Beloved, now that we have learned the ingredients of the God-kind of faith, what it God’s intended purpose for us to have it? In Mathew chapter 6:10, Jesus tells us to pray this prayer, “ Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is heaven.” This is the true reason why God has given us the gift of faith. The faith of God RELEASES GOD’S WILL ON EARTH, JUST LIKE IT IS IN HEAVEN! The only resource we have as believers to walk in the will of God and do all God desires us to do is by FAITH ALONE!

Many believer’s pray every day and get no results from their prayers. There are prayer groups all over the world, in every church and yet we see such little impact of the power of prayer. What is the reason for this lack of answered prayer particularly in America? A heart filled with unbelief.

Beloved if we want to see our families, neighbors, cities and nation saved and made whole, then we need a different kind of prayer. A prayer that avails much! A prayer that can seize the kingdom of God violently. A prayer that can apprehend God and be pliable to work with Him to release on earth His will and desires for our nations.

The key to effective and powerful prayer is the power of the active faith of God, or God-kind of faith filling every prayer and request. A faith that does not seek it’s own aim, wisdom or power. A faith that is not seeking to get things from God to fulfill their lusts and needs, but a faith that will believe God that will shake the nations out of their blindness. A living faith that causes heaven to continually touch earth with the Gospel and power of God. An active faith so in tuned with the Holy Spirit that it can hear the very whisper of God and obey it instantly.

This is the true life of faith we are called to walk. A faith not resting in projects, programs, and agendas or committee meetings. But a real and living faith that lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. A faith that can speak as God speaks and gets the God-kind of results like the Apostles. A faith that says, “silver or gold I have not, but that which I have I give to you, pick up your bed and walk.”

Faith is the power for us to be “instant in season and in out.” Faith is the power that can speak a word of wisdom or a word of knowledge that can set the captive free. Faith is the power that can open the eyes of the blind, cast out devils and raise the dead, by the very word spoken to your heart by the Holy Spirit.

Faith is the power to hear God clearly to warn you from the dangers that are to come. Faith gives you dreams and visions to warn, train and equip your families and give you directions. Faith gives you the ability to know what is from God and what is not.

Faith is the power to walk in the Holy Spirit 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It is the source of direction, instruction, guidance and life itself. It is the very fruit of the grace of God in your life. We are saved by grace THROUGH FAITH!

I pray you understand that faith is alive. It is active and must continually grow. In these articles, I have given you the ingredients, or the soil faith must grow in. However, if you never use what you have, it will never grow.

I want to conclude this teaching with verses from the Gospel of Mark chapter 11:22-24. These are the real verses the first faith movement was birthed from and the verses that final movement of a life of faith will come from. Let us read them together:

Mar 11:23-24, “Truly I say to you, Whoever says to this mountain, Be taken up and be put into the sea; and has no doubt in his heart, but has faith that what he says will come about, he will have his desire. For this reason I say to you, Whatever you make a request for in prayer, have faith that it has been given to you, and you will have it."

Beloved, Listen to the power of the words of Jesus. In the earlier part of Mark 11, Jesus was walking with his disciples when he noticed a fig tree leaves were at full bloom but there were no figs on the tree. This is a picture of what a life of a believer is that does not live a life of faith. It may be a tree, but it is baring no fruit. When Jesus sees the tree without any fruit, he curses it and then walks away.

Why did Jesus do this to that tree? He was God and could of spoke, “tree have fruit” and there would have had fruit. But He did not do that, instead He curses it that it can not grow anymore. In the book of James 2:17, the writer is going to say to us these words, “faith without works is dead.” He tells us that believing alone is not the real kind of faith. He tells us in verse 18 “ You believe God is one, even the devils believe that, and shake with fear.”

He tells them believing alone is not enough. Beloved much we do for the Lord in prayer, action in deed is in this kind of faith, simple believing that God is one. In this kind of faith, we HOPE God will do it. When it appears He doesn’t, we say it wasn’t his will, or he doesn’t care or give some lame excuse to our unbelief.

Living and active faith is much deeper. James tells us that true and living faith has “corresponding actions” that DEMONSTRATE true faith. In Mark 11 21-22, the disciples are going to walk by that same fig tree and marvel that it withered at the roots. They will say to him, “master the tree you cursed has withered and died.” It is this backdrop Jesus is going to teach them living and active faith.

When Jesus spoke to that tree it was not just a word that came from His mind. What He spoke was the “Will of the Father.” What He spoke was the “Word of His Father.” It did not come from his own aim, plan or purpose as He tells us in John chapter 5, it came from God the Father. Jesus in speaking to that fig tree ate and released the very word that proceeded from the mouth of God. His words were filled with the very power of God to do what is impossible with man, kill a fig tree by a word.”

He was demonstrating to them the power of the “Word of God” in the mouth of a man when it is spoken in the power of the Holy Spirit. This same “Word of faith” would bring blindness on a man opposing Paul in front of the King Agrippa by Paul speaking to this enemy of God. Paul didn’t bring blindness on the man, God did. He revealed in Paul His thoughts and words of action for Paul to speak, with the demonstrating results.

In both these lessons of Jesus with the fig tree and Paul speaking to the enemy of God. We see faith with the corresponding works is alive. This is the life of “walking by faith and not by sight." The fig tree had to obey the very word Jesus spoke because it came from the Father by the Holy Spirit.

Again He could have said, “tree have fruit,” but He did not. He cursed the tree because it was fruitless and no good. This is the same thought Jesus says to us if we hide our “faith” under a bushel. This is how we as the “salt” of the earth loose our “saltiness” to the world. We loose it by not living by “faith” of the Son of God." We become salt-less by not using or activating the faith of God in us by our neglect of truly abiding in Him.

Active in living faith is what is needed in our first work with God, Prayer! In Mark 11;22, Jesus says, “Have God’s faith!” Some translations write, “have the faith of God or have faith in God.” Jesus tells us to have God’s faith! How can He say that, because we have learned already, “he has given to every man a measure of faith.”

The God kind of faith comes from God alone. It comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. When God can speak a living word to your spirit, you can speak it. And when you hear that word and it burns in your being it must happen as God says! The same God who said “let there be light” and there was, is still trying to speak to every believer’s heart. He desires to speak His thoughts, plans and counsel to us daily.

He wants us to know that every word He speaks comes with power as we have learned. To understand what Jesus is saying here in the Gospel of Mark, we must be able to hear, "Have God’s faith!" As God speaks to you, believe Him. Because when you open up your mouth and speak what He has told you to say it will happen. Even if He had you speak to a mountain to be cast in the sea, it will literally get up from it’s place and go into the sea by the Word of Faith God had you to speak!

That is what a life of “walking by faith and not by sight” will produce in a believer. Jesus goes on to say, “and has NO doubt in his heart.” This is why we need to understand the ingredients of God found in 1st Corinthians chapter 1. We know can understand why God does not choose the wise, noble, but the weak, feeble things to confound the wise. He chooses the weak and needy in heart to speak a word to them.

They are foolishness enough not to doubt God, they are broken enough to trust God’s power and not their own, that they can rise up and use the faith God has given them and SPEAK AS AN ORACLE OF GOD! They can speak as God’s Ambassador, as if God himself were there speaking to them, which is exactly what an Ambassador does. He SPEAKS for the government and His words have the very weight of the government behind them. He speak as one with “authority.” That is why the crowds marveled at Jesus teaching, they recognized He was a man with great authority.

Jesus tells us that if we “do not doubt, but have faith that what you say will come about, you will have what you say!” Why don’t we live or do this, because we don’t take time to live in continuous fellowship with the Holy Spirit. We don’t hear Him speak a word to our spirit, thus we don’t say anything or we say the word of God from our own spirit which is powerless without the ‘quickening” of the Holy Spirit.

Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. When our hearts are molded, shaped with the right ingredients God will speak to us His will and will be done on earth as it is heaven. He is not going to speak to move mountains to a prideful, arrogant heart that will not be broken. He is not going to speak to move mountains to those who don’t want to spend time with Him. He is not going to speak to move mountains to those who don’t want to live hearing His heartbeat.
No beloved, He has to find the right ingredients in a heart of a believer to release His miracle words that could cause a mountain to get up and move into a sea. This is living faith. The faith Jesus is looking for when He returns.

In conclusion, Jesus says these final thoughts about prayer in Mark 11:24, “ therefore I say unto you, whatsoever you desire when you pray, believe that you will receive them, and you will have them.” This is what the power of a life of faith produces. This is the fruit of a man or woman who will “walk by faith and not by sight.”

It produces a listening and hearing heart of a true worshiper ready to obey His commands. It produces a heart ready for God to speak to in power. It produces a heart that will dare believe that “He is” and rise up and speak the very words God has given them to speak. Whether it be words to pray, prophesy, or give to another person, those words will release the Kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven.

When we walk in this kind of faith, God will allow the realm of the invisible Kingdom of God to become visible to a world in desperate need of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.

Welcome back dear reader,

In part one we began to teach about the life of faith in the Holy Spirit. Before you read this second part, please go back to part one on the previous blog and read part one so part two will be able to make sense to you!

The Holy Spirit is a person and much more. He is the life that flows from the vine (Jesus Christ) to the branches, (every believer in Christ). He is the life source of faith, because He communicates it’s very purpose and power in us to “will and do” the Father’s good pleasure. He brings the voice of God to us and in us. He quickens the very things of God to our Spirit enabling us to do all God desires by FAITH! To walk by Faith REQUIRES us to WALK IN THE SPIRIT! Listen to God’s word on this topic:

(Rom 8:1) There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after he flesh but after the Spirit.

(Rom 8:4) That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk no after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

(Gal 5:16) This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.

(Gal 5:25) If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.

Why does the Lord require us to walk in the Holy Spirit or walk by faith? SO THAT NO FLESH CAN GLORY IN HIS SIGHT! So important is His Glory that in Genesis 11:1-8, when man kind had a plan to make a “ tower to reach into heaven, to make a name for themselves. The Lord came down to stop them by confounding their language. The reason is found in verse 6, “that nothing they imagined they would not be able to do.”

Ability is not man-kinds problem, taking God's glory is! Lucifer, the chief angel of worship tried to lift his heart above God and take His glory and launched a rebellion against God. It did not work for him, and it did not work at Babel when man lifted his heart above God either. It will not work now or forever!

God gave us His own creative ability to express ourselves by or we would never have the beautiful art, music, entertainment we have today, (godly kind of course). Mozart, Leonardo Devince, Thomas Kincade, and others have shown us the creative beauty God has put in us.
However; this beauty was never intended to be APART from God and His Glory! It was never given for us to glory as if we were the creator of things and not God. Our life comes from God, or breath, our strength, our gifting and talents are all on loan from God. When we are in right relationship with God through salvation, we will give GOD THE GLORY HE DESERVES.
We do this by acknowledging Him in all our ways. If we paint well, we glorify Him. If we sing will, we glorify Him. If we succeed in anything we NEVER take the credit or the GLORY, but we give it all to God who is the very source of that success.

This is the reason God has not chosen many noble, or wise in this world.But he has chosen the weak, feeble, lowly, and things which are not as though they are. The only reason to chose the weak and lowly, and feeble is that He alone should RECEIVE THE GLORY! He wants to be known for WHO HE IS! God is not arrogant and does not need a pat on the back. Those who walk by faith in Him alone want to Glorify Him as their CREATOR because it is RIGHTEOUS to do so!

Those who recognize their inabilities and weakness are far more likely to honor God and glorify Him for all that they our and all they have. THEY WILL GIVE HIM ALL THE GLORY! That is why God chose a Gideon, Abraham, David, Peter, Steven and others to show His might power and strength. That which the world would despise God would use to show His love and power and what a “true life of faith” really is.

Steven was such a man as we readh Acts chapter 6. The Apostles were getting to busy trying to distribute food to the widows and orphans that they would have to neglect the Word of God and Prayer if a solution was not found. So it came to them to select 7 men to do the job of giving out food. So they chose seven, one being Steven who was a man “full of faith, and full of the Holy Spirit.”

Beloved, Steven was such a man filled with both. Why was he chosen? I believe he was chosen to show us why a “true life of faith” was needed to even distribute food. For in the distribution of food he was able to “hear the Holy Spirit’s voice” and work great signs and wonders in the midst of the people as a deacon! (Acts 6:8) “And Steven full of FAITH AND POWER, did great miracles and wonders amongst the people.”

His life was so full of faith and the Holy Spirit that the Holy Spirit Himself used him to preach to the religious leaders about the Holy Spirit Himself. “Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you do ALWAYS RESIST THE HOLY SPIRIT, as your Fathers did, so do you.”
Could this rebuke be spoken to our generation as well? Can we as Christians continue to try to live this Christian life in the flesh? The church tried this in Galatia and the Apostle Paul had to rebuke them by saying, “who has bewitched you and cast a spell over you. You started this life IN THE HOLY SPIRIT, why are you trying to reach perfection dependant upon the flesh.” (Gal. 3:3)

The choice for our generation is this, are we are going to live a life of “ the true faith of God" or not? Are we are going to learn how to“walk by faith and not by sight?” Will we be a people whose faith will please God? Will we learn how to walk in the Holy Spirit and live in Him as the scripture tells us we must? Or are we going to continue to be like the church in Galatia? Remember Beloved, the mind of the flesh which is sense and reason without the Holy Spirit is death. (Rom. 8:6)

I encourage each reader to re-read this series. Let the Holy Spirit quicken in you the divine ingredients necessary to live a life of "the true faith of God" and walk in it. It is going to be an absolute necessity to walk in the “God-Kind of faith” to make it in the days that are to come. In this time of terrorism, murders, natural disasters, wars and rumors of war, we will not be able to survive with out the “living faith of God.” We will not be able to survive without a life lived in the Holy Spirit and His life being lived in us.

We must come to the Lord now while we still have time to develop this intimate relationship with Him. The Holy Spirit has been given to us so we can live every moment of our life led by Him as our constant GUIDE. He will show us what to do, where to go, what to speak, and even show us the things to come. (Mathew chapter 10, John chapters 14 and 16)

We must press on to know the Lord as He wants to be known, so we can do His will and know His ways. The Holy Spirit is living in us to show us the way we are to walk, so we will be ready and not overtaken. His mission in these last days is to prepare a people ready for the coming of the Lord, and that day not overtake us like a thief in the night. (1st Thes:5:2) Today beloved, if you hear His voice, harden not your heart! “When the son of man returns will he find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8).

Labels: no flesh shall glory

Beloved reader due to the length of this teaching I am breaking it into two parts so you can take your time and meditate on the teaching. My prayer is that God has birthed a new understanding of what the God-Kind of faith is and the ingredients necessary to activate that faith in your life. The bible tell us that the “just shall live by faith“, (Hab. 2:4) and that “we walk by faith and not by sight.” ( 2nd Cor. 5:7) Faith is essential to the full life Jesus came to give us, and give us abundantly. Remember beloved, “that without faith it is impossible to please God!” (Heb. 11:6)

As we finish this teaching of the God-Kind of faith we must understand that God, as I have written in every lesson, has given to “every man” a measure of faith, or none of us could be saved. The bible tells us that we are “saved by grace through FAITH, “it is NOT OF OURSELVES, but a GIFT FROM GOD!” (Eph. 2:8) We have learned that God has not given us faith to just obtain “stuff”, but to walk in the invisible realm of the Kingdom of God. He has given us faith to see that which is not, to believe His word above everything else we see in the natural. Faith gives us the ability to receive on earth that which is heaven.

Faith is the only way we can walk by! Faith is a walk with God. It is intimate fellowship in and with the Holy Spirit who leads us and guides us into all things. Faith allows us to hear God’s word, and for that word to become our daily bread to live and walk by. "Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." (Rom. 10:17) Faith has its roots in an intimate relationship with God Himself speaking to us through the Holy Spirit. It is a dependence upon God revealing or manifesting Himself, His will, and His words to us and in us. He does this as we meditate in His word, spend time in prayer, by having a devotional life, and more. His desire is to fellowship with us 24/7, 365 days a year if we will dare believe Him.

Enoch was such a man and his testimony of faith is that “he walked in continuous fellowship with God for 365 years. He was, and then He was not, because God took him.” (Gen 5:22-23) This man of God loved God so much that every moment of his life, He was in fellowship and communion with God. BELOVED THIS IS FAITH! THIS IS WHAT IS MEANT TO WALK BY FAITH AND NOT BY SIGHT! This intimacy with God is what releases and activates the Faith of God in us and allows us to do the very works Jesus said we can do,even the greater works. 365 years is allegorical for a lifetime. God loved this man so much, he took Him straight into heaven without tasting death! This is what a true walk of faith is! It is a lifetime of intimacy and relationship with God. This relationship allows you to hear his voice continually in which you can walk in His ways and not your own.

Oh, what a better life God has in store for us as believers than just going to church twice a week and doing some sort of ministry. Through a walk of faith we “become” a ministry instead of doing one! The work that we accomplish is the Lord working in and through us, our personal work is to stay in continual fellowship with Him to hear his voice and obey. Remember Jesus said, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” (Mat. 4:4) In our text verse we understand the reason why a life of true faith is needed. We are not to live a life walking in the flesh or in the wisdom of our human mind, but we are to live a life with the mind of the Holy Spirit. Let us read our text scripture:

1Co 1:25- 29, " Because what seems foolish in God is wiser than men; and what seems feeble in God is stronger than men. For you see God's design for you, my brothers, that he has not taken a great number of the wise after the flesh, not the strong, not the noble: But God made selection of the foolish things of this world so that he might put the wise to shame; and the feeble things that he might put to shame the strong; And the low things of the world, and the things without honor, did God make selection of, yes, even the things which are not, so that he might make as nothing the things which are: So that no flesh might have glory before God."

Do hear the reason, Beloved? Verse 29 says, “SO THAT NO FLESH MIGHTY GLORY IN HIS SIGHT!” What a powerful statement concerning the “Faith of God.” The Lord is under no obligation to honor our words, only His own words spoken under the power of the Holy Spirit. Some of the problem of the 80’s faith movement is that it became the “name it and claim it Gospel.” Some took the faith teaching to extremes. Some of the movements teachers taught, we could actually command God to do what He says in His word because we say so. A result of the faith movement was the growth of much pride and arrogance, and a looking down upon those who didn’t have their revelation.

Another by-product was an isolationist mentality that only “word of faith” people could minister to each other, so many other parts of the Body were not accepted because of they didn’t have the “revelation” of what faith was. God has corrected much of the excesses some of the teachers taught about faith, and some of the influential leaders of the movement have even repented for some of the extremes the faith teaching brought. Yet with all that said, the revelation of what faith was so valuable to so many people. As I mentioned in an earlier article, many who were in poverty could now believe God could prosper them, and they would not have to live on welfare the rest of their life. They began to believe that God could provide their daily bread and prosper them even as their soul prospered. This was a first step for many to come out of slavery into the liberty of the Lord.

But true and living faith has nothing to do with meeting our every day needs. Matter of fact Jesus said, “that we are not to worry about what we are going to eat or drink.” He said, “don’t worry about what you wear or where you are going to live.” Why? “Because you are of more value than the birds of the air and lily of the valley, and your Heavenly Father already knows that you have these needs!” (Mat.6:25-34) Our faith must grow beyond believing God to take care of us, matter of fact true living faith already knows that fact and is secure in it. Why is this important? Because knowing this fact in the depth of your being is the only way you can be about the business of the Lord. Mathew 6:33 says, “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and it’s righteousness, and ALL THESE THINGS SHALL BE ADDED UNTO YOU!” Beloved a walk by faith has to go beyond “our daily necessities and our needs” to understanding the HEART OF GOD AND HIS NEEDS.

Faith becomes alive and active in us when we KNOW what God desires for our lives, families and those around us. Faith becomes active when we lose the right to our lives, and we understand that God Himself has taken the responsibility to provide for as we obey His every word. That is why faith requires HEARING, and HEARING by the Word of God. It is the ability to hear God‘s voice that enables us to do His will and purpose. Hearing God’s voice daily and allowing Him to quicken His very words in us empowers us by faith to accomplish what is “impossible for man.” Peter heard the word from Jesus in the boat, “ Come” and Peter got out of the boat and walked upon the water. His faith came by hearing and hearing a word from Jesus and he did the impossible. He learned how to walk by faith.

Beloved this is essential, without a life of intimacy with God through the Holy Spirit we can NEVER WALK BY FAITH! WE WILL NEVER KNOW WHAT TO DO OR WHERE TO DO IT! At best, we will try to do His will in our understanding. We will read a few verses of scripture and try to go out to do it, but it will be in the power of the flesh and not the quickened WORD that came by the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is the most important person on the face of the earth. He is the most important person that came to live in your body, He calls His temple. The bible tells us, “know ye not, ye are the temple of the Holy Spirit.”(1 Cor. 6:19) We know God is one, but manifests as three persons, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Yet it does not say, ye are the temple of the Father, or of Jesus, though they can not be separated. It says we are the “temple of the Holy Spirit.” Why?
Because He is the promise of the Father that was to come to lead, teach and guide us and live in us.(Luke 24:29) He is the One who has come to empower us in the God-Kind of faith to obey God’s commands, every last one of them.(Acts 1:8, “and you shall receive power, after the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be a witness!”) Beloved without Him, we can do nothing! Our next teaching will continue this thought. Please go to the next blog to continue this teaching.

Labels: no flesh shall glory

I pray that this teaching on faith has opened your heart to desire the ingredients that make the God-Kind of faith become alive in your lives. That you would be God’s “true people of faith” along with Abraham, Joshua and Caleb who enter the rest of what faith really is. As we continue to teach on the reality of what a living faith is in a believer’s life, we must continue to understand the essential ingredients required for it to live. Our text scripture for this study on faith is:

1Co 1:25- 29, " Because what seems foolish in God is wiser than men; and what seems feeble in God is stronger than men. For you see God's design for you, my brothers, that he has not taken a great number of the wise after the flesh, not the strong, not the noble: But God made selection of the foolish things of this world so that he might put the wise to shame; and the feeble things that he might put to shame the strong; And the low things of the world, and the things without honor, did God make selection of, yes, even the things which are not, so that he might make as nothing the things which are: So that no flesh might have glory before God."

“We have learned what God does “not” use as ingredients for an active faith. Here is what they are. He does not use the wisdom or strength of men. He does not choose those who are wise after their own wisdom or understanding. He does not choose that which is strong in their own sufficiency. He does not use that which is noble or well regarded by the standards of men. That is quite a list of disqualifications for an active and living faith.

So what has God chosen? 1st Corinthians 1:25-29 says, "God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to the wise to shame. He has chosen the feeble things to put to shame the strong. God has chosen the low things of the world, the things without honor, did God make selection of , yes, even the things that are not, so that he might make as nothing the things which are:

God is not a man and His ways are not our ways. His thoughts are not our thoughts. However; this has not crossed the ordinary mind of unsaved men. Unsaved men or woman think they are as smart or smarter than God. How can I say that? I can say it by experience. I thought I was able to choose my own path, direction for my life and family, and completely satisfy and fill myself and others by what I did. How about you? Have you ever thought like that?

How many plans do we make for our life? We plan how we are going to spend our time, money and energy every day. Another words we take “control” over our lives and our taught by the world that this is what our human existence should be. The world says if we are “really “ good we will leave the world a better place than we found it when we were born. For those in the world and not Born-Again, life is no more than accumulating as much as you can as long as you help people along the way. If you are a nice person, don’t hurt or say anything bad about anyone and you will be ok for eternity.

This worldly mindset usually consist of making “through another day.” If you are rich, you worry about how you are going to spend your money. If you are poor, you worry about how you are going to get your money. If you are middle class, you worry about how to make more money and who is going to take it from you. Mankind without the Holy Spirit rests in a wisdom that is “foolish” to God. So God has to show mankind what their own wisdom really is “foolishness, “to make as nothing the things that are .”

This is a key to understanding the realm of faith. Human wisdom is at war with the God-kind of faith. Human wisdom is the mind of the flesh as we wrote about in the last article, and it is at enmity with God according to Romans chapter 8:7. The God-kind of faith rest in the “wisdom of God” or the “mind of the Holy Spirit. It is in the mind of God that faith must become alive in a believers heart. That is why Jesus had to be born, die and be raised from the dead. He came not only to reconcile us back to God through the sacrifice of His own life and blood for our sins, but because He had to send the “PROMISE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT” to those who would accept His sacrifice. The Holy Spirit had to come to activate the measure of faith the Father has given to every man.

This is where many believers miss it. They don’t believe in the Baptism of the Holy Spirit as the finishing work of redemption; however, it was necessary for Jesus to send the Holy Spirit. God in His wisdom knew that for us to walk by faith and not by sight,” it was going to take His own Spirit to come live and dwell in our hearts. He knew to activate the faith He has given to every man as we pointed out earlier, that mankind would need to born-again by the Holy Spirit. The same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead according to Romans chapter 8:11 is the Holy Spirit Jesus calls our “ Comforter, Teacher“ in John chapter 14:16-17 and chapter 16: 12-15. In these passages of scripture Jesus tells us of the real work of the Holy Spirit and why “true and living faith” only comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. John 14:16-17, “ And I will pray to the Father and He will give you another Comforter, to be with you forever. Verse17, "even the Spirit of TRUE KNOWLEDGE (TRUTH).”

John 16:12-15 “I have still much to say to you, but you are not strong enough for it now. However, when he, the Spirit of true knowledge, has come, he will be your guide into all true knowledge: for his words will not come from himself, but whatever has come to his hearing, that he will say: and he will make clear to you the things to come. He will give me glory, because he will take of what is mine, and make it clear to you.”

Everything which the Father has is mine: that is why I say, He will take of what is mine and will make it clear toyou.” Jesus teaches us that the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of “TRUE KNOWLEDGE!” He will guide us into ALL TRUE KNOWLEDGE! Do you understand what that truly means: That all of man’s great intellect, wisdom,understanding and reason is FOOLISHNESS TO GOD! To the man who is not born again and filled with the Holy Spirit, the WISDOM OF GOD seems like foolishness to them. It is foolish to the “natural unsaved man” because itis not practical.

This is the whole point of the Bible! It is written not to just tell of what to do or not do, but to tell us a story of what “Faith of God” It tells us that “blessed is the man who trust in the Lord, He shall never be put to shame. To prove His point the Lord allows us to prove Him. He does this by bringing us into impossible situations where all human wisdom has to be brought to nothing.
Beloved reader, it was not practical for God to bring 3,000,000 people outof slavery and lead them into a desert where there is no water, no food. It was foolish to bring them to the banks of the Red Sea, and have Pharaoh and his army corner them to take them back to Egypt and trap them by the sea.

It was foolish of God to do so to allow that the Israelite’s would think, “ you brought us out here to die by the hand of the Egyptians, we were better to be their slaves. Yet it was here against “human reason“ God brought for agreat deliverance by a mighty miracle of parting the sea. Yet, even this didn’t establish them in the “faith of God.”

After God delivered them from Pharaoh by opening up a sea for them to cross on dry ground in the midst of, and destroying Pharaoh’s army in the same river, they still complained. A few days later all their food ran out and they complained again and said, “we were better off back in Egypt as slaves at least there were cucumbers to eat.” God answered their cry and gave them “manna from heaven to eat”, yet that was enough to build their faith. As they went forward a few more days they ran out of water in the dessertand again they murmured that “God you brought us out here to die, we were better off in Egypt.”

Their “human wisdom” caused them to DENY GOD who had done so many miracles for them all along the way,and want to go back to being slaves in Egypt. Hebrews chapter 3 tells us that God was angry with this generationand swore in His wrath, “they shall never enter my rest.” The rest of what true faith is and what true faith brings.Listen to the rebuke the author of Hebrews writes about these people :

Heb 3:7-12, “ And so, as the Holy Spirit says, Today if you let his voice come to your ears, Be not hard of heart, as when you made me angry, on the day of testing in the waste land, When your fathers put me to the test, and saw my works for forty years. So that I was angry with this generation, and I said, Their hearts are in error at all times, and they have no knowledge of my ways; And being angry I made an oath, saying, They may not come into my rest. My brothers, take care that there is not by chance in any one of you an evil heart filled with unbelief, turning away from the living God!"

The King James bible describes Hebrews 3:12 as having an “evil heart of unbelief.” This heart is the “mind of the flesh“, or “human wisdom.” Their lack of faith caused them to DIE IN THE WILDERNESS! They did not allow God to activate the faith God gave them by trusting in someone bigger than them. Jesus said, I must send SOMEONE BIGGER than you to live in you. He is called the Comforter, Teacher, and the SPIRIT OF TRUE KNOWLEDGE! He is Knowledge of God Himself, the living Holy Spirit, the third person of the trinity!

So God has chosen that which is “not revealed to the spirit of the world” or the things “which are not” for this purpose: SO THAT HE MIGHT MAKE AS NOTHING THE THINGS THAT ARE! “The things that are” is what man bases “his faith upon!” His “own understanding, intelligence, wisdom as the basis of his faith.”

God proved that this kind of thinking in them to be nothing according to 1st Corinthians 1:1:29.Their human wisdom wanted to go back to Egypt! They said they would die in the wilderness, and God led them there to die! Yet by His mighty power for Israel, He opens up the sea to walk on dry ground. He brought forth water from the rock and provided bread from heaven called manna. So much for "human reason!"

There were even more miracles through the History of the Bible that shows us God’s wisdom supersedes all of mans wisdom. He allowed Elijah to call down fire from heaven to prove He was God and not Baal. He stopped the sun from setting for Joshua so the army of Israel could defeat the enemy, and later brought the great walls of Jericho down after 7 days of marching around them with the shouts of God’s people and a trumpet. Foolishness isn’t it?

All this is foolish to a man without God, and sadly also to so many in the Body of Christ that think God is powerless today. To many believers believe that the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, the gifts of the Holy Spirit died with the Apostles, though there is not ONE scripture that says this happened! Beside the logic itself that is faulty. Whywould God stop sending the Baptism of the Spirit after the disciples? So we could go back relying on our own human wisdom and power to serve God and make disciples of the nations?

Does it make sense that God would want every other generation to walk without the power of the Holy Spirit, the mind of the Holy Spirit, when He came to send His very Spirit to us in power? Why did the disciples have to tarry in Jerusalem until they were clothed with power from on high, if it was not important? To many this "human wisdom" seems logical even reasonable. Many even try to twist the scriptures to accomodate their reasoning.

Yet no where did Jesus ever teach the Baptism of the Holy Spirit would end with the disciples. Quite the opposite is true. On the day of Pentecost Peter preached to the crowd and said these words, Act 2:39, "For to you is the promise, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call unto him!"

The “real” baptism of the Holy Spirit brought them “dunamus” power to preach the Gospel, but more it transfigured their lives by activating the "God-Kind of fatih" within them. Before Pentecost they were hiding and afraid for their lives, but after the Baptism of the Holy Spirit they were boldly proclaiming the Gospel and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. They now had a “new way” of thinking and living.

They did not have to hide anymore, but could declare the Gospel boldly with signs and wonders following. This sounds like a “new mind of faith” to me, the "mind of the Holy Spirit!" Once again God would demonstrate that the foolishness of God is wiser than all human wisdom could ever hope to be. He would use the foolishness of preaching the Gospel in the power of the Holy Spirit based in the "faith of God" in us to counfound the wisdom of this world.

I will close with this thought, "God did make selection of, yes, even the things which are not, so that he might make as nothing the things which are: So that no flesh might have glory before God."

Labels: Faith (series)

Our study of the “God-Kind” of faith continues in 1st Corinthians chapter 1. Let us read the following scripture text:

1Co 1:25- 29, " Because what seems foolish in God is wiser than men; and what seems feeble in God is stronger than men. For you see God's design for you, my brothers, that he has not taken a great number of the wise after the flesh, not the strong, not the noble: But God made selection of the foolish things of this world so that he might put the wise to shame; and the feeble things that he might put to shame the strong; And the low things of the world, and the things without honor, did God make selection of, yes, even the things which are not, so that he might make as nothing the things which are: So that no flesh might have glory before God."

We have studied over the past few weeks on the “ingredients” necessary for the God-Kind of faith to become active and live in us. The teaching has been about the CONDITION of a person’s heart who is being prepared to live a life of true faith, and “to walk by faith and not by sight.” The life of faith is not an easy one to live. That is why not many wise, noble, intellectual people can walk it. Faith works against what we would call “common sense.” Do not misunderstand me, we need common sense for many things. We need it to walk across the street and not get hit by a car. We need it to go to sleep, eat, drink, brush our teeth and more.

When it comes to a real life of faith, common sense can become the greatest of enemies. It is foolish to many people that Jesus Christ was born of a virgin birth. Many don’t believe it happened. How can a virgin get pregnant they say? That is why so much focus today is on Jesus being married and having a family. Many wise people can’t believe He is the Son of God. Common sense says, He could not have lived a sinless life no one has. Common sense says He was just a man, a prophet, a good person with a new philosophy.

This is why the Gospel is foolishness to the wise men and woman of the world. Common sense may believe that He died on the cross, but it can not believe that the Father raised Him from the dead. So as you can see, common sense can be the enemy of true and living faith.

Why does the Lord have to chose “even the things which are not?” This is a fundamental question we are going to try to answer in this lesson. The bible tells us in Proverbs 14:12, “there is a way that seems right to a man, but it ends in the way of death or destruction.” THERE IS A WAY THAT SEEMS RIGHT! This is the secret to the verse we are expounding. The way of a man in his own wisdom and thinking always seems the right choice. Every decision we make as people is one that we always “think” is right.

Before I came to know Jesus Christ as my Lord and savior, I had plans for my life, goals, and all that I wanted to achieve. They were good plans. I knew where I wanted to be in 20 years, what I wanted to have, how I was going to plan for my wife and my future. I planned how I would pay for my children’s education. I had great and lofty plans. As I went about achieving these plans and goals, nothing was going to get in my way. You could say I was “wise” in my own sight. I was “noble” because I had my own success. When people came to preach the Gospel to me, I hated them. I despised them. Though I was religious and went to church, I didn’t need a savior. I liked my life the way it was.

I use this illustration to bring forth a needed point of discussion. This thinking and reasoning is the way that seems “right” to every one in the world and even some Christians. Shouldn’t we plan for our future and have something for a rainy day?

These goals and plans were “my ways.” The ways in which I was going to walk and bring my family. This reasoning was apart from the Holy Spirit guidance, and the bible calls this the “life in the flesh.” Romans chapter 8:1 tells us that, “There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus who WALK NOT AFTER THE FLESH, BUT AFTER THE HOLY SPIRIT!” The amplified bible expounds this verse this way, “who walk not after the dictates and ways of the flesh, but after the dictates and ways of the Spirit.” Verse 6 says, “the mind of the flesh, (which is your sense and reason apart from the Holy Spirit) is DEATH, But the mind of the Holy Spirit (which is your sense and reason with the Holy Spirit) is LIFE AND PEACE!”

Faith requires the work and direction of the Holy Spirit. It requires the ability to hear God’s voice and the understanding of what He is speaking to our heart. His voice is to give us our plans, direction, power and ability to live and do the will of God. Active faith can never work apart from the ability to hear God’s voice personally through the bible and the personal speaking He does in a human heart.

When we are void of the Holy Spirit and dead in our sins, we can NEVER hear God or know His will and plans for our lives. We only have our “human thoughts” to live by and guide us, and the impulses of our flesh to gain as much as we can for ourselves. We might be good people and even help others, yet we are still guided by our “own understanding in wisdom.”

Romans 8:7, says “but the mind of the flesh (sense and reason apart from God) is at war, enmity against God. For to the law of God it CAN NOT submit itself.” Beloved, there is not one once of the God-Kind of faith in this kind of thinking. This type of thinking is opposed to God because it is based in common sense or human reason. Even though God has given to every man a “measure of faith”, this faith is dormant in a man until he is born-again by the Holy Spirit of God. Only them can that God-kind of faith in him become active to walk by.

The mind of the flesh, common sense, is at war with God, why? The bible answers that question in the following verses. Let us read and receive the impartation of these words: Isaiah 55:8-9 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, or your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

God says, "OUR THOUGHTS ARE NOT, HIS THOUGHT! OUR WAYS ARE NOT HIS WAYS!" Beloved, this is the life of faithlessness. There is no exercising of faith in your own thoughts, plans and direction. God tells us this is foolishness. He tells us in his word that the end of these ways leads to death and destruction. I know I was on that path. All my great plans and success lead me to want to commit suicide, and I almost did! My end would have been destruction because I rested my whole life, my family on the “wisdom of man” and not the “wisdom of God.” I was wise in my own eyes, and noble in my own heart, so I was disqualified from a life of faith.

The tragedy is even worse if we become a Christian and continue to live “according to the flesh.” It is the highest insult to God that as believers we would live our lives as if we owned them still. It is an insult to God who saved us if we don’t consult Him, listen to His voice and find His will for our lives, yet so many Christians still live like that. They will get into heaven for trusting Jesus to save them and repenting from their sins, but the “LIFE OF THE FAITH OF GOD”, they will never know.

God’s thoughts are “above” ours thought, and His ways are “above” our ways! This “ABOVE OURS” is called the “things which are not!” We have read in 1st Corinthians that “did God make selection of, yes, even the things which are not,” Yes the selection from God are HIS WAYS, HIS THOUGHTS AND HIS PLANS FOR OUR LIVES! These thoughts and plans are the “mind of the Holy Spirit.” and they are "above us" where He is! These thoughts are the purposes, directions and plans that God has created for us. Each thought God has for us is full of the active faith of God himself if we open our hearts to hear His voice. The words that God speaks are full of the life of faith if we allow Him to quicken them in our spirit until they become our only true direction.

Yes, beloved we now “live by faith and not by sight.” We become “just” and “live by faith.” A living faith that God has prepared in a heart of humility and brokenness. A heart willing to trust God in every word that He speaks to us. Now the “things which are not,” the things we can not see with the natural eye or hear with the natural ear are more real than the world around us. The invisible things of God become a living reality in our heart and we begin to look for a “heavenly” city like Abraham and not an earthly one.

We become citizen’s of “another” world, “another kingdom.” We live in the “faith of the Son of God who loves me and gave himself for me!” So with Paul we can say, “ I have been crucified with Christ to all the “human wisdom and logic of this world,” NEVERTHELESS I LIVE!, and the LIFE I KNOW LIVE, I LIVE BY FAITH OF THE SON OF GOD!”

Hebrews 11:6 says, “Without faith it is impossible to please God, for He that comes to God, must believe that He is, and He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.” Romans 8:8 say, “that those who live in the flesh (the thoughts and plans without the Holy Spirit) CANNOT PLEASE GOD!

No Beloved, without the mind of the Holy Spirit, the thoughts, word, plans and directions of God we can not live by faith. It is impossible and we can never please Him, the Word says so! We must live in the “things that are not.” The “things which are not” are hidden in God and they must be sought out daily by prayer, study of His word and in sweet living communion with the Holy Spirit speaking to your heart. This is the true life of faith we are called to.

I will close with scriptures from Proverbs that is to be a guide to all of us. May this be your heartfelt cry to the Lord today, that He would make these verses alive in your heart. Proverbs 3:5-6, “ Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your path.”

Labels: Faith (series)

Welcome again dear reader! Today we are going to continue to look at the spiritual ingredients God needs to bring forth from our lives to truly, “walk by faith and not by sight.” Yesterday we learned of the lowliness of faith, and today we will continue on leaning about the “things without honor.” Let us review our text scripture for this study.

1Co 1:25- 29, " Because what seems foolish in God is wiser than men; and what seems feeble in God is stronger than men. For you see God's design for you, my brothers, that he has not taken a great number of the wise after the flesh, not the strong, not the noble: But God made selection of the foolish things of this world so that he might put the wise to shame; and the feeble things that he might put to shame the strong; And the low things of the world, and the things without honor, did God make selection of, yes, even the things which are not, so that he might make as nothing the things which are: So that no flesh might have glory before God."

The word “honor” means: high public esteem, fame, glory, high respect as in worth, merit or rank, the privilege of being associated with or receiving honor from respected person, group, or organization. It means having special rank or privilege or distinction amongst peers.

We have learned that God has chosen, the foolish, the feeble, the week and the lowly as ingredients for us to walk by faith and not by sight. Today we will learn that He has chosen people who to the world, and to many in the church itself, have no honor or apparent importance. He has chosen those who have NO public esteem, fame, glory or high respect as in worth, merit or rank. He chooses people who don’t receive honor from “respected people, organization or “ministry association.” He chooses those who have no special rank, privilege or distinction amongst their peers.

Why does God look for these ingredients in a person? I believe it is this, “that no flesh would glory in his sight.” God chooses the weakest and neediest of people because when He works through them, everyone will know that it is God working in them. When the multitude looked upon Steven, they said his face shined like an angel.

King David was described to us as a “man after God’s own heart.” When God chose him to be King over Israel, he was the LAST one brought before the prophet Samuel. David is an example of what means to be chosen by God because he was without honor amongst men.

In 1st Samuel chapter 16 1-15, Samuel is weeping over the failure of King Saul and the Lord calls him and tells him to get up and go to Jesse, the Bethlehemite and go anoint one of his sons as the new king of Israel. The Lord tells him these words in verse 1, “I have chosen for myself a King from amongst his sons!”

What we need to learn today is how God chooses “things that are without honor.” In verse 6-10 Jesse presents all his sons before Samuel to see who the Lord has chosen. He starts with the oldest one Eliab. Eliab was strong, handsome and well respected amongst his brothers. So outwardly strong that he was well honored by his father and even by Samuel. Listen to Samuel’s words in verse 6, “SURELEY THE LORD’S ANOINTED IS BEFORE HIM.” Beloved, Eliab had every natural quality to be a leader and king of Israel. He was honored, respected and desired above his brothers, yet God does not choose him.

David was a man that we see to be the greatest King Israel ever had. His heart was so pure before God, that God Himself promises to have one of his sons, sit upon his throne forever and ever. We know that Jesus himself as a man came through the line of David as a son. Yet, David’s selection by God confounds human wisdom and understanding. He was small, ruddy, red hair, pretty, hansome to look at, but not Kingly. He looked more like a "surfer boy," then a weight lifter. He had no “natural” qualities that would even suggest he could be a king. Eliab had all those qualities as a man and would make a better selection for a King than David by human standards.

But God is not a man, nor does He see as a man sees. Listen to the rebuke the Lord speaks to the great prophet Samuel concerning his discernment on selecting a king. Verse 7, “ and the Lord said to Samuel, Do not look upon his face or his continence, or how tall he is, for I have rejected him, For the Lord sees not as a man sees, for man looks on the outer appearance, but the Lord looks upon the heart! One by one each son was brought before the prophet, and none met God’s standard.

What standard was the Lord looking for? Each one of the older sons had a quality that could have surely made a good king from a human stand point. I want you to consider something, Jesse knows the prophet has come to choose a king and he brings all his sons before him EXCEPT David! Do you remember what the word honor means: high public esteem, fame, glory, high respect as in worth, merit or rank, the privilege of being associated with or receiving honor from respected person, group, or organization. It means having special rank or privilege or distinction amongst peers.

Jesse gave this honor to the first seven sons by presenting them to Samuel. In verse 10 we read, “ and Jesse had seven of his sons pass before Samuel. And Samuel said to Jesse, THE LORD HAS NOT CHOSEN THESE! So much for human wisdom and selection! The Lord has not chosen these. So who would God choose?

1st Corinthians chapter 1 tell us that: But God has chosen the foolish things of this world so that he might put the wise to shame; and the feeble things that he might put to shame the strong; And the low things of the world, and the things without honor, did God make selection of, yes, even the things which are not, so that he might make as nothing the things which are: So that no flesh might have glory before God."

The Lord was about to choose the exact opposite of what men would choose as ingredients to be king. If there was a man who knew how to “walk by faith, and not by sight” it was David. He was the man that would kill Goliath. He was the man that would continually defeat the Philistines. He was the man that would establish Jerusalem as Israel’s home. This man would be both priest and king before God by establishing a tabernacle to meet the Lord, called David’s Tabernacle. Here we find a man not ashamed to dance naked before the Lord. A man who continually would seek God’s face in every battle to get his direction.

He found a man full of mercy, compassion and love like no other before or after him. The Lord found for himself a king! The life of David shows us a man who was quite flawed in many ways, but a man after the very heart of God Himself. The psalms and songs he wrote our a testimony of someone who is foolish in men’s eyes, but beloved in God’s eyes.Israel grew to love and honor David as their king, not for his power, stature or might but for His deep relationship with the Lord who was with him always.

In the movie “One night with the King”, Esther, another person chosen by God who had no honor before men, had to make a decision to go before the King unsummoned. This act would mean her death if the King did not extend His scepter to acknowledge her. As she stood before the eunuch who trained her to be a queen, she says to him these words as he begs her not to go. She says, “ I will go before the King as David did before Goliath and killed him.” She smiles at the eunuch and tells him, “ Do you know what I love about this story? It is that David did not win the battle over Goliath because he fought well, but because HE BELIEVED WELL!

Beloved, this man of no honor with men won His victories not because he fought well, but that HE BELIEVED WELL! This is what it means to “walk by faith, and not by sight.” David wasn’t chosen because of the “honor” of men, but David had the “honor” of God who called him, “ a man after my own heart.” This is what a real life of faith requires.

It is not the nobility of David that made him a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, but the lack of it in the sight of men. This lack of honor from man made him a prime candidate for the honor of God. David loved what God loved.He loved God intimately because He found the love He needed in God Himself because he was despised and rejected by his own brethren and Father. Remember, Faith works by love.

Let us close with the verses from 1st Samuel concerning David’s selection as King, and as we do may we pray that this quality of the Spirit of not having or needing the honor of man be our motivation for seeking the Lord. May God continue to work in us these qualities so we can truly be as the “just who shall live by faith.” Holy Spirit teach us how to forever live in our emptiness to receive your fullness so we can “walk by faith and not by sight,” as David did.

1Samuel 16:11-13, “And Samuel said unto Jesse, Are here all thy children? And he said, There remains yet the youngest, and, behold, he is keeping the sheep. And Samuel said unto Jesse, Send and fetch him; for we will not sit down till he come hither. And he sent, and brought him in. Now he was ruddy, and withal of a beautiful countenance, and goodly to look upon. And the Lord said, Arise, anoint him; for this is he. Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the midst of his brethren: and the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David from that day forward.”

Labels: Faith (series)

Our last lesson taught us about being full of faith and the Holy Spirit. Todays teaching is about the "lowliness of faith!" What does God require for us as believers to truly live a life of faith AS GOD UNDERSTANDS that to be. Our scripture verse we have been studying is 1st Corinthians chapter 1:25-29.

1Co 1:25- 29, " Because what seems foolish in God is wiser than men; and what seems feeble in God is stronger than men. For you see God's design for you, my brothers, that he has not taken a great number of the wise after the flesh, not the strong, not the noble: But God made selection of the foolish things of this world so that he might put the wise to shame; and the feeble things that he might put to shame the strong; And the low things of the world, and the things without honor, did God make selection of, yes, even the things which are not, so that he might make as nothing the things which are: So that no flesh might have glory before God."

Every person has within them the ability to believe God. When a man is born-again His spirit is now open to recognize and use this measure of faith God has given him because His spirit has been born-again by the Holy Spirit. When this happens “the God-Kind” of faith is awakened in our spirit to see things spiritually. Our spirits which were dead to sin and could not discern anything of the Spirit of God is now awakened to receive all that the Holy Spirit came to give as our Teacher according to John chapters 14 and 16.

We have learned that faith is a substance according to Hebrews 11:1. It is the substance of things hoped for. It is a substance and it is an evidence (proof) of the things that are NOT SEEN! The God Kind of faith is a real substance, greater than a pound a butter in your hand. No one would dispute that you have something in your hand if you were holding a pound of butter in it, and you said this is pound of butter. Anyone who would dispute thatfact would be foolish and worse absurd, because you have a pound of butter in your hand.

When it come to the “God-Kind” of faith, God says that faith is a real substance. Where is this substance if it is real. Faith is a substance of “things” hoped for! Now if you are hoping for a new car, a new house, a wife or anything you can see with your natural eye, then hope would be a “desire” to have it. The faith teaching of the 1980’s and 90” paid a lot of attention on the faith of this kind to obtain these things in life.

Many believers who were in need to prosper saw this part of the Gospel as very appealing. Many today call it the “prosperity” gospel based in “faith.” This has produced a generation of believers who see God as someone who wants to meet their needs. He does want to provide our daily bread!

Yet with that being said, I need to distinguish this “fresh” teaching of faith you are reading from that which was taught in the past. Many needed to learn that God was really our “provider.” That if you would believe Him, he could provide things you never thought you could have. This was an important teaching for many caught in the grips of poverty. This teaching caused them to “hope” for a better day.

Many caught in the grips of discrimination, hopelessness, began to get a fresh revelation of what God could do for them and help them if they had faith. I am grateful to the Lord for bringing forth this truth to lift many out of the bondage of poverty and despair. For many their hope to get out of poverty was a “SUBSTANCE.” This substance was believing God could bring them out of poverty and enslaved to welfare. This substance believed God could prosper them even as their soul prospered.

As wonderful as this was to so many people, like so many times in the past, we take a truth of the nature of God and we elevate that truth to be God himself. By doing this, we began to "only" see God for what He could give, or what his hand can provide. Up to this present moment of this writing, many have stopped searching to seek His face and focus on seeking His hand. Today “faith or the faith of God” is related to “getting” our needs met by God.

True faith does not rest in the ability to possess things, but the ability to be emptied of our own life for the life of Christ and His faith possessing you! Jesus taught us one of the major keys to walking a life of faith as He calleds us to empty ourselves of all our concerns, plans and desires to do one thing, Mat 11:28 Jesus says, "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

Yes, beloved it is the lowly in heart that understand what the true "faith of God" really is meant to be in a soul. The lowly don't seek their own aim, ambitions, plans, or desires, they seek to do one thing, "the will of Him who sent me." Jesus told us in John chapter 17, "just as the Heavenly Father sent me into the world, so do I send you." He also taught us that a disciple must be like His master. If Jesus wore a yoke that was easy and light it was because He was "lowly" and meek, aren't we supposed to be like Him and wear the same yoke? It is this very issue James warns us of in His epistle. He shows us the danger in turning away from being meek and lowly to what a haughty prideful and selfsih spirt produces in a believer's heart.

Jas 4:1-4, "What is the cause of wars and fighting among you? is it not in your desires which are at war in your bodies? You are burning with desire, and have not your desire, so you put men to death; you are full of envy, and you are not able to get your desire, so you are fighting and making war; you have not your desire, because you do not make request for it. You make your request but you do not get it, because your request has been wrongly made, desiring the thing only so that you may make use of it for your pleasure. O you who are false to God, do you not see that the friends of this world are not God's friends? Every man desiring to be a friend of this world makes himself a hater of God."

Unfortunately, many in the Body of Christ have thought faith was a means to their own ends, and their own plans and desires. They do not understand what God truly says a walk of faith really is. Our scripture verse lays down some important fundamentals about what this life of faith requires. 1 Cor 25-29. “AND GOD HAS CHOSEN THE LOW THINGS OF THE WORLD, AND THE THINGS WITHOUT HONOR. Beloved, the message of the “faith of God” was never to be about obtaining things or stuff from God alone, but obtaining the very life, nature, promises and character that God desires us to have.

A measures of faith has been given to us by God to be able to walk out our entire life by faith and not by sight here on earth and forever. Faith is an ability from God to see beyond the natural life (sight) and its possessions, to see and obtain the spiritual life and all its possessions (true eyesight). The bible calls theses possessions, “treasure that moths and rust can not ruin.“ Faith is a life in the Holy Spirit where God makes the “substance and evidence” of the Kingdom of God a living reality in our lives on earth as it is in heaven.

God has chosen the “low” things of the world. The lowly things that the world has determined to be of little worth. It is in “being” lowly that we find the source of a real life of faith. So important is lowliness that Jesus calls us to come to him.

To be lowly is to truly understand our place in Christ of why we were made. Jesus summed it up best in the Garden of Gethsemane when he cried out, “Father, not my will, but your will be done.” The giving up of our life, our rights and plans is what produces a life that is lowly. This heart attitude is critical for a true life of the faith of the Son of God. Paul wrote it, “ and the life I now life, I live by FAITH OF THE SON OF GOD! This is what a true meek and lowly heart will do in relationship to God in Christ.

James warned us of the opposite type of heart in his epistle. He warns us of how “the pride of life” can tarnish this real God-Kind of faith in our lives. He warns us that people will begin to fight, and war with one another because of the lust “for things” that is the true desires of their heart. The teaching of faith in the 1980’s was not wrong. However; without the right ingredients of God’s work in our heart, that very good word from God would be used to fulfill our lusts ( the plans we have and desires of what we want) instead of the will of God.

He warned that our “most inner hearts” desires are not to be used on selfish ambition, desires or selfishness, but our hearts must beat only for the purposes of God. We must live only for HIM! Faith is not a “substance” to be used to fulfill our wants and desires, but it is the “substance” of things hoped for.

The bible says that Jesus Christ is that hope. He is the Hope of Glory itself! When He alone is your hope and your first and only desire, then you realize that your life is not your own but purchased with a price. You understand that “you have been crucified with Christ, but nevertheless you live.” You give up living for your own desires, but for the Lord’s desires alone.This beloved is what it means to be lowly and the place the "faith of God" becomes active and alive in your soul.

The word low means this: ranked near the bottom of some scale or measurement. Indicating the bottom or furthest possible point down, lacking in strength, energy of vigor, feeble or weak.” God has chosen that which is ranked near the bottom on the scale on human ranking, that which seems the furthest away of ability and power. He has chosen that which is lacking in strength, energy, vigor and is feeble and weak to make RICH IN FAITH!

When you have allowed the Holy Spirit to refine you like Gold and Silver, you loose the value of your life as you have known it to be. You begin to see your value in Christ alone. You understand that you were made for His pleasure and purposes. When you surrender and give up the “right to your life” you become a fool to the world.

Remember James warning,” to be friend of this world, you take your stand as an enemy of God.” Jesus taught us that “if you keep your life (as you want it to be) you lose your spiritual life, and if you give up your life (as you want it to be, for His life in you), you gain your spiritual life.

God resist the proud, but He gives grace to the humble. Faith is a substance of things hoped for. Only those who are lowly understand what they should truly hope for. Only the lowly made by God’s hand can understand and live in the substance of what faith truly is. The lowly in Christ have the “evidence” of the THINGS THAT ARE NOT SEEN!

When the bible speaks of Abraham, the father of faith, it says he was looking for something. This “something” was the result of true faith. His something was looking for a “heavenly city!" Not an earthly city or kingdom, but a city whose architect and builder was God. So Abraham lived as a stranger and wonderer in this land, because his destination was a heavenly city. A city that could not be SEEN with a natural eye, but more real than any city he had ever been in.

So real was this city, His whole live was consumed in the UNSEEN. This unseen faith of God was an evidence in the depth of His being that He was able to “WALK BY FAITH” every moment of His life. His life was consumed in BECOMING all God had promised him! He gave his life to “walk by faith and not by sight.”

Beloved this is what it means to be lowly. It has nothing to do with possessions, for Abraham was wealthy. He didn’t’ seek the Lord for “stuff”, but for every word God spoke to Him. He wanted to please God by his obedience in obeying every command God gave him. This is what a life in the “God-Kind of faith” really looks like. It is the life of the “lowly.”

People thought Abraham was crazy, he left everything behind in the Ur of the Chaldees and went to a country he had never seen. He brought his own son to be killed as offering to God on the mountain. This man of faith learned what it meant to walk by faith and not by sight. He allowed to bring him to the place where all his human reason for hope was gone, but against hope He believed in hope that he would become the father of many nations, even as God said. He is our example for us to follow because He is the Father of the faithful and through His seed, Jesus Christ, all nations will be blessed.

Let us walk on after him, yet even one greater than Abraham came. Jesus Christ who came as the son of man. This Son of God, and Son of man demonstrated to us the perfect obedience of a life that walked by faith and not by sight. He has given us that same life through the power of the Holy Spirit in us to “walk by faith and not by sight.“

Will you allow the Spirit of God to make you meek and lowly in heart? If you will, you will find the true “faith of God and you will be able to be as the scripture says, “ the just shall live by faith.”

Labels: Faith (series)

Welcome Beloved, I pray that these teachings on “walking by faith” will be a blessing to you. I feel it is very important to bring forth this teaching at this time. We have had a lot of teaching on faith in the 1980’s and it was relevant for that day, but the Lord is taking us deeper into the life of faith then ever before. It is going to be critical for us in these last of days to be able to “walk by faith and not by sight.”

We are going to see things in the future worse than 9/11. The times we are in are called “perilous” times in 2nd Timothy chapter 3. Perilous meaning hard to deal with and hard to bare. So how are we going to walk in times of terrorism, economic decline? How are we going to walk when you can’t understand why things are happening in nature like Katrina, earthquakes and a like? Should I fly today or go to an airport? Are there terrorist on these planes or in the airport? Can I go to NY City and be safe or go to a mall or the grocery store?

Children are being taken, people being killed in their own homes and worse is happening all around the world. Can we eat the food or play with toys made in China? There are so many questions and concerns that we have today as no other time in history. Fear is on the rampant in the world, and wars and rumors of war are all around us. What are we going to do?

It is to these questions that God wants to answer us. How are we going to survive in these perilous times? The faith teachings of the 80’s on how to get stuff is not going to make it for us in these end-times. Faith is not about God meeting my needs. He has already promised to do that. True Godly faith is the ability for God to speak to your spirit and impart His word to you. It is to give you the power, ability and understanding on how and where to walk each moment of your life.

Faith is the ability of God to lead you “through the valley of the shadow of death.” It is the power that will keep you safe in the Secret Place of the Most High God when all the terror comes by night as found in Psalm 91. Faith is the power to live Psalm 27. One thing I desire of the Lord, that will seek after, to dwell in his house all the days of my life, until my head is lifted up above my enemies.

This is the true faith we need to use in the days ahead. That is why the bible tells us that, “we walk by faith and not by sight.“ (2nd Cor. 5:7) We are called to live by faith, “the just shall live by faith.” (Hab. 2:4) These teachings are for “TODAY”, the “NOW” of God so we can truly be men and woman of faith. The true God-Kind of faith is so important for us to be led by the Spirit of God. We can’t be led by someone who we don’t trust in the manner He wants us to trust Him.
The God-kind of faith exercised by a man and woman was one of the conditions set forth just to be a deacon in the church. Being full of faith was a requirement for Steven to be selected just to distribute food to the widows. If it was important enough of a requirement to distribute natural food, how much more is it to the true Spiritual food, Jesus Christ? In Acts chapter 6, let us read these requirements.

Act 6:1-5, “Now in those days, when the number of the disciples was increasing, protests were made by the Greek Jews against the Hebrews, because their widows were not taken care of in the distribution of food every day. And the Apostles sent for all the disciples and said, It is not right for us to give up preaching the word of God in order to make distribution of food. Take then from among you seven men of good name, full of the Spirit of wisdom, to whom we may give control of this business. Then we will give all our time to prayer and the teaching of the word. And this saying was pleasing to all of them: and they made selection of Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip and Prochorus and Nicanor and Timon and Parmenas and Nicolas of Antioch, who had become a Jew:"

Please notice the being full of the Spirit of Wisdom requires us to FULL OF FAITH! This is the God-kind of faith fully in operation in our lives. This is why this teaching on faith is coming forth. We must be able to live the “true life of faith." Not a faith that gets new cars, new houses, new ministries, but the FAITH that must guide and control us every day of our live. The faith that brings divine protection, direction and revelation into the heart and purposes of God.

What we call faith today is our ability to build something or do something for God. We need “faith” to do our ministry we are taught. This is not true, Faith is our ministry and it is a gift of God to BE a minister or ambassador of the Lord. Oswald Chambers writes, “ a child of God never has to ask to do the will of God," A child of God IS THE WILL OF GOD! Steven is a prime example of this. He was chosen for his nature, full of faith and full of the Holy Spirit!

Only a deep abiding relationship in and with the Holy Spirit can bring this about. Why is this kind of faith so important? Because the bible tell us FAITH WORKS BY LOVE! The Holy Spirit comes to work this love deep in our hearts. Romans chapter 8:5 says, “the Holy Spirit sheds the love of God abroad in our heart!” Every drop of that love is filled with the “faith of God!” That love has a voice, “ I am with you, even to the end of this age.” This love says, “nothing in all creation can separate you from the Love of God which is in Christ Jesus."

So this “love” God himself, literally fills us with faith as He loves us and as we open our hearts to this love. The faith of God that he created us with rises up and mixes with that love and we become full of faith. Jesus always said, “ I do these things because the Father LOVES Me!” It was His Father’s love that empowered him to walk by faith and not by sight. Only walking and living in this love ourselves and really knowing it activates the “faith of God” in us to do great exploits in His name.

Steven was such a man that being full of Faith and the Holy Spirit caused him not only to give out food, but to be “led by the Spirit of God.” His faith allowed him to be led, for the steps of the righteous are ordered of the Lord. His active faith caused him to see the great needs of the people and God used him to work great miracles, signs and wonders. His faith was so active, that when he was brought before the Jewish leaders, he spoke as one who was like an angel. His faith was so alive, that when they stoned him, he was able to look up to heaven and see Jesus standing next to the throne of His Father.

This is true, active and living faith. A faith worked by the love of God shed abroad in His heart. This faith did not get him a Escalade, or a new million dollar house. His faith made him become a martyr for Christ. His faith impacted a man named Saul of Tarsus to prepare him to meet the Lord Himself.

Beloved, we are going to face things we never dreamed of, but we will overcome all of them by learning how to “walk by faith and not by sight.” We will overcome as the “just shall live by faith.” Faith is not something we need to get things. Faith is God’s very life in us, filling us, sustaining us and guiding us in His path. We do not have to be afraid to travel, or do something because of the terror all around us. We have the Spirit of the living God in us who will speak a sure word to us, give us direction, instruction and protect us as the Lord allows. So we never have to be afraid of the terror by night, or the pestilence that comes by day.

Psalm 91 tells us of the fruit of those who really live the life of faith in God. It speaks of those who will put the entire leaning of their person in the Lord Himself. He will protect, provide and care for us in the worst storms ever to come, but we must be people who live and walk in the active faith found in the life of the Holy Spirit. He has given us power to cast mountains into the see. Praise God forevermore.

If you have not understood what true faith is that works by love, ask Him now to reveal this love in you. Ask Him to teach the life of love that produces real and living faith. Allow Him to take control of your entire life and put your trust in the God who has given you a measure of faith. Talk to Him, tell him where you are and ask for His help to walk by faith and not by sight. Then you will begin the wonderful fullness of life God has planned for you.

Labels: Faith (series)

Today's journey in learning how to "walk by faith" takes us to the highlighted verse of 1st Corinthians chapter 1. "God has chosen the feeble things that he might put to shame the strong."
1Co 1:25- 29, " Because what seems foolish in God is wiser than men; and what seems feeble in God is stronger than men. For you see God's design for you, my brothers, that he has not taken a great number of the wise after the flesh, not the strong, not the noble: But God made selection of the foolish things of this world so that he might put the wise to shame; and the feeble things that he might put to shame the strong; And the low things of the world, and the things without honor, did God make selection of, yes, even the things which are not, so that he might make as nothing the things which are: So that no flesh might have glory before God."

The king James version says, "and the weak things of this world to confound the things that are mighty." The word weak means :not strong; liable to yield, break, or collapse under pressure or strain; fragile; frail. To understand what the walk of faith requires to God, we must understand the need for human weakness. Considering what most people think faith consists of is the following. Their faith rest in their own power to do something in the strength of their own convictions. We would call this "mental agreement." Much of what we call faith in the Body of Christ is the leaning upon our own goodness, strength and ability to get something accomplished with God's help! This is mindset that starts out to do something for God and wants God to bless their efforts.

Human energy and exercise can accomplish great things and build great edifices. All we have to do is go to New York City and see what man can build as in skyscrapers and tall buildings. In the church, we can build mega-ministries, reach thousands of people for Christ, yet in all these things we can do it without the faith of God. We can do all these things in the faith of our "own" ability to believe God is blessing our efforts.

What is the difference between intellectual faith that rests in our ability and that God must be with us to bless the works of our hands, and the true God-kind of faith? The answer is found in what 1 Corinthians chapter 1 teaches us: "and God chooses the feeble things, the thinks that are not strong, liable to yield or break to put to shame the strong."

A good example of this is God's selection of Gideon. In Judges 6:11-12 we read,"And the angel of Jehovah came, and sat under the oak which was in Ophrah, that pertained unto Joash the Abiezrite: and his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress, to hide it from the Midianites. And the angel of Jehovah appeared unto him, and said unto him, Jehovah is with thee, thou mighty man of valor." Gideon was hiding behind an oak tree threshing his wheat. He was hiding from the Mideonites, yet God looked and found a man He could use. A man who was not strong outwardly, but able to yield to Him. A man not able to stand the strain of battle in his own strength, but would have to rely on God who would be with him.

Look at Gideon’s answer and understand the ingredient God needs for us to walk by faith. Judges 6:14-15. "And Jehovah turned unto him and said, `Go in this--thy power; and thou hast saved Israel out of the hand of Midian--have not I sent thee.' And he said unto him, `O, my lord, wherewith do I save Israel? lo, my chief is weak in Manasseh, and I the least in the house of my father.' O beloved, listen to his testimony, “ O My Lord, YOUR SERVANT IS WEAK AND I THE LEAST IN MY HOUSE!” See what God is looking for in us in order to walk by faith and not by sight.

There were many military men in the House of Israel much more qualified to lead Israel, but God didn’t pick them. Why? Because they would rested in their own ability and power. Their faith would have been in their own resources. Often in our walk in faith, God requires us to become empty, weak and powerless that our faith lay in His power and not our own.

If you remember the story of Moses, he was raised in all the ways of Egypt. When He recognized His call to deliver Israel from slavery he starts out in the STRENGTH OF WHAT HE KNOWS, the ways of Egypt .He ends us killing two Egyptians in the power of his own strength. Yet God did choose him to be the deliverer of His people, but first God had to prepare him. He allowed Moses to be chased from Egypt to the desert to become a shepherd over sheep for 40 years.

For over 40 years, God had to reduce this man and his call until it was completely dead. This death is what God calls weakness. Moses became “not strong, liable to yield, break and collapse under the pressure in his own power. When God finally called to Moses from the burning bush, Moses gave a completely different reply than when He was in Egypt.

Let us look at this new encounter with God. Exodus 3:7-11 “And God said, Truly, I have seen the grief of my people in Egypt, and their cry because of their cruel masters has come to my ears; for I have knowledge of their sorrows; And I have come down to take them out of the hands of the Egyptians, guiding them out of that land into a good land and wide, into a land flowing with milk and honey; into the place of the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Amorite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite. For now, truly, the cry of the children of Israel has come to me, and I have seen the cruel behavior of the Egyptians to them. Come, then, and I will send you to Pharaoh, so that you may take my people,the children of Israel, out of Egypt. And Moses said to God, "Who am I to go to Pharaoh and take the children of Israel out of Egypt?”

Do you see the difference? Moses had to be made weak so God could be strong. So many of us believers will not allow the Lord to do this work in our hearts. We can never truly walk by faith or with the faith of God as our power if we continue to fight against God emptying us.

Every day He brings us to places in our walk where we "cant" love, forgive, give something, say something or do something." We often get frustrated because we sure do try to do it, but time after time we just fail. We get angry with God and quit or give up in learning His ways. We think our own strength is enough, and we should be able to do it "ourselves." Beloved, when it comes to God's word and direction for us we can NEVER DO IT OURSELVES! We must do all things through Christ who strengthens us!

The Apostle Paul learned this when he cried out to the lord 3 times to take the thorn out of his flesh, but listen to the Lord’s answer to him and understand why God chooses the weak to confound the strong. 2Co 12:9, “And he hath said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my power is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”

Beloved, when we walk by faith and not by sight, every step we take is in absolute weakness and inability. Faith requires trusting in God’s ability and not your own. God’s power is made PERFECT IN WEAKNESS . No more is this seen then in the process of the making of the Bride as shown in the Song of Solomon.

In the beginning of her walk to be a bride, she is full of her own sufficiency and strength. She sees the Lord as someone to supply her needs as she goes about her own business. At the end of the book in chapter 8 a different picture is given to us of her life that has allowed the Lord to work in her heart. The process of brokenness and weakness is allowed to work in her life, and now she looks finally made ready to walk by faith with Him, her Bridegroom.

The bible describes the bride in her end-time positional walk with the Lord like this, Son 8:5 says, "Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, Leaning upon her beloved? Under the apple-tree I awakened thee: There thy mother was in travail with thee, There was she in travail that brought thee forth."

Beloved, this is the true posture of walking by faith. The leaning of your entire personality upon the Lord for His word, His life, His power and everything that He is. Only then are you ready to live a life of true faith. Hebrews 11:6 says, "For He that comes to God must believe HE IS, and He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him."

For your faith must never rest in the wisdom and power of man, but only in the strength and power of the Lord. This is what the Word God speaks does to those who walk by faith. It can take a shepherd and use him to deliver Israel from Egypt. It will use a little shepherd boy to slay a great giant. When God speaks a word to someone who is weak, they become enabled to do “super-natural” works by the power of God. Such a Word from God came to Gideon hiding under a oak tree, and it made him a mighty man of valor!

Beloved this is your God and this is your detiny. The just shall live by faith! The God of the impossible is your God. Let him empty you of your own power, understanding, strength and wisdom to give you his grace that is sufficient for you to walk by faith.

Pray right now and ask the Lord to remove all that is hindering you from living the true life of faith. Ask Him to fill you with the Spirit of Grace like He did with Apostle Paul. God's grace is His power, ablity and might and is the only source that can cause you to walk by faith and not by sight. Remember faith is active and it walks where God walks. Walking by faith is: a Bride coming forth from the wilderness leaning upon our Beloved.

Labels: Faith (series)

Today we are going to look at the "foolishness" of the faith of God. We started this series with the point that our "human" faith is not the same as the God-Kind of faith. Human faith is based on what the five senses tells you. Religious faith is "trying" to believe God rooted in human wisdom. This is why the Pharisee's could not know Jesus was the Messiah. Their faith rested in their wisdom, understanding and by what they saw. When Jesus healed on the Sabbath, what did they see? Did they see the goodness and love of God to set people free, or their man-made traditions. Let us read 1 Corinthians chapter 1 again:

1Co 1:25- 29, " Because what seems foolish in God is wiser than men; and what seems feeble in God is stronger than men. For you see God's design for you, my brothers, that he has not taken a great number of the wise after the flesh, not the strong, not the noble: But God made selection of the foolish things of this world so that he might put the wise to shame; and the feeble things that he might put to shame the strong; And the low things of the world, and the things without honour, did God make selection of, yes, even the things which are not, so that he might make as nothing the things which are: So that no flesh might have glory before God."

These versus tell us the nature of how the faith of God works, and how we can walk it out. One, the faith of God is foolish to men. Do you remember when they caught the woman in the act of adultery. The law demanded that she be stoned to death. All the people had "faith' in the law, but they did not have the God-Kind of faith. The God-kind of faith that could see the "present" Word of God standing before them. The second point we brought forth is that walking in faith requires action and moving ahead. When someone walks somewhere, they leave where they were and go someplace new. The bible tells us that if any man be in Christ, He is a new creation. Old things pass away, and all things become new.

If the people were walking in the faith of God, they would have seen one greater than the law was with them, Jesus Christ the fulfillment of the law. They could not see Him for who He really was "right now", the Messiah. Their faith rested in "their yesterday understanding" of the law. The bible teaches us, "NOW FAITH IS", not yesterday faith was! Jesus who was full of the faith of God did not operate in the yesterday. He sought the Lord for the "true present word from God." This did not contradict the law of Moses but fulfill it, to bring the law to its end, and inaugurate a new covenant with God's people. As Jesus sought the Father, He heard a QUICKENED WORD FROM HIM and He spoke it. "Those of you without sin, cast the first stone."

The quickening of the Word is what Jesus told us about the power of His words, "His words are Spirit and Life." As mentioned in the last article the angel Gabriel said, "no word from God comes without power." This quickening power makes the WORD a living reality in your heart. You actually agree in your spirit with what was spoken by God to you will happen. All you need do now is walk by faith and obey the Word.

Then the very WORD that God spoke to you will actually takes possession of and enable you to do the impossible.The Holy Spirit will bring into existence that which is not as though it was! In Romans chapter 8 Paul writes, "the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead quickens are natural bodies. When the Word of God is alive and active in you it becomes food and fuel. When this is mixed with the measure of the Faith of God that is in you, your receive "power from on High."

When Jesus answered the crowd, " those of you without sin." He spoke the life giving Word of God as an answer to this womans faith. A miracle happenes next, one by one they all dropped their stones and they leave her alone with Jesus. He is the only one that could have picked up a stone to condemn her, but He gave her mercy. This is what the whole law was to sum up, "that all have sinned and fall short of the Glory of God." The law was to show us our need for mercy and forgiveness and our need for a savior.

Believe it or not, the woman caught in this wicked act used the God-kind of faith to obtain a miracle or the promise of God for forgiveness. She came to the only one who could save and forgive her, Jesus Christ. She knew the law demanded her to die, but the faith of God in her led her to Salvation himself! Praise God. This running to Jesus for mercy was true "walking in faith." Look at what she receives from Jesus, "woman is there anyone here to condemn you?' She replies, "no!" "Then neither do I condemn you, but sin no more!"

This woman obtained something by using the faith of God in her. She received the substance of what she hoped for and could not see. She received the evidence of the thing she hoped for. She received forgiveness and mercy, a better covenant. To walk by faith requires true faith that always sees it's true need. True faith finds the only place where it can receive the answer from God, God Himself! Walking in faith always requires a Word from God that will be foolishness to your wisdom and understanding.

It was foolish for her to think she could be forgiven for what she did. The law demanded for the people to stone her, yet her foolishness received a miracle from God. It was foolish for Peter to drop his net down again after they had fished all night in the same place and caught nothing. But at the word of Jesus, they dropped their nets and caught a catch like never seen before. Human wisdom is the barrier that must be overcome to walk by faith.

Our scripture verse teaches us that "not many wise, or many noble" are chosen. Why, because they rest their faith in what they are and what they know and not God. Do you remember Naman the leper in the old testament. He sent servants to the prophet to come and pray that he might be healed. The prophet told him what he need to do, go dip yourself 7 times in the Jordan river and you will be healed. This proud ruler would not do it and was angry to do such a thing because the Jordan was one of the dirtiest rivers in the land. Finally, his servant asked him, " if the prophet asked you to go into battle and kill thousands of people would you not have done it?" Naman said, "of course!" His servant said, then why don't you obey the word of the prophet now, because if you do obey will you not be healed?"

Namon finally obeyed and dipped himself 7 times in the river at the prophets word and he was miraculously healed. Beloved, walking in the faith of God or walking by faith requires us to be like children and simply obey what God says instantly! He will always speak a word that does not make common sense to our mind. Why? Not many wise are chosen or noble, their pride will keep them from using the faith God put in them that requires someone bigger than them to help.

Is your own wisdom today blocking you from your miracle, healing or possessing what God promised? Are you afraid to let go of your understanding and just obey what God asked you to do? In order to walk by faith and not by sight you must shut out all the other voices that say obeying God is foolish. You must not ponder on what will people think or say about me. You must not thing about what if it doesn't happen.

Beloved, use the measure of faith God has given you and OBEY! Put away your wisdom, understanding and wait upon the Lord, until He speaks a Word from His mouth to you.Then when you hear that quickened Word from God in your spirit obey it instantly. This is how you put one foot in front of the other and learn to walk by faith.

Labels: Faith (series)

Continuing on our discussion of the God-Kind of faith, let us look about what active living faith looks like. In 1st Corinthians chapter one we see some ingredients needed for active faith.

1Co 1:25- 29, " Because what seems foolish in God is wiser than men; and what seems feeble in God is stronger than men. For you see God's design for you, my brothers, that he has not taken a great number of the wise after the flesh, not the strong, not the noble: But God made selection of the foolish things of this world so that he might put the wise to shame; and the feeble things that he might put to shame the strong; And the low things of the world, and the things without honour, did God make selection of, yes, even the things which are not, so that he might make as nothing the things which are: So that no flesh might have glory before God."

A walk by faith and not by sight starts with what seems foolish in God which is wiser than man. (2nd Cor. 5:7) We are to walk by faith. The word walk means:to advance or travel on foot at a moderate speed or pace; proceed by steps; move by advancing the feet alternately so that there is always one foot on the ground in bipedal locomotion and two or more feet on the ground in quadruped locomotion.

Walking requires motion or action. It requires us to advance, travel at a moderate speed. So when you walk by faith you MUST ADVANCE, TRAVEL at a moderate speed or gain ground and reach your destination. Faith is a walk, it is movement, action and advancing. Most Christians faith is just believing in something, yet the bible tells us that even the demons believer their is a God and that does not save them. So believing is not the key to walking by faith, action is. Faith is living and active and why is that so?

The bible tells us in Romans 10:17, "Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the WORD OF GOD. So faith needs us to do something or to walk somewhere. That somewhere is to be with God to hear His voice, His word spoken to our Spirit. When we hear a "word from the Lord, a quickened word that is revealed in us and to us, then Faith becomes active in us. Here is why. In the Gospel of Mathew, Jesus overcomes the temptation from Satan to turn rocks into bread with these words, "Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God." So the WORD OF GOD is food. Well beloved, what do you with food, sit and watch it or do you do something with it?

Yes beloved, you pick it up and you bite it, you chew it and you swallow it. This is an action, the first action of what walking by faith really is. Remember in Hebrews 11:1 Paul writes, Now FAITH is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen. Yes it is a substance it is the very WORD OF GOD, who became flesh for us. The Word that said, "unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you will have no part of me." The Word of God who said, I am the bread that came down from heaven."

Dear Reader, the just shall live by faith! Man shall live by every words that proceeds from the mouth of God. Every man and woman of God who had active faith received the WORD OF THE LORD as their food. This food gave them the ability to walk in the will of God. Our problem is that we intellectually try to walk out the Word of God without the experience or the quickening power of the Holy Spirit to make His word personal in our lives.

Many people never obtain their prophetic words because they don't use their faith, the faith of God in them. They try to "believe it" but because they don't see anything happening they give up. This is human faith rooted in the wisdom of men. The God kind of Faith is rooted in GOD, THE LIVING WORD. The God who SAID: Let there be light, and there WAS LIGHT!
The bible teaches us this about the Word of GOD:" The word of God is living and full of power, and sharper than any two edged sword, cutting and making a division between even the soul and the spirit, the bones and the muscles, and quick to see the thoughts and purposes of the heart." (Heb. 4:12)

To begin a walk in faith you must understand how faith comes. It comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. God has given you a measure of faith already. We established that in yesterday's teaching. This God-kind of faith in you can HEAR HIS VOICE, it is His own voice! When you hear it with your spiritual ears of faith, that WORD you read in the Bible or hear through prayer or another person than can be QUICKENED and ALIVE in your heart. When that happens you now have the power to walk in it.

Luke 1:34 -37: “And Mary said unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee: wherefore also the holy thing which is begotten shall be called the Son of God. And behold, Elisabeth thy kinswoman, she also hath conceived a son in her old age; and this is the sixth month with her that was called barren. For no word from God shall be void off power.” Mary answers the angel, "Be it on to me, EVEN AS YOU HAVE SPOKEN! This was her first step of walking by faith.

Neither is any WORD OF GOD spoken to us by God VOID OF POWER when it is quickened in us by the Holy Spirit. Our spirit is where God placed His ability to walk by faith. He has given us a measure of faith when we were created and that God-Kind of faith becomes alive when we are Born-Again. Now we are able to truly eat the heavenly BREAD OF LIFE, Jesus Christ, the WORD OF GOD, and EVERY WORD THAT COMES FORTH FROM THE MOUTH OF GOD!
As natural food give strength to the body to walk, THE QUICKENED WORD OF GOD SPOKEN IN US, becomes our POWER to WALK BY FAITH AND NOT BY SIGHT! This is LIVING, ACTIVE FAITH that comes by HEARING, AND HEARING BY THE WORD OF GOD! It is our baby steps in walking by faith and not by sight. We will continue writing on this topic until the steps are made plain by the Lord on how to walk by faith.

Labels: Faith (series)

The bible tells us in Hebrews 11:6, "that without faith it is impossible to please God, for He that comes to God must believe that HE IS, and He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him." In Mark 11:22 Jesus says, "have faith in God. People say they believe God all the time but they don't! Most believers today have faith in their faith, and not the God-Kind of Faith.

I have often said along with others, I am "trying" to believe God, or "trying" to have faith. I am "trying" to stand." The truth is everytime I say those words I am doing the exact opposite, I am in unbelief. Why? Because I am "trying" to do something or get something God has already given me. Romans 12:3 says, "that God has given to every man a measure of faith." Beloved I already have faith, the God-Kind of faith living in me.

Mark 11:22 Jesus says, have faith in God. So what do you mean Pastor, that I am not to have faith in God? The word faith in the greek means this: to be PURSAUDED, BE CONVINCED IN THE TRUTHFULNESS OF GOD, OR THE FAITHFULNESS OF GOD! Notice it doesn't say in God, but OF God! Here is the truth about faith. Every time a person "tries" to have faith they fail. They give up, fall short, or turn back in trusting because their faith is based upon what they see and what they must do.

How often do we say, "I can't do it!" "It is to hard for me!" "I don't see anything happening." This proves where our faith is resting, in ourselves or in the world. It is not a faith rooted in God, therefore we never get what God says or become what God wants. We can not! We will not, for it is not of yourselves but faith is a GIFT FROM GOD! What do you do with a gift? YOU USE IT! When we are trying to have faith, we are actually saying we don't have what we already have, so we are trying to get it. When you are trying to get something you don't think you have, how can you ever use it?

Faith is a substance, the substance of things hoped for. It is a real substance and it lives in every man according to the word of God. It is a substance we are to use in order to be saved, healed, delivered and to live and receive our daily bread. Most of what we call faith is intellectual believing in the mind. We want to believe, we convince ourselves we believe, but our words and actions speak otherwise just as the children of Israel did when the Lord led them out of Egypt into the promised land. A faith based on our efforts or our trying to believe God will never believe God, and we so misserably fail.

As I mentioned earlier, faith is not something you do or try to get, faith is something we already have and we must use it. We used it to get saved. The measure of the God-kind of faith in us reached up and gained salvation by our simple trusting in the faithfulness of God to save us. The spirit bore witness with the Spirit and we were saved. In order for us to procure all God has promised us, we must stop trying to believe God or have faith in Him. WE ALREADY CAN BELIEVE HIM, IT IS IN US TO DO SO! GOD IS NOT A LIAR! His character and power is not in question.

When Joshua and Caleb came back from spying out the land they had a different report then the 10 others spies. The ten said surely it is a land flowing with milk and honey and then reported all the negative problems like giants, and big walls. Their testimony was we are like grasshoppers against them. Their faith in God led them to dispair, to see themselves as nothing, but worse that God was not with them. That is what human faith produces, it screams: GOD IS NOT WITH ME!

Yet Joshua and Caleb had a different spirit. They had a different testimony with God as men who had faith as recorded in Hebrews chapter 4. What kind of faith did they have, the human intellectual kind or the God Kind? They saw exactly the same thing as the 10 spies, but their eyes saw in the FAITH OF GOD! They said, "surely there are giants and walls, but they will be like grasshoppers in our sight for God is with us, LET US GO UP AT ONCE, AND POSSESS IT!
The 10 spies saw themselves and their ablity and their faith rested in their own power and not in God's ability and power. Joshua and Caleb had the GOD-KIND of Faith that rested in the "truthfullness (faithfulness of God). They had the faith found in Mark 11:22-23, "And Jesus, answering, said to them, Have God's faith. Truly I say to you, Whoever says to this mountain, Be taken up and be put into the sea; and has no doubt in his heart, but has faith that what he says will come about, he will have his desire."

This is the God-kind of faith He has given us. Mountain moving faith. The faith that spoke to a fig tree to wither and it did. The faith that caused Peter to say, "if that is you Lord, let me come to you" walking on the water. This is the faith God has given us. Beloved it is in you. The trials and the ordinary things of daily life are the places God wants you to use the faith He has given you.

The faith He has given you must grow, and it can only grow when you use it. When you speak what God speaks to your situation as you hear a word from Him, you are using that faith. When you step out in things beyond your ability you are using that faith. When you follow Him when common sense says your crazy. When you obey Him and others laught at you, then you are walking by faith and not by sight. Then you will see the miracle working power of God on your behalf. God is looking to and from over the whole earth for those He can show himself strong to. Are you one of them He is looking for? Remember He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.

Labels: Faith (series)

One of the most talked about miracles Jesus performed was when He came to the disciples while they were in a boat in the middle of a fierce storm. He came to them "walking" on the water. The disciples thought it was His Ghost, but Peter cried out, "if that is you Lord let me come to you." Jesus said, "Come!"

As I ponder at this event and it's importance I try to put myself in that boat with the disciples. First, Jesus doesn't come with us in the boat and says He is going to join us later. How is he going to get there, take another boat? Secondly, you see the storm coming. You wonder why if Jesus is the Messiah, why didn't he come with us if He knew a storm was coming? Why did He lead us out here into a storm? Third, now that we are in the storm, why isn't He helping me? How often these are the same questions we ask when the storms of life come upon us.

Storms and trials have a purpose and that is to reveal our true hearts. We don't like to see our hearts but it is necessary. The trials come to show us not usually what we have of the Lord, but what we don't have. But there is something more than this that God intends for us in the storms that come. What could that be? How about walking on the water.

The disciples thought Jesus (Spirit) was coming to them and not really Him. The ship was sinking. Their first cry should have been HELP! No the discussion went somewhere else for us to learn. The question wasn't help but, "is that you?" What a question.

How often in the midst of the storm do we say, "Lord is this you? Are you really here?" Like Peter we need to make a decision. I can stay in the boat and sink. I can stay in the boat and doubt His power. I can stay in the boat and question is He really God. We have to decide in whom we are going to believe. He is or He is not! When we choose to believe, HE IS, then the impossible becomes possible! We begin to use the faith of God that He has placed in us and we overcome like Peter!

In the midst of this great storm Peter ask the CORRECT question, " Lord, if that is you let me come to you?" It is a profound question! You see for that moment Peter NO LONGER saw the STORM! He was now focused on Jesus who was "walking on the water" in the midst of the storm. The storm lost is power to a greater power, JESUS CHRIST, the Son of the living God! Peter's eyes got fixed on Jesus and the faith of God in him rose up and said, "let me come to you."

O beloved reader, what a lesson to learn. When the storm or trials come, there is always someone walking towards us in the midst of them walking on the water. In the deepest hour of the storm, there He is right in front of us. Why? Because He wants to awaken the faith He Himself has placed in us, since He has given to every man a measure of faith. The Faith of God in us, not our faith in God which is our trying to have faith.

True faith rose up in Peter and said, "let me come." Did you notice Jesus wasn't concerned about the storm at all, He is God! Yet, there He was awakening the faith of God in Peter to say, " let me come." Jesus reply is startling! He says to Peter, "COME!" Peter doesn't see the storm anymore, but His eyes are fixed on Jesus. He gets up in the boat and then places his foot out of the boat unto the water.

Then the miracle happens. The water becomes like concrete under his feet and He does something that is impossible for a man to do. He walks on the water and starts to come to Jesus. Wow! A human being walks on the water, the natural law of what makes water, water is suspended and it becomes like concrete under his feet. Most of you know the rest of the story, He walks a little way and then starts noticing the storm instead of being fixed on Jesus and begins to sink and cries, "Jesus save me." Jesus reaches out to him, and rescues him and puts him back in the boat and says, "why did you doubt."

That is the real work God is trying to do in us in the midst of the storm, remove all the doubts that He is God alone. For a moment, Peter stood where no man had gone before. He did the impossible in the midst of the storm, he overcame it. So it will be for us, if we look to Jesus in the midst and listen for His voice say, "COME!"

The storm may be still there, but we are lifted up above the storm to walk in a new place of rest in His presence, knowing just one word to the storm from Jesus will quiet the winds and the seas. Just one word from Jesus, "COME" will allow us to walk over the waves and the winds. The bible tells us, that the just shall live by faith. That we walk by faith and not by sight. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.

This is the lesson Peter had to learn and the lesson the Lord is teaching each one of us. We are called the people of faith and by faith alone do we live and by faith alone do we walk. Paul wrote that his new life in Christ would be by FAITH of the Son of God, who loveed him, and gave himself for him. Should we not follow his example in believing. Should we not live our new life hidden in the secret word Jesus says to Peter, "COME?" The bible asks the question, "when the Son of man returns will He find faith on the earth? Will He?

Labels: Faith (series)

I was watching the movie last night called "A walk to remember." It is a movie about a Pastor's daughter who has leukemia and how she lives the remainder of the days she has left. It is definitely a tear jerker movie, because she falls in love with a high school boy who is bad on the outside.

He is one of the boys who is most popular but a bit of a trouble maker. He and His friends make fun of her all the time because she is quite simple and dresses modestly or old fashioned in most of her peers eye. But there is something different about her. There is a purity, love and quality of the spirit in her that draws this troubled young man to her.

At first he doesn't understand what he is attracted to. But Jamie ( the young girl) looks past the outer person he is, and is able to see the potential he has to be a good man and achieve his dreams. His friends flatter his flesh all the time and make him out to be "big and bad." Jamie sees something else. She sees his tenderness beneath the image. She sees the love he is capable of giving. She sees the potential to be what he desires to be. Even when he cuts her down and laughs at her, she tells him that he is good.

One point in the movie, he really hurts her by not acknowledging her friendship in front of his friends. He then comes to the house as if all is ok, and she tells him, " I thought there was something really special about you, I must have been wrong." Those words stun him and cause him to rethink things about himself. He always saw himself as a failure or one who is always in trouble. He thought he had to be big and bad to be loved or noticed, but now he begins to realize all he has to be is what he was made to be.

Jamie saw this in him and brought this quality out of him because of her faith in God. It is really a good movie, accept for a few choice words.The point of this today is we often see ourselves just like the young man. We have allowed the world to determine what we are and how we are to live. Often peer pressure has caused us to see differently and think wrongly about what we really are.

If our call is to go make disciples of the nations, then let us be ambassadors of the Hope their is in Christ. Christianity is more than being saved from hell. Redemption is more than forgiving our sins which would have been enough, but it is God restoring us back to a place where we can live the potential and purpose He created us for. In this purpose we become salt to the earth, a lamp not hidden under a bushel, or a city set upon a hill.

As I watched the movie, I was able to see how our God longs for us to see ourselves above our faults, sin, mistakes and failures. He wants us to see us the way He created us to be, full of potential and purpose. He longs to tells us this himself, but interesting enough in the movie used a dying girl who could be bitter about her sickness to awaken the hope in this young man.
May the Lord encourage you this day, not to see yourself as what you were. What you were made by your natural enviroment, but to the real you, who was made in the image of God. Your real purpose to be the apple of His eye and His preculiar treasure.

One of the most alarming things I see in the Body of Christ is that we do not understand Godly authority. Authority has almost become a dirty word to many Christians today. We say we are in submission and authority, but do we understand what true Godly authority is? One of the things we are going to have to test in these last days is those who "say they are Apostles and are not and seen that they are false." (Rev. 2:2) Many leaders in the Body of Christ demand authority from their people. Many use authority wrongly and are never open to hear God through others. Jesus taught us in Matthew 24:24, "there will be many false christ and false prophets who will do and great signs and wonders, so that if it were possible even the very elect will be tricked."

Yet on the other hand, many believers won't submit to God given authority either. Miriam and Aaron opposed Moses in the book of Numbers by saying to him, " you take to much on for yourself, we hear God as well as you do." Yet when God answered them, He told Miriam and Aaron, " I speak to you in dreams and vision, but I speak to Moses face to face." In this God was teaching them who had a "greater authority." Just because they could hear the Lord one way, did NOT GIVE THEM A PLACE OF AUTHORITY OVER MOSES!

How can this happen to them and to us today unless we don't have a correct understanding of Godly Authority. You see there are people who will want to "take" authority and those who won't "submit" to Godly authority. We even have teaching today that says, " you have to take your authority." But Beloved, we can't take it, we must use it when God gives it to us, but we can never, ever take what He has not given us. The Lord told me, Henry, YOU CAN NEVER TAKE AUTHORITY, I GIVE AUTHORITY AS I CHOOSE!

Recently I was on a mission trip in the middle of the equipping time, when I had an open vision of an ocean. From the depths of the ocean 4 heads arose, and they spoke to me, "we have the same authority as you." They were heads of men, ordinary people, but huge, trying to take a place over me in the spirit. These spirits manifested through people the whole entire time we were there. People who thought they had a place did the strangest, wierdest things to try to say, "we have the same authority you do." It was amazing, strangers telling us about their place, their vision and how they were "somone of importance." Not one of them could lay down what they had, or be open to the "present work of the Lord." Nor was their a true spirit of humility and brokenness coming forth from them. It was more of a demanding that says, "recognize me."
After visiting a church in the next city and sharing the vision of why God has brought us to this city, a woman stood up and said, "Are you going to go to every single church and ministry in town and tell them what you are doing, or are you just going to barge in here." I knew this was not her speaking but the spirit of Jezebel through her trying to establish a place under the spirit of the anti-christ. The Spirit of anti-christ always is concerned with the "things of men" and not the things of God. This is important for us as believers to learn.

It was Simon Peter who had the true revelation of who Jesus was in Matthew chapter 16:16, "you are the Christ the Son of the living God." In this statement, Peter was not just declaring who Christ was, but the AUTHORITY Christ has over us. He had already seen the miracle He did, healing, deliverance, multiplying the fishes and the loaves. The Father revealed who Jesus was and His place of authority to him. But something happens a little later on when Jesus tells them he is going to be crucified and die. This same Peter speaks again, and says, " Lord, this will never happen to you." Jesus replies in verse 23, Stand behind me satan, for you are concerned with the things of men and not the things of God.

The woman in the church yielded to that spirit and spoke to try to take authority over me, by intimidating me not to do what God wanted me to do there. Or at best wait until we get everyone's agreement to what God was saying for us to do there. This woman did not understand authority from God's eyes. Anyone can speak what they think they have from God, but because God speaks to you doesn't give you authority. We think false prophets are going to come in to the church and seduce her away from God and some will, but the greater danger is how we are allowing it in God's people to speak.

I once had a lady tell me, that whenever she received a word or vision from the Lord she is always right. Why? Because she asked the Lord, never to say a word that was not from Him. I told her He won't answer that prayer, because the spirit of the prophets is subject to the prophets. She would have no part of that . She would not place her gift under Godly authority. She took her own place of authority. Beloved, we need to truly ask God for the Spirit of Discerment to increase in our lives. We need to know by the Spirit of God what is and is not Him! Many are still learning to use the gifts of the Holy Spirit and that is alright, but we must undersand that gifts are not a place of authority, just gifts given by the Holy Spirit for other!

Have you ever been in a supermarket ready to buy your groceries and scanned with your eyes to find the aisle with the shortest line? I think we all have. It is our nature to go about our business as quickly as possible. No one wants to wait longer than they have to. This happened to me in Walmart the other day. I brought my mom to buy some groceries and when we finished with our selection I spotted the line to choose. It only had one person in it, yet she had a full basket. As we waited, she put her items and then almost near the end, she payed for the first half.
Now we had already been waiting about 5 minutes because the cashier wasn't the fastest worker I ever seen. I tried to be content by thinking at least she has a bagger. Then the cashier finishes the rest of the items and the woman takes out a stack of coupons for all the items she has purchased. Now my blood pressure starts to go up. You see, everyone else in the longer lines were now finished. I looked to mom and whispered, boy I sure picked the wrong line to get in. It took the cashier at least 5 more minutes to scan each coupon, and many wouldn't scan so she had to enter each number by hand.
The thoughts running through my mind were not the best. "Why didn't she have them out at first for the cashier." "Why didn't she let us know she had two seperate orders to buy, my poor mom had to stand all that time?" I didn't see how ugly impatience can truly be, this was not a "biggy" to me. Yet while I was standing there, I could hear the Spirit of God correcting me. Most of the correction was not about what I said, I only said one thing, but in my mind, aye veigh! I instantly was convicted with as a man thinketh, so is He! I had to repent right there and give up the right to "my" time to the Lord. I didn't even ask if this delay had a purpose. I was to busy with my idea of my time, than God's. I looked to my mom and said, " I sure need to be patient."
Beloved, the bible tells us to let "patience" do it's perfect work, for when it is complete we will lack nothing. I didn't understand how God was working this in me in the grocery store. I thought for sure it would be in the big things He would do this, but here in the grocery store, the Almighty God wanted to write His law upon my heart. I didn't even say much, but with the heart man believes. For that moment I could not see or hear what the Lord wanted for me. Maybe I needed to be a light to someone there. Maybe he was saving me from an accident that is down the road. That didn't even enter my mind.
Finally after I dropped to my knees in my heart and said, " I surrender" the peace of God came again. As the man put the bags in the basket, the cashier smiled at me unaware of my thoughts and said to me, " Thank you, have a very blessed day!" I am undone, O Lord! Why did God make me wait in line, so that through His servant I could receive a blessing. Would that blessing had come if I vocalized my thoughts? I don't think so. So beloved readers, every moment of every day is not a waste of time. In every moment there is a purpose whether we are conscious of it or not. The INVISIBLE GOD is always working in us and through us, if we totatlly yeild every moment into His hands. Then patience can have its perfect work.

Yesterday morning my wife woke me up and asked, "did you hear the rain coming down this morning?" It sounded like it was coming through the ceiling. I told her I did not hear a thing. Yes the storm was beating down upon my home, but I was deep in sleep and never heard a noise. Usually I am the one that hears the storms and she is the one deeply sleeping, but this time it was her turn to hear the storm and not me.

I remember a time when we were first married and living in our first apartment. The fire alarm went off at 3 a.m. and the fire department came and we never heard it. They evacuated the building, but we were soundly sleeping and never heard the alarm or the bang on the doors. So we were the only ones left inside. I shudder to think if there was a real fire or emergency.

Another time we were ministering in Philadelphia and our host Pastor arranged for us to stay in a very nice hotel and we were given a room on the 24th floor in a suite. At 1a.m. the fire alarm went off and we heard it. This was a month after 9/11, we flew down the 24 flights of stairs. People were moving very slow and the impulse was to go by them to save our lives. Their slowness may cause us great harm. But we didn't do that and actually helped others go down. It was a false alarm, but nevertheless it was scary.

So often things are happening all around us, storms, crisis in families, our spiritual life and we are not even aware of them. Other times the alarms are loud and clear. I don't know why the Lord allowed us to sleep through two alarms and not the other, but He did. Yet in all these cases we were kept safe. The INVISIBLE GOD never sleeps and is continually watching over us and working in us whether we are conscious of it or not. The bible tell us that "He that has begun a good work in us will be faithful to complete it."

It does not say we have to be conscious of this working. I am really learning that God is working in me in the invisible, not in my feelings or emotions. I don't have to see it or feel it to know God is working and doing all He said, I must just believe He is! He is God Almighty and He is working where I can't see or feel and I don't have to. Beloved, let us put our absolute trust in HIs goodness and His fiathfulness. We will never be disappointed.

It is monsoon season here in Tucson. It is a season that each of us must be extra careful when driving in the daily thunder storms. Since we live in the valley between 4 mountain ranges, we are the perfect spot for all the water to run down into. Because of this, our roads flood because of flash flooding and because of the rain that comes down from the washes. Washes are like little rivers. We drive through them all year round, but in monsoon seasons they become the run-off spots from the mountains and become little rivers. Roads we normally drive become not passable. Some motorist ignore the warning signs that say road flooded. They ignore them because there may be no water in the wash at that moment, or the water doesnt' look that deep.

What they find out to often at their peril, is the water is much deeper than they thought and the current of the water is so powerful it sweeps them away in their vehicles. To often, many people lose their lives because of this. Sometimes they may drive through it and not see the wall of water coming down the mountain until it is to late and then they are swept away. Tragicly this happened to two hikers this weekend. They were swept away by a wall of water they didnt' see coming through the foothills.

As I was pondering this morning, I thought about how badly we need the rain during this season. In the desert it may not rain for 100's of days in a row. We badly need the rain for things to grow in the fall, winter and spring. Yet the very rain we need can become the thing that can take away peoples lives unaware. I was reminded of the warning of the bible when it says Jesus will come back at a moment we are not prepared for, like a thief in the night. The bible tells us not to be caught unawares, but to be sober and vigilant for His return. That we need to be about His business when He comes.

Many of God's people are praying for the rain to come, but do we understand that this very rain will become a flood that will usher in the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, Are we really ready for His coming like the former and latter rains. If all truth is observed by nature, then let nature teach of what His coming may be like.

In John chapter 3: 19 Jesus says, "And this is the test by which men are judged: the light has come into the world and men have more love for the dark than for the light, because their acts are evil." This is quite a statement of truth for us to consider. Can we be truly honest with God? Is our Christianity something we do or a life that flows out of us of Christ?

So often we look for God to do the "big" things in our lives all the while God has been looking at the very small ordinary things of our daily lives. This is the where the real test of our Christianity is. 1st Corinthians 13 tells us that we can have faith to move mountains, give our bodies to be burned, sell all we have and give it to the poor, but with out LOVE, or God's love in us we are a useless nobody and a clanging bell.

In chapter 3 of the book of Revelation, Jesus is standing on the outside of the church, trying to get in by knocking on the hearts of believer. This happens right after he says, "you say you are rich and in NEED OF NOTHING, but I say you are POOR, BLIND, PITIABLE AND NAKED!" Have you wondered how this end-time people could be so far off the mark in their estimation of their walk in the Holy Spirit?

The bible tells us to have a sober estimation of ourselves, but do we? Are we believing that we are much more further along the walk of maturity than we really are? The Amplified bible speaks of the life of Pharisee is marked by unrest and violent agitation. Jesus warned us of the leaven of the Pharisees in Luke chapter 12. Do we really love the Light (of Truth) as He is in the light, or do we run for the covers when the Holy Spirit tries to show us our real state? The choise is ours, but the choice will be eternal and prove our destiny.

Last night my wife was going to her SUV, when suddenly she was startled by a tarantula in the garage. She was frightened where she couldn't move. I opened the front door for her to come in by to get out of it's way.

She wanted me to go find it, though it was pitch black out and very little light in the garage. I told her I would go find it in the morning, that it would probably leave the way it came. She was quite persistent! I told her that I will try to shew it out or kill it if I must, but if I miss then we will be in trouble.

Fortunately, the tarantula's in Arizona are not the deadly kind, more of the kind you could keep for a pet. But it's appearance is quite frightening for a spider. It is big with very long legs and very hairy looking. So scary that it would frighten and paralyze many by it's sight.

Pondering on that this morning, I was reminded of the scripture about satan. In the book of Isaiah it says when we see him as he really is a question will be asked. Is this the one who that terrorized the whole world? Satan looks so menacing to us when he is attacking us. He appears as a roaring lion or a hairy tarantula. He can grip us with fear for a moment. But God is with us and He has not given us a spirit of fear, but power, love and a sound mind! Through Him we will overcome all things. This is the lesson my wife is learning with the spider and we must learn in overcoming the devil and all evil.

Dear Readers,

Please let us all pray for those who lost their lives in Minneapolis and for their families and all who were injured. It must be heart wrenching to those families and to the first responders that are doing the recovery efforts. Let us pray that this event will cause each state to look at our transportation venues the way God would want and make the safety of our citizens their first priority.

I also see how the politicians are trying to make this political and will soon blame President Bush somehow, so please pray for him, his family and our nation. Your prayers do change things. Intercession is the highest call from God in our relationship with Him.

Blessings to you always!

P.S. Donna and I went over that bridge several times when we were in Minneapolis, so the tragedy is very real to us!