Waiting on Faith

Hello All,

Today I want to talk about what to do while we wait for the things our Faith has produced to come to pass. As we have discussed, as soon as we activate our Faith, it is done in the spiritual realm, but it can take some time to get from there to this natural realm. For me, the waiting is not my favorite part. I would rather have everything happen instantly. In my own life, I have seen God work miracles both ways. God’s timing isn’t always ours. The Bible says a thousand years is like a day to God. (2 Peter 3:8)

So how do we wait? This part is like running a marathon. I’ve been able to do this twice in my life. A little less than two years before my first marathon, I weighed 350 pounds. (I wrote a book about my spiritual journey to freedom from food. It will be out in a couple of months. If you would like more information, please like my page, @authortomoswald, and I will get it to you.)

When we start using our Faith, it’s really exciting at first. We are enthusiastic and know God is going to do what we asked. A marathon is much the same way. When you stand at the starting line, you are really excited and those first few miles go by in a blur. In a marathon, after that things just move a long for the next several miles. Our Faith can do the same thing. If God doesn’t do what He said He would do immediately, in the early stages we don’t think anything of it and things just keep going.

But then something can happen to try to stop our Faith. Maybe we are believing for finances and we get a notice that financially things got worse. Maybe someone we are praying for took a step away from God or maybe we got a bad medical report. This where we have a decision to make. We give in to fear and stop using or Faith in God or we can continue to believe what God said about our situation regardless of what it looks like. Much the same thing happens when you run a marathon. It’s called hitting the wall. This happens around the 20th mile or so. All the sudden, you feel tired. Your feet start to hurt. The fun and excitement you felt at the first mile is gone. Yet there are still six more miles to go. Even though you have run hundreds of miles leading up to that point, the last six of a marathon can be tough. You must decide to quit or finish it.

If you decide to keep going in a marathon, as you round the last corner the goal is there! You run the last few blocks with your eyes fixed firmly on the finish line. All those hours of training. All the sweat and all the hard work finally pay off and like Paul said, you finish your course. Using our Faith is much the same way. If we push through the hard part and keep our eyes on God’s word all the sudden the answer to prayer is there. All our Faith produced what we were asking God to do!!

If you are reading this for the first time and are thinking, “How do I get in on the God thing?” Have you invited Jesus into your life? He is the God of today. He’s not just a life insurance policy for after you die. If not, just pray this simple prayer. “Jesus, I ask you to come into my life. I believe that you are the Son of God and that you died for ALL my sin and that God raised you from the dead. I make you my Lord and Savior.” If you prayed that prayer, you are now part of the family. If you prayed that prayer, would please let me know by commenting on this and telling me?

That’s another Opinion of the Minion

Faith Continued

Today, I want to continue or discussion about Faith. Specifically, I would like to talk about what to do while we wait. As I have said before, God is not a genie in a bottle. When we use our Faith, many times He does not cause what we ask for to manifest in the natural world immediately. Faith starts a chain reaction in the spiritual realm that will cause things to come to pass in the natural but sometimes it takes a little while before we see it.

It’s during those times that we must be patient and trust God. The Bible says in Hebrews 6:12 that we are not to be sluggish but imitate those who through Faith and Patience inherit what God promised. For me, this is the hardest part of the Faith walk. I really would rather not wait for stuff. I would like to have it now but sometimes it doesn’t work that way. It’s also during this time of waiting that the devil will try to come and stop our Faith. Do you know how he does that? He uses fear.

While Faith is having confidence that God will do what He said He would, fear causes us to lose confidence in God. It stops the progress of whatever we are believing God to do from moving toward us. I can tell you that I must be very intentional when it comes to fear. Have you ever heard someone say, “Well, a little fear is a good thing?” That’s just not true. A little fear can kill you. It’s very dangerous.

I know that the Bible says, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,” but what that means is reverence for the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. I believe God says, “Fear not,” over 350 times in the Bible. He doesn’t want us to fear. Why? Because it stops Faith from moving what we pray for into our lives.

As I said, I must be very intentional when it comes to fear. Right now, we are on vacation in Vancouver, BC. A couple of days ago, we went up a mountain in a gondola. I don’t mind flying in an airplane, but I am not a big fan of the gondola ride. On the first ride, I could sense fear trying to get in. What would happen if one of those cables broke? But God said, he would bear me up and I would not dash my foot against a stone (Psalms 91). So, I decided right then and there that I was not going to be afraid of that ride. Guess what. That fear left and I had a great time.

So while we wait for our Faith to work, let’s remember to be on guard against fear. Fear is the devil’s way of telling us that our Faith won’t work. The Bible says that Satan is the father of lies. All he does is lie. Therefore, the opposite of what he says is truth. If he’s telling you that you won’t get well or that you won’t receive your miracle, don’t accept that trash. Keep standing in Faith!

That’s another Opinion of the Minion

A Caution About Faith

Hello everyone,

Before I discuss how to activate faith, I want to take this blog to say a few things about where we can use our faith and where we cannot. I believe some people who have heard the phrase “name it, claim it” or “blab it, grab it” have a misconception about how Faith works. As I may have said, God is not a genie in a lamp like from Aladdin that we get to command to give us wishes. God doesn’t work that way. Let me give you an example of how I tried that, and it didn’t work.

When I was married to my first wife, I was a financial disaster. I would buy things on credit that we didn’t need and couldn’t afford but I was so selfish, if I wanted it, I tried to get it. Back then we wrote checks for the grocery store, etc. One of the things I did (because I was addicted to food and a horrible money manager) was write a check for $35 and cash it. When I wrote the check, there was not enough money in the account to cover it but I hoped that I could deposit my paycheck before the check I wrote tried to clear the bank.

Why did I write the check you ask? I would love to tell you that it was for medicine or something else that we really needed but sadly that was not the case. It was because I didn’t want to eat at home. I wanted to go out to eat. So, we would pay $25 for the meal. Then the check would clear the back before I could deposit it so I would owe the bank $25 for the bounced check and then I would owe the restaurant $25 for the bounced check. So, I wound up paying $75 for a $25 meal that I didn’t need. I was spending money wrongly and selfishly.

During this time, I was a tither and I happened to be going to law school at night. One day on my way to school I got a brilliant idea. Because I was a tither and I had Faith that I could ask God for things and He would give them to me, I was going to buy a lottery ticket and win the lottery! After all, I could “name it, and claim it.” As I drove to school that night, I got more and more excited. I just knew my faith was going to make me rich. It was difficult to concentrate and the closer to the end of class we came, the more excited I got. Finally, class was over! I jumped in the car and raced home to check the results. I was already planning how I would spend the money and what we would do. When I got home, I didn’t get one number right. My Faith didn’t produce the winning number.

Why? Well that’s a different post but let’s just say that it wasn’t God’s will for me to get out of my financial problem that way. First, I wasn’t trusting God. Second, because I was being selfish and blowing money all the time, God could not trust me with that money. Also, based on what I was doing, even if I had won, I would have lost it all.

Now it was certainly God’s will to get me out of debt, but He had to work on me. Today, God has blessed us financially in a way I could not even understand back then but I am a little more grown up around money and He can trust me with it. He is showing me ways to do things now that are so much better than the lottery.

So, what is the takeaway? In my next post, I will discuss how to activate Faith but as we prepare to activate our Faith, we must understand that Faith must be based on God’s Word, it’s not just a wish list machine.

If you are reading this for the first time and are thinking, “How do I get in on the God thing?” Have you invited Jesus into your life? He is the God of today. He’s not just a life insurance policy for after you die. If not, just pray this simple prayer. “Jesus, I ask you to come into my life. I believe that you are the Son of God and that you died for ALL my sin and that God raised you from the dead. I make you my Lord and Savior.” If you prayed that prayer, you are now part of the family. If you prayed that prayer, would please let me know by commenting on this and telling me?

That’s another Opinion of the Minion

How to Strengthen Your Faith

Today I want to discuss how to get/strengthen you Faith. This part is not very hard spiritually, but it will take time. I like to think of Faith like a muscle. Muscles are something that we have from birth. When we are born, they are not very big. A newborn baby can’t bench press 300 pounds when he is 2 weeks old right? Yet, he has all the muscles he would need to someday do just that.

Our Faith is the same way. When we are born again, we become like little children in the Kingdom of God. In Romans 12:3, the Bible says, God has given us a measure or the measure of faith. In another place, Jesus talks about Faith that can move mountains. However, most of us don’t have mountain moving faith the day we are born again even though we have some Faith then. Think about this, we had to have Faith that Jesus is the son of God, that He died on the cross and rose again to be saved. So, we know we have Faith. Yet many times our Faith isn’t as strong as we need it to be. In my life, I have seen my Faith produce amazing results. For instance, in my life, I got a real revelation of God’s word on healing from disease according to 1 Peter 2:24. Because of that, I haven’t been sick in years. I have had the devil attack my body but my Faith in that revelation has kept me well. However, I have experienced ringing in my ears for years as well and I believe that Jesus paid for my healing 2000 years ago. Why have I not received my healing? That’s a question for a different post.

I have seen God do miraculous things in my finances because I believe in tithing and have done it for 25 years. I’m not a preacher and I haven’t asked anyone for money since I was in my mid 20s (I’m 48 now) asking my parents for help. Why? Because my faith is developed in that area. Some people say tithing doesn’t work and it’s all a scam for churches to get money. Since I’m not a pastor or a preacher, I don’t know. I can tell you this. Tithing works for me! I don’t have time to tell you all the blessings I have received from the Lord. That’s may be a different blog.

So how do we go from being an infant to being able to lift 300 pounds? That’s pretty simple but it can take some time. The answer is we allow our muscles to grow. We exercise them and we feed them lots of protein so they will develop to a point where we can lift that much weight. Faith is no different. We have to feed our Faith and exercise our Faith until it grows to the point where we can move mountains. How? The way to feed/develop Faith is to put the Word in us. The Bible says that Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God Romans 10:17. How do we hear the Word? We read it and put it in our sprit through our eyes and we listen to the Word preached and put it in our spirit through our ears. That’s why it’s good to go to church. I can’t say that enough. I am not saying this brag, but I read my Bible everyday and have for many years. Why? Because I need to strengthen my spiritual muscles and I want to know more about my Father and Big Brother, the Lord and Jesus.

After that, we exercise the Faith we have. We don’t go from lifting 5 pounds to 300 pounds in one day. We do it by lifting 5 pounds then 10, then 15, then 20 and keep going up until we get to 300 pounds. It’s the same way in our spiritual life. Let me help someone with this. If you get sick, go to see a doctor. It doesn’t mean you aren’t spiritual or that you are not loved by God. It may be that your Faith muscle in that area isn’t developed enough yet. Don’t worry about it. God will still be with you. At the same time, use your Faith to believe that God will heal you. As we do that, our faith begins to grow. I heard teachings on healing for many, many years and got sick many times while I was listening to and reading about healing and I went to see a doctor. What was happening? My faith was building until one day I was sitting in a movie theater watching The Passion of the Christ. When I saw Jesus hit with the cat of nine tails and a piece of flesh came off His back, the scripture in 1 Peter 2:24 (By His stripes you are healed) came to my mind and before I had a chance to think about it, I said out loud – “I will never be sick another day in my life!” And I haven’t! Now I continue to feed my Faith in that area as I work on other areas where my Faith isn’t as strong as this area.

Let me end with this. If you don’t have this Faith in your life, the first step is to be born again spiritually. To do that, all you have to do is say, “Jesus, come into my life. I make you my Lord and Savior.” If you pray that simple prayer, Jesus will come into your life and you can start this wonderful Faith journey with all your new brothers and sisters. If you prayed that prayer, would you please let me know. I would love to celebrate with you!

That’s Another Opinion of the Minion

What do We Use Our Faith On?

OK now that we know we are supposed to use our faith in God as a tool, what do we use our faith on? Think of it this way. Now that we have a screwdriver, what screws do we turn with it? The answer to this question is we use our faith on anything God says we can use it on. So how do we know if we can or we can’t? We look to the Word of God (the Bible) to tell us what we can do. I am not suggesting that our Faith in God is some sort of multiple wish machine where we can get anything we want because that’s not true.

For example, God said, “You shall not steal.” So, if I try to use my Faith to rob a bank, it won’t work. Why? It’s against God’s will. God doesn’t want us to rob a bank. He want’s us to use our Faith to believe that He will provide for us. There is a long list of things we can use our Faith to bring from God’s spiritual realm into this natural one. For example:

We can believe God for money. Phil 4:19 – “My God shall supply all my needs according to His riches in Glory by Christ Jesus.” Malachi 3:10 – “Bring all the tithes into the storehouse . . . and I will open up the windows of Heaven and pour you out such a blessing that you will not have room enough to receive it.” Let me stop here and say, money is not evil. The Bible says, “The LOVE of money is the root of all evil.” 1Tim 6:10. You can love money and not have any. So, don’t let the devil trick you into believing that God doesn’t want you to have money. God just doesn’t want money to have you. If you don’t have money, you can’t bless others with it. Would you like to build an orphanage in Africa? You can’t do it without money.

We can believe God for healing. “By Jesus stripes we ARE healed.” 1 Peter 2:24. “By Jesus wounds we are healed.” Isaiah 53:5. Let that settle in your mind forever. It is God’s will for us to be healed. We should never ever pray, “Lord, if it’s your will please heal Johnny.” We know, it is God’s will to heal Johnny. Now someone might ask, “Well, I prayed for Johnny and he didn’t get healed. Why did that happen?” I can’t answer that here because there is a lot that goes into it. But know this, if Johnny doesn’t get healed it is not because God did not want him healed.

We can believe God for peace. Isaiah 53:5 “The chastisement of our peace was upon Him (Jesus).”

Let me just say this about what we can use our Faith to produce. Last week, during my quiet time with the Lord, I heard Him say basically, “Son, you are the only limitation on what I can do. I can do anything you can believe Me to do.”

Anything in the Word of God (the Bible) that God says we can have, we can use our Faith to produce it.

I can already hear someone saying, “Now that I know what Faith is, why I have it and where to use it, how do I use it?” I will discuss this in the next blog.

For now, that’s another Opinion of the Minion.

Why do We Have Faith

Hello everyone,

In my last blog, we discussed what faith is. Now I would like to talk to you about why we have faith. If God gave us this tool, He must have done it for a reason. If you gave me a screwdriver, it would make sense that I use it on a screw. It’s the same way with our faith. Faith in God is a tool that God wants us to use to bring the things He has for us from the spiritual world into our natural world.

While this seems simple, I can’t tell you how many times I have heard, “Well we are just waiting on God and hoping He will do something.” Then when we don’t see what we were hoping for we either get mad at God or we say something like, ”Well I guess it wasn’t the Lord’s will to heal me. He must have put this sickness on me to teach me something or to bring Him glory.” There are a couple of things wrong with that statement. First of all, God doesn’t have sickness to give anyone. The Bible says that when Jesus touched people they were healed. Where would He get sickness anyway? Is there any sickness in Heaven? The answer is no. The Bible also says that Satan came to steal, kill and destroy. God is a good Father. He is not going to put sickness on us to teach us something.

Have you ever wondered why some people receive a blessing and some don’t? Some might respond to that by saying, “Well, you just never know what God is going to do.” Yes we do. He told us what He would do in His Word. God is also not a gamble. His Word is sure. It works every time.

How does this relate to using Faith as a tool? Good question. When the devil attacks us, God is waiting on us to use our Faith in Him to stop that attack. When we don’t have enough money, God is waiting on us to use our Faith in Malachi 3:10 to believe that when we tithe, He will pour out such a blessing that there is not room enough to receive it. That’s why He gave us Faith. There are many times in the New Testament when Jesus told someone, “Go your way. YOUR faith has made you whole.” Notice, it wasn’t Jesus faith, it was the person asking for healing’s faith.

Think of it this way. If we don’t use our Faith, it’s like we are starving and sitting at a table with our favorite meal on it. Instead of picking up something to eat and extinguishing the hunger in our body, we stand around and pray, “Lord, please feed me. Lord, I’m so hungry. Lord, I’m hungry but I know if it’s your will for me to starve, I’m starving for your glory.” The whole time, the Lord is saying – “EAT. I’ve put the food right in front of you. All you have to do is use your hand to pick it up and eat it.” That’s what we do with our Faith many times. God has given us this wonderful gift and we don’t use it.

That’s something the Devil doesn’t want us to know. He wants us to sit around questioning God and wondering why bad stuff is happening to us. Because he knows that if we ever discover how to use our Faith in God, there is nothing the devil can do to stop us.

That’s another Opinion of the Minion

Faith

Hello Everyone,

I have started posting again but mostly I do it directly on Facebook.  I want to put these here in case you don't have a Facebook.

Today let’s start talking about faith. I really like all the definitions that you posted. Simply put, faith is trusting that God will do what He said He would do. But it’s a little more than that. Would I would like to discuss over the next few blogs is - What is faith, how do I get faith, and lastly, how do I use faith? Ultimately, faith is something we use like a tool. It’s just like a mechanic uses a wrench. But I’m getting a little ahead of myself.

What is faith? The Bible says in Hebrews 11:1 that faith is a substance. Faith is our link between the spiritual world and this physical world. WE are supposed to use our faith to bring things from the spiritual realm into the natural realm. I know that can sound a little spooky but it’s not. Think of it this way. If you are reading this, you probably believe that I exist because I am writing the blog, right? How can you be sure that I exist? Can you see me? Even if you are one of my close friends, you still must believe that I am writing this. As a matter of fact, I am sitting at my desk in my office and no one is watching me write this.

And yet, many people believe that I wrote this blog. It’s no different with God. I didn’t see people write the Bible. That doesn’t bother me though because I believe God inspired them to write what they wrote. I have faith that God could cause His word to be put in a book. If He can make the whole universe, He can certainly cause people to write His book correctly.

As I said, faith is what we use to bring stuff from the realm where God lives into this one. We are to use it just like God did. When He said, “Light be,” then light moved from the spiritual realm into the physical realm. Think of it this way, if I told you that I was going to send you $100 if you gave me your bank account number, would you do it? You would if you had faith that I was going to do what I said I would. Even though you can’t see me, you might have faith that I would send you $100. If that happened, you would use your faith in my word to give me an account number. That would allow me to send you $100 into your bank account. Your actions with your faith would cause something to move from a world you cannot see (my office) to a world you can see (your bank account). Ultimately, that is exactly what we are supposed to do with our faith in God. That’s why the word says, “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things you can’t see.”

I believe that here is where many Christians stop. They believe that God is God, but they don’t use the faith that He gave them. We are supposed to use OUR faith to cause things to happen in this natural world just like the Lord did when He created the universe.

That’s Another Opinion of the Minion