Ifeanyi kept the card in the breast pocket of his shirt, where he could feel it against his chest all day. It was laminated, about the size of an ATM card folded twice, and printed on both sides in small gold letters. Twelve declarations, each with a Bible reference underneath. I am the head and not the tail. Every closed door is opened for me. My promotion is released in Jesus’ name. He had bought it at a weekend programme in Port Harcourt, as part of what was called a twenty-one-day breakthrough pack.
The instructions were printed on the back. Each declaration was to be spoken aloud seven times, at six in the morning, twelve noon and six in the evening, for twenty-one consecutive days. At the bottom, in bold, it said: Missing any session breaks the cycle. You must restart from Day 1.
Ifeanyi was a sales representative for a pharmaceutical distributor, and he wanted the area manager position that was opening in January. He started the cycle with real faith. He set three alarms on his phone. He declared in his car in traffic, in the toilet at the office at noon, under his breath at the pharmacy counters he visited. On Day 14, the power went off overnight, the generator ran out of fuel, and his phone died before the six o’clock alarm. He woke at seven, saw the time, and felt sick.
He restarted from Day 1. On the second attempt, he got to Day 17 before a long meeting with a client ran past noon. He restarted again. By the third attempt, he told me, he had stopped thinking about God at all during the declarations. He was thinking about the clock. He was counting repetitions on his fingers to make sure he had not said one only six times. When his mother called him at a quarter to six one evening, he cut her off. “I was so afraid of breaking the cycle,” he said, “that I forgot who I was talking to.”
I want to be very careful in this article, because I believe in declaring the Word of God. I believe there is power when a believer speaks what God has said. I have no wish to weaken anyone’s confidence in faith-filled speech. But there is a difference between declaring truth and running a formula. And when that difference is lost, people like Ifeanyi end up anxious and further from God, while sincerely trying to draw near.
Jesus really did tell us to speak
PunchlineLet us begin with the strongest words Jesus ever spoke about the mouth, because we must not weaken them to avoid misuse.
On the Monday of His final week, Jesus cursed a barren fig tree on the road into Jerusalem. On Tuesday morning, as they passed the same spot, the disciples saw that the tree had withered from the roots. Peter pointed it out in astonishment. And Jesus answered:
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 . And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.
These are extraordinary words, and they mean what they say. “Whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed... and shall not doubt in his heart... he shall have whatsoever he saith.” Jesus taught His disciples to speak in faith. He expected them to open their mouths and address obstacles. He promised that believing prayer would receive. A believer who has never spoken to a mountain has not yet taken hold of this teaching.
But notice how the teaching begins and how it ends.
It begins: “Have faith in God.” Before anything is said about mountains or mouths, Jesus directs the disciples to God. The faith in question is faith in God, and in nothing else: faith in faith, faith in words or faith in a technique of speaking cannot stand in for it. The words come out of a relationship of trust in Him. The power belongs to Him.
And it ends: “And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any.” Immediately after the most daring promise about speaking, Jesus turns to the condition of the heart toward other people. A reading of this passage that concentrates only on obtaining results will skip straight past this verse. Jesus does not. Faith-filled speech cannot be separated from a heart that is willing to receive and extend mercy.
So the passage that is most often used to support speaking in faith also contains, within its own verses, the guard-rails against turning it into a formula. God is the object of faith. Forgiveness is part of the posture. Speaking is the expression of a living trust, never a mechanism that works on its own.
How a declaration becomes a formula
What, then, is a formula? It is a practice that promises a result while reducing the relationship to a procedure. It moves the power from God to the method.
You can usually recognise a formula by its anxieties. The person begins to ask: Did I say it enough times? Did I use the exact words? Did I say them in the right order, at the right hour? Did I accidentally cancel it by saying something negative afterwards? Attention drifts away from the faithful God and becomes occupied with maintaining an invisible machine. The machine must be fed, or it stops.
That is very close to what Jesus warned against in the Sermon on the Mount: “But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do” (Matthew 6:7). The pagans believed that the right words, said the right number of times, would compel their gods to act. Their religion was a matter of technique. Get the incantation right, and the result follows. Get it wrong, and you must start again.
Now, repetition in itself is not the problem. Psalm 136 repeats the same line twenty-six times: “for his mercy endureth for ever.” In Gethsemane, Jesus prayed three times, “saying the same words” (Matthew 26:44). Returning to a promise again and again can help it take deeper root in the heart, just as reading a passage many times can deepen understanding. Many godly believers have a set of Scriptures they speak over their lives every morning, and they are strengthened by it.
The difference lies in what the repetition is doing. There is a world of difference between returning to a promise because you want it to sink deeper into your heart, and repeating a phrase because you fear that God cannot act if you miss a session. The first nourishes trust. The second slowly replaces trust with anxiety, while appearing outwardly diligent. Ifeanyi was saying true things, many of them from Scripture. But the instructions on the back of the card had quietly turned them into an incantation.
The tell-tale signs are usually numbers, sequences and guarantees that Scripture itself never gives. Seven times. Three times a day. Twenty-one consecutive days. Restart if you miss. Scripture nowhere sets those requirements. They are human additions, and they place a burden on believers that God never placed there.
NuggetA declaration serves faith when it turns your attention toward God. It becomes a formula when it turns your attention toward the method.
Seven sons and a borrowed name
The book of Acts contains one of the most vivid warnings in the New Testament against treating spiritual words as a technique. It happened in Ephesus, a city famous throughout the Roman world for magic.
Paul had been teaching there for two years, and God was doing remarkable things. Luke tells us that “God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul,” so that handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and diseases left them and evil spirits went out (Acts 19:11-12). Word spread. And some travelling Jewish exorcists decided to try the same thing:
Then certain of the vagabond Jews, exorcists, took upon them to call over them which had evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, We adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preacheth. And there were seven sons of one Sceva, a Jew, and chief of the priests, which did so. And the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are ye? And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, and overcame them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. And this was known to all the Jews and Greeks also dwelling at Ephesus; and fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified.
Listen to the words they used. “We adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preacheth.” They had the right name. They had heard Paul use it, and they had seen what happened when he did. They assumed that the power was in the word itself, that if they said “Jesus” in the right way, the result would follow. They were treating the name of the Lord as a spell.
And the evil spirit answered: “Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are ye?” That is a chilling sentence. The spirit recognised Jesus. It recognised Paul, who belonged to Jesus. But it did not recognise these men, because they had no relationship with the One whose name they were using. They had borrowed the name without knowing the Person. The man with the evil spirit leaped on them and overpowered all seven, and they fled from the house naked and wounded.
The name of Jesus is not a password. In Scripture, a name stands for the person himself, his character, his authority and his presence. To pray or act “in the name of Jesus” is to come under His lordship and act as His representative. Attaching a powerful word to the end of a request, as though the word did the work, misses the point entirely. Jesus warned that on the last day, some will say, “Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils?” (Matthew 7:22), and He will answer, “I never knew you: depart from me” (Matthew 7:23). Using the name is not the same as knowing the Lord.
Now look at what happened next in Ephesus:
And many that believed came, and confessed, and shewed their deeds. Many of them also which used curious arts brought their books together, and burned them before all men : and they counted the price of them, and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver. So mightily grew the word of God and prevailed.
The people of Ephesus understood the lesson immediately. Fear fell on them, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified. Many believers came and confessed their deeds. Those who had practised “curious arts,” a phrase that means magic, brought their books of spells and burned them publicly. Luke tells us the value was fifty thousand pieces of silver, a fortune.
That is significant. The new believers in Ephesus recognised that the gospel and magic are opposites. Magic says: learn the right words and you can control spiritual power. The gospel says: come to Jesus, bow to Him, and He will work through you as He wills. They did not try to Christianise their spell books by replacing the old names with “Jesus.” They burned them. “So mightily grew the word of God and prevailed.”
The authority of Jesus is real. Demons do flee at His name when it is spoken by those who belong to Him. That is precisely why His name must never be treated casually or sold as part of a secret technique.
Faith rests in a Person
PunchlineIf a formula moves the power to the method, true faith keeps the power where it belongs: in God Himself.
The writer to the Hebrews says, “he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him” (Hebrews 11:6). Faith believes two things about God: that He exists, and that He rewards those who seek Him. Its object is a Person. Its reward comes from a Person.
Jesus describes the setting for confident asking in John 15: “If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you” (John 15:7). That is as bold a promise as Mark 11. Ask what ye will. But it sits inside a relationship. Abide in Me. Let My words abide in you. The branch that is joined to the vine bears fruit because the life of the vine flows through it. The asking grows out of the abiding.
What does abiding do to our declarations? It shapes them. When His words live in you, they begin to shape your desires. You find yourself asking for the things He wants, because you have been listening to Him. John writes, “if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us” (1 John 5:14). Abiding is how we come to know His will. A formula tries to keep the result while skipping the abiding. It wants the fruit without the vine.
This is also why a missed session cannot break anything that matters. Ifeanyi’s relationship with God did not depend on his phone battery. The Son’s redemption is not undone by an alarm that failed to ring. If the result of a declaration depended on unbroken observance of a schedule, then our standing before God would rest on our performance after all, and the gospel would be lost. But it does not. You can miss a morning and still be in Christ. You can say a declaration six times instead of seven and still be heard, because you are heard through Jesus, not through your count.
If the Lord will
James adds another guard-rail, and it concerns the confident announcements we make about the future:
Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.
The businessmen in this passage were not wicked men. They were making ordinary plans: travel to a city, stay a year, trade, make a profit. The problem was that they spoke about the future as though it were entirely in their control. They left God out of the sentence.
“For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.” James is not forbidding planning, and he is not telling us to attach “if the Lord wills” to every sentence as another kind of formula. He is calling for a humble posture. Our lives are a vapour. The future belongs to God. We speak about it as people who depend on Him.
This matters for declarations. Some declarations claim things that God has clearly promised: forgiveness, His presence, His provision of our needs, the Spirit’s help, the hope of resurrection. Those we can speak boldly, without “if,” because He has already said them. Other declarations claim specific outcomes that God has not promised: a particular promotion by January, a particular house, a particular person as a spouse. Those things may be good desires. We may pray for them with faith and expectation. But declaring them as guaranteed, by a specific date, goes beyond what God has said. It turns a request into a demand.
James also speaks to motive. Earlier in the same chapter he writes, “Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts” (James 4:3). A strong sentence cannot sanctify a selfish desire. If the result supposedly depends only on correct wording, the heart never has to be examined. Formulas are attractive partly for that reason: they let us skip the question of why we want what we want.
Suppose someone is declaring every day that God will give him a larger platform in ministry. There may be a genuine opportunity to serve. There may also be envy of another minister, or the hope that recognition will heal an old insecurity. A declaration cannot settle the matter just by being spoken forcefully. The desire needs the light of Christ’s Word. And the Father can correct a desire without withdrawing His welcome. You can ask Him to show you what has become mixed in your heart, and receive His instruction. That prayer may bear far more fruit than repeating a prediction while refusing to hear any question about its purpose.
Speaking to your own soul
None of this means we should abandon declarations. Misuse does not cancel right use. Scripture itself shows us a healthy way of speaking truth aloud, and David models it:
Bless the LORD , O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the LORD , O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases; Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies; Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
David is speaking to himself. “Bless the LORD, O my soul.” He addresses his own soul first, and tells it what to do. Then he reminds himself of what God has done: forgiven all iniquities, healed diseases, redeemed life from destruction, crowned with lovingkindness and tender mercies, satisfied with good things. Forget not all his benefits.
That is a declaration in the best sense. It takes what God has said and done, and speaks it aloud so that the heart remembers. Its whole aim is to lift the soul toward God in worship. Nothing in it tries to compel God to act. It is praise.
Another psalmist does the same thing in a darker season: “Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? hope thou in God” (Psalm 42:5). He speaks to his own discouragement and directs it toward God.
So how can you tell whether your practice of declaration is healthy? Ask a few simple questions.
- Is it grounded in what God has actually said, read in its context, or in a slogan that merely sounds biblical?
- Is it turning my attention toward God, or toward my performance of the practice?
- Am I more at rest, or more anxious, since I began it?
- Does it include room for God’s wisdom about how and when He answers?
- Is my heart toward other people, including forgiveness, part of the picture?
Ifeanyi’s card failed the second and third questions badly. His original Bible verses would have passed the first. The trouble lay in what the instructions had built around those truths.
Keep the biblical truth. Remove any unwarranted claim about numbers, sequences or guaranteed timing. Then let the practice direct your attention back to the Lord. Praise Him for His character. Confess Jesus as Lord. Speak the hope His promises give. Bring your specific needs into prayer, and stay open to His wisdom about the answer.
Teachers, payments and the Berean habit
A final word is needed about where formulas usually come from. Very often, they are taught by someone who claims special insight, and sometimes they are sold.
Be cautious whenever a teacher offers exclusive phrases, secret sequences or “prophetic codes” that are not found in Scripture, especially when access to them requires a payment. When Simon the sorcerer in Samaria offered the apostles money for the power to impart the Holy Spirit, Peter’s answer was blunt: “Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money” (Acts 8:20). The gospel is announced openly, to everyone, free of charge.
That does not mean every teacher who encourages declarations is a fraud. Many sincere ministers have helped believers grow in faith-filled speech. But faithful ministry helps people become grounded in Christ and responsible in their own fellowship with the Father. It does not make them dependent on a minister’s private methods.
And a faithful leader should always be willing to explain the biblical basis of a practice. Luke commends a particular congregation for exactly this:
And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea: who coming thither went into the synagogue of the Jews. These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.
The Bereans received the Word “with all readiness of mind.” They were eager, open and hungry. But they also “searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” They checked even the apostle Paul’s teaching against the Bible, and Luke calls them “more noble” for doing it.
Questions should never be treated as rebellion merely because they require an examination of something familiar. The Word of God can withstand careful reading. A private claim should not be protected from it. If someone tells you that a declaration must be said exactly seven times, you are entitled to ask, kindly and respectfully, “Where does Scripture say that?”
Ifeanyi’s third cycle broke down on Day 9. That Saturday he had promised to drive an old man from his church, Baba Sule, to a clinic appointment. Baba Sule was a retired headmaster, nearly eighty, who had been a deacon in the church for longer than Ifeanyi had been alive. On the way home, the old man asked him why he kept glancing at the clock on the dashboard. Ifeanyi, embarrassed, took out the card and explained.
Baba Sule read both sides slowly. Then he laughed, not unkindly, and handed it back. “My son,” he said, “I have said Psalm 103 every morning for forty-one years. Do you know how many mornings I have missed? Hundreds. I have overslept. I have been sick. I have been in hospital. Once I forgot because my first grandson was born at four in the morning.” He shook his head. “Do you think God stopped forgiving my iniquities on those days? Do you think He stopped being good because I overslept?”
When they reached the old man’s house, Baba Sule asked Ifeanyi to come in. They sat in the small parlour, and Baba Sule prayed for him. It was the simplest prayer Ifeanyi had ever heard. “Father, You know this young man. You know what he needs. You have promised to supply all his need according to Your riches in glory by Christ Jesus. I thank You that You have never failed me, and You will not fail him. Have Your way in his work. Amen.” It took less than a minute.
That evening, at home, Ifeanyi took out the card and a biro. He did not throw it away. The verses on the front were true, and he still loved them. But on the back, he drew a line through every word of the instructions. Then he put the card inside his Bible, at Psalm 103.
He did not get the area manager position in January. He got it eighteen months later, after the company restructured, which no declaration could have predicted. But he told me that the bigger change happened the evening he crossed out the instructions. “I started talking to God again,” he said, “instead of talking at a clock.”
Speak the Word boldly. Say to your mountain what God has said about it. Bless the Lord, O your soul, and forget not all His benefits. But keep your eyes on the God you are speaking to. The power is in Him. The name belongs to a Person you know. And no missed alarm can undo what His Son has done.
Teaching Companion
For Reflection
- Do you have a practice of declaration or confession that has become anxious or mechanical? What signs do you notice?
- How do the opening and closing verses of Mark 11:22-25 guard Jesus’ teaching on speaking from becoming a formula?
- What does the story of the sons of Sceva teach you about the difference between using Jesus’ name and knowing Him?
- Which of your declarations are grounded in what God has clearly promised, and which go beyond what He has said?
- Is there any teaching you have accepted that you have never checked against Scripture, as the Bereans did?
This Week
Take any declarations or confessions you regularly use and write them out on a single sheet of paper. Next to each one, write the Bible passage it comes from, and read that passage in its context. Keep every truth that Scripture clearly supports. Cross out any rule about numbers, timings or sequences that Scripture does not give. Then, each morning this week, read Psalm 103:1-5 aloud as David did, speaking to your own soul, and spend a few minutes simply thanking God for one of His benefits.
A Prayer
Father, I trust You as the living God. Thank You that the power of faith rests in You and not in my method. Forgive me for the times I have turned Your promises into a formula and forgotten who I was speaking to. Thank You that the name of Jesus is not a password, but the name of my Lord, whom I know and who knows me. Let Your words abide in me and shape my desires. Teach me to speak Your Word boldly, to forgive freely, and to say “if the Lord will” with a humble heart. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Truth received brings freedom. Truth believed establishes the heart.
Scripture quotations are from the King James Version. · Illustrations using first names only are composites unless stated otherwise.