Do You Fear God or Are You Afraid of God

Why do I choose to live by faith? Because of my fear of God (Prov 1:7). Because I know God from being with Him in intimate fellowship and I respect Him and His Ways , because I am in awe of Him, and I am fearful to live my life any other way than God's way and God's way is the way of "Faith" which is believing Him over all other ways.

The genuine life of faith comes from a healthy respect of God and His Word (Jesus--John 1:1). The power behind the life of faith is the fear of God. That does not mean that I am afraid of God, but rather afraid to leave God's path for any other way, because I honor and love God with all my heart and I am thoroughly convinced that's God's Way for living is the right way.

Without the fear of God as your motivation to live by faith, your faith will have no power behind it, but it will only be mechanical as you religiously try to live according to the Word of God, but without the fear of God, you will be tempted to live your life another way, separate from God's way.

It's the fear of God that promotes the healthy lifestyle of living by faith. It's impossible to please God without faith (Heb 11:6), so why would you choose to live any other way? Because instead of being in awe of God and holding God in high regard by respecting His ways, you rather are afraid of God and His ways (the Bible--the Word of God declares His Ways) because you don't know Him (you may know of Him or about Him, but you don't know Him) and if you don't know Him from being with Him (fellowship with Him), then you will always choose the familiar way, which will be the way of the World, and instead of being led by the fear of the One True God, you will rather be led by the fear of the god of this world, whose name is satan (I refuse to capitalize his name).There is a way that seems right to a man, but the end of that way is "Death" (Prov 14:12) because satan's ways always leads to death never to life

You will only have a healthy fear of God by knowing Him through experiencing Him in fellowship with Him and you'll never get to know Him if you don't know His Son Jesus, for no one can come to the Father except through Him (John 14:6). How well do you know Jesus? That determines how well you will know the Father. You can't know Him (the Father) without being with Him (the Son) but once you know Him (the Son), you will fear Him (the Father) just like Jesus did when He was the Son of Man on this earth carrying out the assignment of His Father, and this my brother and sister is a good thing for you will be led to live your life God's way and that way is "by Faith" (2 Cor 5:7)

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge (on how to live by faith), but fools (I hope that's not you) despise wisdom and instruction-- Prov 1:7

Be Blessed, for blessed is the man/woman who trusts in Him. (Ps 34:8)

Fear or Faith--It's Your Choice

For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear........For God has not given us a spirit of fear.......(Rom 8:15 & 2 Tim 1:7)

The reason you are in fear is because you are being led by your flesh (the physical/sense realm) rather than by your spirit (spirit realm/God's realm).

When the flesh dominates, you will be moved by fear instead of faith. When your flesh is dominating (over your spirit) you will be moved by your physical senses. What you think will be determined by what you feel, see, hear, smell, taste, (your physical senses) and will dictate to you a message and if that message is a bad report, you will respond in fear.

But when you are led by the Spirit (of God by your spirit) you will only be moved by what the Word of God declares (the Word is Spirit--John 6:63) instead of what your flesh is saying to you. You will exalt what God is saying in His Word over what your flesh is saying about the circumstance or the situation you find yourself in. This is being in faith instead of fear.

Fear always leads to death. Faith always leads to life. The bottom line is if you are in fear, you are responding from your flesh. If you are in faith, you are responding from your spirit. Jesus said in Mark 5:36, "Do not be afraid, ONLY BELIEVE". Jesus is saying, "don't live your life from your flesh, but live your life from your spirit". This is a Truth for all situations in life.

If you find yourself in fear, then recognize you are being moved by your flesh. You can actually use fear to your advantage, for fear will locate you. It will tell you that you that you are in the flesh and that you need to move from your flesh to the Spirit realm. So use fear as a tool. Have fear work for you instead of against you.

When you recognize fear, your response to it is a change in direction. Get your eyes off the problem and get your eyes on God by looking at His Word of Promise (s). Move from fear to faith by moving from the flesh to the spirit realm.

You and me are the ones who choose which realm we will live in. The choice is yours and mine. Fear or Faith. Here is what God says about it, " the just (God's born-again child) SHALL live by faith" (Heb 10:38). The choice is yours, but as a child of God, Our Father has made the choice for us and if we obey Him we will be in Faith instead of fear. God always helps us with the choice that needs to be made for He said in Deut 30:19, "I (God) have set before you life (spirit) and death (flesh) blessing (spirit) and cursing (flesh) CHOOSE LIFE......." You have the right to choose, but just in case you don't know what to choose, God tells you the right chose.

Refuse to allow fear to direct your path by staying in faith at all times. You can do this. It just takes a change in lifestyles. From the flesh to the spirit. Start today and never turn back to the flesh and you will be free from fear.

Be Blessed!!

Don't Ever Lose Sight of God's Word (Jesus)

You can not look at or entertain any other thought than God's Word when you are fighting the good fight of faith. When you are looking at the Word of God, you are looking at Jesus (John 1:14), God Himself.

The Word will hold you up and keep you as long as you are looking at it. As soon as you look away from the Word, and look at the problem, you begin to sink (Matt 14:30). Your spirit man (the real you on the inside of your body) is in dominion of your thoughts when you are looking at the Word. When you look at something else, your physical flesh (body) takes dominion over your thoughts and a man will do what he is thinking about for he will think about what he is looking at.

To fight the good fight of faith, you must remain in the spirit realm where the Word of God reigns and rules and will dictate to the situation around you. To receive God's promises from His Word, you must look at that Word and never lose sight of it, for as soon as you do and look elsewhere, you will begin to sink or lose your foothold of faith. Faith in God's Word will keep you in any situation that this life will bring against you, but it will only keep you as long as you keep the Word in sight.

The temptation that the devil brings against you and the Word that you are looking at is to tempt you to look away from that Word to something else that is contrary to what you are seeing in the Word and believing. The devil knows that if you look away from God's Word, he can get you into his realm (physical, material realm) of authority and rule over you with fear. Instead of walking by faith, you'll be walking by fear and all your choices and decisions that you make will be influenced by that fear instead of by faith in God and His Word. You will reap what you sow into your heart (spirit). Faith will lead you to victory and life, fear will lead you to defeat and death.

Keeping your eyes only on the Word (Jesus) seems unrealistic to the the natural man, but it seems very right to the spirit man. If you are determined to live by the spirit and not the flesh, then the Holy Spirit will help you every step of the way to keep your eyes on the Word. Now you'll have to obey the voice of the Spirit as soon as He speaks to you. The Holy Spirit will always turn you towards the Word, but you must obey Him when He tells you to. This is God's way of keeping His man/woman who is in the World, but not of the World.

This way is God's way. It's a higher realm of living for man. It's called "Faith" and God said "the just SHALL live by faith" (Heb 10:38). Why did God say that? So that you and I could live our lives above the world's system, and live our lives in the Kingdom of God where Jesus is Lord and the blessings of God are open and available to the ones who calls on the Name of Jesus to be saved not only once at the beginning, but out of every situation that the issues of life in this world brings against us.

Are you willing to live your life in this World the way God desires and wills you to live? If your answer is yes, then you shall/must live by faith in God's Word, and by so doing, you will put a big smile on God's face for it is impossible to please God without faith (Heb 11:6). It's also impossible to walk by faith without keeping your eyes on the Word (Jesus).

You can do this!! Now go and live above and not beneath, and as the head and not the tail. That is the designated place God wants His Children to occupy. Will He find you there? He will if you keep you eyes on His Word (Jesus)

Be Blessed!!!

Are You Living Where God Lives?

The Bible, the Word of God, is the supernatural realm (the Spirit realm). You can only live there by faith. That is why so few live their lives in (according to) the Word of God. Many men/women know the Word of God, but they refuse to live in the Word of God because it doesn't make any (natural/physical) sense to them. They exalt what they see, feel, and hear over what God has said about it. They make excuses for the Word of God as they try to fit the Word of God into/around their life's experiences. They want to make sense of the Word of God, but you can't make natural/physical sense of the Word, for the Word of God is supernatural (spirit), watched over by the All Powerful, All Knowing, and Ever Present God. He is God Almighty, the All Sufficient One.

You can only live your life in the Word of God by faith. You will not receive the understanding of the Word of God until you are first living by the Word of God through faith. It is not until you trust God enough with your life and step out on His Word by faith, that you can live your life there on that Word.

Every born-again Christian has a right to live his life on this earth in the Kingdom of God separated from the World ( Jesus said we are in the World, but not of the World. John 17:14). You live there by by living in His Word. Here is how Jesus said it would work, "If you abide (live) in Me, and My Words abide (live) in you, you will ask what you desire and it SHALL be done for you." (John 15:7)

The majority of the Church (the Body of Christ, the born-again ones) stands on the outside of the Kingdom of God, looking into it through the window of the Word, but because it makes no sense to them, they refuse to enter in, because you can only enter in by faith in the God who declared His Word as Truth, even when (especially when) it doesn't look like the Truth because of the circumstances that surrounds your life.

To walk with God and live your life with Him in His Kingdom will require you to live by faith. That is why God said, " The Just (those that have been washed by the blood of Jesus and are born-again) SHALL LIVE BY FAITH." (Heb 10:38) It's a command to His people, not a suggestion or choice, because there is no other way you can live in the Kingdom of God. Faith is what enables you to live in the super natural realm (spirit realm) where all things are possible to him who believes (Mark 9:23)

It's time to quit looking through the window into the Kingdom of God and go to the Doorway, which is Jesus Christ Himself (John 10:1-5), and enter the Kingdom of God through faith in the Word of God Himself (John 1:1&14). Jesus is the Word of God made flesh and He is the author and developer of your faith (Heb 12:2) , therefore, He will teach you how to live by faith in the Kingdom of God.

The Word of God is the supernatural realm. To live there you will have to live by faith. Jesus will not only show you how, He will empower/enable you (Acts 1:8 & Zech 4:6) to live there IF you will trust Him with your life.

It's time to leave this World and it's ways behind and enter into the supernatural Kingdom of God and live there, high above the beggarly elements of this world. God is faithful and He is waiting for you today. He sees you looking into His Kingdom, He has the Door open for you, so take that step of faith and enter the Kingdom of God and live your life there. God says you shall never be ashamed of your decision (Romans 10:11), but rather you will enjoy Heaven on Earth (Matt 6:10 & Deut 11:21).

As the well known saying goes in the world that can actually be used in your walk of faith with God, "JUST DO IT" (Nike Ad for those who aren't familiar with this saying) fits very nicely here. Many of you are ready to move up higher with God. It's time to say good-bye to the familiar surroundings of this world and take the step of faith into His Word (the Supernatural Kingdom of God) and live there. You're ready! Just do it!!

Be Blessed!!

Are You Ready To Argue?

The good fight of faith is an argument between God's Truth (His Word) and any other words spoken in opposition to that Truth. God's Word says in 1 Peter 2:24 that by His (Jesus') stripes you WERE healed. The doctor's report says you are sick. The doctor's report argues against God's report (Isa 53:1). Who will believe God's report over the doctor's report? The one that does receives his healing, the one that doesn't receives what the doctor's report says.

2 Cor 10:3-5 says that we (the Believer) are to cast down arguments (imaginations) that oppose the Word of Truth. This is how you fight the good fight of faith ( 1 Tim 6:12) by casting down arguments. Why is it called a good fight? Because the battle is not mine, but the Lord's (2 Chor 20:15). God uses me to take Him into the battle, but it is His fight. The victory has already been determined. It's a good fight because we win!

This is how you live by faith in the Kingdom of God. Jesus said that we (Believer's) are in the world but not of the world (John 17:14-18). Believers don't live like those in the world live. Believers live by faith in what God says, not by what those in the world say. When someone speaks the World's words to a Believer, the Believer casts them down by exalting the Word of God over it. The Believer wins every argument against those in the World if the Believer will hold fast to the Word of Truth.

The Believer will have to argue with those in the World, but God declared us Believers the winner every time for the Holy Spirit says in Rom 8:37, that we Believers are more than conquerors through Him (Jesus) who loved us.

Now let me say this in closing. Your argument is not with the Doctor who gives you his report. Your argument is with the devil when he tries to use the doctor's report to defeat your faith in God's Word. Jesus is the Truth and the devil is a liar, so just by knowing this, it's not really a fair fight at all. The devil is a loser and he knows it, he just hopes that you don't.

Be Blessed!!!

Are You Still Trying To Get Something From God?

Are you still trying to get healed? If you are then you don't believe that you are healed (1 Peter 2:24). If you are still trying to get, then you don't believe that you have. If you are striving for it you don't believe that you have it and you are still working to get it. If you believed that you had it (that you were healed) you would be resting in your faith rather than trying to obtain it (Heb 4:3).

The reason you are still striving to get healed is because you are looking at the wrong thing. When you look at the symptoms on or in your body, it will tell you that you are sick. If that is what you believe then you will continue to strive after healing. But if you will do what God says to do and that is to look at His Word (Prov 4:20-22)) and not at your body (Rom 4:19) , then that Word (Jesus is the Word made flesh) will tell you that "by His stripes you WERE healed", and if you believe that, then you'll no longer strive after healing, for you already have it.

Hebrews 11:1 says, "NOW faith is...........", faith is always right now. Whatever faith is believing, it believes it has it right now. So if you believe what God says over what your body is telling you, you will enter into the rest of God (Heb 3 & 4) and you'll no longer be going after something you already have, and when you are resting in the Promise of God, this is when the Word of God does it's greatest work, and you will then see the manifestation of what you have been believing for.

If you are resting in God, you know that you are in faith. If you are anxious and fretting, and still trying to get, you are in fear and fear does not receive anything from God but rather keeps you from it.

If you've never experienced peace in the middle of the storm (of life), you've never experienced the genuine place of faith. God has enabled His man to be at rest in the middle of the mess, if that man will do what God says rather then what the circumstances are saying.

What you listen to is a matter of life or death, peace or anxiety. God said His Word did not prosper His people because they did not mix faith with what they heard (Heb 4:2). What are you mixing with God's Word today? Faith or Fear? Jesus has one thing to say to you today, "according to YOUR faith, be it done unto you!" ( Matt 9:29)

Simply, whatever you believe in your heart and say with your mouth, that is exactly what you will have. I pray that God's Word abides in your heart and it's coming out of your mouth, for if it is, you are resting (in God) and not striving after something and this is the place God desires you to be. God says, "be still and know that I am God" (Ps 46:10). Be still and rest and let God be God in your life.

Here is my closing thought that I have taken from a man of faith that God used mightily upon this earth, his name is Smith Wigglesworth, and he said; "You will be strong if you believe this truth: faith is the victory--always!!!!!..........Glory to Jesus"

And with that I say, "Yes and Amen!!"...............Be Blessed!!

Dead Man Walking

Gal 2:20 declares that I am crucified with Christ. That means if you have received Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you are born again and that the old you and me is dead, and the person that is now living in my body is Jesus. I want you to understand this important fact, that unless your old man (your flesh, the old you) is crucified and hanging on the cross, you will be unable to do what God has commanded His Children to do and that is, "the just SHALL live by faith" (Heb 10:38). If you are struggling with living by faith, there is one reason for it. The old man has come down off that cross and chooses to reign and rule in your life instead of allowing Jesus to. To walk in faith, the old man must be crucified. Unless you understand this, you will struggle with faith. Faith is not only believing in something, but it's doing what you believe. And you'll never be able to live by faith in God's Word unless you are dead and hanging on the cross, and Jesus is living through you. Meditate on Gal 2:20 until God teaches you this Truth.

My faith in Him (Jesus) empowers me to live by the faith of Him. You will only see this Truth revealed in the King James version of Gal 2:20. I believe the original writers interrupted this verse more accurately than all the later versions. "I live by the faith of the Son of God" rather than "live by faith in the Son of God". There is a huge difference between the two. The first one leads to action, the second one doesn't.

To believe "in Him" leads me to "act just like Him". To many of God's people stop at believing "in Him", and don't take the next step of "living like Him." Believing "in Him" will change my heart and mind. "Living like Him" will change my circumstances. Believing "in Him" (only) won't calm the wind and the seas (the storms of life), but "living like Him" (living by faith) will.

I not only live by faith "in" the Son of God, I live "by" the faith of the Son of God. The Church has always focused on the "believing in" the Son of God, but it is rare to find the one who believes "in Him" enough to "act like Him" by living his life by the faith of the Son of God.

The devil has no problem with the one who believes "in Him", it's the one who lives by the faith of the Son of God (the one who lives just like Jesus lived--by faith) that is dangerous to him (satan and his kingdom).

Believe "in Him", so that you can act "just like Him". This is God's purpose for man and the kind of man that God desires to fellowship with and spend eternity with. Go beyond believing "in Him" to acting just "like Him" and be what the Church was always intended to be--God's presence on the Earth, reigning and ruling over all of God's creation.

Are you ready for that next step? Then you must be crucified with Christ and allow Jesus to live through you. It's the most exciting way a man could ever live, "Just like Jesus".

Be Blessed!!!