Create Your World

  • Carlton Williams
  • Feb 17, 2009
  • Series: Chew On This

1Timothy 1:18 ‘This charge I commit to you, son Timothy, according to the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you may wage the good warfare.’

CREATE YOUR WORLD

A prophecy is an inspired utterance in a known language. It is an expression of God’s mind to the recipient. Paul is challenging Timothy to take action based on the word of God that had been spoken over him.  Down through the ages, what separated men who really excelled in their lives for God from those who lived a purely mediocre existence was not the availability of the word of God; it was the willingness to take action on the words God had spoken with courage and faith in the face of opposition.

In the book of Hebrews chapter 4, the writer chronicles how a whole generation of Israelites missed out on what God had promised them, even though God’s will for them was clearly understood.  Their failing?  In verse 2, the writer says, ‘…but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it.’  The profit or benefit we receive from God’s word is determined by how we respond to it.  Mixing faith with the word of God means trusting in His word and taking action based on it the way we would if we really believed it.

When Joshua was given leadership of the children of Israel by God after Moses had died, God re-iterated His promise to Joshua.  He confirmed in Joshua 1 that He had given them the land and the exact area that was their inheritance. He assured Joshua that He would be with him and never leave him or forsake him.  However God kept repeating a particular phrase. We see this phrase in verses 6, 7 and 9: ‘only be strong and of good courage.’  After the Lord had finished His conversation with Joshua, Joshua gave instructions to the leaders of the people about the next step. All the leaders confirmed their allegiance to Joshua’s leadership, but again repeated that familiar phrase in verse 18, ‘…only be strong and of good courage.’  

Courage is the ability to take action in the face of opposition and fear.  God was telling Joshua that even though He would be with him, to experience what God had promised, Joshua would need to take action in the face of fierce opposition by believing in the presence and power of God to put him over.  Joshua would have to ‘create his world’ by actions he took based on the word of God.  Joshua took massive, courageous action and received the inheritance that God had promised.

Paul’s admonition to Timothy was the same; Timothy must ‘…wage the good warfare…’ using the prophecies that had been spoken over his life.  Timothy would have to take those words and ‘go to war with them.’  Why did Paul call it warfare?   Because there would always be circumstances, situations, external and internal pressures that would tell him why it was unlikely that what God has promised would come to pass. Paul was challenging Timothy to take action on God’s promise and stick with it until he won.  He called it a ‘good’ warfare because he had God’s guarantee of victory.

Hebrews 11 is full of people who received God’s word, allowed that word to dominate what they saw, spoke and acted upon. They took massive action on the word of God, assured of victory, until they experienced what God has promised.  The chapter is full of action words; they, ‘…subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens, women received their dead raised to life again…of whom the world was not worthy…’  They were a people set apart, undeterred by the impossibility of situations.  They marched into the impossible with the word of God and kept taking action with confidence knowing that God would fulfil His word.
 
2Peter 1:4 speaks about the, ‘…exceedingly great and precious promises…’ God has given to us and documented in the Scriptures.  These words must be mixed with faith if they are to profit us. Faith is expressed through action. It is time to take the word of God seriously and go to war with it. 

You are not waiting on God to move, He already has! God is waiting on you to take action. It is time to create your world with the word of God!