5 Steps to God’s prescription.
by Gloria Copeland
My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings. Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart. 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. Put away from thee a froward mouth, and perverse lips put far from thee (Proverbs 4:20-24).
This passage of Scripture reveals God’s prescription for life and health. It contains instructions that, if properly followed, can literally change your life and your physical condition from sickness to health.
So, let’s look closely at what God is saying.
1. Attend to My Words
“My son, attend to My Words….” That means you must give your undivided attention to God’s Word and pay heed to what He says. When you attend to something, you give your attention to it. Give your time to the Word. Give thought and meditation to the Word. Give action to the Word. Continually give the Word first place in your life.
Isaiah 26:3 says, “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.” Your mind will be free from doubt when you keep your attention on God’s Word. When you are trusting in His Word, you are trusting in Him.
God’s Word will keep you in perfect peace.
2. Incline Thine Ears
Next, God said you must “incline thine ear unto my sayings.”
You do that when you desire and go after the knowledge of God’s Word and open your understanding to His Word. Attending meetings where the word of faith is being preached and listening to faith-filled tapes are ways to “incline your ear” and get the Word in your heart. Romans 10:17 says, “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” Faith comes by hearing the preached Word.
As you listen to what is being preached, listen with your spiritual ears as well. In Mark 4:23-25, Jesus tells us:
If any man has ears to hear, let him be listening and let him perceive and comprehend. And He said to them, Be careful what you are hearing. The measure [of thought and study] you give [to the truth you hear] will be the measure [of virtue and knowledge] that comes back to you—and more [besides] will be given to you who hear. For to him who has will more be given… (The Amplified Bible).
Every man to whom Jesus was speaking had physical ears. He was referring to receiving God’s Word in the heart by listening to the Holy Spirit speak revelation knowledge.
You must listen with your spiritual ears as well as your physical ears.
Jesus was not talking about passively hearing. He said to listen, perceive and comprehend, and even be careful how you hear. The time you give to digesting the Word you hear will measure the return of the virtue (power) and knowledge that will come back to you through the Word.
The man who hears (or receives revelation knowledge) will be given more. If you desire to grow in the knowledge of God, be careful how you hear His Word.
3. Let Them Not Depart From Thine Eyes
It’s also vitally important to keep your eyes on the Word of God. Don’t look at circumstances or give your attention to feelings that are contrary to your healing. Look at and consider (or give thought to) the scriptures instead of your body. “Let them not depart from thine eyes.”
Jesus said, “The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light” (Matthew 6:22).
The eye is the gateway to the body. Keep the Word in your sight.
If your eye, or your attention, is on the darkness—the sickness—in your body, there will be no light to expel that darkness. If you focus on darkness, your eye will be unsound; therefore, your body will be unsound.
But if your eye is single, focused on the Word of God, your whole body will be full of light. The single eye allows no darkness to enter.
Looking at and giving your attention to sickness brings death. Looking at and giving your attention to God’s Word brings life! In some cases, what you give your attention to could mean the difference between life and death.
4. Keep Them in the Midst of Thine Heart
Allow God’s words to abide in you. “Keep them in the midst of thine heart” by meditating on the Scriptures and acting on what you hear. The portion of God’s Word you act on is the portion of His Word that is living in you. Continually feed yourself with God’s Word in order to keep the Word producing the force of faith.
Inclining your ear and refusing to allow the Word to depart from your eyes keeps God’s Word alive in your heart. Proverbs 4 says, “For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh.”
The Word is God’s medicine.
Jesus said, My words “are spirit, and they are life” (John 6:63).
Attending to the Word with your ears, your eyes and your heart will cause you to live in divine health. It will become as hard for you to get sick as it once was for you to be healed! The power of the Word will be made life and health to your body continually.
So “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life” (Proverbs 4:23). The forces (issues) of life come from the midst of your heart. The Word in your heart produces life and health in your body.
5. Put Away a Froward Mouth
Once your heart gets full, it begins to overflow. Then “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh” (Matthew 12:34).
The last step in taking God’s divine prescription is to speak, not words of sickness and disease, but rather words of healing and life, faith and hope. “Put away from thee a froward mouth, and perverse lips put far from thee” (Proverbs 4:24).
For faith to work, it must be in two places: in your heart and in your mouth (Deuteronomy 30:14; Romans 10:10). You must speak God’s Word!
Several times since I have learned to walk in faith, almost before I realized it, I became too sick to stay on my feet. (I have learned since to go to the Word at the first sign of a symptom and immediately take a dose of God’s medicine!) I got my Bible, turned to 1 Peter 2:24, read it aloud, and by faith received my healing. I also played the New Testament on tape. Usually, I went to sleep listening to the Word. In a few hours or by the next morning, I was completely healed.
God’s medicine effected a healing and a cure in my body.
To be sick and receive healing was not God’s best for me. To receive healing is good, but to live in divine health is better.
To fill God’s prescription for life and health, you must diligently attend to His Word. Give the Word the place of authority in your life and spend time in it every day. The forces of life and power that come out of your heart will be in direct proportion to the amount of Word that goes into you.
You can’t overdose on God’s medicine. In fact, the more Word you take, the stronger you become. You have nothing to lose but sickness and disease.
So, today, begin taking God’s medicine and putting His Word to work. It’s your personal prescription for life and health!
Related Articles:
A Confession That Jesus Is Your Healer
Completely Healed of Bells Palsy
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