Saturday, June 7, 2014

Quick fix


John 6:66, the only 6:66 in the New Testament, reads, “From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.”

Jordan explains, “When you have man doing his thing, that’s what he does. Now it’s fascinating to look at some of the numerology at work in this passage and you’re going to see how it hooks into the ‘last days.’

“Christ says in verse 63, ‘It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.’

“I quote that verse a lot when I’m teaching because that verse is a key verse about how you get in touch with God. When He says, ‘The words that I speak unto you they are spirit and they are life,’ the w-o-r-d-s are spirit and the w-o-r-d-s are life.

“Now, who is life in the Bible? Jesus said, ‘I am the way, the truth and the life.’  Jesus said, ‘I am the life.’ In chapter 5, He says, ‘For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself.’
“If you go to verse John 6:57, He says, ‘As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me.’

“We also learn in chapter 4 with the woman at the well that the Holy Spirit was life. The water of life was a picture of the Holy Spirit. In chapter 7, they’re going to have these rivers of living water come out of them and what’s that a picture of? The Holy Spirit.
“There’s a fascinating thing about God’s Word. It’s an extension of His person and therefore it’s the point of contact between Him and us. That’s why He says ‘the words I speak unto you are spirit.’ There’s a spiritual reality in the scripture that is the point of contact between you and God.

*****
“In Genesis 1, when the spirit of God MOVES upon the face of the waters, what does He do? ‘And God SAID let there be light.’

“So the first thing you learn in the Bible is when the Spirit of God wants to go to work and move and do something, what does He do? He speaks.
“You go right on down to verse 6, 9, 14, 20, 24, 26. Every time God did something it says ‘and God said.’ There’s this creative power that is IN God’s Word. And these ‘God said’ passages demonstrate the creative authority, the action that God has put into effect by His Word.

“You ought to read Psalm 33 sometime. Verse 6 says, ‘By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth.’
“He spoke out words and His POWER goes out and creates.

“The next verse says, ‘[7] He gathereth the waters of the sea together as an heap: he layeth up the depth in storehouses.'
“That’s a good verse. You see how that verse defines what the fear of the Lord is with that parallelism?

“The chapter continues, [8] Let all the earth fear the LORD: let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him.
[9] For he spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast.

“You see, when God spoke there was a creative power in His Word. God’s Word has that power innate in it to accomplish things. When the Spirit of God wants to work, it’s that Word that He works through.
*****

“Hebrews 4:12-13 is one of these passages that people really like to avoid. It says, [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.
[13] Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.
“There are three particular attributes associated with the Word of God. It’s quick, it’s powerful and it’s sharp, able to pierce into your inner man and make categorical distinctions on a spiritual level that are not discernable except through it.

“When it says it’s ‘quick,’ Scofield has a note on that that says ‘living and operative.’ The new bibles just change that word ‘quick’ to living because the Greek word there is often translated ‘living.’ In fact, here in Hebrews it is.
“Every time the word is translated ‘quick,’ except in Hebrews, it’s talking about people who’ve been resurrected from the dead when He’s the ‘judge of the quick and the dead.’

“What the word has to do with--it’s not just living in the sense that it’s alive, but actually that little definition of Scofield’s is right on the money. The Word is to be alive but it’s really to be alive in the sense that it’s functioning in all of its parts.
“Quick is a reference to the state of action. It’s actively functioning. The blood’s flowing to every organ and all the organs are working and it’s been quickened.

“It carries the idea of manifesting the ability to respond without any delay or hesitation. The stress is on the INSTANT nature of the life. The fact that it can instantly and inherently have power. It can reach its objective without any delay.
“It’s the verse in Acts 1 where He says ‘He showed himself alive with many infallible proofs.’ Lazarus is in the tomb and Jesus says, ‘Come forth.’ Well, he had to come to life first, but if he just lay there, wrapped up in the stone, he wouldn’t have manifested the life.

“That’s why it’s used in resurrection about the ‘quick.’ They’re not just resuscitated; they’re up and moving. It’s alive in the sense it’s able to do its work QUICKLY. It’s able to do its work without any hesitation; without any barrier between it. It’s able to get the work done quickly and forcefully.
“When you trust God’s Word, it doesn’t take God’s Word a long time to do its work. That ought to encourage you. God’s Word can solve your problems and it can do it quickly if you believe it.

“It says that the ‘Word of God works effectually in you that believe,’ God’s Word doesn’t come along and say, ‘Okay, now let’s work on this, but let’s do it real slow and easy.’ No, the slow and easy comes from you.”

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