In recent travels, I enjoyed a copy of R. A. Torrey’s book, God’s Power in Your Life. In it, Torrey proclaims the great benefits of the Word of God. He shares:
“The power that belongs to God is stored in the great reservoir of His own Word, the Bible.
If we wish to make it ours, we must go to the Bible. Yet people who pray for power but neglect the Bible abound in the church.
Many long to have power for fruit-bearing in their own lives, yet they forget that Jesus has said, “The seed is the Word of God.” (Luke 8:11).
If we are to obtain fullness of power in life and service, we must feed on the Word of God.
Let us see what the Word of God has power to do:
1. The Word of God has power to convict of sin. (see Acts 2:37). If we wish to produce conviction, we must give people the Word of God.
2. The Word of God has power to regenerate. (see 1 Peter 1:23 and James 1:8). If you wish to be born again, the way is very simple. Take the Word of God concerning Christ crucified and risen, and store it in your heart by meditating on it. Look to God to quicken it by His Holy Spirit. Believe it with your heart, and the work will be done. The Word of God is the seed out of which the divine nature springs up in the human soul.
3. The Word of God has power to produce faith and prevailing faith. (see Romans 10:17). You can never get faith by merely praying. You can never get it by an effort of the will. Faith is the effect of a certain cause, and that cause is the Word of God. Give people what God has ordained to produce faith. The only way to have a faith that prevails in prayer is to study your Bible, know the promises and present them to God. If we are to have faith, we must feed steadily, largely and daily on the Word of God.
4. The Word of God has the power to cleanse. (see Ephesians 5:25-26). A daily, prolonged, thoughtful bath in the Word of God is the only thing that will keep a life clean.
5. The Word of God has the power to build up. (see Acts 20:32 and 1 Peter 2:2). The only spiritual food that contains all the elements necessary for balanced Chrsitian growth is the Word of God. A Christian can no more grow up in good health without feeding frequently, regularly, and largely on the Word of God than a baby can grow up in good health without proper nutrition.
6. The Word of God has power to give wisdom. (see Psalm 119:130). There is more wisdom in the Bible than in all the other literature of the ages. The man who studies the Bible, even if he does not study any other book, will possess more real wisdom – wisdom that counts for eternity as well as time, wisdom that this perishing world needs, wisdom for which hungry hearts today are starving – than the man who reads every other book and neglects his Bible.
7. The Word of God has power to give assurance of eternal life. (see 1 John 5:13). What should we do with someone who is not sure of his salvation? Tell him to pray until he gets assurance? Not at all. Instead, take him to God’s Word.
8. The Word of God has power to bring peace into the heart. (see Psalm 85:8). Many people today are looking for peace, longing for peace, and praying for peace. But deep peace of heart comes only from the study of the Word of God.
9. The Word of God has the power to produce joy. (see Jeremiah 15:16). There is no joy on this earth, from any worldly source, like the joy that kindles and glows in the heart of a believer in Jesus Christ. This joy comes as he feeds on the Word of God and as the Word of God is engraved on his heart by the power of the Holy Spirit.
10. The Word of God has the power to protect us from error and sin. (see Acts 20:29-32). The one who feeds constantly on the Word of God is protected from committing errors.
It is evident from what has been said that the first step in obtaining fullness of power in Christian life and service is the study of the Word. There can be no fullness of power in life and service if the Bible is neglected.
We cannot obtain or maintain power in our own lives or in our work for others unless there is deep and frequent meditation on the Word of God. (pp. 13-30, see Torrey’s book on Amazon here).
