"I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."
(Matthew 16:19)
The Greek text of that scripture would literally read, "I give you the keys of the kingdom. Whatever you declare locked on earth is locked in heaven and whatever you declare unlocked on earth is unlocked in the heavenlies."
The heaven Jesus was talking about there isn't the heaven where God resides. He was talking about the battle zone, about the heaven where Satan's forces are operating.
He was telling us that God has given us power to bind the wicked spirits in heavenly places and to loose the angelic powers of God to work in our behalf.
Philippians 2:9-10 says, "We have been given a Name which is above every name, and at the Name of Jesus every knee shall bow!" Where? In heaven, in earth and under the earth. That covers it all!
As believers, we have total authority over the powers of Satan. We can take authority over the evil spirits that are trying to destroy this nation. We can take authority over them in the Name of Jesus and pull down their strongholds.
It is time we began to realize how important we are to world affairs. Since the day Jesus gave us the Great Commission, the life or death of the world has been in the hands of the Church. We are the ones who have the mighty Name of Jesus and the awesome strength of the gospel to bring life and abundance to every creature. We are the ones whose prayers can change every office of authority in this land.
It's up to you and me to begin to intercede right now and use the power God has given us. We may come from different lands with different backgrounds, but we all have one thing in common--Jesus Christ is our Lord. And that alone is enough to alter the spiritual complexion of this earth.
"If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered."
(John 15:6)
If I were to ask you to make a list of a hundred things you need to do to please the Lord today, you could do it, couldn't you? In fact, you probably have so many spiritual "do's" and "don'ts" cluttering up your mind that you'd hardly know where to start.
But you can relax. I'm not going to suggest you make a list of them. Instead, I'm going to help you simplify things by giving you only one: Abide in Jesus.
The one thing you're truly responsible for is your union with Him. If you keep your union and fellowship with Him intact, everything else will be taken care of.
"But Brother Jim, I'm facing some big problems right now. My life's turned upside down. I'm so rushed I don't know whether I'm coming or going. I don't have time to fellowship with the Lord today."
That's when you need to do it the most! You need to maintain your union with the Lord particularly when the storms of life come. I know that's often not easy to do. Whether the storm is a sickness in your body or financial problems or family strife, the temptation will be to settle your attention and your mind on that problem. You won't even want to think about anything else.
That's what the devil planned on. That's the reason he sent that storm in the first place. To distract you from fellowshiping with God. To draw your attention away from your union with Him.
Don't fall into the devil's trap. Instead, keep your thoughts and affections trained on the Lord. As you do that, the force of faith will begin to flow out of you. And that flow will repel every form of darkness. It will bring you in triumph through every storm.
Fellowship with Jesus today.
Cancer. Heart disease. Multiple sclerosis. When we think of killer diseases, those are the names that come to mind. But the truth is, there's a far more deadly killer on the loose in the Church today. And it's destroyed more lives than any of us can imagine. It's called tradition. Traditions rob believers of their healing. They steal the power from the promises of God. Here are three you should beware of:
1. The tradition that says it's not always God's will to heal you.
It is God's will to heal you! It says so in His Word. If you don't believe that it is, then you can't pray in faith believing you'll receive. You're like the farmer who sits on his porch and says, "I believe in crops, but I'm not going to plant any seed this year. I'll just believe, and if it's God's will, my crop will come up." That farmer will never see his crop. Faith is the seed of healing--if you don't plant it, it won't grow. A prayer that includes the words, "If it be thy will" won't produce a healing harvest. You must know without a doubt that healing is always God's will for you. Having said that the one thing I want you to be aware of is that God is not limited to healing you here on earth or the way that you think it should be done. God is Sovereign and His Wisdom is more than we could ever ask or think. In other Words God is still in the healing business, in His Way, His Time, in due season. If you have faith and believe in Him your harvest of healing will come in it's own appointed time and way.
2. Another tradition we hear is that healing has passed away. That there are no miracles today. But the Word of God proves that's not true. In Exodus 15:26, God says, "I am the Lord that healeth thee." He also tells us that He does not change (Mal. 3:6). He has never changed since the beginning of time. For healing to pass away, God would have to pass away...and He is not about to do that!
3. The third dangerous tradition is this one: "God gets glory from Christians being sick." That tradition totally violates the Word of God. The Bible says that people gave glory to God when they saw the lame walk and the blind see. God receives glory from your healing--not your pain!
The world is looking for a way out of sickness and disease, not a way into it. Let's break down those traditions and deliver a hurting world from the most dangerous killer of all.
"For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it."
(Matthew 16:25)
The high life...or the low life? God's kind of life...or the world's kind of life? You can't have them both. It's one or the other. You have to choose.
You may try to put off that choice. You may try to hang on to the low life while reaching out for the high life at the same time, so you can see if it's something you really want before you give up everything the world has to offer. But, believe me, you're not that tall!
You'll never be able to sample the high life for yourself until you're willing to let go, until you're willing to take God at His Word and trust Him to take care of you.
What will happen to you when you do that? You'll start living the kind of life God describes in Psalm 1. You'll be like "a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth fruit in season; your leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever you do shall prosper."
In Midwestern talk that means your roots will go down so deep that no drought can dry you up and no storm can blow you down. No matter what happens in the world around you, you'll prosper.
The stronger the wind blows, the more you'll bend in the breeze. Depression and inflation won't be able to break you. When the rains stop coming and everyone else is withering away, you'll just keep on thriving and bearing the fruit of the Spirit because you're drawing up nourishment from the riverbed!
That's what the high life is like and there's nothing that the world has to offer that can even compare. I know that from experience. Once you dare to let go and trust God...so will you.
In Him was Life and the Life was the Light of men. And the Light shines on in the darkness, for the darkness has never overpowered it."
(John 1:4-5)
Whenever things around you get dark and you feel the devil is about to overpower you, remember this: You have the Light of the world in you, and try as they may, all the forces of hell can't put it out!
Even when you're at your weakest, even when you feel like the light within you is small, the devil's darkness is no match for you.
Let me show you what I mean. Imagine for a moment that you're in a large auditorium that has no windows or doors to let in outside light. The place is so black you can't see anything, not even your hand in front of your face. There's nothing around you but complete darkness!
Now, imagine one little lightning bug flying around that auditorium. Every eye in there would turn toward it. As small as that little light is in comparison to the great darkness around it, you would still be able to see it. That massive blackness wouldn't be able to do a thing to shut off that bug. Everywhere he flew, the darkness would just have to yield. It would always be dispelled by his light.
When the circumstances around you begin to get black and you're tempted to despair, think about that lightning bug. Meditate on the fact that Jesus Christ, the Light of the world, is in you. When the revelation of that hits you, you'll never again let the darkness back you into a corner. You'll start chasing it down-- overcoming it with your light!
We had a great time today. Adam started back to school so he was not with us but we had a wonderful opportunity to go see Great Grandma. Abigail was excited because she told me that she has a lot of grandmothers. That made me feel good that she got the chance to spend some time with her.
Grandma just doted on her and said how pretty she was and Abigail said, yes, I am a princess. :)
Going down the hall and leaving Great Grandma's room Abigail was telling everyone that she had the Greatest Grandma (Great) That made my heart smile.
Blessings ~
Kenneth Copeland Ministries
Fort Worth, TX 76192-0001I would like to take the time to thank Rev. Kenneth Copeland for this article post: May God continue to bless your ministry richly ~
What do you do when someone mistreats you?
I didn't ask what you want to do. I didn't ask what your automatic fleshly reaction is. I already know that.
Your natural, knee-jerk response is the same as mine. You want to strike back. You want to do something or say something that will even the score. If you can't manage that, you might settle for a few hours (or days or years) of feeling sorry for yourself. You might try to ease your wounded feelings by telling someone how wrongly you've been treated.
On a purely natural, human level that's how we all want to react when someone does us wrong. But I want to tell you something today. If you're a born-again child of the living God, you have no business just reacting to things on a natural, human level.
God has called and equipped you to live on a higher level. He's given you the power to respond in a supernatural way when someone does you wrong. He's given you the power to respond in love.
"Oh, Brother Copeland, that's too hard. I don't want to do that!"
Yes, you do - and here's why. If you will train yourself to respond God's way, you can take mistreatment and transform it from the curse the devil intends it to be into a seed of tremendous blessing in your life.
When you learn to obey God in the face of persecution, you can literally get rich - in the areas of finances, favor and opportunity - off the very persecution the devil sent to keep you down.
Serious Business
Make no mistake, that is the devil's intention. He sends people across your path to offend you and mistreat you for the express purpose of stealing the Word of God - and the anointing that goes with it - out of your life. Mark 4:17 says, "...persecution ariseth for the word's sake."
The devil knows how powerful you are when you are anointed. He knows because he once was anointed himself. The Bible says before evil was found in him, he was the "anointed cherub." So it is his one ambition to trick you into cutting yourself off from that anointing.
That's why he sends bigots to insult you and thieves to steal from you. That's why, whenever he can, he goads people around you into being insensitive and unappreciative. He wants you to get offended and cut off your supernatural power supply.
Most believers don't realize it, but that's what offenses do. You can see that in Matthew 11:4-6. There, the disciples of John the Baptist came to Jesus and asked if He was truly the Anointed One. Jesus answered and said to them:
Go and show John again those things which ye do hear and see: The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them. And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me.
We need to realize, my friend, that offenses are serious business. They are sent by the devil to rob us of the anointing and block the flow of the blessings of God. That fact alone should be enough to make us decide never, ever, to be offended again.
I know I've made that decision. I've determined that no matter how someone may insult my intelligence, my beliefs or even my race, I'm not willing to lose my anointing over it.
No matter how they treat me, or what they might call me, I will not take offense.
Now I realize someone may be reading this and thinking, Yeah, that's easy for you to say! Nobody says and does the things to you like they do to me!
That may be true. Although I am an Indian, and have had ample opportunity for offense, where race is concerned, I know there are many people who have suffered much more mistreatment than I have. But I can say this: No matter what color you are, you are welcome in more churches than I am. I've had entire books written for the express purpose of criticizing me. How many books have they written about you?
I only bring those things to your attention because I want you to know that dealing with offenses isn't any easier for me than it is for anyone else. I've come up against some hard people and some hard situations in my life. So I know if God can see me through, He can do the same for you.
Rejoice!...No Kidding
Once we decide we will take a devil-sent opportunity for offense and turn it into a harvest of blessing, the first thing we need to know is what God wants us to do in that situation. If we're not supposed to strike back, if we're not supposed to get our feelings hurt and go off in a huff, what are we supposed to do? I Peter 4 answers that question:
Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy. If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you...(verses 12-14).
God doesn't want us to cry and complain when someone does us wrong. He doesn't want us to sue them. He wants us to REJOICE!
I can just hear your old flesh groan: "Man, you have to be kidding! I'm supposed to rejoice when someone does me wrong? What do I have to rejoice about?"
Plenty!
According to Jesus, persecution sets you up for blessing. It opens you up for great rewards! Jesus made that very clear in Luke 6. He said:
Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man's sake. Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for, behold, your reward is great in heaven...(verses 22-23).
To get the full meaning of what Jesus was saying there, you have to realize what the word blessed means. It's not just a weak, religious sentiment. To be God-blessed means you're empowered by Almighty God Himself to prosper and succeed. It means you're empowered by the Holy Spirit to be exceedingly happy with life and joy in spite of any outside circumstances.
Think about that for a moment. When people mistreat you, they're actually giving you the opportunity to receive greater measures of power and success from the Spirit of God. They are opening the door for you to step up to a higher plane of heavenly reward!
Religion has taught us that we couldn't enjoy such heavenly rewards until after we die. But nothing could be further from the truth. God intends for us to make use of our heavenly rewards here on this earth where we need them!
You see, as believers, we each have a heavenly account that functions much like a natural bank account. The Apostle Paul refers to that account in his letter to his Philippian partners. He commended his partners for giving to him, not because he wanted gifts from them, but because he desired fruit that would abound to their account.
Paul's partners had made deposits in that heavenly account through their giving, so he was able to boldly say, "My God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:19).
Jesus also spoke of that heavenly account when He said:
Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rustdoth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also (Matthew 6:19-21).
If you've studied the Word under this ministry any length of time, I'm sure you already know how to lay up treasure in your heavenly account by giving financially into the work of God. You know about the spiritual law of seed, plant and harvest. You know that when you give to God of your material resources, He multiplies it and gives it back to you a hundredfold (Mark 10:30).
But let me ask you this: Did you know you can do the same thing with persecution? Did you know that you can plant it as a seed by obeying God, by leaping and rejoicing in it instead of taking offense?
Sure you can! And when you do, it will bring forth a harvest of blessing!
What's more, because persecution attacks your soul and the very anointing of God on your life - which is far more precious than anything money could buy - the value of the harvest it brings is absolutely priceless. The seed of persecution when planted according to the Word will be worth far more to you than any financial seed you could ever plant!
Now, I'll be honest. It's a tough seed to sow. You have to sow it out of commitment. It doesn't feel good to do it. But the harvest is worth the pain.
I know that not only from my own experience, but from watching the experience of others. One friend of mine, for instance, has refused to take offense at the bigotry directed against him because of the color of his skin. He has so succeeded in blessing and loving the white people who have persecuted him that now some black people are mad at him. "He doesn't even know he's black anymore!" they'll say.
But my friend doesn't take offense at them either. He just prays for them and goes right on gathering up his harvest. It's quite a harvest, too! That man has favor everywhere he goes. He's invited to places few people get to go. He's blessed financially beyond most people's wildest dreams.
The man is getting rich off racism!
It's Worth More as a Seed
Someone might say, "Well, that sounds good! I wonder if it would work like that for me?"
It will if you'll put it to work. Look back at that passage in Luke 6:27 where Jesus explains this principle and says, "I say unto you which hear...." In other words, this will work for anyone who will listen. All you have to do is hear it and do it.
...Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you, Bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you. And unto him that smiteth thee on the one cheek offer also the other; and him that taketh away thy cloak forbid not to take thy coat also. Give to every man that asketh of thee; and of him that taketh away thy goods ask them not again.... But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil. Be ye therefore merciful as your Father also is merciful. Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven: Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again (verses 27-30, 35-38).
For the most part, we've misunderstood what Jesus was saying there about turning the other cheek and giving to the guy who tries to steal from us. We thought He was saying we should just lie down and let people run over us.
But that wasn't His point at all!
He was trying to teach us about this seed, plant, harvest principle. He was trying to show us how to get blessed. He was saying, "Don't sue the person who stole your shirt and try to get your shirt back. Give it to him. Then give him your coat too. Those things will be worth more to you as seeds than they would be if you kept them. If you'll sow them instead of fighting to keep them, the power of God will go to work on your behalf. He'll multiply that seed and bless you with a hundred times as much!" If you fight, you do it on your own. If you give, all of heaven will get in the situation with you.
I'll never forget the first time God was able to get the truth of that principle through to me. It was years ago when Gloria and I were on our way to preach a meeting in San Francisco. I was walking through the airport with a little Minolta camera hanging over my shoulder. Back then, that was the ministry camera and Gloria was the ministry photographer. So that camera was important to us.
I had walked around that airport for a while when suddenly I realized my camera was gone. Someone had stolen it right off my shoulder! To put it very mildly, I was irritated.
I started looking around the airport for the thief. I thought, If I find you, you turkey, I am going to whip you good!
But right in the middle of my upset, the Spirit of God interrupted my thinking. If you take that attitude, He said, you'll lose that camera!
"What are you talking about, Lord?" I answered. "I've already lost it!"
No, it isn't gone yet.
I'd learned from Brother Oral Roberts about the seed, plant, harvest principle, so I caught on to what the Lord was telling me in a flash. I said, "Lord, I see it!" Then I turned to Gloria and said, "Listen, let's agree on this. I'm giving that camera to whoever took it off my shoulder. I'm sowing it as a seed into that person's life and I'm praying that God will use it to get him saved. I'm believing that every time he touches that camera, the anointing of God will come on him and draw him to Jesus. Even if the police catch the thief with the camera in his hand, I will say, 'Don't charge that man with any crime. I have given him that camera.' "
Of course, Gloria agreed and we boarded the plane to San Francisco. After we got settled in our seats, I started talking to the Lord about the seed I'd planted. I said, "Lord, I know that camera had value and we need a camera in this ministry. But I don't want another Minolta. It's a good camera, but it doesn't have enough range to do what I need. What I want is a Nikon F."
This was back in the early '70s when just the body of a Nikon F was worth anywhere from $700 to $900. The two lenses I needed were worth about the same amount, so to buy the whole outfit, I might have to pay up to $1800. But I wasn't worried. I had my seed in the ground and I started getting excited. I started expecting the harvest.
What a Deal!
Can you see what happened to me? I could have been sitting there seething over that stolen camera. I could have been sitting there getting offended, cutting myself off from the anointing of God. But I wasn't! I had forgotten all about that thief. I was too busy being thrilled with the new camera God was giving me to worry about how the thief had done me wrong!
A few days later, Gloria and I were walking along the street in San Francisco when I spotted a Nikon F camera box sitting in the window of a small shop. I went in and asked the store clerk how much they wanted for it.
"We don't have a Nikon F," she answered.
"Yes, you do. It's right there in the window."
She reached over and got it, looked puzzled and carried it to a Japanese gentleman in the back of the store. "How much is this?" she asked him.
He threw up his hands and said something in Japanese that I didn't understand. So I just dug around in my pocket and found some traveler's checks. "Here," I said, "I have $250. Will you sell it to me for that?"
"OK!" said the Japanese man.
Of course I was excited about getting just the body of a Nikon F for that price. But before I had a chance to say anything about it, the store clerk dug around in a drawer, found a Nikon 50 mm lens and handed it to me along with the camera. Glory to God, my crop was coming up!
It wasn't finished yet, either. Just a few days later in another city, Gloria and I were walking along the street again and we stopped in a camera store. I looked up and noticed that way up high on the top of a display shelf there was a lens case for a Nikon 200 mm lens.
The same thing happened again. The store owner didn't know he had it, and didn't know what to charge for it. So he sold it to me for $100!
I don't mind telling you, by the time that deal was done, I was almost hoping someone would steal something from me. But then I realized, Hey, I can give it - without someone having to steal it! I liked that kind of harvest!
You'd like that kind of harvest too, wouldn't you?
Well, you can have it. Just start taking those opportunities for offense and planting them as seeds. Instead of crying over how badly you've been hurt, turn those hurts into harvests and start laughing at the devil. Take everything ugly he has ever thrown at you and sow it as a seed.
Begin now by praying:
Father, in the Name of Jesus, right now I sow as seed in the kingdom of God every hurt, every bad feeling, every theft, and every evil thing any person has ever done or said to me, my family or my ministry. I release every person who has ever hurt me and I forgive them now. I lift each one of them up to You and I pray for those people. I pray, Father, that they'll come into a greater knowledge of You. I pray that their spirit be saved on the Day of the Lord.
Now I declare before You, My God in heaven, that I expect a reward. I believe Your Word and by faith I set my sickle to my harvest. I believe I receive a hundredfold return for every wrong deed done to me, every unkind word spoken to me and every dime stolen from me. I expect to receive a blessing of equal benefit. I claim it. It's mine and I have it now in Jesus' mighty Name!
Everything that happens to us supernaturally happens by faith. Somewhere, somehow, someone has to release faith for the supernatural to happen in our lives.
Just think for a moment how you came to be born again.
Maybe it was a friend, sibling or spouse who prayed for you to come into the kingdom of God. Maybe it was a great-great-grandmother who prayed for your salvation long before you were even born. It may have been someone on the other side of the world who interceded for you in the spirit, praying in other tongues and never even knowing what—or for whom—they prayed.
Oftentimes, we never know. But the point is, at some moment in time, faith must be released on our behalf for a supernatural event—like salvation—to happen in our lives.
In my life, I know of at least one person who prayed and released faith on my behalf concerning my salvation, my mother. My mother was a praying momma.
So whether it’s getting us born again or getting us healed, whether it’s avoiding a financial disaster or avoiding a fatal car wreck, faith must be released. Someone’s faith must be in operation—and if it’s not our faith that gets us in the right place at the right time, then it’s somebody else’s that does.
Throw Open the Windows!
Isn’t it comforting to know that God has people of faith and people of prayer scattered throughout each generation—people who pray and believe on our behalf?
But you know, I discovered that you and I cannot live on somebody else’s faith the rest of our lives. If we try to, we probably won’t live out the full number of our days on this earth. We won’t walk in the fullness of the financial blessings God has stored up for us. We won’t walk in the fullness of the ministry gifts God wants to pour out on us for the benefit of the world around us, a world that’s full of lost, sick, lonely and needy people.
If you and I continue to depend only on the faith of other believers—our spouses, our parents, our children, or even our pastors and spiritual leaders—we will always be hindered and hampered, and never as free and successful as God wants us to be.
So we must develop our faith. We must learn how to operate in our own faith.
Principles of Faith
Now, obviously, there are more than four principles to faith, but I want to introduce these four to you because I consider them to be vital. I believe they are essential to understanding how God designed faith to operate in our lives. With that understanding in hand, we can then use our faith more effectively.
In this first half of our study, I want us to examine two of the four principles, the first of which is: Faith gives God an opening.
We read in Romans 5:1-2, “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”
Verse 2 tells us that we have “access”—by faith—to the grace of God through our Lord Jesus, the Anointed One. It is our faith that allows us access to God’s grace. That sounds reassuring, but what exactly does it mean?
Let’s look at verse 2 in The Amplified Bible: “Through Him also we have [our] access (entrance, introduction) by faith into this grace—state of God’s favor—in which we [firmly and safely] stand.”
That’s a mouthful, but basically the Apostle Paul is telling us that faith gives us access to God’s favor. Our faith gives God an opening through which He can pour all His favor into our lives.
The moment you and I received Jesus as our Lord, we gave God an opening into our lives. Our faith gave Him entrance to come in and save us. By faith, we gained access to the favor of God to be born again. But that was just the beginning.
There is still much more of God’s favor for us to receive and experience every day of our lives. Faith requires that we continually receive the Word of God to lay hold of all of God’s goodness. Faith is kept alive and working by taking God’s Word into your heart.
Believing God’s Word concerning any area of life and acting in line with that Word is faith. The force of faith is activated by hearing and believing God’s Word. It is a spiritual force produced by the abiding Word of God in the heart.
You and I were created by God with the ability to choose. He gave us a will. So, when it comes to our relating to and interacting with God, we make choices to believe what He says or to disregard what He says. Many times the right choice requires faith to believe what He says rather than how it looks to the natural eye.
In Deuteronomy 28, as God prepared to cut covenant with His people, Israel, He told Moses to tell them, “And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the Lord thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth: And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee...” (verses 1-2). That was the bright side of the picture.
On the other side, God warned Moses that if the people of Israel chose not to hearken to His voice and obey His commandments, then they would suffer consequences. The rest of Deuteronomy 28 contains more than 50 verses detailing the curses that would overtake them.
God laid everything out for the Israelites, all the terms and details of His covenant. Then, He told them in Deuteronomy 30:19-20:
I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live: That thou mayest love the Lord thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he is thy life, and the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the Lord sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.
God operates by promise. He gives His Word. If you believe and obey it no matter what, He brings that promise to pass in your life.
The bottom line was whether or not the children of Israel trusted God enough to agree to His terms of the covenant. If they did, they would have to walk in His ways. They had to choose by faith.
A Choice to Make
Noah is a good example.
Early in the book of Genesis we read how, when God first approached Noah about building the ark, no one had ever heard of the concept of rain. No one knew drops of water could fall from the sky because it had never rained before. Up to that point, an underground sprinkler system of sorts—dew—had been used to water the earth. Yet, here was God talking to Noah about rain, floods and building a big boat.
Well, Noah had a choice to make, Do I believe God and build this monstrosity called an ark, or don’t I? It was a far out plan to Noah’s natural understanding, but God knew exactly what He was doing.
Noah chose to believe God.
Once Noah made his decision, it took a long time to build that ark. After all, he only had his family to help him build it. Everyone else thought he was crazy. “Crazy old Noah—building a floating house with no water to put it in.”
Don’t you know during the construction phase of that ark, Noah had plenty of opportunities to change his mind and back out of this foolish-looking project of his.
Nonetheless, he continued in faith. When God said—“Everything that is on the land shall die. But I will establish my covenant (promise, pledge) with you” (Genesis 6:17-18, The Amplified Bible)—Noah believed Him.
We find out that not only did Noah obey God by building the ark, he also obeyed by preaching to the unrighteous people while he and his family hammered and sawed. He preached what God told him to preach. The Bible says Noah was a preacher of righteousness. I have no doubt the people said he was a faith preacher!
So, like Noah—and all the other heroes of faith in the Old Testament—if you and I are going to live supernaturally, if we are going to have the supernatural blessings of God overtake us, instead of curses, then we must give God an opening—and faith is that opening. Our faith is like opening a window to God.
Believing Is Faith
Remember, God is no dictator. He never forces His way into our lives like the devil does. He never tries to deceive us. When God laid out His promises, He made them plain and simple. Then He gave us a choice.
Certainly, you and I don’t have to believe what God says. But if we want to live healed, prosperous, blessed in every way, then we will have to believe what He says. That is faith!
Psalms 35:27 says God “takes pleasure in the prosperity of His servant,” but that doesn’t mean we have to walk in prosperity. If we want to, we can live in the natural realm and refuse supernatural increase. God won’t force it on us.
If, however, we choose to take God at His Word, we can walk in the fullness of His prosperity for our lives. All we have to do is give Him an opening. All we have to do is believe what He says, instead of believing what we see, hear, or feel.
The second principle I want to introduce to you is: Faith comes.
Like God, faith is no respecter of persons. Anyone can have faith. In fact, Romans 12:3 tells us that God “hath dealt to every man the measure of faith” (speaking to born-again people). Consequently, any believer can develop faith. Faith will always come when God’s Word is heard and received.
To learn more about the conditions that cause faith to rise up in any given situation, let’s read Romans 10:13-17.
For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. 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? And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things! But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report? So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
First, notice that this passage of scripture begins with a promise from God—“Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (verse 13).
So in verse 13, Paul declares a promise and then goes on to show the supernatural process by which it draws faith out of our hearts—the faith that is necessary to lay hold of the promise and cause the reality of it to manifest in our lives.
Faith Comes By Hearing
There are approximately 6,000 promises from God recorded in the Bible, and each one was carefully written down for us.
If you and I were to take each of those promises and read them, speak them out loud and keep them before our eyes, in our mouths and in our ears—eventually—faith would rise up within us. Why? Because faith comes by hearing the Word of God. Faith comes by hearing the promises of God.
You see, faith is simply believing what we hear. It’s believing what we read and what we say. If we believe what we hear, say and read, and we let it get deep in our hearts, soon faith will rise up within us and see to it that everything we hear, say and read comes to pass. The faith that rises within us gives God an opening to bring His promises to pass.
This point is further reinforced—though in a negative sense—by Paul’s account of what Isaiah had to say about the unbelieving children of Israel.
“Lord, who hath believed our report?” (Romans 10:16).
The Israelites of old really did not believe God’s promises. They didn’t take His covenant to heart. How do we know they didn’t? We just read in verse 16 that they didn’t obey the gospel. Because they did not take God’s Word to heart, faith didn’t rise within them.
To illustrate this point, let’s say I were to tell someone, “You know, I noticed you drooling over that Harley motorcycle you saw for sale the other day, and I’ve been thinking and praying about it, and I just want to bless you with it. I want to buy that motorcycle for you.”
If I were to make a promise like that to someone, and he knew I would keep my word, and he knew I had the money to buy it, I guarantee you he would get excited. Why?
Based on my word, based on my resources, based on my promise, they would have faith that I would do what I said. In fact, I’m confident he’d start acting as though he already had the keys to that motorcycle in his hand.
He’d start thinking about where he could go on his new motorcycle and what other pieces of chrome and pin stripes he could put on it. He would be in an absolute stir over my promise to buy him a new motorcycle. He would already see himself riding it.
Well, it’s no different with God. If God promises He will do something, He will do it. He is more dependable than anyone you know.
Remember those 6,000 promises recorded in the Bible?
They’ve already been established as reality for us. We read in II Corinthians 1:20 that “all the promises of God in [Jesus] are yea, and in [Jesus] Amen.”
So, if you need healing, it’s done. If you need food, it’s done. If you need protection, it’s done. If you need a house, or a job, it’s done. You and I don’t have to try and talk God into any of these things—they’re already done! God promised them to us, then He ratified His promise through the blood of Jesus, the sacrifice of His own Son.
What is our responsibility, then?
As we saw earlier, we must give God a window. We must give Him an opening into our lives by faith—and not just when we get born again, but every moment of every day!
You and I must keep the promises of God—His precious Word—before us at all times...reading them, speaking them, listening to them. In short, we must do everything it takes to get the Word in our hearts. Because, when we do...faith will come!
So commit to God’s Word. Commit to it, and I guarantee you that faith won’t just come some of the time or, maybe, most of the time. No, faith will come all the time! It will come every time that you believe it enough to receive it in your heart to abide. And when it comes, so will the fulfillment of God’s promises in your life.
We had a great time at Church today. The kids woke up early and woke us up excited about going to Church. That warms my heart. Adam said he wanted to go to Church so he could eat donuts and play. :)
Today was a great message about Communication and Prayer and being speechless when you do not know what to pray or how to pray. How the Holy Spirit will put utterance in our hearts and that God already knows before we even pray what it is that we are in need of. Praying is an act of dependence on Him. Suffering draws us closer to Him. Trial draws us closer to Him.
We serve a mighty God. I have some of the best family around. They are always there when you need them. We have an abundance of clothes for the school year because of my sister in law and brother in law. They literally have saved us hundreds of dollars in clothes for the kids and recently graciously gave the kids a pool that they LOVE !
Mom and Dad are always there when we call dropping everything to come help us when it comes to the car etc...or my sister in law who will watch the kids at a seconds notice so we can go out and get air.....
Life is good in the House of Wilson. I give thanks for the people in our lives and the list is so endless that I could not mention them all by name and I dare not try. They know they are loved and appreciated or at least I hope they do. That is what is being a family is all about, having each others back when you need them the most. God tells us that we become part of a larger family a universal family when we become Christians. We are grafted into a large body of family. We are grateful to have such an incredible blend of family.
It is my prayer that this week brings you many blessings ~
We have had tremendous Excessive heat warnings for the last week or so now and I am starting to feel like a baked potato. Last night we were excited because it was going to rain but the wind blew and tore some trees down along the fence line but thankfully nothing compared to what others have had to go through.
It reminds me that sometimes we think we know what is best and step outside of Gods will. I had prayed for rain but with the rain came more humidity and severe weather. You see sometimes we may not know where God is taking us when we are going through situations in our life but we have to trust that He does and that He will get us through safely to the other side.
They say it may storm again tonight and as for me and my family we are going to stay inside where it is safe and use this as an opportunity to praise God for He is worthy of our praise !
Be blessed ~ J
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