The Word of God our Spiritual Foundation

The Word was there in the Beginning

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. John 1:1-3

In the beginning, before anything was created, the Word was there. Everything that God created, He created by the Word.

By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible. Hebrews 11:3

In Genesis 1 we read how God created all things by speaking them into being. That is the creative power of God’s Word! God calls those things that do not exist as though they did (Romans 4:17) In the gospels we read how Jesus healed many people by speaking to them, and cast out demons the same way.

We understand from John 1:14 that Jesus is the Word of God made flesh, which gives an entirely new meaning to the Word. God cannot be separated from His Word; He is one with His Word and just as God cannot change, His Word cannot change.

Forever, O Lord, Your word is settled in heaven. Psalm 119:89

The Word cannot lose its power or validity because God never loses His power. He is the same God today that He always has been. That tells us that the Word is a living thing, as Jesus indeed confirmed to be so:

It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life. John 6:63

Since God and His Word are one and cannot be separated, we understand that God cannot do anything contrary to His Word. If He did, He would not only contradict Himself, but also be called a liar. And if that is the case nobody would ever put their trust in Him. How can you trust anyone who is not true to his word? We are as good as our word, and so is God,

The world that we live in changes all the time; circumstances change, cultures change, people change. Everything changes, but not God. God, who knows the end from the beginning, knew what He said and meant it to be true for eternity. With the increase of knowledge in our day, some are of the opinion that God’s Word should change to be more relevant to our times, but, in truth, it is relevant to our times and always will be.

The Word is our Foundation

The first step to building any building, is the laying of the foundation; every building is built on a foundation to support it. As a matter of fact, a building is as strong as the foundation that it is built on. It doesn’t matter how good it looks, how much money was poured into it, if the foundation is weak it will not last long. The interesting thing about foundations is that it is the hidden part of the building. For this reason many builders think they can save money by using low grade materials for the foundation, hoping that nobody will notice it. The problem is that the weakness of the foundation will eventually be revealed in the structure of the building.

Every human life is also built on a foundation, the basic mental pattern that guides our decisions and actions. This foundation is laid by the environment that we grow up in: our families, friends, school, culture, religion, etc. These things impact the way we think, act and direct our lives. We see how members of a family, residents in a particular neighbourhood, and citizens in a specific culture think alike. In many places we even see how people speak a dialect that is unique to their immediate environment. Unless a drastic change occurs, all these factors determine the way we think and act – in many instances – our destiny in life.

Jesus had something to say about this foundation. He warns against taking shortcuts with the laying of our life’s foundation because catastrophic consequences that will follow. We must remember that, to a large extent, we determine the quality of our lives by the way we think and the decisions that we make.

Whoever comes to Me, and hears My sayings and does them, I will show you whom he is like: He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently against that house, and could not shake it, for it was founded on the rock. But he who heard and did nothing is like a man who built a house on the earth without a foundation, against which the stream beat vehemently; and immediately it fell. And the ruin of that house was great.” Luke 6:47-49

Although very basic, this is one of the greatest revelations a Christian can have. How often do we see believers of long standing fail in life, only to discover that their foundation was built on religion, Christian culture, rules, legalism and such things, but not on the truth of the Word. Some laid a weak foundation on purpose because they love the world and what it has to offer, others through ignorance. In both cases the outcome is the same.

Life as a Christian is not without storms. Jesus never said there would be no storms, but He did say that if our foundation is strong we will conquer every storm that comes our way. The devil’s greatest desire is to rob us of our faith in God, and he will send vicious storms our way to make us doubt the goodness and love of God. We don’t grow into mature and victorious believers by being protected against the storms of life, but by overcoming every fiery trial that we encounter.

The foundation that has the strength to support us through every storm is hearing and doing the Word, Jesus said. Both these are necessary to build that foundation for a victorious life.

Faith begins with hearing the Word (Romans 10:17), which is one reason to go to church as often as possible. You never know when that one word that can change your life will be taught at church. It often comes when least expected. There’s a lot of voices vying for our attention all day long: radio, TV, newspapers and books, advertisements everywhere, social media, opinions of people, and all of them have a some impact on how we think. For the Word of God to do its work in our minds, we must give it enough time.

The Word of God contains the thoughts of God for us; God invites us to think His thoughts and walk in His ways.

Let the wicked forsake his way, And the unrighteous man his thoughts; Let him return to the Lord, And He will have mercy on him; And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon. “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts. Isaiah 55:7-9

You forsake your ways by forsaking your thoughts, and you walk in God’s ways by adopting His thoughts. How can we know God’s thoughts?

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, 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. Isaiah 55:10,11

The Word is the bridge between God’s thoughts and ours. Thoughts lead to action, and so it also is with the Word; Jesus said the rock that a strong house is built on is hearing and doing the Word. James confirms this in his epistle:

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does. James 1:22-25

If we only hear the Word without doing it, we deceive ourselves! It seems that self-deception has become an epidemic in Christianity. The Word is “the perfect law of liberty” that sets us free and brings God’s blessing upon us, as “this one will be blessed in what he does.”

James makes a very interesting comment in verse 25: “…and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work…” The Word must become work for us to be blessed in what we do!

Some people say that God works in mysterious ways, and it sounds right, but it isn’t really true because God does what He said He would do in His Word. He speaks, and then does what He said He would do. How He does it is a different story, and it is not up to us to tell God how He should fulfil His Word. We do what Sarah did: we judge Him faithful who had promised. Hebrew 11:11

Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” John 8:31,32

Abide is a strong word that means to dwell. Those Jews already believed in Him, but then He told them to dwell in His Word, which means you live there! To dwell in the Word is much more than the casual reading of your Bible; it means you read it, you hear it, you study it, you meditate on it and then do it. When you dwell in the Word, Jesus said, you will know the truth, because the Word of God is the truth. The Word is more true than your circumstances, because it will change, but the Word will never change. Get yourself to a place where you have more faith in the Word than what you see and feel and hear around you. So many followers of the Lord are so focused on their circumstances that they find it hard to generate some faith; their troubles are more real to them than God’s Word! Jesus went on to say that the truth will set us free.

This is a very important statement, and worthy of deeper investigation. The Word is the truth, the Word creates, the Word changes circumstances, heals the sick, casts out demons, raises the dead. There is power in the Word! It has the power to break every chain and lift every burden off our shoulders. No wonder James calls it “perfect the law of liberty!”

God created everything through His Word, but He also upholds everything by the Word:

“…and upholding all things by the word of His power…” Hebrews 1:3

The same Word that created everything also upholds everything – including you!