Part One: Experiencing the Extraordinary Power of God’s Word
By Leslie Ludy
For the Word of God is living and powerful, and sharper
than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of
soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner
of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
Hebrews 4:12
At first glance, his life seemed like a dismal failure — his untimely death a senseless waste. Robert Jermain Thomas was a strong, well-educated, talented young man who left for the mission field in China with his wife in 1863. Tragedy struck almost immediately when his wife died through complications from a miscarriage. Heartbroken, Robert almost lost his passion for ministry. But not long afterwards, he felt a burden to somehow get Bibles into the closed country of Korea. Any foreigner who set foot on Korean soil was immediately killed. Robert risked his life trying to get a few Bibles into the hands of Koreans and managed to give one Bible to a young boy just moments before he was stabbed to death.
To many, Robert’s life seemed purposeless. But years later, when the first missionaries were allowed into Korea, to their surprise they found a thriving church and many passionate Christians. The young boy who had received the Bible from Robert had read it, given his life to Christ, and had grown up to become the pastor of one of the first and only churches in the country — using the pages of Robert’s Bible as wallpaper for the home where his church members gathered. It only took one Bible, and the nation of Korea was changed.
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In the late 1950s David Wilkerson was a country pastor who desired to reach the New York City gangs with the hope of Christ. To many, the idea of trying to change hardened young boys who had grown up with hatred, stealing, violence, drug addictions, and even murder seemed like a fool’s errand. But one evening, after sharing the Gospel with a notoriously violent gang called the Mau Maus, David sensed they had a genuine hunger for God. He sent them home with Bibles, praying that the Truth would take root in their hearts. The next morning David got a call from the police department asking if he would come into the station. His heart sank as he went. He expected to hear about some kind of trouble the Mau Maus Gang had caused during the night. But the opposite was true. The officer in charge wanted to shake David’s hand.
“’How did you do it?’ he asked. ’These boys declared war on us a few months ago. They’ve given us nothing but trouble for years. Then this morning they all troop in here and you know what? … They want us to autograph their Bibles!’”
David learned that the boys had been up all night reading the Bible. The power of God’s Word had broken through a lifetime of anger, violence, and aggression, and their lives were forever altered.
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During the Second World War, Corrie ten Boom and her sister Betsie were arrested by the Nazis for helping Jewish people. As they were led into the horrific conditions of a German concentration camp, a place where more than 96,000 women died, they knew that the one thing that could help them survive was the Word of God. Corrie had a small Bible strapped to her back, concealed under her dress. As she came closer to the entrance of the camp, she prayed that somehow her Bible would not be discovered. “‘As long as we had that [Bible],’ she thought, ‘we could face even hell itself.’”
Miraculously, Corrie was able to smuggle a Bible into the camp, despite the invasive inspection of all the prisoners and the relentless scrutiny of the German guards. She and Betsie held secret, nightly Bible studies in an overcrowded barracks filled with fearful, sick, angry, dying women. When the Word of God was read aloud, a dramatic change came over the atmosphere in that dismal room. Screams and slaps were replaced with kind words and gentle singing. Hopelessness and fear were replaced by calm and inner strength. Corrie’s little Bible eternally impacted hundreds of lives, even in a place where hope seemed to have died. Many of the women prisoners heard God’s Word for the first time and gave their lives to Christ days, or even hours, before they were killed in the concentration camp. Just one small Bible changed everything.
Throughout history, countless stories like these remind us of the power of God’s Word to transform individual lives as well as entire nations. Through the ages, courageous men and women have suffered and died to protect the Scriptures. And even in persecuted countries today, Christians who own a Bible often do so at great risk to their freedom and safety.
Why, then, do many of us in the Western world struggle to find time to study God’s Word? Why does reading the Bible often feel tedious and dull? Why do we so quickly turn to Google or social media for human wisdom when the wisdom of Heaven is available right at our fingertips within the pages of our Bible? Why do we fail to encounter Scripture in a truly life-changing way? Why are we often blind to its life-changing power?
I have wrestled with these questions in my own life. There have been times when I’m excited to explore the rich truths of the Bible and other times when it has felt more like a tedious obligation. My desire is that my soul would continually and sincerely echo the words of the Psalms:
The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart … More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb. Psalm 19:8, 10 ESV
Oh, how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day. Psalm 119:97
God never intended the study of His living and active Word to be dull or obligatory. The longest chapter in the Bible, Psalm 119, is all about the finding of unsearchable riches and unspeakable delight in the unchanging Word of God. As I’ve sought to gain a genuine passion and love for Scripture, I’ve discovered some important truths that have made a tremendous impact on my ability to truly relish every moment I spend exploring His truth. These principles are easy to overlook, yet vital to understand. They can change our relationship with the Bible from dull and obligatory to exciting and transformative.
Let’s take a look:
1. God’s Word is alive and powerful.
“Life’s biggest questions will not be answered on a search engine.” I once read this statement on an advertisement and it struck me as oddly profound, though painfully obvious. How many of us have fallen into the trap of searching everywhere but God’s Word for answers to our deepest needs? Whether it’s trying to solve loneliness through online dating sites, trying to solve discontentment through binge-watching reality TV shows, or trying to solve fear through the “latest and greatest” self-help trends — all too many of us take the bait of chasing temporal solutions to life’s most important issues. And in our digital world we are only a click away from being instantly immersed in a morass of cultural ideas, opinions, and distractions.
Yet the reality is that human thoughts and ideas are only beneficial if they are in harmony with the timeless truth of Scripture. All other notions, concepts, and trends are worthless. God’s Word is meant to be the solid rock upon which we stand — always. His truth is meant to be the ultimate answer for every problem that we face. It doesn’t mean that God can never work through human help or practical tools to accomplish His purposes in our lives — but many of us have fallen into the habit of bypassing His Word altogether, while frantically seeking solutions, help, and comfort outside of Him.
In Hebrews 4:12 we are told that the Bible has the ability to transform our lives every time we read it because it is the living and active Word of God. “Living” means alive and vigorous and “active” means effective, powerful, and operative. His Word contains all the heavenly wisdom, eternal truth, precious promises, and daily life directives that we need.
Jesus says in Matthew 4:4, “…‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’”
God doesn’t intend us to casually read or academically study His Word — He intends us to live by it. In my own life, God has challenged me to turn to His Word first whenever I am facing a problem, struggle, or difficult question — rather than picking up the Bible as an afterthought once I have already looked for solutions elsewhere. When I approach Scripture expecting it to be active, powerful, and relevant for my life, I always find the soul-level answers I’m seeking — no search engine required!
Sometimes the answer comes simply by immersing myself in the unchanging truth of Scripture. Reading God’s Word reminds me who He is and replaces any lies I might be hearing with His promises, with His reality. It helps me build my emotions and my thoughts around His truth instead of cultural or enemy lies. Often, this is all it takes for me to gain clear perspective and make Christ-centered decisions marked by godly wisdom.
Other times, God highlights specific Scriptures that seem to speak directly into a situation I’m facing, offering guidance or encouraging me with a timely promise. During a particularly difficult time when false accusations were swirling around me, I asked God for a specific verse in His Word that I could stand on. Immediately Isaiah 54:17 came to mind: “No weapon formed against you shall prosper…,” and I knew that was God’s specific encouragement to me in that moment, for that particular struggle.
Corrie ten Boom shared in her book, Tramp for the Lord, about a time when she was tempted to give up her ministry because of tiredness and frustration. Without taking time to consult the Bible or pray about it, she wrote a letter to a friend in Holland announcing that she would be retiring from ministry, and asking her friend to prepare a guest room for her to live in. But God lovingly redirected her through His Word. She wrote,
Everything would have gone all right (or perhaps I should be truthful and say ”all wrong”) had I not picked up my Bible. This old, black Bible has been my guidebook in times of light and in times of darkness. I began to read, asking “Lord, what would You have me to do?” I opened to the book of Romans, chapter 10:
“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? … As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!’”…
I sat for a long time — thinking. It is not our task to give God instructions. We are simply to report for duty.
I laid my Bible on the bed and picked up pen and paper … I wrote my friend in Holland.
“Forget about that last letter I wrote. I am not coming home to Holland. I refuse to spend the rest of my life in a pasture when there are so many fields to harvest.”
God’s Word is meant to be our guiding light, just as this story from Corrie’s life demonstrates. It is important to note that when God offers specific guidance to us through His Word, He will never contradict another part of Scripture. All Scripture is always in harmony with itself. We will be in danger of taking Scripture out of context and using it incorrectly unless we ensure that our application of it is in alignment with God’s nature, character, and foundational, timeless truth. Keeping this principle in mind can help us distinguish between being led by emotion or by the Spirit of God as we dive into His Word.
How exciting to realize that God desires to speak into our lives through His living, active, powerful, operational, and transformative Word! His Word is meant to be a “lamp to [our] feet and a light to [our] path,” as it says in Psalm 119:105.
So next time you sit down to read the Bible, I encourage you to approach it with expectancy and readiness to apply it to any and every situation you may be facing. Search out the truth of God as eagerly and diligently as you would search for hidden treasure — and you will not be disappointed. As we are told in Proverbs:
My son, if you receive My words, and treasure My commands within you, so that you incline your ear to wisdom, and apply your heart to understanding; yes, if you cry out for discernment, and lift up your voice for understanding, if you seek her as silver, and search for her as for hidden treasures; then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom… Proverbs 2:1–6
2. Jesus IS the Word of God become flesh.
One of the most profound truths about studying the Bible is the fact that when we encounter the Word of God, we are actually encountering Jesus.
It says in John 1:1, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
In other words, everything in Scripture points us to Jesus — the entire Bible is a reflection of who He is and who He desires to be in our lives. When we grow in our understanding of Scripture, we naturally grow closer to our Savior. When we treasure His Word, we are treasuring Him.
One of the most critical aspects of effective Bible study is to approach it relationally, rather than academically. We can either study God’s Word just to learn historical facts and doctrinal truths, or we can study it to build a powerful, personal relationship with Jesus Christ — the Word of God become flesh.
Corrie ten Boom wrote about a time when she gave a box of chocolate to some Christians who were obsessed with doctrinal debates and heady arguments. They used the Bible as a means to argue with each other. She wondered how she could help them see Scripture from the right perspective. As she prayed about it, she felt God prompt her to share her box of chocolates with these intellectual believers.
Chocolate was a rare treat in post-war Germany, and they received it gratefully. After they had enjoyed the chocolate, Corrie drew a simple analogy and challenged them about their approach to God’s Word. She told them:
“No one has questioned me about this chocolate. No one asked whether it had been manufactured in Holland or what quantities it contained of cocoa, sugar, milk, or vitamins. You have done exactly what I intended you to do: you have eaten and enjoyed it. … It is just the same with [the Bible]. If I read about the Bible in a scientifically theological or scholarly way it does not make me happy. But if I read in it that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever … believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life, then I am really happy.”
When we read the Bible to savor Jesus, we will find endless joy in it. Jesus isn’t meant to be merely studied, but rather adored, appreciated, savored, treasured, and delighted in.
Every word in the Bible is meant to propel us into a deeper relationship with Jesus. Most of us would never consider a personal encounter with the King of all kings to be tedious or boring. When we understand that all Scripture is intended to help us see Jesus more clearly, reading the Bible is no longer dry or dull, but exciting, delightful, and transformative.
I would encourage you to take a relational mindset into your study of God’s Word. Remember, you are not just sitting down to “study your Bible,” but to draw near to the One who loves you more than you can comprehend; the One who gave everything to redeem you. What an astounding privilege!
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Time spent in the Bible is never wasted. Scripture will always reap eternal fruit in our lives when we approach it as the living, active, life-changing Word of God. As He declares in Isaiah: “So shall My Word be that goes out from My mouth; it shall not return to Me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it” (Isa. 55:11 ESV).
God’s Word is perfect, pure, living, active, powerful, operational, and ready to lead us closer to Jesus and transform us from the inside out. May we never take it for granted.
This article was originally published in Issue 45.
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