Col 3:16
The word ‘indulge’ means to pamper or engage in something almost excessively.
Let the word of Christ dwell (abide) in you richly
If you say somebody lives (dwells) there it means that on a good day if I were to look for him, I will usually almost always find him in that place because he lives (dwells) there
so the word of God says ‘Let the word of God dwell in you ‘meaning, let us find God’s word in you; if we are looking for the word of God anywhere, let’s find it in you. We ought to be full of God’s word, we ought to have God’s word on our inside.
If things ever happen to you and you find yourself reacting /talking carnally, then check yourself: you are not where you should be, you are not who you should be and fix it.
If you catch yourself and things happen and you are talking all of the fear and negativity like every other persons talks about it, then what is happening is that your word gauge is running low.
Let the word of God dwell not just in you but richly (in abundance) meaning that God is not expecting us to take the little 4 verses per day, he is not expecting that you would be able to survive on just ‘devotional’ it means that you ought to study and study and meditate until you are so full of that word that it runs on your mind all of the time and that word determines what you do all of the time.
One of the big problems that I see is that when people engage in anything, if you do not do it enough, there is a tendency that you might not get the benefit enough and therefore there is a tendency that you begin to say the thing does not work as it should. However, God encourages us to have excessive interaction with his word and that is when it works. Job was talking about it and he said “I have esteemed your word more than my necessary food”
In 1Tim 4:15 “Meditate on these things; give yourself wholly to them; that your profiting may appear to all” meaning there has to be a total commitment if it must work for you. God’s word does not work if we simply deal with it partially.
The benefit you get from God’s word depends on how much you engage in it and how richly that word dwells in you. Mark 4:24 “take heed what you hear for the amount of thought and study you give to God’s word will determine the amount of knowledge and virtue (power) it will returns back to you”
At the point I was listening to Kenneth E. Hagin, he said he has read the New Testament 350 times and at that point in time, he was finding out what he did not know having read it 350 times.
The instruction of God for us is that God’s word dwell richly in us. However, in other to be able to do that and do it effectively and sustainably don’t loose sight of what you are doing.
The key is the WHY –when people do not know why, there is a good chance that they stop doing what they should do; where people do not know why they are doing something, the compliance is very low. The reason also why there is no compliance with the study of God’s word in the body of Christ is because we do not quite understand the benefits that that word brings to us.
Reason why God’s word should dwell in you richly
1. He helps you to understand God himself – what God has written reveals God to us; what God puts in his word tells us the kind of God we are dealing with and if you will sit and indulge in God’s word, you will begin to understand God a lot better. The principles of God have not changed, we are in the new covenant which is a better covenant based on better promises so if you look in God’s word will find consistency.