A Tidal Wave of Words

Bread represents food, which is an analogy for God's word. 

Most experts would say that you can last without food for 40 to 80 days. 

How long can you go without water? 

Most experts would say from 4 to 14 days.

If the Bible is spiritual food and water, how long can you go spiritually without God's Book? 

Are you a malnourished Christian not reading and mediating on God's Word?

God through Moses spoke about this. 

Psalm 105:40-41 New International Reader's Version (NIRV)

40 They asked for meat, and he brought them quail.

    He fed them well with manna, the bread of heaven.

41 He broke open a rock, and streams of water poured out.

    They flowed like a river in the desert.

When Israel left Egypt, there was a literal rock, literal bread, and literal water, but they represented something spiritual.

Paul revealed a natural story, and made a spiritual conclusion. 

1 Corinthians 10 New International Reader's Version (NIRV)

10 Brothers and sisters, I want you to know something about our people who lived long ago. 

They were all led by the cloud (the Holy Spirit). 

They all walked through the Red Sea. 

2 They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. 

3 They all ate the same spiritual food. 

4 They all drank the same spiritual water.

They drank from the spiritual rock that went with them. That rock was Christ. 

5 But God was not pleased with most of them. Their bodies were scattered in the desert.

The Bible says that a "rock" went with them. 

The Bible is a spiritual Book. 

Written by a Spiritual being to spiritual beings (us) in human bodies. 

The natural mind cannot understand the Bible.  

It can only be spiritually discerned. 

When you finally realize that the Bible is a spiritual Book, you won't want to put it down.

It's not a history book or a literature book.  

It's an autobiography of God. 

The rock in the previous passage in blue has a spiritual meaning.  

The water in the previous passage in blue has a spiritual meaning. 

The fire by night represented the Holy Spirit.  

The Rock represented Christ.  

The water represented the Word of God.

  

Right now there is a war of words going on.

Who's word are you going to believe? 

God is saying what actually happened, and it is true.  

Satan is saying did God really say that? 

1. Satan wants to flood us with his words.

2. Satan wants to famish us from the Word of God.

3. Jesus wants to fill us with His Word.

1. Satan wants to flood us with his words.

Revelation 12:9 New International Reader's Version (NIRV)

9 The great dragon was thrown down to the earth, and his angels with him. 

The dragon is that old serpent called the devil, or Satan. 

He leads the whole world astray.

The serpent is the devil. 

Watch what the serpent does, and I'm going to bring in one more type or symbol.  

The woman represents the church in the passage below in blue.

Revelation 12:15 New International Reader's Version (NIRV)

15 Then out of his mouth the serpent spit water like a river. 

He wanted to catch the woman and sweep her away in the flood.

What comes out of your mouth?  

Words.  

What Satan spews out of his mouth? 

Words.
  

When Satan spews a tidal wave of his words at you, it is to cause you to be carried away by his words and eventually destroy you with them.

Let's think about the tidal wave of words and images that we are immersed in today.

Netflix, youtube, facebook, cable channels, satellite T.V. and radio, smart phones, DVDs, and HD T.V. 

Decades and decades of programming coming at us from all types of sources all at once. 

All dominated by words and images devoid of God's Word and His promises.  

Here are some examples of what these words devoid of God contain...

You're not going to make it. 

You're going to die early. 

You're crazy.  

You married the wrong person. 

You're in the wrong job.

You'll never find a job.

God doesn't like you. 

God is punishing you for your sins. 

(Theologically, God can never punish you for your sins if Jesus is your Lord because He's already punished Jesus for them.  God can't punish two people for the same crime).  

Water represents words.

A flood represents a tidal wave of words in the passage in blue above and below.

     

Psalm 69:1,2 New King James Version (NKJV)

Save me, O God!

For the waters have come up to my neck.

I sink in deep mire,

Where there is no standing;

I have come into deep waters,

Where the floods overflow me.

David's not talking about literal waters (above). 

It has a spiritual meaning.

  

Psalm 69:12,14-15  New King James Version (NKJV)

12 Those who sit in the gate speak against me,

And I am the song of the drunkards. 

14 Deliver me out of the mire,

And let me not sink;

Let me be delivered from those who hate me,

And out of the deep waters.

15 Let not the floodwater overflow me,

Nor let the deep swallow me up;

And let not the pit shut its mouth on me.

The pit represents hell itself.  

Over and over in this Psalm David is talking about a flood of Satanic words against him.  

Psalm 93:3-4 New King James Version (NKJV)

3 The floods have lifted up, O Lord,

The floods have lifted up their voice;

The floods lift up their waves.

The Lord on high is mightier

Than the noise of many waters,

Than the mighty waves of the sea.

The floods having a voice is talking about a Satanic tidal wave of words taking aim at the Psalmist.

God and only God can save us from the Satanic words pulling us into their undertow trying to drown us. 

Jesus talked about it in...

Matthew 7:24-25 New King James Version (NKJV)

24 “Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, 

I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: 

25 and the rain descended, 

the floods came, 

and the winds blew and beat on that house;

and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.

God talks (like a fountain). 

Satan talks (like deep waters).

But we've got another problem.

We can talk too.

Has your mouth ever gotten you in trouble?

Your words are waters too, and you can drown yourself.

  

Proverbs 18:4 New King James Version (NKJV)

4 The words of a man’s mouth are deep waters;

The wellspring of wisdom is a flowing brook.

You can talk yourself into failing.

Proverbs 6:2 New King James Version (NKJV)

2 You are snared (trapped) by the words of your mouth;

You are taken by the words of your mouth.

Proverbs 18:21 New King James Version (NKJV)

21 Death and life are in the power of the tongue,

And those who love it will eat its fruit.

Here's what the passage above means.  

God speaks words of life. 

Satan speaks words of death. 

And I have the power to agree with either one of them. 

I can agree with the one who speaks life to me, or I can agree with the one who speaks death over me. 

And now death and life are in the power of my tongue.

There is only one thing that can defeat the floods.  

Isaiah 59:19 B New King James Version (NKJV)

19 When the enemy comes in like a flood,

The Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against him.

God's Word (the Bible) is the standard.

Three times Satan came in like a flood was when Satan came at Jesus to tempt Him (Matthew 4:1-11).

Three times Jesus quoted Scripture to overcome temptation.  

It is written.

He said.    

It is written.  

It is written.  

If the Son of God used the Bible to overcome temptation, how much more do we need to use the Bible to overcome temptation?

 2. Satan wants to famish us from the Word of God.

He doesn't what us to hear the Word of God because that's what will save us.
  

Amos 8:11 New King James Version (NKJV)

11 “Behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord God,

“That I will send a famine on the land,

Not a famine of bread,

Nor a thirst for water,

But of hearing the words of the Lord.   

It's a spiritual famine. 

Not a natural famine.

It's not a famine of the Word of God, but of us hearing it.
  

Joshua 1:8 New King James Version (NKJV)

8 This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, 

but you shall meditate in it day and night, 

that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. 

For then you will make your way prosperous, 

and then you will have good success.

Psalm 1:1-3 New King James Version (NKJV)

Blessed is the man

Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly,

Nor stands in the path of sinners,

Nor sits in the seat of the scornful;

2 But his delight is in the law of the Lord,

And in His law he 

meditates day and night.

3 He shall be like a tree

Planted by the 

rivers of water,

That brings forth its fruit in its season,

Whose leaf also shall not wither;

And whatever he does shall prosper.

Prosperity is not talking about houses or cars.  

In the Bible's original Hebrew language, prosperity means that God takes your burdens and carries them for you.

If we really believed this, it would change our habits.

We'd be mediating on God's Book a whole lot more.

How does Satan steal God's word from us? 
  

Mark 4:14-15 New King James Version (NKJV)

14 The sower sows the word. 

15 And these are the ones by the wayside where the word is sown. 

When they hear, Satan comes immediately and takes away the word that was sown in their hearts.

Satan comes not in a month, or a week.
  

Satan comes immediately to take away God's Word as God reveals it to us.

We can't figure out God's Word. 

It has to be revealed to us by God Himself.

Jesus is saying that Satan takes His word out of our hearts.

But how? 

God speaks.

Satan speaks.

Then, our words either agree with God or Satan.

Matthew 12:34 New King James Version (NKJV)

For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. 
   

When God speaks to you, Satan immediately comes and attempts to get you to speak the opposite, and when you do...It leaves your heart.  

When God speaks to me, I have to hid it deep in my heart to thwart Satan's attempt to steal it from me.  

I hide it by memorizing it, and mediating upon it. 

I have to hold fast to that Word. 

3. Jesus wants to fill us with His Word.

1 Corinthians 2:13-14 New King James Version (NKJV)

13 These things we also speak,
not in words which man’s wisdom teaches 

but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. 

14 But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; 

nor can he know (understand) them, because they are spiritually discerned.

Here's a conversation in the Bible using natural words and spiritual words.  

John 4:7-14 New King James Version (NKJV)

7 A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink (natural words).” 

8 For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.

9 Then the woman of Samaria said to Him, 

“How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?”

For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans (natural words).

10 Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, 

‘Give Me a drink,’ 

you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water  (spiritual words).”

11 The woman said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. 

Where then do You get that living water (natural words)? 

12 Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock (natural words)?”

13 Jesus answered and said to her, 

“Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, 

14 but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. 

But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life (spiritual words).”

A natural person cannot see the spiritual dynamics within the Word of God.  

Don't let a natural person influence your spiritual thinking derived from the Word of God.

A natural person can't understand it.

Satan wants to flood us with his words, but Jesus wants to put a fountain of His Word deep inside of us.  

The fountain cleans our thinking from the inside out.   

This is how the Bible washes us.

Ephesians 5:25-26 New King James Version (NKJV)

25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, 

26 that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word,

Our spirits are cleansed by the blood, but our souls are cleansed by God's Word. 

Our soul is in our mind, will, and emotions. 

Our soul is Satan's battle ground.

If you're struggling in your mind, it's because you're not washing your mind with God's Word.
  

Reading God's Word is like taking a spiritual bath.
  

For God's sake and yours, take a bath.

Please read at least one chapter a day, and mediate on at least one verse a day.

I beg you!

Say Holy Spirit, what are you saying to me right now?  

Holy Spirit, please draw me to the Lord Jesus. 

Lord Jesus, please save me.  

You're the only one who can!

Amen!   

Robert Morris, Gateway Church.
M. H. Dennis in purple.

http://gatewaypeople.com/ministries/life/events/more-than-words-a-gateway-series/session/2018/03/17/waterrock