Romans 4:19-21. And so not becoming weak in that faith, he completely understood his own body which had become [sexually] dead when he was approximately one hundred years old likewise, he completely understood the deadness of Sarah's womb [had passed the menopause]. (20) He [Abraham] staggered not at the promises of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith giving glory to God (21) and being fully persuaded that what God had promised [a son through Sarah], God is able also to perform.

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You see, as Abraham learned more and more about God, his confidence in God increased.

 

Romans 10:17. So, faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.

 

The believer listens to the Word of God today, and a little faith is developed. Then he listens tomorrow, and a little more faith is developed, and then the following day, and he continues to do so for his entire life. In this way his faith becomes stronger and stronger.

 

This stage-by-stage development of faith is illustrated by one of the Hebrew words for faith, “Qawah.” Qawah is a strong rope that does not break even under great pressure and is used to illustrate the strong faith of the mature believer waiting on the Lord (Isaiah 40:31). In order to make this strong unbreakable rope, one begins with a single strand of rope which would easily breaks under pressure. However, when this single strand is twisted around a second strand and then around another and another until it becomes thick, a strong rope is developed. The principle is as follows: as more and more strands are twisted together, the stronger the rope becomes. This process involved in making a strong rope depicts how faith is developed in stages. The first strand of faith is extremely weak. However, as the believer twists more and more strands of faith together, he will eventually have a strong faith. As baby believers, our faith is like a single fine thread. It has no strength at all. However, as the believer learns more and more doctrine, he develops a strong ropelike faith. At that point he can walk by faith and not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7). 

 

Before the Church Age, the spiritual life of the believer emphasized living by faith. For example, the Jews of the Exodus generation were taught how to walk by faith while they were still in Egypt. They were all taught about the promise which God had made to Abraham namely that God would give the Jewish people a country of their own, a prosperous land, “a land flowing with milk and honey.” Before Joseph died, He made the Jews promise to take his bones out of Egypt and bury them in the promise land.  So, when Joseph died, he was embalmed and placed in a vault above ground.  So, every time a Jewish family living in Egypt would pass by the vault of Joseph, the Jewish Father would relate this story to his children. The story of how God had promised the Jews a promised land. In this way they learned to trust in the Lord. They were taught that their spiritual life was to trust in the promises and doctrines of God just as Joseph believed the promises and doctrines of God.

 

When God gives a spiritual life to the believer, he is going to test him regarding that life. Therefore, the Jews were tested regarding their spiritual lives as they were leaving Egypt at the Red Sea. As the pillar of fire by night and the cloud by day, God the Son, the only manifest person of the Trinity, led them deliberately into a trap. He led them into a cul-de-sac at the Red Sea. There were mountains to the north and south and the Sea was to their front. Suddenly, behind this great multitude of Jews, arose a great cloud of dust. Pharaoh Amenhotep II was leading the greatest military force in the world at that time. Facing this great military force were over a million untrained Jewish slaves. The only Jewish people with any military training were Moses and possibly Joshua and Caleb. This was a hopeless situation from the human viewpoint. However, nothing is impossible with God (Luke 1:37). All the Jews had to do was to believe what God had promised them. 

 

God’s promise of a land of their own:

 

Exodus 3:7-10. Then the Lord said, "I have seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters; I know their sufferings, (8) and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. (9) And now, behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I have seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. (10) Come, I will send you [Moses] to Pharaoh that you may bring forth my people, the sons of Israel, out of Egypt.

 

God also promised the Jews of the Exodus that they would worship him at Mount Sinai (Mount Horeb). 

 

Exodus 3:1. Now Moses was pasturing the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian; and he led the flock to the west side of the desert, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.

 

Exodus 3:12. And he said, certainly I [God] will be with you [Moses], and this shall be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God at this mountain [Mount Horeb, Mount Sinai].

 

How did the Jews of the Exodus respond to these promises stated above?

 

Exodus14:9-12. The Egyptians pursued them, all Pharaoh's horses and chariots and his horsemen and his army and overtook them [the Jews] encamped at the sea, by Pi-ha-hi'roth, in front of Ba'al-ze'phon. (10) When Pharaoh drew near, the people of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians were marching after [pursuing] them; and they were in great fear. And the people of Israel cried out to the Lord [help, help]; (11) and they said to Moses, "Is it because there are no graves in Egypt [apparently they were cremated] that you have taken us away to die in the desert? What have you done to us, in bringing us out of Egypt? (12) Is not this what we said to you in Egypt, 'Let us alone and let us serve the Egyptians'? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert.

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Although there were more than one million Jewish adults, only Moses and possibly Joshua and Celeb had the spiritual strength to apply the promises of God to this hopeless situation. While the majority of Jews were immersed in fear and screaming about dying [no faith application of the promises of God].

 

Exodus 14:13. Moses said, "Do not fear. Stand still [in your souls] and watch the deliverance of the Lord. The Lord will fight for you today.

 

The Jews should have passed this test, but they kept concentrating on the problem namely the advancing Egyptian military, rather than the solution, trusting in God’s promises. Initially, Moses concentrated on the advancing Egyptians in order to understand the situation, but when he realized that their situation was militarily hopeless, he concentrated on a divine solution, a solution based on his confidence in God and the promises which God had given him. So, he walked by faith and remained very calm in this tense situation. 

 

Now, after God had delivered the Jews from the Pharaoh, they sang beautifully praising him for their deliverance (Exodus 15:1-18) but singing does not imply spiritual strength. These believers were not praising and singing because they respected and loved God. They were expressing their appreciation to God for having delivered them. Their appreciation was based on their emotional relief from being delivered, not on their appreciation for the Lord. To these Jews the most important priority in their life was their safety, not a harmonious relationship with God. Praising God and singing hymns has meaning if one has a close relationship with God based on knowledge. However, if the believer is ignorant of God and God’s plan, his relationship with God will be related to emotion. An emotional relationship has no strength!

 

One can relate to a hymn cognitively or emotionally or both since a hymn contains both lyrics and melody. The purpose of the lyrics is to stimulate thought whereas the purpose of the melody is to stimulate one’s emotions pleasurably. If the believer understands and appreciates the lyrics of a hymn only then can he benefit from his singing and at the same time enjoy the melody. However, if the believer does not understand and appreciate the lyrics of a good hymn, his singing becomes a meaningless emotional activity related only to the melody as the following few verses will illustrate. The following is the singing of the Jews on the far side of the Red Sea.

 

Exodus 15:2. The Lord is my strength and song, and he has become my deliverance. This is my God, and I will praise him.  My father's God; I will extol him.

 

Exodus 15:15. The chiefs of Edom were dismayed; the leaders of Moab, trembling grips them; all the inhabitants of Canaan have melted away.

 

Exodus 15:22-24. Then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea, and they went into the Desert of Shur. For three days they traveled in the desert without finding water. When they came to Marah, they could not drink its water because it was bitter. [That is why the place is called Marah.] So, the people grumbled against Moses, saying, ‘What are we to drink?’

 

Three days after the Jews sang “the Lord is my strength,” they demonstrated that they had no spiritual strength at all for they immediately began complaining under this simple pressure.  Then, one year later after singing how brave they would be in combat, and how fearful the Edomites, Moabites and the inhabitants of Canaan would be of them, the Jewish army refused to enter the land and wept all night in their fear of the Canaanites. So, the Edomites, Moabites and the inhabitants of Canaan didn't need to worry about that generation of Jews for those men were too cowardly to fight their way into the land (Numbers 14:1-11). You see, a believer can sing and praise God until he passes out from exhaustion, but all of this is meaningless unless that believer has strength in his soul from knowledge of God and rapport with God through his understanding and appreciation of God’s plan.   

 

These Jews produced sinful emotion on one side of the Red Sea and non-sinful emotion on the other side of the Sea. They swung from one end of the emotional spectrum (fear) to the other end (relief from being delivered). Only Moses and possibly Joshua and Caleb had divine thought in their souls and true capacity for life. So, when they sang, it had meaning. 

 

During their first year in the Sinai Peninsula, every time they had a pressure situation, they would worry and fear about their safety and never even once considered God’s provision and plan for their lives. So, they continued to complain and complain until they died in the desert for the majority of these Jews never learned to apply the Word of God by faith to their experience. 

 

Hebrews 4:2, 3. For we also have been evangelized as they had been [evangelized with result that they had believed: the Jews of the Exodus generation were believers], but the word they heard [after salvation] did not profit them, because those who heard it [God’s word taught by Moses and others] did not mix it [knowledge of the Word] with faith [no faith perception due to their carnality]. For we who have believed [in the promises, principles and doctrines of God’s word] enter into the rest [of contentment and tranquility from trusting in God].     

 

The Jews used faith in salvation; now they needed to apply God’s promises by faith to this pressure situation at the Red Sea. If one does not use faith for salvation, it is hopeless, so also if one does not use faith in the spiritual life, it is hopeless.

 

Colossians 2:6. Therefore, as you have received Christ Jesus your Lord [a metaphor for believing in Jesus Christ as one’s savior], so be walking in him [the spiritual life after salvation which involves both faith-perception and faith-application].

 

We used faith for salvation, now we must use faith for the spiritual life. The only difference is the object of faith. In salvation, the object of faith is the Lord Jesus Christ. In the spiritual life, the object of faith is the thinking of Jesus Christ. 

 

To the Exodus generation, security was more important than applying Bible doctrine. As a result of their false priority, they became involved in the emotional sin of fear. Fear is not only an irrational state of emotion, but it is also a destructive sin. God does not answer prayer when the believer is out of fellowship and controlled by his sin nature. The Jews should not have prayed the prayer of “help, help.” Rather, they should have prayed to the Father thanking him for this opportunity to watch the Lord’s power in delivering them at the Red Sea.  Fear however destroyed their perspective of the situation.    

 

Principles related to fear:

 

1. It is possible to learn a lot of doctrine and yet fall apart in a sudden pressure situation.

 

2. Sudden disaster often places the believer in a panic situation resulting in a failure to apply doctrine to that situation.

 

3. The difference between fear and courage is important in a crisis situation. The courageous person is able to think under great pressure, whereas the person with fear is not able to think rationally under pressure. The difference is the ability to concentrate under pressure. Now, if you have a problem concentrating in normal situations, you will surely have a problem concentrating under pressure in an abnormal situation.

 

4. A coward is a person who cannot think under pressure, whereas a courageous person can think under pressure.

 

5. Concentration is not only required in learning Bible doctrine, but even to a much greater extent in applying Bible doctrine. This is especially true when historical disaster occurs, because in historical disaster one has two categories of pressure namely personal and national and sometimes even international.

 

6. Adversity and great pressure can easily cause stress when the believer fails to apply to that situation. When a believer is under stress, he is not able to think objectively.

 

7. Many disasters come suddenly and with great intensity. So, these disasters can easily hinder the believer from concentrating on the promises and doctrines of the Word of God.

 

Now back to Exodus and quoting again Exodus 14:11a, “They said to Moses, “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die?”  Now keep in mind that these Jews did not have to leave Egypt. Moses did not force them to leave. Arrogant people never take responsibility for their decisions. Furthermore, Moses was only God's agent. It wasn't his idea to bring the Jews out of Egypt; it was the command of God. God was going to remove the Jews from Egyptian slavery in order to make them a special nation (client nation) in history. (Exodus 3:6-8)

 

A coward dies many times, but a brave man dies only once. Under fear emotion controls the soul. When emotion is in control, the believer becomes irrational.  In a state of irrationality, he assumes that he is already dead. This was true of the Exodus generation.  In a state of irrationality, they possessed a false view of their situation. Their false viewpoint was that they were already dead. The true view was that God would deliver them. 

 

Exodus 14:12. Is this not the word which we spoke to you in Egypt?  Let us alone that we may be slaves to the Egyptians because it is better for us to be slaves to the Egyptians than to die in the desert.

 

Initially, when the Jews heard that God was going to remove them from slavery, they welcomed the idea.

 

Exodus 4:31. And when they heard that the Lord was concerned about them and had seen their misery, they bowed down and worshiped.

 

However, once the Egyptians started to give them a hard time, they changed their minds about going.

 

Exodus 5:21. And they said, may the Lord look upon you and judge you [Moses and Aaron]! You have made us a stench to Pharaoh and his officials [through the Plagues] and have put a sword in their hand to kill us. 

 

Exodus 6:8, 9. And I will bring you to the land I swore with uplifted hand to give to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob. I will give it to you as a possession. I am the Lord. Moses reported this to the Israelites, but they did not listen to him because of their discouragement [from lack of Biblical application] and cruel bondage.

 

 

PRINCIPLES OF STRESS:

 

1. Adversity is outside pressure of life; stress is inside pressure of the soul.

 

2. Stress is caused by oneself; adversity is caused by self, by others or circumstances.

 

3. Adversity is inevitable; stress is optional.

 

4. Stress destroys the spiritual life of the believer. Therefore, the believer must name his sins to God the Father as soon as possible.  

 

5. There is a definite relationship between stress and cognition, namely stress lowers cognition.

 

6. Stress makes a person forgetful and impairs the memory. Therefore, stress impairs the ability to learn.

 

7. Stress affects a person's perception of reality. At the Red Sea, the Jews with stress in their souls considered themselves already dead.

 

8. If a person remains in a stress-situation too long, all of his cognitive ability will be destroyed, and he will enter into a psychotic state.

 

People controlled by emotion and possessing false priorities easily succumb to fear when pressure occurs. Only the stable Christian with doctrine in his soul is able to handle the pressures of life. If the Faith-rest Drill or some other problem-solving device is not used when the believer faces a difficult problem or pressure, he will easily enter into a state of fear. In a state of fear and stress, he cannot solve his problems rationally.

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How to learn the Faith-rest Drill: James 1:19-25.

 

James 1:19. Consequently, every person must be prompt to hear [listening to qualified pastors], slow to speak [good manners, academic discipline and concentration in Bible class], slow to anger.

 

Originally, James was talking to Jewish believers, but now he is talking to all of us.  “Prompt to hear” means being properly motivated, possessing correct values, and being filled with the Holy Spirit when the believer is listening to his pastor-teacher.  God has set up a system of authority within the local church, which functions when the congregation with humility accepts the authority of their pastor.  This is the system God has designed for the spiritual growth of believers.  This does not mean one cannot read the Bible for himself, but it does mean that the believer is dependent upon a qualified pastor for his spiritual growth.  

 

“Slow to speak” means to possess good manners, academic discipline and concentration under the filling of the Spirit as one listens to the Word being taught.  It also means to be slow to say to oneself, “I don’t believe this”.  The student of the Word needs to have an objective attitude, getting all the facts before he decides to reject something that he has never heard before.  Some Christians reject truth being taught because it conflicts with some false information in their souls. 

 

“Slow to anger” means to remain objective and in fellowship even though you do not understand or do not agree with something taught by a pastor or theologian.  Never become angry over someone’s message.  If you do, you will not be able to accurately evaluate the teaching.  In summary, be prompt; be slow; be slow!

 

James 1:20. For the anger of the individual believer does not achieve righteousness from God. 

 

Many Christians have false ideas regarding the spiritual life in their stream of consciousness. This is not a serious problem since it can be corrected through correct teaching. However, if a believer assumes that he understands the spiritual life perfectly when in fact he does not, he will usually be impossible to teach.  This Christian will react with anger to correct teaching which disagrees with his false perception of the spiritual life.   He will never achieve the experiential righteousness that comes to the believer who understands and executes the spiritual life.

 

The Christian should always have a humble attitude when listening to the teaching of the Word. He should assume that he has many things yet to learn.  He should be slow to judge a message until he gets all the facts and ponders them very carefully.

 

James 1:21. Therefore, remove all pollution [unconfessed sins] and excess of evil [from your lives through the Recovery Procedure] receive in humility the implanted Word [metabolized doctrine], which keeps on being able to deliver your souls [in time of pressure or adversity].

 

All problem solving begins with Rebound (naming one's sins to God the Father) and the Filling of the Holy Spirit, followed by the application of doctrine.  We must remove all sin from our lives.  A believer with constant anger or bitterness in the soul cannot grow spiritually.  He must name his sins and keep moving.  Once the believer is restored to fellowship, he must apply doctrine to the person or situation that caused him to react.  If not, he will not be able to stay in fellowship for long. 

 

Many times, emotional sins motivate evil. Jealousy may motivate murder; anger and hatred may motivate civil disobedience; bitterness with its accompanying malice may motivate fornication. Murder, civil disobedience and adultery are not only sins, but also evil since they attack the principles which God has ordained for the proper function of society.     

 

Anger at a pastor and his message because of some misunderstanding may motivate a believer to reject the truth.  If the believer rejects truth, he will lose his fellowship with God through sin and enter the stages of reversionism.  

 

Whenever a believer under pressure remains obedient to the authority of the Holy Spirit, he develops more humility. His obedience results from his desire to please God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ and motivates him to apply the problem-solving devices to his problems, pressure and any disasters which he may face in life.  These applications towards God and toward his experiences are able to protect his soul from the stages of reversionism.     

 

As the pastor communicates accurately the Word, the Holy Spirit teaches that doctrine to the human spirit.   From the human spirit it is transferred to the staging area of the soul where it is understood academically (gnosis).  Up to this point the believer is a hearer of the Word.  However, if the believer believes the truth being taught, the Holy Spirit converts academic knowledge into metabolized knowledge (epignosis).  Metabolized knowledge in the memory is the ‘implanted Word’. 

 

The Greek word sozo means to save or to deliver.  If the believer has metabolized doctrine in the memory compartment of the stream of consciousness, his soul will be delivered in time of pressure through the application of that doctrine.  If the believer does not possess doctrine in his stream of consciousness, he will be defeated and controlled by his sin nature.  Only doctrine resident in the believer’s soul can deliver him in time of great difficulty. 

 

James 1:22. But become doers of the Word [an applier of the Word] and not hearers only, constantly deceiving yourselves.

 

This verse does not say, become doers of deeds nor does it say, become doers of Christian service.  "Doers of the Word" are believers who constantly learn and metabolize biblical truths and doctrines, correctly apply doctrine by faith-application toward God and toward their experiences.  For example, Abraham was a "doer of the word" for it says in James 2:21, "Was not Abraham, our father justified by his accomplishments when he offered up Isaac on the altar?”  Abraham was not performing good deeds or any form of Christian service rather he was obeying a command from the Lord.  He honored and glorified God by trusting in information previously given to him by the Lord. 

 

Since Abraham’s posterity was promised through Isaac (Genesis 17:16), he knew that Isaac could not remain dead.  “In Isaac your descendants shall be called” (Hebrews 11:18b).  Therefore, Abraham reasoned that God would resuscitate his son after he had been sacrificed (Hebrews 11:19).  Whenever the believer applies doctrine by faith to a situation, he has accomplished a great thing before the Lord.    

 

Now it came about after these things [after a lifetime of learning doctrine], that God tested Abraham and said to him... ‘Take your son, your uniquely born son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah.  Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about’.  So, Abraham got up early in the morning and saddled his ass, and took two of his young servants with him and Isaac his son... and went to the place where God had told him...    ...and Abraham instructed his young servants, ‘Stay here both of you with the ass. I and the young man will go as far as there, and we ourselves will worship, and we [plural: Abraham and Isaac] will return.’...  ...When they reached the place about which God had told him, Abraham built an altar there and …   …and laid his son on the altar, on top of the wood. Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. But the Angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, ‘Abraham, Abraham!’ And he answered, ‘Hear I am.’ And he said, ‘Do not stretch out your hand against the lad, and do nothing to him; for now, I know that you have respect for God, since you have not withheld your son, your uniquely born son from me.’ (Genesis 22:1-12) 

 

At the time that Abraham went to Mount Moriah to offer his son, he was approximately 120 years old.  He had been a believer anywhere between fifty and a hundred years depending on when he had become a believer in the 3rd Dynasty of Ur (Ur of Chaldeas).  If Abraham had been saved at the age of 20 in the 3rd Dynasty of Ur, he would have been a believer for about a hundred years.

 

Then, he had believed [Hiphil perfect in the Hebrew takes us back to the 3rd Dynasty of Ur] in the Lord [the Lord Jesus Christ] and he [God] reckoned it [faith in Christ] to him as righteousness [imputed righteousness]. (Genesis 15:6)

 

Salvation is by faith, not by works.  This is confirmed in Romans 4:2, “For if Abraham was justified by works, he has grounds [a basis] for boasting, but not before God.”  When James mentions that Abraham was justified by works, he is not contradicting Paul. Paul is talking about Abraham’s salvation (justification because of imputed righteousness), whereas James is explaining the greatest victory in Abraham’s spiritual life (justification because of experiential righteousness). There is up to a hundred years difference between these two events.

 

Therefore, Abraham was justified (proved to be experientially righteous), not because he was a hearer of the word only, but because he was a doer of the word. Hearers of the word only are forgetful hearers; they are Christians functioning like the Exodus generation.  Although those in the Exodus generation listened occasionally to Moses, they forgot even the little they did listen to and so did not metabolize sufficient doctrine, change their priorities, develop humility and integrity, develop capacity for life, love and happiness, did not use the faith-rest drill and did not develop a love for God. For this reason, they constantly grumbled and complain against Moses and God until they died the sin unto death in the desert. Some Christians listen to and metabolize some truth, but they never get to the point where they understand and live the spiritual life.  They are hearers of the Word, but not doers.      

 

Doers of the Word are those believers who consistently concentrate on learning God’s word, use Recovery Procedure whenever they need to be restored to fellowship and so have a great spiritual life related to such dynamic functions as: the filling of the Holy Spirit, the faith-rest drill, grace orientation, doctrinal orientation, spiritual self-esteem / having a personal sense of destiny, personal love for God the Father, unconditional love for all humanity, sharing the happiness of God, and occupation with the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

James 1:23, 24. For if anyone is a hearer of the Word [faith-perception], and not a doer [faith-application], he is like a person who observes his natural face [literally: the appearance of his birth: naked] in the mirror, for once he glances at himself [listens to a few good messages], he takes off [doesn’t return to the Bible class] and immediately forgets what sort of person he was [what he saw in the mirror: namely that he is a spiritual failure]. 

 

The natural face is the face with which you were born.  Literally the Greek expression, “prosopon tes geneseos” means the “appearance of birth:” naked. It is an idiom meaning to see yourself as you really are.  When you look into a mirror, you see yourself as you really are.  When the Christian learns the Word, a mirror is formed in his soul, which lets him see himself as he really is. Many Christians do not understand the spiritual life and consequently they are not living the spiritual life. These Christians have no mirror in their souls, and so they do not know that they are failing spiritually. They have been attending some church for 20 years; some church where the pastor has never taught the spiritual life accurately.  Then a friend or relative invites one of these Christians to a church where the spiritual life is being explained accurately. So, he attends these classes for a while, just long enough so that a mirror begins to form in his soul (hearer of the word: learning God’s word for a short time, but without persistence becoming a forgetful hearer).  At that time, he may begin to see himself as he is really is and realizes that for the first 20 years of his life, he was a spiritual failure.  In many cases the dedication of constantly learning God’s word is too much of a sacrifice or the shock of realizing that he isn’t the great Christian that he thought he was is too much for him to bear.  So, instead of persisting in this bible study he departs and returns to his original church.  After 6 months or so, he will forget the information taught to him in the former bible class “he immediately forgets what sort of person he is.” For this reason, he will again enter into a state of self-deception, thinking that he is a good Christian even though he knows nothing of God and God’s plan. 

 

James 1:25. But he who looks intently into the perfect instruction of freedom [learning about the spiritual life], and has persisted [in the perception of the Word], not having become a forgetful hearer, but a doer of accomplishment [executes the spiritual life].  This one will be happy in what he does [because he is occupied with the Lord Jesus Christ and knows that everything he does is pleasing to the Lord]. 

 

The Hebrew word torah and the Greek word nomos have the following meanings: instruction, teaching, doctrine, and law.  In this passage nomos should be translated doctrine or instruction. The believer who concentrates consistently on the Word will come to understand the freedom of the spiritual life; the freedom to execute the will and plan of God; the freedom to develop a tremendous relationship with God based upon memory. It is important that a believer not forget the important teachings of the Word of God.  Not becoming a forgetful hearer means that the advancing believer’s rate of learning must exceed his rate of forgetting. 

 

If a person wants to become fluent in some language, but only studies one or two hours a week, he will never reach his objective. This is because every week we forget a certain amount of information.  One or two hours of study may prevent one from forgetting what he has already learned but would not advance him in his learning. To advance in learning a new language, for example, would require studying for at least an hour a day.  The same is true if you wish to advance in the spiritual life.  If you want to develop a wonderful relationship with God, you must be very aggressive in the intake and application of the Word, studying at least an hour a day to maintain forward momentum.