Is. 55:11 So shall
My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But
it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which
I sent it.”
One of the
things that every believer in Christ must do is to make sure that they never
lose sight of how important the Word of God is in our daily life. It can
become, just like anything else in our life, one of the things that we just
take for granted and before long we begin to lose sight of who we are in Christ
and how we are to walk in this earth.
God’s Word
in the above verses is clearly seen as that which comes from God to accomplish
a purpose. As rain comes down and even snow from heaven to water the earth so
that it can bring forth a harvest, so is God’s Word. The Word of God will not
return to Him void, but will accomplish what pleases the Father. That Word is
Jesus Christ.
John 1:1 In the
beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
John 1:2 He was in
the beginning with God.
John 1:3 All things
were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.
John 1:4 In Him was
life, and the life was the light of men.
John 1:14
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the
glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
The Word is
Jesus Christ, and that Word was sent to earth by the Father to accomplish
exactly what the Father sent Him to do. He did not return to God void, He
returned victorious over sin and satan, and He became the firstborn from the
dead, not the only born from the dead. Jesus came to water the earth with His
shed blood, wiping away our sin, and fulfilling all that the Father had asked
of Him. He provided a way for us to the Father, and redeemed us from the curse
of the law. God’s Word and He are one. If you want to get to know the Father,
get to know His Word. If you want to find out what the Father has desired for
your life, get to know the Word of God.
To walk in the
light of the Word means that we as believers are to take the Word of God for
what it says, not question what we know is clear in the Bible, and believe in
that Word. If we do believe in God’s Word we believe in God. Therefore whatever
God’s Word says we not only believe it, we act upon it. To make light of the
Word is to make light of God. One of the greatest apostles to ever walk on the
earth was a man of God named Smith Wigglesworth. It is undeniable that he
clearly knew God and walked in the light of His Word. Here are some quotes by Smith
Wigglesworth:
“I can’t understand God by feelings. I can’t
understand the Lord Jesus Christ by feelings. I can only understand God the
Father and Jesus Christ by what the Word says about them. God is everything the
Word says He is. We need to get acquainted with Him through the Word.”
"If it is in the Bible, it is so. It's not
even to be prayed about. It's to be received and acted upon. Inactivity is a robber,
which steals blessings. Increase comes by action, by using what we have and
know. Your life must be one of going on from faith to faith."
So if we want to get to
know God, we need to become very acquainted with God’s Word. As brother Kenneth
Hagin used to say, “The written Word reveals to us the living Word.” We must
learn to make the Bible a very important part of our relationship with God. We
don’t need to make it a duty, nor something we just do because we are a
Christian, but we need to make it a time of fellowship, study, and a part of
our daily journey in discovering who God created us to be.
It’s no wonder that over
time the enemy has crept in to some churches where people are no longer
encouraged to bring their Bibles. Instead the scriptures are just put up on a
screen. I don’t think there is anything wrong necessarily with putting verses
on a screen, but if we are in love with the God of the Word, we are in love
with the Word. When we don’t take time to turn to the verses of scripture in
church ourselves then the Bible begins to become less and less involved in a
believers daily life.
Smith Wigglesworth said
that he would go nowhere without his testament, referring to a small New
Testament that he carried with him everywhere. I think he knew something we
need to know. He didn’t worship His Bible, but He worshipped the God of the
Bible because again God and His Word are one. He certainly lived a life that
only many dream about today. Smith walked in the light of God’s Word because
God’s Word was a priority to Smith Wigglesworth.
So it is obvious that if
we are to walk in the light of the Word we must come to love the Word of God
for they are one. As we are told in Romans 12:2 we will not see our lives
transformed from conformity to the world unless we renew our minds to the Word
of God. This is clearly seen as the only way one’s life will be transformed. We
must renew our minds to walk in the light of the Word of God.
Mark 4:14 The sower
sows the word.
Mark 4:15 And these
are the ones by the wayside where the word is sown. When they hear, Satan comes
immediately and takes away the word that was sown in their hearts.
Mark 4:16 These
likewise are the ones sown on stony ground who, when they hear the word,
immediately receive it with gladness;
Mark 4:17 and they
have no root in themselves, and so endure only for a time. Afterward, when
tribulation or persecution arises for the word’s sake, immediately they
stumble.
Mark 4:18 Now these
are the ones sown among thorns; they are the ones who hear the word,
Mark 4:19 and the
cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other
things entering in choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.
Mark 4:20 But these
are the ones sown on good ground, those who hear the word, accept it, and bear
fruit: some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred.”
To walk in the light of
God’s Word we must not only obviously live in the Word of God, we must also
make sure that we are good ground for the Word of God to produce in us this
transformation that God desires. When you look to your life and as a believer
you are not seeing change, or you are not seeing results as the scriptures
promise one thing is for sure, it is not God’s Word that is the problem. God
sent His Word and accomplished all that was needful for us to live victorious
as a child of God. But what many don’t take time to examine is the condition of
their heart which has everything to do with how well God’s Word will work in
your life.
Walking in the light of
the Word as we have said means to believe what it says. To do that you must
again be good ground, for God’s Word is considered a seed that will grow up and
produce what it says. If you want to walk in health you need to plant the
scriptures that reveal how we through Christ can live a healed life. If you
want to have a victorious marriage you must take the seed of God’s Word and get
it into good ground, your heart, so that it will transform you into a husband
or a wife, etc. So let’s look at these four heart conditions Jesus spoke of.
The first is wayside soil.
This refers to those whose hearts are hardened toward God. They come and hear
the Word but they continue to make excuses or interpret the scriptures to fit
their lifestyle for they don’t really want to change. They will not fully
surrender their heart unto God and therefore have a hardened heart that does
not want to surrender to God and His ways of doing things. Satan comes
immediately and steals the seed sown in those whose hearts are hardened and
have become wayside soil.
The second heart condition
is called stony ground. They actually get excited to hear God’s Word preached
but they have no root in themselves, and when persecution or tribulation comes
they stumble. These are not the ones who disagree with the Word of God, but
they go their way and do not take the time to apply what they have heard. There
is no diligence to study for themselves further and make application of the
truth. Therefore they try to live off of others faith, but because they have
not rooted themselves in the Word they don’t see it work for them.
The third heart condition
is called thorny ground. Jesus clearly says that these are the one’s who either
get caught up with the cares of this world, or the deceitfulness of riches, or
the desire for other things and the Word they try to apply to their life gets
choked out by these things and will therefore produce no fruit in their life.
The cares of this life results from worry and focusing on the world. Deceitfulness
of riches is when one thinks that money is the answer to our problems. The
desire for other things is getting focused on and caught up with other things
that take priority over God in your life.
The last heart spoken of
is good ground. To be good ground all you have to do is make sure you don’t
harden your heart against God, you don’t become lazy and not develop your own
walk with God, and you don’t allow cares, money, nor other things to become
more important to you. Those who are good ground will see a progression over
time of 30, 60, and then 100 fold return.
So if you are not seeing
God’s Word work for you then you are not walking in the light of God’s Word. To
do so you must fall in love more and more with the God of the Bible and the
Bible of God for they are one. You must also make sure that your heart is good
ground. If it is not then the Word will not produce for you. Unfortunately by
simple observation you can see that many Christians today are either stony or
thorny ground. Don’t get spiritually lazy and not develop your faith and your
walk with God, and don’t get caught up with worldly things. Make sure you keep
God as the priority of your life and you can walk in the light of His Word.
See You Again
Next Week For More “Weekly Wisdom”
May God’s Best
Be Yours!
Pastor Darryl
Baker
