1.3 Sustained by Word
© 2019 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
Sustaining all things by the Word of His power (Hebrews 1:3). In order to understand this reality as it applies to us, we must know a bit more about the human frame of the Christian.
The part of you that God formed out of dirt is your physical body. The part of you that God formed out of His breath is your heavenly spirit. These together are your “form.” Your physical body and your heavenly spirit are intrinsically tied together in every way. Any separation between the two is called one thing only – death. Yet, even though these two are utterly fused together, your earth body enables you to relate with all things in the earth and your heaven body enables you to relate with all things in the heavens.
Heart as the Center. These “two” bodies, utterly together, are your form, but they are not you. You exist as a living soul found at the juncture of this continuous living connection between your body and your spirit.
That living soul that is you is, as we have seen, a story of words existing inside of a bubble of spirit self-awareness. And at the center of what is you, that is, you in your deepest self, is your heart. Your heart, the deepest meaning of you, is shared fully, however, by all “three.” Your heart is the central organ of your body; it is the central organ of your spirit, and it is the central organ of your soul, that is, the essence of yourself. – Jesus lives in your heart.
One Spirit and One Flesh. As a born-again Christian, here is the reality of your spirit and your body. – He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him (1 Corinthians 6:17). May I suggest that you spend time receiving this short line into your heart through “Let it be to me.” The depths of meaning inside of it will unfold to you forever. – Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you (1 Corinthians 6:19). – For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones. …the two shall become one flesh (Ephesians 5:30-31).
Your spirit is one spirit with the Spirit of Christ; your body comes out of His body and is one flesh with Christ. The issue for you, then, as a believer, is the thoughts of your mind.
Change Your Mind. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind (Romans 12:2). Your spirit is the Spirit of Christ; your flesh is the flesh of Christ. It is your mind, then, the thoughts you think about yourself and all else, that changes to fit with your new reality.
With this understanding, let’s return now to this defining word of all reality – sustaining all by the Word of His power. “Sustaining” is present progressive tense, that means an action that is always fully now and always continuous. Everything Jesus is and does is always fully now and always continuous. Think of that. Nothing that exists could continue in existence apart from being sustained every moment by the good speaking in power that is Jesus Himself. – All.
Jesus Sustains All. Not only are we designed by Word as our source, but we are also sustained by that same Word in every moment of our existence, regardless.
The Greek word translated “sustain” is “pheron.” Jesus pheron’s me. The English words sustain and uphold have almost the same meanings; either word is appropriate, but neither one carries all that is in the Greek pheron. In fact, pheron carries three large meanings, the first is to bring forth, the second is to bear or carry, and the third is to sustain. Jesus brings forth all. Jesus carries all. Jesus sustains and upholds all. And He does so by and as the Word of His power.
Five Actions of Jesus. If Jesus sustains all, why, then, are there evil actions? Evil actions exist because God cannot sin; God cannot force His knowledge on anyone. Such an idea never enters His mind. Thus, in every moment, every created thing coming out from Jesus is sustained in life by Jesus, BUT is also always set free from all obligation by Jesus. Then, God sends Jesus in order to win the heart of every created being and thus to restore all things back to the Father.
Here are the five things Jesus is always doing. 1. Creating (as source), 2. Sustaining, 3. Setting free, 4. Subduing (as winning hearts by love), and 5. Restoring/connecting back to Father. Actions 4 and 5, however, happen only through the willing cooperation of each individual being, that is, through faith.
Christ Sustaining All. Consider the diagram.
Every created being is sustained every moment by words of goodness and power. Yet each one is fully free to turn their backs on that which sustains them and to act contrary to Christ. The believer in Jesus is doing nothing more than accepting what is already the only thing true. As such, he or she trusts absolutely in Jesus, that He does all things well.
Energeia. Father… having blessed and spoken well of us with every spiritual speaking of goodness and blessing in the heavenly realms inside of Christ (Ephesians 1:3).
Let’s extend this quality of Jesus sustaining us every moment a bit further before looking at its meanings. There is another word in the New Testament that enables us to understand what this Jesus who lives in our hearts is doing in us every moment. That word is “energeia/energeo.” Typically, energeia is translated into “working,” that is, God working inside of us. But the English word “working” seems to hide this incredible action of Jesus’ speaking by which we live.
Here are several verses that speak of this “working” of God in us.
Energeoing in Us. Having already been pro-determined according to God’s purpose, the One Who is energeoing all down to the finest details of the counsel and deliberate wisdom arising out of His desire (Ephesians 1:11). – Now to the One who is able above all to do hyper-abundantly more than we ask or think, according to the power energeoing inside of us… (Ephesians 3:20).
God is the Energeia inside of you, both to desire and to energeo for the sake of good pleasure (Philippians 2:13). – There are varieties of operations [effects of energeia], but the same God who energeoes all inside of all (1 Corinthians 12:6).
As you can see, there is a whole lot of God stuff going on inside every believer in Jesus, in full action and in every moment.
Let It Be to Me. God always acts in you through Jesus and by His Spirit. Yet God acting cannot be known by you except as you receive His words as power and life into your own heart. This is why we connect our faith directly with every Word God speaks through – “Let it be to me according to Your Word.”
Living indeed is the Word of God, and energeoing… (Hebrews 4:12). – Man does not live by bread alone, but by every Word that proceeds from the mouth of God (Luke 4:4). – Sustaining all things by the Word of His power.
Jesus brings me forth. Jesus carries me and bears me upon Himself. Jesus sustains and upholds me. And He does so as the active, energeoing Words of power and life that He is.
Our only Source. We exist by God; every particle of our being, every moment of our lives, every circumstance surrounding us is engulfed in, uplifted, thought about, labored over, and loved with intensity, by the immediate and close presence of our Father upwelling from within us every moment, through Jesus in our hearts. The glory of Jesus arising in you is overwhelming.
As much as we are rejoicing in the glory and goodness of our Salvation, the only place we live, let’s continue here with seeking for understanding. – Sustaining all. – Nothing exists outside of God’s Spirit; nothing exists except it be sustained every moment by Jesus. There is not and cannot be any “evil” source, for there is no evil “god” and no “good and evil” in our Father.
The Believer. Look at the diagram again of Christ sustaining all and notice carefully the three types or stances of created beings. All sentient created beings, either angelic or human, are to be found in one of those three positions towards the good speaking of Jesus out from which they come every moment. Even though each one is coming out from that good speaking, none of them are compelled to know those good words coming into them. Each one is free in God to do whatever he or she wants with the word God speaks.
The believer in Jesus faces and thus sees Jesus alone entirely because they love Christ Jesus and choose to know Him alone. Thus in these, every good word that Jesus is speaking enters into them through their faith to become their only story of self.
The Unbeliever. The unbeliever, though he or she exists only by the good speaking of Jesus, yet they have no interest in knowing Him or His good words at all. Instead, they use whatever false story they see and choose in order to construct by their own words the story of self in which they imagine they should live. Their story is entirely fake; Jesus alone sustains them, but they choose not to know Him at all.
We use the metaphor of a “back turned” in order to express the meaning of unbelief, that is, choosing not to know Jesus Sent. Because of their unbelief, then, every single action they do, every word they speak or thought they think is evil or sinful because they acclaim themselves as their only source.
The Purpose of this Text. There is a specific reason why they refuse to know Jesus as their source, a reason which we will explore in a later chapter. This text, however, is not about the unbeliever or the believer, but the sad person in-between.
These are our precious brethren who do believe in Jesus, but they also love to believe in themselves as well. They are caught between two. They see Christ and they see sin and they want to keep both as the definition of their lives.
These are God’s people, most precious to Him, halting between two. It is your task, together with your Father, to set these dear people free. In this text I hope to give you the understanding and the tools that enable you to work together with Father to set His people free.