The Exalted Word

Dear Father,
     As You raised Your Son from the dead, the Head of the Church was brought up. Along with the Head, the body, that is, the church of Christ is resurrected with Him. Not in part, but in full, every part of her was brought to life. In Your great love for us You have brought Your Son to Life. Here in the stillness, we know that You are God, that You are exalted in the heavens and in the earth. Please do not cease the work of Your right arm. Your love for Your children is infinitely great and we have seen more of it in the recent days. Daily we are drawn to You. Our eyes turn to You. We opens wide our mouth and You fill it with every good Word of Spirit and Life. Your Words are our Life and You have caused them to dwell within each of our members. Please reveal to us that Your Words are exalted, are inseparable from Your love, are filled with Light, and bring us Life eternal in knowing Christ. Unfold Your Words of the Gospel to each of Your Bride's parts.
In Jesus Christ's Name,
Amen


Theme Song: Ancient Words

I will bow down toward Your holy temple 
   and will praise Your name 
   for Your love and Your faithfulness, 
for You have exalted above all things 
   Your Name and Your Word. Ps 138:2


     God's purpose with this letter is to give us a sight of the power, voice, and life-giving nature of His Word. Our Father has chosen to use His Word to instill and impart His Life to us. His Word has been the only Truth that remains forever and is thus exalted above the heavens and the earth. He uses a Divine interplay between His Word, His gift of faith, and the power of the Spirit to raise our souls from the dead. This work is unseen and yet it is eternal. This is the work that occurs on this very day in members of the bride scattered throughout the world. The ministry of His Word is exalted in power. Yes, His Words come to us from under His loving canopy.


JESUS IS THE WORD


 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. John 1:1


     In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. By His Word, the earth was formed and is sustained. God spoke and the earth and the heavens came into existence. Until the time when Jesus was born, the people of God were given the Word of Jesus through their faith in the prophesied Deliverer. The belief of their Father's gift of Life through the sacrifice of His Son was the Word which sustained the souls of the believers who awaited the coming of Jesus Christ.


     The precious nature of His Words was by no means disregarded by those who lived before "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us". As Moses taught the Israelites, "No, the Word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it. Deut 30:14". Christ was still yet to come but the Word of Christ dwelt in their hearts by faith. His Words were on the mouths of these ancient elect by their hope in their future Deliverer.


      The power of these precious Words is unchanging. Before Them the mighty waters and created elements of the earth are held back. His voice is heard through the thunder and the lightning. His voice is infinitely loud, powerful, and majestic. Its effects are to break the cedars, to make Lebanon skip life a calf, to shake the dessert, to twist the oaks, and to lay the forests bare. At the very moments that His Words are heard from the heavens, countless glorious beings cry out "glory" from within His temple. 


³ The Voice of the LORD is over the waters; 

   the God of glory thunders,
   the LORD thunders over the mighty waters.
⁴ The Voice of the LORD is powerful;
   the Voice of the LORD is majestic.
⁵ The Voice of the LORD breaks the cedars;
   the LORD breaks in pieces the cedars of Lebanon. 

⁶ He makes Lebanon skip like a calf, 
   Sirion like a young wild ox. 
⁷ The Voice of the LORD strikes 
   with flashes of lightning. 
⁸ The Voice of the LORD shakes the desert; 
   the LORD shakes the Desert of Kadesh. 
⁹ The Voice of the LORD twists the oaks
   and strips the forests bare. 

And in His temple all cry, “Glory!”Ps 29

     The Israelites who heard the Word of God were filled with dread and fear. They could see that the Voice of the Lord could grant them a sentence of eternal damnation or an acceptance that was valued more than life itself: the Words that bring Life, and the Words of the Eternal Gospel. The Israelites who lived at the time of the Exodus cried out that they could not hear the voice of the Lord their God and survive. Their own words were filled with sin, hatred, and ultimately death. Their own words would have set a seal on them for His destruction by His own pure Word. 


By the same Word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. 2 Peter 3:7


      The words of mankind were of no use to them. Their own words could never bring life or love into their hearts. Their words sought to justify their deeds which were worthy of only condemnation. Both their actions and words of defense were condemned. Their words could only be spoken with the desires for selfish gain and profit and could bring no eternal fruit. Their own words lay claim to the heavens and bestowed on them a deceptive shroud of power, control, wisdom, and importance, but deep in their souls they could not see the Light. There is no Light in those who speak their own words.


To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this Word, they have no light of dawn. Is 8:20


     The holiness of their God was beyond comprehension and the Words that came out from the Holy Fire of the Lord who dwelt among them caused the people to fear His awesome judgments.


¹⁶ For this is what you asked of the LORD your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said, “Let us not hear the voice of the LORD our God nor see this great fire anymore, or we will die.” Deut 18

     God's Divine Purpose has been to glorify Himself through creating, saving, and uniting a people in His love. We are to be His very own people who are holy just as He is holy. He would send His Son (the complete radiance of the Father), the Word, to become flesh and make His dwelling among us.

The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and Truth. John 1:14

     The Word in Flesh was to speak to us everything that the Father commanded Him to speak. His Words would be to His people their salvation, righteousness, cleansing, and promise.

 ¹⁷ The LORD said to me: “What they say is good. ¹⁸ I will raise up for them a Prophet like you from among their brothers; I will put My Words in His mouth, and He will tell them everything I command Him. ¹⁹ If anyone does not listen to My words that the Prophet speaks in My name, I myself will call him to account.Deut 18

     Jesus remained in His Father throughout His time on this earth and His Father remained in Him. The Words which He has spoken that we have recorded from our four precious Gospels were not only His own Words. They were the Words of His His Father. He spoke according the will of His Father. He spoke exactly what His Father told Him to speak. The speaking of His Words were the manifestation of the Father's work. Through these Words He preached the Gospel. He was the Gospel. He lived the very essence of what He came to do. Everything He spoke was to reveal the work for which He came that would bring Life and salvation to all those who would believe. 

Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in Me? The Words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in Me, who is doing His work. John 14:10

     What kind of dwelling did the Word make among us? The Word's dwelling was one of obedience to His Father. He came to portray His perfect submission to His Father. From the very moment He entered this world He chose to suffer. For us who were conceived in sin, even as we were born, we drunk iniquity as though it were water. We had never known the perfect union with the heavenly Father that Christ had as He perfectly obeyed and dwelt in His Father as He lived on this earth. To Jesus, His dwelling in His Father as He dwelt on this earth caused utter agony even from conception as He was surrounded by the wickedness of the world and wicked men whose hearts were filled with blaspheme and hatred towards God. As He grew in wisdom and stature, every temptation known to mankind was given to Him. As these trials came upon Him, He cried out loudly and wept to the One who could deliver Him from the separation from His Father that would immediately arise if He faltered in even one step. Though He was the perfect Son of God for every moment of His existence, He learned obedience by crying out to His Father for deliverance at every step. He never faltered. No, not even once. In the years leading up to the day when He would be offered as the Lamb of God who would take away the sin of the world, the Word obeyed the Father and remained the perfect spotless Lamb, the only perfect sacrifice who could make atonement for our sins and be called our salvation. Every moment of the Word's dwelling among us was one of intense suffering and "acquaintance with grief" and yet He poured out each morsel of the Bread of His Life. Yes, we live by the Living Bread of the Word's Life, every Word of the Mouth of God. 

      ⁷ During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, He offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the One who could save Him from death, and He was heard because of his reverent submission. ⁸ Although He was a Son, he learned obedience from what he suffered ⁹ and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey Him ¹⁰ and was designated by God to be high Priest in the order of Melchizedek. Heb 5

      His Words are Spirit and they are Life. We know that our heavenly Father is Spirit and those who worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in Truth. He Himself delivered the Spirit through His Word. Even as He ascended He promised to send the very Holy Spirit to be with us and to live in us. His Words are Life. They awaken our souls. Until we eat them, we are dead. We could not even know the emaciation of our souls for we did not have the appropriate function of the living senses to detect our Spiritual starvation. We did not understand our loss until His Words had awakened out soul.

The Spirit gives Life; the flesh counts for nothing. The Words I have spoken to you are Spirit and they are Life. John 6:63

     It is our destiny to know His Words through the Gospel. 

¹⁴ “Then he said: ‘The God of our fathers has chosen you to know His will and to see the Righteous One and to hear words from His mouth. ¹⁵ You will be His witness to all men of what you have seen and heard. Acts 22

     As the Word was crucified for our sins and raised to Life for our justification, we beheld the glory of the Father, full of grace and Truth. His Word was filled with grace and Truth. For the Word did not make His dwelling among us to condemn us, but to save us through Him. Thus, the Word spoke to us Words of grace and Truth so that we may be saved. On the cross where He was broken, He spoke to us Words of grace through what He bore. He bore not only the physical suffering inflicted on Him. For certainly many saints throughout history were tortured physically in similar manners and were able to do so while singing joyfully to their eternal Savior, the Word Who had saved them from damnation. Our own Savior suffered the infinitely greater suffering: the complete wrath of His own Father that was due to us in our wickedness. He drank the full cup of this wrath. He was cursed as we ought to have been cursed. The Word became sin for us so that we may become the righteousness of God in Him. Incomprehensible agony. Incomprehensibly love. This was His Word. As the Word was poured out unto death and numbered with the transgressors, bearing indescribable torment, the Words of love, grace, and truth were spoken to us. This was the revelation of the Words: His utmost agony from conception until the moment the Father forsook Him and He was put to death, He spoke His Word of unfailing love. 

     
Let the morning bring me word of Your unfailing love, 
   for I have put my trust in You. 
Show me the way I should go, 
   for to You I lift up my soul. Ps 143:8

Exhortations of the Word for Us

1. "He who has ears, let Him hear" 

     Do we believe that He alone has the Words of Spirit, Life, and Truth? Do we believe that His Words are our salvation and our righteousness? Then we ought to make every effort to hear and know His Words. We have heard that His Word is able to divide soul and spirit, joints and marrow. Though we do not fully comprehend the meaning of these actions, He calls us to put our faith in the power of His Word, not to be careless, but to hear from Him. Who are those who have ears? Are they not we who have been chosen before the creation of the world? Jesus spoke His Words of grace and Truth to all so that those who are chosen may be saved through Them.

2. Let the Hearing of the Word be Combined with Faith.

    

     His Words of grace and Truth were spoken to all and the Gospel is made known to all people throughout the world, and yet, only those who heard the Word with faith received the life-giving and life-changing value of the Word. For we are born again by the imperishable, living, and enduring Word of God.


For we also have had the Gospel preached to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because those who heard did not combine it with faith. Heb 4:2


     To those who do not believe the Words of grace and Truth, the Words become a law of condemnation. For only those who have been set free from the law and who have become bond-servants of Jesus Christ are able to experience the loving refinement of the Word. 


So then, the Word of the LORD to them will become: 
   Do and do, do and do, 
   rule on rule, rule on rule; 
   a little here, a little there— 
so that they will go and fall backward, 
   be injured and snared and captured. Is 28:13

3. Trust in the Spirit's power to convict us with the Word.

     May the Words of the Gospel not come to us as words alone, but may we acknowledge and trust that the Spirit of God will come upon us with power and deep conviction as we hear the Word. 

⁴ For we know, brothers loved by God, that He has chosen you,⁵ because our Gospel came to you not simply with Words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction. You know how we lived among you for your sake. 

     We know and believe that Christ is the Word and that this Word is the only way of Eternal Life. He promises to use the Word to refine and cleanse us. The Spirit takes and gives to us the Words of Jesus. As the Spirit continues to "teach us all things" He is our deposit and seal guaranteeing what is to come. 

^{25 “All this I have spoken while still with you. 26 But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. John 14}

4. Read the Bible through the lenses of the Word, full of grace and Truth.

     We will find our loving Savior who went through complete suffering for our sakes all over the Bible. We must read the Words of our Bible through the lenses of the Gospel. Think of the Aaronic blessing: "May the Lord bless you and keep you.; the Lord make His face shine upon you; the Lord turn His face to you and give you peace" spoken to the idolatrous Israelites. The speaking of this blessing onto any Israelite who was not covered by the blood of Christ would be a contradiction of the Father's justice. But because Christ was cursed, we are blessed. Because He was forsaken we are kept. Because the Father turned His face away from the Son, The Father's face shines upon us and He turns His face to us. Because He was separated from His Father, we are given peace through His blood. Why did the prophet Isaiah tell us that "Though our sins were as scarlet, we would become white as snow"? Could this be understood from the law which stated that every man who does not abide by the law be put to death? The Word of grace and Truth, the Gospel, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, is the way to understand and read the Scriptures. He will bring everything to light as we understand His sacrifice and resurrection of love.

The unfolding of your Words gives light; 
   it gives understanding to the simple.Ps 119:130

5. Obey the Word of God in Order to Be Complete in the Love of God.

    Once we have tasted a small bit of His Agape, we know that we have found something of greatest value. Our acknowledgement of the exalted worth of His love is incentive enough to obey our Father. Our greatest desire is to live and walk in His love. 

But if anyone obeys His word, God’s love is truly made complete in Him. 1 John 2:5a

6. Do not Forsake Giving His Words to His People.

     The faithful and wise servant is the one who is found giving the other servants their food at the proper time. We know that the sheep listen to the Shepherd's voice and we know that there are many other sheep yet to come into the fold. The Word of the Gospel is as a seed that we scatter and plant as we go about this life. May we cast our bread upon the waters as we live. Though we often feel that our love is incomplete, He commands for us to deliver His Words of Life to all mankind. And even now He is working to perfect our love. Even as we scatter the Word, He is filling us with measures of AGAPE.

and at His appointed season He brought His Word to light through the preaching entrusted to me by the Command of God our Savior Titus 1:3

7. Acknowledge that the Word lives in Us.

  

     He never leaves us or forsakes us. Many of us do not feel Him and we feel as though we have been orphaned or widowed. But the apostle John tells us that we are strong and the Word of God lives in us. Be still and know that He is God, that He lives in You. He is so very near to you, dear saint!

 I write to you, fathers, 

   because you have known Him who is from the beginning. 
I write to you, young men, 
   because you are strong, 
   and the Word of God lives in you, 
   and you have overcome the evil one. I John 2:14

8. Hunger and Thirst for the Word.

    May our souls hunger and thirst for the Life that comes to us from His Words. May we not be like the dead souls which lack the senses to detect their own Spiritual starvation. But may we press on into the rushing waters of His Word. They keep coming and coming. The moment we praise Him for His Words, there are many more to be spoken. The Spirit will cause the Words to rain down and drench our  souls so that we may be refreshed. 

His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and His voice was like the sound of rushing waters. Rev 1

9. Praise Him for His Word.

     Even as we praise Him by faith for His Words of Life, we are given the victory. In the midst of the praise of His Word, He removes our fears and captivates our trust. 

     In God, whose word I praise, 

   in God I trust; I will not be afraid. 
   What can mortal man do to me? Ps 56:4

10. Make His Word our Highest Joy

       As we behold the awesome power of the Word of God that allows us to be thoroughly equipped for every work, to enlighten us to the love of the Father, to refine and purge us from deeds that result in death, and to make known to us the path of Life, we will surely find deep joy in the Word. We must consciously delight in His Words as our soul eats Them. Our choice to find joy in His Truth is manifestation of the faith which He has instilled in us. We will also find that a love for God and His people comes with this delighting in the Word of Christ. 

 When Your words came, I ate Them; 
   They were my joy and my heart’s delight, 
for I bear Your Name, 
   O LORD God Almighty. Jer 15:16

Excellent Read: The Resurrection of Christ and its Relation to the Inner Life of a Christian (by Octavius Winslow ~1830)