Faith Is the Language of Heaven

By Anne Durant

We all have testimonies of different things we’ve gone through. There have been some tremendous tests! But as you probably know, tests come, basically, just to prove what you already know!

In school, they didn’t just pop a test on you on the first day. They taught you first, and you learned things, and then a test was given. You didn’t learn by the test; you learned before the test. The test came to prove what you already knew.

Praise God, you can be prepared for the test! No matter what test comes, you can be prepared to ace it!

But some of us have some cramming to do. I was always a crammer in school. Every test I took, I crammed for it the night before. I’m not proud of this. I don’t recommend it, but that’s just the way I’ve always been. And when God called me into the ministry, I said, “God, why in the world would You call somebody like me?”

And He said (some of you are going to like this), “I know that you’re a crammer. I know you’ve been known to procrastinate at times. But we’re in the last days.” And then He said, “I know you’ll cram till the end.”

I was born in the right time! Praise God! We’re in the last days and we have to finish strong!

Jesus said in John 16:33, “In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” And First John 5:4 says, “For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.” So if you’re born of God, you ought to expect to be an overcomer! Don’t expect to fail the test.

When Jesus prayed for Peter in Luke 22:31 and 32, He said, “Peter, Satan has desired to have you to sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, that your faith fail not.” Jesus prayed that Peter’s faith would not fail! Why? Because faith is the victory that overcomes the world!

If our faith is going to be the victory that overcomes, then we have to know what to do with it because faith without works is dead (James 2:26).

Second Corinthians 4:13 in the New King James Version says, “And since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, ‘I believed and therefore I spoke,’ we also believe and therefore speak.” We believe and therefore speak. Faith comes by hearing (Rom. 10:17), but it is released primarily by speaking. Proverbs 18:21 says, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue.” So guard your mouth. The heart of the wise, the Bible says, teaches his mouth (Prov. 16:23).

One day, I was meditating on some of these things—on confession and on words—and I asked God for more clarity. And this is what came up in my spirit. I heard, “Faith is a language.”

Now think about what language is. Language is part of our culture! It’s how we communicate. As I thought about this, it just came up in my spirit that faith is the language of Heaven! It’s how Heaven talks! And if it’s the language of Heaven, then it’s also part of the culture of Heaven. So if you want the culture of Heaven on the earth, you need to learn how to speak the language of Heaven. They’re not talking about death in Heaven. They’re not talking about aches and pains.

I have studied another language. And I know what happens when you study a language but don’t also immerse yourself in the culture. You get a vocabulary, but you don’t know how to put all the words together to communicate properly.

There are a lot of people who do that with faith. They know the vocabulary, but they can’t communicate the language properly!

You have to get your tenses right when you’re speaking faith! Pretty much everything about faith is present tense! The Bible says, “NOW faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Heb. 11:1).

So start thinking when you’re speaking, Is what I am saying going to take me closer to what I want from God, or further away from it?

You may tell your kids, “Put your coat on. You’ll catch pneumonia.” But you don’t want that! So how about just telling them, “Put your coat on”? Don’t scare them with, “You’ll catch pneumonia.”

Notice what Jesus said in Matthew chapter 12:

MATTHEW 12:36–37

36 But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.

37 For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.

Jesus said that you’ll have to give an account for every idle word. The word idle means “to shun the labor one ought to perform.” So idle words are words that you say without fully thinking. For example, what about those words that we say are “just between us” or “off the record”? There is a record. It says, “You’ll give account.” There is no “off the record.” We ought to make our words work for us!

My husband and I are constantly watching our words. We don’t say things like, “I can’t afford that,” because the Bible says, “He supplies all my need according to His riches in glory” (Phil. 4:19). Now I don’t deny the fact that I may not have enough money for something. But what I say is, “Not right now. I won’t get that just now.”

If I say, “Oh man, I can’t afford that,” I am not giving God anything to work with.

My husband and I work together on our words. If I hear something come out of his mouth that’s not faith, I just say, “What?” I give him a chance to think before he speaks the next time. And he does the same thing for me. If I say something that’s not faith, he’ll say, “What?” and give me an opportunity to dig up that seed and plant another one.

Sometimes we work hard on those words we want to say on purpose, but I want to exhort you to work just as hard on eliminating the other words—the doubt-filled words and the idle words—from your vocabulary.

Faith is a language! And the more you speak it, the more you’ll have the culture of Heaven in your life, in your home, and in your family. I work hard on my words. I’m constantly working on my words because I want what Heaven has and what God has. I want my faith to overcome in this life. And as a result, I’m seeing quicker results with the words I speak on purpose. And I like it. I like living the life of faith. The Bible says, “The just shall live by faith” (Hab. 2:4; Rom. 1:17; Gal. 3:11; Heb. 10:38). So if we live by faith, we ought to be constantly aware of it.

Praise the Lord! Our words work for us when we speak in faith—the language of Heaven!

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The Lord our Peace

//Lynette Hagin

“Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”

—John 14:27

In the world we live in, we desperately need peace. The turmoil around us is mind-boggling. Reports of wars, earthquakes, floods, and every other type of calamity fill the news. It seems that the only things we hear about are tragedies.
Meanwhile, man has more conveniences and luxuries than ever before. Many of them are designed to save time as well as make our lives easier. All we have to do is push a button and things get done!

With all of our modern conveniences, you would think that we would have more time. But despite modern technology, we seem to have less time. And even though we have every possible convenience of the times, there is no peace.

Thank God, our Heavenly Father has provided peace for us! Romans 5:1 says, “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

God loved us so much that He sent His Son to redeem mankind and restore our peace with Him.


Keep Your Focus

When anxious, fearful thoughts bombard our minds, we can cast them down. As we keep our thoughts focused on the right things, God can deliver us and keep us in perfect peace. Here are some things we can do to maintain a peaceful mind:
Refuse to fear.
When a problem strikes, don’t panic. Make your request known to God (Phil. 4:6–7).
Draw upon God’s strength.
Focus on all the good things God has done for you.
Quit pondering the “what-ifs” of life.
As we meditate on God’s promises, we won’t have time to worry, complain, or grow discouraged. We’ll always have a good report—the report of God’s Word.
On the CD You Can Have Peace, Lynette Hagin reads scriptures on peace and comfort over a soothing
musical background. Click here to purchase your copy for $10.
According to John 10:10, Jesus came that we might have life and have it more abundantly.

Of course, we cannot have peace without knowing the Prince of Peace. We must accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior before we can experience true peace.

Sadly, many people today who have accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior don’t have peace. Why? Because they have not accepted Him as their Peace Giver.

I know when things begin to crumble under my feet—and they do crumble sometimes—Jesus is the One I turn to. You see, everything is not going to be a bed of roses just because we become Christians. We’re still going to go through trials and struggles.

In John 16:33, the Lord said, “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” Jesus is telling
us that in this world we will go through rough places and deep valleys, but we’re not to camp in those valleys. We’re to walk through them in peace, knowing that He has overcome the world.

Instead of turning to the Lord for peace, many people today—including some Christians—are turning to drugs and alcohol to help them find peace. But God can carry us through the dark days and troubled times without altering our body chemistry!

Besides, drugs and alcohol can only give us temporary peace. But God can give us permanent peace. In times of anxiety and stress, we must turn to the Lord, because He is our peace! He’s the only One Who can lead us safely through the storms of life!

Keep Your Mind on the Mountain Mover
As long as we’re living on this earth, there will be challenges. But we can still have peace. Sometimes
we get so involved in thinking about our mountain of problems that we forget to keep our minds on the Mountain Mover. When we keep our minds on our Heavenly Father, we won’t worry about troubles in the economy. Everything around us may be spinning, but our confidence will be in God and His Word!

There’s an old song that says, “I trust in God wherever I may be, Upon the land or on the rolling sea, For, come what may, from day to day, My heav’nly Father watches over me.”1

God is watching over us! And His desire is that we live a life of peace, joy, and abundance. As we keep our minds focused on the Lord and lean on Him, the struggles will fade away, the turmoil will cease, and He will give us a peace that nothing else can!