The Word of God
There are five basic foundational principles upon which Influencers is founded. These are: Jesus is Savior and Lord. The Word of God is our final authority for faith and practice. We are men of prayer. We link together with like minded men. We give it away.
The Navigators ministry uses the diagram of a wheel to illustrates the basic tenets of a vital Christian life. The six elements of the wheel are the hub, two vertical spokes, two horizontal spokes, and the rim. The hub represents Jesus Christ the center of our lives. The hub transfers the power of God to the wheel. The two vertical spokes are prayer and the Word of God. These vertical spokes align our hearts with God’s heart. The two horizontal spokes are witnessing and fellowship. These to horizontal spokes prioritize our relationships with both non-Christians and Christians. The rim represents obedience to God.
The word of God is the final authority for faith and practice. God’s word is truth. It is practical, powerful, and relevant. The word of God is reliable… it is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Authority is the right to control, settle disputes, and establish and enforce rules of order. God gave us his word and the freedom of will to either walk according to its righteous standard or suffer the consequences. In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God.
Jesus Christ is the word of God made flesh. To know Jesus Christ is to know the word and will of God. The prophet said, “taste and see that the Lord is good.” blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. The word of God is an acquired taste. Jeremiah said, “thy words were found and I did eat them, and they became unto me the joy and rejoicing of my heart.
There is power in the word of God. For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. (Hebrews 4:12 NIV)
The devil’s ploy is to distract our eyes from God and his word. Romans 8 says that the carnal (worldly) mind is death, but the law of the spirit of Christ is life and peace. The word of God are God’s terms of his endearment. He gave us his word because he loves us.
As a pastor Pete has counseled and advised elders and leaders in his church. In one church he needed to confront five men who were living with their girlfriends out of wedlock. Pete said, You’re living contrary tot he word of God. Fornication and adultery is against God’s righteous standard. God wants you blessed. That’s why he instituted holy matrimony. You have two choices: either you and your girlfriend can live separately or you can get married. Pete followed up several weeks later and each man was still living with his girlfriend. He said to each of them, Go to the courthouse this week and sign a certificate of marriage in the presence of the justice of the peace.
Hebrews 5:12-14 says, “For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. 13 For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe. 14 But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.”
Pete said to his men, “Solid food is requiring that you separate from your girl friend until you are married.” That week all five men went to the courthouse and married their wives. They are all still happily married. Whenever Pete sees them after all these years, they each say how thankful they are that Pete insisted that they commit to their wives before God and men in the bond of holy matrimony.
According to 2 Timothy 3:15-17. “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, (God-breathed) and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.”
The word of God is profitable. It is useful… it is beneficial to maintain a loving relationship with our Heavenly Father. For what is it useful? It is useful for doctrine, for right teaching. The word of God is God’s righteous standard. It rebukes us, it proves over and over God’s will for our lives. Most people think that reproof is a bad word. However, whom the Lord loves, he chastises. Even though reproof may be painful because it’s painful to be pruned, he will teach us through tests that joy is to walk in proximity with the Lord. To correct means to restore to an upright position. Then when your vertical relationship with God is restored, your horizontal relationships will be blessed.
The blessings of God are the result of a process, The first is not to walk in the counsel of the ungodly, but in the counsel of the word of the Lord. A disciple appreciates his Father’s coaching.
Psalm 1 says, “BLESSED is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. 2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night 3 And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.”
The term “man of God” is only used twice in scripture. This usage in 2 Timothy is the second usage. A man of God knows intimately the Word of God. The best sharing of the word is a life lived in demonstration of God’s word. For ye are our epistles, God’s love letters, written not in tables of stone, but in the fleshly tables of the heart. To confess Jesus as Lord means to say it and to believe it. The believing is in action. To confess means to walk the talk and to talk the walk. The best bibles are the Bible’s that are bound in shoe leather.
The series “The Chosen” about the life of Christ illustrates that to know the word of God is to know Jesus Christ, the word of God made manifest.
While Pete was meditating after his wife’s death, he journaled. Lord, I’m afraid that I loved Suzan more than I loved you. The word of God came to him as God said, You didn’t love her more than you loved me. You loved her because you loved me first.
James says, be ye doers of the Word and not hearers only deceiving your own selves. In our flesh we often fall short of the mark of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. When we miss the mark, God has given us a way to return our hearts back to him. 1 John 1:9 says, If we confess our sins (our missing the mark) he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
In Ezekiel 33, your fellow citizens say come and hear the message that comes forth from the Lord… they sit before you to hear your words but they do not do them…. but when your words come to pass they will know that you are God’s prophet and the mouth of the Lord has spoken it.
Pete recalls that he had been traded to the Minnesota Twins farm team. Although he had been an all star in the Southern League he found himself sitting on the bench. He was jealous of another player from the southern league who was in the starting lineup ahead of Pete even though this player was not an all star. Pete was called to pinch hit at a game in Indiana. He thought to himself that, “this is my opportunity to get a hit and prove to management I belong in the starting lineup.” On the mound was an up and coming pitcher named Pedro Bourbon. Bourbon was later drafted by they Cincinnati Reds and pitched for the Big Red Machine who won two World Series. Pete says that his contribution to the minor leagues was to get minor league pitchers into the big leagues. Bourbon struck him out in that game in Indiana.
That night Pete was reading in Hebrews 12 where it says that the Lord disciplines those whom he loves. God spoke to Petes heart, “you know how to be an all star, but you don’t know how to sit on the bench. Some things you can only learn on the bench. You’ll learn meekness and humility to put your team mates first…. to encourage them, support them, and build them up. It’s painful to forsake your pride. Humility is learned in the refining fire and the crucible of my reproof. Reproof means to test and prove over and over that God alone is your strength and sufficiency.
To know the Word of God is to know Jesus Christ. He is the meaning of the Word… he is the word of God made flesh. When we walk in the love of God, then we manifest the word of God, for Jesus said, “in that thou hast done it unto the least of these my brethren, you have done it unto me…”
…that in loving God above all and our neighbor as ourselves, we may live to the praise of the glory of His grace!
Your brother in Christ,
Michael
