The ultimate causes of depression are spiritual.

The primary cause for depression is bitterness, and secondary cause is regret, and the third cause is the sum of the negative emotions that trace their roots to the spiritual causes such as a verbal curse, demonic attack, or generational curses.

Depression is just the symptom. Biochemical and genetic disorder that contribute to the depression phenomenon are also the symptoms, not the causes.

Drug for depression only suppress the symptoms, not curing the problem, but chemical drug always introduce side effects that might be just as bad as the depression itself, or worst.

The great cost of bitterness

Unforgivingness produces bitterness. In a parable, Jesus compared God to a master, who forgave his servant an enormous debt that he owed him, but that servant turned around and put a fellow servant in jail for a small debt:

³² Then his master, after he had called him, said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. ³³ Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you?’ ³⁴ And his master was angry, and delivered him to the torturers until he should pay all that was due to him. ³⁵ “So My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses. Matthew 18:32-35

If anyone refuses to forgive someone, God will deliver him or her to the “torturers”, which could be diseases, mental illness, demons, or other curses.

It might feel unfair to us, but we owe God even more. God is the ultimate victim of our sins. We sin against Him so much that we deserve to die for our sins, but He sent His Son to die on our behalf and the Son was tortured and humiliated by sinners.

If the problem of unforgiving persists, bitterness will soon develop a life of its own. From time to time it will come out and complain about what so and so have done to you, and how bad and how much the wrongs had cost you. The complains will repeat over and over again, lest you forget, and if you forget, it could be worst, because the repressed memory will continue to poison your system but you don’t know why.

It will manifest into different form of negative emotions, physical sickness, and mental disorders. It’s compulsive and contagious.

See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many. Hebrews 12:15

In my first and second year in college, familial problems from the past re-surfaced and produced intensive feeling of depressions. It wouldn’t go out easily, but it just multiplied whenever I tried to analyze the problem.

Later, I also struggled with what some Christians did to others and God but they didn’t look like they understood the impact of their actions. I couldn’t accept some of the vicious things that some of the Christians spoke against each other, and when I was the direct victim, it was even more difficult because it became personal.

There was periods of time when I had to forgive hundreds of time a person who didn’t know he/she was sinning against me, or that person might be slightly aware but didn’t understand the impact of what he/she was doing.

As a result, that person kept repeating his/her attitudes and offenses and I had to keep forgiving him/her over and over again.

I know forgiving can be super hard, especially when you still feel very hurt even after you had decided to forgive a person and told God you already forgave. The hurtful memory might resurface again, and you forgive, and it resurfaces again, and you forgive, and so on for many times that you doubt if you had really forgiven that person.

Sometime you don’t really understand the depth of the offenses that someone has committed against you, so the first time you find it easy to forgive, but later your mind and heart might be able to slowly grasp the real extent of the offenses, or that the Holy Spirit illuminates how much the offenses have truly cost you so you realize the harm was bigger than you initially thought.

The Holy Spirit does that because He wants you to fully forgive.

It can take multiple attempts to forgive one offense.

The devil might also come and accuse the offender and try to make you dwell on the offenses. If you take the bait from the devil, which always seems appealing, you will fall into difficult battle with bitter thought, and even depression.

I had taken Satan’s baits too many times. I had had depressive thoughts and even suicidal thoughts, even though I forgave every time I was offended.

Finally, I learned that it takes faith to forgive. Satan will try to point to your hurtful memory and convince you that you haven’t forgiven someone, but you can call it a lie to make it stop. You must believe in forgiveness and God. If you decided to forgive someone before God, you had to have confidence that it was done.

Tell the enemy this, “I forgave that person for that already! Get thee behind me!” See My post, Quote About Faith, to learn how to fight the lie of the enemy with faith.

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Devourer that devours your joy and goods

If your productivity at work, ministry, or school get “regularly” destroyed due to reasons such as health problems, emotional problems, gossips, office politics, relational conflicts, bullies, distractions, or many other “misfortune” that seems to harass you on purpose, then it is normal to feel depressed due to ongoing loss of opportunities and mediocrity.

It might seems like there is a conspiracy against you behind the scene, and there is.

The Bible mentions a spiritual foe, the devourer, that can devour your produce – your bank account, your school GPA, or any other accomplishment:

¹¹ “ And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, so that he will not destroy the fruit of your ground, nor shall the vine fail to bear fruit for you in the field,” says the LORD of hosts; ¹² And all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a delightful land,” says the LORD of hosts.   Malachi 3:11-12

If you fulfill a certain condition, God can rebuke the devourer for you. The condition is in the follow:

⁶ “I the LORD do not change. So you, O descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed. ⁷ Ever since the time of your forefathers you have turned away from my decrees and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you,” says the LORD Almighty.
“But you ask, ‘How are we to return?’⁸ “Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me.
“But you ask, ‘How do we rob you?’
“In tithes and offerings. ⁹ You are under a curse—the whole nation of you—because you are robbing me. ¹⁰ Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it. ¹¹ I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not cast their fruit,” says the LORD Almighty. ¹² “Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land,” says the LORD Almighty. Malachi 3:6-12

The main condition is to put God first. Give your first fruits to the Lord, respect His Word, and obey it. If we do that, then He will rebuke the devourer for us.

We should give at least a tenth of what we earn to the servants of God, so they have the resources to expand the kingdom of God. Same for a church. If a local church wants to prosper, it has to obey the same rule, which means her members should share some of their financial resource to missionaries, and to other ministries for the sake of the Gospel.

A devourer is a real creature. It is a class of demons and fallen angels who specialize in sabotage.

Demons and fallen angels are always waiting outside, plotting and waiting for the chance to steal, kill, and destroy (Psalm 10:8-9; John 10:10). It is God’s protection that keeps them at bay.

God’s protection is the default mode, even for the non-believers, but sins can open doors for the devils and invite them in.

If they get the legal right to enter into any area of our life, they will enter and stay there and make it home.

If you have an intimate relationship with God, He will put a hedge around you and protect you

Everyone is born with a hedge of God, see the follow Bible verse:

⁸ Then the LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.” ⁹ “Does Job fear God for nothing?” Satan replied. ¹⁰ “Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land. ¹¹ But stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face.” Job 1:8-11

For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD bestows favor and honor; no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless. Psalm 84:11

In the first Bible quote above, Satan literally complains to God for putting a hedge around his servant, Job. Job is a godly man who is informed about the spiritual reality, so he always pray for protection over his family (Job 1:4-5).

The prayers for protection really do work. Satan can find no legal right to attack Job.

If you are a child of God, your default mode is blessedness and safety. If you are depressed, it suggests the enemy might be present.

The enemy is present for a reason. Make sure you didn’t give them the legal right to attack you. A legal right opens a hole in the hedge to demonic force.

An example of demonic legal right is an unconfessed and unrepented sin.

Hidden sins will sap away your joy and strength

Guilt is one of the main causes of depression.

¹ Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.
² Blessed is the man to whom the LORD does not impute iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.
³ When I kept silent, my bones grew old through my groaning all the day long.
⁴ For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; My vitality was turned into the drought of summer.
⁵ I acknowledged my sin to You, and my iniquity I have not hidden. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,” And You forgave the iniquity of my sin.  Psalm 32:1-7

A hidden sin could be a forgotten sin. Sometimes I hear people said they have forgotten something they did to others and they prided themselves on their ability to forget the negative.

The sins are still working against their systems even though they have forgotten about them. Moreover, those who hide their sins will not prosper, which leads to depression due to ongoing failures and mediocrity (Proverbs 28:13).

¹³ He who conceals his sins does not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy. Proverbs 28:13

I observed that many people have been hiding their sins, but they still manage to tough it out through sheer willpower and positive thinking, and with some smiles on their faces too. They pride themselves on their willpower and positive thinking, but this is the way of the world, not the way of God.

There is a class of demons that specialize in guilt. They are called the spirits of guilt. If sin is not properly due with, a spirit of guilt could enter the sinner and cause excessive guilt, which opens door to other demonic spirits and ultimately bring about a total destruction of the person in the long run.

Repentance that leaves no guilt and sorrow

Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death. 2 Corinthians 7:10

Depression is worldly sorrow, but godly sorrow comes from conviction of the Holy Spirit. Godly sorrow produces genuine repentance. Repentance leads to reconciliation with God and allows the holes in the hedge of protection to be repaired.

If we want to maintain an intimate relationship with God, we have to repent on the spot whenever we sin. At first we might have to do it everyday, but as we mature in Christ, we will sin less and less.

If you still feel guilty after you repent, it indicates the present of the spirit of guilt. The last link above is linked to an article that shows you how to deal with false guilt that comes from the enemy.

Regrets?

Although you might have started living right before God, the past is gone and will never come back. Whatever wrong choices you have made and whatever was lost in the past might still upset you. I totally understand because I was also a victim of regrets.

Here is some of my other posts that will be useful on dealing with regrets.

Getting Over Regrets

How to deal with the thefts: Satan and his demons (Don’t regrets, get back what they have stolen from you 7 folds!! You can do that, click to see how!)

Still feel negative?

Many time Christians have to wander in the “desert” for a while. A desert experience is a trying time. Every Christian will have to go through a period or multiple periods of desert experience.

God designs the desert experience to test and train each Christian. If you are experiencing prolonged period of unanswered prayers, mediocrity, failures, illness, or other misfortunes, a desert experience could be the reason.

Of all the books on waiting for God while dealing with the desert experience, I found the ebook, Waiting For Your Ministry, by Grantley Morris, to be the most inspiring and encouraging.

The author himself went through years of desert, and had been struggling with depression. By praying and seeking God diligently, he found valuable insights in the midst of failures, mediocrities, and many negatives.

After he wrote the book, he was still in the desert! He had to read it over and over again to keep himself from drowning in depression! That’s why I found this book amazing. You can download the book here. (The webpage of Grantley might not look sophisticated, but the content is good)

Please don’t think that it is the end. You know that life isn’t that easy.

Generation Curses and Verbal Curses?

Curses can destroy your destiny in many ways. Most of the time you won’t even notice the effects.

There is an entire world on this topic. If you are unfamiliar with curses, then you might read an online text version of the book, Turning Curses to Blessings, by Carl Fox.

Here is my journal blog entry that explains how my life was cursed, even after I had long become a Christian, but was uninformed about curses: My life Was Cursed

And I highly recommend the book, Blessing or Curse: You can choose, by Derek Prince. Of all the books that talk about curses, that one is probably the best.

Finally, get on the offense!

Now we have discussed so much about how to cure depression, but they are mostly remedies. We need to get on the offenses too. See my article on Parable Of The Mustard Seed to start replace depression with blessings – tangible blessings that you can enjoy starting now!

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1. How exactly does a Christian receive healing
2. How exactly does a spiritual giant bear fruits of the Holy Spirit while most Christians still struggle
3. How exactly does one resists Satan, scripturally
4. How the principles identified in this post can be applied on every area of your life such as finance, relationship, ministry, accomplishment, and anything that pertain to life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3)

Before you proceed onward with this post, you may want to know what faith can do and how to act upon whatever faith you have, and then you too, can start experiencing miracle in all areas of your life. Go to Parable Of The Mustard Seed: Scriptural Analysis of Faith if you want to do that.

Then, you can come back to this post, which contains several quote about faith (Actually, they are testimonies and excerpts, but I call them “quote about faith” so people can find this post by typing that phrase in the search engine)

Where does faith come from? How come some Christians experience God’s supernatural power but I don’t?

Faith comes by hearing (Romans 10:17). In the testimonies that I copied and pasted below you will find that all the testimonies involved hearing of God’s word. Upon hearing the Word of God, the believers accepted them with his whole heart and confess the Word with believing lips (Romans 10:10-11), and then God does what He said (Isaiah 5:11).

Every Christian receives revelation from the Holy Spirit. The job of the Holy Spirit is to guide us into all truth (John 16:13-15) He does it all day long. You can trust this fact. Satan and the circumstance will try to deceive you and make you think that the Holy Spirit isn’t interested in talking to you or the truth isn’t what it seems to mean, and thus steal the Word from your heart and mind (John 10:10).

However, we have the authority from God to resist the Devil (James 4:7) and rebuke our circumstances (Matthew 8:26). If we persevere, we will bear much fruits eventually (Luke 8:15).

Truth will set us free (John 8:32), but only truth that we understand and believe will set us free (Matthew 13:23; James 1:21). The entire Bible is useless to us if we don’t understand the words (2 Corinthians 3:6).

One of the best strategies to substantiate the truth into personal experience is to follow the prompting of the Holy Spirit like this: let Him reveals a verse or a passage to you one at a time, and jot them down on a piece of paper or card, verbally proclaiming it, mixing it with your own words if you want, for as long as and as frequent as you want until the truth manifests in reality. When you sense the Spirit impressing upon you another verse or passage, add them to your next card and do the same. Memorize them too.

Testimony #1 The Fruit of the Holy Spirit

Have you wondered how to bear the fruit of the Holy Spirit? The following excerpt is one of the clearest explanations I have read.

Excerpt from The Normal Christian Life, by Watchman Nee Pg 78

Some of you have no doubt had an experience something like the following. You have been asked to go and see a friend, and you knew the friend was not very friendly, but you trusted the Lord to see you through. You told Him before you set out that in yourself you could not but fail, and you asked Him for all that was needed. Then, to your surprise, you did not feel at all irritated, though your friend was far from gracious. On your return you thought over the experience and marveled that you kept so calm, and you wondered if you would be just as calm next time. You were amazed at yourself and sought an explanation. This is the explanation: the Holy Spirit carried you through.

Unfortunately we only have this kind of experience once in while, but it should be a constant experience. When the Holy Spirit takes things in hand there is no need for strain on our part. It is not a case of clenching our teeth and thinking that thus we have controlled ourselves beautifully and have had a glorious victory. No, where there is a real victory there is no fleshly effort. We are gloriously carried through by the Lord…

We have spoken of trying and trusting, and the difference between the two. Believe me, it is the difference between Heaven and hell. It is not something just to be talked over as a good thought; it is stark reality. `Lord, I cannot do it, therefore I will no longer try to do it.’ This is the point where most of us fail. `Lord, I cannot; therefore I will take my hands off; from now on I trust Thee for that.’ I refuse to act; I depend on Him to act and then I enter fully and joyfully into the action He initiates. It is not passivity; it is a most active life, trusting the Lord like that; drawing life from Him, taking Him to be my very life, letting Him out His life in
me.

A lot of Christians, including you and I, have also experienced something similar once in a while, but the experience never lasted. How come? What is the formula that will deliver all the time? The first step is to trust! We have to trust the Lord to see us through every situation in life. What come after trust? Let’s continue The Normal Christian Life Pg 79

God will not give me humility or patience or holiness or love as separate gifts of His grace. He is not a retailer dispensing grace to us in doses, measuring out some patience to the impatient, some love to the unloving, some meekness to the proud, in quantities that we take and work on as kind of capital. He has given only one gift to meet all our need — His Son Christ Jesus, and as I look to Him to live out His life in me, He will be humble and patient and loving and everything else I need — in my stead. Remember the word in the first Epistle of John: “God gave unto us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath the life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not the life” (1 John 5:11,12). The life of God is not given us as a separate item; the life of God is given us in the Son. It is “eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 6:23). Our relationship to the Son is our relationship to the life.

The key ingredient is “Christ my life”. If you have the life Christ, you have to let this life live out in you. Only trust can activate His life. You trust the Lord to see you through and He will live out His life in you when you trust Him. This is the general idea, but can it be more specific? Let’s get to the specific, read on: The Normal Christian Life Pg 80

That is why Paul speaks of “the fruit of the Spirit” as one (Gal. 5:22) and not of `fruits’ as separate items. God has given us His Holy Spirit, and
when love is needed the fruit of the Spirit is love; when joy is needed the fruit of the Spirit is joy. It is always true. It does not matter what your personal deficiency, or whether it is a hundred and one different things, God has one sufficient answer — His Son Jesus Christ, and He is the answer to every human need. How can we know more of Christ in this way? Only by way of an increasing awareness of need. Some are afraid to discover deficiency in themselves and so they never grow. Growth in grace is the only sense in which we can grow, and grace, we have said, is God doing something for us. We all have the same Christ dwelling within, but revelation of some new need will lead us spontaneously to trust Him to live out His life in us in that particular. Greater capacity means greater enjoyment of God’s supply. Another letting go, a fresh trusting in Christ, and another stretch of land is conquered. `Christ my life’ is the secret of enlargement.

As God reveals our deficiency and the need to grow, we are to stop right there. Don’t rush in to apply your willpower and common sense to try to improve yourself, because it will only prolong the struggle. When God gives us awareness of a need, we are to trust Him to live out His life in us in that particular!

As you read more excerpts and testimonies, you will find a similar pattern of how it works: The believer becomes aware of a need, such as financial need, spiritual need, or health need, and God speaks to him through His word, and the believer acts upon the revealed truth by boldly declaring the revealed truth, and believe the word from his heart.

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Testimony #2 When you should stop praying and start declaring victory that was already won

God has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3).

Once His Spirit reveals to us a specific truth or promise, we don’t need to pray anymore. Instead, we should keep proclaiming that piece of truth or promise until it manifests – the Bible tells us to calls things that are not as though they were (Romans 4:17). The more we hear our own proclamation, the more our faith will increase (Romans 10:17).

What if we meet severe resistance before we see the fulfillment of God’s Word? We rebuke it!

The Normal Christian Life Pg 33-34

I once had an experience which illustrates this principle. Some years ago I was ill. For six nights I had high fever and could find no sleep. Then at length God gave me from the Scripture a personal word of healing, and because of this I expected all symptoms of sickness to vanish at once. Instead of that, not a wink of sleep could I get, and I was not only sleepless but more restless than ever. My temperature rose higher, my pulse beat faster and my head ached more severely than before. The enemy asked, `Where is God’s promise? Where is your faith? What about all your prayers?’ So I was tempted to thrash the whole
matter out in prayer again, but was rebuked, and this Scripture came to mind: “Thy word is truth” (John 17:17). If God’ Word is truth, I thought, then what are these symptoms? They must all be lies! So I declared to the enemy, `This sleeplessness is a lie, this headache is a lie, this fever is a lie, this high pulse is a lie. In view of what God has said to me, all these symptoms of sickness are just your lies, and God’s Word to me is truth.‘ In five minutes I was asleep, and I awoke the following morning perfectly well.

The circumstance is not going to change the second you choose to believe, rather it can be just as bad or even worst than ever. Satan will work very hard to deceive you so that you will never stick it out until God’s truth manifest.

A skillful liar lies not only in word but in gesture and deed; he can as easily pass a bad coin as tell an untruth. The Devil is a skillful liar, and we cannot expect him to stop at words in his lying. He will resort to lying signs and feelings and experiences in his attempts to shake us from our faith in God’s Word.

Satan is a thief. He comes to steal, kill, and destroy (John 10:10). Since Satan cannot do it in the open, he has to lie to achieve these purposes. As Christian, we have real authority over Satan and his army, but if we are deceived by him and fail to exercise our authorities in Christ, we will live like a poor kid who has inherited billions of dollars but live as though he is still poor.

The key is to call things that are not as though they were, until they are. No one can stop that formerly poor but presently rich kid to go to the bank and withdraw some cash from his bank account that has billions of dollars, but he has to go through some paper work and stand in the line the first time he goes to the bank. He has to show his identity to the teller and exercise his legal right as a billionaire.

Testimony #3 Rebuke Satan, temptation, and evil thought. Call it a lie!

Satan and his demons can manipulate your emotion and thinking. Sinful thoughts inside your head might actually originated from unclean spirits from within or without, and they can disguise their implanted thoughts as your own thoughts. If you doubt whether a Christian can be manipulated by demons like that, go here.

Here is an excerpt of a testimony from Grantley Morris’ website: Calling temptation, accusation, and evil thought a lie

I resisted the devil by not believing his lies. But I also hit him with the truth. That makes me feel real good. I only use short statements of truth. The devil wants me to have a debate with him but that would be giving him the upper hand. I’ve found it’s important not to get too involved with the Tempter. Jesus didn’t strike up a conversation or debate with the devil. He boldly and emphatically declared Bible verses and told him to get lost – nothing more! (Matthew 4:1-10) I’ve discovered that’s all any of us have to do. So I don’t bother arguing with the devil; I know the truth and I’m holding on to it, no matter what.

The devil might throw a bad feeling at me but I remember he’s hurting ten times worse. Every time Satan hears me saying, “That’s a lie!” it hurts him bad. The feelings he puts on me are just his desperate attempt to get me to stop because he’s scared. He knows he’s losing.

If demons want to put awful thoughts into my head, they are going to hate being near me because I’m committed to worshipping Jesus until the day I die. For the first time in my life I’m winning and I’m not going to let some thought or feeling rob me and drag me back to the black hole in which I used to live.

I used the same tactics when fighting urges to look at porn or women other than my wife. If the thought wasn’t good, I called it a lie. If the Bible doesn’t say it is true, I called it a lie. When I feel unforgiven, I call it a lie. It worked. The devil has little power over me now.

The demons can actually give you bad feelings! Likewise, they can make you feel like you have sinful desires while the fact is that the desires are coming from them.

What we can do is to expose the scheme of the enemy and call it a lie. A bad feeling can be a lie. An evil thought can be a lie. A physical pain can be a lie. We have to pay attention to the Holy Spirit and rely on Him to discern what’s going on behind the scene. Once we identify that something actually came from the enemy, we call it a lie and rebuke it with the truth!

Testimony #4 How to substantiate the promises of God that were already done deals in the spiritual realm

Most of the time the promise of God is considered done when the Lord had said it, and many other times, our prayers are answered the first time we prayed or even before that (Matthew 6:32)!

However, in the physical realm, God’s Word hasn’t manifested yet, but I am telling you, the answer to your prayer and the substance of your hopes already exist (Hebrews 11:1)! They are just warped presents sitting somewhere in the unseen realm, waiting for you to substantiate them with your faith, action, and patience.

The following testimony is one of the best examples on how to substantiate the truth that already existed.

Joel Osteen Your Best Life Now Pg 129

In 1981, my mother was diagnosed with cancer and given just a few weeks to live…

And my mother never gave up. She refused to speak words of defeat. She didn’t complain about how sick or weak she felt, or how awful her life was, or how hopeless her situation looked. She chose to put God’s words in her mind and in her mouth.

She started speaking faith-filled words. She started calling in health and calling in healing. All during the day, we’d hear her going through the house speaking aloud, “I will live and not die, and I will declare the works of the Lord.” She was like a walking Bible!

I’d say, “Mother, how are you doing?”

She’d say, “Joel, I’m strong in the Lord and the power of His might.” She pored over her Bible and found about thirty or forty favorite passages of Scripture concerning healing. She wrote them down, and every day, she’d read over them and boldly declare them aloud. We’d see her walking up and down the driveway, saying, “With long life, He satisfies me and shows me His salvation.”

Mother mixed her words with God’s Words, and something powerful began to happen. Her circumstances began to change. Not overnight, but little by little, she began to feel better. She got her appetite back and started gaining weight. Slowly but surely, her strength returned.

What was happening? God was watching over His Word to perform it. God was restoring health to her and healing her of her wounds. A few weeks went by and Mother got a little better. A few months went by, and she was even better. A few years went by, and she just kept on confessing God’s Word. Today, it has been more than twenty years since we received the report that Mother had just a few weeks to live, and as I write these words, Mother is totally free from that cancer, healed by the power of God’s Word!

And she is still confessing God’s Word. She gets up every morning and reviews those same Scriptures on the subject of healing. She still speaks those words of faith, victory, and health over her life. She won’t leave the house until she does it. Beyond that, she lives to remind “Mr Death” that he has no hold on her life.

The Bible contains a lot more promises than just those that talks about health! Ask the Lord to help you be more creative and ask for more things!

Testimony #5 Rebuke the lies and substantiate God’s truth!

What happened in this testimony is a very real and typical situation, and everybody will face something similar, sooner or later, if he or she is to live on earth (1 Peter 5:9). In the previous testimonies, we discussed the importance of trust, rebuking lies, and substantiating truth. This testimony is a typical case which demands all these skills.

Watchman Nee’s testimony of his terminal illness

When I first became aware of my illness in 1924, I was feeling feeble, there was pain in my chest, and I had a slight fever…

Dr. Wong told me that I was afflicted with tuberculosis and that my condition was so serious…

Day after day passed without my tuberculosis being cured. Though I exerted myself to write and to study the Bible, I found it exceedingly strenuous. I had a slight fever each afternoon, I could not sleep at night, and I frequently experienced night sweats…

After praying for over a month, I felt that I should write a book concerning what I had learned before God…

At that time my disease became so aggravated that I could not even lie down. While writing I sat on a chair with a high back and pressed my chest against the desk to alleviate the pain. Satan said to me, “Since you will soon be dying, why not die in comparative comfort rather than in pain?” I retorted, “The Lord wants me just like this; get out of here!” It took four months to complete the three volumes of The Spiritual Man. The writing of this book was a real labor of blood, sweat, and tears. I despaired of life, yet God’s grace brought me through. After completing each time of writing, I would say to myself, “This is my last testimony to the church.” [Sai Kit: Now, I highlighted this sentence because it is not biblical. Don't ever curse yourself like that. I believe Watchman Nee's generation had very little teaching on the power of the tongue so he didn't know better at the time. However, if he was born in this generation I am sure he won't speak any self-imposed curse like this. And I also believe that the reason why his illness was getting so serious and prolonged was because of his own negative words.]

…Following the publication of the book, I prayed, “Now let Your servant depart in peace.” At the same time my disease worsened. [See!? Self-imposed curse was working against him! The moment he prayed for death his disease got worst] I could not sleep peacefully at night, and when I awoke I turned incessantly from side to side. Physically, I was a bag of bones. I had night sweats, and my voice became hoarse. People had trouble hearing me speak, even when they placed their ear to my mouth. Several sisters took turns waiting upon me, one of whom was a veteran nurse. Whenever she saw me, she would weep. She testified, “I have seen many patients, but I have never seen one whose condition was as pitiful as his. I am afraid that he can live only three or four more days.” When someone told me of this, I said, “Let this be my end. I realize I am going to die soon.” [He did it again!] One brother telegraphed the churches in various places, telling them there was no more hope for me and that they need pray for me no more [Even Christians can bring curses upon you, if you receive their words that are speaking against you without rebuking these curses with the name of Christ and His blood you will live under these curses].

One day I asked God, “Why are You calling me away so soon?” I confessed my trespasses before God, fearing that I might have been unfaithful concerning some matter. At the same time I told God that I had no faith. On that same day I devoted myself to fasting and praying and presented myself to Him once more. I told Him that I would do nothing but what He assigned me. From morning until three o’clock in the afternoon I fasted. At the same time the co-workers earnestly prayed together for me in Sister Ruth Lee’s home. As I prayed to God to grant me faith, He spoke His words to me, words which I could never forget. [Please note, when he asked for more faith, the Lord gave him his words instead. Faith comes by hearing! (Romans 10:17)] The first sentence was, “The just shall live by faith” (Rom. 1:17). The second sentence was, “By faith you stand” (2 Cor. 1:24). The third sentence was, “We walk by faith” (2 Cor. 5:7). These words filled me with great joy, for the Bible says, “All things are possible to him who believes” (Mark 9:23). I immediately thanked and praised God because He had given me His words. I believed that God had cured me. [When the Lord has spoken, consider it done. Stop praying but start thanks giving and praising.]

The test came immediately. The Bible says, “By faith you stand,” but I was still lying in bed. A conflict arose in my mind: Should I get up and stand or remain lying down? We all know that human beings love themselves and consider it more comfortable to die in bed than to die standing. Then the word of God manifested its power, and ignoring all else, I put on my clothing, clothing which I had not worn for a hundred and seventy-six days. As I left the bed to stand, I perspired so profusely that it was as though I had been soaked through with rain. Satan said to me, “Are you trying to stand when you can’t even sit up?” I retorted, “God told me to stand,” and I rose to my feet. Being again in a cold sweat, I nearly fell down. I kept repeating, “Stand by faith, stand by faith!” [Our hero of faith started confessing God's Word!!] I then walked a few steps to get my trousers and socks. After putting on my trousers, I sat down. No sooner was I seated than the word of God came to me that I should not only stand by faith but also walk by faith. I felt that the ability to rise and walk a few steps to get my trousers and socks was already something marvelous. How could I expect to walk further? “Where do You want me to go?” I asked God. He answered, “Go downstairs to Sister Lee’s home at number 215.” A number of brothers and sisters had been fasting and praying for me there for two or three days.

Walking within the room might be all right, I thought, but how could I walk downstairs? I prayed to God, “Oh God, I can stand by faith, and by faith I am also able to walk downstairs!” Immediately, I went to the door leading to the staircase and opened it. I tell you honestly that when I stood at the top of the staircase it seemed to me to be the tallest staircase I had ever seen in my life. I said to God, “If You tell me to walk I will do so, even if I die as a result of the effort.” But I continued, “Lord, I cannot walk. I pray that You will support me with Your hand while I am walking.” With one hand holding onto the rail, I descended step by step. Again I was in a cold sweat. As I walked down the stairs, I continued to cry out, “Walk by faith, walk by faith!” With each step down, I prayed, “O Lord, it is You who enable me to walk.” While descending those twenty-five steps, it seemed I was walking hand in hand with the Lord in faith.

Upon reaching the bottom of the stairway, I felt very strong and went quickly to the rear door. I opened the door and headed straight for Sister Lee’s home. I said to the Lord, “From now on, I will live by faith and will no longer be an invalid.” I knocked at the door just as Peter did in Acts 12:12-17, but without Rhoda to open the door. When the door was opened and I entered the house, seven or eight brothers and sisters gazed at me. They were speechless and motionless. For about an hour everyone sat quietly as if God had appeared among men. I also sat there full of thanksgiving and praise.

The above testimony revealed the key principles of faith. I am going to summarize them in the conclusion of this post.

Conclusion

The key principle is: confession, proclamation, thanksgiving, and praise. (That’s why you see a similar pattern in the book of Psalms and the Old Testament all the time)

In each and every test and trial that we encounter daily, we have to do this one thing correctly– speak exactly what the Bible says about it. We have to “hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering” (Hebrews 10:23)

On our own, the Bible will always seem too thick to find a relevant verse to confess with, but with help from the Holy Spirit we will know what to say at the right time.

Anything that doesn’t fall in line with the truth– be it feeling, appearance, symptoms, evil thought, desire, or anything that people say– we are to call it a lie. Rebuke them the way Jesus did! (Matthew 4:1-10; Matthew 8:26; Matthew 16:23)

Lastly, I want to share with you the last quote of faith.

I am the sum total of what I have been confessing through the years. Joel Osteen

Same for me! 99.9% of the negative words that I have confessed in the last 10+years have manifested! And so were the positive confessions that were inspired by God.

The positive confessions were done naturally when I eagerly shared with my friends some of the most recent revelations I had received a the time. I did it because I thought it could help others, but little did I know that this action alone had turned out to be the key to manifesting those revelations.

Negative confessions came very easily. They came through while we participated in gossips, or simply trying to vent our frustration or confusion about certain things with others.

Praying about or analyzing the negatives in a situation also is a form of negative confession. We will get caught by our words (Proverbs 6:2) and see our self-fulfilling prophesies fulfilled (Numbers 14:28)! I was there and got the T-shirt! Don’t repeat my mistakes!

Let’s hold fast the confession of our hope with out wavering!!

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1. Overcoming depression
2. How to have more faith
3. How to stop sinning
4. Managing stress
5. Overcoming anxiety
6. Overcoming procrastination
7. Overcoming bad habits
8. Overcoming lust
9. Overcoming Fear
10. Overcoming Adversity
11. Seeking and fulfilling God’s plan for your life
12. How to be prosperous and successful in a conservative, biblical, and godly way

Now I wouldn’t dare giving you the above grand promises if I hadn’t received some major revelations from the Lord recently, which I believed would change my own life dramatically from now on.

I want to share this blessing with you, and the blessing of these revelations are meant for every Christian, and to a certain extent, even for the non-Christians. Everyone can receive the benefits of God’s promises. It makes me think of Psalms 119:130, “The unfolding of your words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple.”

Mysteries of the kingdom of God revealed!

Jesus told the disciples that he had explained to them the mysteries of the kingdom of God (Luke 8:10). In other words, the mysteries that had been hidden since time of  Genesis were revealed in his teaching.

What mysteries?

Items 1 to 12 from the top of this post, and even more!

The kingdom of God is as close as you want it to be. From now on, stop acting or speaking like you don’t know how to live victoriously. Stop thinking that you shouldn’t be held accountable for things you don’t know.

Why do I say that?

Just days ago I was like most people. I was not above complaining about what I didn’t know, and what I didn’t have. I would say things like, “how do I stop sinning?”; “I am confused!”; “I don’t know why I am like this!”

The Kingdom of God is as close as you want it to be

Right after Jesus talked about this mysteries, he explained why the multitude didn’t understand his parables.

Luke 8:10 And He said, “To you it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to the rest it is given in parables, that ‘ Seeing they may not see, And hearing they may not understand.

People who don’t really want to receive more from God will not receive. They see but they don’t see. They hear but they don’t understand.

In the kingdom of God, the more we have the more we will be given. It’s like capitalism.

For example, have you tried to repeat a refreshing conversation you had with a dear friend to another person?

If that person is a bad listener, or if he doesn’t have the intimate knowledge or experience your dear friend has, you would feel like your words get caught up in your throat. That person might think that he understands you,  but your message is oversimplified and desensitized into something that is far less than the conversation you had with your dear friend.

It’s similar to when God is trying to reveal His mysteries to us. The more we have, the more He will be able to tell us things. The less we have, the less He will be able to explain deeper things to us.

An insincere, passive way of listening is not going to bring us far.

But you are not like that. You obviously want to know more. So don’t worry. You are going to understand the mysteries of God. God Himself guaranteed that. Seek and you will find! (Matt 7:7)

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A perfect answer to the question “how?”

Sincere and God-loving Christians often ask “How?”, which is a good question. The fact that you are interested in finding out the answers to items 1 to 12 on top of this post indicates that you like How-to articles, right?

Great, I am a How-to kind of guy. I like clear step by step formula for spiritual matter.

God said, “sin no more!” (John 8:11) And I asked”How?”

God said, “Be joyful always” (1 Thess 5:16) I asked “How?”

God said, “Be perfect, because I am perfect” (Matt 5:48) “How?”

“Have faith in me!” “How?”

“Meditate in my words day and night, and you will be prosperous and have good success!” “How?”

“How do I stop this depressive thought?” “How do I get rid of this bitterness?” “How do I stop sinning?” “How can I become more diligent?” “How can I stop being lazy?” …

God always reveal the answer, although many times I didn’t get the answers quickly. It sometimes took years. God doesn’t answer my questions in essays. The answer often requires God using my own experience and adding bit and piece of enlightenment along the way, which eventually form a 3-D testimony of my own that finally give me the answer.

It’s like putting puzzles together into a picture.

Regarding the question of “how?”.

The perfect answer to the Hows is…

You don’t know how!!!

Yup, that’s the answer. That’s right, you don’t know how. I am not kidding.

Mark 4:26-27 And He said, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground, and should sleep by night and rise by day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he himself does not know how.

If you ask God how this happen, how that happen, and how to do this or that, God might actually answer you, but usually the ultimate solution is “just be”.

The words of God change what you are. The Bible is not written to give us a list of How-to, but to give us life.

How often do you see the Bible give you a list of how-to and formulas? You can find them in a cook book, but probably not the Bible.

How does it related to the Parable Of The Mustard Seed?

The key is hidden in the seed.

You might never understand the hows, but if you plant the seeds, and wait patiently, they will give you a harvest. The seeds will change you from within, and release the power of God in everything God called you to do. Problems solved. No need for the hows anymore.

You don’t need to worry about the hows anymore. They are irrelevant.

You have everything you need already. The Bible says God has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness. (2 Peter 1:3)

What is life? Productivity certainly is. Joy, peace, health, and success are also important parts of life. Life isn’t just merely surviving and putting up with sins, defeats, and pains.

And there is godliness. Godliness is perfection and holiness. It’s living above sins!

Life and godliness are the solutions to items 1 to 12!!

Before I go on about actually planting the seeds and getting a good harvest of life and godliness, let me develop my case a little bit better.

How come some Christians are more Christian than the others?

This is the question I had for years. I often heard that some spiritual giants had a major revelation and suddenly they no longer sin. (such as Watchman Nee, Hudson Taylor)

I had been seeking this elusive, mysterious revelation for years, but I didn’t really understand. I read their testimonies but I didn’t see through the surface. I heard but I didn’t understand. (Luke 8:10)

If you have the same experience, welcome to the club! Congratulation because my years of struggles may serve you well!

I often asked Christians whom I admired questions such as “How do you keep yourself from sinning?”, “How come you are so self-disciplined?” “How do you manage to achieve so much within so short a time?”

I’d even asked pastors about this, but they didn’t really answer my questions.

For the victorious Christians, often time they really don’t know how they came to be victorious. They simply are what they are.

I know it’s not about self. It’s about relying on God. I rely on God, too! But how come I fall short while some people always do better than me? And they don’t even know how it happened!

Look into the seeds!!!

The mustard seed has faith, power, and transformational properties within it

Just scatter the seeds (The word of God) on the ground (Your soul: your heart and mind), preserve them with a good heart, and you will reap a harvest. (Luke 8:15)

The mustard seeds are the word of God.

Your faith will increase simply by listening to the word. (Romans 10:17)

Every word of God contains power. (Hebrews 4:12)

The word of God can be implanted into your soul, and save your soul through its living, growing, and transforming power. (James 1:21)

The word of God will accomplish everything it says it will accomplish. (Isaiah 5:11)

How come I don’t experience the word of God that way?

If God’s word has the aforementioned properties, then why do I go to the church so often, read the Bible a lot, and hear the sermons so many times, but still get stuck with certain struggles in my life?

The main reasons can be found in the parable of the sower (Mark 4:1-20, Matthew 13:1-23, and Luke 8:1-15) You and I know that only good seed (not to be confused with the mustard seeds) who persevere, who refuse distractions, who suffer persecutions, and who listen to word of God with a “good heart” will produce a great harvest in the end.

What else? The rest of this post will focus exactly on that.

For the sincere Christians who seem to belong to the category of good seeds : they go to the church, they study the Bible, and they do this, this and that, but they still had problems with lust, depression, laziness, sickness, fears, and etc.

What’s wrong?

You have to unlock the powers within the mustard seeds!!!

God has done His parts, and the only part left is ours.

The Bible says, “His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue” (2 Peter 1:3)

God has already given us everything, absolutely everything that pertain to life and godliness. He doesn’t need to give us more. We have enough. We should.

So how do you unlock the power of God’s word? How do you get the seeds working?

Simple. So simple that it’s almost hard to understand.

#1, speak the word of God in faith and speak it often. (Joshua 1:8)

I don’t mean intellectual conversation or discussion. We can study God’s word intellectually, but that’s another subject. Here I want to let you know that even simple, verbal declaration of God’s word can trigger the power of God.

God said, “Let there be light!” and there was light. The physical world didn’t ask “how?”. It simply obeyed. There was nothing too intellectual or too complicated about it.

Jesus rebuked the sea and the wind, and they listened to him. (Matt 8:26)

The principle of faith is that if you confess with your mouth and agree in your heart the things you want, they shall be given you. (Romans 10:10; Mark 11:22-24)

Jesus taught us this,

Mark 11:22-24 So Jesus answered and said to them, “Have faith in God. 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. Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.

Matthew 17:20-21 So Jesus said to them, “Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.

You can speak God’s word. You can pray God’s word. One thing is necessary here, faith. If you say it and believe it in your heart, God’s word will manifest.

Don’t pray in a way as if God’s promise isn’t there. For example, don’t pray for victory over sin, or strength over sin, because the Bible say that you and I already connected with Jesus Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection, and therefore we also shared His victory over sins. (Romans 6; Galatians 5:24)

Miraculously, whenever I speak Christ’s victory with all my heart, temptations and the power of sins would collapse and victory would manifest. It isn’t about my willpower. The victory has already been won so don’t attempt to win it again.

If you believe that God’s promise isn’t what it says it is, and pray or speak in a way as if His promise is powerless, then the reality will come out that way.

If you say, “I really don’t know…” or “I am just confused…”, then you will indeed become “don’t know” and confused. You put faith in the words of doubt, so your faith in the negative and your negative words work against you.

Word of faith works in both negative and positive. The negative side of faith is doubt. Doubt means negative faith. It’s one kind of faith. It works.

“I am tired” So you get tired. “I think I am sick” So you get sick. “I don’t know why things get so bad lately” So things get bad and you don’t know why.

In the past many years, I often talked about my sins, my bad habits, and my confusions. I had tried many formula, listen to many godly men and their teachings, but the perfect formula still eluded me. So I kept talking about my sins, my bad habits, and my confusions, and they remained with me faithfully for as long as I talked about them and put my faith in those words.

Countless Christians speak in words of defeats, of their bad experiences, and of their feelings, than they speak in the word of God in faith. No wonder their situations never change. (Me included)

It doesn’t matter how godly you are, how sincere you are, or how much you love God, if you apply this spiritual principle of spoken faith, this principle will work.

You can apply this spiritual principle in ignorant, but this principle doesn’t filter the results base on what you really want. Like electricity, it can hurt you or serve you.

When you speak the word of God often, you hear it often. When you hear it often, your faith increases often. Faith comes by hearing. (Romans 10:17)

I learned to stop trying to find faith from within. I learned that I was only given faith that was the size of a mustard seed. I need to speak it and exercise it to release the faith of God within it.

#2, Deal with the tongue

People often want to know how to have better self-control, productivity, and all that. They also wonder why they don’t have the full life that Jesus promised. (John 10:10)

Some Christians even struggled with bondage such as suicidal thoughts, depressions, angers, bitterness, and all sort of things.

Christians who are willing to obey everything God ask of them might still live a powerless and unfulfilled life, and most often the source of problems trace back to their tongues.

James 3:2-6 For we all stumble in many things. If anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body. Indeed, we put bits in horses’ mouths that they may obey us, and we turn their whole body. Look also at ships: although they are so large and are driven by fierce winds, they are turned by a very small rudder wherever the pilot desires. Even so the tongue is a little member and boasts great things. See how great a forest a little fire kindles! And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire by hell.

Psalm 34:12-16 Who is the man who desires life, And loves many days, that he may see good? Keep your tongue from evil, And your lips from speaking deceit.

Proverbs 15:4 A wholesome tongue is a tree of life, But perverseness in it breaks the spirit.

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

The Bible says that evil words of the tongue came from hell!(James 3:2-6) Hell is the home of demons, and there they torture the damned souls whom they had successfully deceived till the end of their earthly life.

For example, people who had self-hatred, suicidal thoughts, and depression were actually victim of demons. They planted these thoughts and deceptions in their victims’ minds.

The purposes of the demons are to steal, kill, and destroy. (John 10:10) The Devil can only achieve that by planting evil thoughts and deceptions in people’s minds. The demons will move on to the next victim after they have done their planting, and they will come back to check their work from time to time. (Job 1:7; 1 Peter 5:8)

If these victims died in sins, or died without Christ, the demons that tortured them on earth will continue their torments in hell.

The tongue is a battle field of the Holy Spirit, the flesh, and the demons. ( Gal 5:17) The demons want to use our tongues to curse, to defile our whole body, and set things on fire!!

Sounds crazy? One time Jesus rebuked Peter with these words, “Get thee behind me Satan!” (Matt 16:23) Peter was just trying to talk Jesus out of the Crucifixion, but Jesus identified the true author of this plead as Satan himself.

The heaven and hell know that if they can control your tongues, they control your whole body.(James 3:2) Which side do you prefer to yield your control over?

When Christians speak evil of any kind, even if they think it’s just harmless venting or teasing, they are actually giving power to the enemy. Words of self-pity, doubts, complains, condemnation, and idle words make the Devil powerful.

The Devil has no power over us unless we give it to him. The Devil cannot order the mountains to move, but we can. The Devil knows it. Therefore, he works very hard to get us to say things that he wants us to say.

Through self-inspection and revelation from God, I learned that I had a pattern of self-fulfilling prophesies. I used to talk about my fears a lot. I was taught to tell things as it is. I was taught to vent it out. For every 1-2 years, some of my worst fear would come to pass, exactly the way I didn’t want it to happen!!

For example, I predicted that since I was so bad in self-discipline (A result of self-fulfilling prophesy in its own right), I would probably suffer lack of achievements. And I predicted that if my dream girl came along, I would be so inadequate and unproductive that I won’t deserve her.

Since immigrated into Canada, I had always worried about my broken English and the fact that I was too lazy to improve it, and when I did meet a dream girl (Second one, see below), she did loath at my accent!

The snobbish attitude that girl had toward me was part of my self-fulfilling prophesy as well. Prior to meeting her in reality, and after I met her, I had been talking about my inadequacy, broken English, and lack of social grace for so many times. I also kept saying and thinking that if I met a dream girl she would probably see through my inadequacies.

A couple of dream girls did come along(Respectively, each for 2.5 years, with 1 year of break in between, so my torments lasted for 5+years), and it did happen the way I predicted. “Better guys” beat me to it, except that the guys weren’t even Christians. They weren’t really superior than I was, but I prophesied my own defeats and contributed to it by the words of my mouth.

It didn’t help when I had been complaining about the snobbish attitude the second dream girl had occasionally expressed toward me, what was I thinking? You can’t get something you really want by complaining about it!!

Side note: Don’t complain about people. Don’t gossip. The more you condemn, the nastier those people would become. Your verbal curses can make people worst than they already are.

Side note#2: I know a lot of failures can be attributed to others, but talking about their incompetence, problems, and attitudes will not make things work. It will actually deliver your worst predictions- “Oh! because so and so … [have done something or failed to do something], it’s going to be … [thousands words description of how bad consequences are going to be]…”

You have faith on the negatives, and you speak it often, so it shall be done for you.

[Back to topic.]

And I did suffer financially and academically because my lack of discipline. I had talked about my lack of self-discipline so many times for so many years, but I had rarely talked about the fruits of the Spirit, which include self-control.

For the 3 years that followed, I cut back on negative words and thinking by listening to God and believing in His perspective on things, rather than in my own perspective– my perspective always lean on the worst angle.

The cut back helped a lot. My depression stopped.

Recently, when I finally had a better understanding of the principle of speaking faith and used it to serve me, bad habits and laziness lose their grips on me!! It’s magical.

Control your tongue, and speak the word of God, and you will get the power of God’s word to work for you. God’s word always deliver when you speak it in faith.

An article I find helpful:

Idle words leak life

#3, Have Faith

Have you ever asked God to increase your faith? When the disciples did this this was Jesus ‘s reply.

Luke 17:5-6 And the apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith.” So the Lord said, “If you have faith as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be pulled up by the roots and be planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.

John 14:12-14 “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do,

Everybody has faith. If someone believe in doubts, rather than in truth, that person is putting his faith in doubts.

If we believe in our feelings, circumstances, and ourselves, more than we believe in the words of God, then we are putting our faith on these things rather than on God.

Jesus didn’t grant his disciples the request for more faith, but he told them how they can exercise the faith they already had by speaking it.

Faith is like a mustard seed. It’s alive. It can grow.

It grows by hearing the word of God. Faith comes by hearing. (Romans 10:17)

The more we speak our faith, the more powerful our faith become as we listen to our voice of faith.

As we experience the power of God, victories will begin to manifest, and the more we experience victories, the more our faith would be strengthen. It’s a positive circle.

We can duplicate what Jesus did, and even more, if we exercise our faith properly.

# 4, Persevere

Luke 8:11-15 ¹¹“This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is the word of God. ¹²Those along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. ¹³Those on the rock are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe for a while, but in the time of testing they fall away. ¹⁴The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life’s worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature. ¹⁵But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.

Perseverance is perhaps the most important key to get the word of God to work in your life. People who just try and see what happen will not last.

The Bible says life’s distraction and time of testing will come. It will look confusing. There will be unpleasant feeling.

After we plant the word of God into our souls and into our circumstances, things probably aren’t going to look very different immediately. It might actually seem worst than before.

The longer you have been a Christian, the more boring things will look like in the short-run. The honeymoon with God has long passed, but if you persevere, God will deliver His promises.

God doesn’t want whiners who whine at the first hint of hardship. God want us to speak the word of faith regardless of our circumstances.

Hebrews 11 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

2 Corinthians 4:13 And since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, “I believed and therefore I spoke,”we also believe and therefore speak,

When situations look bad, and when you feel negative from within, keep speaking the word of God.

You might feel sick, but if you know in your heart that God has promised you healing, then keep speaking your healing out loud. If you are unemployed, but know in your heart that God is giving you a good job, or income of any kind, keep speaking abundance.

When I feel like procrastinating or being lazy, I speak out what I am going to do and why I am able to accomplish the tasks. Although I still feel lazy, my body and mind would find new energy that push me onward, and go ahead to do the tasks that I used to procrastinate under similar situations.

Romans 4:17 As it is written: “I have made you a father of many nations.”He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed—the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were.

The proper way to do it is to calls those things that are not as though they were. You don’t call things that are as though they are. You call thing that are not as though they were.

Man of faith call things that are not as though they were, until they are!!

Man of Doubts call things that are as though they are, until they are.

# 5 , Walk with the Holy Spirit

To be filled with God’s word is to be filled with the Spirit. You can’t have one without the other. Only the Holy Spirit can help you control the tongue.

Go to How to Live A Spirit Filled Life for deeper discussion on the Spirit.

Without the Holy Spirit, we are only as good as non-Christians who practice positive thinking and affirmation. This is why there has been a lot of buzz with The Law Of Attraction and all sort of new age techniques that have to do with verbal affirmation.

You see, many non-Christians can also create abundance and influence others by speaking positively about their situations. They have observed that there was this phenomenon, but they didn’t know why. It was like the discovery of the law of gravity.

The Bible says,

Matthew 7:21-23 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’

1 Corinthians 13:2 and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.

It is possible to have the faith of God without obedience!! It is also possible to have perfect faith without the love of God.

The principle of spoken faith can work for you in this life, but without obedience to the Holy Spirit and the love of God, one will lose his heavenly reward, and it might even be possible to lose his salvation.

Therefore, even a non-Christian can be blessed in this life by the principle of spoken faith. No wonder there are so many successful non-Christians out there who rely on their own strength and their idols.

We as Children of God have much more powerful allies– God’s word and His Spirit– and if we work with them to our full capacity, we will indeed overcome this world and be on top of things. (Deu 28:13)

God does not show favoritism, whoever obeys His law of spoken faith will receive its benefits, but whoever violates this principle will suffer loss. In terms of this principle, it is not how much you love God or how sincere you are that counts, it’s whether you work with this principle that determines whether this principle serves you or hurts you.

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Other resources that I find useful

The Power Of the Tongue

Charles Capps Ministry of Faith

Coming Next: Testimonies Of Faith

The best way to learn a spiritual lesson is combining both scriptural teaching and practical experiences. In the next post I am going to show you the testimonies of faith in actions– How people recover from terminal illness, handicaps, sins, demonic influences, and financial hardship.

Go from Parable Of The Mustard Seed to the Next Post