Speaking God’s Word satisfies you (Proverbs 18:20-21). Your words carry the power of life or death. The people who love His Word will eat its fruit. Pastor Dale told of how he loved football practice, whereas others on the team didn’t but only wanted the lights and action of the Friday night games. We have to love “practice”, the daily time with the Father, His Word, and the confession of it. We “see” by what we hear, because words carry visual images (Mark 4:21-26). Sin brings darkness, and darkness is a lack of the Word; the Word is light. Love the process of meditation on the Word. There is power in it. Meditating on the Word is like sowing seed, like the practice for the football games. It’s a process of life. Blessed (favored by God) is the man who doesn’t walk, sit, or stand where he shouldn’t (Psalm 1:1-3). Sometimes you are blessed by what you don’t do. Don’t walk in ungodly counsel. Good is not necessarily God. Correct your course, or you’ll get in a place where you’ll have to justify your course. Love the Word and love meditating on it. Take heed how and what you hear. Start where you are. It’s a process of planting (Psalm 1:3). If you love the process, you’ll love the harvest. Meditate on the Word for the Word’s sake, not to get some result and apply kingdom principles first.

Pastor Dale shared about a Mennonite missionary to Ethiopia who found out that miracles are for today and is writing a book about the miracles in Ethiopia. Pastor Dale told about talking to a Baptist pastor near Pittsburgh who told him that he doesn’t believe in speaking in tongues and being charismatic, but this pastor told of being in Africa in a crisis and how he and the Africans didn’t understand each other, but all of a sudden this language came out of his mouth, and they understood him. The pastor said he still doesn’t believe in tongues. Sermon: Just like you are a sibling in your family, and you don’t have a choice about it, you can try to be depressed, defeated, or sick, but you’re blessed. God has blessed you! Isaac, even through deceit and deception, couldn’t take back his blessing. God has commanded the blessing on us. You are blessed! “Happy” is not the same as “blessing”. God has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places in Christ (Ephesians 1:3). God’s blessing rests on you. You are blessed in heavenly places, which is the spiritual realm where angels and demons are. The spirit realm birthed us. You are blessed in Christ. Being born-again or saved is Christ in us. Colossians 1:27 says Christ in us, the hope of glory. Jesus Christ has come in my flesh (1 John 4:2). We are also in Christ. That’s where the blessings are. What does it mean to be in Christ? In Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive (1 Corinthians 15:22). What are the effects of being in Adam? (Romans 5:12) Adam opened the door to sin and as a result suffering, wars, corruption, and death came. Does sickness come because of a person’s sin? In some cases it does. All sickness does come from sin, at least from Adam’s sin. If you have sinned and have sickness, run to the cross and the blood of Jesus takes care of it. Apply faith to the grace that has been given to you. The Old Testament priesthood was replaced by Christ as our High Priest. Abraham tithed, and when you tithe you are really giving to God, testifying that Jesus is alive (Hebrews 7:8-). Levi paid tithes through Abraham, but Levi was born 430 years after Abraham. How could he have paid tithes to Abraham? Abraham paid tithes to Melchizadek, the Priest of the Most High God, a type of Christ, obligating Levi to come underneath what Abraham did. You are the result of those who have gone before you. One act affects lineage. (Pastor Dale told of his German cousin, Johnny, and his meeting with his grandfather years later. He found out that he was the recipient of one act of mercy.) In Abraham, you can be blessed. (Pastor Dale gave a demonstration of lineage: God, Adam, Cain. When Adam sinned, there was a breach, and the blessings couldn’t pass down the line.) We all were in Adam. Jesus’ lineage is in Luke 3:23-38, tracing all the way to Adam, who was the son of God. In Adam all die. In Abraham there can be blessing because he tithed. In Christ, He took His blood and went to heaven to the mercy seat, breaching the gulf with His sacrifice. As long as you put faith in the blood of Jesus Christ, the lineage doesn’t stop at Adam, but goes back to God. We were grafted into the root. Being born is how we inherited all the sin and sickness and death, but being in Christ is to have all the righteousness, wisdom, redemption, peace, joy, love that comes to us through Christ Himself. We have to receive by putting faith in the grace of God. If you are in Christ, you are a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17). It’s your birthright to be blessed. You are born blessed and healed. We are in Christ, blessed and redeemed.

Our words work for or against us, bringing either life or death (Proverbs 18:20-21). Pastor Dale told of Janny and Bill Grein giving all that they had in obedience and then God’s blessing them by having Pat Boone sing twice one of her songs on the Tonight Show. Use your mouth to speak life, blessings, and joy. Pastor Dale told of being in Tulsa and having a car that “died”. He kept speaking to the car to be sold. Within a short time of being towed by his employer’s company, a man bought it and had it towed. You aren’t going to have what you believe, but what you say (Mark 11:23). Speak the Word, and then faith will come. It has to get into a place of abundance. The third experience Pastor Dale shared was when he was sickened by some food in Moscow and was left with a bad rash after a week of fever and delirium. He kept cursing the rash that it would leave. When he was in Istanbul, Turkey, he ministered to a Muslim man who had been scalded by boiling water. The man was instantly healed. Later Pastor Dale found that his own rash had disappeared, and that he was healed, too. The increase of your lips will satisfy you. Your words will work for you.

Jesus’ public ministry ended when He died, but His private ministry began with His disciples after He rose from the dead. In Acts 1:1-8 Jesus was giving His disciples leadership training. He told them that they would receive power (dunamis) after the Holy Spirit would come upon them. Jesus told the Pharisees that if He cast out demons by the Spirit of God that the kingdom of God had come upon them (Matthew 12:25-29). In the Lord’s Prayer it says, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven”. The kingdom of God comes after the devil’s kingdom is destroyed (Luke 11:14-22). When His kingdom comes, the atmosphere and culture change. (Pastor Dale tells of the kingdom of God coming into the life of a co-worker.) The kingdom is in our lives. Acts 1:8 and 10:38 tell us that we will receive power after the Holy Spirit has come upon us. That means both proximity and progression. It’s our receiving the kingdom personally. Power is progressive. Jesus conquered the devil in the wilderness, after He was full of the power of the Holy Spirit (Luke 3:21-22; 4:1). Personal battles need to be won before you can minister to others. It is your personal victories that put you in a place of power. (Pastor Dale’s personal victory over asthma put him in a place to destroy that sickness in others.) Every personal victory causes an increase of power in your life so that you can possess the kingdom of God. After your personal victory, you’re in a position to bind the strongman (Luke 11:20). Challenge: Pray for God’s kingdom to come in the area that you need victory. Personal victory over the devil separates little children from men (1 John2:12). Be strong in God and His Word and bring the kingdom of God into your life. After the Holy Spirit has come upon you, each day should bring you greater power.

Offering Message: Even after we are saved from our sins, we still need to make a choice for what God has provided for us, such as life, prosperity, and healing. Pastor Sydney shares a strong testimony of choosing healing over sickness and death and choosing provision over lack. Jesus doesn’t like lack. He provided for fishermen who weren’t catching fish, food for the multitudes, and possible increase for the rich young ruler. Sermon Message: Colossians 3:13 tells us to forebear and forgive one another. This goes beyond tolerating one another to loving and understanding. If you quarrel, forgive it out. We are to owe others our love for them, because we are in a debt to one another as a result of Christ’s forgiveness of our sins (Romans 13:8). Jesus is all about forgiveness (Ephesians 4:31-32). The effectiveness of our speaking to the mountains in our lives depends not only on our believing, but also in our forgiving others (Mark 11:23-26). The “Lord’s Prayer” is a prayer template or pattern. If you notice how often “we, us, our” is mentioned in this prayer, you will realize it is not for yourself, but for His whole Body (Matthew 6:7-13; Luke 11:1-4). Some translations use the words, “debts” and debtors”, which carry the importance of forgiveness. The disciples knew the mechanics of prayer, because they were trained in the Jewish prayers. You have to learn the mechanics of prayer before you get into the “art”, passion and fire behind it. As an artist takes care of his tools, you will get into the tools of prayer- the name of Jesus, praying in the Spirit, etc. Challenge: Use the Lord’s Prayer to “kick start” your day and prayer time. Each time you pray it, forgive whoever comes to mind. Be quick to give, forgive, and forget. Get rid of the bitterness rejection, and pride, including that of spiritual pride. The sin of omission separates the goats from the sheep. Repentance should be ongoing. If you’ve forgiven someone once, and that person keeps coming back in your thoughts, keep repenting and forgiving. Consciously and deliberately work forgiveness into your praying. Forgive and ask life for a brother and even for our nation (1 John 5:16).

Text: Psalm 27:1; Proverbs 18:20-21. Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit. You are satisfied by what comes out of your mouth, and by saying and confessing aloud the Word of God, you activate this spiritual principle. You get what you ask for. What is abundant in your heart (Matthew 12:34)? If what’s in your heart in abundance isn’t good, don’t hide it, but curse it and say what you want and need, and don’t drop your commitment to what you’re saying. In other words, speak death to what you don’t want and speak life to what you want. Your tongue is a powerful rudder, and your words are producing- life or death. When you are quoting Scripture into a situation, you’re not lying if that’s not what is in the natural. In Mark 4:35-41 Jesus said, “Let us cross over to the other side.” He sowed Word seed. Jesus used His words exactly and precisely. The disciples spoke care and worry. Jesus spoke death when He rebuked the wind and spoke life when He spoke to the sea, “Peace, be still.” Speak your desires and end results by speaking the Word.

Text: Mark 4:14-20 (The Parable of the Sower and the Seed). God’s Word is the seed. The ground (soil) is a person’s heart. The seed’s (the Word’s) growth and fruitfulness depend on the ground that the seed lands on. If the soil (a person’s heart) is good, it doesn’t take much for the seed to grow and produce fruit, like the woman who was healed of the issue of blood. Immediately after you receive the Word, Satan will try to steal it out of your life, because he hates the Word in you more than he hates you. Don’t let Satan take the Word out of you! Tribulation and persecution arise for the Word’s sake, and people get offended at it. Maybe it’s a Word about giving or healing. Keep a good heart. We have three main enemies or weeds in our heart. They are: the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts for other things. These “weeds” choke the Word and cause the Word to become unfruitful. Keep the weeds out of your garden. Your heart must be receptive. For example, before ministering to a person with cancer, you have to get the fear out of his/her heart. Pluck out the lust of the flesh, of the eyes, and the pride of life (1 John 2:15-16). Get your heart right before God, and bear fruit- thirty fold, sixty, or a hundred.

God blots out your transgression for His sake and tells you to put Him in remembrance (Isaiah 43:25-26). This is covenant and legal language, pointing to a contract made together. What does He forget? He forgets our sins. What is to be remembered? We are to call on God to remember His promises to us. Remembering is a covenant word to make a claim on a promise that was given. God does not count our sins against us, because He put them on Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:15-19). We are to declare the Word of His covenant. We can plead our case for righteousness together with the Holy Spirit. We say God’s Word promise, and the Holy Spirit pleads with us. We declare our innocence that we may be justified. Keep your own word (Psalm 15:1-5). What God says, He will do. We insult and offend God when we dishonor or disbelieve what He says. God’s Word will come to pass, if you listen to His voice to observe and to do it (Deuteronomy 28:1). Jacob pleaded with God (Genesis 32:9). You can plead with God by saying, “Lord, You said …” Put God I remembrance of His promises, plead together with the Holy Spirit, and make a declaration.

Offering message: Isaiah 1:19 tells us to be both willing and obedient. We are givers, not takers. Our willingness is important. God wants us to change nations. Sermon message: You received salvation by confessing with your mouth the Lord Jesus, (which means saying aloud), and believing in your heart, (that’s faith) that God has raised Him from the dead. The same way you received salvation, you receive all the spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus, such as healing, righteousness, freedom from fear, and provision. Because you know that God has already provided for these spiritual blessings, you can hold onto them by confessing them as your own, thanking and praising Him for the victory. Confessing is acknowledging every good thing that is in you in Christ Jesus. You can abound, which means having more than you can contain, because you have fellowship (communication, free flow, interchange, koinonia) with God and Jesus, who are alive. Jesus is in the heavens, which is not referring to distance, but is the realm of the Spirit and access, a place of control of the universe. For example, the instant you die physically, you are with Him. There’s no time or space lapse. Use your faith by confessing the spiritual blessings that are in you through Christ Jesus. (Pastor Dale tells of using his confession of faith to get the victory over asthma.) [Texts: Philemon 6, Colossians 2:6-7; Romans 10:9-10; Hebrews4:14; Ephesians 1:3]

Ephesians 1:15-20 is a prayer that you can pray for yourself and your loved ones. Paul prayed this prayer with thanksgiving, not with worry and fear. If you pray that a) you might receive a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Jesus Christ and God, and that b) the eyes of your understanding (your spirit) would be enlightened, you will pray to know what is 1) the hope of His calling, 2) the riches of His glory, and 3) the exceeding greatness of His power toward you. Numbers 1)-3) do not happen if you don’t do a) and b). The hope of His calling means your purpose. You are sent. If you don’t have hope, you don’t know why you’re here. Walk in your purpose. Pray for the hopeless using this prayer. The riches of His glory refer to what belongs to you. As a child of the King, you have an inheritance. What belongs to you will come through prayer. Do you know the exceeding greatness of His power toward you, how powerful you are? The same power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead is at work in you. You have an assignment: Write and print out Ephesians 1:17-19 personalizing this prayer for yourself, and then post it somewhere you’ll see it. Then do the same thing inserting your loved ones’ names. Finally, pray these prayers for yourself and your loved ones.