[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.
“Notice the first part of verse 13
says it’s ‘his sight,’ " observes Jordan. "You see how He gives personality to the Word of God?
That’s because the Word and God are one.
"The verse ends, ‘but all
things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him.’
“That’s why Jesus says, ‘The words
that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.’ It’s not the
external things. It wasn’t with Israel and it won’t be with you.
“Where life is, where the enabling
power of God’s life to go down into your inner man and transform you from the
inside out, resides is in the Book. The working of the Spirit of God is in His
Word.
*****
“A guy wrote a book once called, ‘Satan is alive and well on Planet Earth.’ Well, can I tell you God the
Holy Spirit is alive and well on Planet Earth and ready to work quickly and
powerfully.
“The Word of God will do its work when you
believe it. But it’s also powerful. It’s energetic. It’s got dynamism to it.
It’s got LIVE, creative energy. That’s why Paul says, ‘It’s sharper than any
two-edged sword.’
“In
the world Paul lived in there were a bunch of different kinds of swords. They
had one sword that was monstrous and had only one edge to it and they carried
it on their shoulder to keep from cutting themselves.
“God’s Word is not like that. It’s
not effective just some of the time. I mean, maybe you could beat a guy over
the head with the blunt side of that sword, but you couldn’t cut his head off
very well.
“In the Roman world they also had
a sword that I would call the ‘Bat Masterson sword.’ You ever see a guy have a
sword stuck in a walking cane, hidden away? Well, they had a sword like that.
But God’s Word is not that way. You can hide it in your heart and so forth, but
it’s not a Word that is to be hidden away so you don’t use it or nobody knows
about it.
“They had another sword that was
an innate kind of a sword, one that was used to show your rank like a general
would wear. It was a General Patton kind of a sword that you walked around and
showed off with but didn’t use. Well, the Bible’s not a showpiece that’s of no
practical use.
“They had yet another sword that
was small and only had a sharp tip on it to thrust. You couldn’t cut; you just
stick with it. The Bible’s not a point here and a point there and point there.
“The sword Paul’s referring to was
little so it was easy to use, but it had two edges to it. Either way you wanted
to cut, it cut. It was called the ‘slaughter knife,’ actually, and it’s the
sword the Roman Empire used to conquer the world with because those two edges
were where it would cut either way.
“God’s Word works either way as
long as you use it. As Paul says in II Corinthians 2:15, ‘For we are
unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish.’
“When you preach God’s Word to
others, it either cuts life or it cuts death. People believe it and it gives
life. They reject it and Proverbs 13:13 says, ‘Whoso despiseth the word shall
be destroyed: but he that feareth the commandment shall be rewarded.’
“That same gospel that a man would
reject and have it blind him, that same message when someone believes it gives
life. So it’s a two-edged sword. Death to death, life to life.
*****
“You would never know there’s a
difference between your soul and your spirit in your inner man if it wasn’t for
God’s Word. We all know that we have an outer man and an inner man.
“The older you get the more
you realize you have an inner man because your inner man and your outer man
don’t get along as well as they used to. Your inner man says, ‘Okay, let’s go!’
“In what passes for psychology
they talk about being able to study your soul, but they don’t know what your
soul is; they can’t distinguish between your spirit and your soul. They have no
way of studying it. They might see some things it does, but they have no
answers. It takes God’s Word to do that!
“So God’s Word is sharp. It has
this cutting capacity to distinguish; to split hairs, but not just
hairs—invisibly fine hairs between the soul and the spirit. And work in your
soul and spirit the things that need to be worked there.
*****
“When God says ‘dividing asunder
of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow,’ the marrow is the part of
the body that produces the blood; the life that’s in the flesh. The Word of God
is the source of spiritual and physical resurrection. That’s the point of the
passage.
“He says flesh and blood cannot
inherit the kingdom of God. Jesus says to His disciples in Luke 24, ‘Come touch
me, I have flesh and bones.’ Well, if you have flesh and bones, but you don’t
have blood, the marrow is where the blood in your body is created.
“What that’s a reference to is
physical resurrection, but it’s also a reference to the spiritual working of
God in your inner man. God’s word can do that and it’s a discerner of the
thoughts and intents of your heart. That’s the part of that verse that’s kind
of scary, isn’t it?
“When you read God’s Word, it
reads you. It’s a critic that can evaluate and discern, not just what you think
. . . you know, I say to you that ‘God hears everything you think,’ but He
doesn’t just hear what you’re thinking; He knows WHY you’re thinking it,
usually before you do.
“Your heart is so deceitful and
desperately wicked that it can fool you. Like Paul says, ‘But evil men and
seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being
deceived.’
“Your heart can deceive YOU into
thinking that your motive is one thing when it’s really another. It’s God’s Word
that can tell you what it really is. That’s why you can’t trust your emotions.
You can’t trust your viewpoint; all you can trust is God’s Word.
(new article tomorrow)
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