We’re talking about the Word of God today, specifically the Word of God working in you. AW Tozer had this to say about God’s Word. “The Bible is the written word of God, and because it is written it is confined and limited by the necessities of ink and paper and leather. The Voice of God, however, is alive and free as the sovereign God is free. “The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.” The life is in the speaking words. God’s word in the Bible can have power only because it corresponds to God’s word in the universe. It is the present Voice that makes the written Word all-powerful. Otherwise, it would lie locked in slumber within the covers of a book.¹ Tozer is right. We have to get the Word out of the book, out from between the leather covers and off the pages and down on the inside of us for God’s will to be performed in us. As we will see in this podcast, Paul commended the Thessalonians for this very thing. How the Word of God Is Remarkably at Work in You, that’s our focus on this week’s Light on Life.

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Why The Gospel of Jesus Destroys the Gospel of Performance

[Tweet “We need to exhort one another to press on, to run, to hasten, to move rapidly and decisively forward in the things of God.”]

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You can view a basic transcript of this podcast at the bottom of this section.

Accept the Challenge

Each week’s podcast contains a call to action. The Word of God will not produce in your life unless you put it into operation.
This week’s call is:

The Word of God will do what God designed it to do – build you up on your most holy faith. Make it your mission to  get into the Word on a daily basis.

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Testimony is vital to a believer’s life. We overcome by it (Rev. 12:11). Each week’s podcast also contains a question designed to encourage testimony.
This week’s question is:

Question: How do you study your Bible? Share your story in the comments section below.

Episode Resources:

We are currently teaching in the book of First Thessalonians. You can click on the links below to listen to some of these podcasts.

1. #S10-024: How a Spiritual Dad Can Demonstrate the Love Walk towards His Children [Podcast]
2. #S10-023:What’s Our Responsibility to Those Newly Come to Faith in God [Podcast]
3. #S10-022: Why the Second Coming of Jesus is the Expectation of All Believers [Podcast]
4. #S10-021: Why Modeling the Jesus Life Is Such a Powerful Witness [Podcast]
5. #S10-20: Why Turning from Idols Is A Super Exceptional Move of God [Podcast]
6. #S10-019: Why It’s Vital that Jesus Followers Pray for One Another [Podcast]
7. #S10-018:How to Start a Power-Packed Effective Church: Lessons from Thessaloniki [Podcast]
8. #S10-017: How the Breath of God Inspired the Writing of First Thessalonians [Podcast]

About Emery

Emery committed his life to the Lord Jesus Christ over 45 years ago and has served as both a full-time pastor and an itinerant minister. He and his wife Sharon of 40 years emphasize personal growth and development through the Word of God. The ministry of the Holy Spirit is the focus and the hallmark of their mission. Read more about them here.

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If you enjoyed the podcast, please rate it on Stitcher Radio and leave a review. If you have a suggestion for a Bible topic, you would like to see taught, or if you have a question, please e-mail me at emery@emeryhorvath.com

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Podcast Notes

The Word at Work in You: The Case of the Thessalonians

1 Thessalonians 2:12–16 (ESV) — 12 we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory. 13 And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers. 14 For you, brothers, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea. For you suffered the same things from your own countrymen as they did from the Jews, 15 who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out, and displease God and oppose all mankind 16 by hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles that they might be saved—so as always to fill up the measure of their sins. But wrath has come upon them at last!

• We are in verse twelve of the second chapter of First Thessalonians.
• We’ve seen, in a previous podcast, that Paul was a spiritual dad to this church.
• We looked at some of the traits a real spiritual dad would exhibit.
• Discipling young Jesus’ followers is what it’s all about.
• Paul continues on in this vein here in verse twelve.

The Word at Work in You: Encouragement and Exhortation

• As an earthly father would do, Paul exhorts and encourages the saints at Thessalonica.
• We need both of these aspects in our lives.
• Jesus’ followers need exhortation and encouragement.
• What’s the difference between being exhorted and encouraged?
• The word exhorted is a verb and it means to earnestly support, console, or encourage a response or action.
• These are positive type ‘can do’ reinforcements.
• They are designed to motivate actions in people.
• We need to be pushed to grow, develop, and go higher.
• Jesus’ followers need to be continually challenged to go forward.
• I keep hearing those words from the Spirit of God: ‘Emery go forward.’
• Don’t settle — press on — push forward — go to the head of the class — be the best you can be with God’s help always giving Him the credit.
• One gentleman said it this way and with that thought, here is the Quote of the Day.
• I can’t give credit to who said this because the source is unknown.
• But one unknown soul said the following.

Acquaintances accept, friends encourage, brothers exhort²

• Concerning his own life Paul said.

Philippians 3:14 (ESV) — 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

• The Greek word ‘press on’ is the word we want to look at and with that thought here is the Definition of the Day.
• ‘Press on’ means to move rapidly and decisively toward an objective, hasten, run, and press on.
• We need to exhort one another to press on, to run, to hasten, to move rapidly and decisively forward in the things of God.
• But, there’s a balance here — this is not just a relentless drive beating people down – no encouragement is also needed to help give a balance.
• The Greek word encourage here is also a verb, an active thing, that means to comfort, to alleviate sorrow or distress; give emotional strength.
• You see encouragement goes hand in hand with exhortation because what happens on days when you are doing a whole lot less than excellent?
• You’ve had those days I’m sure — I’ve had those days.
• Instead of pressing on and pushing forward, we slack up and maybe even lose ground.
• We go to the back of the class instead of the head of the class.
• During those times encouragement is needed.
• The Holy Spirit is a Comforter and if you are hooked up with Him.
• The word Comforter is the Greek word Paraclete and it means one called alongside to help.
• Failures happen and a spiritual child needs to know that just because you failed does not make you a failure.
• The Spirit of God is there to pull you up and we need to be there for one another so that He can use us to express that encouragement and comfort.
• The Lord knows that we need it.
• ‘We encouraged each one of you,’ Paul said, and ‘we cared about you enough to challenge you to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom.’
• The ministry of encouragement was a big part of life in the early church.

Acts 15:32 (ESV) — 32 And Judas and Silas, who were themselves prophets, encouraged and strengthened the brothers with many words.

The Word at Work in You: Specific Versus General Praise

• This brings us now to verse thirteen.
• Paul says.

And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.

• Paul’s praise unto God was specific – we thank God constantly for this fact — he’s getting ready to tell them what this fact is.
• Before we get to that fact know that there’s a great point to be made here on being specific with your thanks.
• It does a world of good for people.
• What do I mean by that?
• Well, consider these two approaches to being thankful.
• “I just want to let you know that I thank God for you.”
• Compare that statement with “I just want to let you know that I thank God for you because you are such a giving and caring person and, you always extend yourself for others. You never think about yourself.”
• Which of the two statements would you rather hear, the one with all the details or the bottom line statement, ‘I thank God for you?
• People don’t want you to be efficient when it comes to sharing words from your heart.
• Now, to be effective, the praise must be real.
• You can’t say to a stingy tightwad that you are such a giver.
• That won’t fly.
• Paul said, ‘I thank God for you,’ and then he told them why.

The Word at Work in You: Receiving God’s Word

because when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.

• Now if you ever shared the Word of God with anybody — if you’ve done it for any length of time, you know that there is a night and day difference in how people perceive both the message and the messenger.
• And, with that thought, here is the Illustration of the Day.

My spiritual dad Kenneth Hagin had several extraordinary encounters with God. In one such visitation, the Lord told him to stretch out his hand and when he did, Jesus laid the finger of his right in the palms of each of his hands. It was a special anointing for healing. To get that anointing to work, Jesus told Kenneth, ‘Tell the people that I appeared to you. Tell them that if they will believe that you‘re anointed when you lay hands on them that anointing will flow out of your hands into their bodies and effect a healing a cure in them. But this anointing will only work if you tell them.

• There’s a lesson — you have to believe something to receive something.
• If you don’t believe the messenger, you will leave that place having received nothing from the Word and then you’ll blame the preacher for not being up to par when in effect it’s you that have not made a demand for that anointing.
• This works for all of the varied anointings of God, I don’t care which one we’re talking about teaching anointing, healing anointing, singing anointing — it doesn’t matter.
• You have to believe something for God’s power to flow.
• If you want answers to questions, you have to believe the Word has the answer and that God will get it to you.

The Word at Work in You: How You Hear and What You Hear

• Jesus put His finger on this concept in the following two passages.

Mark 4:24 (ESV) — 24 And he said to them, “Pay attention to what you hear: with the measure you use, it will be measured to you, and still more will be added to you.

Luke 8:18 (ESV) — 18 Take care then how you hear, for to the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he thinks that he has will be taken away.”

• Jesus said take heed to what you hear and, also take heed how you hear.
• What you hear is content.
• How you hear is attitude.
• So, start with the first one, content.
• What’s your opinion about the content of what you are hearing?
• Is the content the Word of God?
• You know just because a person starts with a Bible verse doesn’t mean that what you are getting ready to hear is God’s Word.
• Wolves in sheep’s clothing use Bible verses.
• But it’s not just wolves that instigate error.

The Word at Work in You: Well-Meaning Believers and Error

• Sometimes well-meaning believers, you know people who are truly saved and love the Lord, use Bible verses inappropriately or out of context.
• The first church that I was a member of after giving my heart to Jesus was a Holiness Church.
• In that church, they taught that women wearing pants were wrong.
• They used this verse as the reason.

Deuteronomy 22:5 (ESV) — 5 A woman shall not wear a man’s garment, nor shall a man put on a woman’s cloak, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord your God.

• Using this verse to prove that women shouldn’t wear pants is a misapplication of scripture.
• The intent of the verse is about men trying to be women and women trying to be men.
• A lot of what we are seeing with drag shows, drag queens, and LGBT is the group to whom this verse applies.
• The verse has to do with intent.
• We’ve heard teaching against healing the sick.
• For example, you may have heard someone use Paul’s thorn in the flesh as proof that healing is not for today.

2 Corinthians 12:7–10 (ESV) — So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited.

• The revelations Paul is referring to are the ones he received when Jesus took him to heaven.
• Yes, that has happened and does happen despite the fakes, phonies, and attention grabbers.
• Where there is a counterfeit, there’s a real.
• Paul said.

2 Corinthians 12:1–4 (ESV) — 1 I must go on boasting. Though there is nothing to be gained by it, I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord. 2 I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows. 3 And I know that this man was caught up into paradise—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows— 4 and he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter.

• Paul had a vision and revelation — he wasn’t able to distinguish whether he was in his body or out of his body.
• There are different levels or kinds of visions.
• You understand that man is spirit, soul, and body.
• And, that the spirit of man is the part of your being that’s born again.
• It’s your spirit that goes to heaven when you die — your body is left behind and buried.
• So Paul’s spirit, in the body, or out of the body went to heaven and through this vision/revelation, Paul heard things that he was not allowed to share.
• Because of the potential impact in the realm of the spirit of these revelations that Paul received, Satan attacked Paul.
• Now, here’s something to think about — the enemy is not all-knowing.
• Paul was taken to heaven, not Satan.
• The man of God received the revelation, not the devil.
• Satan didn’t know what the Lord showed Paul in this encounter.
• All he knew was that something occurred.
• A ripple in the realm of the Spirit took place.
• And with that thought, here is the Illustration of the Day.

I was out on a hiking trail a short while ago and as I approached a rather sizable body of water along the way, I heard popping in the water. I mean it was all over that body of water. As I approached, there was definite movement in the water everywhere. You could see the fishes dorsal fins breaking the waters surface. You could hear it — you could see it but here’s what you couldn’t tell. What kind of fish it was. As it turns out, there was a knowledgeable man hiking the same trail and he informed me that they were Alligator Gar. It had rained heavily the previous evening and that’s why they were so active.

• This is kind of what happened in the case of Paul going to heaven and receiving revelation from the Lord.
• The enemy knew there was movement in the water but he couldn’t tell what it was all about.
• So, he did what fishermen do — throw a hook in the general direction of the activity.
• This activity of the enemy, these attacks, were hurled in the general direction of Paul.
• Paul felt the weight of these attacks and it began to wear on him so he responded with prayers unto God for deliverance.

2 Corinthians 12:7–10 (ESV) — 7 And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. 8 For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

• Now some well-meaning ministers, I want to give them the credit here, went out and preached that Paul’s thorn in the flesh was sickness.
• It never says in one place here that sickness was the thorn.
• The difficulties came from a messenger of Satan who heaped on Paul weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities.
• These roadblocks came to try to hinder the message of the gospel going forth.
• It came to stop the work of the Word of God in people.
• If you don’t think so, that is that Paul’s thorn in the flesh was not sickness, look here in the book of Numbers.

Numbers 33:54–56 (ESV) — 54 You shall inherit the land by lot according to your clans. To a large tribe you shall give a large inheritance, and to a small tribe you shall give a small inheritance. Wherever the lot falls for anyone, that shall be his. According to the tribes of your fathers you shall inherit. 55 But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then those of them whom you let remain shall be as barbs in your eyes and thorns in your sides, and they shall trouble you in the land where you dwell. 56 And I will do to you as I thought to do to them.”

• Thorns in your side — what is that?
• It’s a figure of speech.
• If you check in the Bible for other uses of the word ‘thorn,’ you will see that it is used there as well as a figure of speech.
• Paul experienced weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities, and it took a toll on him.
• The point here is that some teach that sickness is one of God’s educational methods for learning spiritual realities.
• It’s not true — it’s a lie from the enemy.
• Now, that’s what some teach and they start out using Bible verses to make this erroneous case.
• The point here is to accept the Word only.
• You must recognize the Word and know it as the Word of God and not the Word of men.
• This was what the Thessalonians did.

The Word at Work in You: What Does It Mean to Accept the Word?

13 And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.

• The word accepted is another word we should look at.
• The Greek definition for accepted means to receive, accept, or welcome.
• So, those of Thessalonica accepted the Word as the Word of God not the Word of men — they welcomed it and received it.
• Accepting God’s Word as His Word and not the pastor’s message or the teacher’s message is what activates it.

2 Corinthians 1:19–22 (ESV) — 19 For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you, Silvanus and Timothy and I, was not Yes and No, but in him it is always Yes. 20 For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory. 21 And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, 22 and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.

• There’s a whole lot of God activity in this passage.
• God establishes us, anoints us, and seals us.
• The word establish is the one we want to look at.
• The Greek Word means to confirm, establish, make sure; prove valid, verify; strengthen inwardly, make unwavering, establish; increase in inward strength.
• How does God do all of this? — by His Word.
• That’s how the Word of God is remarkably at work in you.
• His Word in you confirms you, establishes you, and makes you sure.
• It establishes you, strengthens you inwardly, and makes you unwavering all the while causing you to increase in inward strength.
• The Word is always working in this way.
• If you are hearing it as the Word of God — it is doing something in you.

Now Father God, you are so wonderful, so lovely, marvelous are your works and that my soul knows right well. Thank you, thank you, thank you for your precious holy written Word. Than you that we have the privilege here in America to read it, to feed on it and, to act on it. It’s all according to your wisdom and your purpose that you founded in Christ before the world began. My my, it’s so marvelous. We don’t take the Word lightly — help us not to do that. We ask you in the wonderful Name of Jesus.

• How the Word of God Is Remarkably at Work in You, you guys have a great God week and we will see you next time for another edition of Light on Life.

Why Your Will is A Powerful Help to Healing

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