God At Work In You

By Yeshin Clemente

As I ponder this Scripture in 1 Thessalonians 2:1-16, it made me realize how blessed I am as a child of God. I have been through a lot of trials. I faced fighting Giants in my life. So to speak, I was tested so many times that it came to a point of giving up.

When I got born-again, or when I encountered Christ, the Word was spoken to me and I gladly accepted His words as His words. I learned to pray and listen constantly to the message given on the word of God.

The psalmist prays, “Incline my heart to your testimonies” (Psalm 119:36). He prays that he would want to read and meditate on God’s word. Both by prayer and the word. He prays, “Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law” (Psalm 119:18). He prays that he would see wonders in the Scripture. Prayer and the word are divinely connected. Prayer and Words, Words and Prayer, Amen!

I like what Paul says, “Take the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit” (Ephesians 6:17–18). Take the word praying—prayer and the word—he says, “Pray for us, that the word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honored” (2 Thessalonians 3:1).

Pray that the word break through and triumph. Prayer and the Word. I wondered how one can say he is a Christian and yet his prayer life is taken for granted.
I appreciate the heart of the Thessalonians. God spoke, humans gave his word through their words, and the Thessalonians heard that. They heard the sounds. They knew the Greek language. They construed (and understood) meaning with their minds. The Thessalonians heard the words of Paul.

God uses humans to deliver His Word, and he delivers it to humans. Human minds hear and understand the Word from God, and then another set of human minds receive it from those human mouths (preaching), and again hear and understand it. As they heard, God acted on their minds and hearts. This is the same experience I had.

1 Thessalonians 2:13-16

“And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers. For you, brothers, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea. For you suffered the same things from your own countrymen as they did from the Jews, who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out, and displease God and oppose all mankind by hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles that they might be saved—so as always to fill up the measure of their sins. But God’s wrath has come upon them at last!”

How do we know this or how did the Thessalonians knew that what they heard was God’s words? What He did was enable them to receive Paul’s words as the Word of God. Verse 13b: “When you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God.”

That’s what God did. He opened their minds and hearts to know that Paul was speaking the Word of God, and He (God) gave them to receive it for what it was (and is), not mere human words, but God’s Word. Paul says, “And we also thank God constantly for this.” Paul was thankful that the word was received as God’s Word… “That when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the Word of God.”

In Matthew 16:17, Jesus replied,

“Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. Any one who is in the Spirit of God knows what the spirit is saying.”

Just like, Simon son of Jonah knew who Jesus was, this revelation came not from the flesh but by the spirit of God. And God enabled the Thessalonians to see that the human words of Paul were more than human.

Again

“We thank God that . . . you accepted our word not as the word of men but as what it really is, the Word of God.”

We thank God because God gave you eyes to see the word for what it really is.
If you have welcomed the gospel as God’s Word and believed, then understand that’s how it happened to me. God opened my (and your?) eyes. God inclined your heart. You saw in the words of man, the Word of God.

John 8:47 “Whoever belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God.”

1 John 4:6 “We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood.”

The Thessalonians accepted Paul’s word as the Word of God. So saving faith involves the work of God, opening the eyes of our hearts Ephesians 1:18, to see Paul’s message as God’s Word and accept it, embrace it, receive it. Faith doesn’t look at the Word of God from a distance and pronounce it true. It takes hold of it, receives it, takes it in, embraces it. “As the word of God!”

That is, as supremely valuable. Precious. All important.

So the Thessalonians accepted, welcomed, received, embraced Paul’s message as the very Word of God, as supremely important and precious and valuable in their lives. It was received as a treasure—whose value is only exceeded by God.
This word of God was now at work in the Thessalonians.

Again in verse 13b: “You accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the Word of God, which is at work in you believers.” So God acted to cause them to welcome the Word. And now the Word itself was living and active in them.

The Word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. (Hebrews 4:12) The working of God’s word produced joyful endurance in suffering. Notice the connection between verses 13 and 14.

End of verse 13: “ . . .which is at work in you believers. For you, brothers, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea. For you suffered the same things from your own countrymen as they did from the Jews.”

Paul is giving evidence that God’s word is at work in them. And he says that receiving Paul’s word as the word of God had led to suffering. But that by itself would not prove God’s Word was at work in them, because they might have responded to their affliction with anger and doubt and unbelief.

But they didn’t. How do we know that? Because Paul had already said it clearly, which is why he didn’t need to here.

1 Thessalonians 1:5–6. “Our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake. And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit.”

By the Holy Spirit, God had powerfully given them joy in the midst of their affliction. “Our gospel came to you in power and in the Holy Spirit . . . And you received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit.”

Now when we go back to 1 Thessalonians 2:13–14 we see how God does this. He does it by his word. Verse 13, at the end, “The word of God, which is at work in you believers. For you, brothers, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea. For you suffered. . .” Indeed you suffer with joy. Joy in the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit was giving them joy in suffering by the working of the word in their hearts and minds.

I firmly believed and testify GOD’S WORD is POWER. How does the Word apply in my life? By the work of the Holy Spirit God defeats temptation (like the temptation to be angry and depressed) by awakening joy through belief in the Word of God—which is at work in me. And that word is most centered in the good news that Christ died for us so that all the promises of God are in Him (2 Corinthians 1:20).

For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God.

I live the Christian life, I walk by the Spirit, and the Holy Spirit overcomes temptations to sin by pondering the truths of God through faith in the blood-bought promises of God—that are at work in me.

So you see the dynamics at work here: The Holy Spirit, the Word of God, faith, and joy. By the Spirit we trust the promises which bring joy which defeats temptation. And all the while we are praying!

Remember: True faith is never found alone it is accompanied by expectation. The world hopes for the best, but Jesus Christ offers the best hope.

May your day be a glorious day giving hope with joyful smiles that Jesus is the hope of Glory!