IS THERE LIFE WITHOUT FAITH?

We all understand that there is natural faith and spiritual faith.
Natural faith depends on the things that we feel, see, touch, smell or taste. From these five senses comes the trust which makes us make decisions and take a move.

Spiritual faith comes by hearing the word of God.
Romans 10:17 New International Version (NIV)
Consequently, FAITH COMES from HEARING the message, and the message is heard through the WORD about CHRIST.

When God wanted people to communicate and live by faith just like himself. He had to choose someone to teach how to leave by faith. He had to teach Abraham how to walk by faith by calling him out his comfort zone. Very hard thing to do and very difficult to exercise.
Genesis 12:1-6 The Message (MSG)
God told Abram: “Leave your country, your family, and your father’s home for a land that I will show you. I’ll make you a great nation and bless you. I’ll make you famous; you’ll be a blessing. I’ll bless those who bless you; those who curse you I’ll curse. All the families of the Earth will be blessed through you.” So Abram left just as God said, and Lot left with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran. Abram took his wife Sarai and his nephew Lot with him, along with all the possessions and people they had gotten in Haran, and set out for the land of Canaan and arrived safe and sound.

Just responding to the call of God was enough to approve Abraham as the father of faith.
Galatians 3:5-9 Amplified Bible (AMP)
5 Then does He Who supplies you with His marvelous [Holy] Spirit and works powerfully and miraculously among you do so on [the grounds of your doing] what the Law demands, or because of your believing in and adhering to and trusting in and relying on the message that you heard? 6 Thus Abraham believed in and adhered to and trusted in and relied on God, and it was reckoned and placed to his account and credited as righteousness (as conformity to the divine will in purpose, thought, and action). 7 Know and understand that it is [really] the people [who live] by faith who are [the true] sons of Abraham. 8 And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify (declare righteous, put in right standing with Himself) the Gentiles in consequence of faith, proclaimed the Gospel [foretelling the glad tidings of a Savior long beforehand] to Abraham in the promise, saying, In you shall all the nations [of the earth] be blessed. 9 So then, those who are people of faith are blessed and made happy and favored by God [as partners in fellowship] with the believing and trusting Abraham.

The lectures faith were not finished but continued everyday in everything he was doing. The lectures of faith came first before the lectures of Law. Life of faith became the proper way of life required before the introduction of law. Law was just a school master and never cancelled the life of faith. 

WE WALK BY FAITH, WE TALK FAITH ISSUES, WE SING FAITH SONGS and WE MEDITATE ON FAITH ISSUES.

Hence the bible says:
Habakkuk 2:4
Look at the proud; his soul is not straight or right within him, but the [rigidly] just and the [uncompromisingly] righteous man shall live by his faith and in his faithfulness.Romans 1:17
For in the Gospel a righteousness which God ascribes is revealed, both springing from faith and leading to faith [disclosed through the way of faith that arouses to more faith]. As it is written, The man who through faith is just and upright shall live and shall live by faith.2 Corinthians 5:7
For we walk by faith [we regulate our lives and conduct ourselves by our conviction or belief respecting man’s relationship to God and divine things, with trust and holy fervor; thus we walk] not by sight or appearance.Galatians 2:20
I have been crucified with Christ [in Him I have shared His crucifixion]; it is no longer I who live, but Christ (the Messiah) lives in me; and the life I now live in the body I live by faith in (by adherence to and reliance on and complete trust in) the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself up for me.ABRAHAM’S CHILDREN LIVE BY THE STANDARDS SET BY THEIR FATHER – “STANDARDS OF FAITH”
Galatians 3:7
Know and understand that it is [really] the people [who live] by faith who are [the true] sons of Abraham.Galatians 3:11,12
11 Now it is evident that no person is justified (declared righteous and brought into right standing with God) through the Law, for the Scripture says, The man in right standing with God [the just, the righteous] shall live by and out of faith and he who through and by faith is declared righteous and in right standing with God shall live.
12 But the Law does not rest on faith [does not require faith, has nothing to do with faith], for it itself says, He who does them [the things prescribed by the Law] shall live by them [not by faith].

LET US NOT DRAW BACKWARDS WHEN IT COMES TO FAITH
Hebrews 10:38
But the just shall live by faith [My righteous servant shall live by his conviction respecting man’s relationship to God and divine things, and holy fervor born of faith and conjoined with it]; and if he draws back and shrinks in fear, My soul has no delight or pleasure in him.

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CAST OFF FEAR

The biggest problem faced today is what the future holds for us. The world has proved to be a place which is like a boat in an unstable ocean. The world has become the troubled sea from where all bad things irrupts from. The winds are not easy to predict and stable as before in all the seas. Tornadoes and tsunamis have found their safe ground to build up and destroy the work which man suffered for so long to establish. The expects have proved to be in big trouble also when it comes to giving us the correct and straight forward wisdom to deal with problems. Science is also legging behind instead of being in advance when it comes to the discoveries and providing of the solutions. Churches which were once the best place have become another place where one has to think twice before entering. False prophets have promised and mislead many as well. Economy has become a cashing point for the rich as they trap the poor with artificial products and marketing gimmicks to better themselves by stripping the disadvantaged off the little they trying to live on. It is more of the survival of the fittest rather than a safe neighbourhood community.

This is the world I was born in which was once friendly, peaceful and loving which is also a place where my children are growing up. My children and grand children think that this is the normal life and best to live in. I look at this as I think and ponder in my heart day and night about what is going on daily. The only thing that comes into my mind is that, this world has become a very dangerous and difficult place to live in without Christ.

I am also reminded of this great scripture in the word of God.
Jeremiah 31:17
Your future is filled with hope, declares Yahweh.
I conclude and say, “search no other place other than the place I will tell you”.
There is only one place you can find your answer today.
It is in the word of God.

 

NOTHING TO BE PROUD OF REALLY:

HE TOUCHED MANY INCLUDING SOMEONE LIKE ME
Not because of intelligence, spiritual gift, capability, ability, proficiency, dexterity, faculty, talent, or by birth, race, tribe, tradition nor culture.

“The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus”. (1 Timothy 1:14 NIV)

 

BE PROGRAMMED or be PROGRAMMED BY OUTSIDERS. WHATEVER you want to be in LIFE: (E.g. President, Professor,  Prime Minister, Doctor, Air Bus Driver, Builder, Pastor, Evangelist) God DEPOSITED GREAT things in you for your GREAT SUCCESS. All needed tools for your SUCCESS are WITHIN you. The ENERGY needed to keep you GOING is in YOU. STAMINA needed to keep you STANDING is in you. WISDOM and KNOWLEDGE for the GROWTH of your SUCCESS is in you. YOUR SUCCESS IS IN YOU, BE PROGRAMMED FOR SUCCESS.

By Elasto Marume

BE PROGRAMMED or be PROGRAMMED BY OUTSIDERS.

 

Something Every Parent Needs to Read.

 

ENRICH AND DEEPEN PRAYER LIFE

By George O. Wood

No matter what our age, years of Christian service or maturity in ministry, we will always need to keep growing in the exercise and discipline of prayer. As you fulfill God’s call on your life, I want to encourage you to be a person committed to powerful prayer.

The apostle Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 3:14-21 comes to mind when I think of excellence in prayer. This gives several insights into the preface, posture and petitions of powerful prayer.

PREFACE

Paul starts by saying, “For this reason I kneel” (Eph. 3:14, emphasis mine). What reason? What is the reason that drives him to prayer? It is a phrase he also uses in 3:1, “For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus … ” In some way, Paul connects the reason—the preface—to  the entire prayer that follows. Paul joins that “reason” to the word mystery that occurs four times in Ephesians 3 (vv. 3, 4, 6, 9). The “mystery” is that the church—composed of Gentiles and Jews—would make known the many-sided, multifaceted wisdom of God to rulers and authorities in heavenly realms. In plain speech, Paul is saying, “Before I launch into my prayer, let me tell you what stands behind it. The church has God’s name on it. We are the assembly of God. The church is His pride and joy.”

POSTURE

In Jewish prayer, standing is the normal posture (Matt. 6:5; Luke 18:11, 13). Kneeling, however, is the more intense form of prayer. Paul says, “For this reason I kneel” (Eph. 3:14, emphasis mine). This is a tip-off to the fervency of effective prayer.

One of the early church fathers put it this way: “By kneeling we demonstrate the full form of prayer. We ought not merely to incline our minds to prayer but also our bodies. We do well to lower our bodies lest we create an impression of elevation or an appearance of pride.”

What would happen in our lives, homes and churches if we fell on our knees and prayed more earnestly—going beyond the rote and routine of prayer to the fervency of prayer?

PETITIONS

The posture and preface to Paul’s prayer leads us into the intensity of three petitions he brings that we can summarize in three words: grip, grasp and grow.

1. Grip. Over the years, my daily prayer list has grown to more than 250 people. I laid Paul’s prayer over my list and realized how spot-on his prayer is because so many people on my list, including myself, need our grip strengthened with power through the Spirit.

2. Grasp. Paul not only prays for us to get a strong grip. He prays that we will also get a great grasp. Years before Paul wrote this Ephesian letter from a prison in Rome, he had planted and pastored the church in Ephesus for two and a half years. During that time, he sent letters west to the Corinthian church that was beset with all types of problems and pride. He told them in 1 Corinthians 13 what was missing in their community life. They were not rooted and grounded in love.

This is always a sobering word to the Pentecostal and charismatic church because in our desire for the restoration and presence of the charismata, we may be tempted to build on the gifts rather than the Giver, on the sensational above the ethical or moral—on success and numbers rather than love. When we are rooted and grounded in love, then we can grasp the breadth, duration and extremity of His love.

3. Grow. Paul knew that being filled with the Spirit was not just a one-time “I’ve got it” experience. When you read the last two and a half chapters of Ephesians, you can see that these Spirit-baptized believers were still being pushed to grow.

No matter what our age, years of Christian service or maturity in ministry, we will always need to keep growing, because even if we are filled now, we are not yet filled with all the fullness of God. But that is not all. He ends with, “[He] is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us” (Eph. 3:20). Great praying leads to great power—“He is able,” Paul says. And great power leads to great praise: “To him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen” (v. 21).

The grip. The grasp. The grow. They all lead to immeasurably more. God is infinite and capable of giving more, and we are expansible and capable of receiving more.

Do you want to display the glory of the Father? Become a person who prays powerful prayers.