A Living Word from the Lord comes to us to create in us oneness. We can have a new appreciation of the process by which the Living Word accomplishes that oneness. This may seem vague, but most of the things that God reveals to us are a little beyond our understanding, even after they are revealed to us. Our carnal mind, with its reasoning capacity, is not really adequate to evaluate a revelation from the Lord. Revelation must be received as a reality sometimes beyond reason, but it is still a reality.
For example, there was no question about the power of God in the Lord’s Supper in the early Church. Jesus said, “This is My body. This is My blood” (Mark 14:22–24). But after people left the realm of Communion being a revelation to them, they began to split hairs, making it a battleground of a thousand different doctrines. Protestants have said that Communion is just a symbol. Roman Catholics have twisted the Word Jesus gave, so that only the priests drink the wine, and only wafers are given to the people. Denominations argue about His holy presence, reasoning what is in the Communion and what is not in the Communion. Can you see what happens when we rely on our reason concerning a Word that God intended to be a revelation with reality? His body and His blood should be so real to us that the Lord meets our hearts right there.
If His Word is alive to us, our living in the Living Word will prevent our spirits from being conditioned by our circumstances and our experiences. If the Living Word is a revelation to our hearts, we must not slide back to reasoning out our circumstances and our problems. In order for us to walk with God through these next days and years into the glorious manifestation of His Kingdom, we must be careful to not follow the course of action that Israel followed in the wilderness. They evaluated their state and their condition by what they saw: the rocks, the amount of water, their diet. They did not live by the Word God had spoken. If they had lived by His Word, they would not have continually reverted to discouragement, rebellion, and bitterness. Those negative emotions may be a product of leaning on your own understanding and interpreting the course of your life by the way it appears, instead of by what God has said.
It is necessary that we understand the nature of the Living Word of God for us today. Over and over again in the Scriptures we see that when God spoke to a man’s heart and he followed that Word, everything came out right. When God spoke a Word to a man’s heart and he reverted to reasoning things out, nothing turned out right. It is necessary that we see what it really means to walk and live by a Living Word from God, and to be really dedicated to it. We must discern the Living Word, and define the various degrees and levels to which we are open to this Word. We must understand that our limitations are not imposed upon us by God, but by how open our heart is to receive a revelation of the Word that He is bringing.
God called Abraham “a father of many nations” (Genesis 17:5). The apostle Paul spoke of Abraham, saying, For this reason it is by faith.… the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, (as it is written, “A father of many nations have I made you”) in the sight of Him whom he believed, even God, who gives life to the dead and calls into being that which does not exist. Romans 4:16–17. When God says something, it does not make one bit of difference whether it exists or does not exist. When God says it, it is! He calls into being things which do not exist. He can reach down and bring a prophecy over you, as the angel of the Lord said to Gideon, “The Lord is with you, O valiant warrior.” Judges 6:12. Actually, Gideon had been fearful. When God says something to you, that is it. Because God says it, and you believe it, it is a reality.
Paul also said this about Abraham: In hope against hope he believed, in order that he might become a father of many nations, according to that which had been spoken, “So shall your descendants be.” And without becoming weak in faith he contemplated his own body, now as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah’s womb. Romans 4:18–19. Notice that Abraham did not become weak in his faith when he looked at the apparent facts, because the Word from God was greater than the facts. He refused to revert to the human conclusion of reasoning things out. If he had, none of the promises would have come to pass.
When God gives a Word, it does not have to be reasonable, but it has to be received with revelation. This is the issue! Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. Proverbs 3:5. The minute that you come down from the level of the faith of your spirit to the realm of your soul, you are in trouble! In the soul dwells the reason. In the soul dwells the emotions. In the soul are all the reactions to circumstances in the world around us. But in our spirit is our reaction to God; and if we can, as spiritual beings, direct our reactions, then we can live by the Word. Live by the Word! Live by the Living Word that He brings to our hearts. Refuse to come down to a lesser level.
Abraham refused to become weak in faith toward God. And without becoming weak in faith he contemplated his own body, now as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah’s womb; yet, with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief, but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully assured that what He had promised, He was able also to perform. Romans 4:19–21. Abraham grew strong in faith! God reckoned Abraham’s faith to him for righteousness (verse 9).
We see a parallel to Abraham’s faith in Paul. In II Corinthians 4, Paul talked about the trials they were going through: We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. Verses 8–11. Paul was going through all of this suffering, spiritually, as an apostle of the Lord.
At the same time Paul said, Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen (not at the circumstances, not at what is happening to us), but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. Verses 16–18.
The reality that you cannot see, you can accept with your spirit. With the heart man believes in God; with the mouth confession is made (Romans 10:10). It reaches into a faculty of your spirit. With your heart, with your spirit, you believe. When you believe with your spirit, your convictions are no longer dominated by the reasoning and emotions from your soul, because you refuse to be influenced by what you see or by what you hear.
A high level of the Living Word is coming that will be difficult for many to understand. The level of the Word is purer, deeper, heavier. People will have difficulty believing if they listen to that Word and still look around to evaluate their circumstances. This Living Word must be revealed to your spirit, not interpreted by your mind or your emotions. Let your spirit be totally set to believe God.
God is very selective! At the beginning of this walk with Him, prophecies came repeatedly that He would bring one of a thousand of His people into this end-time discipleship: again there would be a remnant out of spiritual Israel whom God would bring forth. What does this mean to us? It means that God will have many different spiritual levels of people, but He will have a few or a remnant who will be totally dedicated to Him. This scriptural principle can be traced throughout the Gospels, and especially in the parables.
If this is the case, then how does God decide at what level we are going to be? Does He say, “Here, son, you are to go to the top level,” but to another, “Son, you are to go down there to the bottom level”? Does God arbitrarily decide where we are going to go? No, I think we decide the level of our dedication. The level on which we finally rest is determined by our own decision of how we hear the Living Word of God. In the parable, Jesus said that when that seed was sown there were some thirty, some sixty, some a hundredfold fruitfulness on the good soil (Matthew 13:23).
We can apply this parable now; the Living Word is going forth, and people will settle at different levels. God is not arbitrarily or sovereignly determining the level they are on. But He is saying, “Open your heart! How much will you receive of My Word? How much will you appropriate in your spirit without question, without reasoning, without rebelling against the dealings of the Lord, without withdrawal, without anything of your emotions diverting you, without reasoning against circumstances? Will you take the ingrafted Word of God with meekness?” (James 1:21.)
We do not want to be guilty of putting a fence on our horizons by saying, “We will go only so far as we can see and no further!” But we actually do determine the level we hear and the level of our obedience; and this determines the level of fulfillment the Living Word will have in our lives. Does this bear witness in your heart?
A very high level of the Living Word has been coming to us. You can listen to the tapes of this Word, again and again, and they will do wonders for you. One of our manuals, Prophetic Utterance, has been in print for about a quarter of a century. This teaching is alive with revelation far ahead of its time. The Lord revealed there are different levels of prophetic utterance. There is the highest level, which Paul spoke about to the Corinthian church, saying, “Since you seek a proof of Christ speaking in me” (II Corinthians 13:3). He set about to do certain things, so they would know that Christ was speaking in him.
We know that God is One: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; but without question there is a distinction in the manifestation of the Godhead in our lives. The last lesson in the manual The First Principles teaches this. In the references of John’s Gospel, Jesus said He would send the Holy Spirit. He also said, “If you keep My Word, My commandments, My Father and I will love you. My Father and I will come and make Our abode in you” (John 14:15–23). He was speaking as though there is a progressive fullness of God that can be entered into.
You do not hear this teaching in the Charismatic movement; their ministers speak about receiving the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues. But the fullness of Christ coming forth in His Body and the fullness of the Father tabernacling in all of His glory in us are not emphasized. Yet these truths are very much in evidence in the Gospel of John.
Similarly, prophetic utterance seems to have different levels. I have seen people come in off the street, find the Lord, and begin to prophesy the same night. Christ had not filled their lives very much; but they spoke a miracle utterance, regardless. As they grew, they ceased from the babbling of babes, or an initial evidence of the indwelling of the Spirit of the Lord in their lives; and they reached new levels of dedication and had new experiences. There were new times of impartation to them. These were all factors that changed the level of their utterance.
If you do not believe this, read I Corinthians chapters 12, 13, and 14 again. You will realize that people can speak with the “tongues of men and of angels” and yet be like “sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal” (I Corinthians 13:1). It does not necessarily have much depth to it. If the person is without dedication and a deep motivation of love, his prophesying will come out very shallow. Paul spoke about “the prophets speaking two or three” (I Corinthians 14:29). He did not mean that a man is a prophet just because he can speak in tongues or begin elementary prophesying.
It is possible for people to come to such a level of dedication, and such a level of an experience in the Lord, that they will speak the Word of Christ and become oracles of Christ in the earth. Without definition, the “Living Word” becomes a loose term to people. In its highest sense, the Living Word comes through vessels who are actually oracles of Christ speaking His Word in the earth.
What are the other levels of prophecy? I believe there is a Living Word of the Spirit that comes through prophets and apostles and ministers. Many of us have spoken often on that level; and we should not be so critical of ourselves as to say it was not a Living Word. However, there is a distinction between the living Christ who speaks and the living Spirit who speaks, as far as the level of speaking is concerned. Actually, you cannot speak a Word from a higher level than you have attained yourself.
Is this discouraging? Does this limit the Living Word? No, it does not; but this will end any controversy about who speaks a Living Word, because there is a Living Word on several different planes. You can usually recognize these different levels of prophetic utterance as they come forth. You can speak from that which you have attained or that which is real to your heart.
While to some extent you are limited by the level you are on, there is a possibility of reaching a higher level when you become a channel of it. One pastor was talking about this when he said he would not try to preach sermons. He wanted only to bring a Living Word to the people from a tape or a This Week, and bring it as close as possible to the exact words and the same anointing. While he speaks a Living Word, he is reaching into a higher level to become a channel of the Living Word that has come forth.
You, too, can do this by appropriation. If you listen enough to a tape of the Living Word, you will be projected by faith into that same level of utterance. That pastor is dedicated to go to the highest Word from Christ that he can find. He is striving to speak with the same anointing. This will constantly pull him up in it, because of the repetitious quality of living in it.
Live in this Living Word. The higher planes of utterance are attained by repeated listening and by appropriating the highest level of the Word that you can hear. Have you ever listened to various Christian tapes which were on a soul level? Your mind followed the thoughts, but when you finished there had been no impartation to you in it. Maybe you felt they did not have a Word from the Lord. They possibly did, but on a low soul level.
When you drink from many of those fountains, what will happen to you? You will find yourself gravitating downward to the level of utterance that you listen to. That is why there needs to be a warning. We must not be exclusive, but we know that the creative miracle power of God in our walk with Him is coming as we listen to the highest level of the anointed Living Word that we can possibly obtain. When some begin to listen to other teaching that seems like a good word too, soon a deep confusion comes over them; and they stop growing. The creative miracle power soon stops in their lives if they come down to a soul level.
A key to growth is listening to tapes which are the purest and the highest of today’s Living Word. Listen over and over again to those tapes which have that same quality of Christ speaking. This Living Word is never exhausted; every time you will receive something alive and fresh out of it. Every time it will become real, and as you are transformed by it you will find yourself speaking and living on the same level.
It is important that these levels of the Living Word be defined to us. This teaching does not put anyone down, but neither does it excuse our not striving for the highest Word we can get: not only to hear it ourselves, but to become it, and to be able to speak it on the highest spiritual level we can possibly utter. We are like a river which does not rise above its source, but we can be a channel of a higher source.
The Word that flows from you, that you have sought God for, will come out in the level that you have attained. It will not necessarily come on a higher level unless you learn how to be a channel and draw from a higher source and let it flow. This is why it is good for us to speak if our heart has attained a good level. It is even better for us to reach to a higher source than we have attained, if it is possible.
We want to hear the Lord’s Word, whether it is by a tape or by a sermon from our own mouth or from someone else’s mouth; and we want to respond and let it become a creative reality in our own life. Blessed are they that have ears to hear (Matthew 13:16). Some hear deep in their spirits, but they respond to the Word on a soulish level. The Word has to be compared with their circumstances and explained to them. They are constantly rebelling over it or withdrawing from it. Let us come to the place where we hear a Word, and we receive it in our hearts and walk in it!
Paul told how the church of the Thessalonians had received a Word: 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. I Thessalonians 2:13. They listened to Paul. They listened to the apostles with him. Because they received it as God’s Word, it worked in them. They bypassed a critical analysis of even the channel of the Word.
Satan would like to make the channel the issue and turn your heart away from the Word. Do not let it happen! Do not let it happen! Do not let it happen! Keep your heart set upon the Word. There is no arguing with the Word if you receive it in your spirit. There is no gainsaying it. There will be no turning away from it. There is no ineffectiveness. The Word will work effectively in you if you believe it and receive it, as it is in truth, a Word from the living God.
Ultimately, it becomes inevitable that those who have been nourished and sustained by the Living Word should themselves become more and more the perfect oracles of God, also. The level of their utterance will rise from one level to a higher level until the whole earth is filled with the Word of the Lord.
It is by the Living Word that this age which we seek will come forth. It is by a Living Word that Babylon will come down. There is nothing you can reason out, nothing you can do, no effort you can put forth, and nothing you can promote that will bring this age to an end—except the Word from God.
Let us hear the Word. Let us rise to the highest level of prophetic utterance. This is one of the basic keys of all change and growth. If you are not on a high level, you can soon be there!