THE IMPORTANCE OF MEDITATION BY PASTOR CHRIS OYAKHILOME
For a long time, many of God’s children equated meditation with just thinking or pondering over the Word. However meditation is much more than thinking deeply on a subject. That is just one aspect of meditation; there’s more to it revealed in God’s Word.
Meditation is one of the godly exercise that you must practice for a life of dominion and glory. It is a vital activity for every child of God, and its power cannot be overemphasized.
In Joshua 1:8, the Bible says “this book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but that shalt meditate on it therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.
THREE LEVELS OF MEDITATION
The word “meditation” in the verse of scripture above is translated from the Hebrew word “hagar” which means to “imagine; mutter”. It also means to “roar”. This immediately tells us that there are three levels of meditation, each of which is vital.
1. Visualize God’s Word as you study it. This means to ponder or think quietly on God’s Words in picture. As you keep these pictures in your mind, the Word will be driven into your spirit and will take root there.
2. Mutter God’s Word. This means to speak God’s Word under your breath, to yourself, over and over again. As you do this, the Word will become personal to you. It will go beyond the written page, beyond the reading of your mind and intellect, into your spirit. It will becomes God’s Word to you, and not some distant words written in the Bible.
3. Roar God’s Word! At this stage, you shout God’s Word out loud. In the book of Isaiah 31:4, the Bible says, “For thus hath the Lord spoken unto me, like as the lion, and the young lion roaring on his prey, when a multitude of shepherds is called forth against him, he will not be afraid of their voice, nor abase himself for the noise of them…”
In this verse of scripture, the Bible beautifully translated the same Hebrew word “hagar” as “roar”. The purpose of this kind of meditation is to drown every other thoughts in your consciousness, including thoughts that the devil may try to bring and cause the Word of God in your spirit to rise. When you begin shouting God’s Word to yourself like this, some other folks may think something is wrong with you, but continue. The Bible says “…for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success”.
THE POWER OF MEDITATION
Meditation drives the Word into your spirit. It takes the Word from your mind into your spirit. In your mind, you can still reason out the Word of God; but when it gets tour spirit, it becomes real and personal to you. That Word may not have any scientific explanation, but you just know that it is reality, and there is nothing that can take it from you.
Also, it is important to understand that meditation is what gives you rhema. Rhema is the spoken Word of God. It is the “now” Word of God for your situation, and you receive it by meditating on the written Word, which is logos. Logos has the ability to produce results in you and to deliver an inheritance to you, but it will not make you enjoy your inheritance. The Word that changes things is rhema. With rhema, there is no condition in your body that cannot be changed.
Another powerful result of meditation is that it will make you the Word! This is God’s purpose for giving you His Word, so we would become the Word.
As you practice meditating consistently on God’s Word, you find that you will begin to think, talk, and act like God. Your whole life will become a reflection of the Word.
When this happens, it will be impossible for any sickness to remain in your body, because the Word would have permeated your entire body system and taken charge of your being. Understand that the Word has the divine energy to affect everything about your life including your physical body. Proverbs 4:22 says “For they (the Word) are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh”.
There may be a situation in your body that you desire a change;find someplace where you can be alone and meditate on God’s Word. You may not feel like it; especially when your body is telling you something different, but do it. The Word is sure to prevail over that situation, and causes you to walk in victory always.