For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh.  Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life. -Proverbs 4:22

There are spiritual rewards for attending to God’s Word, putting His Word in first place in your life.  His words are life to those that find them, revival to their spirit, and supernatural life to their being.  They are health to all their flesh.  The Word is alive and powerful, and when it gets off the pages of your Bible and into your heart, it will produce life and health to your soul and body.  However, you must not only attend to, hear, look at, and keep the Word, but you must guard your heart with all diligence.  You must be choosy about what you hear and what you look at.  Anything that produces fear, worry, or unbelief must be filtered out of your life.  Guard your heart by guarding the entrance into your heart — your ears and eyes.  This will produce a flow of supernatural life out of your heart.  Jesus said, “out of [your] belly shall flow rivers of living water....this spake He of the [Holy] Spirit” (John 7:38b, 39a).  The ability to allow life force and life flow out of your being is available if the Word of God is the center of your attention and your foundation.  You can build a spiritual house which is not subject to natural worries and cares.  You will be solid and unshaken by the circumstances of life!  There will not be a big-enough storm to shake your life.  Victory will become the order of the day, every day, and you will start to help others build their houses.  My son, attend to My Words!

"Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house....abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;" -1 Peter 2:5a, 11b 

Because you have received the Son of God, you now have the life of God in you. You have been made a “lively stone” and you have your part, your call, in the house of God.  In order to fulfill your call and reach your destiny, you must stay a living stone.  You must be hot for God, for the things of God, and for the things of the Spirit.  The enemy is determined to steal the life and fire that was put in you.  He tries to do it by warring against your soul.  He will attack your mind, will, and emotions to bottle up the fire and life in your spirit so that you are ineffective in the natural realm. He wants to keep you out of the Word, out of church, and distracted from spiritual things, to get you to prioritize the wrong things in your life.  I have personally seen many come to the Lord, receive the life of God, go forth excited and hot for the things of God, yet one year later they were burned out, worn out, and had no fire left.  What happened?  They lost the battle of the soul.  Yes, they are still born-again, still have the life-giving Spirit in them, but they got zapped with the cares of this world and the natural realm.  Stay a lively stone!  Guard your heart with all diligence!  Renew your mind on the Word of God!  Stand on God’s promises to win the war against your soul.

"Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord;" -Acts 3:19    

The day that you repented and came to the Lord, your sins were blotted out, wiped away, removed from you as far as the east is from the west.  You were converted from darkness to light, from death to life, from dried-out to being refreshed in spirit and soul.  Notice that, after the new birth experience, times of refreshing will come, and are needed in your life.  Jesus said “Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest for your souls.”  Jesus knew that weariness and fatigue would try to come against your soul.  He knew that times of refreshing would be needed in your life.  He went aside to a mountain place alone many times to pray and be refreshed.  God guarantees us times of refreshing, times of refueling, times of recharging your heavy-laden soul.  He was not talking about the physical weariness you may get from lack of sleep–-He was addressing soul-weariness that no amount of sleep will help.  When Christians get soul-weary, they usually try to cure it with natural activities that will not help the soul.  Some people eat, some go out seeking entertainment, some take a vacation, and some just go to bed.  None of these will help a heavy soul for any length of time; only times of refreshing, received by coming to the Lord, will revive the weary soul.  Come to Him – He will give you rest for your soul!

"For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people.  To whom he said, This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing:  yet they would not hear." - Isaiah 28:11, 12   

Jesus desires to give you rest for your soul, to give you times of refreshing in your life.  With our daily activities and the busy-ness of our schedules, rest and refreshing become a must in our lives for us to stay in the Spirit.  Isaiah prophesied this rest, this refreshing.  One way to stay on fire, to stay in revival, to escape from weariness and a heavy-laden soul is with stammering lips and another tongue.  Speaking or praying in tongues is a powerful way of living in rest and refreshing in your daily life.  Most are filled with the Spirit, and have the sign of praying in tongues, but very few take the time to use the gift God gave them.  If rest and refreshing come through praying in tongues, then a lack of praying in tongues will cause weariness and heavy-laden souls.  This is the rest, this is the refreshing, this is a way God speaks to His people.  But they would not hear.  In other words, they would not practice it.  The result?  They live their life in a state of weariness.  But you do not have to be like them!  There is a rest, there is a refreshing, there is a way to have times (more than one) of refreshing from the presence of the Lord!  If you are Spirit-filled but do not speak in tongues, ask and receive it from the Holy Spirit.  He desires that you have it!  Why?  Because it is the rest, it is the refreshing, that keeps your life alive and the fire lit!