Watching Over His Word

Forever, O LORD, Your word is settled in heaven. [Psalm 119:89]

'Then the LORD said to me, "You have seen well, for I am watching over My word to perform it."' [Jeremiah 1:12]

"So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth; it will not return to Me empty, without accomplishing what I desire, and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it." [Isaiah 55:11]

Put these verses together and you get WOW!!

First, the Hebrew word translated word in all three of these verse isdabar...which means both word and thing! God's word is the thing He intends it to be when it comes out of His mouth! [Hint: read Genesis 1...]

We also know from Hebrews 4 that God's works were finished from the foundation of the earth, and that He has, in fact, rested from His works.

Put all of this together and you can see what Isaiah saw in 40:8...'The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever.'

His Word stands forever...and by the way, the word word in this verse is dabar, too! Word, thing...all the same to God!

Past or Present...I'm Confused
What's really interesting is that, even though His Word is settled forever and His works are finished from the foundation of the world, in both Isaiah 55:11 and Jeremiah 1:12, He uses an active present tense to describe His watchfulness over His Word or thing. What does this mean?

The key is in the two passages in the Gospels where Jesus gave us the power to bind [forbid] and loose [allow]. He said what you bind/loose [present tense] on earth shall have been bound/loosed [past perfect] in heaven. [Matthew 16,18]

These are quantum verses! They demonstrate the time lag between what's already finished in heaven and what is coming to pass in real time in the earth.

Earth is time-bound because of the reality of her physical nature. She orbits the sun, producing repetitive seasons; she rotates on an axis, producing repetitive days. In this physical plane, or reality, time exists.

But heaven is a different plane of existence! We see the two planes intersect often in the Bible, the curtain pulled back for a moment...Hagar's well, Jacob's ladder of angels, Elisha's heavenly army, the mountain of transfiguration and so forth. We see the heavenly realm exposed on a grand scale in the book of Revelation.

And in that place, on that plane of existence, God's works are finished and He has entered His rest! In that place, His Word is settled forever...in that place, we are already seated with Him in Christ Jesus! [Ephesians 2:6]

That's Great, But I Live on Earth...
Not exactly. As Christians, we exist on two planes. We live in a physical, time-bound, earth-based body; earthen vessel, temple of God, etc.

But in heaven, we exist in Jesus, seated at the right hand of God The Father!

The Father is watching His Word to perform it in the earth, because it's already finished in heaven. It is settled forever, and that's a fact...but it is coming to pass in the earth, and He has promised that it would not return to Him without accomplishing what He desires and without SUCCEEDING in the matter for which He sent it!

God said that His Word is His desire and that it WILL succeed in the matter for which He sent it. Hallelujah!

A Tale of Two Cities
So here we are, on earth, and in heaven, at the same time. His Word for us—every promise—is already accomplished in heaven. And, we have the promise of 2 Corinthians 1:20 in the earth: 'For as many as are the promises of God, in Him [Jesus] they are yes...'

In heaven, you are already healed, rich, perfect, according to His precious and magnificent promises. In the earth, He is watching over His Word—His thing, His promise—to perform it. But how?

The how is how He accomplished everything else in the earth...He had people speak His word and it came to pass in the earth.

One of my favorite scriptures is Psalm 68:11,12.

'The Lord gives the command; the women who proclaim the good tidings are a great host: "Kings of armies flee, they flee, And she who remains at home will divide the spoil!"'

Get the picture. The men have gone out to fight...the Lord gives the command, or word, of victory to the women, and the women proclaim it! And they become a great host--a great, strong, abundant army behind the army! Talk about the woman behind the man! They proclaim—announce or preach—the word, and it comes to pass through the physical actions of the men fighting!

So much for the great debate about women preachers! Ha!

We see this again and again...we call it fulfilled prophecy, but in layman's terms, it's really simple. God says a word [thing], man speaks it into the earth and it comes to pass.

Good News
The good news is that this doesn't just work on the grand scale of prophetic history. It works every day, individually and corporately, in the lives of men and women who will obey and speak—announce or proclaim—His Word into the earth!

For example, He said in Isaiah 53:5 and 1 Peter 2:24 that by His stripes—His scourging or wounds—we were healed. First, this is already settled in heaven, already finished. Second, He is watching over that Word to perform it in the earth.

What's our part? To speak it out! To proclaim or announce it into the physical earth to bring to pass what is clearly His will! Jesus prayed "Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." [Matthew 6:10]

The Greek word for done in this passage is ginomai, which means to come to pass or to be made or finished! He intends for His Word—ALL OF IT—to be finished in the earth as it is already finished in heaven!

Start speaking His Word over your life today. Walk in the victory of His finished work, on earth as it is in heaven.

The Lesson [re-post]

I spent yesterday with an extremely negative person. Apart from leaving with a whopping headache and stress that took hours to release, I came away with some interesting observations.

First, I realized how connected we are. I woke up this morning still reeling from the stress, feeling darkly anxious and hopeless.

I also realized, once again, that we are only limited by our vision and our words. When we say 'I can't' it is because we see that we can't, and it prophesies that very thing.

I watched it happen! Every time she said she couldn't do it, she'd screw up and break down in frustration. This happened time and time again..."I can't do this" or "This isn't me" or "I hate this" coming to pass in real time.

I understood that this was her inner vision--the cell she created for herself by her own self image. She believed impossible—she saw impossible, she spoke impossible—and impossible came to pass. Living in a tiny box, walled in on every side by great walls of impossibility.

This friend is a Christian, so I tossed a couple of scriptures at her, sort of how one would toss a life preserver to a drowning man. "James says the tongue is the rudder of the body...all things are possible for her...God can do more than you even think according to the power that works in you..." etc. etc.

But she couldn't even see herself grasping for the life preserver. She just kept walking 'round and 'round in that little cell, building greater and greater walls with her mouth. Every time I spoke peace and possibility, she became angrier and more upset. She just wasn't having it.

The Lesson
Yesterday, I was angry at her. Angry at the years of so-called Christian teachings that left her powerless and frantic.

Today, I am filled with sadness. A sort of compassion turned inward.

The Father has told us, again and again, that all things are possible for us. [See Possibilities, Quantum Possibilities, Anything?, All Things—just search the blog, there's lots.]

Why don't we know this? I mean really know it? See it, say it, believe it?

We believe in the life and resurrection of Jesus? We believe that the Bible is the written Word of God...we believe that Moses split the Red Sea and that Sarah was rejuvenated in advanced years to bear Isaac. Why can't we believe that these types of impossibilities can be ours, as well?

Jesus told us to speak to trees and mountains, to heal the sick and raise the dead. We see Him, our Brother and examples, doing these very things. Walking away from out of control mobs set on killing Him, providing wine for a feast and money for taxes—and then He turns around and tell us to do greater works than these!

Because everything but the Word says it can't be done. Religion says it's passed away, culture mocks those who believe it, our own damaged self-speak say it couldn't be true for us.

But we are believers! And we can choose our beliefs! Believe the lie or believe the truth...

When we see that, in Christ, all things are possible to us, and say it, it becomes a prophetic utterance. Job 22:28 says 'Decree a thing and it will be established for you.' In reality, there is nothing that has been accomplished by anyone on earth that we cannot accomplish as well.

Learn the lesson. Choose life.

Waiting for God?

We've all been there. We've prayed, visualized, confessed and watched. And nothing happened. We then move into the 'waiting for God' phase, where we try to convince ourselves that it's 'just around the corner.'

Now, the longer the 'waiting' phase, the more we are subjected to doubt and unbelief. Which, of course, degrades our faith connection to the very thing we're waiting for.

Sound like a vicious cycle? It is, and it has nothing to do with God!

It's Already Yours
The issue seems to be that we're waiting for God to act, when Hebrews 4:3,4 tells us that His works are finished from the foundation of the world—He has in fact rested from His works! In Jesus, He completed everything, and you've been made complete in Him. [Colossians 2:9,10]

And He's given us all things richly to enjoy! [1 Timothy 6:17]

It's like Hagar's well...her provision was there already because of God's covenant with Abraham! It wasn't a matter of her waiting for it—the angel revealed to her that it was there all along! [ref Quantum Table, Believe You Receive 2]

We're told to see the unseen and believe we receive when we pray. We know that God's word is settled forever [Psalm 119:89] and that we are one Spirit with the Lord [1 Corinthians 6:17]. We are His joint-heir, in reality—we need to develop the eyes of our heart to see that all things belong to us already! 

Shift Your Paradigm...
This is a major paradigm shift for most, if not all Christians. We've been beaten down by false doctrines for so long it's almost impossible to wrap our minds around what the Word really says about who we are and how we are to live in this natural world.

Nevertheless, truth is truth and lies are lies. We are not poor, powerless nothings but mighty sons and daughters of God—one Spirit with Him, filled with God, strengthened with all power in our inner man!

We must develop the consciousness of Jesus—He knew that His prayers were answered, that physical things would obey Him, that He was One with the Father. Once He said it, that was it...no question that it was an accomplished fact.

He functioned from the answer, from the victory...from the finished reality. He knew that speaking the end from the beginning brings it from the realm of the Spirit into the natural world. He knew that eternity was not linear and that whatever God has spoken already existed in it's finished state.

Read John 14-17. Jesus reiterates time and time again..."Ask what you will and it will be done by My Father in Heaven." Give thanks for answered prayer in your life—see it as already finished, already yours—and enter into the joy of the Lord!