Greetings in the Name of Jesus and welcome to the PLN Sunday Night Bible Fellowship!

This series of newsletters is about the POWER of the Word of God. A lot of people, even many professing Believers think of the Bible as a nice best-selling book with some really interesting stories that are hard to read and even harder to understand. Also, it has a lot of pages. Indeed, it really does take some effort to understand, some study and meditation along with time which is a scarce commodity. But God wants us to understand it, to make the effort, to take the time. He wants us to pursue His WORD because the POWER to overcome any issue in life is "resident" within it. Do you want to experience victory instead of defeat, all sufficiency instead of insufficiency, good health instead of sickness and disease? If so, then the WORD mixed with FAITH is able to change everything for the better. The better you UNDERSTAND it, the more POWER it releases for the Believer who is CERTAIN that the WORD will accomplish exactly what it says.

Some folks may be wondering what the term "resident" POWER means. It means that the POWER resides within the WORD, that the WORD has its own POWER already permanently in place, already available, LIVING there with spiritual life. It's the Bible that says about itself that it's alive (Hebrews 4:12). Being ALIVE means to be in a creative, producing, increasing, dynamic state of existence instead of being DEAD which is a dormant, unproductive, wasting, static state of decay. Living things release POWER; dead things are devoid of constructive power. Indeed, they have no life. But the WORD because it's alive brings life to whatever can receive it. Life begets life. Death begets decay and uselessness. In short, it's nothing less than profound that the WORD which is eternal (John 1:1-3) says about itself that it's ALIVE. Eternal life begets POWER!

In recent newsletters we've been discussing that there's a relationship between our speaking and the release of WORD POWER in our lives. Keep in mind that according to the Bible we have the POWER of life and death in our speaking (Proverbs 18:20-21). We can speak in disagreement with the WORD and cause the release of its POWER to be diminished. Disagreement with the WORD produces death and its likeness. Or we can AGREE with the WORD at every opportunity. Agreement with the WORD produces life and its likeness. In sum, we need to be careful about what we say if we want the resident POWER of the WORD to be operating as God intended.

How to Move Mountains

Most of us have little awareness of the potential POWER we have at the tips of our tongues. That's why we treat most of what we say as neutral and unimportant. But the WORD only mentions two kinds of speaking: the kind that produces death (or its likeness) and the kind that produces life (or its likeness). There's no mention of neutral speaking that if it existed would presumably just produce nothing. Spoken words ALWAYS produce something: either death or life. God created the universe with WORDS. We who believe have been reborn in His image with the POWER to create things with words, perhaps not a universe but the POWER of death and life nonetheless, and it should not be underrated. When words of life are spoken by Believers in agreement with WORDS from God and then mixed with FAITH, there is the possibility of releasing great POWER that can accomplish miraculous things for the Kingdom of God.

Some of my favorite scriptures in the New Testament are in the eleventh chapter of Mark because they speak to this point about mixing our speaking with FAITH. Following are some WORDS spoken by Jesus in red letters about Believers (Mark 11:22-24):

"...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. Therefore, I SAY to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they will be granted you."      

There are a lot of mountains in the Christian community these days that need to be moved. Instead of asking God to move them for us, we're supposed to be speaking to those mountains ourselves in FAITH by taking authority over them in the Name of Jesus. He used the word MOUNTAIN so we could understand that we have been equipped and empowered to change BIG things in our lives with our spoken words and our prayers of FAITH. All we have to do is speak words that agree with the WORD OF GOD and release our FAITH over what we SAY without doubting. This is the way the New Testament works.

Are you tired of being attacked by Satan? Then speak directly to him, authoritatively because he no longer has any power or authority unless we give it to him. Jesus defeated him and now Jesus has ALL authority (Matthew 28:18). Are you tired of the mountain in your path that blocks you from embracing the promises you see in the WORD. Then, speak to the mountain in FAITH without doubting. If your FAITH wavers keep speaking to the mountain until it stops wavering. By the Name of Jesus, we are able to cause BIG things to happen just like the Apostles did in the Book of Acts, but it takes FAITH and persistence. AND, you have to STOP speaking words that detract from what you're trying to accomplish.

I remember hearing the true testimony a few years ago of a certain FAITH LIFE minister we used to listen to who had a large mound of dirt in the back yard of his building over in Arkansas. He didn't want to pay to have it removed so he decided to speak directly to that "mountain" of dirt commanding it to get itself removed from his back yard in the Name of Jesus. After about two weeks of speaking to it every day, a man came by his property one day to ask if the large pile of dirt in the back yard was for sale because he needed some extra dirt at a nearby construction site. A deal was quickly reached and not only was the entire mountain of dirt removed, the minister received payment for it instead of having to pay somebody to come and haul it away.

The Relevance of the Holy Spirit

In addition to the written WORD, the Holy Spirit is SPEAKING personal WORDS to all Believers 24/7. He's in the process of transforming all of us into the image of Christ (Romans 12:2) by teaching us ALL things (John 14:26) which requires that He SPEAK directly to us. Most of the time we don't hear Him because we're so busy with our own agendas and all the while we're probably speaking words that disagree with the very points He's trying to get across. Remember the principle that WORDS have to be mixed with FAITH for their "resident" POWER to be fully released. So when God speaks to us, we have to step out in FAITH with the certainty that we can trust and believe what we've heard.

A couple of examples of this in Scripture are Noah and Abraham who are mentioned among others in the Book of Hebrews, Chapter 11 as examples of folks who mixed FAITH with words that they heard from the Holy Spirit. Chapter 11 by the way is known as the FAITH CHAPTER. By FAITH Noah was warned by God about things not yet seen, namely a flood that no one had ever experienced before (Hebrews 11:7) and he proceeded to start building an ark. In fact, up to that time people on the earth had never seen rain before much less a flood. But Noah agreed with what he had heard from the Holy Spirit and did all that he had been commanded to do (Genesis 6:22, 7:5). He SPOKE out the instructions he had received from the Lord to his family and together they finished the ark just in time by following the instructions SPOKEN by the Holy Spirit to Noah and through Noah to his family.

Abraham is mentioned several times in the same chapter for his FAITH and one of those times was when he heard from God to leave the area where he was from and go to another place to receive an inheritance. So, he went out by FAITH based on a personal WORD he heard directly from the Holy Spirit not knowing where he was going (Hebrews 11:8). Abraham is the Father of Faith (Romans 4:11-12) and he lived by FAITH. Likewise, we who are Believers under the New Covenant are instructed to "live by faith" (Romans 1:17, Hebrews 10:38). Indeed, we're ALL to be led by the Spirit of God (Romans 8:14) and we mix what He SAYS to us with FAITH to guide us through life.

It may seem kind of risky sometimes to operate in FAITH based on a personal WORD you hear from the Holy Spirit. But that's where God wants us to get to: HEARERS of the WORD who AGREE with what they hear, and then SPEAK their agreement by their words and by their actions. Keep in mind that whatever you think you've heard SPOKEN to you by the Lord will NEVER disagree with what the written WORD says. So test whatever you hear against the written WORD to be sure you're hearing from the Holy Spirit and not some other spirit you'd rather not hear from.

In conclusion, our SPEAKING is so important because you will ALWAYS have what you SAY. Whatever you have today, wherever and whoever you are, is the accumulated result of what you've SPOKEN in your life, the total effects of all your words to date, especially in recent months and years. Whenever you SPEAK something accidently in disagreement with the WORD, stop right there and verbally CANCEL in the Name of Jesus what you said. Then resume speaking with renewed determination to SPEAK only in agreement with the Word of God.

Thanks for joining our discussion tonight. We'll be looking for you again NEXT Sunday night on April 26. In the meantime may the Lord bless you with every spiritual blessing (Ephesians 1:3), compelling you to PROSPER in every area of life!

Sinners' Prayer

If you've never invited Jesus to be the Lord of your life, you need to and you can do it today just by saying out loud the following simple prayer:

Jesus I declare today with all my heart that I believe in you and that God raised you from the dead. I acknowledge that my sins have been forgiven and I ask you to come into my life today and be my Lord and Savior. Thank you for salvation and eternal life.

If you were sincere as you prayed this prayer, God has already come into your life and you are a new creation, a totally new species recreated in His image. Now ask the Lord to lead you to a good faith-based, bible-teaching church where you can be equipped to fulfill your potential in the Kingdom of God.

And, when you get a chance have someone help you look up the following scriptures because they confirm what you've done by saying this prayer today and believing what you said:

Romans 10:9

2 Corinthians 5:17

Ephesians 2:8

Prayer Requests

If you have a Prayer Request, please connect to the Link below and follow the promptings. The PLN staff members pray over Prayer Requests every Tuesday morning at 10:00 AM eastern time. Agree with us for God to answer your petition.

http://www.creditcounseling.net/prayer-request.aspx 

Donations

If you've been edified by Prosperous Life Newsletter, you may want to consider making a SEED FAITH offering to support the Ministry (Galatians 6:6-7). God has instructed us to simply provide folks with an opportunity to sow seed into good ground so in due season you'll be eligible to reap a harvest and the rest is up to you as the Spirit leads. For your information PLN is a nonprofit gift to the Body of Christ so your financial offerings will usually be tax deductible (consult your tax advisor). Just go to the secure Shopping Cart on the Cornerstone web site by connecting through the following link. We appreciate your support and generosity.

http://www.creditcounseling.net/shop/item.aspx?itemid=1 

About Prosperous Life Newsletter

PLN is an outreach ministry of Make A Way Ministries and has been published continuously since January 1998. It's an e-publication about life in the Kingdom of God and is sent ONLY to our email list of MINISTRY MEMBERS. If you're reading this and aren't yet on our growing email list, please let us know and we'll be so very happy to add you to the list.

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