Have you become doubtful over time that you actually even received a word from the Lord?
Have others come against that word that God had given to you, saying," Did God really say...", causing you to let it go?
Has that word that God spoke to your heart caused you a lot of trouble?
Today's lesson will address these things.
Many a man of God has lost his way because he let go of the word that God had spoken to him.
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You'd Better Believe it.
The war that tests the remnant of God, the seemingly endless battle, is over the word God has spoken.
You are not battling the things that you seem to be battling.
It may appear to you that the battle is a set of circumstances or continual harassment, just as when the children of Israel were in the wilderness, it appeared as if they were battling the wilderness.
The truth of the matter is that God said He led them that way for forty years to prove them, to know what was in their hearts, that they might know that man does not live by bread alone.
They were not sustained by that manna which came every day, but they lived by every word which proceedeth out of the mouth of God ( Matthew4:4 ).
This was the basis by which they lived.
That word of God was the real battle, if they could have only seen it.
Will you believe the word that God has spoken over you, or do you think that the battle is your circumstances?
Are you lusting for the fleshpots of Egypt?
Is that the real issue?
The real issue is that the end time remnant has a word from the Lord.
From the dawn of human history this assault against God's word has been the tactic of Satan.
He comes with one question: hath God said?
The conflict of the ages, as far as God's people are concerned, is wrapped around that diabolical seduction recorded in the third chapter of Genesis.
Sin was introduced into the world because Satan was able to get people to question the word of God.
I do not believe there any defeat in a man's life except where he questions what God has said.
Where the word is not real to him, there he will have a problem.
When a man trusts in the word of the Lord and believes in that word, all the problems are resolved right there.
I do not think I am oversimplifying human problems and the nature of those problems when I say this.
I know that the complexities of human life are very great, and I am also aware that they are multiplied endlessly when anyone comes into a real walk with God.
But the one thing that has made the life of many men a blessing is the fact that they have been aware that they have had a revelation of a word from the Lord.
From the very beginning of their walk with God, such men have heard a word from the Lord and have begun to believe that word.
They have battled against unbelief, and they have prophesied and proclaimed that word until it came to pass.
They have involved themselves in the battle of the ages.
This is the battle of the ages: Hath God said?
When Christ had to stand in our stead in the wilderness and overcome Satan in a vicarious battle for us that He fought, He prevailed.
But He did not prevail because He had the stamina and the moral strength to prevail as a human being.
Whether He could have prevailed or not is not the issue.
He prevailed by the same means that He gives us to prevail.
He said, "It is written" ( Luke 4:1-12 ).
In his war against the word, Satan comes and says, "Well, it is written, the Scriptures say this, but...."
He tries to twist it a little bit.
But the Lord said, "It is written," and prevailed over the enemy.
When we speak the word of God, we do not merely speak of the Scriptures; nor do we speak wholly of prophecy.
We encompass a picture of everything; the word that is being taught and preached to us, the word that is being prophesied to us, the word proclaimed.
If the remnant could set themselves to stay on the principle truths that God is speaking in this hour, the whole realm of principalities and powers would be shaken.
We do not need a great deal of wisdom until the churches are filled with Solomons.
All we need is that determination and understanding to stick to the word that God has spoken to our own hearts.
When you let go of the word, or when you are not clinging to it tightly, your life drifts.
When you hang onto the word with all your heart, your life has purpose.
Anytime you look at your circumstance and judge everything by it, you will be like the children of Israel when they came to Kadesh-Barnea and sent spies into the land to look it over.
Ten spies came back and gave a bad report, and the people's heart failed ( Numbers 13:25-33 ).
Caleb and Joshua were different.
They came back saying, "Let's trust what God said. God said that it is our land."
If the Israelites would have believed them, they would have received the land then.
They did not believe it, and the promised land waited for another generation t come up.
That generation seized those words that had been spoken to their fathers, and they went in and possessed the land.
So let it be with you. Do not waver.
God is moving more by the collective word and the collective commission now than He is in the individual.
If God inspires words of prophecy over a man in a church to be an apostle of the Lord, then the whole church will become an apostolic company, because no one makes it on his own anymore.
Each one is an integral part of a Body of believers that has a commission and an identity before God.
It is the day of the collective ministry.
From the moment a man becomes identified as a member of the Body of Jesus Christ through a revelation to his own heart, he begins a walk with God that includes a heritage of prophecies over that Body that also rest upon him in an amazing way.
This is a true principle.
If it were not true, we would not see some of the new beginners coming into the churches and walking in the gifts and ministries in just a few weeks that took many of the older members twenty years to achieve.
We can see this principle of the war over the word vividly illustrated in the story recorded in the third chapter of Genesis.
Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Indeed, has God said, ( Here the problem starts )Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
(She contradicts the devil:)
2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:
3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.
4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.
7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.
8 And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.
9 And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?
10 And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.
11 And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?
12 And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.
13 And the Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.
14 And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:
15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
Genesis 3:1-15
An interesting parallel to this chapter is found in Romans 16:20.
It says, "It shall please God to bruise Satan under your feet shortly," which means that as God bruises Satan under your feet, the fulfillment of this ancient prophecy recorded in Genesis comes to pass.
Christ was, in a sense, to bruise Satan's head at the cross; but that was only the provision.
The execution of that provision comes under your heels.
Man, himself, redeemed by Christ, shall be the instrument that fulfills the ancient prophecy.
It is given to man to execute what the Lord in His victory has provided.
Returning to the passage in Genesis we read:
16 Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.
17 And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;
18 Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;
19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.
20 And Adam called his wife's name Eve; because she was the mother of all living.
21 Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them.
Genesis 3:16-21
In this third chapter of Genesis we see that God had given a word which Satan came and contested, and sin entered into the garden because of disobedience to that word.
Satan has always battled the word of God as it has been received by people's hearts.
In any age when God gives a word, there are certain things that happen to that word.
Satan will start battling it from the moment it is heard.
The whole assault of Satan is to get us to turn loose of the word we have claimed.
When any man begins to serve God and God gives him a word, one of four different things will happen to his life.
These are described in a parable found in the eighth chapter of Luke:
He spoke by the way of a parable: "The sower went out to sow his seed; as he sowed, some fell beside the road; and it was trampled under foot, and the birds of the air devoured it." Verses 4, 5.
That word comes to many people and is devoured by the birds which are a type of demon spirits that come against the word.
Many times while a person is trying to hear a word, he will have to fight distractions in his mind that are far beyond the usual mind wandering or lack of concentration.
Such an assault against the word is nothing more than those damnable birds, the spirits that come to pick away the seed of the word.
"And other seed fell on rocky soil, and as soon as it grew up, it whithered away, because it had no moisture." Verse 6.
If the word is shallowly received, Satan brings a blast against it- persecution, little difficulties, anything to make that word wither and die before it comes to maturity.
"And other seed fell among the thorns; and the thorns grew up with it, and choked it out." Verse 7.
This is a symbolical picture of someone who has a real revelation to his heart, and the devil cannot steal it away.
The devil cannot come with the blast of persecution and cause it to wither.
Therefore, he resorts to another tactic.
He suddenly opens up extra overtime at the job or a few more responsibilities.
It seems as if other things just come along.
He makes the man successful; then suddenly there are so many cares and problems that the word is being choked out as thorns would choke out a plant.
The devil is after only one thing: he is at war against the word.
It is a war against the word.
Satan is battling the word that you have received from God. This is the area where the battle is.
"And other seed fell into the good ground, and grew up, and produced a crop a hundred times as great." As He said these things, He would call out, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear." Verse 8.
God gives a word, and all you have to do is hide it in your heart.
This, of course, is the key to the faith of Mary.
"Be it done unto me according to Thy word" ( Luke 1:38 ).
Whenever she heard something that she did not understand, she pondered it in her heart ( Luke 2:19 ).
She just kept it there.
It takes a good deal of diligence to say, "I'm not going to let Satan rob me of the word. Whether I understand it or not, I won't let him rob me of it."
I have seen the enemy bring false interpretation or confusion to people who have received a word from God.
They get the word and listen to it; then they get a tape or a transcription of it, and they do not know what to do with it.
They misinterpret the word, and then they abandon it.
They do not know what a wilderness they are throwing themselves into when they do that.
It is very necessary that a man of God hang onto the words God has spoken to him.
The psalmist said, Thy word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against Thee. Psalm 119:11.
That word becomes an antidote to the perversity that is within your nature.
It also becomes an antidote to the reasoning's of the carnal mind.
You must remember to hide His word in your heart that you might not sin against Him.
It is not merely hiding the word in your heart so that you will not be overtaken with lust, although that is a very good application of this truth.
This truth requires that you listen to that word, that you believe it.
But you will not sin against the Lord when you constantly hid His word in your heart.
Hiding the word in the heart means that there is a new supreme court.
That heart saturated with the word of God becomes the final word- not your carnal mind, not your reasoning of things, not your emotional reactions to circumstances, nor any other problem.
Blessed is the man who becomes unreasonable for god until he is so filled with faith that he no longer relies on his reasoning to arrive at certain solutions.
The book of Acts tells us how God gave the apostles a word and let them out of jail, and they went to the Temple and continued to proclaim that word.
First they were told to preach the word; then they were led by the Spirit to proclaim it ( Acts 5:17-21).
And they did.
This proclamation of the word began to shake things.
Everything in Jerusalem began to be shaken apart because they had a word from God, and they spoke that word.
That same word, the word of God within you, is the issue.
If Satan cannot get you to abandon that word, that word will fill your life so completely that it will become the creative force of God, the delivering force of God through you.
Satan knows that the word that God is bringing to subdue everything under Christ is going to come through God's people.
Therefore he battles the word that is in them.
The Bible in itself does not bother Satan.
If it collects dust on the shelf, it does not bother anyone.
Satan can have a lot of people arguing against the Bible.
He can have people who can even preach the Bible but who will preach only the letter that kills
( II Corinthians 3:6 ).
But Satan's greatest concern is about people who are believing that Word.
He comes against you with the ancient diabolical question, "Hath God said?"
And when you answer, "Yes, God said something to me," Satan starts battling that word to get you to relinquish it.
Nevertheless, because you believe that word God has spoken, that word is going to become like a sword in your mouth.
when the battle is finished and everything is won and the Kingdom is established for ages upon ages to come, the prelude to it will have been One who came on a white horse with a sharp two-edged sword coming out of His mouth.
It is the word that prevails.
This is the weapon; this is the power; this is the victory of God's people; God has spoken a word over our/their hearts, and we/they believe it.
Satan may battle that word; but through every battle, the true disciple does one thing; he clings to that word with all his heart.
A true disciple clings to those words; he walks in those words; and he believes in those words.
Satan will test him on those words in every way that he can; but God's man holds on to them, because he knows the defeat of Satan is wrapped up in the word that God has caused him to hide in his heart.
( Brothers, sisters, are you listening? Do you have ears to hear this word? )
***
Prayer
Spoken through a prophetic utterance.
Lord, help those who have wavered because they did not know the nature of the battle and they did not understand what You brought forth in Your Word.
They did not understand how faith must focus on one word from God, to the exclusion of everything else, and demands that everything give way to that word that God has spoken.
Bless and strengthen young and old, male and female, little children.
We pray that every believer will be released to know how to receive a word from the Lord, to review it, to hold onto it, to watch it explode into things beyond what he could imagine.
Give us eyes to see that the world will be changed by the word within us, that a new age will be born by a word within us.
Through faith we understand that the ages were framed by a word- by a word from the Lord!
We speak that word.
We speak the Kingdom into being!
We speak the release of every heart!
We speak the freedom!
Our freedom shall not be an illusive thing, for the word of God is not bound!
It shall run swiftly and have free course.
We bless it in the name of the Lord.
We hold onto it with all our hearts!
Amen!
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