WEDNESDAY October 15, 2025
The Living Word
For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
Hebrews 4:12
The Apostle Paul gives insight into the attributes of the Word of God. The first attribute of the Word of God is living. The Word living means “to live, be alive.” Jesus said in John 6:63: “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.”
The second element of the Word of God is powerful. The word powerful means “active” or “energetic.” Another quality of God’s Word is sharper than any two-edged sword. The word sharper means “to cut.” God’s Word is so sharp that it pierces through to our very soul and spirit; it does so as if by a single stroke of a two-edged sword. God’s Word penetrates so deeply that it goes inward to the moral and spiritual being of man––of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
Notice the word discerner. The word discerner means “relating to judging,” “fit for judging” and “skilled in judging.” God’s Word is a discerner of our thoughts and intents of our hearts. The Word of God will trace out and pass judgment on the very thoughts of our minds. The living Word searches our motives in all that we do. What is the human heart like? Jeremiah 17:9-10:
“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it? I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.”
Knowing our hearts are wicked, there is a need for repentance. Listen to the repentant prayer of David when he acted according to the desires of his wicked heart: Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me (Psalm 51:10). What is in your heart and mind? Have you acted according to your wicked heart? If so, read Psalm 51 and spend time on your face with God, in sincere repentance.
Only as we bow in contrition, confession, and repentance at the foot of the cross, can we find forgiveness. There is the grace of God.
~Billy Graham~
For more from Raul Ries, please visit SomebodyLovesYou.com!
