BVOV Magazine 2013 - present

When you put the Word of God in your heart, that force of faith grows stronger. Your “inward man,” as Paul said, “is renewed day by day” (2 Corinthians 4:16). When you neglect to put the Word in your heart, the opposite happens. The outflow of faith from your spirit man gets weaker and weaker. Think about how your physical man functions and you can see what I mean. When you feed your body regularly on good, healthy food it produces strength. When you fail to feed it and work out, your muscles diminish and you can’t do very much. Professional body builders feed their bodies extraordinary amounts. They might eat a dozen eggs and 60 ounces of meat in a single day. Why? Because they want to develop extraordinary strength and they know that (in addition to pumping iron, of course) that’s what it takes. Much the same principle applies in your life as a believer. You can go on an 800-calorie Word diet if you want and you’ll deteriorate to the point where spiritually you can’t do very much. Or, you can become a spiritual body builder by feeding on God’s Word all the time. You never have to worry about overindulging on the Word! Unlike natural food, it can be consumed in mass quantities without any downside. You can take in all you want and your spirit will just keep assimilating it. Your inner man will just keep getting stronger and stronger, and the words of your mouth will keep getting bolder and more confident. Remember: “Faith cometh by hearing…the word of God” (Romans 10:17) and words of faith are what move mountains (Mark 11:23). So if you get enough of the Word you can move as many mountains as you want. It doesn’t matter whether they’re big or little, they’ll have to do what you say. As long as you have faith in two places—in your heart and in your mouth—if you tell those mountains to be removed, they have to go. “But I just don’t have that kind of faith,” you might argue. Sure you do. God gives all of us “the measure of faith” (Romans 12:3) the moment we’re born again. So you have the same kind of faith every other believer has. You have the measure of the God kind of faith. What you do with that measure of faith is up to you. You can either let it lie dormant, or you can choose to increase it. The decision is yours. However much Word you deposit in your heart and act on, that’s how much spirit of faith you’re going to have. Personally, I like to make big Word deposits. I like to keep the Word inside me in abundance. That way I know I won’t run short of faith when I’m confronted with some seemingly impossible challenge. I won’t find myself struggling to believe God because I’m facing a mountain that’s bigger than the amount of Word I have in my heart. I don’t ever want to be in that position! I don’t ever want to have to do spiritually what I had to do naturally years ago when Ken and I were broke and covered up with debt. Back then we had so little money that when I went grocery shopping, I had to wonder how much I could afford to buy. I used to have to pray in tongues as I walked up and down the aisles and believe God that I’d be able to pay for what I put in my basket. That’s not very enjoyable! It’s more fun to grocery shop with plenty of money in the bank. It’s better to be able to fill up the cart knowing for sure that when you get to the checkout counter you can pay the bill with ease. That’s how you want to be spiritually! You want to have enough of God’s Word deposited within you to pay off any bill the devil tries to send you. You want your heart and your mouth to be filled with so much faith that you know, by the power of God, you can triumph over any trouble, any time. Just Like Abraham and Caleb If you want to see someone who walked in that kind of faith, read in the Bible about Abraham. He’s a wonderful example! He stood in the face of the impossible and believed God’s promise that his descendants would be like the sands of the sea and the stars in the sky. He called himself the father of many nations when he and his wife were old and wrinkled, still childless, and his wife had been barren all her life. * * * article concludes on page 30 * * * BVOV : 29

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