“The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.” Proverbs 18:21 (NIV)

and

“This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live” Deuteronomy 30:19 (NIV)

There are more than 100 verses in the bible that deal specifically with the use of, as well as the outcome of, using and abusing the small member of your body that reside in the mouth.  In the last message we considered the woman with the issue of blood from Mark’s Gospel, chapter 5.

I suggest reading the passage again. Pay close attention to the detail contained in verses 25 to 34. Lets look at this passage a little closer:

1. This woman had an issue of blood, a haemorrhage for 12 Years.

2. She had originally been a wealthy woman. But over that time she had dwindled her money away seeing all the best doctors; to no avail.

3. In point of fact she had grown worse.

4. She heard about Jesus and what he had been doing AND that he was coming, in fact he had arrived in her town.

5. She went to see Jesus. Note that she didn’t go to look at Jesus, to see him wandering through the crowds in the street. She had no intention of simply observing him. She set out with the intention of actually getting to see Jesus. She was taking her life into her own hands, literally, because as a woman, with her condition, she was regarded as being unclean and anyone she touched would also be declared unclean. She was determined; she had set her face like flint.

6. As she went on her way she continually reminded herself of her purpose and her goal. She kept saying. She didn’t just speak her goal once. The scripture says that she kept saying to herself “If I can only get close enough to touch his garment. I WILL BE HEALED.” notice she didn’t say I could get healed; I might get healed; I might get lucky. No, she said, she spoke at the level of where her Faith was at: “I WILL BE HEALED.”

7. She fulfilled her task. She put her actions to her Faith, she achieved her goal and she touched the hem of his garment. She reached out and took her healing. She didn’t wait for her to fall on her like fruit off a tree. She reached out and drew on the power, the anointing that was upon Jesus.

We know that she did, because Jesus turned around, in a crowd pressing so close to him that he was almost suffocating and declared “Who touched my clothes.” This is confirmed by the disciples who said “Um, there are people up close, all around you touching your clothes. What do you mean, who touched me?” Jesus replied saying “I felt power, the anointing, virtue (it is translated in some versions) flow out from me.” He had felt her taking the healing from him.

8. She was Healed, completely.

9. She was not only healed from the issue of blood, but her health had been restored, in such a way that she even recognised the feeling of being well. She KNEW she was healed.

10.Jesus knew it. He had experienced the anointing flowing out of him.

11. She testified. She came to Jesus, in the midst of the crowd and declared what had actually taken place in her body and how she had got to that place. She expounded to Jesus how she had used her Faith. Because “He said to her, Daughter, your faith (your trust and confidence in Me, springing from faith in God) has restored you to health. Go in (into) peace and be continually healed and freed from your [ distressing bodily] disease.”

Pay very close attention here Jesus did not say “I have healed you!” he said “Your Faith has healed you.” YOUR FAITH! Her very own faith and her acting upon that faith had produced the desired result.

Take note, throughout this entire passage, the word TRY does not appear. She did not go to the town square to see if it MIGHT work for her. She didn’t go saying MAYBE. She went Determined to receive. She heard about what Jesus was doing and she said: “I’ll have some of that! Thank You!”

12 We know that she testified to more than just Jesus, because WE got to hear about it.

There are 4 vital steps to receiving anything from God, by Faith, outlined here. They are:

1. Confess it out of your mouth. Say it. You need to speak your Faith.

2. Put Action to your Faith Confession, or Profession. Faith without a corresponding action is nothing more than wishing and dreaming.James 2:17-18. In fact it verges into the realms of Foolishness and Presumption.

3. You need to take it, all the while giving thanks to God for his provision. You need to praise God for the healing, the Job, the salary; in the same manner as if someone had walked up to you and placed it in your hand. That doesn’t mean you should go out and spend up big and max out your credit cards, or run up a line of credit.

It means you need to have an attitude of thankfulness that backs up your confession. Like this woman, You Will KNOW when you have received what you are believing for.

4. You need to give testimony about what God has done for you. The emphasis is ALWAYS on what God has done. NOT on what a great FAITH PERSON you are. Nurture an “Attitude of Gratitude.”

Be honest, when giving your testimony. Don’t exaggerate, or use what has been termed “Evang-ELASTIC.” That’s just another word for LYING. If there were 3 people, don’t say there were 15. If the healing process was sped up to take 2 days instead of 6 then don’t start talking about the regrowth of a missing limb. I know that these things should go, without saying. However, the teaching of the application of Bible Faith has been hampered and much maligned through the excesses and exaggerations of the past.

Brother Kenneth E. Hagin, who went home to be with the Lord in 2003, put it succinctly in his minibook “How To Write Your Own Ticket With God” he puts it as:

1. Say It

2. Do It

3. Receive It

4. Share It

There is an overarching principle that MUST be brought to bear in sharing all of this. You can’t just go about attempting to fulfil “The Lusts of the Flesh.” The ONLY way that you can apply this teaching is by “First and Foremost” finding the promises of God, in his Word, that govern what you are believing for.

It’s NOT about preparing your Christmas list and thinking that God is like the mythical “Santa Claus” that you believed in as a child.

I like to deal with “First Principles” here, as in other areas of life. in Matthew 6:33 Jesus said “Seek FIRST the Kingdom of God AND HIS Righteousness.” He had just spent hours teaching the people that God knew what they NEEDED even more than They knew what they needed.

In Psalm 37:4 we are told that: If we draw near to God; If we delight ourselves in Him; if we are satiated by our relationship with HIM; then He will give US the Desires of Our Heart.” Now this particular scripture has been taught as:  “God is so desperate to know you, that as you spend time with Him; then, like a lovesick puppy, he will give you whatever your heart desires.”

Okay, so that might be an over-simplification of WHAT’s been taught. BUT, it is NOT an over-simplification of HOW it’s been used and abused.

Instead of God being the victim of Carpet baggers in this verse. I like to turn it on its head. It’s often a good way to approach scriptures that involve promises. In particular, it is a great way to examine the actual intention behind the promise.

What do I mean? Okay, let’s look at it this way:

The desires that you have “in your heart” will come about as a result of your principle action of Getting to know God better; through spending time With Him; In His Presence; Getting to know Him; Allowing Him to Know You. In other words: As your relationship with God develops and gets deeper and deeper in Him and With Him; because of WHO he is AND because of how mind-blowingly amazing that experience WILL be. YOU CANNOT walk in this world, as a RESULT of that relationship, without having been changed BY that relationship and throughout it all developing THE HEART OF GOD.

I believe that this simple phrase, from this psalm, holds a NUGGET, that is LIFE-CHANGING. As Your Heart grows into and develops God’s heart, wants and DESIRES, you would NEVER ask, or believe for anything that was not within the “Perfect Will” of God. In other words: He will Fill Your Heart with HIS Desires.

You see, there is a major key that many have forgotten. We CANNOT get our Faith to Work Without LOVE (Gal 5:6); in particular the LOVE of God as outlined in 1Cor 13:4-8a. Because, as the Beloved Apostle reminds us in 1John 4:7-8 LOVE and GOD are inseparably one and the same.

So, My prayer for you, as you head into the on-coming week, joins with the prayer of Paul in Philipians 4:7;

“And God’s peace [shall be yours, that tranquil state of a soul assured of its salvation through Christ, and so fearing nothing from God and being content with its earthly lot of whatever sort that is, that peace] which transcends all understanding shall garrison and mount guard over your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus” (AMP)

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