Hebrews 4:13 (KJV) 13 Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.
Last week we looked at how the Word of God works to bring about the rest of faith in our lives. Hebrews 4:12 says that the Word of God is able to pierce to the dividing asunder of various areas of a person. The idea is that of a scalpel in the hands of a skilled surgeon. The Word is designed by God to open up our lives so that whatever is hindering us may be revealed. It will then cut out, or separate and define, what needs to change so that healing, freedom and wholeness can come to us.
Verse 13 continues the same thought as verse 12. He is still talking about the Word of God. The interesting thing is how he refers to the Word. We would say that nothing is hidden from it, referring to the Word. This verse uses the pronouns “him” and “his” when referring to the Word of God. The Word is the scalpel but it is also the surgeon.
John 1:1 (KJV) 1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
This verse does not mean that the book itself is a God. That would be idolatry. It means that the bible is full of the life of God. It is full of a supernatural energy that God applies to us to set us free. Mark chapter 4 tells us that the Word of God is a seed.
Mark 4:13-14 (NKJV) 13 And He said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables? 14 The sower sows the word.
This parable is one of my favorite studies in the bible. The life in the Word of God is “seed life.” The ground is the heart of man. The same heart spoken of in Hebrews 4:12. When a seed is planted in the ground, it produces whatever life the seed contains. In the case of the Word of God, it produces the life of God. The Word “was God.” The acorn (oak seed) was oak. The seed of God’s word planted in our hearts will produce the life of God that is in it.
John 1:14 (NKJV) 14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
Just as the seed of the Word of God created Jesus in Mary’s womb and just as we were “born again” by that same seed, the seed of God’s Word will produce life in every area of our lives. (1 Peter 1:23) By the seed action of the Word in our hearts, we will become the Word made flesh. As more and more of what we are is transformed into the life of the Word of God, the more we will enter the rest promised in Hebrews 4.
Now do not go somewhere I am not taking you. I am not saying we will become God. There is only one of those and, as for me; I do not want the job. What I am saying is that the life in the Word of God will change us until we become what the Word says we can be. Our mourning will turn into joy. Our defeat will change to victory, etc. It is possible, if we allow the seed of the Word to have its way in us that we can reflect all that the bible says we are and we can do in this life.
Mark 4:26-28 gives us a picture of how the seed works in our hearts. .
Mark 4:26-29 (NKJV) 26 And He said, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground, 27 and should sleep by night and rise by day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he himself does not know how. 28 For the earth yields crops by itself: first the blade, then the head, after that the full grain in the head. 29 But when the grain ripens, immediately he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”
In Hebrews 4, the Word is a scalpel that is producing healing. It reveals and removes that which hinders. In Mark 4, the image is of the action of the seed. This is how the life of God is produced in the human being. Both involve penetrating and separating: The scalpel to reveal, the seed to release life.
In this parable, Jesus tells us that we need to get the seed in the ground. How do we do that? Romans 10:17 says faith comes from hearing the Word of God. The rest of Faith is what we have been discussing. We get the Word in the ground by hearing it. We may hear it with our ears as it is preached or read. We may also “hear” it with our eyes as we read it. The point is that it must enter our heart by going into our mind through the gate of our senses.
Verse 27 says that the farmer must “sleep by day and rise by night” in order for the seed to sprout and grow. What does this mean to us? Seeds take time to reveal the life that is in them. At first, you do not see any results but they are working in the ground. You have to leave them there or they cannot produce. It would be a foolish farmer that dug up his seed every morning and every evening to see if anything was happening. If he did that, he would guarantee there would be no crop.
If the seed stays in the soil, is watered properly and gets enough sun (the presence of the Son) it will grown. This scripture says it produces life of itself. You do not have to make it grow. You just have to maintain the right conditions. The seed and the earth are designed to interact and they will produce fruit. The Word of God and your heart are designed to interact and they will produce the fruit of God’s Word.
How do we keep the Word in our hearts? Joshua 1:8 tells us.
Joshua 1:8 (NKJV) 8 This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.
We must meditate on the Word by keeping it in our minds and our mouths. It is not enough to hear a sermon preached once or just read a verse or two. We must learn to meditate on the word. We must think about it during the week. We must ask ourselves how the Word applies to our lives.
What happens when a seed starts to grow? It does not give us food or flowers right away. We do not see the outward manifestation but it does not take long for the seed to start to affect the ground. The roots begin to grow down seeking water. They cut through the ground displacing anything that gets in the way. When they reach water, the roots begin to channel the life of the water into the rest of the plant. As long as the conditions stay right and the plant stays in the ground, fruit will eventually result.
The Word works the same way in our hearts. Just as the scalpel cuts away hindrances, the seed of the Word will dig into our hearts pushing aside the dirt and debris that keeps us from walking in the life of God. It is looking for that part of us that is “born again” in the spirit. That is where God lives inside us. When the roots of the “Word” seed connect with the life of God within us, that life begins to flow up into our minds and eventually manifests in our outward life.
We will whatever fruit we planted. If we planted joy, we will see joy. If we planted healing, we will see healing. If we planted holiness, sin will begin to fall away. It will start small. It will be just a little bud in our lives but if we keep the word in the ground, the full fruit will eventually manifest. That is the point of rest we are seeking.
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