OUR WORDS AND VICTORY
1. We have made the point that when we were born again, the life of God (ZOE) came into us.
a. That life is the very same life Jesus had in Him when He was on earth. John 5:26; 6:57;
I John 5:11,12
b. That life has made us literal sons and daughters of God. I John 5:1
c. That life is now our position and our power. I John 4:17; Phil 4:13
d. That life has made it possible for us to walk even as Jesus walked when He was on earth.
I John 2:6
2. The life we received at the new birth has made us overcomers (conquerors, victors, those who prevail). I John 5:4
a. We are overcomers. That is our position because of the new birth.
b. The question is — how do we walk it out in our experience and live overcoming lives?
3. Rev 12:11 tells us how we overcome. We overcome by the Blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony.
a. The Blood of the Lamb = what Jesus did through His death, burial, and resurrection, making the new birth, redemption, possible.
b. The word of our testimony = testifying or speaking out what God has done for us through redemption, through the new birth.
4. If we are going to be and have all that God intends for us in this life, we must get control of our mouths.
a. We must learn to say about God, about ourselves, about our circumstances, what God says.
b. Our testimony must agree with God’s testimony. Heb 4:14; 10:23; 13:5,6
1. There is an unseen realm beyond the one our five physical senses contact. II Cor 4:18
a. We are now members of an unseen kingdom ruled over by the Invisible God who created all that we see with His word. I Tim 1:17; Gen 1; Col 1:13
1. This kingdom will outlast all that we see and can change all that we see. Heb 11:3; II Cor 4:18
2. We are spirits who live in a body, and all the changes which occurred in us at the new birth are invisible.
b. Whether we believe it or not, the Invisible God is real. His invisible kingdom is real. His invisible power is real. The invisible changes in us are real.
c. All of these unseen realities can and will affect those who walk in the light of them.
d. When we talk about unseen realities and speak of them continually, we build an awareness of their reality into us (i.e., faith) which makes it possible to live and walk in the light of them (benefit from them).
2. There is a spiritual law which says you will have what you say if you believe it. Num 14:28;
Mark 11:23
a. Why is that? Because God created man to have authority. Gen 1:26
1. Authority is exercised through words. we have the authority to decree things. Matt 8:9; 21:21
2. We have free will (a chooser) and our choice, our will, is expressed through our words. It may be a choice of ignorance, but it is a choice.
b. If you aren’t satisfied with what you have and where you are in life, then you must quit believing and saying the things you’ve been believing and saying because you have what you say if you believe it in your heart.
3. God works in our lives through His word.
a. He tells us what He has done for us through the Cross, we believe it and speak it out, and He gives us the experience. Rom 10:8-10
b. He tells us what He is doing in us, for us, because of the Cross, we believe it and speak it out, and He gives us the experience. Philemon 6
4. We are to live and walk by faith, and faith speaks. II Cor 5:7; 4:13
a. To live by faith means to live by the unseen realities which have been revealed to us in the Bible.
b. That means we base our words and our actions on unseen information which is revealed to us in the Bible.
c. Then, the unseen realities of God’s kingdom change what we see and feel.
5. This is not about making a list of confession rules. You CAN say this!! You CAN’T say that.
a. The issue is — what are you giving testimony to or evidence of when you talk, the seen or the unseen, what God’s word tells you or what your senses tell you.
b. Our words impact our lives, our experiences, and they either bring God’s invisible power and help on the scene or feed and increase what we feel and see.
c. If we want to live as the overcomers that we are, there must be a continual confession of what God has done for us through the Blood of the Lamb.
6. The problem for most of us is not that we don’t talk about the things of God, it’s that we have mixed speech. We have a mixed or dual confession.
a. Mixed speech is giving testimony to the seen and the unseen at the same time without realizing the contraction.
1. John 11:24,39–I know my brother will rise from the dead, but he stinks.
2. Num 13:2729–It is a good land, but there are giants and walled cities which will eat us up.
b. When you speak a mixture, it weakens your faith. James 3:8-12
1. The way you talk either builds strength or weakness into your spirit.
2. What comes out of your mouth is ultimately what you believe and it either establishes what God says in your life or what your senses say.
1. God brought Israel out of bondage in Egypt to bring them into the promised land. From the beginning of His dealings with them, He told them He would bring them into the land even though there were giants and warlike tribes. Ex 3:8; 6:7,8; 14:14,25
2. Ex 15:1-19–Israel said what God said about them entering the promised land — all the inhabitants of Canaan would melt before them. v15
a. We have no reason to think they didn’t believe these things, that they were faking it.
b. Everything was going right for them at this point. They had just experienced a mighty deliverance by God’s hand. They saw and felt it and were very excited about it.
3. Yet, when they actually arrived at the land, what they said at that point was very different from what they said after crossing the Red Sea. Num 13:27-33
a. They said: The cities are walled. The people are big. There are all kinds of them everywhere.
b. The people are stronger than us. We look like grasshoppers compared to them.
4. Notice, what they said was perfectly normal and reasonable, totally consistent with sight, emotions, logic, and reason.
a. Have they abandoned God at this point? Have they denied Him as their Lord? No. After Moses told them God said they couldn’t go into the land, they said: We’re sorry, Lord. We’ll do it your way now. Num 14:40
b. What they did at the edge of the promised land was to respond to their situation based totally on what they could see and feel. They were testifying about what their senses told them.
c. This is mixed speech. They still acknowledged God. They acknowledged that is was a good land. Then, they gave the testimony of their senses.
5. They mentally agreed with God. Mental agreement says: I believe the Bible, every word, from Genesis to Revelation. But, mental agreement has no action which corresponds to what it says it believes.
a. Real faith, believing, is an action. It is an action which corresponds to what you believe. It is the action you take in the face of contrary sense information.
b. There is no faith, there is no heart believing, without actions consistent with what you say you believe — corresponding actions. James 2:17
6. Joshua and Caleb kept their sweet water sweet and acted on what God said. Num 13:30; 14:7-9
a. They did not deny the problems they faced — walled cities and giants, but they spoke of the problems in God’s terms.
b. They testified to God’s word: We are well able to take the land. God will bring us in. Our enemies are bread for us.
c. They put words to their belief and acted on God’s word independent of what sight told them.
7. In all that we are saying, we are not saying that you can never discuss problems. We are saying:
a. Does what you say about the problem contradict what God says or agree with what God says?
b. Are you speaking of things in the future which God speaks of as in the past? Deut 1:8; 27-32
1. We must regularly, continually, confess God’s word (what He has done for us through His death, burial, and resurrection) to build the reality of unseen things into our spirits (us). Daily confess these kinds of things.
a. I am a spirit. I have the life of God in me, in my spirit. John 3:6; I John 5:11,12
b. God’s strength is mine, God’s ability is mine, God’s health is mine. Phil 4:13; I Pet 2:24
c. Jesus bore my sicknesses at the same time He bore my sins. My sicknesses are as far from me as the east is from the west. Because of His stripes, I am healed. I Pet 2:24
d. The same Spirit Who raised Jesus from the dead is in me to make God’s word good in my soul and body. Rom 8:11
e. The same Spirit Who raised Jesus from the dead is in me to bring the life of the Father in fullness into my soul and body. Phil 2:13
2. We must get rid of the mixed speech.
a. Examine yourself. Are you saying what God says about you and your situation one hundred percent of the time? Look for ways to agree with God when you speak about every thing.
b. Become aware of the kinds of things you are saying about the problem. State it clearly — the difference between what sight says and what God’s word says. Discuss the situation in terms of God’s word.
c. Remember, the times you most need to say what God says are the times you most don’t want to and the times it seems most unreasonable to do.
3. We must hold fast to our profession of faith. Heb 4:14; 10:23
a. We must continue to say what God says and keep saying it despite what we see or feel.
b. Hold fast = to hold down (keep in memory, I Cor 15:2); seize or retain; forcefully lay hold.
c. There is victory in confession, in words, in saying what God says. Eph 6:13
1. Having done all, in the Greek, means: having overcome all.
2. Rev 12:11–We overcome by the Blood of the Lamb (what Jesus did for us through redemption) and the word of our testimony (continually saying what God says about us and our circumstances) because we are redeemed.