Now Faith Is

Trying to appropriate the blessings and promises of God in ones life has become a struggle for many believers today. The main reason is a lack of true Bible faith. I say, Bible faith, simply because, "So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." (Romans 10:17) However, many have not been brought into a clear understanding of faith due to words that have created doubts wondering if it is God's will to continue giving gifts, promises, healing and blessings for the church today. So, words that contradict God's Word create doubt not faith. With that said, it is impossible for anyone to receive the gifts, promises, healing and or blessings from God if one is not certain God offers them. These things can only manifest where the will of God is known. When I say the will of God, it also means the Word of God. His will and His Word are one and the same. Let's look at an example of this...

It would be next to impossible to get a sinner to "believe unto righteousness" before he or she was fully convinced that it was God's will to save them. Therefore, faith begins where the will of God is known. Faith must rest on the will of God alone, not on our desires or wishes. Appropriating faith is not believing that God is able, but that He is willing. In Matthew's gospel we see a leper ask Jesus, "Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.” The first thing that Jesus does is correct the lepers thinking, his belief, his theology. "Then Jesus put out His hand and touched him, saying, I am willing; be cleansed. Immediately his leprosy was cleansed." (Matthew 8:2-3) This very thing is what stops God from overflowing the church with blessings, that is, not only knowing God is able, but knowing that He is willing. 

The Holy Spirit through the Apostle Peter tells us, "...the Lord is gracious." (1 Peter 2:3) That is, God is, favorable; kind; benevolent; merciful; disposed to forgive offenses and impart unmerited blessings. Therefore, to not know God's will, which is found in His Word will always hamper believers from walking in the promises of God. To take this one step further, to change or adjust God's Word, that is, saying that certain gifts, promises, healing and or blessings that He has given to the church are not for the church today, presents two things. One is that God showed more grace and mercy in the early church than he does in the church today; secondly, God showed more grace and mercy to Israel, when the children of Israel were under a lesser covenant, when the Bible clearly shows us that the church throughout all ages has a better covenant, "He (Jesus) is also Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises." (Hebrews 8:6); My covenant I will not break, Nor alter the word that has gone out of My lips. (Psalm 89:34) "For I am the Lord, I do not change..." (Malachi 3:6) "Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away." (Mark 13:31) "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever." (Hebrews 13:8) Therefore, until a person knows God's will, he or she has no basis for faith. Faith is expecting God to do what we know it is His will to do. When we know it is God's will, it is not difficult for us to believe that He will do what we are sure He wants to do. 

Another example of this can be seen in a mother telling her six year old daughter on a Wednesday, "Honey mommy is going to take you to the store on Saturday and buy you a new dress." The little girl's faith for a new dress comes by hearing the words her mother spoke to her. Although the little girl has no physical proof that she will get a new dress, she is still excited and may even tells her friends. Again, the only proof of the dress is her mothers words. The little girl could not, and would not be expected to have faith for the new dress until her mother told her daughter her intentions, her will or her word. So, in the same way, believers cannot, nor are we expected, to have faith for the gifts, promises, healing and or blessings of God, until faith comes by hearing the Word of God. However, the problem that tends to arise is when believers, unlike the little girl in the story, need proof that God's gifts, promises, healing and blessings are His will for today. Unfortunately, for many, His Word is not enough proof as Thomas they need to see to believe. Of course this is not faith at all, because faith works independent of our senses. Also, one does not need faith if for something that they can see, taste, touch, hear or smell.

Faith always blows the ram's horn, before, not after, the walls are down. (Joshua 6:1-20) Faith never judges according sight. (2 Corinthians 5:7) It is the evidence of things not seen but promised. If you really think about it, faith rests on far more solid ground than the evidence of the senses, because it is the Word of God, "which abides forever" that our faith rests upon which also builds our faith. Our senses may deceive us, but God's Word will never fail us! (Isaiah 55:11) When the little girl in the above story is promised a new dress on Wednesday, faith is the actual expectation that she already has it before Saturday arrives. Real faith always has corresponding actions (James 2:18) as seen in the little girl telling her friends about a dress that she does not have in her possession. When Saturday comes and she sees the new dress, faith for the new dress stops. 

The little girl is not afraid to testify in advance that she is to have a new dress. When her friends say, "How do you know you are?" she confidently replies, "My mommy said so!"  We believers should have even more faith and a better reason for expecting the gifts, promises, healing and blessings of God to manifest in our lives than the little girl had for expecting a new dress. Why? What would have happened if something unexpected had come up and the mother could not get her daughter the dress? Simply put, whether the mother could have avoided the situation or not, the promise was broken and to the little girl, her mother lied. However, God never breaks a promise, because "God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?" (Numbers 23:19) 

So, let us put our confidence in this. Our proof is God's Word alone not in the things seen or felt. Now, because you may not have not received God's gifts, promises, healing and or blessings instantly, does not mean that God is not faithful to perform His Word. The writer of Hebrews tells us, "Let us hold fast the confession of our faith without wavering, for He who promised is faithful." (Hebrews 10:23) So, do not lose heart, but believe God's Word. It is His will for us, yesterday, today and forever. PTL!

You Better Hold On

Let's consider the second part of this verse of scripture from I Thessalonians 5:21, "Test all things; hold fast what is good." To hold fast is to guard from loss, hold down, possess, adhere to firmly and retain faithfully. In this verse it implies, adhere to firmly and retain faithfully, Gods Word. Do not accept anything that sounds good but is not inspired by the Holy Spirit, but hold fast to what is good. Applying these definitions to the words "Hold Fast" it should be apparent that a possiblity exists that the Word of God or the things of God can be taken or stolen from a believer. This is also seen in other verses of scripture.

"Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful."
(Hebrews 10:23) Let us guard, adhere to firmly and acknowledge the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Never doubting, being unsteady, wavering in the promises or declarations made to believers in Gods Word through Christ, because God is faithful, He does not nor cannot lie. Again, believers are to hold fast, guard from loss, adhere to firmly and retain faithfully Gods Word. In Revelations 2:25 Jesus speaking to the church at Thyatira says, "But hold fast what you have till I come."

Jesus is pointing out another level of what holding fast indicates. For believers to hold fast to Gods Word implies a struggle that someone or something is trying to wrestle it away from them. In this church Jesus reveals as Jezebel was a self-proclaimed prophetess to king Ahab her husband and the influence that she had over him which influenced Gods people in a negative way, that there were false prophetesses in this church that were influencing many with false carnal doctrine. However, Jesus encourages the ones that had not accepted this false doctrine to guard from loss, adhere to firmly and retain faithfully His Word no matter what it takes until He returns which will mark the end of their conflict with evil. This then brings us back to why it is so important for believers to fully understand the Parable of the Soils. It reveals how much we must gurad ourselves from the wiles of the devil.

And these are the ones by the wayside where the word is sown. When they hear, Satan comes immediately and takes away the word that was sown in their hearts. (Mark 4:15) Again, it is very apparent that the Word of God can be taken, robbed, stolen from believers if they do not have a foundation of Gods Word to build upon and hold fast to. Believers are in a conflict, a struggle… "Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints."
(Jude 3)

Jude is exhorting believers to strenuously defend, as in a contest, the truth that they had received. Many believers know the LORD as their personal Savior, but they do not always know the privileges and promises that they have in Him and how to receive them. Could it be that many believers do not have a solid foundation of Gods Word in their hearts? Could this be due to Satan coming immediately and takes away the word that was sown in their hearts? Let's face it, faith grows through the very things that the devil comes to steal from the hearts of believers.
So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. (Romans 10:17)

Listen or You May not Pass the Test

It seems like the closer we come to the return of Christ the farther more believers move away from faith. The Apostle Paul exhorts believers to "Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith..." Paul was not exhorting believers in a nebulous general faith that stops at the day of rebirth, but a true faith in the gospel as well as faith in Jesus Christ, and in the promises of God through him. Paul also tells us that the gospel is the power of God to us who are being saved. Everyday in a believers life the power of the gospel should be experienced in a tangible way, being saved, delivered, healed, preserved, being made whole. But is this true for most believers? Are most believers "in the faith" as Paul is exhorting? Let's be honest, most believers in the USA are not functioning in the faith that Paul is talking about.

Test all things; hold fast what is good. (I Thessalonians 5:21) There are two important principles in this short verse of scripture that believers need to consider at all times. We will consider "Test all things" first. The Apostle Paul exhorts the church not to believe everything that is spoken through prophecy, teaching or preaching but to examine what is spoken. We examine these things through the weapons of our warfare that are mighty in God, His Word. The apostle John tells us, Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
(I John 4:1) The word spirit here is used to express the man who was teaching as to whether his teaching was influenced by the Holy Spirit or his human spirit.

Unfortunately today there is more teaching and preaching coming from pulpits filled with the human spirit than with the Holy Spirit. How can we know this? Let's look at Mark 16:20...
 And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs. When the Word is preached by inspiration of the Holy Spirit then it is confirmed through signs.

About four years ago I became frustrated and discouraged because church had become dull and I wanted to know why. The LORD spoke to me and said, "Preach my word, not your word, tell people of my plan not what you think my plan is or what you want my plan to be and you will see my works". Naturally I took a look at what I was teaching and preaching to get a better understanding of what the LORD was saying. I noticed that I was teaching and preaching from the Bible, but adding things that I had learned or thought to be true. I came to realize that I was actually inoculating myself and other believers with concepts that did not build faith, which brought me to repentance. From then my eyes have been opened to see a spirit of error that is growing in the USA that works at twisting Gods Word and is deceiving many believers especially leaders. It stands against the teaching and preaching of faith, because faith, faith in the name of Jesus is what releases all the promises of God. Satan knows this an is hard at work using his arsenial of deception to keep believers from having great faith.

And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise.
(Hebrews 11:39) Do we see what is here? The Old Testament believers believed God but did not receive the promise of Christ. In Christ believers have been given everything that the Old Testament believers were only promised. Today, the promises of God are avaiable to every believer because they are a reality, they are fact! The world needs to see believers who truly put actions to their faith. Faith without corresponding actions is dead! Just because a teaching sounds good or preaching gets you excited does not mean it's the Word of God. So beloved, it is time to listen and "Test all things."