Bill Johnson - How to Use God's Word to Fight Your Battles
The sword we fight with is the Word. This is what God says over this household; you may say it over your own: «As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.» You get into that situation with the Word of the Lord; you and I are no match for the enemy, but we are more than a match when God is with us. The point is to get the Word of the Lord and use it to decree. What was the last thing Jesus heard from the Father? «You are my beloved Son.» What was the first thing he heard from the devil? «If you are the Son.» There are two main lessons we need to grasp. The first is the reality that in the kingdom, when a word is spoken over your life, it attracts conflict. If you don’t understand that, you’ll think you’re doing something wrong. If you do understand it, then you position yourself for vindication. There’s a huge difference in the outcome of those two perspectives.
In Matthew 13, the parable of the seed and the sower illustrates this. When he talks about rocky soil, he says that tribulation or persecution arises because of the Word. Yes, persecution, tribulation, opposition, difficulty. In a broken world, things go wrong. When these two things arise because of the Word, many don’t have the depth or strength to maintain their position in the middle of that kind of difficulty. There is no root system that is needed; there’s not enough depth in the relationship. Whenever the enemy opposes a word over your life, it’s because he’s afraid of your destiny. That’s right.
There are two things that I’m aware of; there are probably dozens, but there are two key things that happen when the Lord releases a word over our life that must be opposed for two basic reasons. One is that I need to discover the strength of the word; otherwise, I can live in a make-believe world, not realizing what I would stand for. Am I willing to take a bullet for what God has spoken over my life? If you live in that pretend world, where you never hang out with people, you’re sure you’re filled with all the fruit of the Spirit, then everything’s always okay, and you never fully realize what God wants to reconstruct, what He wants to restore, what He wants to rebuild, or what He wants to demolish and build over again. You never know because you’re not deeply involved in life itself.
So here, persecution and tribulation arise opposing the word over your life. Let’s say someone gave you this word; it was verified; it was fully from the Lord that God had put an anointing on you, similar to Smith Wigglesworth. It’s an exciting day; you pray for some people and they get healed. You pray for a good friend and they die, and you begin to question whether that word came from the Lord. Yes, he ensures we always have two trees in our garden—one you can eat from, and one that, if you eat from it, empowers the inferior until it dominates the superior. I said that right; God’s Word has all authority and all power; the devil’s word has no authority, no power. I have authority, but if I listen to the wrong word, I empower the wrong word to the point it can undermine the most powerful thing in the universe, which is the Word of the Lord over my life.
So, the Word of the Lord comes; this healing anointing—someone I pray for dies. It must not be God; the prophet must have been wrong; I must have been emotionally just too expectant and unrealistic. That’s just simply not true. What happens is I feed myself on the wrong word, and that which has unlimited power now becomes powerless because of what I’ve done with the inferior. This would be an interesting study sometime, just to see how often in Scripture the inferior beats the superior. Two are better than one, unless they are divided, and when divided, two are less than one.
Let’s move on. So we have this concept: a word of the Lord must be opposed to discover its strength, number one. But number two is that if I don’t have options or choices, there’s no basis for reward. People say, «Well, I’m not interested in reward; I just want to serve Jesus.» Oh, stop it. Are you better than Jesus? He endured the cross for the joy set before Him. That’s an excellent point. It’s written into the nature of faith; it’s not a glorify-me or get-for-me club; this is the way His economy works. He is a Father with sons and daughters looking for opportunities to celebrate right choices, to celebrate sacrifice, and to celebrate these things that we do in surrender and yielding to Christ. He honors and celebrates that; He’s the great encourager, the great rewarder, and He rewards those who earnestly seek Him. In Hebrews 11, it says, «To believe God, I must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder.» So, half of the subject of faith is connected to the issue of reward. Therefore, a word must be opposed to discover reward. Yep, amen.
Verse 14: Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee. News of Him went throughout all the surrounding region. Interestingly, He went into the wilderness filled with the Spirit and came out with power. Sometimes conflict brings to the surface what God has put in you. This one’s free; there’ll be no charge for this one. Israel came into Egypt, Jacob dwelt in the land of Ham; He increased His people greatly and made them stronger than their enemies, and He turned the heart of their enemy to hate His people. That’s weird! Did you hear what I just read? God made His people strong and then stirred their hearts to come in opposition. Why? Because He wanted His people to experience victory. If He leads you into conflict, it’s not with people; it’s with demonic realms that lie and deceive. If He leads you into conflict, it’s only because He has prepared you to triumph.
Mark chapter 4—are you there? How many of you still love your Bible? How many of you still love the person next to you? Good, good—now don’t get weird on me; just leave them alone until we’re done. You may remember a while back I read you that thing that says, «Have you ever woken up in the morning just happy to be alive and kissed the person next to you?» Then he says, «Yeah, I just tried that, and apparently I won’t be allowed to fly on that airline anymore.»
All right, Mark chapter 4:35. On the same day, when evening had come, He said to them, «Let us cross over to the other side.» When they had left the multitude, they took Him along in the boat as He was. Other little boats were also with Him, and a great windstorm arose. The waves beat into the boat so that it was filling up; but He was in the stern, asleep on a pillow. They awoke Him and said, «Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?» Then He arose, rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, «Peace, be still!» And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. But He said to them, «Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?» Verse 39 and 40: Again, He arose, rebuked the wind, said to the sea, «Peace, be still!» The wind ceased, and there was a great calm, and He said to them, «Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?»
I love this story because it illustrates for me the role of maturity that God requires from us. He did not design us to ask Him to do everything for us. He’s not the cosmic bellhop waiting for us to ring the bell and come running to fulfill our requests. I believe strongly in the importance and power of prayer, and I believe we are to bring petitions and requests to Him. It’s almost a contradiction, but in lifestyle, it’s not. Jesus has His disciples in this boat, and they’re in a life-threatening storm. The boat is already starting to fill. They are afraid they’re going to die, and it’s a legitimate fear without God. So they wake Jesus up and ask Him, «Don’t You care that we are perishing?» He stands, rebukes the wind, says «Peace» to the storm—everything stops—and then He says, «How come you don’t have any faith?»
My upbringing was, we pray, and He does stuff. Here are the disciples; they come to Jesus and they make requests. Who is Jesus? He’s God. What do we call a petition? Prayer. They pray; Jesus turns and answers their prayer and then says, «How come you don’t have any faith?» That’s a mind-boggling scenario to me because I grew up thinking that if I prayed well and effectively, I’d get answers to prayer and things would happen. In part, that’s true, but it’s not what Jesus was grooming His disciples for; He was grooming them to do what He would do if they were in His shoes, which, in this case, was to speak to the storm.
In this case, they were to deal with the obstacle to God’s will. I’ve heard people say that Jesus slept during the storm because He was exhausted. I don’t believe that’s true. I think the reason He slept in the storm is that the world He dwells in has no storms. He was illustrating what it is to live in the reality of communion with the Father—it’s a Heavenly realm that Paul would later find language for; we are seated in Heavenly places in Christ. Tragically, this has been reduced to a doctrine; it’s an invitation to an experience. An experience is an invitation to a lifestyle. What’s initiated by an experience is a promise of a lifestyle, should we want to pursue it.
As we look at this story, verse 35 is key. Do you still have your Bibles open? «On the same day when evening had come, He said to them, 'Let us cross over to the other side.'» I wonder what the will of God is. Trial and difficulty from the enemy’s perspective is to dislodge me from what God has said. The serpent comes into the garden and says, «Has God said?» If you eat of this fruit, you will surely die. See, the enemy knows that at the very center of all that God has made—His economy, His way of life—everything, the very center is His voice; it’s His Word. God said, «Let there be light,» and there was light.
So the work of the enemy is always to dislodge me from the most powerful expression in the universe, and that’s the voice of God. The last Adam is Jesus Christ; the first Adam and the last Adam. He’s baptized in water; the Father proclaims over Him, «You’re my beloved Son in whom I’m well pleased.» The next moment describes Him at the end of 40 days of fasting, and Satan comes to Him and says, «If you are the Son of God.» What was the last thing Jesus heard the Father say? «You are my beloved Son.» The serpent comes to Him, «If you are the Son of God.»
So here we have two things: I personally believe that all temptation, every distraction of the enemy, comes in one of two forms: either to get me to question what God said, or to question who I am. When those two realities become compromised in my heart and my thinking, they put me on very weak ground to stand on. When things are shaking around you, and you’re shaking too, it’s because you’re not standing on the unshakable rock of the kingdom. That’s why insecurity is wrong; security exposes insecurity. God, in His mercy, is dialing up something in me so I realize I’ve got one foot in the kingdom here, but part of my identity is wrapped up in something else, and this is not healthy.
It’s shaking, and I’m becoming fearful, and I can question this and question that, but it’s the mercy of God saying, «Son, just scoot over; get both feet on the Rock, so that the world that can be shaken is shaken, but you stand stable, so you are a resource of life and strength to those who are being shaken.» Winds of adversity do not come from the Lord, but they don’t make Him nervous. You don’t see Jesus having a prayer meeting in the cabin of the boat. The disciples didn’t come to interrupt His intercession, asking Him to help them survive this next test. He was so confident in the outcome that He slept.
God’s not nervous about your ability to confront that which stands in the way of your destiny. He’s not nervous about it; He’s already set the stage for your victory, and probably in most every case represented in this room, He has already spoken the word that is needed to get you there. The problem is that fear, stress, and anxiety are meant to dislodge me from what God has said. I can assure you, when the disciples came and woke Jesus up, none of them were thinking, «You said let’s go to the other side.» His Word is our sword.
One aspect of the kingdom that probably none of us like is found in Matthew 13, where Jesus teaches this parable of the seed and the sower, and He makes this statement: When tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, that tribulation, conflict, difficulty, and persecution—opposition in life—is attracted to the word spoken over you. I received a very significant prophetic word from an amazing person I’d never met before; they knew very little about my life; I was in another country, and they brought a very profound word in extreme detail that gave me great hope. The reality is that what was declared now looks more impossible than when it was declared.
But as they say, «This isn’t my first rodeo.» I know that the word of the Lord actually attracts opposition, and it must, because if there’s no opposition to the word, then I don’t have any choices to make on the journey. If I have no choices to make, then there’s no basis for reward. If I have no opportunity to question what God has said, then that thing called the will, which is like a muscle, gets strengthened every time I say yes and obey God. As that develops in me, something is being formed that qualifies me for even greater impact and greater conflict. Bummer.
The first part I like; the second part—not so much—but it’s true. It is the way this kingdom works. So, a word is released over us that has to be valuable enough that we protect it. It says of Mary that she pondered these prophetic words in her heart. They weren’t clay mugs you drink coffee from. They were crystal goblets that needed to be behind a glass door, brought out for a special occasion and examined, but not things you let the grandkids play with. The word of the Lord over your life is to be delighted in, enjoyed, and celebrated but not treated carelessly. When it’s treated carelessly, you invite others to critique what God has spoken, and they will chip away and break it.
They will take this fragile thing, and when they’re through with it, it won’t look anything like it did when it was given to you. We have a responsibility to guard well what God says over our lives. Do you understand that when God speaks, He creates? Whenever the word of the Lord is spoken over somebody’s life, there is an impartation of grace for life—a grace that enables us to do what was described in the word.
But here’s the challenge: in chapter one, He says, «Fight the good fight with the prophecies made concerning you.» What does that mean? It means your destiny is here; you have opposition here; all you have here is a word. See, many believers—and I’m telling you this is a high percentage—could write books on how to live off of what God brings their way. God is so generous that you will always have a steady stream of love, kindness, and blessing. Just be in the right group, and you’ll thrive; but what you were born for is deep in your heart, and that was called to the surface through a prophetic word that is bigger than your imagination.
It’s bigger than what you would ever assign for yourself. It’s not the fulfillment of your dream; it’s bigger than your dream. That thing is planted in you, and you attract the word of the Lord. In getting that word of promise, it may come through your reading of Scripture, you may be called out in a service, or you may have a friend who says, «Hey, I was thinking of you today,» and suddenly you have this word.
Now you have a responsibility because God has announced your purpose; He has announced your destiny. But it is not guaranteed; it is only accomplished by the ache of the heart that causes me to cry out for what I see. Hannah cried out for a child when she was barren. She cried out, and it wasn’t until she was able to mirror the anguish in God’s heart that she wanted a son. God wanted a prophet. When she mirrored the ache of His heart for a prophet, that’s when the two met, and God granted her what she requested.
The point is that every person in this room has something within you that testifies that when you’re quiet and by yourself, you were born for more. You were born for more than this; you were born for more than this; you were born for more than this. It’s bigger than what you would dream on your own. It’s bigger than what would ever make it to your prayer list. It’s bigger, it’s bigger.
Now take what God says and learn how to fight because it’s in the fight we become strong. We become mature. Our cracks get sealed and healed, so that the Lord can fulfill His dream, releasing the weightiness of His presence, the weightiness of His blessing, the weightiness of His glory upon a people who won’t be crushed by it but instead will be established by it. It’s the glory of the Lord; He’s got a dream, and the dream is that the earth would be filled with the glory of God. He’s got a dream that His government would always increase in its manifestation and expression on earth. He’s got a dream that the people of God would actually host His glorious presence in such a way that people all over the world see that light of God in their lives and want to know the same Father, the same Savior, the same Lord. It’s His dream.
So He’s working with Timothy, and He says this gift is in you. Be absorbed in it; be absorbed in it; be lost in your passion for excellence and what God has put in you. Why? Because your destiny is hinged on you fulfilling the reason your life is connected to your absolute willingness to focus on what God has said over your life, regardless of the war of words.
We’re filled with the war of words because we’re addressing so many issues, but are we addressing why we’re alive? Are we addressing what we were born for? The enemy knows he can’t get me to commit a sinful act, so what does he do? He tries to pull me out of my assignment because then, like a dislocated arm, it’s still attached; it’s still alive. It just doesn’t have its normal function. It can’t move like normal; it can’t hold things; it can’t carry weight because it’s out of its function, out of its purpose, out of its socket. When I have misplaced affections, I’m alive, but I’m disconnected from purpose.
The enemy wars to get me to put my affections on something inferior because then, though I’m alive, I’ve lost my function. It’s complicated when I entertain vain babblings, idle talk, and ideas that contradict Scripture. When I give them a place in my mind, my affections get tainted, distracted, and pulled in different directions, blurring why I’m alive. If I lose sight of why I’m alive, then my impact on everyone who hears me becomes compromised. God is a God of design; paintings don’t appear on the wall without a painter. Creation doesn’t exist without a Creator; there is no design without a designer.
The God we serve has designed you, commissioned you, and fashioned you with significant eternal purpose. But to get to where you have an ache to go, that which is beyond your capacity to dream, will require fight. It’s not a fight with people; it’s not a fight with those who are using the war of words; it is a fight for your destiny with what God says. What has God said over my life? Here’s the challenge: one of my favorite verses in the Bible says of Moses that he built the tabernacle according to what he saw on the mountain. What an astonishing verse! Why? Because he spent weeks in the presence of God, and in His glory, God gives him a pattern and shows him what He wants built.
When he comes back into the valley, he descends from the mountain, and Israel is worshiping a golden calf. They are in idolatrous worship; there is immorality—there’s all kinds of garbage going on in God’s name—because Moses took so long. He comes down and successfully builds what he saw up there. In other words, nothing going on around him that contradicted the vision affected the vision. What was contrary to the command did not affect the command, and he was successful at remembering.
Because sometimes you and I hear a great promise from God, but when we get in the fight, we go, «Ah, the prophet must have been wrong that day.» It’s been three years; I’ve been confessing; I’ve been proclaiming; I’ve been doing all this stuff. It hasn’t happened; it must not be God. What do we do? We take the very thing we heard on the mountaintop and allow it to be redefined in the valley. So we become more comfortable with an explanation for why we have not gotten breakthrough.
Thankfully, Hannah didn’t do that, or there never would have been a Samuel. You were born for something extremely significant, and I hope that everybody in this room has enough time alone, even if it’s just at night going to sleep, where that which is in you becomes activated. You begin to feel the pain—not in a morbid way—but the discomfort that makes you ready to move into discomfort. The discomfort of lacking breakthrough is greater than the discomfort of being in pursuit.
We were born for this. This is about a journey I have with this book. I have little cabins by lakes from Genesis to Revelation. There are places where I can go and be refreshed. There are places where I go to hide. I remember a real challenging situation I faced about 11 years ago, and it really rocked me. It messed me up so much. It was very deep and personal; it wasn’t conflict or anything of that nature. It was just a deep challenge. I remember what I did; I went to the Word. I read until I heard His voice, and I sat down before Him—read 20 chapters, 25 chapters—before He spoke to me.
The point is, I have to find the seed, and He’ll send the rain. I have to take what He’s saying, and I’ve got to put it in a safe place where I treasure His Word for me and hide it away. It’s interesting; last night, I went to bed on the table next to me and Benny; we both have tables on each side of the bed. I have a stack of 3×5 cards that sit on that table, just promises I’ve gotten from the Lord. I have more than that on my iPad, iPhone, and computers—I’ve got files on my devices and two huge binders in my office, one is just for words about Bethel and one for personal words.
Anyway, I got into bed and looked down at that stack. I read the top verse, which was the promise that the Lord would put none of these diseases upon you and that He would be our healer. So I read that—a cool promise. I wondered what was in the middle, so I opened the middle of the stack; Isaiah 30, and I began to read three verses we’re about to read here in a moment. I realized, all right, I get it, I get it, I get it. I’m not teaching on Isaiah 30 as much as I’m saying develop a history where you have places to retreat to—places.
See, this book is so deep that you’ll be reading and studying it for eternity and it will never be boring. Every little nuance will be another glimpse of His face, of what He’s like, of His nature, and His heart for you. It’s endless in its scope and study. So I remember, about 11 years ago, facing this personal struggle and I turned to Psalms. Psalms 25 lit up to me and fed me so much. I went to chapter 26 and it was almost like it was even more tailor-made for me. In 27, I think I actually ended up going five or six Psalms deep into that, where every single one fed me.
The point is that even though I’m not facing the same challenge today, when I go into Psalms 25, I will intentionally wade into that Psalm, saying, «This is a place of health for me.» You can read it and enjoy it too, but I am loaning it to you; it happens to be my gift to you, just joking. But you get the point: I have history there. I can show you in Weaverville, where the church is, the new church. I used to walk that property. I didn’t know it was two lots owned by different owners, and I used to go up there to walk and pray, asking God, «We need to build a new building; we’ve grown out of our own, and we just need this land.»
So I’d walk and walk, and coincidentally, both pieces of land came up for sale at the same time by two different owners. So we bought it. Danny, when he was in Weaverville, ended up building the building. The point is, I remember walking that land. I like to walk and pray; I like to get alone and meet with God. I’d just walk, cry out to God for revival and for whatever we faced. I remember standing by one particular tree, so troubled in my heart for what I felt God wanted to do, overwhelmed with what wasn’t happening.
I remember, with personal issues and challenges for my faith, crying before the Lord, and having Him talk to me from Psalm 68. I will never forget it; I could take you to the trees. They are not there anymore because they cut a bunch of them down, but I could probably take you to the exact spot where He spoke to me from Psalm 68. As I read, I like to read— I don’t like to randomly go throughout the scripture; I read the gospels or the whole New Testament, or the prophets or the books of law. Whatever, I take them in sections and reread them.
I spent ten years reading and rereading the gospels. I read other places too, but I couldn’t get out of the gospels. So anyway, here I am in the Psalms, reading, and the Lord speaks to me. To this day, 30 years later, when I go to that verse, it’s still alive like it was the day it fed my soul. It’s still alive like the day it refreshed me in my faith; it didn’t change any circumstances, but it changed me.
You see, what you want is to be changed into the person capable of dwelling in the blessing you’re praying for. So often, we want God to add something to our lives without us being transformed into someone capable of stewarding what we ask for. The fight is for that purpose, the fight of our faith, the challenge, the discipline—those things.
So here we are, in Isaiah chapter 30. If you haven’t turned there already, please do because we’re going to read just a couple of verses. I’m going to read this from the New American Standard; I like it so much better, and that was actually the translation I was using at the time, perhaps that’s why it sounds more like His voice.
Isaiah 30:8: «Therefore the Lord longs to be gracious to you, and therefore He waits on high to have compassion on you. For the Lord is a God of justice; how blessed are all those who long for Him! O people in Zion, inhabitants of Jerusalem, you will weep no longer. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry; when He hears it, He will answer you. Although the Lord has given you bread of privation and water of oppression, your Teacher will no longer hide Himself, but your eyes will behold your Teacher, and your ears will hear a word behind you saying, 'This is the way, walk in it, ' whenever you turn to the right or to the left.»
This is just a portion I will return to every once in a while because it feeds me. For me, it’s like Joshua 1:5-9; it’s a place I wade into because He has brought me peace in the middle of challenging situations or peace when I’ve ached for more and didn’t have anything to show for it. He is the Word; that’s why you can’t separate the voice from the presence. When He speaks, He is; it’s two sides of the same coin. That’s why in John 1, Jesus is the Word of God made flesh.
In John 6, when Jesus spoke, the Word became Spirit because when He speaks, His presence is there. Presence, throughout Scripture, Old and New Testament, is represented by one picture alone: presence is the face of God; it is the joyful, delighting, accepting countenance of a perfect Father.
See, the cabin by the lake is nice, but when you’re in the middle of difficulty, and your life is laid down to honor just this one Jesus, and everything seems to be on the line, and you’ve been anticipating breakthrough, and there’s been a delay in answers, and there’s an anguish of the heart saying, «God, I’ve been believing You; I’ve been confessing; I’ve been praying; I’ve been doing everything I know to do,"—it’s not the time to throw in the towel. It’s often the greatest breakthrough that comes when we just take that one more step. Taking that one more step, saying, «God, I need to meet with You"—and we meet together, and He talks to me.
In this case, Isaiah 30 represents a chapter where He has ministered to me deeply on many occasions. I can take you from the beginning to the end of this great book, the word of God, the Scriptures, and I can give you my history. I met with Him here; at this point, this chapter changed my life. This verse in Mark 8 changed the way I thought for the rest of my life; I will never think the same again because of this verse right here on the left page, right side column, halfway down. It’s got all kinds of marks around it, but the point is that history is on those pages; it’s a safe place. Everybody needs a safe place—your home, your friends, your family—but also with God, where His voice is there and comforts.
Chapter 4:13: «Therefore I positioned men behind the lower parts of the wall at the openings, and I set the people according to their families with their swords, their spears, and their bows. I looked and arose and said to the nobles, to the leaders, and to the rest of the people, 'Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, great and awesome, and fight for your brethren, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your houses.'»
It happened that when our enemies heard that it was known to us, that God had brought their plot to nothing, that all of us returned to the wall, everyone to his work. Last verse: «So it was, from that time on that half of my servants worked on the construction while the other half held spears, shields, bows, and wore armor. The leaders were behind all the house of Judah. Those who built on the walls, those who carried burdens, loaded themselves so that with one hand they worked at construction, with the other they held a weapon. Every one of the builders had his sword girded at his side as he built.»
What’s the point? These two concepts of protection and building are the roles of all government. It doesn’t matter if you’re a brand new disciple of Jesus who’s been saved for one week or you’re the president of a nation—you have a responsibility by God to be a protector and an empowerer, a builder.
We have interesting pictures here that Nehemiah describes of his own servants. On one hand, the work they did in building required all their attention, so in that case, Nehemiah would release that person to build, but then he would give them a soldier who would stand by them, armed with a sword, spear, armor, and everything. They would work to protect this one who was doing the work. So there is that role.
Others could carry a load up the wall, but they could also carry a spear too. So, we have individuals that did both at the same time. There were others that were able to do work but have a spear at their side, ready. The point is, these two roles are very distinguishable in these builders of the wall, and they are marks of responsibility and privilege for every believer in this room and everyone watching by Bethel TV.
The privilege and responsibility we have is we’ve been called by God to build and to protect, to protect and to build, to build and protect. Sometimes we have a friend who’s just in the heat of battle, and they’re trying as best they can to get something out of their life. Maybe you have a friend pouring into someone who is just going through hell. You stand as a watchman to pray and contend. You draw a circle around these two—the one who gives the counsel and the one who needs healing or deliverance—and you stand there as protection.
Other times, you are the person carrying the sword in the trial. You’re working on building; you’re bringing encouragement. You’re looking for the promise of God for an individual, but you also have skin in the game. You’re ready to fight. Notice Nehemiah positioned people to the wall part closest to their homes. They have personal investment. Yes, they’ve got personal investment in the wall that they are not only going to benefit from, but more specifically, their children, their grandchildren, their spouses, their brothers, their sisters, their aunts—all these people in this family unit.
«I’m working on this wall—why? Because I’m building a place of safety for my family.» All those that matter to me. I realize not everyone in this room has children or grandchildren, but we all have friends; we all have people we’re connected to, people we’re willing to fight for.
We get rocked when we see, «Oh man, I hate what this person is having to go through right now,» so we pick up the sword; we pick up the trial. We say, «God, give me a word for this person! Give me the promise that I can fight with.» Interestingly, the sword we fight with is the Word of the Lord; the building material that we use is the Word of the Lord.
The sword that we fight with is that Word. This is what God says over this household; you may say it over your own: «As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.» This is not optional and there are no exceptions. «As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.» You get into that fray, you get into that situation with the Word of the Lord. You and I are no match for the enemy, but we are more than a match when God is with us.
The point is to get the Word of the Lord and use the decree. Here we have two interesting roles: protection and building. Protection and power both use the same tool. Wow! They both use the same tool—the sword that works to destroy the powers of hell builds up and edifies. Here, it’s the same Word. Wow!
I think this morning, if I’m not into making wishes, I’d rather pray—but if I could have one wish this morning, it would be that everybody in the room would hear a word from God. It’s just when God has spoken, every other voice loses its power, loses its effect. It’s the need of my heart. I think I can say it certainly; almost every situation I get into, the first thing I do is ask, «What has God said or what is He saying?» I’ve got to know what He said.
I will review tapes. I mentioned to you a week or so ago, I’ve got my iPhone; I have so many things in here. I have a lot of music; I’ve got prophecies. You know Bob Jones prophesying to me. I put it in my car, and it just randomly plays whatever is recorded; I could program it, but this is more fun—to have The Beatles singing «Yellow Submarine» one moment and then Robin McMillan prophesying over me in the next. I mean, I’d rather have that combination.
It just seems healthier to me. It makes me want to drive around town, keep looking for another prophetic word to randomly play. I had a weird experience last week; I had an appointment with somebody. A friend of mine had flown from out of the area to meet. On my way to the appointment, literally, a lady I’d never met before, nor since, recorded a prophetic word, and she described this individual I’d be meeting. Here she gave me the word like five, six, seven years ago, and I’m driving to the restaurant hearing her prophesy about this meeting.
So I just say Siri and Jesus are working together; that’s all I know. They’re working together, and they work hard to bring me the mind of the Lord in any given situation. Sorry for the Apple commercial; I’m sure yours will do the same.
It’s fascinating though that the building material that you can build in the child that you’re fighting for— that friend you’re fighting for—is the fact that you heard from God. You take what He says and you administer it. This is what the Lord is saying! If you can’t find what He’s saying, find what He said. Just use His Word as the building block in that broken situation.
The same is also true in the battle. Paul said to Timothy, «Fight the good fight of faith with the prophecies previously made concerning you.» Timothy, you’re in the middle of a war; grab hold of what’s been declared over you and use it like a sword. Make your decree; make your pronouncement.
You’re not a wimp waving a straw; you’re a soldier waving the Word of the Lord, and it is the Lord Himself who backs up and supports the decrees He has made. It’s best for us to take the posture of the Word of the Lord. We’ve all got friends facing different things, and it doesn’t mean I take ownership of your problem, but it does mean I pay attention to that tender place in my heart that is so moved when I hear, «Oh, someone is going through this; oh, this crisis happened. They need wisdom.»
I begin to gather together the building blocks of my life, releasing through decree, «This is what the Lord is saying! This is what I’m willing to fight for!» What I like to do is when I’m with my kids or my grandkids or any of the younger people I’m with, I just build; but when I’m alone, I pull out the sword. You’ve got to know when to fight.
When I’m with them, I just build; but when I’m alone, I pull out the sword. This is what God says over this household; this is what the Lord says over this family, over this individual. You know, we wear two hats: we’re construction workers, contractors, architects, and builders, but we’re also military agents representing the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, bringing about the influence of His will, His purposes into the earth.
Don’t ever downgrade the role that you play; it’s not about you. It’s about Him being known for who He is in the earth. Do you know that every time you and I represent Him well, His majesty is released, and His name becomes revealed? The beauty of who He is as a perfect Father becomes known by many. This is the great privilege of every believer—to make Him known.
What’s He like? They don’t know; they think He created cancer. They think He just created disease to teach people a lesson. They don’t see Him as a Father who heals and disciplines, but who heals and brings strength. You and I have that privilege. Life and death is in the power of the tongue; it means that you and I have the ability with our speech to bring life to a dead situation or to kill a living situation.
Peter denied the Lord three times, and in the Gospel of John, the 21st chapter, Jesus has the disciples together and He asks Peter, «Do you love me?» and Peter says, «I do.» Then He waits a moment and says, «Peter, do you love me?» He says, «Lord, You know I do, I love You.» He asks a third time, «Do you love me?»
It’s interesting that for each denial, the Lord gave Peter an opportunity to reaffirm his place in Him through proclamation—through confession. It needed to be not a happy thought; it needed to be not a warm buzz feeling; it had to be the proclamation of truth coming out of Peter’s own mouth. Life and death are in the power of the tongue.
I went through a pretty major physical struggle here three years ago right now. I remember when it was over and I was restored to health. I was at a place of recovery, and I remember pondering, looking back over the previous several months and the things I had learned and gone through. I would lay in bed and just read promises; I would watch videos of prophetic words, and of course in my own Bible reading, I would read till He speaks. I was looking for I found myself wanting some key that He would reveal to unlock everything.
Maybe He did, but it came differently than I expected. At the end of four or five months of a real challenge, I came to the conclusion that bold faith stands on the shoulders of quiet trust. What He was working to build in me was the quiet trust—the anchor of the soul that says, regardless of circumstances, I know where my confidence is.
The opportunity to make that proclamation—the opportunity to make that confession—the most famous verse in this regard is from Mark chapter 11. If you would turn there with me, that would be great. I know that there are times in recent church history where people have used this particular verse to think they can get God to do whatever they want, and while I do apologize for that, I also want to say don’t react to error and create another error. The abuse of a principle doesn’t give me an excuse to avoid the principles; my hands are not clean because I dropped a subject.
If it says so in the Word, then I have to find out how to apply what God has said to be true. Mark chapter 11 offers us a very profound lesson. To me, it’s a humorous chapter. Towards the beginning, Jesus curses a fig tree for not bearing fruit out of season. I just think that’s the coolest thing ever—that Jesus cursed a fig tree when it didn’t bear fruit in the wrong season. What does it mean? I don’t know; I just think it’s cool. He curses a fig tree because it wasn’t bearing fruit out of season.
I have come to the conclusion that Jesus is the only one who has the right to expect the fruit of the impossible out of our lives. The resurrection factor makes nothing impossible and qualifies you and me as participants in the unfolding of His conflict with the impossibilities of life. You and I are instruments of the redemptive work of Jesus to see impossibilities bow.
So, He curses the fig tree. As the disciples and Jesus walk up, Peter says, «Rabbi, look! The fig tree you cursed has withered away!» Jesus answered and said to them, «Have faith in God.»
Some translations actually say it should be translated «Have the faith of God,» which is interesting because God has quite a bit of faith.
Verse 23, «Assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be removed and cast into the sea, ' and does not doubt in his heart but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says.»
Let’s read that again. Verse 23: «Assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be removed and cast into the sea, ' and does not doubt in his heart but believes those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says.»
The emphasis, without question, is on the proclamation of truth. Now, I don’t think we have the luxury of saying whatever we want. Even though there is life and death in the power of the tongue, the heart of the believer is to find what God is saying—to find His word in a given situation. But once we’ve received the word of the Lord in a situation, it’s up to us to make the proclamation that those things would come to pass.
I can just tell you from my own experience, as I’m in the middle of this journey like everybody else, but I’ve had many times where I heard clearly from the Lord what His will was in a situation. I stood back, waited for it to unfold, and most of the time it doesn’t happen until I step in and start enforcing, decreeing, and declaring what the Lord has spoken to my own heart. There is a role that you and I play, and for some reason He has chosen to respond to the decree, the declaration of surrendered believers—those who say the will of God, God being glorified is all I want.
I’m going to take my words and make sure I proclaim that which You are saying, God, in a given situation, making that decree. Joel chapter 3 says, I think it’s verse 10, «Let the weak say, 'I am strong.'» Say that with me: «Let the weak say, 'I am strong.'» The reason He had to say that is when you need to say it is when you’re least likely to say it.
The reason it needed to be a command is because the times when it’s most effective in our lives is when we’re not prone to make that kind of a confession or declaration. It’s easy when you know you’ve had this miracle and that miracle, to stand up and say, «I just feel so strong right now. I feel so mighty in God!» there are times when it just seems like boom, boom, boom, miracles happen here and there, and I just feel so strong and powerful in the Lord.
But there are times man, where it’s a struggle. It’s the thing that I least feel like saying, and yet that is when it is most necessary to say it—bold confession! I am strong! My translation says, «Let the weak say, 'I am a mighty man.'» For the women of course, «I am a mighty woman.» But I’m not going to make that confession because of the power of confession. I don’t want anything to happen while I’m up here.
Oh, I am a mighty man! How about this: Let this be a year that we work hard to embrace what the Lord has declared over our lives and make that the only thing we say. I don’t mean you don’t seek counsel; I don’t mean you don’t bring a problem up and get advice. I don’t mean that living in denial is the solution, but there are times where we actually fuel and feed conflicts and problems in life. We make them bigger than they are because they are the topic of our complaint, the topic of our conversation, and I feel like the Lord wants to just increase the use of a particular tool that He taught His own disciples.
That whatever you say, you’ll have. The problem is we have much of what we’ve said. Amen? Bill, good point!