The Word of God, the Bible, is an Achiever! It achieves its divinely designed objective when properly applied.
“For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.” (Isaiah 55:10-11)
“Is not my word like as a fire? saith the LORD; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?” (Jeremiah 23:29)
Jeremiah 23:29 gives us a compelling reason as to why praying God’s Word is an effective power in dealing with persons, especially those who may be lost.
First, in reverse order:
It is a Hammer! Now, we already know what the intended use of a hammer is all about, but just in case we miss the specific use intended here, these words are added, “that breaketh the rock in pieces.”
Is this not a striking treatise on the state of the human heart, hardened as a rock against God! And yet, here we are persuaded to the use of God’s Word, over and over again, to achieve its goal of breaking down the hardened heart.
When studying a stone-mason at his work, we would observe that one whack of the hammer against the stone; ten blows; twenty; thirty; forty—nothing happens! Again he assaults—perhaps after forty one times the rock shatters! And yet we know that it was not the last blow that crushed the rock. It took the culmination of the hammer’s power to achieve the desired end result.
This is an encouragement for the believer to never give up in using God’s Word, in prayer, to soften the hardest heart, and the blindest eyes against God.
“But even if our Gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, 4 whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ, Who is the image of God, should shine on them.” (2 Corinthians 4:3-4)
God’s Word is like a hammer!
But, also: God’s Word is as a Fire!
Some things are not to be broken; they are to be melted, and as such removing the dross, or impurities. And we are told our precious LORD oversees this process as “a Refiner and Purifier of silver.” This is as the sanctification process in the believer. God, by His Holy Spirit, allows for this process to take place until He sees His own reflection in the molten pool of redeemed humanity refined.
“ But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” (2 Corinthians 3:18)
By His desire, we have a part to play in the use of God’s Word: PRAYER! We pray the Word over the lost, and over our fellow believer. By God’s own design, there are some things God will not do until we pray; deeper yet, by His own design, there are some things He cannot do until we pray. He has such regard for man’s free will. Beloved, Pray On!
