What is Faith

Hello Everyone,

    Today I want to talk about how to define faith.  Sometimes Christians say that they are people of faith.  What they typically mean is that they believe in Jesus as their Lord and Savior.  That's a great place to start but it's really only a start.  Now when I talk with the Lord about words, I want a working definition of the word because I realized that there are many words that Christians use and say with no true understanding of what the word actually means.  I think "faith" can be one of those.

    I have heard people say, and I have been one of them, that they have faith but what do they really mean?

   

    Hear is the definition of faith the Lord gave me.  Faith is believing that God will do what He said He would do.  God does this every time we let him.  Now many times people pray for something but they pray in hope not in faith.  Those are two different things and prayers in hope, not faith, won't work.  In fact in Mark 6:58 and Matthew 13:58 it says that Jesus could do no mighty works because of their unbelief (lack of faith).

    So let me show you the difference.  If I go ask a friend of mine to borrow his car, when I ask (or pray) I am doing it in hope.  I don't know what he will say but I sure hope he let's me borrow his car.  

    So think about this situation.  I want to borrow a friend's car so I call him on Saturday and ask him if I can use the car on Sunday.  He says, "Sure.  Come get the keys from me on Sunday morning and you can borrow the car."  So when Sunday morning comes, I go to him and ask for the keys.  But when I ask, because he is a man of his word, I know he will give me the keys to the car because he told me that I could borrow it on Saturday.  

    Do you see the difference between faith and hope?

    Well you might ask what this has to do with God and the Bible.  It's exactly the same thing.  I have heard many people ask for prayer about something without knowing what God's Word says about their prayer request.  They are asking in hope, not faith, because they don't know what God said He would do.  But on the other hand, when someone goes to God and knows what He already said in His word about a situation, then they can ask in Faith fully expecting God to do what He said He would.

    So for example if you need a financial miracle, you can go before the Lord and say, "Lord You said in Philippians 4:19 that You would supply all my needs according to Your riches in Christ Jesus.  Now you know I need the electric bill paid and I am asking You now to pay the electric bill."  When you do, if you believe that He will, then thank Him for paying it.  

    In the case of me borrowing a car from my friend, when I called on Saturday, I would tell him thank you when I got off the phone before I ever saw the keys.  We should do the same with God because it's good to be thankful but also because we believe He will do what He said!

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The Apple Seed

 Today I want to encourage you to hold fast to the dreams that God has put in your heart.  Sometimes we have to continue to work a while before we see results.  I bet there are some of you who read my blog that are saying to yourselves, "I want to quit.  I've been working toward a goal for quite a while now and it seems like I will never get there.  I'm not even seeing results or at least not the results that I want to see." 

Well I can tell you I have been there before and I even face that now (well sort of).  There are a couple of areas in my life where I truly believe I know what the end result looks like.  But right now it doesn't exactly look that way.

Do you know what happens when you plant an apple tree seed?  If you water it properly and take care of the soil sooner or later it will sprout up an apple tree.  After a while the apple tree will produce apples.  But guess what.  The apple tree doesn't start producing apples the day after you plant the seed.  As a matter of fact, if you were to dig up the seed and look at it right after you planted it there would be nothing different about it.  It would just look like a dirty seed. 

See that seed needs to go through some days where there is no sunlight.  It goes through days that are rainy and it goes through days where people are putting fertilizer (that is manure) on top of it and all around it.  It needs to go through some days where there is nothing but darkness and pressure all around it.  If you left it above the ground where it was always bright and there was no pressure, it would wither up and die.  It would turn to dust.  But if you take away the sunlight, throw in some pressure, manure and plenty of rainy days the next thing you know that apple seed will begin to multiply and push it's way through the dirt to the surface.  It takes the pressure of the soil and the manure and takes nutrients from them.  It takes those rainy days and uses the water to grow.

I believe we are all in places where there is pressure in our lives.  For me personally, I know of a couple of places where I feel pressure.  If I look with my natural eyes, I don't see much movement or much way of getting through the dirt to the sunlight.  I've seen plenty of rainy days lately.  But I know what those rainy days mean.  Those rainy, pressure filled days where I see know light at the end of the tunnel mean that I am one step closer to getting above the ground and bearing fruit.  I'm one step closer to the success that I want and to the goal that I set.

So let me encourage you in this.  If you are facing what seems like an impossible situation right now.  If you are trusting God and putting your faith to work but you aren't seeing the results you want, don't quit.  All the bad stuff that is being thrown at your dream is a sure sign that your sprout is about to push through the surface!  You may only be one step from getting the result you wanted.  So don't stop trusting God to do what He said He would.  This could be your last day in the pressure!

It's happened again.  I've blogged myself happy. 

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Prayers that Work

 

Hello everyone,

 

Today I want to talk to you about prayer. I once heard a man in a gathering say, “Pray your best prayer.” It sounded like I was supposed to come up with something really cool to pray and pray it. But that doesn’t work. Have you ever prayed a prayer and it wasn’t answered? I know I have. I heard someone else say that God’s answer to prayer is always yes, no, or not now. But that’s not true either. The Bible says that if we ask in Jesus’ name, and ask according to the will of God, He will do it.  How do we know if we are asking in the will of God, we find out what He says about something in His Word, the Bible. 

 

For example, if someone came up and said to you, “I am believing God, and praying that He will make that girl marry me,” you would think he’s crazy. It’s simply a prayer that God cannot answer because it would be manipulating that girl to do something. God is not a manipulator. That girl might ultimately be the person that the boy marries, but it wouldn’t be because God answered his prayer around that. Along the same lines, I don’t think we can ask God to save someone. But I believe if anyone sees God and knows who He is, they will want to be saved. The Bible says in Corinthians that the devil blind the eyes of unbelievers so that they can’t see God. We have been given authority over the devil, and I believe scripturally that we can pray, like it says in Corinthians, that God removes the blinders off of someone’s  eyes so they can see God. That’s a prayer that He can answer. 

 

So let me ask you this, what are you praying? Is what you’re praying in line with the Word? If it is, believe that you receive it, and never back down from that. If it’s not or you don’t know if it is, get God to show you how you’re supposed to pray and pray prayers that work.

If you are reading this and you don’t know Jesus, I would like to take this opportunity to introduce you to my friend Jesus. Would you like a personal relationship with Him? All you have to do is pray this simple prayer. Say, “Jesus, come into my life. I make you my Lord and Savior.” If you prayed that prayer, I believe you got born into the family of Christ. The Bible says that Jesus will always be with you. He wants a relationship with you.

 

If you prayed, would you please leave a comment saying, “I prayed”. We would love to know you did.

 

Also, if you would like to learn more about who you are and how God really sees you, please click the link below. We would love to send you study material absolutely free.

 

http://eepurl.com/gLci8D

 

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Is God in Control?

Hello everyone, I recently had someone tell me that they did not understand why bad things happened. They were speaking about something that happened in their life personally that affected our family when they made the comment. I heard this person say, “Well God is in control, why didn’t He stop that?”

 

I want to address that today. For the most part, God is not in control in our world today.  There is going to come a time when Jesus returns and then God will be in complete control.  But right now, we are in control of what we allow and what we don’t in our lives.

 

Think about it.  If God is in control, He is really bad at running the world.  As a matter of fact, He isn’t very good at just running the city where I live.  Everyday, people die here from murder.  People steal and do other bad things.  Our country is even worse because of all the bad things that happen.  There are wars that kill people.  If I was God and I was running the world, I wouldn’t want to put my name on it.

 

God can only operate where we allow Him to do so.  God is not going to just come into your life and make everything OK. The Bible says the God works all things for good but that doesn’t mean we sit back and do nothing and “poof” God makes it all better. How many people reading this are struggling?  God can take control of things were we let him. But he can’t control things that we don’t. 

 

The reason bad things happen on this earth, is because there is a real devil that still has control of part of this earth. And he does bad things to people all the time. God allows this because he is not in control of all the earth. He owns it but he’s not in control of all of it. I have complete ownership of a company. But I don’t control everything that goes on in our company.  I need to add this – God doesn’t make anyone sick.  1 Peter 2:24 says that by Jesus stripes we were healed.  The devil puts sickness and disease on people – not God!

 

I know this is going to sound strong, but the truth is it’s our job to take the weapons that God has given us and drive the devil out of our life. The devil is not going anywhere on his own. We have to drive him out using God’s power.

If you are reading this and you don’t know Jesus, I would like to take this opportunity to introduce you to my friend Jesus. Would you like a personal relationship with Him? All you have to do is pray this simple prayer. Say, “Jesus, come into my life. I make you my Lord and Savior.” If you prayed that prayer, I believe you got born into the family of Christ. The Bible says that Jesus will always be with you. He wants a relationship with you.

If you prayed, would you please leave a comment saying, “I prayed”. We would love to know you did.

 

Also, if you would like to learn more about who you are and how God really sees you, please click the link below. We would love to send you study material absolutely free.

 

http://eepurl.com/gLci8D

 

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Anatomy of a Miracle

Today I want to talk about miracles. Currently I am spending time studying prayer. There are times when we pray for a miracle so what is it? A miracle is simply something happening that is good that we don’t understand. If you come from a Christian faith background, you might think that we should expect miracles when we pray. If you pray for God to heal your physical body, and don’t see an immediate healing, you may think that you didn’t get your healing because it didn’t happen instantly. In other words, you were looking for a miracle. You wanted to see something supernatural. Just because you didn’t see a supernatural healing doesn’t mean that you did not receive your healing. Not every miracle in Jesus’ ministry happened instantly.

For instance, look at what happened to the fig tree in Mark 11. Jesus spoke to the fig tree and walked away. When he walked off, there was nothing about the outside appearance of that fig tree that would say anything had happened but the next morning, it was dried up from the root. Jesus didn’t say to himself when he walked off, “Oh well, I guess that didn’t work.” To say something like that would have countered his faith with unbelief and stopped the process. It’s very important that we don’t stop our miracle from happening by saying something or doing something that is not in line with what we are asking God to do.

Here's another thought. We take drugs from the doctor today that help our body heal. We use all kinds of modern medicine for this purpose. If we went back in time 1000 years and told someone who was sick that if they swallowed this pill, their body would recover, what they call it? They would say it was a miracle because it gave them something good and they didn’t know how it happened. We wouldn’t call it a miracle, we would call it an antibiotic. But many times we don’t have to wait for the miraculous to be healed. In fact, that can be very dangerous. If you are sick, go see a doctor and do what they prescribe. It doesn’t make you less spiritual if it doesn’t happen miraculously.

If you are reading this and you don’t know Jesus, I would like to take this opportunity to introduce you to my friend Jesus. Would you like a personal relationship with Him? All you have to do is pray this simple prayer. Say, “Jesus, come into my life. I make you my Lord and Savior.” If you prayed that prayer, I believe you got born into the family of Christ. The Bible says that Jesus will always be with you. He wants a relationship with you.

If you prayed, would you please leave a comment saying, “I prayed”. We would love to know you did.

Also, if you would like to learn more about who you are and how God really sees you, please click the link below. We would love to send you study material absolutely free.

http://eepurl.com/gLci8D

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Hello Everyone,

Today I want to talk to you about your identity. I’m not sure what it looks like in other parts of the world but I know in the United States we are seeing a huge identity crisis. People are struggling to identify who they are. We struggle to identify who we are sexually, politically, emotionally, etc.

The reason we struggle so much with this is because we don’t know how to define who we really are. If we want to see the definition of a word, we look in the dictionary. If we want to see the definition of who we are, we should look to the Bible to see who God says we are. If you are a Christ follower, God says you are righteous. God says you were made in his image. Just think about that for a minute. God loves you so much that he created you in His own image. No other creature in the universe is created like that. You are unique and special.

God says you were loved. It doesn’t really matter what someone else is says that or not. And I know people have said hurtful things. But I want you to know that God thinks you are someone worth loving. And according to the way God identifies you, you’re special. He identifies you a special no matter what you have done. See there’s nothing you could do that would change how much God loves you. Maybe you’re reading this and don’t know anything about Jesus. If so, I want to know that Jesus loves you so much that he died for you. Even if you don’t feel worthy, he believes that you are so important. If you’re struggling with who you are, if you’re struggling with your identity, I encourage you to take a Bible and start reading about who God says you are. He says you’re chosen. He says you’re of great value. And he loves you very much.

If you don’t know Jesus and would like to have a personal relationship with Him, all you have to do is pray this simple prayer. Say, “Jesus, come into my life. I make you my Lord and Savior.” If you prayed that prayer, I believe you got born into the family of Christ. Congratulations! If you prayed, would you please let us know.

Also, if you are new to the family and would like to learn more about who you are and how God really sees you, please click the link below. We would love to send you study material absolutely free.

http://eepurl.com/gLci8D

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Mind Control

 Hello everyone,

Today I want to talk about mind control. When I think of mind control, I think of Jedi mind tricks from Star Wars. How cool would it be to have the ability to change someone’s mind? Well we can. We can change our own minds. Have you ever heard someone say, “Well I can’t help the way I feel about something?” That’s just not a true statement. Your thoughts control how you feel. Is there someone you want to forgive but just can’t seem to do it? Is there something you would like to get rid of in your mind but don’t know how? Hopefully this will help.

Our minds are constantly feeding on something. We get to choose what we let in our minds. I know people who listen to every news report about the bad things going on in the world and that is always a topic of conversation with them at some point. They feed everyday on the news and they talk everyday about the news. They are renewing their mind everyday with the news. Unfortunately, this is toxic thinking. I am not suggesting we should be ignorant of what is going on around us but if we constantly feed or mind on things, it will effect us.

Maybe you struggle with something someone has done to you. Do you rehearse it over and over again in your mind? Do you think about what they said or what they did and how wrong it was? What are you feeding your mind with? You are feeding it with thoughts about what that person did. Consequently, you stay in a strong emotional place around them. Even if what they did was really wrong, you don’t need to feed on those thoughts. You might say, “Well there is no way I can change the way I feel and I can’t control my thoughts.” Good news – Yes you can!

How do we control what we think? The Bible says that we should renew our mind with the Word of God. In Romans 12:2 it says don’t be conformed to the world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. How? Spend time in the Word. Spend time reading your Bible or listening to it online. When we do that, the way we think and feel will change. It may not change overnight but it will over time.

Do you want to be free from old bad ways of thinking? Then feed your mind something else.

If you don’t know Jesus and would like to have a personal relationship with Him, all you have to do is pray this simple prayer. Say, “Jesus, come into my life. I make you my Lord and Savior.” If you prayed that prayer, I believe you got born into the family of Christ. Congratulations! If you prayed, would you please let us know.

Also, if you are new to the family and would like to learn more about who you are and how God really sees you, please click the link below. We would love to send you study material absolutely free.

http://eepurl.com/gLci8D

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Is Religion a Crutch

 Hello everyone.

Today I want you to know that God loves you. His love is unconditional. There is nothing you can do to earn it and there is nothing you can do to cause Him to stop loving you. Some people may see God’s love as a crutch but it’s actually the most powerful force in the universe. I know this from personal experience.

I am married to a beautiful woman. We were both married to different people before we met. For years, I felt bad for divorcing my first wife because the Bible says that God hates divorce. What I have grown to understand is that His love for me didn’t change because I divorced my first wife. He still had and has a great plan for my life. Now don’t get me wrong, God does hate divorce, but He loves divorced people. His love for you doesn’t change based on what you do. Romans 8:38-39 says, “ For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

In the first years of my current marriage, we had a very hard relationship with my wife’s ex-husband. He owed her a lot of child support and it seemed like we were always frustrated at each other over something. My wife and I would spend time talking about him and all the ways he frustrated us. One day, I was on a road trip to pick up my youngest daughter from camp. My wife called and said she had a crazy idea. She suggested that we give her ex-husband a car. This seemed like a ridiculous idea at first but it was so crazy and such an act of love that I decided we should do it! She forgave him all the debt he owed and we gave him a car. It changed our whole relationship. God’s love transcended debt and frustration and our family was completely transformed!

I want to challenge you today to engage God’s love. First of all, engage it in your own life and see how much He loves you. After that, release it into someone else’s life and watch what it does. It’s not a crutch, it’s the ultimate power source!

If you don’t know Jesus and would like to have a personal relationship with Him, all you have to do is pray this simple prayer. Say, “Jesus, come into my life. I make you my Lord and Savior.” If you prayed that prayer, I believe you got born into the family of Christ. Congratulations! If you prayed, would you please let us know.

Also, if you are new to the family and would like to learn more about who you are and how God really sees you, please click the link below. We would love to send you study material absolutely free.

http://eepurl.com/gLci8D

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What is your calling?

 Hello Everyone,

Today I want to talk to you about your purpose in life. Why am I here. That is such a huge question. In Jeremiah 29:11 it says that God has a plan for your life. The Bible says He knew you before you were born. That means before you were born, God had a plan for your life and it’s a really good one. As of this writing, I am 49 years old and I know my purpose. My calling in life is to build God’s kingdom on early. My vehicle for my calling is my business. My mission is to use the profits God causes in our life to fulfill the missions He gives us.

Let me ask you this. Do you have a 1 year plan? Do you have a 5 year plan? Many people might answer both of those questions yes. But do you have a 300 year plan? Interesting question right? You will be somewhere in 300 years. It won’t be on the earth as we know it. You will either be in Heaven by then or you will be on the new earth. In 300 years if we are still waiting on Christ to return, I want to know I left something on this earth that is still causing me to see rewards in Heaven.

How do I do that? I leave something on the earth that causes people to get saved and come see me in Heaven. To date, through this blog, I believe 26 people have accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior. I hope many people over the years will be encouraged to accept Jesus through these writings. That’s one of my missions. In my next blog, I am going to talk about dreaming bigger. You won’t want to miss it.

If you don’t know Jesus and would like to have a personal relationship with Him, all you have to do is pray this simple prayer. Say, “Jesus, come into my life. I make you my Lord and Savior.” If you prayed that prayer, I believe you got born into the family of Christ. Congratulations! If you prayed, would you please let us know.

Also, if you are new to the family and would like to learn more about who you are and how God really sees you, please click the link below. We would love to send you study material absolutely free.

http://eepurl.com/gLci8D

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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?

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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!

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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

Is There A Plan for Your Life?

Hello everyone,

Today I want to answer a question that we have all struggled with at some point in our lives.  Is there a plan for our life?  Let me ask it another way, does God have a plan for your life? 

The answer to that question begins with the most despicable act ever committed in human history.  Do you know what it was?  Think of all the horrible things you know about - murder, racism, hate crimes, mean words, assault.  The list goes on and on.  Here's the answer - eating fruit from a tree.  I know it sounds bad, but when Adam and Eve ate from the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they gave the devil all authority over the earth. 

The Bible says that the devil came to kill, steal and destroy and that's exactly what he did.  He killed the divine link between God and man.  He stole man's right to be part of God's family and he destroyed the tight relationship between Adam, Eve and God.  The devil hasn't changed.  He's still doing this today.  I can't imagine how it felt to Adam and Eve. The whole Cain and Able thing would never have happened if they hadn't eaten from the tree because the devil wouldn't have had authority to operate in the world.

Here's where it gets interesting.  The first thing God did after He found out what happened was deal with the devil.  He told the devil that there would be enmity between him and man and that man would bruise the devil's head.  God knew how bad this was for the world and for His children.  He knew what the devil would do throughout the years.  He could see all the holocaustic things that would happen over the next several thousand years.  What did He do?  He immediately announced the plan to bring Adam and Eve back into right relationship with him - Jesus.  This is what He was talking about when He said he would bruise the devil's head. 

He announced the plan to save the world from all the destruction that would come from the devil.  Adam and Eve would one day have a chance to get back in right relationship with God through Jesus sacrifice.  God didn't abandon them.  He had a plan B.  It was Jesus and it was perfect.  It was a great plan for the world because it allowed us to be part of his family again.

Let's fast forward to today.  Are there things in your life that you think disqualify you from having a good life?  Have you ever done something you wish you had not?  Maybe you have done something so bad that you think God can't help you anymore.

Is what you did worse than what Adam and Eve did?  Absolutely not!  The Bible says in Jeremiah 29:11 that God still has a good plan for your life.  It may not be his original plan but He always has a plan B and C and D and E....  There is nothing you can do that disqualifies you for the good plan He has for your life?  Why?  Because for God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son and when He did that, it provided a great plan for your life!

So don't let the devil lie to you anymore telling you that you have done something so bad that God can't give you a good life.  It's a lie.  Start believing what God says about you.  You will be surprised where He can take you.

That's another Opinion of the Minion. 

For Men Only

Hello Everyone,

Today's post is really for men.  It's a challenge that I believe the Lord is putting on my heart to talk with men about.  Now I know it's not as popular to do today but when I was growing up a lot more people went to church.  Why?  Well that's just what we did.  Doing this and watching my dad and others grow up helped shape my vision of what a real man should be.  You know, we should be Mufasa (from the Lion King).  We should be king of the jungle and protect our families.

I have heard guys say things, "I would die for my wife and die for my kids."  "I let my wife do the praying and all the God stuff.  I'm the provider for our family." 

So here's what I find interesting about those ideas.  I know this has happened and I am not taking away from any man who has paid that sacrifice for his family or his wife.  I cannot begin to understand something like that.  But men, let me tell you saying that doesn't give you the right to do nothing else.  Instead of saying "I would die for my family", why don't you actually give up yourself for your family everyday.  They need you.  Part of the biggest problem our country faces today is that we men have forgotten how to be men! 

Husband, tonight instead of sitting home and watching ESPN while you relax, why don't you die to yourself and spend some time listening to your wife or your kids.  It's time we invest in them if we don't want our relationships to continue to suffer.  Your wife doesn't need you to die for her, she needs you to live for her.  She needs you to spend quality time with her.  She needs to know how much you care for her and she needs you to be present in her life.  Do you know what that's called?  It's called being intimate with her according to her definition of intimacy.  If we do that, it will lead to our definition of intimacy in a way that is beyond the normal.

If I asked you, how many of you have a good marriage, how many people would say yes?  I would be one of those people.  Guess what, I have decided that I am no longer satisfied with a good marriage.  I want to have a great marriage!  As a matter of fact, I want to have all the amazing things God has in store for marriage in mine!

So what do I need to do?  On top of some of the things that I have said above, it's my job to get on my knees before my Father as the head of my house.  Guys, it's not enough for us to just have our wife respect us and let her do the God thing.  God wants a relationship with YOU.  He's not looking to have a relationship with you through your wife.  He wants one direct.  How many times a week do you spend time with the Lord asking for direction for you, your family and your marriage?  I thought I was doing that fairly well, until recently the Lord told me that I need to spend more time with Him.

Well, "I don't know how to pray," you might say.  Let me tell you just how easy it is.  Just say "Hello Lord," and wait for Him to respond.  He longs to talk with you just like we long to be with our children.

Well, that's enough for one day and that's another Opinion of the Minion.