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