When a Believer is born again, his/her spirit-man is reborn in the image of God. Contrary to popular saying, we were NOT created in the image of God when we experienced our physical birth; at that time we were born in the fallen image of Adam with a dead spirit (Genesis 5:1-3). That's why we need to be reborn, i.e., born again. At the time of rebirth our spirit is brought to life, we are reconciled to the Father and re-cast as a totally new creature, a new species in His image and old things have passed away (2 Corinthians 5:17).

To be born in the image of God means that in a spiritual sense we are like Him. We are not God but we resemble Him. We were not like God before the rebirth because we had a dead spirit; after our rebirth we became one with God's Spirit. Spiritually speaking we look like Him and we have the same basic attributes albeit at a lower level of development. Other than that, the major difference between us is that human Believers are submitted to God's authority while He is self- sufficient, an authority unto Himself. He is uniquely LORD.

One of the Father's principal attributes is that His words are alive. He created the universe in six days (Genesis 1:3-31) by speaking live words. Whenever He says something, the result is life and creation. Since death is the result (wages) of sin (Romans 6:23), God does not speak death; He speaks only words of life. But because of sin and the inherited nature of Adam, human beings speak both life and death. Proverbs 18:21 says: "Death and life are in the power of the tongue"

In other words, Believers have the power to speak words of life because we've been reborn in the image of God; but we retain the ability to speak death. There are only two choices; one or the other will always result from EVERYTHING we say. Words of life agree with the Word of God; words of death agree with the World and Satan. The Words of life say we're prosperous, successful, delivered from sickness and disease and in possession of Christ's abundance; the words of death are always in disagreement with the Word of God and usually state the exact opposite of the Truth.

Most Believers these days are overlooking the point that ALL our words ALWAYS cause something to happen in our surrounding environment. For some reason we're prone to forget that our words will ALWAYS either cause blessing or curse, life or death, creation or destruction, FOR OUR OWN LIVES. In other words, our own lives are directly affected for better or for worse by what we say. Since there are only two choices, there are no neutral or passive or inactive words we can speak, only ACTION words that always produce consequences. If we speak words of life that agree with the Word of God, then life will flow to and in us. We will walk in blessing and prosperity. But if we speak words of death that are contrary to God's Word and agree with the World and with Satan, we'll reap death, defeat, lack, and sickness.

Now the tongue is a very small part among many other parts of our physical bodies. However, it is a powerful part and will defile the entire body if it's not controlled. Conversely, if the tongue is controlled and used constructively in agreement with the Word, it has the power to purify the body and produce victory and abundance. Thus, the tongue is in effect like a ship's rudder that sets the course of one's life and must be controlled to keep the ship moving in the right direction (James 3:4-6).

Our churches are filled these days with Believers who speak worldly confessions that disagree with God's Word. Even church leaders who love God and are trying to be good Christians and serve their people have lost touch with the need to guard what they say. This is important because the Bible says in James 1:26 that those who want to be "religious," i.e. those who truly want to live by faith and righteousness, but are unable or unwilling to reign in their tongues deceive themselves and MAKE THEIR RELIGION WORTHLESS.

Friend, if you have defeat in your life today, examine your confessions and judge whether or not your walk with God has been adversely affected by your own uncontrolled tongue. If so, you need to cast down the deception that the words you speak have no effect on your life because the TRUTH is they DO have a profound effect and the person you are today is the accumulated result of all the words spoken by your little tongue over your entire life. The remedy begins with canceling in the name of Jesus all those negative things you've said in the past, all those things that disagreed with the Word of God, and then you can begin to guard what you say being careful to speak things of life and health and prosperity and abundance and victory and peace.

If you're one of the great majority of Christians having trouble with your confessions, there's a process you can consider that will bring about change. You WILL have to work at changing your confessions because many of us have been making non- biblical confessions for decades and we habitually say things that cause death and destruction not only over ourselves but over our families. Up to now we don't even think about what we say; we just say what comes to mind forgetting that THERE'S SUPERNATURAL POWER BEHIND EACH WORD. Change takes determination and commitment, a desire to experience the very best God has to offer and nothing less. Following then are some major steps in a process to bring about the change you'll be hoping for:

1. The first step is to make an irrevocable decision to change your confessions, to start controlling your words. You must accept the idea that there are no neutral words and that everything you say will produce a consequence, either blessing or cursing. Nothing can be done until you decide that this is an important enough subject to do something about.

2. Secondly, you'll need to talk to the LORD about it. This involves asking God for forgiveness for your failure to understand the power of your words. And part of asking for forgiveness is to REPENT which means you purpose to turn the ship around and start going in the direction of the Word. You'll also need to exercise the authority you have in Christ and by faith cancel all the unbiblical words you've ever said and the consequences that came with them. Then you can begin to build a new foundation of biblical confessions that WILL produce prosperity for you and your family.

3. Next commit to stop speaking in disagreement with the Word. You'll need to ask the Lord for help because success doesn't come by your own strength. Most Believers have been speaking in disagreement with the Bible for so long they'll need to learn new habits. It's not biblical to say you're broke even when your bank account is negative. It's not biblical to say you HAVE a sickness even though you're feeling the symptoms. Those symptoms are attacking you illegally and you have total authority over them. By faith you can refuse to receive them even though you may be feeling them. Let God help you learn to speak in agreement with His Word.

4. Fourth, ask someone close to hold you accountable. You'll need someone reliable who agrees with what you're trying to do, a spouse or a friend, to remind you when they hear you say words that disagree with His Words. You have to NOT get angry with them when they remind you of your misspeaking. And you have to resist trying to rationalize your way out of your negative confessions when they occur. Admit your mistakes, repent for them and keep trying.

5. Then, whenever you pray, speak out the Word of God in your prayers. When your prayers agree with His Words, they'll get answered (1 John 5:14-15). Also, by practice you'll begin to learn to speak the Word in your daily conversation.

6. Finally, release your faith that you're improving your confessions which are constantly producing improvements in your quality of life. By correcting your confessions, you'll begin to see the manifestation of "shalom" prosperity in your life with nothing missing and nothing broken.

In sum, Psalm 39:1 describes the end result you'll be trying to get to by going through this process:

"I will guard my ways that I may not sin with my tongue; I will guard my mouth as with a muzzle"

The longer you work to control your tongue, the more you resist your adversary who wants your mouth to continue speaking out of control and the more successful at it you WILL become. It's guaranteed!

Now, the main reason you should want to control your tongue is because you love the Lord and want to do the things that please Him. Whatever you do by faith to try to have your life line up with His Word is pleasing to God. But additionally, there are special blessings that flow back to you when you begin to succeed in the control of your tongue. In this section we've identified some of the specific benefits mentioned in scripture.

The underlying benefit is that "He who guards his mouth guards his soul from trouble" (Pr. 21:23). Your soul is comprised of your mind, your will and your emotions. When these parts of your being are working as God intended, you'll experience the peace that passes all understanding. Therefore, if your mouth has been speaking without thinking, without regard for the consequences, you've been in a process of giving up your peace because lack of control causes trouble for your soul. So, the essence of this scripture is that the guarding of one's tongue leads to peace in life.

Then, as pointed out above, James 1:26 tells us that failure to control our tongues leads to deceived minds. So, when we start controlling our tongues, we'll begin to start thinking through life more clearly, to have access to the wisdom of God, to have greater discernment, to make better choices and decisions, etc. Your formerly deceived mind can be more fully joined with the mind of Christ and blessing will flow to your life.

In addition, by correcting deceived minds, this scripture tells us we'll be able to make the fruit of our Christian walk (our "religion") worth something, worth something to the Church and worth something to God. We'll also experience improved health because "the tongue of the wise brings healing" (Proverbs 12:18); that is, when you start speaking words of life instead of death, the results will be wisdom and improved health.

In sum, when your tongue speaks life then everything in your environment comes alive and you'll begin to produce victory and success in every area of life. "A wholesome tongue is a tree of life" (Proverbs 15:4).

Once you have achieved a measure of success in controlling your tongue, you can use it together with your faith to obtain life changing results. Your tongue and the faith God has given you are both powerful spiritual instruments on their own. But when the creative power of your tongue is combined with faith, they become together a formidable force that can change the circumstances in your life. In the Book of Mark are some of the most important faith scriptures in the entire Bible.

"Have faith in God. Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be taken up and cast into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but BELIEVES THAT WHAT HE SAYS IS GOING TO HAPPEN, it will be granted him." (Mark 11:22-23)

Friend, you need to know today that you can have what you SAY. Most of us have mountains in our lives that are there in large part because of things we've said in the past that were in disagreement with the Word of God. But Jesus Himself said in these scriptures that if you'll combine your faith with words that agree with God's Word, you will be able to move those mountains in your life out of your way and have them cast into the sea. You ARE who you say you are and you can have what you say when your words agree with God words!

Do you regularly speak TO your mountains? The mountains are your challenges, your problems in life. Do you speak DIRECTLY TO those challenges and problems or do you ask God to do something about them on your behalf? Do you beg and plead with God to move the mountains for you, to solve your problems and challenges, to make you the head and not the tail? Jesus went to the Cross of Calvary so Believers could have the power and authority to deal with these issues ourselves and the way we're supposed to deal with them, to overcome them and produce victory in our lives, is TO SPEAK TO THEM. Jesus told us to speak to the mountains; He told us to have faith in God and that HE WILL HONOR OUR FAITH-FILLED AUTHORITATIVE SPEAKING and allow us to receive whatever we're bold enough to believe for. We're not to doubt what we say and what we say will happen.

Now most of us are talking all the time 16 or so hours per day without thinking too much about whether or not the words we're speaking will produce consequences for our lives. But we need to come to the realization that because we're created in the image of God, our words will ALWAYS produce either life or death. Everything we say has a consequence: it will either produce blessing or cursing but we pay little attention to what we're saying. We fail to understand that our words release power whether we're thinking about it or not. It can be positive or negative power, constructive or destructive power. BUT OUR WORDS WILL ALWAYS PRODUCE SOME KIND OF POWER. Friend, if you'll try to get this spiritual concept down in your spirit and begin to pay attention to what you're saying, you'll soon be able to combine your speaking with your faith to produce the abundant life Jesus came to give you, that He died on the Cross for you to have.

Friend, the main point of today's article is that Believers have been created with the power to speak life or death over ourselves and our families. It's our choice to make and there're only two alternatives to choose from. Therefore, if it's your desire to see the fullness of biblical prosperity manifested in your life, you'll have to guard your tongue and speak in agreement with the Word of God. Let's be clear about this: if you don't change the way you've been speaking so that you come into agreement with the Word, you will continue to fall short of your potential in the Kingdom of God. That's what the Word of God clearly tells us and our ignorance is no protection from the Truth.

Friend, you are today the accumulation of all the things you've ever said over yourself up to this point in your life. But you can take authority over this important area and begin to use your words and your faith to change the circumstances in your life. If you want prosperity, begin to agree with God's Word by speaking words of success and victory. No matter what the circumstances in your life seem to be, speak what the Word says and watch your circumstances change for the better. Jesus has abundant life ready and available for the victorious Christian but victory is SIGNIFICANTLY dependent on what we SAY.

In sum, we become what and who we say we are according to the words we speak agreeing or disagreeing with the Word of God. It's that simple and it's a biblical principle that millions of Christians are ignoring to their detriment and defeat.

Thanks for reading Prosperous Life Newsletter. God bless you and we'll be looking for you again in three weeks on Friday, September 5th. In the meantime, may the Lord bless you and your family with the fullness of biblical prosperity and with every spiritual blessing.

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