Opening the Gates of Heaven Perry Stone

intercession. The concept involves meditating upon the Lord . The word meditate is first used in the Bible in Genesis 24:63, where Isaac “went out to meditate in the field in the evening.” The Book of Psalms uses the word meditate in nine verses (Ps. 1:2; 63:6; 77:12; 119:15, 23, 48, 78, 148; 143:5). In these verses the Hebrew words for “meditate” mean, “to murmur, to ponder, and to study or to muse.” 1 People often speak of spending time reflecting upon a person’s life or a major personal incident. To reflect upon something means to form an image of the object or thing and bring it back into your mind, like looking into a mirror. There are seven different words used in the Old Testament for the Hebrew word meditate and two different words in the Greek New Testament. The most common meaning is: “to ponder and to muse upon something.” One of the meanings of mediating on something means “to chew the cud.” There are certain animals such as cattle, sheep, and goats that are unable to produce the enzymes required to break down the plant matter they eat. The animal’s stomach is made to return a portion of that which was eaten from the stomach back into the mouth to be chewed a second time. The old farmers called this chewing the cud . The phrase became an idiom expressing someone who spends time silently meditating or pondering something before making a final decision. In the Bible God spoke to Joshua and counseled him, “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth,