Chapter I

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 loves 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 did you notice, “the eyes of Him.” The Word then has eyes. It sees our conduct, 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.

I 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 effectually 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 Relevation was only known to those who 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.

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.

Psa. 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 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 Rom. 10:8 it is called the “Word of Faith.”

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 can’t separate a man from his words; neither can you separate the Father from His Words.

How it thrilled me when I read in Heb. 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:

Psa. 23:1, “The Lord is my shepherd.”

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.”

Rom. 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.” Psa. 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 to his riches in glory in Christ...