The Power of the King’s Word

‘Where the word of a king is, there is power.’—Eccl. viii. 4.
THEN the question is, WJiere is it ?’ Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly,’* and ‘there,’ even ‘in you,’ will be power.
The Crowned One, who is now ‘upholding all things by the word of His power,’5 hath said, ‘I have given them Thy word.” And those who have received this great gift, ‘not as the word of men, but, as it is in truth, the word of God,’ know that

1 John xvi. 12. 2 Ps. exxxix. I. * Isa. xlviii. 8.
* Col. iii. 16. 6 Ueb. ii. 9; ib. i. 3. * John xvii. 14.

‘there is power’ with it, because it ‘effectually worketh also’ in them.1
They know its life-giving power, for they can say, ‘Thy word hath quickened me;’2 and its lifesustaining power, for they live ‘by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.’3 They can say, ‘Thy word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against Thee; ‘* for in proportion as the word of the King is present in the heart, ‘there is power’5 against sin. Then let us use this means of absolute power more, and more life and more holiness will be ours.
‘His word was with power’6 in Capernaum of old, and it will be with the same power in any place now-a-days. His word cannot fail; it ‘shall not return void;’ it ‘shall prosper.’7 Therefore, when our ‘words fall to the ground,’8 it only proves that they were not His words. So what we want is not merely that His power may accompany our word, but that we may not speak our own at all, but simply and only the very ‘word of the King.’ Then there will be power in and with it. Bows drawn at a venture* hit in a way that astonishes ourselves, when God puts His own arrows on the string.10
There is great comfort and help in taking this literally. Why ask a little when we may ask much? The very next time we want to speak or write ‘ a word for Jesus’ (and of course that ought to be today),” let us ask Him to give us not merely a general

idea what to say, but to give us literally every single word, and ‘ they shall be withal fitted in thy lips.’1
For He will not say, ‘Thou hast asked a hard thing,” though it is far more than asking for the mantle of any prophet. He says, ‘Behold, I have put My words in thy mouth.’* This was not for Jeremiah alone, for soon after we read, ‘ He that hath My word, let him speak My word faithfully’* (for we must not overlook our responsibility in the matter); and then follows the grand declaration of its power, even when spoken by feeble human lips: ‘Is not My word like as a fire? saith the Lord; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?’5 ‘Behold, I will make My words in thy mouth fire. ‘6
If we are not even ‘sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves,’7 how much less to speak anything! ‘Have I now any power at all to say anything? The word that God putteth in my mouth, that shall I speak.’8 We would rather have it so, ‘that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.” Our ascended King has said, ‘All power is given unto Me. Go ye therefore.’TM That is enough for me; and ‘ I trust in Thy word.’11

Resting on the faithfulness of Christ our Lord,
Resting on the fulness of His own sure word,
Resting on His power, on His love untold,
Resting on His covenant secured of old.

1 Prov. xxii. 18. 8 2 Kings ii. 10. 8 Jer. i. 9.
* Jer. xxiii. 28. 6 Jer. xxiii. 29. 8 Jer. v. 14.
* 2 Cor. iii. 5. 8 Num. xxii. 38. 8 2 Cor. iv. 7. 10 Matt, xxviii. 18,19. H Ps. cxix. 42.