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