It's my and most likely your natural tendency to want to have everything going right in life. It annoys me that despite my greatest efforts, despite the fact that I love God and serve him to the best of my ability everyday. That my life is far from the picture of perfection. There are issues that I still face, there is still a past that whispers in my ear, there is still sin that tries to infiltrate my life. There is a level I want to go to with God that I don't fully understand how to get to, the constant negotiation tactics of the enemy of my soul trying to keep me from my purpose and settle into a life marked as ordinary Christianity that I so militantly despise, and the constant nagging of my flesh to just let it feast if even for a little while...yes friends I have issues. And you do to...but the Lord said through Paul in 2nd Corinthians 12:9 "My grace is sufficient for you. My strength is made perfect in weakness"
Oh how I thank God that it's his strength that gets us through! Not that we wait for God's strength to fall on us and blame God if we don't get it, but as Paul also says "I press on toward the goal of the upward calling of Christ", and he instructs Timothy to "fight the good fight of faith." So we fight...we do our part...we battle everyday. It's what makes us warriors. But in our weakness he's strong. I'm grateful that I don't fight alone, and that victory is assured for those of us who don't loose heart, but endure in our faith. (Hebrews 6:11)
So let me encourage you...fight the good fight of faith again this week. Let not a mountaintop experience end you back down into a valley for the kingdom is designed to go from glory to glory, faith to faith and strength to strength! Keep fighting, you may not win every battle but the end of the war is predetermined! Don't settle for society's version of Christianity. Look to the bible. Look to the gospels and the Epistles...fight for that, and know...in your weakness his strength is made perfect!
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Friday, March 6, 2009
Talk is cheap
Yo yo...it's been a long time since I've hit up the blog! Hello to all the readers...all 2 haha. Okay maybe a few more than that...! Here's some thoughts I thought I'd drop on ya that really have hit me as revelation from the Lord in the past few days.
Mark 11:22-24 Jesus said to his disciples "Have Faith in God. For assuredly whoever says to this mountain be removed as cast into the sea and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. Therefore I say to you whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them"
BAM! Sick scripture isn't it? Believe what we ask of God and we will receive and we will have what we asked God for! But it seems strange to me especially when I hear Christians talking about the fact that all we gotta do is believe we receive, and talking about what they are praying for, but in the same breath talking about how bad it is out there, how tough life is, how there whole life has been a challenge, yet they've never done anything exceptionally great. I'm like "what's been the challenge then? To barely get by? Is that what your telling me you've been praying for then?" And maybe it is...or maybe it's just all talk...or maybe they heard a preacher quote the verse one time and they could remember it because it rhymed...I don't really know. However what I do know it that in my walk with God I will take a whole approach to scripture. Because the glory of God follows the order of God. And God's power is shown is a life that is built on the entirety of truth, not simply the part that's on TV or our denomination emphasizes or whatever. So i don't want to pick and choose the parts of the word of God I like and fit into my preconceived theology, but true revelation and understanding of God's word which we can really only get by the power of the Holy Spirit anyway. Not in our own intellect. Although we must thoroughly study scripture. And it's not a bad idea to take the time to have understanding of theological concepts such as the law of first mentions and the law of reciprocals to truly dig into scripture and have the Holy Spirit make it life to us.
The bible gives us this definition of what faith truly is in Hebrews 11:1 the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. That can be a far off, out of grasp concept and verbiage without revelation from the Holy Spirit. Because I've probably quoted that scripture over a hundred times in various circumstances of my life or to friends who were having an issue that I was praying with them about...but up until a week ago I don't think I realized that if according to James 2:20 faith without works (or corresponding action is dead.) Then the evidence and the substance of the faith is actually my responsibility!!! It's not a far off evidence, it's not far off substance. The answer to the prayer is not the evidence and the substance...IT'S THE ANSWER. Faith is what produces the answer according to scripture right? "Believe that you receive and you will have what you say"
The Holy Spirit gave me this definition or understanding of evidence and substance which you could really say is the definition of faith: I produce the evidence, I produce the substance of the faith I SAY i have in the way that I'm talking, acting, and responding to the situation I say I have faith in God about.
I'm always grateful for fresh revelation from God, but in some ways this sucks for me and now you the reader who now has responsibility for this information, because we must understand that faith is more than words, faith is more than a feeling, faith is walking out the reality of what you say you have faith about. And the actions that prove our faith is what produces results in our lives...NOT SIMPLY THE PRAYER. You see in the Christan world we take that parts of scripture we like and apply those then if we don't get our prayers answered it "must be God's will." Nope - It's our lack of faith!
Listen I'm not there yet...every time I pray for something it doesn't always happen. I have glaring areas of my life that need imporvement. But I believe that by keeping focused on maturing spiritually which simply means "doing the biblical basics of Christianity consistently", and renewing my mind everyday to the word of God and applying truth to my life I am getting there. I am being transformed into the image of Christ which is my destiny. The intention of the witting today is to draw your attention to the fact that FAITH is more than talk, and FAITH is 100% our responsibility. FAITH is guaranteed to produce results!
It's much easier to blame lack of results in prayer on God's will or God's timing, but maybe he's just waiting for a people who will quit talking about it and be about it to do something amazing through. Just somethings to think about...maybe in my next blog I'll talk about the rest of the chapter in Mark 11 - Forgiveness and Prayer. Or maybe you could read it yourself and evaluate the reality of the condition of your heart. Let's do what it takes to be effective Christians!!! Even if that means some difficult self evaluation. Even if that means a lot more responsibility than we'd like to take on at the moment. Or if you'd prefer you can keep blaming lack of effectiveness on God's will and wait around to get to Heaven a little longer...But there are so many things that must take place before Heaven is even a consideration and what we do with the life God gave us determines what our eternity looks like. Listen any eternity with God is better than eternity in hell...but why waste our time here on earth because of laziness, lack of faith, bad theology or anything else. God gave you a life for a purpose...it's up to you to use it for a purpose that brings eternal value. A third great awakening is coming...and you won't be able to simply hop on the bandwagon when it's here. The ones who will pay the price today will be the leaders God uses tomorrow...Peace out!
Chad
Mark 11:22-24 Jesus said to his disciples "Have Faith in God. For assuredly whoever says to this mountain be removed as cast into the sea and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. Therefore I say to you whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them"
BAM! Sick scripture isn't it? Believe what we ask of God and we will receive and we will have what we asked God for! But it seems strange to me especially when I hear Christians talking about the fact that all we gotta do is believe we receive, and talking about what they are praying for, but in the same breath talking about how bad it is out there, how tough life is, how there whole life has been a challenge, yet they've never done anything exceptionally great. I'm like "what's been the challenge then? To barely get by? Is that what your telling me you've been praying for then?" And maybe it is...or maybe it's just all talk...or maybe they heard a preacher quote the verse one time and they could remember it because it rhymed...I don't really know. However what I do know it that in my walk with God I will take a whole approach to scripture. Because the glory of God follows the order of God. And God's power is shown is a life that is built on the entirety of truth, not simply the part that's on TV or our denomination emphasizes or whatever. So i don't want to pick and choose the parts of the word of God I like and fit into my preconceived theology, but true revelation and understanding of God's word which we can really only get by the power of the Holy Spirit anyway. Not in our own intellect. Although we must thoroughly study scripture. And it's not a bad idea to take the time to have understanding of theological concepts such as the law of first mentions and the law of reciprocals to truly dig into scripture and have the Holy Spirit make it life to us.
The bible gives us this definition of what faith truly is in Hebrews 11:1 the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. That can be a far off, out of grasp concept and verbiage without revelation from the Holy Spirit. Because I've probably quoted that scripture over a hundred times in various circumstances of my life or to friends who were having an issue that I was praying with them about...but up until a week ago I don't think I realized that if according to James 2:20 faith without works (or corresponding action is dead.) Then the evidence and the substance of the faith is actually my responsibility!!! It's not a far off evidence, it's not far off substance. The answer to the prayer is not the evidence and the substance...IT'S THE ANSWER. Faith is what produces the answer according to scripture right? "Believe that you receive and you will have what you say"
The Holy Spirit gave me this definition or understanding of evidence and substance which you could really say is the definition of faith: I produce the evidence, I produce the substance of the faith I SAY i have in the way that I'm talking, acting, and responding to the situation I say I have faith in God about.
I'm always grateful for fresh revelation from God, but in some ways this sucks for me and now you the reader who now has responsibility for this information, because we must understand that faith is more than words, faith is more than a feeling, faith is walking out the reality of what you say you have faith about. And the actions that prove our faith is what produces results in our lives...NOT SIMPLY THE PRAYER. You see in the Christan world we take that parts of scripture we like and apply those then if we don't get our prayers answered it "must be God's will." Nope - It's our lack of faith!
Listen I'm not there yet...every time I pray for something it doesn't always happen. I have glaring areas of my life that need imporvement. But I believe that by keeping focused on maturing spiritually which simply means "doing the biblical basics of Christianity consistently", and renewing my mind everyday to the word of God and applying truth to my life I am getting there. I am being transformed into the image of Christ which is my destiny. The intention of the witting today is to draw your attention to the fact that FAITH is more than talk, and FAITH is 100% our responsibility. FAITH is guaranteed to produce results!
It's much easier to blame lack of results in prayer on God's will or God's timing, but maybe he's just waiting for a people who will quit talking about it and be about it to do something amazing through. Just somethings to think about...maybe in my next blog I'll talk about the rest of the chapter in Mark 11 - Forgiveness and Prayer. Or maybe you could read it yourself and evaluate the reality of the condition of your heart. Let's do what it takes to be effective Christians!!! Even if that means some difficult self evaluation. Even if that means a lot more responsibility than we'd like to take on at the moment. Or if you'd prefer you can keep blaming lack of effectiveness on God's will and wait around to get to Heaven a little longer...But there are so many things that must take place before Heaven is even a consideration and what we do with the life God gave us determines what our eternity looks like. Listen any eternity with God is better than eternity in hell...but why waste our time here on earth because of laziness, lack of faith, bad theology or anything else. God gave you a life for a purpose...it's up to you to use it for a purpose that brings eternal value. A third great awakening is coming...and you won't be able to simply hop on the bandwagon when it's here. The ones who will pay the price today will be the leaders God uses tomorrow...Peace out!
Chad
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