Words and Love Unending

Isaiah 55:11 NLT
It is the same with My word.
I send it out, and it always produces fruit.
It will accomplish all I want it to,
and it will prosper everywhere I send it.

This verse was perfectly illustrated in the response to my last post. The word “adultery” clearly contained the power of the Holy Spirit – how else could it have made such an impact?!  When I checked on the comments, I was pierced even further by what God showed many of you about adultery.  It was pretty awesome to experience the power and intricacy of the Spirit at work like that.

That was straight up Body life.  God gave Martha words and love for me.  She was faithful to give it to me.  I received it and let it bring me to repentance, then I put it under the Blood.  And then I shared it with you guys, the Body of Christ.  And it went out to all of you and came back again, flowing through the Body, feeding and transfusing and oxygenating and producing the fruit of His life.  THAT is what unity is, and it is such a gift of belonging and kinship every time it happens.

I also hope that this encourages those of you who have doubts about the power and importance of a single word that comes out of God’s mouth.  Maybe you shared a word with someone, really stepped out in faith and put it all on the line, and then… nothing seemed to happen.  Well, give it time because God’s word “always produces fruit.”  Always!

I do want to clarify a point from my last post, regarding my (and all of humanity’s) total infidelity and repeated adultery.  God did not expose my whorish proclivities so that I would despair, or collapse under the shame of it or, worst of all, try to reform my philandering self.  He knows who I am – who we all are – in the old nature.  “There is none righteous, no, not one” (Rom. 3:10).  The Amplified defines righteous as “just and truthful and upright and conscientious” in that verse.  No loopholes here.  In the old nature, Satan is the pimp and we’re his stable of whores and gigolos.

God didn’t destroy Gomer’s life and isolate her in the desert to break her or divorce her.  No, He razed her shameful life and ways to the ground, and when He had her complete attention, when she was desperate and alone and aware of just how filthy and vulnerable she truly was… He spoke softly and kindly to her heart.  God reminded her of who He was until she responded to Him with the joy she had over Him in the beginning, when He first set her free.  And why?  “That you will call Me Ishi [my Husband], and you shall no more call Me Baali” (my Master).

It is astonishing that God does not divorce me, that He loves me enough to assault my sordid lovers, rooting out their hold on me down to the last detail.  He shows me who He is until my heart responds to Him with all the bliss and excitement and joy I had when I first experienced Him in my new creation.  He wants our hearts!  He wants us to call Him husband, not master!  It would be so easy to turn me into a pile of ash for my disloyalty and betrayal and wanton unfaithfulness.  But He is not the god of easy; He is Elohim, Adonai, Jehovah.  He is the Alpha and Omega, The Shepherd, “The Eternal.”  And He is my Ishi.

And I will betroth you to Me forever;
yes, I will betroth you to Me in righteousness and justice,
in steadfast love, and in mercy.
I will even betroth you to Me in stability and in faithfulness,
and you shall know (recognize, be acquainted with, appreciate
give heed to, and cherish) the Lord.
Hosea 2:19-20 Amplified