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 also look at something Jesus said in John 4.
(John 4:35 KJV)
Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.
So what does this mean for you today? A few things.
1. Faith has a language (I need to keep driving this home).
— If you understand how faith is a human’s ability to hear from God, to discern His voice, to believe what He said, and to then perform whatever human actions are required to bring it to pass (saying something, doing, something, etc.), you can see why your words are so important. Your faith is a response to God’s grace. By faith, you get to align your words and deeds with what God promised. Therefore, your words matter.
— The Bible has so much to say about the importance of your words because, with your words, you either agree with God or satan. Your words are either aligning with the Kingdom of God or the kingdom of darkness. When you align your lips with God, His Word, His Kingdom, and His purposes, you speak the language of faith.
— This past week, an angel from my church, Tyshemia “Shema” Robinson, left her body and went to heaven. She is a worshipper. Now she gets to worship the Father directly, forever. Her earthly body was under attack by a disease. She left that body behind. That body will go into the ground today, and it will return to the earth over time. But Shema is not in that body. She will get a new (glorified) body someday. For now, she gets to enjoy heaven without the limits or pains of an earthly body. Our church was praying for her not to leave. Of course, we love her, and we wanted her to stay. But she went on, and I am sure heaven had an amazing “welcome home” party for her.
One of my friends said to me, “Hey, I have been looking at all the Facebook posts about Shema from your church. You guys are different. All the posts have been positive and uplifting. I am a Christian too, but the way you guys look at death, it is different. I don’t know. We just handle it different. I have never seen a group of people so positive when dealing with a death.” This person then watched the “Celebration of Life” service yesterday, and they were blown away and how amazingly uplighting it was.
Here’s my point. Do we cry? Of course! Does losing Shema hurt? Without question. But she’s not lost. We know where she is. We celebrated her life yesterday, and we will continue to do so. We will cry from time to time, as needed. Personally, I embrace those moments of pain. I know that I won’t have pain when I get to heaven. Pain is part of a human experience. So when something like this happens, I pull in the pain, and I hold it close. That pain is a reminder that I am human. One day I will go to heaven, and I will never experience pain again. For now, pain is part of the process, and I embrace it as part of my humanity.
Why am I sharing all of this in a point about faith? I believe what I just shared helps drive home the language of faith. Faith has a language. When you truly believe what we believe, and you speak what you believe, you will sound different. You will handle situations differently from the world. Why? Because you are basing your beliefs, words, and actions on a different realm.
We worshipped and praised God yesterday powerfully because we know where Shema is, and we honored her life by doing what she loved to do. This is part of the lifestyle of faith, where we are not moved by the seen but the unseen. The unseen is more real to us than the seen! We were able to look at her physical body, knowing that she was not there. We know where she is, and for that, we give God praise!
— Faith has a language. If you truly believe what you claim to believe, you will speak the language of faith daily. When you do, some may not understand why you are not moved by the things that happen like they are moved, but that will be an opportunity for you to explain to them that you live off of a different reality! You live on earth, based on what you hear and see from heaven.
2. Never speak against what God planned for your life.
— If you are a person who lives by faith, who meditates and medicates on God’s Word every day, and who seeks to be led by God’s Holy Spirit in all things, you will easily spot faith and fear when you hear them.
— The goal is to renew your mind to think and speak like God. When you do, and your mind is literally renewed from the “stinking thinking” you learned from this world, it is easy for you to hear words that do not line up with heaven.
— No matter how long it takes, never speak against what God said. Never allow a negative word to come out of your mouth concerning what God revealed to you.
— If you speak against the promise, you run the risk of missing out on what God revealed.
— God revealed to Jeremiah that he was called to be a prophet. Jeremiah spoke against it. God was quick to tell Jeremiah NOT to speak against what He said. God said, “Do not say, ‘I am too young.’ You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you.” We must learn to never speak against what God promised and accept that our life is about God and His plans, not about us and our selfish desires.
— Moses spoke against what God told him to do. God sent him to speak to Pharoah. Moses said he could not speak. So God gave him a surrogate speaker. I am convinced that Moses had the grace to do what God told him to do. But since he spoke against God’s promise, he missed out on God’s best.
— I could give you more examples, but I believe you get the point. Believe what God said and SPEAK what you believe! Never speak against the promise! Speak the language of faith.
3. Faith agrees with and declares, in time, what God has already decreed from eternity.
— In John 4, Jesus said, “Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.” The disciples were looking at the same fields Jesus was, with their natural eyes. But Jesus saw something else in the Spirit.
— Jesus instructed the disciples NOT TO SAY what they saw with their physical eyes. But rather to say what they could see in the Spirit.
— In the natural, the harvest was four months away. In the Spirit, it was harvest time NOW! Faith is always NOW! Hope says that it will happen someday. Faith believes and receives in NOW, even if it won’t actually manifest for years. So Jesus taught the disciples NOT TO SAY what their natural body was telling them. He wanted them to have the faith to SEE what God was revealing to them and to then SAY THAT!
— In Mark 11, Jesus looked at a fig tree and saw two realities. His physical body was seeing a tree that was strong and full of leaves. The Holy Spirit inside of Him was showing Him a tree that was dead and dried up from the roots. Jesus then had a decision to make. When there is a conflict between what your body is showing you and what the Holy Spirit is saying to you, you have to decide, in your soul, which one you are going to go with. Jesus chose NOT TO SAY what He saw with his natural eyes. He said what He saw in the Spirit. Twenty-four hours later, the tree was dead. Why? Because God revealed something and Jesus was a human who had the faith to declare, in the earth, what God had decreed, from heaven!
— Later in Mark 11, Jesus said that if we say what God is leading us to say, and we do so from a believing heart, without any doubt at all, we will have what we say! Do you believe that? If you do, you will be careful what you say. And you will be careful only to say what God is saying over your situation.
— To truly live by faith, there will be moments where you run the risk of looking foolish. Looking at a field that is months away from harvest (in the natural) and saying, OUT LOUD, “It is harvest time NOW” does not make any sense from a human point of view. Looking at a tree that is strong and full of leaves and saying, OUT LOUD, that the tree is dead, does not make any sense from a human point of view. But there is where you must remember that you are both human and divine. You have a body. With your body, you communicate with this world. You have a recreated spirit (if you are Born-Again). With your recreated spirit, you communicate with God’s realm. You then have to decide which input you are going to SPEAK and ACT upon. This is the life of faith.
*** You must have the faith to SAY what God is SAYING to you!
That’s enough for today.
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 declare what You have already decreed over my life. I resist and reject fear, doubt, and unbelief. I never allow a negative word to proceed from out of my lips. No matter how long it takes, I will never speak against the promise. Every Word You have spoken over my life shall come to pass in the fulness of time. For now, I will say what You have said until I SEE what You have SAID! I know it is only a matter of time before I have, IN MY HANDS, what You have already revealed, IN MY HEART! This is how I know GREATER IS COMING FOR ME! I declare this by faith. In Jesus’ name, Amen!
This is Today’s Word! Apply it and Prosper.
