THE WORD IS THE ANSWER

NO MATTER WHAT THE PROBLEM!

.

Betty Hadden, Oregon

            As I was being led to do what I knew to do “to be brought out of” a very uncomfortable place, the thought came to me that I should also share with others what I was doing so they too may be delivered from the attacks of the enemy. 

            There are some that may already know, but for others it will be lifesaving to them.  It has always amazed me how the Word of God is full of instructions for us that if we follow them, we will have life and that more abundantly! 

            Proverbs 4:20 says to attend to His Word . . . I have learned that God’s Word does not contain suggestions . . . and His Word is literally life to our spirit man . . . and we need to partake of the manna He has prepared for us on a daily basis, or we will start manifesting signs of spiritual malnutrition.

            Recently, the Lord gave my husband and me new directions for our lives.  We were instructed to first leave the church we’d been placed in by Him.  We were given many witnesses by the Spirit of God through a number of prophetic words through various people, including ourselves!  We’d attended there and been apart of that congregation for a number of years.

            We had experienced such great love and fellowship among our brothers and sisters there that in many ways while we’ve waited on the Lord for more direction, our hearts longed to be among them again, basking in the love of the Spirit together.

            The Lord told us through the gifts of the Spirit what He was ultimately going to have us doing and that this was the start of our full-time ministry that He’d put in our hearts at one time.  He told us He was going to send us out to His people to minister to them as He had been telling us He was going to do over the years.  He told us further that He was going to use us to do a mighty work in these last days.

            Let me tell you, if ever I did not “feel” like I was able to be a minister it was then.  At one time I’d been rip-roaring to go, but no longer.  I no longer “saw” myself as I once had seen myself--as an able minister of the Lord. 

            We’d heard His words to us over and over through the years, but never “seeing” them come to pass, we just kind of shelved them.

            And now, as we obeyed Him and started seeking Him further, the enemy of our souls came strong against us.  Where we had defeated the spirit of fear in our lives before and maintained it for a very long time, fear was sent against us again to try to make us doubt, give up, and turn away from God and His purpose and plan for our lives.

            As we held onto Him and His Word, He led me to pick up once again these teachings He had given me a number of years ago to share with others I was ministering to at the time.  In one church He’d put us in, I was given permission to leave these teachings in a place where the congregation could access copies of them and take them home.

            At reading what He had given me so long ago, I shook my head in amazement that these had come “through me.”  I questioned, “Did ‘I’ really write these?”  What an awesome, awesome God!  How they ministered to me now to remind me of the basics of Christianity He had taught me so long ago!  And do you know what?  His Word still works just as much and just as greatly as it did when He’d first taught me these principles so many years ago!  Hallelujah!

            So now I am going to give you scripture after scripture which after reading, you will see that the Word does give you the answers you need -- I would suggest that you really hang onto this particular teaching . . . keep it in your Bible, perhaps . . . so that you can put the teaching into practice on a regular basis . . . if you don’t DO the Word, then you shouldn’t be surprised if you don’t receive the results you’re looking for. 

            Even salvation has its conditions . . . If you confess with your mouth and believe in your heart . . .; but what if you don’t?

            I will be using a few different translations of the Bible:  King James, Amplified,  and the Spirit Filled Life Bible (SFLB) versions.  I am also providing some commentaries and/or explanations from the SFLB . . . Prepare yourself for a feast! 

            I hope you will put into practice the instruction you get from the following Scriptures.  I can share with you that doing so has brought tremendous victory to my life.  He taught me to do this years ago, and now I realize that this is the reason that the Word does come out of my heart now as strongly as it does. 

            The Holy Spirit brings them to my remembrance every time the enemy puts negative thoughts into my mind . . . the Word then becomes the Sword the Spirit wields . . . but you must plant the Word in your hearts in order to have the Word available to defend yourself against the attacks of the enemy. 

            Through the years, I’ve learned and am still learning that there are “times and seasons” with the Lord.  Every time I thought He was going to have me doing one thing, He led me in a different direction.  I wanted to go “this” way, but He said, “No, I want you to go ‘that’ way.”  The only way I could go in the direction “I thought I was ready to go in,” was to disobey Him and “go without Him.”

            Well, we’ve all read about what happens when one does that . . . and it isn’t good!  It’s really baaaaad!  :-)

            So being led by His Spirit once again to go over these principles and ‘acting on them,’ and by being shown by Him to take the words and promises He has given to us that are “personal” words to us pertaining to our lives and ministry, and working the principles He once taught us, we will possess what He’s told us.

            We are continuing to experience great peace and confidence as we do so, believing with all our hearts that what He has told us and we are now speaking in agreement with, will come to pass. I am now sharing these principles with you so you too can have more victory in your lives as well. 

            Some of you may have heard of Charles Capps.  He said recently while on a Believer’s Voice of Victory TV program, that at one time he’d told God that he was ready to go out and preach the Gospel. 

            But the Lord told him to “wait on his ministry,” that God would rather have Him first “prove” in his own life what he was “just wanting to preach.”  Then he would be preaching what was not only “The Truth,” but what he had already proved to be “The Truth” in his own life!

            So, with great and awesome praise to His Name as well as with great, great gratitude for “Oh, so great a salvation He has prepared for us,” I am proving once again the truthfulness and the victory it is bringing to pass in my own life once again.  

            For this reason, I can and am sharing these principles with you today.  I’m so far from “arriving,” that I can only say that I am experiencing great victory in the Spirit right now, but with great anticipation and patience, I am expecting those things “I believe I received when I prayed” to be manifested in the natural soon.

            Even as we follow the directions on a prescription bottle from the doctor if we want to see results, so we must speak His Word out loud thus planting it into our spirit man consistently and constantly until it comes forth out of our hearts alive and full of power against the enemy of our souls!

            Even if you have confessed His Word on a regular basis in the past as I had (very much so!), it is necessary to go back to His Word and do it again. 

           Yesterday, I found that some potted plants I’d put on my covered porch were starting to droop, and I noticed that the soil they were in was looking dry.  So I put them out in the sun and watered them. 

            When I passed by them later in the day, I found that they’d been restored and were standing upright again!  The Lord caused me to note that this is the same thing that happens to us spiritually!  We start to droop when we stop putting the Word (the seed or water) in our mouths!  But once we’re watered again, praise the Lord, we can stand upright.

            He also showed me that as He shows us things and or tells us things about our lives and/or ministry, that then we have to take hold of these things and start confessing them, planting them into our hearts the same way we do with His logos Word (the Bible).  By doing this we decree and declare a thing and it will be established unto us.  (Job 22:28)

            I have made certain phrases bold here, but they are not emphasized in the Bible in the same way. 

            Matt. 17:20     “And Jesus said unto them, . . . for verily I say unto you, If you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.”  

            Jesus said, if you have faith as a seed, you will plant it.  The programming for what it will become is in the seed.  But in order to have a harvest, you must first plant it.  Do you have enough faith to plant the Word in your heart?  (See Mark 4, the parable of the sower.)

            Prov. 18:20-21  “A man’s belly shall be satisfied with the fruit of his mouth; and with the increase of his lips shall he be filled.”  “Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.”

            Prov. 3:3  “Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart:”   This is what we must do.

            Psa. 45:1  “My heart is indicting a good matter:  I speak of the things which I have made touching the king: my tongue is the pen of a ready writer.”   This is how we do it!

            Psa. 17:4  “Concerning the works of men, by the word of thy lips I have kept me from the paths of the destroyer.”   And this is one of the reasons why we want to do it!!!!  Another reason is there is no anointing to remove burdens and yokes until faith is released.  Faith is released by the words of our mouth.  Paul said he believed and therefore he spoke.  We also believe and therefore speak. 

            Jeremiah 23: 29  Is not my word like as a fire? saith the LORD; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?   (KJV)

            Psa. 103:20  “Bless the Lord, ye his angels, that excel in strength, that do his command- ments, hearkening unto the voice of his word.”  

            Heb. 1:14 tells us that the angels are sent out to minister for the heirs of salvation -- are your words putting your angels to work for you?  I believe they are when you are speaking the Word of God. 

            The Scripture above says that the angels do God’s commandments as they hear His Word . . . when do they hear His Word?  When we speak it!  I believe the demons are the messengers of satan to do his work of death.  I believe the angels are the ministers of life that do God’s work.  The Scriptures back this up.

            Therefore, are we not putting the angels of life to work when we speak in agreement with the Word of God?  Are we not putting the ministers of death to work when we speak contrary to the Word of God? 

            The scriptures tell us that life and death are in the power of our tongue . . . this seems so hard for us to really believe deep down inside . . . but believe it or not, the Bible says we are either speaking life or death, period. 

            To say “I was just kidding, or God knows what I mean” won’t change the power you’re releasing in your words . . . the enemy knows these laws and has gotten us to “use our own power against ourselves.” 

            Think of the things you say out loud about yourself or others . . . the enemy tries to get us under emotional pressure or physical pressure or circumstantial pressure so we will speak what will put his demons to work to steal, kill, and destroy.  Even the words “you allow” to go unchallenged into your mind are either death or life.  But God tells us in 2 Corinthians 10 that the choice is ours--not His.  We are the ones to determine what we will think and what we will speak and that we will eat (live out) the fruit of those words--for good or for evil!

            God wants us to speak what He has said so He can bless us.  The angels are waiting for your words to agree with God’s Word.  But, thank God, we can ask for and receive our forgiveness from the Lord for our negative speaking and thinking, and then we can bind the enemy off of all of our negative speaking (Matt. 18:18), and command those words to fall to the ground without power.  (Mark 11:22-23)

            Then, instead of speaking or allowing ourselves to even think what we feel, we can say “what we believe.”  (What we choose to believe!)  We can stop being controlled by our thoughts and our feelings, and instead activate our Will to choose to speak only the Word of God.  It won’t happen overnight, but it will happen.

            Also, for those of you new to doing these things, know that first of all you have to become knowledgeable about what the Bible says is the truth.  The only way you will know this is by spending time reading the Bible and allowing the great Teacher of all teachers to teach you what is says!  And He will!

            You can exercise your will and choose what thoughts you are going to think. To do nothing is to allow the enemy to choose for you.  You will follow whatever you put your attention on and, ultimately, you will speak what is in your heart “for out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth will speak.”  It isn’t enough to not speak negatively, but you must start doing what 2 Cor. 10:3-5 says to do!

            2 Corinthians 10:3  For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh:

           4 (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) {through God: or, to God}

           5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; {imaginations: or, reasonings}   (KJV)

            Deut. 8:3  “. . . that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord. 

            Jesus said, by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.  He said that eating with unwashed hands doesn’t make you unclean, but the words we speak can make us unclean.  This is also true regarding what we allow ourselves to think.  Isn’t it an amazing truth that we can choose to think this or that!  That the power to do this is in our own hands!  Wow!

            In Matt. 4:4, when He faced Satan’s snares in the wilderness, Jesus was quoting Deut. 8:3.   The obvious message of the passage is that there is no survival of the soul (mind, will, and emotions) without God’s Word -- daily.  Over and over I have seen it true in my own life that only if I spend quality time in the Word and in prayer, my life is blessed and I am at peace. 

            1 Pet. 2:2 declares that God’s Word is as essential to the believer as milk is to a newborn child....”

            Deut. 30:1  “And it shall come to pass, when all these things are come upon thee, the blessing and the curse, . . . .”  Which one will you choose to speak? 

            Deut. 30:19  “ I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:”

            Jesus (the Word made flesh) said that the words that He spake unto us, they are spirit and life.  In Hebrews 10:23, the Word says to hold fast our confession of faith without wavering for He is faithful who promised.  (Confession means the words we speak.) 

            We are told to hold fast our words of faith, because Mark 4 tells us the enemy will come immediately to try to get us to let go of our words of faith. So we must “hold fast” to the Word of God regardless of whether we “feel like it or not,” or regardless of what “our opinions are on the matter.” 

            God’s Word is the truth . . . not our feelings or our thoughts . . . or man’s opinions on the matter.  To be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded (Word minded) is life and peace.

            Mark 11:23  “For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.”  Note, it isn’t just what you say when you pray, but what you say and continue to say all the time.

            James 1:6 But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.

           7 For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.

            8 A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.   (KJV)

            Years ago when I went to pick up a new pair of eye glasses--they were my first pair of bifocals--I put them on right away.  I started to walk but found that I couldn’t.  I lifted up the eye glasses so I could see my steps without them, and then put them down on my nose again and started to walk.  I did this a number of times, but each time I couldn’t even walk a step wearing them.  Frustrated, I took them off and put on my old ones.  After practicing at home this changed and I was able to use them.

            Later, the Lord reminded me of this as I was attempting to “walk” according to His Word and had been questioning Him about why I wasn’t seeing His Word come to pass in my life!  He emphasized the last quoted Scripture above in James regarding what a “double-minded man” was. 

            He told me that the reason I could not walk or came to a standstill when I first put on the bifocals for the first time was because I was “looking through both places--top and bottom of the lense” at the same time.  It brought such confusion to my mind that I wasn’t able to take even a step in the natural because I was looking in two places at the same time. 

            My mind didn’t know how to instruct my physical self to walk so I was brought to a standstill!  It wasn’t until I had learned (practiced) looking through only ONE of the lenses at a time that I could then proceed forward.

            He showed me that this was what would happen to me in life regarding my trying to walk in obedience to His Word.  That looking through both the lenses--by my sense knowledge and by His Word--would bring me to a standstill “and I could “receive nothing from the Lord.” 

            He showed me by this revelation that it was only when I choose to walk ONLY by His Word, refusing to walk according to sense knowledge when it disagrees with His Word, that I could receive His promises.  In other words, learning to “call things that be not as though they were.”  As long as I called them (spoke/thought) what already was, then I would continue to have only that.

            Heb. 4:12  “For the Word that God speaks is alive and full of power [making it active, operative, energizing, and effective]; it is sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating to the dividing line of the breath of life (soul) and [the immortal] spirit, and of joints and marrow [of the deepest parts of our nature], exposing and sifting and analyzing and judging the very thoughts and purposes of the heart.” 

            When we speak the Word of God, when facing a trial or a need, the Word of God becomes a weapon of the spirit.  (See Eph. 6:17-18.)  We are choosing to say what God says instead of what we feel, think, see, etc.  God’s Word is full of power and will drive out the enemy.  That’s why murmuring and complaining is such poison to our lives.  We open the door to the enemy and allow him to come in to minister death to our lives and in effect call God a liar!

            James 1:21 says that the Word which is planted and rooted in your hearts contains the power to save our souls (mind, will, and emotions).  When the enemy bombards us, where is this taking place?  In our minds, bodies, and circumstances.  That’s why the Bible tells us to “fight the good fight of faith.”  Faith is a force of the spirit which is released by our mouths speaking the Word of God which overcomes the world, the flesh, and the devil!  “And this is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith.”

            We need to confess the Scriptures on a regular basis . . . so the Word will be in us when we need it.  Then, if it is in you, the Holy Spirit will bring that Word to your remembrance in times of need. 

            One of the first things the Holy Spirit impressed me to do a short time after being born again was to start personalizing the promises of the Bible and record them in a book and then to confess them daily . . . that is one way to keep the Word before you on a daily basis.

            All of Psa. 34 is wonderful but let me give you a few verses of this Psalm as given in the Amplified Bible: 

            Psa. 34:1  “I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth.”

            Our “will” must be activated . . . under attack, the last thing we feel like doing is to bless the Lord . . . but we do it as an act of obedience to God whether we feel like it or not.  Then the rewards will come.

            Psa. 34:4  “I sought (inquired of) the Lord and required Him [of necessity and on the authority of His Word], and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.”

            Psa. 34:6-7  “This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles.  The Angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear Him [who revere and worship Him with awe] and each of them He delivers.” 

            Psa. 34:10  “The young lions lack food and suffer hunger, but they who seek (inquire of and require) the Lord [by right of their need and on the authority of His Word], none of them shall lack any beneficial thing.”

            Psa. 34:15  “The eyes of the Lord are toward the [uncompromisingly] righteous and His ears are open to their cry.”

            Psa. 34:17-19  “When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears, and delivers them out of all their distress and troubles.  The Lord is close to those who are of a broken heart and saves such as are crushed with sorrow for sin and are humbly and thoroughly penitent.  Many evils confront the [consistently] righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all.”

            Psa. 9:9-10  “The Lord also will be a refuge and a high tower for the oppressed, a refuge and a stronghold in times of trouble (high cost, destitution, and desperation).  And they who know Your name [who have experience and acquaintance with Your mercy] will lean on and confidently put their trust in You, for You, Lord, have not forsaken those who seek (inquire of, and for) You [on the authority of God’s Word and the right of their necessity].

            As you confess the Word, you will find your spirit man rising higher and higher, for the Lord will act on His Word being spoken out of your mouth, and you will be delivered and set free.  You can also plant now in abundance, when, perhaps, you don’t need them, so you will have them when you do!

            For Jesus said that it is “out of the abundance of the heart that a man speaks.  You can locate yourself and others by the words you and they speak.  You will get “squeezed” in this life, and only you can determine what will come out of “your” mouth when you are. 

            We thought it was ALL God’s responsibility, and all this time He really has been waiting for us to act on His Word and be doers of His Word.  We’ve been blaming Him even knowing that it’s impossible for Him to be at fault because He’s absolute perfection!

            Psa. 27:1, 5-6, 8 in the Amplified:  “The Lord is my Light and my Salvation--whom shall I fear or dread?  The Lord is the Refuge and Stronghold of my life--of whom shall I be afraid?

            “For in the day of trouble He will hide me in His shelter; in the secret place of His tent will He hide me; He will set me high upon a rock.  And now shall my head be lifted up above my enemies round about me; in His tent I will offer sacrifices and shouting of joy; I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to the Lord.”

            “You have said, Seek My face [inquire for and require my presence as your vital need].  My heart says to You.  Your face (Your presence), Lord, will I seek, inquire for, and require [of necessity and on the authority of Your Word].”

            I’ve gone to the trouble of typing out some of the scriptures for you because many people do not have an Amplified Bible . . . and sometimes the amplification of some of the scriptures help us to “grab hold” of the message more readily. 

            Job 22:23-30 “If you return to the Almighty [and submit and humble yourself before Him], you will be built up; if you put away unrighteousness far from your tents,

            If you lay gold in the dust, and the gold of Ophir among the stones of the brook [considering them of little worth]  And make the Almighty your gold and the Lord your precious silver treasure, Then you will have delight in the Almighty, and you will lift up your face to God.  You will make your prayer to Him, and He will hear you, and you will pay your vows.  You shall also decide and decree a thing, and it shall be established for you; and the light of God’s favor shall shine upon your ways.

            When they make you low, you will say, There is a lifting up; and the humble person He lifts up and saves.  He will even deliver the one [for whom you intercede] who is not innocent; yes, he will be delivered through the cleanness of your hands.”

            Also be aware that as you confess the Word of God, you are doing what Isa. 55:6-11 says.  According to these verses, the spoken Word of God on your lips causes the Word in you to “bring forth and sprout, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater.”  Do you have enough money (seed) to invest in the Gospel?  Do you have enough food to eat?  (See 2 Cor. 9:10.)

            I’m always amazed and so very grateful for the power in the spoken Word of God that lifts me up and out of every attack of the enemy . . . and causes me to see His Word being fulfilled in my life.  What He continues to do for me through the receiving, speaking aloud on a continuous basis, thus possessing the promises, He will also do for you!