Derek Prince - Opening Your Heart To The Word Is Switching On The Light In Your Mind
This is a clip from: God's Word Your Inexhaustible Resource
We must go on. The next effect of the word of God I want to mention is what I call mental illumination. We could take many passages but I'll just take one verse from Psalm 119. Psalm 119. You know, that's the longest psalm. And every verse of that psalm contains some phrase that describes the word of God. There are about eight different phrases but there's not one verse in Psalm 119 that doesn't contain. Psalm 119:130 says this and it's addressed to God: The entrance of your words gives light. It gives understanding to the simple. This is talking about what the word of God does in the area of our minds. It gives light and understanding.
Now, I was for five years principal of a college for training teachers for African schools in Kenya. And I was confronted with this whole issue of how to educate people. I continually pointed out to my students: You can have education but be a fool. Education is not wisdom. I'm not against education, it's important, it's necessary. My comment to my students is most of the trouble in the world is caused by educated fools. I think the more you ponder on that the more you'll see how true it is. If they weren't educated they wouldn't be able to cause so much trouble. There was an American president at the beginning of this century who was talking about people who steal things. He said if a man is not educated he'll steal a railroad car, one car from a railway. But if you educate the same man he'll steal the whole railroad.
So, education is not light. I know this because I was highly educated myself and in total darkness. I didn't know where I was coming from. I didn't know where I was going. I didn't know how to find the right way in life. But when it came to taking exams and writing theses I could succeed. I was educated but in darkness. And that's the condition of multitudes of people. Educated but fools. Educated but they don't know how to make the right way through life. You'll find there are as many educated people that end up in moral and mental and physical problems as there are uneducated people. A French writer once said - and I don't know if thats really true: You'll find more old drunkards than you'll find old doctors. So, the fact that a person has education in itself doesn't guarantee a good life or real success. The word of God comes in as light. It shows us where we are. It shows us our real problems and it shows us the answers. You see, in the natural world there's no substitute for light. Nothing else in this world will do what light does.
Again, I think of dealing with my students in Africa. I would try to impress this on them. So, when we were in the lecture hall I'd say: If this hall were in total darkness how would we get rid of the darkness? And then I'd wait a little and say maybe we should open all the doors and windows and let the wind blow the darkness out. They'd say no. So maybe I should send you to get some brooms and sweep the darkness out. And they'd say of course not. So then I'd say well what do we do to get the darkness out. And some student would say we switch on the light. That's right. Where light comes darkness can no longer exist. Opening your heart and mind to the word of God is switching on the light in your mind. It's getting to see who you are, the real nature of your problems. See, I had been looking for fifteen years at least for the real meaning of life. But education as I had it hadn't shown me. When the light of the Bible came in I began to know... I began to understand what really I needed what would make life meaningful, successful.
And it says in that verse that it gives understanding to the simple. The word simple is rather despised today. I tell you, there's a lot to be said for being simple. Don't be too complicated. If you're very complicated you never really know whether you've found the solution or not, you see. But if you're simple, if you're basic, you say I want happiness. I want love. I want to know the best way to live. Don't get too profound. I think of the philosophers I studied. I absolutely shudder when I think the philosopher Emmanuel Kant a German philosopher, wrote sentences which took more than two pages before he came to a full stop. The Bible is totally different, have you noticed that? It says the most tremendous things in the shortest words. When I was in Africa I was invited to speak to an African congregation every morning for a week. I had to drive in the car way out. So one morning I decided to speak on 1 Peter 1:23 Who his own self? 1 Peter 2:24. In the Old King James version which I was reading it says: Who his own self speaking about Jesus bore our sins in his own body on the tree that we, being dead to sins should live to righteousness.
Well, to me that's a most profound thought. The very center of the gospel. So as I was driving along I said: Most of the people I'm going to be speaking to are illiterate, they can't read or write. Maybe this message is too profound for them. And the Lord spoke to me by the Holy Spirit and He said take that verse and count the number of words of one syllable in that verse. There are twenty-three words in the verse, nineteen words of one syllable three words of two syllables and one word of three syllables. And that is the most profound truth you can ever achieve. You see? But it's stated in simple language. If you become too complicated you really don't know whether you're speaking the truth or not, you can fool yourself. But when you come down to simplicity that's where you know what you're really dealing with. I recommend you to be simple when you come to God. Be honest. Lay your heart bare, tell Him your real problems. Cover nothing up and then let the word of God give you the understanding that you need.