BVOV Magazine 2013 - present

What do you think would have happened if Martha had followed that example? What if she’d walked out of her kitchen with a big bowl of beans, slid them over in front of Jesus, and said, “Sir, I’m not going to miss hearing the living WORD of Almighty God when it’s being preached right here in my house. So if You want this bunch to have anything to eat, I trust You’ll take care of it. You fed 20,000 with a few loaves and fish. You can certainly feed this houseful of people with these beans!” Clearly, if Martha had chosen that attitude, if hearing and acting on The WORD had been the only thing on her to-do list that day, everything would have turned out just fine. One way or another, Jesus would have seen to it that everyone had plenty to eat. The Teacher Is in Your House “But Brother Copeland,” you might say, “Martha’s situation was different than mine. Jesus was right there with her, teaching God’s WORD!” Yes, He was. But the same is true for you. As a Holy-Ghost baptized believer, you can sit down, open your Bible and hear Jesus preach to you every day. Why? Because you not only have God’s written WORD to read, you have the Holy Spirit living inside you to quicken that WORD and fulfill the promise Jesus made in John 16: “When he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will show you things to come. He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall show [or declare] it unto you” (verses 13-15). In other words, just like Martha, you have the Teacher in your house—and every day He is saying the same thing to you He said to her: The one thing you really need to do is hear and obey God’s WORD. I can assure you, Jesus isn’t saying this because He’s oblivious to everything else you have to do. He’s saying it because He knows that life itself—all real, genuine life—life for your spirit, for your soul, your body, your family, your finances and everything else—comes from The WORD. As Proverbs 4:22 says, “[God’s WORDS] are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh.” It’s no wonder Jesus wants us to make His WORD our sole priority! That WORD is the force behind all creation. It keeps everything operating. (See Hebrews 1:3.) Nothing works without God’s WORD! Think about it for a moment. • In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, He did it with His WORD. He said, “Let there be light: and there was light” (Genesis 1:3). • When He made and BLESSED mankind, He did it with His WORD. He said, “Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion...” (verse 28). • When Adam’s sin robbed mankind of THE BLESSING and God wanted to restore it, once again He did it with His WORD. “I will bless thee,” He said to Abram, “and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing” (Genesis 12:2). • Even the plan of redemption was brought about by God’s WORD. He spoke it to and through prophets, generation after generation, until as John 1 says, “[Jesus] the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us,” (verse 14); and “as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God” (verse 12). The Secret to 100-Percent Success God’s WORDs are the foundation of everything in His kingdom. They don’t just carry information, and they’re not only a means of communication. They’re infused with the very power of God Himself. That’s why in John 6:63, Jesus said His WORDs are “spirit, and they are life.” Everything Jesus accomplished in the Gospels, He did by hearing and acting on God’s WORD. It’s how He operated every day. He attended to The WORD and heard what His Father was saying. Then He said whatever the Father told Him to say, did whatever the Father told Him to do and God’s power came on the scene. “The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself,” He said, “but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works” (John 14:10). Consider the incident at the pool of Bethesda. The Bible tells us that when Jesus walked up to that pool, multitudes of blind, crippled and diseased people were crowded all around waiting for the angel to stir the water. Yet Jesus walked right past them all and focused His attention on one bedridden man. “Wilt thou be made whole?” He asked. “Rise, take up thy bed, and walk” (John 5:6, 8). Twelve words. That’s all Jesus spoke because that’s all the Father told Him to say. As a result, He had 100-percent success. Immediately the man was made whole. Then Jesus walked away. You know as well as I do, if we’d been there when that man got healed, we wouldn’t have done what Jesus did. We would have set up the Pool of Bethesda Healing Association. We would have bottled the water, lined up all the sick people and anointed them with it. But none of it would have done any good because only one thing is needful. The WORD of God. Whatever He says, that’s what we need to say and do—and nothing else! 6 : BVOV : DEC '13

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