Hello everyone,
It’s easy to feel disappointed when the things you’re believing God to do for you just don’t seem to happen. Often people write in asking why God doesn’t hear their prayers. They feel so despondent in their Christian walk, because it seems that all their heartfelt requests fall on deaf ears. If you can relate to this, I pray this series of letters touches your heart and brings you a clear understanding of how good God is, how much He loves you, and how you can practically understand faith and put it to work in your life.
In the previous letter we discovered that faith is not a whimsical, wishful state of mind, but a spiritual force that has the ability to reach into the spiritual realm and bring whatever God has promised us, into our natural reality.
Faith is the way God designed for us to live as people who overcome in this life. It’s the way we can appropriate every freedom and promise Jesus paid the price for when He went to the cross. It’s the only way we can enjoy the benefits of personally knowing God, and it’s how we live in continuous victory over our enemy, the devil.
We also learnt that we increase our faith by meditating on the Word of God, believing what it says as our final authority, and being sure to keep our words and conversations in line with it.
The important key is to never change what we say to align with our circumstances, but rather keep our words true to what God’s Word says. Even if situations appear to stubbornly stay the same - we must never speak contrary to what the Word says. No circumstance has ever, nor will ever change what God says. It’s His Word that remains forever the same, and has the power to change every fact of our circumstances, and making them line up with His Word.
This means the problem with our faith not working is not on God’s side. His Word ALWAYS produces what it says. Isaiah 55:11 says, “So shall My word be that goes forth out of My mouth: it shall not return to Me void [without producing any effect, useless], but it shall accomplish that which I please and purpose, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.”
So what prevents our faith from working? One prevention is doubt.
- Don’t Doubt!
Often, when we don’t see the results we want, when we want - doubt sets in. The first tell tale sign of doubt is in our words. Just as faith is carried on our words that align with scripture, doubt is carried out on our negative words, and has the power to make our faith completely inoperative. The book of James says that we mustn’t even expect to receive anything if we have doubt. James 1:6-8 says, “Only it must be in faith that he asks with no wavering (no hesitating, no doubting). For the one who wavers (hesitates, doubts) is like the billowing surge out at sea that is blown hither and thither and tossed by the wind. For truly, let not such a person imagine that he will receive anything [he asks for] from the Lord, [For being as he is] a man of two minds (hesitating, dubious, irresolute), [he is] unstable and unreliable and uncertain about everything [he thinks, feels, decides].”
The Bible says we must keep a vigilant watch over the words we speak, so determine to never allow your words to carry doubt because they disagree with God’s own words.
Another deterrent of active faith is the way we perceive God’s Word.
- See God’s Word as Himself
Something that will help you counter the temptation to doubt is to change your perspective of God’s Word. It’s easy for Christians to fall into the trap of seeing the Word as a mechanical formula, instead of a personal representation of the Person of God. Our confidence and expectation must lie in our trust of the God we intimately know. Our dependency is rooted in understanding His absolute love and faithfulness towards us. Not a mechanical formula. When we give ourselves to God’s Word, we give ourselves to truly knowing Who He is. This is where we see that His ways are perfect and His promises are true - we fall in love with Him and His Word. Loving and embracing God through His Word begins a transformation process in us from the inside out. We are changed by knowing Him. Our thoughts become influenced by His thoughts (His Word), as do our attitudes, our words, and our actions.
So now, when we speak words of faith, they aren’t just empty recitations, or wishful declarations, they are full of power because we speak from lives that have been Divinely influenced by our relationship with the Word Himself.
I earnestly encourage you to take the time to purposefully give yourself to God’s Word this week. Each day determine to find out more about Him as you spend time meditating on its truth. Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal the Person of Jesus to you and make His Words come alive in your heart, so that the transformation process can begin inside you. As you delight in His Word, you’ll delight in Him and His ways. This is where He places His pure and wonderful desires for your good in your heart and mind, so you can walk in them. Psalms 37:4 says, “Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He will give you the desires and secret petitions of your heart.”
In our next letter, we’ll continue speaking about some of the things that can prevent our faith from working and being as effective as the Word says it should be.
All my love,
Jenny
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