“For this reason we also thank God without ceasing, because when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe.” I Thessalonians 2:13
The Word of God works effectively in those who believe, but to those who do not believe, it brings out their worse.
The Bible is attacked today as a book of myths to give the old and the fearful a peg for their faith, as they face uncertainty, suffering and death. This is nothing new. The devil attacked the Words of God from the beginning even while he was in heaven, and has continually used men to carry on his attacks down through the ages.
During the Dark Ages (A.D. 500-1500), Rome burned Bibles along with their owners. Translations of the Bible ended up on bonfires. William Tyndale printed the New Testament in English, which was banned by the church in England. They smuggled Bibles in bales of cloth, but when they were discovered both the Bibles and Tyndale was burned.
Brother Andrew, known as ‘God’s Smuggler’, is well-known for his ministry of getting Bibles into countries of Europe to persecuted Christians, even to this day. The Bible is still hated and feared today. The Bible reveals our sinfulness, which man hates to acknowledge.
The Bible is precious and powerful as I have personally witnessed in the previous blog post. The Bible effectively drives out demons; this is why they hate the Bible so intensely. It is no wonder those people who rebel against God also hate His Words.
The Natural has to become the Spiritual via the New Birth-
“The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.” I Corinthians 2:14
The Word of God is the sharp two-edged sword that is able to divide the carnal soul from the spirit of man. Man is body, soul, and spirit. Natural, carnal man walks in his carnal soul until he turns to God in repentance asking to be forgiven of his sins, then Christ covers those sins as the atoning Lamb of God, and imparts the Life of His Holy Spirit into the dead spirit of the carnal man.
Now, man is able to walk in his spirit that has been reborn, to desire the things of God with new mental understanding. The carnal man hates the things of God.
The re-born believer now desires to read and study the things of God. The carnal man stayed away from the Light of God desiring what is hidden in darkness. The re-born man desires to draw near to God and experience things that agree with His character; known as the Fruit of the Spirit.
Allowing First-Love to grow Cold
Unfortunately, there are believers who allow their first love to grow cold, forsake reading the Word of God, forsake praying, and walk in their carnal self instead of in the new birth of the Holy Spirit. Instead of the character of Christ, they bring forth their own carnal character traits. The world sees this and says, “Aha! Christians are all hypocrites!” They use this as license to sin and refuse to have anything to do with the Bible and church. Christ encourages all who have lost their desire to be like Christ, to repent and renew their walk with Him.
To those who keep on believing the Bible brings many benefits.
The Bible gives us Faith, the New Birth, Spiritual Nourishment, Mental Illumination, Physical Healing, Victory over Sin and Satan, Cleansing and Sanctification, Reveals our Hearts as a Mirror, and is our Judge.
Faith-
So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. Romans 10:17
New Birth-
Of His own will He brought us forth by the Word of Truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures. James 1:18
Spiritual Nourhishment-
As newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the Word that you may grow thereby. I Peter 2:2
Mental Illumination-
“The entrance of your Words gives light, it gives understanding to the simple.” Psalm 119:130
Physical Healing-
“My son, attend to my Words; incline thine ear unto my sayings. Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart. For they are Life to those who find them, and Health to all their flesh.” Proverbs 4:20-22
Victory over Sin and Satan-
“How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to your Word. Your Word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against you.” Psalm 119:9.11
Cleansing and Sanctification-
“Husbands love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the Word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.” Ephesians 5:25-27
Reveals our Hearts as a Mirror-
“Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.” James 1:21-25
Our Judge-
‘For the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgement to the Son, that all should honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.” John 5:22-23
“And if any one hears My Sayings, and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world. He who rejects me, and does not receive My Sayings, has one who judges him; the Word I spoke is what will judge him at the last day.” John 12:47-48
“But if we judge ourselves rightly, we should not be judged.” I Corinthians 11:31
We can escape judgement by judging ourselves. We have to look into the mirror of God’s Words in the Bible and repent of that which we see as grieving our Lord’s very character. We have to ask for forgiveness and a new hunger for the things of God before we can continue to reap all the benefits of His Words.
It is a common temptation of Satan to make us give up the reading of the Word and prayer when our enjoyment is gone; as if it were of no use to read the Scriptures when we do not enjoy them, and as if it were no use to pray when we have no spirit of prayer.
The truth is that in order to enjoy the Word, we ought to continue to read it, and the way to obtain a spirit of prayer is to continue praying. The less we read the Word of God, the less we desire to read it, and the less we pray, the less we desire to pray. George Muller