Prayer: So we thank You for Your work today. Let Your word speak to us today, that we are made better because of what we’re about to receive, and we give You glory and praise, and it’s already done, in Jesus’ name, Amen.
I. INTRODUCTION
The context of this particular scripture is found between verse one and probably throughout much of it. The word for us today is that it was dead until you spoke it. You may be seeing the presence of the Lord today.
Have you ever had a situation in your life that you decided nothing you did was going to change? Have you ever experienced brokenness in your life and you just felt this was just going to be a part of your life, and so you accepted this is the way it was going to play out? All of us have had those moments where we’ve allowed our prognosis and even our diagnosis to collide and create a situation where we accept, “This is my lot in life.” But today I want you to understand the power of revelation — God will always intervene in our lives, and God will give us a word to speak over our situation that has the power to change it all, no matter what it looks like right now.
Ezekiel is the prophet of God who literally stood in a place where he witnessed something many of us have seen in our own lives in various forms and fashions. He looked out and saw a valley full of dry bones — disconnected, disjointed, dusty, affected by the elements because of their exposure. The prognosis of the bones is that they are dead. And God asked Ezekiel a question that perhaps sounded crazy at first: “Can these bones live?” Can what you see bounce back? Can your marriage live? Can your dream live? Can your family live? Can your academic pilgrimage live? Can you survive what you see?
Maybe you’re coming to school for the first time in a brand-new city, trying to figure things out. Maybe you’re starting your business and trying to navigate life. Maybe you’re at a point where your relationships have failed you, and you’re looking at the brokenness and the scattered pieces of your life, and it looks dry, it looks disconnected, and you’re trying to make sense of it.
But God said this word to tell you to open up your mouth and prophesy to it, because whatever God says it’s going to be, it’s going to be. God says He wants you to understand: it was dead until you spoke to it. Whatever thing in your life you speak to, that thing is going to get up. It’s going to live, up to date.
I come declaring at the beginning of this message: it will live — your family is going to live; your career is going to live; you are going to live. We shall live.
II. GOD COMMANDS SPEECH IN HOPELESS SITUATIONS
A. There’s too much at stake to be quiet.
God commands speech in hopeless situations. It is not a suggestion — God is literally commanding Ezekiel to speak. In this season, God is not asking you to tell Him what’s wrong. God is trying to help you understand what’s right. We know the bones are dry. We know it’s disconnected. We know the situation is hopeless. But God will give you a word to speak, and He commands this word in a hopeless situation.
This is what moves you from observation into faith. Observation is just observing what it is; declaration is declaring what it shall be:
• Observation says, “There is no job.” Faith says, “But my God will provide.”
• Observation says, “I’ve got all kinds of enemies around me.” Faith says, “No weapon formed against me shall prosper.”
• Observation says, “My scholarship hasn’t come through yet.” Faith says, “My God shall supply all of my needs according to His riches in glory.”
God moves Ezekiel from being an observer to becoming a participant. Sometimes we pray about things, and we pray about it, but you can’t pray around what God commanded you to speak to. There comes a moment you just have to open up your mouth and say, “This is not going to define me.” You’ve got to speak over your children, your future, your mind, your marriage, your manager, your education, your purpose.
When they buried Lazarus, Jesus shows up and does not negotiate — He just says, “Come forth,” and “Get up.” This is a season, you’ve got to speak to everything dead in your life. Speak to your bank account. Speak to that sickness. Speak to that jacked-up relationship. There’s too much at stake for you to be quiet. These bones represent something bigger than you.
The enemy always wants to mute you, because he understands there is power whenever a child of God opens up their mouth. Remember Jeremiah — he said, “God, Your people are crazy, I’m done, I will not speak anymore in Your name.” But Jeremiah came back and said, “But Your word was like fire shut up in my bones.” When you have the word of God inside of you, you can’t help but open up your mouth and say something. Somebody needs your testimony. Somebody needs your wisdom. Somebody needs your leadership. There’s too much at stake for you to be quiet.
B. God often waits on your voice before He releases His breath.
God waits on you to say something before He divinely intervenes. We want God to move by His power, but God’s power does not excuse you from human responsibility. There’s an order to your miracle: first the word, then the response, then the movement, then the breath, then life. God operates like that.
There are some prayers that require a response from us before we see a response:
• If you want to graduate, you’ve got to study.
• If you want to be great, you’ve got to work.
• If you want to seal the deal, somebody has to start the conversation.
• If you want to be healthy, get rid of the honey bun, get the Skittles out of your pocket, get some water, and get on a treadmill.
I love how the partnership works with Ezekiel — God allows Ezekiel to partner with Him. God provides the power, Ezekiel provides the obedience; God provides the breath, Ezekiel provides the voice. God does not only do what He can do, but He expects us to do what He commands us to do. All you need to do is open up your mouth and say what He told you to say, and watch — the word then precedes the wind.
III. THE WORD PRECEDES THE WIND
A. Breath follows proclamation, not emotion.
God never operates in chaos, He always operates in order. God did not release the wind until the word was spoken. The order matters, because if you reverse the order, you disrupt the process. Emotion does not activate your resurrection — obedience does. Wind is powerful, but wind requires direction, so the word provides guardrails for the wind that’s about to come, because the word goes before the wind comes. God told them to go to the upper room, and in Acts chapter 2 He gave a word, and then Pentecost happened. Breath follows proclamation, not emotion.
When you look at your situation — imagine a valley full of dry bones, whatever that means for you. When you look at your current financial situation, all of us have a valley, a place of dry bones, and that can trigger an emotional response. But if Ezekiel waits until he feels like speaking, what God says won’t happen. God gives you a command regardless of how you feel about it.
Extraordinarily mediocre people are always mood-driven: For example, “I just feel… I don’t know, I just don’t feel it.” Like sheep — the Bible says, “All we like sheep have gone astray.” This is what happens: you don’t feel motivated, you don’t feel hope, you don’t feel confident — “just leave me alone, I don’t feel it.”
You operate in your emotional space all the time — that is your genesis, your emotion — because you operate in your emotions all the time, that’s why your life is full of commotion. You can’t trust your feelings, because one day you’ll feel one way, the next day you won’t.
The alarm clock goes off, and nobody wakes up every morning excited. Your mind says, “You deserve more rest,” but somewhere deep down inside, something says, “Get up.” That thing that says “get up” is speaking to your responsibility, because what you’re responsible for is greater than how you feel in your body.
He spoke to the bones while they were still dry. Dry, he declared. Nothing had moved. He obeyed — there was no evidence. Ezekiel’s responsibility was not to produce the proof, his responsibility was to release the word. You may not feel qualified to take the class, you may not feel courageous to have the conversation, but still put in your offer. You may not feel strong, but take the next step.
B. Resurrection begins when faith finds its voice.
Some of you right now are walking into stuff that you spoke many years ago — you talked yourself past your emotions, you talked yourself past your tiredness, and you spoke that thing into existence.
Your words always set up an atmosphere. Paul and Silas, in Acts chapter 16, had been tied up and beaten, but they didn’t wait for the situation to change — they began to praise God in the jail, and that’s when things began to change. You look at people who give God glory and think they’re crazy, but you don’t realize we’re praising God on our way to our next breakthrough.
Resurrection begins when faith finds its voice to believe, but faith has to have a voice. Ezekiel, can these bones live? If you believe that, then prove it by what your voice says. Faith has a voice, just like fear has a voice. Fear has a voice, but faith also has a voice that shows up and says, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me,” “We are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.”
It all depends on what you choose to say with your mouth. It has a voice:
• You can say, “I’m never going to get out of this,” or you can say, “God will provide.”
• You can say, “My life is over,” or you can say, “My life is just beginning, and this is going to be the best chapter of my life.”
• You can say, “I’m broke, I’m busted, I’m depleted,” or you can say, “I’m blessed and highly favored, on my way to my next miracle.”
Remember, Jesus is on a ship, a storm comes, and the disciples wake Him and say, “Do You not care that we are perishing?” Jesus does not negotiate with the wind — He just says, “Peace, be still.” The wind had a voice, the disciples had a voice, the storm had a voice, but God’s voice, God’s word, was greater. Critics have a voice, and everybody around you has a voice, but you’ve got to get to a point where you begin to thank God for His voice over your life.
IV. LIFE RESPONDS TO AUTHORIZED SPEECH
A. Dry bones recognize the Word of the Lord.
Response — authorized speech. A lot of people are talking, but they’re not authorized. You can go into a courtroom and just start talking — that doesn’t make you the judge. You can go to the hospital and be talking stuff you learned on YouTube — that doesn’t make you a doctor. You can put on a referee outfit and go onto a football field — that doesn’t make you a referee, because you’re not authorized.
The prophet was authorized to speak exactly what God said. The reason we have so much false prophesying and homiletical malpractice is because people are inserting their own agenda and opinion into what God said. God doesn’t need you to add anything to what He said. All you’ve got to do is say what God said.
Ezekiel says, “I will only say what God told me to say.” The power of this is not Ezekiel’s personality, it is not his vocabulary, it is not his volume. The power is in the word that comes out of his mouth. Somebody who knows God’s word still has authority. His word has purpose. His word has power. You don’t need to add another word.
You don’t have to improve on the word, you don’t have to rewrite the word, all you’ve got to do is trust the word that God has given you. God sends a word to you — that word gets in you, and that word handles your whole life around you — it preaches all by itself. That word lives in you, so when life starts, guess what comes out of you — the word that was sown in your life.
When Jesus was being tempted in the wilderness, the devil tried to trip Him up, but Jesus says, “But it is written, but it is written” — giving us a great example. Whenever life starts, just remind the enemy: it is written.
You don’t choose a church home because it’s closest to your house, or because it’s the culturally cool place to be. You choose a church home because you need a word from God. Give God glory for His word.
Dry bones recognize the word of God. Bones that have been exposed to the elements and have been dried — you may think, “Do they even hear me?” — but dry bones respond to the word.
B. They thought you were dead, but God wasn’t done!
Some of you have been praying for a child but know that dry bones will respond. Some of you are praying for a spouse, but dry bones will respond. Be patient, because dry bones will eventually respond to the word of God.
Here is something I never want you to forget: they thought you were dead, but God wasn’t done! The Bible says when Ezekiel spoke, there was a noise, and then a shaking. Shaking is often misinterpreted as a demonic attack, but the shaking is not the devil. The shaking is divine. It is God setting you up for your next season.
Some of you right now have had a shake-up on your job, a shake-up in a relationship, a shake-up in a friendship. God had to remove everyone who didn’t have the capacity to be around you before He brought the blessing over your life. After the shaking, the disconnected, dry bones found their place.
This is not a situation where somebody died in one spot and all of their bones stayed right where they were left. Things got moved to places they were not supposed to be. So, when God told Ezekiel to speak to the bones, as he prophesied, there was a shaking. And bone came to bone. The cranium came together, the cervical vertebrae came into alignment, the clavicle found its place, and the sternum found its place. The ribs formed around the chest, the thoracic vertebrae lined up, the lumbar vertebrae came into place. The sacrum connected and the pelvis connected to the hip.The patella found its position, the tibia and the fibula lined up, the ankle came together. The tarsals and bones of the foot found their place. From the head to the feet, everything found its place.
All things in your life are coming back together again. God is putting all things back together. He is bringing your dream back together. He’s speaking your family back together. He’s speaking your peace back together. He’s speaking your purpose back together. He’s speaking your life back together. He’s speaking your joy back together.
And so when the bone came back together, now there is structure in the valley. Now God says, now I’m going to bring the sinews back onto the bones. This is muscle. So God is saying, “I have to give you strength for where I’m about to take you, because where I’m about to take you, you can’t be crying over everything — you’re going to need a deeper prayer life. You’re going to have to toughen up right now, because if that little thing almost broke you, you won’t survive where I’m getting ready to take you.
God is strengthening you right now. God is strengthening your core. He’s strengthening your family.
Then He put skin on the sinew, so that the way they saw it, they would never see it that way again. In this season, you’re going to have to reintroduce yourself to people. They’ve only seen you broken and disconnected.
It looks well put together. The bones have come together, that’s structure. Now you got strength, but we have a problem. You got the degree and you got titles behind your name. You got the friendships, the house you wanted, and the car you wanted. Now you got all the stuff you wanted and now you flossing, but there is one thing missing.
The bible says there was no life in the bones, until God blew his wind. We need God’s spirit. Breath on my spirit, breathe on my ministry, breathe on my job. Breath on my children. Breath on my carrier.
We cant make it without Him. In him we live move and have our being. Breath on us God!!
The same people that saw you dead is the same people that need to see you standing up in the valley. Everything is about to get up. Let everything that has breath, praise the Lord.
12 For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
Today, many of us will testify that what we need in this season is not necessarily more information. What we’re after is alignment. Alignment is important, because we live in a time where people want affirmation, but not adjustment. People literally want comfort but do not want correction. It’s important to notice this: while you are praying for transformation in your life, you have to also be open to truth in your life, because we’re going to discover that God’s word for us today is never meant to simply inspire us. It is meant to come into our lives and intervene in the deepest places of our lives, to bring about change. The word does not come to coddle our confusion; the word comes to straighten us out.
We shout on scripture on Sunday, but do not have the ability to live it out on Monday. We want God to change our circumstances, but we don’t want God to touch our character. That’s why we can say, “God, change all that, but just leave me alone” — but God is not just in the business of changing our circumstances; it is God’s desire to change us from the inside out, because once you change internally, things turn around — you begin to change externally. The word has a way of getting past our appearance and dealing with our intentions, going deeper than many of us even realize today.
I want you to understand that the word of God does not need permission to do what it does. It comes in because it is authorized by truth, and when the word of God comes into your life, please understand — God’s word is accurate, and God’s word comes in at the right time, at the right season. God speaks into my situation exactly where I am, but He’s not going to leave me the way He found me today.
We’re going to understand that there are some errors in all of our lives. We need God’s word to straighten us out. Let’s be honest — we all showed up with some stuff that needs to be straightened out. We can act like it ain’t us, but let’s be very clear: all of us have some stuff — attitudes, ways in which we’ve been dealing with some stuff we haven’t talked about. We all have some gossip areas we need God to straighten us out in, and if you’re open to it, I guarantee your God’s going to straighten some stuff out today.
A lot of the people in this book were Hebrews — believers who were Jews who had converted to Christianity — and they were under great distress. Many of them were frustrated because they were dealing with social isolation and spiritual persecution, and they were really wondering if it was worth it to continue on in their faith. It’s interesting because this book is written in a way the hearer could understand contextually what the writer is saying, because even though they were contemplating abandoning their faith, Hebrews encourages them to understand the power and efficacy of the word of God, because the word of God is what sustains us — it keeps us. When you begin to look at chapters 3 and 4, you begin to understand that the writer reflects back over Israel, and what they were carrying through the wilderness. He makes references to that — they were delivered from Egypt, but in the wilderness their problem was not so much the wilderness. Their problem was not obeying the word of God, not doing what God’s word said they should do.
It’s interesting because when you begin to look at that, we arrive at verse 12. This verse isn’t a random drop into this space — this word really is an explanation as to why unbelief is so dangerous, because God’s word is alive. It keeps speaking whether you hear it or not. God’s going to keep on speaking and keep on speaking and keep on speaking. God’s word is alive; He’ll keep on talking to you until you finally open up your ears and hear it.
So let me move real quickly — it’s important, because the Bible says His word — watch this — it is active. It is sharper than a two-edged sword. This is a reference this audience would understand, because Roman soldiers understood what a two-edged sword was. Please understand — a Roman soldier operated with long swords and short swords, but the short sword was the gladius. It was the two-edged sword, whereas the long sword was for slicing — it was for literally coming through, randomly just cutting. But the gladius, the two-edged sword, was more precision — it pierced the armor. It was something a soldier would really have to practice for years to perfect, because battles were not won by how long the sword was — the battle was won by how precise the sword was.
So the writer of Hebrews intentionally borrows this imagery, because God’s word never swings carelessly — it never wounds unnecessarily, it never misses its target. It reaches exactly where God intends, with divine precision. It’s a sword — the sword of God cuts with precision. It cuts both ways every time. God’s word confronts us — it’s cutting away something that doesn’t belong. God will remove unbelief, but He’ll build your faith. God will expose pride, but He’ll build humility. God will move deception away, but He will allow truth to take root.
And so today I come to tell somebody — God’s going to do what God’s going to do, if you open up your spirit and you are ready for God to do what God’s going to do. Somebody say, “Lord, do it. I need You to straighten me out in areas so that I don’t self-destruct.” So today we’re going to have a conversation. It’s going to get real up in here.
THE WORD IS ALIVE, NOT ARCHIVED
God’s Word Is Present Tense Power, Not Past Information.
Abraham spent time in Egypt during a famine.
Joseph governed Egypt.
Moses was raised in Pharaoh’s household.
The prophet Jeremiah found refuge in Egypt.
Jesus, Joseph, and Mary.
Now I want you to understand something: God’s word is present tense. Watch this — God’s word is alive and not archived. Somebody say, “God’s word is alive and not an archive.” That’s important because it means something — God’s word is living, not legendary. God’s word is not some relic. I want you to understand what God’s word is. God’s word cannot be looked at as something from history — it is functioning, it is real, it has authority. God’s word is right now. Your technology must be upgraded, updated, all that stuff — but God’s word does not need to be updated, because every day God’s word is fresh. It is relevant. It is right now. When I look at God’s word, I have to recognize something — I will not look at it like a social media archive. Social media archives will tell me where I was at that particular date; God’s word will give me a revelation of where I am right now. God’s word always speaks into my right-now situation.
When I understand that, when I open up the word of God, I am not looking at just an archived history of what occurred — I am trying to find out, “God, what are You saying to me in this very moment right now?” That means when you’re trying to figure out what you’re going to do with your family, God’s word is alive. When you’re trying to figure out what direction you’re going to take your career, God’s word is alive. When you’re trying to figure out how you’re going to navigate the storm you’re dealing with, God’s word is alive. He speaks to you right now in the midst of your situation — you don’t need another opinion, you just need to go to the Word and find out what God is saying right now, because there is a difference between knowing the story and getting the word.
You can know the story — thank God for the story. I know the story of how David defeated Goliath, but what I needed was the revelation for how I can handle my giants in my life. Thank God for the story of how Peter stepped out of the boat and started walking on the water, but I need the word to tell me how to get out of a situation that has me stuck in a boat mentality — how I can step out and do what people say I cannot do. So when the word now becomes real in my life, it becomes practical in my situation. The Bible is not just telling you what happened then — the Bible is showing you what God can do right now, because if He did it before, He can do it again.
That’s why you should not let your Bible sit on your shelf while your problems stay on your mind. You can’t have a closed Bible but an open anxiety. We’re living in a time now, biblically, where people just don’t read the Bible anymore. People just want one little devotional message on Instagram — one little click here, one little click there — and people don’t know the difference between the Psalms and the book of Job. Let me talk to you and help you understand — you’ve got to learn how to study God’s word. You’d better get to a place in your life where you’re built up and rooted in God’s word, “study to show yourself approved,” so you’re not out here gullible just because somebody’s quoting scripture out of context and it sounds good. It’s not always sound — you’ve got to know the word of God for yourself.
The word is alive, and it knows what to meet you where you are. It will meet you and will not leave you where it found you. You can read the same scripture in one season, and then God will use that same scripture in another season and speak to you wherever you are in either season. Somebody knows what I’m talking about. Let me help you understand this — that’s why there’s a difference between knowing the scripture and needing the scripture. Sometimes I know the word — I ain’t gonna lie, I know the word — but there are times I need a word. There’s a time I preach the word, but there’s a time I need a word. Who am I talking to? That’s why I come to this house of God — that’s why I stay in it, so that somebody gets justified. I’m not here trying to look famous. I’m not here trying to get somebody to like me. I’m not here trying to show up for something — I’m trying to get a word from God. Somebody came through the crowd today because you needed a word from God. Anybody know it only takes one word from God that can change your situation — one word from God can keep you from losing your mind, one word from God can help you get where God’s trying to help you get.
Watch this — you can’t just count the word, you’ve got to activate it. Don’t just highlight it, live by it. Don’t just quote it, but trust it. Here’s the deal — God’s word is present tense, not past information. It’s not some museum piece — the Bible is a mirror. You’ve got to look at the word of God and ask, “What is this showing me about me?” Let me help you understand something — watch this carefully, — God speaks now as good as He spoke then, and I must understand the word confronts me in my current situation.
When The Word Feels Dull, Resistance Has Replaced Receptivity.
Some people ask, “How can this book, Pastor, written thousands of years ago, still speak to me today?” Can I tell you how — because the author is not bound by time. God stands outside of history while seeing all of history at once. He knew about social media before social media was a thing. He knew about AI before you even discovered computers. As a matter of fact, God knew all about you before you were even a thought between your mom and your dad — before He formed you in the belly, He knew you. God stands outside of history, and God already provides an answer before you even have a problem. God already provides a solution before you have the question.
So what’s important to understand — technology changes, the world changes, but God’s word remains the same. And as a consequence, I recognize that God’s word remains the same, but I’ve got to stop questioning that word, because God’s word speaks to us in our human condition.
There’s somebody who has a cousin who literally asked a question: “How can I trust this Bible? Isn’t this the white man’s religion?” Let me answer for you — history doesn’t support that claim. Christianity did not begin in Europe; it began in the Middle East, the land of Israel, before the gospel ever spread throughout Europe. Scripture was deeply connected to Africa. As a matter of fact, Abraham spent time in Egypt during the famine — you already know Egypt is in Africa. Joseph governed in Egypt. Moses was raised in Pharaoh’s household. The prophet Jeremiah found refuge in Egypt. After Jesus was born, Mary and Joseph fled with Him to Egypt — making Africa the first place to shelter the Messiah. In the book of Acts, one of the earliest recorded Gentile converts was an Ethiopian official who carried the gospel back to Africa, and by the second and third centuries, North African cities such as Alexandria and Carthage had become major centers of Christian theology, producing influential leaders like Tertullian, Athanasius, and Augustine. Long before Christianity was ever displayed by Europe, the truth was already flourishing in Africa.
So don’t reject the Bible because somebody misused the Bible. The problem has never been the word — the problem is people who ignored the word while trying to promote their own agenda. Even enslavers tried to isolate certain passages to justify slavery, but they ignored the larger story of scripture — the story of a God who delivered His people from oppression, declares that every human being bears His image, and tears down the walls of oppression. The abuse of scripture by sinful people doesn’t invalidate scripture any more than counterfeit money proves real currency isn’t worth anything. So the word worked then, and the word works now — the word worked for your grandmother and the word works for you, it worked for your granddaddy and it works for you. The same word that brought one generation through is the same word that can bring you through right now.
THE WORD CUTS TO CURE
Exposure Is Not Punishment, It Is Preparation For Healing.
Who am I talking to — anybody know that’s how much power is in God’s word? Listen, listen, listen, listen — let me help you understand something. The word cuts to cure. What do you mean, Pastor? The word cuts me to cure me — God uses the word to expose you. He’s doing it to heal you. Surgery requires cutting — cutting brings about healing. If I can’t open you up, how can I solve the problem? So the surgery hurts, but the surgery also heals. My God is not addressing the superficial issues of your life — God is going after the deeper issues of your life. God is going for the root, because if we don’t get to the root, you’re going to keep producing crazy fruit, and people see the fruit and wonder why it’s so weird, when really it needs to be addressed because you’ve got some deep roots going on.
So you don’t come to church for a shallow message — you don’t come to church for something superficial. You need somebody to go down to the root. I need to go past the armor of my pride, go past the armor of my resistance, go past the armor of my rejection, and speak to the place nobody wants to speak to — go to the deeper place in my life. Can I help you understand — people of God, listen carefully — exposure is never punishment, it’s only preparation. Sometimes when God exposes us, He’s not trying to embarrass us, He’s just trying to reveal to us what’s wrong with us. When you go to the doctor and the doctor tries to expose you, that’s just being thorough. When the doctor gives you a diagnosis, they’re showing you your problem — the diagnosis is not judgment, it’s just the beginning of your treatment.
So when God gives you a diagnosis, God is saying, “Here is where we are, and here is where we need to go.” That’s what the word of God does — it shines a light on the places we would rather keep in the dark. It exposes the attitudes and insecurities and pride and fear and bitterness and secret habits and unhealthy relationships and unforgiveness, and it takes it to God, down to the deep places of our life. Some of us have gotten good at managing the symptoms instead of dealing with the source — we smile, we straighten up, but we come to church and say, “I’m blessed” — underneath the blessing we’ve got a bunch of unresolved issues.
Can I talk to somebody for a moment — God is trying to help you understand something: “I love you too much not to address it.” So when God sends His word, He’s not picking on you — He sends His word because He loves you enough to help you deal with the stuff you’ve been avoiding. Can I tell you something — when God does it, you’ve got to accept that, you’ve got to open up. Whenever you find yourself in a place where you know God is touching that place, you’ve got to say, “Lord, I thank You” — not, “God, why do you keep bringing this up,” but start asking God, “What are You trying to heal in my life? Why do we keep coming back to this?” — because God is trying to make sure. He’s not doing it to sabotage you — sometimes you are holding onto stuff that might prevent the thing God is trying to do in your life.
Avoiding Conviction Keeps You Locked In Your Condition.
Here’s the deal, and here’s the problem — we are afraid of conviction, because avoiding conviction will keep you locked in your condition. Conviction is not God condemning you — conviction is this: I know there’s some things in me that ain’t right. OK, let me talk to this side — I acknowledge there’s some things in me that aren’t right, but the problem is some of the stuff I know ain’t right, I don’t want to change. Real people here — you keep telling me what I will not do, but you don’t tell me how not to do it. So if all I hear is “you’re not doing this, you’re not doing that,” and you haven’t given me a strategy on how not to, then I’ve got an excuse — I just don’t know how to not do it. I just can’t help myself, so I’m going to sit on the side of doing it because I like doing it. I’m like the apostle Paul, who wrestled — there was something in me that I wanted to do, I didn’t want to do; that I didn’t want to do, I kept doing. I keep going back and forth and I can’t figure out why I can’t stop.
I don’t know who I’m talking to, but let me help you for a moment, because you know what you do when you do it, and you know why you do it. Here’s the deal — the only way to not do it is to come to a place of conviction. Now I want you to see yourself like this — when you got saved, you got the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. You don’t have to wait for the Holy Spirit to come — people get saved and I hear them say, “I’m still waiting for the Holy Spirit to fall.” No, no, no, no, no — you have the Holy Spirit. The problem is you don’t recognize the Holy Spirit because you’ve got too much of yourself in the way. The reason I’ll be a fool for the gospel is because we believe less of me, more of Him — the less of me, the more He fills. So if you ain’t full of Him, you’re full of something.
Watch how it works — God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are one. God is my divine surveillance — He is the God who watches out for me, He is the God who has His eye on my situation. God the Word is my direction — the word I hide in my heart so that I may not sin against Him — that word is a lamp unto my feet to light my pathway. God the Holy Spirit is my teacher, my guide to truth, and they all work together because they are one, not separate.
So watch how conviction works — you sit under ministry like this and you get the word, and you go through something and the Holy Spirit brings that word back to your remembrance, but He can never bring back what hadn’t been sown. Conviction works like this: you know yourself better than anybody else, and God made you, so He knows you. You are the sheep of His pasture — it is He that created you, not you yourself. So God knows what your tendencies are, He knows what you are capable of. So there was a time you could cuss somebody out, go put a cigarette in your mouth, and go have the best night’s sleep of your life and not even think about it. But now, if you cuss somebody out, your conviction — the Holy Spirit — begins to rise up inside of you and trouble your spirit, and you’re like, “I shouldn’t have said that, Lord.” I feel so bad, let me text, let me call and try to make it right — that’s what conviction is, and here’s how it works: the closer you get to God, the greater your conviction. The farther you are from God, the less your conviction.
So if you can act a fool, if you can go do what you do with whoever you’re doing it with, and don’t feel nothing, you’ve got to check your distance from God. But if you find yourself falling short, and you feel horrible after, it’s not a time to condemn yourself — it’s a time to say, “Thank You, Holy Spirit, for convicting me, because I wouldn’t feel this way if I wasn’t getting closer to You.” Somebody give God glory — the enemy wants you to feel bad because you messed up, because you made a mistake, but conviction is different — for some of you, when you do stuff, you’re like, “I can’t even focus anymore, my whole day is messed up.” That’s how the Holy Spirit works — He purposely convicts you. Conviction is a gift — the absence of conviction means God has given up on me.
So today I just want to take a moment and pray: “Lord, if I’m wrong, correct me. If I’m drifting, redirect me. If I’m hiding, expose me. Lord, if I’m wounded, heal me. If I’m bound, deliver me. Lord, if I’m proud, humble me. If I’m comfortable, disturb me — because I don’t want to be comfortable and stuck in this place. Whatever You’ve got to do in this season, make sure I am aligned with what You have for my life.”
THE WORD DISCERNS WHAT WE DENY
1. Pornography & Sexual Immorality
Psalm 119:9 — “How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to Your word.”
2. Unforgiveness
Colossians 3:13 — “Bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do.”
3. Fear
2 Timothy 1:7 — “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”
4. Pride & Self Reliance
Proverbs 16:18 — “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.”
5. Gossip & a Critical Spirit
Proverbs 16:28 — “Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.”
6. Infidelity (Emotional & Physical)
Hebrews 13:4 — “Drink water from your own cistern, and running water from your own well.”
7. Identity & Shame
Romans 8:1 — “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.”
God’s Word Reveals Motives We Hide from Ourselves.
Let me tell you this — the word is a discerner of what we deny. The text says the word discerns the thoughts and the intents — and you and I cannot discern somebody’s intent. Do you think you can tell somebody what was in their mind? You don’t have the ability to do that — that’s low-key demonic. You’re not authorized to try to interpret somebody’s intent. Only the Holy Spirit and the word can interpret somebody’s intent. All you have the ability to do is interpret behavior based on historical realities in your own personal life.
So here you are, a young lady — you cross the street and some guy blows his horn. He’s not blowing the horn because he’s trying to holler at you — people blow the horn so you don’t get run over — but your history has taught you that when somebody blows a horn at you, they’re trying to holler at you. I’m trying to help you understand — you’re interpreting behavior based on your own personal history, and sometimes your trauma can cause you to miss a moment. You’ve got to get to a point where you recognize only the Holy Spirit can determine somebody’s intent. God’s word addresses my intent and my motive — the word gets beneath the surface. The word helps us deal with the stuff we don’t want to address, all that stuff you’ve been carrying and struggling with.
Let me go deeper — so many of us know how to behave well but believe wrong. We’ve got the behavior down — we know the theological phrases, we know how to behave, we know how not to look bad — but we don’t believe right. Jesus says, “This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me.” So here’s the deal — God’s word reveals the motives we hide from ourselves. God is going to do this with His word — that word is going to confront what you’ve been justifying, that word is going to come and show you what your real motive is. I know you want the position, but I’m going to show you why you want it — do you want the position because it’s going to feed your need to be needed? Are you trying to feed some narcissistic side of you? Do you want to be popular, do you want to be famous, or do you want to help people? What do you want here — the word will always expose you.
You want to ask somebody, “Do you want to be with me?” The word discerns why you want to be with me — do you want to be with me because I elevate you, or do you want to be with me because we elevate each other? What’s going on over here — the word of God exposes this.
Transformation Begins When Truth Interrupts Intention.
Let me help you understand — break this down with childlike understanding: transformation begins when truth interrupts intention. Let me make that make sense — change happens in your life the moment you allow the word to interrupt what you were trying to pull off. God knows what you’re doing when you’re doing it. You try to act naive like you don’t know, but He knows your intent — you know it ain’t right, what you’re trying to do. You know when you’re stealing what you’re doing when you steal — that’s why you go through all the trouble to try to get away with it. You know what you’re doing here, because you spend so much energy trying to get away with it.
Can I talk to somebody here today — God loves you so much that the moment you allow God’s word to interrupt your intention, that is the moment your change happens.
So you were about to send the text, and God sent a word that said, “No.” You were about to clap back at somebody — you had it all planned out — and then God said a word that said, “Vengeance is Mine.” You were about to walk away from where God placed you, and you were so frustrated, but then God said a word that said, “Be not weary in well doing, for in due season you shall reap if you faint not.” God sends a word just when you need it, at the right time, because He’s trying to make sure you don’t self-destruct — because He knows the plans He has for your life. He knows what your intent is, but thank God He will interrupt your intent to bring change. That’s why the interruption is a blessing — the word interrupts your intentions before your intentions become your mistake. The word interrupts your anger before your anger becomes your regret. The word interrupts your fear before your fear becomes your decision. The word interrupts your pride before your pride becomes your downfall.
So today we declare: “Lord, interrupt me. The way You want to interrupt my plans, interrupt my attitude, interrupt my appetite, interrupt my relationships, interrupt my habits, interrupt my thinking, Lord — whatever You’ve got to do.” Because God’s word does not come to make you feel better — God’s word comes to make you better. I did not come to comfort your dysfunction, God says — I came to direct you. I did not come to confirm everything you already believe — I came to transform who you are.
Somebody give God glory that God stepped in right on time and said a word to disrupt you. You get to the airport, everything looks fine — no clouds in the sky, we can take off, everyone’s settled in for takeoff — and you’re sitting there wondering why you aren’t taking off. Come to find out the pilot is not the only one making the decision — there’s someone in the tower that can see what the pilot cannot see. If you’re looking from air traffic control, you can see the whole picture — they can see another aircraft approaching, a storm developing, they can see something on the runway, they can see traffic that the pilot cannot see from the cockpit. Suddenly a voice comes over the headset of the pilot: “Hold your position.” I can imagine the pilot saying, “But everything looks fine right here.” The tower says, “I understand what you see, but hold your position.” The pilot doesn’t argue. The pilot doesn’t say, “I don’t feel like holding.” The pilot doesn’t say, “I’ve already planned my departure.” The person in the tower has information the pilot does not have.
That’s why God is telling you — I know you’re educated, I know you’ve got your plans all figured out, but sometimes God will tell you, “Hold your position,” because there are some people who ignored God’s voice and their lives are jacked up as a result. But when I give God glory, it’s because God held me up, and if you found out some stuff that could’ve taken you out, I give God glory that He interrupted me so that I did not wreck my life. Somebody ought to give God glory that He was able to keep you from departing when you wanted to depart, and now God kept danger away from you. Can you open up your mouth and give God glory — thank God for divine interruption. It was never designed to frustrate your flight — it was designed to protect your destination.
There is a way that seems right to a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death — you’ve got to let God set the tone. I have seen God say one word to somebody who came into a service having already made up their mind that after this day, they were going to take their life, and I’ve seen the word come and interrupt their plans. I have seen someone come in ready to give up, ready to quit — I’ve seen the word interrupt their plans. I have been pastoring, and I have seen students come in here and say, “I’m going home, it’s too hard,” and I have seen God’s word interrupt their plans, and now they’re right here doing great things, because God is not going to let you walk away from what He has for your life.
We give You glory and praise today for Your Word. Let Your Word speak to us today. Let our lives be blessed. Let us, God, leave here better. We open our hearts that we might receive this Word today. We give You glory and praise, that somebody’s life will be changed forever in Jesus’ name.
I. INTRODUCTION
We have to testify today that we live in a culture that seeks healing everywhere except where God placed it first. We trust prescriptions, we trust procedures and professionals — and thank God for all of them — but we often ignore the prescription that God has already sent. Many people discover relief without revelation, recovery without responsibility, and that’s a dangerous combination. Because what this verse is going to show us today is that before God changes our conditions, God always releases a communication, because He always speaks before heaven moves. Healing does not begin with a miracle. It begins with a message.
Therefore, it is important to understand this, because too often we pray for God to touch what God has already addressed. We often don’t realize that God has a pattern, and that pattern is clear: before God solves, God speaks. Before God strikes, God speaks. God is sending a word into your life, but more importantly, He is administering treatment to your situation. The tragedy is not that people are sick. The tragedy is that people refuse the prescription that God has sent to make them whole, because the Word of God is not supplemental — the Word of God is essential.
What if I told you that the breakthrough you’ve been believing God for is on the way? In one sentence — imagine that God can speak one sentence, one word, and your entire situation could be turned around. Because of distractions, apathy, sometimes you could miss what God is about to release in your life. Healing happens when you stop waiting on a sign and start receiving the word that God has already spoken.
Now, we don’t fully know the occasion Psalm 107 was written for — we are not certain of the exact backdrop — but this psalm helps us understand that this is bigger than physical healing. It is about God’s pattern of rescuing people who have wandered away from Him. What has caused this distance, this disconnection? There are underlying reasons why people disconnect in relationships, and particularly why they disconnect from God.
Think about it from a scientific or physiological perspective. Every single day your body is striving for homeostasis. Your body is fighting for equilibrium, for balance, every single day. Everything is moving in your body because your body is attempting to regulate itself and stay inbalance. Whenever you do not eat properly, rest properly, or take care of your body, then your body does not move into a place of homeostasis, of balance, of equilibrium. Your body moves into a place of dysregulation. Your body is not at ease — it causes dis-ease.
The same is true spiritually. When you are not properly aligned with God — when you are not praying like you should, not reading His Word like you should, not obeying like you should — then you find yourself in a place of dysregulation. You’re not hearing from God. Things are not moving like you want them to. Why? Because now you are drifting, and the distance begins. Now you find your relationship with God not at ease, and you find yourself spiritually diseased in that moment.
God sends a word because He recognizes that the distance has come, and it’s His desire to bring you back to your rightful place. That’s what this sermon is about today — God wants to bring you back into a place where every promise over your life will come to pass. But it will not happen while there is misalignment. So God sends a word, and the psalm says He sent His word to heal them and to deliver them from destruction.
The people who first heard this text were recently on their way back from exile — they had been in Babylonian captivity, and now they’re coming back with this word. What happened to you was your own doing, don’t blame anybody else, you did it to yourself. This psalm opens up about the faithfulness of God, because Psalm 107 begins, “Oh, give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good, for His mercy endures forever.” The only reason you’re even here today — no, you haven’t done everything right, you haven’t crossed every T. It’s because of the mercy of God. If you have nothing else to give God glory for, you ought to thank God that mercy kept you, mercy sustained you.
So the psalm begins to give us classifications of various kinds of people who walk away from God, various ways people distance themselves from Him, and then it shows us how people find themselves in desperate situations because of life’s bad decisions and because of outright rebellion. In every story there was a pattern, and that pattern is the same: the people cry out in their distress, and God responds with mercy rather than condemnation.
Now, verse 20 describes them as fools, because their suffering was connected to their own foolish choices. Their physical affliction reflected a deeper spiritual problem. They had rejected God’s wisdom, and now they were experiencing the consequences of being disconnected from Him. So before God sends a miracle, before God sends an angel, God sends a word — and the text says God was so concerned about them that He sent the word to do something comprehensive: not just to heal them, but to deliver them from the very thing that caused them to be disconnected in the first place.
Can I tell you something, people of God — God’s Word carries both the diagnosis and the prescription. I need somebody to hear this today, because you’re not watching this by accident. God told me to tell somebody: whatever you brought here today, there is healing in this house. Whatever you’re dealing with today, there is healing in this house for you. If you brought fear, if you brought anxiety, if you brought grief, if you brought brokenness, if you brought disappointment, if you brought confusion, if you brought a weary spirit, if you brought a fractured family, if you brought financial strain, if you brought a sick body, if you brought a wound — whatever it is, I know you don’t understand it yet, but by the end of this message, God is not just going to heal it, you’re going to leave here whole today.
II. GOD SENDS HIS WORD BEFORE HE SHOWS HIS POWER
A. Healing begins when revelation is received, not when symptoms leave.
So let’s talk, because the first thing I want you to get clearly is: God sends His word before He shows His power. What do I mean by that? God does not waste power before His instructions are given. God wants to make sure you receive the word before He releases power. The text says He sent His word — which means healing travels on truth, and transformation is always carried by revelation before the symptom even changes. Understanding has to change first, because what you know determines how you live.
Think about it for a moment, people of God — nothing apart from His Word is going to move our situation while we ignore what God said about our situation. God’s power flows through His Word, not around His Word — which means you cannot bypass Scripture and expect a supernatural breakthrough in your life. Revelation precedes manifestation. The word positions you for the miracle that’s on the way. If God gave you the miracle before He gave you the message, you would celebrate the miracle, but you would miss the revelation wrapped up in the message.
Think about it — this is important to understand. When Jesus was tempted by Satan in the wilderness, Satan tried to get Him to overcome everything by leaning on power. But Jesus did not lean in with power — He leaned in with the Word. Every time Satan tried to say, “If You have that much power, do this, do that,” Jesus said, “It is written, it is written, it is written.” Because He always begins with the Word.
He begins with the Word, because healing begins when revelation is received — not when your symptoms leave. Symptoms are often the last thing to change. Whenever God gives you a revelation, that doesn’t mean the healing has not begun, because God heals from the inside out. And if you’re not careful, you’ll start measuring your progress based on your pain threshold, not realizing that the moment you receive the word is the very moment God begins to heal your situation.
Some of you right now — it may not look like it’s changing in your family, it may not look like it’s changing in your finances, it may not look like it’s changing on your job — but the moment you get a word, you’ve got to believe God would not send that word if something wasn’t about to happen in your situation.
Too many of us miss this — Psalm 107 does not say that God sent a distraction; it says God sent a word. That’s important, because it speaks to the order of how God does what God does. Watch this: the phrase is significant because it implies that God’s word is intentional, dispatched with a specific assignment. God does not waste His word. When God sends His word, it is dispatched with a specific assignment attached to it. It was not a casual conversation or empty encouragement. God’s word is commissioned with purpose. God’s word will find you wherever you are in your situation. I don’t care if you’re in the lowest valley, His word will find you. I don’t care if you’re in the roughest storm, His word will find you. I don’t care if you run from Him, His word will still find you. And before healing ever arrives, God releases a word — and God will do it, because the Bible says His word does not return to Him void, but His word accomplishes what He sends it to do.
So He sent His word — the Bible says — to heal. Let’s break that down. In the Hebrew, “to heal” is Rapha. God sent His word to restore, to repair, to make whole. It reminds us that biblical healing is never limited to your body. God heals your mind. God can heal your disappointment. God can heal your soul. You have to understand — God isn’t just trying to heal one part of you, God is trying to heal every part of you.
And what’s important to understand, people of God, is that the Bible says He delivered them from their destruction. Notice the word is “delivered” — the psalm is showing us that God is not only healing the problem, but God is rescuing you from the patterns that have been shaping your life, because God is not just after your pain, God is trying to get to the source of your pain. God is trying to help you get to the root of what is causing all the trauma and stress in your life.
I want to talk to this generation for just a moment, because we’ve become experts in managing pain, but amateurs at healing it. We need something to get us through Monday, something to take the edge off on Tuesday, something to help us sleep on Wednesday, something to get us through Thursday, something to help us forget about it on Friday. For some of us it’s a substance, for others it’s a full bed at night for the wrong reasons, for someone else it’s a cigarette, for someone else it’s an edible you’ve got in your pocket right now — I’m not judging you — but for somebody else it’s just one glass of wine, except that glass becomes two, and three, and four every night. I’m not standing here in judgment, because all of us reach for something when life gets heavy. But the real, deeper question is: why have you become dependent on it? Because anything I reach for before I reach for God has become a malfunctioning savior.
B. What God sends must be believed before it can be beneficial.
Believe the Word above how you feel.
Sometimes you don’t need another escape — you need an encounter with God. God isn’t saying, “Stop, because I’m angry.” He’s saying, “Come to Me, because I have something deeper than what your temporary comforts can give you.” A drink might numb you for the evening, alcohol might quiet you for the night, but only God’s Word can heal the war inside you, and only God can help you rest at night.
Who am I talking to? Because what God sends has to be believed before it can be beneficial. The word doesn’t mean anything unless you believe it. The word doesn’t mean anything unless you actually walk in agreement with it. Remember Israel and God’s promise concerning the Promised Land — their unbelief kept them wandering too long in the wilderness. You’ve got to get to a point where you say, “Lord, I believe what You say, I’m in agreement.” Because faith isn’t just a feeling — miracles flow through faith, your breakthrough flows through faith, which means you’ve got to believe God’s word above how you feel.
Some days you’ll feel like it, some days you won’t. Some days you’ll look at your situation and say, “I don’t feel like things are changing, I don’t feel like things are progressing.” But you’ve got to have something inside you that says God’s word is greater than how you feel. The facts of God’s word are always greater than your fluctuating emotions. And you’ve got to speak God’s word until you see God’s word — I told you last week, you’ve got to call those things that be not as though they were. I don’t care what it looks like — I’m not going to let my reality be determined by other people, because other people look at your situation and try to diagnose it or conclude what it is, but you don’t look at it the way other people do — you look at it through what God has promised.
Speak the Word until you see the Word.
Let the weak say, “I am strong.” Let the poor say, “I am rich.” You’ve got to learn how to talk to yourself, and you’ve got to learn how to agree with what God says, and you’ve got to act on the word before you even see results.
Act on the Word before you see the results.
I want to talk to you for just a moment, because it’s important to hear this. The priests stepped into the Jordan before the water parted — that’s what even parted the water. The blind man started walking before anything even happened to his eyes. The leper started walking before anything even happened to his leprosy. You cannot tell me you don’t know how to walk by faith and not by sight. You’ve got to know how to put yourself in position — fill out the application before you get the job, clean out the garage before you get the car. You’ve got to start walking on the property you’ve already been given.
Who am I talking to? That’s got some audacity in it, that’s some radical faith — I’m acting on what God told me to do. I’m putting myself in position even before that thing comes to pass.
III. THE WORD HEALS WHAT MEDICINE CANNOT REACH
• Science explains God’s creation.
Now watch this: the word heals what medicine cannot reach. I want you to hear this. Doctors treat your body, but God treats your being. God deals with every layer of who you are. Some pain has memory, history, and trauma attached to it, and no machine could ever fully measure that. And I want you to hear me clearly on this, church, because I don’t want anybody to misunderstand what I’m about to say — God is not against doctors, God is not against therapy, God is not against counseling, God is not against medication. In fact, every good and perfect gift comes from God, which means the wisdom to perform surgery, to discover antibiotics, to develop vaccines, to understand the brain and create treatment, is a gift from God. God has allowed humanity to discover that — it’s a gift from God. Science is not the enemy of faith. Science is not the enemy of faith. Science is not the enemy of faith — it’s just a way God allows us to understand the world He created.
• Medicine treats God’s creation.
As a matter of fact, Luke — the disciple who became an apostle, who wrote the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles — was not only an evangelist, he was a physician by trade. Jesus never asked him to stop practicing medicine. He used his profession and his faith to serve the kingdom. So hear me well: I believe in doctors, I believe in medicine, I believe in therapy, I believe in taking care of your mental health, I believe in getting second opinions, I believe in counseling — because God can use all of those things. But Psalm 107 teaches us that there comes a place medicine cannot reach.
• The Word transforms God’s creation.
The surgeon can repair your heart, but only God can heal your heartache. The psychiatrist can prescribe medication, but cannot prescribe purpose. The therapist can help you process trauma, but cannot forgive you. The cardiologist can regulate your blood pressure, but cannot remove bitterness. The oncologist can help you fight cancer, but cannot restore your wholeness. Science can explain how the brain works, but only God can give you the perfect peace that comes from keeping your mind stayed on Him.
A. Some wounds are internal, emotional, and spiritual.
Can somebody help me understand this — medicine treats God’s creation, but only God can transform His creation, because some wounds are internal, emotional, and spiritual. Some of the things we are dealing with are much deeper than they appear.
I’m going to say something today that may shake some things up, but it’s important to hear. I am a Bible teacher. I took my calling so seriously that I went to school to study the craft, to study Scripture, to read the Bible. Unfortunately, people love to say you don’t need training if you’ve got an anointing. They’ll counsel people out of culture, claim to have a doctorate they never earned, sending people off with a whole “doctor” title in front of their name. I’m not saying this to tear anybody down — I’m trying to help you understand that I took very seriously what God assigned me to do, because I recognized that the people I’m called to pastor don’t need shallow interpretations of Scripture. I recognized that the way I teach isn’t for everybody, because if you’re looking for “abracadabra, shazam” ministry, this isn’t your church — because the problem with abracadabra-shazam ministry is that it produces a high rate of relapse. Some of the people you pray for in the name of Jesus on Sunday are right back the same way the next Sunday, and the next, because nobody wants to address the deeper issues giving rise to the struggle. It’s easy to string Scriptures together and treat people at a surface level.
So here I am, thirty-four years into this — sitting in Starbucks the other day, minding my own business, staying in my lane, when two young people walked up to my table. I didn’t reveal who I was on purpose, and they started asking me about my relationship with God, going through all kinds of statements. I just sat there and listened, and it didn’t take me long — because I’ve been at this a long time — to realize I was in front of a cult recruiter. When I began to realize some of the questions and how they were looking at me, I began to realize: you’re the problem — somebody has deceived you, you’ve found comfort in a place that has actually harmed you, made you feel like you’re part of a family, and you’re coming to me with a shallow interpretation of the Bible. Then when I opened my mouth, one of them said, “I think my Uber is here.” And the other one just stood there in shock as I began to break down the Word of God in a way they had never heard before.
I began to realize how easy it is for so many people to be fooled by a shallow interpretation of Scripture — but it’s a lie. So I am unapologetic about how I teach, because when I wrote my book, I stayed rooted — this was my burden. My burden was to help people understand that Scripture must be understood in a holistic, spiritual space. Because the people receiving this word, the people who first heard this psalm, understood the body as all-encompassing. Old Testament believers never separated the physical from the spiritual from the mental. We do that; they never did.
That’s why you’ll see in the Old and New Testament, when someone came to Jesus with a sickness, sometimes there was a spiritual conversation attached to it. This might sound strange to us, but that’s how their mindset was, because they believed that if something was wrong physically, there was some disconnect between the person and God. It could be spiritual, it could be relational. They never separated any of it.
And the reason I brought that up is because some of the things people are dealing with, why they smile in church, is much deeper than what shows on the surface. And what you’ve got to stop asking is “what’s wrong with you” and start asking “what happened to you,” because if all you ever ask is “what’s wrong with you,” you’ll prescribe the wrong pill, you’ll prescribe the wrong word, and you’ll miss the deeper thing inside them. Some people you may look at and say, “What’s wrong with her, why does she act like that?” Well, maybe you ought to ask, “What happened to her?” Maybe she was a young girl whose father left the house, and a crazy uncle or the male figures in her life left a level of trauma. “What’s wrong with him” could be because he never had a model growing up. Until you deal with the root of the matter, you’ll never get to the right fruit that should come from that person.
People of God, I want you to hear this clearly — God wants to get to the root of it. Now, I’m from Louisiana, I’m from the South. Down there, when we used to get sick, my grandmother had a medicine cabinet with this stuff we dreaded because it was going to clean you out. She’d get this little bottle, and when she turned it over, it was thick and crusty — I don’t know if all of y’all know what I’m talking about, because you’re “hospital people” now — but it was called something like Cod Liver oil. It was so thick, when you poured it on the spoon it moved slow, like it was doing its own kind of therapy. It would make you sick just looking at it. But the moment it hit your tongue, everything in your body responded, and thirty seconds later, whatever needed to come out, came out.
B. Refusing the Word delays deliverance you are praying for.
Receive the Word without debating it.
Apply the Word before you analyze it.
Remove what it competes with it.
Respond to it immediately.
Can I tell you something — that’s why it’s time to stop with these “cheesecake” sermons. God is trying to give you something that will clean you out. Look at your neighbor and say, “I need it all out.” Whatever it takes, Lord, give me a clean heart. God wants to give you a spiritual version of that same cleansing tonic, to get it all out — because if you refuse the word, then what you’re praying for takes longer, because you keep rejecting the word of God. You want to fix your marriage, but you won’t forgive. You want to fix your finances, but you keep buying things you don’t need — you’ve got a whole closet full of stuff and no money right now. What is wrong with you? Because what we want is for God to give us a word, but we want to control how it’s distributed in our lives.
The doctor tells you, “I’m going to put you on this blood pressure medicine because I don’t like what I see, and I want you to come back in six months.” And you know what you do? He tells you to take three pills, and you say, “Well, I don’t like how three pills make me feel, so I’m just going to take two.” You’re trying to control the method of how the word should be taken — like Naaman did in 2 Kings, when the prophet told him to dip in them muddy Jordan and his skin would be made clean. Naaman didn’t want to do it, because he wanted to control how God worked. Sometimes God tells you, “I want you to be alone.” But God, I can’t just have one date. God says, “Stay by yourself, fast, seek Me” — but you’d rather scroll social media, because you want to do what you want to do. But there comes a moment when you have to do exactly what God tells you to do. You’ve got to receive the word without debating it, apply the word without over-analyzing it, remove whatever competes with it, and respond to it immediately.
IV. DELIVERANCE IS ACTIVATED BY RECEPTION
Let me close this out, because I’m about to bless you. Deliverance is only activated by reception. Deliverance will never happen if you don’t receive what God is trying to do. The Bible says He sent His word to heal them and to deliver them from destruction. Healing and deliverance are not the same thing. Healing removes the wound; deliverance breaks the cycle. Healing touches the wound; deliverance stops the pattern. God doesn’t just want to remove your pain — He wants to remove the pattern, because the pattern is what keeps producing the cycle that keeps holding you back. God’s goal is not simply to make you feel better for a moment. The goal is to make you free for a lifetime.
Can you imagine what that feels like — truly free? We just want a quick result. Your blood pressure needs to come down, you finally do everything right, you come back in six months and your numbers are perfect, and you get so excited you reach out and celebrate — and then your first meal afterward is fried pork chops, because you went right back to the habit that created the problem in the first place. You got the healing, but you went back to the cycle that caused it. Are y’all getting this? Medical science can help you cut across the field, but if you don’t change your mindset and your habits, you’ll go right back to your own baseline in six months.
Are y’all getting what I’m telling you? Receiving the word isn’t just about hearing it — it’s about embracing it, applying it, doing it. Can I tell you something — the reason some people never break a cycle is because once they hear the word, that’s all they do. They shout over the word, but they never want to do the heavy lifting. Deliverance requires doing the real work. As long as the pattern remains, the cycle will continue.
I’m talking to somebody right now who doesn’t understand that God wants to break the cycle in your life, and here’s how He does it. Let me break it down from John chapter 5 — Jesus heals a man at the pool of Bethesda, and Jesus says, “Rise, take up your bed and walk.” He was no longer lame, but Jesus said, “Take up your bed” — that’s your responsibility now. “I can heal you, but the deliverance is going to require your work.” You’ve got to take up the bed, you’ve got to walk it out. That’s what happens — many people just want somebody to say “it’s already done for you,” but you’ve got to do the real work. It takes work to build a marriage, it takes work to get through school, it takes work to accomplish the thing you’re called to do. Somebody’s got to put in the work, because without the work, the word only delivers you from destruction. It doesn’t develop you so you don’t return to it. You can have it for a moment, but the deliverance is maintained through continued reception of God’s word.
A. The Word only works where it is welcomed.
You’ve got to receive the word — you’ve got to say, “Whatever it is You want to give me, I welcome it. Whatever You want to address in me, God, I’m ready. I’m not going to be angry, I’m not going to be frustrated — whatever You want for my life, I’m open.” Come with an open spirit, because an open spirit hears.
B. You cannot be healed from what you refuse to confront.
Here is the word of God for your life. Are you ready for it? You cannot be healed of what you refuse to confront. I’m not going to be a Christian who only tells you what you want to hear — I’m going to tell you what God told me to tell you. One of the hardest things God will ever ask you to do is face the thing you have spent years trying to avoid. You cannot be healed of what you refuse to confront. Avoidance makes you feel better for a little while, but it never makes you better — it only preserves your pain. It keeps you living in the same cycle that God wants to break in your life.
Here’s the deal — God’s word is like a mirror. He’s helping you see yourself. He’s not trying to judge you, He’s inviting you to come to your day of reckoning. If you’re listening to me right now and you’re tired — tired of carrying this private thing around, tired of living a duality, looking put together in the spirit around everybody else, but then going home knowing there’s something broken in you — something you’ve wrestled with, some generational curse you’ve carried — how long will you keep resting like that? How long will you keep struggling like that?
Some of us have become experts at managing what God wants us to overcome. We manage our anger instead of letting God change it. We manage our loneliness by staying in the wrong relationships. We manage our anxiety by staying busy instead of learning to trust God. Let me help you understand — you can cover a wound, but if you never clean it, it will eventually become infected. What stays hidden will always be hurting.
Can I ask you a question — what if you’ve gotten comfortable carrying what God intended for you to let go of? Is it pride? Is it unforgiveness? Is it fear? Is it an addiction? Is it a secret, a habit nobody knows about? The place you were protecting may be the very place God is trying to heal. So if you don’t face it, God can’t fix it.
Think about what happens, people of God, when you stay in denial about what’s wrong. “I’m fine, everything’s good, praise the Lord” — hallelujah, all is well, because it’s easy to protect your image before people while your integrity is eroding before God. Your personality is who people think you are, but your integrity is who you really are. Some people come to church smiling while their household is breaking; some hold hands in the pew while being bitter toward the person next to them. It’s amazing how you can shout in the sanctuary and then get in the car and cuss each other out all the way home. And it’s amazing how you can keep doing that, because the devil doesn’t mind you coming to church, as long as you stay in the cycle.
But I’ve come today to tell you — God is about to break a cycle in your life. God is about to break a generational curse in your life. Somebody shout, “It’s about to break!” It’s about to break.
Let me tell you something — a man was diagnosed with high blood pressure. The doctor handed him a prescription and said, “If you take this every day, it will protect your heart, but if you ignore it, you may not notice the danger right away, but it will happen over time.” The man felt fine, so he went home and set the prescription aside. Months later, with no warning, he suffered a major stroke. When the doctor visited him in the hospital, the doctor didn’t say, “I wish I had written you a prescription.” The doctor simply said, “Why didn’t you take what I gave you?”
How long are you going to stay on the struggle bus? You’ve got a first-class ticket on that struggle bus, and you won’t take what He gave you. I know some of you have been sitting in church a long time, and some of you are here for the first time — but ultimately, it took you fifteen minutes to hear what you needed. God is your pharmacist, filling a prescription that the Great Physician already wrote for you. If you got a prescription from a stranger, you’d give them your birthday and go fill it — but God got you here today, God got you tuned in at just the right time, with a simple question: I see you struggling in your marriage — why won’t you take what I gave you? I see you struggling with your mental health — why won’t you take what I gave you? I see you going from one bad relationship to another — why won’t you take what I gave you? I see you with your anger problem — why won’t you take what I gave you? I see you with your jealousy — why won’t you take what I gave you?
I declare over this house today: every revelation is a prescription, every warning is a prescription, every promise is a prescription. I want to clear your life today — whatever you need, God says, “I’m ready to heal you from the root to the fruit.” Whatever it is, whatever you call it, there is healing in this house. I just want to know — who’s ready to receive today? Who’s ready to receive everything God has for your life?
Lord, heal my soul, heal my heart, heal my body, heal me — every area of my life. I’m not leaving here unless I know God has touched my life. The goal is not just healing — remember the woman with the issue of blood came looking for healing, but Jesus said, “Your faith has made you whole,” because if He had only healed her flow of blood, she would have left still bitter about how people treated her when she was sick. So God is trying to heal your heart, God is trying to deliver you from your destruction, because He loves you so much, He put you in the right service at the right time to hear this word.
I didn’t know your situation, but God did — it’s not a headache but a foot-ache for somebody else, because pain shows up in different places for different people. How can we all sit in the same room and hear the same word, yet God meets us all differently, at different points in our lives, because He knows the specifics of the pain in each spirit sitting here. God knew exactly what you needed today.
I want to challenge you today. This is an invitation for you to come into a greater relationship — this word from Psalm 107 was about why we’ve disconnected. You can be present but still disconnected. I’m not talking about your title, I’m not talking about how people see you — I’m talking about you saying, “I want an authentic encounter with God, I want to feel His presence all over again.” Pastor’s not asking you to be perfect — none of us are. I just want you to want a deeper, authentic relationship with Jesus Christ.
Listen — the pharmacist can prepare the prescription, but you’ve got to take the medicine. So today I’m telling you, God has already given you what you need, but you’ve got to take it. You’ve got to say, “Lord, I’m not leaving here the same way I came.” Somebody shout, “Let go.”
Part of Weekend Series — August 2026 Sermon Series
August 2nd, 2026
Scripture: Proverbs 18:21 (NKJV)
21 Death and life are in the power of the tongue,
And those who love it will eat its fruit.
Prayer
Gracious Father, thank You for Your Word to be opened up in our hearts so we might receive what You have for us today. We know, God, that You’ve ordered our steps at this place, at this moment, to speak to us about destiny. So we pray, God, that at the end of this message, somebody’s life will be changed forever in this place, or even around the world. We thank You for the Word that You’ll give, and we thank You that it will come to pass, and we’ll give You all the glory. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
There are many people who are under the assumption that destiny is something we stumble into, but the reality is that destiny is something we speak into. We focus on our prayer, on fasting, rightfully soul-building our faith, but we overlook the daily declarations that quietly shape the direction of our lives. What you say consistently becomes what you see eventually — and too many of us are praying for a future that we are sabotaging in the present. Our words are verbally sabotaging what we are asking God to do.
God never intended your mouth to just be something that communicates your feelings. Your mouth was designed to carry weight, to carry blessing, to carry your destiny — and it is important to hear this, because the conversations you have in the kingdom should never be casual. Those conversations are creative. That’s why when you mature, you recognize that you do not have time to waste, and you do not have words to waste.
Understand this: this text reminds us that your tongue is not just an instrument of expression for your feelings — your tongue is an instrument of expectation. Whenever you speak something, there is intent in what you speak. What we call a “bad day” is actually unchecked language. God trusted language. God trusted the Word in the creation of the whole world — He entrusted the creation of the whole world to His Word — so we need to be mindful of how we steward our words as well.
Proverbs was given to us by Solomon. Proverbs finds itself in the context of the biblical genre called wisdom literature — imagine a father sitting down giving wisdom to a child, saying, “This is how you should live wisely.” Throughout Proverbs you see over a hundred references to words, to language, to the tongue. That’s important because what Solomon concludes — what I want you to understand — is that wisdom is not tied to your intellect; it is tied to how you govern your words. You and I both know a lot of very smart fools. Wisdom makes knowledge obedient. Realize this — this is why Solomon says death and life are in the power of your tongue.
Imagine the level of influence you have: you can either talk yourself to life, or you can talk yourself to death. You must understand that your tongue is that sensitive — your words have the ability to either build up or tear down. Your words have the ability to encourage or discourage, to heal or to create wounds, to shape the direction of your entire life.
The second half of this verse is incredibly important, because it also says that those who love it will eat its fruit. Solomon’s audience — he uses an agricultural reference the original hearers would understand. For example they knew what it means to sow a seed and reap a harvest. They understood that our words are like seeds, and when you sow a seed of a word, you’re going to reap a harvest. Understand this: the seed that is planted grows over time, and eventually that thing comes back — whether it’s a harvest that blesses you, or a harvest that brings you sorrow. So there are some words that will come back in your generation, and there are other words that will come back in the generations after you. But words form ideas — words matter. Please understand: every compliment, every criticism, every lie, every act of encouragement, every complaint, every blessing is being planted in the soil of our relationships and our lives, and eventually those things produce fruit — and the person who spoke those words is the one who must eat that harvest.
And Proverbs is not teaching us “name it and claim it” theology — no, that’s not what we’re talking about. This is not about presumptuous demanding. This is about understanding biblical alignment. It’s about understanding what Jesus said in Matthew 12:34, that “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” It’s about what James talks about in James 3:4, when he compares the tongue to a rudder — that small thing on a big ship that controls the direction of the whole vessel. Every single day of your life you have to realize that your words are giving direction to where you’re trying to go.
So let’s talk to the people of God, because I want you to hear this: your words shape your world.
II. YOUR WORDS SHAPE YOUR WORLD
Creatio Ex Nihilo
Here’s the first thing I want you to hear: your words don’t merely describe your reality — they shape your reality. From the very opening pages of Scripture, in Genesis, God establishes the defining principle that creation responds to proclamation. There’s a powerful word — “bara” — it’s that word that means “out of nothing.” God created. In other words, before there was light, God had His Word. Before there was land, there was the Word. Before there were stars, that was a Word. Before there was humanity, that was a Word. God stepped into nothing and God spoke something into being. That’s the creative power of God — God said “let there be,” and it was.
Watch this — John picks up that same thread. John chapter 1: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory.” All things that were made were made by that Word. So therefore Jesus — watch this — is the Word made flesh, and you and I are flesh made by the Word — which means that if the Word of God is in your life, and there is a promise on your life, you have the same authority to open up your mouth and speak into nothing, and it can become something.
Everything that is made in the image of God can create atmosphere and environment. Expectations and possibilities come out of what they speak. The same tongue that blesses is the same tongue that can create barriers. The same tongue that can declare faith is the same tongue that can declare fear. So when you continuously speak limitation, you frame your life to agree with what you just spoke. When you decree defeat, you strengthen the prison you’ve been praying for God to get you out of. But when you speak hope, when you speak God’s promises, you start lining your life up with heaven’s possibilities.
Proverbs reminds us that the tongue carries authority, not merely volume. It’s not about how loud you speak, it’s about how you speak. Some people associate authority with loudness, but you and I both know loud people are not always wise people. Sometimes it is at the whisper that authority comes forward.
Can I help you understand this — your faith is only as close as your confession. There are many people who are asking God to reverse something, but they keep on rehearsing it. You pray for breakthrough while you speak defeat. You pray for healing while you speak sickness. You wake up every day always speaking about what’s wrong with you. But every time somebody asks how you’re doing, you say, “Oh, let me tell you about my pressure, let me tell you what I’ve got going on” — you keep on rehearsing what’s wrong. You’re declaring what you’re believing God for, you’re setting up to believe God for a new home, but then you’re always complaining about what you don’t have. Why don’t you start speaking to what you are going to have — let me see if I can make this make sense. You’ve got to get to a point where you recognize a lot of what you’re dealing with is not always conflict — sometimes it’s suffocation from the negative words you have spoken over your situation.
A. What you speak repeatedly is what you eventually see visibly.
See, your destiny is always moving in the direction of your declaration. I can’t tell you where you’re going by looking at what you have — I can tell you where you’re going by how you talk, because what you speak repeatedly is what you eventually see physically. Repetition, repetition — repeated statements turn into structures, structures turn into systems, systems turn into strongholds. You don’t need to fix your prayer life, you need to control your speech — because if you control your speech, what you speak will not speak you out of what you pray for. Repeated words strengthen your belief system, positively or negatively. So you’ve got to understand what David modeled — he did not just rehearse repeated confidence in God, his repetition built his resolve.
What you keep calling “this is just how I am” may actually be the verbal prison you have constructed with your own confession. When you have faith, you learn how to create an atmosphere around you that changes the situation. You cannot speak defeat all week and expect to get victory on Sunday morning, because God is consistent, not contradictory The visible world follows the spoken word. So if you want a new picture, get new words. Everything that happens around you is shaped by the words you speak. Think about it — parents shape their children through repetition, leaders shape their teams through repetition. People are shaped by what you constantly speak.
B. Silence becomes agreement when truth needs a voice.
Can I go a little further, because I want you to hear this — this is going to bless somebody. Silence sometimes becomes the truth that needs a voice. Sometimes not saying something is saying something. Silence is not always humility — sometimes it’s a coward dressed up as maturity. There are moments when saying nothing is actually saying something, because refusing to speak the truth doesn’t make it disappear — it just allows it to go unchallenged. Evil has always benefited from the silence of good people. Watch this — silence becomes permission. Throughout Scripture, God always advanced His purpose through people who were willing to open up their mouths.
Moses had to open his mouth when he stood before Pharaoh — God said, “Let my people go.” David refused to let the giant’s insult go unanswered. He opened his mouth and spoke what he spoke. Esther risked her own life because she understood that influence without courage is a wasted opportunity. She opened her mouth. Nathan confronted David when everybody else was trying to protect the king. He opened his mouth. Elijah, alone on Mount Carmel, confronted an entire nation that had become comfortable with compromise — he opened his mouth. John the Baptist preached in the wilderness, in wild places — he opened his mouth, declaring, “One is coming after me whose sandals I’m not worthy to untie.” On the day of Pentecost, Peter opened his mouth and declared that the Holy Spirit had come upon the world. Jesus Christ is called the Word, because the Word is the answer for a broken world.
History even reminds us that history needed voices willing to open their mouths — Rosa Parks opened her mouth, Dr. King opened his mouth, John Lewis called it “good trouble” because he understood that silence protects injustice. The gospel has never been called to comfort — the church has been called to confront. Whatever contradicts the heart of God, we cannot remain silent about — when image-bearers are treated as though their lives are disposable. We cannot remain silent when families are grieving lives. We cannot remain silent while an entire community carries the weight of injustice. We cannot ignore that thousands of women are losing their jobs and people are hurting while we sit back being quiet. The church needs to be cleared and delivered from prophetic laryngitis and open up its mouth and say something. If my brother is hurting, if my sister is hurting, I’ve got to say something — because if you say nothing, you are complicit.
I need to tell you something — people who have faith have a voice that speaks. Just to speak, love speaks. You don’t think love speaks? You’re always trying to get the person you’re in love with to tell you they love you. For example, “I do love you, look at everything I do for you” — but sometimes you just want to hear them say it, because love has a voice. Love has a voice. You’ve got to open up your mouth and learn how to start saying something.
Look, somebody else — you’ve got to say something. You’ve got to learn how to speak over your situation. You’ve got to speak over your diagnosis until it starts lining up with what God said it was going to be. You’ve got to speak over your situation until it starts lining up with what God said it was going to be. You’ve got to speak over your city until it comes into agreement with what God promised it was going to be. You’ve got to speak over your children until they become who God says they are — they shall be who God says they are, not who people call them. You’ve got to speak over your walk, over your relationship with God — I will not let anything else speak to me, I will speak over it. I’ll tell you: some people need to open up their mouths and say something — that’s confession, and that’s why confession creates consequences.
III. CONFESSION CREATES CONSEQUENCES
Homologeo
Character
Context
Conviction
Abraham
David
Joshua
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego
Confession creates consequences — the text doesn’t separate words from outcomes; they’re tied together with divine intentionality. So confession is not simply what you admit — it’s what you authorize. What you authorize determines what manifests. I know some of you are thinking about your confessions like, “I saw you, I saw your post, I know you were there, I know you were outside” — but biblically, confession is far more than that. Confession is far more than positive speech. The New Testament Greek word for confession is homologeō — I love that word, because homologeō means “to say the same thing” — to say it over and over. You have to keep saying the word. It’s like being told, “How many times have I told you to take the trash out” — you have to keep saying it, over and over. That’s what biblical confession is: agreeing with God until your life catches up with what God has already declared. God, You declared something over my life, and my life doesn’t look like that yet, but I will say it over and over again until my life catches up with what You say.
That’s why you’ve got to stop being hard on yourself, because I know sometimes you look at your life and you say, “I’m so far away from what You say I am” — but you’ve got to keep speaking it. “I will be. I shall. One day I will become.” Keep speaking it, even if people think you’re crazy. You’ve got to learn how to keep confessing it.
Can I tell somebody: every confession is a vote. Every time you speak, you’re either voting for faith or voting for fear. You’re either voting for God’s promises or voting for your problem. Your mouth speaks, and you just can’t stop speaking. Confession requires three things — I’m going to give them to you.
Confession requires character.
You can’t be out here confessing stuff without character. You can’t be out here declaring and confessing something but living a lie Ifyou don’t even speak kindly to people, how are you going to confess like that? If you’re being nasty, are you going to confess like that? You can’t be confessing while your heart is full of grief you won’t deal with. The Bible says in Psalm 66:18, “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.” In other words, you cannot expect God to bless what your lifestyle continuously contradicts.
Next, context.
Your confession has to be rooted in proper context, because here’s the problem — you cannot confidently speak a word that you’re not correctly understanding. Too many of us take Scripture out of context and try to apply it to fit our own narrative and our own agenda. So what happens is we know the blessing, but we overlook the conditions attached to the blessing. We’re out here holding up Scripture out of context, trying to make it make sense, because we want it to fit what we want. That’s why I teach the way I teach — see, a text without context is a pretext. Can I talk to you, people of God? Confession is not grabbing a random verse to support what you want — it’s understanding what God originally meant when He said it. You cannot quote “all things work together for good” unless you’re willing to acknowledge the rest of the verse — “to those who love God and who are called according to His purpose.” You can’t be out here saying, “Ask whatever you will” without understanding “if you abide in Me and My words abide in you.” You can’t be out here saying, “I can do all things through Christ” without understanding the context — when Paul says this, it’s about contentment: “I’ve learned how to be content whether I have much or little, God, I’m at peace either way — now I can do all things through Christ.” You can’t take the parts you like and leave out the rest — that’s like a child whose mama said, “If you clean your room, I’ll give you a popsicle,” and the child only remembers “popsicle” and skips “clean your room.”
Conviction.
Conviction is — remember what I said earlier about homologeō — it is speaking something so much that you’ve believed it within your heart. I have rehearsed it in my spirit, trained my body, trained my mouth to say it, trained my energy and my spirit to start looking for it. All my energy is directed toward it. Every day I wake up, I’m reinforcing it. My convictions are so strong that when I say something, you’d better believe I believe what I say. I don’t say it out of fear — I say it because I confidently believe what I declare shall come to pass. I could be on my bed going into surgery and I will still be saying, “By His stripes I am healed.” I could be in a situation not knowing where my next meal is coming from, but I’ll declare, “My God shall supply all my needs according to His riches in glory.” I could be going through the roughest season of my life and still declare, “You will keep me in perfect peace if I keep my mind stayed on You.” I can have enemies all around me, but I can declare, “The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life, of whom shall I be afraid?” Though my enemies come against me to eat up my flesh, they shall stumble and fall. Though an army encamp against me, my heart shall not fear — though war rise against me, in this I will be confident. I’ve learned how to trust conviction.
A. You cannot curse your future and expect God to bless it.
Can I tell you something — you cannot expect God to bless your future while you’re negatively speaking about it in the present. You can’t be out here watering your weeds while praying for flowers.
Confession, people of God — it’s so important that you come into agreement. You can’t curse what you’re expecting God to do. You’ve got to start speaking well over the things God is giving you. You’ve got to train yourself to be thankful — that’s what gratitude comes from. I may not have everything I want, but I’m thankful for what I have, because somebody would love to have what I have. Stop and learn to be grateful for where you are instead of always cursing where you are.
This also shows up in how we deal with other people, because your words matter in how you treat people. Most of us would never intentionally curse somebody outright — but what we do is we assassinate people’s character through gossip. We call it “discussing” but it’s criticism. We call it “being honest” but it’s venting, and we’re really spreading poison. We expose other people’s failures while hiding our own, and we repeat information God never assigned us to carry. We become more interested in being first to share a story than first to restore a person. You mask the gossip by saying “I could be wrong, but don’t tell anyone I told you this” — “just between me and you, be careful” — and then people tell others that same thing about you, because our words matter, and eventually if you keep speaking negative words, you create an environment around you. It’s almost like a negative algorithm. You start attracting more of the same.
Misery loves company — birds of a feather flock together. You’ve seen it: negative people always hang out together, and eventually the negativity rubs off on those around them — always critical about everything. And here you go trying to be nice, inviting them over, blessing them, and they walk in and say, “This is nice, but I don’t like the way you painted your walls” — always something negative to say. That’s not really about your walls — that’s a negative seed in them that hasn’t been dealt with. That’s what’s wrong — they don’t know how to celebrate somebody else without it threatening their own spirit. Celebrating with someone else in their blessing is worship. The reason your life feels stuck sometimes is because you keep tearing other people down.
B. Agreement with fear produces fruit you never intended to eat.
Crazy, negative people sitting around, always putting negative energy into the atmosphere. For example, there have been some people, referring to our new 5 services, who said, “ I don’t know why they are doing that? Who do you think they are? This is post-pandemic, nobody’s coming to church like that anymore”.
I wish you could’ve seen us that day, because we spoke this into existence . We went to Brentwood, you couldn’t get in there. We got back in at 8:15, we had 2,000 people sitting where you’re sitting right now. We went over to Jefferson Street and we were in overflow. We went to Antioch, and it was standing room only. We had a line to get into Children’s Ministry. Look around this place today — you can’t tell me what God speaks into your spirit, will not come to pass!
Let people call you crazy, let them think you’ve lost your mind — but you’ve got to learn how to keep speaking. I don’t want to be around people who aren’t speaking positive. I want to push people toward their purpose . Get the blessing, go get the house, go get the car, go get your degree. Stop sitting around negative, because your trauma is what’s allowing you to be negative.
My dear friend watching right now — this is Miss Oprah: She said she took a friend shopping one day, and the friend said, “You could use another black dress,” and she knew in that moment. There will always come a moment in your friendships where you know. That’s the moment when people show you who they are and when they do, believe them. You’ve got to believe that your real friends will celebrate your blessings even if they don’t benefit from them.
I want to talk to somebody else today. Touch your neighbor and say I want to see you blessed, I want to see you grow, I want to see God do everything He promised in your life. I want to see you go to the next level. No hater on this row. Go get whatever God has for you.
Listen to me. You can have a dream, but if it’s laced with fear, it’s not going to be what you thought. Faith and fear cannot coexist. Faith comes by hearing, but fear is a spirit. Faith comes by the Word, and fear is a spirit. Fear is not an emotion, it’s a spirit — so let me show you how it works.
Picture a movie scene of three teenage kids walking through a forest in the evening, as the sun sets, falling through the trees. Just that picture by itself — three teenage kids walking home through the forest as the sun sets, no music, nothing — and you’d just look at that and say, “Wow.”. However, the moment you add some scary music in the background, then the whole thing has changed, because at that moment you realize, fear has a sound.
Fear has a sound. Faith has a sound too. You wonder why some of us praise God the way we do. You wonder why some of us are quiet, while others make a lot of noise. It is because if fear has a sound, my faith has a greater sound. “When I think of the goodness of Jesus, and all He’s done for me, my soul cries hallelujah! I thank God, and praise His name.” Take your seat if you know what some of us have been believing God for. You understand this sound.
IV. FRUIT FOLLOWS YOUR FOCUSED SPEECH
Listen — fruit only comes after focused speech. Pay attention to this: fruit only comes after focused speech. It’s no coincidence that we’re reading Daniel Goleman’s book this month which is about focus, because your speech must remain focused. What the enemy will do is deputize people to offend you, so that you will react instead of responding. When you’re disciplined, you’re measured, you’re not easily provoked — but when you’re not disciplined, he hijacks your emotions. It happens all the time: somebody gets upset with you, they’re not disciplined, they say something hurtful, and a week or two later they come back and say, “I just want to apologize, I don’t know, I was in a bad place, I didn’t mean what I said.” But it’s hard to un-hear that — especially when what they said seemed to come from such a deep place, like they’d been carrying that about you for years. You realize they meant it from their soul; they’ve been feeling that way about you a long time — because that’s what happens with unmanaged emotion: you start reacting.
A. Loving your words means taking responsibility for your declarations.
That’s why you have to understand, in this season, be careful — because loving your Word means you’ve got to take responsibility for your declarations. I’ve got to take ownership of what I say. Watch this — the tone and the timing matter. I have a responsibility, because it’s not just what I say, it’s how I say it. It’s the difference between a glass of water and losing your mind. People who don’t have discipline about how they speak.
You get pulled over by police for a normal traffic stop and you get your license out. You have your stuff ready, you’re calm, and your tone is good. But somebody without discipline starts being difficult, escalating something, and ends causing you both to catch a case for it. Be quiet, because escalating gets you nowhere! People without discipline get themselves into situations, because they don’t know how to measure their tone — or worse, their timing. You have to know that you can say the right thing at the wrong time. So, Lord, help me have the wisdom to say the right thing at the right time.
B. If you do not like the harvest, change the language you are planting.
If you don’t like the harvest, change the language you’re planting. You don’t just need to see it, you need to feel it, because your environment reflects your expression. Change your thoughts with your confession. You’ve got to speak life until things begin to align.
I know some of you hearing this today might think this sounds quite mystical. It’s like I’m saying you just speak into the atmosphere and things happen. I hear that. But is it really some mystical kind of thing? Don’t you realize you do this all the time with Siri or Alexa? Who are you talking to? You’re talking to something programmed to respond to your voice, and you trust the information it gives you as truth. When you speak to it, you have confidence the information is accurate — you cook meals off it, you take directions off it, because you trust what it’s been programmed to say back to you is true. So if you have that much confidence in Alexa, I need you to have that much confidence in God’s Word. I’m not speaking my own word; I’m speaking God’s Word back to Him. “I am the head and not the tail. I shall be blessed going in and blessed coming out. Everywhere the sole of my foot treads on, God said he would give me,”. Are you hearing me? I want you to get to the point where you open up your mouth, because the enemy has always tried to muffle you.
The Pharisees and Sadducees had a problem with the crowd around Jesus, because they were praising loudly — and they said to Jesus, “Can You please tell Your people to be quiet?” And Jesus said, “If they hold their peace, the very rocks will cry out.” Because what the enemy wants is for you to sit back and say nothing, but a closed mouth doesn’t get fed. I’ve come to tell you: learn how to open your mouth and speak what you need. Start declaring: “I am not broken, I am building. I am not stuck, I am striving. I am not defeated, I am developing. I am not delayed, I am directing. I am not empty, I am evolving. I am not overlooked, I am not by myself, I am with myself.”
You have to get to a point in your life where you open your mouth and come into agreement with God. One more testimony: I asked Alexa a question, and you won’t believe what she did. She said, “I’m sorry, I can’t help you with that right now.” I thought I was talking too fast like I often do, so I slowed down and said “Alexa” again — and she said, “I’m sorry, I can’t help you with that right now. She said, “There seems to be a problem with your connection. Go to your modem, disconnect it for 30 seconds, reconnect it, and try again.” And it hit me: there are some people who are talking to Heaven and getting the same response — “I’m sorry, there’s a problem with your connection, I can’t help you until you get reconnected. Try again.” But this time, because you’ve got the Word, God has reconnected you. Next time you open your mouth, I need you to believe that whatever you say to God shall come to pass.
I need somebody to open their mouth right now. I don’t need you to give God praise just to overshadow every negative word, every hateful word. Lift up your voice and declare the power of life. Give Him glory. Lay your hand on yourself, and declare: “I am blessed. I am God’s child. I am not perfect, but I am loved. I am becoming all that God said I will be. My declaration is moving me towards my destiny. From this day forward, my words will not speak death — they speak life. I speak it over my body, I speak it over my mind, I speak it over my family, I speak it over my business, I speak it over everything I come in contact with. Everything I come in contact with will be blessed. Every word I speak shall be a word of blessing.” Now give God glory one more time.
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