God has a way of either veiling or unveiling the truth. Many passages in the Scriptures are deep and mystical, as well as philosophical. When you read the Word, the Lord must give you a heart to perceive and understand the parables, the visions, the dreams, and the cryptic sayings that have hidden meanings to them. He can anoint your heart and bring an unveiling of His Word that is as rich and sweet for you as honey in the honeycomb. As you eat of it, your eyes will be enlightened and you will be strengthened.
The writings of the Apostle John, which speak of the Word made flesh, have a deep mystical quality which makes it difficult for some people to understand them. John 1:1–5: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him; and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness; and the darkness did not comprehend it. Then verse 14 says, And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Christ was the Word. Perhaps the following illustration will help you understand better what this means. Receiving a word from the Lord is like receiving a piece of ore that is filled with gold. Not much can be done with it until it is refined through a process of crushing and fire. Similarly, when you receive a word and you decide to keep it and hide it in your heart, soon you may feel uncomfortably warm as the Lord puts the heat on you. As He begins to crush and break your spirit, you will be tempted to let go of that word. How the enemy wants you to let go of it! But if you hold on to the word through the crushings, as the enemy comes against you and the Lord puts more fire on you, soon everything disappears that is like the rock in the ore. Then only the pure word remains, like silver that has been refined in a furnace seven times (Psalm 12:6). The Lord tries you, so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. I Peter 1:7.
When you receive a word, too much of the human element may be in your thinking, even though you think it is a good word. If you weigh it and evaluate it, doubt will enter into your mind. You will wonder why you are being so battled if it is a word from God. As you go on believing that you have a true word, someone most probably will come along and urge you to give it up since it has not yet been fulfilled. Many delays and discouragements will come to compel you to relinquish that word.
If you hold on to the word, it will become pure like the gold that is refined again and again. Then you will be able to speak in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and command devils to come out, sicknesses to be healed, and doors to be opened for deliverances. It will work because the word that is refined and tried like gold is the coin of the realm.
Before Peter went through some of his trials, he and some of the other disciples came to Jesus and asked Him why they could not cast out a certain devil (Matthew 17:19). But after the day of Pentecost, after the tests and the trials were over, Peter said to a lame man, Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee (he was rich in the coin of the realm—rich in the money of the Kingdom): In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk. Acts 3:6. A miracle happened because his faith had been refined. The word was like gold tried in the fire, and it became a living force within him.
God is working a great mystical cycle. He sent His Son, and His Son was the expression of everything the Father had to say. Whenever God had anything to say, He spoke through His Son. Therefore, His Son is called the Word of God. John said that the Word was made flesh. That Word is being ministered to us. His Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.
As the Word ministers to us, it becomes real to us; then as we cling to it, the Word is refined. The ultimate result will be that our flesh will become the Word. The Word became flesh so that the Word now becomes a living part of our flesh, written and engraved upon the fleshly tablets of the heart (II Corinthians 3:3). God said that He would write His precepts upon our hearts (Jeremiah 31:33).
The word that you receive and cling to eventually becomes a part of yourself. You become that word. No longer are there impurities left which cause you to evaluate whether or not you will accept the word. When human equation is gone, the word governs. The word dominates. It is beyond question, because the human element has been refined away. The capacity to evaluate the word critically is gone, and the word is alive within your heart.
The Apostle John tells how this happens within us. What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we beheld and our hands handled, concerning the Word of Life—and the life was manifested, and we have seen and bear witness and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us—what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also. John saw the Word. Christ was the Word of God that John handled and loved and proclaimed to others. That same Word was living in the Apostle John.
John further wrote, that you also may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. And these things we write, so that our joy may be made complete. And this is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. I John 1:1–5. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us. Verse 10. But whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him. I John 2:5. You cannot grasp the writings of John unless you see the mystical truth that he was presenting.
When you receive a word, hold it in your heart. After a while God will not only move in you and bear witness to His word, but He will speak His word through you. You will become an oracle of God. Then you will come into the full perfection of His love within your life. The Apostle John wrote in I John 2:14, I have written to you, fathers, because you know Him who has been from the beginning. I have written to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one. Notice the effect of the word abiding in you. If you hold on to the word, you will overcome sin in your life, and the love of God will be perfected in you. Cleave to the word that God speaks to you, and you will overcome the evil one. More than that, you will become the voice of the Lord in the earth.
The prophet Jeremiah was told, “Separate the precious from the vile; then your mouth will be as My mouth, and your words will be as My words” (Jeremiah 15:19). This means that when you are rid of the earthy part, the rock and dirt which is mixed in with the gold, then you will be able to speak His word in purity. Many men preach using Scripture, but it is mingled with the earthy human element and its edifying quality is not pure. Others bring a word, and it is evident that it is a pure word from the Lord—the human element has been refined out of it.
In order for our mouths to be as His mouth, so that we will speak the words of the Lord in perfection and purity, we must submit to the crushing and the fire. New believers often come into the gifts of the Holy Spirit very readily and prophesy quite fluently, but their prophecies are not very effective at first. There is still too much of the carnal element in their thinking. In that case, should they stop prophesying? No, because God still does a perfect work through imperfect channels who are yielded imperfectly to the Lord. If everyone prophesies perfectly, it is not as much of a miracle as hearing God speak through the weak, base vessels He chooses. When they begin to prophesy, they go through the dealings of the Lord; everything is refined and made beautiful. As they are refined, they prophesy with a greater flow of the Spirit and a greater anointing of the Lord. More effectiveness comes forth from their lives as they go through the crushing, as the gold of their faith in the word is refined.
It is His word in you that is important. What will happen if you hide God’s word in your heart? John 15:7 says, If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. That is a big promise. It is so vast in its scope that you might think that God’s words do abide in you. But when His word is abiding, it means that it is retained. You must consciously and constantly hold fast to the word. During the refining process, you will find an occasion and an excuse every day to relinquish that word. You may want to put it in the back of your mind and stop contending that it come to pass. But when that word abides in you and you cling to it, when you abide in Him and His words abide in you, then anything that you ask is as though God Himself were speaking. Ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you, because the refining of that word within your heart has also refined out the human, carnal, self-seeking motivations.
Suppose that you live in the Lord and His words abide in you, yet what you ask does not come to pass. If you stop and consider the amount of human motivation there is in what you ask, you will realize that the word has not yet been refined to its purity in your life as it ought to be. When it is, it will come to pass as surely as anything that could happen to you.
When men commercialize and advertise what they are doing for the Lord, they are glorifying the flesh. In such endeavors, the word of the Lord is not exalted. Some attention is given to the beautiful gold, but too much attention is given to the terrible rock that is still there. God refines the rock out of any man who will walk with Him in the Spirit. He removes it so that the Lord gets all the glory.
In this hour, a dedicated believer should desire to see the word of God really flowing. The spiritual war that exists is truly over the word. People cannot come into a walk with God by hearing testimonies; they must hear and believe the word that God speaks. A worship service should make available a word from God. If people will believe it and cling to it, it will explode in all its creativity in their lives until they are thoroughly and completely changed. It will do more than change a man’s lifestyle; it will bring him right into the divine nature.
You can become the Word made flesh; just as Christ was! This should be every believer’s goal. God’s process is much like that of making wine. When people receive a word from God, He allows the enemy to crush them. If they are going to be highly refined, God must take away the dregs. In order for the pure wine of the Kingdom to come forth, God must get rid of most of the grape. The only thing that will keep grapes from becoming wine is the grapes themselves. Likewise, the only thing that keeps you from being the expression of God in the earth is yourself. The best wines are those in which the elements of the grapes are completely refined out. There must be the crushing and the constant refining until a pure flow comes forth unto God. When your spirit is refined and the human elements are eliminated, then you will certainly be the wine of the Kingdom.
Through God’s dealings your personality can change, and you will not be the same person you once were. The experience may be bitter, but in it you appropriate a little more of Him as you cling to His word. God is inseparable from His word. If you want more of God, seek more of His word and cling to it.
Be encouraged in your spirit. Whatever you are going through may be unpleasant—but very necessary. Can you see why God scourges every son whom He receives? Whoever is not a partaker of the discipline of the Lord is a bastard and not a son (Hebrews 12:6–8). He may be an illegitimate creature that has been brought forth in the realm of spirit, but he is not a true son. God scourges every son whom He receives. If you are a true son, He deals with you. He puts you through the testings.
The discipline of the Lord brings a new process of divine life constantly flowing through you. There must be a corresponding relinquishing of all the human motivations and abilities for all the divine endowments that you receive. No wonder that one of the opening announcements by John the Baptist was the statement, He must increase, but I must decrease. John 3:30. That is the way the process of divine life operates.