It is important for us to realize that when we declare God’s Kingdom coming, we are releasing Heaven to earth with our words.  In fact, the Bible tells us that we have the power of life and death in our tongues (Proverbs 18:21, James 2).  The reason Jesus warned us that we would be judged according to the words we speak is that our words make a difference in people’s lives and circumstances — our words can either curse or release the Kingdom to bring blessing.

Recently, I was backpacking in the Tahoe Desolation Wilderness area with some of the other pastors of Bethel Church.  As we arrived at the trailhead, we were told by a group of guys who had just finished a week in the wilderness that we would not catch any fish.  Everyone they met had shared the same sad tale.  Without hesitation, I declared, “But we have favor!” Everyone laughed.

Amazingly, when we arrived at the first lake, the first cast produced a miraculous 14-inch rainbow trout!  In fact, we caught so many fish every day that anything under 12 inches was thrown back.  They were so plump that we were able to filet them into trout steaks.  Each delectable bite resulted in rowdy rejoicing as we were reminded of the extreme favor we had experienced from God through a simple off-the-cuff declaration.

It is important to keep in mind that our words, like those of Jesus, have authority.  Often, Jesus simply spoke to a situation or circumstance and Heaven invaded and brought change.  In Matthew 8:26, He spoke to the storm, and the wind and the waves stopped.  The disciples responded, “What kind of man is this?  Even the winds and the waves obey him!”

The Roman centurion understood the authority Jesus carried when he said, “Just say the word and my servant will be healed.  Jesus declared, “Go!  It will be done just as you believed it would (Matthew 8:5-13).”

Jesus spoke to the paralytic, saying, “Pick up your mat and walk,” and the man did so and was healed.  Jesus stood outside Lazarus’ tomb and spoke, “Come forth,” and Lazarus was raised from the dead.  Our words (our declarations) create an avenue by which Heaven’s resources and power are released.

I’ll never forget an occasion in which a woman, who was completely bald and gaunt from many radiation chemotherapy treatments, approached me at a conference at Bethel. She explained that the doctors told her that they could do nothing else for her, and that she had approximately one month left to live.   I immediately looked her in the eyes and declared, “I don’t even need to pray for you.  The glory of God is all over you, you’re going to be just fine!” I went on to explain that my declaration over her was in response to a gift of faith that had come to me as I heard about the destiny of doom the doctors had declared over her.

Five months later, at another Bethel conference, a shorthaired woman approached me with a grin from ear to ear.  She jubilantly shared that she was the woman I had declared life over.  Thanking me profusely, she shared that not only was she obviously still alive, but she had no cancer in her body to the amazement of the doctors!

As royal priests, representing God on earth, our declarations make a difference.  Our declarations determine our destiny and the destiny of those around us.  Our declarations unlock Heaven.

I was playing golf with a pastor in Yuma, Arizona, along with a medical doctor friend, who was very skeptical of the reality of supernatural divine healing.  The pastor had arranged for us to golf together so that I could share testimonies that would convince the doctor otherwise.

By the sixth hole, we had not made a whole lot of headway in convincing the doctor, despite sharing several testimonies of people being healed in God’s presence.  The pastor teed off on the par three hole and hit a great looking shot headed right toward the flagstick.  Amazingly, and sadly, his ball struck a bird about twenty feet in front of the pin, causing both the ball and the bird to fall onto the green!

At first, we were joking around about the pastor getting a literal birdie, but after realizing that the bird was lying on its side with it’s wing fixed straight up without moving, we became concerned that the bird was dead.

Meanwhile, the doctor and I hit up onto the green, while the bird continued to lie motionless.  As we drove our carts toward the green, the other birds landed near the dormant bird.  Once we got to the green, all of the birds flew away, except for that one bird, still lying on its side.

Observing this, the doctor pronounced the bird dead, to which the pastor expressed that he should dispose of it since being a doctor he seemed the most qualified to deal with the carcass.  At that, I responded, “No way.  Let’s raise it from the dead.”  I then declared, “I release you into new life.”  Just when I got to “re,” the bird jumped up and flew away!

The doctor looked at me in total shock, as he witnessed the supernatural power of God first hand, as the bird was seemingly raised from the dead!  Regardless of whether the bird had been dead or just knocked out, the reality was that as I declared God’s Kingdom come, the bird recovered, and the doctor had no more problems with the issue of supernatural healing.

God is just waiting for us to co-labor with Him in releasing His Kingdom.  Living naturally supernatural is simply unlocking the doors leading to breakthrough with the Kingdom keys we have received.  Partnering for breakthrough, then, requires us to take responsibility to release God’s presence, power, and resources into every situation and circumstance in which people need His intervention.

That is the power of partnership.  When we pray (declare), He comes.

We have been given the keys to the Kingdom to be able to unlock Heaven whenever we need His presence and power.  In Matthew 16:19, Jesus promised, “I will give you the keys of the kingdom….” In other words, we can unlock the door to the resources of Heaven to get whatever we need, whenever we need it.  That is an amazing privilege!

I oversee several ministry responsibilities at Bethel Church, which require that I have several different keys to access needed rooms and resources.  There are several people on my leadership team who need to have the same access as I do.  There was a time, however, when I was the only one with the keys.

Each time one of my team needed to access a room, he or she had to come to me and borrow the keys, and then afterwards would have to bring them back.  Sometimes, he or she would forget, and I would have to go out of my way to track him or her down when I needed to access something.  It got to be such a hassle trying to juggle one set of keys between our entire team that I finally wised up and got them their own keys!

Jesus did not say, “I will lend you the keys.” Jesus gave us the keys, meaning He no longer has them.  It is now up to us to open up Heaven so that His presence and power can be released through the opening we have made for Him to come.

How often do we hear Christians pleading with God to open up the Heavens and rain down His power to intervene, when all along, God is pleading with us to use the keys we have been given to release His rule so that intervention can come?  We cannot expect God to do what we are expected to do in the partnership.

When we do what is expected of us to unlock Heaven, then He faithfully does His part.  It is His good pleasure to give us the Kingdom (Luke 12:32).

Often, as I begin a conference, I announce that there will be many miracles and healings.  The reason I am so confident is that I have been given Kingdom keys to unlock Heaven in order to access the resources needed.  In reality, when I pray, He comes, and when He comes, He does good things because He is a good God in a good mood!

The natural question, then, is if we have the authority and power to represent and bring God’s Kingdom to earth, why don’t we see more breakthroughs in the miraculous?

Many Christians wrongfully believe that God just sovereignly intervenes in our lives whenever He chooses, or does not.  Their response is, “Well, I guess it was just God’s will that I remain sick, debilitated, or dying.” As a result, many Christians do not pursue divine intervention or they stop short of getting the breakthrough they desire.

Many Christians believe that God chooses (predetermines) who will be healed and who will not be healed.  They state that God is sovereign — that He is in control of everything — and therefore, nothing happens outside of His predestined will.

Therefore, if someone becomes sick, it must be God’s will because nothing happens outside of His sovereign control.  As a result, the prayer, “Your will be done…” is a concession to accept whatever God has sovereignly predestined, instead of a declaration:  “…on earth as it is in heaven.”

People all around us are waiting for Heaven to come to earth.  God is waiting for us to bring Heaven to earth.  I want to encourage you that you have the ability to make a difference in someone’s life and the world around you.  Your declarations make a difference!

It is true, drunk people do crazy things. They will say the craziest things to anyone who will listen (even if they won’t listen). They will laugh out loud, oftentimes for no apparent reason, and without any sensitivity to their surroundings whatsoever. They will dance, fall on the ground, sway as they walk, and completely sacrifice their personal dignity. Why? Because they are drunk.

They are not concerned with what people think about them at the moment. They have lost all fear of man, not concerning themselves in the least with the aftermath of humiliation that is sure to follow their actions. They therefore express themselves freely. They will even attempt the dangerous, like driving a vehicle or jumping off cliffs into shallow water, crazy things that they would never even dream of doing if they were sober. Why? Because they are drunk. Drunk people do crazy things!

In Ephesians 5:18, the Apostle Paul gives this instruction to Christians: “Do not get drunk with wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit” (NIV).

This word “debauchery” means to be so influenced by the effects of alcohol that one loses all inhibition, so that they do things of negative and evil consequence that they would not do if they were sober. In other words, debauchery is doing crazy things that you are really ashamed of the next morning.

Being filled with the Spirit, on the other hand, causes one to do crazy things, but the difference is that those things are things that you are proud of the next morning. Interestingly, the phrase, “be filled”, is not a one time event. In the Greek, this is a present tense verb, which has a continual sense associated with the action. So, more accurately, Paul is instructing the Church to “be continually filled with the Spirit”; to drink everyday, the “new wine” of the Spirit. Why? Because drunk people do crazy things!

On the Day of Pentecost, in Acts chapter 2, the Church was filled with the Holy Spirit. In verse 13, the crowd made fun of them and said “they have had too much wine”. Peter’s response to this accusation is found in verse 15: “These men are not drunk as you suppose…”. Notice, he does not deny the fact that they are drunk, or at the least, acting drunk. He simply lets them know that they are not drunk in the way that they think that they are drunk. The source of their drunkenness is not due to the wine of the world, but rather the new wine of the Holy Spirit. He explains all of this in verse 17, as he outlines the fulfilled prophetic promise of Joel that God would pour out His Spirit on all people.

Notice that Peter got out of the box, crazy, as he found the courage to stand up to address the crowd of onlookers. This is the same Peter that denied the Lord three times! And now he has unabashed boldness to preach the Gospel to the same angry crowd that had earlier crucified Jesus. The only thing that can explain this uninhibited behavior is the fact that he was drunk. Drunk people do crazy things. And I’m sure he was very proud of his actions the next morning, especially when he realized that 3,000 people had been saved as a result of his boldness under the influence of the Spirit!

Jesus has commanded us to do crazy things like heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, and cast out demons; to preach the message of the Kingdom (Matt. 10:7,8). He has commanded us to be His witnesses in the whole earth as his ambassadors (Acts 1:8; 2 Cor. 5:20). He told Ananias, through a supernatural vision, to go to Saul’s house on Straight Street and lay hands on him to receive his sight, which was a crazy proposal given the fact that Saul was arresting Christians and giving approval for their executions (Acts 9).

I used to never pray for the sick. Not because I didn’t believe in healing. I taught on healing. I just didn’t believe that I had what it took to pray for people for them to be healed. I used the excuse that I just didn’t have the “gift”. Interestingly, after learning to let the Holy Spirit influence my mind, I began to live under the influence (LUI), I began to do things that I would ordinarily never try like praying for someone to be healed. Amazingly, people started getting healed. I started to drink and drive, and when I would get to my destination, I would find supernatural boldness to step out and take crazy amounts of risk to pray for the sick at supermarkets, airports, or at family gatherings. And guess what? People started getting healed.

I have found that most people have a hard time stepping out in risk in the Kingdom because they are too intimidated by what others will think. I want to suggest that you try getting absolutely drunk on the Spirit of God until you have no inhibitions left, and just see what kind of great “crazy” things God can do through your life. Remember, drunk people do crazy things!

Many are familiar with the phrase “yada, yada, yada,” made popular by the long-time sitcom, Seinfeld.  In the context of the show, the catchy phrase is used to imply, “O.K., enough already, get on with it, get to the point,” and is usually accompanied with one’s head tilted back and eyes rolling up for dramatic effect.  It refers to people being redundant, monotonous, or verbose.  It is also used as a fill in the blank phrase for details that are either unimportant or obvious to everyone.  That is how most of us have come to know the term “yada.”

The term “yada” is found throughout the Bible, although it has a much different meaning than depicted on Seinfeld.  In Genesis 4:1, we are told that, “Adam yada’d Eve, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain.  Some Bibles translate this word, yada, as “Adam knew Eve…,” while others translate it as, “Adam lay with Eve…”

Both translations are correct, but there is more to this word, yada, than even these two translations depict.  Yada is a Hebrew word found in the Old Testament that means to “know” in five distinct dimensions.  Importantly, all five aspects, or dimensions, are essential in comprehending the full meaning of yada.  The Greek word, ginosko, in the New Testament has a very similar interpretive connotation to yada, and is used in place of yada in the Old Testament Greek Septuagint version.

The first dimension of yada is to know something or someone in complete detail.   It means to study, analyze, or investigate something until you know something or someone completely.  It is to know something like a detective would seek to know the details of a mystery.

How much more of God is there to know?  How many of us have a complete revelation of His nature, personality, attributes, and ways?  How many of us have read the same scriptures over and over for years, and then have a truth jump out at us that we had never seen there before?

I call these “Waldo encounters.” When my son was growing up, the Where is Waldo books were very popular.  Of course, the object of the book was to find Waldo hidden in the pages of crowds of people.  Invariably, my son would bring his new book to me, asking me to find Waldo.  After my unsuccessful search, my son would point and excitedly exclaim, “There’s Waldo.” Immediately, Waldo became 4 feet by 4 feet on the page to me.  I had received a revelation!  From that time forth, every time I would turn to the page where I had discovered Waldo, I could immediately point him out as though I had known where he was my whole life.

In Ephesians 1:17, the apostle Paul prays that the Ephesian believers would have a “spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know Him better”.  In other words, they needed more detail in order to yada/ginosko God better.  Furthermore, even though they already knew God, there was still more to know.  Therefore, they needed a spirit of wisdom and revelation.   They needed repeated Waldo encounters.  Yada, yada, yada

The second dimension of yada is to know something technically.  It is to know how
something works technically.  It is part of the wisdom that Paul was praying for in Ephesian 1:17.  It is not just knowing that something does work, but also how it works.  Wisdom is knowing how something works in all of its aspects.

During my first ministry staff position in 1982, we were given a car.  About a month later, the engine blew up.  The rest of the car was in pretty good shape, and we did not have the finances available for a new car, so I decided to save some money and fix the engine myself.  I figured that since I had a college degree, although it was in biblical studies, I should be able to follow the manual step by step with no problems even though I had no previous experience working on cars.

In all of my wisdom, I decided to take off each part of the engine and place the parts in chronological order on the single shelf that I had tacked up around my one car garage.  I figured that I would just put all of the parts back from the opposite side of the garage — how hard could it be.  Well, after almost blowing my head off, singing my eyebrow hair and top of my head, from pulling off the air-conditioner hose full of compressed anti-freeze, the unthinkable happened.  Just as I had most of the engine parts on the shelving, the weight sent all of the parts in a heap on the garage floor.

By the time I got the engine back in, I had brackets, bolts, and parts that I could not recognize and/or manage to replace, so I just left them out or bent them to fit.  Of course, when I went to start the newly rebuilt and installed engine, it would not start.  Over and over I tried to no avail.  Finally, I had to call a mechanic friend to come over and help.  After five minutes, he just shook his head and said, “Kevin, you have completely destroyed this engine.  I’ll have to take it out and redo the work, and replace it.”  By the time he finished rebuilding and replacing the engine, it cost twice as much as if I had have just taken the car to a certified mechanic in the first place!

A lot of people know about God, but how many actually know God so well that they know the intricacies of how He operates, the keys that unlock His presence in our lives?  Yada is not just knowing the details about God, but also knowing His ways, as Moses prayed in Ex. 33:13, “If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so I may know you (yada) and continue to find favor with you.” Yada is being able to understand God’s ways, so that we can take out of Him what we need, as well as putting back into Him the things He desires from us to further our releationship.  Yada, yada, yada.

The third dimension of yada is to know God by personal experience.  A lot of people know about God, but God wants us to know Him through encounters in which we personally experience His presence.

If I offered to take you to Hawaii on an all expense-paid vacation, would you get a little excited as you thought about the white, sandy beaches, the coconut aroma on the tropic breezes, and the mesmerizing waves lapping towards your lounge chair as the rest of the world is washed away?  Well, what if I told you that I was going to be flying the plane, and that I had never actually flown a plane, but I had read the manual and know everything there is to know about flying.  Would you still be excited about going to Hawaii with me?

If you answered “yes” to that question, then you are crazy!  You should never fly with someone who has never actually flown a plane!  Yet, how many suffice to just read the manual (the Bible), thinking that doing that alone will enable them to have a personal relationship with God.  And then we think that the world is going to want to fly with us to the Kingdom of God, when we have no personal experience.

God wants us to have an encounter, so that we become an encounter, so that others can have an encounter.  Yada is experiencing a personal encounter with God, so we become a habitation of His presence, and then “leaking” His presence to others around us through signs and wonders, miracles, healings, and prophetic insights from His heart, so that they have a personal encounter with His presence.

In the first two chapters of the book of Habakkuk, Habakkuk is asking God for the solution to the world’s problems.  His complaint was basically that it seemed like the enemy was winning.  God’s answer is found in chapter two, verse 14:  “The knowledge of the glory of the Lord will cover the earth as the waters cover the seas.”

For years, I quoted this verse as “The glory of the Lord…,” leaving out “The knowledge” (yada).  There is a huge difference between the glory of the Lord covering the earth, and our experiencing the glory that is covering the earth.  God wants us to personally experience His glory in our lives.  He wants us to have a personal Waldo encounter.

In John 8:32, Jesus said, “You will know (yada/ginosko) the truth, and the truth will set you free.  It is only as we have personal encounters with God (the truth) that we will be set free to set others free and see the glory of the Lord cover the earth as the waters cover the seas.  Yada, yada, yada.

The fourth dimension of yada is to have a face-to-face encounter.  It is one thing to encounter God’s goodness expressed in physical healing, forgiveness, intervention, provision, or blessing, but God desires an up-close and personal face-to-face encounter.  Our heavenly Father does not desire an absenttee relationship with His children in which He just sends the things we need and desire from afar.  No, His desire is to reveal himself to His children every day.

When my children were growing up, we would often play “hide and seek.” There was an excitement in my children’s voice every time they would plead with me to hide just one more time!  There was an excitement in the anticipation of finding me hidden out of sight in the closet or behind a door.  Of course, if I hid myself so well that they could never find me, they would eventually give up and not want to play anymore, but because I wanted to be found, I would hide in such a way that they could find me as they searched.  Our heavenly Father wants to be found.  In Isaiah 55:6, we are encouraged to “Seek the Lord while he may be found.”  In James 4:8, we are reminded that if we come near to Him, He will come near to us. Yada is drawing near to God for a face-to-face personal encounter.

A lot of people know about God — they know what He looks like; they can recognize His works demonstrated in miraculous interventionary acts, but do they actually know the person they can recognize?  I think I could recognize George W. Bush anywhere, but I do not have a face-to-face relationship, primarily because he wouldn’t know me from Adam.  I have no access to George W. Bush, and therefore, do not know (yada) him; we are not close.

Moses had a face-to-face relationship with God – he yada’d with God; he had a close, personal relationship.  The people, on the other hand, chose to distance themselves in Exodus 20:21.  So, the people got the law instead of relationship.  Religious performance is always the substitute of personal face-to-face encounters with God.  Conversely, God’s heart is to deliver us from the law, offering personal relationship as He continually stands at the door of our heart knocking (Revelation 3:20).  Yada, yada, yada.

The fifth, and final dimension of yada is sexual intimacy.  Some may even say that this fifth dimension cannot be fully experienced until a person has comprehensively satisfied the first four dimensions.  The aim of yada is intimacy.  God’s desire is to have a comprehensive, personal, face-to-face, intimate encounter with each one of us.  God wants to yada with us every day.

Certainly, the Song of Solomon is a depiction of God’s desire for intimacy with His people.  In the New Testament, we are described as the “bride of Christ,” and in 1 Corinthians 7, Paul correlates the relationship of Christ and the Church to a husband and wife in marriage.  In 1 Peter 1:23 and 1 John 3:9, we are reminded that God’s seed is in us.  The Greek word for “seed” is sperma, from which we get the English word, sperm.  In other words, God has deposited His Holy Spirit inside of us as an ongoing commitment to intimacy with us.

Furthermore, just as Adam knew (yada) Eve and she became fruitful, bearing a son, so too, God desires us to be fruitful in bearing spiritual children.  Fruitfulness, however, is born out of intimacy.  That intimacy is born out of knowing God in detail and technical wisdom, leading to a personal face-to-face encounter.

God wants to use us to change the world.  We are the answer, the solution for the world  — “Christ in you the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27).  Before God’s glory can flow through us, we must experience His glory, His presence in us.  The supernatural lifestyle flows out of a yada relationship with God.  In John 15:5, Jesus said, “If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”

I want to be like the Apostle Paul, who in Philippians 3:10, exclaimed, “I want to know (yada/ginosko) Christ and the power of His resurrection…” in that order.  The signs and wonders are needed to convince the world, but the object is a growing, personal, intimate face-to-face encounter, not only for us, but for all of those who so desperately need a yada encounter with God.

So, I want to encourage you:  YADA, YADA, YADA