Three words changed history and for all who believe, those three words changed their lives. On the Cross at the darkest hour when all hope looked over and the victory lost, we read:
“So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, ‘It is finished!’ And bowing His head, He gave up His Spirit.”
John 19: 30
Jesus was not saying, “I am finished,” but rather the victory is won, the price has been paid and it is finished, period.” We tend to spend too much time listening to ourselves, our circumstances, the world, and the enemy. It is time to start telling ourselves the report of the Lord. It is time to start building up our spirit man. Smith Wigglesworth said:
“I maintain that with a constant filling, you will speak in tongues morning, noon and night. As you live in the Spirit when you walk down the steps of the house where you live, the devil will have to go before you. You will be more than a conqueror over the devil.”
Think about it and how the devil thought he had won the victory. He had Christ with His body mutilated, dying on a Cross. It appeared that the Lord God had abandoned Him and He was alone at the mercy of the devil. The devil had all his hordes of demons gloating and delighting. Then Jesus declared, “I have finished the plan of the Father, and it is finished. The victory is won!” But it didn’t look like it you may say. In the natural, all looked lost, but in the spirit it was won!
The problem is we live in the natural, moved by the natural, and held captive by what we see, feel, and hear. But we are called to live and walk in the Spirit. Smith explained:
“I see everything a failure except that which is done in the Spirit. But as you live in the Spirit, you will move, act, eat, drink, and do everything to the glory of God. Our message is always this, ‘Be filled with the Spirit.”
Oh, to learn to walk filled and moved by the Holy Spirit and not the world, our flesh, or the devil. Smith added:
“This is God’s place for you, and it is as far above the natural life as the heavens are above the earth. Yield yourselves for God to fill.”
We must learn to hear His voice and watch Him as He speaks His Word to us and gives us His precious promises. Sadly, the Church came to the place where it learned all the laws and methods to receive what they needed, and they stopped learning how to know Him and receive Him. There is something about being received that lifts you and lets you know you carry value to them. We need to learn to receive Him in our lives and not our circumstances and symptoms.
When we take time to receive Him in the Secret Place, He comes and speaks His precious promises to us so that we are lifted and found complete in Christ, that is the Anointed One and His anointing. We come to a place of bold confidence and suddenly our language changes.
Smith explains:
“When one dares to trust God on His bare Word, then peace flows freely, wavering is passed, there is nothing to be done, all is finished and you enter into possessions that cannot come in any other way. So keep the test before you and see the salvation of God.
Jesus was able to face the Cross and at what looked like the darkest hour declare, “It is finished,” because He had got alone in the Garden and surrendered to the will of the Father. He had a promise and knew the Father would not fail His Word. He was focused on the prize and not the Cross. Oh, the devil tried to get Jesus to see the pain, the hurt, the rejection, and the Cross, but Jesus was fixed on the prize. He was pressing through and so at the appointed time, under the anointing declared the words that changed everything, “It is finished.”
But remember this, if you come into the Secret Place of His Presence to learn to speak as He speaks, you must listen to what He says, watch what He does, and capture His heart. Then we hear His Word, and the hearing of His Word produces faith. Faith brings a confession and faith brings an action.
“For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”
Romans 10: 10
“Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.”
James 2: 17
We also know that faith works with and by love.
Smith explained:
“Nothing but love counts, so be full of this all-prevailing charity that knows not fear and is blind to everything but the object of its perfect choice. Christ and Him alone.”
All too often it is our love walk that causes us to stumble and perfect love removes fear so that we stand bold in our confession. Here in all circumstances, we hold fast to our confession and our confession holds us fast.
Smith said:
“The essence of divine life is in us by faith. He that believeth- it will come to pass; we become supernatural by the power of God. If you believe, the power of the enemy cannot stand, for God’s Word is against him. Jesus gives us His Word to make faith effectual. Whatsoever ye desire, if you can believe in your heart you begin to say; whatever you dare to say shall be done. He shall have whatsoever he saith after he believes in his heart (Mark 11: 23, 24). Dare to believe and then dare to speak, for you shall have whatsoever you say if you doubt not.”
When we then dare to believe our mouth confirms and our actions affirms what we have settled in our hearts. Smith said:
Obedience is to believe, then on the fact that you dare to believe, you act.
