2015.07.05_Just Say the Word

Take and Eat the Word of God

God is He who gives life. In order to give us life, He sent forth the Word that was with Him from eternity past. From man’s standpoint, it may be easy to take God’s word lightly and let it drift away or reject it. However we must remember that the Word is God’s only begotten Son. What God has given us is His love. That love has already come inside us and became our life, so that now it is indivisible.

Throughout our lives on earth, we encounter various kinds of hardship of which the most typical is sicknesses. It is difficult to understand the suffering of a sick patient without being the patient yourself. Even a short time at the dentist can be tormenting. But some people have to bear such pain for many years. The loss that sickness brings to people is enormous. Chronic physical pain often leads to emotional and mental distress for the individual, and even the whole family suffers.

In the midst of these hardships we face in this world, God nurtures and protects us. The way that He helps us is by the Word. Thus we have to receive the Word to receive His help. However, receiving the Word does not mean we accumulate the Word as knowledge, for hearing the Word as a mere sound and taking the Word and digesting it are completely different.

The Centurion was Confident of the Power of the Word

As Jesus entered Capernaum, one centurion came before Him, pleading Him to heal his servant who was lying sick. When Jesus said, “I will go and heal him”, the centurion gave a surprising answer. “Lord, I cannot handle You coming under my roof. But just say the word and my servant will be healed. For I am a man under authority and have soldiers under me. And I say to this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes; and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” Surprised by his answer, the Lord replied, “Assuredly, I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel” (Matt 8:5-13).

The centurion believed that his servant will be healed of his sickness at the Lord’s command. He regarded the Lord as someone too great that he could not handle Him coming into his home. While so many people were competing to receive the Lord into their homes, the centurion knew what was more important. He believed that the power to heal the sick was in the Word that came from the Lord’s lips. If the Lord did go to the centurion’s house, He definitely would have made the servant well. There was a time when the Lord twice laid His hands on a blind person and healed him. Similarly, even if the servant did not recover immediately after the Lord laid His hands on him, He would have eventually healed him if He was at the centurion’s house. Nevertheless, the centurion said to Him, “Just say the word!” He was confident that his servant could be healed at the one word of the Lord.

The Centurion was Ready to Obey the Word

There is another reason that the centurion’s faith surprised the Lord. And that is that he was ready to act according to the Lord’s command. For the centurion, the point was not in how powerfully the Lord laid His hands on his servant. He was certain that the Lord’s word will surely be fulfilled as long as he obeyed the Lord’s word and his heart was prepared to do so.

The sad thing is that the attitude of Christians today is in great contrast to this. What would God think of a person who only turns to him in times of trouble asking, “God, if you help me, I promise I’ll do this for You”? Would it not seem as if he is only trying to use God because he is desperate, when in fact he has no interest in God?

John 14:14 says, “If you shall ask anything in my name, that will I do.” Because of this verse, some people think that everything will be granted them irrespective of how they lived or what they are asking for. However this verse is not explaining the faith attitude one needs to see a miraculous sign; it simply explains the principle behind the trigger that brings about God’s miraculous signs.

The Lord saying, “And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do”, was premised on the verse, John 14:21, “He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.” This was the same as the Lord plainly saying, “I will display my miraculous signs to him who keeps and loves My commandments.” For this reason, we must not misunderstand that we can experience God’s signs as long as we use Jesus’ name irrespective of our faith condition.

Since we have already been saved, we must now walk with God, for then we can receive God’s help in the face of any kind of adversity in our lives. Originally, were so degenerate in our nature that we rejected God and even crucified Him. Now if we truly have been saved, we need to part with our old nature, customs and set of values, through our faith life. How can a person demonstrate that Christ lives in him if he does not have any change of life? The Lord says to such persons, “I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your terror comes. When your terror comes like a storm, and your destruction comes like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you, you will call on me, but I will not answer; you will seek me diligently, but you will not find me” (Prov 1:26-28). 

The Centurion’s Faith was in Essence a Life of Practicing the Word

There is something worth noting in the centurion’s faith. In a separate passage of the Bible that mentions the story of the centurion, we see that he had built for the Jews their synagogue (Luke 7:1-20). This shows that the centurion had accepted the Jews’ faith. However the centurion was Roman and it is typical of Romans to be deeply immersed in philosophy and grounded on pantheistic beliefs. And yet the centurion accepted the Jews’ faith, which indicates how he was profoundly touched by the Jewish lives.

As he observed the lives of the Jews, he was surprised by how they could possibly have such a close relationship with God, and he was most touched by how the Jews’ faith in God was thoroughly practiced in their lives. The faith, which the centurion had learned from the Jews, was certainly not just a belief inside the heart. As the Jews demonstrated their continuous practice of faith through obedience to the Word, the centurion thoroughly accepted this as his own. Though he was new to faith life, his faith was founded on the fundamentals of faith.

The centurion was never taught by the Jews about faith that is accompanied by miraculous signs. Until Jesus’ public ministry, there wasn’t anyone among the Jews who could do miracles. For them, miracles only happened long ago, perhaps during Elijah’s time. Jesus’ ministry of casting out demons and healing the sick was utterly new to them. It was then that the centurion heard about Jesus, and he discovered that God’s authority was with Him. The centurion’s attitude before Jesus revealed the principle of faith he had before God.

That principle of faith was, “When God speaks, whoever hears Him must take action, and he who acts will experience God’s miracle.” If the centurion’s sole aim was to get his servant healed, he would have done anything to receive the Lord into his home. But what the centurion did instead was demonstrate to the Lord a life of practicing faith.

Take and Eat the Word of Your Own Volition

All things move according to the word of God. However man is an exception. Though a person may hear God’s word, he could reject the word out of his own will. If anyone hears the word through his ears but does not practice it, he has not actually listened to God’s word. The word of God can only be received when one is ready to apply the word in action. Even if God speaks to our souls, if our flesh acts as the head and refuses to obey, we cannot receive His word. The spirit must be able to control the flesh’s deeds in order to receive God’s word.

The word of God is living and active that it can penetrate through anything in this world (Heb 4:12). Yet this does not apply to man’s free will. The Lord is knocking on the door. Now it is our job to hear Him knocking and open the door. This certainly isn’t difficult at all. Whoever is in Christ has experienced the working of God’s word, and possesses God’s great miracle. The key and fundamental word that God has given to man is, ‘Trust in me, and you’ll be saved!” We have already received that word, and thus been born again (1 Pet2:3). It was not because we had accumulated our spiritual knowledge to a certain level that we became born again; it is simply because we accepted and digested the word which said, “Believe and you’ll be saved”.

In the past, we were clueless and laughing though we used to be slaves of the Devil; but now we have become children of God, on guard to fight against the Devil and follow according to the Lord’s word. God’s children don’t just receive things from God. For them, their time on the earth is the only opportunity to express their love toward God. We must not lose this opportunity which lasts only a few decades at the most but love God. Also, we have to be faithful to Jesus Christ who gave us His Father and is helping us daily to take us to the Father’s house. God’s miracles will accompany those who set their hopes in Heaven and acknowledge the authority of the Word.

It is necessary to train ourselves in order for our spirits to consume God’s word instead of simply listening through our ears. Only then can we overcome unnecessary suffering through God’s miraculous powers when we encounter certain crises in our lives. It is of great importance that we constantly experience God’s miracles, as it is God’s guarantee of our faith. When we experience God’s hands at work in our lives, we can confirm once again how God is leading us to Heaven. Another reason it is important to lead a life of obedience to the word is that is the way to receive God’s love. By building up our works through the process of obedience and receiving God’s love, we need to prepare for the day we enter the kingdom of Heaven.

What we need is the faith like that of the centurion to confess, “Lord I will obey, so just say the word!” We all had the amazing experience of being born again through the word. We shouldn’t let the momentum of this experience die down, but seek the Lord’s word saying, “I am ready to receive Your word Lord, command me to be healed; I am ready to receive Your word Lord, command peace upon our family; I am ready to receive Your word Lord, command poverty to be banished!”

In the Bible there many passages like, ‘you will be blessed if you keep and obey My commands’ (Deut 10:12-13), ‘there will be no poor among you if you observe all My commandments’ (Deut 15:4), ‘if you obey God’s word, you will be blessed in all the work of your hand and your children’ (Deut 30:9-10). We cannot ignore these words which highlight obedience and blessing, just because they are written in the Old Testament. The reason we are saved today is because God still holds His word. The only difference is that the word He gave through the angel as a fleshly ordinance has now expanded to the spiritual realm through the Holy Spirit.

Practice the Word through Your Life in the Church

It is necessary to train ourselves in order to live by the word, and for that we must actively take part in the church. No matter how difficult our lives may be in this world, for our souls to live we must gain a deeper understanding of God’s grace and continue a life of obedience through the church. Neglecting one’s responsibility by only emphasizing God’s grace, or seeking God’s help only in times of need and ignoring at God at other times is not a sound Christian’s attitude. We should always prepare ourselves so that we may be able to receive God’s help at any time.

There are many words of God which we need to practice through our life in the church. And offering is one of them. We shouldn’t be stingy in giving our offerings to God. It is only right that saints who’ve received God’s grace bring offerings of thanksgiving before God. Offerings given to God get used for His works. Just as the centurion’s offering given in reverence to God was used in building the synagogue and thus benefited the Jews’ faith, the offerings given to God today through the church ultimately gets used in reaching out and saving souls.

The Jews begged Jesus to help the centurion saying he was deserving, because he had loved the Jews. If we have been made one as saints saved by Christ’s blood, we ought to love one another all the more. Giving service inside the church is also founded on such love. When we hear the word commanding us to serve, we must not ignore it. Rather than merely attending the Lord’s Day service and trying to leave as soon as it finishes thinking, ‘Oh I’m sure there’s someone else who will serve the church’, we need to dedicate ourselves fervently for the church.

It is important we always obey God’s words instead of praying for a miracle only when we encounter a particular problem. Would God listen to the prayers of someone who always ignored the church just because he calls on Jesus’ name? We mustn’t be contemptible in God’s sight. If we have any issues with people such as parents, spouse, children, church members or neighbors, we first need to repent and get rid of all hard feelings.

God’s word is the same yesterday, today and forever. Our prayer should be, “Lord, I will obey. Speak Your words to me!” While we are on the earth, we should receive God’s love by obeying His words, and likewise receive His blessings. We ought to build up ourselves on the faith that seeks the Lord’s words.