I stand always amazed at how much God wants to communicate with us continually. Seems like no matter what time of day or position of body, or participation of motion (work, play, ect), He is always and all ways there to manifest His presence and meet with us on a personal and active level. Sometimes this meeting is just a conscious presence of His being there and thereby heart felt. Sometimes it is verbal with His instruction for us and our listening with both our ears and our hearts. Sometimes it's His gently nudging us to do something of His will that we don't understand or that we can't figure out where this will lead us.
No matter what the way, or reason, He "meets" with us, the main thing is that He does and should, at least on a basis that says He is alive in our lives and guiding our hearts.
Do you believe this? Is it a part of your daily "revelation of Jesus Christ?" If not daily: when you seek Him do you find Him regularly? Be honest, most of us are claiming some sort of "religious" practices or faith, but the question is: "does your faith manifest itself" in real Biblical experiences?"
Hebrews 1:1 "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen."
Understand that faith is "true reality". Not like the carnal, physical, visible world that we live in, transient and ever changing. True Faith takes it's roots from the unchangeable real spiritual world of "without end." The Biblical promise world of an "unending eternity."
Look at it's very definition: Now faith "IS" the substance of things hoped for. Reading this we can only surmise that faith is the substance, ie. true reality, truly touchable, truly apprehend able, and the only thing worth hoping for. Real faith validates the achieving of hope, in fact it guarantees it as much as we view this world to be real, faith is more.
"The evidence of things unseen" proves that faith is it's own evidence because "by faith" the unseen is acted on as seen and therefor received by that self same faith. Evidence is what we use to validate truth (not so much any more but it was this way in the beginning). The participation in faith that we apply ourselves in will then manifest itself in reality. So if you have little or no faith, or just a carnal, mental faith then the "things of God" will be hidden from you and your "growing in faith and grace" will be thwarted. Our faith must put us into a class of believers that believe "that God is and He is a rewarder of those who seek Him diligently."
Here is where we fail, we stumble at the stumbling block, that word "DILIGENTLY".
Here is an example that someone once told me: "God is God but this is reality." If God is not your foremost "reality" then where are you living and what is most important to you? Is God in "all" your thoughts? Is your thoughts in subjection to the "Mind of Christ?"
Could this be why our daily/weekly/monthly/yearly walk with God is so "Divinely Uneventful?"
Scripture says "Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts."
We are to ask, seek, and knock "in accordance with His will" in order to "receive" the substance and the evidence" of hope and the unseen.
We have to become like the man with the devil possessed son who said in desperation to Jesus "Help thou my unbelief."
Do we have to be sinking to these depths of despair before we cry out for help with our faith? Are some of us there now? Have we forgot who is the "author and finisher of our faith?" Are we so strong that we don't need "Divine" help and so we rely on the "arm of man." Is our God's arm shortened that it cannot help, heal, deliver?
God cannot change. He is from everlasting to everlasting. He knows your life as a story already told. He has put all things needed in your path/life to draw you unto Him and His Gospel for the sole reason of having "fellowship" with you. Fellowship means to walk, talk, and be an active, real, living part of your life.
The first place this is manifested is in prayer, (communication), which is a conversation (two or more participants) not a monologue, (only you talking). If your prayer time is just a monologue ending with Amen, and not a time of "waiting on the Lord" to hear what He has to say, then things need to change. When you kneel before God in that most solemn and intimate time of prayer, be still and know that He is God. You are bowing before the God of creation and glorious in your sight. If He is anything else then a good look at your heart needs to be taken.
The second (and most lied about in Christianity) points at the proof of His "manifesting" Himself and His will through His promises and commands.
For You does He? If we walk with Him we will be conformed to His image and likeness and manifest His will on earth, seeing Him do His will and doing it also. Hearing Him speak and speaking the same. Doing those things that Jesus did and greater.
If you don't believe that this is His intentions for you then just what do you believe? Did He bring His Son to the cross and out of the grave to just save you. Was that price offered for your sins just so you can "walk streets of gold?" Or did it come with a contract of "obedience" to His Word, and Will wrapped in His Love. We owe Him! Everything! Our Hearts, Souls, Minds, Bodies, Wills, efforts, passions, focus, everything! It may take a while for us to get there but with the right companion (the Holy Spirit) for the journey, and the right food and drink, (His Word) to strengthen us, we are more then fit for the journey which is our "calling and election" for "in Him we live and move and have our being."
Gird up your loins with strength.......fit yourself for battle,,,,,,,draw neigh to God and He will dray neigh to you..........remembering that "faith comes by hearing and that by the word of God."
Read the Word, pray, so growing in faith and thereby producing fruit "keeping with repentance."
Though I am always reminded of the "sin that ever wants to posses me" I am also ever assured of the Savior who bought me with a price eternally and my passion and desire to serve Him, keeping Him ever in my heart, thoughts, words and deeds, receiving of His will in prayers, dreams and visions to do and speak.
"This is the way, walk ye therein."
Love
J&E
Thursday, May 28, 2015
Sunday, May 17, 2015
Unconditional Love
To have Unconditional Love is the only practice that has no down side to it. To keep it in the "never fails" state produces an excellent life. Without it there is no triumph, without it there is no worship. Love is the Victory every time all the time. By love we prove we "know God." He who loveth not knoweth not God! Do you love Him? Then you will love others.
Love
J&E in Tn
Love
J&E in Tn
Decisions
Each days a new day and with the new day comes new or continuing decisions. So what's it going to be? Continue on in the direction of the mind or follow the heart that's led by Gods Word (Jesus Christ)?
If you follow the mind (head knowledge) you will elevate "why" to the pride level then fall, (for pride goes before a fall.) The mind can be manipulated by our carnal desires and excuses made to "back our play." But the heart, led by the Spirit of God through His Word, will direct us to "do His will" and thus glorify His name in all the earth.
This has benefit in all areas of life. Marriage, work, service, parenting, actions, attitudes, and motive. Not to mention thought, words and deeds. In every area mentioned proof is shown as to where you are making you decisions out of. The heart will abide with the Word of God and all His precepts regardless of how we feel about them or what we want to do. You will only make this journey (life) once and we have been given a map and a Guide, use them.
Excuses belong to those who "want excuse" to go their own way, do their own thing. You can tell that you strayed from the Map O'God when everything starts to fall apart and crumble. If you claim His name then you must claim His Word that it alone is right and we must submit to His Loving guidance. Here in is where many "Believer's" fail. They want the "Streets of Gold" on the other side, but not the path of peculiarity (obedience) on this side.
If our "claim to Salvation" was done in our heads by the cunning devises of man's words, and not in the heart by preparation of the Holy Spirit, then we will not "follow the Spirit" in obedience to His Word and "grow destruction" in our fields instead of precious Fruit of the Spirit.
FOLLOWING THE HOLY SPIRIT AS HE PRESENTS THE WORD OF GOD IS NOT OPTIONAL!
Having God's Word written on our hearts is not optional.
Scripture describes two types of hearts: one of stone and one of flesh. We all start out with a heart of stone that God promises to take from us and replace it with a heart of flesh "wherein He will write His Word with His finger.
A stony heart is the starting block for all men and woman so that God might have the "preeminence" on all to change it. But even that has to be "desired" of that stony heart to have done. Ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find, knock and the door shall be opened unto you.
Is your life important enough to "follow the Guide and the Map"? Or are we just strong enough to constantly pick up the pieces cast down from our carnal decisions and call it a life?
Here is a question that you could ask yourself: Is the joy of the Lord my strength? If so then why the failing when there is nothing impossible for Him? Who gave up? You? or Him? He didn't as He cannot fail. So maybe we missed something in our daily communication with Him that caused us to "wander afar off." Maybe we are just happy to worship Him with our mouths but our hearts are far from Him, just maybe we "decide" that all that "is written" doesn't apply to us, our hearing or our applying? Maybe we "dispensate" His Word so as to allow ourselves to resist being "conformed to His image and likeness" or down right deny that change.
Consider your life,
Consider your walk.
Consider now your future in Him who "fills all His creation" in which you live.
Just consider.
Love
J&E
If you follow the mind (head knowledge) you will elevate "why" to the pride level then fall, (for pride goes before a fall.) The mind can be manipulated by our carnal desires and excuses made to "back our play." But the heart, led by the Spirit of God through His Word, will direct us to "do His will" and thus glorify His name in all the earth.
This has benefit in all areas of life. Marriage, work, service, parenting, actions, attitudes, and motive. Not to mention thought, words and deeds. In every area mentioned proof is shown as to where you are making you decisions out of. The heart will abide with the Word of God and all His precepts regardless of how we feel about them or what we want to do. You will only make this journey (life) once and we have been given a map and a Guide, use them.
Excuses belong to those who "want excuse" to go their own way, do their own thing. You can tell that you strayed from the Map O'God when everything starts to fall apart and crumble. If you claim His name then you must claim His Word that it alone is right and we must submit to His Loving guidance. Here in is where many "Believer's" fail. They want the "Streets of Gold" on the other side, but not the path of peculiarity (obedience) on this side.
If our "claim to Salvation" was done in our heads by the cunning devises of man's words, and not in the heart by preparation of the Holy Spirit, then we will not "follow the Spirit" in obedience to His Word and "grow destruction" in our fields instead of precious Fruit of the Spirit.
FOLLOWING THE HOLY SPIRIT AS HE PRESENTS THE WORD OF GOD IS NOT OPTIONAL!
Having God's Word written on our hearts is not optional.
Scripture describes two types of hearts: one of stone and one of flesh. We all start out with a heart of stone that God promises to take from us and replace it with a heart of flesh "wherein He will write His Word with His finger.
A stony heart is the starting block for all men and woman so that God might have the "preeminence" on all to change it. But even that has to be "desired" of that stony heart to have done. Ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find, knock and the door shall be opened unto you.
Is your life important enough to "follow the Guide and the Map"? Or are we just strong enough to constantly pick up the pieces cast down from our carnal decisions and call it a life?
Here is a question that you could ask yourself: Is the joy of the Lord my strength? If so then why the failing when there is nothing impossible for Him? Who gave up? You? or Him? He didn't as He cannot fail. So maybe we missed something in our daily communication with Him that caused us to "wander afar off." Maybe we are just happy to worship Him with our mouths but our hearts are far from Him, just maybe we "decide" that all that "is written" doesn't apply to us, our hearing or our applying? Maybe we "dispensate" His Word so as to allow ourselves to resist being "conformed to His image and likeness" or down right deny that change.
Consider your life,
Consider your walk.
Consider now your future in Him who "fills all His creation" in which you live.
Just consider.
Love
J&E
Saturday, May 9, 2015
Choices
It's just after midnight and I sit here with a greatfull heart listening to worship music and thinking about how different life would be without my wife. The beauty of our life together cannot be measure in the 9 children and 12 grandchildren that we rejoice in. It cannot be measured in all the sacrifice we made to get from 1972 till today. It cannot be measured in tears or trials that have passed under the bridge, nor could it be measured in the early loss of 4 who await us in heaven.
Life has (and will have) its burdens to bear, and calamities, those things give us passion. Struggles exercises the sinews of life and strengthens the bones of bearing. We all need that regardless of the comfort we seek.
It's just after midnight and I sit here with a greatfull heart listening to worship music and thinking about how different life would be without my wife. The beauty of our life together cannot be measure in the 9 children and 12 grandchildren that we rejoice in. It cannot be measured in all the sacrifice we made to get from 1972 till today. It cannot be measured in tears or trials that have passed under the bridge, nor could it be measured in the early loss of 4 who await us in heaven.
Life has (and will have) its burdens to bear, and calamities, those things give us passion. Struggles exercises the sinews of life and strengthens the bones of bearing. We all need that regardless of the comfort we seek.
It's just after midnight and I sit here with a greatfull heart listening to worship music and thinking about how different life would be without my wife. The beauty of our life together cannot be measure in the 9 children and 12 grandchildren that we rejoice in. It cannot be measured in all the sacrifice we made to get from 1972 till today. It cannot be measured in tears or trials that have passed under the bridge, nor could it be measured in the early loss of 4 who await us in heaven.
Sunday, May 3, 2015
You or God?
A note to those who visit my page and postings:
Some may seem like I do this far too often, (posting explanations of why I am the way I am and what I believe), but that is my prerogative so as to make all matters clear.
Today's note is about faith!
Not faith in, (as some ignorantly acclaim), a higher power which can have any application or form, but faith in Jesus Christ; and the Scriptures, which is the written Word, that became flesh, and dwelt amongst us for a while, again Jesus Christ.
Many attest that the Scriptures need to be studied with an effort of mental acuity. That by some form of physical effort they can have a relationship with Jesus Christ and claim the promise of salvation. With this attitude in mind the rest of Scripture is embraced the same way, including doctrine and practices. Sad to say that this practice of mental observance and effort has taken over the everyday applications in all manner of disbursement for knowledge or wisdom. It shows in the practices of those who call upon the "name of the Lord", many times having no real Scriptural basis to claim but "expectation" for the asking.
Our God, the Lord Jesus Christ, is a mover of hearts. We come to salvation, (not by mental decree or agreement), when the soil of our hearts are made fertile to receive the Word. Our ears don't connect directly to the brain in this matter but to our hearts as for the fitting of soil so that "His Word shall not come back void." Salvation is not based on the mental understanding of spiritual things but on the hearts spiritual revelation of spiritual things made known by the Holy Spirit (in His due time.) Then that revelation brings forth the speaking of the words that has been planted in the heart on prepared ground. Romans 10:9-10 says: 9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
All matters of faith are matters of the heart then the mouth speaks what the heart has received from the Holy Spirit.
If your practice is to understand with your head the things of Christ (the Word) then you will only have the carnal interpretation and that will not bring you into the spiritual experience that the Scriptures promise us.
That is how so many believers can claim salvation but dispel any other promise or command of God as to being valid. Because they "think with their heads" not their hearts, then healing is a hit and miss prayer "hoping" instead of "believing", offering a prayer that is faithless, a "shot at the moon" instead of seeking the will of God according to His written/spoken promises then claiming them. If prayer for healing could be so faithless or not put into practice by churches in faith then what about the other promises of casting out demons, raising the dead, speaking in tongues, prophesy, interpretations, dreams, visions, and signs and wonders? These are the "babies thrown out with the bath water."
So many "believers" have this application: "Because I have not seen it certainly it has been discontinued by God for His Bride or Church.
Excuse me! If God has changed even one of His promises then none of His promises (including salvation) are good for today or anymore.
Romans 3:4 God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar. He never changes. He is from everlasting to everlasting, He changeth not.
So who in this line of study is right? God or man?
The truth sets free, from sin and fear, evil and affliction, death and hopelessness, if it doesn't set free then it is not truth and it is a lie. I am often amazed that people of "faith" in Christ have so many excuses as to why they have to lie about scripture because "they" haven't experienced this or that promise. "You have not because you ask not", is this asking with just the mouth or should it come from the heart? But wait, how can it be in the heart if it was never preached to them or even dispelled in the preaching as being true?
Romans 10:4 14 How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?
Thus the need for Spirit filled teachers who believe the scriptures and speak out of the fullness of the revelation that God's Spirit has put in their hearts. One of the gifts is a "spirit of discernment" one that is sorely lacking in the Church today but most needed with all the false teaching that is going on, weakening the Scriptures instead of bolstering them up with truth from a pure heart that is connected to God and longs for His glory upon the earth.
Here's a thought:
We are approaching the end times at "light year speed" right now. Right now. Right now. Anyone who has even read scripture with a carnal mind would say "disasters are increasing", wars and tumults are crowding the earth, taking over cities and nations.
Did anyone ever realize that the very promises and commands that God gave "His people" in His Word, by Jesus Christ (the Word made flesh) would be the very "life" of His people that should go through this ramping up to the "judging of the sin of man"?
Lets just look at a few of those promises in Scripture:
Jesus fed the crowd with loaves and fishes. In the end times there will be famines in diverse areas then globally. Have you ever seen food multiplied? Have you ever experienced this miracle? Didn't Jesus say: "these things I do you shall do also and greater things?"
What about healing? In a time when only a small percentage can truly afford health care, regardless of what the govt does to sponsor such a plan, who do you turn to? Who do you turn to as a believer when even the hands of man fail? "And she spent all her money on doctors and was worse off" (paraphrased). Broke with no hope and not healed. If you ever been to the hospitals and gotten the bills you know that this is not a historical problem. But Jesus both commands (heal the sick) and promises that He is the Great Physician.
Hear is one close to my heart:
Raising the dead. How many children, His heritage, do we lay in the ground every year throughout all the Christian Church's without even one attempt to ask God to intervene? We throw our hands up in hopelessness and grief. Yet even in our darkest hours of pain and grief we dare not "gather believers" around us and petition our God for life.
Let me let you in on a secret concerning these promises of God:
For the sick to be healed someone has to be sick.
For the dead to be raised someone has to be dead.
For the blind to see someone has to be blind.
For the lame to walk someone has to be lame.
For the deaf to hear someone has to be deaf.
Do you get the drift? All promises and more than I can list tonight. All promises that are becoming more necessary in the church each day. If you dispute them as promises then I guess what Jesus said about "doing these things that I do and greater because I go unto the Father" is wrong and of course YOU are right? Correct?
Ask, Seek, Knock..........right? Wasn't this a command?
Nothing comes from God without "believing prayer". Know the Word, know God's will. Know not the Word, wrestle with your thoughts on why this is happening and I seem helpless.
Prayer is a communication of the heart that petitions through our mouth those promises and praises that God already knows and wants to intervene with. Of course there could be tongues or just regular speech, but also in low times "groanings s that cannot be uttered."
This little "preaching" is coming full circle back to "what do you believe the Scriptures say? What does your church teach? What does your heart desire from your faith?
"All things are possible to those that believe".
Remember this: Your practice of your faith either proves to others that your God is just a "soothing balm", powerless, a social necessity, or He is mighty to deliver, high and lifted up, the True God of Glory.
If you only believe in the Scriptures for salvation in Christ then your enthusiasm for growth in it will grow weary and your testimony will be weak if not futile as a witness. But............if your faith is daily challenged by Scripture, and you ask, seek and knock to experience the Truth and promises of scripture then you will live an active, participating, exciting, and fruitful life in Christ, doing those things He has done and greater things in His name for the Glory of our Father in Heaven.
Which do you choose?
It's all in your heart.
My suggestion is simple:
Ask Him to remove the heart of stone, (disbelief, hardness, rebellion), and replace it with a heart of flesh, wherein He will write His Word on it with His finger.
Right now His church is plagued with weakness, unbelief and false doctrine. Revival is needed. It has to start with us. Scripture has always been a dividing line. Truth vs Falsehoods. God's Word vs the mind of man.
I have seen all of Scripture come to life except the changing of water into wine. That has been a good thing for me to miss.
Because of God's Spirit, the Mind of Christ, preparing my heart for this faith, and the passion that He would be Glorified, I have lived and will continue to live an exciting life in Him and continue to "experience" all He has to offer according to His will, convenient for each day, till death do us part.
If your life is buried with Him then rise with Him and glorify His name.
It's your choice.............to believe or not believe. Not just in Him but in His Word and all the commands and promises.
Some say that aside from salvation there is nothing important. Jesus is enough. If that Jesus is the same Jesus that I know then when you got Him; you got Him all. He doesn't divide Himself based on your desires. If just salvation was His only job all the Gospels would be a lot shorter. He would of been born and ended up at the cross doing nothing in between. But it didn't happen that way. His life was a promise of His living in us and meeting the needs of others through us till the end of time. Being a witness of God's Love and power to a needy and ailing world.
There you have it.
Love
J&E in Tn
Some may seem like I do this far too often, (posting explanations of why I am the way I am and what I believe), but that is my prerogative so as to make all matters clear.
Today's note is about faith!
Not faith in, (as some ignorantly acclaim), a higher power which can have any application or form, but faith in Jesus Christ; and the Scriptures, which is the written Word, that became flesh, and dwelt amongst us for a while, again Jesus Christ.
Many attest that the Scriptures need to be studied with an effort of mental acuity. That by some form of physical effort they can have a relationship with Jesus Christ and claim the promise of salvation. With this attitude in mind the rest of Scripture is embraced the same way, including doctrine and practices. Sad to say that this practice of mental observance and effort has taken over the everyday applications in all manner of disbursement for knowledge or wisdom. It shows in the practices of those who call upon the "name of the Lord", many times having no real Scriptural basis to claim but "expectation" for the asking.
Our God, the Lord Jesus Christ, is a mover of hearts. We come to salvation, (not by mental decree or agreement), when the soil of our hearts are made fertile to receive the Word. Our ears don't connect directly to the brain in this matter but to our hearts as for the fitting of soil so that "His Word shall not come back void." Salvation is not based on the mental understanding of spiritual things but on the hearts spiritual revelation of spiritual things made known by the Holy Spirit (in His due time.) Then that revelation brings forth the speaking of the words that has been planted in the heart on prepared ground. Romans 10:9-10 says: 9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
All matters of faith are matters of the heart then the mouth speaks what the heart has received from the Holy Spirit.
If your practice is to understand with your head the things of Christ (the Word) then you will only have the carnal interpretation and that will not bring you into the spiritual experience that the Scriptures promise us.
That is how so many believers can claim salvation but dispel any other promise or command of God as to being valid. Because they "think with their heads" not their hearts, then healing is a hit and miss prayer "hoping" instead of "believing", offering a prayer that is faithless, a "shot at the moon" instead of seeking the will of God according to His written/spoken promises then claiming them. If prayer for healing could be so faithless or not put into practice by churches in faith then what about the other promises of casting out demons, raising the dead, speaking in tongues, prophesy, interpretations, dreams, visions, and signs and wonders? These are the "babies thrown out with the bath water."
So many "believers" have this application: "Because I have not seen it certainly it has been discontinued by God for His Bride or Church.
Excuse me! If God has changed even one of His promises then none of His promises (including salvation) are good for today or anymore.
Romans 3:4 God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar. He never changes. He is from everlasting to everlasting, He changeth not.
So who in this line of study is right? God or man?
The truth sets free, from sin and fear, evil and affliction, death and hopelessness, if it doesn't set free then it is not truth and it is a lie. I am often amazed that people of "faith" in Christ have so many excuses as to why they have to lie about scripture because "they" haven't experienced this or that promise. "You have not because you ask not", is this asking with just the mouth or should it come from the heart? But wait, how can it be in the heart if it was never preached to them or even dispelled in the preaching as being true?
Romans 10:4 14 How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?
Thus the need for Spirit filled teachers who believe the scriptures and speak out of the fullness of the revelation that God's Spirit has put in their hearts. One of the gifts is a "spirit of discernment" one that is sorely lacking in the Church today but most needed with all the false teaching that is going on, weakening the Scriptures instead of bolstering them up with truth from a pure heart that is connected to God and longs for His glory upon the earth.
Here's a thought:
We are approaching the end times at "light year speed" right now. Right now. Right now. Anyone who has even read scripture with a carnal mind would say "disasters are increasing", wars and tumults are crowding the earth, taking over cities and nations.
Did anyone ever realize that the very promises and commands that God gave "His people" in His Word, by Jesus Christ (the Word made flesh) would be the very "life" of His people that should go through this ramping up to the "judging of the sin of man"?
Lets just look at a few of those promises in Scripture:
Jesus fed the crowd with loaves and fishes. In the end times there will be famines in diverse areas then globally. Have you ever seen food multiplied? Have you ever experienced this miracle? Didn't Jesus say: "these things I do you shall do also and greater things?"
What about healing? In a time when only a small percentage can truly afford health care, regardless of what the govt does to sponsor such a plan, who do you turn to? Who do you turn to as a believer when even the hands of man fail? "And she spent all her money on doctors and was worse off" (paraphrased). Broke with no hope and not healed. If you ever been to the hospitals and gotten the bills you know that this is not a historical problem. But Jesus both commands (heal the sick) and promises that He is the Great Physician.
Hear is one close to my heart:
Raising the dead. How many children, His heritage, do we lay in the ground every year throughout all the Christian Church's without even one attempt to ask God to intervene? We throw our hands up in hopelessness and grief. Yet even in our darkest hours of pain and grief we dare not "gather believers" around us and petition our God for life.
Let me let you in on a secret concerning these promises of God:
For the sick to be healed someone has to be sick.
For the dead to be raised someone has to be dead.
For the blind to see someone has to be blind.
For the lame to walk someone has to be lame.
For the deaf to hear someone has to be deaf.
Do you get the drift? All promises and more than I can list tonight. All promises that are becoming more necessary in the church each day. If you dispute them as promises then I guess what Jesus said about "doing these things that I do and greater because I go unto the Father" is wrong and of course YOU are right? Correct?
Ask, Seek, Knock..........right? Wasn't this a command?
Nothing comes from God without "believing prayer". Know the Word, know God's will. Know not the Word, wrestle with your thoughts on why this is happening and I seem helpless.
Prayer is a communication of the heart that petitions through our mouth those promises and praises that God already knows and wants to intervene with. Of course there could be tongues or just regular speech, but also in low times "groanings s that cannot be uttered."
This little "preaching" is coming full circle back to "what do you believe the Scriptures say? What does your church teach? What does your heart desire from your faith?
"All things are possible to those that believe".
Remember this: Your practice of your faith either proves to others that your God is just a "soothing balm", powerless, a social necessity, or He is mighty to deliver, high and lifted up, the True God of Glory.
If you only believe in the Scriptures for salvation in Christ then your enthusiasm for growth in it will grow weary and your testimony will be weak if not futile as a witness. But............if your faith is daily challenged by Scripture, and you ask, seek and knock to experience the Truth and promises of scripture then you will live an active, participating, exciting, and fruitful life in Christ, doing those things He has done and greater things in His name for the Glory of our Father in Heaven.
Which do you choose?
It's all in your heart.
My suggestion is simple:
Ask Him to remove the heart of stone, (disbelief, hardness, rebellion), and replace it with a heart of flesh, wherein He will write His Word on it with His finger.
Right now His church is plagued with weakness, unbelief and false doctrine. Revival is needed. It has to start with us. Scripture has always been a dividing line. Truth vs Falsehoods. God's Word vs the mind of man.
I have seen all of Scripture come to life except the changing of water into wine. That has been a good thing for me to miss.
Because of God's Spirit, the Mind of Christ, preparing my heart for this faith, and the passion that He would be Glorified, I have lived and will continue to live an exciting life in Him and continue to "experience" all He has to offer according to His will, convenient for each day, till death do us part.
If your life is buried with Him then rise with Him and glorify His name.
It's your choice.............to believe or not believe. Not just in Him but in His Word and all the commands and promises.
Some say that aside from salvation there is nothing important. Jesus is enough. If that Jesus is the same Jesus that I know then when you got Him; you got Him all. He doesn't divide Himself based on your desires. If just salvation was His only job all the Gospels would be a lot shorter. He would of been born and ended up at the cross doing nothing in between. But it didn't happen that way. His life was a promise of His living in us and meeting the needs of others through us till the end of time. Being a witness of God's Love and power to a needy and ailing world.
There you have it.
Love
J&E in Tn
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