Monday, December 6, 2010
Faith Blockers
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Faith Pt. 3 - Move Your Mountain!
In Mark 11 we see Jesus and the disciples going to the temple, and Jesus sees a lying fig tree (the fig trees in that area grew leaves when they had fruit on them, so by having leaves and no fruit, this tree was a liar,) and cursed the tree and told it that no one would eat fruit from it again. Peter sees the tree the next day, and he remembers Jesus cursing the tree, so he reminds everyone about it. Jesus then begins to explain the principles behind what happened. Picking up in the 22nd verse, "So Jesus answered and said to them, “Have faith in God. 23 For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. 24 Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them."
Wow. So much in there. Faith in God is the way we get results! That's what Jesus was saying in verse 22. He continues to tell them how to use their faith in God, "whoever says to this mountain." So notice, you have to do the saying. All the power in the world could be there, ready and waiting to work on your behalf, but it won't work until you speak. It's not that odd if you think about it, even God has to operate on those same principles. If you don't believe, look at Genesis 1, it talks about the Spirit of God, or the Holy Spirit moving on the waters. That means the power is there, ready to work. Notice though, that nothing happened, UNTIL GOD SAID, "Light be!", and then light was. So speaking faith filled words brings results. You have to initiate it.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Faith Pt. 2 - Giving Evidence to the Unseen
Hebrews 11:1 says, "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Yesterday, we went fairly deep into the first half of that verse. Faith is now. And there has to be substance to your hope for your faith to work. But let's look at the second part of that verse. The evidence of things not seen. What does that mean? Well, let's look at the Amplified translation. "NOW FAITH is the assurance (the confirmation, (the title deed) of the things [we] hope for, being the proof of things [we] do not see and the conviction of their reality [faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses]."
Faith is the title deed to what we are believing for! I really like that, but let's break apart the second part of that verse. "Faith...being the proof of things [we] do not see,". So, when we are in faith for something, we have it. If someone asks you for proof-your faith is your proof! Glory to God, that means, if I'm taking God at His Word, that I don't need any other proof! I have all my proof right there in my faith, and the example for that is in Hebrews 11:1.
I graduated from tech school in April of this past year, and began searching for a job. I stood on Philippians 4:19 for almost four months, and had no results. Finally, a verse that I had heard, came alive on the inside of me, and saturated my thinking, and became so real to me that real faith, I'm talking Bible faith, the faith that gets results, rose on the inside of me, and I began to confess that scripture over and over again. For two weeks, I spoke the Word, and spoke the Word, and believed the Word! Whenever someone asked me how the job hunt went, my answer was, "I have a job in Jesus' name!" or, even if I hadn't heard anything from any companies, "It's going great!" After two weeks, I had more responses than I had in 4 months of searching (6 vs. 0) and in 3 and 1/2 weeks, I had a job paying almost twice as much as my previous job, and many more benefits than I had before! I had the proof before I saw the end result, and like God, I spoke the end result from the beginning! That is faith!
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Faith Pt. 1 - The Substance of Hope
Sunday, June 27, 2010
What Are You Seeking?
This is something the Lord began to speak with me about a while ago, and I was just released to share it. I know many of you probably know about this, but I want to bring it to the forefront of our thinking.
I think that, as a Body, it is time for the Church to get a revelation. Now, this isn’t something that is wildly new, just something that we have lost sight of, in my opinion.
What are you seeking? Are you seeking healing, or the Healer? Blessing, or the Blesser? Revelation, or the Revealer?
Matthew 6:31-33, Jesus is speaking. He says, “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘what shall we wear?’ 32 For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 BUT SEEK FIRST the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” (emphasis mine)
So, we are to be seeking the kingdom of God and His righteousness. I like the way the Amplified translates verse 33. “But seek ([a]aim at and strive after) first of all His kingdom and His righteousness ([b]His way of doing and being right), and then all these things [c]taken together will be given you besides.”
Aim at and strive after not only God’s Kingdom, but His way of doing and being right. What does that mean? That means we don’t get to decide what’s right and wrong. We must bring right and wrong back to a common standard, and that standard must be the Word of God. That is a constant, never changing standard. When we start deciding what is right and wrong based on our opinions, we are left with shifting sand upon which we try to build a house. I like what Jesse Duplantis says about opinions, “Opinions are transitory forms of thought floating on the ocean of life. They change with every passing wave.”
When we strive after God’s Kingdom, we are aiming at Him. That is something we can never lose. You can never know too much of God, or His Love. Paul, one of the greatest apostles that ever lived, wrote to the Philippian church, and said, “[For my determined purpose is] that I may know Him [that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding the wonders of His Person more strongly and more clearly], and that I may in that same way come to know the power outflowing from His resurrection [[a]which it exerts over believers], and that I may so share His sufferings as to be continually transformed [in spirit into His likeness even] to His death, [in the hope]”
Now, this is after Paul had been walking with the Lord for 31 years, and He still had “progressively becom[ing] more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him” as His determined purpose in Life.
That’s what we lose sight of today, and that’s really the main purpose of this post. I know myself, I often become so engrossed in, “I need to find favor here, I need healing, I need prosperity,” that I stop seeking the Provider, and start seeking the provision. That is not a healthy place for the Body to be, friends. When we stop seeking the One who made it all, we then put something else in it’s place, be it man’s philosophy and reasoning, under the guise of being, “open minded”, or earthly pleasures, and once something is sought instead of the Almighty God, the Source of all good things, it begins to distort our picture of God.
You see, what you put into you will come out of you. In Proverbs, it tells us to, “Guard our heart, for out of it flows the issues of life.” (4:23) Jesus tells us in Luke 6:45 that, “A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.” One translation uses the word “deposit” instead of treasure. So, you will speak based off of what you have deposited in your heart. If you seek the Kingdom of God, His Righteousness, and Jesus Himself, you desire that. You begin to study what Jesus said, and listen for the voice of God. You spend time in the Word, and in prayer. As you do that, you are making deposits in your heart. You are depositing the Kingdom in your heart, and the Righteousness of God in Christ Jesus! Then, when a situation arises, you immediately, without even stopping to think about it, start to bring forth from the treasure of your heart.
Now, if you start depositing the things of the world in there, your foundation isn’t built upon Jesus, and the whole thing begins to crumble. Then, when a situation rises against you, you either don’t turn to the Word at all, or, you turn to the Word without faith established on it, and it wont work without faith.
I could keep going, and probably will at a later date, but I want to leave you with this thought. If God isn’t real to you right now, it isn’t because He doesn’t exist, or He has pulled away from you. The Word says draw near to God and He will draw near to you. I want to encourage you to draw near to Him. Study the Word, and study the Character of God. Begin to seek first the Kingdom, and God’s way of doing and being right, and everything you have been looking for in the past will be added to you.
Monday, May 3, 2010
Subject to Change
I had the Lord drop this in my spirit a few weeks ago, and it seemed particularly relevant with what Dad has been teaching lately, so, I feel led to share it with you.
Discouragement comes to all of us in life. “Why isn’t this working?” “Why did God allow that to happen?” “I don’t understand how this is all gonna work out. I thought God told me to do this.” “No one has ever had to deal with something this difficult before.” We have all either said or thought variations of this in our lives. However, there is good news for you! First of all, God didn’t cause the situation. Give it the John 10:10 test. If it steals, kills, and destroys, it’s from the devil. If it provides life, and life more abundantly, it’s God. Sounds simple enough, right?
Next, remember that you aren’t the only one going through this situation. 1 Corinthians 10:13 says, “No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.” So, God has given you a way out! Bless God, your way out is in the words you speak. The Word says that you are justified and condemned by the words of your mouth. (Matthew 12:37). Start talking the solution, not the problem. Facing a mountain of debt? Check out 2 Corinthians 8:9. “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might be rich.” You know what the two words translated rich here means? Material wealth and finances! Bless God, it’s a grace issue! He became poor at the cross (while becoming the curse of the law for us, so we could live in the blessing, Gal. 3:13-14, Deut. 28) so that we would be rich! Same thing with sickness, or anything else in the curse. He bore it for you, and provided a way out!
Paul said this in 2 Corinthians 4:17. “For our light, momentary affliction (this slight distress of the passing hour) is ever more and more abundantly preparing and producing and achieving for us an everlasting weight of glory [beyond all measure, excessively surpassing all comparisons and all calculations, a vast and transcendent glory and blessedness never to cease!].” Notice that phrase. Our light, momentary affliction. It’s only temporary! Paul continues on, and tells us that we aren’t looking at what is seen, but what is unseen, (remember that faith doesn’t deal with the unknown, only the unseen). Because what is seen is temporal, or temporary. Do you know what that word means? Temporary means that your situation is subject to change!
Your situations are subject to change. As a believer, all you have to do is speak the Word in faith. You say what God says, and watch the results. Check this out. Micah 4:9 (ESV), “Now why do you cry aloud? Is there no king in you?” The Lord is speaking to Zion, and the church is referred to as Zion! Now, according to Revelation 1:6, “[Jesus] has made us kings and priests to His God and Father.” Jesus has made us kings and priests! Bless God! He is the King of kings, but we’re the kings underneath Him! Now, what do kings do when they are faced with a situation? If a king needs something done, he doesn’t fret about how he’s going to do it. He declares it. If the king wants to go somewhere, he doesn’t worry about the cost. He says, “We’re going to go here on this date.” That’s it. Discussion is over.
Does that verse jump out at you a little more now? "Why do you cry aloud? Is there no king in you?" You are a king in Christ, and when you speak what the King of kings has said, in your authority that He has given to you, Heaven HAS to back it. Jesus said that whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven! (Matt. 16:19 and 18:18)
So start declaring what God has said! When you are being discouraged by a situation, don’t look at the problem, look at the solution! Have faith in God! He’s bigger than any situation that you are facing! You declare what He has declared, and do not doubt in your heart. Once it has been declared, it has to come to pass, for God said that His Word would not return unto Him void, but it shall accomplish what He set it out to do. Start declaring, as a king and a priest of the Almighty God, what you see in His Word over your finances, over your health, over your relationships, and over anything else that needs to change, and watch it come to pass!
Man, I just preached myself happy while I was typing this out! Let me know any testimonies you have as a result of taking your place as a King and a Priest of the Almighty God! Be blessed!