This morning I experienced
many wonderful answers to prayer and they all occurred in succession. Between my husband and I we found three items
we needed that had been missing for months.
I was able to get a hair appointment in record time from my excellent
hairdresser. Then the Lord answered a
few more prayers that day regarding reservations we needed for a place to stay
on the long weekend for a family reunion.
Even at this late date both places were able to accommodate all of us
and we can be together. My husband and I
also had been praying about our present and future ministry involvement as an
outreach. Currently I write and my
husband works full time and on the side has been doing complex web page
development and design as a highly technical professional. He spends many hours making everything work
in a multi-complex computer environment.
He also does ministry writing similar to mine when he gets a
chance. The Lord seemed to be shifting
our direction more to the writing/publishing aspect of it, and less of the web
design and development (which is incredibly time-consuming). We have been filled with a growing passion
for this, and have such peace about it.
Interestingly, just prior
to this, I had been reading some uplifting articles by Kenneth Hagin and
Kenneth Copeland ministries. These two
ministries have been a great blessing to me many times over the years. But even just reading the many Scriptures
they shared, was boosting my faith and filling me with a joy and an expectation
to believe that God has not forgotten me, and that His "goodness and
mercy" shall follow me all the days of my life (Psalm 23:6). I wasn't even thinking of anything in
particular that I was believing for, it was just a general shift in my attitude
and I felt very encouraged. Like so many
other times when I've read the many uplifting verses in the Bible, I've found
that the Word of God uplifts, encourages, and gives life. All we have to do is read Psalm 119 to
discover all the life-giving benefits of God's Word. With all the sorrow and sadness in the world,
how can we help and encourage others if we ourselves are going around with a
long face and filled with discouragement, fear and unbelief?
Around the same time that
I was feeling so encouraged, I noticed that as of late, the idea of faith is
getting some pretty negative media, and it is not coming as much from the outside world. Much of it is coming from people who say they
are Christians. Yet, since they do not
seem to have a grasp of faith as outlined in the Bible, they may be part of the
"emerging" church, and do not consider God's Word as the final
authority when it comes to knowing and understanding faith and the many
Biblical passages that place such importance on it. In fact, our faith in the finished work of
the cross and
our confession of it is what saves us in the first place (see Romans 10:9), and without faith, it says that it is impossible to please God (see Hebrews 11:6). Are we to begin our Christian walk in faith
and by faith, and then abandon it afterwards when under trial? I believe the Lord would have us
"grow" in faith and not see it diminish because of trial. In fact trials are there to increase our
faith and we are not to give up because
the heat has been turned up:
1Pe 1:6 Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for
a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations:1Pe 1:7
That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that
perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour
and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:
The attack on faith is
coming under the name of "word faith." Some people consider any
preacher or teacher who teaches on faith belong to a "word faith" movement,
and the idea of "name it and claim it" is included in this. I did some research, and apparently there is
a counter "word faith" movement that is humanistic and abuses God's
Word for their own ends. But this is
nothing new. Satan has tried to
counterfeit every good thing that God has ever done, but for Christians, we
should be able to, with the help of the Holy Spirit, discern what is of God and
what is not. Unfortunately, some of the
sincere and legitimate preachers of faith have been lumped together with the
counterfeit group of word faith preachers, and as I wrote before, these people cannot
have done a thorough research to discover the truth about these men of God.
Many well known
individuals and teachers like Kenneth Hagin, Kenneth Copeland and Oral Roberts
ministries who teach about faith, use and apply God's Word, and as a result of
their application of faith have seen and continue to see tremendous results as
the Bible promises in so many different places.
All you have to do is go to their websites to discover if they are
legitimate. Copeland, for example (under
KCM Ministries), has many outreach ministries which goes beyond their own and,
it becomes plain that you will know them by their fruits. These men of faith do not take personal
credit for these results or that they did anything special or unusual, but that
they simply applied the Word of God to their lives in a more deliberate way
than most people do. In other words,
they didn't just pray and do nothing.
They acted on their faith in the Word of God! Is there any other way to walk the walk of
faith, or is it just something to talk about? I had a very dear uncle (who
recently passed away) who was very humble and loving, but when He prayed, God
honored him and things happened!
Clearly, by the hundreds of answers to prayer me and my family have had
and continue to have, God honors the prayer of faith when we really mean
business and take God at His Word!
We must be careful to take the time and
discover all that the Word of God says about faith, and not omit entire
passages of Scripture that tell us specifically how to believe and
receive. We need to seek to obtain the
utmost understanding about faith because if we don't, we will continue to walk
around with such sad faces, and spread negativity to all around us. This is not the testimony of blood-bought,
victorious, overcoming Christians, we should be showing the world or each
other, is it?
In the Bible, there are
many examples of God rewarding and exalting a person of faith. There are also many examples of what happens
because of a person's unbelief (the most obvious being eternal damnation
without God in a place of torment called hell).
God's greatest promises are always to those that believe and obey His
Word. As He is unwaveringly faithful to
us, He looks for us to be faithful to Him.
In Hebrews 3, we have an excellent example of faith and that when we
fail to believe, we have hardened our own hearts, and have an evil heart of
unbelief. So unbelief is not something
to take lightly!
Heb 3:1 Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the
heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession,
Christ Jesus;Heb 3:2 Who was faithful to him that appointed him, as also
Moses was faithful in all his house.Heb 3:3 For this man was counted worthy
of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as he who hath builded the house hath more
honour than the house.Heb 3:4 For every house is builded by some man; but he
that built all things is God.Heb 3:5 And Moses verily was faithful in all
his house, as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be
spoken after;Heb 3:6 But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are
we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the
end.Heb 3:7 Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his
voice,Heb 3:8 Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of
temptation in the wilderness:Heb 3:9 When your fathers tempted me, proved
me, and saw my works forty years.Heb 3:10 Wherefore I was grieved with that
generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known
my ways.Heb 3:11 So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my
rest.)Heb 3:12 Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil
heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.Heb 3:13 But exhort one another
daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the
deceitfulness of sin.Heb 3:14 For we are made partakers of Christ, if we
hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end;Heb 3:15 While it
is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the
provocation.Heb 3:16 For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not
all that came out of Egypt by Moses.Heb 3:17 But with whom was he grieved
forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the
wilderness?Heb 3:18 And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his
rest, but to them that believed not?Heb 3:19 So we see that they could not
enter in because of unbelief.
Shouldn't we be taking the time to discover
all that God’s Word has to say about faith, rather than looking for the flaws
of others and diminishing our own faith by dwelling on the negative? We have every reason to rejoice in our
believing regardless of our present circumstances, because we can put our
complete trust in God who is faithful to do all that He has promised.
Heb 10:23 Let us hold fast the profession of our
faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;)
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