Are You Ready for a Resurrection?  Open Your Mouth!

Greece, hot bed of the European debit crisis, home of gyros and baklava, Alexander the Great and Euclid. Who? You won’t find this in the books expectant parents pour over looking for the perfect name. Euclid, a Greek mathematician, is known as the Father of Geometry and he authored 17 volumes of mathematical principles named Elements. These served as the main textbook for teaching math until the early 20^th century; no word processors and spell check, just a bad case of writer’s cramp. For the mathematically challenged who are rolling their eyes and groaning…relax. This is not a discussion about quadratic equations, number theory or “new math” and there is NO test at the end.

You may be wondering, what does Euclid have to do with a resurrection? One of the principles found in Elements is this: “Two things equal to the same thing, are equal to each other”. For example:

2+2=4     and     3+1=4     therefore   2+2 = 3+1.

Pretty much a no brainer, isn’t it? Now, I want to take this same principle and apply it to some scriptures to see if it hold true there.

In the Gospel of John, Jesus is referred to as: “the Word became flesh”.

John said Jesus and the Word are one and the same. Later in this same gospel, John recounts the events of the death and resurrection of Lazarus. Martha, the grieving sister of Lazarus, berates the Lord for His tardiness in responding to the news of her brother’s illness. Now, because of Jesus' late arrival, Lazarus His friend is dead…really dead…four days in the grave stinking to high heaven dead. Thanks for nothing Jesus! Unruffled by her angry accusations Jesus calmly but firmly declared: “I am the resurrection and the life”.

When Euclid’s principle is applied to these scriptures, let’s see what we can learn. Jesus is equal to the Word. Jesus also called Himself the resurrection and the life. From these statements we can conclude:

Jesus = The Word   and    Jesus =  resurrection and life

therefore  The Word  =  resurrection and life.

Proverbs 18:21, which is written to us states: “The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit”. Simply put, our words have the power of life - Jesus and the Word; and the power of death - anything other than those two. Eastern cultures are more cognizant of the power and the effects of spoken words than most of us here in the West. This was evident in the interaction between Isaac and Esau when they learned that Jacob, Isaac’s younger son and Esau’s brother, had received the Blessing by masquerading as his brother and deceiving his father. Even though the Blessing had been pronounced under duplicitous circumstances, Isaac could not retract his words. What was done was done and the expectation was that these words would come to pass.

There are scriptures, too numerous to quote here, that caution us to be mindful of the words we speak. So then, how do we go about speaking life? One way is to imitate our Father. Romans 4:17 tells us this about Him: “The God Who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were!” When God created the world He did not look at the empty void and say: “Whoa, its dark out there!” He simply said: “Light be” and light was. He spoke the end result He desired, not what was the present reality.

Another way to speak life is to declare the scriptural solution over our situation out loud? Why? We have all been assigned angels who are: “ministering spirits sent to serve those who inherit salvation?” Hebrews 1:14. We also know that angels are: “mighty ones who do His word, obeying the voice of His word.” Psalm 103:20.  You may think, this applies only to God when He speaks, and not me. Yes, this is true about God but it is also true about us. Isaiah 55:11 confirms this; God’s Word will not return to Him “void or empty.” When we declare His Word it is returned to Him. He has the angelic host waiting to hear and respond to His Word spoken out and to see to it that it is fulfilled on our behalf.

Jesus said in John 14:6 that He is “the way and the truth and the life.” therefore God’s Word is final authority on any matter. Our present circumstances are real and factual, but God’s Word on the matter is “the truth”. Joel 3:10 states: “let the weakling say, ‘I am strong.”  There is no denial of a lack of strength; that is real. Instead there is a shift of focus. Like God, we don’t speak the problem, we speak the solution. Using Ephesians 6:10 we can declare: “I am strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.” Jesus Himself told us not to talk about our problems but to talk to them. Mark 11:23 is the familiar verse that teaches moving a mountain by telling it “to throw itself in to the sea and it (the mountain) will obey” (emphasis mine). Confronting our mountains with the Word of God releases His power coupled with the angelic assistance needed to bring it to pass.

Jesus, Who is life, said His words are: “spirit and they are life” John 6:63. Do you have situations in your life that need to be resurrected? Maybe you have some God given dreams that seem to have “died on the vine”. Perhaps there are relationships that look like they are “dead in the water”. Does a reversal to challenges with your health appear almost “dead and buried”? Has your life become “lifeless”? Whatever you are facing there is a resurrection waiting to happen and it comes through speaking God’s Word to it.

Jesus told us that those who had faith in Him would do “even greater things” than He did. He was not kidding when He said this and He did some very amazing things. He spoke to storms and they stopped. He spoke to dead people and they came back to life. He spoke to the sick and they were healed. He spoke to the demon possessed and afflicted and they were freed. He spoke to people in need and provision appeared. He spoke to broken people with broken hearts and they were mended. He spoke to the outcast and they became part of the “in crowd”. Everywhere He went He spoke words of life and left in His wake a trail of people experiencing life in a whole new and higher dimension.

Don’t tell Dodie Osteen, mother of Joel Osteen, pastor of Lakewood Church in Houston, that this will not work. Diagnosed with terminal liver cancer and sent home to die, Dodie compiled a list of healing scriptures and began confessing them consistently, the same way one would take medicine. Dodie is alive and well today and still quotes those scriptures daily. Don’t tell me it won’t work. Our daughter suffered from severe sinusitis as a very young child. She would suffer violent coughing fits that could cause her to gag and vomit. She was on a restricted diet to help keep nourishment in her body and a regime of medications that treated the symptoms but not the problem. One Friday night as I prayed one more time for her healing, God spoke and told me: “just claim it!” and I did. I woke my husband up and told him what had just happened and he came into agreement with me. She was still coughing violently; nothing on the surface had changed, but I KNEW she was healed. As the weekend progressed, the symptoms abated and by Sunday night they were gone. She was completely healed and never again suffered with sinusitis. It works!

Speak life to those mountains and corpses in your life. The Word is life and resurrection power. Make enough noise to “raise the dead” and expect to see the impossible happen. Speak the Word!!!!!