More on Words

Yesterday morning I, thank God, awoke but with the words on my heart “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.” I was given also other bits of scriptures: give us this day our daily bread, take no thought, and my thoughts are not your thoughts.  Admittedly those are some heavy words to be awakened with.  Even now, on this day I am still meditating on “live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.”

So, how am I living?  The question begs to be asked simply because Holy Spirit gave it to me to consider.  The honest answer is not by every word that proceeds out the mouth of God.  How can I when, truth be told, I do not know every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.  I thought, perhaps, that this would be a lesson on how I should study the Bible going forward.  I mean, I have no set pattern of how I approach the word of God.  I just jump in.  The word is the word, right? All of it is profitable.  Clearly God is giving me direction and the way to find Him.  As much as I’d like to think I am seeking Him, I am, without a doubt, sure that He seeks me more. 

My initial thought was that I should endeavor to read through the Bible making it a point to focus on those things from the mouth of God.  Let there be light.  I was reminded, then, of a teaching by one of the local pastors who teaches that God said, “Light be” and not let as the word let takes away from God’s authority as if He were asking permission of some being to allow light.  My argument was God was declaring where light should be as opposed to asking for it to be. In my mind God was establishing a place where light should exist.  I later drew the conclusion that God wasn’t much concerned with our semantics.  Isn’t it, after all, foolishness to Him?

Funny how, as I considered the words that proceed from the mouth of God, the word popery kept coming to mind.  Why? I thought- at first. I do have on my Google Books account things written from days long passed about those fighting the influence of the Catholic Church.  Where was the popery, then, in my life?  Pastors.  I am a student of the words that proceed out of the mouths of men.  I trusted them as being the mouths of God and in so doing I knew more of the revelation God gave unto them more than the revelation God gives to me.  Many times theirs supplanted my own and even, on occasion, caused me to question my own revelation. Well, let me say this instead, I was obedient to their revelation and kept mine.  This is not to say that pastors are not vital. Nor is it to say that they don’t speak the word of God.  What I am saying is that Holy Spirit is letting me know that now is the time that I work out my own salvation with fear and trembling and understand that it is God which is working in me both to will and to do his good pleasure (Philippians 2:12-13) and I needed to know his will and good pleasure so I can live– in him and He in me. 

I asked again. How am I living? Not the abundance of God.  If there is any abundance to speak of it has been sadness.  As I began to seek the Lord, and after recent events in my life, I began to count the cost.  My immediate family is in shambles- my son cannot/will not speak to me.  The rest think I am crazy for my seeking or at the very least not understanding of it.  I was fired from my full time job and the temporary job I have cut my pay and still pays me inconsistently- not to mention getting paid at all is a challenge.  Most areas of my life are as if weights and I don’t understand why I am tied to them.  They compassed me about; yea, they compassed me about: but in the name of the LORD I will destroy them. (Psalm 118:11) The weights, that is, will be destroyed.  Still, I was counting the costs and decided my pursuit of ministry was the cause of the weights and I began to look at areas where I could shed weights.  I thought, yes, I thought, the cost of ministry was too great and I was going to leave it behind.  How could I, though, leave God behind? The answer is I wouldn’t leave God behind; just men.  As far as ministry was concerned, I would return to my first love, to write.

What I didn’t realize was through bearing the weight of others I set aside my connection to God, my writing.  My first love in the natural is connected to my first love in the spirit, Jesus Christ. He is seeking me and telling me to live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.  In my season of darkness He gave me direction and said, “Let there (in me, an established place) be light.” For the sake of argument He said, “Light be” and “God saw the light, (in me) that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. (Genesis 1:4) God declared that light should be in me.  God declared that light should be in me. God declared that Light should be in ME! Light BE.  He in me and I in Him; He separated me from the darkness.  From the mouth of God came MY revelation!

But know that the LORD hath set apart (divided the light from the darkness) him that is godly (created in His image) for himself: the LORD will hear when I call unto him. (Psalm 4:3) Indeed He has and always will. For that I can reconcile how blessed and highly favored I truly am.  He not only gave my living direction, every word that proceeds from the mouth of God, but also my first love– write every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.  Ministry as doing what I see my Father do, saying what my Father says and writing it down to bring about repentance, reconciliation of man to God through Jesus and preach the kingdom of God. In the name of Jesus. Living by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God to set aside the weights; not the gospel.  Every word that proceeded from the mouth of God, from the mouth of Jesus gave life.  How can I, being godly, not do the same?