God has given you authority over the things in your life just like He gave Adam authority in the Garden of Eden. You have authority over your family and your household. But if you don’t exercise your authority, the devil will come in and take over your garden just like he took over Adam’s garden.

When Ken and I were first born again, we didn’t understand that. We just kept bumping around in the same old ruts we’d been in before we were saved. We stayed just as broke and as sick as everybody else in the world.

Oh, we knew God worked miracles. Ken saw them firsthand when he was working as a co-pilot, flying Oral Roberts to his healing meetings. When they would arrive at the meeting, it was Ken’s job to get the people in the invalid tent ready before Brother Roberts came in to minister to them.

The invalid tent was the place where the people went who were too sick to go into the regular meeting. Most of them were on stretchers or in the last stages of some terminal illness.

Yet, as Brother Roberts laid his hands on those people, Ken saw amazing miracles. One woman spit the cancer up, right in the middle of the floor. A girl, who came in strapped to a board because she was totally paralyzed, jumped straight up when Brother Roberts touched her, and began to run around the tent totally healed.

Ken saw those miracles with his own eyes. But do you know what? They didn’t do anything for our family. It was when we heard that Jesus had already borne our sicknesses and carried our diseases that our personal lives changed.

It was when we saw in the Word of God that we had authority over sickness and began to say so, that we began to get free. When we realized that we weren’t the sick trying to get healed, and the devil was trying to steal our health, we began to take dominion and say, “Devil, get out of here!” And he would flee and take his sickness with him.

Of course, it’s a thrill to see God work miracles. But you can’t live day in, day out on miracles. What will change your life is taking hold of the authority that belongs to you in the Word of God and releasing that authority from your mouth. If you’ll do that, you can keep the devil under your feet where he belongs.

Speak the Word

« All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me by Jesus Christ. »  (Matthew 28:18)