Today was very typical of Ministry House’s calling. At the beginning, praise and worship kept going as we moved into prayer for members at the altar for deliverance and freedom from whatever was binding them. It was AWESOME and powerful, and we even found a pack of cigarettes that were thrown down as an act of obedience and refusal to be bound to them any more!
Three (3) different members shared, and all three went together with the devotional that Ronnie read (which is unfortunately not on the recording). Below are Ronnie’s notes for his portion (Faith), but Chad shared first, and then Penny (with Alton’s description of physical muscle memory).
No matter how life is spinning out of control or giving you a hard time – .God is faithful and He is always Good!
Faith
• God will always do his part if we do ours. Genesis 6:9[ Noah and the Flood ] This is the account of Noah and his family. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God.
• Deuteronomy 7:9
Know therefore that the Lord your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments.
• Deuteronomy 32:4
• He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he.
• Psalm 33:4
David said “For the word of the Lord is right and true; he is faithful in all he does.
• Psalm 57:10
For great is your love, reaching to the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the skies.
• Psalm 100:5
• For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.
When no one else is trustworthy God still is…. When your family has come against you and you feel all alone He is the strong tower to lean on…. HE is trustworthy!!!
When your finances are completely gone God can supply all of your needs according to HIS riches!! IF you give unto the Lord He will give back to you…..
Luke 6:38Living Bible (TLB)
38 For if you give, you will get! Your gift will return to you in full and overflowing measure, pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, and running over. Whatever measure you use to give—large or small—will be used to measure what is given back to you.”
God will always do HIS part if we do ours and He is trustworthy!!
• Psalm 145:13
Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures through all generations. The Lord is trustworthy in all he promises and faithful in all he does.
What is our part?
Ex: The Faith of the Centurion
5 When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking for help. 6 “Lord,” he said, “my servant lies at home paralyzed, suffering terribly.”
7 Jesus said to him, “Shall I come and heal him?”
8 The centurion replied, “Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed 9 For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”
10 When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him, “Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith.11 I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. 12 But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
13 Then Jesus said to the centurion, “Go! Let it be done just as you believed it would.And his servant was healed at that moment.
The Faith of a Canaanite Woman
21 Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. 22 A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is demon-possessed and suffering terribly.”
23 Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, “Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us.”
24 He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.”
25 The woman came and knelt before him.“Lord, help me!” she said.
26 He replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.”
27 “Yes it is, Lord,” she said. “Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.”
28 Then Jesus said to her, “Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.” And her daughter was healed at that moment.
God will honor those who believe and have faith!!!
Psalm 101:3
I will not look with approval on anything that is vile. I hate what faithless people do; I will have no part in it.
How would you watch a game if you knew beforehand that your team had already won?
A person knew that he was going to miss an important sports event, so he had it recorded to watch at a later time. However, before watching the game, he inadvertently found out that his team had won. How would the knowledge of his team’s victory affect his watching of the game?
How would he react if his team played poorly in the first half? Would he get nervous? Not if he was confident in what he had heard. He would know that a turnaround was on the way.
He would have the knowledge and confidence, that no matter how bad it may look, something would have to happen to give his team the victory.
In fact, instead of becoming nervous, he would become excited, anticipating that miraculous turnaround moment. He would know that it had to occur because his team had already won!
He has this confidence because he is now watching the game backward, from the perspective of the known ending. Everything now is being viewed in relation to the knowing that his team has already won. The only remaining unknown is the manner in which it will happen.
The moment he found out that his team had won, winning stopped being a possibility (a hope), and instead became a known fact, which is the basis of faith.
How silly would it be to watch a rerun of a game where you already knew your team had won, and still worry about whether they will win?
Everything now is being viewed in relation to the knowing that his team has already won.
His trust in the victory is determined by his level of trust in the source of the news. If the source was credible, he could be extremely confident.
If, on the other hand, the source was, say, a stray comment overheard from a stranger, he could have room to doubt. In other words, the weight of the observed circumstances only matters if the information source is not trusted or credible.
The only thing that matters is how well he heard and how trusted is the source. Everything depends on that and that alone….
If we know no more than anybody else before the game, then we will be the same as everybody else during the game.
This knowledge of victory that gives us faith is based on a ‘knowing’ Word from God. Faith is God’s Word becoming alive to us in a real and personal way, concerning a real and specific situation or thing. Faith is the result of God speaking the outcome to our heart. And when we hear the outcome, we know the outcome. It is when we stand on this knowing that we are standing on His Word in faith. This Word that we heard is now a knowing that we must receive and act upon.
So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ. Romans 10:17
The victory and peace we can walk in during the game is determined by our hearing from God prior to the game.
To have this knowledge of victory we must spend the time necessary to hear solidly from Him. The stronger the trust in the ‘hearing,’ the less of an impact the so called ‘facts’ of the game will have on us. Once we know the outcome, we own the outcome.
Then we are expected to protect and retain the ownership of that ‘knowing’ till the end, through patience.
The writer of Hebrews says that, ‘by faith and patience (we shall) inherit (or receive) the promises (the collective ‘hopes’ of God’s Word).’
If we had knowledge of God’s will in every area of our life we would have peace in every area of our life. Let us first, labor to hear from God, and then we will be able to watch the game of life with peace.
The things received from God in private determine the victories accomplished later in public. We are told ‘not to lean to our own understanding,’ but rather, our ears are only to be on what He says. Nothing else matters.
But life is not that simple.
Granted, in real life it’s not as simple as this. In life, we are not merely watching a race; we are in the race.
We are the ones going back and forth, sweating, straining, and getting hit. Our loved ones are playing and they are also getting hit. Some of them may even be playing for other team, and that really hurts.
Moreover, our main opponent (the devil) is a very talented player, and he doesn’t play fair. He is a great deceiver and he knows how to use our own weaknesses against us.
Nevertheless, the principals are still the same, and with God, we are capable of winning. The Bible tells us that we are more than conquerors through Him who strengthens us. To win, we must practice and practice till we are able to play the game of life with love and faith and peace.
We are more than conquerors through Him who strengthens us. THe Bible tells us We are winners in Christ!
• [ Faith in Action ]Heb Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.
This is the only way we can carry the Cross !!!!! Faith
• Last we have to become HIS disciples!!!!
Luke 9:23-24Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it.
To take up the cross means to renounce selfish ambition; it is a death to a whole way of life.
Matthew 10:38 Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me.
Matthew 16:24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.(A)
Luke 14:27 And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.