Our own words will either justify or condemn us—so it really does matter what we say! An old friend of my family’s—a hard-drinking, cursing man almost all his life—experienced Christ gloriously in a church service and had a spiritual new birth. He was so sensitive to the presence of Jesus within him that when he tried to speak, all he could do was nod his head, because his whole vocabulary consisted of curse words. It took him six months before he could say a sentence without cursing!

We must be sensitive to what we are saying. Jesus said we bring up blessings or curses from our heart and release them with our words. People want to speak their minds. That’s a good thing unless what’s in their minds does not match up with their place in God’s kingdom, their rights as God’s children, their privileges as members of God’s family, or their love dominion based on their legal standing with God.

They talk as if they’re not redeemed. They talk as if they’re not free from the curse of death and the fear of injury, sickness, accidents, plagues, and evil men that bring death. Don’t waste your precious gift of speech by declaring that you are in agreement with evil, failure, depression, sickness, or fear!

When we get to heaven we will see things as they really are. Right now we must evaluate through many different lenses what we think we are seeing. If we’re wise we will strive to get the eternal picture so we can live in the present with a proper perspective.

“For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.”   1 Corinthians 13:12

Life began in the embryo. For 9 months that was your world. Some people probably spent all their time in the embryo trying to keep it clean and orderly. Others just thought life was an entitlement of free food and a warm bed where they could go to the gym and kick and punch all day long with no rules!

Then one day life changed dramatically and you popped out into a whole new atmosphere. You no longer were top dog and king of the hill. Now you were low on the totem pole and had to scream to get some attention. You looked back and realized you had life all wrong. You had to adjust your thinking of what life really was like.

In the same manner, soon you are going to pop out of this earth suit you are wearing into another totally different environment where real life begins. Eternal life.

That day is coming. Prepare for it. The manual for real success in the next life is in the Book!

I want to encourage you in your awareness of your ability. Scripture reveals that we are known and called from the foundations of time. We are not an accident and our uniqueness should always be considered a gift. Each of us has a special role that has nothing to do with the role of others. God alone gave us life and calling so He alone is equipping us.

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ: even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world.” Ephesians 1:4

I want you to know that the Lord has always had His hand on you to help you in your calling. We live in a new era where each of us is a priest. The priesthood of believers. We who call on Jesus’ name are equally welcome into the throne room of our father.

 “But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by his grace, To reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood.”  Galatians 1:15

Our calling is to reveal the life giver. Jesus did for us what no man could do. He became the source of all things for this life and the next, and the world is waiting to hear it and see truth demonstrated.

When the ship was going down and all hope was lost, an angel appeared to Paul and said to be of good cheer, he must appear before Caesar. We all have a Caesar to appear before. We all stand in place of Jesus on this earth to speak of the unseen God to a searching world. You are called to your Caesars. Go to them!

John Wesley, founder of the Methodists, said, “God does nothing but in answer to prayer.” Prayer is the GOD-MAN vehicle for carrying out His will. We might say it this way, it seems as if God needs a person to agree, to be in harmony with His will, in order to act.

Now that God is in us, Jesus turns this privilege of agreement over to us by saying, “if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by My Father” (Matthew 18:19). You are harmonizing your words. You are saying the same thing together with another individual. This prayer now becomes a PERSON to PERSON vehicle fitted together through the power of agreement, the consistency of our words and the like-mindedness of our asking.

Some time ago we held a “Festival of Music & Miracles” in Karaganda, Kazakhstan. There were two elderly women present in the meeting who had been friends for many years.  One of the women had eyeglasses with very thick lenses. She told me she had not been able to see anything without her glasses for forty years. The other woman said that she had suffered with pain in her legs for almost twenty-five years and could not walk without a cane. Both women listened as I shared this principle of agreement Jesus teaches us in Matthew 18:19.

At the end of the meeting they said to each other, “Okay, we are agreeing in prayer and asking You, God, to heal us. We believe that what You said is true, and if we agree, You will heal us right now. Father, in the name of Jesus we agree that our eyes and legs are made whole!  Amen.”

It was such a simple but powerful moment of commitment as suddenly both of them were healed! They started shouting right away, “I can see!” “I can walk! My pain is gone!” You could not miss the joy on their faces. They stood out like two beacons of light in a very dark corner of the world.  Jesus said, “For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them”(Matthew 18:20).

I remember traveling to Mexico and working with the Oaxaca Indians in the remote mountain villages. After many days of outreach the time came for a brief break from our activities, so we headed to the city for a day of R&R. I awoke the morning of our city adventure with the room swirling around me. I couldn’t believe it…I had food poisoning! I finally had the opportunity to relax and WHAMO! I was fighting horrible symptoms.

Over the years I have learned that when symptoms attack my body, I begin speaking. My flesh wanted to be sick and stay in bed. But I got up and started declaring, “I am healed by the stripes of Jesus! I thank you Lord. You are touching me with Your healing power – right now! And body, listen to me… “By His stripes I am healed!”” (Isaiah 53:5 emphasis mine)

I declared His Word not once, not twice, but for nearly an hour. Suddenly, faith arose in my heart and as quickly as the symptoms came they disappeared.

Several years ago while driving across the farmlands of the Southern Ukraine we stopped to purchase fuel. Our team leader would not heed the sticker that said our car required high-octane fuel for high performance and we proceeded to fill the car up with the cheaper gas. Fortunately for us, our car had a special shut off valve and after driving just a few miles the car shut down. We were so glad that our Russian team was familiar with siphoning gas and we were able to transfer this fuel to another car and walk back to the station for a new container of the HIGH-OCTANE gasoline. Reality set in for this team—there was no substitute for the real thing!

In our lives, let’s remember, time spent with God is time spent fueling your high-performance engine with the most efficient, cost effective, eco-friendly power source available! Lord, we ask you to inject us with your heavenly fuel today!

“The Spirit is a help to our feeble hearts… And we are conscious that all things are working together for good to those who have love for God, and have been marked out by his purpose” (Rom 8:26a, 28 BBE).

The wonderful facts of Christianity raise us from nobody to somebody, from simple to wise, from weak to courageous. These unmatched facts become living realities in a person when that person hears and chooses to believe them. What makes us like God and not like robots, is our ability to choose!

We can choose to see wonderful days ahead. We can choose to expect good favor coming our way. We can choose to anticipate everything lining up in our lives as we rejoice in our Maker.

The alternative is to live in fear. We can choose to fear that the economy will go down and take us with it. We can choose to fear that the doctor’s reports of cancer, heart disease, or a thousand other diagnoses are the final word. We can choose to fear tomorrow and fold up.

Or, we can spread our wings of faith and exclaim that everything will work out! The facts of our faith put us in the realm of God. Jesus said, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes” (Mark 9:23).

God’s Word is the true source of an image of a righteous man or woman. Slave owners in America in the early 1800s knew that people would not be slaves if they could read for themselves what God said about them, so they passed laws forbidding slaves to be taught to read and write.

Learning to read was the first step toward grasping President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. It was also the first step toward knowing God’s proclamation of a new position in Christ! James 1:23–24 (NLT 1996) says, “If you just listen and don’t obey, it is like looking at your face in a mirror but doing nothing to improve your appearance. You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like.”

In every situation of sickness and disease, we have three witnesses. The first witness is the pain, or what your senses are telling you about the symptoms you’re experiencing. The second witness is the Word of God, which is the truth, if you will, that God gives to speak in your situation, that by His stripes we are healed (1 Peter 2:24).

The third witness we have is the sick person. The pain is declaring that the sickness and disease is not healed, the symptoms are still present and the Word is not true. The sick one, however, has the opportunity to declare the truth—“By the stripes of Jesus, I am healed.” If we line up and agree with that Word, we find the deliverance that we need!

Today I feel impressed to pray together. Pray along with me, “Thank you Jesus, I see my body upon the cross. You paid the price, You were beaten and You were bruised for me. I thank You, Jesus, that the senses, the readings, the pain, the reality of what I have sensed and seen upon my own flesh was put upon you 2,000 years ago, and now I cast all of my care on You. I cast all of the sickness upon You.

I turn it all over to You, and I declare that I receive a new body, completely made whole, competently restored in the image that You created me to be, whole, healed and healthy. Thank you Jesus, I receive it now. Amen!”