Stand Firm in Pursuing and Decreeing Truth
A personal challenge is a challenge that’s just for you; no other participants. It typically is geared around goals you set for yourself. Do you feel that things are out of control? It seems when one thing falls apart there is a series of other mishaps that keep happening. All of us need help from time to time. It could be a battle against fear and discouragement, struggles at home with discontentment or lack. Or, even an awareness we’re facing a worldwide crisis.
Where do you begin? Begin by identifying the challenge. For example, you may feel fear, stress, or even unhappiness and or dissatisfaction with life. You are ready for a change. When things aren’t working out and doors are closing, it’s time to find God’s promise to cancel the problem. For example, you when challenged with fear, stress and anxiety. A promise to claim and receive is, “God has not given us a spirit of fear but of power, love and a sound mind,” 2 Timothy 1:7. Receive the promise, make a decree by declaring that promise out loud. Everything starts with prayer, and one of the power tools of prayer is our ability to “make a decree”. Making a decree causes the blessings of Heaven to be released from heavenly places into our natural realm. We decree our peace, we decree our health, we decree salvation to our families, our destiny, favor, wisdom, financial abundance and stability, etc. If He said it in His Word, then it’s ours and it’s “decree-able.”
A decree is defined as an official order issued by a legal authority. Naturally speaking, a decision made by order of the court supersedes the desire or opinion of the defendant, whether it’s a fine, a denial of driving privileges, or even a jail sentence. It instructs us saying, “Thou shalt also decree a thing, and it shall be established unto thee: and the light shall shine upon thy ways,” Job 22:28.
We Make the Decree in Faith
When we make a decree, we say it out loud because the spiritual realm must hear it in order to obey it. A decree is not a passive, silent, done-only-in-our-own-minds type of effort. You make the decree, which is the wisdom of God, before the angels, as well as the powers and principalities. “Praise the Lord, you angels, you mighty ones who carry out his plans, listening for each of his commands,” Psalm 103:20. Ephesians 3:10-11, “His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, according to his eternal purpose that he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Your decree sets the spiritual realm in motion, just like God’s Word had originally set creation into motion. By our words we can initiate life or death, and the decrees that we believe and speak aloud will be established Proverbs 18:21, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof,” Proverbs 18:21.
Sometimes we feel like our decrees have failed because things haven’t happened instantly. Just like a plant needs time to grow before it bears fruit, our decrees are released in seed form into the spiritual realm requiring various amounts of time to grow. How do we water the seeds of our decrees? By reminding the spiritual realm of their orders.
Joshua demonstrates this during his battle with the Amorites. Joshua had a promise from God of victory. When an opportunity came to defeat them, he needed more daylight to accomplish it. In the presence of the Lord and in the presence of all Israel, Joshua boldly commands the sun and the moon to stand still and they did (see Joshua 10:12). The Lord listened to the voice of a man. Joshua went on to defeat the Amorites because he was given enough daylight to finish the job. Like Joshua, we can rest assured that our decrees from His Word will be stamped in the court of Heaven as, “Yes and Amen; For all the promises of God in him are yes and amen to the Glory of God,” 2 Corinthians 1:20.
This is the posture we are to take as we seek truth and pray during any challenge, problem or global crisis. All of God’s promises turn any problem into a breakthrough of hope. Our prayers actually are calling heaven to come to earth. When we pray according to His will, His truth, He will use our prayers to establish “His Kingdom on earth,” Matthew 6:10.
In the Bible, when Joshua had grown old, the Lord said to him, “You are now very old, and there are still very large areas of land to be taken over,” Joshua 13:1. His example shows us that age, energy and time are not to interfere with what God wants us to do. We must ask ourselves: What excuses are we making because we’re afraid, it’s not convenient or we’re tired. Name the problem, which is a lie, then find the truth found in God’s Word. “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me,” Philippians 4:13.
Joshua is an example we can follow. He was obedient to change his focus from being too old, to staying the course. His legacy reads: “Now I am about to go the way of all the earth. You know with all your heart and soul that not one of all the good promises the Lord your God gave you has failed. Every promise has been fulfilled; not one has failed,” Joshua 23:14-16.
If we are going to overcome challenges, “Seek first the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness and all things will be added to us,” Matthew 6:33. Follow Joshua’s example of obedience by standing firm in pursing truth found in God’s Word, decreeing the promises and great will be your reward.