Pam Padgett ... teacher
Acts 19:18 And many that believed came, and confessed, and shewed their deeds. 19 Many of them also which used curious arts brought their books together, and burned them before all men: and they counted the price of them, and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver. 20 So mightily grew the word of God and prevailed.
prevail - prove to be more powerful than opposing forces, to be victorious
Just as in the early church, when we believe and go in the way of the word of God given to us, that word grows mightily in us. As the word of God grows in us, it prevails over those things that
would try to pull us away from the ways of God ... the devil, our flesh,
other people, false doctrines, (to name a few).
I was raised in the Catholic church and attended Catholic school as a
child where doctrines of the Catholic church were taught.
After I was born again and went to college, I had a friend who told me
she was a Christian. As we would be talking, sometimes a
false doctrine I had been taught would come forth. She would simply ask
"Where is that in the Bible?" As I started proving doctrines I
had been taught by the Bible, many false doctrines were torn down in my
life. The word of God grew in me and prevailed ... was more powerful than the false
doctrines I had been taught, and freed me from the false doctrines.
---
When I attended a Protestant church and a divorced woman I knew from the
singles group at that church was looking for another husband, I warned
her by the scriptures which tell us that if a divorced woman remarries
she commits adultery and the man who marries her commits adultery.
Although she said she was a Christian, she did not believe these
scriptures.
Matthew 5:32 But I say unto you, That whosoever shall put away his
wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit
adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth
adultery.
Mark 10:11 And he saith unto them, Whosoever shall put
away his wife, and marry another, committeth adultery against her. 12
And if a woman shall put away her husband, and be married to another,
she committeth adultery.
Some months later I heard she was engaged to marry a man who also
attended the singles group. I went to him and warned him of the
adultery. The engagement plans continued. I then heard that the maid
of honor at this wedding was to be someone I know and who said she is a
Christian. I warned her that this marriage would result in adultery. She said
she knew this, but that they would get married even if she refused to be
the maid of honor, so she was going to be the maid of honor.
Even when the word of God was disregarded by
others, it prevailed in me, continuing to be brought forth by the Holy
Spirit through me.
Then those in the singles group began to move away from me, to shun me, to
refuse to be around me. I didn't understand why they were doing this
and asked God if I had done something wrong. Not long after this a
woman came and told me she had a message from God for me. The message
was that God knew how I was being treated by those in the singles group
and that I needed to know this was because I had done His will in
speaking against the adulterous marriage. Receiving this message, I was
immediately joyful. This word prevailed over the trouble brought to me
by being shunned.
----
When an electrician was working at my house, he told me a metal conduit
would need to be run around sides of my house. When I told him this
sounded very ugly and suggested some other options, he rudely insisted
this was the only way to do the work. My flesh started rising up,
wanting to enter into strife. But God had been working in my life
regarding strife and that this is a work of the flesh (Gal. 5). The
word of God prevailed in me, keeping me from striving with the
electrician to try to get my way. Instead, I committed the matter to God. (The electrician landed
up seeing a way that was easy for him to do and left nothing exposed on the outside of the house)
---
The word of God prevails in the lives of those who believe, growing in
us, conforming us to Jesus (the Word), and keeping us from being overcome by evil. God
knows what we are facing and will face, and gives us what we need to be
victorious.
And we also know that the word of God prevails in that it always accomplishes that which God intended by that word, as the prophet Isaiah spoke of ...
Isaiah 55:10 For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: 11 So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.