June 2024
Believing demands action, it creates action. Mental assent on the other hand, admires and admits, but does not act. Acting on the Word is allowing Christ and His Word act through you. Acting on the Word, then gives God an opportunity to work on your behalf. Giving the Word first place is giving Christ His position of Lordship in your life. The problem of believing is made simple when we know that it is acting on what God has spoken.
In Matthew 7:24-27, Jesus said, “Therefore whosoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him unto a wise man, who built his house upon a rock. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. And everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, who built his house upon the sand. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.”
The “rock” on verses 24 and 25 is “doing the Word.” The man who does not do the Word never build upon a solid foundation. The hearer of the Word must also become a doer of the Word, otherwise the entire structure that he builds will eventually fall and be destroyed. Jesus illustrates that. He made us know what acting on the Word really means. The wise man is the doer of the Word. The other hears the Word but does not act upon it. This man is a sense-knowledge hearer.
He is a mental assenter. He may be vague, an indefinite hoper, but he is not a doer. He responds to reason instead of the Word. His spiritual life is built on the sand and water always washes away the sand. If he has faith in anything, it is in man, what man has done. Science, works, organizations denominations etc. You can tell whether a man is building on the sand or on the rock, by noticing whether he is practicing or not, whether he is acting on the Word or not!
James 1:22-25 says, “But be you doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the Word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding [seeing] his natural face in a glass [mirror]: For he beholds himself, and goes his way, and straightway forgets what manner of man he was. But whosoever looks into the perfect law of liberty [the Word], and continues therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work [Word], this man shall be blessed in his deed.”
The man who thinks that knowledge is all that is necessary will ultimately fail! But it’s the doer of the Word, the man who practices the Word, and walks in the Word, that builds it into his own life that God honors. But according to James, there is a grave danger of deluding or deceiving our own selves. We may know what the Word says. We may be familiar with the original Greek or Hebrew. We may even know the history of the Word, but that is all wasted energy if we do not live in the Word and practice it.
When you come to a hard place, and need money, then you purposefully turn to Lord, because you know that your God shall supply all of your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. You have taken your place. You act the part as a real true believer in God’s Word. Instead of turning to the beggarly elements of the world, you turn to the Father! Or, if a loved one is sick, instead of being frightened, you remember the Word.
Isaiah tells us in chapter 53:4-5, “Surely, He [Jesus] has borne our griefs [sicknesses], and carried our sorrows [diseases]: yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions [sins], he was bruised for our iniquities (wickedness): the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed.
If we say we know the Word, then act on that Word. We don’t fear, and we don’t get disturbed, because we know that the Word says that with His stripes we are healed. Or is some calamity has come, or some rumor, the adversary has stirred things to our detriment, then we know that the Word tells us in Isaiah 54:17, “No weapon that is formed against us shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against us in judgment we shall condemn, because this is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and our righteousness if of Him!”
You can trust Him. You can bank on Him. Your expectations are from Him. You do not turn to the beggarly help of sense-knowledge. We do the Word, we live the Word, we act on the Word, we trust implicitly on the Word, and we know that God and His Throne are backing every Word. That gives us quiet, restful confidence.
I want to encourage you to stay in faith. Stay in the Word of God every day, This the only thing that will keep the believer in the days we are living in. Keep INCREASE ON YOUR MIND, KEEP SPEAKING INCREASE, and the right things and making the right confessions of faith. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem; and remember “God loves you; we love you and JESUS IS LORD!”
In the Service of Our King,
Darrell G. Harrelson
