A Marriage of Faith

Jesus said in John 15:7, "If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you."

Does this apply to the minister who is releasing the power of God or does it apply to the person needing a miracle?

It applies to both. If it only applies to the minister who is releasing the power of God, then automatically anyone who needs something from God does not need to abide in Jesus nor does that person need for the Lord's words to abide in them.

Besides this, the word also says in Hebrews 11:6, "But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him."  This scripture verse applies to everyone and it pairs with Romans 10:17 which says, "So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God."

When we rightly divide the word of God, we see how both the minister and the one needing a touch from the Lord combine their faith to see the glory of God released. This is a marriage of faith.

Signs and Wonders to help us believe

Man needs to see the miraculous continually. Jesus went around doing good and healing not just because it was in his nature to heal people, but also so that people would believe. In John 4 Jesus says to a man whose son was dying, "Unless you people see signs and wonders, you simply will not believe." Here's the text and the context:

John 4:46-50- Therefore He came again to Cana of Galilee where He had made the water wine. And there was a royal official whose son was sick at Capernaum. 47 When he heard that Jesus had come out of Judea into Galilee, he went to Him and was imploring Him to come down and heal his son; for he was at the point of death. 48 So Jesus said to him, “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you simply will not believe.” 49 The royal official *said to Him, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” 50 Jesus *said to him, “Go; your son lives.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and started off.

If you read this with a certain perspective, it could come across as a rebuke to the royal official, but I don't believe that's the way to see this situation. The context of this situation starts by reminding us of the miracle of water being turned to wine. Most likely the royal official was aware of the water to wine miracle. Nevertheless, he needed a miracle at that moment and the miracle of water to wine was yesterday's news. Man needs to continually see the hand of God helping him. 

With that said, I believe it's possible to read Jesus' words this way: "Unless you people continue to see signs and wonders, you simply will not believe."

Word of Knowledge at Bojangles Chicken

The Church is not a building, although The Church can meet in buildings, including a Bojangles Chicken building. At 11:00 AM today (Sunday), I was at a Bojangles in Maryville, TN. I was enjoying my fried chicken when one of the workers (Rhonda), came near to sweep garbage from the floor. 

I began to feel pain in the back of my head. The momentary pain was a Word of Knowledge from the Spirit of God. One way a Word of Knowledge works is that you will momentarily feel the pain that someone else is feeling. I asked the lady, who is a Christian, if she was experiencing pain in the back of her head and she said, "Yes, for weeks now." 

I had her repeat truth from the bible about healing and she was instantly healed. The pain left completely and she was very grateful. Even though we were total strangers to each other, God knows us all intimately and will tell one of His kids about another one of His kids in order to help.

You don't have to try and make these things happen. You just need to put Jesus Christ first in your day to day living and be ready for when He will alert you to what He's doing, including church at a fried chicken joint.

Faith in God's word

The bible says we walk by faith and not by sight (2Corinthians 5:7). That means faith in God's word and not by feelings or emotions, or reports from the world, or opinions, or anything else that influences you to believe in a way outside of what the word of God says.

For years God has moved through me in a way that has been very satisfying and exciting. I've felt the power of God in my flesh regularly and this feeling has been a sure indicator that Jesus Christ was moving to touch someone with his power.

God is doing in new thing in me. I still feel the power of the Holy Spirit, but the Lord is telling me to focus entirely on what the word of God says and to ignore this "feeling", so that I'm not indicating to people that something good is happening because of what I'm feeling. Stay tuned for more on this subject. My next video will address this and be a very good teaching on this subject.

Stuff = Distraction

Keep your life simple. If you find yourself gathering things just to have stuff or just because you want to buy something, you'll soon start to stray away from diligently following the Lord. It's easy to get off tract and the enemy is quick to help you do so. This life is not about things. The bible shares one of the most well known verses concerning this matter.

What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? - Mark 8:36

We've all heard the old saying, "You can't take it with you." That's right, but you can send it on ahead.  Every time we give to the work of the Kingdom, we send it on ahead of us into our heavenly bank account. Paul tells us about the heavenly bank account in Philippians.

Not that I desire your gifts; what I desire is that more be credited to your account. - Philippians 4:17

I believe we can draw on this heavenly bank account when we need to. Jesus withdraws for us and moves someone's heart to release it. Trust me, there are obedient servants out there who do as he says. So, the next time you feel the urge to buy something that may just collect dust, consider your heavenly bank account. Sow into the Kingdom instead and the funds will be there for what you really need to buy and not something that will cause a distraction in your spiritual life.

Does The Bible Contradict Itself?

Unless we use the preponderance of scripture to establish doctrine, we can become confused and think there are contradictions. For instance, in Ephesians, Paul writes plainly that we're saved by grace alone and not by our works:

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. - Ephesians 2:8-9

God draws us to Jesus and gives us a measure of faith to believe. That measure of faith will also give us a hunger to know more and will empower us to truly repent of our sins.

Paul makes it clear that there is evidence of someone who has truly repented. Towards the end of his ministry, when sharing his message with King Agrippa, he says this:

“So then, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the vision from heaven. First to those in Damascus, then to those in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and then to the Gentiles, I preached that they should repent and turn to God and demonstrate their repentance by their deeds. - Acts 26:19-20

When someone has truly believed the message, their repentance will lead to deeds of righteousness, as Paul writes:

For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. - Ephesians 2:10

There is a difference between the works a person performs to try and justify him or herself in the eyes of God and the works that God prepares for us to do once we surrender our lives to Jesus Christ.

DuPont State Forest Water Falls Hiking

Ahava and I recently got into hiking. In today's video, I'm carrying a backpack in order to practice for the upcoming hiking/camping trips we're planning. In today's video, we visited DuPont State Forest for the day. The forest is about 2 hours west of where we live in Charlotte, NC. There are a number of beautiful waterfalls along the Little River winding through the forest. The trail we walked has a few decent sized hills as it follows the river. The access point of the trail is at Hooker Falls, where a number of people can be seen fly fishing. Afterwards, we went to the Earth Fare market in Asheville, which is about 30 minutes north of the forest. Before heading back home, we stopped for a latte at Green Sage Cage in South Asheville. Below is a link to DuPont State Forest.

http://www.dupontforest.com