God’s provision is sufficient for each day
Are you the well resisting sickness or the sick trying to be healed?
Seeing your identity through the lens of God’s Word part 1
Many who don’t understand what took place in the resurrection of Jesus Christ would argue that at best, God might heal you. However, healing is part of the atonement (1 Peter 2:24). Jesus came to deliver us from this present evil world (Galatians 1:4), and came to give us an abundant life (John 10:10)! So coming from the perspective that God does want you well, how do you see yourself? Are you sick, wanting to be healed? We can know that healing has been made available in Christ, and still not understand how to receive it, because it is a function of our identity. Who we are, our position in Christ! Faith isn’t just a belief, it is a response that flows from knowing who we are and what we’ve been given, praise God!
To understand more about how knowing your identity in Christ sets you free from sickness and disease,
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What Is Our Purpose?
God’s purpose for humanity is to have a relationship with Him. Why is this so important? It’s the real purpose of our lives. It is what we’ve been made for. And every other God-given purpose can only be realized through this intimate fellowship with God. We are free from trying to climb the ladder of success or fulfill any other self-imposed expectations on our lives! God wants us to live an abundant life and have success, but it’s only going to come through abiding in Him.
John 15:5,7 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.
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Relationship vs Religion
I know this title tends to offend some. But that is not my intention. My hope is to encourage you that you can have as much of God as you want! What do I mean by that? It is time for the Church, and that begins with each individual, to know God in His fullness.
He has given us Jesus, the perfect representation of His true nature and character to demonstrate His complete will for us, His children. He has given us His Word and His Spirit that lives within us! But as long as you can live without knowing Him, you will. We can have a life-giving relationship with our Heavenly Father beyond religious rituals and vain prayers. We can know Him experientially.
God is as good as YOU expect Him to be!
Ephesians 3:17-19 that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height—to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
See Article: Relationship vs Religion
The Power of Praying in Tongues
You’ve made Christ your Lord and Savior. You try to live a good and moral life that stems from this union with Him. But what you see in the pages of the bible compared to your life looks like a “special” chapter in Christianity that is over. Words like victory, power, miracles, and hearing God….all sound exciting but you doubt God’s willingness or desire to give it to you today. We take scriptures that promise the goodness of God, and we defer them to this time period only, or even worse, we say that God’s will for mankind has changed or we can’t know what God’s will is.
But if you believe Jesus Christ is the image of God made manifest who came to do His will (Heb. 1:3, John 6:38), then you cannot deny that He came to demonstrate God’s nature, character and will for all humanity.
In John 14:7 Jesus says, "If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him, and have seen Him."
And Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever, (Heb. 13:8) therefore God does NOT change.
James 1:17 says, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.”
God desires to move supernaturally in your life and in that of every believer. Hallelujah!
The miracles and power we see in the book of Acts and throughout the New Testament is the pattern we should be seeing in our lives and in the Church today. Just as with the believers in the first century, when you receive the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, you receive God’s supernatural power, and the gift of other tongues.
Acts 1:8 “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
See article “The Power of Praying in Tongues”
Faith and Grace
What is grace? It is typically defined as God’s unmerited favor. A more accurate definition would be:
GRACE – God’s provision (total prosperity) for man’s every need, spirit, soul, and body
Spiritual prosperity = When we accept Christ, we become a new creation in Christ, and the spirit of God comes and lives within our spirit and we become one with Him.
Soul prosperity = when our mind, will and emotions line up with what’s in our spirit which produces the fruit of the Spirit (love, joy, peace, etc.)
Physical prosperity = health and wholeness in our body
As these areas prosper, God’s provision can flow into every area of our lives; our circumstances and relationships. God’s grace has been given to everyone who will believe.
What is faith? Our positive response to God’s grace. Faith is the bridge that reaches into the spiritual realm and brings into physical reality what God has already offered by His grace.
By grace through faith we access all of God’s provision He gave by Christ Jesus. Amen. This is a free gift. We don’t have to earn it or work for it, praise God! We only need to believe.
Ephesians 2:8-9 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.
Romans 8:32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?
For more on grace and faith see articles: Faith is the bridge to God’s grace and Putting faith in God’s Word
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What are you expecting?
“According to your faith”
“As you have believed”
“Your faith has made you whole”
Would it surprise you to know that Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior said these things to the people He ministered the Kingdom of God to?
Then He said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. John 14:12
Then before going to the Father He said, “… Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.” Mark 16:15
Are YOU expecting? God has made provision through Jesus Christ
Be it done to you according to your faith!
Ephesians 3:20 Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us
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A Garden-like Relationship
What kind of relationship did Adam and Eve have with God?
Were they trying to live a holy life, obeying 10 commandments, or just trying to be a good person? NO, they didn’t know good vs bad or moral vs immoral. All they knew was God. And from that relationship and intimate dependence, God taught them how to live in that perfect and sinless condition. However, He also gave them free will. They could choose for themselves. In that, they chose to disobey God, making a choice outside of His will.
After the Fall, they (and all of mankind) were separated from God and that intimacy; however, Jesus Christ came to reconcile us back to God by taking the punishment for sin that we deserved. Now our acceptance with God is restored through our faith in what Jesus did on our behalf. Because the sin barrier that separated us from unity and fellowship with Him has now been removed, we are reconciled to God and He has made us righteous (in right-standing with Him). We can choose to live dependent on God and His ways once more.
2 Corinthians 5:18,21 Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ…For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
Therefore, our relationship with God, being born-again should be much different than it was before we received the free gift of righteousness through salvation. We are no longer supposed to choose our own ways; deciding for ourselves the standard for right/wrong or good/bad. We should be God-dependent. He teaches us how to live, separate from human standards and customs or even Old Testament rules and laws such as the 10 commandments. God’s grace teaches us as we abide in the Word.
John 15:5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.
So what should our relationship with God be like? Like Adam and Eve’s in the Garden of Eden. Praise God!
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Have you seen God?
James 1:17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.
Do you see God the same way Jesus represented Him?
Jesus came to make God known to the world. If you’ve seen Him, you’ve seen the Father. (see John 12:45) Many people get their idea of God’s MO (method of operation) by their experience, religion, or what others have said. But often, this gives us the wrong and even opposite view of who God really is!
Jesus, being the express image of the Father, is the same yesterday, today, and forever!! If you want to know God, get to know Jesus Christ, whom He has sent. This is where true life begins. Spend time in the Gospels getting to know your Lord and Savior, and God who sent Him to save you!!
John 17:3 And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.
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Faith vs Sovereignty
There’s much confusion in the church about what God’s sovereignty is. Does He control everything? Are all things that happen, somehow or other, God’s will? Is faith simply accepting that God ultimately chooses what happens to us, in our lives and in the earth?
Believing any of these lies will stop you from experiencing God’s good and perfect will for your life!
Why?
God is sovereign! Yet He gave the earth to man, along with authority over it. After the fall, we lost our identity in God, our authority was handed over to the devil, and the blessing over our lives was lost. However, God sent His son, Jesus, to redeem us, bring us back into fellowship as children of God, and to give back our authority and blessing on the earth!
Now, by faith in what Jesus Christ did for us, we can live the abundant life (John 10:10) God had planned for us all long; God’s ultimate will for us coming to pass. Praise God!
Romans 5:2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
Ephesians 1:3-4 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love.
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Faith is the bridge to God’s grace
What is grace? It is typically defined as God’s unmerited favor. A more accurate definition would be:
GRACE – God’s provision (total prosperity) for man’s every need, spirit, soul, and body
Spiritual prosperity = When we accept Christ, we become a new creation in Christ, and the spirit of God comes and lives within our spirit and we become one with Him.
Soul prosperity = when our mind, will and emotions line up with what’s in our spirit which produces the fruit of the Spirit (love, joy, peace, etc.)
Physical prosperity = health and wholeness in our body
As these areas prosper, God’s provision can flow into every area of our lives, our circumstances and relationships. God’s grace has been given to everyone who will believe.
What is faith? Our positive response to God’s grace. Faith is what reaches into the spiritual realm and brings into physical reality what God has already offered by His grace. This is a free gift. We don’t have to earn it or work for it, praise God!
By grace through faith
Ephesians 2:8-9 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.
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Victory Victory Victory!
Because of Jesus, WE have victory! Nothing in ourselves could produce it. Not our behavior, sincerity or desire. God Himself redeemed us by the blood of His son (making us righteous), and nothing we can do ourselves can produce victory in our lives outside of Jesus!
But thank God, He has overcome!
Those that put their faith in what Jesus has already done, ARE also world overcomers!
1 John 5:4-5 For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God
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Putting faith in God's Word
God’s will doesn’t automatically come to pass. Not everyone will be saved. Some will enter hell, and others will die and be received into heaven having never fulfilled their purpose and God’s wonderful plans for them on earth.
Like with the Israelites that didn’t enter into the Promised Land, our eternal fate is not predetermined nor is our life on earth! We have a part to play!
God, in His love, sent His son, Jesus to pave the way for us to be delivered from the corruption, loss and sin in this world and go on to spend eternity with Him. But we have to receive it by faith in that provision.
This is what He has done by His grace, and we access it by believing.
Romans 5:2 By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
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Believing to Receive – the foundational principles of faith
If I asked you “are you believing God for anything,” what would you say?
We all want something, whether it is success, vision, prosperity, health, peace, relationships...and on and on we could go. If you have a relationship with God, you most likely have asked Him to meet that need. But do we go to God with assurance, believing He will?
Faith begins where the will of God is known. The Bible is His will. We can take Him at His word, and expect to receive. The Bible says without faith, it is impossible to please Him. (Hebrews 11:6).
So then, what are the characteristics of Bible faith?
1 John 5:14-15 Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.
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Salvation – Christ in you
What makes you a Christian?
The religion you associate with? Being a member of a Christian church? Maybe the set of principles and standards you choose to live by? If you call yourself a Christian, what is the defining characteristic that makes you a Christian? You may respond by saying that you believe in Jesus.
But is Christianity solely defined as a decision on our part which determines the parameters of how and where we worship, and how we choose to live our lives?
What really happens when a person makes Jesus their Lord and Savior? The Bible tells us the greatest miracle takes place and is done by God himself!
2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold all things are become new.
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Perfect Peace
Many people want the fruit of living in peace and even ask God to give it to them. Some try to get it by doing what their flesh wants. Jesus has already given perfect peace to every born-again Christian; but it is in our spirit. It is our responsibility to draw it out of our spirit, into our natural minds & emotions.
We can only do this through an intimate relationship with God and His Word!
All the peace, love, joy that we could desire is a fruit of the Spirit of God in us. Our time spent with Him, renewing our mind to His Word causes His peace, and all the fruit of the Spirit to flow into our soul and into every situation in our lives. You can have perfect peace even in the midst of a storm.
Isaiah 26:3 You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.
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What is true repentance?
Do you feel guilty? Ashamed? Caught?
How do you know if you are truly repenting? Many people assume these negative emotions describe someone who has repented for their actions; and the more deeply you feel them, the more repentant you are.
But this is NOT what the Bible teaches us about repentance. Although many people feel remorse for their sin, that in itself is not repentance. As a matter of fact, you can completely repent, and experience NO emotion at all! How could this be…?
Repentance is a change of thinking. It is a decision of the intellect to turn so completely from one way of thinking to another (God’s way), that it produces a totally different behavior or way of living.
2 Corinthians 7:10 For the kind of sorrow God wants us to experience leads us away from sin and results in salvation. There's no regret for that kind of sorrow. But worldly sorrow, which lacks repentance, results in spiritual death.
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Thinking like God
How do we know how God thinks and can we think like Him?
Many people automatically discount the possibility of being able to know how God thinks, and therefore, being able to think like Him. God is too omnipotent, to big, too powerful, too far away, and on and on the distant, untouchable perception of our Father goes.
But if this were really true, what reason did He give us His “Word” (the Bible) and His Spirit within us to teach us His ways?
What if it IS possible to know God’s thoughts, and to think just like Him?
The Bible is not a rule book of rights and wrongs or imaginative stories to live a moral life by. It tells us exactly how God thinks and illuminates the path of our understanding.
The unfolding of your words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple. Psalm 119:130
Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. Psalm 119:105
Scripture tells us that we, as born-again believers have the Spirit of God within us! He teaches us all things. We can know Him, and think just like our Father!
1 Corinthians 2:12 Now we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God.
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Relating to God
We were made in the image of God and in His likeness. What is the significance of that after the fall and once Jesus Christ came and provided salvation?
To understand this, you have to first know why God created mankind. He did it to have His very own family! What is it that can be said about the members of one family? They come from the same stock! Children are ‘like’ their parents, inside and out. They grow up speaking the same language, mimicking their parents’ behaviors, and continue to rely on their parents to adulthood.
We were made to relate in the same way to our Father God!
1 John 4:17 Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.
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Eternal Life - Relationship with God
God’s purpose for making mankind was to have a family. He wants a relationship with us; and for us to know Him personally, intimately, and experientially in our lives. His love compels Him to bless us by giving of Himself. We come to know Him and have this relationship when we also choose to seek Him. Amen.
John 17:3 And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.
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Faith and Patience
Let me stir you up with The Truth!
The SUPPLY to every need, the POWER to change any circumstance, and the SOLUTION to every puzzle-the VICTORY to every issue you face has already been given to you.
Through salvation, God has made us His children; heirs, and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. This inheritance of abundant life and victory is ours by faith in the victory He himself won on our behalf. Christ has overcome sin, death and the enemy and those that put their trust in Him will inherit the promises of God.
Hebrews 10:23 Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised.)
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Faith vs Willpower
Many people, even some Christians have a skewed perception of what bible faith is. The Bible makes it very clear that faith is a supernatural, spiritual force that supersedes our own human ability. It is much more than an act of our own will.
How do we get this faith? Directly from the Word of God. This is one reason, even some Christians struggle with understanding true faith; because they are not in the Word of God. No Word, no faith. Faith takes us out of the physical realm and into the spiritual. It is the bridge that causes what’s true in the Spirit to be made manifest into the physical.
Hebrews 11:1(NIV) Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.
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Don’t miss God in a crisis
What is the relationship between God’s grace and our faith? Do you understand the importance of knowing this in a time of need or crisis? The book of Hebrews tells us we can come boldly to the throne of grace to receive this help. God’s will is what has already been provided by His grace and our positive response to receive is faith. When we pray, our confidence in God’s goodness and provision is what allows His grace to flow. This is the relationship between grace and faith. Amen.
Hebrews 4:16 Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
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Working out your Salvation And Receiving from God
Salvation is God’s reclamation of mankind back into right standing with Him. He came up with the plan from the foundation of the world and carried it out through His son, Jesus Christ. We receive this free gift of salvation by faith in what He has accomplished on our behalf. We receive His nature, His authority, His blessing, and His purpose. We work out our salvation from the inside out, beginning in our spirit and continuing outward, by the power of the Holy Spirit. Through intimate fellowship with God, we are progressively changed into the image of Christ.
Philippians 2:12-13 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.
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Living in the Blessing-Part 2
Great and Precious Promises
As Children of God, we have been blessed. The words God spoke over mankind in the Garden of Eden empowered the entire human race with His divine favor! Jesus made a way for that Blessing to be reinstated and now we can enforce God’s perfect will in our lives and in the world through His great and precious promises to us. Now is the abundant life God has blessed us with!
2 Peter 2-4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
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Living in the blessing: Part 1
What is the blessing
“I’m blessed.” This isn’t just a phrase used in church, but among the general population; Even among those that don’t actively engage in religious activities, and is often said when something good happens in our lives and around certain holidays. But is being blessed something tangible or real, and if so, what is the source of it? The Bible shows us that there is a real promise of The Blessing of God, for those who will receive it. It’s not left up to chance, luck or dependent on any other person. God is the source of eternal blessing, through His son, Jesus Christ.
Genesis 1:28 Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
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Faith to obtain the victory
Faith is the key to receiving anything from God. Without faith, it is impossible to please Him. The Bible tells us ‘now faith is the assurance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen.’ You have to first hope in something! Bible hope can be defined as intense expectation of good that comes from God. To have hope, you have to know the will of God. This creates expectancy. Then faith reaches out and takes as a present possession (now) what God has promised, and receives it.
1 John 5:4 This is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith.
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Making God First
Is God a priority in your life? Most of us that call ourselves Christian, would like to say yes. But what does it mean to make God first in our life? Many people have a heartfelt desire to know God but do very little in practice cultivating a relationship with Him. He has promised to never leave nor forsake us; but He gives us the choice whether we come to Him.
Do we glorify God as God and what value do we place on His authority in our lives? Giving quantity and quality time with the one who made us for fellowship with Him is eternal life. It’s what He came to give us; making Him first is the key to experiencing it.
Proverbs 3:6 In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.
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What does it mean to be saved?
God, by grace has provided everything we will ever need through Jesus. The Bible is clear that it is our Father’s heart and purpose that we live a new life that comes from the gift of salvation. When we understand what God has delivered us out of, we also find out what He has placed us into; causing us to be more than conquerors in this life and live in the presence of God for eternity.
Colossians 1:13-14 He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.
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Basics of salvation
Salvation is God’s redemptive plan to bring mankind back into fellowship with Him and restore his identity which was lost. God had this planned all along! He sent Jesus as the only way to legally accomplish this and gave him the power and authority to do it. God condemned sin in His son on the cross, taking away sin’s dominion over man and giving him the righteousness of Jesus. Being saved, man is reborn and receives eternal life. We had nothing to do with it, salvation is a gift from God to man. Amen
Romans 5:18 Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life.
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The sower sows the Word Mark 4:14
Grace = God’s provision for man’s every need; spirit, soul, and body.
Grace = Jesus (God’s provision for man’s every need; spirit, soul, and body)
Jesus = The Living Word (God’s provision manifested for man’s every need; spirit, soul, and body)
The Living Word = Seed (sown in the earth to provide for man’s every need; spirit, soul, and body)
Seed = The Word of God (when sown in our hearts provides for our every need; spirit, soul, and body) Amen.
John 1:16 (GNT) Out of the fullness of his grace He has blessed us all, giving us one blessing after another.
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