The Power of The WORD: A Kind and Vital Reminder at Year’s End

Please pardon the long ‘radio silence’, my dear Sisters/Brothers. I have deeply appreciated your comments, and encouragement, and always will.

As Children of GOD, we all know that it is good to get into The WORD of GOD, but more important – truthfully – is it to get The WORD into you, into us. This WORD, Scripture establishes:

shall not depart out of your mouth; but you shall meditate on it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it, for then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall have good success. (emphasis mine) [Joshua 1:8]

Not just success, but good success!

JESUS Is The Living WORD. Hebrews 4:12 states it quite profoundly, and in so doing, unmistakably clarifies that The WORD of GOD is not just ink on paper, is far more than Godly counsel, but is – in fact and in truth – a living Being:

For The WORD of GOD is alive 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. (emphasis mine). [Hebrews 4:12]

Only a living Being can “discern” the thoughts and intents of our hearts.

In the beginning was the WORD, and the WORD was with GOD, and the WORD was GOD.                             [John 1:1]

And that living WORD is JESUS! Hallelujah to The Lamb of GOD! Now, some of you might, like renowned detective Sherlock Holmes, cynically say: “Elementary, my dear Watson!” But it’s not as simple as that, for many of us skim over the WORD of GOD, missing all the life-giving, heart-healing, mind-renewing power therein, like people walking while asleep, and sometimes very much like the living dead! Meditation & Your Mouth.

In Hebrew and in Aramaic, the first languages in which the Holy Bible was written, the word for ‘meditate’ is more distinct than our common English definitions, which are to think deeply on, or consider a matter. In both these languages, and in the actual practice of the Hebrew or Jewish culture, when one meditates on The WORD, one mutters that WORD to oneself, saying the WORD out loud, over and over again, to one’s own hearing. Now, this explanation should help to make the injunction in Joshua 1:8, a lot clearer, when ‘it’ says “this Book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth; but you shall meditate in it day and night”, for there is a distinct relationship between meditation and the mouth: one must open one’s mouth in order to mutter that WORD to oneself!

You shall decree a thing and it shall be established to you: [Job 22:28]

Let us speak out that WORD that empowers, heals, renews, protects, fructifies (make fruitful), and edifies us! Power In The WORD. Thus, there is not only power in The WORD, there is power in saying it, speaking it, declaring it.

Those of us who are, or who have ever been students, will certainly remember how much we gain from speaking aloud what we want and need to commit to our memory, and then, finally, to our understanding. There is power in the written word, undoubtedly – especially to illuminate, sometimes to darken, but definitely to ignite the imaginations of men and women. Yet the power in the spoken word – particularly the living WORD – is given of GOD, such that even the wicked recognize it as a principle, often more than do the righteous in CHRIST.

Doing The WORD = Faith. We who are in CHRIST are regularly exhorted to be not just hearers, but doers of the WORD. [James 1:22]. The more mature we are – moving beyond the “sincere milk” of the WORD (which is reserved for those who are scriptural ‘neonates’, or newborn babes) [1Peter 2:2], the more precisely we operate towards WORD perfection, “calling those things which be not as though they were”. For this is what GOD does, and that we, as HIS Own, are taught, exhorted, and admonished to do, as we operate in the only language or currency which GOD recognizes: that of faith.

As we approach the end of the year 2010, believing GOD, both to finish it well, with full blessings, and to enter the New Year in health and peace, let us take stock of our lives, in living the WORD, and in walking in CHRIST.

Every morning, if not every night, each of us usually looks in the mirror, to make sure we’re looking presentable, to remove the unwanted or the unsightly from our faces, our heads, and so on. As often as is possible, in the morning, and especially at night, I try to remember to look at myself and assess who I was that day, how and where I fell short of GOD’s Glory, asking GOD’s forgiveness, and promising myself and Father GOD that I will work on that shortfall, and try to redeem myself and the time.

“So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom”. [Psalm 90:12]

The Woman/The Man in the Mirror

That spiritual exercise reminds me so much of the iconic late Michael Jackson’s “I’m Looking at the Man in the Mirror”, when he sings:

I’m looking at the man in the mirror

I’m asking him to change his ways…

If you wanna make the world a better place

You gotta look at yourself

And make a CHANGE!

For me, there is the physical mirror, and then, there is the spiritual mirror, The WORD of GOD, powerful, poignant, and simple!

When you engage yourself in this exercise, especially before you go to bed, ask HOLY SPIRIT to minister to you: to remind you of your day, your words, your deeds, your mis-deeds, in particular. Ask HIM to help you to clean yourself up, to redeem the time (for the days are evil!), and to guide you into all truths, clarifying your wrong, and helping you to seek the genuine changes, that only come from genuine repentance.

Pray: Father GOD, I thank you for Your Mercy, Your Favor, Your Grace upon my life, our lives. As you continue to bless and heal our marriage, and me, LORD, bless and heal our relationship with YOU. Thank You for exalting YOUR WORD above YOUR Name. Help us, too, Father GOD, to lift JESUS higher. Glorify YOURSELF in all our lives, in JESUS’ precious, mighty, and glorious Name.