Psalm 119: 116 says “uphold me according to your word, that I may live, And do not let me be ashamed of my hope.“ God’s word is not just ink printed on a page. It’s not just a collection of true stories, a set of ideas and principals to live by, descriptions of past events and prophecies of future ones, although it is all of those.

Hebrews 4: 12 says God’s word is “living and powerful and sharper than any two edged sword … and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart,”  and in Hebrews 1:3 we read that Jesus is “upholding all things by the word of His power.” These are profound statements, but they are also very familiar to most Christians who have any knowledge of the Bible: how can we take hold of them and position ourselves so that we don’t lose their depth in their very familiarity, but experience the reality of our lives being upheld by the word that upholds the Universe?

God said in Isaiah 55:8 that His thoughts are not our thoughts, and his ways are not our ways; that they are as far from us as the heavens are from the Earth.  Indeed, if we could comprehend those thoughts with our little human brains then He wouldn’t be much of a God, and the mystery of faith that underpins our relationship with Him would be non-existent. So in as much as I can stretch my thinking in the direction of His truth, I see it like this:

Just like the force of gravity in the natural world, God’s word is an ever present force in the spiritual realm. Speaking of the Temple, Hebrews 9:5 tells us that things on earth are but a shadow of the reality in Heaven (Hebrews 8:5). In the same way, I think that the power and the immanence of the word of God must be more tangible, its light more visible and its truth more discernible in heavenly places than they are on earth. Only in Christ, in the incarnation that we celebrate at Christmas, did the fullness of God’s word enter earthly dimensions; and since Pentecost the power of His word has arced in and through the body of Christ like an electric current as the Holy Spirit has taken what is Christ’s (John 16:5) and brought heaven to earth to build His kingdom. The Incarnation is more than Christmas; it is now: the Spirit of God is always wanting to make His word incarnate in our lives as we, His body, grow “to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” (Eph 4:13)

Kairos moments
To illustrate this, here are a couple of examples of how His word has supernaturally reached from heaven to earth in my experience. These are “kairos moments,” moments when, according to Webster’s dictionary, “conditions are right for the accomplishment of a crucial action; the opportune and decisive moment.”

I know a young Christian man who is a military pilot. When he was first deployed onto an aircraft carrier, I wanted an encouragement for him from the Bible that God would always be with him. I didn’t look the following verses up because I knew them and thought they were appropriate; they were the next section in my reading on the morning when I prayed for him:

“If I take the wings of the morning,
And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
Even there your hand shall guide me,
And your right hand shall hold me.” (Psalm 139 9-10)

Is there another verse in all the Bible that would have been more fitting for him then? I don’t think so. I cannot begin to fathom how God so arranged the universe for my reading of that scripture and my prayer for his deployment to coincide, but coincide they did: His living, active word reached across from heaven to enter a young man’s situation, answering his prayers and mine in one kairos moment.

More recently– in October 2024 – I was due to fly to Dallas from the UK for a business conference. I had invested time and money into the event, and I was expecting it to be profitable for our business. But a situation came about in the UK that suggested I should be here and not in Dallas. When I prayed about it, I felt the Lord strongly confirming that this was with was the case, so I didn’t go.

On the night when I should have been flying, I couldn’t sleep: did I hear from the Lord? Should I be on that plane? I really needed to know that I had heard from God and had made the right decision. It would have been too late to change my mind, but I needed to know for my own well-being.

In the morning, again, not by any prior knowledge of the scripture or seeking comfort by looking through an index of relevant verses, I read the following words:

“I will bless the lord who has given me counsel, My heart also instructs me in the night seasons.“ (Psalm 16:7)

I had wanted to know that I had heard from the Holy Spirit, but He wanted me to know as well. He had given me counsel and had instructed my heart in the night season.

Just as the word of Christ upholds universe by his mighty power, so He wants to bring His word into our lives by His Spirit, to uphold us “that we may live.“ Our God loves to communicate with us. His sheep hear his voice. Moreover, Acts 17:28 tells us “In him we live and move and have our being.” But any signal needs a receiver, so to step into these Kairos moments we need our spirits to be in tune with His. We can look at the River of Life, or we can step into it.  If you have not ever experienced the reality of moving in the dimension of the word of His power, take a step forward in your Christian life and make 2025 the year that you get your feet wet. And if, like me, you feel you may have sometimes dipped your toes into this wonderful heavenly stream, let’s at least try and get in up to our knees by the time we next celebrate the Word made flesh and dwelling among us.

Have a blessed new year!