Good day everyone. Welcome to another interesting edition of Forms & Patterns™. I believe your week has been great. In this edition of Forms & Patterns™, we will be considering something very important, it is important to God and I believe it must be important to us as well. We will be looking at Profiting from the Word: How to Engage the Word for Your Personal Transformation and Personal Translation. I believe the title that we are considering is self-explanatory. However, it is important to understand that for every word of God that comes to us, there is something that God intends to achieve in our lives. For the execution of every intention of God on the earth, the word of God is a necessity.
You remember the place in the Bible when God says in Isaiah 55:10-1, it says:
“For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven,
And do not return there,
But water the earth,
And make it bring forth and bud,
That it may give seed to the sower
And bread to the eater,
11 So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth;
It shall not return to Me void,
But it shall accomplish what I please,
And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.
So, when God sends His word, even as we are told in the book of Psalms “He sent forth His word to them, the word healed them and deliver them from their destruction.” We must understand as ministers and servants of God, ministers of the New Testament, as ministers and Pastors or in whatever placement or capacity that God has positioned us in His Kingdom, we must understand that God intends to achieve His goal on the earth in every generation through men by His word. When God wants to get a thing done, He sends His word. In fact, there are certain things that God does on the earth that does not necessarily involve a man or require a man, but it is executed via the word of God. So, when the word of God goes forth, the purpose of God is released, it is to be executed in time.
Today we are looking at How to Profit from the word. So, when God speaks, how can you and I profit from the things that God says? If God says “you will be the head and not the tail”, how can we ensure that we become head indeed? How do we ensure that the promises of God concerning our lives, concerning the people that God has put under our care is actualized? How do we get the word of God materialized in our lives? Are these things automatic or do they require certain things to be done by us for them to take proper effects in the lives of men? So, we will be studying the book of Hebrews 4 and we will read from verse 1 to 3. The Bible says:
“Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it. 2 For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it. 3 For we who have believed do enter that rest, as He has said: “so, I swore in My wrath, they shall not enter My rest.’’” Although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.”
May the Lord bless the reading of his word in our hearts in Jesus’ name. Amen! From verse one, we are informed about the promise of God over His people, the promise of rest. It is expected by God that His people should enter into their rest. And as we must understand, there is the place of the word of God in guiding or in ushering men and women into the rest that God has ordained for each of them. So, as many as we could be on the earth, there is a promise of rest unto us. As we have the promise of God to us as individuals, we must individually believe the promise of God via the word of God for those promises to become visible in our lives.
Now, for a people, they refuse to believe what they heard. And so, the Bible says “because they did not believe, the word that they heard did not profit them.” That was why apostle Paul began verse three with a statement that separated those people who did not believe from the rest that believed. It says “For we who have believed.” The question is: What did we believe? You can either believe a report or a word that you have heard. So, when we talk about believe, we are talking about something that have been said to you. So, it says: “For we who have believed do enter that rest.” So, it is important we realize that there is rest, intended by God for everyone. However, enjoying that rest is not automatic. There is a need for belief, and what you believe is the word that you have heard.
In that verse two of Hebrews 4, the Bible says “For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them.” So, we can see very clearly that everyone receives the word. Nobody would attribute his personal challenge or his personal failure to lack of the word. However, not everyone successfully used the word to achieve growth or success in life. It says “but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it.” When something did not profit you, it means it does not add to you. Now, while meditating on the word “profit”, I realize that there are two things that happen to a man or a woman who profits in the word of God.
The first thing that I have realized which is also mentioned in our title is personal transformation and then the second thing is personal translation. When the word that you hear profits you, the first thing that happen to you is that it changes you. You are changed from inside, as a person. The second thing that the word of God does to a man that believes is that the word of God positions or repositions such, and that is what I have called personal translation. You see, when you have language translation, what happen is that the language is moved from one level of language to a higher or a lower or a different level of language. You could have a language translated from English to French. Now, what is happening is this: the same context or the same meaning was expressed in different levels of communication.
When a man profits from the word, what happens is that such a man begins to operate at a higher level, a life by the word that he or she has heard. The word of God has he capacity to reposition you, the word of God has the capacity to change you. Now, when we are talking about you, the reason why we are saying that is because of the spirit of the letter that we just read. If you read that Hebrews 4:1 again, it says: “Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us (talking about us as a group) fear lest any of you (talking about us as individuals) seem to have come short of it.” Now, if you now see how the groups were further divided in verse 2, you would notice that apostle Paul says that the word that was preached to us was also preached to them. So, we were all exposed to the same word. However, the word did not profit them simply because they did not believe.
Assuming they profited from the word, we would have noticed their personal change and their personal translation. Entering into the rest that God has ordained is what happens when a people or a person has profited from the word of God. When we are talking about the word of God, apostle Paul went further to help us to realize the efficacy and the potency of the word of God in that same Hebrews 4:12. It says: “For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”
The word of God is thorough and potent and has the capacity to effect change in any human’s life. The word of God can change anybody. However, the change can only be possible when such a person believes. It is not enough to hear the word of hear God speak to you. You must profit from the word of God. And so, when you engage God personally, when you engage God as a corporate people, when God speaks to you in such moments, you have a responsibility to profit from the word, you have the responsibility to have the right attitude with the word so that the word that you hear imparts your life, changes you from inside out.
What is the benefit of hearing the word of God again and again and nothing happens to you? Your life is not impacted, your life is not affected, your business is not affected, your ministry is not changed by the word that you hear? It means the word does not profit you and when this happens, there will be no personal change, no personal translation. You will not be able to move from one level to a higher level simply because the word that you heard did not profit you.
There are a people I want us to read about in Romans 1 and I want to jump to verse 28. I would have really love us to begin the reading from verse 18. But you can note that and read from verse 18 in your time of studying but let us jump to verse 28. It says: “And even as they (and I want us to note the word, talking about a group of people) did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting;” And so, if you want to do great things, the Bible says in Daniel 11:32 “for the people who do know their God, they shall be strong, they shall carry out great exploits.”
If you want to do great things in your life and want to be known for greatness, you must be a man who has profited from the word of God, a woman who has profited from the word of God, and whose life has been personally transformed and translated. Until this happens, you cannot do great things and if you must do the great things, you must remember that the requirement is that you believe the word. Until you believe the word of God that you hear, that word cannot profit you and until that word profits you; you cannot be changed as a person and you cannot grow up, you cannot achieve success and you cannot achieve the much increase that you desire.
It has been a great joy to share the word of God with you. I believe the word is mixing well with faith in your heart and you are profiting from it. And as you do that, I see you changing from inside out and becoming a better minister of the gospel, an effective servant of God, an effective minister of the New Covenant. Till the next episode I bring you another word from God, I want you to be blessed and be flourishing and established in the place that God has called you.
God bless you.
