GOD"S WORD SENT FORTH

God places a high priority on words.

He has never done anything without saying it first, as we have seen from chapter one of Genesis. God’s faith-filled Word was the original force in the universe. At creation, God set into motion what I call the law of Genesis, dictating that every living thing would produce after its own kind. God’s plan was for man to live eternally, producing a race that would be in close fellowship and communion with Him; but once Adam disobeyed God, that plan was altered. The authority that had been delegated to man was suddenly in the hands of Satan. At that point, God was forced back to the original source—His Word. He couldn’t make another man from the dust of the earth because the ground was cursed. He had to revert back to speaking His Word, filled with faith.

Immediately, God began to search for a man who would teach his children and live uprightly before Him. Finally, he found that man, Abram. He made a covenant with Abram—a covenant that was to last forever. As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee… And I will make thee exceeding fruitful… And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee (Gen. 17:4,6,7).

Once that covenant was established, God began to release His Word into the earth. He began to paint a picture of a Redeemer, a man who would be the manifestation of His Word in the earth. The only avenue God had to get His words into the earth was through men. As He would speak life-filled words in relation to His covenant with Abraham, His prophets would repeat those words in the earth. It was a very tedious and difficult process since the Old Testament prophets were not born-again men. Because they lived under the Abrahamic Covenant, they were able to receive instruction from God and righteousness was imputed, or counted, unto them (Rom. 4:22).

So before Jesus came to the earth, God spoke His Word and then spoke His Word again. How many times did He say the Messiah was coming? It was prophesied over hundreds, even thousands, of years. He kept saying, “He is coming. He is coming.” The circumstances in the earth made it look as if there was no way He could accomplish it; but He just kept saying it. He would not be moved by what He saw. Once that Word was received into the earth by a man, it was here to stay. In Isaiah 55:11, God said, 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 would not relent. Through the mouths of His prophets, He kept sending His Word and sending His Word.

Finally, the great moment came when that Word was brought forth in human form: And the Word was made 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 (John 1:14). The Word, which existed before the foundations of the earth, lived for 33 years as a man. His name was Jesus. He ministered for three years as a prophet under the Abrahamic Covenant; then He gave Himself to be the last sacrifice of the Old Covenant. He became the sacrificial lamb, offered upon the altar of the cross for one reason: to defeat Satan.

Jesus was the last Adam (1 Cor. 15:45), and He passed the test that the first Adam failed. He paid the price for Adam’s transgression. He took Adam’s punishment, his sinfulness, his sickness and disease, his infirmities, and his shame. Jesus bore all of this just as if He Himself had committed treason against God.

Jesus defeated Satan by going to the cross, dying a horrible death, and spending three days and nights in the heart of the earth, hell itself (Matt. 12:40). The second chapter of Acts says Jesus was raised up, loosed from the pains of death. Jesus was called the firstborn from the dead (Col. 1:18). He was the first man to be born again from death unto life. When he appeared to John on the Isle of Patmos, He said, Fear not: I am the first and the last: I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death (Rev. 1:17, 18). Jesus defeated Satan in awful combat in full view of all Satan’s cohorts. He took from Satan the keys of hell. He took back the authority that Satan had stolen from Adam in the Garden of Eden. He made an open show of principalities and powers, lording it over them in their own domain (Col. 2:15).

– The Power of the Tongue (Kenneth Copeland)

GOD"S WORD SENT FORTH