The Wonder & Working of The Word

Applying the Wonder and Working of the Word

I’ve taken in hand to write this article in the hope that it will help new believers in learning to walk out the wonders they find in the Word of God, and to encourage those who have known the Lord to get back to the simplicity and power that we find there. It’s been my experience, in traveling throughout England, holding concerts and ministering to men in prisons, that there is a tremendous lack of understanding about the renewing of the mind. Oftentimes we have seen men saved and wonderfully transformed by the power of Christ, and yet before long many of them are struggling, some even doubting their salvation. They may become discouraged, finding it difficult to break lies, habits and feelings of the old lifestyle that seem to constantly haunt them. The truth that many of these men fail to realize is that while their dead spirits have been made alive unto Jesus Christ, their minds must also be renewed. There is nothing that we can do to receive the grace of God, apart from simply believing. Yet once saved, we do have to think afresh: we have to begin to work out our salvation. As you read this book and apply its principles my hope is that you would begin to see the wonder and the working of God’s Word within your own life.

Fighting the Lie

Satan knows he has lost. What Jesus did for us on the cross was a final and complete work. Nothing we can do can add to what He has done. We are saved and accepted by God. Moreover, we are commanded in Philippians 2:12 “to work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” We are not being asked here to get it to work, for it is complete, we are being asked to take what we have been given and see it though to the end. If one was given a new automobile, it would be complete in every way, with nothing to be ashamed of. The new owner would know that it would work and that it was legally his. Yet, left to sit on the street without use, the car would soon become rusty and useless. God expects us to possess what we have been given. We must learn through discipline, to submit our will and our minds to His Spirit. By this submission we will begin to work out His will in our natural life.

For as he thinketh within himself, so is he. Proverbs 23:7

From the Inside Out

In the past we lived by what we had seen, heard or felt. As we made contact with our surroundings we reacted according to our previous failures, discouragements, pains or pleasures. Our past experiences dictated how we thought, and our thoughts in turn dictated who we were. As we continued to react to those situations we formed habits, and those habits formed the basis of our character. As our character took shape, our destiny was formed. We operated from the outside in, not so with God. God works from the inside out. When a man surrenders to Jesus, his inner man is altered. He now has the ability, at his disposal, to live by something other than his senses. He is free to act on what the Spirit of God is saying to him through the Word. These actions will produce godly habits, forming a godly character and fulfilling God’s destiny.

And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. I Thessalonians 5:23

Spirit, Soul, Body

Man is spirit, soul and body. Our spirit is the essence of who we are: the seat of our will. It is with our bodies that we make contact with the world through our senses. Our soul is simply the spirit expressing itself in our body. Our bodies themselves are not sinful; they are in fact necessary as the containers of our spirit and soul. Always be wary of a religion that says the body itself is evil and preaches its punishment (see Colossians 2:18 and 19). It is not our bodies that are sinful, but our natures apart from God. God wants our bodies to rightfully express what He has done in our hearts. We are to turn over our whole mind, spirit and body to Him. This is the true meaning of holiness: to be made whole for God’s purposes.

For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come. I Timothy 4:8

Exercise

When an athlete engages in a new activity or event, he needs to retrain his muscles, and get them in shape, so they will respond to what his mind wants his body to do. In similar ways, we as Christians have to begin to get our bodies to respond, not to what we want to do, but what the Spirit of God wants us to do. When we speak of the soul or the mind, we are speaking of the same thing: the very seed of who we are, our personality. Our mind is not simply a muscle inside the skull.The brain is there to store information, to get the body to react, to remember things and to calculate. The brain is a part of the body and should be submitted through our soul to the Spirit of God. Everything that has ever been done to us, every wrong committed against us, is stored away in that filing cabinet of our mind. Your mind is going to continue to react the same way until Jesus Christ comes in and alters the very well spring of who you are. Without being born again, it is futile to ask a lost man to react differently. When Jesus preached the Sermon on the Mount: love thy neighbor, rejoice when you are persecuted, turn the other cheek, He said this knowing He was going to the cross. Jesus spoke knowing that His death and resurrection would be able to alter man at the very root of who he was. By the Spirit of God, man would be able to react differently. The Sermon on the Mount is not some wonderful ideal, it is a statement of what is possible when one is surrendered to Jesus. He is the only one capable of fulfilling that ideal.

However, much of Christianity does not get that far. They stay “on the mount,” listen to the words of Jesus and then try to copy them which, as we all know, is impossible unless a man is born again. My brother and sister, you are born again, you have a different way. Paul cried out, “Thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ,” that is where we get our victory. As we begin to listen to the Spirit of God and believe what He says in His Word, each time we obey and choose for God, those muscles will be trained. As we renew our mind, it begins to be reformed and transformed, unto use for God. We are exhorted to present our bodies as living sacrifices, to yield our members not to unrighteousness, but to righteousness. Paul not only means our hands and our feet and our mouths, but our minds as well.

Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. Romans 6:13

Read it – Say it – Believe itBegin to say – “Lord you can transform me.”

The society we find ourselves living in today is incredibly lazy and undisciplined. Through television, movies and the internet every kind of evil thought or image is available at man’s fingertips: ready to be stored up in people’s minds. Drugs are prevalent, not only illegal drugs, but legal drugs, in the form of antidepressants, sleeping pills and every other pill that people can come to rely on. People find themselves addicted to many things, not only physically but psychologically and emotionally. This is why a new believer must be filled with the Spirit. He must understand what it is to really yield to the Lord and begin to renew his mind. He must begin to see God’s Word as more than some academic teaching or rule book, more than ink on paper. He must see the Word as it says in Hebrews as “a sword, a powerful weapon.”

For the word of God is quick, 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. Hebrews 4:1

When one is addicted, to drugs or anything else, your body becomes dependent on that substance, his mind will physiologically long for it. When he is saved, he genuinely no longer wants to do those things, yet a battle still remains. Many believers I have talked to, cry out: “I want the Lord,” but when their body begins to cry out for the drugs, or when their mind wants to call up experiences, they feel overwhelmed and begin to question their salvation. “If I am saved then why do I have these feelings, if I’m saved then why is this happening to me?” Dear brother or sister, you’ve been saved, you’ve been sealed according to Ephesians 1 by the Holy Spirit, and the finished work of the cross is done. Everything has already been done for you to have victory. You have to begin to realize that; confess it out of your mouth: believe it-say it-know it. Stand and say, “I am a new creation in Christ.” Eventually your mind will begin to fall in line with the Word of God, and your body will being to fall in line with your mind. This does not mean you won’t have any problems, but as you go from battle to battle, you will then go from victory to victory. The battle will never end until we are off this earth, but I believe God’s Word surely shows us that we can both have and walk in a sustainable victory.

This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success. Joshua 1:8

Meditating not Mediation

But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. Psalm 1:2-3

I will meditate also of all thy work, and talk of thy doings. Psalm 77:12

I remember the days of old; I meditate on all they works; I muse on the work of thy hands. Psalm 143:5

Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all.I Timothy 4:15

When the Bible speaks of meditation it is not referring to the same thing spoken about in many religious and pseudo-psychological circles. People speak about emptying the mind, focusing on something that means nothing, something inanimate, so as to clear the mind. God doesn’t want our minds to be empty, an empty mind becomes fertile ground for satan to plan anything and everything he wants there. This is God’s desire: for us to meditate on His Word and therefore fill our minds and our thoughts with His thoughts, His way of thinking, His personality. When the Bible speaks of meditation it sometimes uses the word “muse,” actually meaning to contemplate or utter, almost as if speaking to yourself. As it says in Ephesians 5:19: “speaking to yourselves in hymns, psalms and spiritual songs.” In other scriptures, the word “meditate” literally means to squeeze out. We need to believe God’s Word, and squeeze every bit of goodness out of it. There is much spoken about success today in Christianity, however, the Bible only mentions success in two places and that word is associated both times clearly with meditating on God’s Word (Joshua 1:8 and Psalm 1:2-3). Meditation is constantly bringing something back up and thinking about it until it is digested into one’s own mind. A metaphor often used is of a cow or grazing animal who chews the cud. A cow has more that one stomach, so it chews the food and brings it down to one stomach and then, before it digests it, brings it back up and chews it again until it is digestible. This is what God wants us to do with His Word. He wants us to constantly bring it back up into our minds and our thoughts, to be thinking about it. This does mean taking it apart academically, but letting it become a part of who we are. For example, “Greater is He that is in me than He that is in the world,” this scripture in I John 5:4, stating that Jesus Christ who lives in you is greater than the devil that is in the world. When defeat, discouragement and doubt come, you must bring that Word back up, walk with it, say it: let the Word take possession of you. Acknowledge that truly the Jesus in you is greater than the devil who is in this present world. Confess it and you will begin to overcome.  

This present generation has their minds open to everything and anything. There is no sovereign, no absolute and therefore no boundaries. People have opened their minds up to things that they should never have done. Once we are saved we must begin to replace those thoughts and ways of thinking, with God’s responses and God’s ways. When we go to the Word of God, we can go to it as a history book to show us our heritage. We can go to it as literature and see the beautiful stories of the saints of old and their lessons for today. We can go to it and see the very words of Jesus. What is more, the Bible is also clear that we can go to it as Spirit-breathed instruction and life for us. It is this Word of God, as we meditate on it,  that will separate the way we think from the way God thinks and the way we react from the way God acts. We’re not talking about a legalistic law book of rules but a musing upon the Word of God. Scripture should not be memorized so that we can show off our mental skills but a memorizing of the Word of God so it is there with us. We want to know the Word so that we can think about it as we go throughout the day. You will find there is much more power in taking one scripture in the morning and walking with it all day long, thinking on it and allowing it to become life to you, than studying a whole book in the Bible, and trying to know everything about it historically and geographically. It is much more powerful to take one scripture and let it become life to you.

The prophet said “Your word was found and I did eat it and it was a joy unto rejoicing unto me.” Jeremiah 15:16

Jeremiah does not say he simply read the word. It says he found it, he sought it out and ate it, he believed it and treated it as his necessary food; this is what it means to meditate on the Word. You wouldn’t simply sit in front of a table that is beautifully laid with luscious, delicious food and stare at it, to know that it is ours yet let it go stale. We are to pick it up, chew it, eat it, and to take it within ourselves and let it become a very part of us. We must then begin to let it work out through our minds and bodies. This is working out our salvation.

A Personal Testament

When I first came to the Lord, I was truly overawed by His grace. The freshness and power of His presence seemed to sweep me along in my walk without much effort. Yet as time went on I seemed to be plagued by thought and memories from my past life. Desires that were blown out by the power of God now seemed to try and take hold of me. One day as I contemplated my dilemma, I flopped down on my bed and cried out “Lord how long?” In that moment the Lord spoke to my heart quite clearly: saturate yourself in my Word. I knew the Lord was not asking me to study the Bible in a purely academic way or as a mental exercise. He wanted me to allow the Holy Spirit to bring the Word to life and let the Word begin to transform my mind.

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.Romans 12:1-2

Now, as I began to read God’s Word I would see myself in that Word. It was no longer II Corinthians 5:17, “If any man is in Christ,” it was I who was in Christ, and therefore I was a new creation, and therefore old things have begun to pass away. When the lies would begin and lie about who I was, I would say, no, I’m dead and hid in Christ (Galatians 3:3). When I would begin to feel that there was no way I would have victory, I would stand and begin to quote, out loud, the Word in I John 5:4 that says, “greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world.” I would proclaim out loud that Jesus was my victory (I Corinthians 15:57). What I began to do was simply apply the Word of God to my life and begin to renew my mind, as I believed His Word above the lies. I was in business at the time and whenever a particular scripture would jump out at me I would have my secretary type it out and place it under the glass on my desk so as to have it ever before me. For years after, I would keep 3×5 cards and write on them the scriptures the Lord had given me that morning. I would keep them in my pocket the remainder of the day. Many of you who know me are aware that I am a musician, and will have realized that the worship songs that are sung in our assemblies are simply the scriptures put to music and sung back to the Lord. Oh the power of the Word of God: loved and simply believed! I once had a preacher with a psychology degree say to me, “Frank, it is okay for you, all you need is the Bible and the Holy Ghost.” I thought “amen brother,” no more is needed except absolute obedience to said Holy Ghost and the Word of God.

Read it – Write it – Say it

Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.Psalm 119:18

We spoke of actions turning into habits, habits into character, and character into destiny. Make a habit of meeting the Lord every morning, with the Word close at hand and ask the Holy Spirit to show you wonderful things from God’s Word. Keep a record of the things God has shown you and spoken to you, so as to meditate upon them. Speak of these to yourself, to the Lord and to the devil when he comes to constrict what God’s Word says about you. Open your heart and begin to enjoy the Lord and His Word. Allow it to encourage, instruct and correct you. I will leave you with these scriptures. May they bring life as you meditate upon them.

And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; And they loved not their lives unto the death. Revelations 10:11&12

Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.Luke 10:19

Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.I John 4:4

For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.I John 5:4

Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.I John 3:9

Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.II Corinthians 5:17

Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.Hebrews 13:5