Happy Friday friends!! I am so thrilled to introduce you to my friend, Bible Study partner, truth-teller, accountability partner, and all-around sidekick who isn’t afraid to kick me in the pants when I whine too long, to loudly, or about things I should be celebrating WHILE also being the woman who will just come sit with me or pray with me when that is what I really need. We all need a friend who we can laugh with AND cry with, study with AND get wild with. We need those people in our life who can see deep into our souls and remind us we will be okay. She is that to me.
It is only natural that with her being all those things to me that I would offer to share this platform with her when I saw she has a gift for writing from her heart and a desire to share what she’s written and let the words impact whoever they are for. Dianna is a phenomenal poet, beautiful child of God, and one of the most honest and straight-forward people I know. Her heart for others is evident and she LOVES Jesus.
Without any more from me… enjoy her! Starting next month she will show up under her own name so you will know the difference in our posts. This is an exciting time as we grow around here!
Father God, open the eyes of our hearts, soften us to receive all that You have for us today. Teach us to know and follow your ways and invade this place, Spirit of God. Thank You, Jesus.
Today I am going to share with you something that the Lord has laid on my heart about faith and prayer.
In Mark 11:22-25, Jesus says to His disciples, “Have faith in God. I tell you the truth, you can say to this mountain, ‘May you be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and it will happen. But you must really believe it will happen and have no doubt in your heart. I tell you, you can pray for anything, and if you believe that you have received it, it will be yours. But when you are praying, first forgive anyone you are holding a grudge against, so that your Father in heaven will forgive your sins, too.” (Emphasis is mine)
I have been seeking God as to why, in general, the American church has not seen the power or glory of God released that some of our Brothers and Sisters have seen abroad. And this is in part what the Lord has laid on my heart.
Most of us pray for healing or miracles from a stance of lacking or by what we feel or see, or don’t feel and don’t see. When we pray from the limited scope of our own understanding, we are in essence putting God in a box. But God can not be limited, and He does not fit into our boxes nor could He fit into our little paradigms. We tend to forget or haven’t fully grasped that we are standing in a place of victory because of the work that Jesus did on the cross. Romans 8:37 says, “No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.”
We may have a head knowledge of it but it hasn’t quite reached our hearts. A childlike faith is the faith that is necessary.
For instance, just as a scenario: say I hurt my foot. Then I’m going to pray for healing or ask for prayer for healing for my foot. Sometimes we don’t even do that, but that’s for another message. If I don’t see that healing or feel that healing then I assume it isn’t moving forward, it isn’t happening. Then doubt begins to set it. I might pray again or I might take a Tylenol and assume God might heal it later if at all (not to say anything is wrong with medication, God can very well use conventional medicine to heal us). But we want to see or feel the results before we believe it has happened.
But that is not faith.
“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Hebrews 11:1 NKJV
The only power that our Father has given us that compels God to move, that moves Heaven and Earth, is prayer. Yet we limit our prayers and begin to doubt because we don’t feel like God is moving or don’t see results. We may even start to believe the devil’s lies that God just won’t listen or that we don’t pray “good enough prayers.” When these thoughts take root, our prayers are limited and in some cases, cut off. And we may give up on seeking our answer.
“Satan fools and feigns, blows and bluffs, and we so often take his threats to heart and forget the “exceeding greatness of God’s power to us.” Leonard Ravenhill
God desires His followers to function with great faith despite the challenge or battle in front of us, because our faith will bring the confidence to pray bold prayers.
Brothers and sisters, we must pray, and not just in emergencies or when we feel like it! We must submit our lives under His Lordship and surrender every bit of who we are to what He has called us to. We must have confidence and boldness as we approach the throne room. And we must have the faith to know He still answers our prayers.
We have got to have a faith that is wild enough to not only believe that our God can and still does heal, but that He has already done it!
According to Hebrews 4:16, we must come boldly before the throne of grace! And then, we must believe that our God hears and has already released the answers to our prayers if we pray according to His will.
Can I exhort you all to take advantage of the times during your day that you could pray and just listen to the heartbeat of our good, good Father? Don’t listen to the enemy’s lies that your voice isn’t important or that dedicated prayer times are “only for the strong Christians.” That is ridiculous! Don’t let fear or distraction drive you away. You are important and you are necessary in the battle for your family, friends, church, your nation and for the Kingdom!
Can I challenge you to take at least 15 minutes before your day starts, or really at any point during the day, to set aside to seek God’s face? To ask Him what His will for you for that day is? To lean into the heartbeat of your Father? 15 minutes to just spend with Him. He is worthy of that and He has a will and a plan for each and every one of us here. You are not here by chance and you are greatly needed in this spiritual war we are in.
To return to the topic of faith, in Matthew Chapter 17, Jesus is responding to His disciples regarding their inability to cast out a demon from a boy. Jesus points out their lack of faith as the primary reason the boy was not healed when they prayed for him. I’m sure most of us know this story and we also know the disciples were not void of faith, but their faith was not functioning properly. Jesus tells His disciples that mountain-moving faith is possible even when the tiniest, smallest amount of faith is present. Fasting actually comes into play as a huge faith booster, but again, that’s another topic for another message.
The Message renders Hebrews 11:5-6, “It’s impossible to please God apart from faith. And why? Because anyone who wants to approach God must believe both that he exists and that he cares enough to respond to those who seek him” (MSG).
Will you join me in taking a stand of faith to believe that our God still heals today? Our good Father has heard our prayers, this I know. We must believe before we see, the having comes after the believing. He is shaking me today on this, and maybe He is shaking you as well. Even if we have been in the same situation for years and it seems like it will never change, He is able. We must have Mark 11:24 faith, childlike faith. Let’s pray bold prayers and then let our faith rise! Let us trust that He has already released the healings, the finances, the miracles, the salvations of our family and friends and let us praise Him for what has already done! He is an amazing God and He is fully able to move in the ways that His people need!
I’m praising Him, right now, for the testimonies that are coming and for what He has already done!
Father God, help us to reach that level of faith. Help us to praise even when what we are looking at isn’t what we are asking for, because You have already answered and You are good. Even when it seems impossible, nothing is impossible for You! And Lord, if your plans are different from what we are asking, help us to come into alignment with Your will!
Thank You God for breakthrough! Thank You God for the salvations of our family and friends! Thank You, Lord, for revival! Thank You Lord for who You are and for Your presence and glory! Thank You Jesus that You have given us the gift of salvation and freedom, that You are for us and not against us!
Jesus died so that we who believe can be free! If you have not met this Jesus who saves, heals and still works miracles, you are not here by accident. This is your day!
He wants to set you free from pain, He wants to show you a freedom and joy that you have not known. If you are tired of being sick and tired and know you are ready to accept God’s free gift of mercy and salvation, for this life and the next, please lay your life down and trust in Jesus with all your heart.
And if you are still in need of a miracle, if you still need God to make a way where there is no way, if you know that our God is a God of the impossible and if you are seeking your faith to rise, now is the time to truly seek our Father. Let go of the doubt, trust in His goodness. Let Him show you what might be holding you back, listen to the Spirit within you. And then believe, and trust that He is good, that He has heard you and that it is finished! Thank You, Lord!
“Has the kingdom of God been over advertised, or is it only that it has been under believed; has the Lord Jesus Christ been overestimated, or has He only been under trusted?” Hannah Whitall Smith, – The God Of All Comfort
Do you really believe Him?
Will you trust Him?
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