Let's consider this scripture from the 119th Psalm:

Psalms 119:92 - "Unless your law had been my delight, I would then have perished in my affliction."

If we examine the 119th Psalm, which is the exact middle of the Bible and the longest chapter in the Bible, we find that every single verse contains a reference to a synonym for God's word. These synonyms include the words "commandment, statute, judgment, testimony, ordinance and law". Look at verses 16, 24 and 35. But notice that every few verses God clarifies what all these synonyms mean by making direct references to His word, see verses 11, 17 and 25. In fact of the 176 verses in this Psalm, 42 verses have direct references to "The Word". Revisiting then the above verse 92 we can substitute the word "word" for the word "law" with confidence:

Psalms 119:92 - "Unless your word had been my delight, I would then have perished in my affliction.

Why does God's word keep me from defeat? Because God's word alone is to me:

• Light and understanding:

  • Psalms 119:130 - The entrance of your words (into my heart) gives light; it gives understanding unto the simple.

• Life, the actual life of God in me; :John 6:63 - It is the Spirit that gives life; the flesh profits nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.

• Health or medicine to my body:

  • Proverbs 4:20-22 My son (daughter), attend to my words; . . . keep them in the midst of your heart. For they are life to those that find them, and health to all their flesh.

• Cleansing from sin:

  • John 15:3 (Jesus speaking) Now you are clean through the word which I have spoken to you.

• Food for my spirit, the only way I can grow:

  • Jeremiah 15: 16 Your words were found, and I did eat them;

  • Psalms 119:103 How sweet are your words unto my taste!

  • I Peter 2:2 . . . desire the sincere milk of the word, that you may grow thereby:

Is it true that the more I exercise the hungrier I will become? Even so it is the same in the spirit, the more I exercise spiritually, that is pray, witness, disciple, teach, and minister, the hungrier for God's word I will become. If I don't exercise my appetite for God's words and all that He wants to do for me and through me by His words, will diminish and I will suffer defeat.

When God's words are in me, my heart connected to my tongue then becomes my spiritual feet.

Let's consider these familiar verses of scripture:

• Ephesians 6:15 And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;

• Isaiah 52:7 How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bring good news, announcing peace; that bring glad tidings of good things, that proclaim salvation; that say to Zion, your God reigns!

Feet shod with the gospel? How beautiful are the feet, that bring good news?

What does this mean? I don't preach the gospel with my natural feet, I preach the gospel with my mouth (but only when my mouth is connected to my heart and only then when my heart is full of the gospel). Precisely, it is this heart mouth connection when given over to God's word that becomes our spiritual feet:

• Luke 6:45 A good man (or woman) out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth that which is good (God's words); and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.

It is with the good words of our mouths, borne from our hearts - that is with our spiritual feet - that we begin to gain victory over our spiritual enemies and begin to take the spiritual land for God. This taking of spiritual land with our feet (words) was pre-figured in the Old Testament:

• Joshua 14:9 And Moses swore on that day, saying, Surely the land whereon your feet have trodden shall be your inheritance, and your children's for eve r, because you have wholly followed the LORD my God.

In the same vein, wherever our spiritual feet tread - God's words spoken out of our hearts with an anointing through our lips - becomes our inheritance and we possess the land. As is indicated in these New Testament scriptures:

• Mark 11 :23 For verily I say unto you, That whoever shall say to this mountain, Be removed, and be cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he says shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he says:

• Romans 10:10 For with the heart man believes unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

• II Cor. 4:13 We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak;

Look at the consistent linkage here between believing and speaking, in these scriptures. Victory doesn't come, maybe in taking back some area of our lives that was stolen from us, until we both believe with our hearts God's word and then under the unction of His Holy Spirit speak those words out of our mouths - and take back that land with our feet - our spiritual feet.

When we speak wrong words we are defiled and our feet get dirty

• Matthew 15:11 Not that which goes into the mouth defiles a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defiles a man.

• James 3:6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defiles the whole body, ...

• Proverbs 6:2 You are snared with the words of your mouth, you are taken with the words of your mouth.

• Proverbs 13:3 He that keeps his mouth keeps his life:

We become defiled, spiritually dirty when we entertain wrong words in our hearts and then speak them with our lips. That's when our spiritual feet are made dirty and need to be washed.

• John 13:10 Jesus said to him, He that is washed needs only to wash his feet, ...

• John 13:12 So after he had washed their feet, ... he said unto them, do you Know what I have done to you?

• John 13:14 If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; you also ought to wash one another's feet.

Everything Jesus said and did primarily had a spiritual application. Was this all about washing physical feet or was it rather about washing the spiritual feet of our brothers and sisters who were once made totally clean by the blood of Christ but now may have become defiled? And how do we spiritually wash one another's spiritual feet? Why with living water of course, the Spirit breathed word of God:

• Ephesians 5:25 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;

• Ephesians 5:26 That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,

• John 15:3 Now you are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you

We wash each other's hearts and thereby each other's feet daily by speaking the word of God to one another by the Spirit. Or we wash our own feet:

• Psalms 119:59 ... (I) turned my feet unto your testimonies (words)

This is why, Jesus Christ who is the word of God is referred to as the High Priest of our profession, that is, of the words we profess or confess. He alone desires to be the author and inspiration of the words that we speak from our hearts and so become the High Priest of our profession:

• Hebrews 3:1 Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus;

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