“Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: “I am the Lord your God, who teaches you to profit, who leads you in the way you should go. ( Is. 48:17).
Just as one can declare a profit or a loss in a financial transaction so can a believer become profitable with the word of God or even suffer a loss.
The good news for believers and all those who intend to seek the Lord is that we can make a huge profit with the word of God. The bad news is that we can also suffer a loss.
Our dealings with the Lord could be likened to a loss or a profit if we carefully carry out an honest examination our ways and walk with God over a period of time.
A careful examination of a group of believers below revealed that they were not profiting nor proficient in the word of God over a given period and their statement of account was below par :
“For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat”. (Hebrews 5:12).
Now in the business world a transaction currency is a currency in which a client performs payment for goods and services.
However in our walk with God, and in the things pertaining to the kingdom of God faith in the word of God is the currency of transaction in the spiritual economy.
Hebrews 11:6 makes this very clear and distinct:
“But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him”.
How do we profit with the word of God? To ensure that the word works for us we have to be diligent in it- knowing what it requires of us and willing to abide by its instructions against odds.
How do we practice diligence in the word and making our faith active? We must use prayer to add value to our faith while we wait on the word of God with patient obedience.
The Bible teaches us that the kingdom of God is not in mere words but comes with the demonstration of power- that is an evident testimony. ( 1 Cor. 4:20) and the currency converter here is prayer.
It’s not enough to make positive confessions from the word of God but it must be mixed with a diligent and patient attitude in prayer.
Daniel believed God for deliverance, he understood by reading the word that the time of deliverance of the Jews was close.
He did not just believe as it was written in the book but engaged God with prayer to ensure that, that which he believed was made manifest by diligent prayers.
He profited in the word through faith but his faith drove him into prayers, and his prayers bombarded the heavens until all contrary foes were dislodged.
Daniel knew that “In all toil there is profit, but mere talk tends only to poverty”. Proverb 14:23
Why are many believers not profiting with the word even though they believe? It is because the word is not mixed with faith. Hebrews 4:2 clarifies this thus:
“For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it”.
Now faith and prayer cannot be practiced in indulgence and laziness: it’s hard-work and a serious business of self denial. In fact the flesh is an enemy of active faith and prayer.
For Daniel to profit with what he knew he had to blend it with a powerful, self denying intercessory prayer of deliverance. (Daniel 10:2).
He knew that if what God had revealed to him in a vision was going to come to pass he needed more than waiting but he had to get active in prayer in order to midwife what had been revealed.
If Daniel was a lazy man probably the children of Israel would have languished well beyond the appointed time in captivity. Without diligence no one can profit much with the word of God.
Many destinies are suffering from loss and delay because we have allowed the flesh and it’s lust to deny our spirit the required rigor in prayer.
Proverbs 24:34 painted an imagery of laziness and a loss and this should help wake us all from our spiritual slumber:
“I passed by the field of a sluggard, by the vineyard of a man lacking sense, and behold, it was all overgrown with thorns; the ground was covered with nettles, and its stone wall was broken down.
Then I saw and considered it; I looked and received instruction. A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and want like an armed man”.
Beloved, it is never too late to do business with God and reap bountiful harvest only if we are ready to be more diligent in the word and prayer.
Reading
Daniel 10
