Friday, February 11, 2011

How to Function in Faith

If you've been reading this blog, you should get a good picture of what faith is and how to use it, but if you haven't, I'll do a quick compilation for you.

Secular North American media have mislead people to believing that faith is in the realm of religion. When you ask a joe-shmoe, who has never been to church, what faith is, he'll most likely say "oh, that's religion and stuff..." But he couldn't be more wrong if he tried.

Everyone, I said everyone, has faith. Every time you board a plane you're stepping out on faith. How do you know the pilot can do as he claims? How do you know that big hunk of metal is safe? How do you know terrorists won't be on there? Naw, you just see that you'll be hugging your mother and checking out her reaction to the home-made muffins you brought her. You even tell your friend, "mommy is so going to want my recipe!" (and guess what; you'll be right!) That's faith in the pilot, plane and fellow passengers, but can you trust God? Everyone has trust in and act upon things they believe without seeing. Folks who don't are generally residents of asylums for paranoid schizophrenics.

God's Word produces the faith for the things that God has already given you!

What is faith? Faith is a full, deep belief(that comes to a knowing) in something without physical evidence of it, and acting on that belief.
Faith calls real, that thing you've dared to hope for. Faith is not hope, faith says it's done even though your physical senses says something else. Faith is active. Faith is in the NOW.

Faith is no respecter of circumstances or situations. With faith, ALL things are possible.

You start with a desire
Faith starts with a desire for change. A yearning for a new possibility. If you have no desire or goal, ask God to give you something to desire.

So how does one get faith? So then faith [cometh] by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. (Romans 10:17) Simply put, you get faith by what you pay attention to. It comes by the words you imbibe(recieve and chew on). The Word of God is the word of Life. These are the words that will grow and sustain your faith. These are the words you have to get in agreement with.

The importance of Words
Notice I kept speaking of words? Well I'll let you in on a secret; Words have power! They possess in them, the ability to cause changes.
'The Spirit alone gives eternal life. Human effort accomplishes nothing. And the very words I have spoken to you are spirit and life." (John 6:63 NLV)

God used words to create the world. In fact God himself is the Word. John 1:1 says
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." Genesis is filled with "...And God said"

But here's the thing, words on a piece of paper wont change anything. You have to speak it. It is the spoken word that builds faith; so when you read the word of God, you do so out loud and personalize it.

You meditate on the Word every chance you get. Understand, meditate doesn't mean you sit down, close your eyes and think, think and think some more -naw, that's some new age-y eastern religion thing. Bible meditation means you start by muttering it(your desire) under your breath, then say it out loud, then roar it(that happens when you've become fully convinced).
"This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; thou shalt meditate therein day and night." Joshua 1:8

Images
Meditating on the Word produces the image you need in your spirit. Make no mistake about it; if you can't see it, you can't have it. God sees the end from the beginning (and so should you). God is a Spirit and lives in a realm that precedes( and creates) this physical one. So that fancy car you desire already exists in the realm of the spirit; your job is to pull it into the physical via your faith. But you have to picture yourself driving it, telling someone about how you took a lovely trip in it etc. If all you see is the process of you trying to get it; know that you'll remain stuck in that process. You have to picture the end results.

Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times [the things] that are not [yet] done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure: (Isaiah 46:10)

And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth: so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered. (Genesis 13:16) Look at that; God gave Abram a picture to see the end results of his numerous offspring! We're talking of an old man with a barren old wife here. God gave him a picture and God also changed his name to Abraham(father of many) so that the man will hear himself being called father over and over again every time someone calls his name!

Use the word to build the image so that you can live out the reality of it.

Agreement
Whatever you accept, you will get. Simple as that concept sounds, it is a functioning law. I call it the law of agreement.

I also tell you this: If two of you agree here on earth concerning anything you ask, my Father in heaven will do it for you. (Matthew 18:19)


See what Jesus said about agreement? When you and another person or persons agree on the outcome of a thing, it will go as agreed.
Another scenario is when you agree with or accept a circumstance or allow a situation. You do so with words.
Example; the doctor gives you a report that you've got cancer; stage 4. You can do one of two things; accept his report, saying "what does that mean? How long will I live..." etc or you can refuse his report and agree with the Word ("by his stripes ye were healed"), saying "I have the life of God in me! No disease that comes against me shall prosper! I function in divine health!", picturing yourself playing tennis or your favourite sport years from now.

When you hear word of faith pastors like Kenneth Copeland, Bill Winston, Joel Osteen, Creflo Dollar, Pastor Chris Oykhilome, Charles Capps etc mentioning "getting in agreement with God", they're speaking of accepting and believing His Word as truth.

If you get in agreement with a negative word or circumstance, that's what you will have. You get what you accept. Another way to look at it is believe or imbibe. Sometimes negative thoughts and images flash in your mind, immediately use words against those thoughts and pictures.

I remember driving from lunch with a couple of friends, enjoying light conversations when one said "you know, sometimes when I'm driving I see myself in a major accident, badly injured or killed--" me and the other girl jumped on it immediately. "I bind that in the name of Jesus!" the other girl shouts, while I declared life over the girl with the evil vision. I had to counsel her to never speak such words aloud, to speak against such images and to stand against them in spirit. Had we not, she might have been dead not very long after her words to us.

When an evil thought pushes itself into your mind, cover your mouth or better yet, speak against it. Never accept it.

Act
So now you have the desire, words, end result picture and belief but what next? Now it's time to act on what you believe. Now is the time you DO the word because you've already perceived in the spirit that it's done.
You've been told by doctors that you can't bear children, but now you've built up your faith, saw yourself taking home that baby that looks just like you and your husband, got in agreement with your husband, so what's next? You go out and buy baby clothes, food etc. You clear out that extra room and paint it in pastels and baby decorations. You're acting on your faith when you do this.







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