This Isaiah 55:10-11 passage is the central teaching point about efficacy in the Bible, but not the only one. The Efficacy Motherlode is linked here. Shorter links are under the graphic by Norma A. Boeckler.
There are three points in Isaiah 55 about the efficacy of God's Word, and they are so inclusive that all other passages relate to these verses, and they also serve to quash and destroy man-made illusions, dreams, and con jobs.
Just like the snow and rain coming down:
- God's Word is always effective.
- God's Word is never lacking in its effectiveness. This is a double negative that excludes any flimsy excuses or exceptions.
- God's Word prospers the object of God's will, so we can never be discouraged (no courage) or disheartened (no heart).
References to the Triune God are found in groups of three, just as we find those groups in Genesis 1 and John 1.
I bought a few bare root roses this spring and planted them after a good soak in rain water barrels. Rain water lacks chlorine and is abundant in usable nitrogen. Tap water is abundant in chlorine and lacks nitrogen. One source is from God, one is from man.
Bare root roses are not going to leaf out and grow without enough rain, so I harvest rain from the custom rain barrel and add what God has already begun. Now every new rose, every veteran rose, and every wild rose is leafing out and starting to bud.
I enjoy that because I know how little I do to grow spectacular roses.
God's Word Never Returns Void
The moment someone says that their efforts with the Gospel have not accomplished something, they are violating this anchor point. The hysterical church leaders lack faith in Jesus Christ and His Word, so they run to Fuller, Trinity Divinity, and the Willow Creek Womanizing Cult to become successful, honored, promoted, and united with fellow felons of Fuller.
Who are we to judge the results of God's Word? WELS training is so bad that they encourage docile seminarians to "test the soil!" So where is soil-testing in Isaiah or anywhere else in the Bible? Sorry, the Sower Parable repudiates testing the soil because the living Seed of the Word is tossed with abandon but is overwhelmingly productive.
All the Lutheran sects are "scientific" and imbued with the "treasures" of sociology. They are melting faster than a July frost.
God's Word Is Always Effective
The effective Word certainly stirs up wrath and revenge, but the Beatitudes address that. We have gradually grown with such anti-Fuller concepts as
- The King James Version,
- The Lutheran Hymnal,
- traditional liturgy, and
- Luther's Sermons.
The district president and mission chair who defended and promoted clergy adultery in Columbus, Ohio have gone to their reward. The new district president, a reformer in the mold of Buchholz and Schroeder, gave a known clergy adulterer a new call. But that is how the apostates roll. Proud of their lies and bullying, they only advance the Kingdom while befouling their cozy nests. Are you a drunken, lying pastor? Win a free trip to Russia with all the wodka you can drink. Do not ask why synodical leaders are so fond of alcoholic and adulterous clergy.
God Always Prospers His Will
The positive aspects of God's Word are strengthened for us - who cave easily - by making His power in the Word so clear that we cannot refute it or work against it. Our frail and laughable methods of measuring are usually the opposites of God's work. Big church, big parsonage, big pastor limo. Boom. Crash. Suddenly everything is gone, locked up or given away to their Father Below. I collect photos of those disasters.
Only the eternal treasures of the Gospel, faith in Jesus Christ, matter. What does a charlatan say when he boasts? "We just got over $2 million from the foundation where the rich man drove his wife to suicide. What a blessing for us!"
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| Listen up, son, and this could be yours one day! |
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| The Pope owns the Crystal Cathedral! |
