If we were to try to create in the natural realm a picture of the human spirit, it would not be at all like a ghost; it would be more like a sponge. When hands are laid on people, it is not their minds, but their spirits that do the absorbing. They absorb the blessing in their spirits. That is the reason when people work together or are around each other and there is a vacuum in one person’s spirit, others will pick it up.
If we want to really walk with God, we must find a way to apply the word of God not only to our minds, but to get it into our spirits. Jesus said, “My words are spirit, and they are life” (John 6:63). His words could so fill us, we could be so absorbed with them that we begin to live a different kind of life completely. If we do not learn to live in the Word, we will never know what the miraculous life can be.
“If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you” (John 15:7). That means you have literally absorbed the words into your spirit. They have been written on the tablets of your heart (II Corinthians 3:3).
You absorb it. “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask what you will” (John 15:7). God is turned loose in the power and in the authority of His own word within you, and you learn to live in God when you learn to live in the word and your spirit is absorbing it. I have just given you the key to one of the greatest mysteries, and the reason it works as it does.
Psalm 119 is a beautiful psalm. It illuminates the life you can live in the Word. If you do not do this, your spirit will be a vacuum, until it absorbs something else. You will be whatever you absorb.
There are books written about being what we eat. We are learning more and more about the necessity of putting pure foods in our bodies so that our bodies can develop good, healthy tissue.
We also learn that it is good to dwell upon the Word of God because if we do not, we will be feeding upon other things. No great prophets or prophetesses of the Lord will develop in front of a television set. I am not condemning television, but prophets and prophetesses do not develop by absorbing its programs. Prophets and prophetesses develop because they follow the Word, and the Word fills their hearts.
When you are around other things and other interests, you absorb them. They become a part of you. Jesus told the story of the man who was delivered of a demon and the demon went out in the dry places, seeking rest and finding none. He gathered seven other devils mightier and worse than himself, and they came back for the house was swept and garnished, meaning everything was spotless. The spirits moved in, and the latter end of the man was worse than the beginning (Luke 11:24–26). How could they repossess him? He was a vacuum. Everything flows in to fill up a vacuum.
You cannot be a vacuum. Deliverance is not an end in itself. When the ministries lay hands on you and pray for you to deliver you from problems in your life, you should not stop there. That is a dangerous place to stop because seven other devils will come to fill that spot. Once the Lord has delivered you, then pray for Him to fill you. Let the Lord fill you. The minute you get out of one thing, turn immediately to the word of God and let that fill your spirit. That is the guarantee that you will not walk in the old ways.
How can a young man keep his way pure? By keeping it according to Thy word (by taking heed unto Thy word). With all my heart I have sought Thee; do not let me wander from Thy commandments. Thy word I have treasured in my heart, that I may not sin against Thee. Psalm 119:9–11.
You will either be filled with your own carnal way, or you will be filled with God. For someone who is having a hard time living for the Lord victoriously, this is the answer. Fill yourself with the Word. If you are filled with the Word, you will not be filled with sin.
All temptations are pretty much a result of what you feed and dwell on. Do not say you cannot control it; you can control what you read and think upon. You can learn to live in the Word. If you start living in the Word, it will take over. I have never seen anyone defeated who has not first had a period of almost completely disregarding God’s word and feeding upon Him, partaking of the divine nature.
When the great, marvelous means by which God’s grace and word flow into a man’s life are neglected, then a person gets in trouble. I do not accept as valid someone’s explanation that he was just walking down the street and suddenly was tempted and fell into sin. It does not happen that way.
Generally, if you are going to backslide at all, you will do it in the church. When you stop absorbing the Word or when you stop listening to it or drawing it into yourself, you leave church with an empty heart. That is the problem—an empty heart. Oh, the peril of an empty heart!
Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee. Psalm 119:11 (King James). You know when it is hid there, you will not sin against the Lord. That is the truth. How can I keep my way pure? By taking heed to the word.
Thy word I have treasured in my heart, that I may not sin against Thee. Blessed art Thou, O Lord; teach me Thy statutes. With my lips I have told of all the ordinances of Thy mouth. I have rejoiced in the way of Thy testimonies, as much as in all riches. That is the place to give the Word; it is a treasure. I will meditate on Thy precepts, and regard Thy ways. I shall delight in Thy statutes; I shall not forget Thy word. Psalm 119:11–16.
Meditation is what makes it work. It is sort of like yeast: it expands. As the Word of God is hidden in your heart and you meditate on it, it has a way of taking over. The more a church gives itself to hear the word of the Lord, the more the word of God increases. As the word becomes the big thing in your life, everything else is crowded out. You can do more with the principle of displacement than you can through trying to change your way of living through will power or discipline. The principle of displacement will work every time.