word of God then what Jesus did becomes possible. The centurion was certainly near to that truth in this passage that we are becoming familiar with over the last few days:

“Jesus said to him, ‘Shall I come and heal him?’ The centurion replied, ‘Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, “Go,” and he goes; and that one, “Come,” and he comes. I say to my servant, “Do this,” and he does it.’ When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him, ‘Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith.” (Matthew 8 v 7-10)

The Church that emerges from lockdown must be the Church that uses the Bible not to beat people with but who speak healing to every part of their lives with. I am not suggesting we memorise verses to quote although that would be great to do. But I believe our lives need to be saturated in the Bible and the Bible in us so that in every situation what flows from our lives is the Word of God.

Following on from yesterday I want to stay on the use of the Bible.

I recently was asked to write on ‘Why is the Bible relevant today?’

Let me share this with you today and tomorrow. It might inspire you to carry on with your life in the Bible.

‘Why is the Bible relevant today?’

In 2007 I was pastoring a Church in Yorkshire and having led that Church for 11 years I discovered through a survey conducted by the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity who were acting as Church consultants that my members were not reading the Bible daily. But also when they did read it they could not see any application into their lives.

I was thankful to know the truth but you can imagine the disappointment in myself that after 11 years of Pastoring I wasn’t producing disciples.

So I began a daily blog of systematically reading through certain books of the Bible with a small passage of application to help my members, this was linked to a Bible plan. 

They would get a simple tool to use. This one from 21^st August 2007 was for 1 Samuel 10, the chapter where Saul was anointed by Samuel the prophet and then was made King of Israel.

Date	Thursday 21st  August 2007
Bible Reading	1 Samuel 10
What grabbed my attention?	“At that very moment, God transformed him – made him a new person!” v9 (the Message)
How can I use this when I pray?	Ask God to transform me, to change my life around, so that people can see the difference.
Now Pray!	Praise Him for who He is and all He’s done for you.Remind Him of His Word          eg. Thank you for your word today. Thank you          that you transformed Saul and made him a new          person etc etc.     Apply His Word          eg. Come and transform me and change my          life. etc etc.      Your needs for today – whatever you are facing.
Journal Record This is anything, eg. certain Bible verses, notes of meetings/events attended that were note-worthy, questions, concerns and general updates of your life.

We instantly saw 80% of our members engaged in the Bible. It was one of the many wonderful memories of church transformation that I have been privileged to see.

I have carried on this practice 14 years later. The above table is my daily discipline.

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3 v16-17)

There are works out there which need us to be thoroughly equipped for. Situations like the Centurion’s servant. May God breathe His Scripture into our lives today.

Whatever plan you decide to adopt for your Bible reading, stick with it. Let your whole life be consumed with the fascination of the Bible. As you are aligned to God’s Word in your life then you will find that the Spirit is at ease to work through you and miracles become possible.