Jun 29, 2023
Abraham didn’t stagger in his faith. Rather, he was “fully convinced that what he had promised he was also able to perform” (Romans 4:21, NKJV). He recognized that God is able to work with nothing. Indeed, our Lord created the world from a void. With just a single word, he creates. In the same way, he can create miracles for us out of nothing.
When all else fails, when your every plan and scheme has been exhausted, that is the time for you to cast everything on God. It is the time for you to give up all confidence in finding deliverance anywhere else. When you are ready to believe you will see God not as a potter who needs clay, but as a creator who works from nothing. Out of nothing that is of this world or its materials, God will work in ways you could never have conceived.
How serious is the Lord about our believing him in the face of impossibility?
We find the answer to this question in the story of Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist. Zacharias was visited by an angel who told him that his wife, Elisabeth, would give birth to a special child. Zacharias, well advanced in years, refused to believe it. God’s promise alone was not enough for him. Zacharias answered the angel, “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is well advanced in years” (Luke 1:18). Simply put, he considered the impossibilities. He was saying, “This isn’t possible. You’ve got to prove to me how it will happen.” It didn’t sound reasonable.
Zacharias’ doubts displeased the Lord. The angel told him, “But behold, you will be mute and not able to speak until the day these things take place, because you did not believe my words which will be fulfilled in their own time” (Luke 1:20).
The message is clear. God expects us to believe him when he speaks. Likewise, Peter wrote, “Therefore let those who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls to him in doing good, as to a faithful creator” (1 Peter 4:19).
Jun 28, 2023
No matter what crisis we face or what sorrow may come, our blessed Lord is leading and caring for us every step of the way. The economy could tank; our health could collapse, or our dreams could be derailed. No matter the trouble, our God is in front of it and is preparing the road ahead for us.
The children of Israel couldn’t wrap their heads around this level of faith, and God finally had to disown those he delivered out of Egypt. Why? Because they doubted and limited him after having been so miraculously delivered time and again. It isn’t simply that God would like for us to trust him in difficult times; he demands it. This is why scripture so strongly warns us against unbelief. We are told that it grieves the Lord and shuts us off from every blessing and good work he has promised. Our unbelief makes every promise “of no effect.”
Most of my life and ministry has been in both the United States, Israel, and throughout the nations on every continent, and throughout the world faith is not a dead theology. Those of us who minister globally have to practice what we preach just to survive each day. If we did not fully trust the Lord’s promises and rely on Jesus with all that is in us, we would freeze up with fear and panic. The streets in many places are like war zones; people live in constant fear, and bystanders are often in the line of fire. The needs of hurting people are enormous, and the costs to care for them are heavy. If we did not rest in God’s steadfast promises, we would be overwhelmed.
We are not overwhelmed, and we are not afraid. As the problems grow worse, we grow stronger in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Psalm 46 has a passage to plant your feet on. “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, even though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; though its waters roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with its swelling” (Psalm 46:1-3, NKJV).
Jun 27, 2023
The Spirit has made it clear to me that all my praying is in vain unless I pray in faith. I could weep, fast, intercede, agonize and travail in prayer and still make no impact with the Lord at all unless I am doing it with simple, childlike faith.
God will not act on our behalf without faith. Scripture says, “Let not that man [the doubter] suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord” (James 1:7, NKJV).
Despite this, we often have very little confidence in God, so little faith in his willingness and desire to answer our heart’s cry. When we get to heaven, we will be amazed to discover all the blessings, peace and power we had at our disposal but did not appropriate because of our weak faith.
I am moved upon by the Holy Spirit to challenge you to increase your faith. The book of Mark relates the story of a man who brought his son to Jesus. “He has a mute spirit,” said the man. “When it seizes him, it convulses him and tries to destroy him. He is in great agony. I took him to your disciples, but they could do nothing. Please help my son!” Jesus was moved with compassion for this poor, suffering child and his distraught father. He said, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes” (Mark 9:23). Hear the father’s raw honesty as he cries out with tears, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24).
Take your unbelief to the Lord and lay it at his feet. He wants to flood your soul with confidence in his willingness to over-answer your prayers with abundance, more than you can ask or think.
Do you want to increase your faith? When you go to prayer again, lay hold of the following scriptures and use them to reason with the Lord. He will not deny his own Word.
• Psalm 62:8
• Psalm 91:4
• Psalm 56:3
• Proverbs 30:5
• Jeremiah 29:10-14
Hold on by faith! He will answer you soon.
Jun 26, 2023
Billy Graham once said, “Anxiety is the natural result when our hopes are centered in anything short of God and his will for us.”
When we believe we’re meant to live a perfect life, there is a sense of a mandate to be flawless. It’s good to desire holiness and perfection, but the angst that comes from failure to attain them often generates anxiety, stress and fear that we aren’t right with God. We’re never at peace, and we can’t enjoy the fullness of the presence of God and a hunger satisfied because we think our perfection is up to us. It’s exhausting and unattainable.
All the anxiety in the world won’t make you a better person or a more perfect Christian. Rather than tormenting ourselves with what we lack, we are called to examine our hearts and offer our insufficiency up to him. Hear the words of the apostle Paul: “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God”(Philippians 4:6, ESV).
The coastal forests stretching from central California to southern Oregon are home to the giant redwoods, some of earth’s oldest, most magnificent trees. These towering beauties are a literal look back through time. When we stand awestruck at the foot of an old-growth redwood tree, it’s hard to believe that it began its climb as a mere seedling. Although tiny and hundreds of years away from become a giant, the small plant is perfect at every stage of growth. Its size and vulnerability belie the greatness in its DNA.
We too, as God’s handiwork, are complete at every phase of growth when we receive our sustenance from him. When Jesus said, “You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48), he was compelling us to take on his perfection. His words and Spirit are the nourishment that pushes us upward. Our struggles to please others and impress God are real, sometimes lifelong battles, but the Lord offers a way out. “My power is made perfect in weakness,” he says (2 Corinthians 12:9). He takes the long view sees our great potential even when we are small and wavering. When we entrust our lives to him, we are complete, perfect at every stage of growth.
Jun 23, 2023
The Lord appeared to Abraham one day and gave him an incredible command: “Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you” (Genesis 12:1, NKJV).
What an amazing thing. Suddenly, God picked out a man and told him, “I want you to get up and go, leaving everything behind, your home, your relatives, even your country. I want to send you someplace, and I will direct you how to get there along the way.”
How did Abraham respond to this incredible word from the Lord? “By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going” (Hebrews 11:8).
What was God up to? Why would he search the nations for one man and then call him to forsake everything and go on a journey with no map, no preconceived direction, no known destination? Think about what God was asking of Abraham. He never showed him how he would feed or support his family. He didn’t tell him how far to go or when he would arrive. He only told him two things in the beginning: “Go,” and, “I will show you the way.”
In essence, God told Abraham, “From this day on, I want you to give me all your tomorrows. You’re to live the rest of your life putting your future into my hands, one day at a time. If you will commit to do this, I will bless you, guide you and lead you to a place you never imagined.” Abraham is what Bible scholars call a “pattern man,” someone who serves as an example of how to walk before the Lord.
Make no mistake, Abraham was not a young man when God called him to make this commitment. He probably had plans in place to secure his family’s future, so he had to be concerned over many considerations as he weighed God’s call. Yet Abraham “believed in the Lord; and [God] counted it to him for righteousness”(Genesis 15:6).
The apostle Paul tells us that all who believe and trust in Christ are the children of Abraham. Like Abraham, we are counted as righteous because we heed the same call to entrust all our tomorrows into the Lord’s hands.
Jun 22, 2023
Jesus tells us, “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears my word and believes in him who sent me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life” (John 5:24, NKJV). Indeed, the scriptures tells us from cover to cover that once the Lord forgives our sins, he wipes them from his memory.
“I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake; and I will not remember your sins” (Isaiah 43:25).
“I have blotted out, like a thick cloud, your transgressions, and like a cloud, your sins. Return to me, for I have redeemed you” (Isaiah 44:22).
“This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: ‘I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them,’ then He adds, ‘Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.’” (Hebrews 10:16-17).
Here is abundant good news for every Christian who’s ever sweated, striven or worked to mortify the deeds of his flesh in his own strength. Does this include you? How many promises have you made to God, only to break them? Here is your good news, reported in the book of Micah: “I, the Lord, will subdue all your iniquities.” God has given us image after image in these passages of how he wipes our sins from memory. He blots them out; he remembers them no more; he buries them in the sea; he “subdues” them, meaning he chases them down and captures them.
Isaiah even tells us God takes our trespasses and flips them over his shoulder. “But you have lovingly delivered my soul from the pit of corruption, for you have cast all my sins behind your back” (Isaiah 38:17). This means God will never look at our sins or acknowledge them again.
Now let me ask you, if God forgets our sins, why don’t you and I? Why do we always allow the devil to dig up some muck or mire from our past and wave it in our face, when all our sin is already covered by Christ’s blood? The cleansing, forgiving power of Christ’s blood is all-encompassing. It covers our entire lives!
