Psalm 119:89 is a familiar passage, one that should be memorized. Forever, O Lord, Thy word is settled in heaven. The margin reads, “Stands firm in heaven.” God’s Word stands firm in heaven. Another familiar Scripture is found in Matthew 24:35: Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words shall not pass away.
Let’s consider the various purposes that God’s Word fulfills in our life. God says of His Word: Is not my word like as a fire … and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces? Jeremiah 23:29. The entrance of thy words giveth light. Psalm 119:130a. The Word is referred to as the sword of the Spirit in Ephesians 6:17. It is spoken of as food in I Peter 2:2: “Desire the unadulterated milk of the Word, that ye may grow thereby.” The Word purifies: Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. John 15:3. All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. II Timothy 3:16, 17.
The Word will do many fantastic things for you. You will never be without the need of its inspiration or the various blessings that it can bring to your heart. It is necessary for your feeding and for your inspiration. It is a necessary means of assault against the enemy, even as our Lord met him in the wilderness and said, “It is written” (Matthew 4). He used the Word of God as the strongest basis with which to defeat Satan.
The Word serves many purposes in our life, but there is yet another valuable purpose that I want to establish. Forever, O Lord, Thy word is settled in heaven. Psalm 119:89. The Word that God has declared is established. Our minds must accept the finality of what God has said. There is no maybe. As Paul worded it, “The great promises of God are not yea and nay, but in Christ Jesus they have their yea and their Amen” (II Corinthians 1:17–20). They are established in heaven. This is very important.
Peter declared, “Thou are the Christ, the Son of the living God,” and Jesus answered, “Flesh and blood didn’t reveal that to you, but My Father who is in heaven.” Then He went on to say, “You’re Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:16–18). That was a very amazing statement.
The revelation had come to Peter from the Father. But if you will take the revelation that comes to you from the Word, you will not be doing an injustice to it. If you will take the Word that is revealed to your heart, whether it be a confirmed prophecy on a lower level or the inspired Scriptures on a higher level, and say, “This word I believe,” then it too becomes the rock upon which the Church is built, and against which the gates of hell cannot prevail. We must accept the word from God as being established. It is what God says. If we accept the established Word, it establishes us. We waver and drift if we do not have that kind of an anchor. The Word of God must be accepted as established.
Every good and perfect gift cometh from the Father of lights, in whom there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning (James 1:17). When the sun shines from one direction your shadow falls in the opposite direction. In the morning when you get up, the sun is in the east and your shadow falls to the west. Toward noon your shadow is very small, but in early morning or late afternoon it is longer. However, with God there is never any shadow of turning. There never is a time that He varies toward you; not even His shadow changes length. He is the Immutable One, and His Word is immutable. There is no changeableness with Him. You may say, “But there were instances in the Bible when the Lord changed His mind.” No, people changed, and therefore the unchangeableness of God’s righteousness necessitated that another principle be applied to their lives rather than what He had purposed to bring in their original condition.
If a man is repentant and submissive today, the blessing of the Lord flows to him in accordance with those divine principles that operate in the righteousness of God. If that man becomes rebellious tomorrow, another principle is applied by God, who in His unalterable justice and righteousness must deal with that condition. If God were not that kind of God, it would not be necessary for our sins to be dissolved. He could simply say, “We’ll wink on those sins. We’ll not do anything about them.” But His very justice requires that the sin be dealt with. That is why there was no other way except that He send His only begotten Son to carry the full brunt of sin. His righteousness demanded it, but His mercy dictated it. This is the unchangeable quality of our Lord and our Master.
How fantastic, that God gives us a word and that word is settled. It’s set. Right at this point you can learn a great deal about appropriation. To appropriate a blessing from the Lord, to come before Him in prayer and say, “Lord, I want You to do such and such,” you must have a basis for your request. Why do you think He should answer you? “Well, I need it.” You must have a better reason that that.
You can go to a banker and say, “I need to borrow a few thousand dollars.”
“Why?”
“I need it.”
“That’s not a good enough reason. What security do you have?”
“No security.”
“Then you can’t have the money.”
“But I need the money!”
There must be some basis for the banker answering your request. Likewise, there must be a basis for God giving you what you want.
“I know I don’t deserve anything, Lord.” He looks at you and agrees, “That’s true, you don’t deserve a thing.”
“But I thought You might make an exception and be kind to me.”
That is no basis for your request to be answered, and the situation is like a ship without an anchor—there is nothing to hold it. But if you have a settled word, you can say, “Lord, I rest upon this word of Your grace. I rest upon this promise. My relationship to You is based upon the word You have given me and my claim upon Your bounty is based upon the fact that Your Word declares this provision is mine, that You have provided for me all things that pertain to life and godliness. It’s not whether I deserve it or not; it’s Your integrity that is at stake. Your word is settled in heaven and that word is settled in my heart. I will not waver on it. I do not decide today, ‘I guess that was true,’ and then waver on it tomorrow, wondering whether that word was true or not. It is settled. And once it becomes settled in my mind as a true and established word, then I begin to move toward the fulfillment of that word. Lord, I want to change, I want to be like You, I want to see my nature transformed, I want my circumstances altered, I want this to happen and that to happen according to the prophecies that came over me.”
Do you want to change? Then you must have a faith that is unchangeable, that does not waver. When you come to that place of not wavering, because you believe the word is settled, then all the other blessings will come to you. This is the principle: “If any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not.” That’s the promise but notice the added stipulation: “Let him ask in faith, nothing wavering.” You cannot waver. You must believe that He will do it, but you must ask without wavering. Your faith stands firm, “That word is true. I have the answer because it’s my possession in the Lord.” Nothing wavering! For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea tossed to and fro; let not the double-minded man think that he shall have anything of the Lord (James 1:5–8). He’ll get nothing from the Lord in his wavering because he himself is not established to believe the word.
This is a key for appropriation. Perhaps you need to approach the Lord in a different manner. Don’t come to Him saying, “Lord, I wish You would bless my relatives.” Stand upon the kindred covenants and promises of God that the families of the righteous will be blessed to a thousand generations (Exodus 20:6). Believe that! Stand on it. You are not claiming something that is not yours; so don’t waver in it, wondering if it applies to you. God is no respecter of persons. He will do it for you. He loves you. He has given it to you, but if you waver, if you are not established in that word, you will not receive the promise.
I wonder how many times we have come close to answers from the Lord, but missed them because we just did not believe, we didn’t have the faith to rest upon a promise of the Lord. Don’t try to build up your confidence and say, “I’m going to try to hang on.” Do more than that. Come to the place where with all finality the promise of God is a settled issue with you.
This is my approach and that is why I move carefully in matters and decisions that pertain to the whole Walk. I may have a first impression, but it is confirmed several times before I act on it. I am careful to seek counsel and confirmation from the brethren, and if they have a confirming witness and I know it is right, that we are not following some denominational trend or independent action, then I act on it. We are carefully finding the voice and the word of the Lord. The initiative is with God. When He gives us a word and it is confirmed, then we can stand on it. You can count on the fact that the words which have been confirmed by the apostolic company will stand.
When a matter is laid open before the entire Body with a common witness concerning it, and there are dissenting voices, they have the courage to stand up and speak. Our men are not yes men. They want the will of God too much, and they will speak their witness. There is a confidence in the apostle and in the people who are moving with him. When they receive a word from the Lord, you must believe in that word and stand on it. It’s not a matter of stubbornness; it’s a matter of the word being settled in your mind. You say, “This is a word from God, and I set my will to believe it.” There may be a thousand alternatives, but if God has given His word, let God be true and every man a liar (Romans 3:4).
Considering all the evidence and all the different aspects of the situation is a good procedure for a court of law, but not for the Walk. That is not the principle we are governed by. We are not a legislative body. We don’t stop to look at evidence. If I stopped and looked at the evidence in some people’s lives, I would have given them up as hopeless long ago, and you would have done the same with me at times. We don’t consider the evidence. We follow a process by which God gives us a word, He confirms that word and makes it alive to our hearts; and once that is real to us, it is settled. The next day the devil may bring many arguments to discredit that word, but if you hang onto it, you will walk in its power and see its fulfillment.
If we do not follow that process of looking for guidance and a word from the Lord, we will then, very carefully and with great objectivity, have to examine all the evidence, and thus try to come up with the right conclusion. How can we come to the right conclusion if we must use our reason as the basis? When God gives us a word, we trust in Him with all of our hearts; we lean not upon our own understanding. In all of our ways we acknowledge Him; then He directs our paths (Proverbs 3:4–5). Sometimes we can immediately see the course a brother should pursue. At other times, the word of direction may not come right away, but we keep reaching for it. I never approach anything without believing that God’s wisdom will come on the scene, that God will give an answer and confirm it.
We are moving into a different kind of day than we have ever seen before. We will either be that prophetic community or not, but we know the wise men of this world will reach a dead end. The nations will come down. Denominations will fall. The wise economic structure of the trust system and all that Babylon has built will be destroyed. How will it come down? We cannot figure it out; we just know it will because God says so. We believe the word and we stand and prophesy. Some may protest, “But it isn’t reasonable. We should do something.” We are doing something. We are repeating God’s word. We are speaking it with faith and anointing. What God says, we will keep repeating until it echoes into every corridor of Babylon and her walls come down. We will keep on speaking the word of the Lord. Things will change. Everything will give way to what God says will be. Oh, that the Lord would search our hearts and prevent us from wavering.
For this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. For if the word spoken through angels proved unalterable (this is what we are talking about—that settled, established word; even the word spoken by angels is unalterable), and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? After it was at the first spoken through the Lord, it was confirmed to us by those who heard. Hebrews 2:1–3. God has given you a sure word. Don’t neglect it. Don’t drift from it. Cast your anchor in it and hang on. The storms will come, but you have a sure anchor in that word.
This thought is continued in Hebrews 6:17–19: In the same way God, desiring even more to show to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of His purpose (see how settled it is?) interposed with an oath, in order that by two unchangeable things (a promise and an oath), in which it is impossible for God to lie, we may have strong encouragement, we who have fled for refuge in laying hold of the hope set before us. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul … both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil.
When you believe that God cannot lie, when you believe in the integrity of His Word, and you hold fast to it with all your heart, you are throwing your anchor right into the Holy of Holies, and anchoring yourself to the heart of God. He has given an oath to back up His promise, and by these two things it is impossible for God to lie.
Your worthiness is not the issue. The variables are all with man; the unchangeableness is with God. You say, “I must repent so God will turn and bless me again.” He has been blessing you all the time. “Yes, but He’s been skinning me alive.” That’s His way of blessing you. When you become disobedient, He beats you until you get in line. When you get in line again, you find, “The Lord has changed toward me. Now He’s smiling on me.” He always was smiling on you. He always was blessing. “Why does it seem different now?” Because you have changed. The variable is with you. And that is why you must repent so that you can come back to the place where you feel God smiling on you and blessing you.
God is not making an arbitrary decision about you. A sinner in the world says, “I’m afraid God will condemn me and send me to hell.” He is already condemned. He that believeth not is condemned already (John 3:18). Then he comes to the Lord and says, “God has blessed me. He’s changed toward me. Now I’m saved.” God provided that salvation before the foundation of the world. He sent His Son to die for you. Whosoever believeth, whoever will accept it, can be saved (John 3:16). What did God have to do? He didn’t have to do a thing; it was already provided. The man who is a sinner, already condemned, comes and accepts the salvation God has provided for him, and takes Christ into his heart. He simply accepts what was provided.
God sends people to preach the Word, and by the foolishness of preaching the Holy Spirit moves on people (I Corinthians 1:21) and says, “You’re a sinner. God should send you to hell, that’s true, but He wants to live with you forever and make you just like His only Son, in every way. Which do you want? It’s up to you.”
“Lord Jesus, I want to be saved. Come into my heart, Lord. I take You; I take the salvation. I believe in my heart that You died and rose from the grave. I confess with my mouth and believe I’m saved.” The action is entirely with you.
The variables are all with you. One week you feel God is very close to you; the next, He’s not so close. “Where are You, Lord?” He is in the same place He always was. Quit hiding in a hole. Come out into the sunshine. Last week you had a sunburn; today you are growing pale. Last year you were in the sunshine; today you are hiding under your umbrella. You are the one who is responsible. Don’t blame God. It is your own fault.
The provision of the Lord is settled. Forever Thy word is settled in heaven. It is an absolute established law. Heaven and earth will pass away; His word will not pass away. You cannot change it, but you can be either blessed or cursed, according to the way you respond to God’s provision. He gave you all His precious promises and prophecies which shows that He made some special decision for you. He foreknew you before the foundation of the world. When a prophecy comes, someone has finally hit on something that God had in mind long before you were even a twinkle in your father’s eye. Before you were ever thought of, God had that blessing provided for you.
Do you think I had anything to do with the ministry I am in now, as far as the exact maneuvering of it was concerned? I just exposed myself to it. God planned it. He planned the ministry you are to walk in too. Move out and expose yourself to it. Believe it. Accept it. Of course, you don’t have to do that. You can move out of God’s perfect will and then nothing will happen.
God chooses us and we choose to be chosen. And we probably choose because He first chose us. It gets a little complicated, but it’s a marvelous truth. Don’t you want to say, “Lord, I want to do everything You want me to do. I want to be right there where the blessing is.” What are the variables? With Him there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. He wants to bless you much more. He’s made the provision for it. Be blessed! Accept it. Accept the fact that you are blessed.
Be an heir. Continue coming to the Lord and saying, “Lord, I’m an heir. Give me some money.” Then take it in the name of the Lord. Don’t come as a beggar, for there aren’t many promises for beggars. Are you a son? Is it established? Is it a clear word? Are you a child of God? Then come on that basis. God will help you; He will see you through. “Through many dangers, toils and snares we have already come. ‘Twas grace that brought us safe thus far, and grace will see us home.” He is the author and the finisher, the Alpha and Omega; He’s the beginning and the ending (Revelation 22:13). What He started, He will finish.
There must be within our hearts, within our minds, within our thinking, the realization of how much God has for us. A violence must arise in our spirits, a violent persistence to possess what is ours. We are not going to be disinherited. We are not going to be deprived of what is ours. If there is something wrong, it is wrong in us. We are going to see that we approach God in faith, believing in the settled, complete, perfect provision for everything. By one sacrifice He hath forever perfected them that are sanctified. Having done this, He sat down at the right hand of the Father, henceforth expecting until His enemies be made the footstool of His feet (Hebrews 10:12–14). There remains nothing to be done on the part of God, but everything to be appropriated on the part of His people. Everything is to be appropriated. Everything is to be taken. Everything is to be received. We take it in the name of the Lord. We are blessed with every blessing in the heavenly places. It is ours. It is ours! It is ours in the name of the Lord!