Hope, Healing & Freedom Podcast : Ep 08
TRANSCRIPT
You are a very powerful person. Did you know that? God has given you the ability to create or destroy through your words. We can speak words of blessing that will build up and create good results, but we also have the ability to speak negative words which lead to destruction.
James 3:10 says:
“From the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. My brothers and sisters, these things should not be this way.”
James 3:10
God designed the spoken word to be powerful. We see this even in the very creation of the world. In Genesis 1 when God wanted to create something, He spoke it into existence. I imagine that He could have just snapped His fingers and things would have happened, but that is not how He designed this world to be. God actually gave an example through His own behavior how we are to operate as well. He spoke, “Let there be light” and light was created. God has given us that same ability to speak things into being. Before you jump off this ship, let me explain.
Jesus healed people in so many different ways. But notice that the healings included Jesus speaking to the person being healed. He was declaring what He heard His Father in Heaven say about this illness. In Matthew 9:6 people brought a paralyzed man to Jesus. He said to the paralyzed man, “Get up, pick up your stretcher and go home.” He spoke what He heard His Father in heaven say to do with this infirmity. Jesus didn’t just pray and ask His Father in Heaven to heal the paralyzed man, He spoke the healing into existence.
Yes, you say, but that was Jesus. We know His words are powerful. Let’s look at what Jesus taught us about our words:
“And Jesus answered and said to them, “Truly I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ it will happen”.
Matthew 21:21
Jesus had just cursed the fig tree by declaring, and He said to His disciples that by your words spoken in faith, you can move mountains.
Jan Hamon from Christian International points out that Revelation 5:10 says that God has “made us kings and priests to our God; And we shall reign on the earth.” Jane points out that priests make petitions to God on behalf of the people. As priests we pray and make petitions to Father God. She says that kings make decrees. As priests and kings we are to do both. As priests we make petitions to God and as kings we make decrees on behalf of God here on earth.
Job 22:28 says “You will also declare a thing, and it will be established for you; So light will shine on your ways.” So what is declaring? If I were to “declare” over and over again that I will drive a Ferrari, does that mean God is going to give me a Ferrari just because I declared it to be so? No, that it not the power of declaring, that is a type of witchcraft. By the way, my American size body would not fit in a Ferrari.
To declare something in faith you first need to hear what God is saying about that thing. John 10:27 says “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.” As children of God we do hear His voice. Declaring is taking what we hear God say about a situation and speaking it here on earth. And because our words do have power, when we say and declare what God is saying into our world, it changes the atmosphere.
In order to hear what God is saying about a situation, we must take time to listen. We must quiet ourselves and listen intentionally for the voice of the Lord. Then once we hear what God says about something, it is our honor and privilege to speak that thing into our world and create change with our words.
Since our words are so powerful we need to be very careful how we use them. As James said both blessing and cursing come from the same mouth and it should not be that way. Word curses are very destructive because the negative words we speak take on the power to create when spoken. We also have an enemy that is able to take our spoken words and orchestrate events to make them happen. For example, it is not uncommon for a exasperated parent to say out of their frustration things like, “You are never going to amount to anything”, “how can you be so stupid”, “you are just like your Mom” and many other things said in the heat of the moment. Once these words are spoken we have just declared something into existence that will go on for generations. Plus as I mentioned the enemy can now take these words and empower them to make sure they happen. There are many people languishing in subpar situations because someone spoke failure over them as a child.
Isaiah 54:17 says:
“No weapon formed against you shall prosper, and every tongue which accuses you in judgment you shall condemn.”
This is an amazing verse which talks about the power of our words. First it says that no weapon formed against you shall prosper. Why will no weapon prosper? Because you don’t let it prosper. You have the God given authority to come against these attacks and stop them. The verse then tells how you defeat the weapons so they don’t prosper. You, standing in your authority as a child of God, hear from heaven on the validity of those words spoken against you. Then you declare what God is saying in heaven about those words to condemn the judgments coming against you. By the power of the declaration you say to those judgments against you, NO! I do not receive you! God says that is not true! And by doing so, the weapon that was intended to harm you will not prosper. Your words are powerful!
Another powerful way to use the spoken word is to declare over yourself and your home and family the things God has promised to you in His word. Take verses like Deuteronomy 28:13 and daily declare them over you and your family. “And the Lord will make you the head and not the tail; you shall be above only, and not be beneath, if you heed the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today, and are careful to observe them.” I declare that we are the head and not the tail, we will be above and not beneath.
Declare Phillipians 4:19, “And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”
Personalize that as a declaration, “I declare that my God will supply all of my needs according to His unlimited riches”. When sickness comes, declare Isaiah 53:5 over that sickness. “I declare that By His stripes I am healed.”
You can also declare the things that God has promised to you personally. Take the promises He gave you for your marriage and declare them into existence. Declare the things God has said to you about your children or grandchildren. Walk around your house and declare them out loud and watch as situations begin to shift.
One of the best things you can do for yourself following receiving RTF ministry, is to declare your new Godly beliefs and Godly Identity statements out loud to yourself on a daily basis. It is a wonderful idea to look at yourself in the mirror and declare your Godly Identities over yourself as often as you need to for them to become firmly rooted in your belief system. Declaring them while looking yourself in the eyes in the mirror is a powerful way to bless yourself. And be sure to keep them in the “I am” form. “I am royalty.” I am a prince.” I am God’s favorite. Sorry that was one of my Godly Identities. When you begin to declare those over yourself, I guarantee that your life will change.
Do you have situations in your life that need to change? Maybe you are having financial problems. Maybe your marriage is not what you want it to be. Or maybe it is a difficult situation with a child or grandchild. Take whatever the situation is to prayer and find out what God is saying about that situation. Remember, God’s children (sheep) do hear His voice. Then take what God is saying about that situation and begin declaring it. Some things change over night, and some things change a little slower. Don’t stop declaring what God told you about the situation until you see change.
In 2009 Cindi and I received a prophetic word that we were to go to RTF and be trained as ministers. At the time, we had zero money in the bank and we were barely making our monthly payments. But the prophet told us to get our application in right away. So we sent in our application and called the director of training and explained our financial situation. He said we were already past the cut off for that year’s training, but he would give us two weeks to come up with the money. So we began to declare that since God called us to go to the training, He would also supply the needed funds. Everyday we declared what God had said to us and checked the post office box. Day one, day four, day ten, day thirteen nothing. Then on day fourteen I went to the post office box and there was a check for $10,000. I stood in the parking lot bawling as I called Cindi on the phone. I am convinced that our faithfulness to declare that since God had called us to this training He would be faithful to provide the money we needed.
Of course at that time we had no idea that God was leading us to RTF training so that five years later we would become the Executive Directors of RTF. He was using that time to train us about the power of the declaration because he knew as Executive Directors of a worldwide ministry there would be MANY more things we would need to hear from heaven about and release on earth.
NOTE: If you would like to get more information about declarations, I recommend Jan Hamon’s book Declarations for Breakthrough. Dutch Sheets also talks much of the power of declarations on his daily podcast “Give Him 15”.
