According to My Word

Faith teaches us to believe in whom God is and what He has done and what is still yet to take place in your life. There’s a fine line in having faith in God’s Word and having faith in your own word. Many of us fail to make this connection because there were so many men and women in the Bible that used their faith in God to produce favorable results in their lives. So as Christians we walk through life having faith in whatever makes us smile at the moment, and sometimes we see manifestations and sometimes we do not. Why is that?

When was the last time you made a heavenly decree and stood on it using faith and maybe even some scriptures from the Bible as back up, and you haven’t seen anything happen yet? Well let’s take a look at it in more detail. First of all if the thing you are using your faith for is truly indeed from the Holy Spirit and you know it because you just got that feeling, and you haven’t seen the manifestation yet, keep praising and believing God. What about the thing that you may be using your faith for that is actually not from the Holy Spirit but from your own will?

As I mentioned in the last message I gave sometimes we ask God for things and believe God for things that will ultimately increase our own sense of security and comfort. Now, you’re probably asking “doesn’t God want us to be secure and comfortable? Sure He does, but not at the cost of your maturity in Christ. When we go through things as Christians some of us think that we might be out of Gods will because maybe we were taught that being a Christian was all roses and if we are going through challenges than it’s from the Devil and we need to reassess our lives in Christ. This is the farthest thing from the truth. The challenges in life are used to strengthen our legs for the walk in Christ. Everything goes through a struggle.

Picture a cocoon with a butter fly getting ready to emerge. You can see the butterfly struggling to get out and it’s not looking to good. So, you think “well what if I just helped it out of the cocoon so it didn’t have to struggle”. In fact if you did this the butterfly would die because the cocoon is designed to strengthen it. While inside the cocoon the butterfly is pressing to get out and every time it presses to get out it gets stronger and stronger. As a result of the effort a beautiful and complete butterfly emerges ready to fly. If you would have helped it, the butterfly would have been beautiful but not able to do what God designed it to do, and would have actually died.

1 Kings 17:1 (KJV)
And Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, As the Lord God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word.

We all know that Elijah was a man with faith and had a pure relationship with God. So sometimes when we speak things out of our mouths that we want to happen we might say “well Elijah said no rain but according to his word”, than we think that we can say whatever we want and it will happen. There are a few important parts about the scripture above, first is that Elijah was standing before God. Elijah was God’s representative only to deliver a message that was first given to him but not created by him.

When it comes to putting out decrees in the name of God we must make sure that it came from God first and not emotionally motivated by either a selfish desire in your life or a challenge or struggle that you are going through at the time. Sometimes the thing we’re desiring is for the good, but if it’s not given to you by God than it’s not time for it yet. We may think the thing we desire will help but in all actuality we may be helping the butterfly out of its cocoon. Am I saying that it is wrong to help others, ABSOLUTELY NOT! We all know that God is love and that love gives, I’m saying that in all of your actions let the Holy Spirit be the motivating factor and nothing else. God knows all and His thoughts are higher than our thoughts and His ways higher than our ways. We think in 3 dimensional standards, God thinks much higher than that. He already knows what will happen down the line.

The second important part of the scripture is where it says “according to my word”. This can sometimes be interpreted as “my own words”. We know that words are powerful, they are God given and they can either create or destroy. This can give many of us a God complex, where we think whatever I say goes. What I believe Elijah is really saying here is that there will be no rain until my God says it will be rain. We all know that in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. According to my word= According to my God.

With all this being said, let’s make sure we are truly connected with the Holy Spirit while we walk through life. Don’t make petitions to God out of emotion or selfish desire but instead let God speak to your spirit about what you really need in life, which will in the end profit you more than anything you could think of.

Daryle Houston II
Kingdom Vizion Ministries
www.kingdomvizion.org