But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’ ”
Your words were found, and I ate them,
And Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart;
For I am called by Your name,
O Lord God of hosts.
Just as much as our natural life depends on natural food, our spirit nature made in the image and likeness of God feeds on the Word. Matthew 4:4, our opening verse, tells us that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every Word which proceeds from the mouth of God. Note that it talks about natural bread and the Word that proceeds from God’s mouth with respect to man’s life. Evidently, there is the natural and spiritual side to man’s life. Natural bread feeds the natural side of man’s life, while the Word from God’s mouth feed the supernatural side of man’s life, which is the core or hub of his life; for man is made in the image and likeness of God. Hence, man is substantially and primarily sustained by the Word from God’s mouth. This is a fact and principle that determines how much man lives out the divine life here on earth. We must realise that man is not a self-sufficient spirit but a God-dependent spirit. We are not meant to live without God’s sustenance. We are made to feed on God – the Word that proceeds from His mouth. Living like we are self-sufficient beings is to live a phony life. A phony life is plastic and cosmetic, full of forms but denying the substance or power of it. Man is mere form without the substance and essence of God’s Word in us by the Spirit of God.
We are meant to act like God and live out the essence of who He is by the substance of the Word at work in us. Hallelujah! Living by the revelation of the Word daily, is living by faith in God. The Word tells us in Romans 1:17 that the just, those who have been justified from their sins in Christ, shall live by faith. The man in Christ lives by faith in God. How? Living, acting, talking the revelation of the Word which he’s received from meditating in the Word. Jeremiah said in Jeremiah 15:16 that He found God’s words, and he ate them, and they became the joy and rejoicing of his heart. We all ought to find the Word by searching to find it via meditation. Proverbs 4:20-23 tells us that the Word is life and health or medicine to those who find it. To find the Word we must give heed to it, hear it again and again, focus our mind on it, lay it up in our heart and refuse to let it depart from us. What a blessing it is to have God’s Word, God’s life, the substance of God, living in us! Hallelujah!
My Solid Front (Confession):
Heavenly Father, I thank You for the blessing to feed upon Your Word. In the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I declare that I am taught by the Lord to feed upon and solely depend on the Word. Amen.
Further Meditation: Colossians 3:16-17; John 5:39.