November 8, 2013 ~ Acts 13 ~

   Acts 13 "Now there were at Antioch, in the church that was there, prophets and teachers: Barnabus, and Simeon who was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manean who had been brought up with Herod the tetrach, and Saul.

   And while they were ministering to the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, "Set apart for Me Barnabus and Saul for the work to which I have called them."
   Then, when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent them away. So being sent out by the Holy Spirit they went down to Seleucia and from there they sailed to Cyprus." 

   It's very interesting that it was while the prophets and teachers were gathered together and after they had fasted, that while they ministered unto the Lord, the Holy Spirit said, 'Set apart for Me, Barnabus and Saul.' We can take our leading from the habits of the early church. They must have been in need of some direction if they had been fasting, because fasting is an act of the person wanting to put everything else aside and therefore make themselves more sensitive to the voice of God within. 

   It was also during a time that the Word says 'they ministered unto the Lord'. What does it mean to 'minister unto the Lord'? It means to purpose to spend time loving Him, exalting Him, bringing Him glory through worship and praise. The attitude of our heart during that time is not about receiving from Him, but about bringing adoration and praise to Him for Who He is and for all He has done. It must please Him so much that He would chose that time for Him to speak to us. What a wonderful Father, that while we minister unto Him, in His heart of hearts He is always a GIVER and desires to give unto us direction for our lives.

   If we are needing direction, we never have to walk around blindly, hoping that we make the right decision about things which pertain to our lives. Remember that we have the Greater One on the inside! The Holy Spirit is our Teacher and He will teach us all things (Jn.14:26, 1 Jn. 2:20). Purpose to spend some time ministering to the Lord today. It will bring Him glory and put us in the proper position to receive all He wants us to know.

   

October 15, 2013 ~ Mark 11 ~

Mark 11:20-24 "And as they were passing by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots up. And being reminded, Peter said to Him, "Rabbi, behold, the fig tree which You cursed has withered." 
And Jesus answered saying to them, "Have faith in God. Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be taken up and cast into the sea' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is going to happen, it shall be granted him.
"Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they shall be granted you."

Jesus is teaching the disciples the power of faith. The God kind of faith. We know that faith is what we believe. But Jesus is teaching that there needs to be an active side to our faith. That we can operate in the same kind of faith as God in the same way God operates it, by speaking.

We know that faith comes by hearing, Rom. 10:17, but it does not operate by hearing, it operates by speaking. To believe, we put it in our hearts. But to get it operating, we need to put it in our mouths. When we hear the Word, we believe, but when we speak the Word, we receive. Believing doesn't take action. It's the saying that takes action.

In this passage, Jesus uses the word believe, only once, but repeats the word say three times. This means He was definitely emphasizing the saying or the action of our faith. Jesus wasn't asking them to believe that something is manifested before it's manifested. He was asking them to believe they received before it's manifested. 

When Jesus spoke to the fig tree, He believed with His heart and He spoke with His mouth. At that instant, it began to wither underground where the roots were. It took time to see the outward manifestation of His command come to pass. So it is often with our own lives and things we are believing to have changed. When we base our faith (or beliefs) on promises that are in the Word of God, we know that we have a firm foundation and are believing correctly. But it's not until we begin to speak it out with our mouths that we put action to our faith and God is then given permission to work on our behalf. 

Just because you cannot see it, doesn't mean it isn't there. We need to believe that it's already ours while it is still in its invisible form. Faith always deals with the invisible. It never deals with that which is seen. Once an answer is seen or manifested, faith is no longer required for that. God is so good that He has authorized us to know that when we believe and say, we can have confidence that it will come to pass and therefore we can just rest. He knows that our hearts have the ability to believe that which is invisible is ours. Our minds can't do that, but our hearts can. 

No matter what adversity you are facing today, the Word is always your victory. Find scriptures that promise you deliverance from that adversity. As you hear the Word concerning that promise, you will believe it. Once you believe with your heart, begin to say it with your mouth. Thank God that He is working in your life and rest, knowing your answer is on the way.

 

October 7, 2013 ~ Mark 5 ~

Deut 30:19
I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live; NKJV

Did you you ever stop to think that much of what we have spiritually is from the choices we make?  We choose to believe in God and become born again.  We choose to believe God's Word and walk by faith.  We choose to walk in love, obey God etc.  So if we are in control and our choices determine our spiritual life, why is it that when we talk about the plan of God for our life or whether God is going to answer our prayers, many people say "well, it's up to God".  We talk as if God is so mysterious that no one can figure anything out spiritually.

The Bible says to choose life or death, blessing or cursing.  Much of what we receive from God is determined by what we choose.  We have the choice to receive from God; we have the choice to believe God's Word.  We will receive from Him based on the choices that we make. 

Mark 5:25-34
Now a certain woman had a flow of blood for twelve years, and had suffered many things from many physicians. She had spent all that she had and was no better, but rather grew worse. When she heard about Jesus, she came behind Him in the crowd and touched His garment. For she said, "If only I may touch His clothes, I shall be made well." Immediately the fountain of her blood was dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of the affliction. And Jesus immediately knowing in Himself that power had gone out of Him, turned around in the crowd and said, "Who touched My clothes?" But His disciples said to Him, "You see the multitude thronging You, and You say, 'Who touched Me?'" And He looked around to see her who had done this thing. But the woman, fearing and trembling, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell down before Him and told Him the whole truth. And He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace, and be healed of your affliction." NKJV

This is a great example of someone who made the choice to receive her healing.  She could have stayed home in bed and said "I do not feel good; I do not want to go outside".  But she made up her mind and chose to grab hold of Jesus and receive her healing.  We are faced with choices every day; choose to go God's way. Determine in your heart that you are going to seek after God and allow His power and His Word to work in your life.  You will be glad you did. 

July 3, 2013 ~ 1 John 5 ~

1 John 5:4 "For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world--our faith." Wow, that's talking about you and me! We are born of God so that means that WE ARE OVERCOMERS!!! Praise God! It goes on to say that the victory that has overcome the world is our faith. That means our victory is waiting on something...OUR FAITH!

Many have said, "If God knows my needs, why doesn't He just do something about them? Matthew 6:32 & 7:11 tells us that the Father already knows all about our needs, but when we ask Him that activates our faith and releases God to move on our behalf and meet our need. Him knowing is not enough for us to receive. He needs our permission. We need to do our part and that is asking.

1 John 5:14,15 "And this is the confidence which we have before Him, that if we ASK anything, according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ASK, we know that we have the requests which we have ASKED from Him." Wow! That is good news, friends! It says when we ask (which is showing our faith, because without faith it's impossible to please God) according to His will (or we could say His Word, because His Word is His will) then we can be confident that we have it!

Faith is simply a belief. Many have no problem believing, but the key is believing that we received when we prayed. In Mark 11:23,24 God is not asking us to believe that something is manifested before it's manifested, He's asking us to just believe we received before it's manifested. God has already authorized all that we have need of in the spirit realm. In the spirit realm is our supply. There's healing in the spirit realm. There's provision in the spirit realm. When we believe we receive we are laying hold of what we need and we keep saying (thanking Him for it) until it shows up in the natural realm! Our answer always exists in two forms; the invisible form and the visible form. We need to believe we receive while it's still in the invisible form. Faith deals with the invisible. Faith never deals with what is seen. Once an answer is seen, faith for that is no longer required.

We do not always receive instantly. God knows that there is a time difference between the spirit realm and the natural realm. That's why He gave us 1 John 5:14,15! He made it so that when we ask in line with His Word, He hears us. And we can have confidence and rest because His hearing=our having! Our hearts have the ability to believe that which is invisible is ours. Our minds can't do that, but our hearts can. If you were in need of money and your earthly father was a billionaire and if you asked him for the money and he said the check was in the mail and you kept on worrying wouldn't that seem a little silly? Unbelievers and Christians without renewed minds cannot rest until they see it. They worry and fret because they don't know how to rest until they have it. God doesn't want us to live that way. He wants us to rest, knowing that He heard us and things are moving on our behalf and will soon be visible! What a loving Father He is. Use your faith by asking for what you have need of today and let God work on your behalf. He gets great pleasure in helping His children.

June 13, 2013 ~ 1 Timothy 4 ~

In his letter to Timothy, the young pastor at Ephesus, Paul admonishes him to continue in all he has been taught. That many are going to fall away from the faith and pay attention to evil doctrines. There will be many false teachers that others will gravitate to and that he will need to point these things out to them and in doing so, even if they are not received well, Timothy will be a good servant.

He encourages Timothy to be continually nourished on the words of faith and the sound doctrine he has been following. In this purposeful discipline godliness is attained and it is profitable for this life and the one to come. It's not enough to hear the Word once or twice. We must continually feed ourselves on the principles of faith we have been taught.

Paul also admonishes Timothy not to neglect the spiritual gift that was imparted to him. That he is going to have to take pains with these things and be absorbed in them. To pay close attention to that which he is teaching and if he perseveres it will ensure the blessing not only for himself but the hearers also.

What does it mean to us to take pains? To be absorbed? It means we, like Timothy, are going to have to give ourselves wholly to it! To not neglect giving our attention daily to the Word and prayer and to be ever aware of the gifts the Lord has placed within us. It's going to take some effort on our part to stir up the gift within us. That's why it's called the sacrifice of praise. Our flesh doesn't always feel like doing godly things. But we do it by faith. We sometimes start out in the flesh and end up in the Spirit! It takes some perseverance to push through things that try to hold us back. But it is SO worth it! And like Paul said, it will not only benefit us, but all those around us. When we are so filled up with God it will effect our missions field...in our homes, in our neighborhood, in our families, on the job, and in our specific ministry roles. 

May 20, 2013 ~ 1 Corinthians 16 ~

This is the last part of the first letter Paul writes to the church of Corinth. He tells them that he hopes to come to them in person after he passes through Macedonia and stay with them for some time, but shall remain right now in Ephesus until Pentecost because Verse 9 says, "for a wide door for effective service has opened to me, and there are many adversaries."

What did Paul mean that he couldn't come yet because there were many adversaries? He was teaching them that opposition will come. When a door is opened to you, adversaries may come to interrupt your entrance and change the effect you can make on the other side of that door. The enemy is not going to let you have an effect without putting up a fight. When you come into some light about something, he will try to steal that seed from you.

Paul is warning us so that we can be aware. Because if we are aware of it, then we won't retreat or back down when we feel that pressure against us. You might feel on your body or in your mind the effects of the adversaries, but don't be overly impressed. Our spirit man need not be shaken. We are never to be moved by what we feel or see, but only by what we believe!!!

If we're going to have an effect, we're going to have an adversary. But we need to always remind ourselves of that from our seated position! He is a defeated adversary!!! And we are far above it! He's going to out up a fight. The Bible tells us had he known, he would have never crucified Christ. The Lord knows all the adversary's plans and the crucifixion that was meant to be Jesus' demise became redemption's launching pad! When the devil intends to cause demise in your life use it as a spring board and build right over it!!!

May 13th ~ 1 Corinthians 11 ~

In this passage, the Apostle Paul admonishes the people of the church at Corinth to be imitators of him as he is of Christ. He praised them for holding to the traditions which he taught them but also gave them some much needed correction. Correction from the Lord is always intended to bring people into a place of greater blessing. Doing things God's way always pays off.

Most of this chapter Paul gives instruction on the act of taking communion. When the congregation would meet together, they were consuming the communion bread and wine as a snack because they were hungry. Verse 22 Paul says, "What! Do you not have houses in which to eat and drink? Or do you despise the church of God and shame those who have nothing?"

He proceeds to remind them about the Lord's supper and what Jesus said about it. That as often as they ate the bread and drank the cup, they would be proclaiming the Lord's death until He comes. By eating the bread and drinking the wine flippantly, they were acting in an unworthy manner and bringing judgement upon themselves. Verse 31 says, "For this reason many among you are weak and sick and a number sleep." In other words, many in their church were weak, sick and slept, which means they died prematurely. Paul was trying to help them to understand that we always need to walk by faith to please God. There is so much power available through the taking of Holy Communion and the body of Christ is missing out because they aren't rightly dividing the Word of God. 

When we are partaking of communion, we are proclaiming the Lord's death until He comes again. How do we receive any of God's promises to us? We always have to BELIEVE and RECEIVE and we receive by confession. It's not enough to believe that Jesus died on the cross, we also have to receive it and make confession of it. That is FAITH and faith is our part. Then the power of God can transform us and that is HIS part. The very act of communion is a public proclamation of what Jesus did! That His body received ALL sickness and disease and we can be free of it.

Next time you partake of communion, either at church or in your home, do so with the understanding that you are indeed making a faith statement and that the power of God is present to meet any needs you have. Believe that power is working mightily in you, just like Jesus said it would and continue to confess until it is made manifest in your situation.