A Word in Season

Isaiah 50:4

“The Lord GOD has given Me The tongue of the learned, That I should know how to speak A word in season to him who is weary. He awakens Me morning by morning, He awakens My ear To hear as the learned”.

This passage emphasises a truth that is of great importance. To speak we must first hear and our hearing must be tuned to hear from God the Holy Spirit.

The Lord has given..

It's all in Him and from Him and the church needs to rediscover this solemn truth.

Jesus, when on the earth said, I only speak those things that I have seen with my Father. In other words what the Father gives me is what I deliver and speak.

In this one verse we see the need to:

1. Be awakened

2. To hear

3. To speak

Awakened to Hear

The Hebrew word means to rouse, open the eyes, stir up, awake.

How we need to be awakened in this hour and to hear from God.

There is no substitute on the human level for the quickening power of the Holy Spirit. If He doesn't awaken us or quicken us then what is produced is purely of human wisdom, intellect and effort.

It doesn't matter how smart we are or how much we think we know, we must wait upon the Lord and know His awakening and quickening power operating in our human weakness and frailty.

As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself so we can do nothing of eternal worth unless we are operating in "the union of absolute dependance"

The Union of Absolute Dependence.

Read John 15

We as a people must rediscover this state of being.

This state of being is to have no confidence in our own ability, intellect, talents or anything of a soulish and fleshy nature.

John the Baptist said in John 3v31

31 “He who comes from above is above all; he who is of the earth is earthly and speaks of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all.

32“And what He has seen and heard, that He testifies; and no one receives His testimony.

33“He who has received His testimony has certified that God is true.

34“For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God does not give the Spirit by measure.

Did you hear what John the Baptist said?

Even though Jesus is above all, has received the Spirit without measure, testified what He had seen and heard and spoke the words of God "no one receives His testimony".

What an indictment on that generation and it's no different today.

How much do we want the truth, to hear what God is saying and not man?

That is the big question and one which is of great significance.. Remember scripture tells us that many will depart from the truth, they will not endure sound doctrine but will gravitate to teachers who tell them what they want to hear. No challenge, no reproof, no reality but an abiding in a delusional state which means having a form or semblance of godliness but denying it’s power.

This is where we find ourselves in these days.

I need to be careful how I say this as people are so easily offended but the fact that only 4 people accessed the last message I shared about the Lord’s return via the app and the webpage tells it's own story.

Maybe it didn't fit with your eschatology or doctrinal position, maybe you are just plain not interested, maybe it was too long, too deep, too negative and the list goes on.

We can listen to a "sermon" - many of which are dead letter and uninspired - and preaching so called, Sunday in and Sunday out, in the comfort of our pew and can go through all the religious motions but how many would feel so comfortable if the word dared to challenge the status quo or idols within our hearts , including the golden calves of our own making.

While God was giving His word to Moses the people were dancing and prostituting themselves in front of the idol which represented their lustful and rebellious hearts.

We don't even realise that we have our own golden calves, our denominational dogma, the man-made doctrines we hold dear - so much so that we will not even entertain the thought that it might just be wrong - never mind listen or read something that might challenge it on the basis of scriptural truth.

One such example is the pretribulation theory. I know people who under no circumstances will listen too or entertain a scriptural based alternative view.

Why so insecure in their position, if that position is so scripturally sound, what is the big problem?

But surely it doesn’t matter I hear you say.

OK – so something that Jesus Himself taught and made clear including the chronology of events and signs that are linked to those events doesn’t matter?

The reality is that we have become sermon tasters and we heap to ourselves teachers having itching ears as Paul said would happen.

Those who reinforce our position even though that position needs to be challenged as it has no scriptural basis or support.

It's time to wake up and be honest with ourselves.

We either want the truth or we don't. There is no middle ground, no half way house or grey area.

There is only one truth whether we like it or not.

Now you are free to exercise your free will and choose the half truth or lie but don't expect that to end well - to believe a lie or half truth is to be deceived, plain and simple.

It’s only when we embrace the truth from an awakened state and in the union of absolute dependence that our ears will be tuned to hear from God.

What are our ears tuned to hear?

Are we asleep or awake. If we are in a comatose spiritual state, we need to be honest before the Lord and cry “Lord awaken my heart and deliver me from the lukewarmness and apathy of this Laodicean age. Give me an awakened heart that loves your word and desires to hear from you.

The scripture in Ephesians 5v14 comes to mind

14Therefore He says:

“Awake, you who sleep,

Arise from the dead,

And Christ will give you light.”

We need to have our ears awakened and tuned to hear as the learned.

The Hebrew word for learned means to be taught, instructed and being accustomed to receiving instruction.

In John 6v45 Jesus quotes from Isaiah 54v13

13All your children shall be taught by the LORD,

And great shall be the peace of your children.

Jesus tells the crowd that no one can come to Him unless they are drawn by the Father.

How does the Father draw men and women to Jesus?

45“It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught by God.’ Therefore everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me.

Can you see the connection?

We must become accustomed to learning from the Father. We must be teachable. It is in the direct learning and instruction that the Holy Spirit provides that we are drawn to Jesus. John 14v13-15

The importance and imperative of being taught by the Spirit of Truth cannot be understated.

It has been important in every age but how much more now in our generation upon whom the ends of the world have come?

Speaking a Word in Season

We have established by studying this one verse the absolute need as a child of God to have our ears awakened to hear and receive from God as those who are taught by the Spirit of Truth.

However, this is not so that we selfishly hold unto the truth we receive or become theologians.

We receive to give.

We receive to speak that which we have heard and received from God.

The sequence is clear. We must be awakened to hear and then we will not just have something to say but we will say something!

Something that blesses, encourages, challenges, reproves, brings wisdom and guidance and hope.

A word in season is a "A right time or just in time word".

The phrase to speak a word in season gives the sense in the Hebrew of helping or succouring the hearer.

The hearer is identified as being needy.

The word they share succours and helps and is spoken to the needy or literally the faint, the exhausted and the fatigued.

Many are spiritually exhausted in this day. We all at some time need someone to speak a word in season to help and strengthen us. However, the person speaking that word needs to have received it from God, for it to be truly effective in the life of the hearer.

Let’s be clear at this point. We don't need to be a big name preacher or a pastor/elder or hold some position in the church.

The church system has created lazy believers, who do not realise in a lot of cases, that they have an essential role to play in the Body of Christ.

It’s not all about what is happening in the pulpit or at the front.

The pulpit can be a problem. How so I hear you say?

If the pulpit and not Christ is the focus then the pulpit is a problem.

If revelation and Holy Ghost anointed preaching and teaching is absent in the pulpit then the pulpit is a problem.

If the doctrine of the Nicolaitians – the notion that there is a professional clergy and a laity and not a Priesthood of believers (Revelation 2v6&15) -  is promoted and perpetuated in the pulpit then the pulpit is a problem.

We need power in the pulpit to promote the pre-eminence and person of Jesus Christ as Head of His Body the Ecclesia, which is the fulness of Him who fills all in all. Ephesians 1v22&23

The reality is that the differentiation between clergy and laity has robbed the Body of Christ and kept the members of the Body in an immature and ineffective state of being.

However, if we were just to awaken to understand and operate in our place and calling as a Priesthood of believers we would realise that the Lord just wants and needs us to be available and operating from the position of absolute dependence.

A place whereby we hear from God and that word we receive is a right time word of encouragement or wisdom that someone needs to hear.

This is a ministry that we can all operate in. We are members one of another, we need one another.

We need the whole Priesthood operating in this union of absolute dependence and the result would be that the body would be healthy and make increase of itself in love through the effectual working of every part and the Head ship of Christ would be honoured and a reality.

Ephesians 4v15&16

Listen to how the NKJV puts v16

16from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.

Every part doing it’s share.

The result is growth, maturity.

It was never meant to be a one man band or show.

That’s not to say that there are not specific gift ministries. There are as listed in Ephesians 4v11:

·       The apostle

·       The prophet

·       The evangelist

·       The pastor or elder

·       The teacher

But the reality is that this does not exclude all the members of the ecclesia doing their share. We all need to position ourselves to be awakened and tuned in, so that we can hear from God and be in a place to speak a word of help in season to brothers and sisters who are weary and exhausted.

How healthy would the body of Christ be if this was the case. If every joint was supplying help, strength and encouragement through the effectual working (power and unction of the Holy Ghost) in every part.

We would turn our world upside down and once again be a force in the earth, fulfilling the Great Commission and bringing glory and honour to Christ.