“With”

We are beginning to learn something about the way oneness operates. When we take it out of the realm of struggling and contending for a relationship, then our oneness becomes functional. We have the idea that oneness must be a smooth, gentle relationship with one another, but nothing could be further from the truth—especially if we look at the oneness which exists between the Lord and us. At no time does our oneness with the Lord mean anything less than stimulating challenge and engrossing discipline.

As the issue of oneness presents itself, one principle looms out as the key to our effectively functioning as one. That principle has to do with the relative emphasis between dedication and submission. We have never been able to define love, and in our thinking it has been a very general concept. Real love has an element of submission in it, but it has an even greater element of dedication. Your dedication to the whole vision and purpose and revelation which God gives you must be greater than your submission to it. This one point—the difference between your dedication and your submission—will determine the difference in whether or not you are effective in what the Lord sets before you.

You no doubt have learned a great many things from the struggles and battles you faced in your walk with God; but you must realize that no matter how many things you have learned, if you have not learned the one thing God is trying to teach you, you have missed the point of all He is doing. And you will never move in real, aggressive faith until you grasp this one principle: your dedication must exceed your submission. Until you walk according to this truth, there will be an element of sickening unbelief in your heart, and a constant revulsion to it. Yet it can all be eliminated, not by just rebuking unbelief and aimlessly wandering in your problem, but by reaching in for a determined dedication to the will of God.

Your faith must have a focus, but so must your love. Probably the one thing which causes the effectiveness of a marriage relationship to die quicker than anything else is the fact that, even though the couple love each other very much, their love does not have a focus. And love will not have a focus until there is a determined dedication—until you find out what you are to be doing, what you are to believe and give yourselves for, how you will live, what kind of a life-style you will have. Will you simply endure doing the will of God and be miserable, or will you be happy doing it? All of your general attitudes must be determined by your dedications—a determined dedication which must be greater than your submission to each other.

This principle will not work until we break the human bond in a relationship. We have talked about our bonds with one another, but we can also become bonded to certain concepts and ways of functioning in a relationship without even realizing it. Then we find that we are not really in the yoke together (Matthew 11:29). We find that one is always trying to pull the other one out of a hole. This could easily be eliminated by facing one simple question, and facing it realistically, once and for all: What is our dedication?

Faith must have a focus. It is not enough to say, “I believe God.” You believe Him for what? True love also must have a focus; it is a determined focus. It is a bond of oneness, not a bond of domination or submission to each other. The greatest strength and evidence of real love comes when you are more focused in your dedication to each other than you are submissive to each other. Submission is a great thing, and we do submit one to another in the Lord (Ephesians 5:21); it has to go all down the line from the greatest to the least. Submission cements us together and makes the Body function. But for what purpose? Many societies and many families are structured so that there is a certain amount of submission in them, but everyone is aware that somewhere their submission is not developing the unit. It is not enough for the wife to say, “You are the husband and the father. I will love you and serve you. What can I do?” That type of love is aimless. The motivation must be more than submission; that love must take on a focus and a determination.

This is what each church and each individual is facing. The people love the Word and they are being submissive; but they grow only when there is a determination to their dedication: “We are hearing the Word and we will do it.” A lack of this determination results in a struggle in which you do not have the decisive victories. You constantly feel that you should be doing one thing or another; and you live with an outraged conscience because the thing you should do is not being done. However, that struggle will end when you have a determined dedication to the one basic purpose of your life. You are not just living for the Lord or working for the Lord; God never wanted that. Paul expressed it exactly when he said, “We are laborers together with God. We are working with Him” (I Corinthians 3:9). This is the dedication you must have. You must be dedicated to live with God, to work with Him.

This dedication is what makes a marriage work. The husband does not live for his wife, and neither does the wife live for her husband. The husband does not work for the Lord, and neither does the wife work for the Lord. Instead, they work with each other, and together, they work with the Lord.

At no time should we yield to the passivity which would make us withdraw from this dedication, because this is what our life is all about. This is the purpose and function of our life—to be dedicated to live with God, to enjoy Him, to communicate with Him. God is the One who wanted us to be mature in the first place. Everything He did through Jesus Christ was done so that we would no longer be children, tossed to and fro (Ephesians 4:14). And we will be tossed to and fro, by every wind that blows, until we reach the place where it does not matter to us what happens to us or whether those who withstand us succeed in totally destroying us. In spite of the forces that are set against us, we will live this life which God has set before us to live, and live it with joy.

Romans 14:17 says, “For the Kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and joy, and peace in the Holy Spirit.” This is the way we will live. This is the goal we must have for our marriages, and we will not settle for anything less. No matter how idealistically marriage has been presented in the past, the idea for living for each other is a lower level than what God intended for marriage. It is the same as when the religious world says, “Oh, we just live for Jesus. We work for Jesus.” If that is the best you can do, fine. But the Lord never wanted that. He wants to work with you, with signs following (Mark 16:20).

The disciples in the New Testament were effective because the Lord worked with them, with signs following. But for their part, they were aggressively setting about with a determined dedication to fulfill their life in the Word. There was an element of faith, and their faith had a focus. Their love also had a focus. Their relationship to the Lord and to one another had a focus. They were chided in the Scriptures if they lost that focus and divided up into factions, being for Cephas, or Paul, or Apollos (I Corinthians 1:12–13).

Dedication must exceed submission. This principle is the key to effectiveness. I realize the my life will be more effective than it has been if I have this determined dedication to fulfill what God wants me to do, and if I am equally determined that no one’s submission to me shall be greater than his dedication to walk with me. Submission is a pointless relationship if that submission is not as unto the Lord, to fulfill the determined dedication which you have to the Lord (Ephesians 5:22; 6:5–6).

In the past we have tried to express this in different ways. We have said, “In every relationship you must put the Lord first.” But looking back, we see that this principle is a little more sophisticated than that. When we look back at marriages which have failed and relationships which fell apart, we can clearly identify the basic cause—a difference in dedication. How can two walk together except they be agreed? (Amos 3:3)

Paul was speaking about this when he said, “Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers” (II Corinthians 6:14). How can a woman be married to a man and give him submission when he violates everything to which she is dedicated? Sooner or later she must reach the place where her dedication to the Lord and to the Word of God is greater than her submission to that man. This does not give an excuse for independence, but it does give the basis for the initiative of faith which everyone must have. That woman is not just to crawl in the shadow of her husband; instead, by the grace of God, she herself is to be the person God ordained—the miracle, the creative fulfillment of God in the earth. This will happen if her dedication is great enough that it exceeds her submission. If it does not, then her submission may diminish the effectiveness of her whole living.

We must see this truth more clearly in all of our relationships. One of the basic areas to which this applies is the way a pastor serves a church. He may be so insistent on submission that after a while he has everyone beaten into line, but for what purpose? The people are frustrated because they do not have a determined dedication in their lives, that they can fulfill the will of God. In their submission to the leader, they become wanderers, when they could all be effective and focused in on the will of God.

We are concerned about seeing the world change, and we are constantly concerned about authority. But authority remains only a word, and the reality of it is never manifested until that determined dedication focuses faith and love right into the situation, into the relationship, into the projects and the goals, and sweeps the obstacles out of the way. In the process of our government there is a great deal of authority in the law. But just to say that there is authority in the law is not enough. Only when the warrants are issued and the system begins to work do you become aware of the authority. In the government of the Kingdom of God, there is also a great deal of authority. But because we have not received the proper emphasis in our hearts, authority is remaining unexercised in the churches, and in our personal lives as well. The whole Kingdom will come forth more speedily when the faith in the Word, the faith in God, and the faith for each other all change—when the faith for each other becomes faith with each other, and we all begin to pull together, determined and focused together.

As a result of this truth which the Lord is revealing, many things we have been seeking will happen very quickly. You should become thoroughly frustrated and furious when you see that things are not being moved. In the past, someone could intercede for you, but now he must intercede with you. The dedication must be this: “I am going to fulfill the will of God by working with God and with my brother, by working in oneness.”

Oneness does not mean that one works for another. The minute you work for another, your work is relegated to being a task which eventually will become irksome and unrewarding. This can be nailed down exactly. Consider a mother who just works for her children, feeding them and taking care of them out of a sense of duty and responsibility. She loves them and she is submissive; she is not rebelling against the relationship or what it requires. But she will be much more efficient in what she does when she says, “This is the determined dedication that I have for these children. I’m going to get them to work with me, and I’m going to work with them; and as a result, we will be an unbeatable combination.” And that is what will happen. The same applies to her relationship with her husband. She does not just serve him to work for him. How often a wife has said, “I will not have a life of my own; instead, I will just live for my husband and my family.” That may be a wonderful level of submission and service; but what happens when she gets older and the children are grown? Then the great frustration comes. She has lived most of her life for her children, and now she no longer feels needed or productive; her child-bearing years are past. This is probably more the cause of the difficulty women in the United States have with menopause than are the actual physical changes which take place. In other countries this time in life does not seem to be so much of a problem, because in other societies the different relationships people are to have throughout life are more or less determined; and as they grow older, they do not feel threatened. However, in the United States, when a person retires it is almost as if society says to him, “You’re useless. All that you know and everything you can do is gone now because you can’t serve anymore.”

If you work for someone and serve that person, eventually it will lead to a frustration. In some way you must share the load together. Both of you must be in the yoke together so that you are working with that person, and you are not frustrated because you are trying to work with him when he is not working with you in it. You must work with yourself also. You must relate yourself to the Lord properly. The whole concept can be expressed in a choice between two little words: Is it for or is it with?

This principle will change our lives. It will end our being flustered—embarrassed, constantly agitated, and unfulfilled—because we do not know what we are dedicated to. People often feel that they have arrived at the pinnacle of dedication when they say to an apostolic ministry, “I want to be submissive to you. I want to submit my life to you.” However, we will come to something much greater than that. We will say, “I am dedicated to flow with you. I am determined, faithful, and submissive, but I am flowing with you. I will not serve you just so that your goal in life and your dedication will be fulfilled; instead, I will work with you to see the Word fulfilled in you. And I know that your dedication is the same: to see the Word of God fulfilled in me.” And so we begin to work with the Word, with God, with one another—determined and faithful. No one is lost in this. Each one will be everything he possibly can be as an individual, and yet that will not take away from the fact that we are one. Working with someone expresses the only true oneness there is. You are still too independent in a relationship when you work for the other person, or when you are under him in a submission to him and that is all.

We are learning a very effective truth in this. We turn our hearts away from submission that does not have a greater determined dedication above it. When you do not have this determined dedication, you leave the door open to unbelief; you nullify your faith. Your faith gives way to futility when there is no determined dedication to give it a focus. When faith does not have a focus, it is swallowed up in futility, because it is a pointless, unexercised force or energy in the world. Yet when linked with the Word of God in a determined application which He sets before you, faith is the only effective power there is in the world. Unless you have a focused faith, futility reigns in the spirit; and that is the breeding ground for doubts and fears, for moods and frustrations. A man who would overcome his moods needs to abandon any feeling that he has attained something in God just because there is a kind of submission in him. A passive submission is like a passive faith, or a passive love. It breeds futility and frustration. Ours is always to be an active, aggressive submission.

Open your heart to this truth. Search your heart to see where unbelief has come from, and why. Say to the Lord, “Be it done unto me according to Thy Word (Luke 1:38). I am submissive to You, Lord. But I am not submissive just to stand back; I am submissive with that aggressive submission.”

A general is obedient to his country, but his dedication is greater than any other consideration. When he goes about to win a war and save his country, everything else is laid on the line. There is nothing passive about his submission; and there is nothing in his dedication that he does not apply every day, every hour, with every ounce of energy. That is the way of living which is rewarding and sustaining. That determined dedication is what holds you up.

This is such an important principle that by it the churches and the homes—the Kingdom of God everywhere—are brought right back to the basic issue, which we have never really faced as we should: “Seek first the Kingdom of God, and His righteousness” (Matthew 6:33). The whole of the Sermon on the Mount teaches us that we dare not have a small interpretation of a Word from God. Christ was always comparing the old Law with the Kingdom level by saying, “It was said in old times, but now I say unto you … Now there is something deeper. See it deeper!” (Matthew 5:21–22, 27–28, 31–34, 38–39, 43–44.)

The Kingdom of God requires that we give it priority; His righteousness requires that we give it priority—not just a lip service. It is too easy for us to miss the whole effectiveness of the Kingdom, to miss its dominating, prevailing quality, to miss the fact that it can grind to powder the cultures of the earth and, like the rock cut out of the mountain, fill the whole earth itself (Daniel 2:34, 44–45). And it will not do that in the earth until it does that first in our own heart. Therefore, we come back to this: We love the Lord with all of our heart, our soul, our mind and our strength (Deuteronomy 6:4–5; Mark 12:28–34). With everything we are—our strength, our physical person, our mind—we are not just giving a token. We are focused; we are determined in our dedication.

We must lay hold of this truth. This is the way we must live. There should be a time of consecration, almost like the old-fashioned altar calls, where the people come before the Lord and say, “If I have had problems, if I have listened to the critics and those who are filled with rebellion and unbelief, God forgive me. I have had a Word from the Lord, and I am going to fulfill it.” Once again, it comes right back to the fact that this is a war over the Word. We have accepted the Word, but that determined focus, that determined dedication is yet missing which says, “I set my eye upon the Word. I have set the Lord always before me” (Psalm 16:8).

At the beginning of this walk with God there was a very real problem. People did not really hear the Word; and so at each service, they had to listen and be convinced all over again. Each time they were blessed by hearing it, but there was never that decisive, determined, clear-cut bowing to the Word and saying, “I submit to it, but I do more than submit to it passively. I will walk with a determination and a dedication, in God, greater than anything I have ever known before.”

How should we implement this Word? I think we need to do some repenting, because the dry rot of sensitivity, of unbelief, of being offended has gone through homes and through the Body for years. It has existed to such an extent that we have come to say, “We can’t expect the machine to run very well because it is full of rust.” Let’s get rid of the rust! Let’s get the machine oiled up and running smoothly. How will we do that? By listening to the Word and being dedicated to it, and by being dedicated to walking with one another.

The destruction of position was designed by the Lord, not to create an anarchy in the Kingdom, but to create an order in the Kingdom. As long as position prevailed, people were working for someone else. Position had to be eliminated so that people were working with one another. When that happened, commissions were suddenly exalted because people realized, “I see the commission my brother has, and he sees the commission I have. But most important, each of us sees our own commission, and we determine that we will believe God together.” In that is the oneness. That is what oneness is all about. Position was not destroyed to create spiritual anarchy; position was destroyed so that by virtue of our submission and our dedication to the commissions and to the Words over us, we would have the oneness. We would see order come in the Kingdom.

You may wonder, “How has this worked?” It is amazing that the more we relinquish the idea of position, the freer everyone is becoming; but it is taking a while for us to drop the old conditioning in our thinking. Sometimes the families and the marriages are most difficult to change, because they have developed certain ways of working. The woman says, “I have to give this much,” or the man says, “I have to give in this much”; and so it becomes a contest for control, when their objective should be a determination to work with each other in oneness. When we lay hold of this determination to work with one another, it somehow eliminates one being the big leader and the other being the follower. To every disciple to whom Jesus said, “Come follow Me,” He also voiced, “I will make you a fisher of men” (Matthew 4:19; Mark 1:17). You are called, not to be one of the herd that trails after the Shepherd; you are called to have the same heart the Shepherd has. Paul wrote to the Philippians, “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ” (Philippians 2:5). To Timothy he said, “You have seen and heard these things to be in me. Now you commit them to faithful men” (II Timothy 2:2; Philippians 4:9).

It is not enough that you see the vision and say to a brother, “I accept you as an apostle; I accept you as a mighty prophet of God.” God has never been really concerned about that. He is concerned about the way people receive the Word of that apostle or that prophet (I Thessalonians 2:13). He is not even concerned about His apostles and prophets having any status. In New Testament times they suffered great persecutions, but it was never to exalt them; it was for the Word’s sake (I Corinthians 9:23). They were determined; they were dedicated. They did not deliberately choose to experience hardships and hunger, to be beaten and stoned and scourged and put in prison (II Corinthians 6:4–10). Deliberately choosing that would be a fool’s choice. But they had no choice. Their determined dedication gave them no choice.

I have continually exhorted people not to be sensitive to criticism or opposition; yet on occasion I have been guilty of it myself. I would put my hand to a task, and then when a little opposition or criticism came, I found that in my spirit I flinched. There was a little bit of conditioning left. That cannot be. Sensitivity toward God is good. The heart of a dove is to be greatly esteemed, if you also have the hide of a rhinoceros—if you can say like Paul, “None of these things, not even the threat of death, move me” (Acts 20:24). There is a determined dedication, a focused faith, which turns the world upside down (Acts 17:6).

This is the beginning of the manifestation of the sons of God (Romans 8:19). Position goes because we are not serving to work for God or work for one another; we are working with God and working with one another. And that happens only when we have a determined dedication to the Word over us, to the Word over our brother, to the Word over the church, to the Word over the earth, to the Word over the Kingdom—a dedication to all of the great Living Word that is coming. We must have a determined dedication to see the Word fulfilled in the earth; otherwise, another generation will arise to bring it forth because we, in the lack of a focused faith, became frustrated by futility and left the door of unbelief standing open.

When the multitudes asked Jesus, “What shall we do to work the works of God?” He replied, “This is the work of God, that you believe on Him whom He has sent” (John 6:28–29). This is what it is all about. It does not mean that you just passively accept, “Yes, I believe in a greater power; I want to be submissive to God.” That can be the most pointless, fruitless life there is, unless that submission is linked with a determined dedication to take the Word and walk in it.

The children of this world are sometimes wiser in their own generation than the children of light (Luke 16:8). They turn away from religion, because they see that religion has produced submissive little patsies, gutless wonders who never fulfill the destiny God has for them. They feel that religion has ripped out the guts which make a man tick; and probably they are right.

We cannot embrace a passive religion and, because of some kind of submission or fear, find that we lose our identity when that is what God is trying to bring to us. He wants us to find out what He had for us before the foundation of the world (Matthew 25:34). Perhaps some of the greatest missionary work ever to come forth came through the efforts of people who believed in predestination. They called themselves the “elect of God” (Colossians 3:12). They had a determined faith that there were works which God had before ordained for them to walk in, and so they set about to do just that. Again and again we come back to Ephesians 2:8–10: For by grace are ye saved through faith … not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. There is nothing greater than that. He has a perfect plan for your life.

Do you pray that the Lord’s will be done? Do more than pray about it. Have a determined focus and dedication to see it done—in the whole earth. Do not just have a selfish, ambitious drive to see it done in yourself. You are not working for yourself or for God or for the church or for someone else. You work with yourself, with God, with one another. This is the divine order of the Kingdom of God. It is the end of futility and the beginning of the sons of God who prevail.

Even the intercession must follow this principle. More and more, intercession will become effective when we are not interceding to God to do something, but instead we are praying in the Spirit (Jude 20), and the Spirit is making intercession in us, with groanings too deep for utterance (Romans 8:26–27). We know that Christ is interceding to the Father (Romans 8:34; Hebrews 7:25) and that the Spirit is interceding through us; and from this we begin to see the oneness which exists—all of God’s Kingdom is in travail (Romans 8:22). Forget the idea, “God help me; I’m in travail now. I’m going through something.” So is the whole world. Forget yourself? Let’s reach in to bring forth His will! Let’s pray violently until His Kingdom comes and His will is done on earth as it is in heaven (Matthew 6:10; Luke 11:2).

This is what His Lordship is all about. His being Lord over us was never intended to mean that only ten percent of the human capacity for life would remain, while the rest had been cut out. It is one thing to have a circumcision of heart (Romans 2:29); it is quite another to become a gutless wonder when God needs valiant sons to walk with Him. He is bringing many sons to glory (Hebrews 2:10).

The whole of the Living Word we have heard is related to this principle. There is no way we can avoid walking in this Word. Now is the time for us to repent, because this one principle is the key above all the other truths we have heard.

This principle takes love and gives purpose to it; it takes faith and puts the focus in it. When you walk in this principle, your love and your faith have a focus, because they are under that determined dedication to the Lord, to His Word, to the revelation of the Living Word in the earth.

Sometimes it is good to be taken out of your regular schedule and routine of work, because it puts you in a place where your walk with God is totally exposed. Then you can analyze it and see where it is strong and where it is weak. This revelation of yourself and of your dedication to the Word can be a little embarrassing, because you realize how far off the course you have been, when you thought you were right on.

The confusion and frustration in every person’s life will clear up with the application of this Word. When you actively know what you are to do and you actively, aggressively do it, then the moods, the over-sensitivity, the self-pity, the procrastinating, the frustration in your prayer life and in your living the Word—all of the thousand little things which come like termites to gnaw at the structure of your whole life—disappear. It is the little foxes that have spoiled the vines (Song of Solomon 2:15), and God is showing us how to get at them.

We need some real dedication services. We need to intercede. First we must get ourselves straightened out with God, and then come back and voice it, “By the Spirit of the living God working within me, with my brothers working with me and me working with my brothers, we will see this Living Word reach the ends of the earth.” Matthew 24:14 tells us, “And this gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached in the whole world for a witness to all the nations, and then the end shall come.” We have a big job. We must work with the mathematical structure of the Scriptures. We must work with the printing of the Word and the editing of tapes. And we will be frustrated and have a backlog of work until we get the tedious little routine problems of “With”-living under control.

Again, a mother is a good example of this. The washing, the ironing, the cooking, and the care of the children can take all of her time; and often she does not even have time to enjoy the children because she is so busy working for the family out of a sense of duty. If she had the goal in mind of what God wants for that family and for her own life, then she could come before God and say, “I can get this housework done more efficiently. I’m going to give it just as much time and attention as it deserves; and then I’m going to do the thing I am supposed to do.” Maybe it involves hours of working in the publication of the Living Word, with a determined dedication.

There is a purpose for your life; and if that purpose is not being fulfilled, you know it. It causes you to be frustrated in your spirit. Why do people go to the Living Word Building and work for a while, but then leave? It is not because they do not have enough ability to do the job; they may have excellent abilities, be able to make excellent decisions, and have the capacity to accomplish a lot of work. But they bog down because they do not have the determined dedication which is the basis for following through with a revelation. They may have the revelation, but that alone is not enough. Whatever God reveals to a person, he must be determined and dedicated to walk in it and give it priority. Once you see this, you will find that out of your dedication, your faithfulness is established. Faithfulness does not just happen—there are too many things to discourage you, too many things to which you can become sensitive, too many areas of being vulnerable. A faithful man is one who has had real faith and commitment to a Word from God over his life.

We will live in this Word, or we will not live at all. Proverbs 16:32 tells us, “He that ruleth his own spirit is greater than he that taketh a city.” We must reach the place where we no longer bog down in trying to come to grips with our problems alone. Instead, we determine, “I will be a part of a miracle—a miracle which will take place through all of the churches, through all of the people. This miracle will sweep over the whole earth, because I am going to be that segment, that part of the Kingdom of God which I am called to be. I will be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord” (I Corinthians 15:58).

When you make this determination, immediately your heart begins to question, “How can this be? How will it happen?” It will happen because the Word of the Lord comes to you to loose you, saying, “This shall not be your own feeble efforts alone. This shall be your faith, focused. This shall be again your heart bearing witness by the Holy Spirit, that the Spirit of God has revealed His will to you. And your dedication to it will be worked by God in your heart because you believe for it. You accept it. You appropriate it and you declare, ‘Today I’m free, and I am a fellow worker with God.’ ”

With this Word comes an impartation to your heart. In the name of the Lord I declare to you: “You will not be sensitive. You will not carry within you the conditioning and the responses of unbelief. You will not draw back out of some false sense of unworthiness, when that was never the issue at all; instead, you are loosed to move into your place as a child of God. You are loosed into the blessings and privileges and covenants and provisions which have been given to you by divine grace. The Word which has come to you and which you have embraced is a true Word, and you are free to walk in it. You can become every bit of it.

“In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ you are loosed from the doubts and fears. Your repentance will be an absolute turnabout from doubts and fears and uncertainty and confusion. No longer will you be as one just beating the air (I Corinthians 9:26). Now you come to the days of effectiveness, to the days of being linked together, spirit by spirit—one with the Lord, one with yourself, one with one another—to do the will of the Lord. By the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, you are loosed! You are free!”

You who read this message are set free in the name of the Lord! Right now in faith let there be a turning away from the doubt and from the fear. You can do this! In your heart, make this declaration: “This is the freedom and the release we have been seeking. I embrace it myself; I embrace it with my brothers; I embrace it with the Lord. I embrace it with the Spirit of God bearing witness within me. I embrace it with every church that is open to this Living Word. We embrace it together. This is the hour of our release, and we take it together, in the name of the Lord.”

One last word will make this truth effective in your life. You are going to turn away from your fears and from your belligerence. The world is governed by futility, and we see this in nature itself. When an animal is threatened and filled with fear, it responds by growling and snarling as it tries to evaluate whether or not it can win. If it does not think it can win, then it runs. We react with a great deal of that same bluster, not realizing that it is a part of the futility and confusion which must go. When we feel threatened and challenged, we too growl and snarl; but most of the time we just turn and run. We must face the fact that this evasiveness is a part of the old nature. It is part of a world of futility. The world was subjected to futility, but in hope; and it is waiting for us to break that futility (Romans 8:20–21). Break it within yourself! Turn away from fears! You can do it! You can control them. You have a release. You have faith—a steadfast, immovable, always abounding faith in God. You are loosed in the name of the Lord; and you are blessed with the sensitivity to recognize it every time this old pattern would reoccur, for you are going to dominate it once and for all time. Fears will go, and you will begin to realize just how much unbelief has dominated your life, until it has become almost an involuntary conditioning. Turn away from that in the name of the Lord! Instead of unbelief, let there be in your heart a conditioning to believe God and to apply His holy Word in everything you do. We will be workers together with the Lord to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8).

Say in your heart: “I make my decision today. I will move with faith and live with faith. I will not be moved by unbelief, nor will I live in unbelief. This is my choice to make. I am determined to be a person of great faith. It is my privilege to rule my own spirit; and I decide that there shall be no uncontrollable factors in my life, no factors which are not brought into total submission to that determined dedication to the Word of God.”

We all appropriate this together.