Now the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying, Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee, and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee; I have appointed thee a prophet unto the nations. Then said I, Ah, Lord Jehovah! behold, I know not how to speak; for I am a child. But Jehovah said unto me, Say not, I am a child; for to whomsoever I shall send thee thou shalt go, and whatsoever I shall command thee thou shalt speak. Be not afraid because of them; for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith Jehovah.
Then Jehovah put forth his hand, and touched my mouth; and Jehovah said unto me, Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth: see, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to pluck up and to break down and to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant. Jeremiah 1:4–10.
Jeremiah’s prophecies planted the seed of the greatest of all kingdoms to come, the Kingdom of God upon the earth. He prophesied, and nation after nation crumbled—some within his own generation. The Word that God placed in his mouth was not only predictive, for God said, “I have set thee over the nations to pluck them up.” Wherefore thus saith Jehovah, the God of hosts, Because ye speak this word, behold, I will make my words in thy mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them. Jeremiah 5:14.
It is beyond human intelligence to explain the nature of the Word, much less understand it. God has not impoverished Himself by anything He has ever said, and yet the full scope of His attributes is contained in every Word He has ever spoken. His words are Spirit, even as He is Spirit; and they are life (John 6:63). They complete a cycle of being directed, going to the place where they are directed, and returning to God, without ever becoming void. They accomplish that which He sends them to do (Isaiah 55:11).
The words of the Lord are like a seed: they contain within themselves the promise, the potential of all that is necessary for their own fulfillment. When God gives you a Word, you do not have to do anything except believe it, hold on to it, and with violent faith aggressively claim that Word. Hold it fast in the soil of your heart where it will germinate and bring forth the fullness of all that it has promised in itself (Mark 4:8).
Psalm 147:15 tells us, His word runneth very swiftly. The Word of God is unique and different from the word of man, in that it lives. It contains God Himself within it, and it brings to pass whatsoever is contained in it. How tremendous is the Word of the living God that comes to men! He says, “I have put My Word in your mouth. You are going to bring down nations and pluck them up. You are going to build and plant, destroy and overthrow. All of this is within the scope of the potential of the words of God that are in your mouth to speak.”
Romans 10:8–9 tells us, The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart…if thou shalt confess with thy mouth…and believe in thine heart. This is all that is required to set in motion the Word of God. The faith of your own heart gives it a launching pad; and the confession of your lips directs and channels it, giving it focus and form. Then the Word of God goes forth and is accomplished. You can speak that Word into existence.
Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God. Hebrews 11:3a. They came into being because God spoke a Word. When God told Jeremiah, “My words are in your mouth,” he believed it and set himself to speak them into being. Do not have the mistaken idea that the prophets of the Old Testament were just seers who predicted future events. True, they were seers inasmuch as they saw the vision. But as prophets, they did not only predict; they caused it to happen. Babylon did not fall in ancient times because of external conditions. The world is not controlled and history does not unfold through cause and effect, through conditions that exist. Changes happen in the world because prophecies are spoken. However, they do more than predict; they open the flood of God which causes them to happen.
When God said, “Son of man, prophesy against Tyre,” Tyre was brought down by that Word of the Lord. Whenever God speaks a Word, that Word is not only predictive; it actually brings into being the thing that it speaks. When God speaks a Word to your heart, that Word brings it to pass. All you have to do is believe it and receive it. Watch the Word of the Lord work very effectively in your life when you receive it as it is indeed—the Word of God (I Thessalonians 2:13).
True discipleship in this hour is believing to see everyone in the family of Christ elevated toward that glorious objective of speaking the Word of God in the earth. Do not expect the things that are predicted for the end time to happen automatically. They will happen by virtue of a remnant rising and prophesying them into existence. Analyzing all the various trends that work in the earth will not enable you to predict conditions that the world will experience. It never happens that way. Historians have tried to show the various causes that came into play and brought about the decay and disintegration of great kingdoms that were strong, vigorous, and well-disciplined. What made those kingdoms seem to decay and deteriorate overnight? The Word of the Lord came, taking the very heart out of the people. Nations came down because God said it was time for them to come down. He blew on them, and that was their end. Through the mouths of His servants, He blows on mighty nations, and they come down.
Do not be afraid to prophesy against Babylon, and do not regard it as just a lung exercise. “God will judge your judgments on her, O ye apostles and prophets of God” (Revelation 18:20). When people stand against the will of the Lord and the Word of the Lord, do not be afraid to prophesy against them. When Elymas, the sorcerer on the island of Cyprus, tried to prevent Sergius Paulus from coming to the Lord and hearing the Word of God, Paul struck Elymas with blindness and someone had to lead him around. Sergius Paulus marveled at the wonderful ways of the Lord and the effectiveness of His dealings (Acts 13:8–12). When you see Satan trying to interfere with any man’s walk with God, stand and prophesy against it in the name of the Lord. The days of judgment will return once again to the earth.
Jeremiah started prophesying when he was very young and continued all his life. He saw more fantastic changes take place in the world than any man in any previous generation. What he did not see in his day was fulfilled in rapid succession in the generations immediately following. Besides, he saw far ahead into the days of the Kingdom.
It is interesting to note the ways in which God dealt with Jeremiah. God loved him very much, or He never would have made him suffer as He did. God only causes a man to suffer for His sake when He loves him very much. That was true also of Paul, who thought that the highest calling a man could have was to be a partaker of the sufferings of Jesus Christ (Philippians 3:8).
What a noble calling is set before our generation. What a joy can be ours. Some of us in this generation will be privileged to give our lives for Jesus Christ. We will be privileged to be the martyrs whom He loves very much. You cannot give the Lord any greater gift than to give Him back the life He has given you. What a privilege to have Him accept such a gift from you because He knows you love Him that much.
Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy words were unto me a joy and the rejoicing of my heart: for I am called by thy name, O Jehovah, God of hosts. Jeremiah 15:16. Jeremiah ate the words of the Lord.
Becoming a prophet of God is not achieved by some hocus-pocus method. In order for a man to speak the Word of God he must first hear God’s Word, and not merely in a casual way. He must eat it. There must be as deep an assimilation of that Word as there is of the natural food he eats. Those who are aspiring in this generation to be like Jeremiah—prophets speaking the Word of the Lord—will have to start where Jeremiah started, delighting in the Word of the Lord more than anything else. They must become completely dedicated to the living Word that God is bringing forth: loving it, believing in it, and sacrificing for it by putting it ahead of everything else in the world. Then God will look upon them and say, “I gave you My Word and you did eat it, for it was the joy and rejoicing of your heart. And now you are going to become the oracles of God and speak forth that Word; it will flow like living water out of your innermost being.”
Love the Word of the Lord. Devour it. Be a part of what God is speaking and bringing into being by His very Word. Those who walk with God in this day will be characterized by their deep love for everything that He speaks. They will ponder the Word day and night, hiding it away in their hearts. All of their work and energy, their every action, will be geared to seeing His Word honored and glorified and fulfilled. All of their focus and concentration will be beamed toward doing the will of God as His Word opens up and reveals His will to them.
A dedication to God’s Word does not necessarily mean that everything will go well with you. For every action there will be a corresponding reaction in the spirit world. Every time you speak the Word of God, the enemy will be stirred against it because the Word has authority. All authority has been stripped from the spirit world and has been vested in the Lord Jesus Christ; therefore, as His Word comes forth, it will control every devil power and every manifestation of Satan.
The level of prophecy and of speaking the Word of God that is coming to God’s people will immediately control the satanic assaults against them. The Church will move out of the level where it can be buffeted and harassed, and into the place where it will speak the Word of God that will control by its authority every spiritual assault coming against it. The Word will even control diseases, as Psalm 107:20 promises: He sent His word and healed them. God’s people have yearned for that, for Satan has thrown every infirmity and illness against them that he could, knowing that the authority had not yet come forth in the utterance. But now God is restoring authority to the Church through the utterance of the Word of God in the prophetic flow, which makes the Word come alive as it is spoken by God’s people.
If you are critical and draw back from the restoration of New Testament ministries, remember that a walk with God is not based on the infallibility of man, but on the authority of the living Word that God is speaking today. God will have to deal with you so that you can properly relate yourself to those in authority for one purpose only: so that they can speak the Word of God to you. God sets them over you to teach you and lead you by the word of wisdom and the word of knowledge. What you think of them is not the issue, except as it affects the way you receive the Word that God brings through them to your heart. If God brings His Word to you through an apostle or a prophet, then you must embrace that ministry as the oracle of God; and that leads to true submission. The resulting relationship is never on a natural plane, however. Believers must not be too close to one another on a natural plane. They must learn to relate to one another in the realm of spirit as servants of God. It is because of this spiritual relationship that brothers will lay down their lives for one another.
Become dedicated to speak the Word of the Lord and to honor the Word of God in your brother. Refuse to have a personality clash with anyone. Accept one another completely—in God. Determine to stand by and love one another when no one else will. Ask God to reveal how you are to walk in such a manner that you know no man after the flesh (II Corinthians 5:16). Determine to know one another as the oracles of God, speaking the Word of the Lord.
For as often as I speak, I cry out; I cry, Violence and destruction! because the word of Jehovah is made a reproach unto me, and a derision, all the day. And if I say, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name, then there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with forbearing, and I cannot contain. Jeremiah 20:8–9. The Word of the Lord is living and disruptive. Is not my word like fire? Saith Jehovah; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces? Jeremiah 23:29.
A remnant of God will accomplish what He wants done, not because they have perseverance or wisdom, money or talent, but because the Word of the Lord is with them. They will speak the Word of the Lord. Like a burning fire shut up in their bones, it will motivate them. The Body of Christ grows as its members bless one another, as every joint supplies, as it prophesies, sings, and ministers to one another. The Word of Christ will dwell in them richly.
Be cleansed by the washing of the water of the Word, to become part of His Church without spot or wrinkle or blemish, the agency of a living Word that is flowing. His very Word is reaching out and reverberating through the world. Like a fire, it is burning and beginning to destroy; and Satan and the world are becoming disturbed because they realize that these are not just empty words. God is dealing with the world and with His people through the Word that is being spoken. Speak the Word of the Lord! Believe in this living Word that is coming.
There will be many fountains opened up in Zion, many channels and oracles of the Lord. Can you visualize the army of the Lord—all speaking the same thing, all seeing eye to eye, not breaking ranks, not thrusting one another through? Joel 2:2–11 tells us about them. The land before them is like the Garden of Eden; and behind them is a desolate wilderness. With a scourge they go forth ministering judgment, as the Lord utters His voice before that exceedingly great army.
Use the Word like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces. Hammer away! Let nothing stop you from speaking the Word of the Lord. It does not matter who you are—speak the Word of the Lord! It does not matter what people think about you—speak the Word of the Lord! Whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear, they will know that a prophet has been among them (Ezekiel 2:5). Speak the Word of the Lord, and it will come to pass.
What a great day to be living! There are many things for which you can pray, many issues around which your life revolves; but as time passes you will realize that they are not very important. Satan has a way of distorting circumstances and situations as you pass through life. You can be so distracted by many unimportant things that the big issues pass you by. Blessed is the man who realizes that he is raised up in this hour to speak the Word of the Lord, and then speaks it!
By the world’s standards, your life may not seem successful. Perhaps many seemingly important goals and visions have not been fulfilled. However, by God’s standard, you can be successful if you speak the Word God gives you to speak, whether you are under assault or not. Have you come to the place where you have nothing to prove or to defend? Have you given up maintaining and upholding any image? Is your prime concern for God to speak to you so that you can speak His Word? As you do that, you can become a part of the greatest and the last move of the Church. You will be a herald and forebear of the Kingdom, part of the generation that sees the titanic struggle and conflict of the ages finally resolved in the victory of Christ. You can stand and shout the Word of the Lord while one age dies with a groan and a shriek, with a sigh and a moan, and another age comes forth with a trumpet blast and a shout of victory. When that happens, you can be speaking the Word of the Lord with all the family of God.