How can you be truly receptive to a word from God? This is one of the most practical truths you can ever learn. You can hear a word, but you want to be able to receive it. If you really open your heart to receive as you should, you will almost embarrass the preachers and the people who speak to you. With an intensity, you will literally demand that the flow from God come through them to your own heart.
Believers in New Testament churches have become aware (though still not enough) of how impartation comes in a service, so that what they need from the Lord is imparted to them. The word that comes in a service may be simple, but it is creative; it imparts to the people. They are becoming more and more conscious of receiving the word, of drawing the word to themselves.
It is important, first of all, that the word come with faith on the part of the one who speaks it. He must have faith to do more than preach a sermon. Notice what Paul said about the way he preached to the Corinthians: 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. 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, that your faith should not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God. I Corinthians 2:1–5.
If a man can talk you into a walk with God, someone else will be able to talk you out of it. People are brought into a walk with God by hearing someone speak a word from God, but that word does not come with wisdom alone. Of course, truth is in it. Paul said, Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature; a wisdom, however, not of this age… Verse 6. This wisdom is not an oratorical ability. Paul discarded that. He said, “I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” Paul did not come to the Corinthians with any superiority of speech. He was not a great orator. He came with weakness and trembling, because he did not want their faith to stand in the wisdom of men. His weakness and trembling were not because he was afraid of the Corinthians. He did not have stage fright, for he had a command of several languages; he had been educated at the feet of Gamaliel, and he was able to expound the Scriptures (Acts 22:3). Paul was afraid of himself, afraid that he would begin to explain the Scriptures instead of speaking the word of God.
Many preachers have a desire to be great expositors or great teachers. With that attitude, they could end up the same way as the men in the Jewish religion. One rabbi interprets a Scripture one way, while another rabbi says something different about it. Endless commentaries exist, telling what the rabbis think about various Scriptures. A Christian cannot be concerned with any man’s opinion about the Scriptures. A pastor who comes into a walk in the Spirit will even discard the use of commentaries.
Some commentaries give a verse-by-verse exposition of the Bible, as well as outlines on each chapter, based upon the work of many scholars. They are very helpful to someone who merely wants to preach. But when a pastor comes into a walk in the Spirit, he becomes concerned about speaking God’s word. Then, when the people listen (if they listen), their faith will not stand on his wisdom or his knowledge of the Scriptures, or on his explanation of them. Their faith will stand on an anointed flow of the Lord which he draws from God. An impartation will be coming with the Word.
Paul could easily have had a flow of speech simply by reverting to his ability as an orator. But he did not want to rely on that. He wanted the people to hear God speaking through him. The people liked hearing Apollos and other polished orators who visited their church. But Paul’s efforts to speak God’s words created a real problem for him, as he indicated in II Corinthians 10:10, for the people said that his bodily presence was nothing and his speech was contemptible. It is one thing to have an ability to preach; it is another thing to have the ability to speak the word of God. Paul had an anointing to speak God’s word and to let that word come forth. He worked at it so carefully that every word he spoke was like a freight car, freighted with the power of God. After his visit to Corinth he wrote, “I wanted your faith to stand in the demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that something would happen as you listened, and something would be created within you.”
The Corinthians had to learn to listen to the word differently. The same is true today of people who come into a walk in the Spirit, even those who were Christians before. They must learn to really listen. Even then, in the midst of spiritual assault, they will find it a struggle to be receptive to the real word that God is speaking. Just hearing the message is not enough. The word has to come like the sword of the Spirit, a living Word from God that lays you open before the Lord and discerns the thoughts and intents of your heart (Hebrews 4:12). Believe to receive the word this way.
Paul explained how the word is to be received. After his visit to Galatia he wrote, And that which was a trial to you in my bodily condition you did not despise or loathe, but you received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus Himself. Galatians 4:14. The Galatians never exclaimed how great a preacher Paul was. Instead, they opened their hearts to the fact that the apostle’s word was Christ ministering to them.
The Thessalonians also received the apostles’ word, not as the word of men, but as the word of God. And for this reason we also constantly thank God that when you received from us the word of God’s message, you accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God (they accepted it for what it really is, the word of God), which also performs its work in you who believe. The King James Version reads, which effectually worketh also in you that believe. I Thessalonians 2:13.
You will receive more from the services when you listen with receptivity and with the same faith that you expect the minister to have when he brings the word. There must be that combination. The ministries will be far more effective when you are believing for them to speak the word of the Lord, and therefore you are drawing it out of them. If you have ever stood before the congregation to sing or to prophesy, you know that at first you are a little uneasy; but when you feel everyone blessing you, the words begin tumbling out. The faith of the congregation causes this. They are not just cooperating with you so that you can perform. They are believing for you to speak from a full heart, as this Scripture says: Be filled with the Spirit; speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. Ephesians 5:18b, 19. We must draw the word out of one another. The Body of Christ is more than a family; it is a give-and-take relationship.
It is very important for a body of believers to learn how to give and take. A pastor gives the word with a real flow of the Lord in his heart, and at the same time the people draw it. There is a very high level of reception in churches that are submissive to an apostolic ministry. If they accept his apostleship, they are open to receive his word. This was the situation with Paul, as recorded in Galatians 4. When people looked at him and saw that he had some problems, they could question, “How can we believe that the word of God is coming through him?” Yet we must remember that the channel God uses is not the issue. We are not to have our eyes upon the man; rather, we must be listening to what God is saying through him.
When prophecies are being spoken over an individual and he is believing to receive something from God, he will. As he draws forth the prophecies out of those who minister to him, their faith will be challenged and stimulated and he will receive a great amount. The day could come when those men would back away from moving in prophecy, the laying on of hands, and impartation. But that would not nullify the words that they imparted to him.
Suppose a day comes when you become disillusioned with a man who has been a pure channel of God’s word. Whether or not your disillusionment is valid, should you disregard the word which he has spoken? No, do not discredit his years of being an oracle of the Lord. Remember that word. It could go on and bless people who will listen to it for years to come. It is good for a ministry to be the kind of channel and vessel that does not fall into any reproach, but he cannot count on that. These are days in which Satan is going to do everything he can, by all sorts of lies and rumors, to discredit the true and to bring forth false Christs, false apostles, and false prophets. If it were possible, he would deceive the very elect (Matthew 24:24). Therefore it is imperative that you do not listen to rumors.
Do not follow a man just because he has a good reputation and good credentials. Those things are meaningless. You will have to listen, and if that still small voice is speaking in his words and God is bringing a living Word through to you, then the ministry is of God and you are to listen to it (I Kings 19:12). Keep listening, and receive it as a word from the Lord with all faith in your heart. Keep listening, because you will be surprised at how many different members in the Body of Christ are going to speak the word of God. This is what God’s remnant is believing for.
Just because you knew a man of God in his youth, do not get the idea that you know what to expect from him now. You may know the man he used to be, but you do not know what God is doing through him at the present time. However, if you have a revelation of the ministry he is walking in, you will not listen to him as just one more preacher, weighing his words in your mind. You will listen for a word from God, and you will hear it because you are receptive to the word he brings.
Blessed is he who has ears to hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches (Revelation 3:6). When believers learn to hear as they ought to hear, they will need very little personal ministry. What they need will be created in them while they are sitting under the word. It will be as it was fulfilled in the Old Testament: He sent His word and healed them. Psalm 107:20a. God just sent a word. This happened when the centurion came to Jesus because his servant was sick (Luke 7). He had built a synagogue, and so the Jews asked Jesus to go and help him. But the man said, “Do not come under my roof. I am not worthy. Speak the word only and my servant will be healed.” Jesus spoke the word, and that very hour the servant was healed because the centurion knew how to hear. He knew who was speaking. He knew that this was the channel of the Father to speak a living Word. So he said, “Just speak the word and it will be done.”
The day is coming when believers will come together to listen to the word, rather than to receive personal ministry. That day must come; there is no other way for the people to receive the impartation they need. An apostolic company cannot reach all the people by scheduling services with a great amount of counseling, laying on of hands, and teaching, so that eventually the people will be prepared for what God is doing. There is not enough time for that. The people must be taught to let God meet their hearts, to let the revelation of the Lord come to them. Then a word will be spoken and something will happen in their lives. And it is time that something happens. The people have to learn to receive by the Spirit of the Lord what God is saying to them.
It is important that we study the word “receive.” People use the phrase, “I receive this word as a word from the Lord.” But receive is a rather passive word. One of the Greek words that is translated “receive” is lambano, a very interesting word. It means “I receive”; but it also means “I take.” A good illustration of this word is found in Acts 1:8: But ye shall receive power, when the Holy Spirit is come upon you: and ye shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea and Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. That is a wonderful promise. The Pentecostal movement quotes this verse, saying, “You should receive the Holy Spirit and speak in tongues so that you will receive power. When you receive the Holy Spirit, you receive power.”
Another interesting word is dunamis, the Greek word for “power.” “Dynamite” and “dynamic” are direct derivatives. Therefore, when you talk about power, you are really speaking about something in action. “You shall receive (lambano) power (dunamis), when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.” People often have the idea that because they speak in tongues, they are going to have power. Yet we see that many people who have received the Holy Spirit, and who speak in tongues and have many wonderful blessings, have no power in their lives. It is one thing to say, “I receive.” When you say that, you express a passive attitude: “Here it is; I receive it.” But it is another thing to say, “I take it.” You are not going to receive power after the Holy Spirit comes upon you unless you take power after the Holy Spirit comes upon you.
You have to reach in and take what goes along with the Holy Spirit. You have to be a taker. When you sit under the word, you have to draw it, in the name of the Lord. You have to say, “Here I am, Lord. I determine to hear this word. I am believing for it to be God’s word to my heart, and I am going to take what I can out of it.” How do you receive? In the name of the Lord, receive positively, aggressively, with faith.
There are different ways of being served. When you go to a fancy restaurant, you are served each course in an elegant and almost dramatic style. The waiter stands near your table with a towel draped over his arm, waiting to take care of your every need. In contrast, the meals prepared for a crew of workers at threshing time in the Midwest are served much more simply; yet the food probably surpasses anything you could find in a restaurant. When the men come in from the fields to eat, they receive their food lambano style. There are no beautiful courses, no waiters with little towels over their arms standing by; the men simply reach in and grab for the food.
This is a procedure which must be applied spiritually. Perhaps you do not understand what it is to hunger and thirst after righteousness, to reach in with all your heart and take it. Do not merely say that you are hungry for the Lord. Do not be vague about it. But when a channel who is chosen and anointed to speak the word of the Lord is standing before you, listen carefully. When his words have that ring in the Spirit which means that he is speaking a word from God, believe God for that word to create new life within you.
Learn more about receiving, about taking the provisions that are yours. Pastors should place less emphasis on the speaking of His promises and His provision, and more upon teaching you how to lay hold of them and walk in them, so that you become fully and completely the overflowing vessel that God wants you to be.