Dale: Pete, try this for week and lets see what happens: Forget about your drug problem and just focus on doing this for the next week: Every day you get up, for the first fifteen minutes of your day I want you to spend time feeding on Jesus and His Word. When you start this time, pray this way and say, "Jesus, I am here because I want what You have to say concerning my life and Your will and Lordship over my life and because I recognize my total one-hundred percent dependence on You and Your spiritual-life and strength to live the Christian life. Lord Jesus, please speak to me." Then write down the things that are concerning you and ask Jesus for wisdom about what to do with them and for His spiritual-life and strength to live it out. Then spend the rest of the time just reading the Bible. Don't spend any more time than fifteen minutes, don't spend any less time. When done, forget about the problems you mentioned to him and go on.

A week passed and I came into the prison. As was my custom I started off going around the prison talking to the different boys, saying hello and seeing how they were getting along. Finally, I came up to Pete.

Dale: Pete, how are you doing?

Pete: Just great! I took your advice and have been getting up every morning and spending time feeding on Jesus and His Word. Boy! He has been showing me this about my life and this about my life and this! And O Ya, He just took my desire for drugs away!

Another example I would like to cite happened a few years later at a prayer meeting I attended. A woman came in one night I will call Sally. Sally was a born again Christian and a reforming alcoholic. When we began taking requests for prayer, Sally spoke up and said,

Sally: I am a born again Christian, but I have a drinking problem I cannot seem to get victory over. Would you please pray for me that Jesus would give me complete deliverance.

We had Sally sit down in a chair and we all formed a circle around her and began to look to the Lord in worship and praise for wisdom about how to pray for her. As we did, the Lord spoke to me in my heart and said, Dale, her problem is that she is trying to overcome this problem in her own strength rather than relying on Me and my strength to overcome. Share with her how to daily feed on Me and My Word and draw upon My strength to overcome.

Dale: Sally, do you have a daily time of feeding on Jesus and His Word?

Sally: What do you mean?

Dale: Sally, your problem is that you are relying on your own strength to overcome this problem rather than Jesus' strength. The Apostle Paul wrote in Ephesians 6:10, "Finally, be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of His might." Just as you daily need to eat to keep your body healthy and strong, so you daily need to feed on Jesus and His word to stay healthy and strong spiritually. Try this for a couple of weeks and see if there is not a difference in your life. When you get up in the morning, start your day off spending time feeding on Jesus and His Word. When you start this time pray, "Jesus, I am here because I want what You have to say concerning my life and Your will and Lordship over my life and because I recognize my total one-hundred percent dependence on You and Your strength and might to live the Christian life. Lord Jesus, please speak to me." Then list the things that are concerning you and the problems you need victory over. Ask Him for His wisdom and his strength and might in these areas and then spend the rest of the time reading His word.

We did not see Sally for a couple of weeks after that, but when she did come back she did not have a heavy look on her countenance as she had had two weeks earlier. Instead, she was beaming with the love of Jesus and had a healthy glow about here. We could not help ourselves,

Dale: Sally, what happened? You look so happy and healthy!

Sally: I decided to take your advice. I went home and the next morning I got up and did just as you suggested and had a time of feeding on Jesus and His Word. He showed me this about my life and this... and I have not had a drink since. I have been doing this every morning since.

What is your problem or need. No matter how big or small it is, Jesus is the answer to that problem and need. Jesus said about Himself, recorded in John 14:6, I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life. The Apostle Paul wrote about Jesus in 1 Corinthians 1:30-31, "But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, that, just as it is written, ‘Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord.’" Christianity is not a self-sanctification or salvation program; it is relying on Jesus for salvation and for sanctification. It is true that we only go to Jesus once for salvation, but then just as we need to daily eat food to keep healthy physically so we need to daily feed upon the bread that has come down from heaven, Jesus, if we are to stay healthy spiritually. Let me share with you now how to establish your own daily feeding of Jesus and His Word.

HOW TO ESTABLISH YOUR
DAILY FEEDING ON JESUS,
THE BREAD OF SPIRITUAL LIFE,
AND HIS WORD

If you have never established a daily feeding on Jesus and His Word or are presently doing it but are not sure whether you are approaching it as Jesus would have you to approach it, the following will explain to you how you can establish a daily feeding on Jesus and His Word through relationship with Jesus through the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

Remember that Christianity is relationship with Jesus. It is not our trying to live the Christian life in the power of the flesh, but allowing Jesus to live it through us in the power of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, if there is to be any value or life in what we do it must be established first through relationship with Jesus.

The writer of Hebrews states, "And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him." (Heb 11:6). Jesus is and He has a unique plan and purpose for your life. Because He does, how you use your daily feeding on Jesus and His Word is important because it is during this time that Jesus will be speaking, revealing, and teaching you to prepare you for His daily plan for your life. Therefore, before you even try to begin a daily feeding on Jesus and His Word, you first need to approach Jesus through worship and praise, asking Him first how much time each day He wants you to spend in the Word; and then second, how he wants you to approach the Word in your daily feeding on Jesus and His Word. What I mean by approach is--does He just want you to read it and, if so, where does He want you to begin reading--in Genesis, Matthew, or Revelation, etcetera? Or would He have you to begin with a word study with the aid of a concordance? Do not compare yourself with how another brother approaches it. That is Jesus' plan for him Our concern here is what is Jesus’ plan for you.

To give you an example of what I mean, I had a friend, I will call Jim, I was teaching about the importance of daily feeding on Jesus and His word. He called me up one day and said,

Jim: Dale, I have been reading 1 Corinthians in my time of feeding on Jesus and His Word, but I am not getting anything out of it? What do you think I should do?

Dale: Jim, I think you should pray and ask Jesus what He wants you presently reading in the Bible and read that.

Jim: I did ask Him, but he told me to read the Gospel of John. I have already read the Gospel of John in the past, but I have never read 1 Corinthians before.

Dale: Jim, if Jesus is telling you to read the Gospel of John again, there must be a reason. There must be something in this Gospel you need right now in your life. Why not humor the Lord for a few days and try reading in the Gospel of John and I will get back with you to see how you are doing.

Jim: Okay. I will take your advice.

A few days went by and I called Jim to see how things were going.

Dale: Jim, how are things going and how is your daily feeding on Jesus and His Word going?

Jim: I decided to take your advice and read the Gospel of John. Boy! Jesus has been showing me this about my life and this about my life and this about my life. I am really getting a lot out of my feeding time on Jesus and his Word!

Faith and obedience are one and the same thing. We are walking in faith when what we are doing is in obedience to Jesus through the initiative of the Holy Spirit. The writer of Hebrews states concerning the Israelites who were not able to enter the promised land,

"And to whom did He swear that they should not enter His rest, but to those who were disobedient? And so we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief." (Heb 3:18-19)

Notice the discussion of the word rest here. Jesus said in Matthew 11:28-30,