The Bible is a Spoken, Speaking Book by Ron Cottle

Matthew 4:4 - But Jesus told him, “No! The Scriptures say, ‘People do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” And Heb. 1:1-2, " Long ago God spoke many times and in many ways to our ancestors through the prophets.  And now in these final days, he has spoken to us through his Son. God promised everything to the Son as an inheritance, and through the Son he created the universe.

The Bible is a book of previously spoken words.  In order to truly experience them, we must read and study them in the presence of God and allow them to speak to us again.  All the revelations we have today come from further light upon previously spoken words.

REVELATION: WHAT IS IT?

The principle of revelation today is to receive the spoken word (Rhema-spoken/heard) through the written word (gramma/graphe-written/logical) and to build living words (logos-living/life-giving) upon the words of the Bible re-spoken by the Spirit and heard by believing ears into our own lives and situations.

Just as the first grain of wheat was created (Bara-ex nihilo, out-of-nothing) by God and all subsequent grains are begotten organically (Asah-made, developed), and just as the first man Adam was created (Bara) by God and all subsequent humans are begotten (Asah) from one seed, so the first Word was created by God and from this Word (John 1:1, 14) more words were made organically (Asah) by speaking. 

Once we have the established Word in us (Romans 10:8), more words are produced by us as living words, proceeding words, life-giving words.  NO! Our words are not the Bible, but they are offspring of the Bible.  Just as the Ark of the Covenant was not God but the carrier of the real presence of God in the earth, and just as the Ekklesia is not Jesus, but the offspring of Jesus, the carrier of His real presence in the earth, so our words must be carriers and interpreters and appliers of His Word in the earth (Hebrews 4:12-13).

ONGOING REVELATION

Each generation finds the word becoming clearer and more abundant.  Today we do not expect God to create a grain from nothing and then sow that grain in the earth.  This is why science is so important.  God has already created in full or in seed everything man needs in “heaven and earth.”  Science is designed to discover and develop God’s creation for our use.  We are stewards of it.  Genesis 1:28 uses the word Radah of God’s dominion mandate to Adam.  This word means lead, organize, develop and use My creation for My purposes. 

In the same way, we do not expect God to create a word out of nothing.  This is why Scripture, the Bible, is so important.  We can only receive words that are based on God’s established words; we can only receive light that flows out of existing light and revelation that grows out of past revelations.

That which develops organically (Asah) from the Bible is right; that which does not come from the Bible but from some other source is wrong, either human or demonic in origin.  Today is not the day of creation (Bara).  Today is the day of begetting (Asah), of developing our generational word from God’s previously spoken words.

A KIND REMINDER TO THE EMERGING APOSTOLIC MOVEMENT IN THE EKKLESIA TODAY

Brethren, in these pulsating, eruptive times when the Church as we have known it is dissolving before our very eyes and the ancient, modern Ekklesia is rising like Daniel’s stone out of the crumbling wreckage, we must remember to ground and develop our present, proceeding word for this generation in and out of God’s preserved word, the inspired Scriptures.  Not in a wooden, sophistic interpretation of the letter of the Bible, but in the God-breathed spoken Rhema now becoming logos, living and life-giving when received in faith.

This is what Peter, Paul and John did with their “Bible,” the Torah and Prophets.  They heard God’s voice in every line, every word of these scriptures.  They heard the Spirit speak it again to THEM and they became Christ’s Body, the Ekklesia, His “real presence” again in the earth.  So must we!  Now is our time!  AS ONE EKKLESIA!

A CLOSING NOTE

On my visit many years ago in Seoul, Korea, with the great Yonggi Cho, I asked him “What is your secret?  How have you done all you did here to build the world’s largest church?”  His simple answer startled me.  He said quietly while pointing first to his ear and then his mouth:  “I hear and I obey.”  That’s it!  We must hear and then speak in obedience God’s living word to our generation.

Ron Cottle

June 6, 2020