It often breaks my heart to see the children of God, who ought to value the word of God, which is the source of our power and our defence, trivialising it as if they do not know what they stand to lose when they do not heed it, or the danger inherent in ignoring it. The Bible warns us against such an attitude in Hebrews 2:1,
"Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip."

When the word of God comes to an individual, maybe in the form of prophecy, through the written word or by any other means, it is a wise thing to pay close attention to it. The word of God comes for many reasons and for different purposes. Going by Jeremiah 33:1-9, we can see that the word of God was sent to the people of Judah for the purpose of deliverance and for the restoration of their freedom which had been lost to the Chaldeans. For this reason, I always warn members of the congregation during our services never to dose off, because they do not know when God would send a specific word of prophecy that would settle their case. At often times in the Old Testament, before the people of God went to war, the word of God would go forth announcing their victory and that always settled the battle (2 Kings 3:17-19, 2 Chronicles 20:13-15). Likewise, in our meetings, before the people start to pray after the sermon has ended, God through His spoken word would often have already settled their cases. The word of God comes at times to bring peace in the time of crisis, as in the case of Judah (Jeremiah 33:6). When Jesus Christ was in the boat with His disciples and the devil was playing pranks through the tempest, a word of peace settled the turbulent waves of the sea (Mark 4:39). I therefore prophesy into your life right now, your troubled life, marriage, business or career receives peace now in Jesus' Name.

It is equally comforting to note that when a child of God is exposed to the word of God, he or she receives spiritual cleansing. It is therefore unfortunate for any child of God to run away from the sound teaching of the Bible by failing to read it, study it or listen to it being preached. To underscore this salient truth, the Lord Jesus Christ in John 17:17 prayed thus:
"Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth."
Written by Pastor E.A. Adeboye.