Is Faith Foolishness? You Bet It Is!

Prov 4:24 says, "put away from you a deceitful mouth and put perverse lips far from you.

Deceit means misleading, deception, not honest.

Perverse means turned from the truth, contrary to the evidence.

When you speak words according to how you feel or by what you see, you will be speaking words of deceit and perversity when they are held up against the evidence of God's Word. When you speak words according to the Word of God, and disregard your physical senses, you are speaking the Truth according to God, but to those around you, you sound as if you are being deceitful and perverse in what you are saying.

What you use as your evidence in what you believe is what makes your words either true or deceitful before God and man. When I declare God's truth in a situation before me, it will be the truth before God, but it may look deceitful to a man that does not no God's way. The Bible calls this man a carnal man. His mind has not been renewed to the ways of God so he thinks like a natural worldly man instead of a born-again spirit man. Natural (carnal) man measures truth by his physical senses, so what he thinks about it is elevated to the place of truth. The born-again man measures truth by what God has said in His Word, for His Word is Truth (John 17:17).

Whatever you choose to use as your evidence of what is true will determine whether the words out of your mouth are perverse and deceitful or true. If God's Word is your standard of truth, then what God says is true over what you see, feel, or think about it. When you say what God says over contrary evidence in the physical realm that stands before you, you are exalting the evidence of God's Word above the physical evidence that is seen. To the man of faith who believes God's Word, when he speaks God's Word over contrary circumstances and situations before him, he is speaking the truth before God and is agreeing with God, but that same word of truth before God looks deceitful before a man that does not know the ways of God.

To the natural/carnal man, the words of faith sound and look to him like a lie, because what is said does not agree with what he sees and this man exalts his evidence above the man of faith's evidence, and he calls the man who lives by faith a liar and being deceitful.

In reality both men are right according to the evidence they use to determine the truth. They are both deceitful in each others sight. Here in lies the conflict between the natural/carnal man and the man who is led by God's Spirit, the spiritual man. In the realm they choose to live in, both are right. But there is a way that seems right to a (carnal)man, but the end of that way is death (Prov 14:12). But to the (born-again) spiritual man the Word of God leads him to life. A man's choice leads to life or death (Deut 30:19). When the born-again spiritual man chooses God's Word over his physical senses, it's the way of life for him.

So how do you know if your words are deceitful or perverse? Only one way. Who does your words agree with? What God says about it, or what the natural circumstances are saying to you. Depending on where you live your life, spiritual or natural realm, this will dictate to you whether the words you hear out of your mouth are deceitful and perverse or true. The carnal man thinks the spiritual man is lying, but the spiritual man is doing nothing more than agreeing with his God rather than agreeing with his physical senses. This looks foolish to the carnal man because he depends on his natural senses to determine the truth.

Now I said a lot to say this, that to live by faith in what God says over what your physical senses are telling you is the way God designed His man to live, but sin entered the first man when he chose what he saw over what God said about it, and man exalted himself and his physical senses over God's Word, and that conflict will be played out until the return of the Lord Jesus.

God sets before man, life and death, blessing and cursing (Deut 30:19). God says, "choose life" (just for those who don't know the right answer). You make that choice by choosing His way to live your life and His way is, "the just (the born-again man) SHALL live by FAITH" (Heb 10:38), therefore if you choose life, then you are choosing the life of faith, and using God's Word as your evidence in every situation you face in life, and saying words out of your mouth that agree with what God says about it. They will be true words in the hearing of God, and deceitful words in the hearing of carnal man, but that word you speak will be life unto you and health and medicine to all your flesh (Prov 4:22).

Let God be true and every man a liar (Rom 3:4), for when a man says words that don't agree with what God has said, then God calls this man a liar and the end of that man's words are death. Now he might look good before other carnal men, but he looks like a fool to God.

Be in agreement with God and His Word today. You may look like a fool before carnal men, but you will look right and perfect (complete) before God and you will live long on the earth (Ps 91:16) and forever with God throughout eternity.

Now that sounds like a choice every man should make. Make the choice to live by faith and please the God (Heb 11:6) who created you and desires to walk and live with you forever.

The just shall live by faith. Are you up to it? After what you have just heard in this writing, how could you not? God calls those things which do not exist as though they did (Rom 4:17). If you are going to live by faith, you are going to have to take after your Father and further more, if you are His son, then He expects you to.

Keep the faith and be blessed.

Are You A Follower of Jesus?

Jesus said in John 12:26, "If anyone serves me (you can see right here that Jesus is not to picky), let him FOLLOW Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor".

Jesus is the Word of God made flesh (John 1:14). God's primary purpose when He saved you was not to provide you with fire insurance, the avoidance of Hell after you die, but His real purpose for saving you was to make you His child, a child that would follow His eldest Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, the Firstborn from the dead. (What's your number?)

You were born-again for one purpose and one purpose only, to be a follower of Jesus by being His servant. The way the Father honors His born-again child is by receiving him into Heaven (the presence of God) after he departs the earth and saying, Well done, My good and faithful servant (Mt 25:21) and the honor truly comes from how you served Jesus on the earth with the years of your life there.

As you learn the Word and increase your understanding of it, it will guide your steps. You in fact will be following the Word and doing what it says. This is the true and accurate picture of the disciple who is following Jesus. When you follow the Word you are following Jesus, and when you do the Word, you are serving Jesus.

Now, Jesus said, If anyone serves Me, let Him follow Me and where I am there my servant will be also. Are you still following the Lord since you first believed? If not, you don't believe. Believing in Jesus is not a one time event, it's a continuous event (24/7). If you believe in Jesus, you will be following Him right now by where the Word has brought you to.

Jesus is always on the move. Always looking for that next person who needs to hear the glorious Gospel and be saved. He is always looking for that next person who needs to be delivered from sin, sickness, disease, pain, poverty, debt, lack, anything that comes because of the curse that is on this earth.

Jesus is on the move, are you still following Him or have you quit and found something else to believe in and give your life to. When Jesus comes upon the next situation that He wants to actively get involved with by ministering to it, He will look up and look at His servants that are following Him, and He will assign one of His servants to go in His Name and do the work of God there.

Here is the most important question you will ever hear. When Jesus looks up and looks upon His servants that are following Him, "WILL HE FIND YOU THERE?"

The answer you give to that question has Eternal significance, for Jesus said in Matt 7:21-23,

"Not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in your Name, and done many wonders in your Name? And then I (Jesus) will declare to them, I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.

Forget the once saved, always saved doctrine. It's a man made doctrine, made by men, so that they can run off and do whatever they want to do without following Jesus but still have their fire insurance card in their pocket that they plan on showing Jesus when they depart from this earth.. This is the devil's doctrine and many men (& women) have left the narrow path of Jesus to follow it. There is a way that seems right to a man, but the end of that way is death (Prov 14:12).

Why does God want you to hear this today? He doesn't want to scare you, He wants to save you.

Repent, and get back to where you once were and follow Him. When Jesus looks up at His servants, let Him find you there. When He sees you there, then you can surely know that your honor and reward is waiting for you in Heaven. Now I know what you are thinking and the answer is, YES, a thousand times YES. You are saved by grace and not by works, but once you are saved, we are instructed to work out our salvation. Here is where the following Jesus comes in (please read Phil 2:12).

Now I know this is going to stir up a lot of religious spirits, but they will just have to go throw a fit for all I care.

My only care and assignment from Jesus is that you hear the Word of Truth, and I pray this day that you heed it. Let Jesus find you standing there when He looks for a servant to go and be a doer of His Word.

Be Blessed in all you do. Follow Him, and you're blessed!!

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!!!