Copyright © 2019 by Shawn Bolz
All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form whatsoever, except for brief quotations in reviews, without the written permission.
Published by ICreate Productions,
PO Box 50219, Studio City, CA 91614
www.bolzministries.com
To contact the author about speaking at your conference or church, please go to www.bolzministries.com
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are from the New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.TM Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com. Scripture quotations identified NASB are taken from the New American Standard Bible®. Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. www.Lockman.org Scripture quotations marked TPT are from The Passion Translation®. Copyright © 2017, 2018 by Passion & Fire Ministries, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. ThePassionTranslation.com. Scriptures marked KJV are taken from the Holy Bible, King James Version, public domain. Scriptures marked ESV are taken from the Holy Bible, English Standard Version®. Copyright© 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Scripture quotations identified NLT are from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation®. Copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois, 60188. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked MSG are taken from The Message, copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress. All rights reserved. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. Scripture quotations identified KJ21 are from the Holy Bible, 21st Century King James Version®(KJ21®). Copyright©1994 by Deuel Enterprises, Inc., Gary, SD 57237. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations identified NKJV are from the New King James Ver-sion®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scriptures marked GNB are taken from the Good News Bible®. Copyright © 1994 by the Bible Societies/Harper-Collins Publishers Ltd UK, Good News Bible© American Bible Society 1966, 1971, 1976, 1992. Scriptures marked ERV are taken from the Holy Bible, Easy-to-Read Version © 2001 by World Bible Translation Center, Inc. Used by permission. Scriptures marked AMP are taken from the Holy Bible, Amplified Bible Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987, 2015 by the Lockman Foundation. Used by Permission. www.Lockman.org
Edited by Kyle Duncan
ISBN: 978-1-949709-29-2
eBook ISBN: 978-1-949709-35-3
Printed in the United States of America
How to Use This Book
Introduction
Relationships
Relational Hardships
Influence/Favor
Healing
Mental and Emotional Health
Grief and Loss
Transition
Restoration and Redemption
Finances
Business and Career
Church and Ministry
Spiritual Warfare
To Become a Breaker in Every Area
Throughout human history we have seen the power of prayer, the impact of the prophetic, and the symbolism of declarations having huge impact to shape societies, set culture, provide heritage, and bring vision for the future. I wrote this book so you would have a very specific tool to help you use words to define your own history and future with God. I love the power of prayer, prophecy, and declaration, and these have been weapons in my own life to create the context of faith and intimacy I am now living in. I see these three verbal tools as some of the most important definers of our relationships, vision, and calling in life.
Prayer helps us to commune with God’s nature and heart. We get to converse with God with listening ears. We get to share our pain, victory, struggles, and inner life with God. Through prayer, we allow the Holy Spirit to share space in God’s heart with us, and we experience being one with Him each time.
Prophecies are God’s will, accompanied by His love declared over us. They give us an opportunity to align our faith in connection to what we believe about ourselves. They help our humanity catch up to His spirit. Prophecies create sight for the gap between what is not yet happening and what God desires to do in our lives, and they help us to engage a process of relationship with God through faith to close that gap. Prophecies change our opportunities, ignite our potential, and cause us to have a chance to live beyond the fruit we can attain by our own efforts.
Declarations are when we speak out loud on purpose for purpose. These are our statements of faith aligning us to God’s will and directives for our lives and the world around us.
Life is in the power of the tongue: “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit” (Proverbs 18:21). As Christians and emotionally intelligent humans, we see that the tongue is our most powerful tool or weapon. It has the power to release life wherever we go. People who understand this will speak intentionally and will eat the abundant fruit their past words (declarations) have produced. We will speak to others and to ourselves because we realize silence is indifference and passivity is a thief. Declarations help us to be intentional and therefore aware of when God does move, because we are declaring and then looking for the fulfillment of very specific statements.
When you combine prayers, declarations, and prophecies as I have in this book, you are even more intentional about the power of words. In the book of Joel, Joel lays out a prophetic picture of people realizing the time and season they were in and said they beat their plowshares into swords and their pruning hooks into spears. That is what I hope to accomplish here: that the words you have used to cultivate faith in your identity, calling, and destiny would now become weapons as you speak them out over yourself and everyone you are involved with.
Words are tools and weapons that propel us forward to lay hold of all that Jesus won for us: “Your very words will be used as evidence against you, and your words will declare you either innocent or guilty” (Matthew 12:37). This verse is obviously not talking about being saved through godly speaking, but it does imply our declarations will either restrict or bless our lives. Using our words deliberately will propel us into the abundant life Jesus promised us. Instead of setting up boundaries of limitation and restriction in our experience (aka being condemned, according to Matthew 12:37), we will be able to engage and live out our lives through Christ we make declarations about.
Prayers, declarations, and prophecies are instrumental for us to enter our promised land: “Always remember what is written in that book of law. Speak about that book and study it day and night. Then you can be sure to obey what is written there. If you do this, you will be wise and successful in everything you do” (Joshua 1:8).
God spoke to Joshua and told him to implement nonstop speaking of truth as he made final preparations to possess what God had already given through promise. Joshua is our example to use prayers, declarations, and even the prophetic words we have as a means to possessing the promises of God.
Using prayers, prophecies, and declarations to activate our faith for things that don’t yet exist in our lives is one of our greatest ways to be like our model, Jesus: “For in God’s presence he believed that God can raise the dead and call into being things that don’t even exist yet” (Romans 4:17).
As a Christian you won’t just be aware of injustice or brokenness; you will be aware of the fact that through Jesus, anything can be redeemed or restored. You start to understand the Spirit of God, who is focused on bringing life to dead places, people, nations, and gifts, and who calls for someone to say it is alive when it still looks dead.
You also get to see into His heart and original plan or intention in everything He created. Through this you will begin to have the opportunity to speak to situations, people, and purposes, calling forth what doesn’t “even exist yet.”
We see lots of scriptural examples of people using prophetic words, prayers, and declarations to be an articulate tool in their relationship to their faith and connection to God, themselves, and the world.
Through this book I invite you on a journey to use words to speak into the very fabric of your life, the spiritual realm, and the world around you. These words are all tools for you to align your faith and create your inner life as one full of courage and hope. You will find yourself using your own language at times or tailoring the words I have written for you, and that is exactly what you should do! Make it apply deeply and closely to you and your situation.
Words create space and need space to be created, so I encourage you to find alone time or time with a partner and allow these words to come out of your mouth—out loud! If you don’t feel faith when you are saying a declaration, say it many times and allow the words to become more familiar to your heart. If you can’t own the goodness of one of the prophetic words, then say it repeatedly with your name in it so it’s yours. With prayers, make sure you aren’t just religiously repeating what is on paper but are actually picturing yourself in the prayer. These are your tools, your words, and you have to own them and make them work for you. Eventually, as you read this, you will even beat these words into weapons and you will see results.
Practically, the book is laid out over several subjects, using the theme of breakthrough to empower your faith. None of them are quite the same because I didn’t want to give you a formula; I wanted to help you develop language and some models for how you will use the powerful tools of prophecy, prayer, and declaration. The way we declare in one theme might seem totally different to the next. Sometimes the prophecies are first person; sometimes they are the stated intention of God as I have received it for you.
Maybe you need the specific subject heading to lead you right now, or maybe you want to visit each of them in a row to prophesy, declare, and pray into your life. Maybe some of them won’t feel authentic to the way you express yourself or receive; or maybe some just won’t apply directly to you. Don’t get hung up on the individual part; just keep moving forward and find what you can own and what can help you to bring about a greater breakthrough in your life.