In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him; and without him was not anything made that hath been made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. 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. John 1:1–4, 14.
It is difficult for us to understand why John begins his Gospel in this way. Matthew and Luke begin with the story of Jesus being born of the Virgin Mary, and Mark begins by proclaiming the ministry of John the Baptist in the wilderness. But John’s beginning seems to be entirely remote from a story of any kind. “The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. We beheld the glory of the Father; we heard what God had to say; we saw it personified before us. The Word was made flesh.”
In His prayer in John 17, Jesus lifted up His voice and said, “Father, I have given them Thy Word.” When Philip said, “Show us the Father,” Christ replied, “If you have seen Me, you have seen the Father” (John 14:8–9). How could Christ live as a man on the earth, and yet have it said of Him, “All things were made through Him and without Him was not anything made that was made” (John 1:3)? He created it all, and then He Himself became the creation of the Father in the sense that He became an expression of the Father to the earth. The expression of everything that God had to say, everything that God was, came forth in a logos, a Word, a concept.
This revelation is emphasized again in I John 1:1–4: That which was from the beginning, that which we have heard, that which we have seen with our eyes, that which we beheld, and our hands handled, concerning the Word of life—the living Word—(and the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare unto you the life, the eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us); that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you also, that ye also may have fellowship with us: yea, and our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ: and these things we write, that our joy may be made full.
God had something to say, and so He spoke to the world through His Son. That is exactly the way it is explained in Hebrews 1:1–2: God, having of old time spoken unto the fathers in the prophets by divers portions and in divers manners, hath at the end of these days spoken unto us in his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the worlds. Jesus Christ is the Word of God.
When that great hour comes for the beast to be destroyed and Satan to be put in the bottomless pit, then our Lord will come upon a white horse with all the armies of heaven following Him. His name is called “The Word of God.” Out of His mouth goes a sharp two-edged sword and with this He consumes His enemies and brings them down (Revelation 19:11–15). Christ is the Word of God. People have tried to make a mystical and elusive interpretation of this truth, saying, “Jesus is the Bible.” However, if you search the Scriptures, you see that they testify of the Lord (John 5:39); they bring the Lord to you.
The mystery of this truth can be illustrated with the story about the difficult jigsaw puzzle that was put together by a little girl. Her mother was amazed to see that she had completed it in a very short time. The little girl explained, “On the back side of the puzzle there is a picture of a man, and I put that picture together on a cookie sheet; then I turned it over and the puzzle was all solved.” The Word of God is a puzzle. Sometimes people have difficulty putting it together, but if they will look on the other side, they can see the living Word, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. He gives it all sense and meaning. Unless we see the revelation of the Lord coming through to us, the Scriptures mean nothing.
A man may go to a certain church because they preach the Bible, but he soon sees that no one has been able to put the puzzle together; they have not discovered the Man who is behind the Book. They have not found the living Word, the Lord Jesus Himself, the Word of God personified. We are not being heretics when we say that the world will never discover Jesus Christ through the Bible. They will discover Christ when someone brings the Word of God to them. When someone takes the life of that Book off the cold page and ministers it to them, and it begins to live within their hearts, then they will see it. That is the way the world will see Jesus. Maybe a scattered few will find the Lord by reading the Scriptures, but it is when the Lord Jesus comes alive off those pages that the Word of God will come to people.
No doubt the Roman Catholic counteraccusation against the Protestants is somewhat valid. The Protestants proclaim that there is an idolatrous situation in the Roman Catholic church which is called Mariolatry, the worship of Mary and prayer to Mary. The counteraccusation comes against the Protestants that they are bibliolaters, worshipers of a Book rather than worshipers of the Lord. In many cases of Fundamentalism, that is the truth. They worship their own little technical explanations and bandy the Scriptures about, using their own little personal stilettos to jab at one another instead of using the sword of the Spirit. They use the Scriptures for purposes entirely aside from bringing a Word from God to the world—a Word that is alive under the anointing of the Spirit.
If Jesus Christ was the Word made flesh, He was but the firstfruits of God’s intention; we also are to follow in that pattern. God intended that we, too, should be the Word made flesh, that He should literally be living within us and speaking through us and manifesting Himself through us until we too are that Word. For we are not as the many, corrupting the word of God: but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God, speak we in Christ. II Corinthians 2:17. Paul was talking about people who were deceitfully preaching the Scriptures, using them to prove a doctrine and to establish their point. They were corrupting the Word of God. People can handle the Scriptures in such a manner that they corrupt what God wants to bring forth.
Paul continued: Are we beginning again to commend ourselves? or need we, as do some, epistles of commendation to you or from you? Ye are our epistle, written in our hearts, known and read of all men; being made manifest that ye are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in tables that are hearts of flesh. II Corinthians 3:1–3. He was saying, “We are writing an epistle, a Word from God that is read and known of all men; and we are writing it on your hearts.”
It is a cause of great rejoicing to see what is coming forth as a result of the ministry in the New Testament churches that God is establishing across the land. People in the various churches are becoming living epistles because men of God are writing on their hearts. With the Spirit of the living God, foundational ministries are writing a Word upon them, so that everyone who looks at them can read it and can learn of Christ.
Paul continued in II Corinthians 3:4–6: And such confidence have we through Christ to God-ward: not that we are sufficient of ourselves, to account anything as from ourselves; but our sufficiency is from God; who also made us sufficient as ministers of a new covenant; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life. Most people do not realize that they are somewhat guilty of bibliolatry. The letter of the Word, without the Holy Spirit, is death. The Bible says that about itself: “The letter killeth, but the Spirit maketh alive.”
The Word must be read with the anointing of the Holy Spirit. We must determine that we will not minister a dead letter, but we will speak with the anointing of the Spirit. We are not sufficient of ourselves to think anything is of ourselves; our sufficiency is of God who made us able ministers of the new covenant. Kingdom Bibles are being written—those who have the gospel of the Kingdom written in their hearts. Everywhere they go and everywhere they worship and every time they speak, they are living epistles of Christ, read and known of all men. A remnant of people are becoming channels of the Word.
The living Word is the Word being made flesh. This is what a true foundational ministry is concerned about—the Word being made flesh. Some may contend that we do not look at one another’s flesh. But we do in the sense that we look at it and see what God is doing. We see the old gangrene of dying flesh that has been crucified—the smelly part, the stinking part; and we see also that glorious golden glow of the new spirit coming forth in the nature of the Lord. We find all kinds of marvelous things written on the tablets of the heart and upon the spirit. The Word is being made flesh, and it is dwelling in men. The Body of Christ is the expression of God in the earth. Haven’t you heard? You are the Body of Jesus Christ and the members one of another (I Corinthians 12:27). Do you believe that you are part of the Body of Christ? Then you must become His expression—His hands, His feet, His mouth; you must become one who gives forth expression to the Lord Jesus Christ in the earth today.
You may feel unqualified because you are not greatly educated or intellectually brilliant. The important thing is that God spoke some wonderful things about you concerning a ministry that you will walk in. It is not what you were, or even what you are in a restricted sense that counts; it is what God has said you are and what He wants to do through you. After all, it does not make much difference what quality of paper is used; what really counts is the message that is written on it.
God has taken the poor of this world and made them rich in faith and heirs of the Kingdom (James 2:5). He is creating living editions of the Word of God. You may be just like a cheap notebook on which God is writing a marvelous Word. You may wish that you were some vellum on which God would write so that everyone would see how beautiful the message is. Keep this in mind: the paper does not need to be seen; it is the Word that must be made plain so that he who reads it may run (Habakkuk 2:2). Let the Word of God come forth from you in this hour! Speak the Word of the Lord. Be the expression of God in the earth. You have it; it is being woven into the very fabric of your spirit and your life. It is time for you to begin to think this way.