If you are anything like me right now, you want to believe that this challenge will help you co-create your destiny with God, but you still wonder if it will really happen for YOU.
The first time I started writing my 40 declarations, I only made it to #11. Not because I didn’t have more things that I was believing God for, but because I didn’t want to sound redundant. I felt like I had already prayed about the other stuff, so why bother writing them again? I mean, it’s on my vision board, it’s on the walls of my prayer closet, it runs through my mind all day… EVERY DAY! But here’s what I realized: Even though I put it in all those places, it’s not something I declare with authority every day.
You see, when it’s on my vision board, it just sits in a pretty frame I pass by daily. When it’s on the walls of my prayer closet, I don’t see it unless I’m sitting there. And to be honest, that’s not all the time. I’m currently writing this from the comforts of my bed - which is where I’ve taken to in order to spend time with God daily. It wasn’t until I read 2 Corinthians 4:13 that I realized the necessity to make those requests a “Let There Be” Declaration. You see, the Scripture says, “It is written: ‘I believed, therefore I have spoken’. Since we have that same spirit of faith, we also believe and therefore speak.” So it’s not just about believing, but about speaking that thing out EVERY. SINGLE. DAY!
Now, since you have the promises written down, purify yourself from everything that contaminates your body and your spirit. Don’t ingest things (music, podcasts, practices, beliefs, old ways of living) that contaminate your beliefs and ultimately cancel your desires. God promises to provide all you need. So, not only will you have enough, but you’ll have plenty left over to share with others.
I also mentioned that these “other things” (that are not yet declarations) run through my mind all day. So I thought, “Why bother making it a declaration when I’m already ‘meditating on it day and night’ like we are instructed to do in Joshua 1:8?”
But you know what? I’m not meditating on it the way that the Bible is asking me to do. I’m ruminating over it. Playing every scenario over and over in my mind. Trying to prepare myself for the best and worst-case scenarios. For what it might look or feel like when that thing happens. And you know what I realized? That’s not God. That’s anxiety!
Anxiety will have you worried about things in the future that may or may not come true. That’s not how God speaks to us. When He speaks, it is always from a place of love and authority. I know it’s a God thing when a thought comes up, and then it is confirmed by his word and by something outside of myself. Sometimes, it’s a radio station; sometimes, it’s another person; sometimes, it’s something that one of my students randomly says (out of the mouths of babes, right?!). But God ALWAYS confirms His word.
That’s why it’s so important to purify ourselves of unclean things. If we are seeking purity in what we listen to and what we watch, then we can hear more clearly. It’s anxiety when you think about it with fear, or worry, or doubt. These thoughts are the devil’s playground. He wants it to live rent-free in your head so that the words that come out of your mouth are words that go against what you truly want. Words that will cancel out the promises that you are believing God for. Listen, I know you don’t mean to cancel out your own blessings, but we don’t wrestle against flesh and blood. Remember, we wrestle against the powers and rulers of the kingdom of darkness. The devil is out here to steal from you, kill you, and destroy you. God’s voice provides calm reassurance about a thing.
God is able to do infinitely more than we ask or think according to this power that is at work within us.
So SPEAK. Say it OUT LOUD. Whenever an anxious thought starts running around in your head, recite the declaration regarding that thing to yourself because this WILL work!
Scripture References: 2 Corinthians 4:13, Joshua 1:8, Ephesians 6:12, John 10:10, 2 Corinthians 9:8, Ephesians 3:20