A most effective time to break through to a greater level in the Lord comes when we cease to function by our understanding of our circumstances and we reach up because we feel a burden in the Spirit. Then we are reaching in to be totally one with the heart of the Lord, and our submission is not merely a matter of doing what we are told. Instead, submission to Christ becomes a matter of sensing in our heart what the Lord wants done and then doing it, beyond our own understanding and fears. We then desire to move by the burden of the Spirit. Whether or not we know how to express our burden in words is not the issue. We do not even know how to pray as we should, but there is a deep cry which reaches out as “the Spirit Himself makes intercession with groanings too deep for words” (Romans 8:26).
Your knowledge and understanding of a situation for which you feel a burden may be minimal, but that is not so important. God is expanding our awareness so that in every situation we see that it is always a war over the Word He has spoken. Circumstances or problems or relationships are not the basic issues, and they never have been. It is a war over the Word. We must not become so enmeshed in our circumstances and assume that those are our problems. Instead, no matter what transpires, we must undauntedly keep reaching up in the Spirit. With a broken spirit, we are pressing in to experience the reality of Romans 8. At no time should we become so occupied with the circumstances of our own lives that we get our minds off this one issue: it is a war over the Word.
I am conscious that even in the midst of very difficult and complicated circumstances, I must not focus too much on just the solution to the problems involved. Instead, I must be set on the real issue—bringing forth a Living Word from God. That of course is what Satan wants to stop, but he is not succeeding. Never before has the Word come on a higher level or with a greater purity than it is coming now. In an amazing way, it comes more by pure revelation than by study and preparation.
The book of Nehemiah shows us the importance of the Word during the restoration which took place under Ezra and Nehemiah. In Nehemiah 8:14 we read about the observance of the Feast of Tabernacles: And they found written in the law how the Lord had commanded through Moses that the sons of Israel should live in booths during the feast of the seventh month. Accordingly, they circulated a proclamation throughout their cities that all the people should go out to the hills and bring back branches to build booths. Everyone did this, and there was great rejoicing.
And he (Ezra) read from the book of the law of God daily, from the first day to the last day. And they celebrated the feast seven days, and on the eighth day there was a solemn assembly according to the ordinance. Verse 18. It is easy to become so involved with the symbolism of the Feast of Tabernacles that we forget what the basis of the Feast was in the days of restoration: they spent every day in the Word. Day after day they were reading the Word and giving themselves to it. It was very important that the Feast of Tabernacles be centered around the Word of God.
The Lord is bringing the same emphasis in our lives today. We have one concern: “What has the Lord said about all the things He is bringing forth? What has He said to my own heart?” Instead of retreating when you face intimidating circumstances, stand on the Word. The devastating circumstances can turn out for the greater glory of God. Even though the difficulty you face may be caused by a demonic assault coming against you, do not become so focused on the assault that you forget the basis of victory. Victory does not come by giving attention to the demons or to the circumstances Satan generates; rather, victory comes by keeping your eyes focused upon the Lord, who has proclaimed your victory. But thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. I Corinthians 15:57. Because the Word proclaims the victory, you have it. There is no question about it—you have the victory because the Lord gives you the victory.
One simple key will help you break through to the glory and blessing the Lord wants to give us: Reach into the process of eating the Word instead of reading the Word. This is what the prophet Jeremiah did. He said, Thy words were found and I ate them, and Thy words became for me a joy and the delight of my heart; for I have been called by Thy name, O Lord God of hosts. Jeremiah 15:16.
This passage is very similar to the commissioning of Ezekiel: Then He (the Lord) said to me, “Son of man, eat what you find; eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel.” So I opened my mouth, and He fed me this scroll. And He said to me, “Son of man, feed your stomach, and fill your body with this scroll which I am giving you.” Then I ate it, and it was sweet as honey in my mouth. Ezekiel 3:1–3.
The book of Revelation contains another passage about eating the Word. There we read that John took the little book from the angel and ate it; and in his mouth it was as sweet as honey, but in his stomach it was bitter (Revelation 10:10).
Throughout the Scriptures there are passages which show the importance of meditating upon the Word, of fixing your focus upon it. This is very necessary when you are facing a great conflict of circumstances. When Joshua was to go into the land of Canaan and battle to possess it, the Lord gave him this commission: This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night … for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous … Joshua 1:8.
The Lord would give Joshua good success in all that he did, but not because his strategy was so great or because he could psych himself up to approach the Philistines, the Hittites, the Amorites, or whatever nation he was facing. His success came because he followed the Word.
The thirty-one nations that Joshua came against (Joshua 12:24) could have terrorized him, just as they had terrorized the children of Israel forty years before, when Moses sent out the twelve spies. Ten of them were intimidated by the sons of Anak around the area of Hebron. Their hearts melted for fear, and when they returned they said, “We were like grasshoppers in our own sight; we cannot possibly win a war against these giants.” Caleb and Joshua, however, wholly followed the Lord (Numbers 32:11–12). They refused the evil report of the others and said, “We can by all means possess the land. This is what the Lord has said” (Numbers 13:30; 14:6–9). Their meditation upon the Word from God gave them the victory. Even in the midst of the most discouraging circumstances and problems, they never allowed their focus to be upon the circumstances; instead, they set their focus upon the Lord.
When you follow the Word, nothing can stand before you. That is what God promised Joshua. He said, “No man will be able to stand before you all the days of your life. No one will be able to stop you” (Joshua 1:5). And certainly the Lord fulfilled that prophecy.
More and more we must learn to do what Joshua did. Let us be much in the Word—not just to read it, but to eat it. When you are listening to a tape of the Living Word and a truth comes alive to you, turn off the recorder and meditate on that one truth. Eat it. You cannot digest all the truth in this Word as fast as it is coming. Sometimes you must listen to a tape several times before you begin to really absorb it. Let your response to the Word be like Jeremiah’s—“Thy words were found and I ate them” (Jeremiah 15:16).
We will never speak the Word and prevail by the Word until we learn to eat the Word instead of reading it. Whenever a person really eats the Word, it becomes in him a quality which the world will recognize. The centurion who came to Jesus for the sake of his servant recognized this quality in Him and said, “I am not worthy for You to come under my roof; but just say the word, and my servant will be healed” (Luke 7:6–7). It was not a matter of personality. He simply knew that he was not worthy. But he also knew the key: “Speak the word only and my servant will be healed.” The Lord marveled at him and said, “I have not found such great faith, no, not in Israel” (verse 9). He had seen nothing like that before. All the Jews were so busy explaining the Word that they did not know how to speak the Word. But that Gentile centurion could look beyond those who were explaining doctrines and could find someone who was speaking a Living Word. Thus he recognized the Christ, and he petitioned Him with faith.
The assimilation of the Word in their lives was what enabled the prophets and all of those who walked with God down through the years to prevail. How much more is it the key in these last days, when we are looking for the Scripture to be fulfilled, “He will come upon a white horse with a name written, ‘The Word of God’ ” (Revelation 19:11–13). We must literally become a Living Word to the whole universe (II Corinthians 3:2–3). How shall we become that? By not reacting to anything but the Word. By not assimilating anything which will weaken us. We assimilate the Word of God. We feast upon it. We eat that Word. This is the key, of course, to all that God has set before us.
During the Feast of Tabernacles recorded in Nehemiah chapter 8, Israel somehow caught the spirit of what the Feast was to mean in the days to come. They were continually filling themselves with the Word. Jesus’ prayer in John chapter 17 has the same emphasis. He spoke a great deal about the Word, and then in verse 14 He said, “I have given them Thy Word, and the world hates them.” Don’t you know that the war is over the Word? If someone turns against us, he may insist that it is nothing personal, that it is a matter of principles, or that it is because of various other reasons; but actually, it is because of the Word we speak. In fact, when you study what has happened in the past, you see that everything that has ever come against the people of God happened because of the Word. Jeremiah was thrown into a pit because of the Word he spoke. The rulers of Jerusalem did not want him to speak the things he was saying; they did not want to hear it anymore (Jeremiah 38:1–6). Jesus told the disciples, “If they heard My Word, they will hear yours. If they did not hear My Word, they will not hear yours” (John 15:20).
As the Word of the Lord comes forth, it looks as if people are the issue; but they are not. The issue is the Word of God. When the people murmured against the Lord, they also murmured against Moses (Exodus 16:2, 7–8) because he was the one who had spoken the Law and voiced it in their ears. They did not become angry at any of the others who were leading them; they became angry at the channel of the Word. Always it is a war over the Word. And always there will be persecution. The Scriptures say that all who live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution (II Timothy 3:12); and there is no such thing as living godly unless you are doing the will of the Lord and speaking His Word. They are the same thing.
Speaking the Word of the Lord was the greatest concern the disciples had in New Testament times. They were not interested in preaching as we know it, or in explaining the Scriptures, or in just being expositors of the Word. Much that we call preaching, even in this phase of the restoration, they would have turned away from with all their heart, for they felt that a pure Word coming forth was the real issue.
I Corinthians 2:1–6 is a good passage to show us how much the early apostles constantly relied upon the Holy Spirit to help them bring a Word which the people could assimilate. There Paul wrote: And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. (His concern was to tell them what God was saying, to proclaim the testimony of God.) For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. And my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power (in other words, he did not come as a preacher, but as someone proclaiming a Word), that your faith should not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God. Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature…
The second chapter of I Corinthians should be read in our services every few months so that we never forget it. There was only one drive in those apostles—they wanted to speak the Word of the Lord. They moved with much trembling and fear lest they should slip out of that pure flow and find that they were speaking the word of man.
In intercession, in testimonies, in worship services, in the expounding of the Word-in whatever you are doing—it is very easy after a while for it to become second nature to you. Because you know the words and phrases so well, you may begin to speak them without always giving careful attention to see that you speak the Word of God, that God is speaking to the people right through your lips.
Peter saw this need as well as Paul, and he said, “If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God” (I Peter 4:11). Why the oracles of God? An oracle is a mouthpiece. He does not merely speak about the weather; he actually speaks the weather. He speaks into existence the kind of weather that God reveals as being His will. Consider Elijah. He told King Ahab, “There will not be any rain or dew, except by my word” (I Kings 17:1). He was a man of like passions as we are; yet he prayed earnestly, and it did not rain for three and one half years (James 5:17). He had reached the place where God was speaking through him. When he said, “There will be no rain,” it was God saying, “There will be no rain.” When he said to Ahab, “Get ready, there will be a rain” (I Kings 18:41), God was saying, “There will be a rain.” When you reach this place, it does not mean that you are infallible; it simply means that you are so thoroughly the oracle of God that when you speak His Word, it happens. This is what we should all be reaching for.
I know that we are not given to following the rituals that have been established as part of traditional Christianity. For example, we do not make signs of the cross, we do not observe traditional religious holidays, and our ministers rarely wear robes. Because of this, we may think that we have been delivered from ritualism. However, we can make a ritual out of saying, “In the name of the Lord Jesus” or “In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.” We can get into a ritual of repeating phrases like these, which are very scriptural and very orthodox, without their having any life or meaning. That is why Paul brought out something about the Word in I Corinthians chapter 4, which seems to be a contradiction to the passage we just read in chapter 2. He said, “When I come to you, I will know not the words of them that are arrogant, but the power. For the Kingdom of God is not in word but in power” (I Corinthians 4:19–20). This may seem to be contradictory to what Paul said earlier, but actually, it confirms it. He did not want just a ritual in which these arrogant ones could babble on and on and have all the right words. He wanted to see what the power was. He wanted to see if the thrust of their words was God speaking. This must be our drive too. When the words come, they must be alive. They must be living words. Then people can lay hold of them and start speaking them themselves.
We must keep our eyes on the fact that it is a war over the Word. If there is one thing Satan would like to do, it is to stop me from speaking the Living Word of God that I am commissioned to speak in His name. He would also like to destroy the Word that I have already spoken. Satan would like to stop you, too. He does everything he can to trip us up on some unimportant issues and problems so that we become harassed and discouraged, and we accept the battle as being a valid battle against us instead of an assault against God speaking to the earth.
If any man speaks a Word from God, he will be opposed. The prophets were killed because they spoke a Word from God. It was not always that their ideas were unacceptable, for there were probably many people who had the same opinions. But the prophets came and spoke a Word from God, and that caused the opposition. Kings hated them; the people hated them; armies hated them. At one point, King Ahaziah sent a company of fifty soldiers to bring Elijah before him (II Kings 1:9–15). When they came to the hill where Elijah was sitting, they said, “Come down, O man of God.” He replied, “If I be a man of God, let fire devour these fifty.” Immediately fire fell from heaven and consumed them. Ahaziah sent another company and it happened again. When the third group was sent, the captain fell on his knees before Elijah and asked that his life and the lives of those with him be spared. Something in his spirit was a little different from the others. He had a respect for the man of God—not because Elijah had a beautiful appearance and nice clothes, but because when he spoke, things happened. God moved on the situation and Elijah’s word came to pass.
We must move with the same faith Elijah had. We may have no recognized credentials at all; we have no reason to justify ourselves. Neither is there any reason for us to be pulled away from the aggressive position where we are speaking a pure Word, to a defensive position where we have to justify and excuse everything we do or everything that happens to us. When we are asked to explain why we followed the path we did, there is only one simple answer: We had a Word from God. And we will continue to have a Word from God. The battle is over the Word!
When people want to argue with you, it is not a cop-out if you insist on putting the focus back on the Word. We do not have to respond when they say, “Come on down here and fight us on our level” (Nehemiah 6:2–3). The battle is not there; the battle is in the heavenlies (Ephesians 6:12). The battle is over what the Word of God is really saying, and over the way we receive it. If you believe this Living Word, then do not let yourself be distracted from the focus on it. Take the Word and devour it. Eat it. Digest it. When you have eaten it, you do not need to have it explained to you. Don’t read it—eat it!
The issue of the Word is what the Scriptures speak of when they say, “Blessed are those who hear the Word of God” (Luke 11:28; Matthew 13:16); “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches” (Revelation 2:7, 11, 17, 29; 3:6, 13, 22). It all comes back to this one basic issue. In the days to come, we will recognize that all of our battles are centered around the Word. Everything that happens to us happens because we have received a Word from the Lord.
When you receive a Word from God, things start happening. The parable in Matthew 13:3–7 tells about a sower sowing seed, which is the Word of God. The minute the seed is sown, things start happening that you have never seen before. Suddenly there are birds everywhere, trying to pick up the Word and take it away from you. Suddenly there are thorns growing where there never were any thorns before. Wherever the Word starts to grow, there will be a thorn patch. Things will come up to contend with it, to compete with it, to distract you from it, and even to strangle the Word that comes to your life. Nevertheless, you have to eat the Word. You must feed upon it, saying, “This will be the joy of my life. The Lord will be the delight and the joy of my life because I am called by His name” (Jeremiah 15:16).
How do I know these things? I know them because they are real to me. They have become an experiential reality within me, because the Word has been the issue in my life. As the Word becomes the issue in your life, you will experience these things too. You will face great assault. For example, after receiving a promise from God, Satan may hit you with something which makes the fulfillment of that promise look impossible. Even after you battle through to see the original assault broken, it may seem at times that the assault is returning. However, this is not true; and if you refuse it, it will soon be gone.
The Lord has promised that the oppression will not rise up a second time (Nahum 1:9). Just because an assault that you face looks like Goliath, do not believe, as David did, that Goliath is coming around to fight you again (II Samuel 21:15–22). It may be another kind of creature that is coming to oppose the Word of the Lord, but it is not the one you have already defeated. How did you pull your Goliath down the first time? By saying, “You come with sword and spear, but I come in the name of the Lord” (I Samuel 17:45). There is a difference between trying to fight on the enemy’s terms, and declaring to him, “I refuse to fight you the way you fight. I will not even accept the circumstances you create. Your opinion about this is not what matters at all. What really matters is this: ‘What does God say?’ ” It does not even matter what you yourself think about a situation. The only thing that matters is what God has said.
This is the attitude I must have in all of the battle I face over the Word. I must be very objective, lest I be caught away in subjective feelings and thus become defensive in the circumstances and the battle. There is only one reason that the Word is coming on such a high level: I have had a focus on the Word, not a focus on the things round about me. Because I have believed, I will see the glory of God (John 11:40). I believe the Word. I have digested it and assimilated it.
Our focus must be upon the Word. We listen to what God is saying, and we hide it and bury it in our heart (Psalm 119:11). The outward evidence may seem to indicate that we are moving into a defeat through circumstances or problems. We may not see a great abundance, either financially or in any other way, but that really does not matter at all. Neither does it make any difference that we do not appear to have the breakthrough into resurrection life that we have been seeking. As you are praying, get into the Word. Jesus is the resurrection and the life (John 11:25). You will never break into the manifestation of Romans 8 by looking for an experience. You will break into Romans 8 by having a release in the Lord Jesus Christ yourself. He must come forth. He is the resurrection; He is the life. It does not matter that this outward man seems to be perishing constantly, for God will renew the inner man (II Corinthians 4:16); and then we will be clothed upon with that body, that tabernacle which is from above (II Corinthians 5:2).
The issue is not what you look like. We may not look or feel divine, but we do know that Christ within is taking over. His nature is taking over. When you look into the mirror, you may not look as if you are moving toward resurrection life (I John 3:2). But in the midst of it all, you are believing for something really fantastic from God. The Word is producing Christ’s nature within you, and you can say, like Jeremiah, “Thy words were found and I did eat them; and they became the joy and delight of my life. They became the invigorating life by which I press on.”