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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Holding Grudges

Hi Everyone,

 

Someone who follows me on Facebook, NP, asked me to write about holding grudges so here's my take.

 

We've all been there.  There's that one person who has really done something wrong to us and we want to get back at them so bad we can taste it.  We dream of all the witty things we would say or how we would act given the chance and we think about how good it would feel to finally let that person have it.  I mean we deserve to get even with someone if they have done something wrong to us.  If you are a Christian you have to turn the other cheek once but after that you are out of cheeks and it's time for payback.  Now many times we don't pay the other person back we just think about it.

 

But even when we do pay them back, we often feel worse for what we did to them than we did before we did it.  One time I was in a movie theater with my brother and his wife.  We were in line to get popcorn and all the things you need to see a movie and there was this guy who said that my sister-in-law didn't pay for her hot dog when I knew she did.  I don't remember how it started but he said something that was kind of insulting and I didn't wait to hold a grudge, I let him have it right there.  I said some really mean stuff that cut him down to size.  Then we went into the movie theater and I felt so terribly awful for saying the things I said.  See my mom always told me that two wrongs don't make a right.  So what did I do?  I went back and found the kid and apologized profusely for my words.

 

So now let's deal with what happens when we hold grudges?  First of all, the real person it hurts is us.  Grudges don't normally hurt the other person because they normally don't even know about them.  But what they do to our insides is pretty bad.  They make us feel all sorts of negative emotions that really can do us harm.  If we are not careful, we can spend a lot of time mediating on all the negative stuff which is really bad for us.  

 

But also did you know that when we hold things against other people that it will hinder our prayers to God.  The bible tells us to forgive others so God can forgive us.  That's pretty heavy stuff.  So I can hear some of you saying, "That all sounds good but I've tried everything and I just can't let go of this grudge."  Well that's not true.  Did you know that there is a lot of power in the words we say.  When we go around saying things like I can't let go, we only make it harder to actually let go.

 

The answer to this lies in that hole under our mouth.  If you want to let go of a grudge, make a conscious faith decision to let go.  Then say out of your mouth, "I let go of that grudge that I have against so and so."  At that point, it's a done deal.  So what do you do three minutes later when that negative feeling starts coming up?  You say to it, "Nope I have already let go of the grudge and forgiven that person."  If you keep saying that, eventually it will become a reality in your life and you can finally be free of the grudge.  Remember, if you are a Christian, you got saved by faith.  You can let go of a grudge by faith as well.  When you do, God will help you let go.

 

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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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 What is True Love?

Today I want to encourage you with this thought. Love is the missing ingredient in the world today.

As I look at our world today, I see more strife and more division between people than I've ever seen in my lifetime. In the United States, we seem very divided based on political ideologies. It seems that if you believe the way the left believes, you hate the right. And if you believe the way the right believes, you hate the left. If you look at social media, this message is all over it. I see hate speech from both sides. The common denominator between these two different viewpoints is hate. And hate is the opposite of love.

1 John 4:8 says that “God is love.” If this was a math problem, it would look like this God = love. Where there is no God, there is no love. If we call ourselves Christians (which simply means to be Christ like), then we should act in Love. That is the true way to act like Christians. Love prays for the president whether you like him or not. Love prays for the police whether you like them or not. Love does good things for people we don’t like. Love mows the neighbor’s yard when you don’t like him. God (Love) sent His son to this world to take the ultimate punishment for our sin against Him because He loves us!

I think it’s time we started loving people like God does!

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.

Congratulations! 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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News

 Hello everyone,

Today I want to talk to you about the news. I think we spend way too much time watching what is going on in the world today. Now don’t give me wrong, I do believe we should keep up with current events and know what’s happening. But I think it’s easy to get overwhelmed and caught up in Covid or what’s going on in this country or what’s bad that potentially could happen in that country, etc. And if we’re not careful we can spend hours watching.

I think we would be better off if we decided to be the news instead of watching the news. I heard a story onetime about a person who was going to commit suicide after school one day. I believe it was a girl and she had very low self-esteem. While she was at school, someone walked up to her and told her how nice she looked in the dress she was wearing. It changed her whole day, and she didn’t commit suicide. Wouldn’t it be great to be the person who paid her a compliment and changed her trajectory? What do you think the world would look like if we all found a way to encourage someone? I think that’s what it means to be Jesus ‘s hands and feet in the world.

We get the opportunity just to help someone else feel better about themselves. So today I want to encourage you to find someone to encourage and blessed with your words today.

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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You Have Faith Whether You Like It or Not

 Hello everyone,

Today I wanna talk to you about Faith. Did you know that you live your life by faith? Everyone on earth is a faith person. The difference between us is where we put our faith.

Let me prove that to you. If you drive a car on the freeway, you have faith that the person beside you will not wreck into you. If you did not have faith in them, you would not drive beside them. When we drive beside someone, we don’t know anything about them. We don’t know where they are emotionally physically mentally or every other way. And yet we have faith that they won’t run into us.

When you sit down in a chair, you have faith that the chair will hold you up. When we food, we have faith that it will not hurt us. We don’t know what’s in the food and probably don’t want to know but we do not believe that it will hurt us.

If we already have faith, why not use our faith to trust God? If we can use our faith the same way we drive a car, send a chair, or eat food to trust God, then God can provide healing, financial peace, emotional peace, and salvation. And that is what I’m challenging us to do today.

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

That’s Another Opinion of the Minion

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