Adapted from Derek Prince’s outline on the subject
Nature of God’s Word
- Heb. 4:12 – The Word of God is:
- Alive, not dead
- Energetic: beaming with divine energy, which penetrates every area of human personality – soul and spirit
- Discerning: You read the Bible; the Bible reads you – It has the power to point out/discern/transform you
- 1 Thess. 2:13
- Not word of men, but Word of God
- “Effectively works in you who believe”
- If we welcome and receive the Word of God in faith, the Word will do what it was intended to do
- 2 Pet. 1:3-4
- God has already given us all things that relate to life and godliness
- Where? Through the knowledge of Jesus…
- By what do we know the knowledge of Jesus? By the “Exceeding great and precious promises” in the Word of God
- Thus we become partakers of God’s own nature
- How do we get this “divine nature” from the Bible?
- Gen. 28:10-12 – mentions a ladder between earth and heaven
- Jn. 1:51 – Jesus said He is the ladder
- As we appropriate the promises of God, then we take on some of the “divine nature”
- As we grab on to each “rung” of the ladder, we grab onto God’s promises
The Eight Effects of God’s Word
- Produces faith
- Rom. 10:17 – “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”
- We should read the Bible for faith’s sake!
- Seed of new birth
- James 1:18 – Word of God puts in us a seed of new birth
- 1 Pet. 1:22-23 – Word of God = incorruptible seed which produces incorruptible fruits (see also Luke 8:11)
- WARNING: Deut. 22:9 – if your starting point (or seed) is anything outside of God’s word (i.e. psychology, philosophy, science, etc.), it will always corrupt any fruit you could produce.
- Spiritual nourishment
- 1 Pet. 2:2 – Milk
- Mt. 4:4 – Bread
- Heb. 5:12-14 – Solid food
- John 6:63 – It is the very sustenance of your life and spirit
- Mental illumination
- Ps. 119:130; Gen. 1:3-5
- Education is not illumination/light (see 1 Cor. 1:19-20,25)
- Wisdom and understanding come through God’s Word
- Physical healing
- Ps. 107:17-20 – God’s Word:
- Saves
- Heals
- Delivers
- Prov. 4:20-22 – “For they are life to those who find them, and health to all their flesh.”
- See “Testimony of God’s Word as Healing” (below)
- Ps. 107:17-20 – God’s Word:
- Victory over sin and Satan
- Ps. 119:9, 11 – God’s Word in our heart helps to have victory over sin
- Mt. 4:4, 7, 10 – God’s Word has victory over Satan
- Cleansing and holiness
- Eph. 5:25-27
- The Church/body of believers cleansed by “the washing of water by the word”
- This brings purity, sanctification, and holiness
- Eph. 5:25-27
- A Spiritual Mirror
- James 1:23-25; Heb. 4:12-13
- The Bible is a Spiritual Mirror
- When we want to see how we are doing spiritually, the Word will directly reflect it
- Bible is also Judge.
- “What God’s words are to me is the test of what He Himself is to me.” – Andrew Murray
- “You do not love God more than you love His Word.” – Derek Prince
Testimony of God’s Word as Healing
During World War II, while working with the medical services in North Africa, I became sick with a condition of the skin and nerves for which medical science, in that climate and those conditions, could provide no cure. I spent more than one year in the hospital, receiving every kind of treatment available. For more than four months at a stretch I was confined to bed. Eventually, I was discharged from the hospital at my own request, uncured.
I decided to seek no further medical treatment but to put the promises of God in Proverbs 4:20-22 to the test in my own case. Three times a day I went apart by myself, shut myself in with God and His Word, prayed and asked God to make His Word to me what He had promised it should be – medicine to all my flesh.
The climate, the diet and all other external circumstances were as unfavorable as they could be. Indeed, many healthy men all around me were falling sick. Nevertheless, through God’s Word alone, without recourse to any other means of any kind, I received within a short time a complete and permanent cure.
Derek Prince, Spirit-Filled Believer’s Handbook
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