This word is designed to meet us where we are, to pull back the veil and set us free. And who doesn’t want to be free this morning? Nobody likes to be tied down, handcuffed, and put in a cage. Nobody likes not being able to be what God called them to be. But when God ordains it and we believe it, the word can release a miracle in our lives. Somebody this morning who needs a miracle or breakthrough needs to hear this: the condition for release, deliverance, and peace of mind is believing His word. Power goes with His word when that word is believed in faith.
We can’t control life. Living in a fallen world, things happen — oftentimes beyond our control: financial hardships, domestic violence, wayward children, the job, the school. Sometimes we make our own cage; sometimes we end up in a cage. We let things get next to us, under our skin, and in control of us. And when that happens, we lose ourselves.
You would be surprised this morning to know how many Christians are lost — not lost in sin, but lost in that they have become consumed by something that has taken their joy, which is their spiritual birthright; consumed in that that’s all they think about. Hear the preacher this morning when I say: some things are only going to be received when we believe the word. Listen to me this morning: when God says something, stand on it. When God says something, believe it. When God says something, walk in it. Not just quote it, but stand on it, believe it, and walk in it.
In the Bible, nobody ever came into contact with Jesus and went back the same way. I don’t care what their problem or situation was. Some were crippled, some were demon-possessed, some were heartbroken over a loved one’s sickness, some were born blind, some were paralyzed on their beds, some were chronically bent over for a long time, and one was already dead and in his coffin. But when they came into contact with Jesus and believed His word, their lives were changed forever.
He’ll do it now. He can upset the applecart real quick, turn some things upside down, calm the raging sea, astound the most skeptical critic, cause atheists to scratch their heads — if we would just believe what He said. That’s simple enough. Remember that Jesus himself said, “All things are possible to him that believe” (Mark 9:23) — not some things, but all things are possible. And it’s not hard; it doesn’t take a mountain of faith to believe. It’s just taking our Father at His word. For God is not a man that He should lie. Has He not said it, and shall He not make it good? (Num. 23:19). When we don’t believe, we call God a liar.
There was a certain nobleman whose son was sick at Capernaum (John 4:45-53). He had exhausted all his resources. He was clearly at his wit’s end and desperately needed the help of the Savior. When he heard that Jesus had come out of Judea into Galilee, he went to Him and begged Him to come with him and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. Jesus said to him, “Except you see signs and wonders, you will not believe.” That’s the way some Christians are today: they want to see a miracle before they believe in the miracle worker! The nobleman said to Him, “Sir, please come down lest my child die” (vs. 49, paraphrasing). “I’ve exhausted all of my resources; I have nowhere else to turn.”
Jesus said, “Go your way; your son lives.” And the man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him, and he went on his way. Jesus did not go with the man but instead spoke the word. That’s all Jesus did — and the man believed the word. Community, do we take Jesus at His word? Do we believe His word? Or do we have to see something, feel something, know something before we believe? Cut through all the theology, and one issue remains: do we take Jesus at His word? We read His word every day, but do we believe what we read?
This man put his faith in the word of Jesus; he believed without seeing. And he received a miracle. This is the way we are saved — by putting our faith in the Word of God. “Christ says it, I believe it, that settles it!”
See, there’s power in the word. That’s why Christians ought to speak the word — speak it to every situation, speak what the word says about it. If we believe the Bible is the infallible, written, inspired word of God, then we ought to speak it over every circumstance. Read the word, then speak the word! Let me remind us today: some things we are only going to receive if we believe the word.
Maybe, just maybe, if we believe the word, God will save our children, heal them, work in our favor, set them free. Those problems we carry, those anxiety attacks that keep bothering us, could just go away. Our miracle could be just one prayer away if we would believe His word. Community, the Lord has spoken, and it’s in His word. Mountains will fall, devils will tremble, walls will come down, deliverance will come — if we speak the word. Community, let’s believe the word.
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