|
Words
Can Ordain
Your
Future
by Tom
Brown
 It's true, you will get what
you say. "Life and death are in the power of the
tongue" (Pr 18:21).
Your words will put you over in
life or they will sink you. The life you're living now is the
result of the words you spoke in the past. If you don't like the
life your living, then speak new words.
The words you should speak are
God's words, and all of them are found in the Bible.
Some Christians complain,
"I have spoken the Word of God over my life, yet His Word
hasn't come to pass. I said that I'm healed by the stripes of
Jesus and that my God supplies all my needs. Yet those positive
things haven't happen. I'm still sick and broke!"
Since some people fail to
receive what they confess, many assume that the confession of
God's Word doesn't work. But it does.
Why then do we sometimes fail
to receive the benefits of the spoken Word of God? The answer
came to me unexpectedly.
REVELATION,
MEDITATION, AND PROCLAMATION
I was at a local restaurant
drinking its delicious coffee and enjoying my Bible. I was
reading through the Psalms when chapter 39 struck me. The
wonderful smell of the coffee vanished. The people at the
restaurant seemed to fade. All I could see and hear was Psalm 39,
verse 3:
"My heart grew hot within
me, and as I meditated, the fire burned; then I spoke with my
tongue."
When I read those profound, yet
simple words, God spoke to me. He spoke only three words:
revelation, meditation, and proclamation.
I saw it! It was as though a
beam of light entered my heart. I understood what God was saying
to me.
He was saying that first comes
revelation, second comes meditation. And when you have
experienced revelation and practiced meditation, then you are
ready to make your proclamation.
You see, many people fail in
their confession because they don't have any personal revelation
of the things they are confessing. They say that they are healed,
prosperous and blessed, but they don't have a revelation of these
blessings, nor do they meditate on them. As a result, their
confessions don't work.
HEARTBURN
David said, "Then I
spoke." Then means next in order of time. Before he spoke
with his tongue, David went through two phases. First he said,
"My heart grew hot within me." Second he said,
"And as I meditated, the fire burned." Notice these two
stages: His heart grew hot, and he meditated.
What did David mean when he
said that his heart grew hot? Well, he was not talking about
heartburn. He did not need Rolaids.
The heart is the spirit of man.
The spirit of man is the real you made in God's image. It is the
place of real spiritual power. The heart is where you believe. By
believing with the heart you are saved.
David used the word
"heart" to speak of his spirit and he used the word
"fire" to describe a spiritual experience. He was
saying that spiritual insight came to him. The New Testament uses
the word "revelation." Revelation is supernatural
insight into the mind of God.
David was saying, "I have
received supernatural insight into the mind of God. I know what
God is thinking at this moment. I know what's on His mind. I know
His perfect will."
Do you see what I'm saying?
Before your confession of God's Word can work for you, you must
receive revelation. This is what Paul prayed for in Ephesians
1:17: "I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and
revelation." There it is: the Spirit of revelation.
He goes on to pray,
"I pray also that the eyes
of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the
hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious
inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for
us who believe" (Eph 1:18-19).
He prayed that the eyes of
their hearts would be enlightened. "Enlighten" comes
from two words: en which means "in" and light which
means "fire." To be enlightened is to have a fire
within you. The heart is enlightened by fire, and the fire is the
Holy Spirit. "Do not put out the Spirit's fire" (1
Thess 5:19).
Paul prayed that the Holy
Spirit would open their spiritual understanding so that they
could know three things: First, the hope of their calling;
second, the inheritance within them; and third, the power that is
available for them.
This is the most important
prayer to pray, because the greatest need in the body of Christ
is revelation. Once the Church receives revelation, nothing can
stop it.
ROAD TO EMMAUS
Many people pray for revelation
but don't receive it because they have too many burdens on their
hearts. There is a fascinating story in the Bible which
illustrates the need to cast your cares on the Lord in order to
receive revelation. The story involves the resurrected Christ and
two disciples that were traveling on the road to Emmaus.
"Now the same day two of
them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles
from Jerusalem. They were talking with each other about
everything that had happened. As they talked and discussed these
things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along
with them; but they were kept from recognizing him." (Luke
24:13-16)
My question is simple. Why were
they kept from recognizing Jesus? The answer is in verse 24:
"They stood still, their faces downcast."
Do you see what their problem
was? They were depressed. They had a lot on their hearts--things
that had weighed them down. So Jesus, instead of telling them
that He was Jesus, asked them many questions in order for them to
get their burdens off their chest.
Doesn't it feel good to talk
with someone about your burdens, especially when it is the Lord?
When you do, you feel a hundred pounds lighter.
You see, a bad time to study
the Bible is when you are depressed. You will not get anything
from your study. Revelation will not come when you are depressed.
It is important that you cast your cares on the Lord before you
study the Bible. When you do, you are better prepared to study
the Bible because you are free to receive revelation from it.
"After the two disciples
had shared their burdens, Jesus started to talk with them about
the Scriptures. He [Jesus] said to them, "How foolish you
are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have
spoken! Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then
enter his glory? And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets,
he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures
concerning himself. As they approached the village to which they
were going, Jesus acted as if he were going farther. But they
urged him strongly, "Stay with us, for it is nearly evening;
the day is almost over." So he went in to stay with
them." (Luke 24:25-29)
You see, Jesus tested them. He
pretended to go farther. He wanted to see if they were going to
diligently study the Scriptures or if they were content with
their Bible study on the road. Thankfully, these disciples wanted
more. They made Christ teach them the Bible at their home.
We must be like them. A little
Bible study will not do. We must dig deep in the Word of God in
order to get revelation.
"Then their eyes were
opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their
sight. They asked each other, "Were not our hearts burning
within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the
Scriptures to us?" (Luke 24:31-32)
I find it interesting that the
thing which the disciples found wonderful was the fact that their
hearts burned within them as they learned the Word of God. Notice
that they did not talk about Jesus disappearing. They were more
excited about their hearts burning than about Jesus
supernaturally disappearing.
Revelation is by far the
greatest spiritual experience that anyone can receive, even
greater than seeing Christ in the flesh.
So the two main lessons we
learn from this story are: to cast our burdens and cares on the
Lord, and then, to diligently study the scriptures until we
receive revelation knowledge.
MEDITATE
Once your heart grows hot, you
must meditate on the revelation that you received in order to
start the fire. It's not good enough to simply have a warm heart;
you need a fire.
Many people are content to
receive revelation, but they stop there. They don't go further by
meditating on the Word of God. You must continue to meditate on
your revelation. Don't stop simply with the revelation; continue
until the heat turns into a fire. Only then are you going to have
the spiritual force to make your words come to pass.
"Meditate" means to
think deeply about something until subconsciously you begin to
speak it to yourself. The Hebrew word for meditation means to
mutter. "Mutter" means that you speak to yourself in a
low tone of voice.
Have you ever thought so deeply
about something that you unconsciously started to move your lips?
Perhaps you thought about asking your boss for a raise. So on
your way to work, you went over in your mind what you were going
to say, and as you did, you detected that someone was staring at
you. And as your eyes look up to see who it was, you blushed
because you had been talking to yourself. Do you know what you
were doing? You were meditating.
So to meditate is to be so
absorbed with certain thoughts that we talk to ourselves. We
should be so absorbed with the Word of God that we talk it to
ourselves without realizing it.
Meditation has been one of the
most beneficial things in my life. It has also made people wonder
if I was crazy. When I used to work for a pizza parlor, I would
constantly meditate on the Word of God. Often, my fellow
employees would interrupt me, "Hey, Tom, what are you
babbling about?"
I would blush,
"I...I...I...was just thinking about the Bible." Oh, I
was embarrassed, but the growth in my life was incredible. I
would rather have people think that I'm crazy than fail to
meditate. Anyway, many of my fellow workers are now members of my
church, and they are doing what I did.
CHEW THE CUD
In the Old Testament, God gave
Israel permission to eat any animal that chewed the cud. A cow is
an example. A cow takes its time to chew. Slowly it crushes the
hay and masticates the food. After minutes of gnawing down the
hay into small particles, it swallows. Gulp! The first of three
stomachs breaks down the food into vitamins and minerals. Soon,
the cow regurgitates the food and starts the process of chewing
it again. And after some time, it swallows the food once more.
The food then passes into his
second stomach where it undergoes another process of digestion.
After hours, the food is passed into the third stomach, where
every remaining vitamin that can be drawn out is absorbed. The
rest is discharged. The whole process takes about twenty-four
hours.
Now, I've brought all this up
to show the process meditation. We should be like the cow and
slowly chew the Word of God before we swallow. We meditate by
taking a few Scriptures and mulling them over in our minds. After
we have done that a few times, we bring back those Scriptures
again and start the process once more. We keep that up until the
Word becomes a part of us.
Unfortunately, most people feed
on the Word like a pig feeds on slop. The pig, unlike the cow,
was considered an unclean animal. A pig swallows the food without
hardly chewing it. In just a matter of six hours, the food is
part of the pig's body. Very little nutrition from the food is
absorbed by the pig, because he eats his food in a hurry. This is
the way most people read their Bibles--in a hurry. This explain
why most do not get much out of the Bible.
People often wonder how to
study the Bible. There are many good ways, but the best way is to
meditate on those portions of Scriptures that God has used to
warm your heart. Study those parts that your heart has received
revelation from.
When you start to meditate, the
heart that was warm will catch fire. When it does, you are ready
to make your proclamation. Your confession will at that time have
power and come to pass. Your words will become more powerful, and
they will work to predict your future.
This article is based
on an edited excerpt from the book, "You Can Predict Your Future" by Tom Brown.
Click here to order online from Tom Brown Ministries
 Send your
comments
Read
more articles by Tom Brown
Click here
if you're interested in having Tom Brown come to your area
Back to the Main Page
|
