Life without a real sense of purpose is miserable. When I was in my twenties I had already begun to feel the angst of not knowing what my life should be about. Career and love were big on the agenda of a twenty year old but I had no compelling reason to choose one career path over another and my quest for love wasn’t working out. Work wasn’t fulfilling because I was just working to pay the bills and not making enough to chase recreational pursuits or travel the world. Besides, God had wired me in such a way that “meaning” was a central issue in my life and I wasn’t finding real meaning in anything. As a result, I started fighting depression at a time when life should have seemed full of possibilities.

I think the world is full of people who don’t sense any purpose to their lives beyond the day-to-day essentials of life and maintaining the duties of marriage. Even materialism is an effort to find some meaning in a life that has no sense of value or purpose beyond the temporary rush of the new purchase. People drift from relationship to relationship, job to job, and fad to fad trying to find something beyond themselves to give their lives a greater sense of significance.

My sense of purpose finally came through a relationship with Jesus. The realization that God had established a destiny for me was intriguing but still vague in my early years as a believer. It was later when I began to delve into studies on my temperament and spiritual gifts that I started making the connections. Psalm 139 was especially helpful to me. David declared, “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be” (Ps.139:13-16).

As I studied the Psalm, I recognized that God had a very intentional hand in my creation. At the point of conception, he seemed to have shaped me according to his purpose. In fact, he had apparently laid out a plan for my life before I was ever born. I have a choice as to whether or not I cooperate with his plan, but a sense of destiny was forming in me. The question still remained, however, as to how I could discover that destiny so that I could cooperate with God in my life’s plan.

The Apostle Paul added another very significant layer to discovering my purpose in his letter to the Ephesians. He wrote, “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Eph.2:10). The idea of being God’s workmanship echoed Psalm 139 as he had a hand in developing who I was and what I would be doing. That thought then connected with “good works” which God had prepared in advance for me to do. My destiny did not just lie in being saved and going to heaven one day but in the realization that God has intentionally created me with specific purposes in mind.

If God had laid out good works he wanted me to accomplish, then he would have surely designed and equipped me to accomplish those works with some measure of excellence. My temperament and my abilities would both contribute to my capacity to do what God had called me to do. The additional layer of spiritual gifts that the Holy Spirit distributes then became a final clue. A number of temperament profiles exist today to help you understand your “wiring” and with those profiles you can discover a list of career paths toward which those temperaments gravitate. Add to that an awareness of spiritual gifts and you can begin to sense the kinds of life focus you have been designed for. One of the notions that we need to jettison is that careers in the market place are unspiritual while only church related ministries are spiritual. God wants to plant his people in every corner of society in order to reach people who are not attending anyone’s church and to spread the influence of kingdom values in those pockets of culture. Spiritual fruit must be sown outside the church walls and he has designed most of us to do that.

Other general indicators of “your call” are simple.  Has God placed a desire in your heart to do something or to operate in some spiritual gift? Do you find certain things that you do uniquely fulfilling even when it doesn’t place you in the spotlight or massage your ego? Have people told you that you made a difference in their life in a way that drew them closer to Jesus or allowed them to experience God’s grace? Do some things seem easy and intuitive for you while other things just don’t “compute?” Sometimes we keep trying to shore up the areas in which we are weak rather than pursuing and developing the areas in which we can flourish because God created us for those things. Sometimes we are trying to fulfill someone else’s call on our life and pursue those things in order to please a parent or another influential person in our life when God has not created us for those things as well. Frustration and an unfulfilling life is the outcome of that.

When I was in high school and early college, the question was always, “What do you want to do with your life?” Honestly, I didn’t have enough wisdom or life experience to even answer that question. The better question would have been. “What do you think God has created you to do?” You can not always know exactly what God is calling you to do because he will open doors for specific opportunities as you go, but you can discover the direction of your life that he has ordained for you by becoming aware of your temperament (wiring), your gifts, your desires, and those things that intuitively makes sense to you.

I believe we live in a world that has no sense of eternal destiny or purpose but is swimming in a sea of uncertainty trying to find personal significance. Purpose is everything. It makes us part of something bigger than ourselves. It attaches us to others who have a passion for the same purpose. It makes even the small things that contribute to your purpose significant. The ultimate questions for every individual is whether or not they matter and whether or not what they do matters. Purpose answers that and a knowledge that God has established your purpose with eternal dimensions is even more significant.

Helping your children discover who God has made them to be and how to walk that out would be one of the greatest gifts you could ever give them. Discovering that for yourself would be a tremendous gift for you as well. I hope you are clear on the call God has placed on your life or will begin to search for it if you have not yet discovered those things he has crafted you for and established for you even before the creation of the world. Blessings in Him.

One of the great healing evangelists of the early 20^th Century was John G. Lake. In his lifetime he established hundreds of churches in North America and Africa and healed hundreds of thousands. In 1910, he and his family believed that God had called them to Africa to preach the gospel. As they landed on African soil a plague was destroying the country. In less than a month, a quarter of the population had died in one large region. The plague was so contagious that the government was offering $1000 to any nurse who would go there and care for the sick. That was a lot of money in 1910. John Lake and his assistants went to help without charging anything.

He and an assistant would go into homes, carry out the dead and bury them, without ever displaying any symptoms of the plague. When asked by one doctor what he was doing to protect himself he simply stated that as long as he stayed closely connected to God with the life of the Spirit flowing though him, no germ could ever attach itself to him. In an experiment, the doctor took foam from the lungs of a patient who had recently died of the plague and placed it under a microscope. The foam was alive with germs. They then placed some of the foam in Lake’s hand. As the doctor watched through the microscope, the germs died almost instantly as they touched Lake’s skin. By the time Lake and his family returned to America, after five years in Africa, he and his ministry had trained 1,250 preachers, planted 625 congregations, and brought 100,000 men and women to Christ.

At one point in his ministry he moved to Spokane, Washington and established “healing rooms” in an old office building. Historians estimate that some one hundred thousand confirmed healings occurred there. There was so much interest in his ministry and the healings that occurred that local newspapers and the Better Business Bureau investigated his claims and determined that not only were the healings legitimate but that they had not heard half of what the Lord had done through those ministries.

Lake was totally convinced that all disease and disability was from the devil. He hated disease and death with a passion and believed that God did as well. Because of that he never doubted God’s willingness to heal those he prayed for. Was everyone healed? Not everyone, but hundreds of thousands were including late stage cancer victims, paralytics, plague victims, epileptics, and so forth.

There is much more to the story of John G. Lake. He certainly wasn’t perfect but the good news is that God can use imperfect people to do incredible things when they are passionate for God and the kingdom. The second point is that the power of the Holy Spirit makes a huge difference in the fruit that a person or a church can bear for Jesus. Those who want to live for Christ without the baptism of the Holy Spirit and the gifts of prophecy, healing, tongues, miracles, and so forth can do so, but will not impact the world as much as those who minister with the gifts. If the gifts are not needed for world-changing ministry then the first century church had no need for them either. However, God chose to equip the church with power on the Day of Pentecost so they could be effective witnesses for Jesus throughout the world.   John G. Lake simply followed in the footsteps of those he read about in the Book of Acts.

One resident of Spokane said, “Dr. Lake came to Spokane.   He found us in sin. He found us in sickness. He found us in poverty of spirit. He found us in despair. But he revealed to us such a Christ as we had never dreamed of knowing this side of heaven. We thought the victory was over there, but Dr. Lake revealed to us that victory was here.”

That would be a worthy prayer for all of us – that God would enable us to impact the world around us in the same way whether a community, a circle of business associates, or simply our family. God is waiting for the next John G. Lake. Maybe it could be you…or me. He simply needs a surrendered heart.

(Much of the biographical material referenced in this article is from God’s Generals by Roberts Liardon.)

For the word of God is living and active. Hebrews 4:12

The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life. John 6:63

The two verses above speak of God’s word. The Hebrew passage describes it as living and active. The Greek word translated as “living” means that it contains its own vitality. It is as much alive as humans or animals or plants. The fact that it is living in the same way suggests that it grows and bears fruit. It reproduces. The parable of the soils that Jesus told likened the word of God to seed that would bear tremendous fruit if planted in the right soil.

The Greek word that is translated “active” means more than just moving around or animation. It is a word that means something surging with energy is at work and having effect. It indicates that something alive and powerful is accomplishing a divine purpose in the supernatural realm. This definition takes the word of God for beyond information to be digested or principles for living to be learned and incorporated as a philosophy of life. While we study the word, incorporate its principles, and quote scripture, we can be sure that something is at work in the unseen realm that is accomplishing something we may or may not even be aware of.

The second verse from above was spoken by Jesus and adds to our understanding. Jesus declared that his words were spirit and they were life. What does it mean that his words were spirit? I believe they were spirit in two senses. First of all, his words originated in the spiritual realm. While on earth, Jesus still operated as a citizen of heaven whose perspective was always anchored in the spiritual realm. In addition, he said that he spoke only what he heard his Father saying. To his disciples he said, “Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work” (Jhn.14:10). His words flowed from the spiritual realm to the natural realm, not the other way around.    That is why they possessed power. Secondly, they came to him from the Father via the Holy Spirit. Jesus had just declared that the Spirit gives life. As they came from the Father through the Spirit they were infused with the life-giving power of the Spirit so that when they went out they fulfilled their purpose.

That is how the word of God becomes living and active (Heb.4:12). As they are broadcast they are infused with spiritual power by the Spirit of God. As a result, the words of Jesus created life in various forms. For some it was spiritual life. Men were born again in response to the gospel. For others it was physical life. Thousands were healed and physically restored and many were literally raised from the dead. For others, emotional life was imparted to them as broken hearts were healed. And for even more, life was restored as men and women were set free from bondage to demons and addictions. His words imparted life because his words carried authority and were infused with power. The words that created the universe demonstrated that dynamic in the very beginning.

But what about today? How is the word activated? There is life in a seed – enough to grow a giant redwood – but that life is not manifested until it is planted and watered. The word of God rests on the pages of a Bible or in the heart of a believer. It may do a work in the believer but not in the world that surrounds the believer until it is activated. It is activated when it is spoken with faith. Throughout scripture, God deposited his word in the heart of his prophets and empowered those words when they were proclaimed. Moses declared each plague before Pharaoh and then God produced each one. He put his words in the mouth of Jeremiah and as Jeremiah declared that word over nations, those words came to pass. I have heard today’s prophets put it this way –   prophetic words don’t tell the future they create it.

God’s word is filled with power and purpose. When we pray it or declare it, those words go forth alive and energized by the Spirit to produce life. When we speak healing, hope, provision, or peace over a person, we should believe by faith that something is going to happen because the word has been activated and is filled with energy and purpose. The word is the sword of the Spirit and when we speak the word of God we are wielding that sword.

Read the word, hear the word, pray the word, and declare the word. When we partner with God, he will honor his word. What situation do you need to be declaring the word of God over right now? Find your scripture and activate it in your life or in the life of someone you know.

And what I have forgiven—if there was anything to forgive—I have forgiven in the sight of Christ for your sake, in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes. 2 Corinthians 2:11

Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. Ephesians 6:11

The two scriptures above and others clearly state that Satan schemes against God’s people. According to Strong, the Greek word translated as schemes means, “machinations or (in military terms) attacks against which one must be armed. The nature of the attacks (the plural suggests that they are constantly repeated or are of incalculable variety) constitutes their great danger, against which the armor of God is the only defense. They are distinguished not so much by technique or strategy as by refinement and insidiousness.”

Strong’s definition is much longer than that but, in summary, it tells us that Satan attacks us repeatedly with strategies designed to move us away from God and into vulnerable positions where he can have greater access to us. These strategies are not typically frontal assaults but are more often insidious and very calculated moves that are subtle enough that we might not notice what is going on. It’s not that Satan never uses frontal assaults but when he does we usually recognize those for what they are and begin to pray against the attack and ask others to join us. The more insidious attacks are subtle and move us inch by inch away from the Lord until we find ourselves further away from God and deeper in enemy territory that we thought was possible.

Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 10 that we are to take every thought captive to Jesus Christ. The reason for that extreme position is that Satan attacks us through our thoughts and it is in subtle moments that we begin to doubt God or to compromise with the culture around us. Satan simply plants seeds of doubt and compromise and then waters them over weeks and months and even years.

In the midst of a crisis, the question guided by faith is always, “How is God working in this crisis to deliver me.” Faith is convinced that God is already moving and is simply interested in detecting his strategy. The enemy changes that questions to, “Will God deliver me from this crisis?” which introduces the possibility that he won’t. That possibility then raises other questions of whether God cares or loves me or whether he even has power to protect me. When we start going there, we are in trouble.

The most effective lies are attached to truth. The fact that part of what was said is obviously true lends credibility to the part you weren’t so sure about. The lies that the enemy tells are usually progressive in nature and test our character and motives from different angles. The wilderness temptation of Jesus is an illustration.

In Luke 4, we are told that after his baptism, Jesus was led into the wilderness for forty days of fasting and prayer. At the end of that time, when Jesus was hungry, tired, and vulnerable Satan came to tempt him. He began with a challenge. “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.” Satan appealed to pride, hunger, and self-sufficiency in this one little challenge. So…you think you are the Son of God? Prove it. That appealed to pride. Secondly, he focused on a legitimate need (food) but suggested that Jesus use his power and authority for his own benefit and without the direction of the Father. Satan will always point us to legitimate needs but ask us to meet those needs in ways that exclude God from the process or that violate his standards. Adam and Eve went after wisdom – a good thing – but used a tree as the source rather than God. Self-sufficiency rather than God-sufficiency is always where Satan is pointing us. He doesn’t point us to things that are impossible without God but things we can do in our own strength. Jesus was fully able to turn the rock into bread but submitted to God’s provision and timing rather than his own.

The second temptation was similar. Satan knew that Jesus had come into the world to re-establish the kingdom of God and to reign as king. Knowing the God-given goal of Jesus, he offered him a shortcut that would avoid the dirty business of the cross. In so many words, Satan said, “If you worship me, I will give you all the kingdoms of the world. You can have a crown without a cross. After all, isn’t that what you came for?” Isn’t that what the world constantly offers – short cuts to success, weight loss without self-discipline, sex without the commitments of marriage, etc. God is in the business of building character along the way and preparing his people to wear a crown. Satan always whispers that the wait is too long and the cost is unfair. Short cuts at any level usually get us into deep trouble. Satan always promotes “the end justifies the means” thinking.

The third temptation included a scripture quote. In essence he told Jesus, “God has promised in his word that he will protect you, so jump off the tower and make him prove his love and faithfulness.” Satan’s great strategy against those who love God and his word is to highlight one Bible truth as if it is the only truth. For instance, John tells us that God is love. Some church leaders have recently reasoned that since God is love, he would never send anyone to hell. They ignore the balancing truth that God is also holy and just. Others have found the scriptures that emphasize God’s love and acceptance of those he loves. Therefore, they reason that he accepts us just the way we are. That reasoning leads to the idea that he not only accepts us but our lifestyles. There is some truth in that. God accepts us as we are but does not accept the sin in our lives and so he gets busy calling us to repentance and freeing us from our bondage to sin. An unbalanced view of scripture leaves us in bondage to sins and moves the church toward a dangerous compromise with the culture.

Each of the three temptations contained truth. Jesus was the Son of God and he had a legitimate need that he could meet on his own. All the kingdoms of the world did belong to Satan and he could give them to whomever he chose. God had promised to protect his Son from harm through the protection of angels. But Jesus countered with the balance of truth and refused to fall into the devil’s trap.

In Paul’s statement to the Corinthian church mentioning the schemes of Satan, he suggested that our unwillingness to forgive is one of his primary schemes. Satan is always quick to provide a justification for refusing to forgive. They don’t deserve it. They haven’t really repented. They haven’t asked for forgiveness. Justice requires that they pay for what they did. You name it. He will probably attach some fragment of biblical truth to each of those justifications but the truth is that God has commanded us to forgive in spite of any of those reasons. To refuse to forgive, gives Satan open access to us and our families through the open door of disobedience and unrepented sin.

The point is that the schemes of Satan are usually subtle efforts to skew our thinking, to sow compromise and doubt, and to draw us away from God’s truth even through the misuse of scripture. Our first defense is the Holy Spirit who has promised to lead us into all truth. We should ask him on a regular basis to do so and to reveal to us any areas in which we are beginning to lean toward a lie. We should also examine our actions on a regular basis to see if our actions are lining up with the word and the character of God. Misplaced actions are clear evidence of misplaced thinking. Since Satan often works in subtle, inch-by-inch ways we need to notice when we are moving our boundaries a little to fit in with cultural values rather than keeping scripture as the standard. We need to notice when sin no longer offends and almost becomes normative in our thinking so that we would be surprised to find that God is offended by what we entertain on a regular basis.

When all hell breaks loose in our life, we know who it is and start arming ourselves and gathering other warriors. The fight can still be fierce and we may still be wounded. But, perhaps, the greater threats are the little, barely noticeable things like one drop of arsenic in your coffee each day – hardly noticeable until the accumulation is life threatening. Watch the little things…the insidious schemes and you will also be ready for the frontal assaults. Blessings.

As followers of Jesus, most of us have opportunities to pray for the sick or the disabled on a regular basis. If you are in any kind of a small group that is almost certainly the case. It is rare when we don’t know someone with cancer or some other life threatening disease these days as well. If you are like me, you long for a gift of healing in the church that would consistently banish disease with the simple words “Be healed in the name of Jesus.” The truth is, however, that the majority of believers who have prayed for the sick have not seen miraculous or convincing healings in response to their own prayers. As a result, they have begun to shy away from praying for anything more than a cold that will go away on it’s own anyway in a week or two.

One of the things we have been discovering over the past few years is that the best approach to healing prayer is typically not just jumping in and beginning to pray. In the spiritual realm, there are things that can block or greatly hinder healing and if they are not dealt with, the healing won’t occur or the symptoms will soon return. Taking a few minutes to talk about possible roots of the condition can increase the probability of healing significantly. Those who serve in deliverance ministries understand the concept when it come to demons but often forget the principles when praying for healing.

In deliverance ministries, we typically do some kind of interview to determine if a person is saved, if they have faith, if they have not forgiven others, or if some unrepented sin or some trauma has given the enemy a legal right to afflict the person. We would rarely try to minister deliverance without leading them through prayers of forgiveness or repentance or without breaking curses generated by the sins of their fathers or words spoken over them by others. The same process is a “best practice” before praying for healing.

One of the reasons for that approach is that demonic spirits are often involved in the illness or disability of an individual. Think about how many cases of back problems, blindness, deafness, muteness, and even seizures Jesus cured by first casting out a demon. Even secular doctors agree that about 80% of illnesses and conditions are rooted in unhealthy emotions. Fear, anxiety, worry, resentment, bitterness, etc. all promote high blood pressure, heart disease, suppressed immune systems and so forth. Those then lead to disease. Unclean spirits are experts at promoting unhealthy emotions. At a healing conference where Bill Johnson was speaking, I remember him saying that a very high percentage of the people they had healed first needed a spirit of infirmity cast out. If we simply go straight to praying for healing we may miss all those contributors.

For example, on several occasions, Jesus made a point of forgiving a man before healing him. That parallels Psalm 103:3 where David declares, “Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his benefits – who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases” (Ps. 103:2-3). Unrepented sin is an open door to disease. When those sins are forgiven that door is shut and another door is opened to healing. Under the New Covenant, God declares that if we do not forgive those who have sinned against us, then he will not forgive ours sins. Unforgiveness, then, becomes a real hindrance to healing. Other spiritual issues can block or hinder healing in the same way.

We just finished another Freedom Weekend in which we spend the morning asking the Lord to heal emotional wounds in each individual. We then spend the afternoon ministering deliverance to all the attendees. About two years ago we began to finish the day by casting out spirits of infirmity and trauma. We have begun to experience a number of significant healings at each Freedom Weekend – typically at the end of the day. Bad backs, painful knees, stomach problems, vision problems, arthritis, deaf ears, skin disorders, etc. have become common place healings because we have dealt with the spiritual roots of these conditions before we finally pray for healing. Many of those healed have suffered from the conditions for decades and have been to doctors over and over without solutions.

I believe that if we would take the time to address spiritual issues that have led to the condition or that support the condition, our healing rates would be significantly higher. As we have better outcomes for our prayers, our faith will grow and we will see even more healings. Not only would those we pray for be better off physically but also emotionally and spiritually because we took our time to help them clean up things that have hindered their relationship with the Lord. Let me encourage you to minister forgiveness and freedom even before you pray for healing so that nothing can get in the way of what God already wants to do for his people. As you see people healed, you will be encouraged to pray for others rather than standing back in order to avoid another disappointment. Blessings in Him.

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners; to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. Isaiah 61:1-2

The text above is one of the most famous Messianic prophecies in scripture. We know that it was a passage looking ahead to the ministry of Jesus because Jesus said as much in Luke 4. If Jesus were crafting a “mission statement” for his non-profit that passage would be it. If you reflect just a bit, you will recognize that those verses summarize his three-year ministry to Israel.

For three years Jesus preached the good news of the Kingdom of God to the oppressed. Some translations say that Jesus preached to the poor but the better translation from the Hebrew is the “afflicted” or “oppressed.” The language harkens back to the Hebrews in Egyptian bondage and the days of Moses. In the days of Jesus, the Jews found themselves under the merciless boot of Rome. Under the power of Rome they were certainly afflicted and oppressed. That was true, not only in a political sense, but spiritually they were in the same boat. Not only were they in bondage to sin but the legalism of the Law as interpreted by the Pharisees and Levites was just as crushing. Speaking of the religious establishment, Jesus said, “They tie up heavy burdens and lay them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are unwilling to move them with so much as a finger” (Mt.23:4). Peter called the Law a “yoke of bondage” (Acts 15:9). The preaching of the Kingdom of God and the grace God had for his people must have been a breath of fresh air. In contrast to the hundreds of laws the Jews had generated for God’s people, Jesus boiled it down to loving God and loving others. He said that the works of God were simply to believe on him. So Jesus came preaching the good news of God’s grace and mercy.

In addition, Jesus declared that his purpose was to bind up the brokenhearted. In other words, he came to heal broken hearts or bring emotional healing to people who were crippled by emotional trauma and shattered identities. It is amazing how many believers are still in bondage to past experiences that painted them as worthless, insignificant, and as orphans – someone that nobody wants. Jesus brought a different message calling us sons and daughters of God as well as friends of the King of Kings. He declared our worth and significance in the heart of God and the cross put the exclamation point on our value in the kingdom of heaven.

The third part of his mission statement, in general, was to set captives free. The idea was to release men by the power of the cross from bondage – bondage to sin, to disease, to infirmity, to fear, to addictions, and to the devil. When he referenced bondage, he spoke of two groups – prisoners who were in bondage due to their own choices and captives who were ambushed by the sins of others and the devil. Jesus came to liberate both.

Jesus delivered on his mission statement throughout his ministry. Everywhere he went he preached the good news, healed the sick, cast out demons, cleansed the lepers, and raised the dead. He loved the sinner and the “down and out” people of this world and his unconditional love as well as power transformed people like Mary Magdalene who at one time had seven demons and was, perhaps, a prostitute. Through God’s touch, she was no longer a woman tormented by sin and demons but was honored by being the first to whom Jesus appeared after his resurrection.

The pattern of preaching the good news, loving people, healing the sick and the brokenhearted, casting out demons, and raising the dead was carried on by the twelve, then by seventy-two others he sent out, and then by the church who was given spiritual gifts so that they could continue to do what Jesus did.

The point is that it took all of that to enable most people to live effectively for Jesus and to experience the abundant life that Jesus promised. What most people get today from the body of Christ is a salvation message and a little love from time to time. But their hearts are not effectively healed, they are not set free from sickness and infirmity, and they are not set free from demonic affliction. In many settings, the church is saved but still crippled. Due to the church’s inability to help set people free, many are sent out from the church to see secular doctors and therapists or “Christian counselors” who have only been equipped with the weapons and strategies of the world. They have little to no training in the use of divine weapons and are often powerless against the schemes of the devil.

My Bible says that the world should be coming to the church for solutions because we have the Holy Spirit who possesses all wisdom, creativity, and power. If we ever have to look to the world to fulfill the mission statement of Jesus, something is very wrong and something is very missing. Freedom ministries are beginning to take root in churches where people are finding freedom, healing, and truly transformed lives but the percentage of churches that minister at that level is very small. And yet, that kind of ministry should be as much a core of the church as evangelism, Bible study, and giving to the poor. That was the core of Christ’s ministry and he expects us to do what he did when he modeled the redeemed life on this planet.

I hope that if your church doesn’t have a “freedom ministry” of some kind where people find healing and freedom through the Holy Spirit, that you will pray about such a ministry and visit with your leadership about it. Many churches that have these well-developed ministries are glad to train and help other churches find their own expression of Christ’s mission statement. If the church is going to walk in the power and glory of God, her people cannot continue to be crippled by emotional wounds, lingering illnesses that never find a cure, and demonic oppression. That doesn’t look like “on earth as it is in heaven.” May every church be more committed to reproducing what Jesus did in the power of the Spirit rather than offering the world the best than we can do in the strength of men.

One of my favorite contemporary prophets is Graham Cooke. I have never met him personally but have heard him at conferences and read his books. One of the things I have heard him say that is worth pondering is that, as believers, we tend to be obsessed with our sin while God is obsessed with our righteousness.

His point is that we constantly worry about our past failures and let the enemy beat us up with condemnation and accusation. We often confess the same sin over and over and tell God how sorry we are for what we did years ago when God has completely blotted out any record of that sin in heaven. God is not thinking about our sin because that has been taken care of by the blood of Christ. He is thinking about establishing us in the righteousness that is ours in Christ.

I believe God’s great challenge with most of his children is to get us to understand who we are in Christ. We tend to live up to the view we have of ourselves. If we define ourselves as wretched, struggling sinners who are barely saved by the blood of Christ then we will continue to be just that. Our self-image will not allow us to paint very far outside the lines of our self-definition. Some of us feel like condemnation is the way to maintain our humility and, thus, be pleasing to God. But if that were the case, why would God tell us all these amazing things about ourselves in scripture.

Biblical humility is not self-rejection and abasement. It is the mindset that rejoices in who we are in Christ but always remembers that who we are is a gift from God and not something we have achieved by our own efforts. We do partner with God in many things, but our identity and our standing in heaven is still a gift of grace. If we spent the same amount of time and energy thanking God for who we are in Christ that we use to remind ourselves of our failings, we would be much further ahead. The proverb says, “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he” (Prov.23:7). God says that in Christ we are sons and daughters of God, a chosen people, friends rather than servants, priests of the Most High God, saints, holy ones, the righteousness of God, the household of God, those seated with Christ in heavenly places, the temple of the Holy Spirit, ambassadors of Christ, the loved, the accepted, the forgiven, the anointed of God, and so forth.

If we thought we had earned that position and that standing with the Father, we might certainly become proud and arrogant. If, however, we remember that all of that is a gift and an expression of God’s unconditional love for us, then it can only produce thanksgiving. To ignore our standing in some misguided effort to remain humble is to ignore or even reject the gifts of God and to leave much of what Jesus purchased for us on the table.

It is certainly a biblical matter to acknowledge and confess any sin that does arise in our life, but we should confess it quickly and leave it at the foot of the cross rather than carrying it with us. It should never define us. It should never become our focus and certainly not our obsession. Jesus should be our obsession and who he has made us by his blood and his grace should be the only thing that defines our life.

If you are in the habit of rehearsing your past failures over and over and continuing to bring them up before the Lord, let me encourage you to trade that habit in for a better one – rehearsing who you are in Christ and bringing that up before the Lord with an abundance of thanksgiving. That has much greater transformative power than living in the past and is a powerful acknowledgment of what Jesus has done for you. Blessings in Him.

This is the third part of a short series on our capacity in Christ to impart life and blessings to others through our words. I want to say again that because, as believers, we have been given authority to represent or re-present Jesus to the world, our words are much more than sentiments hoping that God will be kind to someone. Our words literally direct the power of heaven because we have been commissioned to go and do what Jesus did. Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it” (Jn.14:12-14).

Jesus modeled the life that every believer is capable of living by the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus came to reveal the Father to us. Remember when he told Philip that if anyone had seen Jesus he or she had seen the Father. That is the definition of representation. The question then is simply how did Jesus operate as a representative of the Father while he was on the earth in the flesh. We know he lived a perfect life and loved everyone. But most of his representation was accomplished through his words as he directed the power of heaven.

When he said, “Be healed,” the power of heaven was released into a person’s body and God’s will was done on earth, in that body, as it is in heaven. He released the freedom of heaven by his words when he commanded demons to “Come out!” He overcame untimely death with his words when he commanded the dead to “Come forth.” He stilled storms that were putting lives at risk when he declared, “Peace, be still.” The words of the Son of Man who was representing the Father directed the power of heaven. Jesus had been given a commission by the Father. He spoke of that commission when he said, “The Spirit of the sovereign Lord is upon be because he has anointed me to preach good news …bind up the broken hearted…set captives free” (Luke 4). Where there is an anointing there has already been an appointing or a commissioning. God doesn’t commission men and women without giving them authority and power to carry out the assignment. Jesus understood his authority and the Father’s willingness to back him up and so he fulfilled his commission, primarily through the words he spoke – prayers, declarations, and commands.

We are now the representatives of Jesus and have been given a commission to go and make disciples of all nations. Jesus has commissioned us to go and do what he did in his public ministry as the Son of Man. We too are to heal, to bless, to set free, to calm the storms of life, and so forth just as he did. Like Jesus, we will do most of that through our words as we direct the power of heaven and the presence of God into the lives and situations of others.

Now…like all things in the kingdom, our words must be accompanied by faith in order to move heaven. We should have faith in the authority of our words because of what Jesus has done for us and because the very presence of God lives in us as the Holy Spirit. Peter tells us, “Whoever speaks must do so as one speaking the very words of God” (1 Pet. 4:11). Peter’s command suggests that our words should be purposeful and intentional and that we should be aware of the authority attached to them. When we say to someone, “The Lord bless you,” we should fully expect a blessing to be released to that person because we have directed that blessing. When we say, “Be healed,” we should fully expect the power of the Spirit to be released and for healing to occur because we have directed that healing. When we command, “Come out,” we should fully expect the angels of God to enforce our command because our words direct the power of heaven.

If the tongue has the power of life and death and we are to be dispensers of life, then we can expect God to make good on our representation of his Son as we administer his grace to those we encounter. This position is, of course, a great privilege and a great responsibility. We should not be a people who are careless with words or a people who feel that our words are merely sentiments. We are to be intentional dispensers of life – God’s love and blessings – in this world and he has appointed us and anointed us to do so. When we speak, we must speak as we believe Jesus would speak in that situation and have faith that the Father will move to re-present his son through us. Have faith that he will and see what happens. Our words of faith that reproduce what Jesus did while he was on this earth bring glory to both the Son and the Father and all of heaven is poised to do just that. Speak life and expect heaven to move. Be blessed as you bless others.

The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit. Proverbs 18:21

We are continuing to look at the power we have to impart life through our words. We can do so primarily because we have been given the authority of Christ to establish God’s will on the earth and we do so by directing heaven’s resources with our words. God’s original intent was to rule earth through his servants to whom he had given dominion over the earth. That dominion was lost through the sin of Adam but regained through the cross of Christ. In Christ, we have been given authority to take back from Satan what was stolen. We will do that through our words expressed in prayers, declarations, and commands. For the most part, it is how we will establish God’s kingdom on earth. God’s kingdom is a kingdom of health, life, freedom, and blessing and our words have the power and authority to release those things on the earth.

Most of us understand the dynamic of prayer. When we pray, we simply ask God to set things in motion in the spiritual realm to create an effect in the natural realm. Our prayers may be long and specific or short and general. We may ask God to give favor to a person for a specific job he or she is pursuing or we may ask God to heal a specific hurt or disease. We may pray for safety for a person we care about as they travel or ask God to anoint a teacher as he or she steps to the podium. We may also pray for God to open a specific person’s heart to the gospel.

When we pray these things, we either anticipate angels moving invisibly to influence people or situations or we anticipate the Holy Spirit operating in someone’s heart. By faith, we expect God to respond to our words uttered in prayer and activate power in the spiritual realm. These kinds of prayers constitute blessings or positive outcomes in the life of the person we prayed for. As representatives of the Father on earth and ambassadors of Christ, we have heavenly authority to direct the power of heaven toward an earthly situation when we ask according to the Father’s will. When we ask things that are revealed in his word and consistent with his will, we are acting within the parameters of our assignment. When we have a scripture to stand on and declare that scripture in our prayer then the word of God has also gone out from our mouth to fulfill his purposes – on earth as in heaven.

We often think of prayer as a time when we get alone with God and enter into a time of worship, thanksgiving, and requests. But a prayer can also be as simple as a phrase like “Bless you.” If we have the authority of Christ to direct the attention of heaven, then short blessings as well as declarations over people and situations can move the Lord to establish positive outcomes in the lives of people and over situations. He responds to the authority he has given us. What we often carelessly say as a sentiment, truly has the power to direct blessings if we have faith for that.

A prayer based on the written word of God and his promises can be powerful, but a prayer based on a rhema from God can be even more powerful. A rhema is a fresh word from God for a specific situation and if he has told you what to pray for or how to pray for something specifically, you can pray with exceptional faith. Paul tells us that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God (Rom.10:17). The “word” referred to in that particular passage is rhema ( a fresh, spoken word from God) rather than logos (the written word). When we ask God how he wants us to us to pray in a certain situation or what he wants us to speak or declare over someone and we hear him, we can be absolutely certain that our prayer will be answered and as our prayers are answered in powerful ways, our faith will grow in exceptional ways. When we ask God what he wants us to say or declare we are partnering with him and he has effectively put his word in our mouth. Too often, we fail to remember that God has chosen to do much of his work through us and much will be done based on our words.

Elijah received a rhema word from God after a three and half year drought in Israel during the reign of Ahab, the wicked king. The Lord said to Elijah, “Go and present yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the land” (1 Kings 18:1). Following a confrontation between Elijah and the prophets of Baal on Mt. Carmel, Elijah said to Ahab, “Go, eat and drink, for there is a sound of heavy rain” (1 Kings 18:41). Elijah then climbed back to the top of Mt. Carmel and began to pray for the rain God had just promised. Was that a lack of faith or something else? Perhaps, he was also declaring over the drought what God has just spoken to him. Even after a promise and a revelation that rain was at hand, it seemed that God waited on the prayers or declarations of Elijah to activate the promise. It’s as if God stored the promise in heaven, but the words of his servant pulled the promise down to earth.

John Wesley said that God does nothing until his saints pray. That may be an overstatement but it is not a great overstatement. God honors our dominion over the earth and so leaves much of what he will do in our hands. That is more responsibility than many of us want but it is also an honor and a privilege. Think how much more God would do on the earth if every Christian believed that his prayers and declarations were required before God would move and so every believer was diligent in prayer and declarations. If only a small percentage of believers understand the power they release through their words, then God is only doing a small percentage of what he is willing and desiring to do in the earth. When we believe our words don’t matter, then Satan has won a great victory.

More in Part 3

We all know the scripture that says, “The tongue has the power of life and death…” (Prov. 18:21). It seems that discussions or writings about that verse seem to focus on the “death” part or curses established by our negative words. I want to focus on the “life” part for my next few blogs.

Life may be imparted through our words in various ways. In general, any statement that has the intent of bringing positive, life-giving outcomes to a person or circumstance can be seen as a blessing. As followers of Jesus, we have been commanded to bless those around us – even our enemies.

But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.” Matthew 5:44

Finally, all of you, live in harmony with one another; be sympathetic, love as brothers, be compassionate and humble. Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing. 1 Peter 3:8-9

But no one can tame the tongue; it is a restless evil and full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the likeness of God; from the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be this way. Does a fountain send out from the same opening both fresh and bitter water? Can a fig tree, my brethren, produce olives, or a vine produce figs? Nor can salt water produce fresh. James 3:8-12

As those who represent the Father on earth, we are to represent his character. The first impulse and desire of God is always to bless. In the famous chapter on blessings and curses for Israel in Deuteronomy 28, the Father listed the blessings first because that is his desire and his first impulse. In the same way, he told Balaam who, for a price, was wanting to place a curse on Israel, “You must not place a curse on those people, because they are blessed” (Num.22:12). God wants to bless until our continued, unrepented actions force him to do otherwise. Our first impulse should also be to bless.

Jesus took it even further when he said, “Love your enemies. Bless those who curse you” (Lk.6:27). He also told us, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven” (Mt.5:43-45). To be sons of someone is to have the same character as that person. If we are to have God’s character we will love even our enemies, pray for them, and bless them.

There is a time for discipline and judgment but it always comes after a prolonged refusal to repent and it comes in the perfect measure that only God can know. Even when God’s judgment is required by the actions of men, it has a redemptive intent. Initially, God calls men to repentance through his kindness (Rom.2:4) and we are to be dispensers of that kindness through our spoken blessings and prayers for blessings. God calls us to represent his grace to others and leave any judgment to him. Peter tells us, “Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God” (1 Pet. 4:10-11). The exercise of our spiritual gifts and the words we speak are to be outlets of God’s grace to not only the church but to the unbelieving world around us as well, so that the kindness of God may bring men to repentance. As a representative of Christ, walking in his authority, your blessings actually direct the good intentions of heaven toward a person.

Just the presence of God brings blessings because there is no other experience in heaven. After David became king over Israel, one of his first acts was an attempt to bring the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem. As you recall, David did what seemed right in his own heart without consulting the Lord, the word of God, or even any priests who should have known how God had commanded the Ark to be moved. It was only to be moved by consecrated priests carrying it by poles inserted through rings on the sides of the Ark. David, however, placed it on an oxcart to move it to Jerusalem and in an awkward moment when the oxen pulling the cart stumbled, a man named Uzzah touched the Ark to steady it and died because of his “irreverent act” (2 Sam.6:7). Out of fear and uncertainty about how to move the Ark safely, David parked the Ark at the house of Obed-Edom. Remember that the Ark carried the presence of God and after three months it was reported, “The Lord has blessed the household of Obed-Edom and everything he has, because of the Ark of God” (2 Sam.6:12). Simply the presence of God created an atmosphere of heavenly blessings or shalom – health, protection, provision, peace, etc. We too carry the presence of God.

Jesus instructed us to pray for God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven and when we pray or declare a blessing over someone, we are asking heaven to come to earth in the life of that person. As believers, each of us are to be Arks, carrying the presence of God and extending blessings to the atmosphere around us. The decision to be a person who always speaks life and blessing over others…even when they do not return the favor – makes Jesus very attractive to people as he is seen in us. Our commitment to extend the atmosphere of heaven around us alters the atmosphere wherever we go whether it is in the home, the office, or on the basketball court. If there is anything that would make God’s people stand out in this world, it would be our commitment to speak life and blessings over every situation and person we encounter. If that is not your habit, try it this week and see what happens in your heart and the hearts around you.