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Faith Filled Words

Fresh Manna
by Pastor Tim Burt

I’ve been writing about the importance of our words. Do you think words are important? The Lord does! In the book of Proverbs as He speaks in regard to His wisdom, wisdom says, “All the words of my mouth are with righteousness; nothing crooked or perverse is in them. They are all plain to Him who understands.”(Proverbs 8:8-9) The Bible says we were created in the image and likeness of God. The Bibles says we are also to make it our lifelong goal to become conformed to His image. Simply put – we are to learn to imitate Him like a child does a parent. That means get perverseness of every kind out of our thinking and especially speaking. You couldn’t do that except with the help of the Holy Spirit!

Words carry power. Words as a rule, do have the power to affect and shape how you think, how you believe and how you act. Your words affect the little spontaneous seemingly insignificant things, to every larger issue of your life. That is why it is so critical to be careful of what you listen to or allow within you. You may think, “Come on Tim, you giving the words we speak way too much significance, like they were a life or death situation.” If you think that, you are right, I am. Proverbs 18:21 says, “The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.” Listen to what I say! Words are spoken every day that try to bring fear upon you – working to overwhelm any faith you have that God cares for you and will help you!

One of the greatest examples of harm ever done to a group of people through words, are the words of the negative report that ten of the twelve princes of Israel brought back to God’s people after they went and scoped out the promised land God had told them was theirs. He promised them this lush land and promised He would help them take the land. He wanted scouts to go check out how rich the land was so they could come back and give a good report to the people. They weren’t supposed to bring back a negative report. God had already promised them that they would be able to overcome every enemy by the strength of His Spirit because He was in covenant with them. When they came back, they started to give a good report but quickly turned to words of fear.

Reading from Numbers 13: 27-28 & 31-33, they spoke these words: “We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey! Here is its fruit. But the people who live there are powerful and the cities are fortified and very large. We even saw descendants of Anak (Goliath) there… “We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are…. The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size. We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.”

This evil and fearful report was not what God wanted them to say. They were to report how rich the land was and then encourage the people with words of faith and trust in God. Instead they spread the spirit of fear to all of God’s people with the exception of two faith filled warriors – Joshua and Caleb. Their bad report talked God’s people out of His promised land. They were too fearful to enter. Joshua and Caleb refuted this evil report and pleaded with them to trust God. God had their best interest at heart. All they had to do was let their words and heart agree with God’s Words and heart and they would have had all these blessings of inheritance.

Every day we are faced with multiple opportunities to pass the test of guarding our hearts from what we hear, and our mouths from spilling negative attitudes and words of doubt and unbelief. Speak negative words of outcome over difficult situations and I guarantee you, they will undermine the faith of your heart. Keeping your heart and words right cannot be done in your own strength and it’s not just about stifling them. It’s about letting the Word of God and His promises change your perspective, and the grace of God strengthening you to think on and speak those words of faith! David understood the life of faith in God and his heart reflected it as we see in Psalms 112:4 &7 (NIV) “Even in darkness light dawns for the upright, for the gracious and compassionate and righteous man…He will have no fear of bad news; his heart is steadfast, trusting in the LORD.”  Would these be the words that came out your mouth? I want them to be mine! Just speaking these words in adversity makes you stronger and contributes to your faith.

Purposely shape the words of your mouth to speak God’s promises. You may have adverse circumstances facing you but speak and pray promises of God’s help such as in Psalms 46:1. “God is my refuge and strength, my very present help in trouble.” You will find that your words spoken in agreement with God will strengthen your faith and usher miracles into your life. Let your words reflect your faith, not your doubts!

Isaiah 44:8 (NLT) “Do not tremble; do not be afraid. Did I not proclaim my purposes for you long ago? You are my witnesses—is there any other God? No! There is no other Rock—not one!”

In His Love,
Pastor Tim Burt

Published by Pastor Tim Burt
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