THE POWER OF THE WORD
“For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12)
When the Word of God gets into your spirit, it has the power to make you what it talks about, bringing about a transformation. The Word is the only agent that can transform a person’s life on all three levels–spirit, soul and body.
Romans 12:2 says, “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind…” this means that the Word can also transform your way of thinking.
Then also, the Word can transform your physical body: “My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings… for they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh.” (Proverbs 4:20-22). The word “health” is from the Hebrew word “marpe” which means medicine, showing God’s Word will immunize you against sickness and infirmity.
Make a personal decision to improve your life every day with the Word of God, and your life would be truly an unending stream of success, health and progress. Praise God.
KNOW THE WORD FOR YOURSELF
The life of a Christian isn’t ordinary; it’s supernatural. This is why we’ve been instructed through God’s Word, to live with the consciousness of who we are in Christ. You have to leave the realm of the ordinary and get into the realm of the supernatural, where you take control of the affairs of your life.
We are citizens of Zion, the heavenly Jerusalem; this is the city of the living God. As a citizen of this city you have undeniable rights: the right to live, to choose and to receive God’s blessings in Christ.
It is also important to know that we have an adversary – the devil, whose mandate is to stop you from enjoying and exercising your rights in Christ Jesus. If you don’t know your rights in Christ, you’ll be at his mercy and that’s a dangerous way for you to live as a Christian.
Start today by digging into God’s Word and searching the Scriptures for yourself. Discover your rights and privileges in Christ: what God has said you can do and have, and then begin to appropriate them in your life. Give no room to the devil and never allow him cheat you out of your inheritance in Christ.
KNOWLEDGE ACTIVATES THE POWER OF THE WORD
It doesn’t matter who you are, or how severe or hopeless you might think the case is, nothing is impossible to the one who lives by the truth of God’s Word
And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free (John 8:32).
Spiritual truths are activated by knowledge. 2 Peter 1:3 says, “…his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue.” Proverbs 11:9 says, "...through knowledge—revelation knowledge—shall the just be delivered."
As you study and meditate on the Word, not only will you discover your inheritance in Christ, you’ll also receive the faith to relate with and enjoy all that God has made available to you in Christ Jesus. The Word is truth, and it has the capacity and ability to make you a success, build you up like a solid edifice, and keep you in health.
It doesn’t matter who you are, or how severe or hopeless you might think the case is, nothing is impossible to the one who lives by the truth of God’s Word. Life is an unending stream of blessings, excitement, success, and victories for the one who understands and applies the principles of God’s Word. The Word is able to change your life and to change you completely from failure to success. However, you must know the Word. If you don’t know the Word, you can’t work the Word.
That’s why we teach and preach the truth of God’s Word, because when we talk about the blessings that belong to us in Christ and people become aware of the blessings, they’ll start walking in the blessings. Through knowledge, they’re able to appropriate the blessings in their personal lives.
For example, many people know about healing, but most haven’t been taught how to walk in divine health; so when we preach divine health, they hear about it and get to know that divine health is theirs. That knowledge will impart faith to their spirits and activate the power of the Word in their lives to walk in divine health.
APPLY THE WORD FOR CHANGES
All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: (2 Timothy 3:16)
As a Christian, it’s important that you keep making progress, and using the Word of God to improve the quality of your personality. You ought to be able to testify of definite changes in your personality in recent times, through the application of the Word of God. There should be something positive and definite that you’ve built into your character or something negative that you got rid of from your character, by using the Word of God.
Subject yourself to the Word for it to effect changes in your spirit and in your soul. The change in your physical body is easy; the focus now is the change from within. You have a responsibility in building and upgrading your life with the Word of God; no one can do this for you.
There’re people who haven’t changed in ten years. The same things that offended them years ago, are still offending them now. The same people they disliked years ago are still disliked today. The same issues they’ve had in five years are still there. They’ve neither changed nor grown; that’s sad. The question to ask is, have such people acquired more information? Of course, they might have; but they haven’t acted on the information. They’ve heard and studied the Scriptures but haven’t yielded themselves to the transforming power of the Word of God to bring about lasting changes in their personality. It’s not enough to hear or gather scriptural information; you must act on the Word.
There’re those who, when they’re in church, write down everything that’s being preached and taught. They get the tapes and they listen, but they’re so used to the voice that it doesn’t mean anything to them nor effect a change in their character. They’ve become too familiar with the Word. Don’t be that way. Believe in the power and ability of the Word of God to transform your life from glory to glory. Apply the Word for changes. I’m not talking about a temporary change, but permanent changes to affect your personality. God’s Word was given to you as a creative material. Any change you want in your life is possible; use the Word to make it happen.
You can create more victories and sustain yourself in the transcendent life with the Word.
THE OUTWORKING OF THE WORD IN YOU
To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God (Ephesians 3:10).
Do you know there’s something about us, the new creation, that the angels can’t get over? The angels are glorious and wonderful beings. They’re excellent in glory and mighty in power, but they’re amazed at what God has done with us, in us, and for us, because as glorious as they are, God doesn’t live in them, and as “unworthy” as we were, He gave us a new life and made us His living tabernacles. That remains a mystery to the angels; they don’t understand it. And guess what? God chose us to explain it to them.
The Church is to make the manifold wisdom of God known to them. That’s why each time we preach about Jesus, and about the Holy Ghost, the angels love to listen. They enjoy it; they want to know more about the salvation that Jesus brought to man, because it’s something that they only know from the scriptures. They don’t have an actual experience of it. They don’t know what it’s like; so, they hear it from us. That’s what the Apostle Paul alludes to in our opening verse when he says, “To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God” (Ephesians 3:10).
It is, indeed, a great privilege and honor for us as the Church of Jesus Christ to explain God’s wisdom and mysteries to the angels. Now, if that’s part of our responsibility, it means we have to know the Word. We have to live in the Word and live out the Word. In other words, you have to be the expression of the Word of God; and that’s real Christianity. It’s the expression of God’s Word; the revelation of His righteousness and His personality. We’re His epistles.
2 Corinthians 3:2 says, “Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men….” The epistle of Christ is the Word of Christ. The Word of Christ is the Word of God. So, we’re the epistles of Christ in flesh, which means we’re the Word of God in flesh, just like Jesus. True Christianity is the outworking of the Word in me and in you. Hallelujah!
GOD’S WILL IS REVEALED IN HIS WORD
Healing already came to us at the Cross and God is more willing to heal us than we are willing to be healed. So why do Christians fall sick? Why do we find a lot of God’s children suffering and in pain? There are several reasons for this, but thank God, there’s no situation that cannot be brought under the control of God’s Word.
Hosea 4:6, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.”
This is the principal reason a lot of God’s people are in sickness: lack of knowledge and understanding of the Word of God concerning them. The word ‘destroyed’ has as its synonyms ‘suffer’ and ‘perish,’ so we might as well say, “God’s people suffer because of lack of knowledge.”
A lot of Christians have perfect understanding of every issue of life except that which is most vital – the Word of God, what God has said concerning them, who they are in Christ, what they can do and what they have in Him.
Only the Word of God can reveal this to us. We need to know who we are, what we can do and what we have. When you know who you are you will know how to live. You will realize there are certain things you don’t need to pray about. We were born into the rest of God, but too many Christians don’t know this. If you’ve entered into God’s rest, you’ve ceased from your own works like God did. But if you don’t know this, you’ll struggle in life. Hebrews 4:10, ”For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.”
That’s why it’s so vital that we have an understanding of the Word of God. Understanding of God’s Word will reveal your identity to you. Then you can live accordingly, because if you don’t know who you are, you can never act accordingly.
The Bible says if we ask according to God’s will He hears us (1 John 4:17). That means you should have known His will before asking. How do we know the will of God? God’s will is revealed in His Word. You never have to worry about the will of God if you know the Word of God. You can’t afford to lack in the knowledge of God’s Word. No wonder Paul prayed for his converts always that they would understand God’s will. For the Ephesians Church he prayed that God would give unto them the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, and that the eyes of their understanding will be enlightened (Ephesians 1:17, 18). For the Colossian Church, he prayed that they would be filled with the knowledge of God’s willing in all wisdom and spiritual understanding (Colossians 1:9) actually teach this. The Word of God will bless you when you know it.
WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH THE WORD?
“Put into action the word I covenanted with you when you left Egypt. I’m living and breathing among you right now. Don’t be timid. Don’t hold back” (Haggai 2:5 MSG)
The Spirit of God wants us to think and function in consistency with the Word. He wants us to know it’s our responsibility to see to it that His Word comes to pass in our lives!
The Word has already been given, Isaiah 55:11 says, “So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it”, and it will work and produce results for anyone who acts on it. So your responsibility as a Christian is to work the Word and bring it to pass in your life!
Isaiah 33:24 says, “And the inhabitant [of Zion] shall not say, I am sick…” And Hebrews 12:22 lets us know we dwell in Zion, ““But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God…” What have you done with these truths? For one to cry to God for healing, having come across these truths, means he’s ignorant! You’re the caretaker of your body and you ought to decide what happens to it. If anything goes wrong with it, then heal it with the Word. Make a change today with the Word!