“…when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe” (1 Thess. 2:13). It doesn’t say we and our own efforts are effectively working in us, it says the Word of God that we trust and believe is doing the work—regardless of what our senses or other people are saying!

The faith God has given us is the most powerful force on earth, but it can’t work in the midst of doubt, fear and worry. We must spend time in God’s Word and allow it to renew our minds to its absolute truth. This is how we enter the rest of faith and watch the impossible become possible!

How do we escape death, dying, lack, sickness and disease in this world? We put the Word of God in our mouths and present ourselves to Him with it, speaking only what He says about ourselves and our situations. This allows the Holy Spirit to work in us, renewing our minds to the place where we are locked into it and nothing can move us!

Is a life of faith a hard, troubling walk of sorrows? Are we to just hold on and wait for it to be better on the other side? NO! John wrote, “This is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith” (1 John 5:4 NKJV). We are to be walking in Kingdom life and demonstrating the power of God here on the earth!

If Jesus’ disciples went out healing diseases and casting out demons with the “dynamite” power of the Holy Spirit UPON them and not yet inside them as we do now, how much more do you and I now have that outworking of this dunamis, strengthening power on the inside of us to lay hands on the sick and set captives free from demons and every other influence of the enemy?

Faith is a force that operates apart from the reality of our circumstances. Your present reality may be saying you are out of money, you are sick, you are unemployed, your children are lost—but faith operates in the reality of what GOD says about the situation. Why? Because regardless of what we may be seeing or feeling, God’s Word is the TRUTH on the matter!

Jesus is still performing the miracles that He did 2,000 years ago on the shore of the Galilee. How, you may ask? Through believers who are bold enough to be His hands and feet in the earth!  Jesus is not intimidated by demons, sickness, sin, lack, or even death, and is a master over every circumstance and situation. If He lives in you, then this should describe you too!

What is faith? It is believing and standing on the truth that Jesus is Lord, and that He has already paid every debt and penalty to set you free. It is refusing to back down from the fact that He is your healer and your deliverer, regardless of what you feel or see or what those around you think, believe, or say. It is acknowledging that the report of Jesus is higher than ANY other report—including every diagnosis and every prognosis!

We have to be careful not to get full of the Word of God and then become complacent, as if we’ve had a huge, wonderful meal—but then just want to kick back in the recliner and lay there in all of the “calories” that we’ve consumed. We are not meant to be spectators, we are to be participators in the Word!

“Father God, today is my day! I see my enemy defeated, decapitated and openly paraded. Father, Your army, Your Son, the host of angels, have defeated my enemy and I believe Your Word. Today I expect that the strength of Your healing power, Your promises, Your grace, Your love, Your might and your deliverance is being extended to me. Today I receive my healing and my deliverance! I say in the name of Jesus, I am free and I am made whole!”