Omega Message – December 1993
Cecil J. duCille
The Word of God is a great mystery which none of us can claim to fully understand, but more and more the Lord is revealing to us deeper things pertaining to Himself, and as we draw closer to the light we can see clearer and clearer some of the things which were hidden in the past.
THE DIMENSIONAL WORD
The Word of God functions on many different dimensions, and we relate to Him according to where we are in God. There are four basic planes upon which our understanding can reach. But beyond this, the planes of the function of the Word are within the spiritual and beyond the veil. Our Lord spoke to Nicodemus that if he could not understand natural things, how would he be able to understand spiritual things. We can easily understand the things on the flat plane, the horizontal plane, but on the vertical plane there is both height and depth. On the vertical height plane we understand that God is above us, that the realm of heaven is above our realm, and that there are things too high for us. On the depth plain, we have to be in Christ to get deeper in God, therefore, the “in Christ” situation is a whole new realm of human experience. This experience is beyond the “Christ in us” experience. This position is “us in Christ” as described by our Lord Himself in His prayer to the Father:
“That they all may be one; as Thou, Father, art in me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me” (John 17:21).
The dimension of being IN CHRIST is the place of being overshadowed by Him in all things. When Christ becomes the Head of the believer, then the believer becomes a part of His body. Many believers claim to be in the body of Christ, without having Christ as their head in their actual day-to-day life. This we will describe as a FOURTH DIMENSION LIVING. In order that we might fully understand this thought, allow me to show you by scriptural references, the difference between the Christian who is “in Christ” and those who are not:
“I in them, and thou in Me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that Thou hast sent Me, and hath loved them, as thou hast loved Me” (John 17:23).
All those who are in Christ are one. This is the only solid uniting together in the world. They do not have to know each other, nor do they have to join anything, because they are joined of the Spirit and will never move one against the other. At present, the world does not know this. The world will mistakenly classify Christians into one vast bundle, and they do not yet recognize that there is a vast difference between those who are in Christ and those who are not. If we are to be specific, then we must recognize that in the church there is an Outer Court, a Holy Place, and a Holy of Holies. The Christians in the Holy of Holies are those who are covered by the “shadow of the Almighty.” They not only have Christ in them, but are themselves (spirit, soul, and body) in Christ. Those who are in the Holy Place are the ones in the realm of the gifts of the Spirit, who have not yet made the supreme sacrifice of the offering up of their soul nature upon the Altar of Incense. This means that total death has not yet occurred in the soul of the believer, which hinders the life of Christ coming forth.
The Holy Place is the place of the soul. It is also the place where Christ enters into the believer’s soul through the ministration of the Holy Ghost. Previous to this, the believer had the blood of Jesus in his soul, which gave him life and is what we call the “born again” experience. He was dead in trespasses and sins, and the blood of Jesus Christ quickened him and brought him life. The next experience is baptism into the death of Christ, which is designed to bring him into the life of Christ. So, while the Outer Court represents death, the Holy Place represents life. This life of Christ in the believer is designed of God to lead him through the two stages of the Holy Place wherein he is made to: 1. Experience union with Christ in the Lampstand operation, and 2. To feed on Christ and His body, as depicted by the Table of Shewbread.
The next and final experience of the Holy Place is the offering that God demands of the believer before he can enter the Holy of Holies. This offering is of the most prized possession that a human person has—his soul. When this sovereign act is accomplished, the believer loses all his rights. He loses his nationality, his pride, his ancestral endowments, his carnal identity as male or female, and he knows nothing but Christ and His crucifixion:
“For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus”; (John 17:23).
The baptism into Christ that is mentioned here definitely could not be speaking of baptism in water, neither could it be speaking of anything humanly accomplished. In 1 Corinthians 12:13 (See below) we are told that we are baptized into Christ by the Holy Ghost. This baptism makes us a part of Christ, which part we call His body. The average Christian might read the passage above and think that it gives him or her license to get up and minister in the congregation, but this passage is written for those who are IN CHRIST and cannot be applied otherwise.
We must conclude that being in Christ means that one is in that Fourth Dimension which was mentioned in Ephesians 3:18 as the depth of Christ.
All of the Word of God is dimensional and none of it is natural, although it has natural dimensions. For instance, let us take the word “baptism.” In the natural dimension, this means being immersed in water as a spiritual covenant between the believer and Jesus Christ. In the spiritual sense, it is the baptism of the Holy Ghost. In its fullness it means the baptism into Christ. The scriptures for these three baptisms are Matthew 3:11 and 1 Corinthians 12:13:
“I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he (Jesus) that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire:”
“For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.”
I will give you another example of the dimensional Word. We can understand what peace is. One definition is “the absence of war.” This would be the basest plane of peace. On the other hand, we know peace to be “calmness and tranquillity,” which is another dimension of peace. There is yet another and higher peace, of love between persons, and kindness and felicity; but the depth of peace is the peace of God which is on the fourth dimension and beyond the understanding of man.
From my experience, I remember the first day Jesus Christ came into my room and talked with me. My mind, my will, my desires, my emotions were all caught up into a heavenly tranquillity which stilled my whole body and being for the space of nine hours while He talked with me and I questioned Him concerning the Word. The Scripture describes it thus:
“And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus”; (Phillipians 4:7).
Here we see a reference from scripture of the fourth dimension of peace, which is “the peace of God,” which passes all understanding.
We read of the four dimensions in Ephesians 3:17-19:
“That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.”
From the context we see that only those who are rooted and grounded in love are able to comprehend the four dimensions. The word “comprehend” in this context means to: “lay hold of; to imbibe and appropriate unto oneself.” Thus we see the meaning extended beyond the English meaning of comprehend, and not merely, “to understand.” The mystery of spiritual comprehension is that one does not know that he does not know the things he cannot comprehend.
In the natural, a dimension is a measurable extent of any kind such as length, breadth, depth, area, volume, etc. We could describe a spiritual dimension as a spiritual realm, or frequency, of spiritual activity. Just as different frequencies of electrical magnetism might be carrying radio waves and television pictures all through your house while you remain in perfect calm hearing and seeing nothing, so it is that the spirit world is all around us without our knowledge.
The Word of God and the laws of God exist on all the frequencies at the same time. When, therefore, the Word goes forth from any dimension of God, it permeates all the dimensions, even to the highest heaven and sometimes to the lowest hell. When therefore God speaks a word on the natural plane, we must understand that as we grow in the Spirit, the same word will have a deeper and then deeper meaning, and yet the fullness of the meaning still lies beyond us in the heavenly realms.
There are no barriers to the dimensional power of the Word of God, and this power has nothing to do with human faith or belief. One cannot say I will believe so and so in order that I might achieve this result or that, because faith is not under our control, but under the control of the Word of God.
“So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17).
In order to prove this point, let me give you a personal experience. As a young Christian, I worked with the Department of Agriculture as assistant accountant. We kept a Sunday meeting in the pay-office. One Sunday morning a boy was brought in by his mother who interrupted the message to tell everyone that I can heal her son because she understands that I received power. She was convinced of this power because some nights before I had unwittingly cast a devil out of her and apparently turned her back from what seemed certain death. At this announcement before those who were attending this service, I became absolutely embarrassed, and I felt my absolute inadequacy under the circumstances. My embarrassment was complete as I held my forehead in hand and quietly said to the Lord, “What am I going to do?” He quickly answered and said, “You are not going to do anything—I am!” The relief and the joy was so great that I immediately prayed for the healing and ordered the dumb and deaf spirit to leave the boy. Again the Lord spoke and said, “Tell him to speak,” whereupon, I said, “Speak boy!” Again, the Lord said, “Tell him what to say.” I said, “Say, ‘Jesus.’ ” The boy turned, looked me in the eyes, and said, “Jesus!” I was too shocked to speak, but Pandemonium broke out and people screamed and ran in every direction. The boy’s mother rushed forward and took charge of the disorder. She said that it is physically impossible for the boy to speak, because she just took the boy from the doctor, who had examined him and told her that he was born deformed in his mouth and he had no proper tongue, and that he was sixteen years of age and would never talk. She demanded to see his mouth. In my abject terror and unbelief, I did not want her to open his mouth lest she would see blood coming from some divine incision. She opened his mouth, and CliftonBerry had received a brand new tongue without any incision, and from the time he said “Jesus,” he has never stopped talking.
There was no faith on my part. The faith of Bertha Berry, his mother, was not properly placed in God, but in me. Nevertheless, the word that God spoke to me was the creative force that Sunday morning that gave Clifton a tongue and hearing. This God did for His glory and the foundation of the church in that area.
THE LIVING WORD, THE SPOKEN WORD, AND THE WRITTEN WORD
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1).
The first phrase of this verse tells us that God was before the beginning, since at the beginning He “was.” He Who has no beginning must have been before the beginning. This phrase, “In the beginning,” must mean “in the beginning of our world and our realm,” since that which has a beginning must also have an end.
The Word of God transcends time and space and distance. We who walk by the Word need to constantly remind ourselves that we are dealing with a God who is outside of time and space and that His Word is timeless and unrestricted.
The Gospel of John tells us here in the very first chapter and verse that “the Word was God,” and that it was the same God who manifested Himself in flesh as the baby of Bethlehem, whom we know as Jesus Christ our Lord. He was “the logos” (the Word). This same Christ, or Yeshua, was the living, walking, talking, Word of God. This means that God the Almighty Father had visited us in a flesh and blood form, and lived and dwelled among us, and through His blood we too will be made to become the word of God. As the apostle Paul said, “Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men” (1 Corinthians 3:2). Thus Christ Jesus, the living Word, is bringing many sons to glory (Romans 8:29-30), and this must take place in our time.
The Greek word for “Word” used in John 1:1 above is “logos,” which literally means, “something said.” Something said by God became a person. In Genesis we understand that God breathed upon a lump of clay, issued forth a part of Himself, and the clay became that which He had purposed—man, the first Adam.
Again, He issued forth His life into Mary and she brought forth a son—Jesus Christ our Lord. Thus, we had a flesh and blood man who is also God also—The Living Word. God’s word cannot die, and although Jesus the son of Mary died, the Christ raised Him up from among the dead, and we have proof that He is alive. Let me say directly and categorically that the living, walking, talking Jesus Christ is in our midst, and He is working with us until we have the final victory over the human part of us, to be changed into that which is Divine. The apostle Peter describes it thus:
“Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust “; (2 Peter 1:4).
We therefore see that the same Christ which was in Jesus, is coming in us in order to make us like Him, so that where He was, we will be until we come to where He now is. If this is confusing to you, then I hope an explanation will not be more confusing. In John 14:2-3, Jesus speaks of mansions and then He said a peculiar thing: “…that where I am, there ye may be also.” Many interpret this to mean that where He is now at the right hand of the Father, we will be, but this was not what He said or meant. He said that where He was at that moment, being the light of the world and the hope of mankind, that He was about to vacate that position and that we would be in that position. Truly, in the future we will reign and rule with Him, which is described as at the right hand of the Father, but for now, we should be content to be in His place in the earth. He was the light of the world (Ref: Matthew 5:14), and now we are the light of the world and that city set on a hill that cannot be hid, (John 8:12).
Please do not get confused by the word “mansions,” used by our Lord in this verse in John 14,
“In my Father’s house are many mansions…I go to prepare a place for you.”
He is speaking here of “dwelling places” in God—us abiding eternally in Christ, and Christ in God.
THE MANIFESTATION OF THE LIVING WORD
“…and the Word was God.” The Word is still God. He is still walking among us and living with us; and every utterance of God is God, whether spoken through the Christ within or the Christ without, and it will create or destroy as God Himself.
The person of Jesus Christ is alive and living with us in our daily operations:
“Lo I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world” (Matthew 28:20).
In our salvation experience, it is not just the will of God to give us the blood of Jesus and the attributes of Jesus Christ but He is creating in us the person of Christ Himself. EVEN AS MARY BECAME PREGNANT WITH THE CHRIST CHILD, SO IT IS THAT GOD IS IMPREGNATING OUR WOMB (SOUL) WITH CHRIST HIMSELF, IN ORDER TO TAKE US OUT OF THE HUMAN AND INCORPORATE US INTO THE DIVINE. Some of my readers might have some difficulty with this, but I am not speaking to you of some grandiose theory, but lessons which have been taught me by the Lord and which I have experienced. There is a Living Word, “Christ,” which the believer is destined to receive within his soul before he can enter into Christ. The Holy Ghost does this work. Even as He planted the seed of Christ in Mary, so the process is being repeated in the church. The apostle Paul confirms this in one of his letters to the Galatian church. Had they not been in a spiritual position to understand this, he would not write it to them:
“My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you:” (Galatians 4:19).
This speaks of the forming of Christ in the believer as a fetus is formed in the womb; as Jesus was formed in Mary. It would be safe to say that the church is pregnant at this moment. Revelation 12 speaks of the woman being pregnant and in travail to bring forth the man child. This man child is none other than the fulness of Christ as the head and the Church as His Body, which is destined to rule (shepherd) the earth with a shepherd’s staff of iron:
“And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule (shepherd) all nations with a rod of iron…” (Revelation 12:5).
This door is already open to us, but even as the “tree of life” was awesome to Adam, so that he did not eat of it when he could have done so, even so it is for us. The tree of life, which is Christ, is wide open to us at this time, but it is a dreadful and awesome place for us to enter. The Word in Genesis 3:24 says that an angel with a flaming sword was placed in the Garden to prevent man returning into Eden:
“So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.” (Genesis 3:24).
The flaming sword that bars the four entrances of the soul will destroy anything human and carnal which tries to enter. The burning at the altar of incense must be complete before we can enter through the veil. Note that the veil has cherubim all over it. This is a symbol of the cherubim in the Garden of Eden. Anyone who dares to enter in will lose his life. If you think I mean he will just die, you are sadly mistaken. I mean he will lose himself totally, and immediately would be persecuted by his own. He would be dubbed as absolutely crazy, and his goods and estate would be taken and shared up among his family and friends as if he were dead. We had a friend who was so touched of the Lord that he began to give away large sums of his vast riches to the church. A restraining order was brought against him by his son, and he nearly got himself thrown into the asylum as being demented.
You may call it the travail of the church, the burning at the altar of incense, or the great tribulation. All of these names would suffice, but our souls must be stripped of “the body of this death” (human thinking, feeling, hoping, and desiring) before we can receive the full power of the life of the Divine God in the soul. At present this power is in our spirits and by various means He is bombarding us to make the life (or, “the Christ”) come forth in the soul. The Word says that “tribulation worketh patience,” but I know now that it is not just patience that it works, but every grace given us of the Spirit. It is the fire that is promised by the Holy Ghost as a baptism of fire, which burns the dross out of the silver and the gold. Upon feeling the slightest sickness or pain, we run to the doctor, and our terror is complete as we hang upon the word of the doctor for his diagnosis. We are afraid of fire; we are afraid that God might burn us to cinders. IN OUR TRUST AND CONFIDENCE IN GOD, LET US TRUST HIM TO BURN THE DROSS OUT OF US SO THAT WHEN THE PRINCE OF THIS WORLD COMES HE WILL FIND NOTHING IN US.
At this time, just before the end of time, the Lord has begun to bombard all the souls of His people at once. This is called the great tribulation, or the travail of the Church. This bombardment has been continuing for a number of years now, and it is getting worse every year. Finally, even as the plagues of Egypt got worse and worse until the culmination of the death angel being loosed at midnight, so shall it be for the world and the Church. The Church is being given the power to overcome just as Israel was in Egypt. In Egypt, they overcame the death angel with obedience to the Word and the blood. At this midnight hour, we will be overcoming with the power of the Word and the blood:
“And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death”; (Revelation 12:11).
In concluding this part of the word, let me say that the Living Word, Jesus Christ, is in our midst, among us and within us; and when He speaks, it is obedience to Him that brings the results. In the first miracle of Jesus after His baptism, Mary told the servants at the feast that whatsoever He tells them to do, they should do it. Jesus told them to fill the water pots with water. They did. Then He told them to take the water to the master of the feast as wine. The moment the word went forth from Jesus Christ and the men obeyed, the water became wine:
“If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you”; (John 15:7).
Here is the formula for spiritual authority:
1. ABIDE, ABIDE, ABIDE, IN JESUS CHRIST.
2. LET THE WORD ABIDE IN YOU
(The word in you as a living person, and you in Christ as a living organism. When these come together in divine unison, then every agent of God and nature must obey, for it is the word of God.)
THE POWER OF THE SPOKEN WORD
“Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ASK, AND YE SHALL RECEIVE, that your joy may be full. These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs: but the time cometh, when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall shew you plainly of the Father. At that day ye shall ask IN MY NAME: and I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you: For the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God” (John 16:24-27).
The first lesson I received in the power of the spoken word occurred one day when Jesus Christ came into my room during those memorable seven months in which He taught me the Bible personally. We had the usual appointment for four o’clock in the afternoon, and I was in a little early, waiting upon Him. Suddenly He was there, and His mood and attitude was upbeat. This means that I was lifted up in heavenly places the moment he appeared. He said, “Ask me for anything you desire and you shall have it.” Immediately my mind was thrown into a whirl and I could not think of anything to ask for. At first, I thought that, “Here is God, I need to ask Him for something I think He would want me to ask for.” At the same time I found myself thinking that maybe the Scripture had some translation error, which said you should ask for anything you desire. He said, “No, you ask for something that you desire, not what you think God wants you to desire.” I said, “Lord, give me a healing; let me see someone healed.”
I got His word and ran out of the room seeking for a sick person. I found a woman who was given up by the doctors to die shortly. I prayed a little prayer and spoke the word of healing to her, whereupon she got up and was totally healed. The one thing I will never forget is when she saw me inquiring from her husband if she was really sick. She laughed at me, and said, “You don’t believe, do you?” It seemed to be too easy to be real.
What does it mean to ask in the name of Jesus? Unfortunately, the carnal person believes that it is by saying the words, “In the name of Jesus,” that it makes it so, but this is far from the truth. All through the Bible, we notice that the word “name” depicts “nature.” In Matthew 1:21, the angel said to Joseph:
“Thou shalt call his name Jesus (“Iesous” in the Greek, from “Yeshua,” in the Hebrew, meaning “Savior”): for he shall save his people from their sins.”
A name always had a meaning. In Africa and India they would never think of naming a child by the name of a devil, unless that child was specifically given to that devil. Names carry meanings and the nature of that meaning generally comes forth in the child. Here we find that some children are called names like “damian” which, of course, means “demon.” If I were given such a name, then as soon as I become conscious of it I would change it.
Jacob was a supplanter, because that was the meaning of his name. He cheated his brother out of his birthright and robbed him of his blessing, but when he met God at Penuel, God wrestled with him all night, and literally knocked the devil out of him. That night his name was changed to Israel, “Prince of God,” because his nature was changed.
When, therefore, we are told to ask in the name of Jesus, we are being told that we must ask as Christ Himself asks—we must ask in His nature. The angels of God, that attend us and do for us the works of God that we cannot do, can only obey the voice of God. When they hear us speak in the voice of Christ, they immediately obey, whether it be to the moving of mountains, or of straws.
IN THE SPIRIT
Whenever the believer is in the Spirit, he or she speaks with the voice of God. We know it is the voice of God (“It is God”) when:
(1) Our spirits bear witness with the spirit that speaks; and,
(2) It agrees with the written Word and the Spirit of God (which is in the Word).
In John 14:16, our Lord told us that He would ask the Father and that He would send us another Comforter. In John 16:25-26 we are being told by our Lord that there is a day, a set time, when He will not pray to the Father for us:
“These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs: but the time cometh, when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall shew you plainly of the Father. At that day ye shall ask in my name: and I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you:”
In the next verse, He gave the reason:
“For the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God.”
This is indeed a profound statement. Jesus Christ is actually saying that we will have the power to ask and receive as He did: that we will have an open line with the Father.
The hope and life of the church is all centered upon this one point of time, this “day of the Lord.” In this day, the spoken word will come to its full power. God has created both life and death in the power of the tongue:
Matthew 12:34-37: “O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things. But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.”
Words can carry both life and death. This is so because we are not just dealing with natural things. A person who can get angry and wish another dead will have many evil spirits taking his word and going forth to accomplish that which was spoken. We live in a spiritual realm and no word falls to the ground. The spirits of God will obey every word of Christ that comes out of your mouth or your thoughts, but the spirits of the devil will also obey every evil thought and every evil word. As matured Christians we have learned not to speak any negative words or harbor any negative thoughts. Negative thoughts will come, and we will see a thing to be totally negative, but we are the balancing force in the world and we are expected to reprove the darkness wherever we see it.
If you can see a negative thing about a person and not have the love and compassion to earnestly pray for that person, then it is the devil that showed you, and not God. God will never show anyone anything about anybody unless he knows your love for that person and that you are being recruited to pray for that person.
The battle in the realms of the spirit goes back and forth upon these principles. If a man is guilty, then devils claim him, but another can drive that devil from him by the power that God gives us. Therefore, if we deride the guilty, we encourage the devils that have a claim on him to exercise their claim. Many times we see one continuously oppressed of devils and we might feel in our hearts, “It serves him right.” We have unwittingly joined the forces of the devil which are oppressing him and we have failed God in the rescue effort which he needs.
We have a word that is like a flashing sword of light when it strikes evil spirits. This means that Jesus Christ our Lord, who is Himself the “Logos,” has given us the “rhema” (or “the word of command”) to use as one uses a gun or a sword.
Once I was attacked by what seemed to be a prince of darkness. His power was so great that when he held me I could not physically move my hands, head, or tongue. At that moment Jesus appeared to me and gave me instructions. I obeyed and my tongue was released to speak the word of rebuke. When I did so, the thing was thrown from me by the power of God. The rhema, therefore, was the command I spoke, but without Christ, the Logos, my words would be ineffective. Jesus Christ said, “…the words that I speak unto you, they are Spirit, and they are life” (John 6:63). This simply means that when Jesus speaks, spirits go forth from Him to do His bidding, and from what we have learned, we are being brought into that same realm, where we speak with the voice and authority of God.
The power of the spoken word should, however, be understood by the believer. When we abide in the Spirit a certain authority goes along with the words we speak. We have seen it in action and the only way we can describe it is that it comes like a ray of light flashing from the believer to the enemy. In the case of the creative force, it is like a spirit that goes forth and creates the object spoken into being. This same force from God works in the preaching of the Word. If the person who delivers the Word is speaking with the authority of the Spirit, then the hearers must be blessed and lifted up towards Christ. All of God’s activity in the Church moves the believer towards becoming more and more like Christ, and the spoken word is a creative force which not only attracts the spirits of heaven to us, but buoys us up into the heavenlies. The spoken word drives away the spiritual forces of the enemy and not even evil men can stand being around anyone who speaks the Word of God. Yes, we do overcome the enemy by the word of our mouth and the blood of the Lamb.
There is, however, what I would call, a backup, provided of God in the person of the angels that are constantly guarding us:
“Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?” (Hebrews 1:14).
Angels of God are appointed around every believer to minister for him. We are partners with God, but can only do a certain part of the work (that which pertains to the physical). The angels, however, are appointed of God to do the spiritual. Therefore, when we speak that which pleases God, His spirits act on our behalf. The place of function between man and God as one unit, is described in the Word as the “lampstand.” It is depicted as one of the seven churches, as well as one of the seven works of grace that will bring us into perfection (the Man Child Church). In Solomon’s Temple the lampstand was multiplied to ten and made much larger than the one in Moses’ tabernacle. This shows that there would be a mighty increase in the ministry of God and man working together, as well as that the magnitude of light in the Holy Place would be increased ten-fold.
The power of God in the Church has increased immensely, but because of the overspreading of iniquity and abominations, it is not very apparent to us. Nevertheless, we should understand that without this great power it would be impossible for us to even survive the present onslaught of Satan and his hosts.
THE WRITTEN WORD
The Word of God is explicit, direct, and without ambiguity. It is the life of the believer and a chart and compass to those who would walk in truth. Without it the church would be confused by the voice of many spirits and men, and would lose her way in a maze of lights, not knowing which is the beam to follow.
There are basic principles of belief which are vital to the believer, which will, under the vigorous testing which follows the acceptance of Jesus Christ as Savior, be the very life blood of the Christian and the determining factor as to whether he or she will overcome or fail. The most important basic principles are:
(1) The Bible is written by God and is the Word of God.
(2) There are no mistakes in the Bible.
(3) The truth of the Word is contained in its meaning and not in human interpretation of what the Word means.
“All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:” (2 Timothy 3:16).
“For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost” (2 Peter 1:21).
These tenets are like the foundation of a very large building which must be laid deep down in the heart of the believer, so that when the storms come, and the winds blow and the billows roar, he will stand and not fall. So many mighty men have fallen and are falling, and the reason is that their building was not founded on the Word of God, but in most cases on what they thought about the Word of God. Thoughts about a thing are not necessarily the truth about the thing.
FOUR MAIN THINGS WHICH CHANGE THE WORD OF GOD
(1) EXEGESIS
(2) HOMILETICS
(3) ETYMOLOGY
(4) TRANSLATION
1. EXEGESIS: “Critical explanation or interpretation of Scripture.” (Webster’s)
In order to fully understand Scripture we must first understand the context in which the word was delivered. If we take it out of context, we could associate it with an entirely different subject, and thus misinterpret God. This then would change the word of God to a word which one thinks God said. This would produce no power and bring in nominal’s, which is a disease that has killed many a church. It gives the believer, like those of the church of Sardis, a name that they live when in fact they are dead:
“And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write; These things saith He that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars; I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead” (Revelation 3:1).
SCRIPTURALLY CORRECT, BUT EXEGETICALLY WRONG
That which is scripturally correct but exegetically wrong, is wrong and not scriptural at all. The story of the teacher and the lazy boy at the back of the class is a classical one, not necessarily factual:
Teacher: “Johnny, give me a Scripture verse.’
Boy: “Jesus wept.”
Teacher: “That is too short a verse; give me another.”
Boy: “And Judas went out and hanged himself.”
Teacher: “Why did you choose such a negative verse? Give me another.”
Boy: “Go thou and do likewise.”
All these verses were scriptural, but their usage in this conversation between the teacher and the boy has nothing to do with the truth of the Gospel. This illustration is indeed an exaggeration of the point, but the exegetical errors of the churches are much more serious. Let us look into a few of the most common and glaring ones:
“Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:” (Matthew 28:19).
“And He said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15).
Most of the churches, if not all of them, call this “The Great Commission.” They quote the above scriptures saying that God tells them to go into all the world and preach the Gospel. If we look at this exegetically, we will discover that the people our Lord was talking to were His disciples who were with Him for three and a half years, and who were not only schooled by Him, but ordained of God. When Jesus spoke these words, just before He ascended, the disciples were not at all ready to go anywhere. It must, therefore, have been in the same context that He told them not to go, as can be seen from the following scripture:
“But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth” (Acts 1:8).
We could take the first scripture from Matthew 28 and “Go!” However, Acts 1:8) says: “First be endued with power from on high, and then preach in Jerusalem first; and when you have conquered those native spirits of Jerusalem, then go through Judea; and when you have conquered the Judean spirits you will be ready to tackle the Samaritan devils; then you will be fit to go through all the world.” This is what the text, the context, and other allied passages can do to the meaning of a word which God gives.
We have seen the results of those who are taken up and thrown to the lions in foreign fields without having been trained and sent of God. The training and sending of the denominations has been a disaster, except that out of the disaster, God has taken His glory and allowed many to flee from the folly of the missionaries and turn to the true and living God.
In many of these fields and within their own countries, the confusion is complete. Division is preached under the guise of denominational Christianity. Wars are being fought upon denominational basis, and there is no war as bitter as a religious war. In Ireland, Roman Catholics and Protestants are at war, and everywhere we have been there is deep division among people calling themselves Christians. No apostle, or prophet, or evangelist, or shepherd, or teacher—who is appointed of God—can preach in most of the churches, whether they are denominational, or non-denominational, or inter-denominational. The reason for this is that the Word of God is privately interpreted so as to make each denomination the greatest, and of course, why should you leave the greatest for less?
FUNDAMENTALISM:
“A belief that the Bible is to be accepted literally as an inerrant and infallible spiritual and historical document.” (Webster’s)
This movement is born of ignorance, and propagated by a lack of godliness. No one can truthfully say that he follows the Bible “literally.” I know a young man in Michigan who was so out of touch with reality, that he quoted the Bible as saying, “If your right hand offends you, cut it off,” and literally took a hatchet and chopped off his right hand. Those who pretend to be fundamentalists must have had their “right senses” chopped off. Let me give you a scripture that would defeat the fundamentalist thought:
“But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Corinthians 2:14).
The above verse is the conclusion to a passage dealing with the comparing of spiritual things with spiritual things, and the futility of man’s natural thinking as against the teaching of the Holy Ghost. From these few thoughts, we can clearly see that without the proper exegetical balance, the Word of God can be misinterpreted to become a trap for Christians who are not diligently seeking God. Many people are caught into sectarian traps. They are told that they should believe every word of the Bible, and when they do, some domineering cultist lord traps them into obeying him or her, thinking that they are obeying the Lord Jesus. The Word of God, however (in Matthew 20:25-26 and Matthew 23:1-12), tells us that no man should be a pope, a bishop, a pastor, or a lord of any kind over his brethren. As far as we know, no titles were given in the Scriptures, and although the translations make it seem that some were called bishops and pastors and fathers, the Scriptures strongly go against all this. There are many small cults in the world, but the truly dangerous cults are the large denominations who lay down rules and regulations for the people, and who are lobbying in Washington and all the legislatures of the world to get control of the people of God. These organizations in our time will form the foundation for the ecclesiastical antichrist beast, and we should understand that this antichrist is the one who will be trying to take the place of Christ in the earth, and is thus the greatest enemy to Christ.
2. HOMILETICS:
“The art of preaching. The branch of practical theology concerned with preparing and delivering sermons.” (Webster’s)
Many of the false doctrines which have flooded all the churches are handed to the people by those who have been taught by the various schools of theology. The body of errors taught by the various groups comes from emphasis being placed on some particular point. The orderly, logical development of a sermon, though in itself is not a fault, becomes the enemy of truth when the focal point is order, oration, and logic. Logic, for instance, will say “Jesus Christ was God” (which is a true and perfect statement) and “Mary was the mother of Jesus,” which is another true and perfect statement, but the logical development of these two thoughts: “Therefore, Mary is the mother of God” is error, and it makes logic the enemy of truth.
(Possibly some reader might not understand: Mary was the mother of Jesus the man, but not the mother of the Christ, for the Christ is from eternity to eternity, having neither beginning nor end.)
There is a human homiletics and there is the spiritual homiletics. The Word of God says (in 1 Peter 4:11) concerning the ministers of the Lord, “If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God….” This means that the living Spirit of God gives the person speaking the words to say, and God’s homiletics is perfect.
I have heard men develop themes, and bring them to weird conclusions; and there are always those to say, “Amen.” The Word of God is sometimes disfigured by homiletics.
3. ETYMOLOGY:
“Explanation of the origin and linguistic changes of a particular word; the derivation of a word; the branch of philology concerned with the origin and history of words.” (Webster’s)
As time goes on, words change and some even completely lose their original meaning and take on other meanings. Some parts of the Bible were written four thousand years ago, therefore the words which were used need to be understood in the context of what they meant when they were said, since many have changed their meanings. For example, in the New Testament the word “minister” is used in many texts. The word in the Greek language which was translated minister is “diakonos.” This word in the Greek language means “servant,” but in our language the word has evolved to mean the head of a congregation or a very high position in government, consequently, instead of meaning “servant,” it now means the boss or the man in charge of the congregation. The English language is a Latin tongue, and our language has not only the Latin words, but the very spirit of Latin. Thus, the very mode of expression is foreign to Bible language.
It is not possible to deal with this subject fully or even to do justice to it in this forum, but if this thought provokes the reader to begin to search the Scriptures, then we have accomplished at least part of the purpose of this writing.
4. TRANSLATION:
This article would be incomplete without the mention of translation as an agent of change and disfigurement of the Word of God.
Translation takes away some of the beauty and the power of the original language in which the Bible was written. This is the case with every book that is translated. A book has never been made richer by translation. I could say many things in Jamaican that could not be adequately translated into English. The chief reason is that some of these idiomatic expressions carry an emotional impulse with them that cannot be transmitted by language alone. Sometimes the very body language that goes along with the words causes an added richness of meaning.
Let me give you some examples of not only idiomatic inconsistencies, but even word changes and deliberate translation errors that were designed to produce a specific effect in scriptural behavior.
For instance, in 1 Timothy 3:1,
“This is a true saying, If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work.”
The KJV translation here speaks of “…the office of a bishop” when there was no such words or implication in the original language that there was any such “office” created by God called a “bishop.” Actually, the word “bishop” is a Latin word brought in to justify the hierarchy of the church, so that the words were changed in this passage to give the believer the impression that God created an hierarchy—which would be contrary to scripture (See Matthew 20:25-27).
Another example of how translation can fail to adequately convey the original meaning of Scripture is in Revelation 14:20,
“And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs.”
The words “blood…even unto the horse bridles” is the literal translation from the Hebrew, but the following will serve to explain what this Hebrew idiomatic expression means:
One brother was describing a soccer match to another, and because it was a very physical and brutal game, using Hebrew, he described it as “blood flowing to the horse’s bridle.” Generally, all idiomatic expressions do not say what they really mean, but these are phrases developed through usage that the people of the language will understand.
Another instance of this type occurring in scripture is in 1 Samuel 24 where Saul was pursuing David, and David hid in a cave. Saul went into the cave, and the scriptures described it, that he went in “to cover his feet.” Now the words “cover his feet” in the KJV is the literal translation from the Hebrew, but it is another idiomatic expression that the people of that day well knew meant to mean “to use the restroom”… “to use the toilet.”
Parabolic or prophetic language also has to be translated into understandable language, and that can only be done by revelation of the Holy Spirit. One instance in Scripture of this type of language is in Revelation 13, where John stood upon the sand of the sea and saw a beast coming up out of the sea. Actually, what John saw was the United Nations being formed up out of the nations. The different attributes of this animal were described in Revelation 13, with part of it as a leopard, part as a lion, and part as a bear; and this was definitely speaking of the different attributes of the nations that would make up this beast. References like this in scripture are only revealed by the Holy Spirit to specific persons through the ages and thus the word of God is given to those who seek and who will share with others.
Another area of reference we could speak of, which is nothing but translation weakness, is the hierarchical positions fostered in the KJV translation such as bishops, pastors, ministers, and deacons. This type of position was decried by Jesus Christ in Matthew 20:25-28:
“But Jesus called them (the disciples) unto him, and said, Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them. But it shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister (“diakonos” in the Greek; “servant”); And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant (“doulos”; “slave”): Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister (“diakoneo”; “serve”), and to give his life a ransom for many.”
Thus, as we go through the New Testament, we see where the word “episkopos” was mistranslated in places to mean “bishop” instead of “overseer”; and where the meaning of “overseer” was misconstrued from being an “elder” (Acts 20:28) to more of a person like a pastor, which is contrary to the thought in 1 Peter 5:3,
“Neither as being lords over God’s heritage, but being ensamples to the flock.”
We can see then how in the translation the whole meaning of these scriptures are disfigured.
In the same way, the Greek word “diakonos,” which simply means “servant,” is translated in places as “deacon” and in other places as “minister,” where “minister” meant “head of a congregation.” We see again that the whole meaning in those verses where these translations are used would be disfigured, and would be changed from the word of God to something less.
In 1 Timothy 3:13, this word diakonos was translated “deacon,” when there was no such position in the church. The words translated “…having used the office of deacon” arise from this incorrect translation of the word diakonos, which in its various forms is elsewhere correctly translated simply as “servant” or to “serve.” There is no basis for the words “office of” in the original language. Diakonos meant “servant,” and there are servants who serve at the table, servants who minister the word, servants who take care of the arrangement of the chairs, and sweeping and cleaning, and so forth. So that there are all kinds and categories of servants, but in New Testament times they were all called “diakonos,” with the special meaning in scripture that they were the “servants of God.”
In 1 Timothy 2, Paul wrote to Timothy to correct some inconsistencies in the body. He spoke of the men who would not raise their hands to praise God and he spoke of the women wearing worldly garments, and then he went on to speak further about the women:
Verse 11, “Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection.”
Verse 12, “But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.”
In these verses, the word that is translated twice that the women should be silent should actually have been translated, “be of a quiet and sedate spirit.” Thus, when it is translated here with the meaning that the women should keep silent, it misrepresents what God said and becomes less than the Word of God.
In Verse 12, it says that a woman should not “…usurp authority over a man.” There is no word here in the Greek to be translated “usurp.” Neither was there any word “over.” The Greek understanding suggested rather that women “should not take the place [authority] of man,” and not as is incorrectly translated in the KJV, “…usurp authority over the man.” When thus translated, it gives an entirely different thought from what God expressed, and when we change God’s thoughts, we destroy the Word.
God said that the woman must be woman, and the man must be man. There is a place for man, as head of the house (even as Christ is Head of the Church), and there is a place for woman, as being the helpmate of man. So that, when this verse is accurately translated, it is transmitted to the Church that the place of woman is not at the head of a spiritual group or body.
The last part of this same verse bears this out, which says, “But I suffer not a woman to teach (“didasko” in the Greek)….” The translation of the Greek word “didasko” as just “teach” here could never be right, because God gives women the gift of teaching and 2 Timothy 1:5 shows that it was women (Timothy’s mother and grandmother) who taught Timothy, who became an apostle. So the women in Israel taught the children, and in Titus 2:4 the older women are directed to teach the younger.
The word translated “Master” in John 13:13, where Jesus said to His disciples, “Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am” is “didaskalos,” which is a form of the same Greek word we have been looking at in 2 Timothy 2:12. This is a word that John 1:38 says has the synonymous meaning “rabbi”:
“Then Jesus turned, and saw them following, and saith unto them, What seek ye? They said unto him, Rabbi, which is to say, being interpreted, Master (didaskalos), where dwellest thou?”
Now the scripture is thus saying here that the woman “should not be master,” and not that the woman “should not teach.”
The reason for the woman not being the head of a spiritual congregation was given by Paul in the next verse in 2 Timothy 2, which says that Adam was not in the transgression but that the woman was, that she was both tempted and in the transgression—which means that the masculine spirit of Satan will always succeed in deceiving the woman, unless she is well grounded in a body including men and women, which is in divine order, where the men are in their rightful place.
A classic case is found in Judges 13, where Manoah’s wife was approached by an angel who told her that she was going to have a child. She asked him to wait there and let her call her husband. If it was an angel of the devil, he would not have waited for Manoah to come. However, this angel waited, and when Manoah came the first thing he asked this angel was, “Let me offer you a sacrifice.” The angel refused and said, “Make your sacrifices to God.” Manoah knew well that no angel of God would take a sacrifice; therefore, when he said that, he was only testing the angel to see what he was—to see if he was of God or not.
The last verse of the 1 timothy 2 says,
“Notwithstanding she shall be saved in childbearing.”
This means that the woman will be the mother of elders, the mother of apostles, the mother of prophets, and even the mother of Jesus. This means that a woman’s place can never be taken away as mother in her own right. She has the power to teach elders, to teach apostles, and to teach teachers.
As we read our Bibles, let us remember that it is only the “WORD OF GOD” when it expresses God and not what man says that it means, but what it really means.
May the Lord richly bless you and yours.
C.J. duCille
Sonlight Devotional 