“So get rid of all the filth and evil in your lives, and humbly accept the word God has planted in your hearts, for it has the power to save your souls.” James‬ ‭1:21‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Jesus came to give us Life: Life, more abundant and full. He gave His life to deliver us from sin’s death.

Jesus also came as the Living Word, sent by God to correct the false understanding plaguing His people. Father and Son left for us the living, life giving Word, compiled and presented to us in the form of our Holy Bible, as written and inspired by God in the power of the Spirit.

As I read this scripture in James today, I realize anew that, when we surrender to Jesus as Lord, Jesus saves us from eternal death – separation from God – and gives us eternal Life, granting us the Spirit of God as our Teacher and as a seal of our union with God. All that God IS, is with us, from that instant to forevermore, never to be separated again from Him who promises to never leave us.

Jesus saves fully and completely. Yet this Word we consider today tells us that God’s Word, left for us, prepared to assist us in our search of the greater depths of God, is EMPOWERED to SAVE our SOULS.

Paul tells us that our fleshly, little-s spirit wars against the Spirit of God, bringing a struggle in our flesh, the purpose of which is to hinder our progress in maturing as a Christ follower and image bearer of God (I.e., Romans 6-8). Our flesh still wants to rule us and fights to control us, making us a slave to our flesh. The spirit of man does not want to give up the false freedom it believes real and true.

When we seek the Teacher to grant us understanding and ability to receive the Truth found in God’s Word, the Spirit empowers that Word to heal our soul. The soul of man (as in humankind) is his fleshly mind, will, and emotions. The fleshly soul is seen in us as the mind of man with it’s earthbound thoughts; the will of man with it’s self-focused desires; and the emotional state of man, unchecked and unleashed to possess the man and rule the day.

When the Spirit increases our understanding of the Word and Truth of God, empowering that Word to save our soul, we find our mind renewed, as God brings to life in us the mind of Christ, dictated by the Truth of God, healing us through His right thoughts within us. His Word reveals the deception of our hearts that dictate our will, our desires in life, and brings healing through aligning our desires and motives with the Fathers. The healing of our mind and will empowers us to possess His Healing Word in us to such a degree that we can now rule and control our emotions. God’s Word often empowers our mind and will to discern the emotional state we are in and align it with the Father’s emotional stability.

Jesus possessed and controlled His body and soul because He IS the Living Word of God. That power for healing the soul of man that the Word of God possesses was in Jesus to the point that The Word IS His WHO. He possessed the Word, lived the Word, and portrayed the very Word of God.

Beloved, we are to do the same. We are to seek the healing power of God’s Word so that it INDWELLS us and makes us the very image of The Father in Christlikeness. Without The Word of God, Living actively and effectively in us, we will continue to struggle as our fleshly spirit fights against the Holy.

Thus we see the reason it is vital for us to feast ourselves on His Word every day, even throughout the day, meditating on its application to our daily living. We must seek to devour it and pick every kernel of truth from it. Beloved, The Word is like the Manna of God, renewed every morning. Only God can give it, and we will never deplete the nourishment found there on this side of Glory. There is always a new, deeper kernel of Truth there for us who truly seek Him with all we are.

May you be healed today, Beloved, and find The Word fully alive and well in your very soul.