I see a table with plates, spoons, forks, knives, napkins, glasses, and each plate has a Bible on top of it laying open, all very neatly arranged. As the meal progresses, reading of the Word, all the words remain in their black letter forms until I see a key word begins to float upwards towards the person’s face changing into a glistening silver and gold with a slow sparkling tail trailing its ascent into the person’s being. The person’s eyes widen slightly as though they have seen something awesome that they had not seen before.

Their eyes light up as they take inside the word, feeling in their spirit that extra attention coming upon them as a still small voice begins to speak (saying, “…the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life” Jn 6:63). At that moment Jesus is speaking to your spirit directly feeding you personally a spoon of truth. You can hear as the others around the table continue the reading, but you are captivated by that glistening light of understanding you have received. What is happening to you is the Spirit of God has made something that has always been there in black and white to leap out in a lively way revealing spiritual life to you. It is a call to your mind, heart, and soul to “come and dine” (Rev. 3:20). Now, your mind, heart, and soul are standing before two paths. Do you rejoin the others running through the  words they are reading from the Bible or do you stop and turn down the path with the words of light shinning upon a path that has always been there, but unseen by you?

Fork in the road: this is where the decision is made to follow format and traditions or follow the leading of the Spirit of the Lord. If flesh is allowed to control the meal spiritual things God wants us to have will be lost (1 Cor. 2:14) like the seed by the wayside – quickly forgotten; among the rocks – lightly taken; among the thorns – weakly accepted to be choked out later. If our spirit takes control the spiritual thing God is trying to share with us falls under the slow down, follow, enjoy every bite, savoring this truthful flavor because I want to see this that has an extra touch on it for me and I want it to stay (Mtt. 13:11-16) – good soil.

The majority of times people read the Bible is read in a fast fashion and it is over, done with falling into the routine of a quickly forgotten event. A meal we just swallow and go. This sitting down meal with the Bible is a living and spirit filled substance that cannot be afforded to be missed. There is an adversary of our soul wanting us to eat, drink, and be merry quickly in this world only appealing to our flesh overlooking the end of our time in this world. The Bible is here for us to eat and live above and beyond the bad endings of this world. The words should be a meal of life to our soul each time we read it. We need to sit down with a hunger of expectation to find exactly what will nourish our soul at that present time and the times to come. We should not live by the foods of this world alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God (Mtt. 4:4).

Our flesh does not care about the condition of our soul, but only the happiness and pleasures this world can bring to it. Our flesh will never accept God and become a follower of the Word of God. It is our spirit that will live on forever from what it has digested and accepted as the life to be lived. The question is do we allow our flesh to control the reading of the word of God or the Spirit control the meal we can have in the word of God?

What happens when you sit down with the word of God on your plate in front of you and trust the Spirit of the Lord? You are staring into the deepest spiritual food bar of all you can eat that can mankind could ever find. The words coming to life off of those pages can show you a journey that no Pirate story could ever match. When the words of the Bible come to life into your understanding it has a substance about it no other words can hold. When those words change from black letters to a lively glistening gold empowering life changing form, the substance of pure wisdom flows down over your spirit with a peace that passes all understanding bringing your spirit submissively to a halt considering what is transpiring before you feeling the privilege of mercy’s fullness and good fruit that is given birth within you guiding you to impartiality and sincere truth (Ja. 3:17).

When the Lord allows His word to leap off the pages and open my understanding it is like being born again anew. It is as though He is standing right beside you breathing Spirit and liberating Life directly into your spirit. He is telling you something personally to help you and those you speak with in the days to come. He is filling you up with living bread to be shared with others. We are not to live this life by earthly food alone, but by heavenly bread words of life spoken by God.

The Spirit gives life to us if we are asking, seeking, and knocking for it to be opened to us. What blows my mind away is the fact when God sends His word into our eyes and ears opening with living perception and understanding He is sending forth a substance of Himself that will not return unto Him empty, but will accomplish that which pleases Him and will achieve the purpose for which He sent it (Is. 55:11) because we can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth (2 Cor. 13:8).  Dare we read over the Word of God with fleshly memorization only or do we read with an expectation for the Spirit to jump a word of understanding for us to personally follow to the end of the spiritual path?  Look for Him in every thing you are doing and you will find Him sending you words of life when reading, spiritual pictures when praying, breezes of accepted worship, invisible hands of love, and much much more than you can imagine.

I look forward to those glistening words of life to leap off the pages from God’s word awakening your mind and spirit to the gold treasures of heaven.