The Bible says, “When men say, ‘Lo, there is the kingdom of God,’ don’t go after them. For the kingdom of God isn’t here or there. Behold, the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21, author’s paraphrase). By the indwelling of the Spirit of God, the kingdom of God is within you, and the very Word of God becomes your thought life. The Spirit of God becomes the anointing—the life of God in you.

I was in a situation some years ago where I was terribly hurt by others. God took that hurt and changed it into a new thrust of ministry, making something beautiful out of the ashes of my life, according to His Word (Isaiah 61:3). But when I returned a year later to the town where the offense had occurred, I started saying things, making remarks about people who hadn’t come to mind since God purged me from the hurt months before. I was losing my peace and joy. Then I realized that I was resurrecting the pain of the situation. I had to control my tongue or else I’d end up speaking words that would revive the entire situation. I knelt down and repented of my words and attitudes. Then I began to confess what God had done for me—how He had purified me from that failure—and my perception of my life began to change.

I was creating an atmosphere absent from God by saying what I wanted to say according to emotions, feelings, ego, jealousies, hurt and old attitudes. Speaking in obedience to God’s thoughts, instead of my own thoughts, changed the situation and restored me to my position of victory.

When God says in His Word that He inhabits the praises of His people (Psalm 22:3), He means that literally. When our hearts overflow with gratitude and thanks to God, we praise Him and fill the air with words and songs, thereby creating an atmosphere in which God’s presence is experienced.

Get your heart changed; then let the new words of life flow from you. Negative people will shun you, and positive people will begin to be your friends. They’ll bring more positives into your life.

If everyone in the world today repented, received the Spirit of Christ and began to speak only Spirit-inspired words, our world would change. We would have heaven right here on earth. That’s what heaven will be like.

Do you have a need, or does someone you know have a problem? Then pray about what to say, and then say it with the authority of Jesus. Let the Holy Spirit bring healing into your life through speaking the words of Jesus. Jesus gave you the authority to speak His words. You are His mouth, His eyes, His hands, His ears. You are the Body of Christ here on earth. Regardless of who is in need, if the Lord
gives you a healing word to speak, then speak it in Christ’s stead.

Speak words of faith, not fear, and see what God will do!

Live victoriously by being purified from failure, confessing Christ and speaking God’s Word. Invest in the study of God’s Word and prayer to prepare yourself for your next change or crisis. When you change your heart and change your words, you will change your world.

You may fail from time to time, but if you’ll take these principles to heart and never quit, you will become a winner!

God is the author of your success. Trust Him. Be free in Him. Live free.

Winners are not those who never fail, but those who never quit.

Kenneth Copeland Ministries

Every word we speak is actually a creative word. We create frivolity. We create sobriety. We create strife. We create ease. Our world is constructed by our words, as we saw in Proverbs. Words are potent. They create hurt or health. They create blessing or cursing.

We can speak words of our own and create problems, or speak God’s words and create solutions.

We can speak our words and create a hell, or speak God’s words and create a heaven.

Jesus said, “It is the thoughtlife that pollutes. For from within, out of men’s hearts, come evil thoughts of lust, theft, murder, adultery, wanting what belongs to others [covetousness], wickedness, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, pride, and all other folly. All these vile things come from within; they are what pollute [people] and make [them] unfit for God” (Mark 7:20-23, TLB).

As men speak words of lewdness, deceit, war and animosity, they create the world in which these things exist. The secular world as it exists today was re-created by men whose hearts were apart from the Spirit of God. These men were subject to satanic influence, so when they spoke what was in their hearts, Satan’s influence permeated the world. Look at the newspaper. What we see around us is not the
world as God created it but the result of man’s influence by the words he speaks.

Your words come from your heart.

Whatever is in a person’s heart, whatever is in the thought life, will come out in words. No wonder God says He will call every person to account for every “idle word” spoken (Matthew 12:36).

When the Spirit of Christ is in us, God gives us His thought life through His Word. Reading God’s Word is not a contest for time or length. It is taking in the very life of God through His Word. God gives us the “mind of Christ” in and through the Word of God.

As we begin to think God’s thoughts, we will begin to speak God’s words. As we speak God’s words, our world is re-created. It is heavenly! The ingredients of heaven are love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance. These are also known as the “fruit of the Spirit” (Galatians 5:22-23). These “fruit” within you come out through your words and are reflected in your world.

Kenneth Copeland Ministries

When Jesus Christ walked the earth, He demonstrated the creative power of speaking God’s words. The disciples were at sea with Him once when a fierce storm arose. Panic struck. In their terror, the disciples were thrust into a world charged with fear. They were living at the moment in anxiety, tension, stress and impending tragedy. When they woke Jesus—Who was sleeping peacefully—to tell Him of
the peril, He stepped onto the bow of the boat and spoke a creative word to the storm: “Peace, be still” (Mark 4:39). When Jesus spoke it, the Holy Spirit accomplished it, and there was peace.

Jesus went to a house where a young woman lay dead. He told all the mourners to leave, and He said to the young lady, “Arise” (Mark 5:41). At that moment, life arose where there had been lifelessness. Where there had been the pallor of death, the radiant face of a living soul emerged. His word created life.

To another person Jesus said, “Arise, go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole” (Luke 17:19). Jesus spoke, and the Spirit brought each of these things into existence.

Jesus had the Spirit of God without measure (John 3:34). We have God’s Spirit with measure. When we “die to the flesh” and allow more of the Spirit to indwell us, we have a greater measure of God’s Spirit, but none of us experiences God’s Spirit without measure as Jesus did. When Jesus spoke, He spoke by the power of the limitless Holy Spirit within Him. He said and did everything God wanted Him to say and do, and it was always by the power of the Holy Spirit. He lived in total dependence upon the Spirit.

But Jesus said a peculiar thing. He said, “Greater works than these shall he [you] do; because I go unto my Father” (John 14:12).

Peter understood this delegation of power rather quickly. Days after Jesus had ascended into heaven, Peter went to the temple at the hour of prayer. There he saw a lame man begging, expecting to receive something. Peter said, “Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk” (Acts 3:6).

Using the Name of Jesus, Peter reached out his hand to the beggar and helped him to his feet. And as the Spirit of God confirmed the word which Peter spoke using Jesus’ authority, the man leapt to his feet and began walking and jumping. His legs, lame since birth, were suddenly filled with strength and life.

Kenneth Copeland Ministries

“Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.” — Proverbs 18:21

God, Creator of the universe, created people to reflect His image. As the reflection of the Creator, all people have His creative power. When we put God’s Word in our mouths and speak His words, those words release creative power into our circumstances that enables us to maintain a high level of Christian living.

It is important that we understand the significance of being made in God’s image. One of the differences between us and animals is that though animals can procreate, they have no creative power. Man has a certain measure of God’s creative power. Science cannot create, it can only discover what was already created. Researchers discovered the law of gravity and that the world was round. But their discoveries only revealed what originated from God.

Man has the ability to produce beyond the physical senses because of the image in which we were created. Man’s creative power is in the image of God’s. In other words, just as God released His creative power through words, He has given us the same ability to create through the words we speak. God spoke a word, and the worlds which did not exist suddenly existed (Hebrews 11:3; Romans 4:17). Likewise, man is able to influence the outcome of his life with the words he speaks. Proverbs 18:21 says, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.”

A man can see a vacant lot and think, What a great place for an apartment building. He can think about the apartments and everything it would take to build them and run them, yet still that lot will be vacant. But when he turns to a business partner and says, “We can build apartments there,” he begins creating something that did not exist. Once he speaks it, he commits himself to the idea, and
together they begin exploring its merits. All the creative force starts with his words.

Kenneth Copeland Ministries

When the revelation of this statement exploded on the inside of me, it changed the way I think…about everything! I had been praying for several days about a situation that seemed at the time to be overwhelming. I had been confessing the Word of God over it, but that Word had begun to come out of my head and not my heart. I was pushing in my flesh for the circumstance to change. As I made my
confession one more time, the Spirit of God seemed to say to me, Why don’t you be quiet?!

I said, “But Lord, I’m confessing the Word!”

He answered inside me, I know it. I heard you. Now just be still and be quiet a little while, and let the Word of God settle down in your spirit. Quit trying to make this thing happen. You’re not God. You’re not going to be the one to make it happen anyway!

So I stopped. I stopped thinking about that situation and began to get quiet before the Lord. And this phrase came up in my spirit: “One word from God can change anything.”

So I started saying that. I said it off and on all day. It came easily because it came from God—not from my own thinking.

Every time I was tempted to worry or think of ideas concerning my circumstances, I’d think, Yes, but one word from God…

I noticed when I’d say that, the peace of God would come on me. It was so calming. As a result, a habit developed in me. People would bring me issues. They’d say, “Well, what about…” And I’d either say aloud or think to myself, “Yeah, that may be so, but one word from God will change anything.”

It began to be the answer for everything. If I was watching television and the newscaster was telling about a disaster, and the people being interviewed were saying things to the effect of “Oh, what are we going to do? It’s all been blown away, burned up or shook up…,” I’d say, “Yeah, but one word from God can change anything.”

You’ve been searching, seeking help…and God has the answer. He has the one word that can turn your circumstance around and put you on dry ground. He has the one word that gives you all the wisdom that’s in Him. He is your Counselor. He wants you to succeed in all that you do. He wants you to be prosperous and have good success (Joshua 1:8).

God loves you. And He has a word for you. One word that can change your life FOREVER!

Kenneth Copeland Ministries