Implant His Word

11/8/1992

This probably was the most important part of that question that I yelled out at James, like, “What is the scoop here? Don’t tell me about the problem; I already know that. Give me some answers, don’t just give me a problem. I already can identify with the problem.”

“Put aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness.” Now that was something he asked us to do, in fact commanded us to do. Put it aside. Get rid of that junk. Put it aside. Make a choice to put aside all remaining wickedness, anything else that’s in your life that you know for a fact is not of God. If it has to do with some area that you’re indulging yourself in, some selfish action that has no benefit to anybody but you, put it aside. It’s filth, it will interfere with your walk with God, it’ll rob you of the fullness of your inheritance, it’ll rob you of that peace that’s in Christ, it’ll rob you of that pure heart, that good conscience, that sincere faith -- it’ll rob you of that. You’ll watch that wither away. He said, instead of letting the self-indulgence choke out the inheritance, he said, “In humility...” (and again, that word is emphatic-- “in humility” -- it was emphasized by God) “... receive the word implanted which is able to save your souls.” Now that part, you can kind of see the positive and the negative. The negative is: put aside the filthiness and the wickedness that chokes out the simple life of God that He has implanted in you when you were born a second time, but now the positive side is “receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls.”

Hear the word of God, apply the word of God. And I don’t mean just to spew out bible verses, just kind of sling those around. There isn’t any power in that, but on the other hand, I need to know what God thinks about things. I need to respond to that. I need to have that word implanted in me. Not just in my head, but in my heart. And if I’m lazy about implanting the word of God in my heart, like, “Well, I don’t know that I really have to spend a lot of time just implanting the word in my heart. I don’t know...What good does going here, going there, listening to that...Why listen to a tape? Why do this, why do that, why be with other saints? Why should I spend time alone with God?” Nobody asks those questions really, but if you were to really carefully look at the outcome of our way of life, I wonder if, oftentimes, those questions aren’t very real questions.

I mean, sometimes it becomes clear by looking at the journal of our last week that possibly we didn’t emphasize those things in our heart. We wouldn’t come out and say -- there’s no value in it. But somehow we’ve chosen things...and there are definitely people in this room right now that have chosen things in your life that have superseded in importance, apparently by the actions that you’ve taken...you’ve chosen other things over implanting the word of God in your heart. You’ve again and again and again selected other things as being more important. The hurriedness of the activities of life, and the priorities of the busyness...And I know these battles! I know...What was it last night? There was something last night where I...Oh, I know. It wasn’t last night, but sometime real recently, I was copying a computer program onto my hard drive in my computer, and it took three disks to do that, and I’d popped two of them in, and had done that, and then I just had this tremendous, overwhelming need to pray. I just had this spear through my side, like, “Mike, get on your knees NOW.” And I had a rather lengthy, stupid argument with God about it, like, “Well, let me just pop in this third disk, and I’ll go ahead and get that copying and then...” You know what I mean? I know I’m not the only one that satan and the busyness of the world throws objections to the call of God on our lives! I know I’m not the only one to go through that about fourteen times a day.

Now, we’ve got to make a choice here. If we don’t want to be carried off and enticed by our own lust, and drug into death, we’ve got some choices to make. One is to love Jesus with all our heart, and to cultivate that. These are all related. Another is to persevere, regardless of what’s happened, bad or good, to keep persevering. Another is to put aside all the wickedness and the filthiness, and another is to continually plant the word of God, which is able to save our souls! And the word “saved” just doesn’t have to do with salvation and going to heaven; it has to do with deliverance. It’s able to deliver our personalities. Your soul is your will, and who you are. The thing that makes Steve, Steve; and Jennifer, Jennifer; and Nick, Nick. That’s your soul. It’s not just the part of you that disappears out of your body and your death bed, and goes to heaven. We’re talking about the thing that makes you who you are.

Well, the word of God that’s implanted, if you’d bother to implant it and then cultivate it, if you’ll continue to drive it down into your heart and apply it, and then be a doer of it and not a hearer only and so deceive yourself by hearing only, but to do something about it. Ask God, “What can I do about it, this thing You’ve implanted in my heart? Show me what to do next. What would You like me to do next about this word that You’ve implanted in my heart?” If we will live that way, it’s able to deliver, or save, my personality. It’s able to save (or deliver) my will. It’s able to save (or deliver) the part that makes me who I am, the personality that I have, my intelligence (however minimal that may be). All the different aspects of who I am...it’s able to deliver that into the hands of God, and to make it like the Son of God.

I gave James a bad rap when I was first yelling at him about that, because I really had kind of in my mind written him off as being a trouble maker. “James, don’t tell me the problem. I want to know the answer!” But I just wasn’t careful enough. As I kind of went back and said, “No, God’s not like that. The Holy Spirit wouldn’t have drawn James into these situations so that he could reflect on the problem if he wasn’t also going to proclaim the answer.” And it is all right there. It’s all right there. The ability to be delivered, and no longer have to be carried away and enticed by the junk in our hearts. It doesn’t have to go on year after year after year, and God has given us the answers, and everything that pertains to life and to godliness. He’s delivered that to us.

So I hope that that is as fortifying in your heart as it is in mine. And I intend to be a doer of the word, and not be a hearer only even of these things. I really have asked, and will continue to ask God to help me to apply these things. “What do You want me to do about it? What specific things do You want me to change? What particular things do You want me to do next? What do You want me to do right now that’s different than what I would do if I was left to myself?”

I know that when you pull all that together-- the perseverance, and the love of God, and the uprooting of wickedness, and then refusing anger in our lives and our hearts, and being slow to speak and quick to hear-- that whole attitude of hearing the word and embracing it and drawing on it, and planting it in our heart, and answering God’s answer whenever the accuser of the brethren throws something in our face, because it’s implanted there, I can answer God’s answer from the heart. Not just out of my head. It’s implanted; it’s not just laying on the topsoil. It’s implanted in my heart because I’ve decided to be a doer of the word, and I’ve asked God how I can be a doer of the word. The net result of all of that is that my ability to walk with Him in peace, and obey Him from everlasting to everlasting without being carried away and drug off into slavery in any particular area of my life...We have that promise and that hope in Jesus Christ, and the eternal word implanted in us. It’s been entrusted to us that we were brought forth in that word, and we’ll continue to be sanctified and drawn forward into the character of Jesus by that same word.

If we’ll hear it, believe it, and do it, then He’ll keep His promise to give us that crown of life.