It is Written!
Matt 4:4 But he 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.
v7 Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.
Matt 4:10 Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.
In reading of the temptation of Jesus, three times this morning we see Jesus, God the Son, led of the Holy Spirit, being tempted of satan, to disobey or sin against God our Father, Yet, He did not spend hours praying in tongues, worshipping, or binding and loosing, He simply said: It is Written!
How well I have learned that the fight of faith we are called to fight, is all about the Word. When we stand upon the written Word, or rhema Word spoken to us, and simply proclaim it, in the midst of madness, mayhem, and destruction as satan attempts to do what he always does, kill, steal and destroy. We can quietly solemnly respond, ‘It is written!’. When we do, it may seem that nothing has changed, but everything changed!
The very Word we were fighting for, suddenly begins to fight for us!
When Jesus overturned the tables in the temple, again, we read:
Lu 19:46 Saying unto them, It is written, My house is the house of prayer: but ye have made it a den of thieves.
God cannot lie. If He said it, or spoke it to you personally, and you believe it, it will surely come to pass, as long as you, whether with shouts of praise, or in quiet solemn whispers, continue to proclaim: ‘It is written!’
Some years ago, when Karen and I were newlyweds, we pioneered a church in a government housing project. Filled with the love of God, we went door to door praying with people, and doing a series of summer concerts in the park/playground area. It worked too, we saw 54 people pray the prayer of salvation that first summer, and we bought an old van, and started bringing children to church until we had as many as 25 children in the basement of the community center where we met, mostly from homes where drug use was prevalent. Over the first four months of ministry two people died from drug overdose in our community, and there were seven crack houses operating. One weekend, the police sent in a SWAT team, and arrested 70 people, and that Sunday at church, we only had five or six people in church, and all of our children had been taken by police, and placed in the foster care system. We cried out to God in anguish asking for his care for these precious children aged 2-8.
Well, on Monday afternoon at 3:30, I received a telephone call from a Children’s Aid Society worker, (This is the Canadian equivilent of the Department of Human Services) saying they had ‘apprehended’ (like they were criminals or something) two precious children aged four and seven, and that after contacting family members, the children asked if they could come stay with pastors Chris and Karen. I said, ‘Let me talk it over with my wife, how long do I have to decide?’ “We close at 4:30, and if you are not here, we are placing them in the shelter” I could hear them crying in the background, and I quickly explained the situation to my wife, and then we jumped in the car, and headed across the city through rush hour traffic. Got there at 4:25, presented ID, and signed for 2 traumatized precious children, who’s parents were either in jail, on on the run from the law.
As we began the hour drive through bumper to bumper traffic with these children, intermittently crying and asking millions of questions, we tried to comfort them, but they really needed to be hugged and held, and it was not possible in our little Toyota Tercel. Finally, we reached downtown, and traffic was stopped, and these children began to scream, and I, having never been a parent snapped. I loved them, but felt so helpless!
I cried out to Jesus and said: “Jesus, You called me here! You must do something, NOW!”
And He did! Instantly, His presence and power swept into the vehicle. All the worry, stress, fear, terror, everything, left, and His power, presence, peace and joy blew in! We all felt it, and began to laugh, and then sang praises all the way back home for the next 45 minutes. I lit a fire in the wood-stove and Karen made hot chocolate while we built a snowman together. We had those precious children for 8 weeks, until mom got outta detox and into rehab, and dad resurfaced, then signed himself into a residential rehabilitation program. It was a rocky road with that family for the next couple years, but that is another story…
Yes, there are onslaughts, tests, and trials in this earth. I’m in one now. Yet, over the decades, the Word has proved entirely faithful and true, for He who spoke that very Word into the earth, ever liveth, and watches carefully over His Word to perform it, with power. I love when He does ‘Suddenlies’, savage breakthroughs of His power and might, yet I have learned not to mistake the spectacular for the supernatural. His Word, believed and acted upon, always produces supernatural results, no matter what we are feeling about it that day.
What was my: ‘It is written‘ that won the battle that day? It was not simply a memorized Scripture verse, no it was the realization that like Jesus, I was only responsible to do the will of our heavenly Father, and that I was in the center of His perfect will at that point, that we are the answer to problems of the day, never to run from them, for we face them in His power.
Proclaim His Promises today, and keep His Word ever before you. When you do, that very Word you placed before you, is working for you, fighting, creating, breaking through impossibilities, just because He can! You too, have a place of perfect obedience, in the will of our heavenly Father, where all hell will face you in your particular gift and calling. Your strength, knowledge, and ability was never designed to win the day, but your faith in God will cause you to prevail – scream at the darkness: IT IS WRITTEN!
Let’s Pray:
‘Father, we come before Your throne of grace today, and we bring Your promises before You today, knowing that You are faithful to honor Your Word, and our faith in it. We ask Y ou today for your direction, guidance, provision, prosperity, healing, strength, favor, protection, wisdom, instruction, counsel, knowledge, blessing, forgiveness, mercy, comfort, restoration, breakthroughs, gifts of the Holy Spirit, grace, and the hearing of your voice. We love you Father, and we love you Jesus, and thank you that all of these petitions, come directly from that which you have promised us in Your Word. We believe we receive it, and loose it into our lives by faith, for we have asked in Your mighty name Lord Jesus, Amen.’