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 on Jesus 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,

"Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you shall find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."

When we try to approach the word through our own reasoning, like in the case of our brother above, the word becomes heavy and legalistic and we get no life out of it. Jesus is the source of Spiritual-Life and when what we are doing is in obedience to Jesus, we are entered into His rest and we are walking in faith and we receive His Spiritual-Life. Jesus said in John 6:63, "It is the Spirit who creates-spiritual-life¹³⁰, the flesh prophets nothing."

Christianity is relationship with Jesus. It is not a heard of cattle all following the same rules for an intended outcome. Christianity is a relationship with a person: Jesus Christ. Only as we relate to that Person and obey his commands to each of us personally and individually does it become a living relationship and do we grow in that relationship. (John 14:21). Only when we obey Jesus in our approach to him does He promise to reveal and manifest himself to us concerning ourselves, problems and needs. This is why we are not to compare ourselves with what others are doing.

When Jesus got through telling Peter the way he was going to die, Peter looked over at the Apostle John and said to Jesus, "Lord, what about this man?" Jesus said to Peter in response, "If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow Me!" (John 21:21). Jesus says to us in this passage that we are not to concern ourselves with how He leads our brother or sister. What we need to concern ourselves with is how He is leading us. What is He telling You to do? That is what you need to do and be concerned with.

Only when what you do is out of Jesus' initiative through the Holy Spirit will you then find spiritual-life in it and Jesus' strength and might to overcome the problems in your life. Christianity is not a self-sanctification program, it is allowing Jesus to live His life through us through the power of the Holy Spirit. When you do what you do as a result of Jesus' command to you personally, you are assured His spiritual-life and strength to carry it out and to find life and meaning in what you do.

Without exception every person that I know who has approached Jesus in this way about their daily feeding on Jesus and His Word has been given a specific amount of time and in some cases a specific way Jesus wants them to approach Him and His Word. Jesus will give you a specific amount of time, but He may leave it up to you to decide how you want to approach the Word in your use of that time. In my own life, when Jesus first taught me this principle, He had me start with a half-hour a day in the Word; and He had me using a method of reading that got me through the whole Bible in one-hundred and twenty days. A year later He led me to increase it to an hour and just do Scripture memory for that hour. Now I am memorizing one day and just reading the Scriptures the next day for forty-five minutes. Fifteen minutes of that time is spent in prayer.

A half-hour a day to some people may seem like a lot to start with, but you must understand that before I sought the Lord about how much time He wanted me to spend in the Word, I was spending an average of three hours a day in the Word and getting nothing else done. I did not find it easy to cut down to half-an-hour because in those days I thought how long I spent praying and reading the Word determined how spiritual I was; but I had to learn that Jesus was the answer to my needs not how long I spent in the Word. Jesus may only have you start with five minutes a day depending on who you are and His individual plan and purpose for your life. Jesus said to the Scribes and Pharisees who were claiming to base their lives on the Word of God, which they were using as a bases for rejecting Him,

You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life⁵⁷; and it is these that bear witness of Me; and you are unwilling to come to Me that you may have Life." (John 5:39-40).

Jesus knows our limits of endurance and how much time, at present, we can handle faithfully in His Word. Once Jesus gives you a specific amount of time, obey Jesus in this. Do not spend less time or more time. When the Israelites went out into the desert to collect manna, a food substance that daily came down from heaven in the form of a dew, God gave them specific instructions not to collect more than what they needed for the day's provision.⁷⁵ If they disobeyed God and collected more than what they needed, the extra would rot and breed worms. Jesus said in the Gospel of John,

"If any one serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there shall My servant also be; if anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him." (Jn 12:26).

When Jesus gives you a specific amount of time to spend in the Word, He is telling you He will be present in that time to anoint and bless it. Beyond that, He does not assure His blessing. He is telling you that, that amount of time is sufficient for your needs and His present plan and purpose for your life. Anything outside of what Jesus tells you to do for your daily feeding on Jesus and His Word will lead to religious strife, and humanism— flesh. "It is the Spirit who creates-spiritual-life, the flesh profits nothing." Jesus said, "the words that I have spoken to you are Spirit and are life" (Jn 6:63). This is what Jesus means when He says,

"Come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you shall find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My load is light." (Matt 11:28-30).

Christianity is not religion. It is not our praying hard enough, long enough and reading the Word long enough to gain Jesus' acceptance. Christianity is accepting the fact that we are already accepted by God through Jesus and resting in Jesus' Lordship and only taking upon ourselves what Jesus Himself lays upon us. He says, My yoke is easy, and My load is light. Jesus is infinite and can communicate just as much information in five faithful minutes as He can in a faithful hour.

Jesus' concern is not how much time you spend daily feeding on Him and His Word, His concern is that you spend this time daily as directed by Him. Jesus' promise is that if we will obey Him, He will manifest Himself to us; not if we beg Him through long religious ritual.⁷⁶ Since Jesus created us, He knows us intimately; therefore, He knows best how to manage our lives and what the present limits of our endurance are. The Bible says He who is faithful in little will be faithful in much.⁷⁷ Jesus says, if we are faithful in little, in His time He will add more to our lives; but at present, concerning our daily feeding on Jesus and His Word, He only wants us to be concerned with the amount of time He has presently instructed us to use, and how He wants us to use that time. This is because it is a part of the working out of His over all, long-range plan for our lives, and it is also His way of making us more dependent on Him.

Interestingly enough, when I began to obey Jesus in the use of my daily feeding on Him and His Word, I found I was also getting ten times more done in a week in the other areas of my life than I had before. Why was this? As I obeyed Jesus in the use of my daily feeding on Him and His Word, I found that I was able also to obey His restraints over the other areas of my life. This is part of what the Bible means when it says, He who is faithful in little will be faithful in much. This makes perfect sense. Why? if we cannot restrain ourselves and obey Jesus in our daily feeding on him and His Word, we are not going to obey Him in the other areas of our lives either. If we can obey Jesus in taking the time to acknowledge Him in our day, we will then be able to obey Him and His leading in our life in the rest of our day. This is what the Writer of Proverbs means when he says, "In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight." (Prov 3:6).

Being filled with the Holy Spirit is allowing Jesus to be Lord of Your life.⁷⁸ Walking in the Holy Spirit is allowing Jesus to be the source of your life in every detail and in every respect. The Baptism of the Holy Spirit is allowing Jesus to be Savior, Lord and Source of Life to others through your life.⁷⁹ What we have discussed in this chapter is an aspect of what it means to walk in the Holy Spirit. When you daily feed on Jesus and His word and make Him Your source, you are walking in the Holy Spirit.