COME AND GET IT

Job's fear opened the door for satan to come in and take everything he had (Job 1:9-12). But that's the bad news. Do you know what the good news is?

Even against the recommendations of his so-called friends—who all told him he was nuts and that he should rebuke his God and turn from Him—because of Job's faithfulness God restored to him twice what he had before (Job 42:10).

Now why is that relevant to what we talked about in the last chapter? Some of you may have been wondering whether I was having peanut butter hallucinations when I told you that the power of the words you speak frames your circumstances. They do, and here's some more evidence.

Job 22:28 says, "Thou shalt also decree a thing, and it shall be established unto thee: and the light shall shine upon thy ways." We reviewed that scripture in the last chapter. God wasn't on a peanut butter high either when He included this in His Word.

"Thou shalt also decree a thing... " The promises of God, the sayings of God— all "shall be established unto thee." When we speak forth the Word of God, we're not just blowing smoke; we're declaring with our mouths what God has spoken. The power is not in our speaking; it's in the Lord who gives the message of our speech.

All those bumper-sticker philosophies people love to tell us when we're down—"Don't give up," "Hang in there, baby," "It's always darkest before the dawn"—may be given with the best of intentions, but none of them can change your circumstances. There's no power in bumper-sticker words or in the person who created them.

Let's take this one more step. In Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary, the word decree means "to command, to determine or order judicially; to ordain." So if your declaration is in line with the Word you have received from God, you can declare a thing and it will be established for you. Count on it.

Are you encouraged? Once again, don't take my word for it. Study it for yourself.