FOUNDATION STATEMENT: There’s a battle going on for what words are sown in your heart. Whoever wins the Battle of Words, will ultimately win the fight of faith. – Proverbs 4:20-24
I. Battles are won and lost with the words that you spend time sowing
A. The Children of Israel vs. Joshua & Caleb
1. The Word seed; God said-Ex 33:1-3, Num 13:1; Satan said-Num 13:31-33
2. The Ground of their heart – What had they sown in their heart?
a. The ten spies sowed the evil report into their heart (Numbers 13:27-29, 32-14:1-4)
1) They gave their thoughts & attention to the evil report (the giants, the walls)
b. Joshua and Caleb sowed the word (Numbers 13:30-31, 14:7-9)
1) They gave their thoughts and attention to the Word
3. The tree of their belief – What did they believe? (We can find out what they believe, by looking at what they said in the time of pressure)
a. The ten spies believed they couldn’t go in (Numbers 13:31)
1) Where did that belief come from? They spent time with the wrong words
b. Joshua and Caleb believed they could go in (Numbers 13:30)
1) Where did that belief come from? They spent time with God’s words
4. The fruit results – What did they get?
a. The 10 spies & the people got the fruit of their belief (Num 14:28-34)
1) Hebrews 3:19 – Their unbelief shut them out; their tree kept them out
2) A result couldn’t be produced in their life, that was different than what was in their heart
b. Joshua/Caleb went into the promise land & got the fruit of their belief-Josh14:7-11
5. Matt 12:37-By your words your justified (Rendering to each his due, state of being right) or by your words your condemned. By your words you’re healed or sick, by your words you’re prosperous or poor, & by your words you’re victorious or defeated
a. All of this began because they spend time with the wrong word-seeds
b. The words that they looked at, listened to, & spoke determined what they got
B. Satan is always going to attack you with words because he knows that if he can get you sowing his words in your heart, then those words can come to pass in your life
1. Satan attacked Adam and Eve with words (Genesis 3:1-7)
a. The first thing he did in the Garden was he spoke
b. Satan came with words the first time and Eve responded it is written
c. Satan came with words the second time and there was no response
1) Eve listened to him and thought about what he said and his words became disobedience and death i
2) The words that she spent time with produced a belief in her heart. The belief was, “eating this tree will benefit us.”
3) Her response should have been, “It is written But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day that you eat thereof you shall surely die. And being dead doesn’t make us like God.”
4) She then could have responded, “It is said by God, God blessed us and told us to have dominion over all the Earth and everything in it, and to guard this garden, so get!!!”
d. Eve missed it because she wasn’t persistent enough in her response and she didn’t win the battle of words
2. Satan attacked Jesus on the level of words (Matthew 4:1-10)
a. The first thing he did to Jesus was spoke
b. Jesus responded one way every time: The Word
c. As many times as Satan attacked, Jesus responded with the Word
3. Goliath attacked David with words first (1 Samuel 17:43-44)
a. If David wouldn’t have won the battle of words, he wouldn’t have won
b. The devil can say what he wants, but the Word of God always trumps his Words
4. Satan has not changed, when he attacks believers he does it with words
a. He’s subtle; he wants 2 get a little of his word in u at a time until it dominates ur life
1) “Look at your car and your house you aren’t rich” — “Look at this job you got, you won’t ever have more than enough working here” — “Look at this amount of money, how are you ever going to be free from debt” — “Look at your body, you’re not healed” — “Look at your kids, they won’t ever get saved”
2) “If you really are what the word says you are, then why is it still like this?”
b. He’ll use circumstances and situations to talk to you
1) Just because a thing doesn’t have a mouth, doesn’t mean it can’t speak
a) Your senses transmit word-seed-information to your mind
b) Your senses perceive something & then say 2 your mind what they perceive
c) Thoughts are non-verbal word-seeds
2) Satan will show u something physical & then use your senses 2 speak words to u
5. Meditate the Word Day & Night & don’t let this word depart from your mouth b/c you don’t want to be exposed to word-seeds that u don’t want to harvest-Josh 1:8
a. EX: Every time you walk in that house you slap it and say this house is debt free. Because you don’t ever won’t to be exposed to word seeds (even in thought form) that we still owe money on this house and it’s never going to be paid off.
b. EX: You look at those car receipts and it produces a belief that this car is going to be paid off in May 2011. You’re exposing yourself to word-seeds that are creating a belief and you’ll get what you believe, you’re car will be paid off in May 2011.
C. APPLICATION: Battles are won and lost on the “word front.”
1. If you don’t win the battle of words, you won’t win the battle in your life.
2. If you don’t ever spend time with God’s word concerning your situation how can you expect to be victorious
3. You’d better stop the enemy on the word level
4. As many times as he comes with words, you got to win the battle
II. The enemy is after the word-seed (Mark 4:15-16)
A. Satan attacks on the level of the seed b/c if he can’t get the seed, then he can’t stop the harvest (Luke 8:12)
1. The seed carries the power-potential to produce a harvest
a. If he can get the seed from you, you have no potential to see a harvest
2. He’s coming after the word seed to keep you from believing it
a. If that word stays in you and you stay in that word it’s going to produce a belief and that’s what Satan has to stop b/c once you believe there is nothing that he can do to stop the fruit from coming to pass
b. He comes after the word to stop the belief; the seed to stop the tree
c. With no word there can be no belief and with no belief there can be no salvation
3. Satan comes immediately b/c it’s a lot easier to dig a seed of the ground or even a small plant out of the ground than it is to dig a tree out of the ground-Mk 4:15
a. The longer that the word seed is in you the more your faith develops and the more you faith develops the harder it is for Satan to uproot
B. The pressure, the distress, and the trouble came for the word’s sake (Mark 4:16)
1. The pressure didn’t come to get you, it came to get the word-seed
a. If the pressure can’t get the word-seed, then it can’t get you
2. The trouble is there, the bad report is there to get you to let go of the word
a. If you’ll continue in the Word it will make you free (John 8:32)
1) There’s no harvest of freedom without the act continuing
b. You bring forth fruit with patience (Luke 8:15)
1) That seed has to develop & that tree has to develop before fruit is ever yielded
2) It’s going to require consistency, constancy, & patience while it’s developing
C. APPLICATION: Satan is after the seed of the Word to stop the harvest. No matter how bad it looks or how bad it gets in the natural don’t let go of the Word. Keep looking at it, hearing it, and saying it and whatever you do, do not let go of the Word. If don’t let go of the word-seed, you will see your harvest.