Rivers of Living Water
Occasionally, some of us who print things at the Aglow Headquarters office are challenged. I am because I let it challenge my patience. I push all the buttons and really mess the printer up. It doesn't know which command to obey.
One day I had been in a long meeting and when I came out, one of my co-workers had been trying to print a label for 45 minutes! Unlike me, she has the patience of Job!
As I listened to several different co-workers attempting to figure out a solution, something came to me that the Lord has dealt with me about more than once. He reminded me that sometimes I have to break the words I have been speaking over people and situations, including politicians and maybe other things where I haven’t spoken life. So, I said out loud, "I am just going to pray for the printer."
I did not get up from my desk. I did not raise my voice. I kind of sheepishly said, "Lord, I break all the negative words any of us might have spoken over that printer when we were being challenged by it - I was sure I had made a negative comment or two. And I ask that the very purpose, the identity that this printer was built to accomplish would begin to work."
Well, the label sheet was put back in and that printer printed the label with excellence.
Oh Lord, help me to speak life over everything and never death. Let all my words align with words spoken in Heaven.
Listen to what is coming out of your mouth - over your kids, over your husband, over your mother, over YOURSELF! And then break any word curses you have released and call forth destiny from Heaven in every situation. Heaven has a destiny for everyone and many are living far below their line of privilege. Do not let negative words come out of your mouth that would hold them in a narrow, unfulfilled place. Negative statements and attitudes are not simply harmless musings of a pessimist. Those statements activate demons.
When Dutch Sheets spoke at the 2022 Aglow Conference in St. Louis, he spoke about feeding the rivers in our community. (You can find the transcript of the message on aglow.org under the resource tab and look for the 2022 Conference messages. You can also find the video of the message on Aglow’s YouTube channel.) He spoke about a dream that was shared with him where the people of God need to feed the rivers in our communities. Remember, Jesus said in John 7:38 that “rivers of living water will flow out of everyone who believes in Him.”
Dutch told the story about Elisha who took a jar of salt and dumped it in a nearby body of water that had been cursed and was unusable. After salting the water, the curse was broken and the water was pure and usable again. Matthew 5:13 says that you and I are the salt of the earth. Our ‘salty’ words can break negative situations in our community!
In questioning the Lord as to the meaning of the dream for today, the Lord responded to Dutch saying, “I want you to stop cursing cities with your words. I want you to start believing that I can redeem even places that are under centuries-long curses because I do not desire to judge them. I desire to redeem them and I want you to pour the salt in and cleanse the water.”
Practical Applications
Using negative words brings irritation into your life. Those words irritate your destiny. Irritate means to annoy, exasperate, aggravate, infuriate, or annoy.
You and I cannot live any way we want to and have God’s Kingdom back us up. We cannot live undisciplined, uncommitted lives, and make our decrees and see them come to pass. Angels may not assist us as they have been assigned to do. Negativity holds them at bay.
