Faith

★ Happy resurrection day! I wanna encourage each of you to trust that God can not only raise dead people but also dead dreams and lost hopes. Everything is possible with faith. As I've gotten back into my blog I've been reviewing each page and I saw this about faith (which you can also find at the bottom of the Who is God? page and I wanted to share it with y'all again. It reads: So, what is faith exactly? Faith is not believing. Faith is knowing. Faith is trusting that God's word is the truth. Faith is knowing that God keeps his promises. Faith is knowing that whatever you ask for in prayer (according to God's will) will be given to you. Faith is not measured by a clock it sees the future, but not exact day, date, neither the exact time. Faith waits; it is patience. Faith is persistence. Never give up, don't stop praying nor believing and hoping for a miracle. Your faithfulness will move God. Why? Because he loves you. So, faith is exactly what Hebrews says it is... It is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

★ Let's talk about faith this morning! We know Hebrews 11:1, in fact we know all about the faith chapter and all the Bible characters it talks about and their great faith. Well what about us? Our faith often looks different because times have changed. We don't see people getting miraculously healed when the shadow of a Christian is cast over them (see Acts 5). What we do see is quiet miracles. God doesn't have to come crashing in and put on a show and neither do we. Psalms tells us to be still and know he is God. Jesus was asleep in the storm he calmed the storm. My god is not the author of confusion nor chaos but a God of peace and light. Everything about him is peaceful, even his wrath. In revelation we see that every sin will be done away with and the sinners thrown in the lake of fire, that is done to bring peace to his children. Everything about him is peaceful it always has been the stories in the Bible were not a big show nor a quick one time answered prayer there faith was tried just like ours everyday. Go read psalms and you'll see David felt just like we do like God wasn't listening like he had been forgotten about but he still trusted in God he still had hope. His faith had been shaken but the foundation kept it from crumbling. Consistent prayer is daily communicating with your that you trust in him to bring it to pass. Cry out to him seek his face, yes we have needand we want to blessed but we get so caught up in the materialistic things that we don't seek a savior, a deliver, a friend, the glory of God, the peace of being in his presence. People cannot meet the emotional needs our of hearts only the holy spirit which dwells I us can fulfill those desires. My bible says the joy of the Lord is my strength. God answers our earnest prayers and mees our needs according to HIS perfect timing not when we think or feel like he should have answered us. My favorite scripture is 

Habakkuk 2:2-3 And the LORD answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.

This verse is my daily reminder that my dreams and hopes for the future matter that God cares for me. I wouldn't have the dreams I have if they were not a part of God's plan God's plans are good for us he wants for us to prosper and be blessed he desires for us to have good things and enjoy the fruits of our labor. It's not his plan for us to loose everything like Job but what he expects from us is to have faith even when we loose it all. We are not living in a perfect peaceful world we are living in a world of chaos and sin and we should be seeking the lord for who he is he we should be seeking his peace and his spirit asking him to separate us from the world asking him to forgive us and reveal himself to us. By faith whatever we ask for for his glory it will be given to us we forget that. we want we want we want but do we want those things so we can be closer to him. The only thing he wants is a relationship with us a true friendship. Build up your faith and he will strengthen you he will bring it to pass. He wants to perform miracles and meet our needs and desires but we need to build up our faith. So this week that is what we will be talking about building up our faith. 

Devotions below

★What is the Lord saying to us? That is a deep question because he is saying so many things all at once. Look at the senery around you listen to the sounds of nature God did that he didn't do the chaos and crazy in your day to day life he did every little thing we take for granted in order to speak to you and remind you he is everywhere in everything and he loves us he cares for us more than anything. He gave us the breath in our lungs and the ability to hear, see, smell, taste, and feel both physically and emotionally. He is God he is good. We know what he is saying through nature however its hard to know which direction he is telling us to go. He will order our steps we just have to wait on divine revelation and not act out of fear, stress, or pressure. It may seem easy to get still and quiet to hear the voice of God but what do we do when that voice is silent. We continue to wait. We trust that he has a purpose and a plan as well as a perfect timing for everything. So we wait on the lord and he renews our strength in the waitng process. Don't give up yet.

★When you seek me with all your heart you will find me. Says the Lord. He cares for you and he knows when your hurting. He desires for you to seek him. He's not hiding he's in plain sight waiting for you to want him. When you decide you want him he will open the eyes of your heart to see him standing there before you where he has always been. Call upon him and he will answer you.

★Jesus believes in you. He has confidence in you even when you don't have it in yourself. He believes you can overcome anything and according to his holy word you can. Why is it that we cant believe in ourdelves and trust Jesus even after he has given us the power and authority through his name to heal people, to se people free, to restore and redeem the broken. Why do we have such little faith yet, refuse to use it to move our own mountains. We expect God to show up and show out (escpecically for others), but we don't do anything for him. Faith without works is dead and faith without love doesn't count. Stop blaming HIM, HE did not hurt you he choose you, he called you, he loved you first. He believes in you and has confidence in you. Run back into his loving embrace. He's waiting on you.

★Jesus promises to leave his peace with us. We must learn to trust him and give him all our anxieties. We have the mind of Christ. We don't have to live in fear, worry, or stress. We can be at peace. He never fails us he never forsakes us. Instead he forgives us, he loves us, he protects us, and he cares for us. He cares for us in a way that we are unable to comprehend. His ways are higher than our ways his plans and his thoughts are out of this world. They're heavenly where we are limited to making plans based on what we see in the physical. Our faith however changes the way we see things we can see into the spiritual when we have faith. Faith let's us see things as Jesus sees them. We are given the mind of Christ we get to interrupt things differently than the world. Our faith renews our mind. Peace is a gift from above, but we can't receive it until we trust Jesus and in order to trust Jesus we have to allow our faith to renew our minds.

★We need to learn to be silent. Be silent and listen for the voice of the Lord. We need to stop telling people our business, what we heard God say to us. We need to sit back and wait on God to bring those things to pass. Sometimes we can hinder our own blessings by the words that come out of our mouth. Words filled with doubt, or disbelief will pause those promises from the Lord from manifesting in your life sooner. Speak to the mountains if you have a little faith tell every situation to line up with the word of God. But stay silent the people around you also carry life and death in the tongue. 

★God revitalizes us. He refurbishes, rebuilds, reshapes, washes us there are just so many ways God changes us. We need to get a hold of God. He is in the business of bringing dead things back to life. We need to feed our faith and let our doubts starve God is going to make it happen whether we believe it or not. That is who God is, he doesn't care if you want him to do it or not if he wants to do it he will. Trust in God today. Give him praise. Stand firm and be courageous for his word gives us life everlasting. 

★God's love is everlasting. It's patient and kind it doesn't envy or boast it is not proud. I could keep going but we all know the love chapter by heart. It has been reproduced many times and even become part of our homes through decorations and photos. God's love is real it's hard to feel when we get caught up in the things of this world. That's why it's important to be in the world and not of it. God cleanses us he makes us white as snow. God is caple of removing the stains your laundry detergent leaves behind. I know you've seen all the commercials but that white as snow is different. When you see untouched snow for the first time it glistens and shimmers. It looks nothing like a brand new white shirt. When God gets a hold of us we shine. He tells us to let our light shine before men. We are the light of the earth. We need to be spreading his love so that others will shine. We don't have to react like the rest of the world they are part of it but we are not. We are the children of God it's time to stand firm in that knowledge and share the good news with the world. They too can be set apart and different. We don't fit into this world but we all fit together in the body of Christ. Go out and spread his love, if you want to know how to do that go read the love chapter it tells you be patient and kind do not boast nor be envious... Go ahead you know the rest. But remember this one thing there is no greater love than when a man lay down his life for his friends. Jesus laid his life down to be your friend he's not asking you to lay yours down. He's asking you as his friend to tell somebody what he did for them. He laid his life down so they too no matter what they did may also call him friend.

★It's never to early to start being Thankful infact the bible tells us to be thankful in everything. So lets be thankful this fall for the good report. The report from the Lord almighty not the report from the dr, not the report from your job, or school, or your neighbor, but the report of the Lord. What report am i talking about, the word of God. The word of God reports, you are healed by his stripes, you are loved, you have more than enough, more food, more clothes, shoes, more money to not only pay your bills but to give joyfully. The report of the Lord is good. Be thankful today and remember to do good and share with others these are the sacrifices that are pleasing to the Lord.

Note: this page will be updated daily only during the holiday season until then feel free to check back weekly to see what the Lord is saying.