David A man after Gods own heart.   p 4

The third characteristic which marked David out as a man after Gods own heart was that unlike Saul who feared the people and listened to their voice David feared the Lord and listened to his voice.
Throughout his life David emerges as a man who always sought to know the council of the Lord even when it would have seemed simple or obvious to take a certain course set before him.
He would not take a major decision without first knowing the mind of the Lord on that matter.
In contrast Saul would act under severe pressure by caving in to the pressure of the people or rather by acting impetuously, but never had the same confidence that God would speak or fear of the Lord in his life to not commit to a course until he had first enquired of the Lord.
This one attitude which we can see so clearly evident in Davids life marks him out as a man who greatly respected the will of God and had no wish to presume that he knew it before he had sought it diligently.
 In 1 Sam 15 we read of king Saul failure to carry out the Lords command to wipe out the Amalek nation because of their wickedness and because of their treatment towards Israel years before when they attacked them as they were coming out of Egypt.
Everything was to be irrevocably given over to the Lord
.Nothing was to be kept back or kept alive.
Saul however did not obey what the Lord had clearly spoken to him through Samuel but kept alive the Amalekite king Agag, and the choicest of the sheep oxen and the lambs.
Initially when Samuel confronts him with his sin he uses the excuse that the livestock were kept alive for the purposes of sacrificing to the Lord,however as Samuel reminds him
"Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices,
As in obeying the voice of the Lord?
Behold to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams." 1 Sam 15 22, 23
 God did not ask Saul to offer sacrifices he asked him to destroy everything, and as Samuel challenges Saul eventually he is convicted of his sin and reveals his true motive for his disobedience,
v24
"I have sinned,for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord and your words,because I feared the people and obeyed their voice."

In contrast to this consider David response in a situation where he faced extraordinary pressures against him yet would not act until he had first enquired of the Lord.
In 1 Sam 30 we read the account of when David returned to Ziklag to discover that in his absence the Amalekites had raided his village burned it with fire and kidnapped his wives and his children, along with the wives and children of all his men.
The bible records that David and his men wept and lifted up their voices until they had no more power left to weep.
"Then David was greatly distressed for the people spoke of stoning him,because the soul of all the people was grieved,every man for his sons and daughters.
But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God."1  Sam 30 vs6
Just when it seemed that things could get no worse for David he faced the prospect of his own men stoning him to death out of bitterness of soul.
David we are told immediately strengthened himself in the Lord his God, that is he looked to the Lord first to encourage him and strengthen himself.
Then we are told that
David said to Abiathar the priest,Ahimelechs son,"Please bring the ephod here to me."
And Abithar brought the ephod to David.
So David enquired of the Lord,saying
"Shall I pursue this troop?Shall I overtake them/"
And he answered him,
"Pursue,for you shall surely overtake them and without fail recover all."
This passage speaks volumes to us of David resolve even under the most testing of circumstances to do nothing without first enquiring of the Lord.
How easy it would have been for David as he men began to turn against him to have roused their loyalty by rashly pursuing the Amalekite band without first enquiring of the Lord.
David could have rallied the men spirits with a call to pursue but had he done so on his own initiative he would have been acting presumptuously.
Neither was this incident an isolated one in David life.
As you read through the account of Davids exploits you find the same words again and again,
 "And David enquired of the Lord"
The bible states plainly that the fear of man brings a snare but those who trust in the Lord shall be safe.Prov 29, 25
Paul wrote in Galatians 1 vs 10
"For do I now persuade men or God?
Or do I seek to please men?
For if I still pleased men I would not be a bond servant of Christ."
Regardless of how we may seek to justify ourselves the same question needs to be asked of all who are truly followers of Christ,
"Am I seeking now to please men or God"
I have found that in every instance in my life where the Lord has spoken clearly to myself and to my wife regarding future direction there has been someone who came to contradict it.
I am a passionate supporter of the prophetic however I also have a personal concern that in immaturity many in the body of Christ have sought direction and "a word from the Lord " from another rather then developing their confidence to hear the Lord and believe what he is saying for themselves.
If I am looking at another to give me direction then I can also be knocked off course by another also.
I believe that in the comings days it is going to be imperative that we grow in our own relationship with the Lord to where we look to Him alone to speak to us and to direct us.
Should he choose to use another to underline or bring clarity to what we have heard so be it, but we have come to a place where we do not need to hear from any other person for ourselves.
There is a passage of scripture in 1 kings chapter 13 that offer us a very important insight into what I am writing about.
In this chapter we read of a nameless man of God who goes by revelation to cry out against the wicked king Jeroboam and against the altar because of the idolatry and false sacrifices.
In judgement the kings hand shrivels up as he stretches out his hand against the man of God, and in judgement the altar of God breaks in two and its ashes are poured out.
The king cries out to the man of God to pray to God that his hand would be restored, and when the man of God does so, God restored his hand whole.
In gratitude the king invites the man of God to come home with him and dine with him before his return journey, and the king promises to give to him a reward.
However the man of God responds by saying
"If you were to give me half your house,I would not go in with you;nor would I eat bread,nor drink water in this place.
For so it was commanded me by the word of the Lord,saying,"You shall not eat bread,nor drink water,nor return by the same way you came."
Later however an old prophet who hears of what has occurred goes to the man of God as he was on his journey home and invites him as well to come home with him and dine with him.
The older man is so desirous to have the younger man of God return with him that he tricks him by telling a lie, claiming that an angel of God appeared to him subsequently and told him to request the younger mans presence in his house to dine with him.
The man of God complies but as they are eating the word of the Lord comes to the older prophet saying,
"Because you have disobeyed the word of the Lord and have not kept the commandment which the Lord your God commanded you,but you came back,ate bread, and drank water in the place of which the Lord said to you,"Eat no bread and drink no water,"your corpse shall not come to the tomb of your fathers."1 kings 13 vs 21  22.
God had clearly spoken to the younger man of God not to stay in the place where he would prophesy a word of judgement under any circumstances but to return straight home.
When the apostate king invited him to stay he easily refused but when the older prophet requested it even though he initially refused he was later was persuaded.
Why?
Because he believed that if the older prophet had heard God it released him from his obligation to fulfil what he had been instructed to do,  even though he had not heard God saying to him to stay he was persuaded by what another told him God had supposedly said.
This younger man of God had been used to perform a powerful sign and wonder in Israel but his instructions were not conditional; his mission was not accomplished until he had safely returned home.
The older prophet had not heard God overriding this younger mans instructions because God had not changed his mind about what he had asked the man of God to do.
Therefore even though the older prophet was deceitful the responsibility was upon the younger man of God to have refused the older prophets request since he had not heard God saying that for himself.
This is a profound lesson for us also, we cannot rely upon another to do our hearing for us, we must know what God is saying for ourselves.
No matter how great the man or woman of God might be God does not speak to another what he wishes us to hear for ourselves.
David is a great model of one who respected and reverenced God to the degree that he never presumed to know God will until he enquired of the Lord himself.
His fear of displeasing the Lord was greater then his fear of men and in that we surely can learn and do likewise.

                                      David   A man after Gods own heart p3.

The second quality which David possessed that caught the attention of God was that right through out his lifetime he never failed to stay small in his own eyes.
It is easy when a person is in fact in very humble circumstances or has no prominence or any great authority to stay humble in their own estimation.
However it is when they are exalted to places of great authority and responsibility that the real test comes.
After Nathan the prophet went to David and delivered to him the powerful promises in 2 Samuel 7 it is interesting to note Davids immediate response.
David had been told that his throne and kingdom would endure forever a promise that spoke of fulfilment in the coming messiah;he was promised unending mercy for himself and for his family deliverance from all his enemies and a great name.
And yet his response was to go into the house of God and pray,
"Who am I O Lord?And what is my house that you have brought me this far?
And yet this was a very small thing in your sight,O Lord God;and you have also spoken of your servants house for a great while to come .Is this the manner of man,O Lord God?
Now what more can David say to you ?
For you Lord God know your servant.
For your words sake,and according to your own heart,you have done all these great things,to make your servant know them.
Therefore you are great,O Lord God. 2 Sam 7   18-22.
David was very little enamoured with himself he saw all of Gods dealing with him as fulfilling Gods word and Gods heart toward him, to demonstrate Gods greatness not his own.
Contrast that response with that of king Saul in 1 Sam 15 when Saul failed to carry out the Lords instructions to destroy everything of the Amalekites and Samuel subsequently confronted him,
"When you were little in your own eyes,were you not head of the tribes of Israel?
And did not the Lord anoint you king over Israel?
The implication in this is all to clear;There was a time when Saul like David had been taken from a place of obscurity and raised up as king over Gods flock.
However unlike David who never lost that heart of genuine humility before the Lord Saul had long forsaken seeing himself as little in his own eyes and let his power go to his head.
The history of the church is littered with examples of men who fell because they once started with a real sense of their dependency upon God and become too big in their own eyes.
Jesus said in Luke 17 v 10   that we after we have done everything which we were commanded to do should say,
"I am an unprofitable servant, I am simply doing my duty."
We need to continually say this because we need to continually believe this.
Likewise Paul in his letter to the Philippians  says that we should
" consider others better than ourselves "

Romans 12 v 3   For I say through the grace given to me to everyone which is among you,
not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think,but to think soberly as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.
God is not fooled by our pretences it is not so much what we say but that which we truly believe and think in our innermost heart.
I consider that pride is perhaps the greatest and most deceitful of all sins simply because it is so hard to detect in ourselves.
That is why it is a wise person who looks to God to uproot it and not to their own devices for self deliverance.
A wise prayer to pray often is "Search my heart and test my anxious thoughts O God
See if their is any offensive way in me and lead me in paths of everlasting truth."
Keep me back and restrain me O God from sins of presumption (which is pride )
Considering the level of entrustment that God granted to King David it makes his humility before the Lord all the more great.
We would be wise to imitate it.
As we have looked at the first two qualities in David that constituted his having a heart after God it is fitting to be reminded of what the prophet Micah says to us
"With what shall I come before the Lord,
And bow myself before the High God?
Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,
with calves a year old?
Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams
or ten thousand rivers of oil?
Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression,
The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
He has shown you,O man what is good;
And what does the Lord require of you
But to do justly,
To love mercy,
And to walk humbly with your God?  Micah 6  v6---8

                                        David a man after Gods own heart   part 2

In the last blog I ended by saying that I believe that there are at least seven qualities that David possessed that qualified him to be called a man after Gods own heart, and that put him in a position to be entrusted with so much.
God is no respecter of persons what he gave to David he will work in our lives if will discern what those qualities are and seek Gods face for those qualities to be given us also in a greater measure.
The first of the seven is that David had an extraordinary grasp upon the mercy of God.
For David every aspect of his relationship with the Lord was rooted in the awareness of the present powerful reality of the hand of Gods mercy towards him.
Psalm 5 vs 7 says
"But as for me I will come into your house in the multitude of your mercy,
In fear of you I will worship towards your Holy temple."
David understood I believe that his freedom to approach Gods awesome presence, His ability to freely worship before God, his confidence to hear Gods voice; his victory in battle his exaltation among men, his kingship and his prosperity all derived from the weight and abundance of Gods mercy towards him.
How easy it is to lose sight of this.
In the parable of the tax collector and the Pharisee you will recall how it says,
"Two men went up to the temple to pray,one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.
The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself God I thank you that I am not like other men,extortioners,unjust adulterers or even as this tax collector.
I fast twice a week;I give tithes of all that I possess."
And the tax collector standing afar off would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven,but beat his breast saying God be merciful to me a sinner.
I tell you this man went down to his house justified rather than the other,for everyone who exalts himself will be abased and he who humbles himself will be exalted.2 Luke 18 9-14

Notice that it says that the Pharisee stood and prayed with himself.God certainly was not listening to his boastful self proclamations.
The Pharisee was truly called by God to walk with a life of greater separation however he had long ago begun to place his confidence in his consecration rather than in the Mercy of God as the only justifiable grounds of approach to God.
Consider in the parable of the prodigal son the response of the older brother to his returning wayward brother,the bible says that "He was angry and would not go in"
Rather than rejoice in the giving of mercy to his brother who was lost and on a road to destruction he simply ran of a list of all the loyal and obedient acts of service that he had rendered to his father in service of him.
I am sure that the older brother wanted his younger brother to pay somewhat of a penalty for his wasting the families goods. He probably thought along the lines of,
"He should be made to see the grievousness of his actions and if we simply pass over the seriousness of his debt what message does that convey to him.?Why he will probably take advantage of us again."
What the older brother failed to see is how remarkably like the Pharisee and the tax collector he had become.
All he could do was to rattle off his good deeds of loyal service to his father.
The tradegy of the older brother was that he had no conception of Gods mercy he did not feel the need for any from his own father so why should his younger brother receive it so abundantly.
It probably even seemed to him like a form of weakness;in contrast letting his brother know how serious his crime was that was considered to be strength in his eyes.
Today within the church there are scores of Christians who manifest this same attitude of "The older brother"
I know of a minister whom God has used to restore many in the ministry who have fallen and help to get them back on their feet
For his efforts he has received an enormous amount of hate mail and even the loss of some of his friendships.
Why we may ask is this?
For the same same reason that the older brother could not rejoice in his younger brothers restoration, because those who manifest this spirit are driven not by a love of Gods mercy towards them but by a motivation of service and duty before God.
Therefore they cannot take great delight in Gods mercy when it is poured out on those who are undeserving.
Which of us we may ask is deserving?
David understood just how much of Gods mercy was extended towards him and he lent with all of his weight upon it because he knew that it would stand good.
When David said "I have trusted in your mercy" the word trusted says more than we think.
The Hebrew word for Trust speaks of our placing all of our  desire confidence and future hope in the object in which we have place our trust.
For David that was the abundence of the mercy of God.
This is also why Jesus commended David for understanding the nature of Gods mercy when he went in the tent of meeting and took the shewbread to eat which was unlawful.
To another person it would have got them killed on the spot had they been acting presumptiously however David was not.
 Rather he had grasped that the mercy of God was bigger than all the sacrifices of men.
He had seen that God delighted in giving mercy more than in receiving sacrifice.
We would do well to remember likewise.
We can learn much in our day by emaulting David heart after God the first glimpse of which is a heart of unbridled mercy.

                                           David   A man after Gods own heart.

Surely one of the greatest commendations given to any man in the Word of God is that which was given to King David whilst he was yet an obscure Shepard boy when God said of him that he was "A man after my own heart".
 In 1 Sam 13 vs 14Samuel the prophet is challenging king Saul for his way wardness and proclaims that God is about to take away the kingdom from him and give it to another man when he says these amazing words
"But now your kingdom shall not continue.
The Lord has sought for himself a man after his own heart,and the Lord has commanded him to be commander over his people"
In the book of Acts in the new testament Paul the Apostle  reaffirms this statement made by God to David
"And when he had removed him,(Saul)he raised up for them David as king,to whom also he gave testimony and said,
"I have found David the son of Jesse,a man after my own heart,who will do all my will."

I cannot imagine a more blessed commendation to have heard proceeding from the mouth of God then that I was a man who would pursue diligently the things which where upon the heart of God and that I would accomplish all of his will.
This statement is made all the more remarkable when you understand the magnitude of the other promises which were given to David.
In 2 Sam 7 vs 8--17 we read the following statement,
Now there fore thus you shall say to my servant David,
"Thus says the Lord of Hosts.
"I took you from the sheep fold from following the sheep,to be ruler over my people,over Israel.
And I have been with you wherever you have gone and have cut off all your enemies from before you,and have made you a great name,like the name of the great men who are on the earth,
Moreover I will appoint a place for my people Israel,and will plant them,that they may dwell in a place of their own and move no more;nor shall the sons of wickedness oppress them any more,as previously.
Since the time that I commanded judges to be over my people Israel,and have caused you to rest from all your enemies.Also the Lord tells you that he will make you a house.
When your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers,I will set up your seed,after you,who will come from your body,and I will establish his kingdom
He shall build a house for my name and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.
I will be his father and he will be my son.If he commits iniquity,I will chasten him with the rod of men and with the blows of the son of men.
But my mercy shall not depart from him,as I took it from Saul,whom I removed from before you.
And your house and your kingdom shall be established for ever before you.
Your throne shall be established forever."

When God spoke these promises to king David saying that his throne would continue forever he was speaking of Jesus the messiah who would come from David generational line in Joseph and would rule as the King of every king in an everlasting kingdom that is without end.
David was a type of Christ pointing to a greater fulfilment in Jesus as the greatest of Kings over all the earth.
Consider this; David was given a promise that the Messiah would come in the line of his descent he was told that Gods mercy would never been taken from his descendants even if they did wrong as it had been taken from King Saul.
They would be disciplined but God would refuse to lift his hand of mercy from them and David was told that he would be given a name as great as any of the great kings who lived on the earth.
In psalm 89 these promises are amplified even more and we are told that David would be established by the hand of God and strengthened by the supernatural help of the Lord that no enemy would ever be permitted to outwit him or any wicked person afflict him.
God declared that he personally would beat down Davids foes from before him and come against those who hated him, that Gods name would exalt Davids horn (his honour) and God would never remove His abundant love and kindness from David.(Psalm 89  19   37)
What makes these  promises all the more remarkable was the fact that these were given in spite of the serious failures that David committed before the Lord.
Why did King Saul have Gods hand of Mercy removed from him when he fell away, and yet David in spite of murder and adultery was given these unalterable promises of such magnitude.?
I believe that the key to understanding the answer to this question lies in that one statement that David was found a man after Gods own heart."
If we can understand what it was in David that constituted those qualities which made him a man after Gods own heart then, we can understand why he qualified for these promises of such magnitude.
Furthermore I believe that God is no respester of persons what he said to David he will say to every one of us who reconizes in Davids life those qualities that made him great and endevours to emulate them in ours.
May it be said of you and I at the end of our earthly life " They were a man or a woman after Gods own heart."
I have discovered seven qualities in the heart of David that I believe made him a man after Gods own heart.
In the blogs to follow I want to breifly consider each one.

                                             The Unveiling of The End Time Apostles

Much has been said on both the positive and the negative side over the last 25 years or so about the role and validity of Apostles and their place or prominence in this emerging generation.
Some have rejected the belief that Apostles are being restored as a ministry gift to the body of Christ,citing their conviction that the role of the Apostle has passed away.
I have never been able to understand how those who hold to this position can base their belief upon basically a single scripture in Ephesians which state that the Apostles and prophets laid the foundations of the early church.
To say that the Apostles and Prophets laid the foundation of the church and then fulfilled their God given purpose is it seems to me to mistake a part of their purpose for their entire purpose.
The last days' Apostles will not only build upon the heritage of those who laid the foundations of the church but these will also have the honour from God of laying the capstone to shouts of Grace Grace Grace! Zechariah ch 4  vs 6,7
The Honour of this company of end time Apostles will not be greater then the first generation of the Apostles of the Lamb rather it is the weight and measure of the Glory of God that they will minster out of which shall be greater.
The Glory of the latter house will be greater than the glory of the former house.Haggai 2 vs9
There is nothing that marks out this end time generation so much as the manifest Glory of God illuminating the heavens and filling the lives of the people of God upon the earth.
This is what the enemy has known and resisted but those days are now upon us.
Everything that can be shaken will be shaken and the reason for this is very clear that only that which cannot be shaken will remain. Haggai chapter2 V6
God's eternal kingdom is going to be visibly restored upon this earth and we are living in the days preceding the imminent return of the king.
There is possibly no greater example of what this end time Apostolic ministry looks like in the Old Testament than that of Moses.
Moses was sent to his generation as a deliverer to set God's people free and the Lord validated his words with awesome signs and wonders.
This end time company of Apostles will also have a message from God: "Behold the Return of the King" and the Lord will also confirm the word with a demonstration of the powers of the age to come.
In reality this new era of the Kingdom of God coming to this earth is now upon us at the very door.
Just as Moses' preparation  in the wilderness was a thorough work,so too the preparation of these end time Apostles will be commensurate to the stature of their high calling.
Just as Moses felt himself to be ill equipped and totally inadequate for the task which God called him to, so too these Apostles will know that their calling is from the Lord of hosts and in weakness fear and much trembling they will stand clothed in the power of the Most high God.
Just as Moses spent 40 years in the wilderness after his calling before his commisioning at the burning bush so too those who will now come forth will have spent many years in the wilderness (the place of intimacy) and in the dungeon(the place of confinement)
There are three basic foundations upon which this ministry is going to be founded.
Firstly unwavering faith; secondly powerful love; and lastly great meekness and humility.
These three elements will be like three distinct yet inseperable strands which woven together will equip these champions to do the greater works.
Historically some have possessed great faith but failed in their walk of love.
Likewise others have excelled at love but not possessed the faith to do the greater works.
And there are those who have had both faith and love but lacked the spirit of the meekness and gentleness of Christ out of which the Apostle Paul made his appeals.
Humility will safeguard against deception as it is out of a heart of true humility that a person will pursue the love of the truth.
The truth that will adorn this company will be that which comes fom the pursuit of the person of Jesus Christ himself and the revelation which comes from an intimate knowledge of him
 As Elijah boldly declared to King Ahab    "As the Lord lives before whom I stand".
This will bring a time of great deliverance from so many of the dogmas and creeds that have been maintained with a great religious zeal but have held people captives to a mixture of truth and man made ideas.
Isaiah 26 18   " We have,as it were brought forth emptiness;
                            We have not accomplished any deliverance in the earth."

For all of our love of words and rhetoric our lack of bringing forth deliverance in this earth has been a powerful witness against us.
Paul said          "I was with you in weakness and fear and in much trembling
And my speech and my preaching were not with pesuasive words of human wisdom,but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God." 2Corinthians 4,5

Our love of mere words alone, albeit the preached word, has been far more costly to us then many realize.
We have as Isaiah says brought forth wind but failed to bring deliverance to this earth.
Therefore unknowingly many have been given a form of the truth but never been properly joined with Chist himself who is the truth.
The truth that is imparted through these Apostles will not only liberate many from strongholds that hinder them in their fellowship with the risen Christ but it will turn their dependency away from being followers of men towards determinately questing after the One who is their Shepherd  and The Truth Himself.
The Lord is about to return to his temple and fill this earth with His Glory.
As the Levities of old were commissioned to carry the ark of the Lord so these emerging Apostles will carry the Glory of the Lord which will be the testimony of Jesus to this final generation.
They will keep Jesus Christ high and lifted up and keep faithful in heart to their commission all of their days.
I believe that the Lord is going to unveil many of those whom he has been preparing and many of those whom he has hidden.
Like the Apostle Paul was maligned and misunderstood so too many within the church will fail to reconize these gifts of leadership to the body of Christ.
"But in all things we commend ourselves as ministers of God; in much patience, in tribulations, in needs, in distresses, by honour and dishonour, by evil report and good report ; as deceivers and yet true; as unknown and yet well known.   "2 Corninthians 6 v4 and 8
Paul the Apostle had to labour through evil reports raised against him; through dishonour, and he faced those who regarded him as a deceiver and an unknown.
At the end of his earthly course he could utter some of the most poignant words
 "All those in Asia have forsaken me."2 Tim 1  15
Likewise these Champions who are coming forth will be unconcerned with their reputation in the eyes of men. However they and their works are known to God from of old.
Whether we like it or not the hope of this generation is dependant upon the revealing of these godly ones.
Like the Apostles of old it shall be said of them also "They which have turned the world upside down are come here also."






.

Now faith is......

It seems to me that it is hardly possible to read through the pages of the bible, and to search through the gospels as we see Jesus ministering to people with the power of God, without being made aware of how important our faith is to God.
From Genesis to Revelation it is the cord that ties men and women to God, it is what gives us a "good report" and we are told that which pleases God.
By faith we are told the old testament saints of God subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness,obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions,quenched the violence of fire,escaped the edge of the sword,out of weakness were made strong,became valiant in battle,and turned to flight the armies of aliens.
In other words they overcame and received Gods powerful hand of deliverance from death and destruction, and worked the righteous works that God had ordained for their lives all by faith.
And we are surrounded the bible tells us by this cloud of witnesses who are cheering us on now from heaven, to excel and run the race of our callings taking their example and bearing our own testimony to it,by the works that we will do by faith.
Paul puts it the most bluntly in the new testament when he says that whatever is not of faith is sin.
Having said all this it is therefore a tragedy to see how little faith and the development of faith in a believers life is taught or emphasised in the church.
A multitude of misconceptions swirl around the head of many Christians when it comes to the subject of faith, what it is and how we can grow in it, and exercise it to bring glory to God.
Some people reject what they call faith teaching citing it as presumption, others dismiss their own struggle for faith with the excuse that some Christians seem to have more than others and evidently they are one who does not have much faith.
Yet others think that the path to grow in their own faith is through greater prayer and fasting,while yet others view those who are bold in their faith as arrogant and boastful.
It is important for us to root out those areas of unbelief in our own hearts because they are what will hinder us in going forward in our obedience with the Lord.
When was the last time that you honestly prayed that the Lord would root out the areas of unbelief in your heart and replace it with strong faith?
When was the last time that you heard a sermon dealing specifically with the call to relinquish unbelief and to embrace an attitude of faith that was directed to believers and not to the unsaved?
I venture to say for many it would be a long time if ever.
In this blog I would like to begin a call and challenge to all who read it to rise up and become the men and women of God that we have been called to be, and we can only ever achieve that by growing in our our capacity to use and exercise faith.

A number of years ago I know a woman who had a spiritual experience where she was "taken "by God in a vision and looked down upon many nations and continents as if she was flying over them.
In this vision she saw a great darkness covering people and nations but here and there she began to see lights piercing through the darkness.
She began to recognize these bright lights as Christians and the light as the presence of God and the Glory of God radiating out of them to all in darkness around them.
She also was made aware of other Christians in this experience however instead of having this aura of light surrounding them they seemed to be under a weight of heaviness and affected by the darkness that was surrounding them.
In the experience she sensed almost overwhelmingly the heart of Gods griefs for those in the vision who were still in darkness, and imagined that it must be for those who were lost.
The Holy Spirit spoke to her and said that His grief was for those Christians who were still succumbing to the darkness and she was given to understand that the Christians who walked in great light were those who walked by faith.
These were the ones who trusted God implicitly and took Him unfailingly at his word.
Those Christians who were not taking God at his word were not radiating the light of His Glory in the same manner and to the same degree.
This encounter which happened over twenty years ago deeply impacted this woman of God and is I believe a powerful illustration of how our faith appears in the spirit realm not only to God but also to the forces of darkness.
I have seen this in my own life as I have observed people of great faith there is an aura of joy and inner strength that seems to pour out of them, and a tangible sense of the presence of God.
So why is there so much misconception about this vital subject of faith?
In part I believe that it is because our enemy the devil has assiduously tried to muddy the waters to put stumbling blocks before believers so that they will not take their responsibility to exercise their faith as they can and ought.
And he accomplishes this through lying to them.
There is as I have said a common but insidious misconception about faith that runs along the lines of thinking that some people have more and some less.
God however is no respecter of persons and the bible says that he has dealt to every man the measure of faith.
"For I say,through the grace given to me,to every one who is among you,not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think,but to think soberly,as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.(the authorised says "the measure")
God is most emphatically no respecter of persons.
He did not come to us when we were saved and decree "To you I give one portion of faith, and to you I give four measures", and yet again turning to a third person say "And to you I apportion ten measures of faith"
Spiritual gifts and callings are different but when it comes to faith the bible is clear and unambiguous, that he has dealt to every one of us a measure of faith.
Irrespective of who you are when you got born again the Holy Spirit placed within your spirit a measure of faith.
How you develop that faith in order for it to grow is up to you, but nobody was dealt insufficient faith when they were born again.
This scripture in Romans chapter 12 lays to rest the misconception that God arbitrarily doles out faith in different portions and in different measures.
That is therefore that first root of unbelief that we need to lay the axe to in our thinking.
Another very informative scripture is found in Ephesians chapter 2 and verses 8 - 10 which says,
"For by grace you have been saved through faith,and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God,not of works,lest anyone should boast.
For we are his workmanship,created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them."
In this scripture we are told that our salvation was a free gift not by works but by grace and it came through faith.
But the faith itself by which we are saved is also a gift for we are told,
"By grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God."
Faith, the faith by which we are saved is a gift of God.
When you made Jesus the Lord of your life the Holy Spirit deposited this saving faith into your spirit and faith in God was kindled inside of you.
God in that moment imparted to your spirit a brand new nature and one of the fruits of that nature was faith.
Faith is a real substance, it is a spiritual force that resides on the inside of every child of God and as we learn to grow in our faith and put our faith to work it is the primary key in our spiritual lives by which we learn to overcome.
I believe that one of the reasons why the woman that I cited saw an aura of Gods powerful presence surrounding those Christians who walked in faith is because faith is what enables us to overcome whatever obstacles life may throw at us.
We are not meant to be under life's burdens but rather to experience victory in the midst of every challenge that life throws at us, and faith is the key to this victory.
John the Apostle put it this way
"Whatever is born of God overcomes the world and this is the victory that has overcome that world even our faith." 1 John 5 ,vs 4
Do you realize that as a christian you have world overcoming faith in you.
Because you have been born of God and are His child and have this gift of overcoming faith abiding inside of you, you can face squarely every one of life's challenges and crisis with the joyful expectation that you have already overcome, and therefore the challenge that you are facing can never destroy you.
Peter in his epistle calls this faith "exceedingly precious"and to be sure it is,far more so than any other earthly or material treasure that we may find.
How tragic then is it when Christians go through life with this exceedingly precious gift of faith lying dormant and barely believing God for anything at all.
The truth is that much of the church is still living by sight and not by faith inverting the order that God intends for us.
Rather we should be walking by faith and not by sight, for we live in a supernatural realm, the world of the spirit,and faith is the main thread of this spiritual life.
If we do not live by faith in God then we will live very much within the "safe" boundaries of our five physical senses of what we can touch and taste and handle and feel and see and appreciate by the evidence of our natural sight and natural reason.
That is like a goldfish being won at a fair and brought home in the confines of the plastic bag that it is kept in, and instead of be placed in a tank kept in the bag, eventually it would perish.
We are created to walk in the spirit realm and live in that realm, not in some mystical way but to live and abide and walk in the spirit which means to live by faith in God out of this new life and out of the new center of this new creation which God has given birth to inside of us.
It means to live with your spirit and not your soul in the ascendancy.
Imagine if that fish was let lose in an ocean and free to swim as far and as fast as it desired to.
This is or should be a picture of a believer living in the spirit and walking in the spirit by faith.
Faith has to grow, because it was designed by God to do so.
However you and I know that if you were to take any seed and plant it in the wrong environment and fail to water it it simply will not grow
Our reborn human spirits are the soil out of which our faith grows and what we feed our faith on makes all the difference in the world.
In 2 Thessalonians Paul writes
"We are bound to thank God always for you,brethren,as is fitting,because your faith grows exceedingly,and the love of every one of you all abounds towards each other."
Paul commends these believers in Thessalonia because the initial faith which they had received has now grown, and grow not just a little but exceedingly.
This is the expectation of our heavenly Father for each and every one of us.
There is a phrase in the scripture which I quoted from Ephesians chapter 2 that is of paramount importance to us in understanding how faith operates in our lives.
"For by grace you have been saved through faith,and that not of yourselves;it is the gift of God"
This faith that God deposited inside of us when we were born again is not of ourselves it is of God.
What does this mean.
It means that it is faith from God and of him, not a human faith but a spiritual supernatural deposit of the faith of God himself that came out of His heart and was measured to you.
There is a law called the law of reciprocals.
When you take a magnet and place the right end on end they lock together but if you try and invert the ends they actually repel each other.
This faith which we posses is not of ourselves, that is it does not belong to human nature.
It only locks in to God and to what he has said.
It is designed to be attracted to the living God and the words of his authority.
It will never work if we are placing our faith in human words or human ideas or human circumstances.
It was never intended to do so.
It is not of ourselves it is of God, and feeds and grows when it is built upon Gods word and nothing else.
Many people say "You should have faith in me"
No I should not.
I do have a responsibility to love you and to pray for you but I only am meant to place my faith in God.
Others may say "I have faith that my circumstances will change",but again we need to be careful over our wording.
My faith is never to be placed in my circumstances but only in God and in what he has said.
Certainly we can believe that God can change our circumstances but my faith is set upon him not the circumstances changing.
The word of God is the spiritual food that we must feed upon in order to grow in our faith
"So then faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God"Rom 10--vs 17
In Hebrews chapter 11 which has often been regarded as the great faith chapter we read the following words,
"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for,the evidence of things not seen."
Notice the insertion of the word now.
Now faith is.
Like the children of Israel who daily collected the manna in the desert faith is always for now, it never reminisces over yesterdays blessings or daydreams only about the future being different.
Rather faith now is.
It is never "I used to believe",or "I will believe",rather it is always "I do believe"
Faith reaches into the future and affects it for positive change,but it is rooted and grounded in what we currently believe and what we are presently thinking
Faith is something that we must exercise "Now" in order to change our tomorrow's.
The passage in Hebrews continues,
"For by it the elders obtain a good report.
By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible."
What a powerful sentence.
Everything that we see around, all of creation, every leaf and flower and living organism and natural resort, every piece of furniture carved from wood that came from tree that grew out of the earth came originally from what God said when he spoke these things into existence.
"The things which are seen were not made of tings that are visible"
In other word there is a prior greater reality behind everything that is visible and that can be seen and it is the greater reality of Gods word which at one point was spoken and brought all these things into existence.
So faith always builds upon the unshakable foundation of who God is, upon His throne and the Word of His power.
"By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God"
And by faith we understand that our worlds are framed by what God has said and that everything is subject to change when we believe what God has said and hold fast to our confession of his word unwavering until the end.
The Genesis account of creation shows how God framed the worlds by his word,
"Then God said,.............And there was "
The entire creation account reveals this pattern of God the creator speaking forth his heart and minds intent and so it became.
And the book of Hebrew reveals to us that it is by that same word that all that he has created is being upheld and sustained.
Can we not see the centrality of Gods word to the development of our own faith?
Gods word has lost none of its power or force to create and bring change and transformation and new life.
It is full of Gods life and the book of Hebrews tells us living and active.
Not an archive of past events and dead.
No living and active.
Able to bring change into your life and into mine if we will speak it and confess it over the circumstances of our own lives.
And if we will become completely assured of it truthfulness where we are concerned.
You may say "I would never doubt the bible"
However if we believe what God has said then there is always a corresponding action to our faith.
James says that faith without deeds is dead.
We cannot say "I believe" and then by our actions negate and deny our confession.
If we truly believe then our lives very often would be different and then we would bear more fruit to God.
Abraham understood this principle so well as he was placed in the position of having to believe for the impossible, in this case a son.
Then after the son of promise was born he needed to exercise his faith in the power of God to literally raise his son from the dead after he had slayed him with a knife and offered him up as a burn offering upon the altar of sacrifice,which is fully what he expected to do.
He also believed that through his seed a nation would be born, and Jesus said that "Abraham rejoiced to see my day, he saw it and was glad."
So it is also evident that Abraham's faith was in the coming redeemer who would be given birth through his natural line of descent.
Not bad for an elderly man who could not by the law of nature have a son with his elderly wife.
Everything that God has called you and I to do that originates from him is humanly speaking impossible, and therefore will always require faith to bring it to pass.

"Well the things that I have been doing are not humanly impossible",you may say.
Then you are very likely not following Gods best plan for your life,because He always requires faith in us to bring these things to pass.
We can see the way that Abraham took hold of Gods word and brought it to pass, and certainly we also can take great encouragement to do likewise.
"He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief",
the book of Romans tells us, but
"Was strengthened in faith,giving glory to God,and being fully persuaded that what he had promised he was also able to perform."
He became "fully persuaded"
It did not matter if his wife was to old to conceive and barren when she was not too old.
It did not matter whether he was physically too old to sire another child.
It did not matter that the promise that God had spoken was almost twenty years old, yet he became fully persuaded.
I do not imagine that Abraham got there overnight but thank God he did get there.
I have no doubt whatsoever that had Abraham not been fully persuaded he would not "have become" a father of many nations.
God required him to develop and exercise his faith in the promise of God in order to become what God had called him to be.
The higher the calling upon a persons life the more it will require faith to bring it to pass.
Had Abraham not believed I believe that God would have raised up someone else to carry the promise but thank God he did believe and persevere.
There is too much fatalism in the body of Christ masquerading under the supposed guise of the sovereignty of God.
I firmly believe in the doctrine of the sovereignty of God, however I also see how much the scripture places the emphasis on our faith to change our circumstances and to enter into what God has for us.
The doctrine of the sovereignty of God does not change this it simply under girds it.
God will do according to his will both among the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth.
It is also true that there are certain things that God has planned for our lives that we can go to heaven never having fulfilled if we remain in unbelief and disobedience.
John Wesley once said,
It seems that the devil has counterfeited real heart faith in the church for mere mental assent.
Many christians are living in the realm of mere mental assent rather than with real heart faith and therefore are never able to come to the place of rest that the scriptures call "being fully assured"
When we come to that place we know that our confidence is in the Lord and in his word to come to pass in our lives and we refuse to be either discouraged or swayed by any circumstance in our lives that would seem to contradict it.
Becoming fully persuaded only comes by a process of heeding Gods word and giving it great respect.
Someone once said that many people read Gods word as if they need to consider whether they can embrace what it says and listen to the news as if every word is gospel truth.
This is completely distorted and needs to be the other way around.

There are three foundational principles upon which strong faith is solidly built, and the first of these is always a heart that believes.
In this blog I have touched fairly extensively upon this.
In my next blog I want to develop the other two foundational principles.

Hope and healing.
There is in our society a cry for things that offer hope in these days.
So much of the looming crisis that seems brewing on the horizon challenges us as to whether we will face the future with hope in our hearts and without any fear or succumb to the sense of hopelessness that seems to be overcoming so many.
The Holy Spirit through Paul expressed his desire for all christians to be full of hope in Romans chapter 15 and verse 13 where He said
"Now may the God of hope,fill you with all joy and peace in believing,that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Hope is something that we as christians are supposed to abound in.
Psalms 42 quoting from the authorised version says
"Hope thou in God, for I will yet praise Him, who is the health of my countenance and my God."
The amplified translation puts it like this
"Why are you cast down my inner self?And why be disquieted within me?
Hope in God and wait expectantly for Him,for I shall yet praise Him,Who is the help of my countenance and my God."
Hope therefore is an expectancy and an expectation of the desired end which we wish and desire to see.
Because many christians have a vague notion of what hope from the bible truly is they often do not seek to establish a firm foundation of hope in their lives, and to guard their hope for the future jealously.
Perhaps the clearest and most succinct definition of what biblical hope is can be found in the first chapter of the book of Philipians where Paul says
"According to my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing shall I be ashamed"
Hope is an earnest expectation, that brings no shame because we believe that the good end which we hope for shall surely come to pass.
Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 1 puts it this way "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for,the evidence of things not seen"
Hope is here described as the foundation of our faith, for it precedes it, since faith is the substance of those things that we are hoping for.
What does this mean exactly?
It means that since we can only receive from God by faith in any area of our lives we have to have established a firm foundation of hope in our lives first in order for faith to rise up within us and receive what God desires to give us.
Hope is therefore not something vague and wishful and maybe it will maybe it wont proposition.
Hope has guts it has heart it has certainty and it most definitely has courage.
How can I have hope like this some may say?
And the answer to that question very much depends upon from where you and I are deriving our hope.
For hope only ever comes from the Word of God and from the promises of God.
The promises of God have within themselves hope, they are if you like containers of living hope and our job is to lay hold upon this hope by laying up these promises within our lives.
This is why many people fail and falter, because they are looking to find hope in what God has said and something else.
But it is only when we make the promises of God our only refuge that we are sheltered from the storm.
Likewise it is only when we determine that Gods promises are sufficient and need no other thing to support them, it is then that we will diligently seek to lay them up within our hearts and to nurture them.
Sometimes believers tend to place their hope in a change of their circumstance being imminent or a healing quickly appearing or a relationship being radically restored, if there is some evidence that they can see and take hold of first, then they say this will offer them hope.
But in reality this is not the way that hope is gained or that hope is strengthened in our lives,because God wants for us to so lay hold of hope in the promises of God that we need no other supporting evidence or confirming coincidences in order for us to believe that what God has said will come to pass.
It is the attitude of heart that says "even if everything around me or within me seems to show the opposite of what I am believing, I believe that Gods word concerning this issue is going to be the end result."
That is biblical hope.
It lifts our esteem of the word of God to a higher place than any other circumstance of our lives.
This is exactly what Abraham did when he "against hope believed in hope and so he became " the father of many nations.
In other words Abraham took the hope that was delivered to him from what God had said, (you will be the father of many nations) and used it to defeat mere natural hope, which would have be limited to his age and his bodies ability to reproduce.
Natural hope would have only said to him "You are to old and impotent and passed the age, and its too late."
Natural hope depends upon the circumstances being favourably inclined Supernatural hope looks to God alone and believes for the impossible.
I believe that in 2011 and as 2012 fast approaches we need to be a people whose lives are clearly marked by the presence of real bible hope.
We need to rise up and to face whatever the challenges of our lives may be that face us and defeat the voice of discouragement and despair with living hope.
There are three basic areas of our lives that most of us will need greater hope in or three basic areas that we can divide our life up into.
One is relational the second is financial and the third is health and healing.
Most peoples lives will be challenged in one or more of those areas at different times and it is amazing to discover how much the bible has to say about each one of these areas.
In this blog I would like to focus on the area of health and healing and to lay a foundation for real bible hope to arise in our lives for our healing and for our health.
Gods will is to heal us and for us to be in good health.
"Beloved I wish above all things that you may prosper and be in health even as your soul prospers."3 john vs2
In Isaiah chapter 53 we have what is commonly regarded as the great redemption chapter of the old testament.
It is all the more remarkable when considered that it was prophesied over seven hundred years prior to the birth of Christ, and Isaiah peered down the telescope of human history and spoke in detail of the events of the cross.
This prophecy gives to us a picture not only of the fact of the cross, but great spiritual insight into what occurred spiritually when Jesus hung and bled on the cross two thousand years ago.
"Who has believed our report?
And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant and as a root out of dry ground.
He has no form or comeliness;
And when we see him there is no beauty that we should desire him.
He is despised and rejected by men,
A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
And we hid as it were,our faces from him;
He was despised,and we did not esteem him.
Surely he has borne our griefs
And carried our sorrows;
Yet we esteemed him stricken
Smitten of God and afflicted.
But he was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement of our peace was upon him
And by his stripes we are healed."

One thing that is of vital consequence in understanding the place of healing in the church is to understand why we are healed.
We are not healed because God has compassion on us in our suffering neither because our prayers have been answered or because we have years of natural life and service left to give to God.
Certainly all of the above are true but they are not the reason why.
The reason why we are healed is because on the cross two thousand years ago Jesus Christ of Nazareth made a substitution for us when he bore all of our sicknesses and diseases.
The cross is the foundation for our healing.
Unfortunately due to an incorrect translation of certain verses in the English translation from Isaiah this fact has not stood out as prominently to us as it should.
The words that are translated griefs and sorrows are the Hebrew words translated Choli and Makob and should have been translated into the English as sickness and pain.
Everywhere else throughout the Old testament where they are used they are translated as sickness and as pain.eg deut 7,15 28,61 1 king,s 17,17 2 kings 1,2 8,8 2 chronicles 16,12 and 21,15.
Also job 14,22 and 33 19 to name but a very few.
The verses should have been translated,

"He is despised and rejected of men,
A man of pains and familiar with sickness."
V4 "Surely he has borne our sicknesses and carried our pains,, and by his stripes we are healed." v 5
Why would the translators not have translated these words accurately in there original meaning?
I can only imagine that prejudice had a bearing on this decision.
It is interesting that in the Hebrew bible these verses are accurately translated and they are in some others European languages including Spanish.
However when this was translated into the king james version over 400 years ago there was a root of unbelief existing within the church certainly as far as divine healing was concerned.
It was neither embraced nor commonly practiced, so whilst the intent of the original translators was almost certainly to give Glory to God in presenting the most accurate translation available at the time in the English language, it would seem that human prejudice got in the way and prevented this clearer understanding of what these verses were are saying with regards to our healing from being more widely understood.
Dr Youngs translation of this passage reads as follows,
"He is despised and left of men,
A man of pains,and acquainted with sickness,
And as one hiding the face from us,
He is despised and we esteemed him not.
Surely our sicknesses(choli)he has borne,
And our pains(makob)he has carried them,
And we-we have esteemed him plagued,
Smitten of God and afflicted.
And he is pierced for our transgressions,
Bruised for our iniquities,
The chastisement of our peace is on him,
And by his bruise there is healing to us.

Dr Isaac Leesers translation of the Hebrew English bible translates it as follows,

"He was despised and shunned of men:
A man of pains and acquainted with disease.
But only our diseases did He bear himself,
And our pains he carried.
And through his bruises was healing granted to us. vs 3-5"
"But the Lord was pleased to crush him through disease,vs 10."

Of equal importance is to understand the word borne in verse 4
"Surely he has borne our sicknesses and carried our diseases."
It is the word nasa and means to "lift up,to bear away ,carry away and remove completely."
It applied to the Levitical scapegoat that bore away the sins of the people on the great day of atonement in Leviticus 16 and verse 22,
"The goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities to a land not inhabited and he shall let go the goat in the wilderness."
On the cross Jesus bore our sickness and our diseases as surely as he did our sins.
He bore them in order to carry them away and remove them.
The same word for bear( nasa) which is used in verse 4 to describe Jesus bearing our sickness and our pains is the same word which is used again in verse 11 and 12 to describe His bearing of our transgressions and of our sins.
In the mind and heart of God there is no difference,the great substitutionary work of Jesus bearing our sins is also the great substitutionary work of Jesus to bear our sicknesses as well.
And the sense of this bearing (Nasa) is to carry it and to remove it far away.
We are forgiven because Jesus put away sin by the sacrifice of himself on the cross once and for all.
And we are healed because Jesus dealt as emphatically with sickness and with pain on the cross.
This is the foundation for our faith.
There are two "streams"of healing in the church today.
On the one hand there is the ministry of prayer for the sick and of the laying on of hands.
There are and always have been those who have been given gifts by the Holy Spirit of healing's and the working of miracles.
They tend to be more especially used to transfer the healing anointing into the sick, however every single one of us, every child of God can and should lay hands upon the sick and pray for their recovery.
The healing anointing of God is a powerful tangible reality and is one means by which healing is communicated to the sick today.
In the gospels it speaks of the power of the Lord being present to heal the sick, which would refer to the healing anointing.
That is one means.
Then there is the individual faith of every christian to receive through Gods word the provision of the cross for themselves.
This is when we begin to appropriate by our faith the reality of our healing that was accomplished for us on Calvary.
Proverbs chapter 4 gives us great insight into how we are to accomplish this in our lives.
"My son,attend to my words,
Incline your ears unto my sayings.
Let them not depart from your eyes,
Keep them in the midst of your heart;
For they are life to those who find them,
And health to all their flesh."
We need to understand that Gods word is a living thing and is spoken of again and again in the scriptures as a seed.
It is an incorruptible seed and Jesus in the parable of the sower spoke of the supreme importance of letting this "seed" find good ground within our hearts.
In natural law we see this principal also, according to what is sown so will the harvest be.
If say a farmer plants seed in a field of a certain crop he knows that if the ground is god and the conditions are right he will yield a harvest.
This is not something arbitrary, it is a natural law.
Neither does he go and keep on digging up the earth to see whether the seed is taking root or whether it is growing.
Rather he watches the field knowing that in due course a crop will emerge and it will yield according to the quantity of seed sown.
In proverbs chapter 4 we are shown how to yield a harvest of health in our lives.
We are to "Attend to his words", and we do this by letting them not depart from before our eyes and keeping them in the midst of our heart.
Gods word is described as an incorruptible and an imperishable seed.
It will never return to God void but when believed and acted upon will always accomplish what He desires and fulfill the purpose for which it was sent.
If we require healing then we must look to the promises of healing and health in the bible and begin to meditate upon these until they never depart from before our eyes(our consciousness) and lay them up richly within our heart.
John Wesley once said that the enemy satan has successfully counterfeited true heart faith in the church and replaced it with a mere mental assent.
I believe that his assessment was profoundly accurate.
For well over two hundred years in the church since the so called "enlightenment" reason has sought to replace faith and what is rational is used to dismissed what cannot be easily explained by natural reason alone.
This gave birth to secular humanism as we now know it but its roots were the exaltation of the human mind, the intellect and reason against revelation.
The bible speaks far more about the human spirit than it does the mind.
In the gospels the Pharisees were those that reasoned with their minds and sought to work out how they might trap Christ and humiliate him.
Jesus however spoke of his disciples hearing and understanding his words with the eyes and ears of their hearts which is to say their spirits.
Proverbs chapter 4 is therefore not simply talking about memorizing verses of the bible, rather it speaks of meditation to a place where the promises of God are richly dwelling within us that is within our hearts and ever before our eyes that is at the forefront of our minds.
That is the condition for "finding "Gods word so that they become life to us and health to all our flesh.
It is a great tragedy how many christians never discover the word of God and the promises of God becoming a quickening and vital power of God in their lives because they do not distinguish between the soul and the spirit in their lives.
The word of God cannot be planted into our minds to become this, it can only be planted into our spirits, our inner man that hidden man of the heart as the bible calls him.
It is there in our innermost heart that the seed of the word of God begins to germinate and grows up to become greater than whatever the need may be in our life.
Just as the seed can only do its work in nature by being kept in the ground, so Gods imperishable seed can only do its effective work in us by being kept in the midst of our hearts.
And that is satan ploy according to Jesus in the parable of the sower to try to get the word out of our hearts.
What satan well knows that some christians do not know is that once the word of Gods promise has been received and believed and begun to take root in our hearts, there is no way way that it will fail to produce a harvest in our lives.
If we need to improve our health then we should go to the passages in the bible that promise healing and health and write them down if necessary and begin to meditate upon them until they grow up as living faith within us that grows and becomes greater than any of the symptoms that we have been struggling against.
Gods word contains His healing life and virtue in it,which is why proverbs 4 says that it will become life to us and health to all our flesh.
However just as taking a medication will only do us good if it is administered in the correct way, and usually that means getting into our blood stream, so the healing virtue and life giving properties of Gods word will only do us good if we get it and keep it in our hearts to overflowing.
One of the quickest and most fruitful ways to get the word of God into our hearts and to keep it in the middle of our hearts is by oral meditation.
We need to often and constantly speak the word of God and especially the promises of God to ourselves until they become second nature to us and we can quote them out of our hearts without trying to mentally remember them.
This is a good gauge and arbiter of how much we have truly layed them up within ourselves.
Two years ago as of writing I came to one of the few crisis times of my life.
after a routine operation I was cast into a spiritual battle where I had to take sleeping pills to get to sleep, and beta blocker to stabilize my heart.
It was needless to say not an encouraging point to reach.
In addition I had reached a place of utter burn out in the life of ministry.
During this period God showed how I had erred and how I had let the enemy enter in (I knew some of the areas where I had sinned and compromised but the Lord gave me much more clarity during this time)
I emerged from this dark valley a new man and today I am healthier and spiritually more alive than I ever have been.
I was completely healed.
Partly I needed to shut the door to the enemy by repentance of the known areas of sin in my life.
And also I needed to reconnect with the word of God with my faith in a manner and in a way which I had neglected for many years greatly to my own cost.
I began by finding every Scripture on healing and writing them down, and by reading every book that I could on healing.
And my faith began to grow.
This process did not happen overnight, but daily twice a day I would speak them and speak them and speak them, until they soaked into my spirit, so that today Gods healing promises dwell in me richly.
And to this I continue to speak out Gods healing words (along with many other promises that tell me who I am in Christ and what my inheritance is) in order to keep those words in the midst of my heart,and keep my faith strong in those promises.
Thank God for the power of his word!
Some christians treat divine healing as something almost arbitrary, God is soverign they say and He will heal when he wants to and whom he wants to.
That however releases us of any responsibility on our part to exercise any faith for healing and to grow in our faith regarding it.
It also has little foundation in the word of God most especially in the gospels where it is evident that Jesus looked for and rewarded faith in the lives of those who came to him for their healing.
The foundation for our faith is the cross of Christ, there our healing was secured and there it was obtained.
Gods motive to heal may well be His compassion but the grounds of our healing health and wellbeing is the fact that Jesus obtained this for us on calvary tree.
It is a finished and accomplished thing.
I encourage you do not let the devil rob you of the blessing of healing and the blessing of health to all your flesh.
It is an accomplished fact in the eyes of God.
See it as accomplished in your eyes too.
Rise up in your faith and posses what is legally yours by the blood of Christ.
In this next year I pray that more and more of Gods people may become marked by the presence of this living hope, and be seen as a people of hope with regard to the future.
I will end with the scripture which I quoted at the beginning of this blog from romans chapter 15 that expresses the heart and mind of the Holy Spirit for us, the church in this regard
"Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing,that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. (Romans 15 vs 13)