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The Measure of Faith
I believe there is coming a time, and it is rapidly approaching, when the faith of believers will be severely tested. This is certainly true for American Christians.
How prepared are you? There are steps one can take in the natural realm in an attempt to protect oneself and his or her family. Preparing physically is important, but preparing spiritually is even more vital. We should consider the following: How is my faith?
God has given each of us “a measure of faith” (Romans 12:3). This is a work of grace: a divine deposit made by God. It is a matter of personal responsibility to water, tend, and cultivate that seed. We must allow it to take firm root in our hearts and give it regular attention. Weeds will attempt to creep in and choke our faith by choking the Word. It can become unfruitful!
Just as the Word can become unfruitful in our hearts, so can faith. In Luke 17:5, the disciples came to Jesus and requested, “Increase our faith.” This can only happen as we spend time with Him and in His Word.
The Church has been given a very unique opportunity. Read these words from Ephesians 3:10: “…to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church…”
It is God’s intended purpose for the Body of Christ to be a manifestation of His many-faceted wisdom. This can only happen as we walk by faith, for it is by faith that we receive His wisdom (James 1:5-6).
There is coming a shaking as America continues to defy God; think it not strange. This is an exciting and challenging time, and it will soon become even more so. God has chosen you and I “for such a time.” As we demonstrate faith with works and manifest wisdom for skillful living, God will be glorified through His Church!
Grace & Peace,
pg
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Let’s look at Genesis 12:1.
12 Now the Lord had said to Abram:
“Get out of your country,
From your family
And from your father’s house,
To a land that I will show you.
2 I will make you a great nation;
I will bless you
And make your name great;
And you shall be a blessing.
3 I will bless those who bless you,
And I will curse him who curses you;
And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
God
spoke to Abram and said, “I want you to leave the place where you are;
leave your house and your family” (paraphrased). Some of you can
identify with that type of calling. God said that He wanted Abram to
leave where he was in order to get to where He wanted to take him.
Now,
this is going to sound oversimplified, but we can never get to where
we’re going if we’re not willing to leave where we are. That’s an
amazing truth. Man, that’s deep, eh? We can’t become what God wants us
to become if we’re determined to stay the way we are. Even in regard to
our behavior, if we are more attached to the way we currently are than
we are attracted to what God wants us to be, then we’ll never change.
The thing that needs to take place is that we need to become miserable
with the way we are.
As
long as we’re content with our “normal,” then we’ll never be determined
to move in a new direction! Are you getting that? This is important!
Some people are content being miserable, go figure. How do I know?
Because they never change! All it takes is a simple adjustment. My wife
and I sometimes just want to shake people and say, “If you’d just make
this little change, you will see a significant difference.”
Many
times they want to hold on to the old dry bone when God has fresh meat
for them. It takes an element of faith. Change requires faith; fear
keeps us locked into where we are. Why do the majority of people whom
God has called to a foreign land not go? Many times it’s because they’re
afraid, or sometimes it’s because they’re in such financial bondage
that they feel they could never do it. I’m here to tell you that if
you’re determined to go, God will provide the mechanism, the method, and
the means, and you’ll end up with the result that God wants you to
have! It may not happen the way we think it should.
Basically,
in order to experience this greater level of grace that Abraham
exemplified, we have to learn to willfully follow. Abraham willfully
followed! By the way, as far as I can tell, Abraham was the first person
in the Bible to whom God truly revealed Himself. He had obviously
spoken and revealed Himself in various ways to others, but Abraham’s was
a fuller revelation of God Almighty. Whew! That’s pretty cool. What
would have happened if Abraham had chosen not to willfully follow? I
want you to understand that there’s a seven-fold blessing that is
attached to Abraham’s obedience, and you can read it in the passage
above.
Today,
we are here as Abraham’s seed. What qualifies us to be a son or
daughter of Abraham? I’ll tell you what: FAITH! Abraham believed God,
and it was counted to him as righteousness. He had to be willing to exit
his former lifestyle in order to enter into the blessing that God had
prepared for him. There were challenges! We’re all familiar with some of
the challenges in Abraham’s life from Pharaoh to Sodom and Gomorrah.
Think
it not strange; there are going to be situations that seem very
difficult! God never promised that there wouldn’t be any trials and
tribulations. He said to count it all joy! Why? You can count it all joy
because He is with you, and He’s called you to be more than a conqueror
in Christ Jesus!
Grace and peace,
pg
Greetings! This blog continues to
hit on the subject of “Stepping Out In Faith.” Why do we give so much attention
to this topic? Basically it’s because, “. . . without faith it is impossible to please Him,
for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of
those who diligently seek Him” (Hebrews 11:6).
I was talking to a friend the
other day, and he was telling me about this PX90 thing. Now, he’s starting to
look all trim and buff, and he said, “You know at first it really hurt, and I
couldn’t even lift my hands this high.” I said, “That right there is what keeps
me out of the gym.” People, if we’re going to get in shape, we’re gonna have to
do something. Similarly, if we want to see our current financial status change,
that means taking action as well! Faith
requires actions; we must take steps.
Stop waiting for God to do
something when He’s already told you what to do. He has taken the first step by
communicating what you’re supposed to do. Until you take a step in response, you have no right to further instruction. So if
you feel that God has been silent, maybe you haven’t done the first thing that
He told you to do . . . or maybe it’s the last thing that He told you to do.
You might be saying, “I just
can’t hear God; I’m in a desert place.” Well, maybe you ought to go back to
where you lost the ax head! God doesn’t have to speak because you push a button
and put a quarter in. I love it
when Christians say, “God asked me to . . ..” God doesn’t ask me; He says, “Do
it,” and then He awaits my response. Maybe it doesn’t work that way in your
life. I’ve never heard the voice of God say to me, “Emory, I need you to do
such and such. Would you? Could you? Pleeeaaase?” I ain’t ever heard God say
“please” to me. He gives out His instructions, and then He waits to see if I’m
gonna do it. Every time it requires faith!
It seems that He always wants me
to do something that’s going to require an element of faith, and that right
there is where many believers stop. It might be in the area of relationships or
attitude. God might be saying, “Emory, forgive them,” and I might say, “I can’t
forgive them.” Now would God tell us to forgive someone if it were impossible
to forgive him or her? No! How do you think God forgives you? It’s a
supernatural thing. You can forgive anybody if you choose to. The reason you’re
not forgiving is because you elect not to.
Here’s another thing to consider,
forgive doesn’t mean to forget. Forgive means to release someone from the debt,
offense, trespass, or penalty. Let it go! They probably let it go a long time
ago. Forgive them! God is not telling you to do something that He has not given
you the ability to do!
In your finances, God has
instructed you to do certain things. It’s amazing to me how many mature
Christians struggle with tithing. The reason there’s a struggle is because folks
don’t understand that it ALL belongs to God. They say they do, but they don’t
live it. So God says, “Give me back one tenth.” “Are you crazy, God? One tenth?”
Then you get into the offering part of it (above the tenth), and before long
Deuteronomy 28 becomes the reality, “Blessed going in, blessed going out,
blessed in the city, blessed in the field, and all of these blessings will come
upon thee and shall overtake thee.” Why? Man, you’re walking in the blessing!
You’re walking in the promise! You’re walking by faith.
God said, “Do it,” and I did it,
and here’s the fruit of it. Want to know why some people are more blessed than
other people? It’s not because God loves them more, it is usually because of
decisions and choices they’ve made. Those choices are based on perspective.
It’s really all about fulfilling God’s purpose. What are you doing in your life
today? What steps are you taking in order that you might walk in a greater
measure of God’s promises and God’s blessing?
~ pg
“We are God’s own handiwork, His workmanship, we are created in Christ
Jesus, born anew, that we may do those good works which God predestined,
planned beforehand, for us, taking the paths, that He prepared ahead of time,
that we should walk in them, living the good life which He prearranged and made
ready for us to live” (Ephesians 2:10).
We are God’s handiwork, His
masterpiece. We are, you are, and I am. We are recreated in Christ in order to
do the good works God planned for us before He made us! This is why we have
been born again. The really good news according to this Scripture is that
Apostle Paul says that God has set paths before us ahead of time. Then it says
that we should learn to walk in those paths that He has already prepared. Don’t
take for granted that you’re doing it. Like the old song says, “You can go your
own way,” and many of God’s people are choosing their own way through their
limited thinking. It’s like many in the church are looking for the exact same
thing as people in the world . . . things such as comfort and security. We ought to have that part of it pretty
well covered, folks!
Oftentimes, we base our thinking and our
decisions on the security level. Unwilling to take a risk, we hold on to our
comfort. Shortly after coming off the mission field and arriving in Fayetteville, NC, I discovered that I don’t like
to grow too comfortable. When I start to get too comfortable and secure, look
out, Emory, things are about to change. Why? Because for me, God doesn’t want
me getting so wrapped up in the security of this world that I’m not able to
take the risk of obeying Him. Are you willing to risk, or what are you holding
on to? Are we saying, “I’ll give this much, but I gotta hold on to this?" When
we hold back, we’re showing God that we don’t really trust Him. We find our
security in something else, and usually it’s in the same type of thing in which
the world finds their security.
Now, we see that we should learn
to walk in those paths that the Lord has already prepared, and this will lead
to living the good life that God has prearranged for us to live. Wouldn’t you
like to live the good life that God has prearranged? If so, then you’re going
to have to follow Him and that is always going to bring an element of apparent
risk. And there are those who will say, “Well, God doesn’t really want you to
forsake it all. He just wants to know that you’re willing.” I’ve heard many
Christians over the years say, “He doesn’t really want you to give it up, it’s
an attitude of the heart.” He just wants to know that you’re willing to give it
up. No, you aren't willing to give it up! And He knows you aren't willing to give
it all up because you're not doing it! We may be trying to play God a fool, but
He ain’t no fool; He does see the heart.
What we forget is that everything
we need to accomplish that which God has created us to accomplish is already ours. It
already exists. Everything already exists in either the seen realm or the
unseen realm. If it’s in the unseen realm, we simply need faith in order to
bring it into the seen realm. Even those things that are coming from the
spiritual into the natural realm are truly already in existence. Everything
you need to be whom God created you to be is in you. It’s already in you. You
have this supernatural DNA by virtue of the new birth. Do you believe that you
even received some sort of blood transfusion when you got “borned” again? Do
you believe that you have the very life of God flowing through your veins? I
do! We don’t just sing, “I Have a River of Life,” we have a river of life
flowing in us and through us.
God is looking for dreamers: those
who will be bold and bodacious enough to dream for Him. I am finding that
dreamers accomplish very significant things. We don’t read of too many in the
Scriptures, but we do read of enough to know that God uses dreamers to
accomplish great things. You may think I’m crazy, but it’s okay. Here’s what I
believe about each person: I believe that every one of us has the potential
within to do something so significant that it could change the world.
While I was reading this weekend,
I discovered something very interesting. Have you ever heard of XM radio? We
didn’t even know what that was fifteen years ago, did we? You know why? It
didn’t exist fifteen years ago. XM Radio was
founded by a fellow named Noah Samara
who is an African. He didn’t have any money. He had a vision to set up a communication
network for the people of Africa because their lack of communication was
killing them. He had a desire to help other people! Do you know that in a year
and a half Noah raised a billion and a half dollars? He started with nothing
except a dream. Wow!
My wife and I were watching a TV
show the other night, and they made mention of some guy named Jay Sorensen. Did you
ever think of stupid little things like those wrappers that keep you from
burning your fingers on a cup of coffee? I believe they call them “sleeves.”
The guy who invented those is now a multi-, multimillionaire. Then they were
talking about turkey bones! One Thanksgiving a family was sitting around the
table, and you know the tradition of breaking the wishbone? How many wishbones
are in each turkey? ONE! Ken Ahroni said, “That’s not enough.” And it’s NOT if
you’ve been around kids or grandkids at the holiday table. There’s only one
wishbone, and they each want to break one! So you know what Ken did? He
invented a synthetic wishbone that would snap and break, so on Thanksgiving,
everyone could have one. Do you know how many wishbones they’re making now? His
company is producing thirty thousand wishbones a DAY! I’m just sayin’.
You see, some of those “crazy”
ideas you get . . . may only be crazy to you. And until they become a reality
to you, they will only remain just a dream or some fantastic thing that’s
beyond reach or the ability to come into fruition. It’ll just be a fantasy, and
you’ll simply live a life restricted by your own thinking until and unless you
venture outside the confines of comfort and security. I’d like to encourage
each and every believer who is within the reach of this blog to pay very close
attention to the ideas that God is placing within your heart and mind. He’s
constantly speaking, may we ever be constantly listening.
~ pg
We are continuing with the topic of “Available, But Not Automatic,” and how that relates to the blessings of God in our lives.
You’re all familiar with the word, “soteria” in the Greek. It’s synonymous with “sozo,” which refers to our deliverance, our healing, and to the abundant life that Christ came to provide for us. “How shall we escape if we neglect this great salvation?” (Hebrews 2:3). And then the writer continues on in verse 4, “And God also bearing witness . . .” How did God bear witness to the things that had been spoken? The answer is in verse 4. “God bearing witness both with signs and wonders and with various miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His own will.”
That’s how God confirmed His Word. I want to say this, and I don’t mean this as an offense, but is it neglecting so great a salvation, is it an example of neglect, to not allow God to confirm His Word the same way today? Here’s my point. God still wants to confirm His Word with signs, wonders, and miracles, and He does this through believers. The problem is that oftentimes we’re neglecting our salvation. I don’t mean that in a condemning way, and I’m not saying that you’re headed towards hell. What I am saying is that we don’t place the value upon what God has given us and give Him the credit that He’s worthy of.
Many times we don’t believe His Word to the point of doing it. Why is that so difficult? I think I know why. Because in our human way of thinking, there is tremendous risk involved. What keeps us from praying for the sick? What keeps us from delivering those who are held captive? Oftentimes I hear excuses such as, “Well, that’s just not my gift.” Well, then you’re in direct contradiction with the Word of God because Jesus told all of His disciples to go and do these things. There were no exemptions. There was no, “I want everyone to go out and do these things except you. I’m giving YOU a different gift,” huh? There were no exceptions when it came to this mandate. If you are a disciple, Jesus told you to do these things!
When the disciples went and did "these things" in places as stated in Mark 16:20, God once again confirmed His Word with signs and wonders following. See, I’m getting to one of our Core Values, which is “O” for “Outreach” (derived from the acronym W.O.R.D.). Oftentimes we define “outreach” as food distribution, going to the homeless shelter and cooking a meal, or going to spend some time with those in the nursing home or prison. Now those are all great things to do; they are forms of outreach. A lot of times we will do those things, but neglect doing that which requires greater faith. Why? “Well, God has called me to feed the hungry, but not heal the sick.” Really? How about let’s be honest. “I believe God wants me to heal the sick, but I’m afraid.” How about, “I believe God wants me to cast out demons, but ‘what if?’” That’s the risk factor.
Obedience to God will always involve a level of human risk. What we’re really saying is, “obedience to God is risky business.” And we think about all of the “what ifs” and all of the failures. We say, “Oh yeah, I prayed for this guy and he died.” Well, so did I. It was a different guy. Back in the 1980’s, first guy I ever prayed for. . . died. Boom. Dead. I’ve been praying for sick folks ever since. I don’t know how many have died; I do know that a bunch of them have lived. And it’s not going to keep me from doing what the Word of God has told me to do. What are we risking? Here’s the deal. Am I risking my good name? What is it that I’m afraid of risking? My reputation? My job? Am I really willing to put all of that on the table over here and finally walk in obedience to God?
These are some questions that I’d like us to dwell on for the next few days. Ask God to search your heart and show you areas wherein you’re holding back, and not only that, but WHY you may not be moving forward. Regardless of the past, it is a new day and a new, fruitful season that is abounding with God’s favor. All we have to do is take steps in the right direction and be obedient to His command.
~ pg
“The blessing of the Lord makes one rich” (Proverbs 10:22). I think that we’re rich beyond our comprehension. We have wealth that we don’t even know about. Part of the Church’s responsibility is to help people become aware of the wealth that is theirs, so they can get their hands on it and use it wisely for the expansion of God’s kingdom.
The minute that I say “wealth,” most people naturally think about money. But there’s a wealth of blessing that is not necessarily monetarily related. I believe God wants us to have abundance in every area and that certainly includes finances. The blessing of the Lord makes one rich, and He adds no sorrow to it. That’s the first point I really would like to make. God doesn’t attach sorrow to His blessing. Now, He can certainly use bad situations to bring about good results, but He does not add sorrow to His blessing according to His Word.
That’s why I’m calling this blog, “Available, But Not Automatic.” The essence of the message is this: the blessings of God are available to us all, but they are not automatic. God gives to us everything that He has. As joint heirs with Christ, we are equal heirs with Jesus. Therefore, biblically, everything that God has, He makes available to you and I, but it is NOT automatic. It is not something where we push a button and waa laa, there it is! It doesn’t work by magic; it doesn’t work by formula. It may be available to us, but that does not guarantee we’re going to get our hands on it!
I believe this includes the manifestation of God’s grace, His presence, His gifts, and His glory in our lives. We can ill afford to take for granted the blessings of God. Even though we know that all we have has been made available to us through Jesus Christ, that is not cause for us to take the blessings of the Lord for granted. And when we begin to think that things are automatic, it’s easy for neglect to set in.
Think about “neglect” for a moment. It’s like a child who takes his toys for granted, and as a result, tends to neglect them. This principle works in our lives even though in chronological age, we may be adults. It bears repeating: things that we take for granted, we tend to neglect, even kingdom things, kingdom values, and the blessings of the Lord.
Hebrews 2:1: “Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away.” I want to break this down. We must give earnest heed. In other words, we’re going to have to pay careful attention to the things that we’ve already heard. That’s what the writer of Hebrews said. The tendency is for us to drift away if we don’t pay attention. And he’s writing to, I assume, relatively mature individuals.
There’s a danger in drifting, and it is infecting the Church today. And you don’t have to get off course by much to end up with a bad result. It’s sort of like the airplane pilot. If an airplane pilot is off by just one degree, of course depending upon how far his intended destination is, being off by one degree, he’ll certainly miss the mark.
It’s true in golf. Now, I never really had to worry about it too much in golf because I could never hit the ball far enough to be too concerned about being off a few degrees. But if you’re Tiger Woods, and you can drive a ball 300 to 325 yards, the more accurate it better be, or you’re gonna end up out of bounds. And the same is true in our Christian walk. The longer you drift off course without taking corrective action, the farther you’ll end up off course. You keep going, going, going, and believe me, that one degree is going to make a bigger difference the longer it is ignored. Are you with me here? The writer of Hebrews says, “Give earnest heed, pay attention, to the things that you’ve heard in order to avoid drifting away.” That’s a great admonishment for us to listen to, take earnest heed, and pay careful attention!
~ pg
In my last blog, I shared Cx3’s core values: W (Worship), O (Outreach), R (Relationship), and now I’m wrapping it up with the last letter, “D,” of the acronym “WORD.”
“D” is for “Discipleship”: We, Cliffdale Christian Center, are getting back to solid discipleship. It’s not going to be for everybody. I want to go on record: our goal is not to be one of the biggest churches in Fayetteville. Never was, never will be. God bless those who have that vision; it’s a wonderful thing. I hope they see their goal fulfilled, and they have thousands and thousands of people coming to church on Sunday. Our goal is to raise disciples. That doesn’t make us better; it doesn’t make them better. I’m just saying that our goal is to make disciples. And if you’re in, “Come on.”
If you just want to be comfortable going somewhere and putting a little money in the basket every week, well, I don’t know how long you’ll want to remain around here. Stay as long as you’re comfortable, but there will be a time that you’re going to get itchy feet and say, “I ain’t stayin’ here no more. Too much is expected of me. I’d rather go where I feel better, put my money in a basket, and Pastor, don’t get in my face every week.” We’ve tried that. It doesn’t work! Not for us. And who wants that? Man, I don’t want a church full of corpses!
It is time for Cliffdale to return to our first love. Time for us to do what God has called us to do. His calling has never changed. We had changed, but God’s call on this church has never changed. And we’ll only be fulfilled when we are busy about the Father’s business and when we are doing those things that God created us to do, not only as individuals, but also as a church.
I don’t want to follow a god that I imagine what he is, and then he fits my schematic of what my idea of a god is supposed to be like. Sometimes I think that we’ve done that in the American church. Yes, God is love, and He is merciful, but you know what? He’s also fire. What are ya gonna do with that one? We’re sometimes so fearful of a word on judgment. Well, read your Bible! “Oh, we’ll just leave that part out.” What did Jesus say? He said in that day many will come to Me and say, “Lord, Lord,” and I’ll look at them and say, “Depart from Me, workers of iniquity, I never knew you.” May we not be guilty of claiming the lordship of Christ unless we are willing to obey Him!
Every kingdom has a king (king-dom, king’s dominion). The kingdom in which you live has a king, a final authority. Is it you, or is it Jesus? You live in a kingdom. The question is: who is the ruler?
So God is calling us back. Oh yes, He’s calling us up, He’s calling us deep, but He’s calling us BACK! We don’t hear too much about being called back. We want to go higher and deeper, higher and deeper, higher and deeper. “No, I’m calling you BACK to those things that you first did that were making a difference.”
And so plans are underway, and my family and our leadership are saying, “Here we are, Lord,” and if it means selling our stuff, well, so be it. “I’ll sell everything except . . . except . . . my golf clubs. I won’t sell my golf clubs.” I was looking around the other day and saying to my wife, “We gotta get rid of stuff, we gotta get rid of it, and we have to start to do some things here.” And she said, “Tell me!”
Even in the challenge that Wesley made the other day, you don’t sell something so that you can buy other things for yourself. I used the example earlier: “I’ll sell my golf clubs so I can buy a new surfboard. Huh, how about that, Jesus?” And you know what Jesus says, “Do whatever you want, just remember, I see your works. I see them. I see what you’re doing.”
Now, He did have a couple of commendations there in verse 2 of Revelation chapter 2; He saw several good things about the church at Ephesus. They had tested those who said they were apostles and found them out to be liars, and He also commended them regarding the fact that they had not taken the course of the Nicolaitans. And then He said, “He who has an ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give to him to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God.”
What is it that we have to overcome? It’s not just the powers of darkness: Satan and demons. Oftentimes the most powerful force we have to reckon with is that of our own flesh. That is why over and over again Jesus said, “If you’re going to be My disciples, then you must learn to deny yourself.” “Deny yourself,” if you don’t know, means to say “NO” to what you want. Now I would add a further challenge. Tell yourself “NO,” and see how your “self” responds. Sometimes we are so unregenerate in our soul. You can deny yourself a piece of cheesecake and practically have a self-conniption. If you don’t know what a conniption looks like, imagine your picture after you’ve told yourself no about the cheesecake. No. No. No. No. No, you cannot have your plastic Jesus. No, you can’t. God is not going to be conformed into the image that we want Him to be!
My grandmother came from Italy. If ever there was a Catholic grandma, it was my grandma. She went to mass every day and had candles and a little shrine in her bedroom. I was raised Catholic, and we were so Catholic that we had our plastic Jesus up on the dashboard, and next to Him was St. Christopher. And if you don’t know what that one is for, it’s for safe travel because Christopher carried Jesus over the river. Oh my. Hallelujah, thank God for Jesus! Huh?
There is no plastic Jesus, and He will not be conformed according to the mold that we try to put Him in. We’ve been made in His image and in His likeness. As we yield to His Spirit, we can come to a place of knowing and doing His will and that’s where we find fulfillment. That’s where we find true happiness and satisfaction in this life and even greater reward in the life to come.
~ PG
How many want grace and peace multiplied to you? Hey, I like that kind of multiplication! Let's look at 2 Peter 1.
2 Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, 3 as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, 4 by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust (2 Peter 1:1-3).
Of course, we've always heard it said that grace precedes peace. No grace, no peace; know grace, know peace. Peace is the fruit of grace. Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. Grace and peace will be multiplied to us as we grow in the knowledge of the Lord. "His divine power," this is what we really want to focus on in verse 3, "has given." "Has given" is past tense, and His divine power has given to us "all things." I'm not going to focus too much on that because you know we talk a lot about "all things." All things include what? All things! If God has given you all things, is there anything that He's not given you?
Let that get in your spirit because there are those are waiting to get some things in order to do some things. And the Bible says that you already have the things you need in order to do the things. But you don't know that you have the things because you can't see the things. But that does not mean that they don't exist; they just exist in a realm that you don't see. Everything that you need, you already have.
Has He or has He not given us all things? This is the question that you have to settle in your heart. All things pertaining to what? Pertaining to life. Has God given us all things pertaining to life? Yes!
In other words, God has already made provision. The reason we walk in fear rather than faith is because we don't yet see it. And oftentimes, because we can't see it, we don't believe we have it. But the truth is that very few of us have ever seen Jesus. I haven't had a face-to-face encounter with Jesus. I've gotten close, and it has alarmed me. See, that's unbiblical; it shouldn't, but I start shaking and I begin to become undone (Isaiah 6). "Forget it, Lord, don't come any closer, that's as close as I can take. Stop." But I know He exists. How do you know?
We know that He is. We know that He exists. We know that He is who He says He is. How do we know that? By faith. Well, just as God has made Jesus available to us, His Son, He has also made available to us all things pertaining to life through Jesus His Son. And not only has He made available all things pertaining to life, but to godliness as well. You have everything you need to be godly.
There is something to be said for the writings of Paul. "And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." We're in the process of being sanctified. But everything that we need for our sanctification is available to us. We just have to seize the opportunity to be sanctified, to be consecrated holy unto God. Question: how does this happen? Answer: through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue. So if I may take the liberty: by the knowledge of Him who called us by the glory and virtue we understand that all things that pertain to life and godliness have been given to us by His divine power.
But if we don't have "a knowledge" of Him, we don't realize that all things pertaining to life and godliness have been given to us. And the more our knowledge of Him increases, the more we understand that He has made available to us all things pertaining to life and godliness. The more real He becomes to us, the more our knowledge increases. The more knowledge we have of Him, the less we worry. Have you ever noticed that people who have an intimate relationship with God tend to worry less than people who are kind of mediocre or lukewarm in their faith? Why is that? Because the more you learn of Him, the more you understand He's made all things available to you.
God's been dealing with me about coming to Him as a child. And the Scripture that keeps coming to my mind is when Jesus said, "Up until now you haven't asked, but if you ask your heavenly father, He'll do anything that you ask." He didn't say, "tell." He said, "ask." He didn't say, "command," He said, "ask." He didn't say, "spit and stomp." He said, "ask." Ask and come as a child.
I was going to Wal-Mart yesterday, and my little boy said, "Daddy, can I go with you? I want to buy a toy." You're probably thinking that he wants Daddy to buy him a toy. I said, "Do you have any money?" He said, "Yes, I have my own money. Can I just go to Wal-Mart with you?" He loves Wal-Mart. Terrible, dangerous place. The point is that he asked me. He didn't say, "I'm going to Wal-Mart with you." He didn't beg me, he said, "Daddy, can I go with you?" I said, "Sure, come on, son." I like to hang with my boys. I like it when my boys like to hang with me. "Come on, let's go to Wal-Mart and look at man stuff." So he has his own money.
I proceed to make the purchase, and when we went home, I put the money back in his drawer. He hasn't found it yet, but he will, and he's going to wonder where it came from. He'll ask mommy or I where it came from, and I'll tell him that I put it back in your drawer because, "I just wanted to bless you, son." Now, here's the thing. He didn't have to beg. He just asked, "Can I go do this thing because there's something I'd like to have." When he was picking out the toy he asked, "Can I have this one, Daddy?" He wasn't saying, "Is this the one you'll buy for me?" He was so proud of having his own money. I had to tell him that he had to hide his money. You don't walk around Wal-Mart with your money in a plastic Ziploc bag where everyone can see your dollar bills. Gotta teach the boy about life at Wal-Mart.
All things have been provided. Here's the essence. Everything we need to live and succeed has already been made available to us. What we must do is grow in our knowledge of Him because that's where the revelation comes. God has certainly not called us to fail. He has called us to succeed. He has called us to prosper. And it is He who provides and enables, and who strengthens us to succeed. So what we have to do is learn to rest in Him and in the power of His might. This also requires the ability to trust and obey.
~ PG
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