When I was an electrical apprentice, I received my first copy of the National Electrical Code book, which gave me instructions for the proper installation and utilization of electrical materials. It was the right “doctrine,” the standard, for me as an electrician to follow. During the twenty years I worked as an electrician, I grew to trust those standards and learned the value of submitting to them. Likewise I have grown to trust in and have seen the value of obeying the standards written in God’s Word. God gave us an instruction manual for life by way of His Word, and with the Word that He has given us, we have the means to know Him and His will.
When I first took our ministry’s Foundational Class, I learned that the Bible is the revealed Word and will of God, and that by submitting to God’s Word, I would be doing God’s will. Jesus Christ understood this and diligently and faithfully submitted to God’s Word, making God’s will his will. We can do the same. We can do the will of our Father by following the standards of His Word.
Let’s see the value God puts on His Word.
Psalms 138:2:
I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name.
God magnified His Word above all His name.
II Timothy 3:16:
All scripture is given by inspiration of God [is God-breathed], and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.
All Scripture is God-breathed. The Word is as much God as God is God.
Isaiah 55:11:
So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.
God’s Word is something we can trust. What He says He will do, He will do.
Isaiah 46:9-11:
Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me,
Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure:
…yea, I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed it, I will also do it.
God’s Word stands throughout all time. He has promised that His Word works and that it shall stand. His promises will come to pass. His Word is His will, and nothing is going to stop Him from accomplishing His Word. He will do it!
Jesus Christ, God’s only begotten Son, believed that the Word of God he was taught was the will of God. He obeyed his heavenly Father’s will by diligently and faithfully submitting to the Word in his actions and words.
Luke 2:46-49:
And it came to pass, that after three days they found him [Jesus] in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them, and asking them questions.
And all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers.
And when they saw him, they were amazed: and his mother said unto him, Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? behold, thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing.
And he said unto them, How is it that ye sought me? wist [knew] ye not that I must be about my Father’s business?
At an early age, Jesus Christ had made the decision to do his Father’s business. Because he made this decision, Jesus took action to develop the Word in his life. At twelve years of age when he was with his parents in Jerusalem, he went to the Temple—the place where he could learn and understand more of what God’s will was for his life. He diligently sought to be about his Father’s business and faithfully grew in his understanding as he studied God’s Word.
Years later, the Word of God that he held fast in his mind and heart enabled him to stand against the temptations of the Devil.
Matthew 4:3 and 4:
And when the tempter [the Devil] came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.
But he [Jesus] answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
Because Jesus Christ made God’s Word his own, he knew what God’s will was in this situation, and he was able to speak the right Word of God with believing. He was able to be victorious in backing down the adversary.
Jesus Christ set his heart to carry out and accomplish God’s will with singleness of mind. To do this he had to be fully persuaded that God’s Word is His will. He did not allow worldly circumstances or situations to distract him from fulfilling God’s will. His spiritual nourishment was to do the will of God and to finish the work that God called him to do….
This is an excerpt from the March/April 2015 issue of The Way Magazine.
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