This Will Take You to Your Goal
By Steve Backlund
“I am free from nicotine. I can’t stand to smoke! I don’t smoke anymore.”
These are the kinds of things influential Christian leader, Joyce Meyer, spoke about early in her ministry when she was smoking cigarettes and wanting to quit. She had seemingly tried everything without success until she changed what she spoke.
“God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did; (Romans 4:17). Joyce called herself a non-smoker while still smoking.
When Joyce started to speak freedom over herself, she was pulled toward seeing the freedom manifest. “Look also at ships: although they are so large and are driven by fierce winds, they are turned by a very small rudder wherever the pilot desires. Even so the tongue . . . “ (James 3:4-5). Our words are the “rudder” that creates our lives’ direction.
We don’t have something just by saying something, but saying something is necessary to having something.
God has not called us to use our words to describe our lives, but to change our lives.
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me . . . to proclaim freedom to the captives” (Luke 4:18). The most important person we speak freedom to is ourselves. We all battle some sort of captivity (the state of being held, imprisoned, enslaved, or confined). There is:
Addiction captivity
Debt or financial lack captivity
Poor health captivity
Emotional captivity
Family dysfunction captivity
Geographical location captivity
Etc.
When we, like Joyce Meyer, proclaim life and freedom to areas of where we are captive, our hope grows and God’s solutions are drawn toward us. (Truly, if the brain doesn’t think there is a solution, it won’t see them.)
The answer to our captivity can come to us in many ways, such as from:
A book
An new idea
A sermon
Surprising grace to change
A prophetic word
It starts with proclaiming freedom to captivity. It is impossible to speak life and have nothing happen.
“And behold, there was a woman who had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bent over and could in no way raise herself up. But when Jesus saw her, He called her to Him and said to her, ‘Woman, you are loosed from your infirmity.’ And He laid His hands on her, and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God” (Luke 13:11-13). In this situation, before Jesus prayed, He proclaimed the woman was free, when she was still bound.
So what captivity are you experiencing? Like Joyce Meyer, as a main part of your plan to see freedom, proclaim over yourself that you are already free. It is not the only thing you will do regarding it, but I believe it is the most important. As you persist in doing so, your feelings and experiences will catch up to your beliefs (knowing your declarations are pulling you toward the solution).
Thanks, Joyce, for being an example for all of us.