Hosanna Restoration Church

I am certain that the Word of God never wears out. Therefore, I do not believe that a person can overuse this great treasure. God is clear that His word should be applied to every thing in life. It is a balm for healing, deliverance, provision, and peace. It is wisdom, understanding, protection, and direction. It is impossible for the natural mind to comprehend that we receive all of this in our original measure of God’s gift. It is just as impossible once we do understand it to exhaust it.

So while we cannot overuse or exhaust the word of God, it is possible to misuse and to abuse it. When the Word is used to restrict or limit people it is a combination of misuse and abuse. The Bible that I have next to my computer is one that has been well used and some of the pages are loose. When I went to find the scripture for this devotion, the page was missing. Fortunately I found it stuck somewhere else in the Bible and put it back where it belonged. I thought of how sad it is when people remove the parts of the word that they do not like. When a person misuses the Word by eliminating what they do not like that is sad. When a person abuses the Word by restricting others that is really bad.

When someone understands God’s word and begins to walk in it and experience more and more of the fullness, it is a wonderful thing. If however, they become deceived and corrupt the word of God, it becomes a monster out of control. When a person begins to use it to control and extort things from others in the name of Jesus it becomes a spectacle that the devil loves and uses to bring shame to the Kingdom of God. We all have seen the extremes where someone convinces people that in order to get what they have they need pay them something. I am not talking about people who have good ministry tools that they share in order to spread the good news, I am talking about people that take and take and give nothing back.

Now that we have spoken of that, let’s forgive those who come to mind and pray that God will restore them to the truth. Don’t let bitterness arise or become judgmental of those folks. It is quite probable that they had a great deal of truth that we do not yet understand before they fell over the edge.

As bad as those things seem, I think there are some things that sincere believers do that may break God’s heart even more. Abuse may well be obvious on the outside, but when God’s people neglect His treasure that must hurt. When we know it and have in fact experienced it but then just set it aside, I can just see the Holy Spirit straining to get us to turn around. Like someone who stands on a platform directing people in blindfolds to a certain place, so it is with us when put on blinders and attempt to walk in this world.

Finally, what I see as the mother of all abuses is rejection of the treasure. To have it, hold it, walk in it, enjoy it, and then reject it…be careful that you do not reject God’s word. That is worse than never receiving it in the first place.