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