Clarity on Declarations

“I declare!!” “Speak it into existence!” “God’s promises are always ‘Yes!’”

These statements can land Christians on an unstable foundation in our relationship with God.

These statements are so overused that they have lost their meaning and their place.

People say “God’s promises are always ‘Yes!’” When they actually mean, I am going to pretend that God promised me X, and so I can use my voice and say that I’m going to get it.

They muddle all these beliefs about naming and claiming with the fact that we are co-heirs with Christ, and that we are high priests and have the authority of Christ, and a bunch of other statements that are half-truths. Don’t get me wrong, these are true, but can be used in the wrong context.

There are promises that God has given all of us collectively. But just as every promise that He gave is not always relevant to us or our circumstance, the way the promise is fulfilled is also unique. Our lives or purpose won’t look exactly like anyone else’s.

God has promised that he will always provide “Our daily bread.” Meaning, He will give us what we need at the moment, nothing more, nothing less. Our daily bread is the same as the manna that fell from the sky to the Israelites. They were commanded to not try to hoard and save, but trust in God to sustain them.

God promised to protect us. Again, it’s not always the way we think. God doesn’t need a king, or a husband or a person of any sort in our lives to protect us, even though many times we think it’s necessary. Just like when the Israelites begged for a king rather than being okay with God being their leader. They didn’t need a physical person. God was their leader, and He was doing a great job of leading them, much better than the Israelites’ king Saul.

God didn’t promise that when we are discontent that He will give us what we need so that we will finally be content. He wants us to be content, so that He can do more once we find our contentment in Him and Him alone.

Just like God’s voice is powerful, our voice is powerful, but it is not powerful like some people think that it is. The only way that our voice has true power is when our words align with His desires.

Jesus said in John 5:19: “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise.”

Jesus didn’t speak whatever He wanted into existence. He spoke whatever He knew the Father wanted. His desires aligned with the Father and that’s where the power came.

When our words align with Him and speak what He said, then that’s when things move and change for His good. Our words, declarations or supposed promises without Him being the first one to say it are worthless. The words fall to the ground and shatter. They mean nothing and no nothing but get our hopes up thinking that we can alone create the future that we want.

This declaration movement is scary when it isn’t aligned with God’s word.

There is a level of truth to declaring, claiming, and standing on God’s promises. But with great power comes great responsibility.

Declarations are not all bad. The Word of God is a two-edged sword (Heb. 4:12). When we use it for our desires, it comes back and convicts us and changes us. When we use it to declare the wrong in others, it also turns and shows us our faults and failures.

His word should be the foundation of all our declarations and promises. When we keep close to Him and let our relationship with Him dictate our path, our words, and our declarations, then the power of God flows through us because we are connected directly to Him who created us.