How To Receive The Word of God (Part 2)

In the Part One, we laid a foundation by learning from how the Lord Jesus Christ received the Word of God from the teachers of the law. We mentioned that the first thing Jesus did was to sit down. Read Part One for details.

Listening

The second thing which Jesus Christ did while in the temple was to listen to the Word. James, the apostle, asks Christian believers to “…be quick to listen to the Word (James 1:19). A believer can be present in a church meeting, sit throughout and not actively listen to the teachings and instructions that are given.

But Christ after sitting down opened up His mind and heart to listen with the aim of capturing and understanding what was being taught. Our Lord knew that if He could be full of the Word to detect errors and truths, He needed to actively and quickly listen to the teachers of the law.

I believe Jesus Christ had no object in His hands which He fidgeted with and which distracted Him from listening to the Word of God. Unfortunately, too many Christians today who have no consciousness of Christ’s presence in the church meetings are distracted from listening to the Word.

They play with their phones when the Word is being preached or taught. They take photos, videos, make phone calls, send WhatsApp messages, Facebook and surf the Internet.

Most church people do all these things during the Word ministration because they have no understanding that God is present in their midst, watching over His Word to perform it for them to be blessed.

The sad part is that pastors who are in divine misalignment with the Lord are also proud of these believers as they prophesy prosperity over their lives. This can be nothing more than an attack of the devil against the Church of Christ.

True Christians who desire to grow in Christ humbly sit down and listen to the Word of God so that they can receive blessings from the Lord. In Acts Chapter 14:9, we read about how a man who was crippled from birth sat and listened as Paul preached the gospel.

The King James Version uses the expression, “…who steadfastly beholding him”. That is, the man steadfastly beheld Paul as he spoke the Word of God. This means he listened to Paul with rapt attention. He was immersed in the Word that Paul was preaching with all his body, soul and spirit. This is the attitude we must have when we have the opportunity to be fed the holy Word of God.

Asking Questions

The final thing we have to learn from our Lord Jesus Christ in the Scripture is His attitude to ask questions of eternal consequences after listening to the Word of God. Questions are usually asked to seek clarifications and details of what has been taught, discussed or issues that are misunderstood.

We see the early disciples of Jesus Christ also often go to the Lord to ask Him questions after teaching them or after they have listened to His teachings.

For instance, the disciples asked Jesus a question about the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem. They asked two key questions: first, when the destruction will take place and second, the sign of His coming and the end of the age.

“As he sat down on Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, ‘Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be sign of your coming and of the end of the age” (Matthew 24:3).

“Then the disciples came and said to him, “why do you speak to them in parables” (Matthew 13:10).

If it was good for Jesus and the early disciples to ask their pastors questions after listening to their teachings, then, it is good for us to ask questions too. There are several other things the early Christians did which helped them to grow stronger in their faith to withstand the attacks of their enemies.

To be continued…

By James Quansah