The Power of Words: Using Scriptures to Change Your Life pt. 2

This is part two of Using Scriptures to Change your Life.

If we want to we tap into the promises of God, we need to “activate” the scriptures before they can start working for us. This takes diligence and effort, mainly because, we have our own mind, body, other people and circumstances to contend with. We also have a ruthless enemy, the devil, who will persistently try to keep us from finding out what belongs to us and from attaining it. We won’t experience God’s best in our lives without fighting the “good fight of faith.” (1 Timothy 6:12)

The process for activating or obtaining the promises found in God’s Word goes something like this:

First, you have to know about the promises and believe that they belong to you. You must dare to believe that you can have them. Hearing or reading other peoples’ testimonies about how their faith has brought results will help strengthen your faith. One way is to study and meditate on Bible accounts of people who experienced great victories.

There are many examples of faith in action, recorded in the Bible- a teenager killing a giant with a slingshot, a man commanding the sun and moon to “stand still” resulting in almost 24 hours of extra daylight, a man being bit by a poisonous snake and experiencing no ill effects from it, etc. Romans 2:11 lets us know that God is not a respecter of persons. Whatever the need or problem in your life is, God wants to help you overcome it.

Before you can have faith to receive the promises, you need to be free from condemnation and believe that you are worthy- not because you’re perfect but because of who you are in Christ Jesus. Romans 8:1 says that if you’re in Christ Jesus, you are free from condemnation.

If you have a sense of unworthiness or don’t believe you deserve to have something, it’ll be difficult for you to have faith for it. Some people have been ingrained with a religious sense of unworthiness, others feel condemned because of the sin in their lives.

1 John 3:21 lets us know that we can only have confidence toward God if our hearts don’t condemn us. In verse 22 it goes on to say, “And whatsoever we ask, we receive of Him, because we keep His commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in His sight.”

If your heart is condemning you because of sin in your life, get rid of it by receiving forgiveness and asking God to help you make the needed changes. If you still have feelings of guilt, realize that feelings aren’t facts. Just because you still “feel” guilty does not mean you are guilty. Get rid of these feelings by declaring, “God is faithful and just to forgive me of my sins, and to cleanse me from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9)

In order to discover what belongs to you, you will have to spend some time reading and searching in the Word of God. To find scriptures concerning a particular need or subject, you can use a Bible concordance (such as Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance) and look for Bible verses on the topic you need. You can also use Bible Promise books or find scriptures for specific needs on the Internet by searching for phrases like “scriptures for insomnia” or “scriptures for worry.”

Go here for part three.

The Using Scriptures to Change Your Life Series has now been turned into a free e-book, download by clicking on the following link: Using Confessions to Change Your Life