June 28, 2010
Dr. Allen Barber
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
John 1: 14 NKJV
In the Lord Jesus God's Word was not
objective, but rather subjective. It possessed human feeling,
thought,
and idea; yet it remained God's Word. In this do we find a
great
principle of the Bible: that it is possible for the Word of God to
be
unimpaired by man's feeling. The presence of human feeling does
not
necessarily ruin God's Word; it does so only when such
feeling is
inadequate. (Watchman Nee, The
Ministry of the Word).
In Old Testament times when God wanted to speak to His people, He raised up a prophet and put His Word in the prophet's mouth. This is the meaning of the phrase, "and the Word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet, etc." Men were not indwelt by the Holy Spirit in those days. David realized this after his sin with Bathsheba when he cried out to God in Psalms 51 - "Lord do not take your Holy Spirit from me." David realized unless the Holy Spirit came upon him (not in but upon), he had no way with God. When I say God placed His word in the prophet's mouth, the implication was that He spoke His Word to the prophet's mind and then the prophet spoke it out his mouth. Until Jesus came and paid our sin-debt, the Holy Spirit had no way in man - He could not reside in man for man's spirit was contaminated with sin and cut off from the presence of God. After our spirit is reborn and is alive toward God, the Holy Spirit can take up residence in our reborn spirit (our spirit).
Because man was a sinner, the way of God with man was difficult in that man was prone to disobedience, even the prophets often failed to obey God fully. Moses, the greatest of the Old Testament prophets was denied entrance into the promised land because he sinned against God at Meribah; David committed adultery and murder; Solomon became an apostate in his old age; Jeremiah accused God of being a liar and God had to recommission him after he repented, etc. However, in Jesus the Word of God is not impaired but is pure and perfect. Why, because in Jesus there is no sin nature to ruin the pure Word of God. When Jesus spoke, He spoke the Word of God in all truth and purity. This is why He is called the Word of God. When man beheld Jesus and heard Him speak, they were hearing and seeing God for the first time in human flesh for Jesus and His Father are one. Jesus told the disciples that seeing Him was the same as seeing the Father. That is why and how the religious Pharisees blasphemed the Holy Spirit for they were seeing God in human flesh and ascribed His power to Satan. No one can commit the unpardonable sin today for we do not see God in the flesh. Man grieves the Holy Spirit and stops His power, but they cannot commit the unpardonable sin as did the Pharisees. Today, the blood of Jesus cleanses men from all sin - those who repent.
There is a wicked website that is teaching people, particularly young people, to blaspheme the Holy Spirit, which is a great sin. However, they are foolish and can be forgiven if they repent. I must add anyone who does speak evil of the Holy Spirit is on very dangerous ground.
In the New Covenant Age of the Holy Spirit, it is now possible for the Word of God to dwelt in man and not be ruined. However, for that to occur, man must have a willing spirit to fully obey the leadership of the Holy Spirit and maintain his or her vessel in purity and honor. This is the dilemma of the ministers - to receive, maintain, and speak the Word of God without ruining it. The moment man's thought or opinion enters into the Word, the word looses its purity and power. God wants His Word to dwelt in us like it did Jesus - in complete purity without ruining it. When God gives a minister a Word to speak to the Church, He desires that spirit speak to spirit. Let me repeat that - When God gives the rhema Word, He wants to send it via the minister's spirit to spirits of the people. The mind of man is not the receptacle for the Word of God - the spirit is! We have too many big intellects in the Church and too little spirits. Much preaching today is mind to mind and the Word of God has no place to lodge in man.
Until the Word of God becomes flesh in us, that is, part of us, we have no Word in us. The reason God cannot put His Word into our minds is that the mind is part of the fallen sin nature of man. It is contaminated as are all of man's faculties. The only safe depository for the Word of God is man's reborn spirit. Now the Holy Spirit is not man's spirit and vice-versa. Actually the Word of God descends from the throne of God to the Holy Spirit who in turn places it in man's reborn spirit, that is, to those who are able to receive it by having a pure spirit uncontaminated by the sins of the flesh and spirit:
1 Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit , perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
2 Corinthians 7:1 NASB
Has the Word of God become flesh in you - one with your spirit? Do you maintain your spirit in purity and holiness so the Word of God has access in you? God wants to use you as His mouthpiece and I do not mean just the ministers. God wants all His children to have and speak His Word to the Church and to the lost. Today, we are privileged to have the Word dwell in our flesh (our bodies have become the habitation of God in the Spirit), but it can easily be ruined by our carnal nature. A wrong temperament; a sharp tongue; an unforgiving spirit; an unclean spirit, etc. can ruin the Word of God in us and give it no way to get out of us. Our lives can become a prison house for the Word of God - locked up within us with no way to reach the outside.
May God help us to allow His awesome Word to become flesh in us - one with us!