BVOV Magazine 2013 - present

The Choice Is Yours “Well,” someone might say, “I’ve never been a fan of making faith confessions. I like to leave everything up to God. He’s really the One who chooses what’s going to happen in our lives.” No, He’s not. He’s given that choice to us. He’s given us His Word, which is His will for our lives, and said to us as He said to the Israelites: “The word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it. See, I have set before thee this day life and good…blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live” (Deuteronomy 30:14-15, 19). “But Gloria, those are Old Testament verses.” I know, but they’re also in the New Testament. They’re quoted in Romans 10 by the Apostle Paul. He wrote: “The righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above:) Or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.) What saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach” (verses 6-8). Paul said in that passage much the same thing God said in Deuteronomy. He said that as a believer you don’t have to wait for Jesus to come down from heaven and heal you. You don’t have to hope He’ll choose to visit you and meet your financial need. He’s already taken care of those things. Through His death, resurrection and ascension, Jesus provided every good thing you could ever desire. He gave you everything He has, and through His Word He’s given you access to it. What happens now is up to you. You can choose to keep quiet (or keep talking unbelief) and just live like the world does—subject to sickness, lack and the schemes of the devil. Or you can put the Word in your heart and in your mouth and receive the healing, prosperity and supernatural victory that belong to you as a believer. Personally, I prefer the latter! I like to talk faith and walk in victory. That’s why I like studying the faith heroes in the Bible. They inspire me to do that. Take Caleb, for instance. Reading about him always stirs me up. Even though he lived in Old Testament times, he had a tremendous spirit of faith. He spoke God’s Word even when it was so unpopular that his fellow Israelites threatened to stone him for it. You probably remember the story. Caleb had just returned from spying out the Promised Land. All the spies (except Joshua) who had gone there with him had come back with “an evil report.” They acknowledged the land was good and flowing with milk and honey, but they said it would be impossible to conquer. “It, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof;” they said, “and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature. And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight” (Numbers 13:32-33). When the Israelites heard that news, they all started weeping and wailing. But Caleb interrupted them. “Wait a minute!” he said. “If the Lord delight in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it us; a land which floweth with milk and honey. Only rebel not ye against the Lord, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us: their defence is departed from them, and the Lord is with us: fear them not…. Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it” (Numbers 14:8-9, 13:30). BVOV : 29

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