Greetings in the Name of Jesus and welcome to the PLN Sunday Night Bible Fellowship!

 

This week we're starting a new series that will focus on the POWER of the Word of God. I'm pretty sure the Lord has quite a few articles on this subject for us to consider together in the coming weeks and months and I hope you'll join me in this project with an expectation for discovering some new understanding THAT WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE. It's won't be so much that I'll be the one bringing you new information as much as the Holy Spirit imparting additional insight into you directly in response to YOUR sincere pursuit of something greater in your Christian experience. So, this series will merely act as a spiritual catalyst for stirring up YOUR pursuit for more POWER to be used for overcoming the World and the concerns in your own life.

 

To start with, the Bible isn't just a book to sit down with and enjoy in your spare time when there's nothing else to do. You've probably noticed that already so I'm just emphasizing the obvious because the Word of God is probably THE most UNDER-appreciated gift that the Lord has given us. It's not generally understood around the Body of Christ that the Word is actually ALIVE (Hebrews 4:12), that it has its own LIFE for believers to connect to and use for the purposes of the Kingdom, that because it is ALIVE it has within itself ALL of the POWER we need to produce VICTORY in every area of life: spirit, soul and body. Left to itself on a coffee table somewhere it appears to be lifeless, but it waits there longing for an opportunity to connect with a believer and change a life, to share its life with the life of a God-pursuing Christian as only it can do.

 

Most people are where they are in life because of the way they've been thinking: As a man thinks in his heart so is he (Proverbs 23:7). The Hebrew for "heart" here means "living mind." We come out of the World thinking about life the way the World does, and the Christian experience from that point forward is dedicated to changing the way we think about everything so that our thinking comes to agree with what the Word of God says. Thus the primary objective/purpose of the Word is to change the way we think so that we can change who we are from the inside out. The Holy Spirit is the Teacher (John 14:26) and He uses a living textbook to teach His curriculum of life so we change our thinking ABOUT EVERYTHING. Therefore, the quality of life in the Christian experience of an individual believer is directly related to the amount of real understanding we each have received from the Word of God: the more Word we have received AND UNDERSTAND AND USE, the greater the VICTORY we're experiencing in life.

 

And UNDERSTANDING is not about how many scriptures we've memorized or how many times we've read the Bible. Rather, it's about how much of the Word has become personal revelation to us so we can take ownership of it and apply it in our lives. Until we're actually DOING what the Word says to do, until our thinking has been modified and comes into agreement with the Word, the process of achieving genuine UNDERSTANDING hasn't been successfully completed and it does NOT happen just by casual reading. No, UNDERSTANDING comes by sincere study and meditation of what's been written coupled with seeking the Holy Spirit for illumination.

 

The truth is most Christians aren't really living the life of VICTORY Jesus won for them. I realize traditional teaching says that many of us are chosen to suffer, and experience disaster and insufficiency and loss, and be sick and die young and that God puts us through all kinds of difficulty to strengthen us and change us and get our attention, and even to glorify Himself. But in all the sincerity I can muster, I cannot find that idea in the New Covenant of my Bible. He could certainly do it that way if He wanted to but my Bible ACTUALLY says that believers OVERCOME the World by their faith (1 John 5:4-5) and that Jesus won that for me/you at the Cross of Calvary. If disaster does come my way, it's NOT our loving God who sent it and the fact is He has already provided His Word to help me OVERCOME whatever negative, defeated stuff the World and the devil and the flesh and other people try to send my way.

 

My Bible ACTUALLY says that I've been REDEEMED from the curse of the Law (Galatians 3:13) so I refuse to believe that He would send Jesus to the Cross to die for my redemption only to Himself now use the curse (Deuteronomy 28:15-68) to change my thinking and make me a better person. How could He possibly glorify Himself by reconnecting His children to the Curse after He sent Jesus to the Cross to overcome it? Tradition absolutely kills the POWER in the Word, not because I say so but because the Word of God says it (Mark 7:13). It's time for Christians to cast down old, dead traditions and wake up to the fact that all God needs in order to change us into the victorious, full-of-power Christians we've been created to be are His LIVING Word and His Holy Spirit. How can we ever have revival in the Church if half of us believe that God is sending defeat into the lives of believers as a teaching tool? The Word of God can absolutely change everything by itself!

 

Power to Change the World

 

During the Middle Ages the Word of God was pretty much locked up out of sight by the leaders of the traditional church. Regular folks were even executed if they were found in possession of a Bible and the only knowledge of the Word they had was what church leaders told them about it. All the bibles of that time were written in Latin as a matter of Church Decree and of course only the church leaders for the most part understood Latin. Along with that the Latin-language bibles had been corrupted in meaning almost beyond recognition when they were compared during the Reformation to the original Hebrew and Greek manuscripts.

 

The result of all this was profound spiritual ignorance among the general population of Europe which produced the Dark Ages. Indeed, the Bible confirms that God's people are destroyed when there's no knowledge (Hosea 4:6) which was amply demonstrated during that unfortunate period in history. Finally in the late 14th century John Wycliffe produced a hand-written a bible in the English language and in the next century the Gutenberg press was "invented" so that bibles could be mass-produced. It's interesting that the technological equivalent of the Gutenberg press had already been invented in eastern Asia 700 years earlier but no one in Europe knew about it because when there's no Word, ignorance prevails and creativity is "postponed."

 

The point of this brief history lesson is this: when finally the Word of God was released in mass and in common, understandable languages during the 15th to 16th centuries, as the people again had direct access to the TRUE Word, IT CHANGED THE WORLD. The Word of God is the most powerful force on the earth and is more than able IN AND OF ITSELF, BY ITSELF to bring about change. With words, God created the Universe and with words the Dark Ages came to a relatively abrupt end ushering in a new era of enlightenment and creativity. Friend, if the Word of God is so powerful that it created the universe and brought the world out of the Dark Ages, can't we put our faith to the belief that it's powerful enough to change our lives and correct our thinking too?

 

         

 

Unfortunately though, most Christians do whatever they can to avoid spending time in the Word. It seems like almost everything in life is a higher priority because we're so very busy with all the other "important" things that occupy our time that there's nothing left over for things like studying and meditating on the Word. But what if the Word of God is actually the absolute LITERAL truth in everything it says? This is a key question that Christians have to deal with at some point in our spiritual development. Consider for a moment that there are whole church denominations these days teaching that the Bible is just some fairly good literature written down centuries ago by imperfect scholars primarily for the people of that time and that it has to now be INTERPRETED by trained clerics to have any relevance in today's environment. Does that sound like the déjà vu Dark Ages all over again?

 

Friend, the Bible itself teaches that it is God Himself who has caused His Words to be written down under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit so that we can come to KNOW Him as no other people have ever known Him. There aren't any scriptures telling us that after the time of the early Apostles we could eventually disregard or reinterpret all their hard work of writing down what THEY themselves had done under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. And, they wrote down as well how we should be living as believers under a New Covenant, principles and concepts that were never meant to be anything other than immutable absolutes. God doesn't give temporary principles for anything. Everything that God does is ETERNAL.

 

And so, the thing that happens when people don't receive and act on the Word completely and literally as it has been written is that they begin to construct their own religions made up of manmade traditions. As we already saw, the POWER of the Word of God is nullified when men try to replace it with their TRADITIONS (Mark 7:13). If we really desire the POWER of the Word of God working to change our circumstances, we have to make the decision to receive the Word literally and then we can purpose to diligently do what it says. It should go without saying that we have to LEARN what it says in order to DO what it says but a lot of Christians haven't made that connection yet which is why so many of us avoid studying it. But once we do make that connection, the power of the Word can be released to change our circumstances.

 

There are some great verses from 2 Peter 1:2-11 that bear on this question and we suggest that you meditate on them until the full meaning penetrates your thinking. To summarize, these verses tell us that EVERYTHING we need pertaining to life and to righteous living comes to us by the KNOWLEDGE (with understanding) of God and of Jesus Christ. How is that knowledge made available to us? It comes ONLY by the Word of God. If we want the Word to change our circumstances, we have to know God and Jesus Christ through the Word. It's a simple concept but apparently hard for many of us to actually DO. Even when we know what the Word says about some subject, we'll try to find ways to circumvent it if it doesn't fit with what we want to do. That's just the enemy working through our flesh but he'll flee if we're serious about changing our circumstances and resist him (James 4:7).  

      

Following are a few other scriptures to meditate on about the power of the Word to change our circumstances:

 

Joshua 1:8 - Meditate on the Word day and night so you can make your way prosperous and successful.

 

Psalm 107:20 - The Lord sent His WORD and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.

 

Proverbs 4:20-22 - Give attention to My words, for they are life to those who find them and health to all their body.

 

John 8:31-32 - If you live according to the words of Jesus, you will come to know the Truth and it will set you free.

 

Hebrews 4:12 - The Word of God is alive and full or power and sharper than any two edged sword.

 

The limited space for this Newsletter restricts us from showing you all the MANY scriptures that confirm the power of God's Word that's available to change our circumstances. Study it for yourself and the Truth will set you free (John 8:31-32). The power of God to change our circumstances has been made available but it can only be received by knowing and using the Word of God by FAITH. And that requires that we finally decide to make increasing our knowledge of the Word our highest priority. It takes time and it takes effort; but each of us must decide if we want to continue in defeat or to take hold of the opportunity of working for the victory. Study the Word and show yourself approved and blessed in the name of Jesus.

 

Some Final Thoughts

 

The Word of God is so powerful that it doesn't need much help from you. What it needs is your FAITH to believe that it possesses the POWER in and of itself to change you in every area of life. Otherwise, your job is to pursue the Word of God on a first priority basis with a willing and curious and expecting heart. After that it's the Word itself that will produce the changes in your life. The flesh doesn't want to believe that but the truth is that the Word is ALIVE and it possesses its own POWER to produce change. Let the Word change your life and stop trying to change it in your own strength with worldly ways of doing things. It is the Word that heals, it is the Word that prospers and it is the Word that delivers and saves. In short, let the Word do its job on you from the inside out and then be on the alert for VICTORY in every area of life.

 

Thanks for stopping by tonight. We'll be looking for you again NEXT Sunday night on November 9. In the meantime may the Lord bless you with every spiritual blessing (Ephesians 1:3), compelling you to PROSPER in every area of life!

 

Sinners' Prayer

 

If you've never invited Jesus to be the Lord of your life, you need to and you can do it today just by saying out loud the following simple prayer:

 

Jesus I declare today with all my heart that I believe in you and that God raised you from the dead. I acknowledge that my sins have been forgiven and I ask you to come into my life today and be my Lord and Savior. Thank you for salvation and eternal life.

 

If you were sincere as you prayed this prayer, God has already come into your life and you are a new creation, a totally new species recreated in His image. Now ask the Lord to lead you to a good faith-based, bible-teaching church where you can be equipped to fulfill your potential in the Kingdom of God.

 

And, when you get a chance have someone help you look up the following scriptures because they confirm what you've done by saying this prayer today and believing what you said:

 

Romans 10:9

2 Corinthians 5:17

Ephesians 2:8

 

Prayer Requests

 

If you have a Prayer Request, please connect to the Link below and follow the promptings. The PLN staff members pray over Prayer Requests every Tuesday morning at 10:00 AM eastern time. Agree with us for God to answer your petition.

 

http://www.creditcounseling.net/prayer-request.aspx 

 

Donations

 

If you've been edified by Prosperous Life Newsletter, you may want to consider making a SEED FAITH offering to support the Ministry (Galatians 6:6-7). God has instructed us to simply provide folks with an opportunity to sow seed into good ground so in due season you'll be eligible to reap a harvest and the rest is up to you as the Spirit leads. For your information PLN is a nonprofit gift to the Body of Christ so your financial offerings will usually be tax deductible (consult your tax advisor). Just go to the secure Shopping Cart on the Cornerstone web site by connecting through the following link. We appreciate your support and generosity.

 

http://www.creditcounseling.net/shop/item.aspx?itemid=1 

 

About Prosperous Life Newsletter

 

PLN is an outreach ministry of Make A Way Ministries and has been published continuously since January 1998. It's an e-publication about life in the Kingdom of God and is sent ONLY to our email list of MINISTRY MEMBERS. If you're reading this and aren't yet on our growing email list, please let us know and we'll be so very happy to add you to the list.

 

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