Part II – When Jesus First Made the Word Become Manifest

This morning a dear brother asked me an excellent question in his comment on the last post regarding how we speak forth God’s word. His understanding of the main points of the post were spot on, and his question is essentially one I myself have asked other saints. Paraphrased, the point is this: I know in my spirit that what you’ve just expressed is truth, but I need personal testimonies from those who have gone before in order to see what “speaking forth the word of the Spirit” looks like – concrete examples of spiritual truths becoming physical realities in the lives of other saints will help, and are hereby requested. 

Well, wouldn’t you know, although the Lord has already brought me considerable experiential knowledge via sufferings/ trials of sanctification (which render me more conformable to His truth about me), He had been at work in me the day before, ensuring that I would have a fresh testimony for you all today! A fresh testimony is so valuable, because the testifier still feels it!

Just yesterday I  had some challenging interactions with believers near and dear to me who, suffering under a spirit of rejection of varying degrees, reject Christ as He ministers to them in/through me. Instead of receiving the Lord’s protective grace as I have throughout the years after ministering to these loved ones, I allowed myself to become discouraged. By evening, the Lord lovingly showed me that I was suffering under a spirit of rejection myself. I was truly surprised (I had only acknowledged suffering a supernatural degree of discouragement).

By grace through faith, I put on the armor of God, prayed in agreement with a partner, then went forth (in privacy) with the sword of the Spirit. I KNEW God’s word, I BELIEVED His word, STOOD FIRM on it, and SPOKE particular Scriptures on the matter forth into the heavenly realms as the Spirit led me. The exact words I do not recall, but they were along these lines: Our Father loves us all extravagantly, and nothing can ever change that! He has given us singleness of heart and action in Christ Jesus! (that particular truth is Jeremiah 3:38 linked with It is finished from John 19:30) Rejection is a lie! etc.

The Lord allowed/brought these challenges in order to make me an effectual minister of a message of deliverance which He will minister henceforth through me to others suffering from spirits of rejection. This is part of what Jesus meant in telling us that we must first remove the “log” from our eye before we have the love and experience necessary to effectively remove the similar-natured “speck” from our brother’s eye (Matt. 7:3-5). Praise God for bringing/allowing such trials – let us rejoice in them, knowing how they benefit the Body of Christ and bring unbelievers to SEE Him in us!

By morning, when I saw our brother’s comment on the blog, the Lord had thus given me fresh experience from which to answer him. Interestingly enough, the example I used for him in the comment was not what I just shared here, but was to point him to how Jesus dealt with the demons assaulting Him. The Lord is now leading me to present and expound upon this in the remainder of this article. I foresee one or two more parts coming after today’s portion; they will likely relay a couple of my own testimonies of speaking forth miraculous healings of members of my immediate family.

First, understand that our loving Father intentionally made us dependent on each other’s testimonies. The Body of Christ is built up by the giftings and experiences of all the members; especially vital is the testimony of how Jesus caused us or our loved ones to be healed of our diseases and to overcome the demons within that we have opened ourselves up to. (Remember, it is these demons of which Jesus spoke in Matt. 17:21 “This kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.”).

Permit me to present two related pearls: First, testifying to build up the Body of Christ is the spirit behind prophesying. Remember that everyone who prophesies speaks to men for their strengthening, encouragement, and comfort (1Cor. 14:4). Second, when we share our testimonies of what Jesus has done for us, the testimony itself enables the believing hearers to do it themselves in the power of the Spirit; that is what is meant by the phrase the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy (Rev.19.10).

+++++++

Now we will look to one example of what Jesus did as a 30-year old when He faced severe challenges – how He apprehended God’s grace by faith and spoke forth the word so that it became manifest in His life at that moment.

Immediately after taking the hell-shattering stand of renouncing His fallen natural self born of Mary and submitting Himself to God at His baptism, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form (Luke 3:22) – Jesus of Nazareth was anointed with the Holy Spirit, thereby becoming “the Anointed One” – the Christ.

Then Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the desert, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil  (Luke 4:1-2a). Jesus fasted the entire time, meaning not only from food, but that He persistently chose to deny His “soulish” or fleshly self, always choosing instead to move as the Spirit of God moved Him from within. Upon being tempted by the ungodly desires of His flesh/soul (the devil within) to turn a stone into bread, to gain the world right then without suffering, and to jump from the highest point of the temple and have angels catch Him before the eyes of Israel’s religious leaders, Jesus did not react, but paused and discerned the Spirit’s subtle guiding within Him.

Girding Himself with truth, righteousness, peace, faith, etc., Jesus applied the sword of the Spirit to the devil within Him, KNOWING and BELIEVING and SPEAKING FORTH His Father’s omnipotent word. The word so spoken from Jesus’ mouth then performed itself – the Anointed One was now Himself the Word! The devil had to leave Jesus, and angels came and attended Him (Matt. 4:11)

Praise God for the gospel of grace! By our faith in what Jesus has accomplished on our behalf as the Christ, we are now endowed with the very same anointing – the very same Holy Spirit lives in us, and can make real in our lives today all that Jesus obtained for us through His flesh and blood 2,000 years ago. 

By our KNOWLEDGE of the word and our mustard seed of FAITH, praying and fasting (denying our false selves) just as Jesus did in the wilderness, the demons within us likewise must flee us as we speak whatever “rhema” the Holy Spirit gives us! Once we have dealt with and driven out our own demons of unbelief, fear, rejection, jealousy, addiction, etc., then we are rid of the plank in our eye and can see clearly. We will most definitely then be used mightily by the Lord to help cast such demons out of our loved ones.

Praise God we belong to Him, and He ensures that this glorious Body of Christ is built up and matures; the bride makes herself ready! Hallelujah!

Link to Part III – Important Principles

(An aside to those who follow this blog: do you see that this ties in with the recent posts, e.g. This Kind does Not Go Out Except by Prayer and Fasting and The Lesser-Known Gifts of the Son and the Father? I assure you, I do not plan any of this! As I rest at Christ’s feet and minister to Him,  He bears His fruit through my branch.)