Jesus as the Word of God Lesson #6

If we were to meet Jesus face to face, we wouldn’t expect to meet a book with legs sticking out of the bottom of it. Yet the concept of Jesus being the Word of God seems to be a hard one to grasp. Jesus not only knew the Word of God, but said that He ate God’s Word and lived by the Words from God’s mouth (Mt 4:4). Jesus was setting a principle for us to follow; our life comes from eating the Word of God. This wasn’t a new concept. Jesus was actually quoting Moses speech to the Israelites (Dt 8:3). God our Father has always meant that Man would live by His Word.

Jesus is our example of One who did just that. He lived by the Word of God, and was the Word of God in His flesh. He not only lived by the scriptures, but He correctly used them, not becoming entangled with false interpretations of the written Word of God. He also spoke and acted on what He heard and saw His Father say and do (Jn 5:19; 12:49-50). This tells us that the Word of God is not static, as words on a page are. They are living and flow continuously from God’s mouth.

Just as Jesus followed the Father’s Words and actions, so we are asked to follow His. Jesus is the Word of God in human form (Jn 1:14). He invited His disciples to eat His body and drink His blood (Jn 6:53-58). He is asking us to live by His words, for He only spoke what the Father told Him to speak. We are to become the Word of God in the flesh also. This has been God’s plan all along.
As we “eat” the Word of God, we will speak the Word of God. Here are some foundational building blocks that make our foundation for prophesying solid;

1. No scripture is of private interpretation. Peter writes “that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” (2 Pet 1:20-21) We can accept scripture, and prophecy, as from the mouth of God. It is not a human invention. Therefore we base our thinking on it as “true”. Any revelation that comes to our minds which does not agree with scripture should be considered false and tossed out.

2. It is our responsibility to “eat” scripture. Paul instructed Timothy to be a “workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.” (2 Tim 2:15). He was to study the scriptures in order to know how to handle them. We do not lean on our own understanding of the scriptures when reading them, but the Holy Spirit comes along side of us to instruct us as we read (see Jn 14:26).

3. The Word of God is one Word. Whether Old Testament or New, written or spoken, it has only one source; God. It is in agreement with itself, you might say. One night the Lord sent an angel into my dream who told me that “the Bible is interpreted by the Bible.” God considers all words that proceed from His mouth in agreement with what is recorded. We can find the basis for what He says in the scriptures, and we can establish the interpretation of scriptures by comparing them to other scriptures.

4. It is up to the “workman” or prophet to prove his own work, or words (Gal 6:4). When I first began to prophesy the Lord had me “prove” or test my words by finding their basis in the Bible. He would quicken me to scriptures and I would look them up. In this way He taught me not to “bend” the meaning of scriptures to fit what I want to say, and to keep my spoken words in line with the written scriptures. We also need to be willing to defer our words to the purity of His Word, and not hunt around for some obscure sentence in the Bible that will substantiate our current feelings or beliefs.

5. Every word we prophesy may not be found in the Bible as a literal statement or example. However, there are accounts of men’s actions and behaviors along with God’s words, telling us His heart on the matter. We find that the scriptures tell us how God feels about the actions of Man. Some things occurred to the Israelites which should have formed them into God’s people, but actually became the basis for their rebellion to God. When we read about their unbelief in the wilderness, we are told “these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did.” (1 Cor 10:6-10). Paul identifies their sins as idolatry, sexual immorality, grumbling, and testing the Lord. He goes on to say that “These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come.” (1 Cor 10:11). All the sins that the Israelites committed in the wilderness are still things that displease God. You might argue that it is plain from scripture that we should not have such sins in our lives, however it may not be so easy to recognize these same sins in our current times if we are literal about the Bible’s examples of sin. An example is that our new car may be an idol to us, however there is no mention of a car in the Bible.

Prophecy may also contain instructions for a person’s safety or a warning of an upcoming event, such as Agabus’ prophecies to Paul (Acts 11:28; 21:11). We know that it is God’s nature to warn and predict, but the actual content of Agabus’ prophesies come from the Spirit of Revelation and not from the written scriptures. Agubus could not look at past written scriptures to verify that there would be a famine in the Roman empire, or that an Apostle named Paul would be bound when he went to Jerusalem.

6. Jesus’ sheep know His voice (Jn 10:27). How do we become comfortable “hearing” His voice when He reveals something that cannot be found in the written scriptures? The answer is that we become familiar with Jesus’ voice. We grow in confidence that we hear His voice by obeying what He tells us. Jesus spoke at length about abiding in Him, and told us that the way to do this is to obey what He tells us (Jn 15). We take baby steps at first, being quickened by scripture and personal spoken words from the Holy Spirit to our heart. We do the things we know to do, such as loving our brother, and doing good works. We find the scriptures come alive in our flesh as we do not succumb to personal sins. Our victories and person working of obedience to the scriptures become the basis for “knowing” Jesus’ voice. He can tell us that He personally loves it when we put cut flowers on the table (is that in the Bible?) or that He dislikes it when we intimidate others with our constant use of “the Lord told me . . . “ (not exactly in the Bible, literally, but we might assign this behavior to being pre-eminent). Now we see that the Holy Spirit’s personal ministry to us takes on a voice that can express itself with confidence to others. When we walk into a room and see that it is nicely decorated the Holy Spirit can comment on His pleasure and we won’t be suspicious of what He is sharing with us. So we become familiar with God’s character through His personal dealings with us, and yet the character can be traced back to the scriptures as well. Does the Lord like it when a room has flowers, or is decorated nicely? We find the concepts in Song of Solomon, and in the beauty of the Temple.

For an application exercise, I’d like to encourage each of you to write down something personal that the Lord has spoken to you and find a Biblical example of at least one verse that illustrates the same principle. If there are verses that contradict what you feel the Lord has said to you, find another person to pray with over this with you.

The second thing I will ask you to do is not an exercise, but a practice. If you do not already do so, begin to “prove” your own prophecies with the scriptural references that substantiate them. This can be personally spoken words from the Holy Spirit to you, and those spoken out of your mouth to others.

The third thing I am asking you to do this week is to write down what your heart is concerning what you hear the Lord speaking to you. Do you agree with it, and why? Are you suspicious of it, and why? Remember that His thoughts are not our thoughts and that His personal instruction to us does not rely on our own understanding, but is often instructional and leads to personal growth (2 Tim 3:16).