Matthew 4:3-4. And the tempter came and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.'”
Matthew 6:9-10. “Pray, then, in this way: ‘Our Father who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. ‘Your kingdom come. Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven.”
Matthew 7:20-21.“So then, you will know them by their fruits. “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter.”
“If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” In this interchange between the devil and Jesus there is both a specific message and a broader message. What Satan was suggesting to Jesus was this. You can do anything. You are the Son of God. What Jesus conveyed to Satan in His response was that He who stood in front of him was limited to be the Son of Man. He had no greater advantages than the first man, Adam, when he had stood before Satan as the serpent in the garden of Eden.
In this Jesus was telling Satan that, though physical bread has its place, there was another more essential nourishment to live by and that is, ‘every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.’ In its broader application, Jesus was informing all who would be His followers that they too must live on ‘every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.’
The well-known beginning to the prayer that Jesus has given to His past and present disciples shows us that to live by ‘every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God’ is simply to hear and obey every word that our Father is speaking to us, just as each member of the heavenly host obeys every word utterly and completely in their devoted love for God. Over every choice of thought, word or deed Jesus tells us that we must constantly repeat “Your will be done, On earth (in me) as it is in heaven.”
“So then, you will know them by their fruits. “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter.” The Lord Jesus reminded His own then, as He reminds us now, that living for God is far more than crying out to Him as Lord, it consists in hearing and obeying His every word. The only way any of us can bear fruit for the kingdom of heaven is by living on ‘every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God’. His speaking of His will into us is constant. How consistent is our listening and doing?
In the society in which we live, few are willing to work consistently to their full capacity in order to achieve the utmost possible. Taking short cuts and complacency are rife. Blessedly, for each one who will follow Jesus fully God has made a way. Just as Jesus during His earthly sojourn was wholly dependent on His Father for the words He spoke and the deeds He performed, so can we rely wholly on the mighty power of God by His indwelling Holy Spirit to provide the words and to perform the deeds He ordains for us.
John 14:12-13. “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father. ” Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.” In these last days before He returns Jesus is earnestly calling a devoted remnant to be hearers of the word and doers also that they may be among those who are described in Revelation 14:4. ‘These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He goes. These have been purchased from among men as first fruits to God and to the Lamb’.
If we will, for love of Jesus, set aside our desires in favour of His will then by grace we also may become qualified and thus privileged to join the select throng who are described in Revelation 20:6. Blessed and holy is the one who has a part in the first resurrection; over these the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with Him for a thousand years. Surely only those who have learned obedience on earth will be fitted to reign with Him and represent His will as rulers on earth during the Millenium.
Please feel free to share your thoughts below. When you have finished with this post you may return to the main Posts page. https://hisupwardcall.com/posts/
One thought on “Live on Every Word”
Tom, I enjoyed your use of the word ‘sojourn’ – I always understood it to mean; to be on vacation or on holiday as we say here in what remains of the ‘UK’…! But, I just looked up a dictionary definition of the word, and it literally means to ‘visit a place temporarily’…to ‘sojourn’ and is quoted by example as meaning, ‘ she enjoyed a sojourn in Rome’…for instance….very appropriate, I thought! Which as we are on the subject of being careful as to how we respond to ‘words’ in this case ….. in your blog herein, the very ( l am carefully using that word in it’s literal sense) …the Very Word of GOD… is so important. But then we must be aware and careful of semantics and for that matter being too pedantic about semantics ! Whatever, as the young ones say… The very actual words that issue from the ‘word’ of God are what us Christians should be all about …but that must be along with and alongside the ‘inspiration of’, Him, the Lord, the Holy Spirit….For we do not just read the Word or words of the Bible….or just, in other words, the words in a book of books, each and every day. We do and so we should. But we do need the inspiration of the Holy Spirit too, as well. We need, seek and desire the inspiration of God’s Holy Spirit, or as Paul called Him ‘the Spirit of Jesus’ (which I rather like…it’s a useful phrase, it is ‘helpful’ in helping us to understand Who the Holy Spirit…who He is…) to enlighten too, each and every day, both as we read the Word and to be inspired by it…For what? To do what? Well, for one, ‘to go out into all the world and make disciples’….We Franciscans, both Anglican, Roman or otherwise ( I am one of the ‘otherwise’. Someone once asked me as to whether, I could ‘pigeon-hole’ or ‘put in a box’ or explain simply what, in fact was my spirituality or ‘churchmanship’…Oh I replied, that’s easy… ” I am a Christian. That is to say that I am an Evangelical, born-again, Spirit-filled and Spirit-led, ‘happy-clappy’ originally raised as an Anglican…anglo-catholic Franciscan Friar, now as a Companion Tertiary to the Society of St Francis, as a Married ‘Oblate’, inspired by my working alongside the RC’s… OFM – who work with the ‘poor’ as a Chaplain in Prisons and on the outside, with my Christian wife who is a Jewish convert to evangelical Christianity, with the homeless, drug-addicted and marginalised, as a professional Social Worker and counsellor too…along with our brother & sister, Baptists, Pentecostals, Anglicans and RCs et al …. in other words, I am a Christian, a working living breathing, poverty inspired, follower of Jesus, the Christ ! Does that answer your question ?” – I wanted to keep my response nice and simple….!)..now where was I, oh yes! We Franciscans practise the ‘religious’ life – because, and this is especially so in my case, because of our continual awareness of pride and sin, our sin, my daily sin…So that we live ‘penitentially’, and being ‘religious’, as opposed to being just a ‘wild-man’ of Faith, as once I just was, can be very indisciplined. I personally need and enjoy, the Lord’s discipline, to ‘religiously’ and daily ‘read the scriptures’ as well as to daily and even constantly ‘pray without ceasing’, as Paul put it…to both study, read, mark and inwardly ‘digest’ the Word of God, but to also pray, wait upon and LISTEN to the Holy Spirit of God….and to receive His Inspiration for my life and Ministry. I am 63 this year and partially retired now due to ill health. I am also blessed enough to have a younger wife who still works to help support me too. We were unfortunate not to have any children of our own, but that has left us free to ‘foster’ to ‘adopt’ and to assist with other people’s…much to their joy and ours too! We now have several God-children and have ‘adopted’ other peoples children to the point where we now have several younger adopted ‘Grand-children’ as well as some older, grown-up ‘children’ for whom we act as guides, mentors and advisers…So you see what God did. He took something bad and low and painful and turned it into something Good and Blessed….Bless Him ! That’s what He does with every thing….we just have to let Him. To allow Him, into our lives….And please don’t worry when He disciplines you/us….because He only ‘disciplines those that He LOVES’ ! Finally, on this, the Word….How DO we hear the ‘inspiration of God’s Holy Spirit. …Well, we LISTEN to Him…and HOW do we do that ? We PRAY….But how do we pray and listen….in a nutshell….by shutting up and listening to Him in our inner hearts ! After all these words…I am only going to add this….Try to use less words in your blogs Tom…! This is hopefully a constructive critique…not a destructive one, my brother (I hastily and carefully add….brother !) I agree with all you say in the above, but as a practising ‘religious’ Franciscan let me finish with this….too many words….! When we pray we listen to the Lord for as little as 10 mins to one hour or more…! And during that ‘prayertime’ I will (inspired by the writings of both, Julian of Norwich and Brother Lawrence – Frere Laurent- ) just use, if any, ONE word, which I was inspired by the Holy Spirit to use as a ‘shield-word’ as I sit and listen to Him…at 6 am, this morning’s word between us, for instance, was…. ‘truth’….Sometimes it can be, or is something like ‘rest’ or even ‘shield’ itself. I find that it depends on what the Lord is trying to say to me or to impress on my heart, for the day, for this day, ‘for this is the day the Lord has made for us’ …We ‘religious’ practise this ‘meditative-contemplative-silent prayer-time’ as a discipline AFTER, we have prayed the ‘daily office’ in the mornings, after morning prayer and so FOLLOWING the time of intercessions or ‘intercessory prayer’, when I have been praying for you for instance….. 🙂 Then I spend some time in silence listening to what the Lord has for me this day….either, to do, or to receive… Jesus taught us “not to babble like the pagans when we pray….for they believe they will be heard for their many words”…but no we are to go to a quiet or private place…’and Jesus went up on to a mountain-side to pray’ where our Father sees and hears what is done there in secret… Too many words often distracts and can detract, from the point….my far too many words do! When we discuss, read, study and finally ‘meditate upon’ or contemplate ‘THE Word’ …we often use only the one Bible verse….that is usually enough. So my critique is this…Too many verses Tom….too much to take in all at once because we can jump around the Bible and all of it’s ‘linked’ verses TOO much and so become distracted and then it can detract from your original message, which is and should be from God ? My little brain is too small! That’s all Tom. And after all that waffle ‘that’s all from me too Folks!….Good Day ! and Pax et Bonum ! Nigel.