Joyce Meyer

Do you have the power of God in your life? Is He real to you? Is your relationship with Him making a difference in your life - affecting your personal well-being, your relationships, and your life in general?

I think most Christians enjoy a measure of God's power. But I'm not satisfied with enough power to be okay. I want whatever God says I can have. And I want all of it!

How do we get what God has for us? Prayer. We ask, and we receive.

I learned how to pray with more power. 

In John 15:7, Jesus says, "If you live in Me [abide vitally united to Me] and My words remain in you and continue to live in your hearts, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you" (The Amplified Bible).

That's an outrageous promise - ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you. But I wasn't experiencing it with all of my "whatevers" that I was praying for. So I talked to the Lord about how I could have more power in prayer.

And He began to deal with me about the words of my mouth.

Notice in John 15:7 that Jesus said if we abide in Him, we can then ask for whatever and it will be done. One of the keys to making this work for us is abiding, which means to "live in, dwell in, remain in." It doesn't mean to just go to church on Sunday.

We must live in Christ to be able to pray the will of God.

I had to develop mouth control to see a real change. 

Another scripture that got my attention is Psalm 107:20: "He sends forth His word and heals them and rescues them from the pit and destruction" (The Amplified Bible). Now, I have a lot of compassion for the sick and hurting. My passion in life is to help as many people as I can. This verse helped to make the connection for me between what we say and how it affects God's power in our lives to bring healing and help for the hurting.

It's easy to sound so spiritual when we're in prayer! But the problem comes with the things we say when we aren't praying. There's a real connection between answered prayer and what we use our mouth for when we're not praying. We need mouth control!It takes two things to get the mouth under control:A lot of help from God Discipline and self-control

When I first started hearing messages on the mouth years ago, I was convicted. But I didn't realize that no man can tame the tongue (see James 3:8). So I would think, That's it! Tomorrow I'm not going to say anything wrong. I know what I'll do - I just won't talk! You know, the flesh - our human nature - is always out of balance one way or the other.

So I wouldn't talk and someone would say, "What's your problem?" Then I'd get mad and say, "You don't like it if I talk. You don't like it if I don't talk." My approach wasn't fixing anything. It just made me more frustrated.

I soon realized that you might as well forget your own plan for holiness, hit your knees and pray, "Help me, God! Help me, help me, help me!"

And He has helped me. I've made progress in this area of my life. I still make mistakes sometimes, but I'm steadily improving. I've reached the point where the minute something comes out of my mouth that I shouldn't say, I recognize it and repent. It's not about reaching perfection - the goal is progress!

What you must do if you want God's power in your life.  

It's time for people who call themselves Christians to become accountable for their words. We shouldn't be satisfied just being okay or measuring up to the way people around us live and act. People are not supposed to be the standard we live by - Jesus is! And He has a better way for us to live…a way that gives us more of His power as we make progress.

We make progress by taking responsibility for our mistakes. That's what God is looking for from us - honest repentance for our sin. And when we say, "Lord, I take responsibility for saying ungodly things and ask You to change me," He'll answer. He really will change us.

Are you satisfied with the level of God's power in your life? Don't settle for just an okay life in Christ. There's more to His life than that, and we'll have it as we send forth His words!

For more on this topic, you may order Joyce's four-CD series "The Power of Words" by calling (800) 727-9673 or visiting www.joycemeyer.org .