'...Let the weak SAY, "I am a mighty man." [Joel 3:10]
Because we live on two planes--two universes, if you will, the natural and the spiritual--it can get confusing. We walk in the earth but in the Spirit we are seated IN HEAVENLY PLACES IN CHRIST JESUS [Ephesians 2:6]. We walk in a natural, physical body but we are also the Body of Christ in the earth--the temple of the Holy Spirit. We're in Christ but He's in us--we're one Spirit with the Lord! [1 Corinthians 6:17]
We know that God's Word is settled forever [Psalm 119:89] and that His works were finished from the foundation of the world [Hebrews 4:3]. We know that all of the promises of God are YES in Him [2 Corinthians 1:20] and that we are redeemed from the curse of the law [Galatians 3:13].
From the Word, we see that we're healed, rich, protected by angels...that our children are blessed and that we're full of love, joy and faith. We know that we are capable of greater works than Jesus did and that AS HE IS SO ARE WE IN THIS WORLD. That we can speak to mountains and storms and donkeys and trees and coins and fish and they will obey us.
But when we look around in the natural, it doesn't always match up to what we know is 1) the will of God and 2) an already accomplished fact. Where's the disconnect?
See the Unseen
2 Corinthians 4:18 tells us to '...look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.'
2 Corinthians 4:18 tells us to '...look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.'
The Word is true and settled and finished in that unseen realm, the realm of the Spirit. That fact doesn't make it any less true in the natural, because the physical world is a subset of the Spirit. All physical, natural things are created from spirit.
'In the beginning was the WORD, and the WORD was with God, and the WORD was God. He was in the beginning with God.'All things came into being through Him, and apart from him nothing came into being that has come into being.'He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him.' [John 1:1-3,10]
It's in the Spirit that we've been made complete, one with the Lord. In the natural, we're just us, but IN CHRIST we're all that He is.
Say, Say, Say [NOT the Paul McCartney song...]
God is a Sprit, and He creates with His mouth. He calls darkness light and it is so. He created the physical universe with His mouth, and Jesus told us to speak to mountains and trees and they would move.
God is a Sprit, and He creates with His mouth. He calls darkness light and it is so. He created the physical universe with His mouth, and Jesus told us to speak to mountains and trees and they would move.
God spoke His WORD through prophets into the earth until HE came to pass--the WORD made flesh. And we are one Spirit with the Lord, the WORD multiplied! [Acts 12:24]
Believing--seeing the unseen--and speaking it into the earth is how we bring the already finished works of God into the earthly plane. We are created in His image, made like Him!
Romans 10:10 puts it this way...for with the HEART a person believes, resulting in righteousness [a spiritual state of right-standing with God], and with the MOUTH he confesses, resulting in salvation [Gr. soteria--physical deliverance, preservation, safety, salvation--redemption from earthly ills, deliverance from the molestation of enemies].
Our salvation is in the heart, where we see the unseen, and in the mouth, where we bring it into the natural realm. This is God's MO--seeing the unseen and speaking it into physical reality. One won't work without the other--we can't just make rote confessions without first seeing and believing it to be real, and we can't just see the unseen without giving the word into the earth.
Let the weak say...
This is why God prophesied through Joel '...let the weak SAY I am a mighty man.' He was explaining how a weak man might become a strong man...by declaring it into the earth.
This is why God prophesied through Joel '...let the weak SAY I am a mighty man.' He was explaining how a weak man might become a strong man...by declaring it into the earth.
Job 22:28 says "You will also DECREE a thing, and it will be ESTABLISHED for you; and LIGHT WILL SHINE ON YOUR WAYS."
Psalm 107:2 tell us 'Let the redeemed of the Lord SAY so, whom He has redeemed from the hand of the adversary....'
Then there's Psalm 91:2...'I will SAY to the Lord, "My refuge and my fortress, my God, in Who I trust!"' Then the rest of Psalm 91 describes the protection that is invoked by that statement!
Notice that the weak one in Joel 3:10 is not told to say "I'm so weak, what am I going to do? I can't do anything, I'm so weak...how am I ever going to get out of this situation?" over and over, to all who will listen.
Yes, we may be naturally weak, but 1 Corinthians 4:18 tells us that the things which are SEEN are temporal--temporary--but the things which are NOT SEEN are eternal--lasting or existing FOREVER, without end! God's word is eternal, forever settled! [Isaiah 40:8, Psalm 119:89]
Look in the mirror
In the first chapter of James, the Holy Spirit uses an analogy to explain.
In the first chapter of James, the Holy Spirit uses an analogy to explain.
'For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was.'But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does.' [James 1:23-25]
The Word is a mirror--it tells us who we are in Christ, in the Spirit. If we turn away, we forget that we're one Spirit with the Lord--healed, rich, strengthened with ALL POWER in the inner man, joint heirs with Christ. We forget who we are in Christ and see only our flawed, weak, natural selves. Doubt and fear creep in and we are crippled in the earth.
But if we look intently at the Word--the perfect law, the law of liberty--we can see the unseen! Keep looking at the unseen and then, call it into being! Let the weak say "I am a mighty man!" Why? Because God said so, and He knows how the system works!
It always comes back to faith...
Faith is the assurance--the substance, that which has real existence--of things hoped for, the conviction [or proof, evidence] of things [accomplished facts] not seen. [Hebrews 11:1, with Greek word translations from the NAS New Testament Greek Lexicon]
Faith is the assurance--the substance, that which has real existence--of things hoped for, the conviction [or proof, evidence] of things [accomplished facts] not seen. [Hebrews 11:1, with Greek word translations from the NAS New Testament Greek Lexicon]
Use your faith to create natural reality. Look at the Word, know--see, believe--who you are in Christ, and declare it into the earth.
Let the weak say "I AM a mighty man!" Say what the Word says about you--see it, believe it, say it!
