3 Potent Powers Of The Word Of God

3 Potent Powers Of The Word Of God

August 8, 2018 by Jack Wellman

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God is all-powerful (omnipotent), but the Word of God has great power in itself.
Power of the Word
There is potent power in the Word of God. For example, there is the power of salvation to save (Rom 1:16), and even though it’s foolish “to those who are perishing…to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Cor 1:18). We also know that “the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Heb 4:12), and even further, there is “no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account” (Heb 4:13). Believers are not to judge those outside the church. God’s Word is to be their judge and God is the final authority, but that day is coming (Heb 9:27; Rev 20:12-15). And we can trust the power of God’s Word because God’s Word will do what God sends it out to do (Isaiah 55:11). It can comfort the afflicted, but afflict the comfortable. For sure, God’s Word is “like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces” (Jer 23:29b).
The Power to Cleanse
The psalmist asked a question many of us should be asking: “How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word. With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments! I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you” (Psalm 119:9-11). What the psalmist does is store up God’s Word in his heart, or memorize it, maybe by meditating on it, but he does this so that he “might not sin against” God. This keeps him from wandering “from [God’s] commandments,” so that means we can guard our hearts by storing up the Word of God. That way, when we’ll need it, we’ll have it, and we “might not sing against” God. Jesus Himself recalled Scripture when resisting Satan in the Wilderness, so there’s power to cleanse in God’s Word but power to keep us from sin. Jesus told the disciples, “Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you” (John 15:3), so there is a cleansing power in the Word of God. Knowing this, the Apostle Paul wrote that “Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word” (Eph 5:25-26).
The Power of Salvation
The Spirit of God may quicken us to new life (Eph 2:1-5), but Paul recognizes the fact that there is power in God’s Word, saying that “it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek” (Rom 1:16). It makes no sense to the world as “the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Cor 1:18). Jesus said, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life” (John 6:63). The psalmist adds, “The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple” (Psalm 19:7). The NASB is more accurate, saying “The law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul.”
Power to Sanctify
When you read the Word of God, it sometimes reads you, and the more you read the Word of God, the more it works in you, along with the Holy Spirit. Paul wrote that “we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers” (1 Thess 2:13). That’s why we need our daily bread and ration of the Word of God. The Word works on us along with God’s Spirit in us, so “Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation” (1 Pet 2:2). When God’s Word works with the Spirit of God, we are sanctified by the Word of God and the Spirit of God, but when we’re not in the Word of God, the Spirit of God can’t do His work as easily. The reason the Holy Spirit is called the Holy Spirit may be due to His work in us. Jesus prayed for the disciples that the Father would “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth” (John 17:17). Sanctification means someone or something being set aside for holy use by God, and it is for God’s glory that we are sanctified by His Word. His Word help up us “grow up into salvation.”
The Authority of God’s Word
We have read about the power of God’s Word, about the cleansing work of God’s Word, about the power of salvation that’s found in God’s Word, and about the sanctifying work the Word does along with the Spirit of God. Now we write about the authority of God’s Word. Paul says that “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” (2 Tim 3:16-17), and “no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit” (2 Pet 1:20), so there’s the washing of the Word, the power of the Word, the sanctification of the Word, the power of salvation in the Word (Rom 1:16; 1 Cor 1:18), and the authority of that Word.
Conclusion
Every believer must admit that Jesus is “the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5), and nothing does not mean a little something…it means nothing. Any works we do are attributed to the glory of God because He laid out these works for us to do ahead of time (Eph 2:10). Jesus said, “By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples” (John 15:. His Word is a consuming fire. It cuts like a sword but cuts in order to heal, and it has the power to save. All it takes is a person of God with the Word of God with the Spirit of God to birth the children of God for the glory of God. That’s an amazing fact about the power of the Word of God.
Article by Jack Wellman
Jack Wellman is Pastor of the Mulvane Brethren Church in Mulvane Kansas. Jack is a writer at Christian Quotes and also the Senior Writer at What Christians Want To Know whose mission is to equip, encourage, and energize Christians and to address questions about the believer’s daily walk with God and the Bible. You can follow Jack on Google Plus or check out his book Teaching Children the Gospel available on Amazon.
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