Say Before You See
Once you have acted, you can take God’s Word and put it in the present tense: “Father, because I have given, it is given unto me-good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over.”
Someone may say, “You don’t have it yet.” But you don’t have to see it. Trust God; He wouldn’t lie to you!
Continue to sow the Word of God into your heart by your words. Say, “Thank You, Father, it is given unto me. I’m believing for a hundredfold return, in the name of Jesus, and it is coming to me. The blessings are overtaking me because I sow bountifully and I reap bountifully. I have all sufficiency in all things and do abound to every good work. The Lord is my Shepherd, and I do not want.”
Follow Instructions
Let me give you an example of how to act on the Word to sow the seed.
The Lord might instruct you to give $50 to a particular person. The Word of God concerning giving in Luke 6:38 says, Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over. In order to sow the seed, you must do what this verse says. Luke 6:38 will not work unless you observe the principles of the laws of prosperity. You can’t just know what the Word says about giving; you must give in order to claim this promise.
Give, and it shall be given. The phrase shall be is future tense. The promise is before you. It doesn’t belong to you until you do what God’s Word says.
The instant you give that $50, you can speak that promise into your heart because you have been obedient to God. Instead of saying, “It shall be given unto me,” you can say, “Father, Your Word says, Give, and it shall be given. Then because I have given, it is given unto me-good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over.”
That is present tense: It is given now! Before you obeyed, the return from giving was shall be. After you obeyed by giving, your confession changed to it is given to me.
Use Common Sense
Some people act on the Word but miss God by trying to substitute faith for good business practices. When they hear about faith principles and learn the importance of confession, they go off on a tangent, throwing away all common sense and good business practices.
One time someone asked me, “Brother Capps, do you use fertilizer on your farm?”
In response, I asked him, “Do you use gas in your car?”
Some people seem to throw away all common sense when they start using their faith.
Somebody may say, “Instead of advertising, I’m just going to believe God.” If God tells you to do that, fine; but just be sure God said it.
Don’t substitute faith for good business practices.
Don’t substitute good business practice for faith.
You have to put the two together. Use faith in all your business practices. When you start saying good things about your work, the results will astound you.
Faith Is Not Laziness
You must hear God’s Word intelligently, then put some action to your faith.
Several years ago there was a couple in a city where I was teaching on a weekly basis who took hold of the faith and confession message. They had moved to that city because the man had moved to that city because the man had taken a new job there, but the company he was to work for went broke about the time he and his wife arrived. They were living in a very expensive apartment, and since neither of them had a job, bills began to pile up.
They learned a part of what they heard about confession, but they only got the formula. They thought all they had to do was say it. SO they sat at home confessing that they had the money to meet their bills.
The man was offered a job selling cars for $600 a month, plus commission; but he turned it down. He said he was “waiting for his ship to come in.” (One thing should be clear; If you haven’t sent one out, it won’t come in!) The Word says,…whatsoever he doeth shall prosper (Ps. 1:3). This man wasn’t doing anything, and a hundredfold return on nothing is still nothing!
Confession didn’t work for the couple who only sat around confessing. They didn’t have the principle of seedtime and harvest. They didn’t use common sense, and they weren’t being obedient to God’s Word, which says, . . . whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. They weren’t doing anything. Confession and faith are powerful when coupled with doing the Word of God.
Sometimes people miss it in the walk of faith. They get “turned on” to faith and say, “Glory to God! I’m going to quit my job!” Let me share a few words of wisdom: If you can’t make it by faith with a job, you certainly won’t make it by faith without a job.
Don’t Relax After Victory
Faith-filled words become your servants, working for you day in and day out. When they bring in the victory, you don’t say to your words: “Since you won that victory, I’m going to let you relax a few days.” When they are through with one job, don’t let them lie around and get lazy. After spending a long day working, the servant in Luke 17 came home to do more work.
Again, I refer to Matthew 12:36 in which Jesus said we will give an account of every idle word spoken. If you let your servant-faith-filled words-lie around idle, you will give an account of them.
As the master kept the servant working in Luke 17, we must keep our words working. We do that by speaking the thing desired-giving them a new assignment.
Things to Remember:
Learn to use your faith as a seed.
Plant your faith by speaking it.
Once the seed is planted, don’t dig it up.
Faith-filled words are your servants.
They work for you day and night.
Keep your words working!
Words Are Your Servants
But which of you, having a servant plowing or feeding cattle, will say unto him by and by, when he is come from the field, Go and sit down to meat?
And will not rather say unto him, Make ready wherewith I may sup, and gird thyself, and serve me, till I have eaten and drunken; and afterwards thou shalt eat and drink?
Doth he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I trow not. Luke 17:7-9
You can state the point of the above passage in two different ways: Faith is the servant of the believer, or faith-filled words are the servant of the believer. Actually you can say it three ways:
The sycamine tree obeys you.
The sycamine tree obeys your words.
The sycamine tree obeys your faith.
In Bible days, no master had his servant rest or eat before serving him.
As soon as the servant came in from plowing or feeding cattle, he cooked the meal and fed the master; then he ate the leftovers later.
Leave Your Seed In The Ground
There is something you should remember when planting seeds of faith: Once the seed is planted, you no longer have it; it’s in the ground (heart).
Often people use the phrase, “I’m believing for…” (I have said it myself.) But if you are believing for it, you are in the process; but you haven’t believed yet. Once you have believed it, it is settled!
Once the seed is planted, you don’t go back to dig it up! It is the substance of what you desire. Praise God for it, even though it’s not in your possession, because you have believed! Past tense! You shall receive.
If you say, “I am believing for this,” you are in the process of believing; but when you say, “I have believed God for it,” then it is settled! The seed is planted. You no longer have it. You’ve traded faith for the thing you believed.
When you go to the store, you gather your groceries, then take them to the cash register. The cashier tells you the amount of the groceries, and you lay your money on the counter. After your groceries are bagged, if you pick up both your money and the groceries and start out the door, the cashier will say, “Wait a minute! You have to leave one of them here, either the groceries or the money. You can’t leave with both!”
When you believed, you settled it! You planted your faith. Don’t dig it up because you can’t have both the seed and the harvest. You have already believed. Leave your faith and confess the harvest.
Let’s look at the conversation between Jesus and the centurion:
The centurion said, Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented.
And Jesus saith unto him, I will come and heal him.
The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof: but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed.
For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me: and I say to this man, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it. Matthew 8: 6-9
When Jesus heard these words, He stopped and preached a sermon.
When Jesus heard it, he marvelled, and said to them that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel (v.10).
This centurion was a Gentile, a Roman. He was not under the Covenant that God had with Israel; yet Jesus said his was the greatest faith He had seen in all Israel!
Then Jesus said, Go thy way; and as thou hast believed (past tense), so be it done unto thee. And his servant was healed in the selfsame hour (v.13).
The centurion released his faith when he said to Jesus, Speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed. He was not believing; he had already believed. He planted the seed and left it in the ground. Jesus said to him, As thou hast believed (not “As you are believing”), so be it done unto thee.
Plant Your Faith
Luke 17:6 and Matthew 17:20 contain three great secrets of faith:
1. Faith works like a seed.
2. You must plant it to get the benefit of that faith seed.
3. You plant faith by speaking it.
The Kingdom operates by the principle of sowing and reaping:…as if a man should cast seed into the ground (Mark 4:26).
From studying the teachings of Jesus, Peter, James, and others, I believe seeds cannot be planted in your heart unless you first speak words. They will never get in there unless you speak them there. They are in the mouth first, then in the heart. (Rom. 10:8)
Using The Faith You Have
When the disciples became afraid in the midst of a storm, Jesus asked them, Where is your faith? (Luke 8:22-27)
Jesus later spoke to them and said, O ye of little faith…(Luke 12:28). They didn’t like that, so they decided to ask Him to give them more faith. Luke 17:5 says, The apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith.
The apostles couldn’t read Mark 4 or Mark 11:23,24 to find out how the Kingdom of God operates.
Them again in Matthew 17 the disciples failed to cast a demon out of a boy, so Jesus had to cast it out. Later when Jesus was alone with them, they asked Him why they couldn’t do it.
And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place: and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you (V.20).
These words are similar to what Jesus said in Luke 17:6, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up…
Both of these examples-the mountain in Matthew 17:20 and the sycamine tree in Luke 17:6-refer to the problem, to the circumstance before them.
Jesus did not say, “If you have faith the size of a seed…..,” but, “If you have faith as a grain of mustard seed…” Jesus is using as an example a type of seed that is familiar to the apostles. (Had Jesus been in England, Arkansas, He would have said, “If you had faith as a cotton seed…”)
The size of the seed doesn’t matter. The point is that the seed is good for only one thing: to plant.
Jesus is saying you don’t need more faith, but you must be willing to plant it, to put it to work, to say to the problem, “Be removed!”
In answer to the apostles’ request to give them more faith, Jesus said, “You don’t need more faith. You just need to use the faith you have by speaking it,”
Things To Remember
Do the sayings of Jesus and you will have a house with a firm foundation. The floods and storms of life do not come from God.
Plant God’s Word in your heart and do the sayings of Jesus, and you will not fail!
Dig in the Word to find the principles, then do the whole Word.
You must do God’s Word yourself; God won’t do it for you!
Speak God’s Word to the problem in your life. Practice speaking what God says about you. Develop the habit of releasing faith in every word you speak.
Start believing that every word you say will come to pass.
Confessing God’s Word forms a positive image inside you.
The image of God’s Word will raise your sights.
God’s Word is your point of contact to change your image.
Speaking in line with God’s Word will cause you to develop faith in your words. The key is believing what you say will come to pass.
For these principles to work in your life, you must come to Jesus, hear His sayings, then diligently do what He says.
