Your Words Hold a Miracle

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PREFACE

AT SOME POINT in your life, you will need a miracle from God. It may be for yourself or for a member of your family. It may be due to a sickness. It might be a mountain of family or financial trouble. It might be as a result of a troubled child. Perhaps it comes from some unseen force that fills you with fear.

John Osteen has good news for you. You can have a miracle from God, for God is a miracle worker. And He has recorded many of His miracles in His Word, the Bible. You need not run around searching for your needed miracle. You can go to the promises of the Word of God and claim them for your own.

In YOUR WORDS HOLD A MIRACLE, Osteen shows you how to put the power of God's Word into your own life.

INTRODUCTION

OVER THE YEARS, I've met countless numbers of people who want to change their lives as well as things in their world. Some of them don't like certain things about themselves or are deeply discouraged about their family life. Others are discontent about their lack of finances and can't seem to ever make ends meet. Many of them can never seem to find relief from chronic illness and pain.

I want you to know that it is possible to change your life as well as things in your world, but it's not by your own efforts. You can change your world by changing your words, and specifically by agreeing with and speaking the Word of God. I have written this book to help you know exactly how to declare the Word of God and experience great changes in your life.

It is my hope that you will not just read this book and then tuck it on a shelf somewhere. Rather, keep it available at all times. Take the scriptural confessions and use them so often that they become your very own. It may seem awkward at first, but if you will faithfully continue to speak God's Word on a daily basis, not only will you be changed, but your circumstances will change.

Life is a battle on many fronts, especially in the spiritual realm. We, as Christians, are constantly engaged in spiritual battles. The Bible teaches us that "we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places" (Ephesians 6:12).

God, through Jesus Christ, has totally defeated our enemy, Satan. Second Corinthians 2:14 says, "Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place." However, a defeated foe does not mean he is not dangerous or any less bent on defeating us.

God has left to us the responsibility of enforcing the victory that Jesus won on the cross and through His resurrection from the dead, and He has armed us with spiritual weapons. "For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ" (2 Corinthians 10:4–5).

The most powerful weapon God has given us is His Word, and it is my purpose to teach you how to use this weapon. Our lives have many conflicts, but as we learn to use His Word in the same manner that Jesus did when He was tempted by the enemy in the wilderness (Matthew 4:1–11), we will drive the enemy from the field of battle!

Here's the reality: We are this day what we have been continually saying with our mouths in days past. Just think back to what you've been saying about yourself recently, and this will be evident. If you want to change, you must first change your thoughts. Then, in turn, you will change what you speak with your mouth.

In this book I have written some of the most intimate and effective ways I pray and declare God's Word daily. Many times I do not feel or see things as I desire them to be, but I keep on speaking what God has to say about the situation, and these things are brought into reality.

Most of us want to get out of a conflict in the quickest and easiest way possible. None of us enjoy a prolonged battle or struggle. For many, life seems to be a continual struggle. If this is true of your life, this book was written for you especially.

Keep in mind as you read that the changes in our lives may not come instantly. Victory often comes to us gradually. Be patient. The key, as you will learn, is to keep declaring God's Word until the visual image you have of yourself has changed to match the truth of God's Word. This has nothing to do with mind over matter or positive thinking as such. We are dealing with the great eternal promises and the laws of the Word of God.

WHEN YOU BELIEVE GOD'S WORD

in your heart and speak it with your mouth, God stands behind you to make it real in your life!

FIND WHAT THE WORD OF GOD SAYS ABOUT YOU

Jesus, the Head of the church, said, "For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be removed and be cast into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says" (Mark 11:23). This is the heart of the message of this book: Jesus said there is a place you can come to in your relationship with God, if you know the Word of God and don't doubt, where you can have whatever you say! Jesus said you're going to get what you say, so you should be careful about what you say. It is by your words. They have power. Your words are carriers.

Notice that all the way through Jesus' ministry, He found the scriptures that belonged to Him and He spoke those scriptures, knowing the spiritual laws that work. "And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read. And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written: 'The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; to proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD.' Then He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him. And He began to say to them, 'Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing' " (Luke 4:16–21).

The book of Isaiah was handed to Jesus, and He purposefully began to unroll that scroll until He got to Isaiah 61, where Luke says, "He found the place where it was written." Jesus searched the book of Isaiah until He came to the place that specifically spelled out who He was and what He would do. Then He closed the scroll and said with certainty, "I am the One this scripture is written about. This is My scripture, and this is written about Me."

That is precisely what God wants us to do. We must find the places in the Bible that are written about us. Where are those? Simple. The Bible has a wealth of information about believers. God wants us to find scriptures about believers and to boldly declare, "These truths belong to me, and I will have them!"

This is exactly what John the Baptist did. "Now this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, 'Who are you?' He confessed, and did not deny, but said, 'I am not the Christ.' And they asked him, 'What then? Are you Elijah?' He said, 'I am not.' 'Are you the Prophet?' And he answered, 'No.' Then they said to him, 'Who are you, that we may give an answer to those who sent us? What do you say about yourself?' He said: 'I am "The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Make straight the way of the LORD," as the prophet Isaiah said' " (John 1:19–23). John gave an answer straight out of the Bible. He found the place where it was written about him, and he boldly declared, "This is who I am." He didn't say how he felt or how anything else looked. He simply stated, "I am what the Bible says. I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness as the prophet Isaiah said. I'm the voice."

In my own life, after I put my faith in Jesus, for nineteen years I lived and preached to the best of my Christian knowledge. But while I knew my salvation was secure, I didn't really know who I was. Then one day I received the baptism in the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:1–4), and I began to read the New Testament with eyes that were opened. I took off my religious glasses, unplugged my denominational ears, and read the Bible as though I was reading it for the first time. What I saw emerging out of the New Testament was the clear image of a glorious person who shined with a supernatural authority and power that caused the enemy to tremble. And I said, "Oh, God, who is this person that I see coming out of the pages of Scripture?" And the Lord Jesus said, "This is the New Testament believer!"

We need to see ourselves as God sees us! And then we need to begin to speak in the manner God teaches us to speak. We need to dare to find the places in Scripture where it's written about us and declare it as so. And you not only must think it about yourself, you've got to actually say, "It is mine!" You must verbalize it. Your words carry power.

We create our own world around us by the words that we speak. But we just can't choose our own words. We must speak the words out of our mouth that God has spoken in His Word.

Let me make this point crystal clear: Confessing the Word means to say the same thing as God. It means you take God's powerful Word and make it personal to your life. In faith you agree with God and declare His truths over your life and family. When you agree with God, it shall be done!

CHAPTER ONE

The Story of a Certain Christian

There was a certain Christian who said he could not, and doubt rose like a giant and conquered him. He talked of failure, and failure became his lot. He spoke continually of sickness, and sickness plagued him. He declared weakness, and he became weaker.

He told all of his friends and family that his debts could never be paid and that he would never have enough money to make it, and poverty moved in to live with him.

He constantly expressed his fear of the past, present, and future, and that fear gripped him. He stated that his marriage was bad and that his children couldn't be controlled, and things just got worse and worse in his household.

He scattered his words everywhere and, like seeds of poison, they grew around him. To hear him talk, he had it very bad. He thought God had treated him unfairly, and that God had left him on his own. He did not realize he was to blame.

He did not realize that he, like God, created things with words. It never occurred to him that mankind is the only creation of God that can speak God's powerful thoughts, and thus be a creator like his Maker.

THE DISCOVERY OF THE POWER OF GOD'S WORD

One day this Christian found the truth about the power of words in God's Word:

• "Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit" (Proverbs 18:21).

• "You are snared by the words of your mouth; you are taken by the words of your mouth" (Proverbs 6:2).

• "For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be removed and be cast into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says" (Mark 11:23).

This Christian was amazed at the discovery of this spiritual law: A person creates and brings to pass what he continually says. He also discovered that this law works positively and negatively. He became very aware that it had worked negatively—his whole life proved it. He realized that if his life was going to be different, his words had to change.

What did this Christian do? He began to read his Bible in a new light and saw the great redemptive truths therein. For the first time, he began to understand the reason for and the benefits of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. Then he began to see himself as God sees him.

God looked at him and said:

• You are My child.

• You are born again of the incorruptible seed of the Word of God.

• You are forgiven of all sin and washed in the blood of Jesus.

• You are a new creature—delivered from the power of darkness and translated into My kingdom.

• You are redeemed from the curse of the law.

• You are blessed and healed by Jesus' stripes.

• You are strong in the Lord.

• You more than a conqueror.

• You are the light of the world and the salt of the earth.

• You are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.

• Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world.

• You have received the power of the Holy Spirit.

• You have power to lay hands on the sick and see them recover.

• You have power to cast out demons in the Name of Jesus.

• You have power over all the power of the enemy.

• You can do all things. The works that I do shall you do, and greater works.

• You are My ambassador on the earth to tell every creature the Good News of salvation.

• I am with you and will never leave you or forsake you.

THIS CHRISTIAN MADE A GREAT CHANGE!

He immediately began to say what God said about him. His words changed, and he declared to God and to man what God said about him. He said it in the face of difficult circumstances, trouble, fear, doubt, and oppression.

He continually said:

• I am God's child, for I am born of the incorruptible seed of the Word of God.

• I am a new creature in Christ Jesus—delivered from the power of darkness and translated into the kingdom of God.

• I am redeemed from the curse of the law.

• I am blessed and healed by the stripes of Jesus.

• I am strong in the Lord.

• I am more than a conqueror.

• I am the salt of the earth and the light of the world.

• I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.

• I have the Greater One inside me.

• I have received the power of the Holy Spirit.

• I have power to lay hands on the sick and see them recover.

• I have power to cast out demons in the Name of Jesus.