Tag: Prayer

The Real Word of Faith pt 2

Last time…. we looked at God’s will to prosper us!

Moving on to speaking out in faith. The condemners of the word of faith idea make the great mistake of ignoring, or not even accepting things that the word of God says. Even denying some things that Jesus actually said. Theologising away the true meaning of Jesus words.

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 will be granted him. Therefore, I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they will be granted you. Mark 11:22-24

It is clear, that Jesus meant what He said above. It was in response of the disciple’s amazement that the fig tree that was spoken to the day before by Jesus, had died. Jesus tells us to Speak in faith and not doubt in the heart. Believe what you says is going to happen, it will be granted. Jesus then doubles down on what He is saying by adding for prayer, believe that you have received What you asked for, and they will be granted you. This scripture even has a type of decreeing and declaring as part of prayer. Whoever says to this mountain!

Jesus tells us, “Whoever says to this mountain.” This tells us that we have authority over the earth, that we can speak to things and what we speak will happen. The prerequisite is to have faith in God. It does not have to be a great faith! Faith of the size of a grain of mustard seed. Elsewhere we are told that we will not enter the Kingdom of God unless we have a child like faith! We just need a simple faith and nothing shall be impossible to us.

Again, Jesus states this truth, yes, it is a truth not just a good idea or manmade doctrine. After disciples could not cast out a demon, let’s remember that previously the disciples had been casting out demons. They had marvelled at the power that they had. It could be said that they kind of boasted about it. This was not just the twelve, it was also the, another seventy.

Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not drive it out?” And He said to them, “Because of the littleness of your faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you. Matthew 17:19-20

‘The littleness of your faith.’ Could this be some reason we do not see these signs in our day. There are many preachers that will tell us that these kinds of things passed away with the death of the last of the apostles during the first century after Christ death and resurrection. Jesus tells His disciples that if they had faith the size of a mustard seed, nothing will be impossible to them. Again, we see that it is all about speaking out in faith! Jesus is not specifically talking about mountains, but anything that we declare or ask of the father.

When we put together all of the prayer promises of Jesus teaching, anything means anything. When we are led by the spirit to pray and ask for things, be it healing, casting out demons, or even provision for our needs. This is clear teaching of Jesus. But for so long we have been told by some preachers and teachers that this is not what Jesus actually meant. That God does not really desire for us all to prosper. Hearing this promotes doubt in the hearts of people.

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the men of old gained approval. Hebrews 11:1-2

If you Have a small amount of faith, we should be able to do the works of Jesus and more! Nothing should be impossible for us. That is what Jesus said!  These are the plain and simple to understand words of Jesus. Anyone who says that the speaking or declaring things as form of prayer is not found in the Bible are denying the words of the Lord Jesus. “If you speak to the mountain,” “If you speak to the tree to be removed to the sea, it will be done for you.”

The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” And the Lord said, “If you had faith like a mustard seed, you would say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and be planted in the sea’; and it would obey you. Luke 17:5-6

Is this not decreeing and declaring? Just a small amount of faith should enable us, with the Holy Spirit residing within us, to speak and see impossible things happen. We all know that it does not seem to work for a lot of the time. That is not a reason to not believe what Jesus said. We tend to doubt when the thing we pray for, declared does not happen miraculously, immediately. The doubters and critics who put down this kind of prayer seem to have the Gospel, a form of godliness but deny the power of it. The words of their mouths relay the state of their hearts.

I have watched many hours of some of these people who seem to think that they have a ministry of calling out who they think are false teachers. There is no such ministry listed in the New Testament. There are examples of Paul seemingly calling out some false teachers. They are public to us as we can read about them. They are not an open public calling out, they are private, written to individuals, and individual churches.

Paul also wrote to Timothy that he should study and be careful of what he preached, taught. I see that most of these accusers claim to be cessationists, and reformed, Calvinists, who have doctrines and teachings that are suspect. What I have heard from watching some of the apologetics that they use, they twist scripture so much more than the people that they are talking about. They do this to try to scripturally make their point.

It is true that some people have got rich through their ministry, not all of these are wolves in sheep’s clothing. Many people, even millions, have come to know the Lord through the Gospel that was preached by these people. A Gospel that includes salvation, healing, and prosperity. The Good news that the promises of God to the Hebrews of the Old Covenant are the same promises for us under the New Covenant, without the curse of failing to obey the law.

Under the Old Covenant sickness was a curse of the law, poverty was a curse of the law. The curse of the law comes as God removes His protection and blessing. God’s blessing of Abraham was not just the land of Caanan, the promise of a future Messiah, it is clear that God greatly blessed Abraham in wealth and possessions. We are supposed to be blessed with the blessing of Abraham which was before the law of the Old Covenant.

The blessing of Abraham is that all the world would be blessed with salvation through the descendant of Abraham, Jesus. Abraham was blessed through his faith in the promises of God. Pomises not promise, the Saviour of the world.

We can say that the promise, blessings of Abraham were demonstrated to the Hebrews, in them possessing the promised land of Caanan. They were blessed with victories in battle in supernatural ways. They were blessed as Abraham in prosperity, in livestock, fruit of the land, children and more. The Hebrews prospered as God had promised them also through Moses in Deuteronomy 28. They also suffered the curse of the law through disobedience.

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget none of His benefits; Who pardons all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases; Who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with lovingkindness and compassion; Who satisfies your years with good things, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle. Psalms 103:2-5

Decreeing and declaring can be seen as proclaiming the word of God, the promises of God in situations. For instance, God is our healer, it is God’s will to heal us. So many in the church in general have forgotten this truth. Even leaders will admit that is not God’s will to heal everyone. That is not what was displayed in the ministry of Jesus.

Sickness is a curse of the law. The whole world is under the curse of the law, a part of the curse that came upon the world through the sin of disobedience of Adam. Jesus told his Disciples that those who believe in Him will lay hands on the sick and the WILL be healed. Jesus gave more detail than this though. He said those who believe because of the word preached by the Disciples will heal the sick and cast out demons!

These signs will accompany those who have believed: in My name they will cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues; Mark 16:17

The Word of Faith is declaring the Word of God in our lives. There are those who think this is heresy. They are wrong as they deny the power of the Word of God. They deny the power of the Gospel. They deny the power of God the Holy Spirit that lives within us.

The world has taken the word of faith from the Bible and used it to great effect. It has become a way of the world, but it is counterfeit to the real word of faith as taught by the Word of God, through faith in the Lord. The world has faith in their own ability to prosper, not faith in the Lord.

We are to Have Faith in God, and speak to the mountains that come up in life, and tell them to be remove, they will god through faith, not with doubt in our hearts. Mountains of sickness and disease, Mountains of poverty and of lack, mountains of struggle and opposition.

We just need to have a small amount of faith the size of a grain of mustard seed, and nothing should be impossible to us

Be Blessed

Charlie

The Blessing Of The Lord

A Blessing of God

Now Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, “Oh that You would bless me indeed and enlarge my border, and that Your hand might be with me, and that You would keep me from harm that it may not pain me!” And God granted him what he requested. 1 Chronicles 4:10

I opened my Bible the other day, as I have more than just a little interest in the history of Israel, to 1 Chronicles. Some of the genealogies are monotonous to me as they are to anyone, then I came across this kind of random verse about a man called Jabez. I asked myself, “Isn’t this a selfish prayer?” So, I bookmarked it to ponder upon.

The prayer is not just for the blessing of God, but to be blessed indeed, or in today’s language, ‘Well blessed.’ Enlarge my border is to have more land or property. Then the last part of the prayer is for protection that it will not be a pain to him. I think that Jabez was probably asking that his riches would not cause him harm and become a pain to him. On the surface it sounds like a totally selfish prayer. BUT God granted Jabez his request. It does say this about Jabez. These are the only two verses there are about this man.

Jabez was more honorable than his brothers, and his mother named him Jabez saying, “Because I bore him with pain.” 1 Chronicles 4:9

My mind went swimming with all the promises of God that were written. I thought about the promises of God that most of us gladly claim and accept. Salvation, eternal life provision of our needs healing! We tend to shy away from the promises of success and wealth, because of the bad press of the prosperity gospel fraternity. God did promise and gave the prosperous land of Canaan to the Israelites. God promised to Abraham, to bless the people of faith after the faith of Abraham, with the blessings of Abraham. This included wealth.

Then recalling the many times that Jesus taught about prayer, that we would be granted whatever we ask for, if we ask in faith. But we have been taught and it is in our hearts that we must pray according to the will of God. The question should be is it God’s will to bless us with more than we need. I would say yes to that question. Because then we can be a blessing to others. That is part of the being an honourable man.

O taste and see that the Lord is good; How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him! O fear the Lord, you, His saints; For to those who fear Him there is no want. The young lions do lack and suffer hunger; But they who seek the Lord shall not be in want of any good thing. Psalms 34:8-10

David says in this psalm that as Saints, we who fear/revere/honour God and seek Him there is no want or lack of ANY good thing. This is God’s will. Pauls says that God will supply all our needs, not just the desperate ones. Jesus said, “Ask and it will be given, seek and you will find, Knock and it will be opened. Look at it this way, we need to ask in faith. That is an important point. Asking and then adding if it be your will Lord, is not asking in faith. Ask and it will be given, maybe it will take a while. The second aspect of this is seeking, to me that sounds like living with an expectancy, not doubt. That expectancy is looking for the answer to the prayer, sometimes that can take some work.

It is the blessing of the Lord that makes rich, And He adds no sorrow to it. Proverbs 10:22

This can take a long time to explain, but it is not the prosperity gospel, prosperity is a part of the Gospel, as is salvation the number one aspect, and healing, peace, righteousness and joy in the Holy Spirit. Next time we look at some more of the promises of God as our provider.

God’s Blessings

Above we saw that Jabez prayed and ask for prosperity, and it says that God granted his request. That is the basic truth about Jabez, and that he was more honourable than his brothers. Perhaps he read David’s Psalm below. Maybe He worked out that God is faithful to His promises. Trust in the Lord, do good and cultivate faithfulness in God, and He will give you the desires of your heart.

Trust in the Lord and do good; Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness. Delight yourself in the Lord; And He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, Trust also in Him, and He will do it. Psalms 37:3-5

I have heard teaching that says that if we are faithful in works for God, grow in faith, read the Bible and keep it on our minds constantly, That God will change our desires to His desires for us. This sounds like good teaching on the surface, thinking deeper about it, it would be so easy to make these things into works of our flesh. Jesus cuts through this, in the middle of the parable about the vine. Jesus is the vine and as long as we stay connected to the Vine, we will be abiding in Him, and His word is abiding in us. We will bear fruit.

If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. John 15:7

There is a condition that is not really a condition. We must abide in Jesus and His word. We must obey His commandments. What commandments are they? To love God and to love one another. Jesus taught that we are not in the will of the Father unless we forgive everyone who has something against us. Unforgiveness creates some sort of blockage in our relationship with God.

The question is, Does God want us to be prosperous? I don’t mean to be so rich that we have too much money to know what to do with. I am talking about having plenty and not be in lack of any good thing. That is one of God’s promises. To have enough that we can give away and be a blessing to others. When I read through John’s Gospel, it is noticeable how many times it says that we will get what we pray for.

Whatever you ask in my name, that’s what Jesus said. The next question is this; Does God want us to be poor and have lack in our lives? The answer is No. There may be times that we go through periods of lack. Have challenging times of not enough. Generally, God’s will, is for us to prosper; to have more than enough. Though this psalms says more, and it is a heart humbleness, not a works humbleness.

But the humble will inherit the land and will delight themselves in abundant prosperity. Psalms 37:3-5,11

We are going through some tough times financially, but God is our provider, not the world or the government. God may well use the world or government to provide for us, but our faith should be in God. Everybody seems to be relying on the government to do something to help with inflation, especially fuel costs. If we do this as Christians, our faith is no longer in God.

In that day you will not question Me about anything. Truly, truly, I say to you, if you ask the Father for anything in My name, He will give it to you. Until now you have asked for nothing in My name; ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be made full. John 16:23-24

Ask for anything in Jesus Name. In this chapter there are no added conditions to this promise of answered prayer, except to ask in Jesus’ name. If we have a daily relationship with the Lord, we are abiding in Him and His word. We must believe what He said is true, whether we are asking on behalf of others or for ourselves. As Jabez did and God granted His request.

For us He will do it.

The Lord Bless You

Charlie