Who God is

110. God – The Word

John 1:1-2 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.”

Notice that this verse makes an astonishing claim! It says that the Word IS God!

John 1:14 says, “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.”

Notice that this verse makes an astonishing claim! It says that the Word IS Jesus who became flesh like you and me! Jesus IS the WORD and He became a man like you and me!

I believe that there is a rule that you can use when reading the Bible. When you see the word ‘WORD’ or ‘COMMAND’ (of God), you can substitute it with the word ‘JESUS’. And when you see the word ‘JESUS’, you can also substitute it for the word ‘WORD OF GOD’.

The Hebrew language has no word for ‘WORD’. Instead, it uses a word known as DAVAR for WORD. ‘Davar’ means “the real thing.” The Word is the real thing! In the beginning was the DAVAR, the real thing!

Just stop and think about this for a moment and worship Him!

Mary said, “Be it unto me according to thy Word.”

When the angel spoke to Mary that she would be pregnant and it would be supernatural, even though she was a virgin, she said, “How can this be, since I do not know a man?” (Luke 1:34). The angel said, “For with God nothing will be impossible” (Luke 1:37). Luke 1:37 literally means (in the original text) that each time God speaks a personal Word, it has in it the power to produce what it says.

Luke 1:37-38 says, “For with God nothing will be impossible. (That means that all rhema has the power in it to fulfill what it says). Then Mary said, ‘Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.’ And the angel departed from her.”

There are two words in the New Testament for the Word of God.

Logos: This represents the entire Word of God as it was inspired by the Holy Spirit and written by the hands of God’s servants.

Rhema: This means a personalized word spoken directly to you. This is when the Holy Spirit takes a portion of the Logos and makes it personal for your life today.

Oh, if we could only get a hold of this truth, we would spend more and more time fellowshipping with Jesus the Word until thousands of seeds of the Word were planted in our hearts. Then these seeds would produce what they say!

Some facts about The Word:

1. Matthew 24:35 says, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My Words will by no means pass away.”

2. Hebrews 1:3 (Amplified Bible) says in part that “the Word upholds, maintains, guides and propels the universe by HIS MIGHTY WORD OF POWER.”

3. John 1:1-3, 14 (Amplified Bible) says, “In the beginning [before all time] was the Word (Christ), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God Himself. He was present originally with God. All things were made and came into existence through Him; and without Him was not even one thing made that has come into being. 14 And the Word (Christ) became flesh (human, incarnate) and tabernacled (fixed His tent of flesh, lived awhile) among us; and we [actually] saw His glory (His honor, His majesty), such glory as an only begotten son receives from his father, full of grace (favor, loving-kindness) and truth.” But no one recognized Him. Isaiah 53 says that when He comes, that no one will think that He is worth anything. He was despised, rejected, one from whom men hid their faces, seemed to have no worth or esteem. Most people still do not think that The Word is worth anything!

4. How The Word works.

It is a seed. It does not make noise. It contains life. It contains the very race and spirit of the speaker. Luke 8 and Mark 4 tell us about the Word. The Word is sown in our hearts and the Devil comes to steal it. How? By taking advantage of the various conditions of our heart.

a. The hard heart, the road. At once Satan takes away the message which is sown in this type of “soil.” Some people are just shallow and don’t care.

b. The stony ground. These people receive and accept at first. But they have no real root. When trouble and persecution arise for the Word’s sake, they become offended, displeased, indignant, and resentful; they stumble and fall away. The Word is lost. Some people can’t stand the heat. They can’t see anything growing right away, so they give up.

c. Thorns. The Word takes and grows but it is choked by cares, anxieties, distractions, pleasures, delights and false glamour. Deceit of riches, craving and passionate desire for other things creep in and choke the Word. Some people give in to peer pressure and their desire to be popular and to have things. So the reason we do not believe others and do not believe God’s Word is because of the condition of our heart. The reason we think others are lying when they are being honest is because we are that way. The reason we have a hard time believing God is because we cannot believe ourselves.

d. Good soil brings forth fruit; it does not depend on good weather, but good soil. Luke 8 says good soil is an honest, virtuous, just, noble and worthy heart. It produces 30, 60, 100 times the normal amount.

5. What Psalm 119 says about the Word:

God commanded us to keep it in our hearts; The Word directs our ways; We will not be put to shame; God will not forsake us; We keep our way cleansed with the Word; That the Word will become more to us than all the riches; I will see wondrous things in the Word; God gave us His Word so we would not feel like strangers on the earth; God rebukes the proud and arrogant who wander from the Word; The Word counsels me and delights me; The Word revives and stimulates me (vs. 25); When I meditate in the Word I understand God’s wonders; The Word will strengthen me when my life seems like it is dissolving, hopeless; The Word will remove me from the way of falsehood; I have to choose the way of truth and set the Word before me; God will give me a heart willing to run the way of the Word; The Word will keep me safe from idols; The Word is only for those that fear and worship God; The Word will turn away my reproach; The Word will renew my life; The Word will bring me God’s salvation, keep me safe and heal me; It will give an answer to those who taunt and reproach me (vs. 42); The Word will give me liberty and freedom (vs. 45); It will keep me from being put to shame; The Word brings hope and God’s will to my life; The Word will comfort and console me in my affliction; The Word will heal and deliver from danger, it will provide for your needs, it will comfort and speak to you, it will be with you in danger, it will keep you from danger; When enemies attack the Word keeps me safe; God’s favor and grace comes through the Word; It teaches me good judgment, wise discernment and knowledge; It will keep us from going astray; It will keep us safe when the wicked lie about us (vs. 69); The Word is better than gold and silver; We were made to hear the Word; The Word gives hope, but sometimes we have to wait and be still for it; The Word is hidden for those that seek; God’s tender mercies come though the Word; It will make my heart blameless, sincere and wholehearted; Even though I suffer sometimes, that is when I know to turn to the Word; The Word is faithful and sure; Forever, the Word is settled in Heaven (vs. 89); Unless I had been in the Word I would have perished; It kept me safe when the wicked came after me; Everything has its limits expect for the Word (vs. 96); It makes me wiser than my enemies; It gives me more insight than even my teachers; I can keep that Word only when I stay honest; The Word is sweet; The Word is a lamp unto my feet and light to my path; The Word heals and gives me life; The Word gives me joy; The Word is a hiding place; I need to stay in good company of friends so that I may keep the Word; The Word is better than anything conceived by man (vs. 129); It gives understanding and comprehension to the simple; The Word keeps evil from overtaking me; The Word is pure and I love it; Even when I am in trouble the Word brings me delight; The Word binds me to eternity [It transfers the Life of God to me]; I have childlike trust in Your Word; The Word brings God near to me, nearer than my foes; It seems that when the writer was in trouble the Word meant more to him; The wicked cannot work things out because they are far from the Word; All of God’s Word endures forever; I rejoice at the Word as one who has found a treasure; The Word causes me to praise Him; The Word causes God to hear us and deliver us; It causes God’s hand to be ready to help; Even when I go astray like a lost sheep, the Word stays in me to bring me back to God; Since the Word of God is the only stable thing, then we need to measure all other words against God’s or their character against God’s character.

Now open your Bible to Psalm 119 and read it yourself in this way.

6. What will the Word do?

When Satan heard the Word in the Garden, he was defeated. When Pharaoh heard the Word, he let God’s people go. When Moses heard the Word, the Red Sea split. When the walls of Jericho heard the Word, they fell. When Gideon heard the Word, his outnumbered forces slaughtered the enemy. When Samuel heard the Word, he wasn’t sure who it was. When Ellijah heard the Word, he raised the dead, stopped the rain, and started it again. When Naaman obeyed the Word, his leprosy was cleansed. When Goliath heard the Word, he was felled by a stone and a youth. When Jehoshaphat heard the Word, his enemies defeated themselves with a battle. When Nehemiah heard the Word, the temple and the wall were rebuilt in record time. When Esther heard the Word, she saved an entire nation. When Job heard the Word, even his suffering was worth it, he saw God and his fortune was restored. When David heard the Word, he was comforted, made safe and forgiven from the worst crimes a man could commit. When Solomon heard the Word, it was worth more than all the silver and gold. When the maiden in Song of Solomon heard the Word, she fell in love with her eternal lover. When Isaiah heard the Word, his lips were cleansed and he foretold of a Savior who would die for our sins. When Jeremiah heard the Word, Israel had to become slaves due to their sin, but then their slave masters were overthrown. When Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego saw the Word, He was with them in their fiery furnaces of life. When Daniel saw the Word, He had shut the lions’ mouths. When Ezekiel and the other prophets heard the Word, they saw the coming King who would save them from their enemies.

When the blind man was touched by the Word, he saw. When the leper was touched by the Word, he was clean. When demons saw the Word, they fled. When the Centurion heard the Word, his servant was healed. When the adulterous woman saw the Word, she was forgiven. When the prostitute touched the Word, she was made clean and loved much. When John the Baptist saw the Word, he saw the lamb who would take away our sins. When John saw the Word the first time, he saw God’s Word become flesh. When the religious people saw the Word, they argued with Him and called Him demon possessed. When the crowds saw the Word, they considered Him of no value and traded his life for a thief’s. They executed Him with the punishment of a criminal. Although He spoke this world into being, they did not recognize Him as that bloody mess on the Cross.

When John saw the Word, in the Book of Revelation, he saw a victorious One who conquered death, hell, and the grave; the One who was raised from the dead clothed with a robe which reached to His feet and with a girdle of gold about His breast, His head and His hair were white as snow and His eyes flashed like a flame of fire, His feet glowed like burnished bright bronze as it is refined in a furnace, and His voice was like the sound of many waters. When Satan sees the resurrected Word, he sees that He Is The King of Kings and Lord of Lords. His eyes blaze like a flame of fire and on His head are many kingly crowns. At every one of our “final” battles in this life Satan sees Him with a sword in His mouth on a white horse, dressed in a robe dyed in blood and the title by which He is called is THE WORD OF GOD.

E.W. Kenyon makes some important comments about the Word of God in his book “New Creation Realities,” page 5-12.

This quote is copyrighted material used by permission only from Kenyon’s Gospel Publishing Society.

THE LIVING WORD

Our attitude toward the Word determines the place that God holds in our daily life.

The Word should always be the Father speaking to us. It should never be like the message from an ordinary book. It should be as real to you as though the Master stood in the room and spoke to you personally. This Word was designed by the Father to take Jesus' place in His absence. When He says, "The Father Himself loveth you," it is a personal message to your heart. When the Master said again, "If a man love me, he will keep my word; and the Father and I will love him and make our home with him," that should be as personal as though you were the only one in the world. It is as though you were sitting at the feet of Jesus, and He looked down into your face and said, "The Father and I will come and make our home with you. Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I am going to be your strength; I am going to lend to you my own ability. When weakness comes, remember that I am the strength of your life. When you need finances, remember that I said, 'My Father knoweth that you have need of all these things'." You can whisper to your own heart, "My Father will supply every need of mine. He knows my needs and loves me. He and I are one." Man's word is usually dead before the printer has finished his work. Few words of man live after a generation, but God's Word is different. It is impregnated with the very Life of God; it is eternal.

Heb. 4:12-13 gives us an illustration: (Moffatt's Translation) "For the Logos of God is a living thing, active and more cutting than any sword with double edge, penetrating to the very division of soul and spirit, joints and marrow – scrutinizing the very thoughts and conceptions of the heart. And no created thing is hidden from him; all things lie open and exposed before the eyes of him with whom we have to reckon." This is one of the strangest statements about the Word in Paul's Epistles. Notice this 13th verse: "That no created thing is hidden from him." Of whom is he speaking? The living Word the Logos. "And all things lie open and exposed before the eyes of him with whom we have to do." The Word takes on personality; it becomes Christ Himself. Our contact with the Master, then, is through His Word. And do notice, "the eyes of Him." The Word then has eyes. It sees our conduct and our attitude toward it. It is a living thing.

How deeply that should impress us. I hold in my hands a Book with the very Life of God in it, a Book that scrutinizes my conduct; that judges me; a Book that feeds this inner man, my Spirit. It imparts Faith to my Spirit, builds Love into it. God's only means of reaching me is through His Word. So the Word becomes a vital thing. It has been rather difficult for some of us to grasp the fact that during the first century, the Christian Church did not have our New Testament.

The first epistle that Paul wrote to the Thessalonians was the beginning of the New Testament. It was written seventeen years after his conversion. 1 Thess. 2:13, "Wherefore I also give continual thanks to God, because, when you heard from me the Spoken Word of God, you received it not as the word of man, but, as it is in truth, the Word of God who Himself works effectively in you that believe" (Conybeare). Notice, it was "the Spoken Word" that was all they had; whether Paul gave it, or Peter, or John, or any of the Apostles, it was God speaking through human lips. It had not yet been put into writing. Now you can better understand Acts 19:20, telling of that great revival at Ephesus Luke used this expression, "So mightily grew the Word of the Lord and prevailed." It was the Spoken Word. The Pauline Revelation was only known to those had heard him. The other Apostles did not have it. They had what the Spirit gave them to meet the emergency of the hour. It is a fact that Christianity is what the Word says about Redemption, about the Body of Christ or the New Creation. We become Christlike in the measure that the Word prevails in us. The Word is Christ revealed. The Word is God present with us, speaking the Living Message of the Loving Father God. The Word is always NOW. It is His Word to me today. It is His voice, His last message during the first century, the New Testament. It becomes a Living thing in my heart as I lovingly act upon it. It becomes a Living thing on the lips of Love. It has no power on the lips of those whose lives are out of fellowship with Him, who live in the reason realm. His Word makes our ministry limitless. His Word is what He is. It is the mind of the Father. It is the Will of the Father. It shows the way to the Father. The Word is the Father speaking. You notice that it is always in the present tense. The Word is the Bread of Heaven, food for our spirits. Matt. 4:4, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." Jer. 15:16 says, "Thy words were found, and I did eat them. Thy words were unto me a joy and rejoicing of my heart." Job tells us how precious the Word is to him. Job 23:12, "I have not gone back from the commandment of his lips; I have treasured up the words of his mouth more than my necessary food."

When a child of God looks upon the Word as Job did, then it becomes a Reality in his daily life.

Job had no Written Word; he had the Word spoken by angels. We have the Written Word. We have it printed in many forms so we may carry it in our pocket. How little we have appreciated the value of His message. Ps. 107:20, "He sent His Word and healed them." That Living Word that He sent was Jesus. Mark 16:19-20, "So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken unto them, was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God. And they went forth, and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word by the signs that followed." Notice that the Lord worked with them. I believe that a revival would break out almost anywhere if the Lord worked with those who preach, and if the Word was as real to them as the Spoken Word was real to the Early Church. But the word of man has gained the ascendancy and has more authority than His Word has today. He confirms the Word today everywhere that it is preached. I want you to notice how the Father makes the Word good in the lives of men and women as they dare to act upon it. In the closing sentence of the Gospel of Matthew, "Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the age," the believer can be sure that though he be forsaken by all others, there is One who will stand by him.

But the thing that has most deeply impressed my heart is the Reality of God in the Word.

He is not only in the Word, but HE breathes HIS very life through it as it is unfolded. He said, "Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." He is in the midst of them in the Word. Jesus said, "If ye love me, the Father and I will come and make our home with you" (John 14:23). If we could only realize that when we open the Word, it is a Living Thing that we are implanting in the hearts of men. The Word is God present with us speaking the Living Message of the Living Father God. It is the NOW Word from Him to me. It is His voice. It becomes a living thing in the heart of Faith. In Romans 10:8 it is called the "Word of God." It is His Word that gives birth to faith in the believer. It is God's faith expressed. You see, He is a Faith God and He always uses words to do things. Heb. 11:3, "By faith we understand that the worlds have been framed by the Word of God." Hear Him whisper, "By myself have I sworn" (Gen. 22:16). He was in the Word. The Word was a part of Him. You cannot separate a man from his words; neither can you separate the Father from His Words.

How it thrilled me when I read Hebrews 7:22 that Jesus is the surety of the New Covenant. The New Covenant is the Word, and He is the surety of the Word. The Word was a living fact when Jesus spoke it. It is still a living fact. Jesus was a part of all He said; He and His Word were one. Jesus is just as real now as He was the day He arose from the dead. His Word is just as real now as when He inspired John or Peter or Paul to write it. What He said was a part of Himself. Reality throbs in it, flows through it, lives in it. The Word was; the Word is now what it was then. Here are some other assurances: Ps. 23:1, "The Lord is my shepherd."

In John 10:14 Jesus said, "I am the good shepherd."

Isa. 41:10, "Fear thou not, for I am with thee: be not dismayed, for I am thy god."

Romans 8:31, "If God is for you, who can be against you."

Phil. 4:13, "I can do all things in him who strengtheneth me."

Ps. 27:1, "God is the strength of my life, of whom shall I be afraid?"

Phil. 4:19, "My God shall supply every need of yours according his riches in glory in Christ Jesus."

Ps. 121 :1-2, "My help cometh from the Lord."

Ps. 84:5, "My strength is in Him."

Ps. 62:5-8, "God is my refuge."

These are Living Words, and as you feed on them they build you up.

The knowledge of what Christ is and has done for you personally, builds faith in you. When I turn to the Word and read it as His message to me, He confirms that message in my life. He confirmed the covenant made with Abraham. He confirmed the Word that Jesus spoke through the Apostles (Mark 16:20). Jesus said in John 14:15, "If ye love me, you will keep my commandments." What was His commandment? That we love one another. He that loveth me and keepeth My Word, life it is, you see, that the Father loves. Here are some other facts that we ought to remember. John 16:8-11, "When He (the Spirit) is come, He will convict the world of sin, of righteousness and of judgment: of sin, because they believe not on Me; of righteousness, because I go unto the Father; of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged." What is going to convince the world? Words in the lips of Faith. Only that Living Word in the lips of Faith can take the place of an absent Christ. The Word talks to us. It takes the place of Jesus. The Word is the Father speaking to us now. It has the same authority that it would have if the Master stood in the room and spoke it. Faith in the Father is Faith in His Word. The Word takes on all that our Faith demands. Jesus said, "According to your faith, so be it unto you." As you consider the Word and act upon it, it will become real to you. This Book, the Living Word, has God in it. The Word takes the place of the unseen Jesus. Meditation in the Word is like a visit with Jesus. In Josh. 1:8, God told Joshua to meditate in the Word day and night; in other words, to live in it. Jesus said in John 8:31, "Abide in my word." The Word gets into your blood, into your system and becomes a part of you. The Word is inspired. Holy men spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit, as they were borne along in their spirit life. God spoke by the mouth of the holy prophets.

"The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life."

Every word that God speaks has life in it. Remember Heb. 4:12, "The Logos of God is a Living Thing." It is not like man's words which die after a generation; God's Word lives. I love to think of it as the "prevailing Word," as it was in Ephesus. How it ruled over that wicked city!

Today the Logos of God is ruling in the hearts of those who yield to its way.

The Word has the authority of God in it now. It has the Righteousness of God in it. It has Recreating power for the unsaved. It has healing power for the sick. It is the very Bread of Heaven to the hungry in spirit.

I wish that it could be like this: that when you pick up the Word it will mean that God is present with you and that the Word is His attitude toward you now. It is His attitude toward sin, toward Redemption, toward Righteousness, toward Eternal Life, toward the Sons and Daughters of God. That is the Father's attitude toward all the issues of life. My word is my will. The Word is the Will of the Father. God watches over His Word. What God says is, becomes. God is Truth, so I will be true. God is Light, so I will walk in the Light. You see, we learn to act on the Word, as we act on the word of a banker or a lawyer in some crisis in our life. I wonder if you ever realized that the Father is jealous over His Word. He never set a low estimate upon it. He holds it in the highest regard. If He said it, that ends it. To His enemies, it is but paper and ink; but to the Lovers, it is Life and health; it is joy unspeakable. The preaching that produces little conviction, is caused by the Word not having been in the heart of the teacher. We are to be sewers of the Word. Jesus gave us in Matt. 13 a marvelous picture of the art of preaching.

It is sowing the Word. It falls upon all kinds of hearts, but the irrigation of the soil is dependent upon the sower.

If we irrigate it with prayer and sometimes with tears, it is bound to bring forth a harvest. Some of us forget the Word in hard places. Unconsciously, we walk by sight. The senses take the reality away from the Word, but as the spirit gains the ascendancy over the senses, the Word once more has its place. Remember, your word is you. You must learn to say, "I gave my word; I must keep it, no matter what it costs." If your word is of no value, you will reason that the Word of God is of no value. I have found that unbelief in the Word of God is largely because of people's lack of faith in their own word. If you want to build the highest type of faith, be a faithful person yourself. Believe in your own word. Establish a reputation for truth; then the Word will be that to you in your life. Here are some little facts that may mean much to your life. The Word is on my hands. What am I going to do with it? Am I going to act upon it, let it govern my life, or will I just study it?

Will I sit in the Bible class and study it and then go back to my room and study it but not live it? Nor let it become a part of my life, but just an intellectual exercise? The Word is taking the Master's place in my life. What I do with the Word will determine what the Word will do to me one of these days. The Word will work in me, building Jesus' life in me, building Life, Faith, Love, Grace and strength into me, or else it will judge me in the last day.

What will it do for me? It will work for me. If I preach it and live it, it will work for me. It will reveal the very riches of my inheritance to me. It will give me courage to enter into and enjoy my inheritance. It will build the Master's steadfastness into me. The very character of Christ will be built into me, and only He knows what it will do through me. It has saved the lost; it has healed the sick; it has built faith and love in multitudes. Let the Word of Christ then dwell in you richly. You can so soak in the Word and the Word so soak in you, that your word and God's Word become blended into one. It will be your language and your words, but it will be His Word. His Word in you becomes a part of you. It has made you what you are; it will make others like you. You are lost in the Word, but the Word is found in you. The Word became Flesh once. It is becoming spirit in your spirit. The Word dwells richly in your practice, in your conversation, in your prayer, in your convictions. You are using the Word to cast out diseases, to bring money to people, to save lost souls. This Word and you have become one.

You remember that for more than fifty years after Christ's death, the Written Word was known only in a very limited way.

The New Testament wasn't brought together until the middle of the second century. The Words that Jesus spoke were not yet written. It was the "Spoken Word." They were a part of Christ and they breathed Christ's Nature. Remember, the Word of God liveth and abideth. All right, speak the Word and it will live in the lives of men who hear you. He said, "I watch over my Word." He will watch over the Word you preach and teach.

Jesus said, "If my words are living in you and you are speaking them, I will live in them as they pass from your lips." The Word of Christ becomes a Living thing in your lips. Speak the Word fearlessly.

This quote is copyrighted material used by permission only from Kenyon’s Gospel Publishing Society.

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