LET GOD'S WORD ACTIVATE YOUR FAITH
“Faith comes from hearing the
message, and the message is heard through the Word about
Christ.” (Romans 10:17 NIV)
Most of us aren’t
confident or courageous. Most of us are flat out scared to death.
We’re afraid to take risks, afraid of failure, and afraid of dying.
We’re not walking confidently because we’re not people of faith.
Do you want to be a person of faith?
Faith is God’s Word
activated. The Bible says
in Romans 10:17, “Faith comes from hearing the message, and the
message is heard through the Word about Christ” (NIV).
If you’ve ever read a verse in the Bible and
all of a sudden thought, “I can do this! I can do this!” you’ve just
had your faith activated by the Word of God.
It’s the difference between the Bible and
self-help books. Self-help books often give you helpful insight.
They can tell you the right thing to do, but they just don’t give
you the power to do it. Self-help books tell you that you should
stop worrying or you should give up all your bad habits. Helpful,
yes, but you don’t have the power to keep the advice. Those books
aren’t alive.
But God’s Word not only tells you what to do;
it gives you the power to do it. And it increases your faith as you
do it.
When I read the thousands of promises in the
Bible where God says he’ll act on our behalf if we obey him in some
manner, it gives me confidence. I know that if I do what God asks of
me, he has promised a certain result.
I was depressed for most of 1981. I had just
moved to Southern California to start Saddleback the year before. I
was exhausted emotionally, mentally, physically, and spiritually. I
felt like I had a cloud over my head that I just couldn’t escape
from.
I’ll never forget some of the verses that
really activated my faith, Exodus 23:29-30: “But I will not drive
them out in a single year, because the land would become desolate
and the wild animals too numerous for you. Little by little I will
drive them out before you, until you have increased enough to take
possession of the land.”
God had promised the Israelites the Promised
Land. They were going to go across the Jordan River into Israel and
take on some tribes that were already living there. They didn’t
think they could do it. They thought the goal was too big.
In Exodus 23:29-30, God is saying to the
Israelites, “You know these enemies? They’re bigger than you. But
I’m not going to give you the whole land in the first year. You’re
going to take it over a little bit at a time — one battle at a time.
You’re growing stronger. When you’re strong enough to handle it all,
you’ll get it all.”
When I read those verses, it was like a
promise coming directly to me. I realized I didn’t have to
accomplish it all in the first year. I’m going to spend the rest of
my life serving Jesus Christ, and I’ll do it on his timetable and at
his pace.
That understanding gave me confidence to take
on enormous goals. The Word activated my faith. God’s Word can
activate your faith, too.
THOUGHTS ON FAITH AND
TRUST
From God's point of view,
faith and trust is believing Him and His Word. To Him ... there is
nothing more important for us to believe.
Thus trusting God and God’s Word
and then obeying it
is the wisest thing in life you could ever do.
It has ETERNAL payback.
Trusting God invites God to
supernaturally intervene in our situation.
Being apathetic about trusting God is a
strong indication that we are not confident God cares about us, or that we
don’t need, or want, His help.
(Conning you to believe God
doesn’t care about you is one of Satan’s most effective strategies in
shutting down your faith and trust in God.
Don’t let the devil do that to you.
It has devastating consequences).
If we never had challenges in
life, we would come to the conclusion there is little need to trust God.
God allows trying challenges to come into
our life to keep us reminded of just how much we need Him.
It is our sinful,
human nature to
not want to
need Him.
Once we pass into eternity, we’ll FULLY
realize just how much we need God.
What’s the wisdom of waiting that long to
find out?
Sustaining faith is not
feelings, but a decision … just as sustaining love is a decision.
(If you’ve been married for any length of
time, you know what I’m talking about.
If you’ve been a Christian for any length
of time, endeavoring to love God more than you love anything else which is
the first and greatest commandment, you know
what I’m talking about.
Feelings are one of Satan’s greatest tools
to hinder our spiritual growth.
If you build your prayer life on feelings,
rather than a decision, I can assure you will struggle praying to God most
all the days of your life with any true excitement).
The wisest thing a person can
do is continually seek God for more wisdom in how to trust Him more
fruitfully.
God has the power to do anything He decrees
on our behalf – that’s never the issue.
The question is:
How much do we motivate God to WANT to
intervene on our behalf?
You’ll never discover the
greatest joy and peace and zeal for living until you have made it your
life’s aim to excel in trusting God.
Trusting God honors God.
Distrusting God dishonors Him. If you
want to shut down God's blessings on your life, stay careless about trusting
God.
Those who choose to trust the Lord in their
challenging situations make themselves more eligible for the gift of faith
that the Holy Spirit gives to whom He will, as is spoken of in 1 Corinthians
12:9.
Impatience is the biggest
“Goliath” most people will ever have to battle with.
It’s the tallest “mountain” most will have
to remove into the sea.
Impatience can short-circuit trust and
subsequent breakthrough from God like little else can.
Many of the trials in our life are allowed by God to
help us learn to trust God more than what we really believed was necessary,
or that our carnal, sinful nature delights in doing. Trials test our
motives and resolve for serving God like nothing else will. In
eternity with God, we'll forever thank God for the trials He allowed in this
life. Why wait until eternity?
The book of wisdom – Proverbs
– exhorts the reader over and over in the first few chapters to do what?
Seek wisdom and knowledge.
Primarily wisdom - knowledge secondarily.
Knowledge without wisdom applied to that
knowledge offers little payback. You’ll never get wisdom from God that will
keep you excited in your relationship with Him until you learn that God can
not only be trusted … but the key to God’s heart in His granting favor to
you along life’s way is your intense desire to trust Him, and never stop
trusting Him.
This is the heart of what God in Hebrews
11:6 is communicating:
And
without faith (trust)
it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe
that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.
(You can
earnestly endeavor to seek Him all the days of your life, yet remain
frustrated most of the whole time … if you attempt to do so without
constantly trusting Him.
Trusting
God is not optional, if you want Him to reward you with a joy and peace
[with additional blessings] that is not attainable any other way).
Always
remind yourself … Trusting God is not something He forces you to do.
It’s something you GET to do.
A wise person takes advantage of trusting
the One who can make ANYTHING happen He chooses to make happen.
A fool can’t be bothered – he or she
doesn’t care.
Our world is full of people who don’t care
… but once in eternity after their judgment, they will painfully regret they
didn’t.
Thank you,
Jesus (Yeshua), for caring for such a lost and blinded creation that we have
become.
The wise will
push all else aside to discover who You truly
are,
and all that You accomplished for them by dying in their place … when You
didn’t have to … so they can become all You intend them to
become - forever without end in glory.
THE CHOICE OF FORGIVENESS
Most of the ground that
Satan gains in the lives of Christians is due to unforgiveness. We are
warned to forgive others so that Satan cannot take advantage of us (2
Corinthians 2:10, 11). God requires us
to forgive others from our hearts or He will turn us over to the tormentors
(Matthew
18:34, 35). Why is forgiveness so
critical to our freedom? Because of the cross. God didn't give us what we
deserve ; He gave us what we needed according to His mercy. We are to be
merciful just as our heavenly Father is merciful (Luke
6:36). We are to forgive as we have
been forgiven (Ephesians
4:31, 32).
Forgiveness is not
forgetting. People who try to forget find that they cannot. God says He will
"remember no more" our sins (Hebrews
10:17), but God, being omniscient,
cannot forget. "Remember no more" means that God will never use the past
against us (Psalm
103:12). Forgetting may be a result of
forgiveness, but it is never the means of forgiveness. When we bring up the
past and use it against others, we haven't forgiven them.
Forgiveness is a choice, a
crisis of the will. We choose to face and acknowledge the hurt and the hate
in order to forgive from the heart. Since God requires us to forgive, it is
something we can do. (He would never require us to do something we cannot
do.) But forgiveness is difficult for us because it pulls against our
concept of justice. We want revenge for offenses suffered. But we are told
never to take our own revenge (Romans
12:19). "Why should I let them off the
hook?" we protest. You let them off your hook, but they are never off God's
hook. He will deal with them fairly--something we cannot do.
If you don't let offenders off your hook, you are
hooked to them and the past, and that just means continued pain for you.
Stop the pain; let it go. You don't forgive someone merely for their sake;
you do it for your sake so you can be free. Your need to forgive isn't an
issue between you and the offender; it's between you and God.
SATAN’S POWER IS IN THE
LIE
People who know they are having spiritual problems
usually have severe perceptual problems too. Satan seems to be more present,
real and powerful to them. These types of people usually hear opposing
arguments in their head. They are constantly confronted with lies, told to
get out of the counseling setting, or threatened with harm or embarrassment.
One dear lady I was ministering to suddenly bolted
for the door. "Tell me what you're hearing," I said.
"You're going to hurt me," she answered fearfully.
"That's a lie," I assured her. Slowly she returned to
her chair.
Some people experience internal interference when
demonic powers are confronted by the truth. They may become dizzy or
glassy-eyed. If you proceed without regard for their reaction, they may
lapse into catatonia.
The goal in helping people
find freedom in Christ is to avoid all demonic activity which would
short-circuit their ability to participate in the process. With this in
mind, I usually begin the time of ministry with prayer, acknowledging God's
presence, claiming His authority,
and
binding the enemy to silence.
In what have become known as the "Jesus pencil" and "candy cane"
cases, the Supreme Court refused Monday to consider appeals from the
families of elementary school students over distribution of
religious-themed gifts on campus.
At issue was whether
school officials can be sued for violating the First Amendment rights of
what the students claimed was their "private, non-curricular speech
based solely upon its religious viewpoint."
A federal appeals court
had ruled in favor of school officials in Plano, Texas,on the liability
question, and the justices without comment let that decision stand.
The full 16-judge panel
from the New Orleans-based court last September concluded while the
constitutional rights of the students were violated, school
administrators could not be sued under the "qualified immunity" legal
standard. The litigation continues on other aspects of two separate
incidents nine years ago, both involving schools at the Plano
Independent School District in the Dallas suburb.
"Educators should not suffer personal monetary liability for making a mistake in this area of the law," said the appeals judges.
In one instance, the
principal of Thomas Elementary School blocked then-third-grader Jonathan
Morgan from handing out "goody bags" at a winter party. The bags
included a decorative pen in the shape of a candy cane with a Christian
message that read in part: "Every time you see a candy cane, remember
the message of the candy maker: Jesus is the Christ!"
Parents had met with
Principal Lynn Swanson, who offered a compromise: the laminated "Legend
of the Candy Cane" pens would not be allowed at the classroom party, but
could be distributed separately at a table in the school library.
School district officials later clarified, saying students in general
were not allowed to pass out "any written material, tapes, or other
media" to classmates, whatever the message.
The boy's mother and
father nevertheless brought the pens to the party, and the principal
then announced to the school by loudspeaker that all "outside materials"
were banned from classroom distribution. The family claims Jonathan was
the only student subsequently banned from distributing his "goody
bags."
A month later at Rasor
Elementary School, the parents of then-second-grader Stephanie Versher
complained the girl was forbidden from handing out tickets to a passion
play, which was being performed at a local church, depicting the
crucifixion of Jesus Christ. The student expressed her "sincere"
religious conviction she "should share her beliefs with her friends."
Days later, Stephanie
was then stopped from distributing brownies at a party with two pencils
attached, one of which was inscribed, "Jesus loves me this I know from
the Bible." The other pencil had the word "Moon" on it. Her mother then
angrily confronted school officials, including Principal Jackie
Bomchill.
Sherrie Versher later
testified she left the school offices emotionally upset, and "she
thought out loud to herself, 'Satan is in the building,'" according to
the court transcript. It was unclear to whom she was referring. A
disagreement developed over whether the school had given permission for
the student to give the "Jesus" pencils after classes that day, outside
the school building on the sidewalk.
A legal question
developed whether that distribution was on school property or nearby,
and whether authorities would then have power to stop the pencils from
being given away.
The appeals court noted
the difficulty government officials have ensuring schools and other
public facilities remain free of religious proselytizing.
"When educators
encounter student religious speech in schools, they must balance broad
constitutional imperatives from three areas of First Amendment
jurisprudence: the Supreme Court's school-speech precedents, the general
prohibition on viewpoint discrimination, and the murky waters of the
Establishment Clause." said the judges. "They must maintain the delicate
constitutional balance between students' free-speech rights and the
Establishment Clause imperative to avoid endorsing religion."
The court concluded the
principals were entitled to qualified immunity "because clearly
established law did not put the constitutionality of their actions
beyond debate."
School officials had
said they are entrusted by parents with the education of children, and
retain complete control over all aspects of a student's time and
communications -- including parties and hallway discussions.
The Constitution's First
Amendment bars any government from passing laws "respecting an
establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."
The high court in the
past has typically dealt with such church-state disputes by allowing Ten
Commandment displays in public buildings; the mention of "God" on
currency and in the Pledge of Allegiance; manger and menorah displays in
public parks; and school and legislature prayer.
A Texas-based legal group had represented the Versher and Morgan families in their appeals.
"We are disappointed the
Supreme Court denied review of this case," said Hiram Sasser, director
of litigation of Liberty Institute. "We were hoping to finally put this
issue to rest: that government school officials should be held
accountable when they violate the law and students' First Amendment
rights. No student should be subjected to religious discrimination by
the government."
While the students'
"speech" in these cases involved a religious message, the high court has
also established important precedent on the larger free speech issue.
In the famous "Tinker" case from 1969, the Supreme Court ruled two Iowa
high school students could continue wearing anti-Vietnam War armbands.
The high court said students do not "shed their constitutional rights
when they enter the schoolhouse door." But school administrators do
retain the authority to restrict any activity that would cause a
"substantial disruption" of the school's educational mission.
