These notes are from some teaching on faith by Charles Capps that I have gleaned from YouTube. I’ve also added some of my thoughts.
“Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, “ Hebrew 1:3
It says in Hebrew 1:3 that Jesus is the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person. It’s speaking about Jesus the word of God being the brightness of God’s glory and the express image of His person.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made.” John 1:1-3
So we see that God’s word is the express image or exact expression of God’s substance. The word translated ‘person’ here is the same word translated as ‘substance’ in Hebrews 11:1-3
“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good report. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. “ Hebrews 11:1-3
It’s through faith that we understand the worlds were framed by the word of God. God’s word ‘framed’ the world. You could have all the building material for a church or building on a vacant lot. Now you have the ‘substance’ of the building but until somebody ‘frames it’ you are not going to have any church on that lot. You have to do something about it. One translation says that faith is giving substance to things hoped for. Another translation says it’s the title deed.
“Through faith we understand that the worlds were’ framed by the word’ of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.”
The words you speak are something that you can’t see. You can’t see faith either but the world was framed by the words of God. Jesus was the creator of all things, all things were created by Him and the spoken word is where creation comes from. Now man is created in the same image and likeness as God and capable of transmitting faith through words the same way as God transmits faith through His words.
Jesus said “all things are possible with God” and we all agree to that, and then Jesus said “All things are possible to him that believes” Now you would lose a few people on that one. Because that puts us as a reborn human spirit capable of operating on the same level of faith as God. So if we take God’s word at face value and realise that it’s life, it’s light, it’s a living substance we can create or bring life to things too. There is life in the word of God. I don’t think we have ever understood this. I don’t think the Church has even come close to understanding this truth. I guess we are closer to it now than we have ever been before because we are having some great teaching along that line.
If we could only understand the power of the word. He said in Psalm 107:20 “I sent my word and healed them.” He didn’t say He sent His word to heal them. He said He sent my word and healed them. It’s a done deal. This shows there is life in the word of God. There is healing power in the word of God.
“The word is… life to those that find them and medicine to all their flesh.” Proverbs 4:22
God’s word is medicine to your flesh. We read that the word of God became flesh. Jesus was made flesh and dwelt among us.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made.” John 1:1-3
So we see that the ‘Word’ is the creator of all things. By it all things are held together and consist. That’s the reason the sun comes up in the same place today as it will one year from now at the same place on the horizon, at the same time of year and so on. It’s all because God’s word holds the planets in orbit in obedience to what God said. The word is the living substance of all the earth.
John 1:14 goes on to say “that the word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us.”
In another translation it says that the word took upon himself flesh and dwelt among us. I want to submit to you from the word of God that the word is still capable of becoming flesh today. Not in the sense that the word became flesh when Jesus was born of a virgin but in the fact that God’s word was sent and healed us and became part of us.
Now for instance let’s take the promise of God for physical healing.
“For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” 2 Cor 5:21
As far as righteousness is concerned we didn’t commit any righteousness, but we have become the righteousness of God because we received righteousness from Him. In other words, Jesus imparted it to us. Paul said that we became sinful because we committed sin but no one became righteous because they committed righteousness. But Jesus restored us and caused us to become righteous. He was made to be sin for us and took upon himself our infirmities, our sickness and diseases and our poverty that we might receive righteousness.
God sent His word and healed them. He fully expected the word to do and have healing power. Why wouldn’t He expect it to do that? When all the other things were created by the word of God. Why wouldn’t he expect the word of God to heal us as well?
“Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.” 1 Peter 2:24
As far as God’s concerned it was done. So we see there is healing power in that word. That doesn’t mean that it will happen just because it says it in the bible, but it’s only when that word gets inside of you. It is a living substance and there is life in it. There is healing power in 1 Peter 1:24. It’s also in Isaiah 53:4-6 chapter. The word of God is full of life, it’s quick, its powerful and it will heal you.
“And ye shall serve the LORD your God, and he shall bless thy bread, and thy water; and I will take sickness away from the midst of thee.” Exodus 23:25
Healing is a promise or a fact in the bible. If we take into us, God’s word, which is God’s creative power, as we speak Gods word and proclaim God’s promise it’s planted in us. I’m taking that word out of its passive state and I’m planting it in me when I speak it out. It will produce exactly what the word says. It doesn’t necessarily happen overnight however.
“Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree: That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.” Galatians 3:13-14
The curses of the law are found in Deuteronomy chapter 28. God told Charles Capps to confess that Galatians 3:13 and 1 Peter 2:24 were flowing in his bloodstream. Galatians 3:13 is flowing to every cell of my body. 1 Peter 2:24 is flowing to every cell of my body. If I am redeemed from the curse of the law, it’s flowing through my bloodstream and it ought to deliver me from the curse that is trying to be put on me. God told Charles that those scriptures are forming themselves in his body. The word is becoming flesh. What would happen if you were sick and Galatians 3:13 flowed in your blood stream? It would have to remove the curse - amen. If it formed itself in you, you would be healed. We have to appropriate God’s medicine, for its medicine to all our flesh.
I am not against doctors. It’s funny that when you start teaching on divine healing some get the idea that we are telling them not to go to a doctor. If you need medicine, go to a doctor and don’t get into bondage over it. Take it in the name of Jesus and it will work twice as well. The word is health to you as was the original medicine, but if a person is dying from an incurable disease and doesn’t know how to operate in faith then they may be dead before they learn how to appropriate their faith to get the job done. So it would be foolish for that person to die because they wouldn’t go to a doctor.
You can confess any word of God until it manifests itself in your life. Even in your business affairs the word can become a living substance in your spirit and bring success.
Mark 11:22-23 tells us how the God kind of faith works. It’s by speaking the word.
“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.” Mark 11:22-23
It’s a principle of God. Isaiah 57 says that He will, “Create the fruit of the lips …” You have God in on this deal. Some critics say that we are just trying to act like God. Sure we are. We are told to do this in the word. Who is this critical person acting like then? We are not to say what the Devil says. We are to speak life, not death and fear. Our words are to be forerunners of victory, they are to be forerunners of a future event.
When an individual speaks what the enemy has said, it is establishing, ‘what is now.’ He is sending his words out as forerunners of defeat. You need to realise that your words will put you over or defeat you, depending on what they are based on. If they are based on feelings or the situation you are facing, then they will defeat you in life. Mark 11:23 is not a one-way street, it’s a two-way street. It will work just as fast on the negative side as it would the positive.
“A man shall be satisfied with good by the fruit of his mouth:” Proverbs 12:14
If speaking on the positive side produces good, then it stands to reason that speaking negative words will produce bad fruit. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks and a good man out of his heart brings forth good things and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart. An evil man can be someone who brings forth evil or negative things and also be a Christian. Essentially God is saying don’t blame God for your harvest it was you that produced it.
Jesus spoke in John 6:63 that “His words are spirit and they are life.” At that time, He was saying you are going to have to eat my body and drink my blood. He said that if you don’t eat my flesh and drink my blood you don’t have any life in you. The word of God is life and He is trying to get over to us that they need to be saturated with the life of God. You need to be filled with the power and life of Almighty God. Isn’t there a saying “that you are what you eat?” Just as food becomes part of you, so does His word become part of you as you eat it.
“This is my comfort in my affliction: for thy word hath quickened me.” Psalm 119:50
“My soul cleaves unto the dust: quicken thou me according to thy word.” Psalm 119:25
‘Quicken’ (alive) me according to your word make me alive not according to how I feel or how it seems. Make me alive to your word.
Our words transmit images. I could tell you about my car even though you have never seen it. What make it is, what colour it is etc. and where I have parked it and you could walk out of here and go and find my car and say for a fact that this is Graeme Hotter’s car. How do you know it’s mine if you have never seen it before? You did see it, you saw it when I told you and then you’d go find it. That’s the way I described it, I transmitted an image of what I knew, into you when even though you didn’t know anything about it before. Hosea says that we are destroyed through a lack of knowledge. Hosea 5:6
God’s word transmits an image to you and also an image of how God sees you. It’s alive with the power of God, it’s alive with the life of God to transmit a life giving image into you. So you can see yourself as God sees you. The trouble is people are always confessing ‘what is.’ He doesn’t see you ‘as is,’ He sees you as potential. That is why His word says all these good things about you.
In Number 13 spies were sent out into Canaan Land. 10 came back with a negative image, a negative report. They said that they couldn’t take the land because there were giants there and great walled cities. They said that they themselves were like grasshoppers in the giant’s sight and so were we in our own eyes. They then transmitted an image of fear into the children of Israel. God didn’t send them over to see if they could take the land, for He had already told them they could do it. He said He had already given them the land. They were now to go in and find a strategy on how they were going to take it.
Two of the spies, Joshua and Caleb said, “We are well able to take the land.” They saw the same thing as the other guys but the difference was that God’s word to them had transmitted a positive image into them. The 10 spies looked at the situation in the light of natural circumstances. If it was just in the light of natural they certainly couldn’t take it. They were telling the truth about the giants and the walled cities but they failed to take God’s word into account. They didn’t let God paint an image inside them. God had in detail already given them what would happen and how they would drive out the enemy, but it didn’t stick. They said we can’t do it, but Joshua and Caleb said we can. Something you need to realise in life is that
those who say they can’t and those who say they can,
are both right.
You see our words are forerunners to the events that’s going to happen. The 10 spies said they couldn’t and they didn’t, Joshua and Caleb said they could and they did. It was 40 years later but they did take it. They held onto their confession for 40 years. They let their words live on. What they said they held fast to. The other 10 spoke death to the word of God and actually blasphemed His word. God said to them you can and they said no we can’t. We may have felt like ourselves but we are not meant to walk by sight but by faith. By His promises. Caleb was 85 years old when he went across the Jordan and said “Give me this mountain with all the giants,” and he did take it. God’s word is a giant killer. Not only that, He mixed his faith with God’s word. For 40 years he had established some things in his heart and could see it come to pass.
“They forgat God their saviour, which had done great things in Egypt;” Psalm 106:21
It’s a serious thing when you start speaking against the word of God.
“They angered him also at the waters of strife, so that it went ill with Moses for their sakes: Because they provoked his spirit, so that he spake unadvisedly with his lips.” Psalm 106:32-33
Moses spoke in advisably with his lips and because of this he didn’t enter into the promised land. They ignored what God said and didn’t allow the transmitting of that image into them. They wouldn’t do what God said to do. The Church still misses it today.
“But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness? And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.” Hebrews 3:17-19
They could not enter in because they believed not.
“Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.” Hebrew 4:1
It says that the gospel was preached to them. God shared the message with them The word was preached to them but it did not profit them not being mixed with faith. God gave them words of life but they wouldn’t mix faith with them. The words of promise lay dormant even though they were alive. Because they didn’t act on it and even spoke against it. Their words killed the promise of God.
Your speaking words against God’s promises can also stop it as far as you are concerned, because you are speaking death to them. We are supposed to live by every word of God, not die by them. We need to learn that we can speak death to the Devil’s words when he comes against us. When he brings doubt why don’t you just ‘doubt your doubts’. Unfortunately, we start believing our doubts. On what scriptural basis are you doubting God? What makes you think that God wouldn’t do what He said He would do? Believe and do your part.
They saw themselves as grasshoppers. They had an image of defeat on the inside of them. If you see yourself as a failure and talk as a failure, all of God’s words are not going to do you any good as long as you talk that way. Your speech is the forerunner of the event that’s going to happen. You can speak death to the Devil’s words or death to God’s word of promises.
To give you an example. You may have been taught all your life that baptism in the Holy Spirit went out with the Apostles and that tongues was of the Devil. If you believed that then when you heard the truth you would at first of thought that it couldn’t be true. But you see that it is true when you check it out in the word of God. It’s the same with healing, because you can not mix any faith with these truths and then nothing will work for you.
It’s your faith in that word that makes it alive to you individually. Doubters can’t kill it for you but they can kill it for themselves. Your words transmit an image into your spirit. If you take God’s word and speak it and proclaim it, it puts that image into your spirit. One of success, healing and whatever the bible promises. We have got the power of the word working on our behalf.
David said it’s better than silver or gold. Joshua was told not to let the word of God depart out of his mouth as it will make his way prosperous. Joshua 1:8. The word of God spoken out of Joshua’s mouth caused faith to come. It’s the substance of things desired so he’s gaining the substance, the power force, to cause the manifestation of the things he desired. By speaking God’s word concerning the promise changes his image within. He came out of a group of people who had wandered 40 years in the desert. Joshua and Caleb had this image within them and they never let it deteriorate. Their words were the forerunners of the event that was to take place. God tells Joshua after he took over the leadership from Moses that he should not let the word depart out of your mouth.
Moses spoke some things to the Israelite's that he shouldn’t have done, and it cost him dearly. It cost him the Promised land. He struck the rock twice which God didn’t tell him to do. The rock had already been struck once before and that rock was a ‘type’ of Jesus, and He was only to be struck once. Moses disobeyed God. Sometimes if we are not careful we get the same idea as he did and make up our own rules as we go along. Moses thought because I struck it the other time I’ll do it twice as good this time. He had allowed the wrong spirit into him and spoke in advisably with his lips.
“They angered him also at the waters of strife, so that it went ill with Moses for their sakes: Because they provoked his spirit, so that he spake unadvisedly with his lips.” Psalm 106:32-33
God’s word transmits the right spirit to you. Words transmit a spirit. You speak fear filled words and it will produce a spirit of fear. Paul said God has not given us a spirit of fear. Fear is a spirit and faith is also a spirit.
“We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak;” 2 Corinthians 4:13
The spirit of faith and the spirit of fear are transmitted through words. You can transmit strife with words as well. You transmit images with words and also transmit spirits. That’s why it’s so wrong for us to quote what the enemy said and words that are contrary to the word of God. When we pray we can then say if there’s a delay that, “It’s not working.” Who told you that? Was it God or the Devil?
Words transfer that spirit to you. Jesus said take heed to what you hear. You don’t want the spirit of the enemy; and the spirit of fear.
The life force of God is in His word. God’s word perfects the image inside of you and that’s what Joshua was doing in Joshua 1:8. God told him how to do it. In Deuteronomy 28 it says that we are to hear the word intelligently and then declare it wholly, completely, louder and louder, then all these blessings will come on us and they will overtake you. He didn’t say they would meet you on the way. He said that blessings would come from behind going so fast they will overrun you running you down.
“Now it shall be, if you diligently listen to and obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all of His commandments which I am commanding you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. All these blessings will come upon you and overtake you if you pay attention to the voice of the Lord your God.” Deuteronomy 28:1-2