We all have testimonies of different things we’ve gone
through. There have been some tremendous tests! But as you probably
know, tests come, basically, just to prove what you already know! In
school, they didn’t just pop a test on you on the first day.
They taught you first, and you learned things, and then a test was
given. You didn’t learn by the test; you learned before the test. The
test came to prove what you already knew.
Praise
God, you can be prepared for the test! No matter what test comes, you
can be prepared to ace it! But some of us have some cramming to do. I
was always a crammer in school. Every test I took, I crammed for it the
night before. I’m not proud of this. I don’t recommend it, but that’s
just the way I’ve always been. And when God called me into the ministry,
I said, “God, why in the world would You call somebody like me?” And He
said (some of you are going to like this), “I know that you’re a
crammer.
I know you’ve been known to
procrastinate at times. But we’re in the last days.” And then He said,
“I know you’ll cram till the end.” I was born in the right time! Praise
God! We’re in the last days and we have to finish strong! Jesus said in
John 16:33, “
In the world ye shall have tribulation:
but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” And First John 5:4
says, “For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is
the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.” So if you’re
born of God, you ought to expect to be an overcomer! Don’t expect to
fail the test. When Jesus prayed for Peter in Luke 22:31 and 32, He
said, “Peter, Satan has desired to have you to sift you as wheat. But I
have prayed for you, that your faith fail not.” Jesus prayed that
Peter’s faith would not fail! Why? Because faith is the victory that
overcomes the world! If our faith is going to be the victory that
overcomes, then we have to know what to do with it because faith without
works is dead (James 2:26).
Second
Corinthians 4:13 in the New King James Version says, “And since we have
the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, ‘I believed and
therefore I spoke,’ we also believe and therefore speak.” We believe and
therefore speak. Faith comes by hearing (Rom. 10:17), but it is
released primarily by speaking. Proverbs 18:21 says, “Death and life are
in the power of the tongue.” So guard your mouth.
The
heart of the wise, the Bible says, teaches his mouth (Prov. 16:23). One
day, I was meditating on some of these things—on confession and on
words—and I asked God for more clarity. And this is what came up in my
spirit. I heard, “Faith is a language.”Anne Durant Now think about what
language is. Language is part of our culture! It’s how we communicate.
As I thought about this, it just came up in my spirit that faith is the
language of Heaven! It’s how Heaven talks! And if it’s the language of
Heaven, then it’s also part of the culture of Heaven. So if you want the
culture of Heaven on the earth, you need to learn how to speak the
language of Heaven. They’re not talking about death in Heaven. They’re
not talking about aches and pains. I have studied another language. And I
know what happens when you study a language but don’t also immerse
yourself in the culture.
You get a vocabulary, but
you don’t know how to put all the words together to communicate
properly. There are a lot of people who do that with faith. They know
the vocabulary, but they can’t communicate the language properly! You
have to get your tenses right when you’re speaking faith! Pretty much
everything about faith is present tense!
The
Bible says, “NOW faith is the substance of things hoped for, the
evidence of things not seen” (Heb. 11:1). So start thinking when you’re
speaking, Is what I am saying going to take me closer to what I want
from God, or further away from it? You may tell your kids, “Put your
coat on. You’ll catch pneumonia.” But you don’t want that! So how about
just telling them, “Put your coat on”? Don’t scare them with, “You’ll
catch pneumonia.” Notice what Jesus said in Matthew chapter 12: MATTHEW
12:36–37 36 But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall
speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. 37 For by
thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be
condemned. Jesus said that you’ll have to give an account for every idle
word. The word idle means “to shun the labor one ought to perform.” So
idle words are words that you say without fully thinking. For example,
what about those words that we say are “just between us” or “off the
record”? There is a record. It says, “You’ll give account.” There is no
“off the record.” We ought to make our words work for us! My husband and
I are constantly watching our words.
We
don’t say things like, “I can’t afford that,” because the Bible says,
“He supplies all my need according to His riches in glory” (Phil. 4:19).
Now I don’t deny the fact that I may not have enough money for
something. But what I say is, “Not right now. I won’t get that just
now.” If I say, “Oh man, I can’t afford that,” I am not giving God
anything to work with. My husband and I work together on our words. If I
hear something come out of his mouth that’s not faith, I just say,
“What?” I give him a chance to think before he speaks the next time. And
he does the same thing for me.
If I say
something that’s not faith, he’ll say, “What?” and give me an
opportunity to dig up that seed and plant another one. Sometimes we work
hard on those words we want to say on purpose, but I want to exhort you
to work just as hard on eliminating the other words—the doubt-filled
words and the idle words—from your vocabulary. Faith is a language! And
the more you speak it, the more you’ll have the culture of Heaven in
your life, in your home, and in your family.
I
work hard on my words. I’m constantly working on my words because I
want what Heaven has and what God has. I want my faith to overcome in
this life. And as a result, I’m seeing quicker results with the words I
speak on purpose. And I like it. I
like living the life of faith. The
Bible says, “The just shall live by faith” (Hab. 2:4; Rom. 1:17; Gal.
3:11; Heb. 10:38). So if we live by faith, we ought to be constantly
aware of it. Praise the Lord! Our words work for us when we speak in
faith—the language of Heaven! (By Anne Durant)
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