Great Faith

Faith, what is faith, and how can we grow our faith? According to Hebrews chapter eleven in The Holy Bible we see that it says: Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the people of old received their commendation. By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.

We see here that faith is not believing in something that you can see in the natural, it’s rather believing even though it hasn’t happened yet. Let’s go now to the book of Genesis chapter 22, we are going to read about a man of great faith named Abraham. After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham”! And he said, “Here I am.” He said, ” Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.” Now this is very significant because we see that God is asking Abraham to sacrifice his only son. I will give more of a background to this story. Abraham and his wife Sarah were advanced in years and Sarah had been barren and they did not have a child. God promised Abraham that he and Sarah would have a child. God even said “is there anything to hard for the Lord.” Abraham had to wait several years before the promise came to pass and it did, God gave Abraham and Sarah Isaac. Now we see in Genesis chapter 22 God is asking Abraham for the very thing that he blessed him with and the son that he and Sarah waited many years for, God is saying lay him on the altar. This right here takes great faith and Abraham obeys God. He trusted God and took God at His Word that He would do what He said He will do.

Hebrews chapter eleven starting at verse seventeen: By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named. He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.

What is it that you are trusting God for? What are promises that God has made to you that have not been fulfilled yet. Notice i said yet because the book of Numbers 23:19 says ” God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent; Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken and will he not make it good?

The Lord Jesus was also tested. In the gospel of Luke chapter four Jesus being full of the Holy Spirit was led by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days and He ate nothing during those days. The devil said to Him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” And Jesus answered him, “It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone.” And the devil took him up and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, and said to Him, “To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will. If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.” And Jesus answered him, “It is written, You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.” And he took him to Jerusalem and set Him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to Him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here for it is written, “He will command His angels concerning you, to guard you, and on their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.” And Jesus answered him, ” It is said, You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.”

Jesus knew His identity, He knew who He was, that He is the Son of God. We also see that Satan knows scripture, Satan quoted Psalm ninety one to Jesus but Jesus knew that we are not to put the Lord our God to the test. You see when you know who you are the devil can try and come at you but he won’t be able to move you. Jesus had great faith and past the test that the first Adam failed. What a wonderful Savior we have.

I challenge you to have great faith just like Jesus and Abraham, and to believe God without wavering. Do you trust Him?

I hope that you enjoyed this post today on great faith! All of the Bible passages used today are from the English Standard Version and the NASB. I pray you have great faith like Jesus and trust God. Shalom and blessings 🙏

Prayer and Relationship with the Lord.

Let’s talk about prayer. Prayer does not have to be difficult, prayer is simply communicating with God. You do not have to speak eloquently in order to pray or change your voice or tone when you pray. God knows who you are and how you talk, just be yourself.

Let’s look at what Jesus says in regards to prayer. Matthew 6:5-8: “And when you pray, you are not to be as the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners, in order to be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. “But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who sees in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will repay you. And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition, as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words. “Therefore do not be like them; for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him. Continue to read through Matthew 6 verses nine through fifteen, where Jesus tells us to pray in this way.

We see that we are to pray to our Father in Heaven, to pray that His Kingdom would come and that His will be done on earth as it is in heaven, to forgive us as we have also forgiven. We want our hearts to be right when we pray so we want to make sure that we confess and repent of anything wrong we have done against anyone, sometimes we can not always see things within ourselves so you ask God and say, “Lord, I repent of any sins I have committed, I ask you to forgive me of this and I forgive anyone who has hurt me or wronged me. God loves you and He will forgive you, it says in the Bible several times that His mercy endures forever!

You can pray anywhere, at home at work, while going for a walk, it does not always have to be out loud prayer. God hears your prayers even when it is not out loud. Prayer is relationship with God. I will never forget when the Lord spoke to me a few years back, He said ” A lot of preachers love to preach my Word but they do not know Me”. What the Lord was saying is that a lot of preachers love to preach but they do not have a relationship with Him. That is a very scary thought to not have a relationship with the Lord and think that you can minister to others. God cares about every detail of your life, talk to Him, for He is a God who is near and not a God who is far away. When you mess up, God knows that you are human, be quick to go to Him and repent, it is the heart that God is looking at. The Lord loves you and wants to spend time with you.

I pray shalom and blessings over you and may the Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.

The Importance of Obeying God.

Today I would like to talk to you about a very important subject, and that is being obedient to God when He asks you to do something.

In this discussion I will be referring to the Bible passage in First Samuel chapter fifteen. Then Samuel said to Saul, “The Lord sent me to anoint you as king over His people, over Israel; now therefore, listen to the words of the Lord.” “Thus says the Lord of hosts, I will punish Amalek for what he did to Israel, how he set himself against him on the way while he was coming up from Egypt. Now go and strike Amelek and utterly destroy all that he has, and do not spare him; but put to death both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.” (NASB)

So we see here that Saul was told by the Prophet Samuel to kill all of the Amalekites, that those are the words of the Lord. So Saul defeated the Amalekites, from Havilah as you go to Shur, which is east of Egypt. And he captured Agag the king of the Amalekites alive, and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword. But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep, the oxen, the fatlings, the lambs and all that was good, and were not willing to destroy them utterly; but everything despised and worthless, that they utterly destroyed.

We see that Saul only partially obeyed and he did not fully obey the Lord by destroying all of the Amalekites, he spared king Agag and he kept everything that was the best of the sheep and oxen but only destroyed everything that was despised and worthless. The Prophet Samuel then goes to Saul to rebuke him after the word of the Lord came to Samuel saying, “I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned back from following Me, and has not carried out My commands.” And Samuel was distressed and cried out to the Lord all night. (NASB)

Samuel rebukes Saul and says that the Lord anointed you king over Israel, and the Lord sent you on a mission, and said “Go and utterly destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are exterminated. “Why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord, but rushed upon the spoil and did what was evil in the sight of the Lord?” Saul tries to tell Samuel that he did obey, but what he doesn’t understand is that obeying God partially is actually disobedience. Samuel then says to Saul, Has the Lord as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold to obey is better than sacrifice, And to heed than the fat of rams. “For rebellion is as the sin of divination, And insubordination is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He has also rejected you from being king.”

At the end of the end of the chapter we see that Samuel says, “Bring me Agag, the king of the Amalekites.” And Agag came to him cheerfully. And Agag said, “Surely the bitterness of death is past.” But Samuel said, “As your sword has made women childless, so shall your mother be childless among women.” And Samuel hewed Agag to pieces before the Lord at Gilgal.

Samuel finished what Saul was suppose to already have done. Partial obedience is still disobedience. If the Lord asks you to do something even if you may not understand you must obey. We have to understand that God has a reason for asking us to do something and we must not wait and ponder in our minds to think about why but just obey. If God asks us to give money to someone or to help someone in need, whatever it is that God is asking simply obey him, you may not always understand why but we must obey. Saul had the kingdom of Israel torn from him for disobedience.

All of the Bible passages used today are from The New American Standard Bible.

Being Content In All Circumstances.

Sometimes life gets busy, but in the business we don’t wan’t to forget to be content in all circumstances. Did you know that in Christ you can have contentment? Jesus has given you His peace in John 14:27 Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful. Jesus is telling us that we have peace because He is always with us, we do not have to be afraid because we are not going through things alone, for God is always with us.

We can have contentment in every circumstance, this doesn’t mean that troubles will not come but when you have God with you walking right through everything with you you have nothing to fear. Being content in all circumstances also means that you are not tossed all around but that you know that in Christ everything will be okay. When you are content you know that you don’t have to have everything you want right away, you will be happy with what you have. This is something parents need to teach their children as well, if you are always giving a child what they want all of the time they will never learn to appreciate and value things, they will just think that everything will be done for them and in the real world that does not happen you have to work for what you get.

Here are some scriptures from the Bible that I wanted to share with you about contentment that I think may help. 2 Corinthians 12:10 Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong. Philippians 4:11 Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. 1 Timothy 6:8 If we have food and covering, with these we shall be content. Hebrews 13:5 Make sure that your character is free from the love of money, being content with what you have; for He Himself has said, “I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you.”

How To Go Through Hardships And Suffering.

When going through life, sometimes things are not always easy and you may wonder where is God when I go through really hard times, such as the loss of a loved one, financial hardship, marital problem or even issues in the workplace. Well I’m here to tell you that God is right with you. He has said in His Word that He will never leave you nor forsake you, so know that you are not alone when you go through things because you have Jesus. Did you know that Jesus experienced suffering? Now you probably want to say, Michelle of course He died on the cross, but let me get a little more in depth. Let’s read the passage in Isaiah 53:3-5 He was despised and forsaken of men, A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; And like one from whom men hide their face He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried: Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our inequities; The chastening for our well being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed. So we see that Jesus not only suffered physically but also it says here in Isaiah that He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. I want you to know that Jesus took our suffering for us, physically and mentally, that means if you are depressed or have suicidal thoughts, God has not left you. One of the things the enemy loves to do is to attack people in their mind, that is why it is so important that we read God’s Word daily, so that way when thoughts come up that are not of God you can cast that thought down. The Bible talks about casting down vain imaginations, so we need to know God’s Word in order to do that, for instance if you have a thought that comes into your mind that says no one loves you, you can say God loves me and He will never leave nor forsake me. You also need to know who you are in Christ, because if you do not know who you are in Christ you will look for people or things to fill a void or to love you in only the way that God can. Prayer is also very powerful, it is so important that we pray even when we do not feel like it. Proverbs 18:21 Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat it’s fruit, this means that what comes out of our mouth, whether it be life or death has power, so you want to make sure that you speak good things over your life and over other people, our words have power! Put praise and worship music on, when you are going through hardships you probably won’t feel like doing this but I promise you when you begin to praise the Lord and thank Him it will set the atmosphere and it will also lift your spirits up, for you will not be focusing on your problems but you will be worshiping God. The enemy cannot stand it when you are praising, because their is power when you praise God especially when things are not looking good, it confuses the enemy. Fasting is another powerful weapon to use when you are going through suffering. I know you’re probably thinking here we go, but some demonic spirits or some things cannot be broken but by prayer and fasting, read Matthew 17:14-21. A man comes to Jesus because his son has a demon and the man says to Jesus, I brought my son to your disciples and they could not cast it out. Jesus tells the man bring the boy to me and He casts the demon out, the disciples come to Jesus privately and ask Master why couldn’t we cast it out, and Jesus replied this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting. Fasting is very powerful along with prayer. You want to make sure that you consult your doctor before going on a fast, some people have certain health restrictions that they have to follow a certain diet, so make sure to use wisdom when doing this and start out slow if you have never fasted. God knows what you can do and He will reward you. Always remember that you are not alone when you are going through hardships and it can also develop a certain level of faith that you didn’t know that you had. Trust God, He has a good plan for your life and always remember that Jesus is with you when you are going through things. You are never alone!

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