Laying the foundation for helping the religious into Life is necessary. At this point in the Church Age we’ve come to the place where the normal believer’s life has nearly disappeared.

It’s hard to ignore the huge numbers of religious people who have not fulfilled the basic necessities of salvation. I call them churchians, as opposed to Christians, let alone believers.

Before we can talk about what a normal believer is, we must lay a solid and true foundation for living in the Kingdom of God. We start with a true and trustworthy beginning place.

Placing the cornerstone: we can not assume that people know what that means. A cornerstone is where the building begins. It sets the starting point and baseline from which everything is measured. It must be strong and solid, placed perfectly to enable the structure to be based on Truth. Our cornerstone is clear. It’s a person—the One who is Truth, our Messiah, Jesus or Yeshua in Hebrew.

That’s not common knowledge in the church. For example, Jesus does not lead us to the Truth: Jesus is The Truth. Truth was defined by the Lord as He created the universe. He told us that clearly, I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. He’s the perfect cornerstone.  Hallelujah! 

Laying the rest of the foundation requires faith. Hebrews eleven tells us that without faith it is impossible to please God. And we have been given excellent foundation materials—scripture. The Bible is God Almighty’s gift to His people. The Bible is what it is because the author is the Holy Spirit. He anointed the humans who wrote it.

Many people are confused by this fact. This is where people get into trouble. The Bible cannot save you. You cannot even understand scripture accurately without asking the Holy Spirit to anoint the words of the book—every time you are reading and studying in that book. This is a place where mankind’s intellect gets us into deep trouble very quickly.

Our foundation is scripture brought alive by the power of the Holy Spirit, directly or through an anointed teacher. I do not care what modern theologians say and commentaries are a minefield of human thought unless they are inspired. 

I specifically use the term scripture instead of the commonly used term Word for an important reason. A man teaching out of the Bible by his intellect is worthless, at best.

Our foundation for a new life — Jesus and the Sword of the Spirit

Jesus is the Word. In Revelation 19, as Jesus gets ready to ride leading us to bring peace to Jerusalem, scripture says the name by which He is called is The Word of God. The apostle John understood this when He wrote the beginning of His Gospel:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God; all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life JOHN 1: 1–4A

Let me show you something, please. Many places in the Bible use the Word (capitalized) and it is taught that the Word is the Bible. That is not true. The Word is the author of the Bible, but the Bible is not the source of power. Rather the Spirit of the Author is that source.

Let’s take three examples to explain what I mean.

The first one is short. How it is taught makes me sad.

You search the scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life JOHN 5:39

This is taught or preached telling us that we find truth and life in the scriptures. But that is only part of a sentence. The rest of it tells us the truth.

And it is they that bear witness to me; yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life. John 5:39b–40

The scriptures bear witness to our Messiah, yet people refuse to turn to Jesus to receive that life. I am the Life. Jesus made that really clear. Nowhere does it say Scripture is the life. The foundation for a new life is Jesus and the scriptures.

The second example is more commonly mistaught. It is actually used as a proof text for the importance of the Bible. Again it is not read carefully.

For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 13 And before him no creature is hidden, but all are open and laid bare to the eyes of him with whom we have to do. Hebrews 4: 12 & 13

It becomes clear when we put the beginning of verse 12 and verse 13 together. The word of God is living and active… And before Him…

The word of God is Him, not a book.

The Bible can transform a person only by the anointing of the Holy Spirit. It is God Almighty (as the Word of God) who has the power and the wisdom to make scripture work in this manner. Jesus is the Word. The Holy Spirit was sent to explain these things to us. John 14: 26

Finally, we have a troublesome teaching. In Ephesians 6, Paul’s explanation of the armor of God says, and the Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God. We are told it is obvious that the sword is the Bible. That is not what it says. The Bible is not an occult book where quoting the words carefully provides spiritual power.

The Word (in this verse) is not logos as John shared in the first verses of his Gospel about Jesus. The Greek word used is rhema. Rhema means a spoken statement for a specific purpose. The Greek lexicon says: the word by which something is commanded, directed, enjoined. That is why it is the Sword of the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, who gives us a word of power to speak which transforms a situation in which we are involved. Or, the Holy Spirit converts the words of Scripture to touch us or others with power.