“Whereof I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power.” — Ephesians 3:7
“Yea, before the day was I am he; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand: I will work, and who shall let it?” — Isaiah 43:13
Paul declares that everything he became — a minister, a messenger, a missionary — was not the product of human greatness, but the result of “the effectual working of His power.” God’s Word didn’t merely inform Paul… it transformed him. Isaiah echoes the same truth in the Old Testament: God says, “I will work, and who shall let it?” No power on earth can stop God when He chooses to work in a life. When God’s Word enters your heart, God’s power begins to work in your life. No force — human, spiritual, or circumstantial — can stop what God starts. The Word of God is not passive. It is living, active, and effectual — reproducing Christ in you.
Jeremiah (Jeremiah 20:9). Jeremiah tried to quit. The persecution was heavy. The ministry was painful. But God’s Word had taken root. “His word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones… and I could not stay.” Even when Jeremiah felt weak, God’s Word worked within him, driving him, strengthening him, lifting him. It was God’s effectual power, not Jeremiah’s emotional strength, that kept him faithful.
The Thessalonians (1 Thessalonians 2:13). Paul said the Thessalonian believers received the Word “not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.” The Synodal Bible in Russian changes the words — it doesn’t say: it effectually works. The result of the word of God having an effect on your life: They endured persecution. They turned from idols. They lived in holiness. They sounded out the gospel. All because God’s Word worked in them effectually — the same truth Paul testifies to in Ephesians 3:7.
God’s Word doesn’t merely inform your mind — it energizes your soul. It works in you: when you feel weak, when you don’t understand, when you can’t see the way forward. And Isaiah 43:13 assures us: No one can stop what God’s Word is doing inside you. Let the Word in — and watch God work.