The Revealing Power of God's Word
"For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart" (Heb. 4:12)
God's Word has the power to change both our perspective and our objective. His Word directs and corrects the condition of our hearts and His Word reveals all that is hidden and unseen by turning on the spiritual light to all that we need to know that we might spiritually grow.
When we consider how the children of Israel failed to enter into God's rest and how many of them missed out on going into the promised land that the Lord had prepared for them, it should cause us to pause and examine ourselves with this question, "Are we truly believing in all that God has spoken and promised to us?"
We need to be diligent in order to enter into His rest. In other words, we need to work hard to RECEIVE what Christ worked hard to GIVE. We need to work hard not to work for "something" but rather to rest in "Someone." It is God's work that gives us the rest we long for and reveals how we can be strong in the grace that is found only in Christ Jesus!
God's Word carries with it the immediate power to bring something into existence and to give us the necessary faith and sufficiency to do what God is calling us to do. We need the Word of God as our daily bread so that we can renew our minds and see who God desires to us to be and what God desires us to see. Our obedience to the Word of God is how we seize opportunities and our dependence on the God of the Word is how we overcome obstacles.
This has been shown to us throughout the history of Israel. Psalm 107:20 says, "He sent His word and healed them, And delivered them from their destructions. Our job is to hear the Word of God and to trust and rest fully in who God is and what He is able to do. Psalm 85:8 says, "I will hear what God the LORD will speak, For He will speak peace to His people and to His saints; But let them not turn back to folly.
This picture of the Word being alive and active just as a soldier uses the powerful thrust of a "two edged sword" illustrates beautifully how we need to apply the Word with confidence and precision. We see that Paul uses this same picture when teaching on spiritual warfare and tells the church to stand and fight their spiritual battles by putting on the full armor of God and "the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God" (Eph. 6:17).
The Word ("Logos" in Greek) is the divine expression made available to us, which is fulfilled in Christ (John 1:14), and the specific, spoken word that is needed for the moment is the "rhema" word. When Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, He stood His ground by speaking the written Word of God found in Deuteronomy 8, but He also answered one of the temptations by showing us how specific and exact His words were as He said, "It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word (Grk. "Rhema") that proceeds from the mouth of God.’”
O may God help us to know how to speak the Word that is right and appropriate for the moment! Proverbs 25:11 says, "A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver." It is always right to seek to speak the RIGHT word at the RIGHT time in the RIGHT way.
In the book of Judges, we read of a deliverer named Ehud, who was left handed from birth. This came to be a great advantage to him when approaching the Moabite king Eglon, since he was able to hide his two edged dagger in a place that was not as easily noticed. He came with a word for the king saying, “I have a secret message for you, O king.” However, this message was basically an actual dagger being thrusted into his big fat belly which led to his entrails coming out and ultimately his death and Israel's deliverance.
There is a spiritual principle that we can learn here:
When the TRUTH OF GOD’S WORD goes in, the FILTH OF MAN’S FLESH comes out.
When it comes to the Bible, may we always know that, "this book will keep you from sin but sin will keep you from this book."
The Word of God is so powerful and so precise that it actually divides between soul and spirit, revealing that although these parts can be used interchangeably, the soul and the spirit also have a unique distinction.
With the spirit...we contact, connect, and commune with God.
With the soul…we think, we feel or desire, and make our decisions.
When we are born again of the Spirit, our spirit is able to control and lead our soul and thus rule over our fleshly desires. This is what we read in Galatians 5:16-17:
"I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.
"The daily bread allows us to be daily dead...so that Jesus lives in us instead."
THIS WEEK’S “New Covenant” EXHORTATION:
Let us take time to read the Bible and then let the Bible read us. We must allow the Word to reveal our heart condition and expose all that is hidden, unconfessed, or unaddressed in our lives so that we may fully trust and rest in Christ.
God's Word has the power to change both our perspective and our objective. His Word directs and corrects the condition of our hearts and His Word reveals all that is hidden and unseen by turning on the spiritual light to all that we need to know that we might spiritually grow.
When we consider how the children of Israel failed to enter into God's rest and how many of them missed out on going into the promised land that the Lord had prepared for them, it should cause us to pause and examine ourselves with this question, "Are we truly believing in all that God has spoken and promised to us?"
We need to be diligent in order to enter into His rest. In other words, we need to work hard to RECEIVE what Christ worked hard to GIVE. We need to work hard not to work for "something" but rather to rest in "Someone." It is God's work that gives us the rest we long for and reveals how we can be strong in the grace that is found only in Christ Jesus!
God's Word carries with it the immediate power to bring something into existence and to give us the necessary faith and sufficiency to do what God is calling us to do. We need the Word of God as our daily bread so that we can renew our minds and see who God desires to us to be and what God desires us to see. Our obedience to the Word of God is how we seize opportunities and our dependence on the God of the Word is how we overcome obstacles.
This has been shown to us throughout the history of Israel. Psalm 107:20 says, "He sent His word and healed them, And delivered them from their destructions. Our job is to hear the Word of God and to trust and rest fully in who God is and what He is able to do. Psalm 85:8 says, "I will hear what God the LORD will speak, For He will speak peace to His people and to His saints; But let them not turn back to folly.
This picture of the Word being alive and active just as a soldier uses the powerful thrust of a "two edged sword" illustrates beautifully how we need to apply the Word with confidence and precision. We see that Paul uses this same picture when teaching on spiritual warfare and tells the church to stand and fight their spiritual battles by putting on the full armor of God and "the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God" (Eph. 6:17).
The Word ("Logos" in Greek) is the divine expression made available to us, which is fulfilled in Christ (John 1:14), and the specific, spoken word that is needed for the moment is the "rhema" word. When Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, He stood His ground by speaking the written Word of God found in Deuteronomy 8, but He also answered one of the temptations by showing us how specific and exact His words were as He said, "It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word (Grk. "Rhema") that proceeds from the mouth of God.’”
O may God help us to know how to speak the Word that is right and appropriate for the moment! Proverbs 25:11 says, "A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver." It is always right to seek to speak the RIGHT word at the RIGHT time in the RIGHT way.
In the book of Judges, we read of a deliverer named Ehud, who was left handed from birth. This came to be a great advantage to him when approaching the Moabite king Eglon, since he was able to hide his two edged dagger in a place that was not as easily noticed. He came with a word for the king saying, “I have a secret message for you, O king.” However, this message was basically an actual dagger being thrusted into his big fat belly which led to his entrails coming out and ultimately his death and Israel's deliverance.
There is a spiritual principle that we can learn here:
When the TRUTH OF GOD’S WORD goes in, the FILTH OF MAN’S FLESH comes out.
When it comes to the Bible, may we always know that, "this book will keep you from sin but sin will keep you from this book."
The Word of God is so powerful and so precise that it actually divides between soul and spirit, revealing that although these parts can be used interchangeably, the soul and the spirit also have a unique distinction.
With the spirit...we contact, connect, and commune with God.
With the soul…we think, we feel or desire, and make our decisions.
When we are born again of the Spirit, our spirit is able to control and lead our soul and thus rule over our fleshly desires. This is what we read in Galatians 5:16-17:
"I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.
"The daily bread allows us to be daily dead...so that Jesus lives in us instead."
THIS WEEK’S “New Covenant” EXHORTATION:
Let us take time to read the Bible and then let the Bible read us. We must allow the Word to reveal our heart condition and expose all that is hidden, unconfessed, or unaddressed in our lives so that we may fully trust and rest in Christ.
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