I recently heard a ministry by a full-blood Crow Native American in which he gave the illustration of “put your staff in the ground”. When an Indian put his staff, his spear, in the ground that meant “I am not backing down, I’m not turning around, I’m not giving up, it’s unto victory or death, and that’s it.” We can apply this to believing the Word. There is one thing we can know for sure, God is faithful to his Word, He cannot lie. The promises and provisions he has put into place through the work of Jesus Christ, are sure and steadfast. You can trust your life to that. The flip side to that coin is that for every promise there is a condition. Even the term referring to God’s “unconditional love” is not a ticket to sin and do our own thing and get by with it. God’s unconditional love is that he provided his Son Jesus Christ without any of our help or ability whatsoever. Through Jesus, God has provided full salvation in every way, spirit, soul, and body, family, financial, social, and eternally. It is “unconditional love” that provided this for us. It is there, in place, available to every person. It is like having a million dollars put in our bank account, just because God loved us enough to just do it for us. He offers it to us as a gift – “Here it is, take it”, he says. But what if you don’t reach out and take the gift. What if you just know about it, examine it, talk about it, and even tell others about it, but you yourself don’t take that gift and open it for yourself to incorporate it into your daily life? The condition to partaking of the spiritual understanding, empowerment, the peace, the joy, the healing, the freedom and liberty that is promised in the Word through Jesus Christ is that we believe. To believe is to confess and act upon it, without wavering. That’s where the “put our staff down” comes in. For us to be partakers of God’s provisions in his unconditional love for us, we are to believe that God is, and he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him (Hebrews 11:6). With that, we absolutely refuse to back down. God is faithful to his Word, regardless of our own or anyone’s experience we have heard about. One thing we need to hear and that is what God says, and there we put our spear in the ground. Our unwavering confession is that healing, wholeness, and empowerment is for me, my family, my church, and my nation. Our trust is that God is working through our prayers and our lives, as we change our ways to follow his ways, to bring about that blessing in every way. James said if we waver, we won’t receive, but to receive the Word without wavering is to receive deliverance (James 1). Put your spear in the ground!