Where and in whom is your faith

 270926:61

Where and in whom is your faith

   What I’m about to say, some of you are going to say ‘ouch’, and some are going to say ‘who does he think he is?’ so please bear with me . . . It’s not the you ‘can’t believe. It’s more that you choose NOT to believe’.

[GW*] James 5:7-11 “Brothers and sisters, be patient until the Lord comes again. See how farmers wait for their precious crops to grow. They wait patiently for fall and spring rains. 8 You, too, must be patient. Don’t give up hope. The Lord will soon be here. 9 Brothers and sisters, stop complaining about each other, or you will be condemned. Realize that the judge is standing at the door. 10 Brothers and sisters, follow the example of the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. They were patient when they suffered unjustly. We consider those who endure to be blessed. You have heard about Job’s endurance. You saw that the Lord ended Job’s suffering because the Lord is compassionate and merciful”

   It seems that all I do on behalf of God is to make statements that, as we say here .. “to get their backs up” .. in other words ‘to wind others up’. If it gets us asking about God and what He can do, well, it’s a good thing. Now before I loose where I was, God is faithful; God is honest; God keeps promises. All we need to do in the tough barren times is not to loose Faith in Him, who is!

Here is 4 points that the Lord wants to share with you . . .

1. You don’t ask you don’t get. . .John 14:13 “And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.”
2. If you don’t ask God, He won’t supply all you needs. . . Philippians 4:19 “And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus”
3. Never make light of what others ask God for. . . Romans 14:12-13 “So then each of us shall give account of himself to God. 13 Therefore let us not judge one another anymore, but rather resolve this, not to put a stumbling block or a cause to fall in our brother’s way”
4. Ask in faith, not wavering. . . Hebrews 10:23 “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful”

   Lets say it’s Friday afternoon, today your going on holiday, but like so many others your hoping to get away early. But, you have to stay later and so you get caught in traffic, and to top that you hit every red light from work to home. Do sit there with steam coming out of your ears, with your blood pressure going through the roof? OR, are you going to curse and become more and more angry. OR, are you going to sit back take time to ‘decompress from the week, saying “Thank you Jesus for the chance to switch off, so I’ll be relaxed and ready for my holiday.” You tell me which sounds the better one to you?

I want you to open your bible and read the next couple of verses, this is where Jesus walks on water … [NKJ] Matthew 14:22-33

   As Peter told Jesus .. “Lord, if it is You, command me to come    to You on the water.” .. As Peter believed as Jesus told him to come, he did not hesitate in his faith to walk also on water, and he did. Then unlike the waves his faith vanished, thus his faith vanished, he panicked and so began to sink. What is very clear, is that we must NOT let fear into our thinking about anything, when God says ‘anything’ God means anything, or else the seed of fear will take root.

   Think of fear as a ‘dandelion’. As soon as one of it’s seeds is allowed to take root it will be hard to clear your garden of them. So is the seed of ‘Fear’, unless you keep constantly on top of it will infect every part of your life/thinking. At all times and through everything we need to praise out Lord.

[NIV] 1 Kings 18:21 “Elijah went before the people and said, “How long will you waver between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him.”

   Some call through, this decisioning, flip-flopping, so mmuch so that you would be like a wave at sea with no control, your direction is at the mercy of the wind ...

[NIV] James 1:6 “But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind”

...This is why you truly can’t serve 2 masters at any one time. God has told different Kings/Leaders/Prophets, all have found this out down the ages. There it is , the hard hitting truth, what needs to sink in is this .. ‘You only need to, look at God, and only hear from God, nothing and no-one else’ .. Don’t you see that when your in tune Gods for your life you will overcome, ride above oppressors; have a clear understanding of gods will; of your future in His will.

Here are 2 reasons for being in and having Gods will for us . . .

1. Honestly, from experience that when you have heard from God, that you seriously have heard, then nothing else will ever matter again.

2. Nothing will over come you when your gaze (i.e. looking) is only on the face of Christ Jesus-presence

… Always remember the devil is like a hungry lion looking for pray .. [NIV] 1 peter 5:8 “Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour” .. he also is a very sly and cunning, so he uses stealth tactics like …

• Offers alternatives to Gods will

• Will try to fool you with negative options

• Will try to convince you, that Gods ways are boring & stuffy

• Will try to convince you, you can repent later for all your bad ways.

   When we pray for Wisdom – Health – Love – Protection. We have to be careful that we don’t assume to know what Jesus wants from us, so we need to ask humbly daily, and do not be presumptuous. A great way of finding out ‘all the above’ is, found in Matthew 6: 6-15, please read as if you have never heard this before and read slowly, above all think to whom your saying this .. [NIV] Matthew 6: 6-15 “But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

9 “This, then, is how you should pray:

“‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,

10 your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

11 Give us today our daily bread.

12 And forgive us our debts, as we also

have forgiven our debtors.

13 And lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from the evil one.

14 For if you forgive other people when they sin against

you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.

15 But if you do not forgive others their sins,

your Father will not forgive your sins.

My closing thought is .. if it matters to God, then it should matter to us. So I ask again …

Where and in whom is You Faith ??

Why we should look to be Pleasing to God....

Why we should look to be

Pleasing to God

“..⁵ But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ ..”

(2Peter 1: 5/8)

   So what does it really mean ‘to be pleasing to God’? Grace, can cover a multitude of actions, some of these are shown in the above text, with actions such as. . .Virtue ~ Knowledge ~ Self-Control ~ Perseverance ~ Brotherly Kindness ~ Love. . . WOW, this could not be made more clear. God will never surely ask anything of us without first giving us the tools, to enable us to complete what He has asked.

   What I find sad as well as somewhat misguided, is that most of our Christian lives, and most of Religion, and most Church’s, is they define ‘Grace’ as unmerited favour and love, which is not only just wrong but totally incomplete. Surly as Christians we have to stand in the fullness, so ‘what is Grace’? Such is the immense meaning, that, God’s unmerited favour and love, Well Grace is God’s unmerited power. This in turn gives us empowerment also enablement to face what God has in store for us to do.

   So what had the ‘paralytic’ man ever done to receive God’s unmerited power and grace here in . . 

".. For which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Arise and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins”—then He said to the paralytic, “Arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.” And he arose and departed to his house. Now when the multitudes saw it, they marveled and glorified God, who had given such power to men. ." (Mat 9: 5/8)

   Because of the a fore mentioned, we now need to talk of God’s ‘empowerment’ that had/has never earned God’s strength. Paul went before God to talk of the ‘thorn’ in his side. The thorn in his side, was actually Satan/devil, as it was distracting Paul from his work. God turned around to Paul and said . .”.. My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9). . God in that instant showed Paul that  . .

 ‘..His grace is in His strength, His empowerment and

ability is all Paul/we will ever need in our lives..’

   In Latin there are a couple words that put together many of us know of may be a slightly different meaning, they are . .

o   Carris ~ means ‘Grace’

o   Carris-ma means ‘anointing’

. .today we think of Charisma to meaning..

1.compelling attractiveness or charm that can inspire devotion in others. "he has tremendous charisma and stage presence"

synonyms:

charm, presence, aura, personality, force of personality, strength of character, individuality; More

2.a divinely conferred power or talent.

   Next time you use the word ‘Charis-ma’, stop and think is being ushered. To say that this person has ‘Grace’, without empowerment, can never be done as God empowers us with His Grace. You can’t be a Farmer without a tractor. It would be silly to be a farmer without one! To talk of Grace, then you must talk of ‘blameless-Grace’. No matter whichever way around, when you talk of one, inadvertently you talk of the other.

‘Grace should be the divine influence on your heart, 

and it’s reflection on your life.’

    God gave us ‘His’ Grace to reflect upon others, and NOT hold to it, hide it up our jumpers. Just like a lighthouse we should be forever letting it shine bright. Grace should always be seen and reflected near and far no matter of life’s storms, we must always let it shine brightly through us.

When he came and had seen the grace of God, he was glad, and encouraged them all that with purpose of heart they should continue with the Lord. (Act 11: 23)

   It’s time to prick up your ears, because these next 4 examples of how God’s Grace will ‘produce proof’ in our loves. . .

o   God’s Grace will produce infallible proof

o   God’s Grace will produce infallible proof of healing

o   God’s Grace will produce infallible proof of soundness

o   God’s Grace will produce infallible proof of deliverance

. . . always bear in mind that the Grace of God is actually an untapped force that will do more than just affect our standing with God,  by crediting us full righteousness. Grace can also affect our spiritual experience.

   In fact we see that, Grace is marked by God’s enabling work within us, to overcome our helplessness. . .

Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.  (Hebrews 12 : 28)

. . . In other words, this passage tells us that we can’t serve God with reverence & fear, without Grace.

   For when comes the time that God tells/instructs to something, He won’t do unless He has already given us all the sufficient Grace to help us. This goes for every time God has us to something that requires us to do acceptably serve Him, or God will ensures He gives us an abundance of Grace to help us through the trails along the way.

Here comes the simplest part, you would think

   If we try to do what God wants of us then prepare.  Because under their own steam, we are but fools. If I wanted to take my car 200 miles down the road, and only expect you to give ‘Grace’ in the form as fuel/gas. You surly would not ever try and push the car up & down dales, surely that is just idiotic. God’s Grace is freely given out to help, Grace may be used to cover up our past sin, just as Grace is used to empower us to NOT sin any more. . .

He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked. (1 John 2: 6)  

. . . just try and walk as Jesus walked, we’re going to fail all day long .

   Now comes the most difficult part of this, in that to succeed we need not only God’s empowerment through Grace, we must believe and have faith of your success. It’s like making a fruit loaf but you never used the fruit, well it’s just going to fail.

# AM I GETTING THROUGH YET? #

We can only ever come by faith more than our

Own ability

   You are going to fall flat on your face, relapse, when you really try and stop taking drugs, or, watching porn, and your sins are doomed. Why? Because you are not really empowered by God’s Grace. God does mean you are exempt from pleasing God. There is how ever a big difference between God being pleased with us being saved/born-again, and God somehow being happy with our behaviour.

   In Jesus prayer for ‘all’ believers, describes how deep God’s true love is showed. . . I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.  (John 17 : 23). . .If only believers, and those that don’t, could only grasp this. God loves us in the same measure that He does Jesus. So many miss this very special message, God there for is only pleased by our behaviour that shows goodness to our neighbour. You see our Heavenly Father love is always unmerited, but, at the same time His pleasure in us will not always be unmerited.

So my ending though is this. . .

‘You can’t earn His love

But rather

You can please Him’

Helping by Prayer

Helping by Prayer

   God has put it in our power to help each other in many ways, sometimes by deeds that lift away burdens; sometimes by sympathy that halves the sorrow. But, there is no other way in which we can serve wisely, so effectively, so divinely, solely interceding for them.

   Our hands are clumsy and awkward, and often life would heal with our touch or strength . . .

“. .Not by my strength but by thine alone/own. .”

. . .but in prayers we can reach our friend through God’s grace. Because God’s hand has an infinitely more gentle touch that would NOT hurt but only heal us in our time of need. We know that our wisdom, and at times the help we give is untimely (we offer help after the horse has bolted, yet only then do we think to close the stable door), or unwise. When we try and fix that which is no longer broken, thus making mess. We need to learn when to let go.

   There are times we think we are helping by lifting a friends burdens, that God needs them to carry by themselves. You might be forgiven that by doing this we are making his burdens lighter. But it was Gods intention to make it harder for our friend for his own good, for his own development of his powers.

   Don’t be disheartened that by not saving our friend from the burdens & . .Hardship ~ self-denial ~ Perilous-duty ~ Exhausting-Service . . when these are the very paths with which God will lead him to . .

·       The paths to Honour

·       To Longer Usefulness

·       To Nobler Life

. . all be it at times our love is short sighted.

   This goes to show that we may all think we are helping our friend, when we really are doing anything but. When we are actually hindering him in the very things that deeply concern his life. Instead of hindering in the flesh, we can use a tool that will be far more effective. In prayer we can let God know we have faith in our belief that our prayers will be answered in fullness.

   In our prayers we can ask for help in which our friend will feel His divine healing. Who so ever fails to pray for ones whom we love, is a miss, in the most sacred duty of God’s Grace, not to mention His divine healing power.

“A prayer less love may be  tender

And may speak murmuring words of sweetness

Sound, but it leaves the deepest expression

and the noblest of speech. We never want

To help our dear ones so well as when we

Pray for them.

Romans 8 26 “. .  Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groaning’s which cannot be uttered. .”

   

   As Christians we should know how to pray. The thing is how many of us, as newly saved Christian’s, were taken aside and over a number of weeks, were taught how to pray, using the Bible as direction? “pray for as we ought”. This is something sadly lacking, the only true direction for those just saved is called the ‘Alpha Course’.

   We truly have a gift/tool to help us if only tapped into. There are some ‘Evangelists’’, some have a good reputation. There are 2 that who are known even out of Church circles. .

1.     Billy Graham

2.   Benny Hinn

 . . it has been reported both have a good & bad reputations for ‘Healing’. Jesus healed many ailments. All He asked for was ‘Faith & Belief’, which sadly many today will lack one or both.

Luke 8 49-50  “. .While He was still speaking, someone came from the ruler of the synagogue’s house, saying to him, “Your daughter is dead. Do not trouble the Teacher.”But when Jesus heard it, He answered him, saying, “Do not be afraid; only believe, and she will be made well. .”

   When a man can do nothing else, he would do well to remember this little saying to the great river of intercessory prayer which is always flowing up to the throne of God. The river is made up of such sayings as the Ocean is of drips . .

“A praying man can never be a useless man”

. . it is also well, that we think carefully of the things we ask for our friends. There is a danger that exists in prayer for ourselves, that we press only our own will for them and request for them only of an earthly kind.

Philippians 3 19   “. . whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame—who set their mind on earthly things. .”

  Another form of prayer is that of a Mother’s. Her prayer for her children will always be first, that may win Earthly honour, but, that they be complete in God’s will, and become what God has intended them to be. The best place they can reach in this World is that which God designed them when He gave them life.

·       “What shall our prayer be”?

·       “That our friend may recover”?

   Isn’t that what we want otherwise, do we pray and not mean it?   Prayers should always be offered up in love, or we may ask aimlessly. Jesus prayed 3 times that His cup of sorrow might

pass. .

This must not be all what He’s about!

We should ask. .

This must not be all what ‘It’s’ all about!

   It would be sad if our friend were to get well and NOT to get some blessing out of his sickness. Once he has made full recovery, we pray that he may be enriched in spiritual experiences. .

   Also ~ that he be in a closer relationship with Christ our Lord..

   Also ~ that his life may be purified..

   Also ~ that he made more thoughtful, gentle, unselfish, more Christ like..

   Also ~ that he be made more perfect and complete in the will of God. .

. . it may be needful to qualify the power that our friend will recover. It may also Gods will that our friend should now go home. We may still give vent to loves yearning that he will get better, but at the close of our supplication we must submit it all to Gods wisdom in the refrain. .

“never the less, not as I will, but as though wilt”

. .if love be true, it’s always the best thing that we ask for our dear ones when we pray. Heaven will be the crowning glory of our lives in Immortal Glory & Blessedness. As we begin to pray we remember that the truest and most loving prayer for Him be, that our friend must stand most perfect and complete in all God’s will. Possibly his load is part of God’s will to bring out the best that is in him.

   Here’s something to think of in that, when we decide to pray for our friends, we need to first and for most, pray of their spiritual good & wellbeing. In doing so we must seek above all things that the prayer and supplications offered up will sustain and lift them, so they will grow into the beautiful person in Gods eye’s and help them to have a wonderfully perfected Christian character.

   Surely you will have a poor and thoughtless friendship which desires the utter most Earthly good. It is asking of you a stone instead of bread or perhaps a scorpion instead of an egg, or a serpent instead of a fish.

‘Archdeacon Farrar, was once quoted in saying

‘There are 2 things to remember about prayer for

Earthly things. .

1.     That too ask for an Earthly blessing is a dreadfully dwarfing and an vulgarization of the grandeur of prayer, as though a handful of grass, when you might ask for a handful of Emeralds.

2.   You must always ask for Earthly desires with complete and absolute submission of your own will, to Gods’.

   We are to make sure that these things be as true of prayers, as for our friends as for ourselves. We do our friends a grave injustice as well as sin against our loved ones when we seek for them merely the things of our frail short-sighted judgement may desire for them.

“. .love is true only when it comes and rises up to

Heavenly heights, craves for those who are

dear to the things of Gods own blessed

& perfect will. This is and will always never

Be easy. .”

   It will always be hard for us to say ‘Thy will be done’. NO one will relinquish the reigns to their life to Jesus Christ. Knowing that it means our loved ones must endure some pain or walk in deep shadows, or be humbled under Gods hand.

   No matter whether for ourselves or for our friends, we dare not in prayers press our own wishes against Gods. .”Even though it be a cross that raiseth”. .this must be our own cry for our friends as well as for ourselves. . .

“The strength of pleading must be the same”

. . .someday we shall know that our love was the truest, when it was asked in pain and loss for one who was dear, and Why?.

   May be this poem will go to answering some of the questions you might have…

I sometimes think Gods tender heart must ache

Listening to all the sad complaining cries,

That from our weak, impotent souls arise, Because

 we don’t see that for our sake, He answers

not, or answers otherwise, Than seems the best

 to our tear-blinded eye, This is loves hardest task,

to hard things For loves own sake, then bear the

murmurings Of ignorance to dull to judge aright.

The love that rises to this wond’rous height

He wearies not, but bears complaint and moan

And shields each will heart against His

Own knowing that some glad day we too

Shall know.