A lot of us have big dreams. We have a vision for our life, our families, our career, and our purpose. But the devil has a plan for us as well – and his plan is not a good one. Satan would like to crush your dreams; he wants you to doubt God and His goodness and love towards us. Well I have a solution to share with you from the Word of God to stop the devil dead in his tracks. How do we remove doubt? How do we take control of our emotions? How do we deflect the fiery darts of the devil? – By speaking the Word of God – OUT LOUD.

2 Corinthians 4:13 reads “Yet we have the same spirit of faith as he had who wrote, I have believed, and therefore have I spoken. We too believe, and therefore we speak” The Bible is describing here an attitude of faith that is defined as – first you believe in your heart, then you speak it with your mouth.

Romans 10:17 tells us “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God” So each and every time we speak the word, we are hearing the Word, and by hearing the Word we are growing our faith! And that faith will give us the strength to stand against the attacks of the devil. It will be a strong faith for tough times.

Even when the devil came to tempt Jesus in the wilderness (found in Matthew Chapter 4) Jesus’ response was speaking the Word. He replied to each of the devils temptations with “It is written…” Jesus was giving us the example of how to cast down thoughts, temptations, and negative emotions by speaking the Word.

Joshua 1:8 tells us – “Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.” That means you should never be caught not having the Word in your speech, and when you build a habit of speaking God’s word, those words you are speaking are creating your own future! A future of prosperity and success!

Ephesians 6:17 describes the “sword of the spirit” which is the spoken (Rhema) Word as a part of the “Armor of God”. This is the only offensive piece in the Armor of God and is used to fight your way into new territory and push back the devil from stealing your future. And it comes from simply speaking God’s Word out loud.

Mark 11:23 says “For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says.” You see it talks about speaking twice, but believing only once. So if you speak in faith more than your mind tries to doubt, you will overcome the doubt and believe the word of God.

To sum it all up,

Speaking God’s Word out loud will:

1. Release faith into your life
2. Help you control your thoughts and emotions
3. Creates your future
4. Expands your life and pushes back the devil
5. Conquers doubt

So the next time you face a battle, a struggle, or a time of doubt and hopeless in you life – go to the Word, find a scripture, and say loud enough that the devil can hear it – “IT IS WRITTEN…”

God wants to be first in your life. He wants to be on the top of your list! Exodus 20:3 shows us that very fact when it says– “You shall have no other gods before me.” That command meant so much to God that He made that very passage is the first of the Ten Commandments.

Now many of you might say, “I don’t worship other Gods. I’m a Christian. I don’t worship Buddha, or Allah or Shiva. What does this have to do with me?” Notice in this passage of scripture that the “g” in “gods” is not capitalized – it’s a little “g”. Which means God is talking about little gods; He’s describing anything that gets in the way of your relationship with Him.

These little gods could be – money, your career, a marriage or relationship, your children, a hobby, your prestige, your position – anything that stands between you and God is an idol. They are things that are there to get you off track, they are there to pervert you world, they are there to rob you of your potential.

So how do I build a strong life? A fulfilled life? A happy life? How do I get rid of these “little gods”? Proverbs 3:6 tells us “In everything you do, put God first, and He will direct you and crown your efforts with success.” So there it is! If we want God to crown us with success and direct our lives we must – Put GOD first. But how do we do that exactly? I’m glad you asked. Here are 5 simple and practical ways.

In your life give God control of your:

1. 1. Finances

Do I put God first in decisions with money? With investments? How I spend it? Am I a good steward of the money God has given me? Do I tithe to my local church? (Proverbs 3:9 & Deuteronomy 14:23)

1. 2. Interests

Do I represent Christ well in all that I do? Am I the same person on the Golf course, at the baseball game, on the basketball court, or at shopping mall that I am at Church? Does my behavior draw people to Christ?  Am I thankful for the blessings God has given me? (I Corinthians 10:31)

1. 3. Relationships

Am I seeking God first before I connect with someone? Do I have someone in my life that I want there but God may not want? Am I dating a non-believer? Do the people in my life cause me to grow closer to God?

1. 4. Schedule

What do I do first thing in the morning? Do I have a daily appointment with God? Am I spending my time in a way that glorifies Him and helps others?

(Psalm 5:1-3 & Ephesians 5:15-17)

1. 5. Troubles

Am I worrying about my problems more than I trust God? Am I giving the problem to God, calling on Him to help in tough situations? Do I believe what I’m experiencing more than the Word of God?  (Psalm 50:15)

You see, if we will take the time to examine ourselves, find the areas where God isn’t first in our lives and simply make a change – we can expect a successful life directed by our all-powerful God. Because the areas of life we put God first in, are the areas of our life that God can truly bless.

The world will tell you that the word “radical” means something like “extraordinary”, “out of the box”, “unusual”, or “extreme” but the true definition of radical is “from the root”. Colossians 2:7 tells us “Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on Him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.”

So as a believer, if we want to grow strong and overflow with thankfulness we need to have Radical Faith. Not radical as the world would define it, but radical in the way of being rooted in God.

Let’s read on in Ephesians 3:16-20 “I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. ¹⁷ Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. ¹⁸ And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. ¹⁹ May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God. ²⁰ Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.”

Do you see that? Once we truly understand God’s love, once we see it’s immense size and degree for us, only then will we be made complete. When we tap into God’s love for us, our roots grow down deep into Him. Then, just like a tree, when the winds and storms come and beat on us, pushing us almost to the breaking point, the tree with the deep roots will stand strong against those forces. That tree will remain safe and continue growing despite the circumstances that are all around it.

So how do you grow those roots down deep into God? Look again at the second half of verse 17 “…Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong.” You dig deep roots into God by going down further and further into His love.

Go into the Bible and search for yourself. Find the numerous scriptures that talk about God’s immeasurable love for you. Study those scriptures – meditate on them. See the evidence of His unfailing love written in His very own Word. And when you find that love and focus on that love, God will give you the power you need to face any obstacle that life throws your way.

In order to change our behavior we have to change our attitude, and in order to change our attitude we have to change our perspective. You can shift your perspective through Praise. With praise you can go from bottom of the barrel to the top of the heap! When you praise God – He gets bigger (in your life) and your problems get smaller.  So if I’ll increase my praise life, my perspective will change, then my attitude will change, and then my behavior will change.  So if I want to shift my life I do it by praising God more.

Your God is bigger than your problem. So if today your problem seems bigger than you can handle, if it seems bigger than you think God can fix, then you need to shift your perspective by focusing on God through praise and it will trigger a change in your mindset. Your faith in God will grow and grow until you see Him as big enough to change the situation. God wants to act on your behalf, but your faith level needs to be large enough to reach that expectation. Praising God does just that.

Hebrews 10:32 says “Be mindful of the days that went by. Remember after your were spiritual enlightened, you endured a great and painful struggle.” So the Bible has told us that after we have this growth, after we have changed our attitude and perspective – we will be faced with a painful struggle. “Why?” you might ask, because the devil is after the growth that is about to take place in our life. He wants us to stay weak, warn-out and stagnant.

Basically, you can tell if you’re growing, pressing towards God’s call for your future, by the battles that you’re facing. Big battles equal big rewards, big blessings, and a big future! So when you’re in a battle – see it as just that. The devil is doing his best to stand between you and your destiny. And what is one of the greatest weapons you have against his attacks? It’s the simple act of giving God praise. Keep your eyes on Him, keep thanking Him for what He is, what He has done, and what He is about to do and soon, you won’t be IN that battle – you’ll be THROUGH the battle.

Faith works by believing and speaking. Not believing alone. You can know God wants to prosper you, you can believe He wants to heal you, but He won’t until you start saying it. “Let them SAY continually that the Lord takes pleasure and is magnified in the prosperity of his servant.” (Psalms 35:27) It’s not enough to hear it preached, and taught, and spoken. It’s not enough to understand it or know it or believe it. As long as I’m silent and believe it, it’s present but I’m not tapping into it. It’s not faith until you say it.

We tap into what God has for our lives through faith-filled words. Faith without corresponding actions is dead, and the first corresponding action of faith is speaking it with your words. So when you manage your mouth you manage your faith.

The Bible says in Mark 3:25 that a house divided can not stand. So when you’re believing for a healing but your mouth is talking about how sick you are, your belief is split in two and has no power to overcome the sickness you’re facing. Faith comes by hearing – and the person you believe more than anyone or anything else is YOU. So if you continually hear yourself saying “I’m not going to make it. I just can’t do this. I’m never going to get ahead. I might as well quit.” then you are going to start believing those statements.

However, if you do the opposite and start declaring the promises of God instead, things like “Everything my hand touches is blessed. (Deuteronomy 28:8) I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. (Philippians 4:13)  If God is for me, who can dare to stop me? (Romans 8:31)” then you will believe those words instead which will activate the promises of God’s word in your life!

“Out of the abundance of your heart the mouth speaks.” (Matthew 12:34) So start speaking the results that you want, and once you do – you’ll start to believe it and expect it. You’ll stop agreeing with your circumstances and you’ll agree with God – working with Him by your words, not against Him.

In Deuteronomy 28 the Bible talks about the Blessings that come from obeying God and the curses that come when we disobey God. In this chapter we see that the curses are separated into 3 different types. The first is spiritual death, the second category is sickness and finally the third is Poverty.

So often believers think that in order to serve God, or in order to become super “spiritual” they can’t have abundance in their finances. What they don’t realize is that is a lie straight from the devil.

You see – we’ve all fallen short. We’ve all made mistakes. None of us are perfect. And because of that, we deserve these curses. It’s the price that has to be paid for our disobedience. But thankfully, that’s not the end of the story. God has given us the answer in Galatians 3:13-14

“Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law. Being made a curse for us. For it is written ‘Cursed is everyone that hangs from a cross’. So that the blessing of Abraham might come on the gentiles through Jesus Christ, that you might receive the blessing of the spirit.”

Notice that he took the curse for us! He took all three parts. He took our spiritual death and gave us life, He took our sickness and gave us health, He took our poverty and gave us abundance! By dying on the cross at the hands of man, Jesus paid the price for us so that we could have the blessing and not the curse.

That means if you are a follower of Jesus Christ, if you have made Him not only savior but LORD of your life, then you can open up the Bible and start reading Deuteronomy 28:3-14 and expect those blessings in your life.  Look carefully at this section of scripture for a moment friends, it will change your life.

“You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country.

The fruit of your womb will be blessed, and the crops of your land and the young of your livestock—the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks.

Your basket and your kneading trough will be blessed.

You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out.

The LORD will grant that the enemies who rise up against you will be defeated before you. They will come at you from one direction but flee from you in seven.

The LORD will send a blessing on your barns and on everything you put your hand to. The LORD your God will bless you in the land he is giving you.

The LORD will establish you as his holy people, as he promised you on oath, if you keep the commands of the LORD your God and walk in obedience to him. Then all the peoples on earth will see that you are called by the name of the LORD, and they will fear you. The LORD will grant you abundant prosperity—in the fruit of your womb, the young of your livestock and the crops of your ground—in the land he swore to your ancestors to give you.

The LORD will open the heavens, the storehouse of his bounty, to send rain on your land in season and bless all the work of your hands. You will lend to many nations but will borrow from none. The LORD will make you the head, not the tail. If you pay attention to the commands of the LORD your God that I give you this day and carefully follow them, you will always be at the top, never at the bottom. Do not turn aside from any of the commands I give you today, to the right or to the left, following other gods and serving them.”

Wow! Could it be any clearer? When you serve God and strive to obey His commandments, He will bless you, and not just spiritually, but physically. However many have argued, “God will bless you, but only spiritually. He doesn’t want you to have money because money is evil.” This chapter of God’s word clearly disproves that way of thinking. You can’t lend and borrow faith or patience – the Bible is talking about Money and possessions– God wants you to have it all, as long as it doesn’t have you.

So I encourage you today, seek God. Meditate on this passage. Maybe take a section or a verse of this blessing that jumps out at you and right it on a note card, keep it in your pocket, or put it on the dashboard of your car. Remind yourself of God’s promise and THANK Him for it. It will change the way you think about God and the way you think about money. And when your thinking changes – your life changes.

This morning I met a young man who shared with me how his life had caused him to become depressed. This young man wasn’t a believer, and as far as I know he didn’t attend a church, but he decided to open up to me and tell me all about his struggles and disappointments. You see, that young man didn’t want me to preach at him, he didn’t want me to judge him, he was simply looking for what each and every one of us looks for. He needed encouragement. He was looking for hope.

Now let’s think for a moment, what if I was having a down day today? What if I was depressed, thinking and only caring for my needs, focused only on my concerns? How could I share hope with that young man if I had no hope myself?

The Bible tells us that as times goes on the world will continue to get darker until the day that Jesus returns. Some translations go as far as replacing the word “darkness” with “depression”. Even as you look around in your world, it’s easy to see this verse happening right before your eyes. Depression is clearly present in our society, and with out the right weapon it can easily creep it’s way into our lives. Luckily God has given us that weapon, it is a weapon called our WORDS.

Spiritual warfare goes on in our minds. When we are fighting depression, stress, fatigue, even hopelessness – the battle is being fought in our thought-life. So how do you change those thoughts? By changing your words. What you say, you begin to think about, and what you think about you begin to do, and what you do shapes your destiny.

So by filling your mind and your mouth with words that line-up with or agree with God’s promises (the Bible) you can change your destiny to God’s perfect will for your life – and in that will of God there is NO place for depression. Speaking the word causes you to think the word, and thinking the word and meditating on it causes you to enter in to God’s presence – and “in the presence of God there is fullness of Joy” (Psalm 16:11)

What are you saying about yourself today? What are you saying about your future? What are you saying about your life? If it’s negative statements, then you will continue to see the negative. But if you make a conscious choice to speak positive things, you can expect to see positive things. You can expect a change!

So begin speaking good things about your situation. Start saying positive things about family or your spouse.  Find the great things God says about you, His child, in the Bible and begin to say those same things about you! A mind FILLED with the word is a life FULFILLED by God, and you will fill your mind best by speaking it daily.

Have you ever heard someone say, “I’m going through a dry spell right now.” Or “I just feel like I’m stuck in a rut.” Or even “I feel spiritually stagnant, I’m just not getting anything like I used to from the Lord.” Well today I want to share with you the cure for that dry spell.

We overcome the “rut” mentality through the power of praise and worship.  Isaiah 43:21 reveals to us that we were created to worship God.  He formed us and created us to praise Him and to fellowship with Him. We were designed to worship God. It is our purpose. And until you walk in your purpose, you will never be satisfied.

Praise is to be “shown forth” (Isa 43:21) – it’s supposed to be seen, not hidden. Praise and worship of God is our calling! And if that is what were called and created to do then just 20 minutes of it at the beginning of a church service isn’t enough. It should become a lifestyle that we put into daily practice. When we praise and worship Him we are acknowledging our dependence on God. It’s remembering and declaring the Lord’s greatness and goodness. And when you focus on that by praising Him continuously throughout your day, you begin to see God for who He really is.

When you worship and when you praise, God starts to look bigger than the test you’re in. He starts to look more powerful than the battle you’re fighting. His promises become truer than the circumstances you’re dealing with. When you worship, faith grows and doubt flees. As you worship Him in everyday life, you hear His voice more clearly and you see His will more deeply. It builds your trust in our all-powerful, ever-present Lord and it energizes you to run the race set before you.

So the next time you feel stuck, dry, or stagnant – stop for a moment and begin to thank God and praise Him. Even in the darkest hour when it seems everything has gone wrong, find something to praise Him for. And just as it promises in Psalm 22:3 when you praise Him, He will show up in your life.

Right now at Church on the Rock we are in the middle of a 21-day fast. For those of you that might ask, “Pastor Blunt, what is a fast?” let me explain. Fasting simply means, “to abstain from”.  It most simply means you are giving up a certain item or activity to devote yourself more wholly to God. You can fast candy, you can fast TV, you can fast soda, you can fast meat, you can fast food all together, you can fast nearly anything. It’s not the item that matters; it’s the sacrifice that God will honor.

Fasting will accelerate your walk with God. If we want to go forward faster we can do it through the principle of fasting.  Not only will it accelerate, but also Fasting activates the positive in our life. It eliminates the problems in your life and it will help you achieve the impossible in your life.

But on top of all of that, fasting will help us win the big battles in life. In 2 Chronicles chapter 20 the Bible tells us the story of King Jehoshaphat. He and the people of Judah were surround on all sides, it seemed as if they had no hope. But what did King Jehoshaphat do? He called for a corporate fast in all of Judah.  During the fast the people prayed and went after God, and in the middle of the Fast the Lord spoke to the King through a prophet. The message from God gave Jehoshaphat strength, wisdom, and strategies, and with that, the people of Judah were able to destroy the enemies that stood in their way. What enemies are you facing today? What battle do you need strength, wisdom, and strategies in? When you’re facing a big battle what should you do? You should fast and pray.

So for all of you who have been taking part in this fast with us I encourage you to keep it up and expect God to do some big things in this fast. And for those of you who haven’t, it’s not too late. Start today! God wants to do some exciting new things in our lives this year but we have to give Him something to work with. Give God something and He’ll give back more than you can imagine.

I’m so excited about a new tool that the team here at COTR has recently launched called the Church on the Rock Online Community. If you haven’t been able to visit the site and check it out I highly suggest you that you take the time to see all that it has to offer. It’s a great way for you to stay connected with the church, our staff, events, members of our church family, and all of the different ministries we have here to serve you and our community. Log-on today at (http://cotr.sochurch.com/)

Resources like the COTR Online Community, Live Streaming, our weekly Podcast, Social Networking and the Church on the Rock experience are so important to me for many different reasons – but today I’d like to focus on just one. Church on the Rock’s online tools are one of my greatest passions because they give you an opportunity to connect people from around the world to the hope of Jesus Christ. We know that we live in a lost and dying world where many people will refuse to come to a church building and sit in a service. However the Internet has given the modern church a golden opportunity to reach those people electronically!

Everything we do here at Church on the Rock is about glorifying God and reaching people for Jesus and our online tools do just that. But just like a physical tool, these online tools only work if we use them. We need people like you to share these resources with people that you know. Tell a coworker you have lunch with. Suggest them to a relative who lives out of state. Remind your kids who’ve gone off to college. Bring them up when you’re out to dinner with friends.  And when you do, you are following one of Jesus’ greatest commands found in Mark 16:15 “Go into all theworld and preach and publish openly the good news to the whole human race.”