"If God Sends A Word"

Early one morning, this past August, around 3 a.m. or so, the Holy Spirit spoke to me from within my sleep. He spoke a Word that was so plain and vivid that I got up and wrote it down. The Holy Spirit said, "If God sends a Word - receive the Word".

By Him I received that we are not policemen over the the Word of God. We do not regulate what we are to hear. We are to receive what God sends. If we reject it or try to regulate what we hear we become judges over the Word rather than subjects under the Word. If God sends a Word to us we are to receive the Word. It is His Word not our word.

THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD showed me examples of God’s people, particularly His own ministers, discounting the message that He delivered to them through other confirmed ministers. I pondered as the Spirit of God displayed pastors before my eyes who focused on particular topics from the Scriptures. Plainly they were biblical, Scriptural teachings. Yet, when another minister came forth with a plain and clear Scriptural message to his flock that seemed to say something different (even opposite) from his own positions these pastors would shun the message and devalue it before the flock. They would do so not because the message was unbiblical and unsound, or because there was any error in what was preached. They would do so merely because the message was not what they themselves had been teaching, and they were stunned, even offended by it.

Through this revelation I saw that those who refuse the Word put themselves above the Holy Spirit. They make themselves rulers over God, deciding for themselves what God should say and what His Word should mean. They become the censor not only of error, which they ought to be, but also of clear biblical Truth, which they ought to both recognize and yield.

The sure truth is that God’s Word rules over each man and that it is His Spirit alone Who gives it life and meaning. (2Co 3:6) This is why we need Holy Spirit led preachers to preach it. (Ro 10:14) Though each minister (indeed each Believer) possesses the Spirit by measure. (1 Cor.12:11) None possesses all of the Spirit of God or all of His counsel or all of His knowledge at any given time. That He reserves unto Himself. This is what makes Him Lord over all. Therefore, as Paul, himself, came to realize, when we do preach we preach in part and we prophecy in part. (1Co 13:9 )

Our part, though it be Scripturally sound and clean, is still only a part. There are other parts, just as Scripturally sound, that the Lord would bring to us in order to add one more dimension to the Truth His people

already possess. This is how one grows in the Lord and in the knowledge of Him. (2Pe 3:18) Church ‘A’, for

instance, believes you can pray for the sick but that God does not heal today. Church ‘B’, however, says oh yes He does heal today. Both churches have scriptures that they rely upon. The Holy Spirit sends a Word to Church ‘A’ saying yes, He does heal. I want you to enter into that dimension. The church that receives the Word in faith rejoices. On the other hand this same Holy Spirit may send a message to Church ‘B’ that not all Christians are healed. Some die, never receiving physical healing. The church that receives this Word is set free from struggles

that may plague them when a healing does not occur.

In each instance the Holy Spirit aims to bring His saints into a dimension of greater liberty in Christ and more knowledge and understanding of His Ways. When we hold on to our section of truth without allowing the Lord to add to it we lock ourselves, as well as others, off from the fullness of His Word and the increased reedom

and strength that it brings to both the individual and the Body.

Many Christians believe you are to give into church only what the Lord puts on your heart to give. Others insist you must tithe. Each group stands on passages in the Bible. Yet the Holy Spirit may visit the first group declaring you must be consistent and disciplined in your giving and not be lax. To the second group He may say cease from dead works and give from your heart.

THE SCRIPTURES DECLARE THAT GOD’S WORD is past finding out. (Ro 11:33) This means that no one can take even one passage of Scripture and say they have all knowledge and understanding concerning that passage. In other words, no matter how much we know about God’s specific Word there is more yet to be unfolded that only the Lord can reveal. Again, as Lord and Master over all He reserves this unto Himself.

Nevertheless, when God does reveal more, when He sends a clear and sound Word to us, we are to receive it. Yes, it may be different than what we had known before. However, we must not judge it based on the fact that it is different but whether or not it is in fact sound, Biblical truth. If it is sound then we must listen because God wants to take us into that spiritual dimension. There is ground there in which your God wants you to walk.

On the other hand, if we refuse His Word then we elect to remain in the "wilderness". Though God is with us in the wilderness, yet it is a place where we are only moving in circles. We are His beloved children. He is certainly with us; yet we are not moving upward and onward in Him. If upon visitation after visitation we stay where we are then we’ll eventually sleep and die there. Yes, we’ll go to heaven; yet we will have lived more as a carnal Christian than a spiritual one.

Humility is a cloak we ought always to wear; and prayer helps us to keep it on. To see God and to receive

Him means that I must be willing to move myself out of the way. I must understand that the Church is His; the people are His; the message is His; and my rank and position and person and authority are all His. Nothing is mine. It all belongs to Him. Understanding this humbles my soul and allows me to graciously yield when His Spirit and Truth comes on the scene.

PRAYER PREPARES OUR HEART for the Lord and helps us to receive Him more and stand at a place of certainty before Him. Heart-felt prayer is the key to moving forward with God and allowing Him to direct your steps (Pr 16:9) where He wants you to go. No change should ever occur in your life without it first being taken up and worked out, even wrestled out if necessary, through prayer. When you lack certainty of a thing it is through prayer and study of the Scriptures that God makes your heart to know for sure. When you ask God to give you truth, and you mean it, He is obliged to give it to you. (Matt.7:9-11) He will see to it that Truth comes to you. For "when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth." (Joh 16:13) However, oftentimes we must be prepared to receive Truth or we will refuse it when it comes. For Truth does not always look like what we expect. It does not say what you think it should say. It does not agree with your personal beliefs merely because you believe them. In its own brazen way, Truth brings a sword to your soul, rather than the peace for which you were looking. (Lu 2:35) It comes and pierces through much of what you hold dear, and cuts it off.

So for Truth to find residence in your mind you must be prepared to receive it. That preparation is not easy or enjoyable. Such preparation comes by way of the cross. The cross of Christ prepares me to receive God’s Truth by putting me out of the way - my censorship, my opinions, my prejudices, my fears, my pre-conceived

ideas, my illusions. The cross crucifies all such things so as to allow my mind (Eph 4:23) to receive what God says, on His terms alone.

In short it does not matter what I think or believe; it only matters what God says and means. It also does

not matter how I wish to interpret it. It matters what the Spirit reveals of it. For the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life." ( 2Co 3:6)

Therefore to receive God’s Truth my prayer ought to be "create in me a clean heart that I may receive Your Truth". When you pray such a prayer from your heart this gives God permission to take you in His hand and prepare you to receive His Word. We need this preparation. "Because the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." (1Co 2:14)

If the Word of God was easily accepted by everyone we’d all receive it. If Truth was readily received we’d all be in agreement and on one accord all the time. However, our present condition as a Church shows that we need more humility in our souls and more earnest prayers from our hearts. In the pulpit it ought to be most prevalent so that in the pew it can be more present. The spirit that leads the church is the spirit that fills the church.

HUMBLE MEN OF PRAYER, study, service and dedication will instill those same virtues in their congregations. Those whose hearts are open to "What thus saith the Lord" will instill that same hunger in the hearts of their congregation. Men of prayer produce men of prayer. Men of flesh produce men of flesh. The effeminate generate effeminacy; the Godly generate Godliness. The religious defend their religion. The spiritual defend Christ. The proud listen only to what they want to hear. The humble welcome the Voice of the Lord however it comes. "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me." (Joh 10:27)

We may not fully comprehend the Word of God when it comes but if it is in fact God’s holy Word then we are to accept it. "Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding." (Pr 3:5) This is for our good and the good of the Church. For God never does anything outside of His Word. Those who receive His Word receive God (1Th 2:13) and likewise are received by God in what He is doing.

Our prayer as a church, and for our church, should be: "Lord, give us Your Word. Give us nothing but Your Truth. Prepare our hearts to receive Your Truth. Remove every hindrance. Take away every barrier that stands in the way of what You have to say. Let us receive what You have to say, so that we may grow thereby and be made free in the freedom that You have given us in Christ Jesus. Bring deliverance to our church in the areas in which You want us delivered. Set us free from ignorance and bondage and fear and oppression and immaturity and sin - all those things that ruin us due to our lack of knowledge and obedience to Your Word. Let the Spirit of Truth hang over our congregation - from the pulpit to the pew and throughout every area and ministry of our church. Let this same Truth extend beyond our four walls, into our surrounding neighborhood and community. Let the Light of Truth shine from our midst that the world may look upon us as a city on top of a hill, whose Light shines brightly for all to see. Let us not be ashamed of You and of Your Word so that You will not be ashamed of us. Rather, let us rejoice in the Truth so that others may see it also and be glad. Lord, You have given to us all things unto life and Godliness. You have withheld no good thing from us. Cause our lives to continually reflect the goodness of your mercy and love, power and grace, through Jesus Christ our Lord. We praise You and thank You for making us ripe and receptive to Your ongoing goodness and grace that comes by the eternal Words of Life that You so freely give to us so that we, likewise, may freely give to others; that they, too may know Your Truth, oh Lord, and the blessed freedom that comes by it. Amen.