Being exposed to the phenomenal work being done in China with the biblical concept of, “House Church” made a great impact on me. Upon my return home, I researched a group that began in China around 1980 called “Three Self Patriot Movement”. This was an effort to found Christian house churches after the Cultural Revolution. Today the leaders and authorities of this massive body of believers (80 million house churches) are answerable directly to the Communist Party. This in time has spawned many underground house churches who are hungry for the pure word, as well as genuine apostolic ministry. There greatest need at this time is for teachers. These people already congregate in homes by the thousands. I was reminded of the account in Acts 2 & 3 where Peter and John went daily to the Temple for prayer and went house to house to minister the word, break bread together in fellowship and in prayers.

Acts 2:46-3:1 (46) And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, (47) Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved. (Acts 3:1) Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour.

Seeing the boldness on these beautiful people to worship and praise God while meeting in secrecy and under threat of safety will mark me for life. Most all of these precious souls would never hope to meet in public buildings, nor is there intent or desire to ever hang an organizational sign on them. Most only go on a first name basis for the protection of others. God alone knows the true number of saints there and I doubt there will ever be an attendance record kept. One’s motive would surely come into check as we in America have placed so much emphasis on buildings and extended great effort to incorporate organizational names to our structure. I now possess a greater vision of how the Lord wants to work through his church in America, as well as in the earth. From this day forward I am taking a fresh look at all my ministerial involvements, as well as personal motive and making adjustments where necessary to better serve the kingdom of God.

Our Lord Jesus spoke about the parable of the fig tree, showing that when the tree put forth its TENDER BRANCHES you can tell that summer was very near, using the illustration from nature to show how we could tell about HIS COMING. I am lifting the example from the setting to speak about TENDER BRANCHES.

Having a TENDERNESS in us is the first stage for the next level of GROWTH. Growth only occurs when the branches are YET TENDER, what a challenge to all of us. Maybe the progress and growth many of us are desiring has not come, due to the fact that TENDERNESS is not working in us, so that the next STAGE can happen. There is a time when the branches must be TOUCH AND HARD; that time is WINTER. The branches HARDEN to brace themselves against the HARD, COLD SEASON called WINTER. Hardships of winter include the terrible cold, fierce winds, and various animals foraging for food.

It is alright for us to have HARDENING, OR TOUGHNESS, which is needful in TIMES OF TRIAL, WINTER, AND COLD EXPERIENCES. Once the trial is over, we must allow God to SOFTEN us again, so that through being TENDER, we can experience a new level of growth and fruitfulness.

In the natural world, when winter is over, the branches do NOT REMAIN TOUGH, there comes to it THAWING AND TENDERNESS; the same thing must happen in us. We must PERMIT GOD to SOFTEN US, so GROWTH may happen, for NEW GROWTH ONLY HAPPENS WHEN WE ARE TENDER…. Remember, SUMMER prepares us for the next season, which is a TIME OF HARVEST; each stage is connected to the next. We must not become BITTER, HARD OR CRITICAL, but we must SEEK TO BE MADE TENDER after trials and tests. As soon as its branches become TENDER, it PUTS FORTH LEAVES. Ask God to help you to be balanced between TOUGH AND TENDER, for your next stage of GROWTH is determined by the condition of the previous one….

One of the very first actions of God that we read about in the Old Testament is the act of speaking out. The desire of the spirit of God was manifest through utterance when the scripture declares, “God said.” 
Whatever the form, we conclude that there was a thought of God that expressed itself through speaking out. 
That spoken utterance produced something. We call it creation. God said, “Let there be light, and there was light.” 

Everything that we read about God’s creation began with thought, which was manifested through spoken utterance. This is one of the most powerful principles to carry through the ages. This, of course, is only true because the words being spoken are those of God. His word is a living force.

The word “said” comes from the Hebrew word AMAR, which means to say, to speak, to utter. Jesus said in Matthew the 12th chapter “From the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.” Therefore we conclude that utterance has its origin in thoughts of the heart as far as man is concerned. We can make a fair assumption that God’s thoughts are also manifested in utterance, which is followed by created action. God said and then it happened. All things created were preceded by utterance.

This is why I personally contend that an unspoken prayer is not prayer at all but only a thought. The thought that is spoken out is prayer, and becomes empowered at the point of verbal utterance. The scripture declares that God’s spirit moved upon the face of the waters, but there was no creative force in action until “God said” or spoke out, uttered speech. First comes utterance, and then comes performance. God emphasized this through the prophets Ezekiel and Jeremiah.

Ezekiel 12:25
25 For I am the LORD: I will speak, and the word that I shall speak shall come to pass; it shall be no more prolonged: for in your days, O rebellious house, will I say the word, and will perform it, saith the Lord GOD.

Jeremiah 1:12
12 Then said the LORD unto me, Thou hast well seen: for I will hasten
my word to perform it.

This is the power of God’s word.  Man’s word is not so. 

Man’s word is the product of his own mind and the thoughts of his own heart. 
The word “philosophy” comes from the Greek root word PHILOS, which means: love of words. 
Paul said “Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.” 
Men throughout the ages have had a love for their own words, perceptions and concepts concocted by human intelligence through deductive reasoning.
The power of GOD’S word is in its origination.  God’s word on any given situation is final, when He hath spoken it. 

The Old Testament is filled with instances where we read, “And the word of the Lord came to_______” and then a prophet is named. 
We now understand that men simply gave themselves to the inspiration of God as it came and then they spoke it out. 

2 Peter 1:21
21 For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.

We read in both Isaiah and Jeremiah a repeated statement from the Lord. He said “I have put my words in thy mouth.” 

Jeremiah 1:9-10
9 Then the LORD put forth his hand, and touched my mouth. And the LORD said unto me, Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth.
10 See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant.

The weapons of our warfare, which are mighty though God are activated when we lend ourselves to prayer and wait on him for his words, and then speak them out. 

Remember, it was His words that He said would not return unto him void, but would accomplish that which it was sent to do. 

STRONGS – IDLE – 692 argos 
(ar-gos’); inactive, i.e. unemployed; (by implication) lazy, useless: barren, idle.  

Jesus said, “If you abide in me and my words abide in you, you shall ask what you will and it shall be done unto you.”   He preceded this with the statement, “I am the vine, and you are the branches…the branch cannot bear fruit of itself.”  Our words are the product of human thought. His words are the product of divine thought.  His thoughts are much higher than our thoughts. When we wait on God for the inspiration of His words, it is sure to prove successful and surely to bless our prayer life and all that is produced through it.

The apostle Paul, while writing to the church at Rome, made a strong reference to this principle when he wrote…

Romans 10:8-9
8 But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach;
9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

Believing in one’s heart has its own merit as it is the word conceived, but this word is empowered when confession is made. His word when spoken is married with faith, which brings the power of God into force. Therefore God’s words unspoken keep his power in check and void from one’s life and prayers.

His word that comes through inspiration, which I fail to speak out, is like a dormant grain of seed.  It is inactive and dormant, full of God’s life giving force, yet inactive when unspoken. 
In Matthew 12, Jesus made reference to idle words that we would give account for. Thayer’s and Strong’s definitions for the Greek word for IDLE are very similar and bring considerable meaning to Jesus statement.

THAYERS – IDLE – 692
argos-

1) free from labor, at leisure 2) lazy, shunning the labor which one ought to perform

STRONGS – IDLE – 692
argos (ar-gos’); inactive, i.e. unemployed; (by implication) lazy, useless: barren, idle.

While we all realize our responsibility to words that we speak to others whether they are meant to bless or to curse,
but do we fully understand the relevance to responding with involvement when we receive God’s word to be spoken in prayer or prophesy?  The empowerment to this word comes when
we speak it out, or utter it.

Prophecy, on the other hand, is usually viewed as foretelling what God is going to do in the future. Jonah was used in this way to bring Nineveh to repentance, which he did.
Another view of prophetic utterance is that these spoken words of God’s inspiration actually put into action God’s intended plan.  By principle we see this revealed in scripture over and over again.

As we stated previously, God spoke, then it was performed. One of the greatest examples of this principle was used when God asked Ezekiel, “Can these bones live?”  Then God said, “Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the LORD.”
He did not just tell Ezekiel to speak to the bones, but he gave him the words to say.  This is utterance in its truest form. We tend to complicate this more than we should.
The Lord then told Ezekiel what to say to the wind. We read it as though there was conversational dialogue between two beings yet when we feel specific inspiration from the Lord we say, “God told me…”

It is no different than when Ezekiel heard the inspiration of God to prophesy to the wind. This is the word of God that will not return void, but accomplish that which it is sent to do. The ultimate goal and the basis of our prayer life should be to hear from God as we pray and pray his words or inspiration to the end that all will be done because our words became God’s words and God’s prayer.  How does Jesus make intercession if it is not through the body of Christ?