Focus: It's More Than Talk!

Text: Lk.11:27,28

"A certain woman of the company lifted up her voice, and said unto him, Blessed is the womb that bare thee, and the paps which thou hast sucked. But he said, Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it."

It's good to adore God for His word and appreciate the preacher for the great delivery of it, but to experience the efficacy and reality of God's word requires a lot more than talk. It is a walk. God requires that we walk the talk. The Lord Jesus Christ says, "And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say" (Lk.6:46). The lady in our text is full of praises for Christ for the way and manner He taught the word with audacity and authority, but the Lord Jesus Christ makes her and all others to understand that it does not stop at praising Him, but at the doing of the word of God itself. That is where everything boils down to - observing the word of God.

It is said that the proof of the pudding is in the eating. The psalmist says, "O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him… How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth!" (Ps.34:8; 119:103).

When the children of Israel tasted the manna, they said, "And the house of Israel called the name thereof Manna: and it was like coriander seed, white; and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey" (Ex.16:31). They gave it a name and described the taste as "wafers made with honey." The word 'manna' means, What's this? 

You can only know what the word of God is like by doing what it says, and faith is the hand that takes all that God has to give, and one can only prove its efficacy by obeying or doing it.

Moses wrote, "And the people WENT ABOUT, and GATHERED it, and GROUND it in mills, or BEAT it in a mortar, and BAKED it in pans, and MADE cakes of it: and THE TASTE OF IT was as the TASTE OF FRESH OIL" (Num.11:8). God's word is our manna, and those who go for it, who gather it, who ground it on the mills of their hearts, who beat it in mortar of their souls, who bake it in the pans of their minds, and who make real and tangible cakes out of it by faith and obedience, only they can and will prove that the word of God has indeed the taste of fresh oil. The word of God is milk for the spiritual infants and meat for the spiritual adults.

On the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit came on the disciples of Christ, and they were filled with the Spirit with the evidence of speaking in other tongues. It is said that the observing multitude "were all amazed, and were in doubt, saying one to another, What meaneth this?" (Act.2:12). The initial manifestation of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples was an unprecedented experience, and indeed a total mystery. Those who did not have the experience wondered about it.

It is only by personal experience that one can begin to decode and unravel that mystery. The word of God is more than a story in a history book; it is still real and relevant today.

You can testify of the power of the word of God in your own personal life. The word still works. Taste it and see for yourself. You can activate the power of the word in your own life by doing what it says. Luke reports that the ten lepers were healed as they obeyed the word of Christ. "And it came to pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed" (Lk.17:14). The word of God is activated and becomes effective in one's life through personal belief and practice. The lady in the Song of Solomon testifies, "As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons. I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and HIS FRUIT WAS SWEET TO MY TASTE" (2:3). Taste just a little of God's word and you will marvel at the great effect of it, and I tell you, the taste of it will linger in your mouth.

It is about time we moved from the place of knowing to the place of doing. Jesus Christ says, " If ye KNOW these things, happy are ye if ye DO them" (Jh.13:17). Prove the word for yourself by doing what it says. You will find, at the end of the day, that the miracles of the Bible Days still happen. We cannot do what God's word says if we doubt it. We cannot obey God's word if we do not believe it. We cannot keep the word of God if we have no regard for it. And we cannot do the word of God and not experience the reality of it in our own lives today.

The word Christ used for 'keep' is 'phulasso' in the Greek, and it is from this word that the word phylactery is derived. Phylactery is a Jewish term that has to do with the carrying of certain portions of the Torah in one of two small black leather cube-shaped cases. It was worn by male Jews 13 years of age and older. They wear or carry it about as reminders of God and of their solemn duty to keep the Law in their day to day life. 

By being doers of God's word we become the custodians of it. We are required of God to relish, cherish, and treasure the word of the Living God, and it is better done by doing what it says and encountering the truth and reality of it. Our theology is better believed when it becomes our biography - an integral part of our lives.

People of God, let us do and keep the word of God! I assure you that by so doing incredible miracles will begin to happen to us in ways unimaginable. Amen!

by Bishop Moses E. Peter