Beloved fellow disciples,
I urge you to take seriously this teaching as it carries a weight that is essential for us, especially during the times in which we now live. You have probably noticed through the years that many of our teachings point out the works that the Holy Spirit does within us is first TO us, then IN us, and finally THROUGH us. And because we cannot give what we have not first received, that progression is key in our roles advancing the Kingdom of our awesome God here on earth.
You’ll see here a strong emphasis on the “THROUGH US” aspect of our discipleship assignments, and how serious this issue can be – both for others and for ourselves. So as the Ruach HaKodesh shines the Light of Truth as we read, let’s open our hearts and minds and ask Him to reveal ‘if there be any wicked way in me’ just as our brother David did in Psalm 139:24. Then after we’ve dealt with whatever He shows us, let us go forth in boldness, making the most of every opportunity to minister the Word of Life to others. (Ephesians 5:15)
Love,
Mum Nancy
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Beloved Family… I’d like to direct our attention to one of the most potentially wonderful fruit-producing gifts our Heavenly Father has given to each one of us. You and I have this gift as a birthright contained in our personal and collective arsenals of abilities and assets. And, as far as our demonic enemies are concerned, thanks to the awesome Redemptive Salvation that our Messiah has earned for us, this gift is now a weapon we can wield to invade and overtake the earthly realms of Darkness. Against this weapon, our enemies have nothing in their arsenal that can prevail. They cannot overcome this weapon… if… we use it in union with God’s Word. And with it we can truly advance and strengthen and spread God’s Kingdom all across the Earth!
So what is this potentially unstoppable gift? It’s our ability to operate according to God’s Laws of ‘sowing and reaping’. I’m referring specifically to the power and authority we have to speak forth power-packed, reality-changing words. There’s much more to this incredibly powerful gift than first meets the eye. Words convey tremendous power from each person to the rest of Creation. This is true especially when our hearts are united with God’s Word. When our desire and purpose coincide with the purpose and desire of our Creator, and we act in concert with Him, we can release His Perfect Presence, Authority, and Power into our situations and circumstances and personal interactions! But, even when we speak words in ways that are contrary to the commands of God, the power we are able to release will inevitably cause multi-level changes to take place within anyone who hears and understands them! So when we use this gift, we deeply affect God’s Creation, either for good or for evil!
Words are like bullets or shells that are fired from guns! Every time a word is spoken, powerful energy is released into the universe and something or someone always is hit and affected, and changed in some way! Words that are heard or read and understood, hit and enter the brain and soul of anyone who hears them. Their impact registers physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually within the makeup of each recipient. So those words exert a corresponding influence that affect, and is permanently etched into, the brain and soul of the hearer.
We have this power because every child of Adam is made to be God’s image and likeness. And God creates, sustains, blesses, and alters reality through His Living Word which He speaks forth. As He speaks forth His Word, massive changes always take place within His Creation:
“Then God said, “Let there be light!” and there was light.” (Genesis 1:2 TLV)
“In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. All things were made through Him, and apart from Him nothing was made that has come into being!” (John 1:1-3 TLV, Emphasis added)
“For as the rain and snow come down from heaven, and do not return there without having watered the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to sow and bread to eat, so My Word will be that goes out from My mouth. It will not return to Me in vain, but will accomplish what I intend, and will succeed in what I sent it for.” (Isaiah 55:10-11 TLV, Emphasis added)
God speaks forth His Word creates whatever He wishes! His Word is infallibly perfect and All-Sufficient in His Creative Ability. We were made to be God’s image and likeness, but because in our present state we are fallen, sin-corrupted creatures, we fall far short of God’s original intent to make us in His image and likeness. However… we still retain some significant creative power in our ability to speak and write. And if we submit wholeheartedly to the Word who calls us into His Service… and if we learn to think, live, act, react and interact as one with Him, we can still participate in His perfect success and guaranteed fruitfulness… thanks to our Blood Covenant Union with God’s Word and Spirit! God acts through His Word and so, just as God’s Word proceeds from the Father, so can God’s Word proceed and act from within us… if… we agree to die to our former radical independence from God and allow Him to live and operate from within us! Beloved, this is an amazingly powerful and important truth! And along with it comes tremendous responsibility for which we will most certainly be held accountable!
For this reason, we are urged to be extremely careful and discerning when it comes to watching, controlling and choosing whether we will continue to live out from our independent Self Life, or whether we’ll defer to our indwelling Lord and allow Him to live and preside from within us. If God’s Word is free to serve as our indwelling Life… He will be habitually released to operate within the world… through us!
“A wise man’s heart teaches his mouth and adds persuasiveness to his lips. Pleasant words are honeycomb—sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.” (Proverbs 16:23-24 TLV)
“Let love be without hypocrisy—detesting what is evil, holding fast to the good. Be tenderly devoted to one another in brotherly love; outdo one another in giving honor. Do not be lagging in zeal; be fervent in spirit. Keep serving the Lord, rejoicing in hope, enduring in distress, persisting in prayer, contributing to the needs of the kedoshim, extending hospitality.
“Bless those who persecute you—bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another; do not be proud, but associate with the lowly. Do not be wise in your own eyes. Repay no one evil for evil; give thought to what is good in the eyes of all people. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live in shalom with all people. Never take your own revenge, loved ones, but give room for God’s wrath—for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine; I will repay,” says Adonai. Rather, “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink. For by doing so you will heap coals of fire upon his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” (Romans 12:9-21 TLV, Emphasis added)
We Are Ambassadors, Advancing God’s Kingdom on Earth
This brings to mind the commission that God began to teach to His priestly Blood Covenant people… the commission and responsibility of blessing other people in His Name. The first mention of the priestly aspect of our human ability to bless, is found in the book of Deuteronomy in the Torah:
“At that time Adonai set the tribe of Levi apart to carry the Ark of the Covenant of Adonai, to stand before Adonai to serve Him and TO PRONOUNCE BLESSINGS IN HIS NAME—as is the case to this day.” (Deuteronomy 10:8 TLV, Emphasis added)
It is an incredibly powerful ability, opportunity, and privilege to be able to have God’s Living Word abiding and operating from within us… releasing the blessings that are contained in Him into our Heavenly Father’s Creation. In this way we can ‘feed, water and nurture’ the world with what the One True God has given us to release into it. If we cooperate, we can fulfill a variety of ‘gardening’ and nurturing functions. Our words can both sow good things into a person’s life, or they can help to uproot and extract noxious curse-imparting ‘weeds’ that are negatively affecting the lives and destinies of others. With our words, we can either enrich ourselves and others, or do toxic damage. But God desires and commands His people to avoid being overcome by the evil that we encounter in this world, and instead, we are to overcome that evil with the Good of God’s Presence that abides and presides from within us.
The ability we have to bless ourselves and others through the use of our human thoughts, judgments, and words is extremely important and universally beneficial. To have God’s Perfect Word abiding in us is like being able to release Rivers of Living Water from our innermost being into this desolate desert of a world! Releasing the Lord into our situations and personal interactions can be compared to the effects that take place when you channel ample amounts of water and healthy beneficial nutrients toward plants, trees and shrubs and inert seeds that are embedded within a very dry, barren desert area! When we release God’s Word, He imparts life, health and fruitful productivity into whatever we speak Him into. But when we utter caustic remarks and curses, we cause great damage, devastation and desolation. Words can be Life-giving and restorative… or they can be extremely toxic, caustic, soul-murdering missiles of destruction by which we attack others and do enormous damage to whatever we choose to condemn… but at the same time, we do great damage to ourselves.
“Happy is the one who has not walked in the advice of the wicked, nor stood in the way of sinners, nor sat in the seat of scoffers. But his delight is in the (Living and written) Torah of Adonai, and on His Torah he meditates (and interacts) day and night.He will be like a planted tree over streams of water, producing its fruit during its season. Its leaf never droops—but in all he does, he succeeds.
“The wicked are not so. For they are like chaff that the wind blows away. Therefore the wicked will not stand during the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For Adonai knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked leads to ruin.” (Psalm 1 TLV, Amplification and emphasis added)
“Thus says Adonai:“Cursed is the one who trusts in man, and depends on flesh as his arm, and whose heart turns from Adonai. For he will be like a bush in the desert.He cannot see goodness when it comes, but will dwell in parched places in the wilderness—a salt land where no one lives.
“Blessed is the one who trusts in Adonai, whose confidence is in Adonai. For he will be like a tree planted by the waters, spreading out its roots by a stream.It has no fear when heat comes, but its leaves will be green.It does not worry in a year of drought, nor depart from yielding fruit.” (Jeremiah 17:5-8 TLV)
“But the one who looks intently into the perfect Torah (the Living, indwelling Word of God), the (Personified Divine) Torah that gives Freedom, and continues in it, not becoming a hearer who forgets but a doer who acts—he shall be blessed in what he does.” (James 1:25 TLV)
So notice that God intensely desires to bless us, and the rest of His Creation, by speaking His Living Word into us so that we can share His Word with others. It’s not enough for us to studiously devour His written Word for our own consumption. To do that is helpful, but it is not effective for accomplishing God’s complete purposes and desires for us. Choosing to remain at the level of reading and studying the written Word is like having a starving man obsess over the menu of a restaurant without ever going beyond that. Knowing what’s in the menu will not feed us or anyone else! We must go beyond that to actually being able to consume and ingest and share the real food to which the menu is meant to direct us! Only when we become one with the Real Food can we receive and share the Life and Strength that only come from God’s actual real Living Feast!
God wants to bless us with the Presence and Life-giving Power of His Beloved Son, the Living Word! He wants His Son to become flesh once again from within our flesh. When that happens, He acts as our Eternal Resurrection Life! So our relationship and interaction with the Word of God must go far beyond mere abstract, impersonal intellectual study and theoretical head knowledge. He wants us to be able to feast upon and drink of the real Person who is The Bread from Heaven and The Endless Stream of His Resurrection Life can flow out of us Living Water that God’s Spirit causes to flow into us and can then also be shared and imparted through us!
“Behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers on the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,” declares the Lord. “For this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the Lord: “I will put My Law (My Living Torah) within them and write it (Him) on their heart; and (through Him I will become one with them and) I will be their God, and they shall be My people. They will not teach again, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they will all know Me (intimately and very personally, in a new, dynamic, life-transforming way), from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares the Lord, “for I will forgive their wrongdoing, and their sin I will no longer remember.” (Jeremiah 31:31-34 NASB, Amplification and emphasis added)
So since God intends to have His Son, His Living Word, live and act from within us at all times, it stands to reason that His infallible, unfailing Word must be able to reveal Himself and His very effective Presence from within our yielded flesh! Then our words become incredibly powerful and world-changing because it is no longer we who are speaking, but it is the Son of God speaking and acting through us, by the Power of His Holy Spirit! This is why we must be trained to defer to God’s Living Word at all times! The world doesn’t need us… WE ALL NEED HIM!
“If anyone thinks he is religious and yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is futile.” (James 1:25-26 TLV)
“Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers and sisters, since you know that we will receive a stricter judgment. For we all stumble in many ways. If someone does not stumble in speech, he is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body as well. And if we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we guide their whole body as well. See also the ships—though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. So also the tongue is a small member—yet it boasts of great things. See how so small a fire sets ablaze so great a forest! And the tongue is a fire. The tongue is a world of evil placed among our body parts. It pollutes the whole body and sets on fire the course of life—and is set on fire by Gehenna.” (James 3:1-6 TLV, Emphasis added)
God blesses His own by and through His Living and written Word. There is no greater blessing in existence than the great Gift that God has imparted to us in and through His Perfect, All-Sufficient Word. In Him is contained all the Fullness of the Life, Wisdom, Covenant Love and everlasting faithfulness of our Heavenly Father. And as soon as we embrace, and submit to, and become one with Yeshua, agreeing with what He is and what He is here to do to us, in us and through us, we’re allowing God’s Word Himself to garden, nurture and bless everything around us in and through and by the words that pour out from within our hearts!
So all the while our Father is blessing us with His Word, we can share what we derive from the Word and, in turn, we can share His bounty with our family members, friends, neighbors, co-workers, and anyone and anything else that may happen to be within our sphere of influence! Then the Word of God can be supreme and omnipresent and active within more and more of His Creation, just as it was in the very beginning, before the powers of Darkness began their campaign of rebellion and interference throughout God’s physical time and space level of Creation.
“In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. All things were made through Him, and apart from Him nothing was made that has come into being.” (John 1:1-3 TLV)
“Therefore, my loved ones, just as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now even more in my absence—work out your salvation with fear and trembling. For the One working in you is God—both to will and to work for His good pleasure!” (Philippians 2:12-13 TLV, Emphasis added)
God’s Vineyard Includes All of Creation
So God lives in us to garden, manage, feed and prune His Creation Vineyard, through His Word. And… because we are made in His image and likeness, and are empowered by the Spirit to act in that capacity, we can cooperate and share in what He does to bless and nurture Creation through our words. Because of Him our words can have awesome creative and beneficial life-imparting power! As long as we abide and act as one with the Word of God, and agree fully with what He is here to be and to do, we are equipped to release Him into our situations, circumstances and interactions with other people! But if we remain separate from Him, choosing to think, act, react and interact as rebellious, self-absorbed independent agents, even if we strive to be ‘religious’ and ‘spiritual’, our words are like destructive bolts of lightning that pierce, penetrate, and impregnate human hearts and lives with things that are evil and destructive!
Whenever we speak a word, we always hit at least one target. It doesn’t matter if we only silently release those words into ourselves. If we do, the words register within us and we are affected, one way or the other. And, if we pronounce them aloud in the sight or hearing of those who are around us, then the creative power of our words enters into our own brain and soul and deposits whatever they contain into our innermost being, even as they also enter into whoever else may hear them!
“Do not let unwholesome [foul, profane, worthless, vulgar] words ever come out of your mouth, but only such speech as is good for building up others, according to the need and the occasion, so that it will be a blessing to those who hear [you speak].” (Ephesians 4:29 AMP, Emphasis added)
So yes, our words enter and affect our souls, but they also transmit their creative force into whoever or whatever else read or heard what we said! From the moment we release them, the power of our words affects the targets to which we send them, and they are deeply impacted and changed. And this is why God lays to our credit, or to our blame, the words we use to purify and bless, or the words by which we pollute, curse and damage portions of His beautiful Creation:
“Then a demon-plagued man, who was blind and mute, was brought to Yeshua; and He healed him, so that he spoke and saw. All the crowds were astounded and saying, “This can’t be Ben-David, can it?”
“But hearing this, the Pharisees said, “This fellow drives out demons only by beelzebul, the ruler of demons.”
“Knowing their thoughts, Yeshua said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself is destroyed, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand. If satan drives out satan, he is divided against himself; how then will his kingdom stand? And if I drive out demons by beelzebul, by whom do your sons drive them out? For this reason, they will be your judges.
“But if I drive out demons by the Ruach Elohim (Spirit of God), then the Kingdom of God has come upon you! Or how can one enter a strong man’s house and carry off his property, unless he first ties up the strong man? Then he will thoroughly plunder his house. He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters.
“For this reason I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but blasphemy against the Ruach will not be forgiven. Whoever speaks a (theoretical) word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Ruach ha-Kodesh (the Spirit who causes the Living Word of God to be present within you) will not be forgiven, neither in this age nor in the one to come.”
“Either make the tree good (real) and its fruit good (real), or make the tree rotten (false) and its fruit rotten (false); for the tree is known by its (real or false) fruit. You brood of vipers! How can you who are evil say anything good?
“For from the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. THE GOOD MAN FROM HIS GOOD TREASURY BRINGS FORTH GOOD, AND THE EVIL MAN FROM HIS EVIL TREASURY BRINGS FORTH EVIL. BUT I TELL YOU THAT ON THE DAY OF JUDGMENT, MEN WILL GIVE ACCOUNT FOR EVERY CARELESS WORD THEY SPEAK. FOR BY YOUR WORDS YOU WILL BE JUSTIFIED, AND BY YOUR WORDS YOU WILL BE CONDEMNED!” (Matthew 12:22-37 TLV, Emphasis added)
Understanding “Do Unto Others” is Critically Important in Disciple Life
Dear ones, let me repeat this vitally important point: whatever we do in our heart of hearts to another, we do to ourselves as well. If we are careless in the use of this tremendous Gift God has given to us, we will personally pay a very heavy price. For whatever we speak forth into our situations, circumstances and interactions with others… will also always register within our own brain and soul, like seeds that are sown into the soil of our lives! And just the way seeds work… whatever the words contain, is exactly what we will reap… at a later season… in much greater quantities than we originally planted! And without fail, our words that we chose to inflict on someone else will create and produce the same result in our own lives! So our words are double-edged swords whose effects can be understood by this analogy:
Imagine that your job is to prepare meals for others. You can choose to serve whatever you want to give them. But… whatever you choose for them, is also what you will be forced to eat yourself! This is the effect that your words always have, even if all you do is to think them in the silence of your own heart! Whatever you shoot out at anything, will inevitably also hit and embed itself within you! So be very careful concerning your choice and use of words, beloved… even if all you’re doing is thinking them in the privacy of your own heart!
“Do to others as you would have them do to you. If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are doing good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do this. And if you lend to those from whom you expect to take, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners in order to receive back the same.
“But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Then your reward will be great and you will be sons of Elyon, for He is kind to the ungrateful and evil ones. Be compassionate, just as your Father is compassionate to you.”
Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Pardon, and you will be pardoned. Give, and it will be given to you—a good measure, pressed down, shaken together, overflowing, will be given into your lap. For whatever measure you measure out will be measured back to you.” (Luke 6:31-38 TLV, Emphasis added)
“Do not be deceived—God is not mocked. For whatever a man sows, that he also shall reap.” (Galatians 6:7 TLV)
“SURELY YOU DESIRE TRUTH IN THE INNER BEING. MAKE ME KNOW WISDOM INWARDLY. Cleanse me with hyssop and I will be clean. Wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness, so the bones You crushed may rejoice. Hide Your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities. CREATE IN ME A CLEAN HEART, O GOD, AND RENEW A STEADFAST SPIRIT WITHIN ME. Do not cast me from Your Presence—take not Your Ruach ha-Kodesh from me. Restore to me the joy of Your Salvation (Yeshua) and sustain me with a willing spirit.
“Then will I teach transgressors Your ways and sinners will return to You. Deliver me from bloodguilt, O God—God of my salvation. Then my tongue will sing for joy of Your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare Your praise. For You would not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it, nor be pleased by burnt offerings. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.” (Psalm 51:8-19 TLV, Emphasis added)
God has entrusted his image and likeness humans with a tremendous opportunity and responsibility. We have the power to speak our words either to sow and reap great benefits, but we can also decide to rebel and, like the rebellious demonic powers of Darkness, we too can unleash destructive forces, in the form of curses, verbal attacks, and abusive barbs into motion that wreak tremendous harm on ourselves and on those around us!
“Then He sent the crowds away and went into the house. His disciples came to Him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.”
“He answered, “The one sowing the good seed is the Son of Man (who sows through those who speak in His Name), and the field is the world. And the good seed, these are the sons of the kingdom; and the weeds are the sons of the evil one. The enemy who sowed them is the devil, the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels.
“Therefore just as the weeds are gathered up and burned with fire, so shall it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send forth His angels, and they will gather out of His Kingdom all stumbling blocks and those who practice lawlessness (go against God’s Word). They will throw them into the fiery furnace; in that place will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the Kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear!” (Matthew 13:36-43 TLV, Amplification and emphasis added)
“Brothers and sisters, you were called to freedom—only do not let your freedom become an opportunity for the flesh, but through love, serve one another. For the whole Torah can be summed up in a single saying: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not destroyed by one another.” (Galatians 5:13-15 TLV)
So beloved… always remember the admonition we’ve received from the Spirit of God:
“But on this one will I look, one humble and of a contrite spirit,WHO TREMBLES AT MY WORD!” (Isaiah 66:2b TLV, Emphasis added)