word of faith – FREEDOM IN CHRIST

The Real Word Of Faith Pt 3

Last time we saw that the word of faith includes Speaking out in faith as seen through the teaching of Jesus. ‘Speak to the mountain.’ ‘Whatever you ask for will be done.’

Today we will look at one of the biggest criticisms by heresy hunters, that the people that they are speaking against, do not preach the Gospel! They mean the Gospel of salvation from eternal death. But they fail to acknowledge that the true Gospel is more than just this born-again experience. Though they would be careful not to use the word experience, because that sounds too much like having some feelings!

Let us take a look at what the Gospel is, from the words of Jesus. He said and told His disciples to tell people that the Kingdom of God is near. This was the Good News, the Gospel. —– This was Jesus’ declaration in the synagogue in His hometown. In Luke 4

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed. To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.” Luke 4:18-19

The Spirit of the Lord has anointed Jesus to preach the Gospel to the poor! A question, what would be good news to you if you are poor. Maybe it is that the poverty curse of the law has been broken, that God will provide for every need that you have. That’s good news to the poor!

The Spirit of the Lord anointed Jesus to release the captives. This takes a little bit of thinking, the logical meaning to me is that the captives are those who are under the bondage of sin, or under the bondage of the law of sin and death.

The recovery of sight to the blind can means a couple of things, actually blind people will be able to see again, as we see that Jesus opened the eyes of several blind people. Also, Jesus speaks of spiritual blindness. People who are unable to see the truth that was before them, ‘Jesus as the Messiah.’

To set free the oppressed! In the book of acts we read that Peter said in acts 10.38, Jesus went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil. This seems to indicate that sickness is oppression of the devil. Jesus quote in Luke was from Isaiah 61, it reads…

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, Because the Lord has anointed me, to bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to captives and freedom to prisoners; To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord And the day of vengeance of our God; To comfort all who mourn, Isaiah 61:1-2

Jesus used the word poor instead of afflicted. This indicates that poverty was an affliction, one that was brought on by the curse of the law. The Good News is that the curse of the law concerning poverty has been lifted through Jesus.

The heresy hunters will be quick to tell us that there were still poor believers in Jerusalem during the apostolic times. Yes, there was a famine, Yet God provided for the needs of the church in Jerusalem, through generous gifts from the churches of the gentiles. This is clearly seen in the Epistles.

To bind up the broken hearted, sounds to me like mental healing is part of the Gospel, liberty to the captives, is not talking about those in a literal prison, but held captive by sickness and disease.

You know of Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him. Acts 10:38

Jesus told His disciples to go and declare that the Kingdom of God is near, and to heal the sick and cast out demons. This is all a part of the Good News. Especially for those who were sick, and demon possessed. It is all a part of the Gospel.

The Good News, the Gospel is that the Kingdom of God is here, to those of us who believe, is near to those who don’t believe. The Gospel is for this life as well as eternity. The Gospel is spiritual as well as physical. It is not just for a hope in the future, it is also for a hope in this life.

Jesus at the Sermon on the mount spoke of future hope and present physical hope. Blessed are the poor in heart, for they shall see God. – Spiritual hope for the future.

The prosperity Gospel is not about getting mega rich or even just rich, it is about God providing for every need that we have. I believe that will include an abundance, or overflowing. This is so that we have surplus to be able to help others too, by the leading of the Holy Spirit.

Of course, the heresy hunters do not see this. They will say that God or the Holy Spirit does not speak to us anymore, except by reading the Bible, because that would be adding to the scriptures! Jesus tells us;

Look at the birds how God cares for them to feed them, look at the lilies Solomon was not clothed as good as them. Seek first the Kingdom of God and all these things will be added unto you. Look at what God has done for His creation why would He not do the same for us His children?

Some will say that my theology is off, but it not a question of theology, it is more a statement of logic. That is what Jesus is using, pure logic!

Matthew 6:25-34

“For this reason, I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life? And why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil, nor do they spin, yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith! Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’ For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. “So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. Matthew 6:25-34

The Apostle Paul strengthens this in the letter to the Philippians.

Rejoice in the Lord always; again, I will say, rejoice! Let your gentle spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:4-7

Be anxious for nothing, Jesus said cast your burden upon Him. Here Paul says with thanksgiving let your requests be known to God. That is the same as Jesus said in Mark 11, when you pray believe that you have received. With thanksgiving. This is the word of faith that I/we are preaching.

When we came to Jesus, we believed what He said and did for the salvation of our souls. We have believed for an eternity that we cannot see, or even understand fully, what it will be like to have immortal bodies. We just know that when we see Him at the rapture, we will be like Him.

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

Jesus tells us that faith the size of a grain of mustard seed would enable us to do what naturally seems impossible. ‘Nothing with be impossible for you.’ We cannot even please God without faith. We need to have faith in God for all areas of our lives. Not just for signs and wonders.

If we do not have faith for small things in our lives, such providing for our needs, how can we have faith for signs and wonders? This is an important question. Faith is necessary in thinking words and actions, according to God. It is a God given faith; faith comes by hearing the Word of God!

And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him. Hebrews 11:6

Faith is a living thing, that should be active, within us at all times for all things in our lives. Galatians 5 tells us that if we walk by faith, we will not carry out the desires of the flesh.

Jesus tells us that the words of our mouths reflect the state of our hearts. Are we going to speak word of doubt and negativity or are we going to speak out words of faith.

This is not some new age doctrine, it started with God in His word. Other religions and the world have their own counterfeit versions of what our Bible clearly teaches.

Be Blessed

Charlie

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 Real Word Of Faith pt. 1

The Real Word Of Faith!

I thought that I would do a message about the word of faith. Partly because I am sick of all the people of social media who rubbish, lay into the so-called word of faith movement. It has been labelled the word of faith movement because that is the name of the monthly magazine produced by Kenneth Hagin Ministries. Through this they call Kennth H. the father of the word of faith movement.

Now let me clear something up. The word of faith got mixed up and intertwined with the so-called prosperity gospel movement. What I mean is that some sinister preachers saw a way to use the true word of faith to make themselves rich. This has nothing to do with the living in faith for God’s provision that Kenneth Hagin promoted.

I admit that there are some unscrupulous persons within the word of faith believers that have taken things too far and created a false doctrine of the word of faith. Just as there are false doctrines in many other Christian groups. Such infant baptism; the Catholic sacrament of communion; cessationism; adherence to the Jewish law or part of it; that God’s only means to talk to us is through the Bible, double predestination of the Calvinists. These are all perversions of the Gospel in some way.

The doctrine that it is God’s will to prosper us Spiritually, physically and financially is all part of the Gospel of Jesus. Jesus healed all who came to Him, except some because of the lack of people’s faith. (Lack of Faith)! Jesus and His disciples never had a lack of finances. They gave to the poor! It was God’s will for His people to prosper in all areas of life, under the Old Covenant. Would our Father take away that will for His people under the New Covenant. A better Covenant with better promises.

Peter said, “Behold, we have left our own homes and followed You.” And He said to them, “Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, who will not receive many times as much at this time and in the age to come, eternal life.” Luke 18:28-30

Jesus said, “Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or farms, for My sake and for the gospel’s sake, but that he will receive a hundred times as much now in the present age, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and farms, along with persecutions; and in the age to come, eternal life. Mark 10:29-30

These scriptures clearly show that the blessing of God upon those who choose not to trust/have faith in their own possessions, count them as nothing compared to following Christ, will see increase in prosperity in friends and family as well as possessions. Notice that it makes a differential between this life and the life to come. God’s will is for us to prosper in this life, age! There is also the notice in marks Gospel, that those riches will have persecutions accompanying.

The psalms are a great place to see what God’s will and grace towards His children is. In fact, God’s will to prosper His people/children can be found all through the whole of the Bible. Some can be attributed as specifically to the children of Israel, in the promised land. The truth about God is that He only desires what is good for His children.

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. Come, you children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord. Who is the man who desires life and loves length of days that he may see good? Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit. Depart from evil and do good; Seek peace and pursue it. The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous And His ears are open to their cry. Psalms 34:8-15

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. He will bring forth your righteousness as the light and your judgment as the noonday. Psalms 37:3-6

These Psalms clearly show the heart of God to prosper His children in their lives, in this life. It is a question of faith in the Lord. Cultivate faithfulness and He will give you the desires of your heart. Taste and see that the Lord is good. They who seek the Lord will not be in lack of any good thing!

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name. 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 103:1-5

The benefits of trusting and worshipping the Lord are forgiveness of all our sins, all of our sins. The healing of all our diseases. Crowning us with His loving-kindness and His compassion. He will satisfy our years with good things, so that our youth shall be renewed as the eagle. This sounds much like a Gospel of prosperity! It includes forgiveness, healing and prosperity!

The preaching, teaching that God’s will is to prosper us is not unbiblical in any way. Again, I agree that a few people have taken this to extreme in a very wrong way; for their own personal gain. Just because some preachers have gone wrong, does not make the prosperity message as a whole, as being unbiblical. God’s desire is to bless His children with good things. That includes monetary wealth and healing. To take these things out of the Gospel is to not preach the whole Gospel.

When some people say such things as, prosperity preachers are going to hell for leading people astray, they are in danger of ending up in hell themselves. This kind of judgement that they make as to condemning people to hell is solely God’s to make.

The word of faith message is straight out of the Word of God!

Be Blessed

Charlie