How difficult it is to bring home to the heart and conscience all that we find in the Word of God. The mind may see it all, but there is still nothing done till God is brought to the soul, and the soul takes notice of itself in the sight of God.
Where it speaks in Hebrews of the Word being “quick and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword,” it passes from the Word of God to God Himself, adding, “All things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him, with whom we have to do.” It is what God speaks; it is Himself who speaks. When the power of the Spirit works, and the Word is mixed with faith in those who hear it, they are before God, all things naked and opened—they have to do with Him.
It is this one looks for; there is plenty of taking up of the things of God by the mind, but conscience is not affected. I then lose the only thing that is real, and it is only real when the Word of God judges us. Paul, writing to the Thessalonians, states that when they received the Word of God, which they heard of him, they received, it not as the word of men, but, as it is in truth, the Word of God, which effectually works in those who believe: the Word takes effect. God is addressing Himself to and occupying Himself with us, and I am affected by the Word as God speaking to me; it is then mixed with faith. Nothing is done till it reaches us thus. We cannot be in God’s presence without being subject to God. The Lord said—
“He that rejecteth Me and receiveth not My words hath One that judgeth him, the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.”
The same Word that is spoken now will judge us then. It is a matter of faith now, and when it is a real work of God this same Word reveals us as in God’s presence: it is that which has the power of God’s judgment upon us: it is God dealing with my soul. So in preaching, reading, exhortation, or the remonstrance of a friend, if the Word brings God into the heart there is reality. The question for our souls is whether we have received it; has this Word been applied to your conscience in this day of grace? The Word of God abides forever
“My Word shall not pass away.”
The same Word will judge us in the last day, if we reject it now: we shall be obliged to receive it then, if we slight it now, for
“As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow down to Me, and every tongue shall confess to God.”
“God is not a man that He should lie, neither the son of man that He should repent; hath He said and shall He not do it, or hath He spoken and shall He not make it good?”
He that does not believe the record makes God a liar, and where the power of the Holy Ghost is in the Word, there is the resisting of the Holy Ghost.