Today we continue our series “God is faithful!” The Lord led me to 2 Corinthians 4. In this passage, we are looking at what it looks like to believe God is faithful. Because of God’s faithfulness towards us, we can withstand and overcome anything!
For days we have been looking at verse 13. We will go back to it again today.
(2 Corinthians 4:1, 7-13, 16-18 TPT)
1 Now, it’s because of God’s mercy that we have been entrusted with the privilege of this new covenant ministry. And we will not quit or faint with weariness.
7 We are like common clay jars that carry this glorious treasure within, so that this immeasurable power will be seen as God’s, not ours.
8 Though we experience every kind of pressure, we’re not crushed. At times we don’t know what to do, but quitting is not an option.
9 We are persecuted by others, but God has not forsaken us. We may be knocked down, but not out.
10 We continually share in the death of Jesus in our own bodies so that the resurrection life of Jesus will be revealed through our humanity.
11 We consider living to mean that we are constantly being handed over to death for Jesus’ sake so that the life of Jesus will be revealed through our humanity.
12 So, then, death is at work in us but it releases life in you.
13 We have the same Spirit of faith that is described in the Scriptures when it says, “First I believed, then I spoke in faith.” So we also first believe then speak in faith.
16 So no wonder we don’t give up. For even though our outer person gradually wears out, our inner being is renewed every single day.
17 We view our slight, short-lived troubles in the light of eternity. We see our difficulties as the substance that produces for us an eternal, weighty glory far beyond all comparison,
18 because we don’t focus our attention on what is seen but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but the unseen realm is eternal.
Today we will look at several other scriptures as well.
(Luke 6:43-45 Contemporary English Version)
A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot produce good fruit. You can tell what a tree is like by the fruit it produces. You cannot pick figs or grapes from thornbushes. Good people do good things because of the good in their hearts. Bad people do bad things because of the evil in their hearts. Your words show what is in your heart.
(Proverbs 4:20,21 NKJV)
20 My son, give attention to my words; Incline your ear to my sayings.
21 Do not let them depart from your eyes; Keep them in the midst of your heart.
(Deuteronomy 6:6-9 ERV)
??6 Always remember these commands that I give you today.
7 Be sure to teach them to your children. Talk about these commands when you sit in your house and when you walk on the road. Talk about them when you lie down and when you get up.
8 Tie them on your hands and wear them on your foreheads to help you remember my teachings.
9 Write them on the doorposts of your houses and on your gates.
(Joshua 1:8 NKV)
This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.
So what does this mean for you today? A few things.
1. Living by faith and not by sight is not easy at first.
— The Bible teaches us to live by faith and not by natural sight (2 Cor 5:7). The Easy-to-Read Version reads, “We live by what we believe will happen, not by what we can see.” This is the goal.
— Living by faith means that you have decided to live by God’s reality, even when it conflicts with everything you are seeing with your natural eyes or the overall input you are receiving from your natural body.
— To live by faith, you must live by what God HAS SAID in His Word, and by what God IS SAYING now to you, by His Spirit, even when all the evidence you are receiving from your physical senses is saying something else. Living by faith means you are not moved by what you see. You are only moved by what you believe God is revealing, and you SPEAK what God said until you have what God said! You SPEAK THE WORD ONLY!
— I understand how difficult this can be at first. When you have physical evidence (like a doctor’s report, a deadline that’s coming, or bills stacking up), and God is speaking to you about another reality, it is not easy to maintain your faith, to speak ONLY what God is speaking to you, and to live by God’s reality over the one you are seeing every day. But this is the life we are called to.
— God never said it would be easy. The good news is that He gave us His Word, His Spirit, and His grace. So no matter how hard it seems, you have the grace for it. You were built for this. God is ON you, IN you, WITH you, and FOR you. You can do it! SPEAK THE WORD ONLY and it is only a matter of time before you SEE what God SAID!
2. Your heart will grow whatever you feed it, and your life will produce fruit (good or bad) as a result of it.
— I am convinced that our words have a lot to do with what we experience. Let me briefly explain why. In Mark chapter 4, Jesus taught “the mother of all parables,” the parable of the sower. In this parable, Jesus taught that the sower sows the Word, that we as believers are the ground that receives the Word within the soil of our hearts, and that our hearts cause the seed (whatever we sow into it) to bring forth a harvest. This is why you must carefully consider what you allow through your eye and ear gates. Whatever you do will get down in your heart.
So you may ask, “Well Rick, how do I know what is growing in my heart?” We have already looked at this answer. Jesus said, “Your words show what is in your heart” (Luke 6:45). Your words expose to everyone (externally) what is going on in your heart (internally).
— Soil does not discriminate. Soil will reproduce marijuana and opium just as much as it will reproduce apples and oranges. The soil does not say, “Wait a minute, this is bad stuff.” No, all the soil knows how to do is crack open the seed and cause it to grow, especially if it is watered and receives adequate sunlight. This is why the heart of a Christian can grow fear just as easily as it can grow faith.
— If you feed on fear-filled words and you get words of fear down in your heart, your heart will cause it to grow, your words will expose the condition of your heart, you will speak fear-filled words, and you will have what you say! Why? Because you will actually be speaking what you believe, even though what you believe and speak will be contrary to the Word of God. You will still have what you say, but it won’t be God’s best.
— Your heart will decide based on what you have been feeding it.
— What you feed your heart will directly impact what comes out of it: words, decisions, and actions.
3. When you “set your mind” on something, you are feeding your heart, and your life will testify (externally) of what is going on inside of you.
— Your heart can grow fear just as easily as it can grow faith. If you meditate on what satan is saying to you, it will grow fear. If you meditate on what God is saying to you, it will grow faith. It is really that simple.
— Your input (whatever comes through your eye and ear gates) will determine what gets down in your heart. Whatever you sow into the soil of your heart will grow. Then, you will speak “out of the abundance,” and your words will tell everyone what you are growing down in your heart.
— You may want to believe you are growing faith, but if you are speaking fear-filled words all day long, then the harsh reality is that you are a fear-grower and not a faith-grower.
— The reason why God told the nation of Israel to “Always remember His commands… to be sure to teach them to their children… to talk about them when they sit down in their homes and while they are traveling… to talk about them when they lay down and when they get up… and to even tie them on their hands and wear them on their foreheads,” is because God knows the importance of what we feed on. Whatever we get down in our hearts will influence our words and deeds. Our life will then produce fruit based on it.
— God said, through Joshua, that we should not let “This Book of the Law depart from out of our mouths,” meaning that we must speak it, OUT LOUD! He went on to say, “meditate in it day and night,” meaning that we have to think about it. But we won’t think about what we don’t know, so we have to get it down into our hearts. Then God said, “that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it,” meaning that our thoughts and words must spill over into our actions. We can’t just give God lip service. Not only must we speak what we believe, but we must ACT on what we believe. If we do all these things, God said, “then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.” Did you catch that? We have a part in God’s provision for our lives. We get to participate in our own prosperity. How do we do it? We just learned that we do it by mastering our mouth (what we say), our mind (what we think about), and our methods (what we do) with the Word of God!
If you do all these things, not only will you be able to withstand and overcome anything, but you will also be setting yourself up for GOOD SUCCESS!
That’s enough for today.
Declaration of Faith:
Father, this is a season of LEVELING UP for me. I LEVEL UP by speaking the language of faith daily. I have the same spirit of faith that Paul did. I believe, therefore I speak. I speak words of faith from a believing heart. I get Your Word down into the soil of my heart, and I become a faith-grower. My faith grows daily because I have a consistent diet of Your Word. The more my faith grows in my heart, the more faith-filled words I will speak from a believing heart, and the more I will see those words come to pass. I shield the soil of my heart from unrighteous input; therefore, I ensure I produce righteous output! I SPEAK THE WORD ONLY, my words expose to everyone what is going on inside of me, and I will have what I say! GREATER IS COMING FOR ME! I declare this by faith. In Jesus’ name, Amen!
This is Today’s Word! Apply it and Prosper.
