The Importance of Speaking God’s Word into Specific Situations
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START WITH HEART
Lord, as You speak please help me listen with my whole heart and Holy Spirit please meet me today and make me more like Jesus.
Mark 11:22-23 (AMP)
22 Jesus replied, “Have faith in God (constantly). 23 I assure you and most solemnly say to you, whoever says to this mountain, “Be lifted up and thrown into the sea!” and does not doubt in his heart (in God’s unlimited power), but believes that what he says is going to take place, it will be done for him (in accordance with God’s will).
I have found that having a general idea of what the Word of God says, and knowing some popular scriptures and sayings, is not enough to live a victorious and fulfilled Christian life. For change, we have to apply ourselves to the Word, think on it, even memorise it and let it become more real to us than anything else. Our inward world, where God lives, and what He says about anything and everything must matter more, and hold more sway, than the outward world and its circumstances.
When I have gone through really difficult times, as we all do, what has helped me the most is going straight to God’s Word and seeing what it says about the specific situation I have found myself in, whether healing of a dread disease, loss of a loved one, fear of my safety, relationship trouble or bad habits which I couldn’t break. I would then start meditating on those specific scriptures. I can still remember scriptures I learnt thirty years ago when I was gripped by terrible, crippling fear, and they have helped me to resist fear ever since.
Normally a scripture will jump out at me and I will know that the Holy Spirit is giving me a special scripture to stand on for my personal situation. This happened ten years ago when I had just received a diagnosis of breast cancer and came face to face with the fact that I could die. I remember going outside and starting to read the bible, feeling, like the apostle Peter, that “only You, Lord, have the words of life”. I was reading Psalms and Psalm 118:17 (KJV) jumped out at me, which says: “I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord,” and at that moment the Lord reassured me in a very personal way.
It is very important to actually read these scriptures over ourselves and to speak them out over ourselves when we are praying. We need faith to make God’s Word a reality in our lives. Romans 10:17 (ESV) says that “Faith comes by HEARING the Word of God”. Proverbs 18:21 (KJV) says that “Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof” – in other words what we say will influence what we have in our lives. Jesus, in Mark 11:22-23, says: “Have faith in God. I assure you and most solemnly say to you, whoever SAYS to this mountain, “Be lifted up and thrown into the sea” and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is going to take place, it will be done for him (according to God’s will)”. This means that we can speak to the illnesses, troubles and whatever mountains there are in our lives, and command them to go, as long as we are speaking according to God’s will and God’s Word.
There is huge power in God’s Word. Hebrews 1:3 (KJV) tells us that Jesus “upholds ALL things by the WORD of His POWER”. Hebrews 4:12 (ESV) says : “For the Word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart”. God spoke this world into being in Genesis 1, and in Isaiah 44:26(NIV) God says that He “carries out the words of His servants and fulfils the predictions of His messengers”. In the next few verses of this chapter He speaks powerfully into situations and over people. In Isaiah 55:11 (AMP) He says: “So shall My Word be which goes out of My mouth; it will not return to me void (useless, without result) without accomplishing what I desire, and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it”. When we speak God’s Word into a situation that same power goes with it!
As we are created in God’s image we need to be actively and continuously speaking and praying His Word into our lives and into every situation we find ourselves in. There is no circumstance or problem that God’s Word does not address. God’s instruction to His people through the ages, as in Joshua 1: 8 and Isaiah 59:21, has been the same: “Do not let My Word depart from your mouth”!
JOURNALING QUESTIONS:
- Do I truly believe that God’s Word is living and active and able to change situations in my life?
- Can I remember a specific occasion when a scripture jumped out at me and I knew it was God speaking to me, and giving me a word I could stand on in prayer, praying and speaking it over my life?
- Do I have an “arsenal” of specific scriptures that I can speak and pray over specific situations in my or other people’s lives?
Thank You, Lord, that Your Word is alive, active and powerful and that You have given it to me as a weapon – a sharp, double-edged sword! Please help me to constantly be speaking and praying Your Word, over my life and the lives of others, so that You can bring Your will to pass in our lives.
WORSHIP SONG:
Warriors, by Phil Driscoll (Album “Warriors”)
by Susan van Niekerk
