Back to The Quick Teachings Page

 

Nowhere in the Bible does it talk about taking God at His word. This expression has come about over time and has taken root because of erroneous teachings.

We very often hear this expression: "We must take God at His word". But when you really understand what this means, you realize that this is not really the right approach we should have with God. This expression "taking someone at his word" means today that we take a person according to his own words. We use his own words to remind him of the right attitude. Most often we take a person at their word because we want to remind them that they have committed themselves, or that they are not really doing what they said they would do, in a given situation.

In the vast majority of cases, the people who teach that we must take God at His word do so in a context that describes a crisis situation. By crisis situation, I mean prayers that we want to see answered, or an emergency situation in which we want God to respond as quickly as possible.

Then we can often hear words like: "If God does not answer you, take Him at His word, and quote a passage from Scripture from Him". Or: "Take God at His word with His Word! ", and other examples such as: "If you see nothing coming, take God at His word, remind Him that He said this and that...”.

Do you think God needs to be reminded of His commitments?

Do you think that God would talk so lightly that we would need to call Him to order?

Do you think God is like a little child who needs to be reminded of things?

Taking God at His word is insulting to His person. This is not the kind of relationship God has planned with His children.

Taking God at His own words is like saying something like: "Hey God, remember what You said, so now is the time to put Your Word into practice about me".

Who would dare to speak to God like that?

No one who is one of His children, of course. Yet taking God at His word, taking one of His words to try to establish a certain pressure, is like speaking in this way.

Matthew 6: 8 ...For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him.

This word of Jesus shows that it is totally useless to remind God of anything.

Mark 11: 24  Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.

This other word of Jesus shows us that it is not the fact of taking God at His word that will give me an opening to my prayer, but simply the fact of believing.

It is by believing, by activating my faith, that I will see the things for which I pray to be accomplished. Faith is the one and only element of success in prayer, but also in receiving anything from God.

God is not a bearded and austere old man with a severe expression. He is not an inaccessible God with whom I am in a relationship under pressure to get things.

John 14: 23 Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.

Imagine that you willingly receive a person in your home.  Imagine that you have asked a person who is very dear to you to come and live with you precisely because you really appreciate him/her.

This is what you did with God at your new birth, you invited Him to come and dwell in you through His Spirit. It is part of your most intimate, deepest life. He shares everything you experience, He is there at every moment, every situation in your life. He knows what you're going to say before you even open your mouth. He knows what you are going to think, even before that thought is formed in you.

God by His presence in you has put His nature there, it is your faith that has the task of making it active and tangible.

Let's go back to that person whom you appreciate more than anything else, and whom you would have invited to your home in this circumstance. Do you think it would be necessary to take him/her in his/her own words?  Would you like to talk to him/her in this way?

Of course not!

When we hear a person say that we should take God at His word, or His own words, it is unfortunately only a carnal reaction resulting from a lack of faith.

When we pray according to His will and see nothing coming, it is because we need to activate our faith, we need to learn to believe according to the Bible, not according to the society in which we live.  
God does not need to be taken at His own words, for His word is perfect, and His memory too...

Bye for now.

All rights reserved - 2023 - TRGN-LVBN