After experiencing the truths communicated so far in this book, and with a few years under my belt developing it for public consumption through presentations and teaching opportunities, I asked the Lord, “Show me where else this concept might be in the Bible.”
Within days I found myself reading again in Romans 10, only I began to read verses 13 through 15.
13 For “whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.” [1]
14 How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? 15 And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written:
“How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace,
Who bring glad tidings of good things!”[2]
In principle, these verses confirm the same concept and process, only in a reverse format. The results are listed first (salvation) and then track backwards to “calling on the Lord” (confession); then “believing” (the presence of faith); “hearing” (getting the Word in our hearts); “preaching” (persons used to get the sent Word to you); then “sending” (God sends both His Word and the preacher).
These verses encouraged me again concerning the principles which had arrested my attention years previous. But this reminded me of what this all boils down to: God wants His Word in every human heart as only He can send it into their lives and draw people to Himself. When these people respond to the Word at work in their heart, they experience a spiritual quickening and the desire to open their mouth, sometimes in desperation as they begin to understand the condition of the human heart and the need for salvation. As the abundance of that Word at work in their heart generates itself in prayer through their mouth declaring the Lordship of Jesus and believing in their heart that God raised Jesus from the dead, they experience salvation. This is a work of the Holy Spirit.[3] Jesus Himself, our faithful high priest, personally returns that Word from their heart and mouth to heaven where the entire place, including God the Father, rejoices.[4]
All who enjoy salvation unto eternal life—those who have found the joy of being born again—have found grace to give themselves to the processes stated in this book, whether they understood them at first or not.
First, the Word was preached to them in one way or another. It could have been a parent, Sunday School teacher, street evangelist, TV preacher, gospel literature, fellow worker, or neighbor. Once preached, that Word started to do a work in their heart like a seed germinating in the ground. In spite of being puzzled initially by Biblical concepts and ideas, by virtue of just being a novice to such things, they found themselves paying a little more attention to the things of God, nonetheless. Within a matter of time, some immediately, others a little longer, they began to realize the truth at work through the preached Word.
Many of us did not know exactly how to respond at those moments, but respond we did. We opened our mouths, not even sure in some cases if God existed, and asked Him to reveal Himself. This very act, though most of the time unorthodox and awkward, returned God’s Word to the heaven from which it originated. Jesus Himself mediated the return of that Word, and God watched over His Word to perform it. The Holy Spirit put the seal on that call made to heaven, working to accomplish the results that God intended all along when He sent His Word.
Truly, the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him.[5]
God even sent Jesus—the Word made flesh—to earth using these same principles. He spoke again and again through the prophets about Jesus’ coming, starting with Genesis where God told the serpent that the seed of woman would bruise its head.[6] A seed does not originate with a woman in a reproductive situation, so this is a direct prophetic reference to the virgin, Mary, who received the seed of God’s Word[7] by saying to the angel of God, “Let it be to me according to your Word.”[8]
Notice the spirit of amen in her comment to the angel.
My educated guess is that Mary hadn’t recently read the book on how to respond appropriately to angel appearances. I imagine her daily confession and attitude before her God was, “Let it be to me according to your Word.” So, when the angel Gabriel manifested in her presence and delivered a message, she just repeated what she had been saying all along. Maybe that’s why the angel came her way in the first place.[9] He knew what he would hear, especially in light of such a radical announcement that a baby is coming.
Interesting to the wider scenario of God’s purpose is that the same angel couldn’t get equal cooperation from one of the most religious people in Israel in an earlier visitation to the priest Zacharias.[10] Why do you think the angel muted Zacharias so he couldn’t talk? Could it be that everything said at this critical time in history was exactly that—critical?
Both individuals were visited by the same angel, but interestingly enough, Zacharias was troubled at what he saw,[11] whereas Mary was troubled at what she heard.[12] With that in mind, which one of these people do you think had made the Word of God their daily priority?
Mary had the spirit of amen when it came to God’s Word and when that happened the Son of God took on flesh and dwelt among us. Her words were part of changing the course of human history.
Indeed, God made declaration time and again, and eventually what He spoke came to pass.[13]
Because Jesus, the Word of God and the one who gives living water,[14] has successfully been sent to the earth and has victoriously returned to heaven, we have an incredible basis for claiming the very promises that His life, death, resurrection and return to heaven confirm as true.
I would encourage the reader to make sure they follow these principles exemplified so meticulously in the botanical world, and even more so, exemplified by millions of people who have called on the name of the Lord appealing to His mercy. These many have received the saving grace of the Lord Jesus who desires to give the gift of eternal life and assure them of a home in heaven for all eternity.[15]
Beyond living forever with our Lord Jesus, not only can you be saved from sin, relative to where you will spend eternity, but also these same principles on the Biblical use of the mouth as a part of your walk of faith can be applied toward issues of daily living.[16] These issues include desired victories needed by individuals, blessings for earthly existence, and successes promised through God’s Word.
Thus, I am not ashamed to encourage you to find the promises of God’s Word and begin to call on the Lord regarding family members who need God’s intervention, healing and health issues, economic concerns, direction for local, national, and international leaders, personal guidance, and career and vocational matters.
In light of the fact that God did not spare His own Son, how can we then conclude that He holds anything else back?[17]
And just because I only mentioned a narrow amount of concerns in previous paragraphs, don’t even begin to think that there are limitations. This life of faith is as unlimited as God’s Word, and the promise of Ephesians 3:20 indicates that God will do exceedingly abundantly above all that you can ask or think—in accordance to the power that works in and through you.
This is all the more reason to pay attention to confession concepts, for therein lies the release of the power of God’s Word. Yes, Biblical dynamics other than confession need to be at work in a Christian’s life, but confession dynamics cannot be omitted or even shelved temporarily as they are typical, even integral, to a life of faith.
Basically, the Bible mentions two main kinds of power, namely, the power of God’s Holy Spirit[18] and the power of God’s Word.[19] Putting God’s Word in your life, your heart and then your mouth, and asking God’s Holy Spirit, the author of the Word of God, to empower and guide you, are essential to the kind of life we are to live and the fruitful influence God ordains us to be.
I have assumed by the title of this chapter that the reader has already found grace to call on the Lord for salvation, but I realize that this may not be true for every one of my readers. Perhaps you have come to consider that God is a holy God, and as you have compared your life to the backdrop of that holiness, you realize how desperately you, and people everywhere, fall short of His standards.
In times past you have had the thought that surely the standard used on Judgment Day would certainly allow you to enter into heaven, nonetheless. But the more God’s Word is sown in you the more you realize that God’s integrity is unmistakenly void of that kind of compromise. He does not grade on a curve. If God did Judgment Day the way you think, then that makes you God—and so is everyone else who hopes for heaven based on their own contrived standards. If anything, you are finding grace to be honest with how amazingly hopeless things are for your eternity—unless something changes. You realize just how much you are at the mercy of this holy God.
If you can find grace to be honest with the bad news, then there is hope that you can receive the good news. This is what makes the good news so good, because of how very bad the bad news is, namely, a life without Christ is void of true life and certainly void of eternal life and inclusive of eternal damnation in hell.
The good news is that God saw our hopelessness in light of His unchanging integrity and, motivated by love, sent His Son, the Lord Jesus, to die for us.[20] He became our only hope; but what a hope it is.[21] It demands our abandonment of manipulating the standards set by a holy God and receiving by simple faith Him who died for us. It also demands our surrender, acknowledging that our eternity rides solely on Him. This makes Him truly and completely the Savior.
When the perfect human has died for you with the kind of sacrifice and passion Jesus demonstrated, especially when there was absolutely nothing you could have done for yourself, there is an ethic that cries out universally. This ethic says if He died for all, then those who live should live no longer for themselves but for Him who died for them and rose again.[22]
This ethic appeals to everything that is right. It demands that we not just acknowledge what He did on our behalf, but that we surrender our total allegiance—even our entire self—happily and willingly, to this lover of our soul. And it is exactly that—His love transcended both us and the sin in which we were hopelessly trapped to create redemption and remedy.
Many have given little to no regard to this ethic, but Jesus’ life, death and resurrection release a call, nonetheless, to all for whom He died.
Until now, your life is best described as dirt without seed. But perhaps you are at a point where you are just beginning to realize the germinating power of the good news of God’s Word in you, and you are feeling a desire to reach—like plants might reach toward the sun. Having felt the reach of God to you personally through His Son, the Lord Jesus, what becomes natural at this point is to reciprocate with your own reach and open your own mouth to express what is happening in you.
This reach and these words from your mouth are not because you think it is such a great idea, but because a great God initiated reaching in your direction long before you thought it was something or someone you might want. As a matter of fact, if you are like me, you initially didn’t want it at all and told this Savior “no” many times before you found the ability[23] to say “yes.”[24]
The presence of His seed,[25] His Word, becomes the germinating power that brings you truly alive. The presence of His water,[26] His Word, keeps the growth processes engaged. And the presence of His light,[27] His Word, keeps you reaching toward Him. When seeds, water, and light release their dynamics, dirt is transformed into a place of productivity, purpose, and destiny.
Out of the dirt of you and me comes Him. We are now both in Him[28] and of Him.[29]
Interesting to the theme of this book is that the salvation we enjoy, as a result of calling on the Lord, is something spoken by Him through His Word initially.[30] This eternal life that we are now given is a gift,[31] and as with all gifts, says nothing of the person receiving it but everything about Him who gives it.
Perhaps many have been used to plant seeds in our lives and many others have watered that which was planted, but in the final analysis it is God who gives the increase we now enjoy.[32] The seed is His. The water is His. The light is His. And the processes at work in our lives are His too.
[1] Joel 2:32
[2] Isaiah 52:7; Nahum 1:15
[3] Titus 3:5
[4] Zephaniah 3:17; Luke 15:4-7
[5] Romans 10:12
[6] Genesis 3:15
[7] Mark 4:14; 1 Peter 1:23
[8] Luke 1:38
[9] Luke 1:28
[10] Luke 1:5-21
[11] Luke 1:12
[12] Luke 1:29
[13] Go to http://www.SoShallMyWordBe.com for a complete list of these verses
[14] John 4:10
[15] Romans 6:23
[16] Psalm 68:19
[17] Romans 8:32
[18] Acts 1:8
[19] Hebrews 4:12
[20] 2 Corinthians 5:15
[21] Colossians 1:27
[22] 2 Corinthians 5:15
[23] It was not my ability, it was His. One of my working definitions of God’s grace is His ability.
[24] Romans 5:8
[25] Mark 4:14
[26] Isaiah 55:10-11; Ephesians 5:26
[27] Psalm 119:130
[28] Philippians 3:9
[29] 1 John 4:4
[30] Hebrews 2:3-4
[31] Romans 6:23; Ephesians 2:8
[32] 1 Corinthians 3:6-7
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