Author Archives: Erica Partida

God’s purpose and plan for your life—His vision for your life—is always something bigger than where you are now. What is it that He’s placed in your heart to do? That’s part of your calling—because we’re all called to do something. Whatever it is, trust God that there’s always more. There’s always a greater call, a greater purpose, a greater reason than you can even imagine (Ephesians 3:20). However much you know, understand and are pursuing, there’s even more God wants for you. God is just never finished—not with you, not with His plans for your life, and definitely not with how He wants to use you in this earth for your good, for the good of others and for His glory.

The Walk of Faith Never Stops

God is always stretching us, isn’t He? That’s because the walk of faith never stops. It is a continuous journey from the moment we give our hearts to Jesus until we see Him face to face. When He met people and ministered to them—or tried to minister to them—He described their faith as little or great. Which is it that you want?

We all want great faith, don’t we? Of course, we do! When we operate in faith, when we develop the measure of faith God gave us, we grow (Romans 12:3). We watch our faith produce. That’s the joy that comes with living a life by faith (2 Corinthians 5:7). But to keep watching it work, we need to keep growing in it. We must expand our capacity so we keep living from faith to faith (Romans 1:17).

The Results When We Have Little Faith

There are different measures of faith we all can have. Remember when Jesus was in the boat with the disciples and a huge storm rolled in? Jesus slept through it all, but His disciples grew absolutely terrified. When they woke Jesus because they wanted Him to save them, the first thing He said before He calmed the storm was, “Why are you afraid? You have so little faith!” (Matthew 8:26). Then He spoke to the storm, rebuking the wind and the waves, and calming the storm.

Then there was the time when Peter got out of the boat and walked on water (Matthew 14:22-33). When Peter began to sink, the Word tells us, “When he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink he cried out, saying, ‘Lord, save me!’ And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him, and said to him, ‘O you of little faith, why did you doubt?’ And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased” (Matthew 14:30-32, NKJV). In this instance, Peter went from having great faith to little faith.

Once, when Jesus went back to His hometown of Nazareth to minister, He began to teach in the synagogue. The attendees recognized Jesus as Joseph and Mary’s son, someone they perceived as ordinary, so they became offended that He dared to teach (Mark 6:3). The Word then tells us, “Now He could do no mighty work there, except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them. And He marveled because of their unbelief. Then He went about the villages in a circuit, teaching” (Mark 6:5-6, NKJV). What Jesus could do was predicated on the measure of the people’s faith—and they had little to none.

What about the time Jesus cautioned us all?

That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn’t life more than food, and your body more than clothing? Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are? Can all your worries add a single moment to your life? And why worry about your clothing? Look at the lilies of the field and how they grow. They don’t work or make their clothing, yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are. And if God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care for you. Why do you have so little faith? (Matthew 6:25-30).

It’s hard to escape taking this one to heart, because worrying about almost everything in our lives is so easy to do—if we don’t put in the effort to build our faith on the Word of God and transform our minds with God’s thoughts instead of our own.

The Results When We Have Great Faith

One of the wonderful things about the Word of God is that it keeps on confirming itself page after page. It’s filled with promises from God to us. Peter called them exceedingly great and precious promises. They’re given to us by God to anchor our faith in Him and His Word.

“Because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires” (2 Peter 1:4).

When we stand on the promises of God—when we lay hold of them in our spirits and speak them in faith—we grow in our faith. We develop great faith—and faith pleases God. “And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him” (Hebrews 11:6).

When the centurion, who was a Roman officer, pleaded with Jesus to come and heal his servant, he had faith in Jesus. He had the kind of faith Hebrews 11:6 describes. When Jesus said He would come, the officer said, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come into my home. Just say the word from where you are, and my servant will be healed” (Matthew 8:8).

It was then that Jesus was literally amazed and turning to those who were following Him, Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, I haven’t seen faith like this in all Israel!” (Matthew 8:10). The King James Version says that Jesus marveled at the man’s faith. The man’s faith pleased Jesus, and Jesus moved on his behalf.

Jesus did the same for the Syrophoenician woman, who is sometimes referred to as the Canaanite woman. She came to Jesus asking Him to help her as her little daughter was possessed by an evil spirit. When she desperately flung herself at Jesus’ feet, His response indicated He might not heal her daughter right at that moment, but she wouldn’t take no for an answer. She pressed Him further to which He responded, “Good answer…Now go home, for the demon has left your daughter” (Mark 7:29).

Because of her great faith, and its persistence, Jesus healed her daughter. “When she arrived home, she found her little girl lying quietly in bed, and the demon was gone” (Mark 7:30).

It’s Fear That Takes Us From Great to Little

Whenever Jesus spoke of people having little faith, it was in a moment when they had been affected by worry or fear. Therefore, when Jesus spoke about the measure of faith, it wasn’t always so much about the quantity of faith that the person needed to have as it was about the quality of faith they needed to have. In Scripture, every time great faith is contaminated with fear its power is reduced almost immediately.

Isn’t that what happened to the disciples in the boat during the storm? (Matthew 8:23-27; Mark 4:35-41) One minute they’re faith-filled brothers in Christ with a few professional fishermen aboard crossing the Sea of Galilee, and the next they’re a boatload fearing for their lives.

Isn’t that what happened to Peter? (Matthew 14:22-33) One minute he’s walking on water and the next he moves from faith to fear, causing him to sink. The power to walk on water dissipated. It vanished. He went from great faith to little faith in seconds!

Isn’t that what happens to us when we move from having faith that moves mountains to worrying about our children, our work, our relationships or our finances? Isn’t that what happens when we stop speaking the Word of God and begin speaking our fears about not having enough, not being enough or not getting enough?

Circumstances will always try to break us down for one reason: to get us to allow fear to come into the situation. It is fear that takes us from great faith to little faith, making our faith of no effect.

God Has Called Us To Do Great Things That Require Great Faith

Anything God has called us to do, any idea He’s placed in our hearts to bring from His heavenly realm into this earthly realm, is a calling we’re meant to fulfill. And every calling requires great faith—the kind of faith Abraham had…fully persuaded.

Abraham never wavered in believing God’s promise. In fact, his faith grew stronger, and in this he brought glory to God. He was fully convinced that God is able to do whatever he promises. And because of Abraham’s faith, God counted him as righteous. And when God counted him as righteous, it wasn’t just for Abraham’s benefit. It was recorded for our benefit, too, assuring us that God will also count us as righteous if we believe in him, the one who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was handed over to die because of our sins, and he was raised to life to make us right with God (Romans 4:20-25).

What kind of faith do you have? Fully persuaded faith? Fully convinced faith? Do you have little faith or great faith? Start today by stretching your faith on the inside. This will build a greater capacity for your faith. You’re going to need it soon…because God’s Plans for You Are Bigger Than Yours!

God has a plan for your life, whether you fully understand what it is right now or not. Jeremiah 29:11 promises, “‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ says the LORD. ‘They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.’” God’s plan for you is good and it is for your good, because it’s full of His goodness. What’s more, God is more than willing to help you discover what it is, and how to walk in it throughout every season of your life.

One of the best ways to begin stepping into the future God has for you is to learn how to go to Him in prayer, hear what He has to say, and then obey what you hear Him tell you to do—even when it makes no sense, or doesn’t seem possible. After all, all things are possible with God (Matthew 19:26). If the idea of all this seems daunting to you, keep reading, because it’s actually much easier than you might think—mostly because when you talk to God, He talks back.

God Speaks His Plans and Purposes

One of the most powerful times in Kenneth Copeland’s life was early in his ministry when God told him to do something he hadn’t necessarily planned on doing—but it opened the door to all the plans God had for Kenneth’s life and for the life of his Partners and the staff that were yet to come. It all began when Kenneth had the necessary legal paperwork drafted for his ministry to be based in Tulsa, where he and Gloria were living at the time—when he was still working for Oral Roberts as a pilot.

God had a different idea, though, and one morning, He said to Kenneth, I’m ready for you now. I want you to go back to Fort Worth because the greatest part of your destiny is there. To which Kenneth replied, “LORD, You know what happened to You in Your hometown” (referencing Luke 4:16-30). “I don’t want to go back…. OK! I’ll go.”

When Brother Harold Nichols called from Grace Temple Church in Fort Worth to ask Kenneth to preach for the church, it served as confirmation. And when the calls kept coming, with more invitations to preach, it was evident that it was time to move. God had so much in mind for Kenneth and Gloria, and obedience was the key to it all happening. But first he had to listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit…and trust that He would speak!

God Keeps Speaking His Plan

Not long after moving back to Texas, Kenneth was flying into Meacham International Airport in Fort Worth when he heard in his spirit the booming words of a radio announcer: “Coming to you from The Revival Capital of the World.” Kenneth says he heard it audibly, so much so that he looked down at his audio panel to check if it was indeed in the off position—and it was. He thought, Well, I know where the political capital of the world is, Washington. I know where the entertainment capital of the world is, Hollywood. And the country-music capital of the world is Nashville. So where’s the revival capital of the world? I don’t know. Still, those words stayed in Kenneth’s heart: “Coming to you from The Revival Capital of the World.”

Just a few days later, a board member called Kenneth and said, “There’s a piece of property northwest of town (Fort Worth) that I think you need to see.” Having graduated from high school in Fort Worth, Kenneth knew about the property before he ever stepped foot on it. The 1,520 acres were once home to an airbase, long since abandoned.

When Kenneth and Gloria first visited the property of what is today the headquarters of Kenneth Copeland Ministries and Eagle Mountain International Church, there was nothing left but the airstrip and acreage surrounded by a barbed wire fence. As Kenneth pulled a strand of the barbed wire for Gloria to step through and he stepped over it to join her, he immediately heard the Lord speak to his spirit: This is The Revival Capital of the World and you’re going to build it.

This was what God had declared when he was flying into Fort Worth. And in the natural, Kenneth and Gloria had nothing to build such a thing with, but in the spirit they did—because they had seed in good ground! For the previous few years, they had prayed, believed, confessed and sowed seed for their future. They were believing for the plans and purposes God had for their lives and for all the people they would help. This was the start of the harvest of that seed!

God Always Has Next Steps

Since it was evident that God wanted the property for His plans and purposes for Kenneth and Gloria, so that they could declare His glory, Kenneth’s next step was to find out who owned the land. It was owned by a man named Mr. Puitt. When Kenneth prayed regarding Mr. Puitt, he said, “LORD, I’m not going to see Mr. Puitt until You say so.” And, just like the previous word he heard, “Coming to you from The Revival Capital of the World,” he left the completion of this word with the Lord.

It was quite some time before he heard anything else from God regarding Mr. Puitt, but in the meantime, Gloria, Pastors George and Terri Copeland Pearsons, and other members of their family continued to pray over that word and what God had in mind for their futures.

Then one morning as Kenneth was shaving, the Lord said, Go see Mr. Puitt and tell him I have need of that property.

Kenneth knew to trust God and to obey what he’d heard God say. With God’s direction and the specific words to say, Kenneth went. Mr. Puitt was 89 years old, had never married, and was in the oil and gas business. When Kenneth told him what God had said—that He had need of it—Mr. Puitt said, “Well, it’s for sale.”

Later, when Kenneth explained to Mr. Puitt that he didn’t have the money, and that he didn’t believe it was right to borrow the money, either, Mr. Pruitt said, “I’m going to see you through this thing. You got anything against renting?”

What do you do if what God told you seems impossible? If we’ll obey and do what God has instructed us, God will be faithful to help us walk out His plans and purposes for our lives.

Mr. Puitt devised a plan to divide the land into four quarters, with the idea that the ministry would rent and pay for the land one quarter at a time. When someone else suggested the ministry mine gravel from the land first and sell it to a cement company, the income from the gravel began a flow in while the ministry Partners continued to sow toward the purchase of the land, and together, it paid for all the property. The land was never broken into quarters. There was no need!

Isn’t that just like God? All God ever asks us to do is to pray and ask Him for His plan, then obey what we hear Him say to do. He will always be faithful to help us keep walking out His plans and purposes for our lives. That’s what God did for Kenneth and Gloria, and that’s what He will do for you.

Doubt and Fear Will Try To Separate You From God’s Purpose for Your Life

Don’t let this good news fool you into believing there won’t be some opposition, some difficulty or some hurdles to overcome. You may not experience them in this earthly realm, but you will be in the realm of the spirit—in the realm of your soul where you win or lose the battle against fear, doubt and unbelief.

To stay in faith, we will always have to stay in the Word. When fear becomes greater than our faith, we will most likely sidestep the plans and purposes of God. For that reason, God wants us to be diligent about staying in faith—by staying in His Word.

What has God told you? What are the key verses you’re standing on and speaking into existence? Stay the course so that doubt and fear do not separate you from God’s plans and purpose for your life.

God Will Always Have More Plans

When the ministry was about 30 years old, God opened the door (and technology became available) to access the natural gas on the KCM/EMIC property. Kenneth asked God, “LORD, why did it take so long?”

And God answered, Anyone can preach prosperity with a bunch of gas wells flowing. The wells had to be a product of the message, instead of the message being a product of the wells.

God will always have more for us—more plans, more purpose, more wisdom, more to learn and more to grow. And just like Kenneth experienced, it will all always begin with prayer. From the beginning, Kenneth prayed, heard and believed God; and he and Gloria stepped into what God had for them—and they’ve never stopped. That’s the same process God has for you because God Has a Plan for YOU!

Are you in covenant with God? Of course you are, if you have made Jesus the Lord of your life! But did you know there are 3 Steps To Being In Covenant With God that you need to understand and walk in? When you do, it will simplify your understanding of all that God wants you to know about His covenant with you. Furthermore, it will help all the elements of the covenant process, seen throughout the Bible, make sense.

As Kenneth Copeland and Greg Stephens write in their new book, God, the Covenant, and the Contradiction, the process of entering into a covenant always involves three steps. To God, three is a significant number. Throughout Scripture, He often works with groupings of three, a number that conveys completeness. The Bible tells us for example:

• There are three members of the Godhead—God the Father, God the Son (Jesus), and God the Holy Spirit—which makes the Trinity.
• There are three facets of God’s existence throughout time—God who was, who is, and who is to come (Rev­elation 1:4).
• God created us to be triune beings made up of spirit, soul and body.

This pattern of threes emerges repeatedly in all God-initiated covenants because it’s a reflection of His divine nature. It also signi­fies the fact that all three Persons of the Godhead are actively involved in His covenants. Each member of the Trinity plays a unique part in the process of fulfilling the Father’s plan to redeem mankind and restore us back to Himself. So, here are 3 Steps To Being In Covenant With God.

Step 1: The Calling

The first step in the covenant process is the calling to covenant. God, the Father, takes this step by graciously inviting us to join ourselves to Him. Then He, in turn, can join Himself to us, bringing all of who He is and all of what He has into our lives.

Nehemiah 9 tells us it was God who chose Abraham. It wasn’t Abraham who initiated their covenant relationship. God approached him first. He brought Abraham up from his homeland and gave him a new identity. God even promised to give Abraham all the land as far as his eyes could see (Genesis 13:15), an offer seemingly too good to be true.

God has essentially done the same for us, as believers, today. He has called us, just as He called Abraham, and made us an astounding offer. He’s offered us the opportunity to enter into a relationship with Him for all eternity. He’s promised to BLESS us and assured us, as Romans 8:28 says, that “all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose” (KJV).

Do you see it? As believers we are “the called!” That means God has already taken the first step in the process of establishing covenant with us. He has extended to us a personal invitation to join ourselves to Him.

Step 2: Entering Covenant

The second step in establishing a covenant is the actual entering into the covenant. This is where the terms of the covenant are agreed upon by both parties, and the agreement is executed or acted upon. In Hebrews 11:8-9, we see Abraham taking this step. We see that “by faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise” (KJV).

Imagine how much trust it took for Abraham to say yes to God’s call without knowing where that call would take him. Imagine how much faith it took for him to leave everything behind without having any idea of exactly what lay ahead. When Abraham acted on God’s promise in Faith, he entered into covenant. He accepted God’s invitation and joined himself to God.

Hundreds of years later, when God gave the people of Israel the opportunity to enter into a covenant relationship with Him, He added to this second step. He required the Israelites to agree verbally with His covenant conditions. He had them declare out loud together all the BLESSINGS and the curses of the Law. Like the reading and signing of a contractual agreement, this formalized their agreement to enter covenant with Him (Deuteronomy 27-30:19).

Today, because of the new Covenant we have through Jesus, God doesn’t ask us to declare out loud all the requirements of the Old Covenant Law. We take the second step of entering into covenant with God by believing on God’s Son, Jesus, the second Person of the Trinity, and receiving Him by faith as our Savior and LORD.

As Jesus declared, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:6, KJV). In other words, He told us, “The only way you can enter into Covenant with the Father is through Me. Yes, He has called and invited you, but I’m your way in!”

Jesus did for us what we couldn’t. He did what mankind had tried and failed to do for thousands of years. By living a sinless life and perfectly keeping God’s Law, He fulfilled all God’s covenant requirements. Then He became the ultimate covenant sacrifice, paid the price for the sin of all mankind forever, and shed His blood to ratify a second covenant, a new Covenant.

The new Covenant cannot be broken. It is between the eternal, Almighty God, and the resurrected, glorified man, Jesus Christ—and we get access to it by faith in Him. One of the articles of this precious covenant is recorded in 1 John 1:9. It says that when we sin, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (KJV).

That means we can’t mess up this Covenant! As The BOOK says, “Jesus Christ (the Messiah) is [always] the same, yesterday, today, [yes] and forever (to the ages)” (Hebrews 13:8, AMPC). Because Jesus is always the same, so is His covenant with God, and therefore ours is, too.

Step 3: Keeping Covenant

The third and final step of the covenant process is keeping or maintaining the agreement. A covenant relationship, like any relationship—whether it’s a marriage, parenting, business or simply a friendship—requires maintenance. Relationships need nurturing. For them to remain healthy and vital, you can’t just forget about them. You must remember and attend to them.

Jesus spoke about this to His disciples just before He left them to go to the cross. During their last Passover meal together, He took the bread, “and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, ‘Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.’ In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me’” (1 Corinthians 11:24-25, NKJV).

When Jesus instructed His disciples to do this “in remembrance of Me,” He was pointing back to what their Hebrew forefathers had done for thousands of years. When they ate the Passover meal, they remembered how God had delivered them from the bondage of Egypt (Exodus 13:3; Deuteronomy 4:9). This remembering kept their minds focused on their covenant with Him.

This is why Jesus established under the new Covenant what we today call “Communion.” By telling us to eat and drink the Covenant meal, He provided us with a simple action step we can take to remind us that we’re in Covenant with God through Him. He gave us a powerful way to release our faith in that Covenant. This helps us nurture our connection with Him and keep it intact—healthy, active, strong and thriving.

Right after that last covenant meal Jesus shared with His disciples, He also told them another way He was going to help them remember and maintain their connection with Him. He was going to send them the third member of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, to help with this third covenant step. He said:

If ye love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you…. he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you (John 14:15-17, 26, KJV).

Notice a major role of the Holy Spirit is to help us remember our Covenant and keep our relationship with our heavenly Father strong and vibrant. He also helps us by empowering us to be faithful to the conditions of the Covenant agreement and to obtain its benefits. But, under the new Covenant, this doesn’t involve following an overwhelming list of rules and regulations, as was required under the first Covenant.

No, as born-again believers, our focus is on the One who went before us and fulfilled for us the terms of the Covenant. We take step three by giving attention to Jesus: to His Love for us and to our place in Him. And we do that with the ever-present help—and continual prompting—of the Holy Spirit.

Have You Stepped Into Your Covenant With God?

If you haven’t yet stepped into Covenant with God, pray this prayer today, making Jesus the Lord of your life. And while you’re at it, go ahead and pray for the Baptism in the Holy Spirit. There’s nothing more powerful than receiving both your salvation and the work of the Holy Spirit in you!

Prayer of Faith

Heavenly Father, I come to You in the Name of Jesus. Your Word says, “But everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved” (Acts 2:21). I am calling on You. I pray and ask Jesus to come into my heart and be Lord over my life according to Romans 10:9-10: “If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved.” I do that now. I confess that Jesus is Lord, and I believe in my heart that God raised Him from the dead.

I am now reborn! I am a Christian—a child of Almighty God! I am saved!

You also said in Your Word, “So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?” (Luke 11:13). I’m also asking You to fill me with the Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit, rise up within me as I praise God. I fully expect to speak with other tongues as You give me the utterance (Acts 2:4). In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

To learn more about your newfound Covenant with God, order your copy of God, the Covenant, and the Contradiction today.

Years ago, as Kenneth Copeland was praying and believing God for the needs of the ministry, the Lord said to him, Let the Word fight its own fight. In other words, find what you need in God’s Word and then to pray that Word. We’re never to wonder what the answer is to a prayer. Instead, we’re to go to the Word and find it there—and then take that verse or passage and make it our petition. When we build a petition from the Word, and pray it in faith, receiving what it says by faith, God says in His Word that He’ll grant our petition—His Word will fight for us!

“At that time you won’t need to ask me for anything. I tell you the truth, you will ask the Father directly, and he will grant your request because you use my name. You haven’t done this before. Ask, using my name, and you will receive, and you will have abundant joy” (John 16:23-24).

Kenneth has always written out his petitions to receive what he calls a heavenly grant. Do you have a need that’s physical? Financial? Relational? Is there strife in your family? At your workplace? Whatever it is that’s got you stressed out, take it to the Lord in prayer, but take it to Him based on what’s written in His Word. If you do, then He promises to give you what you need in the form of a heavenly grant.

“By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence” (2 Peter 1:3). It’s a promise! Everything pertaining to life and godliness—everything that we could ever need or want—is in the Word.

Why We Want To Say the Same Thing as God

The entire Bible is a book about receiving, and the way we receive what’s written in it is by faith. When it comes to fighting our battles, God wants us to let the Word fight its own fight. Our job is to release the Word of God—thereby releasing our faith—with the words we speak and pray. In other words, we’re to receive by faith, and then say what we have received, even when we haven’t seen the manifestation of what we’re saying.

We call this practice confessing the Word. Confessing the end of a circumstance, even while being at the beginning of one, is how we call things that be not as though they were. We get this understanding from Romans 4:16-18, and therefore practice it according to the Word.

Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all (as it is written, “I have made you a father of many nations”) in the presence of Him whom he believed—God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did; who, contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that he became the father of many nations, according to what was spoken, “So shall your descendants be” (NKJV).

It was Jesus who said, “Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 10:32, NKJV).

Revelation 12:11 tells us that we overcome by the blood of the Lamb (Jesus) and the word of our confession.

The Greek word for confession is homologeo. The Greek Lexicon defines it as to “say the same thing as another.” When we confess the Word of God in prayer—when we declare the end from the beginning—as we go about our day, we are saying what God says. We are saying the same thing that He’s saying! We are releasing our faith in His Word into this earth and into the circumstances that we want to see change. What’s more, when we say the Word, Jesus will say the Word, and the Father will say, “Amen.”

How God Governs the Universe

The following came to Greg Stephens one night:

1. God governs the universe with His mouth (or His words).
2. God governs the earth with our mouth (or our words).

And the Word backs this up: “But you belong to God, my dear children. You have already won a victory over those people, because the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world. Those people belong to this world, so they speak from the world’s viewpoint, and the world listens to them. But we belong to God, and those who know God listen to us” (1 John 4:4-6).

We’re not of the world, so we are not to speak like the world speaks. We’re to speak only what God speaks—what the Bible speaks. As we do that, we give voice to His Word, which is His will, and surrender this world and our circumstances to God’s governing.

The Word tells us that God formed man (Genesis 2:7), but He created everything else with the words of His mouth. He declared things and they happened. Out of the vast majority of the 31,102 verses in the Bible, He speaks most of the time. And we are to govern our lives in the very same way—because we are made in His image.

Paul wrote to the Corinthians saying, “But we continue to preach because we have the same kind of faith the psalmist had when he said, ‘I believed in God, so I spoke’” (2 Corinthians 4:13). Our faith finds its voice when we speak God’s Word!

How Are You Governing Your World?

What is that you want to see change? Begin to pray based on the Word of God, and then speak only what the Word says about it. Isn’t that what the Roman officer understood when he said to Jesus, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come into my home. Just say the word from where you are, and my servant will be healed. I know this because I am under the authority of my superior officers, and I have authority over my soldiers. I only need to say, ‘Go,’ and they go, or ‘Come,’ and they come. And if I say to my slaves, ‘Do this,’ they do it” (Matthew 8:8-9).

The Word goes on to say, “When Jesus heard this, he was amazed. Turning to those who were following him, he said, ‘I tell you the truth, I haven’t seen faith like this in all Israel!’” (verse 10).

Can you imagine amazing Jesus? We can when we decide to only speak the Word. When we pray and give His will a voice in this earth, we see the same results the centurion did. Again, what is it that you want to see change?

The Word Will Change Things

1. Go to God’s Word and find the verse or passage that the Holy Spirit illuminates with the answer you need.
2. Write out a prayer of petition using the Word you’ve found.
3. Begin confessing the truth, the heart of your petition, thanking God that it is done even though it may have yet to manifest in this natural world.
4. Continue thanking God for all He is doing, by faith, until you receive your heavenly grant.
5. Keep doing this for everything you need while on this earth, because this is How To Let the Word Fight for You.