(a letter I wrote to my grandparents and mom)
The Holy Spirit convicted me of this over a week ago, but I never acted on it. As the Holy Spirit has continued to convict me, I've realized I need to say something.
We (our family) have all been well aware that grandma has had some memory issues in recent months. And I think I speak for everyone when I say that none of us wants to see her struggle with her memory. With that said, I believe we all need to stop speaking death over her and start speaking life, including grandma herself.
The bible tells us: "Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof." (Proverbs 18:21) - and - "For as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." (Proverbs 23:7) There are so many other verses I could read that talk about God's will for the believer; that His will for us is to walk in prosperity in every area of our lives. But the point is that our words DO have power; power of life or death. And also, if we believe what we say (good or bad), it WILL come to pass. We need to start believing in life words and speaking life words.
I really want us all to cast off the death words we've spoken over grandma, and start speaking life over her. It doesn't matter if she has moments where she struggles to remember things. We need to claim what God says about her: "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind." (2 Timothy 1:7)
God's will is for her to have a sound mind. When Jesus took our sins and infirmities to the grave, and rose on the third day to conquer sin and death, and when we received Him as our Lord and savior, we (in the spirit AND in the flesh) were instantly given a ticket to freedom from every curse the enemy had planned for our lives. But we have to receive our inheritance.
People may try to say something like "you're lying if you say that grandma has no memory issues", but that is a lie from the enemy. If God's word says that she has been given a sound mind, and we know He's not a liar, we are not lying when we say that she has no memory issues. Whether or not the physical realm is giving us signs that her memory is failing, we can deny those circumstances from having authority in her life.
We need to put into practice what Mark 11:22-24 says: "And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God. For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith. Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them." Those are direct words spoken straight out of Jesus' mouth!
Grandma's mountain right now is the issues she battling with regards to her mind's ability to remember things, and we can speak to that mountain.
1 John 5:14-15 says "Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.".
God's will IS for grandma to have a sound mind. So we can ask for grandma's mind to be restored (asking according to His will) and expect to see it come to pass (while not letting our words go against what we're believing for in prayer and through confession).
We need to confess what we expect to receive and then hold fast to our confession of faith (Hebrews 10:23 - "Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful")
"Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." (Hebrews 11:1) We need to keep confessing God's truth over grandma and never stop.
