Join Sharon Otts as she passionately unravels the mysteries of the language of God, examining how faith and belief are intrinsically tied to the verbal expressions of the faithful. This episode weaves a narrative from Hebrews and John’s teachings to impart a lesson in spiritual growth and overcoming life’s challenges through faith—a faith that not only believes but also acts and speaks with conviction.
Greetings, friends and new listeners, and welcome to The Sound of Faith. I’m Sharon Otts. Thank you for joining us today because we know faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Today’s message, The Language of God, is a captivating recital of the creative power of God’s spoken Word. We are told in Hebrews 11.3 that the worlds were framed by the Word of God. And in Hebrews 1, 3, we’re told they are upheld by the word of God. In both verses, word in Greek is rhema, which is the spoken word of God. This opens up a vista of revelation from creation to the spirit of faith that believers speak in the language of God. Verse 4. Then called I upon the name of the Lord. O Lord, I beseech you, deliver my soul. Gracious is the Lord and righteous. Yea, our God is merciful. The Lord preserves the simple. I was brought low and he helped me. Return unto your rest, O my soul, for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you. I love verse 8. For you have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, and my feet from falling. I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living. Verse 10. I believed… Therefore have I spoken. So we see now what he was talking about. Paul was referring back to this verse. where David had written about how he was in these severe circumstances, but he called on the Lord. How the Lord delivered him, brought his soul from death and his eyes from tears, his feet from falling. He said, I’m going to walk before the Lord in the land of the living. David said, I am not going to die. Death is all around me, but I’m not going to die. I’m going to walk in the land of the living. Amen? And David said, I believe this, therefore I speak it. In the midst of my trouble, my sorrow, my anguish, I called on God and I believed. In the midst of my tears and my fears, I believed God. And because I believed God, I spoke with my mouth. I opened up my mouth. I said, God, you’re good. God, you’re gracious. God, you’re merciful. And you will deliver me. You will help me so that I’m not going to die. But I’m going to walk in the land of the living. And by Paul quoting this psalm. Paul was saying essentially. David I have the same spirit of faith you have. And actually Paul’s faith we can expect was greater. Because he had the new birth. He had the baptism of the Holy Spirit. He had the anointing. Of God upon him. And in him. Christ in me. He had the four gospels. That record the life and ministry. The miracles. The death and the resurrection. And ascension of Jesus Christ. The son of God. So if David could believe. And speak faith without all of these. Then Paul said. I can believe. I can believe and speak. Amen? And let me tell you this. You can believe and speak. I can believe and speak because we have the same spirit of faith. Did Paul say, what did he say? And we having the same spirit? He didn’t just say, I, Paul, having the same spirit. He said, and we having the same spirit of faith. And in addition to that, we have the living word of God. We have Jesus Christ, the word of God made manifest. We have the anointing of the Holy Spirit. We have the doctrine of the apostles and the miracles and the acts of the apostles. We have all of that in addition to the same spirit of faith. So we can believe and speak. Now I want you to hear the next thing I’m going to say. It is possible to speak the word of God and not believe. But it is impossible to believe and not speak. Let me say that again. It’s possible to speak the word of God, to quote scriptures and not believe. But it is impossible when you believe not to speak. Amen? I mean, they go together. If God believes and speaks and David believed and spoke and Paul believed and spoke, it shows us that when you believe, you’re going to speak. When you have the word of God in you, in your spirit, faith will rise up and you will speak. Amen. It’s not just that you tell yourself to say it. But it rises up in you. And there is a difference. Amen. There’s a difference. And, you know, someone can tell you, well, you know, say this scripture 10 times every morning. And I’m not going to say that’s a bad thing, you know, but that’s not going to get it done. Just because you say it, if you don’t believe it. Amen. And it’s as though you can feel, you can almost like a physical feeling when faith rises up in you because it’s a spirit. Amen. And you feel it. You feel a quickening. Amen. You know, when you fall in love with somebody, you feel the butterflies when you get around them, you know, go way back in the file cabinet back there. How many do remember having those feelings, those butterflies? Amen. And you know, they just happen. You don’t say I’m going to have butterflies. The person comes around and you just feel that butterfly feeling in your stomach. You feel it come up here. Amen. That’s where your spirit is. And so in a way, in a manner of speaking, when that faith rises up in you, you feel it. You feel something come up. I know when I was lying in bed, you know, 18 hours a day with the back situation all those years. And I would put on my cassette on the Bible on cassette. And I would just have it looped so it would just keep going. And I would listen to the four gospels over and over and over. And as I would lie there hearing those. words of jesus his miracles and all the things that he did i literally felt like something was growing inside of me it started way down here but you know it didn’t happen all at once like boom it went up but then i would feel like it had risen somehow and then you know after days and days or whatever i felt like it got up a little higher i’m sure the lord was allowing me to feel that i’m not saying if you don’t feel that that your faith isn’t growing i feel like the lord was doing that to encourage me And like, keep listening, Sharon, keep listening. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Keep hearing, keep listening. And I felt like it was mounting up. That’s one way to put it. Mounting up on the inside of me. Amen. So when you have this spirit of faith in you and you have the word of God in you, it’s going to rise up. And you’re going to start saying, I believe, I believe. Because folks, faith is not only believing. It’s not just believing. It is believing and speaking. And you know, sometimes it’s believing and singing. You can sing your faith too. Amen? I think about when the Israelites were trying to get water. They were desperate for water out there in the wilderness. And the men were a digging and a digging. And the women were a singing and a singing. And they were saying, oh well, oh well, oh water. Rise up, rise up, rise up. They were singing to that well. And they hit water. Amen. Sometimes faith sings. So. We have faith and our faith does extraordinary things. Extraordinary things. Let’s turn to 1 John chapter 5 and read a verse there. 1 John 5, 4. God gave us what we need for every situation we face when he gave us faith. Okay, 1 John 5 and look at verse 4. For whatsoever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith. Whatsoever. We don’t use that so much anymore. We use whatever. Whatever. and we know that when we say what ever or whatsoever in this case it means anything anyone it means whatever whoever it means simply anything or anyone can fall into whatsoever so whatsoever here is whoever is born of God. And we can also say whatever is born of God. So what are we talking about? Well, we all know that all births begin with a seed. Amen? Whether it’s plants or animals or human beings, everything begins Begins with a seed. Every birth. Amen. I tell you that all spiritual births. Also begin with the seed. And that seed. Is the word of God. Throughout all of scripture and all of Jesus’ teaching and the parable of the sower, you will find out that the seed is always the word of God. 1 Peter 1.23 tells us, being born again, not of corruptible seed. That means not human seed that’s corruptible. Amen. but of incorruptible seed by the word of God. So the seed by which we are born again is the word of God. Amen. And John three, six, Jesus said that which is born of the flesh is flesh. And that which is born of the spirit is spirit. So we can clearly see that it’s a spiritual seed. The word of God is, is how we are born again how many believe that and understand that you hear the word of god and you believe it and we’ll see that you confess it and you’re born again the spiritual seed but i want you to understand also that contained in that seed the word of god is also the faith of god whatsoever is born of god overcomes the world Whosoever is born of God overcomes the world. So that means what is the victory that overcomes the world? Faith. Faith is the victory that overcomes the world. And faith is what enables us to overcome and to go on to victory. When we believe the word of God and we hear it, the more that we hear it, the greater our faith is. As I’ve already quoted, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Present tense in the Greek. Faith comes by hearing and hearing and hearing the word of God. You have to continue to hear the word of God. So the more word of God that you hear, the stronger your faith will be. The more spiritual you are, the greater your faith will be because faith is a spirit. Amen. It doesn’t operate in the carnal. In fact, the carnal mind is absolutely opposed to the spirit of faith because the carnal mind relies on the five senses. What I can see, hear, smell, taste, and touch. And they are opposite most of the time of what you are believing God to do. Amen. Amen. So faith is born of the spirit, not of the flesh. So I’m going to read this first John five, four again, and I’m going to make a change for Sharon is born of God. Sharon overcomes the world. And this is the victory that overcomes the world. Even Sharon’s faith. You have to personalize it for yourself. Amen. I know that I have the spirit of faith. That’s what Paul said and I believe it. I have been born again. I have a born again spirit. And that spirit of faith is part of my new birth. And I open my mouth and I speak it when I believe it. Let’s look at Romans 10 and verse 8. You’ll be very familiar with this verse when we get there. You’ll see it right away. Romans 10 and verse 8. But what says it? The word is nigh you, even in your mouth and in your heart. That is the word of faith which we preach. What says it? The word of faith which we preach. Now, notice that Paul said, what says it? What does that tell us? He’s quoting. He’s quoting. He’s quoting the Old Testament, just like that we saw with 2 Corinthians 4.13. He was quoting from Psalm 116. So now he’s quoting again. What says it? What does the word say? He’s saying, what does the written word of God say? And what is he referring to? He’s going back to the book of Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy 30 and verse 14 that says, But the word is nigh unto you in your mouth and in your heart that you may do it. So Paul is saying, what does it say? It’s saying that you have the word of God. It is in your heart. It’s in your mouth. And when you believe it, you speak it and you act on it. Let’s see the proof of it. Verse 9. That if you shall confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and shall believe in your heart. That God raised him from the dead. You shall be saved. For with the heart man believes. For with the heart man believes. For with the heart man believes unto righteousness. And with the mouth confession is made. And with the mouth the man confesses unto salvation. And I want to say right up front that this covers anything and everything you ever need from God. Not only your initial salvation, this is the principle of faith that holds true for everything we receive. Amen? Believe and then confess. You can confess a blue streak in the sky if you don’t believe in your heart first. You’re not going to get it. There was a time when that was the big buzz in Christendom. Confess, confess, confess. And if people did not believe, if they didn’t have the revelation, if they didn’t have the spirit of faith acting and operating and they just confessed and it didn’t happen, you know what? That actually damaged their faith. They were worse off because they’re thinking, but I did. I confessed. I confessed. I confessed every day. I got up and confessed a couple times and I didn’t get it because they did not believe. And they were worse off because they felt like somehow their faith failed or they failed or the confession failed. Amen. And so a lot of people were very discouraged and disillusioned by that. Amen. But like I said earlier, you can speak and not believe. But you cannot believe and not speak. Amen. And this is also why sometimes you’ll see people pray the sinner’s prayer. Right. Say the sinner’s prayer and you don’t see any change. afterwards you don’t see any fruit afterwards they don’t seem any different than they were before they prayed the prayer because they didn’t believe you’ve got to believe in your heart and then confess and the really the tragedy with that is they leave thinking they’re saved because someone said say this prayer with me and now you’re saved if you believe in your heart you are Because if you believe in your heart, you’re going to be changed. And when you’re changed, you’re not going to be the old you. Behold, amen. Oh, if any man be in Christ, he’s a new creation. Old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. So it’s not just getting people to pray a prayer. It’s getting them to believe. Amen. And when we believe, when someone believes, they might not even know how to pray a sinner’s prayer. The Holy Spirit can convict their heart and they don’t know. Here’s what you got to say. They just say, Lord, help me. Lord, save me. Amen. Amen. Like my dad’s testimony, he said when the Spirit of the Lord came to him sitting in the living room all by himself at midnight, and he heard something in his spirit say, Son, why don’t you repent? He said, I’m not sure what it means, but I repent. Amen? You have to believe. You must believe. And it’s the only way that it’s going to happen. So I’ve already quoted Romans 10, 17. So then faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. I’ve already told you that comes is present tense. It means keeps on coming. Keeps on coming. Faith keeps on coming. I love that God gives us the initial measure, but it keeps on coming when I keep on hearing. Amen. It keeps on coming when I keep on hearing and hearing the Word of God. Amen? So then faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. You know that by there, by, that little preposition that, you know, who cares about a little preposition by? Well, I do. Let me tell you why. Because in the Greek, it’s the word ek, E-K. We bring it over into the English as exe. You see that sign there? It says exit. It means out of it. Out of it you go. You go out of it. Amen? So now bring it into this verse. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Faith comes out of it. out of hearing the word of god amen and let me tell you this i can’t uh forget about this little nugget in this particular verse romans 10 17 faith comes by hearing the word of god word is rhema rhema spoken word of god of course it’s rhema why wouldn’t it be we’re hearing it that’s why you need to come to church and hear the word of god in addition to your own reading the word of god in your own devotional and study time you need to hear the word of god amen because the hearing of the word of god god built it that way he made it that way so that when you hear it it generates faith why because within the word of god is god’s own faith the faith by which he created everything he put his own faith in there And I so much want to go to this, an example of Jesus, but I don’t have enough time to develop it, so I won’t go there. But I’ll just give you a little tiny clue that there was a place where Jesus said to the disciples, have the faith of God. And it was a tremendous lesson on speaking faith. Have the faith of God. In other words, have God’s kind of faith. Amen. And it comes by hearing the word of God. So faith is the language of God. God believed his own word when he said light be. He believed it would happen and it did. And when you hear it, that faith comes. That’s why I’m here this morning preaching this so that you can hear it, so that you can believe it, so that you can speak it. And if you think you’ve told me so much stuff, my brain is going round and round and I can’t remember half of it, which I understand because I spent hours putting this together and I’m giving it to you in an hour or less. Well, you can always get the CD and keep hearing it and hearing it and hearing it. So we’ve got to continually hear the word of God and we’ve got to continue to speak God’s word over our lives. We do it when we pray, when we pray faithful prayers. When you pray prayers where you go through the whole history of every bad thing that’s happened to you, you can get up and feel worse afterwards than when you started. How many understand what I just said? You know, it’s okay. You’ve got to be specific in your request. And you have to tell the Lord exactly what you’re requesting. So you have to give him the gist of what you’re requesting and be specific. But when you go on and on about how it made you feel and how you feel right now and you don’t know about this and that, you actually pray doubt. And you can feel worse afterwards. So we continue to speak God’s word over our lives when we pray. When we sing songs with good words in them. Amen. With good words in them. Amen. What an engaging word of the Lord, the language of God. God had so much faith in his own word that he literally spoke the worlds into creation, according to Hebrews 11, 3. And all these millennia later, every one of them remain exactly where he put them by that same spoken word. Hebrews 1, 3 says they are upheld by his spoken word. The Greek word rhema has had much attention in Christian teaching, but some have been disappointed. They spoke what they thought was faith, but did not see the desired results. Everyone who has received the spirit of faith will believe and will speak. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 4.13, I believe and therefore I have spoken. It is possible to speak the word of God and not believe, but it is impossible to believe and not speak. This is the law of faith. When it believes God’s word, it speaks. And God’s word is alive and active, creative and powerful. When God says something, it will come to pass if it only requires his faith in his own word. But when it comes to his promises in his word to us, it requires that we also have faith in his word. God requires that we also believe faith is the supernatural language of God that he imparts to us through his word. Within the seed of his word is his faith, and his faith speaks. When we have it, we also speak. And we profess, Paul said in Hebrews, we say the same thing that God said in his word. The Language of God can be ordered on CD for a love gift of $10 or more for the radio ministry. Request SK214. Mail to Sound of Faith, P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203. Or go online to soundoffaith.org to order on CD or MP3s. But to order by mail, send your minimum love gift of $10 to P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203. Request SK214. If you’re able to, please tuck in an extra love gift to help us to continue Sound of Faith Ministries during these unprecedented difficult times of COVID-19 and the unrest in our nation. We would really appreciate your support. We are now live streaming Sunday mornings at 11 o’clock on YouTube. Go to Sound of Faith Ministries. Till next time, this is Sharon Knott saying, Maranatha.
