Meet with God, Part 12

“Thus we must make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by following the same pattern of disobedience. For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any double-edged sword, piercing even to the point of dividing soul from spirit, and joints from marrow; it is able to judge the desires and thoughts of the heart. And no creature is hidden from God, but everything is naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must render an account.” –Hebrews 4:11-13, NET

What does it mean for God’s word to be “living and active”?

See how the author of Hebrews earlier uses the words recorded by David a millennium prior: “Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, “Oh, that today you would listen as he speaks! Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, in the day of testing in the wilderness,” (Heb 3:7-8, NET).

David wrote (past), but the Holy Spirit says (present). Thus, it is critical that we do not “forsake the living God” by neglecting His directions and commands (Heb 3:12). Rather, we are to “exhort one another each day, as long as it is called ‘Today,’ that none of [us] may become hardened by sin’s deception.” (Heb 3:13). To neglect what God “speaks” is to willfully join the unbelieving and disobedient rebels whose “dead bodies fell in the wilderness,” shut off from God’s promised rest (Heb 3:15-19).

The plea is real. All was “written for our instruction” (Rom 15:4; 1Co 10:11). Do not “neglect such a great salvation” (Heb 2:3), and “come short” of entering God’s rest (Heb 4:1). “For we have had good news proclaimed to us just as they did. But the message they heard did them no good, since they did not join in with those who heard it in faith.” (Heb 4:2).

Therefore, see and understand that God’s word is “living and active” as much today as when it was first recorded. It’s blade is precise, carefully dividing desires and disclosing deep decay. Not so that He can kill us (see ex: Exo 14:11; 16:3; 17:3), as if God has malicious intent and we need to shrink away from His cutting commands (Exo 20:18-21; Heb 10:38-39). Rather, it is for our good benefit so that we can further surrender to the great physician’s surgery (Mar 2:17). For Jesus “sympathizes with our weaknesses” (Heb 4:14-16), loves to extend mercy (Exo 34:6; Eph 2:4-5), and desires to stretch our hearts to greater capacities of love (Luke 7:42-47).

Again, do not shrink back from His commands, attempting to preserve the decaying flesh (Exo 20:18; Luke 17:33), only to be counted among the perishing (Heb 10:39a). Rather, allow our affections to be severed from this life (Joh 12:25) so that we can draw nearer the sharp blade of God’s word (Heb 4:12). Though God speaks from shrouded darkness (Exo 20:21), let us move closer so that we can be counted among the righteous who LIVE BY FAITH and receive salvation (Heb 10:38-39; Rom 1:17).

Meet with God by drawing near His living word in faith “Today”!

“I can't survive on bread alone

And I hunger and I thirst

For Your words, that give me hope

I stand on the truth

In the living word of God

'Cause every time it moves my soul

And shapes my every thought

It's alive in me, the very breath I breathe

I'm holding on with all I've got

To the living word

The living word of God”

–Jeremy Camp, “Living Word”