flourishinggirl

Tuesday, 1 November 2016

How Thanksgiving and Praise Works for our Victory

Messages for October 2016: Our Month of Victory

Message for Sunday the 9^th of October 2016

Theme: Understanding the Power of Gratitude and Praise in receiving and sustaining our victory

Topic: How Thanksgiving and Praise Works for our Victory

Introduction: Last week, we began to look at thanksgiving and praise and the principles governing their operation to bring us victory. Today, we are going to be seeing their dynamics; how they operate to establish our victory. I believe that an understanding of this truth would help us more than ever to engage this great spiritual weapon with intentionality and precision and put us on a consistent journey of victory in our individual and corporate destinies in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

How Thanksgiving and Praise Works for our Victory: when we want to cook, the fact that we have all the ingredients at our disposal does not necessarily mean that we would be able to deliver results in our cooking without understanding the basic skills required for making a tasty meal. Sometimes, some people may cook better than others even without as much ingredients because of their cooking skills. In the same way the application of these spiritual weapons require some relevant understanding for them to produce even beyond our expectations. To help us with this let us look at four ways they work:

1. Thanksgiving would grant us access to God’s presence for more of his goodness and mercy to be displayed in our favour. We are told to enter his gates with thanksgiving. In other words, no thanksgiving, no access to God. See Ps.100:4. In other words, we are granted access to Him when we show gratitude for all he has done and is still doing for us. See also Ps.95:2; 1Tim.4:4; and Phil.4:6. When we are thankful, we can sustain our faith as thanksgiving is a major requirement for being established in faith. When we are established in faith, then we can operate in victory all the time.

2. When we access God’s presence, the next thing we need is to experience His favour towards us. I believe nothing can be greater than having favour with God. This is when God chooses to treat us with preference even when we do not deserve it. A good example is the choice of Solomon as the next king in place of David his father even though it was not his right not being the first son of David. – 2Sam.12:24-25 Also, when Solomon praised God with a sacrifice of a thousand burnt offerings, God was compelled to even visit him and bless him. See 1Kings 3:3-6. To get down nations beyond his capacity, Jehoshaphat’s way to victory was to engage the high praises of God. See 2Chron.20:1-24. Thus while thanksgiving would grant us access to God, praise would cause God to arise and take the reins from us to bring us victory. God fights for us when we praise him just like he fought for Judah in this case.

3. Then God responds by taking over the battle and fighting in our stead and no one can defeat him who is acclaimed the man of war [Ex.15:3]. In 2Chron.20:17, God told Judah how to go out against their enemies without needing to fight because He would be with them. After due consultation, they saw that it was going to be by praise. See 2Chron.20:13-21. Note here that they also had to specifically praise God for his attribute of holiness. Please understand that it is by the leading of the Holy Spirit we can know exactly the kind of praise that would move the Lord to action at the time of our need. Judah and Jehoshaphat were led to praise God’s attribute of Holiness and the Lord caused their enemies to arise and do to each other what they planned to do to them. Halleluiah!!! See also Ps.114 and Ps.22:3.

4. Because He never loses, we win and this makes us more than conquerors! We are more than conquerors because another fights and we cart home the spoils of victory. For instance, Jesus fought for our redemption on the Cross of Calvary and all we need do to be more than conquerors is to receive Him. See John 3:16 and Rm.8:36-39.

As we close for today, please understand that being victorious through thanksgiving and praise is based on cutting the covenant of the new birth with God by faith. If you are yet to do so by making Jesus Christ your Saviour and Lord and you desire to do so right now, you can do it right away by saying the following prayer out loud and you can be saved and receive access to the realm of sweat less victory through gratitude and praise:

Heavenly Father,

Have mercy on me a sinner. Today, I believe that Jesus died for me and you raised Him from the dead for my Justification. I therefore declare that Jesus Christ is my Saviour and Lord and from today, I renounce the fatherhood of Satan and embrace Jesus Christ as my Saviour and Lord. Thank you for this father in Jesus’ name! Amen.

Congratulations! For more information and resources that would help you grow in this new life, please visit our website at www.kingdomheirsministries.org and our blogs at www.flourishinggirl.blogspot.com and follow us on twitter at alero_nanna and on face book on www.facebook.com/flourishinggirl www.facebook.com/khmii2015; www.facebook.com/thewellbeingcenter. Or www.facebook.com/kingdomjointheirsfamily email: jointheirsfamily@gmail.com.

Remain on top of your challenges in Jesus’ name!

Gratitude and Praise as Weapons of spiritual warfare

Messages for October 2016: Our Month of Victory

Message for Sunday the 2^nd of October 2016

Theme: Understanding the Power of Gratitude and Praise in receiving and sustaining our victory

Topic: Gratitude and Praise as Weapons of spiritual warfare

2Cor.10:3-6; Matt.16:19; Ps.149; Rev.12:11 and 2Cor.2:14

Introduction: In the realm of the spirit, there is a real war going on all the time and the target is to gain control over mankind. God created man in His image and after His likeness and intended for them to rule over the earth on his behalf. Sadly, man gave in to the temptation of God’s archenemy called the devil. The devil’s intention was to take over God’s earth and man and try to control them against God with the intent of causing God grief. Contrary to his expectation, God came in the form of man and rescued mankind from the dominion of darkness where Satan had taken man so that we can reign as kings and priest on earth with the Lord against the desire of the enemy of God. Jesus defeated Satan and arose from the dead so that we can also live eternally if we believe in him. See Jn.5:24 and Col.1:12-13.

Since then, all who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ is faced with the constant conflict with the enemy who works through the flesh to bring man down to his evil domain again. However, Jesus did a thorough work at redemption and did not leave Himself without a witness. He raised men of God who were led by the Holy Spirit to put His word together in writing and it has become the creator’s manual for mankind and his environment. He said that He would give us the keys of the kingdom of God to enable us bind and loose. From God’s word, we have seen that a major key we have been given to bind and lose on earth is the key of gratitude and praise. With this, we can defeat the enemy every time if we understand how and when to use it.

Gratitude and Praise as weapons of war: Clearly, gratitude or thanksgiving can be defined as appreciating God for what He has done. Praise on the other hand is appreciating God for who He is. These two go hand in hand as they are the protocol of access to God at any time. See Ps.100:4.

A common misconception about these two is that they must be presented to God in song. While we can render them in songs, they are essentially the fruit of our lips based on the meditations of our hearts. If we just sing songs to God without the heart connection, we would merely be singing songs and neither praise nor thanksgiving would truly be communicated as God works with the heart. See Isa.29:13; Mt.15:8; Mk.7:6; Rm.3:13; Ps.9:1; Ps.111:1; Jer.17:9-10 and Heb.13:5.

As weapons, no scripture lists out this principle like Ps.149. we learn the following lessons from this scripture about the use of praise and thanksgiving as weapons:

1. It starts with a covenant – “Let Israel rejoice in him that made him: let the children of Zion be joyful in their King …” The name Israel and Zion are both names issuing from a covenant with God. God changed Jacob’s name to Israel to enable Him establish his covenant which devolved on Jacob from Isaac the son of Abraham. Therefore, for one to be able to use praise as a weapon, the person must have entered into covenant relationship with God through the new birth experience. In other words, you must first belong to God’s family. See Jn.3:3-8; Gen.34:24-28 and Ps.22:3.

2. It is activated by a personal relationship with God: So many people sing songs they call praise without any impact. If the one praising lacks this vital relationship, it is so easy for such a person to become a casualty in spiritual warfare just like the sons of Sceva in Acts 19:13-16. See also Jn.3:16-19 and Rm.6:23.

3. When they are rendered in songs or high praises, they must be done joyfully: The reason for this is that joy is the activator of the power of God to produce. Where there is no joy, there would be bareness. When this is the case, this weapon would not be able to produce the harvest of victory. See Joel 1:12 and Isa.12:3.

4. This weapon executes the word of God’s Judgment on the wicked faster than any other: We are made to understand in 2Cor.10:3-6 that our weapons are mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds and has the capacity to enforce obedience of the judged only when our obedience is complete.

5. This weapon is used in righteousness: This again takes us to the heart because we believe with the heart and become justified or righteous before God. Then we are expected to use this weapon in obedience. This makes this weapon most effective when we use it by the leading of the Holy Spirit. It will rout the enemy of our souls any day and any time. See Rm.10:9-10; Ps.149:5-9 and 2Chron.20:1-24.

6. This weapon can be used anywhere and taking any posture: You can use this weapon lying down on your bed or walking along the road or carrying out your chores at home. Ps.149:5-9.

We shall stop here for now. More would be said on this next week. Meanwhile, if you are reading this resource and are yet to make a commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ, this is your opportunity. You can do so right away by saying the following prayer out loud and you will be saved:

Heavenly Father,

Remain on top of your challenges in Jesus’ name!

Welcome to the month of October 2016: Our Month of Victory

Welcome to the month of October 2016: Our Month of Victory

2Cor.2:14; Rom.8:35-39; 2Chron.20:1-25; Ex.15:1-21; Rev.12:7-12 and Ps.67:5-7

“Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place. “

Beloved, I welcome you to this great month of October 2016 which the Lord has graciously named to us our month of victory. As I meditated on the prophetic direction of this month, it dawned on me that one of the reasons Jesus Christ came to the earth to die for our sin is to give us victory over our adversary the devil who robbed mankind of his place in the beginning through sin. [Rev.Rev.12:7-12 and Rev.5:9-14] When He died for us, he identified with us in our sin and went to hell on our behalf and took our place in judgement. Three days later, God the judge of the entire universe; saw that the demands of justice was fully met for the human race so that man could be restored to his place of glory; if man would receive the salvation offered by the Lord Jesus Christ by identifying with Him in His death, burial and resurrection through the new birth experience. Thus the statement: “… he is risen…” [Lk.24:5-8] made by the angel to the disciples on the resurrection morning is the statement of our victory and believe me, this victory is meant to be eternal if we remain in him rooted and grounded and established in the faith. See Rm.6:4; Col.2:13 and Col.2:6-7.

In the last scripture quoted above here, it is evident that we actually abound with thanksgiving when we are in the faith. This truth is further strengthened by the response of Moses and the Children of Israel in Exodus 15 when the Lord defeated their enemies on their behalf by drowning them all in the red sea. They burst forth in gratitude and praise.

For us in the Kingdom Heirs Family, many of us have found our individual places in God’s big picture and are experiencing victory in our daily walk with God. I believe this is God awakening us to the consciousness of this truth at a time like this so that we can fully demonstrate our victory and glorify God like never before.

To enable us take full advantage of our victory this month, I believe the Lord would have us go in-depth in our understanding of what it takes to sustain victory. God gave us victory by His grace because we are saved by grace. We must however sustain this victory by gratitude and praise just like the children of Israel were led by Moses to do. Therefore, this month, we are going to be looking at this very misunderstood weapon of victory with intent to understanding the power of gratitude and praise in receiving and sustaining victory.

This month, everything you had struggled with hitherto would bow to you in the mighty name of the Lord Jesus Christ because it is indeed our month of victory. As we saw earlier, victory is our heritage in the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, we cannot lose in the war because our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ has taken our place and arisen victorious over death on our behalf. I therefore welcome you to a season of constant celebration because our victory has become eternal in Christ.

Someone reading this may consider it far-fetched because of the series of defeats you have encountered to the point that you seem to have gotten used to being defeated. I have good news for you; you can change your status right away by taking advantage of what Jesus accomplished for you on Calvary’s cross. Should you desire to take advantage of this challenge, please say the following prayer out loud and you will become initiated into the family of God that is in heaven and on earth [Eph.3:14-15]:

Heavenly Father,

Remain on top of your challenges in Jesus’ name!

Releasing faith for the fulfillment of the word of God

Message for Sunday the 25^th of September 2016

Theme: Understanding the dynamics of Faith for the fulfillment of the word of God.

Topic: Releasing faith for the fulfillment of the word of God

Introduction: Last week, we saw how faith works and we concluded that no matter how much faith we have in our hearts, it is not of any use if it is not released. In other words; faith must leave the heart to find expression through the mouth by way of speech for it to provide the manifestation of one’s desire. This is why we are looking at this topic today.

The Confession or profession of Faith: For faith to complete its process it must be released and for it to be released, it has to find expression through the mouth. In Rm.10:10 the bible says with the heart man believeth unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. This goes to show that until faith gets to the point of confession, the benefits cannot be actualized.

What happens to what we say: When we release faith by way of speech, the following happens to the words we speak:

1. God is committed to bring them to pass on principle. See Num.14:28; Job 22:28; Mt.12:34-37 and Mk.11:23.

2. Angels are at a standby to enforce the words. Eventually, it is what we say that determines how the work of our hands will turn out. See Ps.103:20 and Eccl.5:5-6

3. Devils are also compelled to enforce the words we speak. Num.14:28 and Mk.11:23.

God’s Principle at work with words: The principles of God at work with words are clearly spelt out in the word of God. The chief of these could be found in Prov.18:21 thus: “Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.”

Jesus Christ declared one in the book of Mark thus: “For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.” Mk.11:23

From these two witnesses among others, it is evident that you can only possess what you say. This explains why a closed mouth could lead to a closed destiny. See 2Cor.13:1 and Mt.18:16.

How to release faith for manifestations: There are two main ways by which we release faith that would move God to enforce His word for our benefits. These are utterances by speech believed in the heart because the mouth would usually voice what fills the heart because out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. See Matthew 12:34-37 and Jos.1:8. Therefore, the two ways we release words we desire God to enforce because he has ordained what we desire are by speech and prophetic utterances.

Release of faith by speech: This is very simple and straight forward. What one says on a continuous basis eventually come to pass if it was ordained of God. See Lamentations 3:37. The children of Israel kept declaring that they would all be killed in the wilderness and nothing happened for a long time until they provoked God enough to ordain it and it came to pass. The angels assigned to them were thus compelled to enforce the negative words when God eventually ordained it.

Release of faith by Prophetic utterance: A very good example of this could be found in Ezekiel 37:1-11. From this text, we can outline the principles governing prophetic utterance thus:

1. They are inspired speech by God. God initiated the conversation with the prophet and told him what to say. Ez.37:1-6

2. They compel the obedience of the person prophesying. Ez. 37:1-6

3. When you prophesy in obedience to divine promptings, what you say immediately begins to manifest as though God were the one speaking by himself. See Ez.37:7

4. At the end of the day, what comes out of the entire experience is as a mighty army of victory. Ez.37:8-11

Note here that everything the prophet said came to pass as he spoke them. Prophetic utterances are like taking word bullets and shooting at the target with already stored in a gun. The words become like the gun powder in the gun empowered to cause the desired effect.

As we come to the conclusion of this series, I believe we all now have a basic understanding of how faith works and are willing to put it to work in our lives for our individual benefits. Meanwhile, as ever, the foundation of any faith that would produce is the new birth experience which I fondly refer to as first things first! If you are reading this resource and have not yet made a decision for Christ but desire to do so, you can right away by saying the following prayer out loud and the Holy Spirit will take you up from there and give you eternal life at once:

Heavenly Father,

Remain on top of your challenges in Jesus’ name!

Thursday, 22 September 2016

How Faith Works

Messages for September 2016: Our Month of Divine Remembrance

Message for Sunday the 18^th of September 2016

Theme: Understanding the dynamics of Faith for the fulfillment of the word of God.

Topic: How Faith Works – Rm.10:17; Gal.3:2, 5; Rm.3:3; 10:8-11 and Mk.11:22-23

Introduction: Last week, we looked at twelve reasons why we must have faith. We saw from there that faith does not just happen but is made to happen for some specific purposes. From the foregoing, it is therefore clear that God is very intentional about faith. This makes faith a subject that requires skills based on divine revelation to be made to work. Today therefore, we shall be looking at how we can engage the faith that would work every time it is applied.

How faith comes: From the foregoing, we must first see how faith works before anything else can be determined. From scriptures we are made to understand that faith does not just happen; it is made to happen. We therefore understand that faith like every other creation of God has a beginning. In Rm.10:17, we are told that faith comes by hearing the word of God. Also, Gal.3:2 makes us understand that we got saved by the hearing of faith. Therefore faith comes by hearing the word of God. The origin of faith is therefore the word of God revealed to the individual to which it is directed. Therefore for faith to work, it starts with the word of God revealed to us by his voice or any other means he chooses to use. God communicates His word through the following means:

v The voice of God – Acts 9:1-6 and 2Pet.1:16-19.

v Vision – Acts 9:10-18 and Acts 10:1-7.

v Dreams/visions of the night – Dan.2:19; Job 33:14-15 and Matt.2:12-15.

v Prophets – Ezra 5:1-2 and Acts 13:1-4.

v Teachers – Isa.30:20-21 and Eph.4:11-13.

v The inward witness – Rm.8:14 and Acts 16:16-18.

v Divinely orchestrated circumstances etc. see the entire book of Ruth and Esther.

To receive the word of God through any of these means, you have to position yourself for it through thanksgiving, praise, prayer and if necessary; fasting.

The receipt and residence of faith: When we have heard the word that births faith in us, we must take the next step to receive it. We receive it by believing it. When we believe it, we act on the word. It is the acting on the word we believe we heard from God that proves the existence of faith in us. This is also known as the receipt of faith. See Heb.11:7 and Gen.12:1-4 and 17:10-23.

When we receive faith, it comes to reside in our hearts. If it is not in our hearts, then it is merely in our heads. When what we call faith is merely in our heads, it is not faith but mental accent. At this level, we are standing on the fence between faith and unbelief. We must go the extra mile to move the faith from our heads to our hearts before it can truly be called faith or it will tip over the fence to the area of unbelief.

The difference between faith in the head and faith in the heart is that faith in the head has no performance ability and can easily be extinguished by doubt. On the other hand the faith in the heart usually provokes action in spite of doubt in the head. When faith is in the heart, doubt in the head cannot uproot it. As it continues to stay in the heart, it would eventually grow large enough to respond more quickly to your voice of faith. The strength of the voice of your faith is measured by how deep rooted it is in your heart. In other words, how much of it has entered from your head to your heart. When faith is in your heart in any area of life, you are said to be established in faith in that area. See Mk.11:23; Mk.4:30-32.

How faith is processed and applied: Faith is processed by meditation and applied by love and action because faith can only work by love. First we read the word, and then we brood over it through meditation so that we can do the word. What you meditate on is what you will do. This is why God commanded Joshua the son of Nun to meditate on the word day and night so that he would be able to do it. This is because meditation is what empowers you to carry out actions of faith that births results of what the faith is meant for. See Jos.1:8; Ps.1:1-3.

It is meditation on the word of God on a consistent basis that takes us to the point where the word hatches understanding in us. When we receive understanding, we are said to receive light. Note that it is the entrance of the word that gives understanding. Until the word gains entrance into your heart, you do not have enough light to dispel the darkness of the situation you seek to dominate. This is because it is faith that resides in the heart that cannot be uprooted by doubt that brings unbelief. However, for the faith to work, we must mix it with walking in love. This is because love is the means by which the word of God gains root in us. See Mk.11:23; Gal.5:6; Eph.3:17; Ps.119:34, 135; Jn.13:34 – 35; 1Jn.2:9-11 and Rm.10:10.

How faith is released to work: The best that faith can do in your heart is to provide you a platform for receiving from God known as righteousness. See Rm.10:10 and the example of Abraham in Rm.4:17-22 and Gen.15:5-6. Note however that faith must leave the heart to find expression through the mouth by way of speech for it to provide the manifestation of one’s desire. This is why all the heroes of faith had what is known as confessions or professions of faith. See Heb.10:23 and 1Tim.6:12. More will be said on this next week by God’s grace.

Meanwhile, if you are yet to exercise faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the Cross and are therefore not born again, this is your opportunity. You can do so right away by saying the following prayer out loud and you shall be born again:

Heavenly Father,

Remain on top of your challenges in Jesus’ name!

Thursday, 15 September 2016

Twelve reasons why we must have Faith?

Messages for September 2016: Our Month of Divine Remembrance

Message for Sunday the 11^th of September 2016

Theme: Understanding the dynamics of Faith for the fulfillment of the word of God.

Topic: Twelve reasons why we must have Faith?

Introduction: The importance of faith cannot be overstated as it is what every human being needs to be able to truly live life to its fullest. There are different categories of faith. There is the natural faith based on physical circumstances like knowing that chair can hold your weight when you sit on it. There is the negative supernatural faith based on knowledge of the evil spiritual realm. There is the God kind of faith based on divine revelation. It is this kind of faith also known as the God kind of faith that we are presently interested in.

Why do we need to operate and live by this kind of faith? Below are twelve reasons why everyone must know and walk in this kind of faith. While these reasons are not exhaustive, they would help us understand why we must live the faith life:

1. God commands us to have this kind of faith – See Mark 11:22-23.

2. It is the means by which we please God enough to get His attention. After the fall of man, he was unable to reach God on his own and so he created religion to try to bridge the gap. Religion has failed. This explains why God had to hatch his plan of eternal life through Jesus Christ. To please God therefore, we must receive His means of access back to him which is through Jesu Christ and this is only made possible by faith. Without this faith, it is impossible to please Him. See Heb.11:6; Rm.6:23; Jn.17:1-3 and Eph.2:8-10.

3. The believer’s walk is a walk of faith. See 2Cor.5:7;

4. Faith is the life of a believer. It is to a believer what oxygen is to living. Man fell from the glory of God because of sin. Since it takes faith to become saved, one cannot come alive from spiritual death without faith. In the same connection, one cannot stay alive without it. We are saved by faith, we live by faith, we walk by faith and whatever is not of faith is sin. See Rm.14:23; Jn.3:16-18; Heb.10:38; Hab.2:4; Rm.1:17 and Gal.2:20.

5. Faith grants us access to God; without this access, we are doomed. We cannot pray, praise or converse with God in any way without access to Him. Rm.5:2 and Eph.3:12.

6. Faith is our means of justification before God, men and the devil. Rm.3:28; 5:1; Gal.2:16; 3:11 and 3:21.

7. Faith is our victory for overcoming the world – 1Jn.5:4; 1Jn.2:15-17

8. We can only forgive and walk in love by faith. See Heb.11:1-40 and Gal.3:11.

9. Faith enables us to finish our destiny course with joy. See Acts 20:22-24.

10. Faith is required to mix the word of God for our profiting otherwise we cannot profit from the word of God no matter how powerful – Hen.4:2

11. Faith is the means by which we enter into the rest of God – Heb.3:18; 4:1-12 and Num.14:28-35.

12. Faith enables us to build and leave legacies for posterity. See Heb.6:12; Gen.18:17-19 and the example of the Rechabites in Jer.35:6, 8, 14, 16 and 19.

We shall stop here for now; next week by God’s grace, we shall be looking at how faith works. Meanwhile, if you are yet to exercise faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the Cross and are therefore not born again, this is your opportunity. You can do so right away by saying the following prayer out loud and you shall be born again:

Heavenly Father,

Remain on top of your challenges in Jesus’ name!

Wednesday, 7 September 2016

What Faith Really is

Messages for September 2016: Our Month of Divine Remembrance

Message for Sunday the 4th of September 2016

Theme: Understanding the dynamics of Faith for the fulfillment of the word of God.

Topic: What Faith Really is

Introduction: In the few years I have walked with God, I have seen God replace man after man in his army. I have often wondered why this is so. I later came to a rude shock that failure of faith is mostly the reason why. For instance, some complain of lack of answer to prayer after they had prayed and fasted and done all they knew to get the answer without success. Some base their reason on the preposterous excuse of the behavior of so called Church leaders. This is really unreasonable because even those Church leaders are still humans who must win this war of faith. In addition, excuses show a lack of desire to take responsibility for one’s destiny. Every destiny experience is actually choice determined. Therefore, we cannot place the responsibility of fulfilling our destinies on the faith of others.

The reason many fail in faith therefore is that they have not applied themselves to the demands of understanding what faith is and how it works. God will never operate outside His set laws; so it behooves us to find out from His word what faith really is and how it works. This is what the theme of this month is intended for and I believe we would really be blessed and established in the basic understanding of faith to a reasonable extent in the course of this month so that God’s promises will no longer look like lies to us.

Today therefore, we shall be looking at what faith really is from the bible definition of faith.

What faith is: In most places in the bible, faith is either described or demonstrated. For instance, the faith of Abraham was mostly demonstrated [Gen12:1-4 and Gen.17:23]. When Jesus taught faith, he both demonstrated and described some of its functions like speaking right [Mk.11:23 and Jn.11:38-44].However, God did not leave us in the dark about what faith really is and His desire to enable us understand it. In Col.1:9-11, we see that we can believe God in prayer for spiritual understanding. The faith walk is a major are of life we all need spiritual understanding in. see also the importance of getting understanding in Prov.4:7; Ps.119:144 and Dan.9:22.

Faith is therefore clearly defined in Hebrews 11:1 (KJV) thus:

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

“Faith assures us of things we expect and convinces us of the existence of things we cannot see.” God’s word translation

From multiple translations therefore, we understand the following truths aboutfaith:

1. Faith is something that is physically unseen when it starts: When God spoke to Abraham that he would become the father of many nations with a barren wife, he could not get it until God took him out at night and gave him a mental picture of the stars while comparing it with the extent he was going to multiply his offspring. When Abraham saw this, he became persuaded because of the mental picture God gave to him which he was to keep before his eyes until the actualization of the promise of God. Note here that the entire promise was not to be fulfilled in his lifetime and Abraham knew that. See Gen.15:1-6 and Heb.11:39-40.

2. It is triggered by words: What is believed for is communicated in words or pictures showing what can be described in words like a vision. The word is energized by the confidence reposed on it by the person to whom it is spoken. For instance when a person hears a promise from another and does not believe what that other says, he or she does not act on it or even remember the words. In this case, there is no faith because the words even though was spoken and therefore created an offer of faith, the lack of belief in the words by the desired recipient makes it dormant and would therefore never find expression. For instance salvation is triggered by the preaching of the word of God. When it is believed, whoever believes it becomes the faithful and can therefore be a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. See Jn.3:16 and 8:30-32. From here it is clear that believing is just the beginning of faith. There must be continuity to get the freedom that faith brings.

3. The strength of the faith is dependent on whose word is the back of it or substantiates it: Since the source of a belief system has to do with words to which the adherents believe, we can understand why we have so many kinds of faith. This is why every religion is viewed as a faith. For instance in the contest at Mount Carmel we see a conflict between a religious belief system and the word of God through a genuine prophet of God. I believe the worshippers of Baal used to call down fire prior, but on this fateful day, there was a context between their God and the true God. They were therefore incapacitated that day because the proof of who the true God was would have been His ability to bring fire down at that specific time and Baal was not the true God. See 1Kings 18:21-39. Please note that Jesus did not bring another religion. He brought us eternal life. Elijah was representing the God of the nation of Israel who was operating the covenant of God’s promise to Abraham that out of his offspring shall come forth the Messiah of mankind from Satan’s curses to God’s blessing. See Gen.12: 1-3 – He later rescued them from Pharaoh and gave them laws to help them live in their own land of promise just like he wanted people to live. His intention was to multiply his influence around the world through them. This is why the gospel has gone viral today and is entering every nation on earth and raising a people for God who would walk in His ways.

Therefore, if your belief is based on the word of God, it cannot fail. If it is not based on God’s word, it may come to pass and it may not come to pass. Thus there is no assurance of it coming to pass if God is not the back of those words. People and devils have said things that came to pass before. But if those things had been confronted with God’s word, they would have failed. This explains why people had bad dreams that came to pass because they either did not know what to do about them or they were too lazy to do anything about them.

4. Faith has evidence and these evidences are seen before the manifestation of what is desired: In a court room, what is used to substantiate claims is called evidence. Evidence is either documented or verbal through an eye witness. The witness must he credible enough for his or her evidence to be admissible. For example, the presentation of a genuine title deed is sufficient to substantiate a claim to the ownership of the property represented in the title deed.

In the same vein, in the Court room of life, the only admissible evidence to claim any entitlement is the word of God promising you what you are trying to claim.

In the God kind of faith, the evidence is in two parts; the God part and the man’s part.

▪ God’s part is the promise which he initiated that whoever believes in the Lord Jesus Christ would be saved. This is the foundation of the Church and our faith. Man’s part here is to believe enough to receive Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord [John3:1-6, 16 and Rm.10:6-11].

▪ Next evidence is seen in the God part after man believes and receives salvation, God begins to lead Him. See Ps.23:1; Jn.1:12; Jn.16:13 and Rm.8:14-16. Every time the Holy Spirit shows us things to come, faith is again born and how we handle what he shows us is our faith walk.

▪ Then man in fulfilling his own part follows God’s leading and does what he is told. This is the faith life. As long as man keeps following God’s leading and doing what God tells him always, he would remain in faith and whatever promise God has made to him would come to fruition in God’s way and time when God considers the man to be fully persuaded of what God has promised. See Rm.4:17-22

We shall stop here for now. Next week, we shall continue to build on this. Meanwhile, someone reading this may feel the need to get into faith for the first time or be restored from backsliding due to former faith failure. Please do so right away by saying the following prayer out loud and continue to truly live:

Heavenly Father,

Congratulations! For more information and resources that would help you grow in this new life, please visit our website at www.kingdomheirsministries.org and our blogs at www.flourishinggirl.blogspot.com and follow us on twitter at alero_nanna and on face book on www.facebook.com/flourishinggirlwww.facebook.com/khmii2015; www.facebook.com/thewellbeingcenter. Or www.facebook.com/kingdomjointheirsfamily email: jointheirsfamily@gmail.com.

Remain on top of your challenges in Jesus’ name!

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