Working With The Word : By James L Lantz
The Lord is good to all and His mercy is available to everyone who calls upon Him! The psalmist declared that God sent His word to heal and deliver us from every disease and calamity. Ps. 107:20 He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions. The word came down from heaven and became flesh. Jesus declared that He is the living bread that gives eternal life to all who partake of Him. John 6:51 I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. Many disciples at the Capernaum synagogue who heard Jesus say that He was the living bread that a man must eat to live forever took offense and turned away from the Word that day. John 6:66 From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him. They did not grasp how to eat the word of God and walked away from eternal life! John 6:63 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. Always agree with God even when you don’t understand! It is nothing but pride for us to say that we know better than God and that our way is better than His way. All of God’s commandments are for our good and even His chastening is to help us recognize our need to repent and return to that place of blessing. Pro. 28:13 He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy. Repentance is the starting place in our coming to God or returning to God! Jesus
Repentance Is Turning From Our Way To God’s Way!
preached repentance and the kingdom of God. The twelve preached that men must repent. Peter told those whose hearts were pricked by his message at Pentecost to repent. Acts 2:38 Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. Paul taught in Damascus, then at Jerusalem, and throughout the coasts of Judaea, and then to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, and do things that prove their repentance. ( Acts 17:30, Acts 26:20 ) We should not be surprised that repentance is first on the list of the fundamental doctrines of the church.
Our first step in working with the word is acknowledging that God’s Word is truth and that we are in need of a Savior, Deliverer, a Baptizer in the Holy Spirit, Healer, Protector, Provider, and One that makes us whole. Jesus reveals in the parable of the sower how God’s word will produce for everyone who receives and nurtures His word. Those whose hearts were hard like a path refused to consider any view other than their own and thus God’s thought’s were stolen from them. Those whose hearts were like stony ground worked excitedly with the word until trouble and persecution persuaded them them that the word didn’t work. Those who were surrounded by thorny companions began to work with the word, believing and receiving what God said, but eventually allowed the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things to choke out the word and became unfruitful. Those with an honest and good heart heard the word of the Lord, did what God said, and brought forth fruit with patience ( constancy, persistence, perseverance ). This is how we receive salvation, deliverance, the Baptism in the Holy Spirit, healing, protection, provision, and wholeness.
The scriptures reveal how Jesus and His disciples worked with people in ministering healing to them and how people worked with the Word in receiving healing and miracles. Numerous times the greek word therapeuo was translated as heal, healed, or healing in the New Testament. This includes the meaning of waiting upon, to relieve, to cure, and to adore. Therapy in our English language is a derivative from therapeuo. Often, in ministering to the sick, Jesus and others would command them to do something, lay their hands on them, or cast evil spirits out of them, or anoint them with oil. Many people have the idea that if God wants to heal someone He just does, regardless if they are believing (expecting) and following the leading’s of the Holy Spirit. Faith is recognizable in this next scripture by the expectancy of those who brought their sick and by the desire of the sick to be brought and receive through the laying on of hands. Luke 4:40 Now when the sun was setting, all they that had any sick with divers diseases brought them unto him; and he laid his hands on every one of them, and healed them. People need to be convinced that it is God’s will to heal them before they can have faith to receive healing! There was a man full of leprosy who came to Jesus, fell on his face, and besought him, saying, Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean. Luke 5:13 And he put forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will: be thou clean. And immediately the leprosy departed from him. No power flowed to this leper until he heard the words, I will, and believed. A couple of verses later Jesus is healing multitudes. Luke 5:15 But so much the more went there a fame abroad of him: and great multitudes came together to hear, and to be healed by him of their infirmities. Did you notice that this multitude was made up of people who wanted to hear the word. Desiring to hear the word of God and do it is working with the word! The Pharisees were working against the word wanting to accuse Him of something. Mt. 12:10 And, behold, there was a man which had his hand withered. And they asked him, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath days? that they might accuse him. Jesus commanded the man to stretch forth his hand and it was restored like the other one. This man acted on the faith principle of calling those things which be not as though they were when he did what was impossible to do without the power of God.
Elisha sent a messenger to Naaman, go wash in the Jordan seven times and your leprosy will be gone. Naaman didn’t like God’s instructions at first but relented, and decided to work with what God said and dipped seven times and was made clean. It’s amazing how fast our healing will appear when we follow instructions. Isaiah gave us a list of things God wants us to do in the fifty eighth chapter of his book. He said, when you do these things, your light will break forth as the morning and your health shall spring forth speedily, and your righteousness shall go before you, and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.
Jesus told the impotent man by the pool of Bethesda, get up, pick up your bed, and walk (leave). Obviously this man believed the word that Jesus spoke because he stood up. If he would not have acted on the word of God no power would have flowed and he would have remained immobile.
Before Jesus ascended into heaven He commanded His disciples to take the gospel to the whole world so that men might believe and be saved! They went forth and preached the word every where, and the Lord worked with and confirmed the word with signs following. The word of God is alive and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. If we value the word of God and work with the word we will receive what the word says! Let your words, your actions, and your heart agree with God! He said, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Everyone who asks, seeks, and knocks, will receive! They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. 2 Cor. 1:20 For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us.
