You Don't Want To Say It!

Over the weekend, I had the sheer blessing to attend a prayer conference. The added bonus was that I was there with my mom, and it was her 89th birthday! God be praised! At any rate, during one of the sessions, Pastor Derrick Hawkins was preaching on the tenets of prayer from II Timothy 1 and asked us to participate in a demonstration. We were instructed to gather in groups of 3. One of us was to represent, Lois, the grandmother of Timothy; another, Eunice, Timothy's mother and finally, Timothy. My mom volunteered to be Lois, I simply followed suit and said I'd be Eunice and when I looked to the other member of our party, she hung her head first, then moved it back and up to the sky and as I looked into her eyes, I recognized hesitation (why, because I am quite familiar with this emotion). I said to her, "You don't even want to say it, do you?" Tears swelled in her eyes and as a "good grandmother" does, my mom or Lois for the scenario began to pray. I was able to identify immediately with my sister because saying something aloud, particularly when we have a bit of history in our trajectory and we understand the consequences of speaking a thing, requires us to act and receive in ways that we may not be completely comfortable with. May I invite vulnerability in? You see, audibly saying, "I'm Timothy" represented more to her than a simple role play, it meant adhering to the deposits that had been made within her, to share with the larger body. It represented accountability; it represented tenacity; it represented endurance, even if it means going it alone. When we fully accept the assignment of God over our lives, it can be scary; such to the extent we don't want to say it!

The visionary of the conference, Pastor Arlene Mitchell always says, "When we speak, creation occurs." In the moment I shared, speaking aloud of being Timothy is aligned with being reminded of the faith of those who labored before us, of not being ashamed to represent God, of assuming the blessings as well as the sufferings of Christ as a believer, of keeping His commandments and essentially doing what we know to do. We can have knowledge of each of these practices, but unless we put them into practice, they do not have the propensity to birth as the Word declares. Yet when we speak something, we know that there is a divine alignment between our spoken words and intentionality in the earth. Even more specifically, God responds to His Word. It should be our joy to speak what He says. However, we know Timothy was about the business of God, and that is not easy. Paul, the writer of the text, knew this, which is why I have to believe that after he reminded Timothy of the faith filled ambassadors in his lineage, and then two verses later he spoke a familiar scripture to us, II Timothy 1:7, "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind." Speaking "it" whatever "it" is for you in this season, as you pursue God may cause trepidation, but we may overwhelm our mortal selves by reminding our spirt that we are not governed by fear! We are not alone. We have the power of God on our side. We have the Word of God available to be actualized, when we speak!

What might you need to embody the personification of Timothy for in this season? To what do you need to activate your faith? To whom do you need to share the Gospel and encourage? To where do you need the boldness of Christ to reside? I admonish you to say it! All of my grandparents transitioned before I was born, yet I've been blessed with many "Lois' and Eunice's" in my life. And while I still benefit from them, I concurrently must assume the mantle and operate as "Timothy" as I serve as answered prayer to what others have dared to speak aloud. Jesus! I admonish you to say it aloud. I implore you to allow your declarations to be louder than your deficits and your anointing to be more prevalent than your afflictions. As amplified in II Timothy 1:13, "Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou has heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus." God has given us what we need in this season and desires a willing voice to speak in the earth and carry out what He's deposited. Will it be you?