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The Word is powerful to kill, and specifically to kill your spiritual life. The more you get the Word the more you are condemned to die spiritually. Many churches do not realize this. Look at what Paul said to the Romans:
“I found that the very commandment (the Word)
that was intended to bring life actually brought death,"
[Romans 7.10]
If you're still living in sin and you read the bible, all you get is the Word. It is powerful, but powerful to bring you spiritual death, said Paul. Imagine if a lot of Christians study the bible while still enjoying sin and think they're being blessed spiritually! Yes, you get "blessed" by the Word. You get intellectual satisfaction. You can even go to the altar and weep because of it. But as long as you're not totally surrendered to God body, soul, and spirit, the Word brings you nothing but spiritual death. And the worse part is, you don't realize it because you feel blessed by it all.
Paul added when he wrote to the Corinthians:
"..the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life." [2 Corinthians 3.6]
Don't get it wrong.
The original intention of the Word was to bring life through the knowledge of
God that leads to Christ. Christ is the end of the law [Romans 10.4]. But sin and the Word cannot mix. If you mix them, the Word brings you nothing but spiritual death. The letter (of the law) kills.
God often gives non-believers a special grace to understand the Word while yet in sin. This grace gives them a chance to repent and get saved. But if they go on sinning stubbornly and ignore God's day of salvation for them, the Word produces death in them as well. The grace for salvation is withdrawn by God. But this grace is only for non-believers, not Christians. Christians who study the Word while enjoying sin gets nothing but spiritual death, even if they get smarter with God's Word.
God often gives non-believers a special grace to understand the Word while yet in sin. This grace gives them a chance to repent and get saved. But if they go on sinning stubbornly and ignore God's day of salvation for them, the Word produces death in them as well. The grace for salvation is withdrawn by God. But this grace is only for non-believers, not Christians. Christians who study the Word while enjoying sin gets nothing but spiritual death, even if they get smarter with God's Word.
But the Spirit gives life. The Word becomes life once the Holy Spirit enables you to understand it in your spirit. The Spirit of God won't do that if you're living in sin. But if you're living in God's will, the Word becomes flesh in you through the Holy Spirit. The Word is made flesh in you as the Word was made flesh in Christ. In other words, Jesus is "formed" in you [Galatians 4.19] so that you no longer live but Christ lives in you [Galatians 2.20]! It is given a new powerful meaning in you so that it produces LIFE in you, the LIFE of Jesus. The Jesus DNA.
The Word is powerful for death. But the Word made flesh is powerful for life.
I'll give you some examples how it operates. You read in the
bible, "But now that you know God—or rather are known
by God—how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable forces?
Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again? You
are observing special days and months and seasons and years! I fear
for you, that somehow I have wasted my efforts on you," [Galatians 4.9-10]. Reading that, you understand intellectually that the Galatians, after receiving Christ, went back to human traditions. Then you conclude that it's wrong to be enslaved again by human traditions and religious celebrations.
You got the Word. But the Word kills. Why? Because if you continue to observe "special days and months and seasons and years" when you're already in Christ, you die spiritually. And a lot of churches today still observe Christmas, Valentines, Easter, and even Sundays, which are all human traditions. When it's Saturday or Sunday, for instance, they think it's the Sabbath day for God. I've even seen some church people observe the year of the rabbit or snake or sheep--and things like that. They even put pompous Christmas trees in their churches and homes. If you think like this, you get the Word and it's powerful to kill you spiritually.
Now, when you get the Word and God turns it as Word made flesh in you, you get the LIFE of Jesus. What happens is something like this: You no longer observe special days or months or seasons or years. What's important to you is, everyday is the Lord's day, the Lord's Sabbath. You don't think that 6 days of the week are yours and God owns Sunday. You live daily as the Lord's Day! You don't celebrate the Lord's Day, as the world sees the word "celebrate." You live it. And no more Christmas, Easter, Valentines (some church folks change the name to Day of the Heart and think they've fooled God into believing they no longer celebrate Valentine's), church anniversaries, etc.
No more birthdays either. If you want to thank God for your church or the day of your birth, just do it simply. Thank him. Worship him and offer him lavish thanksgiving. Don't make a big deal of it. You don't need a special program and presentations for it. You may eat a special meal with your family. If nobody remembers your birthday or greets you, fine. If you don't have money to do any of the above, don't do it. There's no need to celebrate any man-invented traditions. Actually, these traditions were the idea of businesses so people would buy stuff on those special occasions.
You know what's the best way to thank God? A holy daily life in Christ. Offer your body as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God which is your spiritual worship. Remember?
No more birthdays either. If you want to thank God for your church or the day of your birth, just do it simply. Thank him. Worship him and offer him lavish thanksgiving. Don't make a big deal of it. You don't need a special program and presentations for it. You may eat a special meal with your family. If nobody remembers your birthday or greets you, fine. If you don't have money to do any of the above, don't do it. There's no need to celebrate any man-invented traditions. Actually, these traditions were the idea of businesses so people would buy stuff on those special occasions.
You know what's the best way to thank God? A holy daily life in Christ. Offer your body as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God which is your spiritual worship. Remember?
Word made flesh is when the Word of God radically transforms you to have the Jesus DNA in you. You begin to to think, live, and move like Jesus. No, the more accurate way of saying it is, Jesus begins to really live in your body! The Word made flesh! It turns the world upside down!
Another example
is reading Luke 4.18, for instance: "The Spirit of the Lord is on
me, because he has anointed me to
proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the
prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to
set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
A lot of church people read that and see it as Jesus' call to ministry and a summary of what he was to do. That's all. They don't see themselves in it. If that's what you get, that's the Word. But Word made flesh will turn you and your ministry into that passage, and vice versa, no matter if you're not a pastor or church worker. When you see that, because you have received Jesus 100 percent in you, you see how the Spirit of the Lord has also anointed you with the same ministry, and you live it daily.
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