FAITH COMES

This month is the month we celebrate the birth of our Savior and Soon-Coming King.  Let us rejoice in our relationship with Him.  What a joy to know the One Who is in charge of it all and Who has given us that authority to also be in charge while we are here on this earth, carrying out His destiny for each of us.  Rejoice!  Celebrate!  Let His Presence be known wherever you go.  He is the Almighty One!

Whatever we hear produces the faith from the words we hear.  It is a continual process.  Faith particularly comes from the words we are always hearing on a daily basis, if we hear them over and over.  They can be thoughts (which actually are words that have not been spoken yet) that will eventually come out of our mouths if we think often enough the same thoughts.  Those thoughts become words that are spoken, and those spoken words produce faith.

FAITH COMES BY HEARING AND HEARING BY THE WORD OF GOD (Romans 10:17).

As I said, that hearing may even be what we hear inside ourselves —- our thoughts.

Our thoughts have a voice also as well as what we hear being spoken by our lips.

As you and I know, those thoughts sometimes have a louder voice than what we are hearing ourselves or others speak to our physical ears.

It’s whatever we hear (thoughts or spoken words), whether negative or positive, whether good or bad, whether selfish or unselfish, whether Godly or ungodly that shapes our lives every day.  Our lives are the products of what we hear.  If we hear something often enough, it becomes a part of our being and becomes the life we live.  This is a spiritual law.  You can’t change that law.  That is the way that it is.  What you hear and hear and hear becomes a part of you and directs your life.  This is the law of faith.  A law is something which works the same way all the time for every person.

Today is the day to make a decision that what we think and speak and allow others to speak into our lives is God’s Word.  His Word is true and honest and just and pure and lovely and of a good report (Philippians 4:8).  That’s what we want flowing in our lives.

THE FAITH OF GOD

Mark 11:22-24

And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God (have the faith of God).

For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.

Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.

And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have aught against any:  that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.

I have Your faith, God.

I yield to Your faith.

Your faith speaks to something.

What does God’s faith speak to?

God’s faith speaks to THE BIG PROBLEM —- THE MOUNTAIN

What does God’s faith say?

God’s faith says:  Be removed!

God’s faiths says:  Be cast into the sea!

Not only does God’s faith (which is in us as His children) command the problem to leave, but God’s faith tells it where to go.  The sea is a place of disappearance, to be seen no more.

This is my confession:

I do not doubt in my heart.

I do believe those things I say come to pass.

Then, I SHALL HAVE WHAT I SAY!

Therefore,

Whatever I desire,

WHEN I PRAY,

I BELIEVE (I believe I’ve laid hold on them and I’ve got them.)

I RECEIVE them (I take them with much force, seize with a grip that will not be shaken off.)

and I SHALL HAVE them.

AND,

WHEN I STAND PRAYING,

If I have ANYTHING against anyone (regardless of how small I think it is),

I FORGIVE!

That my Father also Who is in heaven may forgive me.

This week is a time for each of us to meditate on what our God has done for us.  The Father sent Jesus.  Jesus took our place and rose victorious over death, hell and the grave.  The Holy Spirit came to dwell in each of us as the temple of God.  Let’s give thanksgiving and praise to God for what He has done.  Our hearts are full to overflowing with gratitude to God for what He has done.  Let us REJOICE!

JESUS IS LORD

We hear the expression “Jesus is Lord” many times in Christian circles.  We say that Jesus is Lord of our lives.  The Spirit of God asked me a question this morning which I am going to pass on to you.  Am I really LORD of your life?

According to Webster’s 1828 dictionary, the word Lord means one who possesses supreme power and authority; one who governs your life and is in charge of your life.  Supreme means one highest in authority, one holding the highest position of government and power in your life; highest, greatest, most excellent.  In Scripture Lord is Supreme Being, Jehovah.  The word Lord is applied to Christ and the Holy Spirit.  Christ is called the Lord of Glory and the Lord of lords.

When we recognize the lordship of someone, we give them the privilege of governing our lives and being in charge of us because their power and authority is greater than ours.  There is no power and authority greater than God’s power and authority.  So the smartest thing any of us can do is to yield to His Lordship in all areas of our lives.

Any area of my life or yours about which we are fretting, worried or anxious has not been given over to the Lordship of Jesus.  Ponder the question today:  AM I REALLY LORD OF YOUR LIFE?

JOY STRENGTH

Do you need strength today?  Rejoice in the Lord.  As Paul said in Philippians 4:4:  “Rejoice in the Lord always:  and again I say, Rejoice.”  Nehemiah 8:10, Amplified Bible :  “…And be not grieved and depressed, for the joy of the Lord is your strength and stronghold.”

In John 15:11 Jesus spoke these words to His disciples then and to us now:  “These things have I spoken to you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.”  What had Jesus just spoken to His disciples in the verses before verse 11?  Abide in Me and let my words abide in you.  My word will keep you clean and you will bear much fruit, that My Father may be glorified.  Continue in My love.  If you keep My commandments (My Word), you abide in My love, even as I have kept My Father’s commandments (Word) and abide in His love.  We can rejoice because God’s Love has been shed abroad in our hearts that we may abide in His love.  This brings fullness of joy to fruition in us.

Listen to what Jesus spoke in John 17:13 (Amplified Bible) about our joy.  He is talking to His Father about His return to Him after He is resurrected.  Put on your spiritual catchers and listen carefully:  “And now I am coming to You; I say these things while I am still in the world, so that My joy may be made full and complete and perfect in them [that they may experience My delight fulfilled in them, that My enjoyment may be perfected in their own souls, that they may have My gladness within them, filling their hearts.]”  Jesus never spoke idle words.  If He said it, then it is so!

The joy of the Lord is our strength.  That strength is God’s power made visible in our lives.

Hear what the Apostle Peter said in 1 Peter 1:3-5.  “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy has begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fades not away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”  The Amplified Bible says that we are guarded, garrisoned by God’s power through our faith.  Think about it; we are talking about GOD’S POWER.  There is no power greater than He is.  And He is living in us with His power.  He makes His power available to us as His children.  His power no foe can withstand (Psalm 91:1, Amplified Bible).

These are just a few reasons why we can rejoice and have joy unspeakable and full of glory in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, in the midst of trouble all around us.  The world and its trouble and trials and temptations is temporal (temporary), subject to change and cannot overpower the Word of God and the Holy Spirit.  There is no power greater than God!  I repeat:  THERE IS NO POWER GREATER THAN GOD!  And He is living in you as His child.

Joy brings God on the scene with the fullness of His glory, His power made real right now on this earth, His power provided to keep us.  REJOICE!  It is the very fuel of God’s power!