Dear Friend,

put the Word to work

"Study to show yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth" (II Timothy 2:15). "And this word continues to work in you who believe" (I Thess. 2:13).

Both of these verses are well known to long-time friends of this ministry. They are powerful verses and we need to understand them. When I first came to see some of their greatness, a phrase was being proclaimed in the circles I moved in, "The Word works when you work the Word!"

I don't know who first said it, but I'm sure the leader of the group I was with had borrowed it from someone else. It was also a great persuader in getting people to take classes the group had available for purchase. I was also guilty of using the slogan. It may have even crept into my writings, so if you find it let me know! Why I didn't speak up and say, "Book, chapter, and verse, please?", I do not know, but I should have.

Then this past Saturday night, while surfing channels on Christian TV, I heard a popular and powerful speaker proclaim those fateful words, "The Word works when you work the Word!" I have wondered for a while whether there was some commonality with this preacher and what I had been taught. I had already been thinking about this slogan in the previous week and had become quite uncomfortable with it.

It is obvious that you can only put the Word to work if you know what it says. For example, you cannot believe for health if you do not know that divine health has been promised by God. Jesus did say, "You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free," yet it is only the truth you know that sets you free! So there is a part for you and a part for God -- a divine-human reciprocity, as I was wont to describe it in past decades.

However, we cannot read into this the error that God's Word only works when you make a study of it, when you "work" it, when you dig deeper into it. "The Word works when you believe the Word" would be a better slogan. "And this word continues to work in you who believe" (I Thessalonians 2:13). All you need to do is to believe it! The Amplified renders it as "[the Word] is effectually at work in you who believe [exercising its superhuman power in those who adhere to and trust in and rely on it]." And if we stop to look at II Timothy 2:15 again, "Study to show yourself approved to God," we should see that the subject is self-acknowledgment that God approves of us, not getting the Word to work in our lives.

So put the Word to work by believing it!