The Work of the Word

"In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not….." (John 1:4-5)

"He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not. He came unto His own, and His own received Him not." (John 1:10-11)

"But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name…" (John 1:12)

The Word restores life to us (and more importantly WITH us) as God intended before man allowed sin to destroy that life, as man is inclined to do still today. It is restoration of all that was lost in the garden. This work of restoration is not an instantaneous process or Jesus would not have had to live 33 years in the flesh and walk for the last three of those years in extremely close living relationship with the 12 disciples. There was indeed a process, all of which was about revealing God to man. It's about removing the deception that man had fallen prey to in the garden; that Eve, specifically, succumbed to. To restore what was lost, the truth had to be brought to light and man needed to be convinced of that truth. That conviction of truth is called FAITH.

"The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart; that is, the word of faith, which we preach; that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." (from Paul's letter to the Christians in Rome: Romans 10:8-10)

That's what all the miracles were about including the one by which the Father raised Jesus from the dead, as He, the Father, promises He will do for us….at least for those of us, the Word says, who have FAITH in HIM….faith enough to "confess our faith" in Him. Oops, there's the rub, as Shakespeare would have said, well, maybe he wouldn't have said "oops" but you get my meaning, right? The rub, or the problem here, is that one must confess with one's mouth what one believes in one's heart; for "with the mouth confession is made unto salvation" must mean that if confession by the mouth is NOT made (n other words, not spoken) then salvation is not obtained.

Why could we not just believe in our hearts and keep it to ourselves? Because the very action (or lack of, I should say) itself "speaks" of denial of the truth. After all, we are speaking about a divine revelation here. The truth that God is restoring us to Himself. GOD is restoring US to HIMSELF! If we have been convinced of that most remarkable of truths, why would we NOT speak it? It could only be because we are not convinced of its value and merit towards mankind. We are not convicted of the TRUTH. We have NOT faith.

But just as the Word walked among man producing faith over 2000 years ago, so still today, does the Word continue to produce faith. Faith is produced every time the Word of God is spoken, or heard, or preached, as Paul preached it. And, in our country today, it can still be spoken, it can still be heard. And will continue to be heard until "the night cometh" that the Word has prophesied will come; when darkness will reign instead of the light.

"I [Jesus] must work the works of Him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work." John 9:4

Revelation 3:20 "Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me."

Spoken by the "Bread of Life" Himself, Jesus Christ, the Word of God. TO YOU.