Some of you may be scratching your heads after reading the title. But do you know that’s true for the negative as well as the positive? For example, if you keep believing and speaking that you always get the flu every year, you’ll get it. If you don’t believe you’ll succeed in life, you won’t. I’ve lost some of you at this point, but before you label me a heretic, just hear me out. I’ve had people say to me, “don’t hug me I’ve got the flu and I don’t want you to catch it” my response has always been the same, “ you can’t give me something I refuse to catch.” I’m not arrogant I’m confident in the Word of God. Forty two years in this country, never had a flu shot, never had the flu and don’t plan to! In Jesus Name!
Your problem can always be traced back to what you’re believing and speaking. Here’s what Jesus had to say about believing/thinking and speaking/confessing.
“Therefore take no thought,saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?”Matthew 6:31 KJV
And the words of Solomon: “The tongue can bring death or life; those who love to talk will reap the consequences.” Proverbs 18:21 NLT
More seminars have been given on the power of positive thinking than any other topic. If the world believes that there is power in words, how much more should the children of God believe that there is power in our words, not because we have positive thoughts, but because we believe, speak and know that the Word of God works in every situation. You can’t sow doubt and reap faith. You can’t sow a negative and reap a positive.
“We have the same Spirit of faith that is described in the Scriptures when it says, “First I believed, then I spoke in faith.” So we also first believe then speak in faith.” 2 Corinthians 4:13
We cannot receive what we speak against or fail to believe. Remember what James said about being double minded? He said don’t even think you’ll receive anything from God! If you’re a Christian who doesn’t believe that healing is for today, then not even Jesus Himself, could heal you. If you don’t believe that the Lord wants you to prosper, you will live and die in lack, even though He’s made provision for your prosperity and health. Whatever you don’t believe can happen for you, will become the foundation of your faith.
“Jesus left that part of the country and returned with His disciples to Nazareth, His hometown. The next Sabbath He began teaching in the synagogue, and many who heard Him were amazed. They asked, “Where did He get all this wisdom and the power to perform such miracles?” Then they scoffed, “He’s just a carpenter, the son of Mary and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas, and Simon. And His sisters live right here among us.” They were deeply offended and refused to believe in Him. Then Jesus told them, “A prophet is honored everywhere except in His own hometown and among His relatives and His own family.” And because of their unbelief, He couldn’t do any miracles among them except to place His hands on a few sick people and heal them.”Mark 6:1-5 NLT
Jesus encountered and was amazed at the level of unbelief that permeated His hometown. He was raised up among them, yet they missed out on their opportunity to be made whole. The indictment against them was “unbelief.” They spoke against Him and the miracles that He performed amongst them. So they were unable to receive from Him. Is that you today? That’s an easy fix. Instead of having faith in your doubt, why don’t you repent and ask the Holy Spirit to help you see things not from a religious perspective, but from Jesus’? The Word of God is a game changer. But if you persist in speaking against what is available to you, then you won’t receive them.
I recall a few years ago when the Holy Spirit spoke these words to me. “You have not, because you don’t ask.” I had no idea that the reason I was living in lack in different areas of my life, was due to a faulty belief system. A lack of knowledge of all that was mine in Christ Jesus. I was a joint heir to the richest Man in heaven and earth, yet I was living beneath my privileges. I believed that Christians were supposed to be poor and humble. That having money was evil. That sickness was normal. It pays to read the Bible, and also glean from others who have inherited the promises through faith in Jesus Christ.
What is faith? Why do we need it? God has given to each a “measure of faith” to use for Him. This “faith” is the gift from which all the other gifts flow. Faith is the first gift we receive (for justification), and faith is the gift that brings the other gifts of the Spirit into our lives. When a person is born again, God gives him gifts as a new member of the family of God. We receive the gifts according to the measure that God has given us, and we exercise the gifts according to the same measure of faith.(www.gotquestions.org)
That’s one aspect of faith, but the fact of the matter is, we serve a God that requires faith to please, and to know Him. When we became born again, we all received a measure of faith, by believing and studying the Word, that measure begins to grow. Then we discover that in order to receive anything from God, we needed faith to bring the things promised into the natural realm. As we develop in our walk with Jesus we go from faith to faith, believing and speaking, to knowing beyond the shadow of a doubt that God cannot lie. Faith is never in the past it’s always in the now. A now that brings the future into the present. Don’t allow time to be a distraction to you. Unbelief is birthed most often in the waiting. Faith is not positive thinking, faith is in a Person who is greater than our thoughts.
Let’s explore some scriptures:
“Now faith brings our hopes into reality and becomes the foundation needed to acquire the things we long for. It is all the evidence required to prove what is still unseen.”Hebrews 11:1 TPT
“And without faith living within us it would be impossible to please God. For we come to God in faith knowing that He is real and that He rewards the faith of those who passionately seek Him.” Hebrews 11:6 TPT
“Jesus replied, “Let the faith of God be in you! Listen to the truth I speak to you: If someone says to this mountain with great faith and having no doubt, ‘Mountain, be lifted up and thrown into the midst of the sea,’ and believes that what he says will happen, it will be done. This is the reason I urge you to boldly believe for whatever you ask for in prayer—be convinced that you have received it and it will be yours.”Mark 11:22-24 TPT
Are you convinced after reading those scriptures that you cannot receive what you don’t believe? It takes more faith to doubt than to believe. The reason we all receive the same measure of faith, isn’t so that we become rivals but that we would assess ourselves not by each other’s performance, but by growing in our own personal gift given us by God. Choosing to resist either through ignorance of God’s Word or willfulness, the things freely given us by God for our total wellbeing is not only foolhardy but selfish. Our Father desires to use the gifts He’s given us to bless others.
Take a biblical assessment of your life. Are you experiencing the benefits available to you? Or have you been speaking yourself out of them? We’ve all been given the same start, but the finish is up to us. In the parable of the talents, each servant was given talents according to their ability to make a difference. Two gained one spoke against his master and gained nothing. (Matthew 25) The more we badmouth God the less of His gifts we’ll see manifested in our lives. We will never receive what we don’t believe.
“For if we are faithful to the end, trusting God just as firmly as when we first believed, we will share in all that belongs to Christ.”
Hebrews 3:14 NLT
Written by permission of the Holy Spirit
W. Tennant
February 23, 2021