Walk in Faith Today!

All things are possible to him who believes; All things are possible with God; This is the victory that overcomes the world-our faith; Above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one; Fight the good fight of faith; But without faith it is impossible to please Him; The just shall live by faith; As you have believed, so let it be to you; Daughter, your faith has made you well; Be it unto you according to your faith.

The above references point to the importance of faith. And the key to faith is believing that right now (not some time in the future) I receive what the Father has promised me in the Word. Faith believes, says, and acts as though God’s Word is true right now! Hope is continually looking for the manifestation of an answer, while faith stands and acts as though the answer has come. So if I’m looking for a manifestation to prove an answer, then I’m still in hope and not faith, and I will not receive what God promised!

 

When you’re actually standing in real Bible faith, there is an inward excitement. That’s because you know that the Father has honored His Word to you, not because of any physical or circumstantial change, but simply because He said it! Joy is a byproduct of faith. Faith does not have the foreboding, gut wrenching thought that says what if it doesn’t work? The only possibility that faith sees is the answer! When thoughts of doubt come, faith pushes them away and refuses to speak them. And in return faith speaks out loud what it believes to counteract the thought of doubt.

Faith calls those things that be not as though they were. Faith looks beyond the seen and felt, and speaks what it believes. And faith also acts what it believes. In Romans 4, Abraham looked beyond his 100 year old body and beyond his wife’s 90 year old body. He looked beyond his present circumstance and chose to keep his attention fixed on God’s promise to him.

 

He remained in faith in spite of the looming circumstances by praising God for honoring His Word. His praise life moved his faith and kept him from looking at the wrong thing. He just kept looking at God’s Word to him and praising Him for doing what He said!

Act your faith today. Look beyond the present circumstance. Imitate the faith of Abraham and praise God for honoring His Word, even when nothing seems to be changing. Faith works! God honors His Word when really believed. All things are possible to you today. Don’t quit. Choose to look beyond and believe you receive!

How to Keep Yourself Encouraged When Life is Tough

And David was greatly distressed; for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters: but David encouraged himself in the Lord his God (1 Samuel 30:6).

 

David and his men came home from a battle to find their wives and children missing, and their city burned. His men blamed him for what happened and wanted to stone him. Even his friends and best buddies turned against him. But David found a way to keep himself strong. He encouraged himself in the Lord!

When hardship is pressing, and the test is of long duration, you must find a way to keep yourself encouraged and not lose strength. I’ve used David’s example many times when pressed. I’ve learned to encourage myself. And here’s how.

 

I forced myself to praise God, not because I feel like it, but because I know that praise brings the manifestation of God’s power into my situation. Israel won battles without lifting a sword by putting the praise team on the front line! Praise brings God’s presence, where there is fullness of joy. Joy produces strength.

 

One other thing I do is to remind myself of times in my past when the Lord has answered prayer and delivered me from a difficult situation.

Many years ago I endured a severe test while pioneering the church in a small city in South Carolina. Nothing was going my way. I was challenged from all sides. To deal with the pressure, I would take long walks alone and praise God for honoring His Word. Then I would remind myself of all the times that the Lord has answered prayer and had helped me in my past. I would start with the beginning of my walk with God and go from their, sometimes speaking aloud of the Lord’s mercy that had manifested in my life time after time.

 

By the time I was finished, time after time I found new zeal and fresh strength. The Lord did not bring me this far to let me down now! This exercise enabled me to press through the hard place to victory.

Read about how David encouraged himself in Psalm 42, and go and encourage yourself in the Lord today!

Psalm 42 – New Living Translation

As the deer longs for streams of water, so I long for you, O God. (2) I thirst for God, the living God. When can I go and stand before him? (3) Day and night I have only tears for food, while my enemies continually taunt me, saying, "Where is this God of yours?" (4) My heart is breaking as I remember how it used to be: I walked among the crowds of worshipers, leading a great procession to the house of God, singing for joy and giving thanks amid the sound of a great celebration! (5) Why am I discouraged? Why is my heart so sad? I will put my hope in God! I will praise him again— my Savior and (6) my God! Now I am deeply discouraged, but I will remember you— even from distant Mount Hermon, the source of the Jordan, from the land of Mount Mizar. (7) I hear the tumult of the raging seas as your waves and surging tides sweep over me. (8) But each day the Lord pours his unfailing love upon me, and through each night I sing his songs, praying to God who gives me life. (9) "O God my rock," I cry, "Why have you forgotten me? Why must I wander around in grief, oppressed by my enemies?" (10) Their taunts break my bones. They scoff, "Where is this God of yours?" (11) Why am I discouraged? Why is my heart so sad? I will put my hope in God! I will praise him again— my Savior and my God!

 

First Love

"But I have this complaint against you. You don't love me or each other as you did at first! (Revelation 2:4)

  

Do I love Him now as much as I did when I was first born again and Spirit-Filled? Is His Word as exciting to me as it was when I first met Him?

  

First love is a condition of the heart, and must be guarded against the erosions of busyness and deadlines that must be met. Dietrich Bonheoffer said, be aware of the barrenness of a busy life. Life with Jesus will always be first of all a heart contact, and that means taking time to know Him.

That’s not performance, just like romance is not performance. Romance is a heart thing between two people. They want to be with each other. They want the companionship. They crave intimacy with the one they love.

There is a pure romance of the heart that each believer should foster with Jesus.  Forced time alone, clock watching during prayer, hurriedly reading the Word because of the deadlines of life can quench first love. Heart relationship takes time, lots of time. Listening, gazing, and absorbing the other person’s thoughts and feelings are keys to romance.

In Philippians 3 Paul mentioned that he counted all things as mere refuse to the goal of being intimate with Jesus. His reputation, his education, his social standing, his expertise created by his excellent education, all of these meant nothing in the light of knowing Jesus and the Father intimately. We must ask ourselves, do I feel this way? Is anything in my life more important than knowing Jesus and having a heart intimacy with Him through prayer and the Word?

It’s a good thing to examine ourselves. As the Greek philosopher said centuries ago, an un-examined life is not worth living.Take some time today to examine life priorities. Make sure that first love is still there with Jesus and the Father. Eternity rewards heartfelt actions.

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The Word Will Produce Stability in Your Life

In a world of increasing instability, we have a rock upon which to stand! Jesus said that practicing the Word is like building your house on rock instead of shifting sand. When difficulties come, you’ll be unmoved!

The more Word you practice, the stronger the foundation of your life will be. All weakness is the results of our leaving the Word in some way. The strength, the life, the wisdom, the rest, the grace, and the power of the Word of God will sustain you in life’s most arduous circumstances.

I had been a believer for just a few years when a spiritual leader rocked my world. He said some things to me in a private meeting that were untrue but very hurtful. The impact on my life was severe. I was only 20 years old, and his words affected my mental and emotional equilibrium.

Day after day his hurtful words ravaged my mind. The enemy used them to bring great condemnation and discouragement. I felt hopeless, alone, and abandoned.

But I was not without help. I decided to ignore my feelings and these aberrant thoughts that ceaselessly attacked my mind. I would spend the entire day forcing a scripture to revolve over and over in my mind. I chose to believe God’s Word over man’s Word. And after a period of time, I regained my mental and emotional balance, and found peace again.

This experience taught me the power of the Word in my life, and how the Word can bring stability. Since then, I have given the Word room in my thoughts and in my life every day. And the stability of the Word has rooted itself into who I am and what I do.

Regardless of how tough the circumstance may be that you’re facing, choose to act on God’s Word. Say it aloud. Let it roll over and over in your mind. Refuse to let your emotions rule you. The Father will provided you with needed wisdom, and the Word will produce freedom and liberty. You’ll come through the hard place. And you’ll know that God’s Word produces results.

Give room in your thought life today for the Word to dwell in you richly, and you’ll find the Father’s stability and strength for every situation!

Renew Your Spiritual Strength Every Day

Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God (Matthew 4:4).

Spiritual strength dissipates just like our physical strength. When you exert yourself physically, you tire and must rest and replenish your energy reserves. If you don’t, your body will force you to rest. You’ll faint!

 

Spiritual energy is expended in a similar way.  It takes spiritual energy to live in a fallen world, where the world (the mindset around you that opposes God and His kingdom), the flesh, and the devil must be resisted and kept at bay. And you get tired spiritually just by living for God each day. It takes energy! Be aware that one of Satan’s tactics is to wear out the saints (Daniel 7:25)!

 

You also expend spiritual energy when you minister to others. Witnessing to an unbeliever during a break at work, teaching a Bible study, visiting the sick in a hospital, ministering in a nursing home, even praying in intercession takes spiritual energy. And those energy reserves must be restored!

 

The Word is spiritual food. It feeds the spirit in a similar way that natural food nourishes our bodies. After a season of ministry and of just living in the world, we must take time to step aside with the Father and partake of His spiritual source of life and health. If we don’t, then we’ll become weak spiritually and may falter when the pressure of the world or the flesh come against us.

 

Praying in other tongues is another way to strengthen the spiritual nature. When we pray in tongues we edify or build ourselves up spiritually, much like an alternator in your car engine builds up your car’s battery for its next use. Jude tells us to build ourselves up on our most holy faith by praying in the Holy Ghost! Isaiah said that praying in tongues brings a rest and a refreshing! Take advantage of what God has given you!

   

Build yourself up from the inside out today by feeding on the Word during your break or lunch, and by praying in the spirit quietly throughout the day. You’ll find God’s power overwhelming your weakness, or as Paul said it, your mortality will be swallowed up by God’s life!

How To Keep Anger Under Control

Be angry, and do not sin: do not let the sun go down on your wrath (Ephesians 4:26).

    

When I was a teenager I would get angry and go into a rage. I would scream and kick. I remember one time I was working on my car and having difficulty. I beat the side of my car and slammed my fists repeatedly on the ground in anger. I knew I was out of control.

 

After I was born again and Spirit-filled anger sought to work its way back into my life. I saw quickly that if I didn’t get it under control, I would end up doing something that would hurt my relationships and my employment. So I researched the subject of anger, and implemented some simple principles to keep myself out of trouble. Here is what I discovered.

All of us have to learn to deal properly with anger. Anger in itself is not sinful. It’s the motive behind it and the actions that it produces that make anger sinful and harmful.

If you can be angry and not sin, then anger must at times be an appropriate emotion. A person who is never angry has some serious emotions and mental issues to deal with. Even God is angry with the wicked every day (Psalm 7:11). Jesus became angry when He saw His Father’s house being defamed by the crooks and thieves doing business in the name of the Jewish religion. He overturned their money tables and turned the animals loose. He drove the hypocrites out in blazing anger! But Jesus never sinned! This episode of anger was not sinful.

 

Here’s the bottom line. Anger that is rooted in selfishness is sinful anger. Anger that is motivated by a desire to honor and please God and see fairness and right rule is not sinful anger. Anger at injustice and wrong living are appropriate, but anger must always be controlled.

Notice what the Word says about anger. An angry man stirs up strife, and a furious man abounds in transgression (Proverbs 29:22). He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city (Proverbs 16:32). A wise man restrains his anger and overlooks insults. This is to his credit (Proverbs 19:11- Living Bible). Do not hasten in your spirit to be angry, for anger rests in the bosom of fools (Ecclesiastes 7:9).

 

Ask the Father to help you control anger. Make a decision not to confront or speak about a difficult situation until your anger is under control. I usually separate myself from the situation that brought anger and find a place to be alone. Then I ask the Lord to help me understand what’s going on. And I pray in the spirit. But I will not confront until I have love, joy, and peace within me. Sometimes I find that I must delay confrontation for hours and sometimes a few days until I know I have anger in check. Great harm results from uncontrolled anger.  

Above all, meditate on God’s Word about anger. Go to a concordance and find the scriptures that relate to anger and meditate on them daily. The Holy Spirit will then empower the Word and enable you to control your responses to difficulties. Make a decision to walk in peace, and when you lose it, get alone and sort out what happened. Ask the Father to help and cast the care of the situation on Him. Never speak when overly angry. Remember, a soft answer turns away wrath.

Keep Your Attitude Right When Things Are Tough!

On every side I am ever hard pressed, but never hemmed in; always perplexed, but never to the point of despair, always being persecuted, but never deserted, always getting a knockdown, but never a knockout! (2 Corinthians 4:8 – Williams)

Tough times are a result of us living in a fallen world. None of us are immune.  Jesus told to be of good cheer when we face pressure.

  

James tells us to count it pure joy when we fall into all kinds of tests and trials. Our attitude when going through a hard place determines how the Lord is able to minister to us during the specific test. If I gripe and complain, I don’t receive all that the Father has for me.

  

If I choose to walk in joy, thanking God in the middle of the problem, I am then allowing the very power of God to invade the situation.

Some of the deepest works of the Word into my life have been during my most challenging days. When I came to the end of myself, I found Jesus and the Father standing there as a rock, ready to embrace me in my weakness and lift me into another level of obedience and faith.

Don’t despise the hard place. Thank God while going through it. I didn’t say thank Him for it, but to thank Him in it. Thank God in everything, no matter what the circumstance may be, be thankful and give thanks: For this is the will of God for you who are in Christ Jesus, the revealer and mediator of that will (1 Thessalonians 5:18 – Amplified).

A pearl is the result of an irritation in the oyster. Diamonds are a result of tremendous pressure deep within the earth. Large muscles result from regular and repeated resistance. Spiritual maturity often results from great struggle. Smith Wigglesworth said great victories come out of great battles.

Kenneth Hagin said hard places are God’s method of taking you into deeper places in Him.  Don’t forget that Jesus who is our example, was led by the Sprit into a hard place (the wilderness) to be tempted by the devil.

  

The Father sees the end from the beginning. Keep your focus on the written Word and on Jesus the living Word of God. Set your gaze on the Son of God by looking at the perfect law of liberty. Keep walking with God and believing the Word in the face of pressure and adversity. On the other side of the test you’ll be more mature, and the glory of God will shine brighter in your life!

  

Moreover [let us also be full of joy now!] let us exult and triumph in our troubles and rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that pressure and affliction and hardship produce patient and unswerving endurance. And endurance (fortitude) develops maturity of character (approved faith and tried integrity). And character [of this sort] produces [the habit of] joyful and confident hope of eternal salvation (Romans 5:3-4 – Amplified).