Great Faith, Part 8

If you have been following this series of posts we are about to dig into soil conditioner #3. So far we have presented the first two, SETTLE IT and SEE IT. The third one begins the process of actively engaging your physical being in a way that sets in motion the course of your life. I mentioned in the last post that #3 is made to be a companion of SEE IT. These two conditioners work together to create an atmosphere in your heart soil that faith either thrives in or dies in. When they are working in tandem with the Word of God they create an ever-increasing storehouse of strength that can stand every test that it encounters and come out successful.

Let’s go back to Hebrews to locate #3…”They agreed that they were foreigners and nomads here on earth. Obviously people who say such things are looking forward to a country they can call their own.” [Heb 11:13-14 NLT emphasis added]

I bet you got it - SAY IT! Nothing locates the condition of our hearts like the words that come out of our mouths. Here is Jesus’ commentary on this: “A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of [Luke 6:45 NIV emphasis added]. So how do we get things stored up in our heart? This is where the partnership between SEE IT and SAY IT come in. If you remember from the last post, SEE IT is really the process of engaging your mind’s eyes, or imagination. Our imagination is the place in our being where we create images or pictures from the words we read and hear (reference the parable of the Sower from the gospels). If the words are based in truth, the images will contain the potential for good. The opposite is true if the words are based in lies.

In our imagination we are processing what the words we are hearing/reading will look like if acted upon. For example, we can read the miraculous accounts of Jesus’ life in the gospels and begin to imagine what it would look like for us to do the same things. After all, Jesus did say that the things that He did, we could do also, and even greater works than He did (John 14:12). Your imagination will develop pictures of what this could look like in your life. These pictures begin to fill the space in your consciousness that we can refer to as your heart or an image storage facility. Over the years of our lives we have created and stored billions (if not more) of images. This is the raw materials for manifestation. Whatever we have spent the most time imagining will eventually tell the story of our lives. What we see determines what we will be!

You have probably heard the saying, a picture is worth a thousand words. In reality, the picture in our imagination is actually made up of thousands of words all joined together to form an image that represents what all the words look like in full manifestation. Jesus is the living picture of all of God’s thoughts - the Word became flesh. But how did the “Word” become flesh, or physical manifestation? ...And God SAID. If God has to SAY IT in order for what is in His mind to become flesh, then we have to SAY IT in order for our flesh to become the living embodiment of His Word. Now, that is a powerful thought!

Here is another way to understand this. We live in the digital age where technology has developed ways of sending a “live stream” presentation from the place where the action is actually happening to any other place on the planet (actually, anywhere in the universe!) where people who have the right equipment can experience it at the same time it is happening. A video camera (your imagination) is focused on the scene where the sights and sounds of the live action are taken in through the lens (the eyes of your heart) and broken into extremely minute bits of electronic information (digitization/words) that can be sent (invisible to the naked eye, but not to the eyes of faith) through the ether to a receiver (your mouth) that is set up to reproduce the exact image. The receiver must have the capability to put all of the tiny bits of electronic information (images) back together in the right configuration (truth) in order for a physical manifestation to be an exact representation of the original.

Hebrews 1:3 teaches us that Jesus is the exact representation of the Father. In a sense (now, don’t take this too far), the Father digitized Himself and sent Himself to Earth and reproduced an exact image of Himself for humanity to watch a “live stream” of what was going on in Heaven. Jesus said, I only do what I see the Father doing, and I only say what I hear the Father saying. This was live action! In John 6:63, Jesus stated that the words that He spoke to his hearers were spirit and life. Jesus’ words had the power to create spiritual images in the minds of His hearers that had the ability to produce life. The Word of God is ALIVE and ACTIVE and sharper and more precise than a surgical laser (Heb 4:12). The Word of God is established forever (1 Peter 1:25), therefore, it never loses its power to reproduce the activity of Heaven if properly processed through our flesh.

With these analogies in hand, let's dig into the mechanics of the SEE IT and SAY IT live stream production we’ll call, Your Will Be Done On Earth As It Is In Heaven, written by the Father, produced by Jesus, directed by Holy Spirit, and starring...YOU!

In 2 Peter 1:3, the scriptures instruct us that God has given to every believer everything necessary for life and godliness. Some may understand this as Kingdom Socialism where God just gives us everything on a silver platter. However, in order to sync with the context of New Covenant theology, what is given to us are the raw materials and the capacity to create and produce everything we need. God has given us His Word in written form so we can develop a basis for truth. In a sense, this is like a script, or better a screenplay, that is intended to be produced on the stage of our life. It is possible to read and study the Bible cover to cover and never see or understand the power latent in the words on the pages. But something happens the moment we are born again that makes the Word come alive not only to us but in us. God’s very Spirit enters into our being and breathes on His Word in us to bring it to life just as it was in Jesus. This is the account of creation in Genesis 1. The Holy Spirit of God was moving over the raw materials of creation until God spoke His Word to create and then His Spirit took that Word and made the exact manifestation. The word tree became the manifestation tree when the Word and the Spirit joined together in agreement that it would be so.

Now, let’s make this personal. As born again believers, we believe that God, our Father, has written the story of our destiny in His book: “You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed” [Psa 139:16 NLT]. God’s Word is the script for our life. God has written a part for each of us that only we can fulfill. Every character must make a choice to accept the role and begin the process of making the script come alive.

This script looks perfect on paper but before it can become a reality someone must be willing to put up all the resources needed to produce it. This is where Jesus enters into your story. The cost to produce this movie is beyond dollars. It would cost Jesus His life. You see, the Father selected a cast of death-row convicts and someone would have to take their place in order for them to be released. Jesus paid the ultimate price of His life to free anyone who accepted the offer. Jesus has already paid all the production costs necessary for you to star in the life God intended for you!

Once you accept the role, you need to know and memorize the script. Your present situation in life may look nothing like the role that God has written for you and your natural thoughts can’t even imagine how you are ever going to become what the script says you are. How are you ever going to look believable to the world who will be watching when the director shouts, Action! This is where SAY IT reveals its true power of transformation. Joshua, the great leader of ancient Israel, who led millions of Hebrews into freedom in their new homeland, was having a really difficult time with His script. Prior to his promotion to lead, he was second in command under Moses. This was a role that he functioned well in. Then, Moses dies, and he is selected for the new role as commander in chief. Now, his role seemed impossible because he never imagined this day would come and he just could not see himself in this position. Here is how God addressed the situation: “Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful” [Jos 1:8 NIV]. God’s answer to Joshua’s extreme stage fright was to SEE IT and SAY IT until he became IT. Biblical meditation is the process of imagining yourself fulfilling the Word of the Lord and speaking out loud what it is that you are seeing. God said, Joshua, you are a great leader. Joshua needed to imagine himself functioning as a great leader and then speak, or simply agree with what God has said. The process of transformation is simply this: Hear (read the Word), See (imagine fulfilling the Word), Say (agreeing with God and saying what He has said).

In the next installment we are going deeper into the amazing discoveries of the power of SAY IT to literally transform the human brain and its ability to rescript your life. Up to this point we have involved the Author of your script (the Father), and the producer (Jesus). Next comes the director. This is where the action begins and soil conditioner #4 is revealed!

So stay tuned, and tune in...

by Pastor Jim Anan

Elevate Church