How God's Word Works in You

You don't need more willpower to grow. You need to believe what God has already put in you. His Word works in the person who receives it.

Barry Bennett, Senior Instructor at Charis Bible College, teaches that grace has already supplied what believers need. You aren't trying to become worthy of God's love. The Word reveals what He has given you in Christ and works that provision into your life.

God's Word builds you up from within

God's Word gives you an inheritance and builds you up to live from it. Paul commended the elders of Ephesus to God and to the word of His grace. Acts 20:32 (NKJV) says, “So now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified.” That is more than information about God's provision. The Word works in you so you can live from what He has given.

That inheritance includes what you need in spirit, soul, and body. Through Christ, you have everlasting life, the mind of Christ, God's righteousness, His authority, His faith, and His love. The Word makes these gifts known and forms their expression in your life. You don't have to produce God's nature by effort.

Paul says the Word works in believers who receive it as God's Word. In 1 Thessalonians 2:13 (NKJV), he writes: “For this reason we also thank God without ceasing, because when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe.” Hearing is not the same as receiving. The Thessalonians welcomed the message as God's Word, and it worked in them because they believed.

Increase doesn't have to wait for circumstances to change first. God's provision is already at work within the believer. Are you receiving His Word as truth, or are you still waiting for something outside you to make you grow?

The Word works when you believe it

God's Word produces in the heart that believes. Barry compares this work to an Alka-Seltzer tablet dissolving in water. The tablets fizz, bubble, and work when they hit the water. In the same way, God's Word begins to work when it finds a believing heart. It interacts with the faith and desires of your heart and produces according to its nature.

God's character isn't yours to manufacture. Grace has supplied what you need in Christ. Barry teaches that believers have received God's faith and love by grace. You don't have to strain to create faith and love from nothing or earn a place before God. Believe what He has given you, and His life will show itself in you.

The gospel isn't a list of rules for making yourself acceptable. Acts 20:32 points you to God and the word of His grace. As you know the One who loves you and receive what He has given, your responses change. The Word moves you from fear and unbelief toward love and faith, and from fleshly reactions toward the fruit of the Spirit.

Galatians 5:22-23 (NKJV) describes that fruit: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.” These qualities grow from God's life at work in you. His provision reaches ordinary needs and relationships, and your life shows what He has placed within you.

Grace supplies what you need in every area

God's grace is His provision for every need in your spirit, soul, and body. Barry names mental, emotional, physical, relational, and resource prosperity. The Word of grace builds you up and gives you an inheritance that reaches every area of life.

Paul describes people seeing the exceeding grace of God in the Corinthians. In 2 Corinthians 9:14, he is writing about their generosity and its effect on others. Their giving expressed a grace already working within them. Grace takes root in the heart and becomes visible in how you live and give.

Bring the Word to the need in front of you. If you face guilt, receive the truth of righteousness. If fear has a hold on you, receive the truth of God's love. If you face lack, God's grace is His provision. The Word brings God's perspective to bear on the need, and faith receives what He has given.

Jesus taught that the cares of life can choke the Word. Pressure and distraction can pull your attention from fellowship with God until you're trying to manage everything in your own strength. When frustration, offense, bitterness, and other fleshly reactions take over, treat that as a warning: you're living from the flesh instead of the Word of grace. Return to what God says about His righteousness, your standing before Him, and His provision. The Word is at work in you as you believe.

Daily fellowship keeps God's provision before you

You need daily fellowship with God through His Word. Barry describes reading Scripture, marking it, meditating on it, and returning to passages that remind him of God's goodness. When he feels overwhelmed or distracted, he returns to Psalm 23, Psalm 91, Psalm 103, and Psalm 1:1-3. He meditates on the words and on the picture they give of God's care.

Spend time in Scripture's promises. See what Christ has done and who you are in Him. Romans 5:5 says God's love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit. Barry pictures God's continual flow of love and grace as standing beneath a waterfall. He stays under that flow by reading, highlighting, marking, meditating, and writing things down every day.

This isn't a task to complete to earn blessing. It's fellowship with the One who has given you His nature. The Word supplies what you can share with others. Barry describes what he teaches and shares as an overflow of what is happening within him through fellowship with the Lord. Stop trying to create that overflow by sheer effort. Get to know the One who loves you.

Believe what God has put in you

You can believe God's Word even while your understanding catches up. Jesus teaches in Mark 9:23 that all things are possible to the one who believes. Barry connects that confidence to the faith God has placed in believers by grace. You don't have to work up faith through frustration or effort. God's life and nature have been given to you through Christ, and the Holy Spirit works through the Word in the heart that receives it.

Barry closes by praying that believers would choose to believe and get into the Word more than ever. Now take the sentence he gives you and say it aloud. Mean it: “I believe the word is working mightily in me.”

This post draws from Free Indeed, Episode 156 by Barry Bennett. Watch the full teaching on YouTube.