The integrity of the Word is the basis of faith. The reason for unbelief and a faltering faith is a lack of assurance of the integrity of the promises in the Word. In Romans 10:8, it is called “the word of faith.”
God’s Word gives birth to faith; it is God’s faith expressed.
By faith we understand that the worlds have been framed by the word of God, so that what is seen hath not been made out of things which appear. (Hebrews 11:3 ASV)
In other words, this universe of ours came into being fresh from the womb of our Creator.
All God did to create was to say, “Let there be” and there leaped into being the things that are!
You see, God and His Word are one.
He named Jesus “the Word.”
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. (John 1:1–3)
God linked Himself with His Word.
He made Himself a part of it.
He is not only in His Word, but He is behind His Word.
You cannot separate Him from His Word.
By myself have I sworn…that in blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and the sand which is upon the sea shore. (Genesis 22:16–17)
This was God’s promise that backed the Abrahamic covenant.
No wonder that man had confidence, and that we have this description in Romans 4:17 (ASV): “(As it is written, A father of many nations have I made thee) before him whom he believed, even God, who giveth life to the dead, and calleth the things that are not, as though they were.”
He not only called the things that are not, and they leaped into being, but He watches over His Word to see that not one word fails.
In Romans 4:18 (ASV), speaking of Abraham, He says, “Who in hope believed against hope, to the end that he might become a father of many nations, according to that which had been spoken. So shall thy seed be.”
Now notice the next verses:
And without being weakened in faith he considered his own body now as good as dead (he being about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah’s womb; yet, looking unto the promise of God, he wavered not through unbelief, but waxed strong through faith, giving glory to God, and being fully assured that what he had promised, he was able also to perform. (Romans 4:19–21 ASV)
You can understand that when that angel spoke to Abraham, it solved the problem.
Abraham never tried to believe; he simply acted on the word of that heavenly visitor.
Hebrews 7:22 is one of the unknown Scriptures that every believer should understand: “By so much also hath Jesus become the surety of a better covenant” (ASV).
God, who was the surety of the old covenant said, “By Myself have I sworn,” and He tells us in Hebrews 6:17–18 (ASV) that He “interposed with an oath; that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we may have strong encouragement, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us.”
Abraham rested on the angel’s word.
Now we rest on this living Word given to the apostle Paul through the Holy Spirit.
Jesus is the guarantor for every word from Matthew 1:1 to Revelation 22:21.
All heaven is behind the Word; the very throne of God is behind the Word; and Jesus and the Father are behind the throne. They are all a part of this Word.
John 1:14 says, “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.”
This was the eternal “logos,” the very Son of God.
Jesus said in John 16:28, “I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again, I leave the world, and go to the Father.” That was the Word who was made flesh.
Then, in the new covenant, the four Gospels, and the Epistles, God puts Himself into man’s words.
Man had learned to communicate. Evidently, God had given him His language. Now God is pulling Himself into this word.
And if you remember 1 Thessalonians 2:13:
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.
You understand that 1 Thessalonians was the first book written in what we call the New Testament. All they had had up until that time was “the spoken word.” When Paul preached, his message was as authoritative as when he wrote; so he says, “you accepted this Word that I preached, not as though it were the word of a man, but as it really was, the very Word of God, and that Word that I preached to you worked in you; the Spirit built it into your life so that it became a part of you.”
Here are some facts about the Word.
The Word is always now.
It has been, it is, and it will be, the voice of God.
It is never old. It is always fresh and new.
To the heart that is in fellowship with the Father, the Word is a present-tense, living voice from heaven.
The Word is like its author: eternal, unchanging, and living.
Jesus was a root out of dry ground to His enemies. His revelation is a root out of dry ground to the skeptics of this day.
But it is a revelation of love to His friends and to those who love Him.
Hebrews 4:12 (MOFF) says, “The Logos of God is a living thing, active and more cutting than any sword with double edge, penetrating to the very division of soul and spirit, joints and marrow—scrutinizing the very thoughts and conceptions of the heart.”
And now notice this next sentence: “And no created thing is hidden from him; all things lie open and exposed before the eyes of him with whom we have to reckon” (Hebrews 4:13 MOFF).
Of what is He speaking? Of the living “logos” that I hold in my hand; and He says that there is no creative thing hidden from the eyes of this living Word, but all things lie open before Him.
This is a staggering thing to see that this Word is taking Jesus’s place. It has all the elements in it that were in Jesus.
Reason will take the Word’s place if we allow it to. Acting upon the Word doesn’t appeal to the senses. The senses call acting on the Word “fanaticism.”
The senses war against the recreated spirit, holding it in bondage, refusing to act on the Word. Until the mind is renewed, the Word will never have its place in the believer’s life.
Reason must give place to the Word.
Reason often robs the Word of its authority.
When I know that His Word is as authoritative today as it was when it fell from His lips, then it will be a living thing on my lips.
The Father’s Word on Jesus’s lips accomplished things. It hushed the sea. It quieted the wind. It raised the dead. It fed the multitudes.
His living Word on lips of faith will do the same today.
When you know that the Word is God speaking, you will speak the Word with authority.
You remember that faith in God is faith in His Word.
You want to build your faith? Feed on the Word; act upon it.
You remember Matthew 4:4: “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” You can’t build faith and feed on any other kind of food.
Unbelief in the Word is unbelief in Him, the Author of it.
Our attitude toward the Word settles everything. You remember that man’s word gives faith in man. God’s Word, when unveiled, gives faith in God.
The word of a man is what man is. The Word of God is what He is.
“No word from God shall be void of power” (Luke 1:37 ASV). That is what the angel said to Mary about the birth of Jesus, and Mary answered back, “Be it unto me according to thy word” (Luke 1:38).
If I could help believers to say that to the Master today, “Be it unto me according to thy word,” they would shake this modern age to its foundations.
Here is another translation of Luke 1:37 that I like: “Nothing is impossible to the Word of God.” The Word on your lips can be as mighty as the Word on the Master’s lips.
You remember that Jesus said again and again, “The words that I speak are not My words.”
For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak. (John 12:49)
You have in this New Testament the words of the Father.
You understand that the four Gospels give a picture of what Jesus thought of His Father.
Jesus is introducing the Father.
He is trying to make the God of the Jews, the God of Abraham, and of Isaac and Jacob, known to the Jewish heart as a Father God.
John 19:7 shows us that Jesus was crucified because He called God His Father. They had stoned Him for it. They had persecuted Him for it. Now they kill Him for it.
The Pauline Revelation is the Father introducing Jesus in reality.
He is introducing to us His substitutionary sacrifice that He wrought in His Son.
Not only that, but He is introducing the new creation. It is a revelation of His sons and daughters here in a crooked and perverse world.
The Word on Jesus’s lips was a living fact. What Jesus said was, is, and ever will be.
When we come to know that the Word was Jesus, the Word is Jesus speaking, then we will dare to speak it with confidence.
Then, He had just died and risen from the dead, but it is as fresh today as it was then. Jesus is of the “now” as though He died last month and Pentecost was last week.
He is all this, now. His Word is this living message to us, now.
What He said was a part of Himself. The reality of it is throbbing in us, flows through us; our lives are governed by it. The Word was real; the Word is real. This is the foundation for Faith, and faith gives substance to prayer and makes prayer a living reality.
Now soak in the Word. Let the Word work in you. John 15:7 (MOFF) says, “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, then ask whatever you like and you shall have it.”
The living Word on our lips will be like the spoken Word on Paul’s lips.
The Father’s Word on lips ruled by faith will be like His Word on Jesus’s lips.
It is His Word that does things!
His creative ability is in His Word today.
His Word awaits the lips of faith.
This will make a prayer life like Paul’s; it will give boldness to enter the holy place.
IS HE SPEAKING TO ME?
A miner lay dying in his shack in the hills of California. A Christian woman read John 3:16 to him. He opened his eyes and looked at her. “Is that in the Bible?”
And she said, “Yes.”
“Does it mean me?” He lay quietly for a bit and then said, “Has He said anything else?”
And she read John 1:12 (ASV): “As many as received him, to them gave he the right to become children of God.”
Then she answered softly, “Yes, He is speaking to you.”
And the man opened his eyes and whispered again, “I accept Him. I am satisfied.” Then he passed on.
A Christian said, “I wish I knew whether He meant me when He gave us Isaiah 41:10: ‘Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.’ Did He mean me?”
Jeremiah 33:3 says, “Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.”
Is He speaking to me? Is He asking me to call unto Him?
Isaiah 45:11 says, “Ask me of the things to come concerning my sons, and concerning the work of my hands command ye me.”
Is He speaking to me? Can I claim that as mine?
John 15:5 says, “I am the vine, ye are the branches.” And here’s the seventh verse: “If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.” Another translation says, “And you shall have it” (MOFF). Was that written for me? Does it mean that I can call unto Him anytime, anywhere, and He will hear me?
And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: and if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him. (1 John 5:14–15)
Does this mean me, today?
Yes, these are all yours.
It is as though you were the only person in the world, and He was writing it for your special benefit.
Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full. (John 16:24)
That is yours. There is no question about its belonging to you. It is as much yours as that check that was made out to you and signed by that businessman. That is your check. You can cash it down at the bank.
But that check is no more yours than are these promises in this wonderful Book.
So, take your place. Begin a real prayer life; you can do it; He is your helper.
Romans 8:26 says, “The Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.”
Let Him lead you into this prayer life.
He is always there to teach you.
He can open the Word and reveal your rights in Christ.
So act today!
The Word is the Father speaking to you.
It is not an old book that has a record of His message to men of ancient times; but the Bible, like its Author, is always now.
And looking down through the ages, He saw you, and this is written for your special benefit.
When He said, “I watch over my word to perform it” (Jeremiah 1:12 ASV), He was talking to you so that you would never question His Book again.
When He said, “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 15:5), that is His present-tense message to your heart.
You can take it as though you heard it over your radio, fresh from His lips, as though He were speaking through a microphone up yonder at the right hand of the Father, and that message came into your room and your name was called.
You knew it was for you.
Well, it would be no more yours than this Scripture I have just given you.
When He said, “Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you” (John 16:23), He meant it for you in your daily walk, in your prayer life.
While you are reading this now, it is the Father speaking to you.
It is as though He stood in the room and said, “Whatsoever you ask in my Son’s name, I will give it you.”
Or, if He said, “In my Son’s name, you may cast the demon out of that person, or you can lay hands on that person and they will be healed.”
That name is yours to be used any time, any place.
Remember this is not a religion; this is your personal contact with the Father. Your ability to pray and get results can’t be questioned.
It is as real as though you were the only person for whom Christ died.
And when He says, “He hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Corinthians 5:21), that means you.
When you accepted Him and received eternal life, you received His righteousness, and you became, that very moment, a new creation.
You became, at the same time, the righteousness of God in Him.
He doesn’t have to do anything else—it is all done.
The work is finished.
The new creation is a fact.
All you need to do now is to act as though you knew it to be true, just as you act on any other fact of life.
We will assume that you are working in a factory and you are notified by the management that your pay has been raised. You at once plan what you will do with that new income.
As you sit here reading this, you remember that the great, mighty Holy Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead is in your body.
He is there to cooperate with you.
You are to cooperate with Him.
That greater One is in you with His resurrection power and ability.
You act on it.
You don’t try to have faith. Faith is unnecessary now because He is in you, and this all belongs to you.
You have to have faith for things that do not belong to you.
The thing that is yours, is yours, so now, you will act on the Word without fear or questioning!
THE FATHER’S WORD ON YOUR LIPS
Jesus said, “For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak” (John 12:49).
This is a marvelous statement from the lips of the Master.
The next verse says, “Whatsoever I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak.”
Jesus declared that He came down out of heaven not to do His own will but the will of Him who sent Him.
The works that Jesus did, He declared were His Father’s works.
He said, “The Son can do nothing of his own accord, nothing but what he sees the Father doing; for whatever he does, the Son also does the same” (John 5:19 MOFF).
The miracles that Jesus performed were the Father’s miracles.
The marvelous words that He spoke were the Father’s words.
Now you can see the power of the Father’s words on Jesus’s lips. Jesus knew who He was. He knew He was the Son of God. He knew God was His own Father. He knew that He came out from the Father. He knew He was going back to the Father. He knew His place and His work.
He was never vacillating in His actions or in His speech. There was a positive element in His messages that thrilled the heart.
There was a quiet assurance in every step. He took His place and acted the part of a Son.
He continually confessed His Sonship and His mission in the world.
As I face this fact, I ask myself this question: “Can we have the same assurance today, the same positiveness that Jesus had?”
Yes, a thousand times, yes!
We are redeemed from the hand of the enemy.
Colossians 1:13–14 says, “Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins.”
That is a declarative statement in regard to our place, our standing and liberty in Christ.
We have been delivered out of darkness. We have been translated into the kingdom of the Son of His love.
We are redeemed; our sins have been wiped out. Then we haven’t anything to do with bondage nor with our past life, for when we were recreated, as Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 5:17–18 (MOFF):
There is a new creation whenever a man comes to be in Christ; what is old is gone, the new has come. It is all the doing of the God who has reconciled me to himself through Christ and has permitted me to be a minister of his reconciliation.
We know that we are recreated, and that Satan has no dominion over the new creation.
We know that we are reconciled to the Father. That means a perfect fellowship.
We know that if we are reconciled, we can come into His presence without condemnation.
We know that with that reconciliation has come righteousness, the ability to stand in the Father’s presence without condemnation or inferiority.
Jesus had no more than that.
Jesus had no sin-consciousness. We have no sense of sin.
Jesus had no sense of unrighteousness. We have no sense of unrighteousness, because we have been declared righteous with His own righteousness by the very living Word of God.
Jesus had no better righteousness than we have because God is our righteousness.
Jesus had no better fellowship than we have, because our fellowship has been wrought by God Himself.
Jesus had no better right in prayer or any more power in dealing with demons than we have.
All authority was given to Jesus, and He gave us a legal right to the use of His name.
If the Word means what it says, we have a standing with the Father, we have rights and privileges which we have never taken advantage of.
There is no sense of reality, no sense of God, in the modern church.
John 7:29 says, “I know him: for I am from him, and he hath sent me.”
John 8:54–55 (MOFF) is Jesus’s positive confession about His relationship with the Father:
It is my Father who glorifies me; you say “He is our God,” but you do not understand him. I know him. Were I to say, “I do not know him,” I would be a liar like yourselves; but I do know him and I hold to his word.
We can know the Father. We can know our sonship rights.
He is my Father; I am His child; I am in His family.
Jesus said He came down here to do the Father’s will. When we confess the lordship of Jesus, we confess our purpose—to do the Father’s will.
He said, “Be not ignorant but understand what the will of the Father is.” (See Ephesians 5:17.)
Let us form the habit of thinking that His will for us has more joy in it than anything which is contrary to His will.
Let us educate ourselves in the consciousness that His will is best, that His will has permanent joy and gladness in it, and that His will has success in it.
Outside of His will is confusion, unhappiness, and misery.
Jesus walked in love.
“Greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world” (1 John 4:4). The One who is in you is love.
“God is love” (1 John 4:16).
For it is God who is at work within you. (See Philippians 2:13.) You have love in you. You have God’s nature in you. You have God Himself in you.
We are dealing with realities. Most of our preaching is theory, speculation, telling us what we ought to do and be.
The only difficulty is that we have never confessed what we are in Him!
Jesus continually confessed what He was. Modern teaching has made it almost a crime to acknowledge what we are in Christ.
All that Jesus was to His Father in His earth walk, we may be to the Father in our earth walk.
We have the same Holy Spirit that Jesus had. We have the same words that Jesus uttered, which were the Father’s words.
On our lips today, we can have the very message that Jesus had.
The Pauline Revelation is the Word of the Father. We can fill our mouth with this Revelation of Paul’s. We will be speaking the Father’s words.
We will be taking Jesus’s place in the earth, saying the Father’s words just as Jesus did when He walked the earth.
What a prayer life awaits us!
Jesus knew who He was. He knew why He came.
We may know who we are in Christ. We are new creations created in Christ Jesus. We have His nature.
There need not be anything mysterious about our walk. We may know exactly who we are. We may know why we are as Jesus did.
Jesus knew His Father. He said, “I came out from the Father; I came into the world. Again, I leave the world and go unto My Father.” (See John 16:28.)
We may know our Father. We are born of God, and God is our Father.
We may know Him as truly as the Master knew Him.
If you start the day with Him, you will fellowship with Him. When you awaken in the morning, you whisper softly, “Good morning, Father. Here is another day to live and walk with Thee.”
Whatever problem confronts you, you consult Him in your heart.
If it is wisdom that you need, you thank Him for it. If it is love to meet a disagreeable situation, He is there in you to take you over and live His own life through you.
He can make your words just like Jesus’s words, full of love, full of sympathy, full of courage.
It would be good for you once in a while to stop and say to your Father, “Thank you for ability, for giving me wisdom to meet this problem.”
Jesus in you is authority over demoniacal forces and over the laws of nature.
We may know our ability. We may know that we have authority over all the demoniacal forces.
“In My name, you shall cast out demons.” (See Mark 16:17.)
“Greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world” (1 John 4:4).
These are facts. We know them. We are not afraid to face life with the consciousness of victors.
In the morning, you take stock. You say, “He and I are going together. I have access to His ability, His wisdom, His love, His grace, and His strength to meet every issue that confronts me. I shall have physical strength for every need today. I shall have wisdom to meet every issue. I shall have love no matter what the provocation may be.”
You see, when you walk like this, your prayer life becomes a realistic thing.
Jesus had no sense of need. There was always a sureness in all He did.
Well, if He is in me and for me, and I have His Word, there should be a sureness about my walk. I should not walk as a blind man, feeling my way along. I should walk erect. I should keep pace with the momentum of life around me. There should be an absolute certainty about my decisions.
When I remember that He is my sufficiency, it makes no difference what the problem may be; He is there. I have His guidance. I am assured of His presence, and He will not let me fail.
He was never discouraged, and He whispers to me, “Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness” (Isaiah 41:10).
That is mine. I fearlessly take up the task before me. Unconsciously, I am living in His presence. I am walking in His presence. His eye of love is upon me all the time. He and I are carrying out His will.
Why, prayer just becomes a means of communication between Him and me. It is not a slavish duty. It is not a difficult task. It is not hard work.
He and I are working together.