Your Word
John 1st Chapter: 1
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word
was God. 2 The same was in the beginning with
God. 3 All things were made
by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made."
One morning I was coming to work and came upon someone I
knew. I said, "Good morning"
and she replied "I need you to look up some scriptures for me." "That’s a fine reply," I thought
to myself. Then almost immediately
after she stated what she needed, she went on her way, leaving me without even
replying "Good morning." Did
I eventually look up those scriptures?
No, and I’ll explain why?
First, I wasn’t angry about the person’s lack of interest
concerning my well-being or how I was
doing that morning. Instead, I
was more concerned about her well-being.
By God’s Word we are what it says we are if we have the faith to believe
in His Word. Having someone spoon feed
you the word and not studying it yourself will never get you the ultimate
results God has for you. I thank God
for pastors, preachers, teachers, evangelists, and prophets, but it comes a
time when we have to seek God’s Word for ourselves. Now don’t misinterpret what I am saying here. We should all lift each other up with the
promises of God, but if you run across a person who has no unction to open the
bible and find the promises for him/herself then you have probably found a
person with little or no faith.
Let’s go to the story concerning the seven sons of Sceva:
Acts 19th Chapter:
11 God did extraordinary
miracles through Paul, 12 so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that
had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured and the
evil spirits left them. 13
Some Jews who went around driving out evil spirits tried to invoke the name of
the Lord Jesus over those who were demon-possessed. They would say, "In
the name of Jesus, whom Paul preaches, I command you to come out." 14Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish
chief priest, were doing this. 15 [One
day] the evil spirit answered them, "Jesus I know, and I know about Paul,
but who are you?" 16Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped
on them and overpowered them all. He gave them such a beating that they ran out
of the house naked and bleeding.
Here we have seven guys who saw God use Paul to do
miracles. So they thought that it was a
type of "style" rather than a "lifestyle." They thought "if we just say what Paul
said, then we will get what Paul got," but that wasn’t the case. Paul had experiences, teachings, and he also
found out some things for himself. Paul
didn’t pull out a 10-point checklist and follow the steps. This man had faith because he KNEW what he
KNEW and not because he just FELT this would work or he THOUGHT it would
work. HE KNEW IT! Paul knew that God’s Word was the final
authority on demons, sickness and anything else, but the sons of Sceva really
didn’t know this.
Now let’s go to Romans 10:17 which states, "So then
faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." If just this scripture alone was enough,
then the seven sons of Sceva would have had enough to do the job. It was obvious that they had HEARD about
what Paul did, and it was also obvious they had heard or seen how he did it
because they were trying to copy what he did. But the true test, which they
failed, was to know what was backing Paul.
Another way of putting it is they needed to know where Paul’s authority
was coming from. Let’s look at the
DARBY translation of this scripture to get a better understanding:
Romans 10:17 – So faith then [is]
by a report, but the report by God’s word.
Remember the seven sons of Sceva stated, "In the name
of Jesus whom Paul preaches" (13th). They might have memorized a few scriptures and even carried their
bibles in the left or right hand just like Paul did. They might have even gone to JC Penney and ordered the FUBU
jeans Paul had, but their actions were all superficial. They didn’t have what Paul had. They didn’t have their "Word" sown
into their hearts. They didn’t know
that God’s Word was the "High Trump Card" in the deck, and nothing
was going to beat it. For us to get our
breakthrough we’ve got to have our own Word.
We’ve got to seek God in His Word for ourselves.
Psalms 34:10 – The young lions do
lack, and suffer hunger: but they that seek the LORD shall not want any good
thing.
Many of us are missing a good thing right now. Some of us are missing healing and others
are missing money. Come on now— I know I’m not the only one working on
getting out of debt. We are missing too
many of our good things, but once we realize that our good thing is in God’s
report then hopefully we will start seeking the report. We can’t wait for our pastors to fill us up
on just our situation. We have to get
filled ourselves. Imagine a 33-year old
man and his wife waiting on their momma or daddy to come over and cook dinner –
EVERY DAY! That family will probably be
hungry more times than necessary. But
when that man or wife begins to cook for themselves they will realize that it’s
more convenient to feed themselves than to wait for someone to feed them.
After saying all of this, let’s spend a little time in our
text, and by doing so we want to change it up just a little bit.
John 1st Chapter: 1a"In the beginning was YOUR
WORD!"
Oooohhhhh Jesus!!! I
don’t know about you, but that’s enough for me to get my SHOUT on! Before time existed your word existed! Before the problem manifested itself YOUR
WORD was waiting on the problem.
(Notice we didn’t say your problem because that’s not your claim to God’s
inheritance!) Even before the earth
existed, YOUR WORD from God was waiting to bring you to the earth, out of your
situation, from the circumstances, through the obstacles and over to the other
side. All of this from – YOUR
WORD! Now let’s continue.
John 1st Chapter: 1 "In the beginning was YOUR
WORD, and YOUR WORD was with God, and YOUR WORD was God. 2 The same was in the beginning
with God. 3 All things were
made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made."
Now if your word was there in the beginning and if it was
with God in the beginning, then how could it be destined to fail you?! How can you stay in the same situation and
never get out of it if God has already said, "YOU’RE OUT OF IT!" You still might be in but God has already
said, "YOU’RE OUT SO SHOUT!!!"
Also YOUR WORD is so close and intimate to God that it was God
Himself. It was inside of His innermost
being. He loved you so much He had to
release it to make some things happen.
Oh yeah! He had to release it
out of the supernatural to make some things change in the natural and a change
is coming. OUR WORD is out there! We need to find it for ourselves to really,
fully understand it.
To close I’ll share this with you. When my mother was in the hospital during the last days of her
life a preacher came by to visit me. At
the time, I didn’t really know the word of God for myself. At the end of his
visit he stated seven words that would change my life forever. The preacher stated, "Sometimes we just
have to give up," which was followed by Amens from his trio of
followers. If anything killed what
little faith I had it was those seven words—all because I didn’t have MY
WORD! I had 25 years of my momma’s word
but no word for myself. I had some of
my pastor’s word but that really didn’t make much sense to me because it was
for him and not for me.
Well praise God, I have finally
gotten me MY WORD! (Excuse the English).
I learned better since that hospital experience, but now I’m concerned
about those three people who traveled with that preacher. If they continue to be "spoon fed"
Christians then when they reach certain trials, tribulations and temptations I wonder, "Are they going
to give up?" One minister states
it this way: "Our bible is merely
a book of receipts, confirmation and title deeds." Children of God, find your receipts, find
your confirmation, and find your title deeds.
Your deliverance and destiny have been held back from you too long. Your happiness and healing have been hidden
from you too long. God has already
spoken YOUR WORD, so don’t just believe it – find it, understand it, and stand
on it!
