In coming back out of the dungeon of unbelief it becomes very obvious that we must change what we speak or we will go straight back down. What we speak is in truth what we shall get. We are created in the image of God and God creates through faith filled words, He speaks His desire and it sets in motion everything needed to form that word in the natural. Our God is a faith preacher! So what should we be?
As sons of God we are not struggling along alone without God, He is constantly with us. But, we may be missing an important ingredient in our struggling which is keeping us locked down in our particular bondage. That missing ingredient I want to share is faith. And as I say to my wife faith is never divorced from words. If we believe we shall speak! In fact whatever we believe we shall speak of it. That may be good or bad for us.
Death and life are in the power of the tongue and those who love speaking shall eat the fruit of their words. It is a spiritual law and cannot be avoided.
I have been down in the valley of death and despair for so very long. Many times the circumstances have overwhelmed my faith and convinced me that God is far away and not for me. That is okay to think that, for the thoughts go through all our heads at times, but it is not okay when we speak out of those thoughts. By saying it is not okay, I am not pointing the finger of blame and accusation at all. We are forgiven all our transgressions. It is not going to be okay, good, alright, well, prosperous, happy or healthy for us if we begin to utter words in agreement with death.
You may have been smacked down on the canvass by a huge wrestler who has you pinned down. Your body may be in excruciating pain and your mind may be full of turmoil and defeat. It is natural for us to begin to think God (Who can do all things)has abandoned us or is punishing us. The enemy hammers our mind like a deadly ‘sleeper hold’ around our head. He squeezes tighter and tighter until he gets us to say “Uncle!”- American slang for “I am defeated! I surrender!”
We hear the phrase “Get the monkey off my back!” Same thing. This is the warfare that we are all engaged in. This is the wrestling Paul spoke of that is ‘not with flesh and blood but with spiritual powers’ that are determined to throttle the life out of us. They know that to do that we must destroy ourselves by speaking in agreement with their desire for us.
Remember the woman whose son had died, the same son that God had given her when she was barren? He was now lying on his bed dead!! She kept her mouth shut and went looking for the Prophet of God. The only thing she kept saying was “It is well with my soul.”
2Ki_4:26 Please run now to meet her, and say to her, ‘Is it well with you? Is it well with your husband? Is it well with the child?’ ” And she answered, “It is well.”
We often here people say a similar thing, when we know for a fact that they are suffering in some way. They say something like – ” It’s all good.” This kind of statement is not going to bring them out of trouble, but it is holding them together for a short time, sort of like keeping the lid on the boiling emotions in the pot. They may be lifting the lid at night when no one else is around and saying all that is in their hearts to the darkness or the Internet crowd such as is the case with many who contemplate suicide. They write all their dark, defeated, despairing words thinking that it is therapeutic for them and others, when in fact it is playing into the hands of the spirit that torments them. They are defeated, the sleeper hold is doing it’s job.
I know what that is like. To be defeated and filled with thoughts of ending it all. Every negative thought turns inward and punches us repeatedly in the head until we admit that we are losers, failures and freaks. The blows are arrows of “truth”(lies) that we know are ‘true’ about us because we were there when we failed, we saw our failure, we remember our failure. We sit in the witness box and agree with the Prosecuting attorney concerning every thing he hurls at us. “It is true Your Honour, I am guilty of all charges.” We hang our head in shame and defeat. All thought of ever pleasing God has long gone from us. The very mention of God doubles the strength of the sleeper hold on our head.
“What’s the use!? Why bother trying, better to die!? God? Hah!! He has abandoned me, there is no God!!”
We look to our corner very briefly in the slight hope that we can tag our partner’s hand and get out of the ring, but there is no one there in our corner on our side. Instead the enemy sits in our corner smirking at us, mocking us. “You are finished dude!”…except it comes to our mind as “I am finished!”, First person, present tense. “It’s all over red rover!” The very thought of ever being any different than what you have been like for so long is laughable. Bitterness is your hiding place…’Better to stay angry at God than to surrender to His love’ , you reason…after all, “God can help me, but He does nothing! So I will show Him what I think of that!” All of this self destruction comes from vexation in our soul over some issue.
The woman whose son had died and who maintained her composure by saying, “It is well” was inwardly accusing God of failing her. It came out eventually.
2Ki 4:28 So she said, “Did I ask a son of my lord? Did I not say, ‘Do not deceive me’?”
Elishah could see that her soul was in deep distress.
2Ki 4:27 Now when she came to the man of God at the hill, she caught him by the feet, but Gehazi came near to push her away. But the man of God said, “Let her alone; for her soul is in deep distress, and the LORD has hidden it from me, and has not told me.”
She was distressed – Hebrew Marar – to be, or make bitter. This woman was struggling! Bitter thoughts in her mind were threatening disaster and abandonment from God. She managed to keep her mouth shut enough for there to be an atmosphere of faith for the Prophet to work with. He tells his servant to go to the woman’s house to lay his prophet’s staff on the child and to say nothing to anyone on the way.
2Ki 4:29 Then he said to Gehazi, “Get yourself ready, and take my staff in your hand, and be on your way. If you meet anyone, do not greet him; and if anyone greets you, do not answer him; but lay my staff on the face of the child.”
It was not simply a matter of urgency, but of stopping Gehazi from speaking words of unbelief and death. ‘The child is sleeping..I go that I may wake him up’. When we know God is for us, we speak in accord with His desires without any doubt as to His intentions. I will wake the child up!
So the prophet Elishah gets to her house and does just that. But I want you to see what the woman said before Elishah went to her house.
2Ki 4:30 And the mother of the child said, “As the LORD lives, and as your soul lives, I will not leave you.” So he arose and followed her.
She won the victory over bitterness right there! She declared boldly that she would not depart from Elishah, who represented the LORD. She could have said the opposite but she chose to say, ‘I am not going to leave you Lord…I am going with you to see my son raised up. I am going to believe.’
That is the beginning of the climb out of the dungeon of despair.
Declare it for yourself today.
Tell the Lord that you will not leave off from following Him. You will believe. You will speak in faith.
Elishah went in and lay on the dead body of the child.
2Ki 4:32 When Elisha came into the house, there was the child, lying dead on his bed.
2Ki 4:33 He went in therefore, shut the door behind the two of them, and prayed to the LORD.
2Ki 4:34 And he went up and lay on the child, and put his mouth on his mouth, his eyes on his eyes, and his hands on his hands; and he stretched himself out on the child, and the flesh of the child became warm.
2Ki 4:35 He returned and walked back and forth in the house, and again went up and stretched himself out on him; then the child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes.
Elishah’s name means “God of supplications”…it means to shout hello to God for help. Elishah represents prayer and to make declaration of God’s help in time of trouble.
We can by the choice of our will begin to cover all the death in our lives or/and those around us with declarations of God’s help. Cover that body of death with faith words declaring God’s help.
“The child shall live!!” is a good place to start.
“I shall live and not die, and declare the works of the Lord.” psalms
“I shall prosper and be in good health even as my soul does prosper.” 3John
I am a believer, I speak words of faith. Mk 11:23,24
My words are filled with power for God is the strength of my life.
God is for me and God is with me, I am not alone. Heb 13:5,6
Jesus looks at my troubles and says with compassion, “Child, I am willing!” Mk 1:41
We can lift up our voice and choose to speak faith declarations over every dead thing in our lives. The sleeper hold is broken off the moment we tag our partner’s hand in the faith corner. When we speak His words and His thoughts over ourselves we tag Him into the ring. The enemy flees in terror!
Be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might! How? By choosing to speak His words over your situation.
Grace be with your spirit!
Dennis Rhodes
