Powerful Word

People wonder why I never tire focusing on and speaking of the word.

For close to forty years, many people who know or have come across me found me dealing with the Bible one way or the other.

From giving out Bibles to challenging people to read them to starting reading clubs of sort to making audio Bibles, my ministry has always revolved around the Bible and its study.

The first reason is that the Bible sorted me out COMPLETELY.

As I have written elsewhere, when I got saved at nine, I happened to have many questions (probably too many), questions that the people who brought me to faith in Christ were unable to answer or show me how to get answers for myself.

Due to that, and of course with a combination of other factors, I rebelled as a teenager.

However, for me, God’s hand continued being upon me as there are things that I can’t explain why didn’t do, like drugs when all my friends did them.

At eighteen I rededicated my life to Christ. It was the same time I heard His call, the call I am walking in to date.

God created in me a great craving for His word that I was able to read the New Testament in a month. And there was no looking back after that.

The more I read, the more my questions were answered. I realised that some of the issues I had battled for years had disappeared and I did not even know when.

That is how I started prizing the Bible. I realised that it was the real answer to all life’s questions and issues.

Let me give a couple of other situations I have seen as I ministered the word to people.

When I was doing campus ministry, girls would come barely dressed as we all know.

Is it interesting that after studying the Bible with them for a short time the they would start to be dressed better yet we were not even studying dressing?

I am involved with some guys on the streets where my input is an Audio Bible and probably a physical one when they are available. There is little we talk about since it is about friendship.

One day I arrive and they tell me they want to go to church.

In a short while one who had dreadlocks has shaved them.

When I asked him why he had shaved, he said that it just felt wrong.

Listening to the Bible was enough power to destroy long held values and lifestyle choices.

So far some have left that life on the streets.

Many years ago, I was asked to start a Bible study in my house by some neighbours

A refugee group joined the study.

One day one of the guys who had challenged me to start the BS approached me requesting that I ask one of the refugees to stop ashaming the BS by smoking openly.

I responded that I was not the Holy Spirit and so will continue doing only what God had called me to.

He left in a huff, saying that he has no space for hypocrites.

Well, a few weeks later, this refugee asks us to pray for him to stop smoking. And he stopped.

He later intimated to me that he had battled smoking for over twenty-five years.

He is a pastor today.

I was told that the guy who left in protest married a second wife.

Stories abound. Stories just like these.

They confirm that the intake of God’s word has so much power, power that transforms anyone who ingests it.

It is not a waste of money to buy and make Audio Bibles to give freely. It is no waste of money to print and give reading plans. It is no waste of money to buy and give out Bibles.

The Bible has enough power to transform.

When I see a worship leader (whatever that means) dressed like a harlot, it becomes enough evidence that they do not spend time in God’s word.

When I see a pastor refusing to minister because he has not been paid or because what he is offered is below his class, it is also adequate evidence that the word does not feature prominently in his life.

When you see a minister who has issues loving his wife and defending her, it is easy to know that the word they know does not go beyond their minds.

In short, the word rightly consumed offers a spiritual balanced diet, diet that will produce everything God intended when He created you.

The word is God’s agent of formation and transformation.

We love quoting that God’s word released brings healing.

We forget that healing is a small element of God’s creative power. Though it appears big in our eyes, it really is one small chapter of God’s magnificence.

Remember the question Jesus asked, which is bigger, healing or forgiveness of sin’?

Forgiveness causes healing. Forgiveness is therefore a more complete healing than the physical one.

Sin is the sickness that causes other sicknesses.

Sin is a spiritual sickness that touches and infects all other parts of life.

And that is where the word comes in.

The word is the one that can penetrate life at that level, the only one.

Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. (John 17:17)

Our generation loves to talk about anointing and the power anointing carries

The word has more potent power than anointing, especially because it is the proper source of the anointing.

We MUST therefore devote more of our time to the proper intake of God’s word as the cause of our spiritual power.