STEWARDING THE WORD

[Albert Finch]

When it comes to receiving a spoken prophetic word over your life -- don't let it fall in barren soil. We have to cultivate our hearts so that the word produces the expected fruit in our life just as you would care for natural ground that you've placed a demand of harvest on. The ground must be prepared, watched over and watered.

STEPS ON HOW TO WATCH OVER THE WORD

1. Position yourself to receive.
Hunger often attracts the word to your life. Of course there are times that the Lord will speak when you're not looking for it, but there is just something about hunger and desperation that gets Heaven's attention. Blind Bartimaeus stopped Jesus in His tracks because he was desperate and positioned to receive.

Have a heart full of expectation and desire for God's will on your life. Pray for and trust in His direction!

"Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths. Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the Lord, and depart from evil. It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones." Proverbs 3:5-8

2. Catch the word.
Wnen you receive a word to get it on paper as quickly as possible. Writing a word down is the first step in us taking ownership of our part of it.

"And the Lord answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry." Habakkuk 2:2-4

3. Watch over the word.
When you receive a prophetic word, it is important that you are faithful to steward that word. Pray about it, read it, repeat it, and embed the word in your spirit! You must partner with the word over your life! The Greek word "rhēma" is used in Ephesians 6:17 and calls it the sword of the Spirit (the word made real to your spirit)! When the enemy comes at you to bring doubt and hinder destiny on your life it is with this rhēma that you combat the devil! When the devil tells you that you will not, and cannot – remind him what the word says. Affirm out loud and meditate frequently on the rhēma spoken over your life!

"And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God." - Ephesians 6:17

4. Take action on the word.
"For everyone who asks receives [lambano], and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened." - Luke 11:10

The Greek word "Lambano" is an active aggressive verb which indicates receiving INTO ACTION or taking possession through ACTION.

Perhaps you were led to believe that you should ask of God and then wait for the answer to fall on you at the right time, as if you were expecting Him to throw a glass of water at you, if He felt like it. However, this Scripture says that everyone who asks MUST TAKE ACTION to receive it. Everyone who asks must "lambano" the answer from God, who is not only willing now but is also waiting for us to do so.

5. Trust in the timing of the word.
Do not despise a season of training as God will use it to establish you for where you are going. Be careful to not allow what you may think is a delay to get you discouraged and give up on what the Lord has spoken over you. Trust the Lord and in the timing of His word. He is faithful that spoke over you and is not slack concerning His promise!

"So shall My word be that goeth forth out of My mouth: it shall not return unto Me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it." - Isaiah 55:11

Be like the faithful farmer – tilling, cultivating and watering what has been planted. Watch it grow in you and enjoy the harvest of seeing it come to pass!

ALBERT FINCH MINISTRY