Lighting the Fire Again

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Many times, because we don’t know the when, how or what method God will use to answer our prayers, supplications or our petitions, we limit Him with our thinking and so we don’t leave room in our hearts for Him to answer us, thereby nullifying the potential of God’s power and grace in our lives.

It doesn’t matter what I think, does it? Proverbs 23:1 says, “For as a man thinketh in his heart so is he.” The Word of God teaches that it matters a great deal what we think, because what we think sets up a chain reaction to what we will receive.

Romans 12:2: “and be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” If we do not change what we think concerning what God has said in His Will, then we will not receive from God as He has intended, and be short changed in what he desires for us as His children.

Ephesians 3:20: “Now to him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above what we are able to ask or THINK”!! WHAT WE THINK GIVES GOD SOMETHING TO WORK WITH.

In Numbers 13:1-33 we find two cases of THINKING: One is Right thinking and one is wrong thinking:

1. Joshua & Caleb saw the same land - same giants, same fruit, same fortified walls, same large people - but the two reports differed from there. Joshua and Caleb said in vs. 30 “Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said, “We should by all means go up and take possession of it, for we shall surely overcome it. ”
2. Then the 10 others said in vs. 31 “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are too strong for us.” Vs 32 says they “gave out to the sons of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out.”

What is the difference between Joshua and Caleb's thinking and the 10 others? The difference is that the 10 other spies thought that they were the ones who were going to have to defeat the giants and bring down the impenetrable walls, when in fact, in Vs 2, God said to send out men to spy out the land “which I (God Himself) am going to give to the sons of Israel.”

In 2nd Corinthians 10:5, we are“Destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.” (or we could say, taking every thought captive to the subjection of the Word of Christ.)

It comes down to this for each of us - Whose report will we believe? It really does make a difference what we think!

Joshua 1:8. “This book of the law (or in our case, the new Covenant) shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate (think) on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success.”

Phil 4:8 says that we should allow or “let your mind dwell on these things..... Then the peace of God that we all desire will be with us and guard over our hearts.”

Anxiety, fear, doubt, unbelief and other negative thoughts can be made to flee from our minds when we change our minds or have them renewed by the Word of God.

THE SOLUTION TO KEEP THIS RIGHT THINKING IS TO KEEP THE WORDS OF GOD’S COVENANT BEFORE YOU AND TO MEDITATE ON THEM CONTINUALLY UNTIL YOUR MIND IS CHANGED.

May the Lord’s Word be a lamp unto your feet today as you think on the good and wonderful things that He has done for you, in and through His Son Jesus Christ.

FAITH BELIEVING IS THE NEXT STEP THAT MUST BE TAKEN!

FAITH BELIEVING is simply taking God at his Word as a child and allowing that faith to bring to us the supernatural blessings and provisions of our Father who is also the Lord God.

Many people stumble at believing how they are going to receive because they don’t understand how faith works. The devil continues to torture our minds with questions like, “How are you going to come up with something and help God? Look at what you have, NOTHING. Look at the situation that you are in. How is your faith going to help you?” If the enemy can get us to look at what we have or do not have, then he will have us defeated. But if we will stay in faith, believing God is able and willing, then we will defeat him! One of the greatest supplies that God made to any man or nation was when he led Israel out of Egypt and took care of their every need. It will do your heart good to look at the impossible amount of food, clothing, water and supplies that Moses had to come up with. But it was not up to Moses. It was up to God to supply, and he did it abundantly!

Faith is the Substance of what you have prayed or exercised your faith for, or hoped (expected), based on the Covenant Word of God. But believing faith is MORE THAN WHAT YOU THINK THAT IT IS. IT ACTUALLY GIVES CREATIVE POWER TO WHAT YOU BELIEVE IN YOUR HEART. Ephesians 3:20 “Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be the Glory in the church…”

If you remember, most of you believed something that has changed your life forever. That is when you came into the knowledge of Christ and the Kingdom of God, you believed upon Him, confessed Him as the Lord of your life and believed that God raised Him from the dead, and then you received salvation as a result of your believing.

Also Jesus said to those whom he came in contact with on an every day basis, “do you believe?” Many times he would then give directions to them as a result of what they said that they believed. (see John 7:38,39; John 11:25,26; Luke 8:49-54; Luke 17:12-14).

The power that is in us by the Spirit of God is more than sufficient to meet the needs in our lives, but it needs to be released by our Faith, believing in God, His Word, and what His Son has done for us.

So it stands to reason that by the substance of your faith and my faith it will cause something that we cannot see to appear and change what we see. Hebrews 11:3 “By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the Word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible.” BUT GOD SPOKE WITH THE GOD KIND OF FAITH DIDN’T HE? Jesus said in the Gospel of Mark 11:22 “Have the God kind of Faith”. If God tells us to do something, then of necessity He must have given us the tools or equipment to do them or He would be unjust - but He is not!

2nd Cor. 4:18 says “While we look NOT at the things that are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are NOT SEEN are eternal”.
2nd Cor.. 5:7 says “For we walk by FAITH, NOT BY SIGHT”

Let us not be shaken by what we see, but motivated by what we believe in our hearts according to what God has done for us, and will do in and for us.

May we all be FAITH BELIEVERS today, so that we may please the one who called us into His marvelous light.

Many of us have heard that it doesn’t make any difference what we say in our daily lives, so we speak many thoughts and untruths about ourselves and others. Some have said that we can get too carried away with this speaking positively stuff, or name it and claim it Christian jargon, but what is the real truth of the matter?

How did you get saved, and receive the Son of God Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior? Most of us did exactly what Paul said in Romans the 10th chapter vs. 9 & 10. “That if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you shall be saved. For with the heart man believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.”

If salvation begins with believing in our heart, and confessing with our mouth, then it must stand to reason that believing with the heart and confessing with the mouth releases something powerful towards our lives.

Jesus said in Mark 11:23 “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 he shall have what he saith.” Did you ever notice that Jesus is saying to us that we are going to have to say something about the situation (from or in faith) three times as many times as just believing for it?

Speaking from our heart is the key to changing the situations that we are confronting daily. We must find the solution and truth from God’s Holy Word and speak his mind, wisdom, and council. When we speak the Word of Faith or His Word toward the situation, then we are releasing faith in Him so His power will work in our lives and situations. (Instead of saying that your situation is impossible, say as Jesus said, “All things are possible to him who believes.” When you feel as though you can’t go on, don’t go by your feelings, speak the Word of faith and say, "I am strong in the strength of the Lord". Eph. 6:10. says “I will not fear for God is with me, He will strengthen me, and will uphold me with His righteous right hand.” Isaiah 41:10.

In the book of James we see in Ch 1:26 “If anyone thinks himself to be religious, and yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this man’s religion is worthless.” This is not an easy thing to do, but if we abide in His word as Jesus said, then we will begin speak His word rather than just our circumstances. We are not to deny our circumstances, but we must not allow them to be the final end or conclusion to what we believe as Christians because we have the Lord working with us and for us through the New Covenant in His blood. We might say something like this when questioned, "I know my situation looks bad, or maybe I am going through a tough time, but my faith in God will see me through because My God will supply all my needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus". Or quote another IT IS WRITTEN VERSE from the Covenant of God's Word to you.

The book of proverbs is full of Wisdom that God has put there for us as believers. There is much said about the mouth or tongue of the righteous. Here are a few that you can see that will help you understand the importance of speaking rightly or in line with the council of God. Proverbs. 10:19; Proverbs 15:2 “The tongue of the wise useth knowledge aright: but the mouth of fools poureth out foolishness.” Proverbs 17:20 “He that hath a froward heart findeth no good: and he that hath a perverse tongue falleth into mischief.” Proverbs 18:21,“Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.”

In closing I would like to say to you that If our salvation is begun and kept by our confession, then there of necessity must be more to confession than some would think. Hebrews 3:6 says “Christ was faithful as a Son over His house whose house we are, if we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end.” And continuing in vs. 14, “For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end.”

May the Lord richly bless you today as you speak the Word of Life into your everyday situations. It will change what you are experiencing and seeing. Remember though, you must stay with the Covenant of God’s Word long enough to see the results of your faith in Him.

Step 4 - Releasing Your Faith

Today we want to look at several different ways that we can release our faith in and towards God and His covenant Word so that we receive the final product or manifestation of our faith. The first way that our faith is released is in the power of Words!

Words. They seem so unimportant to us at times that we don’t pay any attention to them until someone comments to us about what we are saying or have said. God has also said something powerful about the Words that we say. In fact, He said that our Salvation is begun by doing what Romans 10: 9 & 10 said to do and that “That if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you shall be saved. For with the heart man believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.”

Again Jesus said in Mark 11:23 after teaching about the God kind of faith, that “he shall have whatsoever he SAITH”. In other words, faith is released through the mouth after believing with our heart the covenant of God’s Word.

If we look carefully at Hebrews the 11th Chapter we also see that many others achieved faith in God by what I call an active faith after believing God’s will, call, or purpose for each of their lives. We see Able offered to God, Noah prepared an ark, Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance, Abraham offered up Isaac as God proved him. There are more for you to study in this Chapter if you want to spend the time.

James the brother of Jesus said something in his letter to the saints that did not meet the approval of some in his day, and that is that Faith, without works, is DEAD! James 2:17 & 26. In other words, if you express your faith to someone by your words alone, but your actions or lack of actions contradict your faith, then your faith is null and void and doesn’t count for anything. It is a sad fact that we must all face, but it is a true one if we look again and again at scripture.

Another account tells of a woman who had a problem with an issue of blood in Mark 5:25. It tells us that this woman heard about Jesus, but this was not enough. Then she thought, or said in her heart, “If I just touch His garments, I shall get well.” Still, this was not enough. She could do something with her faith because Jesus was at that time on the earth and she could, by her own ability, go to him and do what she said. She RELEASED her faith the moment that she broke the tradition of her day, pushed through the multitudes of people, and then the disciples, and finally did what she purposed in her heart by touching the hem of Jesus garment.

I don’t know about you, but I really don’t want to hear about some of these things because it puts the burden of faith on me. If I really believe, then I will do something with my faith in God. Let me give you just one more example of what I call long term faith, but the faith still proved to be powerful toward God and He fulfilled his promise to those who would release their faith in His Word.

Let us go the Numbers 13:1-33 & Numbers 14:45. To make this a short story, we can see from Ch. 13:1 that God had told the sons of Israel that He was going to give them the land. They were to spy out the land, but they were supposed to remember that He was going to give the land to them. They gave a bad report as most of you know, but their faith fell before the giants, walls, and apparent strength of the people there. They released a negative belief so that God either would not do, or could not do what He had said that He would do.

Now, let’s look at some faith in God that is released by the same two spies that came back with the other 10 who have by now died out. The story continues in Joshua 14:7 where Caleb is requesting some land for his inheritance. “I was forty years old when Moses the servant of the Lord sent me from Kadesh-barnea to spy out the land, and I brought word back to him as it was in my heart. Nevertheless my brethren who went up with me made the heart of the people melt with fear; but I followed the Lord my God fully.” Caleb reminds Joshua of the Word of the Lord, and then he states that God has still kept him in good health and moreover he is as strong today 45 years later as he was then at 40 years old. Then in Vs 12 he requests the hill country where the Anakim were, that is the giants that the 10 other spies were afraid of be given to him. He continues, “Perhaps the Lord will be with me, and I shall drive them out as the Lord has spoken.” Then we see the faith of Caleb continuing in the Lord as it was 40 years earlier. Vs 14, “and Caleb drove out from there the three sons of Anak. Then He went up against other inhabitants as well.”

Caleb never lost his opportunity because of someone else, to get what God had promised him. Instead He released his faith in God by going into the hill country and taking the land for God, that was to be his inheritance.

May the Lord richly bless you today as you release your faith by speaking words from your heart into your life. Also then, acting on those words, just as though they were true, until you see the visible, tangible, physical evidence of what you have prayed for in your hands.

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