What is the difference between some in ministry when it comes to the word of the Lord? What makes some stand out more then others when you hear them speak God's word?
I still can recall walking into the small store front on 7th street in Long Beach in 1973 on a Saturday night. Brant Baker was up front speaking God's word. There was something different even though it was the same Bible that he had as the basis of what he was teaching as the others who were teaching from the Bible.
When some give a word from God that is anointed there is an intensity that flows from God through them to your own heart. Something is imparted from them to you. 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..." 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 Scrip-tures 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 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 people listen (if they listen), their faith will not stand on his wisdom or the 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 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."
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 loath, but you received me as an angel of God (messenger) or Jesus Christ Himself." Galatians 4:14. The Galatians never explained 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 apostle's 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. I Thessalonians 2:13.
If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.
So how do we encourage the speaking out of the word of God as oracles? We must draw the word out of one another. A pastor gives the word with a real flow of the Lord in his heart, and at the same time the people draw it. With an intensity, you will literally demand that the flow from God come through them to your own heart. You can hear a word, but you want to be able to receive it.
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. 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 the 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 5:18,19. We must draw the word out of one another by faith.
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 vessel who is chosen and anointed to speak the word of the Lord is standing before you, listen carefully.
When his words have a 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. Become fully and completely the overflowing vessel that God wants you to be.
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 on 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.Matthew 10:41
He that receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward; and he that receiveth a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man's reward.
Take the word by faith from the man of God. Listen and hear...
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