POSITIONED FOR POWER

Letting the Word Go To Work in You

"For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but, as it is in truth, the word of God, which EFFECTUALLY WORKETH also in you that believe."   1 Thess. 2:13

      I like something Paul said when writing to the church of Colosse.  He told them, concerning his own preaching, "Whereunto I also labor, striving according to his working, which worketh in my mightily" (Co. 1:29).  One of the great truths that we should seek out every day of our lives has to do with the working out of God's Word.  See, it is one thing to be sermonized by the Word. It is something entirely different to be impacted by the power that is at work within the Word.  Sermonizing has never changed anyone, and neither will it bring folks into the fullness of what God has for them.  It takes connecting to the power of God that is contained in God's Word, both in how we preach and in how we respond to what is preached.

      All throughout the Bible we find scripture after scripture where God admonished his people to put themselves in right standing with his Word.  That is why he was so incessant about them keeping his commandments and observing "all that is written therein."   It all had to do with allowing the Word to work in them and for them.  Jesus told his disciples, "If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you" (John 15:7).  What a powerful statement!  But if you think about it, what he is really saying is: "If you will put yourself in a position to where you let my word govern your life, then it will go to work to perform whatever it is you need it to perform!" 

      One of the reasons why so many folk's prayers go unanswered is because they haven't allowed themselves to get into a right position concerning the Word!  I remember a story Brother Hagin shared concerning his own life.  He told of when he was bedridden at an early age of sixteen and decided to start reading through his grandmother's old Methodist Bible.  He thought to himself to begin in the New Testament, figuring that if there was an Old and a New that the New was the best place to start.  As he began to read, he came upon the passage in Matthew six where it talked about "Taking no thought for your life..." (Matt. 6:25).  According to his own testimony, his family had always been worrywarts.  I mean they could worry and become anxious over the littlest things.  He said he struggled with it too.  After reading what Jesus said about worry, instead of dealing with it, he just continued on into the next chapter.  It wasn't too long before he realized he was just reading words.  It seemed to him as if the Word became a closed book.  He wasn't getting anything out it anymore.  So, instead of reading on, he stopped and asked the Lord what was wrong.  The Holy Spirit rose up inside him and said: "Go back to when you first lost the flow!"  Suddenly, he found himself back over into the sixth chapter.  It was there that the Lord showed him where the problem was. He hadn't follow through with what Jesus said do.  In other words, he hadn't addressed his own case of worry, and he got out of position for the power of God's living Word to impact his life.

      See, if you want the Word to come alive and produce in you-I'm talking about the release of power to bring about change, then you have to put yourself in position toward that Word for it to go to work.  It's like the woman with the issue of blood.  She realized that Jesus was where the power of God was, and she determined to go after it.  Well, Jesus is the Word, so really it was as if she was pressing through the crowd to get to the Word.  Whatever it is that you have to press through in life to get positioned with the Word do it!  Don't hesitate or put off what needs to be addressed. Just make up your mind you are going to be a doer of the Word and not a hearer only!

      Once you make the decision to hold yourself to it, and determine within yourself to obey it and follow after it, then that virtue will flow into you and affect a change.  Proverbs says, "Attend to my words; incline thine ear to my sayings. Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart. For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh" (Pro. 4:20-22).  I find it very interesting that the word here for "health" means healing, soundness, refreshing, deliverance, tranquility of mind and body, and listen; it even means "tranquility of the tongue."  How many folks do we know who struggle with some of these very issues and haven't seen any change?  God's Word will work anywhere, anytime, with anyone who will simply dare to believe it!  But understand this: Believing is not just affirming in your heart that it is true.  You have to align yourself with it so that it begins to govern your life.  It is then and only then, that it can produce in you the kind of results you are looking for. Hebrews four says, "The Word is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword...," but if we fail to get ourselves in agreement with it, but becoming a doer of the Word, then we can easily short circuit that power and make the word of God of none effect.

PRAYER

Father, I come before you today, and I purpose in my heart to get right with your Word.  Whatever you have said for me to do, I wholly lean upon the power that is in your Word to help me carry it through.  Holy Spirit, you have been sent to be my helper, so help me become a doer of the Word and not just a hearer only.  In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

CONFESSION

David said a blessed man is one who delights himself in the Word of God and meditates in it day and night.  I declare this day that my delight is in feeding on the Word of God.  I will posture my entire thought processes toward God's way of thinking.  I will let God's Word become rooted and grounded in me so that I am positioned for the power of God to work mightily in me and through me.

DEFINING MOMENTS...

There are things that have been deposited in us in the new birth-things that have to do with the power of God.  But oftentimes they lay dormant.  It takes the Word of God working in us to awaken them.  It may be our destiny...a calling on our life...direction or instruction to put us on the right path, a fresh anointing, even virtue where God's power can begin to flow through us. All of these await being aroused in us by our response to the Word.  The secret to all that God hold for our lives and all that he has prepared for us to walk in depends wholly on the place the Word holds in our heart.

If you want to have a standard developed in you that holds you steady, that enables you to follow through with your commitments, that makes you a person of power and virtue, and that will help you to stand when everything around you is caving in, then you have to put God's Word first above everything else and surrender to it.  Your prosperity (in whatever area that concerns you) is in the Word!  When you put yourself in right standing with the Word then you will break out into a life of successful living (Joshua 1:8).

In His Grace,

Pastor David

Faith Harvest Church