A lot of people have been playing games when it comes to the Word. They claim to be faith people in public. But, in private, they never open the Bible at all. Then, when a time of trouble comes and they try to stand on the Word, they fall flat on their spiritual faces.
Well, the time for playing games is over. It’s time for us to realize that real faith involves action. James 2:20 says faith without works [or corresponding action] is dead.
So many times when we need insight into a problem, we try to get it by focusing our attention on that problem. We study it. We ponder it. We examine it from every angle. But the Apostle Peter gives us a different approach. He says we should take heed (or focus our attention) to the written Word of God until the answer to that problem dawns on us through the light of revelation.
One of the things that you and I as believers must learn if we want to be faithful servants in the kingdom of God is how to keep our mouths shut. Very few of us have mastered that skill.
When we get our backs up about something, we think we have to let everyone know about it. “I’m just going to give them a piece of my mind,” we say.
Don’t make that mistake. No one wants or needs a piece of your mind—and if you give it to them, you’ll only end up alienating people and bringing harm to yourself. Learn, instead, to keep quiet.
When you’re facing a problem, the very first thing you should ask God for is wisdom. Not money. Not power. Not even healing. But wisdom.
God’s wisdom is the key that will unlock every door in your life. It will turn your every failure into success. So, stop wasting your prayer power begging God for things you think you need and spend some time instead listening to what He has to say about your situation.
If you’ve never tried that before, practically speaking, here’s what you need to do:
God uses words to create. He used His Word to “frame” the worlds. Just look in the first chapter of Genesis and count how many times you see the phrase, “And God said.” “And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.... And God said, Let there be a firmament.... And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together.... And God said, Let the earth bring forth...” (verses 3, 6, 9, 11).
No matter how long you’ve been living by faith, no matter how much you’ve learned about it, every once in a while you’re going to suffer a setback. You’re going to run into some circumstances that just don’t turn out the way you expect them to.
When that happens, remember this: Those setbacks are just temporary. You may have lost a battle, but you’re not going to lose the war. Just get up and go at it again.
“But I don’t understand it,” you say. “I did the best I could. I walked in all the truth I knew to walk in. Why didn’t I get the victory?”
Once you’ve made the Word of God final authority in your life, your first step to victory over the attacks of the enemy is to go to the Word and lay hold of God’s promises concerning your situation.
Notice I said, “Go to the Word.” It’s good to have the Word committed to memory. But don’t let that substitute for getting the Word before your eyes on a daily basis.
God honors those who honor Him. He’ll never forget the seeds of loyalty you sow. He’ll multiply them and give them back to you in a harvest of blessing. And Malachi 3:17 says when He makes up His jewels, you’ll be forever among them.
Forever. Think about that for a moment. By honoring God with your life and your lips, you’re stepping into a realm of blessing that will literally take an eternity to explore.
Most of us would never dream this verse could apply to us. After all, we’re believers! We’d never say that there is no God.
But maybe we should think again. It’s true that with our mouths we would never say something like that...but don’t we sometimes say it with our actions?
We say it by sinning just a little here and there and thinking it won’t matter. We’ll go to an immoral movie or have a gossip session about the pastor, ignoring God’s command to the contrary.
With our actions we’re saying, “There is no God.”
Most of us heard about our guardian angel when we were just children. And, in those days, it was a comforting thought. With monsters lurking behind the closet door and creepy things crawling beneath the bed, it was good to know that someone was there to protect us when the light was out.
But, as the years passed, we outgrew our childhood fears. The imaginary creatures that had once seemed so real disappeared from our minds—and sadly enough, for most of us, the angels did too.
You won't really get excited about the Word of God until you realize that it's more than just a collection of divinely-inspired promises. It's a living force that literally carries within it the power to make those promises become a reality in your life.
Is it tough for you to believe such a thing is possible?
It shouldn't be. You see it happen in the natural world all the time.
Times of hardness are inevitable. You need to know that. It's true that we've been redeemed from the curse, and there's nothing Satan can do to reverse that, but he is going to challenge you on it.
So don't be surprised when things get tough. Times will come when you have to stand strictly by faith, when you'll have to speak and act as though what God says is true even when you can't feel it or see it happening around you. There will be times when everything looks terrible. That's when you must endure hardness as a good soldier.
Once you begin to believe it is God's will to prosper you, you can't help but wonder how He is going to do it. Is He going to put a check in the mail? Or start floating $20 bills down from the trees?
No. He's going to do it by prospering your soul. He's going to plant the seeds of prosperity in your mind, will and emotions, and as they grow, they'll produce a great financial harvest.
Go to the book of Genesis and read the story of Joseph. It's a perfect demonstration of what I'm talking about.
We believers need to start watching our language! We need to quit throwing words around like they weren't important and start using them like our lives depended on it--because, according to the Word of God, they do! (Proverbs 18:21).
Too many of us have what Proverbs 19:1 calls a perverted mouth. Having a perverted mouth means more than lying and using profanity. It means having a disobedient mouth. It means saying things that are out of line with the Word of God.
As a believer, you're destined to be molded into the image of Jesus, to grow in spirit until you look just like Him. God's supernatural power began that process the moment you were born again. You were changed on the inside instantly. How successful you are in allowing this change to progress to the outer man is mostly up to you. We grow up spiritually just like we grow up physically.
What can you do to speed this growing process along?
Recently, God has been raising up ever-growing numbers of people who are hungry. Hungry to know their Lord in a deeper way. Hungry to serve Him—in pulpits, on mission fields, in homes, in office buildings and anywhere else He might choose to send them.
They are people who simply aren't content to find the path of least resistance and coast their way into heaven. No, they're determined to run the race...to run, as the apostle Paul said, to obtain the prize. Spiritually speaking, they are on the road to excellence.
Are you among them?
When persecution comes, don't sit around whining about it. Don't waste your time feeling sorry for yourself. Despite what you may think, that persecution hasn't come because the devil gets his kicks out of picking on you. It comes because you've become a threat to him. It comes because you've put the Word in your heart, and he knows that if he doesn't get it out, you're going to cause him more trouble than he can handle.
Few things in the Bible have created more fuss than the issue of speaking in tongues. Churches have split over it. People have been persecuted for doing it. People have even been killed for it.
Who's behind all the trouble? Satan himself. He's so frightened of our ability to pray in tongues that he's continually trying to steal it from us through persecution and strife.
You see, the devil knows (even if we don't) that praying in tongues is the only way you and I can pray beyond what we know. It's the tool God has given us to use to tap into the mind of the Spirit.
Jesus is the beginning and the ending. He is the Almighty. When He told us that in the book of Revelation, He wasn't just giving us a general piece of information about Himself. He was giving us a powerful truth we can apply now, today!
Let me show you how. He said He is the beginning. So no matter what challenge or situation you may be facing right now, you need to start with Him. John 1:1 says Jesus is the Word. That means, if you're going to start with Jesus, you're going to start with the Word. Don't do anything until you find out what the Word has to say about it.
The Greek word translated afflicted doesn't mean the result of sickness and disease. It means "troubled."
If you're in trouble, you need to pray. That's what the Word says. Notice it didn't say your pastor needs to pray for you or your friends need to pray for you. It says you need to pray.
Too often we try to find a quick fix to our problems by asking everyone else to pray for us. There's nothing wrong, of course, with having others pray for you, but you'll never get your life to a place of permanent victory until you begin to pray yourself.