“HISTORIC AND PERSONAL BLESSING OF THE WORD OF GOD!!”
BY: J.FARRELL FISHER, SEPTEMBER 6-7, 2017
An anonymous writer many, many years ago wrote, “Many things in the Bible I cannot understand; many things in the Bible I only think I understand; but there are many things in the Bible I cannot misunderstand.” But, sadly, for some who clearly understand, they choose to live apart from the historic, personal blessing of the Word of God. It is not anything less than the “Holy Bible, the Holy Word of God, the Holy Scriptures”, anointed, appointed, applying to every soul in every corner of our world – and without it, men perish because of the chosen lack of the meat, the milk, and the bread of life!
I, at first, found it a little hilarious, then I calmed down and wanted to weep when I read somewhere at some time in the past, “Satan has no fear of one’s Bible who allows the dust to remain on it!” Can YOU, even a ‘believer’, sincerely believe you can live the “overcoming life in Christ” apart from His Word? Consider the nations of our world! Where would they be today if the Word of God did not have its rightful place as the constitution and declaration of nations that honor Holy God?
Would you think it is the true foundation of a God-honoring life? Would you dare think that in the ‘ship of your life’s journey on the calm or stormy seas of life’ that His compass of the Word is essential and not sinking in life’s storms? I tell you, whether America or India or England or Nairobi, Kenya, if a nation down-grades, ignores, or lessens the Word of God, the Bible, the Sacred Constitution, that nation begins to sink into the deep waters of fleshly stupidity!
It was Thomas Carlyle, in his writing years ago entitled “Heroes and Hero-Worship; The Hero as Man of letters”, who wrote: “What built St. Paul’s Cathedral? Look at the heart of the matter, it was that divine Hebrew Book, – the word partly of the man Moses, an outlaw tending his Midianitish herds, four thousand years ago, in the wilderness of Sinai! It is the strangest of things, yet nothing is truer.” Oh, how true!
I tell you, for humanity’s sake in the known world, just as our known world cannot exist without the sun or the moon, neither can it sustain itself apart from the Holy Word of God! Yet, how many do you personally know who only tacitly assent to just own a Bible but not be owned, fed, nurtured daily by its contents? At the same time, how many do you know who only talk about what the Bible has to say about ‘how do I go to heaven’ but not, “How does heaven come down to earth to me?” Didn’t Jesus teach us to pray, “Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven,” but far too many want a ‘pass’ on earth apart from Kingdom Living, and shred the divine will of Father-God for their earthly lives, yes, missing out on what Eternal Heaven has in store ON EARTH IN A YIELDED HEART AND MIND TO THE HOLY WORD OF GOD?!?
The Holy Word of God historically, from century to century, country to country, day to day, home to home, life to life has not died, cannot die, will not die, even if depraved minds try to deny it or twist it, even if Satanic influences deny it, even if deranged national leaders deny it, even if false prophets try to mix it with their imitation ‘salt and light’, even if compromising preachers want to tone it down, even if Hollywood wants to try and trash it – the Word of God never wavers, wilts, or wanders from the very mind and heart of Holy God, from the lips of King Jesus, or from the anointing of the Holy Spirit who still guides mankind into all Truth if they let Him!
Samuel Taylor Coleridge once said: “Good and holy men, and the best and wisest of mankind, and kingly spirits of history, enthroned in the hearts of mighty nations, have borne witness to the Bible’s influences, have declared it to be beyond compare the most perfect instrument of humanity.” So true! YOU MUST NEVER buy the lie that the Holy Word is not essential to your daily life!
I wrote a few words as I sought to bring this message to fruition! Simple, but I pray, spiritually profound, convicting, and instructing, yes, to the “saving of your soul”! By JFF: “The Word, the Word, the glorious sacred Word, spoken by God to men of earthly sod, to turn them in the path where Holy God treads!
The Word, the Word, the Word, so Spirit-anointed, intended for the life-change of men sovereignly appointed. Man doesn’t live by bread alone, he lives through the Savior whose blood does atone as the historical Word declares.
The Word, the Word, the Word for Divine intent, its glory shines with God’s hand-print; Inspired by the Spirit, spoken by the Lord, proclaimed by His saints, telling us “In Him” and His Word, it releases and restrains, as Holy God trains.
The Word, the Word, God’s Holy Word, unveils Light to every dark age, unveiling His heart on every page; God’s hand, God’s heart, God’s precious words of truth, inflamed, engraved, stamped on the open heart to the man who has no desire from God to depart.
The Word, the Spirit, and the man whom God has touched, opens his eyes, tunes his ears, and willfully turns him, never from God to depart. Trained by the Spirit, guided in all truth, the repentant man learns the “True Root”.
The Word, the Spirit, in heavenly anointing, freely wills the true heart’s appointing, not “me and my best”, but Jesus and His “rest” through which one lives eternally blest!
The Word, the Spirit, in God’s glad guidance, the Word, the Spirit in God’s illumination, is like the bright sun on a world’s dark side, telling mankind, “roll over and return by God’s Word-tide”, receiving Truth for your salvation!
Man’s word, his spirit, who departed from God, he’s sure his wit will carry him through on earth’s sod, but soon by “his flesh”, by the choices he makes, by the devil’s temptations, he denies revelation, and settles for less when before him was God’s best!
The world around us, like Adam and Eve, tempted by Satan, “You will not die!”, and death they chose rather than the Christ who would ‘arise’; “we choose life at its best”, but with no eternal “rest”, even of God’s Truth they then began to detest!
But then comes the Word, the Living Word, the Savior who willingly breaks “the bread of Life”, that man in his need may understand Seed, and sow his life in repentance and faith, recognizing Jesus as his only need!
“I come to Jesus, I’ll sit at His Table, I’ll follow my Master as long as He calls, I have no desire to be enslaved with those who from Him fall. He is my Savior, He is my Lord, His Word His plenteous provision is Heaven’s sharpened sword!
Jesus guards me, He guides me, and Him I will not betray, because Jesus my Lord is the Truth and the Way. I’ll follow His lead and live by His Word, so blessedly assured His Word is His sword! It guards me, it guides me, it will not betray me, I am assured it constantly will sway me and save me.
“Search the Scriptures, for in them you find life, ‘rest in His Word’, be relieved of all strife; it may come against you, but His Word never leaves you, for, yes, in them you DO find Life; Life eternal, Life daily blessed, Life in the Word, the gift of His love!”
Do you remember Christ Jesus responding to Satan AFTER “being led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan?” (Matthew 4:1-4). And Jesus responded in Matthew 4:4, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by (physical) bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’”
It was the ‘spiritual father’, the Apostle Paul, who said to his young ‘spiritual son in the faith’, Timothy, 2 Timothy 3:16, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable (Dare I say “essential”, “necessary”, your daily “must have” in spiritual sustenance?) for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
Yet many, even most, ‘feed’ on flesh, feeding on worldly ‘wisdom’ most of which shuns the Eternal Word of God, feeding on the ‘temporary’ and not the eternal, feeding on ‘self-promotion’ rather than the Savior’s perfect and perfecting Word, feeding on mental philosophies void of transforming, life-changing, perfecting of the mind, will, and emotions of men in the true wisdom of Holy God, feeding on the ‘vainness’ of “fleshly best” and not the never-fading “Victory” in Jesus, the Living Word, ‘living’ (?) IN the ‘wisdoms’ of the “faithless and perverse generations” that ‘blinds’ even more, ‘deceives’ even more, and, sadly hinders the needy from even hearing the eternal, life-changing, mood-swinging, eternal-life-purpose-changing from flesh to Spirit, from temporary to Eternal, and from ‘me’, ‘us’, to Him, Jesus, our “All” that He desires to be in All!
When the truth of the Word of God is neglected in nations, families, schools, lives, even, yes, some churches, the morality of God-given Life, the meaning of a Christ-impacted Life, and the mission of His Presence in us and through us as a society falls away toward decay and, yes, the safety of a society becomes darkened, and leaves a society bankrupt of the awesome authority of the power of the Spirit through God’s real, revealed, and redemptive work!
Again, Matthew 4:4, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by (physical) bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” Are there those who will ‘surface-read’ the Word for the broadening of their ‘brilliance’ without a shred of evidence of “brokenness” about their separation from God? Of course! In fact, in John 5:39-40, Jesus spoke to the ‘proud Pharisees’, saying, “You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. BUT you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.” HOLY SCRIPTURE UNVEILS THE ONLY ONE THROUGH WHOM ETERNAL, BLESSED, ABIDING, OVERCOMING LIFE COMES – AND THAT’S CHRIST JESUS – NOT YOUR CHURCH MEMBERSHIP, NOT YOUR BEST EFFORT, NOT YOUR FLESHLY, PHILOSOPHICAL INSIGHT, BUT HIS INDWELLING THROUGH TRUE REPENTANCE AND FAITH ONLY IN HIS FINISHED WORK OF BLOOD SHED AT THE CROSS, HIS DYING, AND HIS RESURRECTION PRESENCE KNOCKING AT YOUR HEART’S DOOR, DESIRING TO COME IN TO YOU AND ABIDE WITH YOU!
I was a missionary teacher, preacher, evangelist for twenty-five years across India mostly, but also other Asian and African nations, and that which made me want to be there, trip after trip, was the awesome hunger and passion for more and more of the Word in their lives! And the “blessed” ministries, pastors, churches there? Those whose foundation WAS and IS the Word of God and the Spirit of God who “guides into ALL truth”!
I challenge YOU, STUDY BIBLICAL HISTORY, STUDY “TO SHOW YOURSELVES APPROVED UNTO GOD, WORKMEN WHO NEED NOT BE ASHAMED,” STUDY TO LEARN TO BE THOROUGHLY FINISHED WITH YOURSELF, DAILY TAKING THE SENTENCE OF DEATH TO YOURSELF, THAT THE RESURRECTION LIFE OF CHRIST MAY BE MANIFESTED AND UNVEILED THROUGH YOUR MORTAL FLESH!’ Man does not live by bread alone, but by EVERY WORD that proceeds out of the mind and heart of God.” He’s not willing that any should “perish”, but that all, exposed to and convicted by His Word, discover “new Life in Christ” that never dies – but around you, you’ll witness the ‘Wordless disciples’ who were never equipped to live by “the Life of Another”, or equipped to daily partake of the ‘bread’, the ‘honey’, the ‘meat’, yes, the “Life” that IS the Word of God!
Are you aware of ‘good’ homes of human society where “the daily bread” of spiritual-life sustenance is never on the table? Are you aware of ‘good’, fleshly efforts of parent daily rendered, but the Holy Word is a sacred book collecting “dust” on a wooden table when God intended it to be imparted in every heart and mind?
Paul became so frustrated with his people’s blind avoidance of the True, Life-Changing Word! He said, in Romans 11:2, “Do you not know what the Scripture says…?” And, sadly, many today DO NOT KNOW WHAT THE WORD SAYS, even though it is merciful God wooing them to, “Come home!”
Paul later said, in Romans 11, that even the ‘religious Jews and the pagan Gentiles could be “grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again”, “if they do not continue in unbelief”, or in neglect, or consider that it’s good to have a Bible around but “feed daily, three times a day, like I do for my body? I don’t have the time nor the interest to invest in Word-study – I’m saved!” Really?
David F. Nygren, in the old “Watchman Examiner”, wrote: “If all the neglected Bibles were dusted simultaneously, we would have a record dust storm and the sun would go into eclipse for a whole week.” Will the ‘history’ of your spiritual pilgrimage ‘celebrate’ your devotion to the Word of God, OR, will it ‘shame’ you?
Oh, and then, there’s Shakespeare, in “Richard 111”, (Act 1, sc.3,l.334), who wrote: “But the I sigh; and, with a piece of Scripture, Tell them that God bids us to do good for evil; And thus I clothe my naked villany With old odd ends stolen out of holy writ, And seem a saint when most I play the devil.” (Of course, “WE DON’T HAVE TO BE CONCERNED ABOUT THAT ATTITUDE TOWARD THE WORD OF GOD IN OUR MODERN-DAY, DO WE?”).
Is it your ‘devotion’ through the Word, OR is it God’s devotion and intent of His Word THROUGH YOU? Are you “born again by the Word of God” having its rightful place of being yielded to it in your mind, heart, and will, submitting yourself daily to, yes, its commands? Didn’t Peter tell us in 1 Peter 2:2, “as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the Word of God, that you MAY GROW THEREBY, IF INDEED you have tasted that the Lord is gracious.” If there is no ‘divine sustenance’ daily in your life, it would be like a mother in the flesh birthing a child but ignoring the necessary milk the baby needs! How cruel! And, I say, to ignore the Word of God in your maturing process as a professing disciple is to promote pre-maturing and maturing processes as unnecessary in “growing up” or “maturing in the Faith” to spiritual manhood!
A man of the Word, a woman of the Word, a preacher of the Word, is evidence of the reality of being “born again by the written and Living Word of God” and evidence one understands the absolute need day by day to come to His Word that one may be matured, missioned, and becoming Mastered in obedience to Christ Jesus! In John 6:27 Jesus said, “Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him.” It’s His call for all disciples to “trust the Word”, treat it faithfully as your necessary ‘food’ to remain strong in the faith, and to faithfully “Preach the Word, testify to the Word, share the Word, proclaim the Word,” because as Peter once said to Jesus, “You have the words of eternal life”!
It was Voltaire who once said, “If we would destroy the Christian religion, we must first of all destroy man’s belief in the Bible.” But the sad truth? If one wants to “destroy” his own ‘faith-walk’ through life, just ignore the Word! IS “THE WORD OF GOD” PERSONAL AND OF NECESSITY TO YOUR WALK OF FAITH AND OBEDIENCE? How does one know what Christ would have him/her to be or to do, if the Word of God is willfully chosen to be ignored?
E.O.Sellers wrote the old hymn “Your Word Have I Hid In My Heart.” It says: “You Word is a lamp to my feet, A light to my path always; To guide and to save me from sin, And show me the heavenly way.
Forever, O Lord, is Your Word Established and fixed on high; Your faithfulness unto all men, Abideth forever nigh.
At morning, at noon, and at night I ever will give You praise; For You are My portion, O Lord, And shall be through all my days!
Through Him whom Your Word was foretold, The Savior and Morning Star, Salvation and peace have been brought To those who have strayed afar.
Your Word have I hid in my heart That I might not sin against Thee, That I might not sin against Thee, That I might not sin, Your Word have I hid in my heart.”
Really? Is that true of YOU? I challenge you: Five chapters from the Old Testament, Five chapters from the New Testament, every day, until you meet Him around the Throne with all true believers and steadfast disciples in hungering and thirsting for the Word of God, even still, in Heaven itself! AMEN?