When God gives us a word, it is an invitation for us to partner with Him—an opportunity to draw closer and grow in intimacy with Him. But the only way that we can truly partner with him is through faith. God always provides us a seed of promise, but it is our job to supply the faithfulness.

In the parable of the shrewd manager, Jesus told his disciples that if you remain faithful in the little things, you will be faithful even in the large ones… How do you manage the seed that God has entrusted with you? What do you do with it?

There’s a difference between receiving the Word of the Lord versus carrying the Word of the Lord. When we receive God’s word, there’s only so much that can happen if we just let it sit there and not do anything with it. However, when we carry the Word of the Lord, when we hold His promise so close to our hearts and allow that very word to dwell in our life, it becomes the very thing through which we are able to have a dialogue with God and co-labor with Him in the things that He has planned for us in light of His glory and His Kingdom.

In the year of acceleration, God is reminding us of the things that we’ve set aside simply because we couldn’t picture it happening to us. God wants to breathe life once again on the words that He has given us… What were the things that He has put in our hearts, that we used to pray for but stopped praying for because it just wasn’t happening in the timeframe that we had in mind? Think of every promise, every word, and take hold of it. And then,

1. Pray the Word of the Lord. Make it the fuel of your prayers. Pray for it and just take the word and run with it. Pray what He said about things, whether it’s about your kids, your jobs, your finances. That opens up a dialogue with God and re-affirming to Him, “Yes, Abba, this is what You had spoken over me. Thank You for Your word and I know that You, who have begun a good work in me, are faithful to complete it!”
2. Prepare for it. Again, it’s not enough that we receive His word. We also have to prepare for it. It is through faith that Noah prepared an Ark. If he hadn’t prepared the ark then his family would not have been spared from the flood. Also, in the story of Elisha and the widow and the oil in 2 Kings 4:1-7, the widow showed faithfulness in gathering all the empty vessels that she can gather, and the oil kept pouring and pouring and it only ceased when there wasn’t any other vessel to fill. Your level of preparation determines your level of outpouring. Build your arks and gather your vessels!
3. Declare the Word of the Lord. Proverbs 18:21 tells us that death and life are in the power of the tongue. Make sure that what comes out of your mouth is faith. Speak faith rather than unbelief. You speak life when you declare the word of the Lord, and you shall speak death over anything that does not align with what God says for it is from the enemy.
4. Guard your heart. When you’re under fire with disappointments and hope deferred, guard your hearts. Align your language to align with the language of heaven. Fill your heart with the Word of the Lord so that unbelief won’t even have a place to sneak into.

Even through seasons of delay, stand firm and take heart! Continue to carry the Word of the Lord. Our waiting season is usually the time when God is testing our character and the depth of trust that we have with the word that He has given. It is by His grace that He nurtures us and grows us in this time so that when the time comes for His word to come to pass, we are more than ready to handle it.

Prayer: Abba Father, thank You for the seeds that You have planted in our hearts. We declare that there is a tree of life taking root and that all the pain and disappointments that we have endured will be nothing compared to the glory that You have set before us. We repent of any words of unbelief that we have spoken over Your promises and we render powerless any work of the enemy that seeks to steal, kill, and destroy the purposes for which You have called us to do. Thank You, Abba, for entrusting us with more and we desire nothing else than to be responsible for the things You’ve tasked us to carry! Be with us always, in Jesus’ name! Amen.

* This message was inspired by Banning Liebscher’s message in Catch the Fire Toronto Revival25 on January 25, 2019.