The only part of the Bible that will ever work for you is the part that you confess and obey.
The Bible never works for you by just laying on the table beside your bed. It won’t work for you just because you read it.
You must read it and keep it before your eyes until it gets in the midst of your heart, “For they (God’s words) are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh” (Prov. 4:22).
Reading God’s Word and keeping it before your eyes gets it into your heart. Then, when it comes out of your mouth, you’ll have the power of confession on your side, because you believe what you’re saying (Matt. 12:34).
Until you get the Word to this degree, you haven’t really found it. And the Word that you find, that’s the Word that will be life and health to your flesh; that’s the Word that you’ll actually experience.
Real Life Power
If you haven’t found healing scriptures, you won’t experience healing life and power in your flesh. If you haven’t found devil-casting-out scriptures, you won’t experience devil-casting-out power in your life.
When I gave my life to Jesus, I put a Bible beside my bed every night. I was going to be real spiritual. I was going to make sure that I prayed every night before I went to bed.
And I promised God that I was going to read two chapters in the Bible every day, either in the morning or at night. But sometimes at night I would be tired, so I would read my two chapters real fast.
I did this for about a year. Then one day God came and grabbed me. (You need to be grabbed by God sometimes.)
I had just finished reading my two nightly chapters real fast, and I thought, “Oh, I’m a Bible reader. Boy, am I pleasing the Lord.”
God shook me right there in the bed and said, “Son, don’t you know it’s a lot better to study two verses and know what’s in there and confess them, than it is to read two chapters and not know anything?”
So, I stopped reading so fast.
You need to take it easy and know what’s in the Bible. Study it, like you studied your school books. I mean study it. You’ll be amazed at what you’ll learn.
Excerpt permission granted by Harrison House Publishers
Norvel Hayes is a successful businessman, internationally renowned Bible teacher, and founder of several Christian ministries in the United States and abroad.
Brother Hayes founded New Life Bible College, located in Cleveland, Tennessee, in 1977. New Life Bible Church grew out of the Bible schools\' chapel services. Among its many other outreachs, the church ministers God\'s Word, and hot meals daily to the poor through the New Life Soup Kitchen.
Brother Hayes is also the founder and president of New Life Maternity Home, a ministry dedicated to the spiritual, physical, and financial needs of young girls during pregnancy; Campus Challenge, an evangelistic outreach on college campuses across America; Street Reach, a ministry dedicated to runaway teens located in Daytona Beach, Florida; and Children\'s Home, an orphanage home and education center located in India.
Known internationally for his dynamic exposition of the Word of God, Brother Hayes spends most of his time teaching and ministering God\'s deliverance and healing power in churches, college classrooms, conventions, and seminars around the world.