Testimony Tuesday: The Power of the Spoken Word

As a teen, I never had a problem with acne. It wasn’t until I was an adult, married and raising a family, that this monster surfaced in my life. 

Adult acne; really?! Ugh! It was the one thing that became a real stronghold for me for many years. I’m being vulnerable here when I say it made me want to hide. I felt less than beautiful on many occasions as well as insecure and self-conscious. And introspection is the worst thing. Because when we are focused on self, we aren’t focused on Jesus, Who is our real self. 

I love Corrie Ten Boom’s quote, “Look to the world and you will be distressed. Look to self and you will be depressed. Look to Jesus and you will be at rest.”

Looking back, I can see how a certain stressful situation many years ago was the access point or open door for the manifestation of this ailment. Back then, I didn’t know I could give all my burdens to my Savior and rest letting Him fight my battles.

But once I encountered Jesus and He revealed to me Who He is and what He did for me in His suffering, I knew that acne did not belong to me because Jesus bore it on His own body and gave me His health as my inheritance. 

During this time, the Lord gave me a handful of scriptures to speak over myself. Jesus, being the Eternal Word, was my reality, not what I was seeing in the natural. 

Everything in existence came to be by the spoken Word. God spoke and it was so. That’s why He loves it when you speak what you want to see, calling into existence that which does not currently exist. (See Romans 4:17).

One of my favorite pastors, Joseph Prince, once said, “As long as you are doing (as in trying or striving) the enemy is winning. But as long as you are speaking and resting, the enemy is losing.”

So, daily I would speak that my “flesh will be restored like a child’s and will return to the days of my youth.” (Job‬ ‭33:25‬). And “As Jesus is, so am I in this world.” (1 John 4:17b). Jesus doesn’t have acne so neither do I. 

The more my heart was being transformed by seeing Jesus and becoming more intimate with Him, the more I began to love myself with His love. 

When I would look in the mirror, I would bless my skin and body. I would actually tell myself “I love you. You are beautiful.” 

What I was doing was partnering with Heaven. I was aligning myself what my Father says of me, not with what I saw on the outside or what I was feeling in my seeming self-defeating moments.

It didn’t happen overnight. At times, it seemed to take forever to see physically what I was believing for. Yet, Jesus kept reminding me that the Word I was speaking was doing deeper things on the inside that would transform the outside. 

He was not just healing my skin; He was healing all the places in my heart where I had been believing lies about who I was. 

Then, the year just before my healing showed forth, my breakouts actually seemed to get worse. And that’s when the Lord told me that the enemy was “trying” to thwart what He had already released. 

The prince of lies was trying to get me to doubt God’s promise that “His Word spoken will not return to Him void without accomplishing what it was sent for.” (Isaiah 55:11).

In other words, if you want to know what the Lord is doing, look at what the enemy is bringing against you, reverse it and double it up! God never plays catch-up with a defeated foe. 

This is why it so important to believe right about God. Because you “become what you believe.” (Matthew 9:29 MSG).

Sure enough, after that difficult season, I saw a major breakthrough. It wasn’t instantaneous. But it was a profound change over the course of a fairly short time. 

One day I looked in the mirror and just felt so in awe of His goodness and love. I saw what I had been hoping for for years. (“Bible hope” is a confident expectation of God’s goodness). There was a radical change in my skin; even in my oil-producing glands.

Beloved, before Jesus was nailed to the cross, He suffered severely in His passion for you and me, taking our every disease and curse on His own body. 

His face was struck and beaten. His face was spat on taking my shame and humiliation. The Bible says He set His face like flint and even offered His cheeks for them to pluck out His beard. (See Isaiah 50:6-7). All so my face could be free from shame, full of confidence and radiance.

“By His wounds we are healed.” Isaiah 53:5

Sure, there are bouts of minor breakouts here and there. After all, we live in a fallen world where there are hormones! But health is mine in Him. And the Lord wants me to go into peace believing so. After asking, He even revealed to me the one face cleaning product that was perfect for me.

Today, I want to encourage you to believe that Jesus cares intimately about every single detail of your life. He paid a high price for you to be freely blessed and full of life in every area. Talk to Him about everything.

Then don’t stop believing that you are His beloved and that He rewards you, not for your works, but for your simple trust. Let the Word work for you. Partner with the Spirit of Faith living in you that says we believe therefore we speak! (2 Corinthians 4:13).

Resting In His Love,

Annalee Reyes