Eph 3:3 – That by revelation the mystery was made known to me, as I have written previously in brief.
Eph 3:4 – By which, in reading it, you can perceive my understanding in the mystery of Christ.
A wonderful way to touch the Lord and experience His riches becoming our daily supply is by coming to the word and the ministry that opens up the Word.
My experience of spending time with the Lord in the morning typically includes a dedicated time to immerse myself into the ministry portions in the Holy Word for Morning Revival. I enjoy reading the daily outline sections, pray reading the verses, and musing over the “Morning Nourishment” sections.
I also have come to appreciate the “Today’s Reading” section in a particular way. In the morning, when my mind is most clear, getting into ministry material that provides a more in-depth understanding of God’s Word helps to set me on a healthy spiritual course for the day.
I tend to recall what I read throughout the day, which helps to keep my mind sanctified and set on the things above. Furthermore, when opportune, I feel more equipped to share with others the things that I gleaned from my morning reading.
Being supplied by this kind of in-depth reading for the sake of our understanding is even a matter that the apostle Paul pointed out.
The apostle exhorted us to read what he wrote concerning the mystery of Christ, which is the church, but moreover to read it not merely objectively, but to the end that we perceive his understanding of the mystery which he received by revelation (Eph 3:3-4).
This kind of reading and perceiving with understanding can render us not only daily nourishment, but long-term nourishment.
My experience in coming to the ministry through the Holy Word for Morning Revival is that my first read through is usually not enough to understand it. Sometimes my mind is cloudy or distracted with the things I have to do that day, so I might lose focus easily, especially if the content is not so easy to grasp in one take.
A healthy exercise that I practice to help my understanding is to read through the content once, then starting with the last paragraph, I read backwards paragraph by paragraph until I’m back at the top. I do this repeatedly until I feel confident enough in my understanding that I could compose something short but substantial for my enlightenment and inspiration composition at the bottom of the daily portion.
In my backwards reading exercise, I start with the very last summary point on that days reading, and then ask myself, How did we arrive at this conclusion? Can I adequately substantiate, back up, or even explain to an inquiring person why the ministry interprets or deduces what it is interpreting or deducing at the end of this short exposition of the word?
Typically, after my first reading of it, I’m not able to answer these questions, but by going back and studying the paragraph right before it, I am usually able to get the understanding as to how we arrived at that conclusion.
Then I ask myself, how did we arrive at that understanding which helped me understand the conclusion? To get that answer, I study the preceding paragraph, so on and so forth until I reach the beginning. Each paragraph helps to build a foundation leading to the next one, so this kind of backwards reading exercise is a real strengthening of my foundation in perceiving the understanding of the mysteries unveiled through the ministry.
After such a healthy exercise in perceiving the apostles understanding by reading and even re-reading it backwards, I feel nourished by the Lord and equipped to speak for the Lord and speak forth the Lord into others based on what I understood. Thank the Lord for such a ministry that helps us to perceive the apostles understanding of the mystery of Christ and be nourished by the words of the faith!
Sharing by bro. Matthew F. (meeting in Fairborn, Ohio, USA – see his website here) concerning his experience and enjoyment in practicing the morning watch and morning revival. What is your experience with the Lord in the morning? Share it with us as a comment below, or email it to be considered for posting at enjoyingthelord@gmail.com.
