Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ Jesus,

“20  My son, attend to my words; consent and submit to my sayings.  21  Let them not depart from your sight; keep them in the center of your heart. 22  For they are life to those Who find them, healing to all their flesh.  23  Keep and guard your heart with all vigilance and above all that you guard, for out of it flow the springs of life.  24. Put away from you false and dishonest speech, and willful  and contrary talk put far from you.24 Put away from you false and dishonest speech, and willful and contrary talk put far from you.” Proverbs 4:20-24 The Amplified Bible (AMP)

Just as a muscle is developed or strengthened through exercise, faith is developed or strengthened through the WORD of GOD. Exercises that develop faith involve confessing Scripture on a daily basis including: reading (allowing it into the eye-gate), meditating (thinking or reflecting on it), muttering (murmuring in a low tone or under the breath), and speaking (allowing it into the ear-gate). The LORD tells us to “choose life” by keeping His way at the forefront of the mind; and in so doing the things of GOD become imbedded or rooted or seeded in the fertile soil (so to speak) of the heart.

Jesus the Anointed One taught about this via the parable of the four soils found in Matthew 13:1-9′ Mark 4:3-8, and Luke 8:4-8. ( I used to participate in a Sunday school class with brilliant folk in regard to the intellect which I enjoyed because we were engrossed in socio-economic and various societal ills that we seemed convinced of resolving via discussion. However, relative to the WORD, it became clear [as even the Pastor pointed out to me] that this particular class could easily be renamed the Rocky Soil Club. The last thing Satan wants is for those rendered sons & daughters of God the Father by the blood of Jesus, to seed God’s WORD where he can’t legitimately gain access.

One of the enemy’s tactics is to tempt folk into thinking about and muttering and saying hateful or hate-filled things for the sheer purpose of strengthening or developing a type of anger that steadily moves toward hurtful action and/or violent harm to self or others. Therefore, just as JESUS only did and said as He heard from the Father, so too do we. That is, to know in your knower that it’s true unto you according to Isaiah 54:17 facilitates the ability to utter (regardless of what the emotions attempt to dictate) only that which Yahweh Shalom/Jehovah Shalom said. To know in your knower that it is true unto you according to 1 Peter 2:24, facilitates the ability to utter (regardless of what it feels like) only that which Yahweh Rapha/Jehovah Rapha said.

The first visiting cohort of the devil is doubt which sets the ground for fear to enter-in which is why the WORD tells us who are covered by the Blood to cast down every thought contrary to the will of GOD (2Co 10:5). The God kind of faith which the Living Word told and continues to tell us to operate comes by hearing the WORD (Romans 10:17). Therefore, the enemy comes to steal the WORD before it is seeded in the heart; he fervently works to distract a brother or sister in Christ Jesus from reading, meditating, muttering and speaking the WORD because it is the primary weapon against him in the earth. The WORD is our sword (Ephesians 6:17). The enemy takes no vacation; he sends his fiery darts toward us day after day. Therefore, we Ephesians 6:11-18 on a daily basis.

Speak the promise . . . Harriet