JESUS IS THE WORD

The Bible says that the beginning was The Word and The Word was with God (John 1:1) and that The Word was made flesh to dwell among us (John 1:14). See, Jesus Himself manifested in the flesh to be among people. He was the one who is The Word from the beginning. This means Jesus is The Word and The Word is Jesus.
 
Jesus is the Truth working within those who believe
The Word is also Truth. It is not mere saying, a principle, a concept or a guideline. We don’t pick and choose which Words apply in the world today or which is out-of-date. All of The Word is Truth as Jesus says He is the way, the truth and the life and that no man can come to the Father except by Him (John 14:6). When we have The Word in us, we have Jesus within us and to those who are believers, The Word is meant to work in our lives as truths that we follow, transform and change to become like Jesus (1 Thessalonians 2:13). Only by this way, can we come before God to pray or petition for what we want and not by our vain repetitions (Matthew 6:7)
 
To Abide in Jesus is to Abide by The Word
Jesus said, ‘abide in me and I will abide in you and only by abiding in me can you bear any fruit’ (John 15:4). If we don’t know The Word, it means we don’t know Jesus. When we know The Word, then we know what Jesus requires of us, where to stand in matters pertaining to this world and others will witness the fruit in our words and behaviour stemming from the choice we make because we abide in Him.
 
Abide in The Word to bear Fruit
Jesus says those who abide by His Words are those who will bear fruit. This means you will bear no fruit if you don’t know The Word of God. The twelve fruits we should bear are love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control (Galatians 5:22-23), righteousness, truth (Ephesians 5:9) and holiness (Romans 6:22). The fruits we bear do not come by our labour or the efforts of our hands. The fruits come through The Word nurtured within us, God and Jesus dwelling in us to bring forth the seed to fruition. The fruits are nurtured by our faith leading to our works of faith.
 
Faith comes by hearing The Word of God
Having faith is not the same as just believing. It is not a feeling or a knowing. Faith is hearing The Word of God and obeying it (Romans 10:16-17). Because Abraham heard and obeyed, as did Moses and Samuel and David and Paul, it was accounted to them for righteousness; that they believed what God said and acted according to what they heard (Galatians 3:6) This is the righteousness that we are called to obtain today, no longer the righteousness by following the law religiously without changing within. It is a righteousness by following God’s instructions that demonstrates our belief in God. To know The Word is to grow in faith so that we might obtain His righteousness. We are to be doers of The Word, not just hearers who do nothing because the gospel does not benefit those who only hear and don’t do what they hear with faith (James 1:22, Hebrews 4:2)
 
His Words teaches us His Righteousness
The Word helps to correct our thinking and align according to Jesus. It helps us to separate what is of the world and what is of God because our friendship with the world makes us the enemies of God (James 4:4). When we know Jesus, we have the benchmark to make decisions to navigate life according to the righteousness of God and not according to the righteousness of man (2 Timothy 3:16) We will understand the difference between right and wrong in God’s eyes. We will be able to renew our thinking and prove in our words and deeds to the will of God (Romans 12:2)

To Keep His Words is to Love Jesus
Jesus says that if any man loves Him, he will keep His Words. And if he does so, then God will love him and both God and Jesus will come to dwell in him (John 14:23) If we do now know His Words, how can we keep them and demonstrate our love for Jesus or God by keeping to His Words? When Jesus and God come to dwell within us, then we will hear their voices instructing and reminding us His righteousness
 
His sheep know His Voice
When we don’t know Jesus, we won’t recognise His voice within us. We won’t know if Jesus is speaking to us or if we are hearing the voice of an evil spirit, a familiar spirit or an unclean spirit speaking to us. (1 Samuel 16:14, Deuteronomy 18:11, Mark 3:30)
 
Jesus says His sheep knows His voice and that His sheep follow Him (John 10:27) How can we know the voice of Jesus if we don’t know The Word? How can we then follow Jesus and follow His ways? To know The Word is to know Jesus. Only then then can we call Him Lord and obey Him.
 
Keep His Words and He will do what you ask
Jesus says that when we keep His Words, then whatever we ask, He will surely do (John 15:7)! To keep His Words, is to follow and obey His Words. In this way, we show our love for Him and He will reciprocate by giving us good gifts that He already knows we need or want (Matthew 7:11) In fact those who keep His Words are blessed by God (Luke 11:28)
 
The Word is the Sword of the Spirit
We are in an unseen spiritual battle and need to put on the full armour of God to fight in this battle (Ephesians 6:11-13) The armour consists of a breastplate, shoes, shield, helmet and lastly a sword. The breastplate, shoes, shield and helmet protect us but the sword is the only weapon in our armoury.
 
The sword is The Word of God, that is Jesus. (Ephesians 6:14-17) If you do not have The Word of God with you and within you, you have no weapon. Jesus is our weapon. We may be protected by all the other implements but we will have no ability to fight with a sword because we will have no sword or a very small one if we don’t know The Word.

This sword also helps us to discern between what is of the flesh and what is of the Spirit because only to those who walk in the Spirit, will there be no condemnation to death but resurrection to life! (Hebrews 4:12, Romans 8:1)
Jesus Himself stayed the devil with The Word of God, not just because He quoted from The Word of God, but because He lived by The Word of God, that is, He lived by the righteousness of God
 
The Bread of Life is the The Word of God
How did Jesus live by The Word of God? When the devil tempted Him with all sorts of ideas, Jesus knew God’s benchmark for each and every taunt the devil had for Him (Matthew 4:1:11). Today we hear people say that God told them to do this or that but they haven’t measured what they believe they heard against what The Word of God really says because they don’t know The Word.
 
See, Jesus did not believe what the devil said. Jesus considered what the devil said and compared it to what is said in The Word of God to weigh what is the truth. By this He defeated the devil not just through quoting The Word of God but by knowing what the devil said was contrary to it. If you are not familiar with The Word of God, you will find it very difficult to avoid the plans of the devil to side track you in your walk with the Lord.
 
The Word of God cleans us from inside out
Jesus told the Pharisees that they looked clean on the outside but within, their hearts were wicked (Luke 11:39) When a person appears clean outwardly, it does not mean their minds, thoughts or deeds are clean. When we receive Christ as our Lord and Saviour, we are meant to transform and renew our thinking differently from when we were conceived (Romans 12:2). We are to ‘clean up’ our minds and our ways (2 Corinthians 7:1) and the spiritual soap to achieve this is by The Word. To learn and know what Jesus says about how we should go about our lives, believing and following His ways is how we are ‘cleaned’ or sanctified from this world (John 15:3, Ephesians 5:26)
 
The Word of God is the seed
Jesus tells us in the parable of the seeds that the seed is The Word of God. It is that, that is implanted into us when we first hear The Word of God but how we nurture it from here on, will be our responsibility. Some hear The Word and are hard-hearted and do not believe. Some hear The Word, believe and rejoice but don’t nurture what they have heard and The Word in them dries up. Others hear The Word but decide they prefer the world instead. All these will bear no fruit. The seed dies with them and within them. (Luke 8:11-15).
 
The Holy Spirit brings The Word to remembrance
The Word is the great testimony of God. Many, many things are said and taught in The Word. Jesus says the Holy Spirit will help us remember all those things that He teaches us. If you have only learnt a fraction of what Jesus says, then the Holy Spirit can only bring to your remembrance the fraction that you know. The same verses that you know will keep coming to mind but nothing new will be fed to your spirit to grow in your faith and walk with Jesus. (John 14:26)
 
Turn to God with your heart
Read The Word with your heart. It is the only way to God. It is the lamp that lights up the way we should walk to return to God (Psalm 119:105). Reading The Word with your heart is about getting to know Jesus and God, so that we may become like Him and when we draw close to Him, He will in turn draw close to us (James 4:8).
 
When we know The Word of God, we will know Jesus and then can we start to recognise that still small voice of His whisperings in our hearts and heads and know that He is speaking to us (1 Kings 19:12). We will experience a relationship with Him. We will see the difference between ‘relationship’ and ‘religion’. Religion is ritualistic and about ‘doing’ things rather than a relationship that enables us in ‘becoming’ who we are called to be. God looks at the intentions of our hearts and not the efforts of our flesh (Jeremiah 29:13) Our deeds by the flesh and good intentions are not the same as our deeds of faith by hearing The Word of God lest Jesus denies us (Luke 13:27, Matthew 25:12, Matthew 7:21)

  
But he answered and said, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, 
I do not know you.’
Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord,
shall enter into the kingdom of heaven;
but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
Matthew 25:12, Matthew 7:21