"The Word of God"    Hebrews 4:12                        05/14/16

¹²  For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

Today's teaching starts with the writer of Hebrews stating that the Word of God is quick, powerful and sharper than any two edged sword. The point the reader is trying to get across to everyone is that the Word of God when spoken out, is alive, powerful and able to slice up any evil in this present world. He continues on to say that it is even able to divide between soul and Spirit and joints and marrow. This is an incredible statement when you think about dividing your joints and marrow. Separating soul and Spirit is impossible to even consider doing.  The writer finishes this verse by saying that the Word of God is a discerner or it is able to perceive the thoughts of your heart.  The Word of God is alive and when you read it, it is not just a book that you read and put aside for another time, it has a very special way of changing people when they continue to read it. It becomes alive and speaks wisdom to you in your heart. Proverbs 4:20-22 tells us more about the Word of God and it's power, "My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings. ²¹ Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart. ²² For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh."  This Proverb is telling you that when you read the Word, the Holy Bible, it is life to those that do read it and also it is health to your flesh. Joshua told us to meditate in the Word day and night and this will make your way prosperous and you will have good success. The apostle John wrote in the very first verse of his gospel about how significant the Word is, John 1:1 states, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." This says that God is the Word. Not too many verses later we are told that Jesus is the Word in John 1:14, "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth." These verses should help you have a clear understanding about the importance of the Word because it says God is the Word and Jesus is God in the flesh. God lifted Jesus up above everything. The apostle Paul told us in his letter to the Philippians 2:9, "Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:" Jesus' name is more powerful than anything which means that the Word of God is more powerful than anything because Jesus is the Word that became flesh. Knowing this, we can show how powerful the Word is for us when we believe in Jesus as our personal Lord and Savior. The Letter of Paul to the Colossians 2:10 says, "And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power:" Here Paul tells us that we are complete in Jesus meaning that because of Jesus, we have the same power as Him when we believe in Him. When you do believe in Jesus and you pray in His name, there is nothing more powerful to fix anything in your life. When you put the Word in your heart by reading it and meditating on it, you will see yourself change and when you call on the name of Jesus, you will see it work for you more and more by the faith you grow from being in the Word of God. The apostle Paul confirms this in his letter to the Romans 10:17, "So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God."  The Word will change you if you allow it to. I have a friend that was being harassed by a coworker because he was a believer. My friend's coworker would come to work everyday and question him about things in the bible to try to argue against the Word and God. My friend said that this got to a point where he couldn't even answer all the questions that this guy was asking him. This went on for months but what my friend didn't realize was that this guy that was looking for an argument in the Word everyday was going home and reading the Bible to come back the next day to ask him another question. After about six months of doing this, this guy who was totally arguing against the Word, became a believer. The Word of God changed this guy's heart and he had no idea it was happening to him. This is an awesome display of God's power through His Word.  This is only one way the Word will change you but there is so much more it can do for you. In it you will find abundant scriptures that can be applied to your life about health and healing, about finances  and about the power the Word has when spoken against problems that you face in your life. Jesus told us to speak out loud to our mountain or problems, and this spoken Word will remove these problems. The Gospel According to Mark 11:23 quotes Jesus telling us this, "For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith."

Here is another verse from the prophet Jeremiah 23:29 telling you about the power in the Word of God, "Is not my word like as a fire? saith the LORD; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?" The Apostle Paul calls the Word of God "The Sword of the Spirit!" in Ephesians 6:17.  And finally, here is a quote from Jesus in the Gospel According to Matthew that tells you that the Word of God should be more important than food. Matthew 4:4 says, "But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God."

"Sword of The Spirit" Ephesians 4:22:24                 10/14/15

²²  That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;²³ And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;²⁴ And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.

From this reading you can see that the Apostle Paul was explaining to everyone to put off the “Old Man”, renew your mind and put on the “New Man”  What  he is referring to here in the first verse is to stop all the lusts that you have in your life.  These are the things you most covet or desire in your life.  The reason Paul used deceit here is to inform you that you have desires and lusts present in your life today. He is saying that you will deny that you have them therefore you are deceived because you will believe you don't have them. He goes on to say be renewed in the spirit of your mind, this means change the way you think. He wrote this in Romans 12:2, "And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind,"  Paul was telling us to stop conforming to this world and what everyone else is saying or doing and start renewing your mind toward heavenly things. This is written also in Paul's Letter to the Colossians 3:2 "Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth." When you do this, God can work on your heart and mind and help you to change the way you think. When you mind the things of the world and what everyone else is saying and doing, you are being pulled away from the heavenly things spoken of here. Again the Apostle Paul writes of worldly deceit and how it affects you in the First Letter of Paul to the Corinthians 15:33, "Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners." This verse clearly shows that if you are spending your time with negative people that only do and speak negative things, it doesn't matter how much you want to do good, you will struggle because this negative or evil communication spoken of here will corrupt you. This type of communication is all around you no matter where you go because you hear it when you go out, you hear it at work and the most common place you hear it is from the media such as television, radio and internet.   This communication continually grows more corrupt and affects every person watching and you do not even realize when it is happening. Paul was saying do not be deceived that these things do not affect you because they do. It is understood that these things will not go away so you need to do something to limit the affect these things have on your life. You could stop listening or watching completely but that would be virtually impossible with life being surrounded by media technology even through your cell phone. We have learned to control the affects of these things in our life by trying to stay away from them as much as we can but when we do come across something that is negative communication, we have learned to stand on this scripture from the second letter of Paul to the Corinthians 10:5, "Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;" We quote this scripture to ourselves to eliminate the negative thoughts or imaginations that try to come to mind. It does work very effectively for us so it can for you too. When you come across something that is evil communication, you must recognize it and not allow your imagination go in a negative direction, you must stop it in it's tracks because it will take you farther away from heavenly things because it becomes an emotional snowball. Each negative thought grows into a bigger negative thought just like a snowball grows when you roll it down a hill, where the snow just sticks to it and it continues to grow. As these negative thoughts grow, then the devil gets you to a point where you are worried, fearful or doing something wrong causing you to have bigger problems in your life that started with a simple vain imagination. This is written in the Letter of Paul to the Romans, "When they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened." This verse tells you that a negative imagination can make you foolish and it will darken your heart." This darkening of your heart causes you much distress in your life. Nobody wants this kind of misery in their life so how do you avoid it? First, start reading the Word of God, the Holy Bible and meditate on it because this is where you find life and heavenly or spiritual things as stated in John 6:63, "The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." After you start reading the bible, you will open up the abundance of truths from the bible to apply in your life, transform into a new person and learn all about God because the bible is where you learn all about God. This is proven in the Letter of Paul to the Colossians 3:10, "And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:" This renewed knowledge is the heavenly things that you should seek to avoid the evil communication that surrounds you in this world. The Holy Bible is your weapon against all the corruption you see in the world as written in the Letter of Paul to the Ephesians 6:17, "The Sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:" When you stand on the Word of God, The Sword of the Spirit and use the knowledge you get from it, evil can not make your thoughts become vain imaginations. When you have that negative thought, no matter what it is, turn your thought to the Sword of the Spirit by quoting a verse from the bible and cut that negative thought and vain imagination off immediately by simply stating to yourself, "That's not my thought, my thoughts are in captivity to the obedience of Jesus Christ." Doing this will automatically cause you to, from our reading today in Ephesians 4:24, "Put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness."