The Word
As of late
Father has been speaking to me about words.
It is not a new theme, but by His grace He always takes us deeper and
opens up that beautiful treasure chest called The Word. This had me thinking about the fact that
Jesus is called The Word. We have a
reply to those whom we think have spoken the truth and say, “word!” Even the
statement “he is a man of his word” denotes the character of a person - whether
he is to be trusted or not. Keeping your
word comes to mind and in scripture we read that He has magnified His Word above
all His Name (Psalm 138: 2). In essence
what is your name when you cannot keep your word? Our reputation and how others perceive and
experience us are based on the words we speak.
What we say and whether we keep our word determines how others look at
us.
In John 1:1 we
read that in the beginning was The Word, and The Word was with God, and The
Word was God. We know that by His Word
He spoke and formed this world and everything in it. He is called The Word, but what does that
mean? What is He when He says, “I am The
Word”? He was not the alphabet on two
legs when He walked this earth. There is
an essence that we need to understand here.
Without words nothing exists. He
is the Word in the same way that He is love.
Not the author of love, but the very thing in itself. He is the Word, not the author of the Word,
but the very thing itself. This is why
in John 1 we read in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and
the Word was God. And as the Creator,
being The Word, He came to dwell among us.
We read that His Word is Spirit and Life. So when the Spirit of God abides in us, His
Word abides in us. Not the letter, but the
Person.
Words are
subject to those who speak it. The power
lies within the tongue. However, the
tongue is but only an organ. From out of
the abundance of our hearts we speak. The
heart being the well spring of this tongue, has life and death in its power. We need to understand just how crucial it is
that we align ourselves with the Word that is in us. For unless we are the thing we speak, the
doctrine we ascribe to and not deceive ourselves, we will render the Word powerless,
by this wellspring of our hearts. We
will find ourselves confronted with the fact that our words keep falling to the
ground, not having any effect on the hearer, simply because in reality it is
our word, and not His. In James we are
asked how can bitter and sweet water come from the same fountain?
And in Ecclesiastes
5:2 we read
Be not rash with thy
mouth, and let not thy heart be hasty to utter anything before God: for God is
in heaven and thou upon earth.
Therefore, let thy words be few.
Also in Matthew 12: 36 Jesus says
that at the end every idle word we speak will be judged and that we will be judged
by the Words He speaks. The Word will
judge us by His Word.
What He is seeking
is those who will not give Him lip service, but those whose lives align up with
His written and spoken Word. That which
is not authentic is in reality deceptive.
If I portray myself a certain way by my words, then authenticity and
integrity requires me to be that in reality.
If not, I am being deceptive to others and possibly deceive myself
too. This is why we should not be rash
in saying anything, for the issue is not whether it is true, but rather whether
it is true in us. The Word is living to
the degree that it is alive and living in us.
Otherwise our words fall to the ground.
Yes, His Word will never return void as we read in Isaiah 55, but the
issue is whether it is your word, even though it may be doctrinally true, or is
it His Word, full of the life and Spirit of God. For He is the Spirit of Truth. This is a
staggering thought and a call to the fear of God, which is the beginning of
wisdom. Only then can I truly say that
my words are not my own but the one who sent me. Just as Jesus were able to speak with such
authority because He was the Word not just in name, but in authenticity. To such a life we are called to be that very
thing in all our categories. For He is
the patterned Son. Anybody can quote the
word or memorize some verses, but can they be the thing they speak? Authority is vitally linked to
authenticity. This is the reason why
many of our words fall to the ground because we have not walked in obedience to
that very thing we speak. We need to ask
ourselves some hard questions before we judge others or even speak His
Word. Jesus said that we are to judge
righteously, and the only way to do that is that we ourselves are not guilty of
that judgment. So what we speak becomes
the very judgment we speak over ourselves, as we are told that we will be
judged by His Word. Jesus said, “I AM”. Can you say that “i am that thing I speak”? Do you abide in the Word and the Word in
you? Not just in the knowledge of the
Word, your gift of exegesis, but the Person?
Does He dwell in you as The Word and is that Word alive in you?
He said that it is not what goes
into the mouth that defiles, but what comes out of the mouth – Matt.
15:11. Are you being defiled by your own
words? A little leaven, leavens the
whole lump. That which is not true about
me that I speak is that very leaven that leavens the whole lump. Deception is conceived within the heart.
In
Psalm 19: 14 David prays:
Let
the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Thy
sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer.
Our speaking
cannot be our own. All of this shows in
essence the true nature of how we value His Word. Does His Word hold its proper place in your
heart? Please do not think that I am
being poetic or trying to sound impressive, for the very words I type here is
either a glory or a judgment over me.
Does the word not say the following?
James 3:1
3 My brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we
shall receive the greater condemnation.
I am writing this in the fear of God. This word “masters” is the word
teachers. How quick we are to teach
others! Where is the fear of God in our
lives and why are we not falling down on our faces before Him? Why are we not crying out to Him knowing that
such a great judgment awaits us? Why do
we read these scriptures and do not stagger in fear…it can only be because our
understanding is veiled.
This Word, the Spirit of God dwells in us. We are one spirit with God. Can two fountains flow out of one mouth? Our understanding of the fact that He is The
Word that now lives in us and wants to speak through us should overwhelm
us. He who created all, is in us wanting
to use our mouth as His mouthpiece to speak.
I have only this to ask…Is my mouth in totality given
up and surrendered unto Him. Is He
speaking through me or is my speaking my own?
Should I look to my idle words, my inappropriate jokes, my flippant
attitude to words in general as little “boo boos” or should I consider that is
has gravity, weight and vibration?
Vibration is energy. We
ourselves, just like the worlds, are made up of water and when we speak these
vibrations form in us either life or death, just as it does in the spirit. The difference is that we need to understand
that sound has no end, just as He is the Eternal Word.
Does God wastes words?
Does He say anything just for the heck of it? Did Jesus when He walked this earth waste
words? I am not saying that every word
He spoke was preluded by “thus sayeth the Lord”, what I am saying is He is the
Truth. And as the Truth He said that
every idle word of ours will be judged.
May we ask for great mercy in this regard! So that when we speak the Word speaks through
us, not the letter, but the Person. This
is why the Word is sharper than a two-edged sword, piercing asunder bone and
marrow, dividing between soul and spirit and is a discerner of the true motives
of the heart (James 4). He desires to
first expose our hearts and to divide between that which is soulish and the
spirit. That which is our own
understanding, our dispositions and knowledge, that which is sensual and emotional
verses that which is true, authentic, eternal, life and transcendent. First we are to judge ourselves by His Word
and I am afraid that many of us have been so long in the “game” that we no
longer do this anymore. His
Word is not to be used like a magic spell because we believe in the power of
it, but rather we need to acknowledge and know that even though it is written,
it is also spoken…the Word is a Person, Jesus Christ. And herein lies the crux of the matter. When we read the letter, do we narrow it down
to just the alphabet forming words, or do we understand that the moment it
becomes truth in us, Christ is formed in us…not just truth, but The Truth!
We read the following in Hebrews 1:
God,
who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers
by the prophets,
2 Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son,
whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;
3 Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express
image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he
had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on
high:
Now He lives in us and is speaking to us both in the
letter and the Spirit.
He is speaking to us and calling us to that
authenticity that He lived by. Who is
sufficient for this we may ask. Praise
the Lord He has not only come to show us the Way, but be The Way for us by His
Spirit that dwells in us. His promise to
us is that we need that no man should teach us, but that His anointing and His
Spirit will teach us and guide us – 1 John 2: 27. He also promised that He would inscribe His
Word upon our hearts. This talks about
an etching into the heart. I suspect it
will be done with His Word, the two-edged sword. But how we respond and whether His Word holds
it proper place in holy reverence in our lives, will determine whether it is
etched on our hearts or merely written with pencil.
May we humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God
and allow Him to confront us in our deepest parts of our beings, surrendering
all our categories to be judged by His Word so that we may walk in the
light. For those who walk in the light,
will never stumble in the darkness.
Amen.
Please Read:
Hebrews 12: 5 – 11
5 And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh
unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord,
nor faint when thou art rebuked of him:
6 For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth
every son whom he receiveth.
7 If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with
sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?
8 But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are
partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.
9 Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which
corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in
subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?
10 For they verily for a few days chastened us after
their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his
holiness.
No comments:
Post a Comment