Copyright 2009 Theresa Harvard Johnson
For years, I’ve been fascinated with this statement that the Apostle Paul made at the beginning of his letters.
He said: “I, Paul, write this greeting in my own hand, which is the distinguishing mark in all my letters. This is how I write.” This statement also appears in: 1 Corinthians 16:21, Galatians 6:11; Colossians 4:18; and 2 Thessalonians 3:17.
Why? Well, it reminds us that while the letters of the New Covenant are indeed inspired, they started out as simple letters written to specific people and groups among the Body. If God is indeed the same yesterday today and every, then this certainty speaks volumes concerning the seriousness of the inspired books that we pen. Don’t misunderstand. I’m not saying we are writing “scripture.” I am, however, saying that God gives weight to the inspired pen of the scribe.
Various commentaries tell us that these “greetings” simply mean that Paul was distinguishing between the fact that “he” was physically writing these letter verses dictating the letter through his scribe which was a common practice. The historical accounts of Pauls life remind us that he wrote some of these letters using large distinguishing letters later in his ministry because he was going blind. I fully support these interpretations, as scriptural evidence was provided as I studied this out. Yet, I believed there was more to this as well. You see, it takes great efforts to determine in your heart to write — when you can barely see. so I asked the Lord: “Father, what else are you sharing with us through this statement? I believe there is more.”
He replied plainly, “Prophet, I have called my people to be living stones and living epistles.”
I wept…. and I’m weeping now as I write this. You see the Holy Spirit brought me into an understanding that I had not had before. I was able to see this passage of scripture in a different light. The two scriptures below were brought to my remembrance:
1 Peter 2:5
“…you also, like LIVING STONES, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.“
2 Corinthians 3:3
Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be THE EPISTLE of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the LIVING God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.
The Lord began to tell me how He longed for his people to see themselves as the “walking Word.” Now, listen to this. Jesus was the Word of God made flesh. In other words, when people met Jesus in person – they were meeting the Torah and the Prophets that had come to life. I know this sounds strange, but it’s how the Lord showed this to me. When people experienced Jesus when He was physically present with Him, they literally saw the “supernatural realm of the word of God” manifested in the natural. Jesus was literally a LIVING STONE and a LIVING EPISTLE.
His life was the word walked out and his testimony was the word written.
So when the Lord tells us to BE LIVING STONES and LIVING EPISTLES, we are supposed to be “like Jesus” walking out the “word of God” through this immeasurable love. We say, “I want to be like Jesus,” so casually! We really need to look at this. We are to be ONE with Him. Every day, I want to be more in this mold than I was before. My husband went to the store one day and brought some groceries home. When my children went to the car to get the items out, they laughed at him saying, “Daddy, mama just came back from the store with this same stuff. I guess we’re eating this for dinner today and tomorrow.”
You see, my husband and I know one another well. He’s in one part of town, and I’m in the other – and we are both shopping for the same things for dinner. This happens ALL THE TIME. So, I have learned to call him and he calls me to make sure we are on the same page. Guess what – when the Apostle Paul said, “I, Paul, write this greeting in my own hand…” I have come to spiritually understand that He was a man so in tune with God, that he could ALSO write on his behalf.
When our thoughts become God’s thoughts, and His ways our ways – there will be things we will write in our thinking (or rather meditating process) that we automatically convey the Lord’s will with others. In studying this, there were many times in the bible when PROPHETS made declarations from their hearts and the Lord backed them up. He backed them up because they LINED UP with His Word. They had that oneness with the Father.
In 1 Corinthians 16, the Apostle Paul instructed the members to set aside some money one day each week to help meet the expenses of the church. Never once did the Apostle Paul say, “The Lord told me to tell you to set aside $50 each week to help with the expenses of the church.” Instead, He said… “I, Paul, write this greeting in my own hand….” – then he went on to make the request. The Lord questioned me. He said, “Theresa is this me speaking?”
I answered, “No, Lord. This is Paul.”
Then he said, “But it is my will.”
I was reminded of how the Israelites were required to care for the temple. I even remembered the prophet Haggai discussing how important it was for the people of God to take care of the beautification of the church with their own resources. So much from the Word began to flow through me. It was then, that I realized what the Father wanted to show me.
He was essentially saying, “Prophet, it is my will for the needs of my people to be met and for the temple of my dwelling to be ready for me – in the natural and in the spirit. In this request that my Apostle made, he was requesting something from the people that I have requested throughout my Word for generations.”
I do hope you get this.
The Lord wants us to have a relationship that is so intimate with Him, that when we write things for the people of God – we are representing the fullness of His heart whether we heard an audible voice; got instructions in prayer or had a prophet tell us. Many of us should be at a place in the Lord in some areas of our lives where we just “know” his will for us concerning certain things. We should be such examples of a LIVING EPISTLE AND LIVING STONES, that our hands ARE the hands of Jesus. When we SPEAK on any subject, it should be reflective of the Father’s heart. Period.
Am I saying you do not have to pray and seek God? No! ABSOLUTELY NOT! I am saying that we need to attain a level of intimacy that we can anticipate God’s will in situations, just like many husbands and wives know what their spouses might be thinking or have need of before they open their mouths.
There are so many hidden treasures in marriage relationship that mirror God’s heart toward us concerning intimacy. Now, when I think of Paul saying, “”I, Paul, write this greeting in my own hand…” – I see relationship, not flesh. We must be careful in this though, that we do not become presumptuous in interpreting this message. Paul’s request to the people lined up PERFECTLY with established biblical precepts in both the Old and New Testaments. They lined up in actual logos and rhema – and ours will as well when we MOVE and BREAD and LIVE in Him.
Strive to be LIVING EPISTLES and LIVING STONES…..
