David [00:00:00]:
You know, since the last Sunday of December 2025, we have been looking at what it means to be crowned with God’s goodness. What we’ve learned is a crown is a declaration of destiny. From the throne. When crowned, you are marked for a position, a calling, a mission. When God crowns you, he is declaring you are equipped, you are commissioned, you are empowered to reign here on earth. We also learned no one can revoke the crowning.
David [00:00:54]:
No enemy can overrule it, and no circumstance can diminish it. When royalty crowns you with dignity and favor, it means you are seen, you are chosen, you are valued, you are empowered, you are covered by the King’s goodness. It is a blessing from the throne itself. Wow! As we’ve looked into the Word, we have found promises of God that confirm His heart and desire for us, His children. Jesus came to crown us as His own. He gave us the right to be children of God, members of the royal family. Psalm 145:13 states this: For your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom; you rule throughout all generations. The Lord always keeps his promises; he is gracious in all he does.
David [00:02:05]:
Our God never fails, never lies, and never gives up. So how do we trust and believe in him to see the promise come to pass? Joshua 1:8 gives us some insight into how this transforming process works so that we can hold on to the promises God has given us. And that’s why I wanted to share this with you today. I want you to hold on to the promises. All you’ve seen as we’ve talked about God crowning us with his goodness, We don’t want to lose sight of that. We don’t want to lose our hope, our faith. We want to hold on to those things. And so God gives us a way to do that, a process that works.
David [00:02:56]:
He said to Joshua in Joshua 1:8, this book of the law shall not depart from your mouth. But you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. So the Hebrew word translated meditate here means to murmur, to mutter, to ponder aloud, to chew on or ruminate, to think deeply and continuously. It is often used to describe the low sound a person makes when they’re speaking under their breath. You ever do that while you’re walking around doing something else, cleaning house or working or coming or going or in your car driving? Lord, what does that mean? What am I, you know, how do I need to deal with it? You, you’re just murmuring under your breath. It also describes the growl of a lion over its prey. The lion, it’s growling, but it’s growling from a place of, I’m getting ready to, to eat.
David [00:04:19]:
It’s the repetitive action of chewing cud like cows. Chewing the cud. And so it’s just that over and over and over again. A good example of this is, uh, we use this example a lot, but a good example would be, um, there in Philippians 4:19, and I’m going to use this from the Amplified, but it says, my God liberally supplies and fills to the full all my need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. And so to meditate on this verse, I would start with, my God, my God, he’s my God. He’s my God. He’s not just my pastor’s God. He’s not just Abraham’s God or David’s God.
David [00:05:17]:
He’s my God. In fact, he’s my Father God. My Father God, He liberally supplies. He doesn’t hold back. He’s not just enough. He is more than enough. He’s liberal in His supply. He loves me, and He gives to me liberally.
David [00:05:38]:
My God liberally supplies. He is my supply, not the world system, not my job, He may use all those things, but he is my source and my supply. And so I could go on and on and on with that, but I think you get what I’m saying here. As we do that and we meditate on the word like that and think it through like that, it gets deep within us. It goes from our head to our heart. We see it in a way we haven’t seen it before. See, biblical meditation is not silent. It’s not a silent emptying of the mind like a lot of meditation is taught out there.
David [00:06:29]:
It is active engagement with God’s Word. You’re actively engaging with God’s Word when you meditate. It is thinking the Word, speaking the Word, murmuring the Word, muttering the Word, pondering the Word, pondering it out loud, chewing on it, internalizing it. It’s a powerful, powerful, powerful process as we’re going to see today. This verse, Joshua 1:8, is as true for us today as it was for Joshua. This principle and process of scriptural meditation empowers us to see, hear, and understand all God has for us. It transforms our thinking, our beliefs, our speaking, our choices, and our actions, which impacts our outcomes. Hallelujah! Let me say that again.
David [00:07:34]:
Let me say that again. It transforms our thinking, our beliefs, our speaking, our choices, our actions, which impacts our outcomes and our results. Wow. So here in Joshua 1:8, what we see are 4 key insights, takeaways from this verse. The first one is this: meditation is verbal and eternal. Let me say that again because I didn’t say it quite right, but it’s true what I said. It is eternal, but meditation is verbal and internal. It is eternal and internal.
David [00:08:20]:
The book of the law shall not depart from your mouth. So as we mentioned a moment ago, meditation involves speaking Scripture. Hebrews 4:12 in the Amplified says, for the word of God, the word that God speaks, is alive and full of power, making it active, operative, energizing, and effective. It is sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating to the dividing line of the breath of life, soul, and the immortal spirit, and of joints and marrow, of the deepest parts of our nature, exposing and sifting and analyzing and judging the very thoughts and purposes of our heart. God’s Word is alive. These aren’t just words that are written on a piece of paper. They are alive. The Word is alive.
David [00:09:28]:
The Word is more than what’s written on that piece of paper. The Word is alive. It is someone. The Word is Jesus Christ. So we speak the Word every day, repeating the Word. Make it repetitious. Deuteronomy 6:6-7 in the NLT says this: And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I’m giving you today. Repeat them again and again to your children.
David [00:10:12]:
Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road and when you are going to bed and when you are getting up. It’s an ongoing process all day long. Talk about it all day long. Talk about it. Talk about it all day long. Hallelujah. Repeat them. And there in that verse where it says wholeheartedly— commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands— those commands could— the word command there could be translated instruction.
David [00:10:49]:
God’s instructions in how to live life. His commands are His instructions. His law is His instruction. This is how it works. And so God is saying here today, here’s a key theme: don’t stop declaring the Word. Don’t stop meditating on the Word. Keep repeating the Word. To yourself, to your children.
David [00:11:17]:
Teach them to empower them. Hallelujah! Don’t stop it. Do it all day long. When you get up, when you go to work, when you’re coming home, when you go to bed, when you’re sitting around the table eating— don’t stop. Here’s one principle we know is true: repetition brings mastery. You want to get the word so deep in you, you’ve mastered it and it has mastered you. You walk in it. It’s just ingrained in you.
David [00:12:05]:
It shapes your thoughts and your confession. You meditate on the word to the point that it shapes your thoughts and your confessions. God has crowned this year with his goodness, and his paths drip with abundance. You meditate on that verse till it gets so deep within you, you got to walk out the door, you’re going, okay, Lord, let’s go. We’re gonna go walking some paths that drip with abundance. I’m gonna go your way today. Praise God. Romans 12:2 in the NLT.
David [00:12:42]:
Now I’m gonna use this verse a lot in different versions, but Romans 12:2 in the NLT says, don’t copy the behavior and the customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. Good and pleasing and perfect. And we thank you for it, Father. Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. Meditating the Word will show you the way. Meditation inspires godly imagination. God gave us imagination, and so let’s use it to empower ourselves.
David [00:13:34]:
God gave us imagination so we can visualize the possibilities and opportunities he’s setting before us. And we’ve all heard the story of Abraham and how God spoke to him. And in Genesis 15:5, he told him, look at the stars, Abraham. I’m gonna Your descendants are going to be like the stars. You can’t number them. And then in Genesis 17:4-5, he changed his name from Abram to Abraham, which means father of a multitude, chief of a multitude. So now every time someone called him Abraham or he said his name Abraham, it reminded him. It was repeating.
David [00:14:20]:
It was making it repetitious. I’m a father of a multitude. I’m a chief of a multitude. Hallelujah. And then in Genesis 22:17, the Lord said, I’m going to multiply your descendants like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore. God was giving Abraham images to look at and say, That’s what your descendants are going to be like. They’re going to be innumerable. And there’s a reason the Lord did this.
David [00:14:57]:
There’s a reason when we’re meditating, he wants us to use our imagination and see it. And he wants us to see it because seeing something empowers being something. Seeing empowers your being. 2 Corinthians 3:18 in the NLT says this: So all of us who have had the veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord, and the Lord who is the Spirit that makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image. So as we get into the Word and we begin to pursue Christ in the Word, we begin to see The Holy Spirit works in us and through us to remove the veil that was there before so we can see clearly and understand and have revelation and insight and understanding into the Word of God. And as we do that, we see Jesus more clearly. We see the Word more clearly. We begin to reflect the glory of the Lord, and we become more and more and more like him.
David [00:16:13]:
Wow! Imagination, it’s a very powerful gift God has given us to use for his glory. Your imagination fuels creativity. It fuels hope, which can be defined as active expectations. So your imagination fuels your creativity and your active expectations. Which fuels your faith, makes your faith strong, and builds you up. Hebrews 11:1 in the Amplified. I like the way it says it here. Now faith is the assurance, the confirmation, the title deed of things we hope for, being the proof of things we do not see and the conviction of their reality.
David [00:17:04]:
Faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses. Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Faith perceiving as a real fact what is not perceived or revealed to the senses. Faith sees it even though We don’t see it. The number in our bank account’s not what we think it should be, or it’s not where it needs to be. Faith says it’s there, it’s there, it’s coming, it’s there. Praise God, praise God. Our imagination God gives us works with us to see what God is saying. We’re not just dreaming something up.
David [00:17:58]:
We’re basing this on what God is saying in his word. Hallelujah! Thank you, Lord. You see, everything is created twice. First, it’s created in our imagination and our thinking and our mind, what we see there. And then it’s created through physical creation. First is with in you, and then it’s beyond you. And so meditating in the word gets it deep within us so we can see the manifestation of it beyond us. Hallelujah.
David [00:18:35]:
Ephesians 3:20 in the Amplified: Now to him who by— in consequence of— the action of his power that is at work within us is able to carry out his purpose and do superabundantly, far over and above all that we dare ask or think, infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, hopes, or dreams. Praise God, praise God, praise God. God is saying, as we meditate on His word and we pursue His word and hold to that promise, He’s able by His power that works within us to take us so far beyond we, we can’t imagine it. We can try. He wants us to try, but he’s going to take it— I love when it says infinitely beyond. Well, infinite means without end, so we’re going beyond without end. So is that beyond beyond? Hallelujah! Infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, our dreams. God is always more.
David [00:19:48]:
When we say God is showing us something, we are hearing the voice of the Lord and seeing the visual image of his word, his thoughts. As we meditate on the word and the revelation we get as we do that, we are seeing his thoughts come to life in us. Faith grows when God’s word is both spoken and believed. So a part of meditation is strengthening our belief and our faith. Romans 10:17 in the NIV says, consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ. So our faith is built up on the word that we have in front of us. If we don’t have the word, God’s word, in front of us, we’ve got something else in front of us, it’s not going to build our faith in God’s word. It’s going to build our faith over here in this other thing.
David [00:20:54]:
We need to keep the word of God in front of us morning, noon, and night, every day, and all of life. So we’re built up on His Word. The second thing we see here in Joshua 1:8 is meditation is continuous. The Lord said to Joshua, meditate in it day and night. Meditate in the Word day and night. This speaks to consistency. We’re not talking about occasional study, once a week or twice a week or every other week. No, we’re talking about every day, daily.
David [00:21:39]:
In Proverbs 8:34-35— Proverbs 8 is a wisdom proverb, it’s, it’s talking about wisdom. So Proverbs 8:34-35, and this is from The Passion Translation, it says this: If you wait at wisdom’s doorway, longing to hear a word for every day. Joy will break forth within you as you listen for what I’ll say, for the fountain of life pours into you every time that you find me. And this is the secret of growing into the light and the favor of the Lord, allowing God’s word to shape you and shape every season of your life. Romans 12:2 in The Passion Translation says this: Stop imitating the ideals and opinions of the culture around you, but be inwardly transformed, inwardly transformed by the Holy Spirit, through a total reformation of how you think. This will empower you to discern God’s will as you live a beautiful life, satisfying and perfect in His eyes. Hallelujah! We want to let Scripture become the lens through which we live our life, through which decisions are made. So that scripture is influencing how we see, how we hear, how we understand, what we say.
David [00:23:26]:
That’s what meditation does for us. Meditation keeps our heart aligned with God’s word even when circumstances are challenging. I don’t know what you’re going through. You know, Pastor Connie and I are going through some things right now, some challenges, but here’s what I know: if we stay aligned with God’s Word, the circumstances will change. God will come. He makes us victors and overcomers. Praise God! Stay in the Word. The third thing we see here in Joshua 1:8 is meditation leads to obedience.
David [00:24:19]:
So the Lord says to Joshua, meditate in my word day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written, that you may observe to do all that is written. Biblical meditation is not merely intellectual. Biblical meditation moves from thought to belief to choice to action to result. And when it’s all founded on God’s Word, the Lord says, then you’re going to live a good life. And what it does, it produces transformed living. It transforms the way we get up and the way we show up in the world around us. James 1:22 from The Passion Translation says, don’t just listen to the word of truth and not respond to it, for that is the essence of self-deception. So always let his word become like poetry written and fulfilled by your life.
David [00:25:39]:
That takes me back to Ephesians 2:10, where it says we’re recreated in him to do good works. And that word there means, uh, is poema— recreated, made anew. It’s poema. It means we’re— and poema is where we get our English word poem. So it can be— it could be we’ve been recreated, or his poem to the world, his lyric to the world, his song to the world. And what it says here in the Greek, these words are woven together into us. We’re like a fine linen that’s being weaved together. When you weave the Word into you, his Word becomes like poetry fulfilled by your life as you live it out.
David [00:26:45]:
Praise God. You see, biblical meditation is a transformative, holistic practice that moves way beyond mere intellectual study of the Word to engage the heart, the soul, which is your mind, will, and emotions, in deep reflection on Scripture. It involves ruminating on God’s Word so that we can learn to apply truth to life. It’s fostering intimate communion with God. Rather than just acquiring knowledge. Well, I studied that, and I know that now. Okay, I can check that off. No, God wants you to go deep into his word, and it wraps you, covers you, surrounds you, grips you.
David [00:27:39]:
It becomes life to you. You see, the second point here is the goal is not information It’s transformation. Again, Romans 12:2, I’m going to read it from the Amplified this time. Do not be conformed to this world, this age, fashioned after and adapted to its external superficial customs, but be transformed, changed, by the entire renewal of your mind, by its new ideals and its new attitude. Wow. So that you may prove for yourselves what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God, even the thing which is good and acceptable and perfect in his sight for you. You begin to see the word in a way that you see your place in it and what God has for you in it. And that’s what we’ve been talking about the last few weeks.
David [00:28:42]:
God has a place for you this year where you are crowned with his goodness and you walk in his way of abundance and overflow and increase. But to keep that in you, you got to spend some time meditating on the word every day. The fourth thing we see in this verse in Joshua 1:8 is meditation is connected to godly success. God wants you to succeed. Know that. It says, for then, after you’ve meditated, you’ve observed, you’ve seen the word, you got it in there, then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success because you’re living in God’s way then. As it says there in Psalm 65, your way, your paths, your way drips, overflows, increases with abundance. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.
David [00:29:52]:
The word way here means your course of action, your manner of living, your lifestyle. Your moral character, how you’re showing up. Isaiah 48:17 in the Amplified says this: Thus says the Lord your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: I am the Lord your God who teaches you to profit, who leads you in the way that you should go. Meditation in His Word empowers you to be fully who he created you to be. All that he desires for you, it’s right here in you. And as you meditate in the word, you unlock all that potential and possibility and opportunity. The word prosperous here, he teaches you to profit, or in Joshua 1:8, then you will be prosperous. It means to advance, to make progress, to succeed, to be profitable, to experience success.
David [00:31:05]:
It is prosperity in every dimension of your life. And prosperity there is not— like I said, it’s not just financial, it’s everything. It’s seeing increase and excellence, abundance in every expression of your life, every dimension of it. You are empowered to be fruitful and multiply in every dimension of your life. That’s what God spoke over Adam and Eve in Genesis 1:28. God blessed them and said to them, be fruitful and multiply. Be productive, advance, succeed, make progress, and then multiply it, multiply it, multiply it, multiply it. You are a child of God.
David [00:32:11]:
You’re made in the image of God. And just like your Father God, you have the capacity within you to be more, to do more, to create more, to have more, to share more. Hallelujah! The word success there in Joshua 1:8 means living wisely within God’s will, living wisely within God’s will. It’s our obedience to God’s instruction. It means to gain insight and understanding which influences your decisions. It means to cause to prosper, to increase, to be excellent, to excel at what you do. God just doesn’t want you just getting by. He wants you to succeed.
David [00:33:08]:
He wants you to be more than enough, as He is more than enough. As the Lord said to Abraham, I am the Lord your God. The Almighty God is what he said. Jehovah Jireh, the God who is all-sufficient. Just not sufficient, he’s all-sufficient, which also means more than enough. That’s what God wants for us. He wants us to succeed and be more than enough in our relationship with him and our relationship with everyone around us, in what we do, how we serve others. God defines success as obedience empowered by his word.
David [00:34:20]:
And when we’re obedient to his instructions, his precepts, his commands, success flows to us. Romans 12:2, I’m going to read the last half of it there in the Amplified. It says, so that you may prove for yourselves what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Even the thing which is good and acceptable and perfect in his sight for you. Meditation brings us to that point that we see it and we walk in it. That’s who we become. So let me summarize this. Meditation is to consistently Every day and night, speak, think, and dwell on God’s word until it shapes your beliefs, your choices, your behavior, and the direction that you take.
David [00:35:24]:
Meditation is the bridge between God’s promises, our obedience, and a life aligned with his blessing. Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Meditation aligns us with His blessing. So Joshua 1:8 in the Amplified says, this book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, that you may observe and do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you shall deal wisely and have good success. That is God’s heart and desire for you. This isn’t just some legalistic, ritualistic, religious statement he’s making. He’s saying, Joshua, here’s the way it works, and I want you to succeed. I want you to prosper.
David [00:36:27]:
I want you to deal wisely, walking in wisdom. I want you to have good success. And here’s how you do it. And God is saying the same thing to us today, church. This is his heart for us. So I want to encourage you, go back and go through your notes, or listen to those messages again and get more notes, but take those scriptures and meditate on them. And everything we teach on this year, take some time, pull a scripture out of there too, and meditate on it. Meditate on it.
David [00:37:10]:
Meditate. Get it down in you and see all that God has for you and all that he’s created you to be. Hallelujah. Let’s bow our heads in prayer. Father, we thank you for this time. We thank you for this time in your word. We thank you for showing us how to make your word real and alive within us so that it transforms us and changes us so that we’re more and more like you, Lord, and we walk out and become all that you created us to be so that we can impact this world in a way that we see here on earth as it is in heaven. We bring heaven to earth every day, and we thank you for giving us the privilege and opportunity to partner with you in doing that.
David [00:38:08]:
Now, Father, I pray that your Holy Spirit would just bring revelation, knowledge, and insight and wisdom to everyone listening to this today, and that they would take your word and begin to meditate on it, Hallelujah. Think about it, ponder it. Hallelujah. Declare it, speak it, Father, that they become transformed, a mighty, mighty, mighty child of God going forth and touching the world. Thank you, Father. Thank you, Father. Thank you, Father. For how much you love us and care for us.
David [00:38:52]:
We praise you for it, Father. In Jesus’ name, amen. So be it. Praise God. Go meditate the word this week. Pastor Conyers coming now with a closing thought. We love you.
