20.October.2026
We just walked through what authority is, where it comes from, and the reverence that goes with it. The question that follows is a simple one. What does it look like when people actually receive the Word and live it out?
Paul wrote to the church in Thessalonica, a church he had spent only a short time with, and this is what he said about them.
And you became followers of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you became examples to all in Macedonia and Achaia who believe. For from you the word of the Lord has sounded forth, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place. Your faith toward God has gone out, so that we do not need to say anything.
1 Thessalonians 1:6-8 NKJV
They received it in the middle of hardship, and they received it with joy from the Holy Spirit. Hardship and joy can both turn a group inward, until it becomes a clique, a circle that enjoys what it has and keeps everyone else out. The Thessalonians did the opposite. Their faith became an example to believers across Macedonia and Achaia, and the Word of the Lord sounded out from them to every place. Their story traveled so far that Paul, who went from town to town, did not need to tell anyone about them. People were already telling him.
Receiving was never meant to be the end. What we are given is meant to move with us, through the way we live and the way we speak, and it did not stop with them.
Over the coming days we will look at what they were sent with: the Name, the authority, and His presence.
I challenge all of us to ask ourselves this question. Is what I have received sounding out from my life, or have I turned it into a private circle that stops with me or with people who already agree with me?
Make today count and see you tomorrow.
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