“But IF you live in life-union with Me and IF, my words live powerfully within you—THEN you can ask whatever you desire and it will be done. When your lives bear abundant fruit, you demonstrate that you are My mature disciples who glorify My Father!” John 15:7-8 TPT.

Some times those little words, when you notice them, will punch you right in the eye! You know the ones I mean, the little words that help string sentences together. Those little words in God’s book, can have the biggest meaning. There are times when we can be like little children in a candy store about scripture; grabbing …”one of these and one of those …” only taking the ones we like, so we probably don’t give a lot of thought to the little words. 

It can be easy to treat the bible like a story-book or a novel. However, those little words show us that what’s in the verse is conditional to the things we need to do. We cannot afford to read simply picking out the ‘lollies’ we like. I’ve already talked about the word ‘let” in another blog in the past. Look out for that word, it’s a sleeping giant despite only having 3 letters!

“But we are a colony of heaven on earth AS we cling tightly to our life-giver, the Lord Jesus Christ,” Philippians 3:20 TPT. It is easy to see this verse is conditional when I highlight the little word … as.

“Be imitators of God in everything you do, for THEN you will represent your Father as His beloved sons and daughters.” Ephesians 5:1 TPT. See what I mean? Everybody wants to be a beloved son or daughter, but that verse says we need to imitate Him in everything we do, and … then … we are His familial representatives. 

But what if the version of the bible I like to read is not the same as yours? The same thing applies, because I am not actually talking about the words per se, I am talking about a way to read.  When we deliberately take notice of the little words, we won’t just pick out the main point and run off with it. The bible is like Dr Who’s Tardis, bigger inside than what appears on the outside!

What I am highlighting today has nothing to do with grammar, I would thoroughly fail at that. My purpose is to highlight that we cannot read God’s word and digest it in the same way we do any other book. This book is alive. It is inhabited by Jesus Himself — He is God’s Living Word. It must to be eaten and digested.

Let’s look again: “In the beginning WAS the Word, and the Word WAS with God, and the Word WAS God. The same WAS in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him; and without Him WAS not any thing made that WAS made. In Him WAS life; and the life WAS the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.” 

This is the KJV of John, chapter 1, verses 1-4. Isn’t it astonishing how many times that little word “was’ appears in these verses? Yet we may not have ever noticed it before. That’s my point, the little words in the bible do more than just tie one word to another – they give the things said, context. We get a sense of Christ’s place in the Father’s purposes.

Colossians 1: 15-17. This verse also testifies that Jesus was with God right at the very beginning. “We look at this Son and SEE the God Who cannot be seen. We look at this Son and SEE God’s original purpose in everything created. For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, rank after rank after rank of angels—everything got started IN HIM and finds its purpose IN HIM. He was there before any of it came into existence and holds it all together right up to this moment.”

These verses clearly establish Jesus’ Deity. He is the light shining in the darkness all around us. So when we need light then we must go to His book. By all means ask your pastor, minister, etc. but go to him after you read the bible first, because Jesus knows what happened to Samson, or Jepthah or Ruth. He was there.

Those little, seemingly extraneous words can give us context and clarity, and they help us to live our lives displaying God’s will, God’s way. So they are worth taking the time to notice. The Holy Spirit wants to speak to each one of us, and our task is to take Him speaking to us seriously. We can’t trust our own judgment, or even our own personal insight, we need Him to teach us how to read so we can digest and act upon what we have read. We need even the little words. Bye. 👋.