Speak the Word Only

2011. Florence Johnson. All rights reserved

ISBN: 978-1-4567-7590-2 (sc)

ISBN:978-1-4678-9408-1 (ebook)

Contents

Dedication

Introduction

1

2

3

4

5

6

Dedication 

This book is dedicated to the Bishop of my soul, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is my most intimate friend.

To my seven siblings Nella, Ronnie, Emmenette, Esme, Agatha, Raymond and Ransford—you are truly exceptional and extraordinary and I am proud to be the eighth member of such an exciting family.

To Tanya, Polycarp, Emile and Chinenye Luke for being very instrumental to my salvation and for the initial foundational teachings.

To Pastor Matthew and the KICC family for discerning my leadership qualities and giving me leadership roles in the board and ministry of the Church.

To my numerous brothers and sisters in the Lord with whom I have shared interesting experiences and conversations that led to the writing of this book. This is just the beginning; there are more books to come!

Introduction 

The Word of God is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword piercing even to the division of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart (Heb 4:12).

The above Scripture is an affirmation that in order to live life as Jesus wants us to live it, which is that He came that we might have life and have it more abundantly—John 10:10, we need nothing more than the Word of God. Whatever is living is neither dead nor inanimate; in other words, no word from God is just a combination of letters or just a nice choice of words. Every Word is as sharp as a sword with two functioning sides; therefore it can never miss its target. Not only that, it has the power to separate what needs to be divided and to reveal even man’s innermost thoughts. That is why God told the prophet Isaiah to inform Israel that His words will always accomplish the mission on which He sent them: So shall my word be that goeth forth out of My mouth. It shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. (Is. 55:11b). Thus the word of God in the mouth of a Christian is as effective as a two-edged sword in the hand of a mighty warrior!

The Word of God is powerful because it is God! John 1:1 tells us: In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God and because Jesus is God John 1:14 declares that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

From Heb 11:3 we learn that the power of the Word framed the universe: By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.

The human being is made up of spirit, soul and body. The body is the house, the temple of the spirit. The spirit is the real being and the soul is where the intellect, emotions and desires reside. Jesus Christ explains this in John 6:63: It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life What the disciples were being taught and what we also have to learn is that the Word of God is alive, and because it is alive it possesses the power to create, to change or to destroy.

The Word also discerns the thoughts and intents of the heart; therefore it is capable of exposing anyone. In his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul explains that the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all; for to one the word of wisdom through the Spirit to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit. (1Cor.12:7-8). It was the word of knowledge and wisdom that gave Joseph and Daniel the ability to interpret dreams. The psalmist declared that the word cleanses and prevents sin (Ps.119:9, 11). It was the power of the Word that made Joshua to command the sun and the moon to stand still, till he had taken revenge on his enemies (Jos.10:12-13). The Word of wisdom gave Solomon the ability to solve one of the most difficult cases in history when two women claimed to be the mother of the same child.

In 1 Kings18:36 Elijah boldly declared: I have done all things at Your Word, and then called down fire from heaven that consumed the burnt sacrifice. Later, Elijah’s protégée, Elisha, received the word of knowledge that enabled him to reveal the battle plans of the king of Syria to the king of Israel (2 Kings 6: 8-12).

In the New Testament we see Peter being supernaturally empowered to detect the lies of Ananias and his wife, Sapphira in Acts 5:1-11. This came through the word of knowledge. But before that, Peter had seen the Lord operating His ministry by the Word. By the word of knowledge and wisdom, Jesus Christ defeated Satan, taught the disciples and discerned the thoughts and intents of the Scribes, Pharisees and Sadducees.

All through the Scriptures, the Word of God prevents wrong thoughts, words and actions. This book is an attempt to bring awareness to our thought processes and what we eventually say as a result of what we believe. The Centurion, unlike the Scribes, illustrated what it means to totally rely on the word spoken by Jesus Christ. The Bible tells us that Jesus marvelled at the faith that could say to Him: ". . . speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed." Our Lord called it great faith. (Matthew 8:8, 10)

As we experience the mass media using words to convey messages, lifestyles, thinking patterns and theories through news and information without much thought for the effect they have not only on their victims or target audiences, but also on their own lives, Jesus’ words in Matthew 12:37 should be remembered: ". . . for by your words you’ll be justified and by your words you will be condemned."

This book also attempts to distinguish between the Old and the New Testament words that we speak. The Old Testament is the New concealed; it is the type and shadow of the New. The New Testament, on the other hand, is the Old revealed. The Bible makes it very clear that Jesus’ Atonement was substitutionary. That is, Jesus took our place on the cross at Calvary. We are the ones who should have suffered all that punishment on the cross because of our sins. But [God] made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. (2 Cor. 5:21).

Sadly, some believers are still so immersed in the Old Testament that they still sing some psalms and still pray and sing prayers that give the impression that Christ has not done anything for mankind. By holding on to the old instead of walking in the light of the New Testament such believers are losing out and perishing due to a lack of knowledge. The prayer of Jabez, for example, though a perfect illustration of how the Old Testament Jew related to a God he knew as merciful and mighty, is not a prayer that the New Testament or born again believer should be praying. By Jesus’ death on the cross, we are blessed beyond measure, our territory has been supernaturally enlarged (remember the Apostle Philip who was taken by the Spirit from the desert of Gaza to Azotus where he preached in all the cities, till he came to Caesarea. (Acts: 39-40)? His hand is always with us now because He has promised never to leave us or forsake us and we are continually kept from evil because we have power to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy and nothing shall by any means hurt us. That’s why Paul affirms in Romans 8: 37 that we are more than conquerors! The writer of Hebrews tells us in Hebrews 11:40 that God has provided something better for us, that the saints who have gone before should not be made perfect apart from us. We have a better covenant!

This is not to say that the Old should be discarded, but the Old Testament should be read in the light of the new. For example, the Old Testament tells us of the exploits of the prophets and the kings; however, the King of kings and the Lord of lords now dwells within us by the power of the Holy Spirit; so we have the ability to do more than what the prophets of old did.

Finally, the aim of this book is to challenge, to exhort and to justify by the Word of God. Above all, it is to help Christians walk in the power that God has bestowed on us, which the world is waiting to experience.

1 

The Words that I Speak:

The Sword of the Spirit

Examine the spoken word

John 6:63: It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.

Jesus was teaching that it’s possible to speak fleshly/carnal words that only result in death; those who speak them gain nothing whatsoever. According to Proverbs 18:21(NLT) The tongue can bring death or life; those who love to talk will reap the consequences. The Amplified (AMP) bible tells us that death and life are in the power of the tongue, and they who indulge in it shall eat the fruit of it [i.e. death or life]. The Message (MSG) Words kill, words give life; they’re either poison or fruit—you choose!

In order to determine the words we speak we should first examine what informs our thinking, which in turn inspires our speech. Some people’s thinking is primarily informed by the news, their education, or the manuals, journals and newspapers that they read daily. There is nothing wrong with this if they can still think positive, righteous thoughts in spite of them. However, it is unlikely that positive, righteous thoughts can be extracted from the media because these are not what inspire them. If we want to speak faith-filled words we can only do so if we are informed by the Word of God. The problem is that because the Word of God is so simple we tend to give it scant attention and to give greater attention to secular literature.

God has given man the wisdom and knowledge to search out a thing and to research and think just like Him; but in the process man has placed so much emphasis on their discoveries, achievements and successes that they have ruled out God as the Enabler. Consequently, they are living without acknowledging Him and the Holy Spirit for their creative abilities.

In Jeremiah 17: 5 the Lord says: Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart departs from the Lord. This is the carnal nature of man living without God based on their ideologies, interpretations and worldly philosophies. This is the way of the world and, unfortunately, a majority of Christians rely on the doctrines of men, contrary to the God-given lifestyle of the supernatural spirit-filled life. Believers are therefore living below their royal priesthood, as orphans without a Father, thereby operating like ordinary men. Paul was referring to such carnal believers when he said: "For you are still [unspiritual, having the nature] of the flesh