Note: The following article was written by the late minister Kathy Logan (pictured). She was the author of the eBook “Secrets to Always Answered Prayer.”
I purchased her ebook and listened to her online prayer classes. They strengthened my prayer life greatly.
Shortly after discovering Kathy online, I found out that she went home to be with the Lord. She was only in her early 40s, but she influenced so many with her loving teaching. I know this article will bless you as you apply the truths Kathy shared.
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To gain a deeper understanding of God’s powerful word, we have to do more than hear it. Hearing the word is not all that is required.
Just because you heard a great message or read an encouraging word does not make that word become yours automatically even though you may understand what you heard and agree with it enthusiastically.
Spiritual truth does not become our possession at once. If we don’t take time to appropriate God’s word, the message we hear will soon fade out of our minds and be forgotten.
This may be one of the causes of stagnation in our lives: the failure to meditate in God’s word.
This means more than pondering and contemplating it, although, this too is needed.
But we should meditate in such a way as to have a conversation in secret with God about His word so that we may know it and do it.
When you hear new truth, it comes to you through your ears or through your eyes and it goes into your mind. It doesn’t reach your soul straightway.
In order for the truth you heard to have the power to set you free, it has to seep through from your intellect to your soul – your mind, thoughts, will, and emotions.
Jesus said we would know the truth and the truth would set us free. Yet you and I would probably agree that the amount of truth we know far outweighs the amount of freedom we experience. Wouldn’t you agree?
Why is that? Why is the amount of truth we know always expanding, yet our degree of freedom is not keeping pace?
It is not the word we hear that will free us; it is the words that we don’t forget that will free us. This is so important. Hear this and don’t miss it!
It is not a matter of how much information you store in your mind that determines your success or degree of freedom; It is a matter of remembering to walk in the truth you know in your day-to-day living experiences.
The one who will be blessed is not the one who heard, but the one who doesn’t forget what he heard, but through private, earnest meditation takes full possession of it.
But he who looks carefully into the faultless law, the law of liberty, and is faithful to it and perseveres in looking into it, being not a heedless listener who forgets, but an active doer who obeys, he shall be blessed in his doing—-in his life of obedience. James 1:25 The Amplified Bible
We have to take time to meditate on the word so that we can appropriate it.
The verb appropriate means to
1. To set apart for a specific use:
2. To take possession of or make use of exclusively for oneself. To take to or for oneself, make one’s own, take over, assume ownership, or possess.
We want to be possessors of God’s word. Our goal should be to make it our own.
When we become true possessors of His word, then we’ll be possessors of the promises.
Your Innermost Place
Our goal should always be to allow the word of God to connect with your total being and not just our intellect, although our intellect is the place where it connects first. Your desire should be to receive the word of God in your mind, spirit, thoughts, and emotions –your innermost place.
The innermost place is that vital, intangible place in human beings where our thoughts, actions, and emotions are conceived. It is the animating and vital principle within us.
Although it cannot be seen, it is the cause of what is seen. This is the very real place where we want God’s word to find it’s residence –in our innermost place.
Immediately when we hear the word, if we receive it with gladness, it enters into our intellect. But it is only when we set ourselves in silence before God and give Him time…
…that He begins to take the word we heard and breathes it deeper into us, connecting us to it in a more intimate way.
Sometimes this experience can happen in a moment, but regularly it does not. God requires us to seek after Him for the deeper understanding. As we spend time meditating in God’s word, we come to know the truth.
The truth becomes fixed, rooted, united, and identified with us in such a way that the Word is no longer a separate thing apart from us, but we become one with Him.
When that happens, following the Word is no longer a struggle. It comes to us automatically with little effort because the Word is who we are. …and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. We are truly coming to know the truth and it is setting us free.
There can be no knowledge without emotion. We may be aware of a truth, yet until we have felt its force, it is not ours. To the cognition of the brain must be added the experience of the soul.
Scripture references for Study
- Luke 8:12,13
- John 8:31-36
- James 1:21-26
- John 1:1, 14
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Thank you for this information may we all be bless to apply God’s word daily amen.
Amen, Renee!
Wow, reading this gives me so much delight! Kathy was my favorite cousin!! She was a remarkable human being. I was so disheartened when the Lord took her. Really, I was in shock. She did such amazing work in her short time on earth. I’m so very glad that you have been able to discover her teachings and reap from her powerful ministry. I’m looking forward to seeing her smiling face again. Blessings, to you!! Min. September Penn
Thank you, Minister Penn! I was Kathy’s student in her prayer classes about 1 month before she passed. After I heard about her decease, I thought it would be a shame if her wise teachings were lost forever. Although her website was taken down, I scoured Internet archives to see if her teachings had been saved somehow. You can imagine my delight when I found not only this article, but also her audio recordings from her Tuesday night prayer classes. I saved them and made them free for others here: https://takebackyourtemple.com/my-courses/secrets-to-always-answered-prayer/
I am looking forward to meeting Kathy. She changed my life with her teachings and I am sure many others. God bless you, my Sister!
Hi Kimberly, how can I get a copy of Kathy’s book? Thank you.
Hi Vee – Kathy’s book is no longer available. Unfortunately for us, she went home to be with the Lord in 2008; however, praise God for Kathy, she is in the presence of the Lord right now! But check this out…before she departed, she left behind recordings of prayer classes so that you can hear her voice and still glean from her teachings. Here is a link to the free prayer classes from Kathy here: https://takebackyourtemple.com/my-courses/secrets-to-always-answered-prayer/, They are powerful!
As the Aunt of Minister Kathy, my soul has been blessed by this expository. Kathy enlightened us all with her depth of God’s word. She is truly missed but her work will be forever of benefit to those who seek a deeper understanding of scripture and of God’s perfect plan for our lives.
Wow – I am honored, Sister! I am looking forward to meeting Min. Kathy in heaven because she has had such an impact on my life. May the Lord continue to bless you and your family!
Mrs Kimberly I am so happy that you shared this story . I do know that we have to meditate and study GOD’S WORD. EVERYTHING YOU HAVE SHARED HAVE BLESSED ME. I HAVE BEEN ON A WEIGHT LOSS JOURNEY AND WITH THE HELP OF GOD I HAVE LOST 60 POUNDS. I STARTED BACK IN MARCH. MY GOALS WAS TO LOSE 10 POUNDS A MONTH. I HAVE 40 MORE POUNDS TO LOSE.I AM GOING TO PURCHASE YOUR BOOK ABOUT TAKE YOUR TEMPLE BACK.WHEN I SEEN YOU ON LINE AND STARTED GETTING EMAILS FROM YOU IT HAS BEEN A BLESSING. I KNOW GOD ALLOWED ME TO LINKED UP WITH YOU. I OFTEN TELLS PEOPLE SOME OF YOUR QUOTES. THEY HAVE BEEN A BLESSING TO ME. SO CONTINUE DOING WHAT YOU ARE DOING ENCOURAGING GOD’S PEOPLE BECAUSE YOU HAVE GOTTEN MY ATTENTION. TRUE STORY. I WANT TO SEND YOU PICTURES OF ME. BE BLESS I WILL BE IN TOUCH. THANKS
SARAH BURNS FROM SAVANNAH GA.
You always bring forth nuggets from the Word ane these propel me back to study and appropriate more of the word. Iron sharpens iron…thank you
Praise the Lord, Sherry. There is LIFE in God’s word and the more we appropriate it, the more abundant life we have.