SPEAK THE WORD OF THE LORD
God does not need to be quoted; He needs men who will be His mouthpiece. People still feel that they can work for Jesus. This has been a problem down through the years. Instead of going out and working for Jesus, wouldn’t it be better to go out and let Jesus work through you? The New Testament does not use the phrase, “We are workers for the Lord.” It says, For we are labourers together with God. I Corinthians 3:9. A divine Word and energy flowed through those early believers. They did not go all over the world telling people what God had said. They were not concerned about quoting God; they were concerned about opening their mouths so that God could speak through them and reach the hearts of men. The book of Acts clearly shows that the actual speaking of the Word of the Lord was the most common ministry of the New Testament. There is a great deal of difference between traditional preaching and the anointed utterance that contains the Word of the Lord and brings it forth.
The early Church would have been fearful of the wisdom of men that is found in today’s preaching. Paul said, “I was with you in much weakness and trembling. My message was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom” (he was not interested in being an eloquent preacher), “but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith would not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God” (I Corinthians 2:3–5). Those early believers had a fear of standing up in a service and merely speaking. They wanted to speak under an anointing that would bring forth a Word from God to the people.
If the early Church could be transported to a present day New Testament worship service, they might say, “We like the prophecies and the preaching, but there are still too many things creeping in that are the wisdom of men.” The early Church was a prophetic community, and they spoke with a great anointing. The word Christ means “the anointed one,” and the word Christian means “the anointed ones.” They were called Christians because of the great anointing that was upon them—the same anointing that was upon Christ (Acts 11:26).
As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. In other words, we want to be God’s delivery boys—not helping people from a human level, but healing the sick and ministering by an anointing from the Lord. We want to help them in God. Whoever speaks, let him speak, as it were, the utterances of God; whoever serves, let him do so as by the strength which God supplies; so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. I Peter 4:10–11. Let a man speak forth what God has to say—the Word of God. This was the standard way of ministering in New Testament times. Men went out and upset the existing world, and in many ways it was a far more orderly world than ours. Roman law ruled like a rod of iron over the people.
The apostles went forth to speak God’s Word. You may want to go and preach too, but more than that, you must want to be a vessel to speak God’s Word in its power and authority. The true Church is going to be characterized by the constantly increasing level of anointing upon the prophetic flow, the preaching flow, and upon every endeavor that comes forth as a result of the Word of God.
Notice what happened at the church in Thessalonica. Now when they had traveled through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. And according to Paul’s custom, he went to them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and giving evidence that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus whom I am proclaiming to you is the Christ.” And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, along with a great multitude of the God-fearing Greeks and a number of the leading women.
But the Jews, becoming jealous and taking along some wicked men from the market place, formed a mob and set the city in an uproar; and coming upon the house of Jason, they were seeking to bring them out to the people. And when they did not find them, they began dragging Jason and some brethren before the city authorities, shouting, “These men who have upset the world have come here also; and Jason has welcomed them, and they all act contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus.” And they stirred up the crowd and the city authorities who heard these things.
And when they had received a pledge from Jason and the others, they released them. And the brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea; and when they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews. Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily, to see whether these things were so. Acts 17:1–11.
The church of Thessalonica came forth after three Sabbaths of ministry by the apostle Paul. How could a church be built after only a few weeks of ministry? That church was built the same way that a church should be built today—by speaking the Word of the Lord. Whenever people go to a church for any other reason than to hear the Word of the Lord, they are going with the wrong motivation, and that church is holding forth the wrong attraction. Rapid growth takes place in a person who hears a Word from the Lord with an open heart. He turns from darkness as the Word creates something within him. He does not change by making good resolutions, but he is transformed by the Word that God speaks to his heart.
A remnant of believers today are speaking the living Word of God. They will become increasingly effective as they believe that the true Church must bring forth the living Word from God in this generation. They will not be justified in just building churches. Restored New Testament churches must come forth that will bless multitudes of people with God’s Word. People hunger after the Word of God that is coming forth today. They will receive men who have no qualifications as theologians or trained ministers, if they speak the Word of the Lord that is burning in their hearts. This happened in the early Church.
The sixth chapter of Acts describes the solving of a problem that arose over the feeding of the widows. The disciples said, “But we will devote ourselves to prayer, and to the ministry” (the margin reads “service”) “of the word.” Verse 4. In other words, they were going to serve the Word of God. In verse 2 they said, “It is not desirable for us to neglect the word of God in order to serve tables.” The Greek word used for “service of the word” is the same word which is the derivative of the word “deacon.” The people were told to choose seven men to take care of serving the widows so that the apostles could give themselves continually to prayer and serving the Word of the Lord. The deacons would be the waiters to serve the widows their food, and the apostles would serve the Word of God. They were balancing the distribution of that which ought to be done, and it worked quite well for a while. Then what happened?
Stephen did more than serve food; he began to serve the Word of God too, and he was stoned for it (Acts 6, 7). The eighth chapter tells that Philip, one of the other deacons, went to Samaria and won the entire city to the Lord. He, too, was doing much more than serving meals. These were dynamic deacons who were speaking the Word of the Lord. They were God’s mouthpiece in that generation. And the word of God kept on spreading; and the number of the disciples continued to increase greatly…. Acts 6:7. This theme continues throughout the book of Acts.
So the word of the Lord was growing mightily and prevailing. Acts 19:20. This does not mean that they were writing a bigger and better Bible; it means that more and more human editions of it were going out; more and more people were speaking the Word of the Lord. People were born by a Word from God, and they went forth with a Word from God. What is the process of being born by a Word from the Lord? Paul wrote, So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ. Romans 10:17.
How are people converted? Do you have to talk them into it, preach some sermons to them, and convince them that they should walk with God? You will get further if you just speak the Word of the Lord. People will be born into a walk with God because they hear a Word from God. Because that Word from God does a wonderful work in their hearts, soon they are ready to open up and listen to everything that God is restoring to believers today. Faith is created when God speaks a Word.
What happens then? Remember those who led you, who spoke the word of God to you; and considering the outcome of their way of life, imitate their faith. Hebrews 13:7. When you remember these people who spoke the Word of God to you, what does that make you? Being manifested that you are a letter of Christ, cared for by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of human hearts. And such confidence we have through Christ toward God. II Corinthians 3:3–4.
As a believer, you are a new edition, a new Bible that God is writing. The new edition that is coming forth is not being written by modernists; it is being written by apostles, prophets, pastors and teachers. They are holding the pen, but God is doing the writing. By the Spirit of the living God, the Word is being written on the tablets of men’s hearts; and wherever they go, they are epistles of Christ—a living Word in what they are and in everything they do and say (II Corinthians 3:2). A Word from God is coming forth to the world. His people are the expression of God in the earth, the Body of Christ—His hands, His feet, His mouth. It is fitting that they should speak the Word of the Lord.
If these truths seem to be a little ethereal, you need a practical application to relate yourself to them so that you can become an oracle of God and minister as a steward of the manifold grace of God. What will help you with this? In the first place you are commanded to do this: Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you; with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God. Colossians 3:16. The Word of Christ was so rich in those early Christians that everything they did, everything they spoke, and all that they sang came forth out of the anointing on the Word that was in their hearts. The living Word that is coming forth today must be received as God’s Word. You will not grow until you accept it. None of those who speak it claim to be infallible, but do not be quick to exalt your opinion against the Word of God that comes through them. Just listen to the Word, and God will bear witness to your heart. Start receiving it as God’s Word. Then meditate on that Word. That is the way to masticate this living food. Then whatever becomes a living part of you through an experience from God, that is what you should speak. When someone speaks what he has experienced in his own life, you know that he is not giving merely a theory. Never try to speak something that is not a true and living part of you. First you absorb the Word of the Lord. Next you assimilate the Word. Finally you proclaim the Word that has become a living part of you.
This is no time to be bound with feelings of inadequacy and failure. What you do not know you can learn. Just follow on to know the Lord with all of your heart. Let the Christ come forth in you. There should be no room for discouragement, for again in this hour God is with His people. Have faith in this truth.
In the early Church, the disciples went somewhere and let God happen through them to people. Those disciples were like wrappings, like special boxes in which God conveyed Himself to people. That is happening again today. Let God speak through you. Prophesy, and let God thunder through you. Let Him erupt through you. Let God feel through you.
You do not have to be anything special in yourself, but when you have a Word from God, be excited about it and let Him move through you. Let Him love through you and bring healing through you. Be His mouthpiece and let Him bring judgment through you. The Lord will create through His words that you speak.