The Power Of The Word

I want to bring teaching today, our discussion today, is going to be about the power of the Word, the power of the Word, that the Word of God is powerful. And we talk a lot about the power of the Holy Spirit. And we focus a lot on that, but today I want to talk about the power of the Word of God. And so our launch verse today, is we're going to kind of launch or just do some preliminary teaching.

I eventually want to get to various ways or dimensions that the power of God can work in your life. And I just quickly, I penciled out about 11, and don't worry, I narrowed it down. I narrowed it down to just five that will cover five different ways that the Word of God, the power of God through His Word, can be effective and active, and actually work to your benefit in your life. It says the Word of God, it's profitable.

It said that instead of the Hebrews, it said that the Word of God, the gospel preached to them, it was the same as it preached to us, but it didn't have the profit in their life because it wasn't mixed with faith. And so we're going to talk a little bit about the necessity of faith, the necessity of faith. I'm going to spend a little bit of time talking about unbelief, because even when faith is present, unbelief can be present too, unbelief can actually hinder, unbelief can halt the power or efficiency of the Word at work in your life. So quite often it's like, well, I believe, but I don't see the results.

Well, it's very possible that you might believe but you're also carrying unbelief simultaneously. I'm getting a lot of feedback today. I'm like, I'm just gonna cut off. You know, ultimately, the person with the most power in the service is the one that controls the mic.

It's not the one speaking because at any given moment, I could be muted. So we'll get this just another try for a minute. If it doesn't work, I'll just grab a handheld and we'll go from there. If you're new, I like to talk with my hands a lot.

So a lot of times that's why I don't like to use a handout because my hands start flailing and then you can't hear what I'm saying. So we'll try to make do here today. So what I'll launch today out of Hebrew is just kind of lay some groundwork out of Hebrews, chapter four, verse 12. Very common verse, but as I said last week is that a lot of times we read verses, we fail to milk them, we fail to meditate to the point where we really draw the nutrients from it.

We can get too familiar with a passage or a verse to where we don't allow it as effective as it could be. And so I always wanna go to scripture as if it's the first time we read it, the first time we heard it, not just to really skip over things. You're gonna need, if you're taking notes, you're gonna have a lot of notes to go back in and review today. We're gonna, as always, we're gonna cover a lot of different scriptures, but I pray God blesses you.

And you're gonna leave here with some tools today to walk in the power of God's word. It says the word of God is what? Alive or living and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, dividing a sonder soul and spirit joins in marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Let's just say that one more time, let's say it together.

The word of God is living and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit and of joints and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. For today's discussion, we're gonna be talking about the powerful part, but before we do, I just wanna just to bring us all up together, let's talk about when we read in the Bible and it says the word of God. So a lot of times we think, when we hear the term the word of God, we instantly think of this book that we call the Bible. And while that is true, that's not a complete definition of what the word of God is.

First and foremost, the word of God is God himself. The word of God is the person of God. It says in John chapter one, verse one, it says, in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. He, he says he in verse two, now it personifies it, now John personifies it and no longer says the word, but now he transfers the he.

He was with God from the beginning and all things that were made were made by him and nothing that was made was made without him. And so right from the very beginning, John, different from the other gospel, some of the other gospels they start with archeological or historical context, John starts from the standpoint of divinity, the eternality of God. And that Jesus Christ, the word of God made flesh, is God, the word is God. And so, where when we talk about the word of God, I don't want to limit our thinking to the word of God is just a book with black and red letters on a white page.

That contains what God said, but it also contains a lot of other things, other things that other people said, prophets said, animals said, demons said, it's a compilation of what we call God's word, but God's word is defined by God himself. It says in Revelation chapter 19, verse 13, John says in the book of Revelation, I saw heaven opened and he said, there was a white horse and there's one sitting on the white horse who is faithful and true. And it goes on to say that he had a name that nobody knew, that he wore in verse 13, it says he wore a robe or he was clothed with a robe dipped in blood and his name is, his name was the word of God. And so that we see that Jesus existing in eternity past is the word of God, Jesus in eternity future, when he comes on that white horse is still called the word of God.

So that when we talk about the word of God, I want you to think more in terms of the person of God, his son, Jesus is that word. But the word of God is not just a person of God, but it also defines the purposes of God. It's like when I say purposes, I mean, the will and intention. So you've probably heard this before, that God's word is God's will.

Like so if we wanna know what God wants us to do, what his will and intention is, we go where? To the word of God. When you think about, it's said that Jesus in John 1 14, it says he's the word of God, he says the word was made flesh. And so that word in the Greek for word, logos, L-O-G-O-S, it not only means something that was said, but it also means the intention or reason or motive or will behind what was said.

So it's not just the words that are spoken, but it's the will and intention behind the words. And so when we think about Jesus being the word of God made flesh, you might see some places where it calls Jesus the divine expression, because Jesus as he is in the flesh, he is actually expressing what the will and intention of the Father is. And so that his life, his mannerisms, his words, his teachings, all of that are just not words, but they're an expression of God's will, or what God wants us to do. And probably the final thing we wanna think about, it's not just the word of God is the person of God, it's Jesus not only is the word of God, the purposes of God, but it's also his principles.

It's not just God's will, but it's his ways. See, it's one thing to know what God wants you to do, but it's another thing to know how God wants you to do it. Like we can a lot of times do the right thing in what, the wrong way. It says in this, it says, David says in Psalm 103, verse seven, it says, he made his ways known to Moses and his acts to the children of Israel.

So there's a difference. A lot of people get familiar with what God does, his actions, or what God wants us to do. It says that children of Israel were acquainted with his acts, his actions, what he did. But Moses was acquainted with his ways, the why behind the what?

See if you think about, like when even when God gives us in 1st Corinthians chapter 12, he talks about spiritual gifts, right? At the end of chapter 12, he says, desire earnestly the best gifts, and yet I show you a more excellent way. And then in verse 13, he goes on to talk about the way of love, that the gifts are great, we wanna pursue the gifts, but the gifts are done apart from the right motive and the right manner in which doing them, they're worthless. He says, if I give all my body to be burned and I give all that I have to feed the poor and do it without love, it's of no benefit.

And so there's a difference between understanding what God wants us to do, his will, and understanding God's principles or God's ways, like the why, the why he wants us to do it. And so when we look at this, the word of God, it's not, I don't wanna say it's Jesus personified, it's what God wants us to do, his will, but it's also the way he wants us to do what he wants us to do. And so when I talk about the word of God, I just wanna take a few minutes because so often when I say the word of God, what do we think of? I got my Bible.

Well, you're not wrong, you're not inaccurate, but I would just say it's incomplete because the word of God is bigger than just what's here. See, this is true, everything in here is true, but this does not contain all truth. All truth only exists in God. Like everything that even happens not recorded here.

Paul went to the third heaven, not recorded here. Jesus said, if all the things I did were recorded or John said of Jesus, if all the things he did were recorded, the books of the entire world couldn't contain it. So everything in here is true, but all truth is not contained in here. So you have to think beyond just what we have in our hands.

That the Holy Spirit actually knows all of God and can reveal that to us. Not that we're changing the Bible, but there's things that God can impart to you outside of what's written in God's word. We have the general will of God, but then Holy Spirit can speak specific things to us. So it says that the word of God is alive, it means it's living, it's not dead.

Doesn't that make sense knowing that the word of God is Jesus? Right, because Jesus is alive or dead. If Jesus is the word and he's alive, wouldn't it make sense to say the word is living? The word of God is living.

This paper, this is not living. Now it'll bring life, but Jesus is the word who's alive. It says the word of God is living and powerful we're gonna come back to and sharper. Now I love that because anybody ever cut themselves with a really sharp knife.

Anybody ever cut themselves with a dull knife? Yeah, so a dull knife, what do you gotta do? You really gotta hack away. I don't know why I'm cutting my thought.

Yeah, that wasn't a good, I'm not a cutter, okay. But the word sharper really has to do with it can make a decisive cut. It can make a one time cut so accurate that it doesn't need to cut by way of hacking. It doesn't take multiple slices.

It's just like, we got these Japanese steak knives. You don't wanna touch this knife, it's like, I don't even remember the name, some Japanese word, but you basically touch it on the steak and it separates. That's like the word of God. And I've got these other knives, but you're cutting a steak.

It's like cutting a piece of boot leather, you know? It just takes a lot of effort. Well, the word of God is sharp because it cuts right to the point. It says the word of God is living, it's powerful, sharper than to it's, so this one talk about powerful today.

It's powerful. The word powerful in the Greek is, you're gonna see this word, energy, but it's spelled very similar to an English word. I heard it over here, what is it? Energy, right?

It looks like the word energy. And it's actually where we get the word energy. Energy, it means active, powerful in action, operative and effectual. That word, energy, made it two words, n, airgon, which means this, n, n is in, and airgon is work.

So energy, really in its simplest form, is this even in English, energy is the ability or capacity to do work. Energy is the ability or capacity to do work. So that we say that the word is powerful, it contains within it the ability or capacity to work. But here's what I know about energy.

I'm gonna test your physics knowledge a little bit. You've heard of this, in the whole universe, there's really two main types of energy. Oh my gosh, I got a, not a physician. A physicist.

A physicist. Potential energy and kinetic energy. Potential energy is called the energy of position. Kinetic energy is called the energy of motion.

So potential energy is energy that has the ability to work, but it's not yet being active. The ability is there, but it's currently inactive until it's acted on by some force or catalyst. And kinetic energy is just potential energy that something has spurred it into motion. That some catalyst has affected it, some external force has affected it.

And now it goes from potential, right? It's standing there, it's sitting there with the capacity to work, and something moves it, and all of a sudden motion takes place. And it becomes kinetic energy. See, there's gotta be, see, no matter how powerful the word of God is, I'm gonna just use this, I know I just spoke against it, I wanna use this as an example of the word of God.

No matter how powerful the potential, the potency, that this book has to work, it remains dormant until some catalyst activates it. It's gotta be activated. I could sleep on it all night long, I could put it under my pillow, not doing any good, because it's in the form of potential energy. All of the potential in the world, in the universe is here, but it remains dormant until some catalyst activates it.

What do you think that catalyst is? Faith, faith actually catalyzes, activates, spurs into motion, the word of God, and takes it from being potential, to now it puts it to work. It says in 1st Thessalonians, next verse, 1st Thessalonians chapter two, verse 13, it says, when you receive the word of God, which you heard from us, you welcome it, not as the word of men, but as it was in truth, the word of God which effectively works in you who sleep on your Bible. Effectively works in you who know how to grow scripture.

It effectively works in people who believe. It remains potential until you actually believe it, and once you believe it, it becomes effective. It becomes effective, it activates, and it sets things in motion. Look at the word effectively works, it's very similar to Energase, Energayo, which means to be active, efficient, operative at work, put forth power or to be, or to effect.

I'm gonna test my physicists here one more time, because it goes along with this, and then we'll get more into scripture, I'll stop talking about physics. Newton's first law of motion, remember, kinetic energy is the energy of motion. Newton's first law of motion, what has to do with inertia? Anybody know what inertia is?

So if you're driving in your car, right, and let's just say you're going 70 miles an hour. Now I just happen to have one of these, I don't use this, but my truck actually breaks for me now. I hate that. I hate that because my wife says I ride the brake in the gas at the same time.

So I'm like I'm a control freak, I don't want the car telling me how to drive, I don't want it to accelerate in braking. But sometimes when I've had that thing on, it thinks I'm gonna hit the car in front of me. Now obviously I'm not, it's like my wife goes, oh my gosh! And then I instantly hit the brake.

Like what, what, are you gonna hit that guy? No, I saw it. I saw that car, but what happens? When you're moving at 70, and the car stops, what do you keep doing?

You keep moving unless what? Unless you hit something else, there's something like stops that motion. Hopefully you have your seat belt and it's not the windshield. See, one of the two is gonna stop you.

See, the first law of motion says this, a body at rest stays at rest. A body in motion stays at motion at a constant speed and in a straight line unless acted on by some unbalanced force. Unbalanced just means that if the forces opposing each other, net out to zero, nothing happens. But if they're unbalanced, then all of a sudden, something's gonna happen.

So if you're in motion and you're gonna stay in motion in a straight line at a constant speed, unless some external force that's unbalanced comes in and either halts that or hinders that. Maybe it slows your speed. Doesn't mean you'll stop, it could stop you, but it might just slow you down. It might throw you off that straight line, it might send you this way.

It might throw you off course and slow you down. So there's a whole bunch of different things that can happen, but when that unbalanced force comes into play, the body at motion no longer stays at motion in a straight line and at a constant speed. The same thing is true in a spirit realm. It's the same way that faith activates and puts in motion the power of God's word, unbelief becomes the unbalanced force that can either hinder or halt the forward progress or motion of the power of God's word.

Even Jesus who is the word of God was hindered in his ministry because of unbelief. Not his. It says in Matthew 1358, it said that he could do no mighty work there because of their unbelief. In Mark's version of the same passage, it says that he couldn't do anything, but he'd just heal a few sick people.

Could do nothing, no major miracles because unbelief was present in people. They got a few healings. They had a few, they got a couple answered prayers, but nothing super off the charge phenomenal mighty works that he had the potential to do. Within Jesus who is the expression of God on earth who had the ability to do anything and everything was limited because of unbelief.

Unbelief is a major opposing force. It can hinder, it can halt the potency, the progress, the motion of the power of God's word in your life. And so before we talk about those five areas that can be powerful in your life, that the word of God brings change and all kinds of things in your life, I want you to recognize there can be unbelief because a lot of times I'm like, well I'm reading God's word and I believe God's word, but I don't see the results. Anybody know what I'm talking about?

I've been there. I've been to the place where like, I see this in God's word. You can't convince me otherwise, but for something's off. It's something off, it's not God, and it's not God's word.

There's like something I'm missing. And so hopefully when we talk about a few of these areas of unbelief, it might uncover something for you. It says in this next slide, so there's a story, I said earlier that faith and unbelief can coexist. Now it doesn't seem normal, but they can.

I'm gonna look, we're gonna look at two passages from the same story. This is a story of the guy with the lunatic or epileptic son. And Peter, James and John are up on the amount of transfiguration. I like how I wanna say lunatic and somebody tap their neighbor.

I won't tell you who travels. That was well played. Well, well played, that's all that. Don't think I didn't see that.

But Peter, James and John, they're up on the amount of transfiguration. And so the other nine disciples, this guy brings his son to him, he says he casts him in the fire, he throws him down, all these things I brought my son to him, and they could not cast him out. And he says to Jesus, this is the Father's saying this to Jesus. He says, if you can do anything, have compassion on us.

Let me read this first. And he says, Jesus says, if you only believe, all things are possible to him that believes, and the Father said, he cried out and said with tears, he says, Lord, I believe, help my unbelief. So here's a believer, he believes, Jesus says, if you believe, all things are possible. He said, I believe that.

But I need some help. He actually recognized that there was unbelief present in his life. See, if you go back to verse 22, it says this, it says, if you can do anything, have compassion on us. Here's Jesus that could do anything.

Here's Jesus that did do everything. But what unbelief will do, it actually hinders your ability to see all that Jesus has the possibility of doing. He says, if you can do anything, what's he want? He just says, if you can do anything, have compassion.

Boy, not a low bar. Now, we know the compassion of Jesus actually motivates him to do the miraculous, but I still think it's a low ask. It's like, man, he goes, and think about it. This dad had been dealing with this for so long that it actually affected his ability to believe without unbelief.

And he's like, well, if you can do anything, I'd be happy with a compassion right now. Like, don't settle for less than Jesus paid for. Well, if I could just get this problem fixed, I'll deal with the other one, I'll live with it, you know, what, no. Jesus wants you to be whole, entire, and complete.

Now, the great thing is he always meets us at our point of faith, so if your faith is low, he's coming low. He's gonna meet you there. But I just want you to see from this how the unbelief of the Father lowered his ability to see what Jesus had the potential to do. It brought it, he brought it down.

When the disciples can't cast it out, they, you know, they expected to cast this demon out. They expected it, it's what they did. Like, they were empowered and authorized to cast out demons. They were the most proficient, they were the most seasoned at casting out demons of anybody on the earth other than Jesus.

They were given all authority, it says in Luke chapter nine, verse one, it says that Jesus gave them all power and all authority over all demons. So they had the authority, they had the practice, and they had the expectation, but guess what? They didn't get the results. They didn't get the results.

And when they didn't get the results, they came to Jesus. We look at this in Matthew's version, Matthew chapter 17, it says, the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, why could we not cast it out, right? They expected. I've been given the authority, I have the experience.

And when I say come out, it should count. But for some reason it didn't. And here's the difference between them and the dad. The dad recognized his unbelief, they didn't recognize theirs.

See, sometimes unbelief can creep in on our wares. We allow it to enter in and we don't even realize that it entered in. And that's what happened to them. Jesus said, Jesus said, because of your unbelief, he's like, you know why you couldn't cast out?

Your unbelief. It wasn't their faith. Because he goes on to say, he says, surely I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you'll say to this mountain move from here and it'll move. And nothing will be, it wasn't a faith issue.

He says, if you just have faith the size of a mustard seed, you don't need a lot of faith, you just need faith. But the faith that you have has to be not hindered by unbelief that has, in their case, crept in on the wares. Because no matter how big or how small the faith is, unbelief hinders it, unbelief halts it. And he goes on to say this kind, and I don't believe it's this kind of demon, I believe it's this kind of unbelief comes out only by fasting and prayer.

See, they'd already been given all authority. They already had the authority to cast it out. There was no demon, they didn't have authority over. But what they had was unbelief.

And Jesus says, you need to fast and pray because in fasting and praying, you actually suppress your flesh and ascend your spirit and allow the desires and the things of your flesh to take a lower position and you learn how to release and get rid of that unbelief. Hold a different message. Not preaching a message on fasting today. But the purpose of fasting, I'll just make this common.

Purpose fasting is not to move God, it's to move you. It's to get yourself into a place to where I don't rely on my five senses, my ability to see, taste, touch, smell, and hear. I suppress those, I suppress my desires of the flesh. And by fasting, I learn how to push those down and allow the truth that resides in my born-again spirit to take ascendancy over that of my flesh.

And he said, you need to fast and pray to get rid of that unbelief. There's unbelief in you. So with the Father, it can reduce my expectation from Jesus. With the disciples, it can actually hinder my results.

Right, they had a good track record. I mean, these guys were pros. They said, come out and the demon comes out. And the next one, it didn't.

And so it can hinder not only my perspective of Jesus, but it can hinder my expectation of what I expect to happen, my results. Another area of unbelief I will look at is the children of Israel. The children of Israel, I'll say this, unbelief can hinder my pursuit of the promises of God. Unbelief can hinder my pursuit of the promises.

You realize it took faith for them to be lured out of Egypt? They had to believe that God was going to do what? Part the Red Sea. There was faith.

They had to believe that when they crossed the Red Sea, that God was going to protect them. They believed that Moses was God's anointed deliverer. And so they have faith to come out of Egypt, but because of unbelief, they can't press into and walk into the promised land. It says in Hebrews chapter three verse 19, it says they could not enter in because of unbelief.

These were faith people. These were the people of God that were delivered from Egypt. But they brought some of Egypt with them. Just because you get out of Egypt doesn't mean Egypt's all out of you.

They brought the language of the Egyptians with them. You know what that is? Murmuring and complaining. Anybody speak Egyptian?

Anybody spouse speak Egyptian? My mind doesn't. Mine's a blesser. No, but they brought some stuff with them.

They had faith to get out, but unbelief kept them. See, faith brought them out, but unbelief kept them out. They got out of Egypt, but couldn't get into the promised land. It says that therefore, since the, no go back, verse one of chapter four says this, therefore, since the promise remains of entering his rest, let us fear, lest any of you should seem to come short of it.

For indeed, the gospel was preached to us as well as them, but the word they heard didn't do what? There was no benefit. The word didn't profit them. See, you can hear the word, but if I don't, it says not being mixed with what?

Faith. See, when I look that up, it's interesting. I'm forgetting the word, but what's the call of singular versus plural, whatever that is, that not being mixed with faith is in the singular. See, what happens is it needs, the word needs to be mixed with faith singular, not mixed with faith and unbelief.

And when unbelief and faith are mixed with the word together, it results in no profit, no advancement. They believe to get out, but the unbelief kept them from entering in. And so a lot of times, you know, we start out in this walk with the Lord and we have some early success, right? And then we're pursuing the promises of God, we find inscription, all of a sudden it quits working.

You know, Peter, when Peter walked on the water, you know, Peter, he had faith, right? He had faith to do what? I always just want to do that and stay in the air. Wouldn't that be cool?

Do you guys freak out if I levitated? I would too. I would too. But Peter, got to Matthew 14, I think it's the next slide.

It said, Peter answered and said, Lord, remember, they're in the boat, there's this big storm, Jesus is walking on the water. Peter says, Lord, if it's you, bid me or call me to come to you. He says, command me, command me to come to you in the water. That's some faith.

Like he's never walked on water in his life, but he says, hey, if that's you, call me and I'll take a step. And Jesus said, come, and when Peter came down out of the boat, what did he do? He levitated, no, he, I want to stay in that water someday. Well, you know, he walked on water.

He stepped out in faith. See, there was a word, right? He says, command me, he recognized that the word release from Jesus' lips had the potential to do the miraculous. If Jesus just said, come, and Peter never stepped, that word remained dormant.

When Jesus said, come, it was pregnant with power. Actually, no, it wasn't pregnant. It was like, I don't know, I'm just gonna be back up. I don't wanna get down that path.

It was latent with potential energy, but until Peter took a step of faith, activated the word spoken, did the power manifest and he walked on water. However, he starts looking, all of a sudden, he starts looking at the storm. It says in the next verse, it says, when he saw that the waves were boisterous, next slide please, it says, when he saw the wind was boisterous, he was afraid, what did he do? He went from walking on the water to sinking.

See, unbelief can hinder my ability to walk above the storms of life. Did you ever notice somebody that has the ability to walk above a storm? Like you look at them and you see, their world is crashing around them, but somehow they're able to walk on top of it. I would say that person is walking in faith, but without unbelief, because here's what happened.

Peter takes a step, walks on top of the storm, but when he saw, remember he went from faith in Jesus to now, now he's dealing in the natural. When he saw how boisterous the wind was, he began to sink. And Jesus says, oh you of little faith, why did you doubt? Now little faith doesn't mean a small amount of faith, otherwise that would contradict what Jesus said elsewhere, because he said you only need faith the size of what?

I must have seen. Little faith, Oli got pistos, it's two words, oli gosh means can mean small, but it can mean small in size, time, or intensity. It doesn't just mean small in time, I believe what he means is it was small, I'm sorry, small in size, small in time, right? You believe, but only for a few moments.

Why did you, you stepped out, but then all of a sudden you quit because you began to see things around you, unbelief enters in, and all of a sudden you begin to sink. He says, I thought about these things this week, I really thought about in context, we're not gonna read it, but the parable of the soils, right? Anybody remember that story? What we know is this, as we know, it tells us in Luke 11, said, the seed is the word of God, right?

God's word is the seed, that it's planted into the soil of what, our heart. And then he lists four soils, he says, there's seed that fell by the wayside, that's people that are unsaved, it says because when the word sow, the enemy comes, the devil comes, he steals the seed, the last day would be saved or be converted. So there's salvation that happens. And then on the other book end, it says that the seed that fell on good soil, and it said the seed that fell in good soil, it produced, it actually it produced fruit, some 30, 60 and some 100 fold.

And so we have these two extremes, but then in the middle we have these two types of soil, one being called Stoney Ground, and the other being it fell among thorns or thorny ground. I don't think there's any difference in between the Stoney ground, the thorny ground and the good ground, I think the soil is the soil. It doesn't say it was bad soil, it just said it was soil that had stuff in it. And so the Stoney ground, it said that when the sun came up, it said because persecution, tribulation, and road because of the word, it said that it sprung up quickly, you know, it took root quickly, but when the sun came, it scorched it, and it had no depth because of the stones.

And then over here among thorns, it says that when the person heard the word, they received the word, but when the cares for other things, the deceitfulness of riches, the cares of this world, the ceaseless world, the ceaseless desires of other things, entered in, it said it choked it out, which means it didn't start in here, it entered in. Over here, the stones were already present. Over here, the thorns were allowed to enter in. And I think it's very similar with unbelief.

Sometimes we come into, wherever here, where we're seen by the wayside, but all of a sudden we believe the word, we get saved, right? And then we step into, we carry stones from our past of unbelief because of past experiences that inhibit fully trusting in God's word. And those stones need to be removed. And then there's other times when, when I don't have any stones, I don't like Peter, that I actually step out in faith for the supernatural walking on water, but because I look at other things, I start focusing on other things, all of a sudden weeds, and I'm sorry, thorns enter in and choke out the word.

And so there's sometimes when I carry things from my past that create unbelief in my life, but there's other times when I allow outside experiences to enter in, and they too create unbelief in my life, and in both cases, the word doesn't work. Only when I live a life completely absent of unbelief, do I get to that place of producing 30, 60, and a hundredfold harvest. And so I wanna just tell you today, just wanna kind of start with that. That's probably my intro message.

And we'll go through these quick, so don't think we're gonna be here for another hour. I just want you to, just as the words going forth today, I believe God's revealing some areas of unbelief. There's areas that you need to repent of, that just means to change your mind on, and then you're gonna see the fruit of repentance. You're gonna see evidence of a change of mind because God's gonna start to release fruit in your life.

And as if God starts revealing even now, you don't have to wait till the end of service, just say, God, I need to change the way I think. I need to repent. I've been holding on to hurts of the past. I've been holding on to past experiences, just like the father of the child, and I'm carrying unbelief along with my faith.

Or maybe I've stepped out in faith, and I start out good, but all of a sudden, I start to tear my focus on the wrong thing, and I've allowed unbelief to creep in, and it's beginning to choke out the effectiveness of that word in my life. So as, you know, throughout service, like get that thing right. Like it doesn't mean you're a bad person, it just means, hey, we all got room to grow, right? Like I wanna get to 30, 60, and a hundredfold.

I wanna get that stuff out of my heart. I wanna say, you know, all the time, God, you know, it says the word penetrates, the thoughts and intents of the heart. Like, are my motives pure, or am I harboring anything? Do I have something in here that's choking the effectiveness of your word in my life?

Because I know it contains power, I know it's all powerful, and I wanna see those results. I wanna see those results for you guys. Like I want this to be the most effective word powered church, body of believers in come put. Like when people see us, come on, they wanna know what, why are you growing?

Why are you increasing? Why are you prospering? Why are you happy in your marriage? Why do you actually like to get together for Thanksgiving?

Like, there should be a reason. I didn't say let me tell ya about this guy named Jesus, because he made a big deal, big difference in my life. All right, okay, five areas, five areas. I'm gonna put him up there, we can just go through him real quick, then we're gonna touch one.

So when they turn blue, we're gonna go through these quick. Salvation, it's a power to heal, deliver, and to save. Maturation, which means to mature. I probably should have put the power to grow up.

Some of you need to grow up. Not just grow, but grow up. Now grow out, grow up. Transformation, the power to become.

The power to become. Preparation, the power to equip. And finally creation, the power to make, or the power to produce, the work and produce that you can release things into your life to produce the results we find in God's work. All right, so we're gonna go through these kind of quick, take, get your pens, papers, phones, whatever, however you take notes and take some good notes and go back and study.

Like I said, I come up with about 11 and I just have to stop. Now these are the five. It's a number of greats, you're getting five today. So salvation, the word of God has the power to save.

The power to save. It says in first Peter, we'll go to the next slide. I'm sorry, first Peter's next. So second Timothy, 315.

It says from childhood, you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you what, wise, make you wise. It means give you understanding for salvation. Now think about this, Paul's writing this to who? Timothy, and Timothy's already saved.

But he said the scriptures will not only give you understanding how to be born again, but they'll give you understanding and wisdom how to, unto salvation. Remember salvation is more than just being born again. Salvation is being born again, salvation is being healed. Salvation is being delivered and God wants, as we said early, to the uttermost.

He can save you to the uttermost. Every area of your life, he redeemed at the cross. So remember the verse that says that the preaching of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing. It's foolishness, which means it's wisdom.

It says, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. So there's a message in the cross of Christ that's applicable for you to be born again, to become a new creation, but there's also application to the message of the cross that can heal you, can deliver you, set you free, and do all those things that we spend so much money chasing after stuff for. So it says in this next slide, it says being born again, here's first Peter, 123, not of corruptible seed, but of what, incorruptible by the word of God that lives and abides forever. So the moment you say yes to Jesus, you become a new creation.

He actually, it says in 1 John 3,9 that we're born of God that his sperma, his DNA in the Greek, it's sperma, but it means his seed is in you, his seed. He injects his DNA in you, and Jesus is alive forevermore. He's never gonna die again. And so that when you're born again, born of the Spirit, he actually injects in you in corruptible seed.

It means that it's not subject to decay, it never dies, it can't be destroyed. You're like, you, I have people say, what if I sin too much? Well, let me tell you this, you can't destroy incorruptible seed. You can't destroy it, it's incorruptible.

It's incorruptible. If your sin could destroy incorruptible seed, then that would mean your sin's more powerful than the word of God. It's not. Jesus already paid for it when he injects his seed in you, his life is now your life.

His eternal life becomes your eternal life. It's incorruptible, not subject to destruction. But that's not all. He doesn't just allow us to be born again, salvation is healing and deliverance.

It says in Psalm 107, 1920, talking about Israel, he saved them out of, I love this, their distresses. I'm gonna emphasize this. He sent his word and healed them and delivered them from their destructions. Sometimes we get into a situation because we made a bad decision.

We think, well, I don't deserve for God to heal me. I don't deserve for God to deliver me because I'm reaping the consequences of my own bad decision. I'm in my distress, I'm in my destruction. I wanna tell you this, no matter what the reason is, you're where you are today, Jesus paid for you to be delivered and paid for you to be healed.

He wants to deliver you. He wants to heal you from even your own devices. Even when it's stupidity. People are like, why are you sick?

Well, because I drink 12 mountain dudes and eat two bags of chip a day. Well, you're sick because you're stupid. But God, you see this, you can't fix stupid. Well, Jesus can fix stupid.

He fixes blunders, he fixes mistakes, he fixes stupidity. He fixes, you know, if it's an attack at the end, whatever it is, he redeemed it with no exclusions, even when you caused it yourself. That's the gospel of Jesus Christ. Number two, so we have salvation, the power to heal, I told you these to be quick.

The power to heal, save and deliver. Number two, maturation, the power to grow, say this, grow up. The power to grow up. Like he doesn't intend for you to be a baby Christian your whole life.

He expects you to mature. Wouldn't you have your own kids? You know, when they hit about 11, 12, 13, 14, you just can't wait for that maturation process to kick in. Right?

And I'm sure God, he's patient, but I'm sure he's like, I just want you to grow up a little bit. Come on, it's time to act like an adult Christian. And he says this, he says in the first Peter, go to the next slide, two of the verses, says therefore laying aside. So first thing I do is you gotta put some stuff aside, right?

I know a lot of you say, well, God, take this from me. This verse says you need to lay aside. It says, lay aside malice, lay aside deceit, hypocrisy, envy, evil speaking. And then as newborn babes desire the pure milk of the word that you may do what?

Grow. So you can't grow apart from the word, that you may grow thereby. He says the same way a baby desires milk. This word desire, it means to intently want it, but it actually means to want it to the point of holding it in your possession.

Like I just don't wanna be like, man, I really want some pizza right now. I do. It's more than just wanting it. It's actually like desiring it to the point of having it in your hand.

And if you think like a baby, what do they do when they're hungry? They just cry and cry and cry and cry. They want it, they want it, they want it. And he says, I want you to desire the word the same way that a baby desires milk.

It needs milk. Like it won't grow without it. And if you look, you know, if you see somebody who is an immature believer, a baby Christian, I guarantee you they're living their life apart from the word of God. You can't grow without God's word.

You can have encounters all day long. You can be prayed for, you can fall down, you can have the power God hits you, you can have all those encounters, which are great. But it takes the word of God to bring you to maturity. You need God's word.

So it says, if and it says the milk of the word that you may grow, it means to increase, to grow up. If indeed, if indeed you've tasted, that the Lord is gracious. Now this isn't the word grace, it's really the word for goodness or kindness. Remember Psalm 34, it says paste and see that the Lord he is good.

See you can't get a, when it says to taste, it means to sample the flavor of. If you've never tasted something, you can't develop an appetite for it. If I go to some third world country, and I start telling them about JJ's pizza, with the little cupped pepperonis that curl up and hold oil in every cup, and the cheese that's perfectly browned, and then the extra crispy, medium hot wings that I get as a side, they have no context for that, because they've never tasted the flavor of it. They don't know how good it is.

But I guarantee you if I could somehow get it there, and it was hot, and get it there fresh, and they could taste it, having never tasted it before. All of a sudden, an appetite that was dornin' in them would be awakened to something they didn't even know that they wanted. It's like, if you guys remember the guy that started Apple, Stephen Jobs. Stephen Jobs was, he was brilliant, because he thought about what people needed and would want before they knew that they ever wanted it.

He would think about things that people would want before they even sampled it, and then he'd unveil it. 20 years ago, I could have lived without an iPhone. I could have lived without an app, but I can't today, because I've sampled it, I've tasted it. I can't not have it.

And it should be the same way with God's word. When you start growing by it, when you start tasting of the goodness of God, all of a sudden, every Friday nights pizza night in my house. I can't wait till next Friday because I know what I'm gonna have. And it should be like this, I know I'm gonna call for tellys, I know I'm gonna order a large pizza with pepperoni sausage and mushroom, I know I'm gonna get two salads, and a side of marinara sauce, because that's what I do in Friday night.

But I've developed, and besides that, my wife tells me that's what I'm gonna do, and that's usually the way I get it. But I've developed a taste for it, and you can develop a taste for the goodness of God as delivered through the Word of God, but you gotta sample it. And until you sample it, you won't grow, but once you start eating of it, growing from it, you'll start desiring it, and it's compounding. It's compounding.

Like, I eat, I grow, I eat, I grow, I want more, and it just, it never stops. The third thing is this, we have salvation, we have maturation, transformation. The power to become. The power to become.

God's Word says things about you that I don't see evident in your physical life yet. There's things God's Word says about me that I haven't seen come to pass yet. But God's Word contains power within it for me to transform into what it says I really am. But in order for that to happen, I've gotta believe it.

All these things are rooted in faith. It says about Abraham, it says this, in Romans chapter four. Next slide. It says in verse 18, who contrary, speaking to Abraham, in hope, believed in hope so that he did what?

He believed to become. He became something that he wasn't, even though God said he was. Abraham was a husband with no children. His name was Abram.

High exalted father is what Abraham meant. God says I'm changing your name to Abraham, father of a multitude. And he said that you'll have descendants. Kings will come from you.

Through you, all families of the earth will be blessed. But when he said it, he had no kids. See, there's things that God has spoken over your life, either through his written word, through a prophetic word, however he got it, maybe the Holy Spirit spoke it to you. But he's spoken things over you that seem too incredible to come to pass.

But God wanna tell you this, but God's Word has the ability and power to transform you and that you can become what his Word says you can become. Or what his Word says you are. So it says that Abraham believed so that he became the father of many nations, not according to what he saw, not according to what he felt. Well, it just feel like this is me.

Well, I get that you might feel like that's you. But God's Word says you're something different. God's Word says you were made in his image. God's Word said that you are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.

God's Word says that you are his workmanship, created unto good works. God's Word says that you are forgiven. God's Word says that you are free indeed. And even though you may not be experiencing that yet, if you'll dare to believe it, you can become the very thing that God's Word says about you.

It has the power to transform you. The power to become, the power to change. That the way you are is not the way that God wants you to stay. No matter what level of spirituality or maturity that you have ascended or grown into, there's more.

There's more. Don't level out. Don't settle for where you're at. God wants to continue to transform your life.

And to becoming, it says that Jesus is the stand, like he's the standard, the measure of the standard, of the stature of the fullness of Christ. The fullness of Christ is my standard. The fullness of Christ is your standard. And until you get there, don't stop allowing God's Word to transform you.

There's more power in the Word than you've tapped into yet. But you got to believe it. Number four is this preparation, the power to equip. The power to equip, it says in 2 Timothy, chapter 3, 16 and 17 it says all scripture, all scripture, all scripture.

How many people like to pick and choose scripture? Right? I'm going to use the Bible as my example again. Well, that's what it says, but I just don't believe that one.

You know what? That just doesn't line up with the church I grew up in. Or that doesn't line up with my politics. Or that doesn't line up with my business philosophy.

No, it's not a buffet. It's all scripture. Genesis to Revelation, all scripture is given by inspiration of God, like God breathed it. It's God breathed.

It's profitable for doctrine. That just means that's teaching. That's having a solid foundation. You need God's Word to give you a foundation, doctrine.

Like, and you need to get to a place where you know that you know that you know that's what it says. It'll do that. It's profitable for doctrine, for reproof. Reproof, which means it's not rebuke.

Reproof is evidence. It's the way that something is proved. It's evidence that proves the facts. Like God's Word proves itself.

It becomes proof in your life. It says that it's for reproof correction. That's what nobody likes. That's the one we all shy away from.

It's correction. It means to restore back to a right place that you've fallen. You've gotten off track. You were on a straight line at a constant speed and something got you off track.

It brings you back to a right place. And for instruction and righteousness, it teaches you. It means the Word means to educate a child. It teaches you how to live right.

And it says all those things. It says that a man of God, or it's generic, but it could be man of God or woman of God, may be perfect or complete, thoroughly equipped for what? Every good work. If he's just too tense, it says, you're the workmanship of God created in Christ Jesus unto good works.

So God has a purpose for each person. He's purposed you in eternity past to do certain good works. And now it takes the Word of God that you believe that you allow to get into you that actually provides the equipping, perfectly equipping, thoroughly equipping you to be able to do the work that God's called you to do. Too many people go out and try to do what God's called him to do, but don't take God's Word with him.

And you need the Spirit of God, but you also need the Word of God to equip you to make you complete. It's necessary. And the final one is this that we'll talk about today. I told you these were machine guns.

It's creation. The ability for words, specifically words that line up with God's Word, the ability for words to produce, the ability for words to make something, the ability for words to create. It says in Hebrews chapter 11, 3, it says, by faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God. See, when God made the world, he didn't go.

He didn't go. It wasn't a snap of his fingers. It wasn't a clap of his hands. It was words released in faith from his mouth.

He said, let there be light. And there was light. I think in Hebrew I've heard it said that light that is in me, be like he's literally speaking the thing from one realm into another. It says that God, by faith we understand the worlds, were framed by the Word of God that the things that we see were not made of things that are visible.

Guess what words are, invisible. Anybody ever see a word? No, okay, yeah, okay, yeah, you got me. You got me, yeah, words on a page.

But if I'm speaking, you can't see that word. God didn't write down, let there be light and held it up. He spoke it so that things that are seen, that we see light, but it came from something that can't be seen words. And beyond that, it was actually in the spirit realm and words of faith brought it from the spirit realm into the natural realm.

That words of faith are actually the mechanism that brings something that exists spiritually and allow it to manifest physically. See that all these promises of God that God puts in his word. So that when I say buy his stripes, I was healed. First Peter 2, 24, I'm just not speaking some mumbo jumbo, like Abra Kadabra.

I actually believe it. I'm releasing healing into my body. I'm releasing healing into the person I'm praying for. I believe that.

It says in Proverbs, it says life and death are in the power of what? The tongue. The body that loves it will eat of its fruit. Like your words, the words that you speak literally can create life or they can create death.

That's why some of you need to close your mouth. You don't always need to say something. If it's speaking death, if it's speaking destruction, if it's speaking condemnation, shut your mouth. You don't need to release it.

Let no corrupt communication proceed from your mouth except that which is edifying, that the hearer may receive grace. If your words aren't laced with grace, keep them to yourself. But the moment you're inspired to speak gracious words of faith, release them. Because you're releasing that.

You're speaking God's word, you're bringing something from the spiritual realm and you're releasing it here. Like if healing can be brought to be, prosperity, deliverance, anything you find in God's word that he's provided for you. It says in Ephesians one, it says that we've been blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places, in Christ Jesus. Like they're there, every spiritual blessing in Christ is there.

But the spirit of faith, it says the spirit of faith speaks this way. I believed and therefore I spoke that there's a speaking that you can do when you truly believe what God's word says. Like it doesn't say speak it in order to believe it. I don't believe in that, fake it till you make it.

Could name it and claim it. I'm not saying, I don't believe in all that. I believe in, I believed and therefore I spoke. And if I truly believe what God's word says and then his word never fails, then I can in faith speak it and believe what I speak is going to happen, not because I said it, but because he settled it.

He settled it, he said it, not me. I'm just saying what he said. And that's what faith is. I'm saying what he said.

And thereby releasing things into my life, into your life. Like positive things, you're gonna think speak what? Speak life, speak life into every situation. God's giving you that ability.

Well, the power of God's word, the power of God's word to save you. The power of God's word to, oh yeah, that's not, I ran out of room with 10, don't go there. But the power of God's word to bring you to maturity, to help you grow up. The power of God's word to transform you, the power to become, that you become the very thing that he's saying.

The power of God's word to equip you, to get you prepared for the works that he has prepared and eternity passed for you. And the power of God's word to create, to bring about to pass in the physical realm what he's decreed in eternity passed. And he's prepared for you in Christ Jesus. Let's break.