The Power of Words

Our confessions can either imprison us or set us free. It's been established in the secular world as well as in The Word.

Here are some scriptures that talk about the power of words:

James 3:6

English Standard Version (ESV)

6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members,staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life,[a] and set on fire by hell.

Proverbs 18:21

English Standard Version (ESV)

21 Death and life are in the power of the tongue,
    and those who love it will eat its fruits.

Matthew 15:18

English Standard Version (ESV)

18 But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person.


So often we carelessly speak negatives and defeat into our own lives and don't realize it. We need to come to an understanding of how powerful our words are! If every statement you make about yourself and your future is negative then you shouldn't expect anything else, after all, your are, subconsciously, telling yourself that what is going to happen.

Proverbs 23:7
7  For as he thinks in his heart, so is he. 

You have to renew your mind to think positively about yourself and your future. 

Hebrews 11:1

Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)

11 Now faith is the reality[a] of what is hoped for, the proof[b] of what is not seen.

A strong confession coupled with a corresponding action on the Word brings God on the scene.

What we have to learn to do is stand on our positive confessions and the Word of God even when the evidence of our senses try to tell us differently. We cannot stand on what we see, hear, touch, smell, etc., that is not living by faith. Live by faith not by sight.

Satan wants us to pay attention to our senses, he knows that if he can keep us focused on our senses we will be distracted and discouraged in our faith. God Faith is faith that says when we speak it (whatever "it" is) it is DONE! We can't speak with hesitation, or leaving room for anything other than what we are speaking... i.e., If I speak to cancer or any other disease or sickness, or if I speak to a demonic force and command it to leave then I must know that, according to God's Word, whatever I "demand" in Jesus' name will be done, the sickness/disease/demonic force HAS to obey! Look at James 14:12

John 14:12-13

Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)

Praying in Jesus’ Name

12 “I assure you: The one who believes in Me will also do the works that I do. And he will do even greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. 13 Whatever you ask in My name, I will do it so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

If you research the word "ask" in verse 13 you will find that in the Greek this word means "demand" so the verse would read; 13) Whatever you demand in My name...

So, when we speak to Satan, when we speak to disease, sickness, demonic forces, etc., are we DEMANDING in Jesus name, or are we wimpishly (hey, I invented a new word!), kind of halfway asking "it" to leave. Guess what? If you are not speaking with authority and in authority Satan and all his demons know it and they want obey your voice because they know that you are not even convinced of your authority.

I leave you with this quote by E.W. Kenyon from his book "Jesus The Healer:"

"Christ was a miracle.
Christianity is Christ living in men today.
The Incarnation and the New Birth are both of God. Both are miracles.
A miracle is God moving into the sense realm.
Don't condemn yourself for your doubts. Cure them by getting acquainted with your Father.
Confession always goes ahead of healing.
Don't watch symptoms - watch the Word, and be sure that your confession is bold and vigorous.
Don't listen to people. Act on the Word. Be a doer of the Word.
It is God speaking.
You are healed. The Word says you are.
Don't listen to the senses. Give the Word its place.
God cannot lie."

Be Blessed as you explore His Word. 

Except I Shall See

Except I Shall See

Thomas said, in John 20:25;

25) The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the Lord. But he said unto them, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe. (KJV)

Unfortunately, I find that, more often than not, we are more like Thomas than we would care to admit. If you think about the story line you see that there was actually doubt among most, if not all, of the disciples during this time. The problem with Thomas is that he was completely convinced, and confessed, that he wasn’t going to believe unless he could actually see and touch Jesus.

Take a look at that same verse in the Expanded Translation:

25) But he said to them, If I do not see the mark of the nails in His hands and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will positively not believe. (TNT, An Expanded Translation)

Thomas was adamant that he absolutely was not going to believe unless he could physically touch every wound to know that it was Jesus. The problem is that this completely cancels out Faith. Faith is :

Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. (NKJV)

and we know that without faith:

Hebrews 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. (NKJV)

Alright, so this Faith thing is all about believing without seeing, believing despite the lack of something to physically touch or hold on to right? Most of us who have accepted Jesus as savior of our souls have actually accepted that through faith. We believe that He exists, in the spirit world, and that He has paid the price for our sins and that we have now been made “clean.” That is a huge act of faith, and if that were all there was that would be multiplied thousands of times more than what we deserve.

But, God, with His Agape Love toward us has provided much more for us in the Atonement. Why do we find it so easy to accept salvation of our souls and yet reject the “salvation of our bodies” through divine healing, which is also provided for in the Atonement? Believe me, I have pondered this question personally for a long time.

I think acceptance of this Truth can only come by a renewing of our minds. The Bible says in Romans 12:1-2:

Romans 12:1-2; 1) I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. (NKJV)

Now look at the same verse in The New Testament, An Expanded Translation:

Romans 12:1-2; I therefore beg of you, please, brethren, through the instrumentality of the aforementioned mercies of God by a once-for-all presentation to place your bodies at the disposal of God, a sacrifice, a living one, a holy one, well-pleasing, your rational, sacred service, [rational, in that this service is performed by the exercise of the mind]. And stop assuming an outward expression that does not come from within you and is not representative of what you are in your inner being but is patterned after this age; but change your outward expression to one that comes from within and is representative of your inner being, by the renewing of your mind, resulting in your putting to the test what is the will of God, the good and well-pleasing and complete will, and having found that it meets specifications, place your approval upon it.

It really boils down to whether or not we believe the Bible is true or not. If we believe the Bible is true then what it says is Truth and what it says we should do. What it says we should believe without doubt, what it says we accept. That needs to be the first step in changing your mind set. First, convince yourself that the Bible is absolute truth then start doing what it says.

It sounds simple but sometimes so hard to do. It is so easy to lean to our own understanding and gently nudge faith out of the picture. See, many of us say that we have faith but, in reality, faith is far from us. The disciples asked Jesus why they couldn’t cast out the demon and, in a nutshell, Jesus said that it was due to their lack of faith. What makes us think that there is anything other than a lack of faith that keeps us from “doing” Mark 16:15-18.

We do not serve a roulette type of God, He is not “hit or miss,” we serve the One True God who sent His Son to be bruised for our healing and to die for our sins and He completed that work so we should accept it, the whole package. Every time someone asks God for forgiveness, guess what, He forgives because it is provided for in the atonement. So it should also be for healing and deliverance, why, because this is also provided for in the atonement. We should accept it, then we should go forth into all the nations and spread this Good News to all peoples!

Be blessed as you explore His Word

Bounce Back!

“The test of success is not what you do when you are on top. Success is how high you bounce when you hit bottom.” -General George S. Patton

“bounce /bouns/ verb — to cause to bound and rebound — to spring back in a lively manner…”

To “bounce” means the ability to fight through an issue, to be resilient, to be able to stabilize after adversity. To recover — and to thrive.

In 2009 Rick Hoyt completed the Boston Marathon. This race was officially his 1000th race. Since 1977, Rick has competed in marathons, duathlons, and triathlons (6 of them being Ironman competitions). In 1992 Rick “ran” 3,735 miles in 45 days. Coast-to-coast.

Rick was born in 1962 to Dick and Judy Hoyt. As a result of oxygen deprivation to Rick’s brain at the time of his birth, Rick was diagnosed as aspastic quadriplegic with cerebral palsy. He would never walk or communicate as we do. He would never be “normal.” His life would be lived in a wheelchair.

In 1977, through the use of a special computer, Rick “told” his father that he wanted to participate in a 5-mile benefit run for a Lacrosse player who had been paralyzed in an accident. Not being a long-distance runner, Dick agreed to push Rick in his wheelchair. They finished all 5 miles, coming in next to last. “Team Hoyt” rose up from seemingly insurmountable odds and adversity. That’s “Bounce”!

When life simply isn’t fair. Filled with sickness… debt… or abandonment…

When the walls are pressing in… and you don’t even know your own name.

When you feel like you can’t breathe — or see. And there is absolutely nothing you can do.

When life isn’t the way it is supposed to be…

CONSIDER THIS:

1. He understands. The writer of Hebrews reminds us that “…we do not have a high priest (Jesus the Son of God) who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses(frailty — feebleness — sickness — infirmities — troubles), but one who in every respect has been tempted (the trying and testing of our faith, virtue and character) as we are …” (Hebrews 4:14 ESV) He’s been there. He goes before you… and with you!
2. He will strengthen you. “And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, will Himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.” (1Peter 5:10 ESV)

Bounce back!

Put the devil on notice in your life… It’s time to get your dreams back… Get your family back… Get your marriage back… Get your anointing back… Get your strength back… Get your step back… Get your confidence back… Get your fight back!

Claim the life changing principle in Genesis 50:20. What satan, or even other people in your life, meant for evil, God can turn it for your good.

“You are from God and have overcome them, for He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.” (1 John 4:4 ESV)

Bounce back! It just might turn your life around.

By His Stripe You Were Healed!

I know that most of you, having read the title, are now correcting me in saying that it was; by His stripes you were healed.

Ok, let's look at it for a second. In the KJV, NKJV, and most other translations you are correct, it does use "stripes" however, if you will look in most commentaries and original Greek translations you will find that the word used is "stripe." Why is this?

I will give you the Kenneth S. Wuest "The New Testament An Expanded Translation" version:

     "... who himself carried up to the Cross our sins in His body and offered himself there as on an altar, doing this in order that we having died with respect to our sins, might live with respect to righteousness, by means of whose bleeding stripe [the word "stripe" is in the singular here; a picture of our Lord's back after scourging, one mass of raw, quivering flesh with no skin remaining, trickling with blood] you were healed,..."

In the Greek, in order for it to be counted as a "stripe" there had to be at least one inch of flesh between each "stripe," this tells us that the beating was so severe that there was not even one inch between each "stripe" so his many wounds were counted as one "stripe."

What a grusome picture of what our Lord endured for us! What shear torture and brutality He endured for you and I! A horrifying scene indeed, but He did this willingly that we may have a redeemed life.

What I want to look at today is what this beating meant for us. Often times we include the scourging and hanging on the cross as one and the same, to cover our sins but what I want you to see is that the scourging and death on the Cross were for two separate purposes.

You see, Christ died on the Cross that our sins might be forgiven, but, as we see in Isaiah 53:5 and I Peter 2:24, the purpose of the scourging was that our sicknesses and diseases might be healed.

Therefore, the Atonement provided, not only for forgiveness of sins, but also for the healing of our bodies. In other words, when we accept Christ and His redemption, we get both, that is the way it was meant to be.

This is hard for us to fathom because we have never been taught this way even though most denominations declare this in their Doctrinal Truths, it's in ours... check it out, the 14th bullet point in the Church of God "Doctrinal Commitments":

• Divine healing provided for all in the Atonement. Psalm 103:3; Isaiah 53:4, 5; Matthew 8:17; James 5:14-16; 1 Peter 2:24. (http://www.churchofgod.org/beliefs/doctrinal-commitments)

You see, the problem is that, like myself and so many others, we have determined to take the route of least resistance when it comes to sickness and disease. What do I mean? Think about what we normally say when we pray for someone and they are not healed... we say; "it must have been God's will" don't we. If you're honest you'll say yes. But is that true? Is that Biblical?... no, it's not true or Biblical.

So then, why do we suffer sickness and disease and many die? Well, the harsh reality is that it is a lack of faith on our part. Wow! did you get that? Ouch! that hurts. Believe me when I tell you, it cut me to the core of my belief system when I discovered this! I'm not pointing finger, I'm with you in this!

That is what got me started on this quest for Truth. What I am finding is that, first of all, we have to know the Truth and we have to take hold of our rights and privileges provided in the Atonement.

We have to get beyond "Sense Knowledge" the knowledge of natural man that is gained through the Senses. This is the knowledge that most of us view divine healing through. With this "Sense Knowledge" we view healing in that it is a gift of God and if God gives you faith, then you will be healed but if He doesn't then there is no need to struggle for healing, your only hope is fleshly intervention.

However, "Revelation Knowledge" teaches that miracles are for today. With this knowledge we can view healing as part of the plan of Redemption. In other words; disease came with the fall, and sickness is a work of the adversary. Because disease came with the fall, God is the natural, logical Healer.

This is how James put it:

Is anyone among you ill? Let him call at once the elders of the [local] assembly, and let them pray over him, having massaged him [with olive oil] in the Name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith shall make the sick person well, and the Lord shall raise him pu. And if he is in a state of having committed sin [i.e., under the moral or physical consequences of having sinned], it shall be forgiven him. (The New Testament An Expanded Translation; 1961; Kenneth S. Wuest)

Pretty plain isn't it. James, here, suggests that there shouldn't be any sick among the assembly, but if there is he gives clear instruction on how to remedy that problem.

Sounds like we need to get to work riding the Church of sickness so that we can then go out and heal the sick in our communities Mark 16:15-18.


For further study:

Proverbs 4:20-24
Isaiah 53:4-5
Isaiah 61:1
Matt. 4:24; 8:16; 9:6; 9:35
Mark 6:56; 16:15-18
Luke 4:40; 9:11
Acts 10:33, 38
I John 3:8
II John 2

"Bodily Healing and the Atonement " by T.J. McCrossan
"Jesus The Healer" by E.W. Kenyon

Wisdom and Knowledge 3.16.14