Tuesday 11 March 2014

God's Powerful Word


In the same way, the promise that I make does not return to me, having accomplished nothing. No, it is realised as I desire and is fulfilled as I intend.(Is 55:11)

I had a revelation about the power that is in our tongues as the word declares we have the power to bless or curse. I realised afresh how important it is that we should speak God's promises as well as blessings over our families, businesses, churches and even our nation. The world is full of negativity, criticisms and gossip yet we, children of the light,  should be full of encouragement and blessings.

There is an amazing story in Numbers 22 which confirms this importance of blessing and cursing. Balak the King of the Moabites, fearful of the Israelites who had great victory over the Amorites, called upon a seer Baalam to come and curse the Israelites so they could not conquer him.  Baalam went but would only speak the word that God would allow him to speak over the nation.  God commanded Baalam to bless them and not curse as Balak required. The message of this story is clear in that we should only speak what God speaks over our circumstances for overcoming victory in our lives.

My message is like a fire that purges dross! It is like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces! I, the Lord, so affirm it! Jer 23:29

The word of God is spirit and life and has the divine ability to do what God has said it will do.  It is amazing that we can use His word like a hammer and if we keep confessing it over situations it will finally break all resistance to accomplish that which God had promised.  His Word never falls to the ground to be trampled on, but it will return to God who will watch over it to perform it.  We can trust the Word of God because it is the Truth and we know that God cannot lie.

The Word also has the amazing ability to change us even as silver or gold is heated to extreme temperatures to remove the impurities.  So the Word of God exposes the dross in our hearts if we allow it to by testing our thoughts, motives and intents of our heart.  It is so important that when we see something adrift that we bring it before God and repent and ask Him to create in us a clean heart and renew a right spirit in us. (Ps 51:10)

This brings me to confession of the Word.  it is important that we use His Word as a weapon, even as we see Jesus doing when tempted in the wilderness and as we are exhorted by Paul in Ephesians 6.

Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God.  And pray in the spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.

Praying the scriptures is a powerful weapon but, as I heard someone say the other day, we should not just be confessors of the word but heart possessors of the Word.  The word needs to posses our hearts as the bible encourages "to let the word of Christ dwell in you richly". (Col 3:16)  When we possess the word, we will have full understanding and revelation of that word, our faith and belief in that word will bring the authority and divine power that the word yields into play.

And what more shall I say? For time will fail me if I tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets. Through faith they conquered kingdoms, administered justice, gained what was promised, shut the mouths of lions, quenched raging fire, escaped the edge of the sword, gained strength in weakness, became mighty in battle, put foreign armies to flight, and women received back their dead raised to life. But others were tortured, not accepting release, to obtain resurrection to a better life. Heb11-32-35

Those who have believed have seen incredible things as the writer of Hebrews reminds us.  The only way we can possess the word in our hearts is through meditation. Mulling over it, speaking it out loud and thinking about it; what it means, what is God saying to us and how does it apply in our lives.  Doing this will allow the Holy Spirit to bring the full revelation to our hearts and with that revelation our  faith will rise.

As the scriptures say, “Those who know their God will be strong and do mighty exploits.” (Dan 11:42)