How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach, except they be sent?
—ROMANS 10:14–15
I LOVE PREACHERS. I love strong, powerful preachers. I have always wanted to do something special for preachers. At one time, I thought of hosting a preachers’ conference to encourage them and, of course, get some of my favorite preachers in one room. There is a sound that really good preachers have. They know how to use their voices to stir the power and anointing of God. There’s a range of pitches, resonance, vocal effects, volume, and revelations that are different for each one. Their unique sound stirs and inspires you, the listener, and releases you into your gifts and creativity.
But I have a word for you in this season that will really stretch and challenge you: God has given you a unique voice as well. There are things God has called you to speak and release into the earth that will break things open in people’s lives that the enemy tried to say would be unbreakable. You have a sound that, just like your favorite preacher, heaven responds to. You may not consider yourself to be a preacher—and everyone does not need to be. You don’t need to have a microphone and stand in a pulpit. You don’t need a big megaphone. But as you begin to see past your limitations and use the power of your voice, God will take your voice where He wants it to go so it has the effect it was created to have. As a matter of fact, your voice can go places my voice or your favorite preacher’s voice can’t go. And you will “preach” in ways that only you can.
Romans 10:14 asks, “How shall they hear without a preacher?” The Greek word for preacher here is kēryssō, which means “preach,” “publish,” “proclaim,” “to be a herald,” “to publish, proclaim openly: something which has been done”—
“the public proclamation of the gospel and matters pertaining to it.”1 In other words, preaching is not just about standing in a pulpit shouting a message to a congregation. Preaching is about using your voice in any public sphere to proclaim the gospel. We preach the gospel through writing and publishing books, prophesying, edifying and encouraging each other, decreeing and declaring the works of the kingdom in the earth, and praising and worshipping. The way we “preach” comes forth in ways that align our unique voice, gifts, and calling with the will and plan of God and that proclaim the goodness, mercy, and saving power of God. And it’s not limited to what we do in church.
There’s a lot to do outside of the church in the marketplace. So, again, I’m not just referring to whether you are a preacher or whether you are called to be a fivefold minister. This concept of “preaching” extends to businesspeople, marketplace people, and those in every realm of society. God may give you a mandate to operate in a sector of society outside the typical sphere of ministry. So I want to lay a foundation before we get into this full message, and that is this: God has given you certain gifts, talents, and abilities that all come together to form the unique sound you are designed to release in the earth. God has placed this very unique combination within you in order for you to contribute to the progress of this planet and humanity.
Many people live their lives without contributing to the progress and success of this planet and humankind. Many people live and die selfishly, thinking only of meeting their own needs and enjoying their own lives, never realizing they were born on purpose for a purpose. Not one of our lives was created by accident. Discovering and walking in our purpose is very important. So I want to first lay the foundation that you have a unique voice and place in the world that, when used, brings heaven down to earth. And when you contribute to the planet and humanity according to God’s will by finding your purpose and walking in it, you will leave a blessing and legacy in the earth.
DO YOU HAVE EARS TO HEAR?
One of the difficult things in teaching this topic is that many believers are hesitant to use their unique position in the world because they are waiting for the planet to end. Their voices are silenced and shut up, and their gifts lie dormant because they have an end-of-the-world mentality. They think God is about to judge the planet and burn it up, so they really don’t have a plan to contribute to it. Their plan is simply to go to heaven. Well, the Scriptures say in Matthew 5:5 and Psalm 37:11 that “the meek shall inherit the earth.” And “the meek” are “those wholly relying on God rather than their own strength.”2 This should be all of us.
We who rely on the power of God inherit the whole earth and should be seeking God’s plan for how we are to contribute to its success and that of all humanity. So, knowing this, we can also see how some of us must be delivered from religious teachings that have led to the belief that there is no use in contributing anything here since everything is about to end.
We must get past the thinking that there’s really nothing we can do about the earth and the things that happen in it and should just hold on until we go to heaven. We are to advance the kingdom of God, occupying more and more territory.
Jesus used the parable of the ten servants to teach us this principle of growing, investing, and stewarding our talents and gifts even while we await heaven. Luke 19:13 says, “And he called his ten servants, and delivered them ten pounds, and said unto them, Occupy till I come.” When your time comes to stand before Him, will you hear, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord” (Matt. 25:21)? Or will you argue with God about what you thought He wanted you to do with the time and talent you have in the here and now?
Don’t get me wrong: I believe in heaven, and you should want to go there. I also believe the reason God saved you, redeemed you, and gave you talents, gifts, and abilities is for you to do something to further His plans and purposes, to be a deliverer, and to be a blessing.
We must remember that the message of salvation—the gospel—is not just to get us to heaven but also for us to live in victory, dominion, power, and abundance in this life. John 10:10 confirms this. Jesus says, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”
Another challenge for the people of God is knowing what they are called to speak into and how to activate and stir up the gifts through which they can speak. This is what you will be led to discover as you read this book.
There’s still another area that often holds people back from using the power of their voice, and that is the area of shame and rejection. We will deal with this in a later chapter. If you have ever been told to shut up or sit down, that your voice doesn’t matter, or that God doesn’t hear you, you will be delivered from those words and released to speak as God gives you utterance.
SPECIAL AND CALLED OUT
There is so much God wants to release into the lives of His people concerning their authority, unique gifts, and voices. We have an effect on what happens in the earth. First Peter 4:10 says, “Just as each one of you has received a special gift [a spiritual talent, an ability graciously given by God], employ it in serving one another as [is appropriate for] good stewards of God’s multi-faceted grace [faithfully using the diverse, varied gifts and abilities granted to Christians by God’s unmerited favor]” (AMP). Bible teacher Guy Duininck explained it this way:
The specific task God assigns each believer determines the specific variety of ministry grace He endows them with. This truth is beautifully expressed by the Amplified Bible’s rendering of Paul’s words, “According to the grace (the special endowment for my task) of God bestowed upon me, like a skillful architect and master builder I laid [the] foundation…” (1 Cor. 3:10, AMP).
I don’t know if the men who drafted the Amplified Bible were aware of the significant revelation about ministry grace they brought out in their rendering of 1 Corinthians 3:10. In any case, their amplification of the word “grace” is very accurate. They referred to grace as a “special endowment for [a] task.”
God had assigned Paul a specific task. To enable him to fulfill that task, God specially endowed him. Paul’s task was to lay spiritual foundations as a wise masterbuilder. The special endowment which enabled him to fulfill that task was the ministry grace God bestowed upon him.3
Israel was a special, chosen people (Deut. 14:2). Moses had a special assignment, and God gave him a special rod (Exod. 4:2). Samson was a special child, and God gave him special strength (Judg. 13:5; 16:16–17). Joseph had a special coat (Gen. 37:3) and a special assignment for which God gave him a special gift of interpreting dreams (Gen. 39–41). Bezaleel received a special gift to design parts of the tabernacle (Exod. 31:1–5). Elijah was a special prophet, and God gave him special faith to shut up the heavens (1 Kings 17). God gave Esther special favor because of her assignment (Est. 5). John the Baptist wore a special garment (Matt. 3:4), which some scholars believe was John’s way of “reviving the outward appearance of Elijah,” “whose copy he was.” The garment signified the uniqueness of his call as a forerunning prophet.4 The apostle Paul had a special assignment, and God performed special miracles through him (Acts 19:11). The apostle John had a special vision on the Isle of Patmos (Rev. 1).
“Compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses” (Heb. 12:1), you have been chosen by God to do something significant, something that advances the kingdom, something special.
FINDING YOUR VOICE—HOW DO YOU PREACH?
We’re going to talk about purpose, finding your calling, finding your destiny, and finding God’s will for your life. Everyone’s life preaches, but we don’t all sound, look, or operate the same. You need to know your unique gifts and what God has imparted to you to preach heaven into lives full of hell. Through books like this you can receive ministry, impartation, activation, and release. You purchased this book, you are connecting with me, and now I have a part to play in helping you to discover the purpose and plan of God for your life. I have a responsibility to prophesy, impart, and activate the word of the Lord that may be lying dormant or just coming to fruition in your life.
Discovering God’s plan concerning your unique way of releasing your voice is not as difficult as you may have thought. Many people stumble throughout life trying to figure out what God has called them to do and how He desires them to do it. “What is my purpose?” they’ll ask over and over. “What is God’s plan for my life? I’m having a hard time understanding it. Am I to do this? Am I to do that? What should I focus on? What should I give my time to?”
Maybe you struggle here too. I believe you can know God’s will for you, and discovering it is not as difficult as you may think. This book is going to give you biblical counsel and a mighty release of the word of the Lord. Together we are going to believe God that something supernatural is going to be released in your life.
I pray today that God would give me wisdom, anointing, and the ability to articulate what is in my heart for you that you will have eyes to see, ears to hear, a heart to comprehend the messages that will be released in these pages concerning finding your voice, the call of God, and the purpose of God in your life.
GET READY FOR THE MUZZLE TO COME OFF
You are not just another man or woman stuck on the planet. You are seated in heavenly places in Christ. Have you heard the saying, “You’re so heavenly minded that you’re no earthly good”? I don’t believe that. If you’re heavenly minded, you do a lot of good on the earth. The problem is that we don’t have enough heavenly minded people who know their identity and authority in Christ, who know the power of their voice to bring heaven to earth. We get so used to our prayer lines, prayer calls, and prayer circles within the four walls of the church that we forget the effectiveness of our words and the power of our voices in the earth. Real things happen when believers speak the word of the Lord.
It is time for heaven’s voice to be heard on the earth. Let this be a new season when the muzzles come off and we begin to feel the word of the Lord burning within us like fire shut up in our bones.
Some things will not happen until you open your mouth. Your voice brings heaven to earth. When you open your mouth, heaven is speaking. When you prophesy, heaven is speaking. When you speak by the Spirit of God, heaven is speaking. No matter how much it seems like hell is raging, when you open your mouth, heaven comes.
When you open your mouth, the sick are healed and demons flee. Miracles and finances are released. When you speak, situations are turned around. Your voice will break every yoke and every barrier.
Speaking the will of God, speaking that which is in heaven, is the core of the prophetic realm. Therefore, stop complaining and begin to prophesy. Stop talking about how bad it is and begin to open your mouth and declare that as you speak, heaven comes.
When you show up, heaven shows up. You bring the glory of God. You bring power. You bring heaven. You bring the name that is above every name.
This book will impart to you the power of the voice of a believer, which advances the kingdom of God. You will learn how to speak with the virtue of Christ, which brings healing, deliverance, and salvation. When these miracle ministries are at work, the gospel is preached. How God has called you to participate in these miracle ministries demonstrates the numerous and unique ways you may preach the gospel. You will also learn the authority of your voice to halt and reverse the things of hell, those things that come to silence you. Depression, sadness, poverty, sickness, defeat, suicide, insanity, double mindedness, confusion, rejection, rebellion, pain, suffering—they have to go. If these demonic spirits have come in and stolen your confidence to speak with power and authority, you will learn how to get your voice back and walk in liberty.
You will gain a new understanding that reveals the prophetic connection between you and the heavens, which the Bible says declare or speak forth the glory of God. Because of this revelation, a new boldness will arise in you and compel you to answer the Macedonian call. Then you will learn to steward the tongue to love wisdom and instruction.
It is time to break your silence and be released into a new boldness and confidence to preach the gospel in the way God has uniquely called you to. Your voice can go places you never imagined. Your words can be heard in nations you have never visited. Though the enemy has tried to limit your voice, your voice is not limited to your house, bedroom, or shower.
You may have been told to shut up, that you have nothing valuable to say, but God wants to use your voice. He has put a word of deliverance in your mouth. He has put a prayer of breakthrough on your lips and a prophetic message of salvation and healing on your tongue. Your voice has power.
It’s time for your voice to be heard.