Keep Praying Until …

Categories:
What Is Faith?  What Is Living By Faith?

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Keep Praying Until … .

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1 Kings 18:1, 41-45 –

And it came to pass after many days, that the word of the LORD came to Elijah in the third  year, saying, Go, shew thyself unto Ahab;  and I will send rain upon the earth. …

And Elijah said unto Ahab, Get thee up, eat and drink; for there is a sound of abundance of rain.

So Ahab went up to eat and to drink.  And Elijah went up to the top of Carmel; and he cast himself down upon the earth, and put his face between his knees, And said to his servant, Go up now, look toward the sea.  And he went up, and looked, and said, There is nothing.  And he said, Go again seven times. {And he said, “Go back” seven times — NAS}

And it came to pass at the seventh time, that he said, Behold, there ariseth a little cloud out of the sea, like a man’s hand.  And he said, Go up, say unto Ahab, Prepare they chariot, and get thee down that the rain stop thee not.

And it came to pass in the mean while, that the heaven was black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain.

Ephesians 6:11-18–

Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.

Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against rulers of darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;

And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;

Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.

Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication …

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Pray with all perseverance.

Having done all, keep standing.

Keep praying until…

I wanted to remind you of the story of Elijah to encourage you today to keep praying.

If  you are standing on a Promise of God, which you have prayed and confessed over and over your life, yet you still have not seen the   manifestation of the Promise appear in the natural realm, DON’T GIVE UP.  Don’t stop praying and speaking the Promise as present tense Truth.

Even if, when you pray you FEEL like you have a total note of victory in the spirit realm, KEEP CONFESSING the Promise as Truth until it manifests fully in the natural realm.

Just like Elijah!

He had the Word of the Lord,  in 1 Kings 18:1 — even as we have the Word or Promise of the Lord in Scripture — YET he knelt and prayed it through until he saw it manifest in the natural realm.

The Word of the Lord was so strong and so sure  in him that Elijah said unto Ahab, Get thee up, eat and drink; for there is a sound of abundance of rain. {1 Kings 18:41}.  He KNEW the Word of the Lord was True.  He knew when God spoke, His Word would come to pass.  And this is why he could confidently tell Ahab, “Get going!  The rain is coming”.

Yet Elijah THEN went to prayer.

He didn’t simply expect the Word of the Lord to fall into place.

He got on his knees and prayed it ‘through’.

Even when his servant could not SEE rain on the horizon each of the six times that he went to look for the rain, still Elijah KNEW the Word of the Lord was unstoppable.  And so, Elijah kept praying and believing God that His Word was True, and Elijah kept sending his servant out to look for the answer.

And Elijah went up to the top of Carmel; and he cast himself down upon the earth, and put his face between his knees, And said to his servant, Go up now, look toward the sea.  And he went up, and looked, and said, There is nothing.  And he said, Go again seven times. {And he said, “Go back” seven times — NAS}
1 Kings 18:425.

Again, Elijah had the Word of the Lord;  Elijah spoke as though the Word of the Lord was present tense Truth; but Elijah continued to pray the Word through, until it was manifest in the natural realm.

Which is what we are taught to do, by Paul in Ephesians 6:

Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.

Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication …

What are we WATCHING for?

We are watching for our answer.

We don’t simply grab hold of a Promise of God, speak it over our lives a couple times {Mark 11:23}, or  pray and say, “I believe I receive this Promise, God”   a couple times {Mark 11:24}, and then never speak the Word over our lives again.  EVEN IF we get the best goose-bump feelings when we pray it a few times.   Those “feelings” are not our assurance that we HAVE our answer.  It is a great indicator that the Spirit of God is agreeing with us and  the Words we are speaking, but it does not mean the Promise will then appear in the natural realm if we walk away from  meditating on or “enforcing” the promise in the spirit realm.

When we stop  “watching” for our Promise  through prayer and confession, we have stopped the force or power of our FAITH to work out the Promise in our lives;  sometimes we even  stop building our  faith, or keeping our faith “up”,  regarding that particular Promise.

Keep praying with thanksgiving for your Promise from God.

Keep thanking Him that His Promises are “Yes, in Christ Jesus” for you.

Keep speaking the Word as Present Tense Truth over your life, so that you will see the Promises of God manifest in full  in every area of your life.

Don’t be put off when you have to keep praying and believing.  You are in the same boat with Elijah!  And your fervent, expectant, faith-filled prayers and confessions ARE availing  MUCH!!  Hallelujah!

The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.  Elias {Elijah} was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months.

And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.

James 5:16-18

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© 2009 LeeAnn Bell, Faith Speaks Inc
No permission given to reproduce, copy, distribute, or commercialize any of FaithSpeaksInc Blog statements or teachings without prior written permission. LINKING to this Site is permitted. Thank you.

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Is Continual Confession Necessary?

Category: Teachings On The Power Of The Tongue

THE POWER OF CONTINUAL CONFESSION

Is constant confession of the Word of God helpful?

Is there power in continually making a confession?

Or is continually confessing our answer or a Promise of God necessary until we see the answer manifest?

Below are just a few Scriptures showing answers to why Christians should be continually confessing the Word of God over their lives:

– 1 — God’s Word is ALIVE and ACTIVE and POWERFUL and cuts down strongholds but must be spoken to be effective

If you have a stronghold in your life, in your family, in your body, in your finances, or in your mind KEEP
CONFESSING God’s Truth over the matter;
The Word is the answer to tear down ALL strongholds in our lives, but the Word sitting in a book on a night stand won’t do anything for you;
The Word must CONTINUALLY FLOW FROM YOUR MOUTH in order to have power in your life and circumstances.

“Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ” 2 Corinthians 10:4-5

“For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and the joint and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ” Hebrews 4:12

– 2 — The Word of God, constantly pouring out of our mouth, will renew our minds AND keep our thoughts in line with God’s Truths and His will for our lives

When our mouths speak, our thoughts are shut down … our minds shut up to listen to what our mouths have to say;
By keeping the Truth flowing out of our mouths, our minds won’t have time to think fearful, negative, or doubt thoughts;
Pessimistic, fear-filled words are constantly being spoken by people around us bombarding us with thoughts and feelings contrary to God’s Truth;
Daily confession renews our minds and reminds us about the facts of what God has promised and brings the Promises to the forefront of our minds;
As we get in the “habit” of daily speaking God’s Promises over our lives, we will be less likely to become afraid, agitated, confused, or filled with doubt when ANY attack comes our way … our minds will be used to FOCUSING on God and His Promises instead of bad news!

“Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ” 2 Corinthians 10:4-5

“Gird up the loins of your mind” 1 Peter 1:13

“And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” Romans 12:2

– 3 — Constantly speaking the Word of God is keeping your “conversation” in line with God and His will

God says that whoever orders his conversation “aright”, or whoever keeps his tongue in line with the Word, will see God’s salvation, so if you have a need in your life, speak the Promises of God out loud every day regarding that situation;
As you keep confessing, and keep your conversation in line with God and His Word, you WILL see God’s salvation and His Promises manifest for that situation.

“Whoso offereth praise glorifieth Me: and to him that ordereth his conversation aright will I shew the salvation of God.” Psalm 50:23

– 4 — Speaking the Word of God constantly out of your mouth gets angels to move on your behalf

Psalm 103:20 says the angels of God “do God’s commandments” and listen to the VOICE of His Word;
YOU are the mouth piece of God for your own life;
His Word spoken out of your mouth IS His Word in this world today;
Your mouth speaking God’s Words will gets those angels to obey His commands for your life.

“Bless the LORD, ye His angels, that excel in strength, that do His commandments, hearkening unto the voice of His word” Psalm 103:20

– 5 — Constantly speaking God’s Words over your life is a type of spiritual warfare

God’s Words are alive and powerful and if God’s Words are continually coming out of our mouths daily, then we are daily cutting away at strongholds that we do not see with our eyes and moving mountains that need to be moved;
It is us “making our stand” in the spirit realm and/or “holding our ground”;
If we keep our mouths silent, we are more likely to have our minds go off into directions that our minds shouldn’t be going off into …. directions of confusion, wondering, doubt, and focusing on trouble instead of focusing on God’s Truths for our situation.

“… and having done all, to stand” Ephesians 6:13

– 6 — As you continually confess God’s Promises on a daily basis, your faith will become stronger

Your faith WILL be built up when you continually CONFESS God’s Promises / Words from your mouth;
The Word of God will settle into your spirit man, take root in there, and grow and mature;
Your faith in the Word of God will become so strong that NO circumstance that life throws at you will be able to uproot the Word from your spirit;
You will KNOW in your spirit that the Word is the Truth and that the Word will WORK, or become a reality, to correct any negative circumstance.

“So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” Romans 10:17

– 7 — We are created in God’s image and SHOULD be speaking things into existence even as God does

God SPOKE the worlds and everything in them, into existence (Genesis 1);
Jesus cast demons out of people with His WORDS;
Jesus calmed raging storms with His WORDS;
Jesus raised the dead with His WORDS;
Jesus healed the sick with His WORDS;
Jesus is still today upholding the world and everything in it, by His POWERFUL WORD (Hebrews 1:3);
Again, God’s Word has all sorts of power, but God’s Word needs to be spoken by someone in order to have it “work”;
YOU need to be that “someone” SPEAKING God’s Word into your circumstances and over your life.

“…even God, Who quickeneth the dead, and CALLETH those things which be NOT as though they WERE” Romans 4:17

– 8 — We are taught that our tongue directs the course of our lives

When a captain sets his ship out on a course, he stays at the steering wheel turning the “rudder” to make sure the ship stays on its course;
When he first sets the ship on its course, he doesn’t then go lay down and watch t.v., or go read a book becoming involved in other things and forgetting about his destination;
The captain stays at the steering wheel, directing the rudder, and keeping his ship on course;
“SO IT IS WITH THE TONGUE”, James reports.
We must keep our tongues working as our rudder, keeping the Promises of God rolling off our tongue UNTIL we reach our final destination.
And take special note: the Captain gets to set the course and choose the final destination AND so does the born-again believer;
Use your tongue as your rudder until you reach the destination you are desiring.

“…Behold also the ships, which though they be so great … are they turned about with a very small helm, WHITHERSOEVER THE GOVERNOR (captain) LISTETH (desires). Even so the tongue …” (James 3:3-4)

– 9 — We are taught that we should be speaking to our situations, by Jesus (Mark 11:23, Matthew 17:20, Matthew 21:21)

Jesus said SAY to your mountain, “Be removed”.
And He went on to say, “don’t doubt” but “believe” you’ve received your answer and then you will have what you SAY!

We need to be SAYING something first, in order to receive something.
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But people have said to me in the past, “Well, Jesus just spoke ONE TIME and didn’t keep confessing over and over, and so we shouldn’t have to keep confessing something over and over and over”.

Why did Jesus NOT have to confess over and over what He wanted to be done?
And why do you, many times, have to keep confessing over and over?

Matthew 17:20 can give us one answer to this question.

The disciples came to Jesus to ask Him why they could not drive a demon out of a boy.
Jesus said, “Because you have so little faith” (NIV), or “Because of your unbelief” (KJV).

And what is the solution to unbelief or little faith? Romans 10:17 says faith comes by hearing God’s Word!

Therefore, when we are met with a difficult situation, we must keep the Word of God rolling off our tongues.
This will build up our faith for the situation.

If you speak once, and the situation is resolved, Praise God! Shout with joy, and go on your way.

However, if the situation is not immediately turned, then KEEP SPEAKING THE PROMISES OF GOD AS PRESENT TENSE TRUTHS over your situation!
Your faith WILL become strong enough to change the situation that you are speaking over … because faith comes by hearing the Word of God;
As you keep speaking the Promise, as you keep meditating on the Promise, and as you stay in faith believing you have received the Promise as the Truth for that situation, your continual confession, mixed with faith, WILL turn every situation around in your life as you speak out loud the powerful and alive Word of God.

In conclusion, there is one last statement that the Scriptures tell us we should be doing if we don’t see an immediate change in our situation as we are holding fast to our confession:

– 10 — ” … count it all joy when ye fall into divers (trials); Knowing this, that the trying (testing) of your faith worketh patience. But LET patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.” James 1:2-4

As we stand our ground in the spirit realm, keeping our mouths in line with God’s Words, and continually “holding fast” to our confession, we absolutely should “count it joy” when our faith gets “tried”.

For if we truly accept James 1:2-4 as Truth for our lives, then we will be excited that a situation has arrived in our lives where we are forced to “stand our ground” and watch our persevering faith break all strongholds!

Seeing yet another situation crumble at the Word of God because of our patient confession, will build up our faith so strongly that we will be able to meet ANY future situation in life, head on, with joy and full assurance that the situation must come in line with God’s Word!

We will become mature, and complete, and lack nothing in our lives!

Thank God for His “great and precious Promises” which are equipping us to become partakers “of His divine nature” and escape the corruptions of the world!! (2 Peter 1:4)

“Death and life are in the power of the tongue; and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof”
Proverbs 18:21

“Let us hold fast our profession”
Hebrews 4:14, 10:23

(C) 2007-2009 — No permission given to reproduce, copy, or distribute FaithSpeaksInc Blog statements and/or teachings without prior written permission. LINKING to this site is permitted.

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More On: Why Daily Confession & Meditation

Category:  
Teachings on The Power Of The Tongue
and Questions From Others Explained

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More On:

WHY DAILY  CONFESSION  &  MEDITATION

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Well, the topic of  DAILY CONFESSION seems to stir up a lot of questions in people.

Certain people I talk with actually seem to get a little agitated at the thought of continually confessing God’s Word.

They are angry at the thought that  time is needed  in meditating and speaking God’s Promises before they actually see God’s Promises manifest.

The statements I hear from this group are often:   “We shouldn’t  have to keep confessing and confessing.  If it is God’s will for something to happen, then it will automatically happen.  Quickly. It shouldn’t take so long”, or  “If it is God’s will, it doesn’t take us doing all that confessing over and over.   That just doesn’t make any sense!” .

Two thoughts that come to mind in response to these statements are:

DAILY confession of God’s Promises and DAILY meditation on God’s love for us and His faithfulness to keep His Word does two things for us:

#1 — It grounds us in God’s Promises

#2 — It is a type of Spiritual Warfare
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regarding #1 –
Daily confession renews our minds to the facts of what God has Promised and stabilizes our minds on the Truth of God’s character, His love for us, and His faithfulness to keep His Word/Promises;
Daily confession of God’s Promises stabilizes us and keeps us grounded when the storms of life come smashing upon us;  (***)
And as we DAILY meditate and SPEAK the Word out, we will be less likely to become afraid, agitated, confused, or filled with doubt when ANY attack comes our way because our minds will be used to FOCUSING on God and His Promises instead of bad news!

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.regarding #2 –
God’s Words are living and powerful and if God’s Words are coming out of our mouths daily, then we are DAILY cutting away at strongholds that we do not see with our eyes and moving mountains that need to be moved;
It is us “making our stand” in the spirit realm and/or “holding our ground”;
It is us “taking hold” of our inheritance;
And if we keep our mouths silent, we are way more likely to have our minds go off into directions that our minds shouldn’t be going off into …. directions of confusion, wondering, doubt, and focusing on trouble instead of focusing on God’s Truths for our lives and our situations.

And besides all this, Jesus told us:  Whoever believes what he SAYS comes to pass, will have what he SAYS.  This would be another good reason, why we should keep our mouths confessing the Promises of God out loud!

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Sometimes I have felt like I am simply parroting the same Promises over and over, and so I figure I will just meditate on God’s love for me, how it is His “good pleasure to give me the kingdom”, and how He is faithful and a truth-teller and so will see that every Word He has spoken will come to pass in my life {Jer 1:12}.

When I am doing this, I am still confessing and meditating on God’s Word, however my focus is away from a specific Promise.  Building my faith regarding God’s love for me and His faithful character to see that His Words are fulfilled DO strengthen my faith for any specific need I have, so this is still a type of Daily Confession.

But, if I am having trouble with doubt or fear about a specific situation, then I KNOW that I MUST sit and meditate on specific Promises for my specific situation.  I KNOW that I must get the Scriptures coming out of my mouth DAILY so that my mind will not “stagger at God’s Promises” (Romans 4:20) or wander off into areas of doubt and confusion.

If a Promise is taking a long time to “manifest” in my life, I also believe that I must sit and meditate on the specific Promises for the situation, for the longer a Promise takes to manifest, the more apt my human mind and reasoning is to start sliding over to the belief that “the Promises are not working for this situation” or that “maybe this actually isn’t God’s will for me this time“, etc.   I have learned that I MUST keep my mind focused on God’s Truths for EVERY situation in my life … no matter HOW BLEAK the situation looks or no matter HOW IMPOSSIBLE the situation looks!  I MUST KEEP MY DAILY CONFESSION & MEDITATION  UP,  to keep my mind focused on God’s powerful Promises {for “faith comes by hearing the Word of God” Romans 10:17}.

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.So whether we are maintaining a focus on a specific Promise or simply focusing on God’s goodness and God’s character, we must realize that we absolutely do need DAILY confession and meditation.

And no, I’m not a legalist … a day off every now and again happens to all of us … but the more we realize how powerful the Word of God is for our lives the more we will want to spend time in prayer, meditating on God’s powerful Words, and the more we will want only the Word to be coming out of our mouths to move mountains and cut down strong-holds.

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(***) Think about building a safe shelter ahead of time BEFORE trouble hits versus building a safe shelter in the  midst of a storm.  Which is smarter and safer…and easier?  Of course, building your safe shelter BEFORE the storm.   So don’t WAIT for disaster to strike before daily confessing God’s Promises out of your mouth.  Build your shelter before any storm hits, and get your mind stabilized on the FACT that God is for you in every  situation!

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(C) 2007-2009 Faith Speaks Inc
No permission given to reproduce, copy, commercialize, or distribute FaithSpeaksInc Blog statements and teachings without prior written permission.  LINKING to this Site is permitted.  Thank you.

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