2015.06.14_Hold Fast to the Lord’s Word

The Reason People Cannot Experience God’s Power

Christians generally do not hesitate to acknowledge they have been saved. But they seem to lack confidence when it comes to acknowledging God being with the souls redeemed and manifesting His power in them. The Bible describes the power of God manifested as a miracle. Perhaps it is because this word is used in secular contexts as well that many people seem to misunderstand God’s power as something experienced only by a selection of specially gifted individuals. We must be clear that there is a huge difference between what the world calls a miracle and that which the Bible describes. In this world, a miracle is by definition an unbelievable and extraordinary phenomenon, meaning that to expect a miracle is the same as expecting a stroke of good luck. However, a miracle in the Bible is the fulfillment of God’s promise. Hence anyone who believes can and must certainly experience it.

Those who have been saved can freely experience the power of God. Just as you have to go to the shops to buy certain necessities or to the pharmacy to buy medicine, in order for the redeemed to be triumphant in this world, they have to meet God. Yet God is invisible. Hence the way that God reveals Himself is through the Word. Whoever desires to meet God must listen and believe in the words He has given (Rev 2:7).

John 1:1 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” The word that was with God from the beginning came into the world and revealed Himself so that we came to know God through Him. As He said, “He who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life” (Jn 5:24), God gives life to anyone that hears and believes in the word He has spoken. This is only the beginning to all the good things God wants to give to those who believe in Him.

Nevertheless, the reason people fail to receive what God is giving is they live their lives of faith however they please. God forewarned ahead of time with regards to such things saying, “Inasmuch as these people draw near with their mouths and honor Me with their lips, but have removed their hearts far from Me, and their fear toward Me is taught by the commandment of men” (Isa 29:13). Though people have been saved, it seems as though quite a number of them are still fixed at the elementary stage of the Gospel.

God’s word is like the electric current that travels through power lines. Though we cannot see the electric current flowing, we would get an electric shock from touching the high voltage wires. Similarly, God’s power is manifested in us when we receive the word of God. This is what Christians who lived by the word of God have been experiencing over the past 2,000 years, and indeed what should be experienced as a matter of course.

If people hear the word of God yet fail to experience God’s power, they need to examine whether the word is drifting away, unable to settle within them, or if their hearts are being drawn away to things other than the word. People will not be able to experience God’s power even after years and years of faith life, if they listen to God’s word in the same manner they listen to secular words. The problem is not with God who is giving the word, but with the person who should hold fast to the word.

The Authority of the Word

Hebrews 2:1 says, “Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away”. As God gave us His word, His utmost concern was that we would fail to hold onto the word and let it drift away. It was for this reason that God sent plagues upon the Israelites who failed to obey the Law, that they may realize the authority of God’s word. Concerning this it says in verse 2, “For if the word spoken through angels proved steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just reward”.

The Israelites received the word through Moses on Mount Sinai and yet they resented God and disobeyed His word. God brought plagues on them in order to demonstrate the authority of His word that in one day, 23,000 people fell (1 Cor 10:8). God had given the Israelites multiple chances, but their contemptuous attitude towards God’s word did not change. Consequently, the majority of the people that came out of Egypt could not enter Canaan and fell in the wilderness (Heb 3:17). Thus by bringing down plagues on those that despised God’s Law, God demonstrated the authority of His word.

The Law is God’s word given through the angel (Gal 3:19). The Israelites built the tabernacle according to those words, and in like manner the priests served God in the tabernacle. The priests practiced caution in all their service, lest they transgress against the word unknowingly. The tension heightened when the high priest entered the Most Holy Place once a year. The high priest took the blood of an animal into the Most Holy Place and offered it to make atonement for sins. Though everything was performed in great reverence, such sacrifice could not cleanse a man’s conscience.

Jesus Christ entered the Most Holy Place of Heaven made not with the hands of man as High priest with His own blood and not that of animals, obtaining redemption once and for all (Heb 9:11-12). He is not one of the angels, but God’s Son, the Word of God which became flesh and came to the world. He is the Creator and the Lord of all. God never said to any of His angels, “You are My Son, today I have begotten You”. Yet concerning His Son He said, “Let all the angels of God worship Him” (Heb 1:4-7). The authority of the Gospel delivered to us through Jesus Christ is incomparably greater than the authority of the Law that was given through the angel.

While some people are touched when they receive this precious word, with the same word, others fall away. At the Last Supper, Jesus broke bread and gave to His disciples saying, “Take and eat, for this is My body”. Then He gave the cup and said, “This is My blood, the blood of the covenant”. He who is the Word Himself came to the world, and gave Himself to His disciples that they may eat and drink of Him. However, immediately after receiving the bread and the cup, Judas Iscariot went out and betrayed the Lord, and in result, both his spirit and flesh perished. The other disciples who were present at the same and place all confessed, “Lord, even if we have to die with You, we will not deny You!” (Mk 14:22-31). Thus some will hear God’s word and obey, while others instead fall into temptation.

Even if people disobey the Law today, they are not met with plagues right away and as a result, even Christians do not have much fear of the Law. And as they become accustomed that way, they would not even fear the words of Jesus. One thing we need to be clear about is that, the word of the Gospel is more steadfast and abiding than the Law. Whoever has rejected the Gospel is already doomed to go to hell, for he has rejected the word of Truth,

When anyone transgressed against the Law, that is, God’s word given through the angel, he died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. No matter how much the person denies of having broken the Law, he was put to death if at least two or three people testified against him saying, “I saw that man breaking the Law with my own eyes”. Now how much worse punishment would a person receive if he tramples on the Son of God, counts the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insults the Holy Spirit?

The Law given through the angel is definitely God’s word. Hence when people disobeyed that word, at times tens of thousands of people died in one day. This was a kind of warning God gave to the people of the future, so that they would not carelessly let His words drift away. It was after all this took place that the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God was finally revealed. Hence how steadfast and binding would God have made the Gospel? Hebrews 2:3 says, “How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?” God will not let slide those who neglect His word and certainly repay them (Heb 10:30).

The Days of God’s Miracles

Hebrews 2:3-4 says, “Salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him, God also bearing witness both with signs and wonders, with various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to His own will”. God never gave His miraculous signs to the Old Testament saints for obeying His words. However New Testament saints are accompanied by God’s miraculous signs if they abide by God’s word. Many people today are disobeying God’s word and yet complacent only because God does not plague them. But the fact that God’s signs do not follow those who received the Gospel is a serious problem.

In the New Testament is written the words and works of Him who is the Word that became flesh. His words were never before in this world, neither were the works He did. He did many miraculous signs while He was on the earth. His followers are witnesses to all that He did. Jesus said to His disciples, “You will even greater things than what I have done”. And indeed, remarkable things happened when the disciples went out and preached. That is not all. People who experienced God’s signs through them, also went to others and did exactly what they had seen and heard. In other words, through Jesus Christ, the age of God’s miracles began.

If miraculous signs and wonders, powers and spiritual gifts are not being displayed in the church today, we should not doubt anything else but the attitude and measure of our faith and correct it. We must honor the authority of the word so that it will never drift away. Our hearts leaning toward the world must turn back and hold fast to God’s word. We must make sure the device God has installed inside of us to make His word binding is in sound working order. We should not give up in despair even if we do not see God’s signs immediately; we also need to throw away our defensive attitude towards our lack of power. The members of the church need to work together for miraculous signs to be displayed in the church. We must get rid of our old habit of perceiving everything as just a personal issue in times when we need God’s miracles.

When the Israelites disobeyed the Law, God destroyed even tens of thousands of people in one day to confirm that His words are binding. The Israelites who received God’s word through an angel did not know at which moment they might die. For them, every single day was a matter of life and death. Now for us who received the word through God’s Son, having God’s signs is the key to our each and every day. If our lives are devoid of God’s miracles, we must examine and overhaul our faith. Instead of following those who enraged God in the Wilderness, we ought to have miraculous signs accompany our lives endlessly.

If anyone accepts the Gospel, he is saved. This means he is redeemed from his sins. If we look at it from a different angle, if we accept the Gospel we can be healed of our sicknesses. Psalm 107:20 says, “He sent His word and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions”. This means God sends His word to heal us and rescue us from our troubles. The Bible also says that when people brought the demon-possessed to Jesus, He drove out the demons with a word and healed their sicknesses (Matt 8:16). The reason we are able to cast out demons today is the presence of God’s word inside us.

The word of the Lord is not a means of communicating information. The Lord’s word has the power to fulfill God’s will. That is the power of the Creator who can both create and destroy the world. Hence, God’s will gets fulfilled when we receive God’s word. However if the person receiving God’s word is only concerned of his own gains and losses, how can God’s will be fulfilled in him? On the contrary, when we seek God’s will, not only does it get fulfilled through us, our lives will also be prosperous as a result. The Holy Spirit has come in us to do these things. While there are many language and words in this world that can touch people’s hearts and dictate what they do, God’s word is different to them in that it has the power of the Creator. It is imperative that we acknowledge the authority of the word and hold fast to it.

For the Church

There is something which God anticipates from us as He gave us His word. And that is for us to save souls and revive the church through His word. When we testify to the word as witnesses of Jesus, God will work together with us in order to save souls (Mark 16:20). When God gives us His signs, wonders, various powers and gifts of the Holy Spirit, we have to understand that they involve our duty to preach the Gospel.

If any member in the church is suffering with a sickness, we should reach out to them, empathize with their pain and comfort them. Then they will develop the willpower to fight against their illness. And if they receive in the word and do have the desire, we should pray for them to be healed and cast out demons. We must never overlook a person who is oppressed or troubled, as if it is not our concern, but reach out and help them. Rather than treating them as sinners, we first need to listen to their story. Their hearts first need to be consoled in order to have the will to fight against the problems they are facing. Just as we were able to overcome with the Lord’s love, we also need to show love to the weaker members that they may be able to overcome.

Our passion to save souls must certainly exceed that of the Old Testament saints led by the angel. How can God help us if the Word that was with God from the beginning is actively drawing near us but we are only focused and concerned about our own problems? The Lord is interceding for us day after day before God the Father, and we should not be making His position difficult. We have to hold fast to the word of God and not let it drift away to fulfill God’s will.