SPEAKING THE LANGUAGE OF LIFE - II

Last month we looked at the fact that we are made in the image of God, which means we have the capacity to shape our worlds by the way we speak. God always speaks LIFE and He teaches us, in the same way He taught Ezekiel, how to do the same. He uses the adverse circumstances that come against us, our families, our friends, our work and home environments, to teach us that we are not helpless victims of circumstance, but actually we can be His representatives in a damaged world.

It’s easy to get confused as to what faith actually is; sometimes feeling that it is just that we believe in Jesus. That’s like inheriting a mansion and then living in two rooms of it. We confine our faith to the hope that maybe we can pay our bills and have our needs met, but faith is so much more than that.

The Church is in the world to make a difference; to be the presence of Jesus Christ in our towns and our work places. We have the power to change our environment if we will only allow ourselves to believe it. That’s where the prosperity gospel is essentially wrong because it tends toward being about self – the energy of speaking life being used up on a better watch or an amazing car, without realising we’ve been deliberately seeded into our communities in order to change them…meet needs and change the atmosphere. It’s great to have our needs met because that’s how we learn to speak life and see faith break through in areas of difficulty, by practicing on ourselves and our circumstances, but it’s not meant to stop there. It’s as we see God help us when we speak life over our marriages, family, finances etc., that we are able to help others to do the same.

Romans 4:17b ‘…Abraham believed in the God who……brings into existence what didn’t exist before.’

The role of faith and speaking life cannot come into play until something is not there/isn’t happening! That’s what makes the story of Abraham so amazing. It was the same with Joseph, the little brother to whom God gave dreams of great leadership and he ended up first in slavery and prison before his capacity to maintain a thankful heart and the hope of his calling brought him to the place God had destined for him. These and many other people learned the language of life and faith. They learned that bemoaning the situation, griping, accusing and blaming would never make any difference; in fact, it gives more room for the opposite to happen. The devil’s version of faith is –fear is the substance of things dreaded and the evidence of things not seen.

Because we are spiritual beings, we have the capacity to speak into existence the things we believe will happen… and then see those things come to pass. Many of us, without realising it, are standing in faith for all the worst things. Check out your conversation…how positive is it? How much does it rely on the fact that God will provide and that He is able to do exceedingly abundantly above everything you could possibly think? How much of God’s language do your words contain and how much of the enemy’s language do you habitually speak out?

What about jokes and complaints about church or home? What would happen if you began to speak life into those situations? What do you want to see in your work place? Try experimenting with the language of life. Write down what you would like to see and then begin to thank God for doing that. Don’t be put off by the enemy’s reaction as he fearfully attempts to make you think that what you are doing will never work…just keep going with it. Stop blaming, complaining and accusing and begin to speak life into your relationships and see what could happen. Remember, the criterion for faith is that is has to be not happening before faith can come into play. We live in such cramped, finite little worlds that we allow ourselves to think that there’s no hope because what we want isn’t happening, yet that’s supposed to be our starting point for breakthrough!

Sometimes we try and fail and we don’t want to try again, but the Bible says by their fruit you will know them, not by their individual successes. You will have successes and failures, that’s life, but the fruit of a life that speaks the language of life is LIFE! This is the difference between people who see miracles and breakthrough and those who don’t. Learning a new language is not easy and learning to speak life is like learning a new language . This is a negative world but the Kingdom of God has a different philosophy; one which requires a belief that the God who runs the universe is interested in each individual and He has a plan for their lives. Begin to believe that He is in charge of all that happens to you and find out from Him the way to speak in such a way as to align yourself with Him and His will. Don’t just lie down to what the enemy is doing; don’t take his NO as your answer! Speak life over your situations and watch God do some awesome things that will revolutionise who you are and how you live!

Bev

If you would like to receive this newsletter by email please email your details to info@christiangrowthinternational.org and we will gladly add you to our mailing list