THINKING TOWARD THE CROSS:Understanding The Power Of “The

Word Of Your Testimony…”

Hosea 4:6My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge. •‘Destruction’ is very real – and it is happening to people every day – even to God’s people.

• Whereas, when ‘destruction’ comes, God is normally held responsible, or, if not God, the devil gets the blame – this passages instructs us that actually much of the responsibility for the destruction that comes into our life is because of us and our lack of knowledge.

• It is the “lack of knowledge” of the Word of and ways of God that results in destruction.• Ignorance is not bliss. It is

terribly expensive.

• I believe the failure to both UNDERSTAND and APPROPIATE what our Father God has provided, by the shedding of the blood of His only Son Jesus Christ on The Cross, and to MAKE what He did and the provision that it provided, THE CONFESSION OF OUR MOUTH, is why we fail to overcome our enemy Satan.

Revelation 12:11 (AMP)And they have overcome (conquered) him by means of the blood of the Lamb and by the word (or the utterance) of their testimony, for they did not love and cling to life even when faced with death …

1. Spiritual warfare is the normal state of affairs for the follower of Jesus Christ (Revelation 12:11; Ephesians 6; John 10:10; Matthew 16:18,19).2. “They”, those followers of Jesus, OVERCAME him (“The Serpent of old, The Devil, Satan, The Deceiver, The Accuser” (Revelation 12:9,10). So we know that OVERCOMING is possible!

3. Their ability to OVERCOME was dependent upon three factors: (A) Their UNDERSTANDING and APPROPRIATING the blood of The Lamb; (B) The Word of their Testimony, and (C) The Complete Surrender of their lives even to the point of death.

Revelation 12:11

And they have overcome (conquered) him by means of the blood of the Lamb and by the word (or the utterance) of their testimony, for they did not love and cling to life even when faced with death …

“And they overcame… by the word of their testimony,”•Most Christians who are defeated in life are defeated because they believe and confess the wrong things.

Proverbs 6:1-2 “You have been trapped by what you said, ensnared by the words of your mouth.”

Proverbs 18:20,21

A man’s self shall be filled with the fruit of his mouth; and with the consequence of his words he must be satisfied [whether good or evil]. 21 Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and they who indulge in it shall eat the fruit of it [for death or life].

Matthew 12:37 (AMP)For by your words you will be justified and acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned and sentenced.

• Words filled with faith – or words that are spoken that are in alignment with the Word of God (what God says) will bring you into victory! • Words filled with fear or words that

are out of alignment with what Father God says will bring defeat.

• Words are the most powerful thing in the universe. • As sons and daughters of God, man

is a spirit being, very capable of operating on the same level of faith as God, our Heavenly Father.

Mark 9:23Jesus said: “Everything is possible for one who believes.”Matthew 17:20 “And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for truly I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you.

Mark 11:23 Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is going to happen, it will be granted him.

Understanding Spiritual LawTHIS IS A SPIRITUAL LAW. God never does anything without saying it first.

Creation happened as a result of God speaking:

Genesis 1:1-3In the beginning God (prepared, formed, fashioned, and) created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form and an empty waste, and darkness was upon the face of the very great deep. The Spirit of God was moving (hovering, brooding) over the face of the waters.3 And God SAID, Let there be light; and there was light.

For Salvation to occur there must be confession:

Romans 10:9That if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;

OBSERVATION: I think it is interesting that CONFESSION precedes BELIEVING!•It is not an accident that The Holy Spirit, speaking through the Apostle Paul said that CONFESSION PRECEDES BELIEVING. For what we confess, we will believe!

KEY PRINCIPLE: Absolutely nothing will cause faith to rise in your heart more than hearing the Word of God come out of your own mouth!Psalm 50:23"Whoever offers praise glorify Me: and to him that orders his conversation aright will I show the salvation of God.”

Mark 11:22And Jesus answered saying to them, “Have faith in God.“Have the God kind of faith, or faith of God.”

Ephesians 5:1 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children;Literally, “Be imitators of God as children imitate their parents.”

• To imitate God means to do what He does. That is, to talk like, and act like Him.• Father God would never ask you to

do something you are not capable of doing.

A Closer Look At The Life Of JesusMark 11:23; Matthew 17:20 •He spoke to the wind and sea (Matthew 8:26; Mark 4:35-41). •He spoke to demons (Luke 4:31-44).

• He spoke to the fig tree (Matthew 21:19; Mark 11:12-25). • He even spoke to the dead (Mark

5:41; Luke 8:54; John 11:43). • The wind, sea, tree, demons, and

even the dead were obedient to what He said.

• God is ‘a faith God’. And released His faith in the words that He spoke.• Jesus was just doing what His

Father had done and He was getting the same results as His Father.

John 14:12 Jesus said, “...He that believes on me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater....”

KEY PRINCIPLE: These principles of faith are based on spiritual laws. And, they work for whoever will apply them. And, they are set in motion by the words of our mouth.

QUESTION: So, how do we establish God’s Word on earth (in our lives) rather than Satan’s ‘word’ or his plans to steal, kill and destroy (John 10:10)?

Understanding “Binding and Loosing…”

Matthew 16:19 Jesus said, “I give you the keys of the kingdom, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

Matthew 16:19 (NLT)

And I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven. Whatever you forbid on earth will be forbidden in heaven, and whatever you permit on earth will be permitted in heaven.”

Psalms 119:89 “For ever O Lord, Your word is settled in heaven.” •What God said, is already established.

Psalm 89:34“My covenant will I not break, I will not take back a single word I said.”QUESTION: So, whose words will you establish on earth?

Understanding The Power Of Our Spoken Words•Our spoken words program our spirit (heart) either to victory or defeat. KEY PRINCIPLE: Words are containers. They carry faith, or fear, and - they produce after their kind.

A Couple Of Observations About Faith Romans 10:17“So then faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.”

• Notice, it doesn’t say, faith comes by reading. No, faith comes by hearing. Faith comes from hearing something spoken.• Faith doesn't come from having

heard. Rather, faith comes from hearing (present tense).

Living In The Authority of the WordRevelation 12:11 And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death.

• As Christ-followers – we must begin to live in the authority of the Word.

• God’s Word has creative power. And that creative power is PRODUCED by the heart, FORMED by the tongue, and RELEASED out of the mouth in word form.

• THAT POWER IS STILL IN GOD’S WORD. But, for the Word to be effective, man must speak it in faith.

John 12:49For I did not speak on My own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me a commandment as to what to say and what to speak.

• Jesus spoke the Word of God when He was on earth - and just as it worked for Him then - it work now! • Man must rise up and take

dominion over the power of evil and darkness by speaking the Word of God.

“They are hearing what ‘the world’ speaks’ and then speaking as the world speaks…” “By speaking what ‘they hear’ rather than what ‘they really hear’ (in My Word) – they have lost both sight and confidence in My Word!”

The Father says: ‘No Word of Mine is void of power, only powerless when it is unspoken.’Romans 4:17As it is written, “A father of many nations have I made you”) in the presence of Him whom he believed, even God, who gives life to the dead and calls into being that which does not exist.

• Confess victory in the face of apparent defeat and to confess abundance in the face of apparent lack.

Mark 11:23 Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is going to happen, it will be granted him. Jesus is really saying: “I have told my people they can have WHAT THEY SAY, but they are SAYING WHAT THEY HAVE.”

• As long as you say what you have, you will have what you say. • When you say ‘What you have’, it

will produce no more than what you say.• By the words you speak, you have

set a spiritual law in motion that will confine you to the very position or circumstance you are in when you set that law in motion.

• Every faith principle, every spiritual law that God set forth in His Word was for your benefit. It was designed to lead you to a position of victory over the enemy!

The Importance Of Learning To Release Our Faith In The Words That We SpeakMatthew 8:13 And Jesus said…, “Go; it shall be done for you as you have believed.” And the servant was healed that very moment.

“...as thou hast believed, so be it done ”Jesus was saying: You can have what you say if you learn to release faith from the heart in your words.

KEY PRINCIPLE: Notice Jesus didn’t say it would only work if you believed right. Whether you believe right, or wrong, it is still the law. Galatians 6:7“...God is not mocked, whatsoever a man sows that will he also reap.”

• The spiritual law is based on the same basic principle of seed-time and harvest. • The words you speak are seeds

that produce after their kind. Just as sure as they are planted, you can be equally sure a harvest will follow.

KEY PRINCIPLE: The treasures of the heart cannot be hidden, and they are manifested through the words that we speak.•In Mark 11:23, Jesus tells you that you can have what you say, if what you say comes from faith in your heart.

Train Yourself to Speak God’s WordEphesians 5:1

“Be followers of God, as dear children....”

The word, “followers” in the Greek means to imitate. That is, we are to imitate God as a child does his father. •The call of the Spirit is for us to “follow” after our Father God in the same manner.

• Important steps that Jesus took that caused Him to overcome the world, the flesh, and the devil.

1. He spent much time in prayer, but He never prayed the problem, He prayed the answer. That is, He prayed what God said is the answer.

2. He spoke accurately, never crooked speech. His conversation always consisted of what God said.3. He always spoke the end results, not the problem. Never — did He confess present circumstances. He spoke the desired results. 4. He used the written Word to defeat Satan.

THE WORD OF GOD CONCEIVED IN THE HEART, FORMED BY THE TONGUE, AND SPOKEN OUT OF THE MOUTH RELEASES CREATIVE POWER.