Enlarge Your Territory!

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believe, Enlarge, faith, make room, Receive, Stretch out, Take in

Isaiah 54:2-3
“Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations; spare not, lengthen thy cords and strengthen they states; For thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left and they seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited.”
I’ve often heard people pray for God to enlarge them in some way or other I’ve even prayed this prayer but as I read these scriptures it clearly tells us to enlarge the place of our tents which means  enlargement is up to us.  How far you want to go and how big you want to get is totally up to you.  If you enlarge your place God will fill it up.  The enlargement is your part the breaking forth is God’s part.
2 Kings 3:10-20 tells the account of Jehoshaphat, Jehroam and the king of Edom.  When they went out to battle against the king of Moab they found themselves in the wilderness with no water.  They went to Elisha for the word of the Lord and Elisha said to them “…Thus saith the Lord, make this valley full of ditches.  For thus saith the Lord, ye shall not see wind, neither shall ye see rain; yet that valley shall be filled with water that ye may drink, both ye and your cattle, and your beasts” (2 Kings 3:16-17).  They had to dig the ditches but God was the one who would fill them with water.  Peter had to launch out and let down his nets but God gave the draught (Luke 5:4).  It was totally up to Peter how many nets he wanted to use but the draught was already given.  The nets determined his capacity to receive.
You might be thinking “but if I do it won’t work.” God will never let you be ashamed.  Isaiah 54:4 says, “Fear not; for thou shalt not be ashamed; neither be thou confounded; for thou shalt not be put to shame…”  God is a good God and He will never, I said never let you be put to shame.  The devil wants you to believe that God is not good and that God will leave you hanging out on a limb but the devil is a liar.  God will never let you be ashamed.  God has already done His part now it’s up to you to do your part.  Enlarge and stretch out!  Make room to receive!

What Good Thing?

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believe, faith, Good, law, Receive, Rich Young Ruler, Righteous, works

Matt. 19:16

“And, behold, one came and said unto Him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?”

If it were possible for us to do one good thing to have eternal life we would never have it.  That is the point that Jesus was making to the rich young ruler.   All of our doing will never give us life because we could never do it all.  We would miss it in some point or other and if we offend in one point we are guilty of breaking the whole law.

If you’re trying to do good to get eternal life you’ll never obtain it but if you receive it as a gift you’ll have it.  Galatians 3:9 says, “So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.”  It is to those that believe that they have been justified by the works of Christ that receive the blessings of Abraham.  Notice verse 10 “For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, Cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.”  In other words, as long as you are trying to obtain the blessings of God through your works or through your efforts of attempting to do some good thing you are still under the curse.  It it to those that believe that they have been made righteous by the works of Christ that receive the blessings.

The only good thing you can do is receive what Jesus Christ has done for you.  When you do He comes in unto you and then and only then will all of the blessings of God be made manifest in your life.

If you are not seeing the blessings of God manifested in your life ask yourself am I receiving what Jesus has done or am I still trying to do some good thing?  Galatians 3:11 says “But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident; for, The just shall live by faith.”

By Faith You Can Forgive!

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faith, Forgive, Forgiveness, Hinder, Jesus forgave, love, Torment

Luke 17:6

“And the Lord said.  If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you.”

After Jesus gave the parable of the rich man and Larzaus, He said to his disciples, “It is impossible but that offences will come; but woe unto him, through whom thy come!” (Luke 17:1).

Throughout our lives here on planted earth there will be someone that will offend us or that we may offend but through faith we are able to forgive.

When we hold unforgiveness in our hearts it can affect our physical bodies and cause all kinds of ailments.  I know of three sisters that had been fighting amongst themselves for a period of time and because of there bitterness and anger towards one another each sister suffered terrible illness, two of them had cancer.  This was not God’s plan for them, they are all believers.  You can come to a point when you are offended  where you don’t even remember what it was that offended you all you remember is the bitterness and hurt that you’ve been carrying in your heart.  The enemy loves it when we don’t forgive one another because it’s an open door for him to hinder us in our lives.

However, the Bible teaches us that  we are to forgive one another even as Christ has forgiven us (Col 3:13).  I know you might be saying “but you don’t know what they’ve done to me.”  Listen, if you are a believer you have Jesus’ divine faith in you to forgive those who have offended you.  You can forgive them by faith.  Jesus said “if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed ye might say unto this sycamine tree, be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you.”

By faith by the faith of Jesus Christ in you, you can say I forgive those who have offended me and have every trace of bitterness be plucked up by the root out of you and be planted in the sea where it can no longer torment and hinder you life.

Faith That Delivers

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danger, deliver, deliverance, faith, help, hurt, injury, Jesus, pain

Daniel 6:23

“Then was the king exceeding glad for him, and commanded that they should take Daniel up out of the den.  So Daniel was taken up out of the den, and no manner of hurt was found upon him, because he believed in his God.”

Faith is an impenetrable shield that keeps us from all hurt, harm and danger.  

When Daniel was faced with the lion’s den he armed himself with only one weapon, his faith in God.  Daniel’s faith was all he needed to sustain no injuries from the lion’s mouth. However, Daniel did have to go into the lion’s dens.

God never promised that we wouldn’t have to go into lion’s dens or fiery furnaces, but what He did promised is that He will deliver us out of them all. Psalms 34:19 “Many are the afflictions of the righteous; but the Lord delivereth him out of them all.”   As long as we are in this world we will be faced with things that are design by the enemy to cause us hurt, injury and death. But we need not fear because Jesus has overcome the world and His victory is our victory (John 16:33).

Our faith covers us just as the glory of God covered Adam and Eve in the garden.  So we can rest and not shake just as Daniel did.  When Daniel heard the decree of the king he went into his house opened his bedroom windows and prayed and gave thanks before his God as he always did. (Daniel 6:10)  All Daniel did was believed in God and His faith was all he needed.

All we need is our faith in Jesus Christ the Son of the Living God to shut the mouth of lions, quench the fiery furnace, and open prison doors.  Faith is Christ in us.

Only Believe!

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dead, death, faith, Jesus, law, life, stone, walk

John 11:25-26

“Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life; he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.  Believeth thou this?”

Lazarus had been dead four days and to Martha and Mary and everyone standing around them it was completely over.  After all Lazarus had been embalmed and buried and the stone was place upon the cave where they laid him.  Martha says to Jesus “Lord if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.”  In other words, Martha believed that if Jesus was there He would have healed her brother.  She also believed that anything that Jesus asked of God, God would give it to Him.  That’s anything but the life of her brother.  To live again after four days in the grave was too much of a stretch for Martha to believe.   Still, Jesus says to her “thy brother shall rise again.”  Martha thought Jesus was referring to the resurrection at the last day.  Jesus said to her “I AM the resurrection and the life; he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.”

There was only one thing that Martha had to do and that was believe.  Believe what?  Believe in Jesus.    When Moses asked, who shall I say sent me, God said to Moses, “I AM THAT I AM” God wanted the children of Israel to believe in the I AM.  Jesus wanted Martha to believe in the I AM for He said “I AM the resurrection and the life.”  Jesus Christ is the I AM. 

At the grave of Lazarus Jesus sees the stone upon the mouth of the grave and tells them to take away the stone.”  Martha says “Lord, by this time he stinketh; for he hath been dead four days.”  Jesus says to her “said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?  What was Jesus saying to Martha?  He was saying “The just shall live by faith” and that faith is Jesus Christ (Romans 1:17).  The stone upon the mouth of the grave represented the law which could never give us life.  But Jesus said “…I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10).  Jesus the life-giver caused Lazarus to rise up from the grave and live. 

Now if believing in Jesus Christ can cause a dead man who had been dead four days to live again, what will happen in your life if you only believe in Jesus Christ the Son of the Living God?

Grace For Faith

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faith, grace

Imagine you are standing with your back toward someone and they tell you to fall back into their arms. You can’t see what they are doing, you don’t know if they have their arms out to catch you but you allow yourself to fall back into their arms. Why do you do it? You do it because you know that they have the ability to catch you and you believe that they will not allow you to get hurt. I mean, if you know that they can’t catch you or they wanted to hurt you, you wouldn’t let go. This is how faith works.

When we see God’s ability to fulfill our need and we understand that he gave us his best because he only wants the best for us we will let go and fall into his arms and trust Him. But we must first see Him in His grace.

Take the feeding of the five thousand (Matt. 14:15-21). They were in a desert place with no food and not enough money to buy food. He took a little boys lunch consisting of two fish and five loaves of bread blessed it, brake it, gave it and multiplied it. So much so that there were twelve baskets left over.

You may be looking at what you have and saying it’s not enough to pay the bills, that’s what the disciples said. But instead of looking at what you have, see Jesus. See how he took what was so little to man and blessed it, brake it , gave it and multiplied it. When you see him in his grace it releases His faith in you to fall back in His arms and let Him catch you. Remember God gave us his best to give us his best.

Maybe you don’t have anything not even a little for God to bless and multiply. His grace is sufficient. When those that collected tax money for Ceasar came to collect from Jesus, He told Peter to go to the sea and go fishing (Matt. 17:24-27). Jesus told Peter the first fish that he caught would have the money for the taxes in his mouth. Now we know that Jesus had a treasurer, Judas was his name and he would also betray Him. Jesus could have told Peter to go get the money from Judas. But I believe that Jesus wanted us to see that He only is our supply and He knows how to get what we need to us. He didn’t have to take out of what was there to meet the need. He could meet the need even when there is nothing because all things belong to him and He knows how to get what we need to us.

Don’t see what you don’t have, see what He has, see how He took care of the tax money out of nothing. See how He caused the ravens to feed Elijah, when Elijah had nothing (I kings 17:4), see how He healed the woman with the issue of blood when the doctors could do nothing (Luke 8:43-48). Don’t look at what you don’t have or how little it is, or how big the need is, look at Jesus in His grace and it will release in you His faith to fall back in His arms and trust Him.

Faith Acts On The Word

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Action, faith

Luke 5:4
Now when he had left speaking, he said unto Simon, launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught.

Faiths acts on the Word of God.  If we say we have faith and are unable to act on what God says, then we don’t have faith because faith acts on what God says.

Many people say they have faith but they never move in the direction of their faith.  They say they believe but they just sit there waiting for something to happen or for something to fall out of the sky for them.  They never get up and move in the direction of what they say they are believing God to do.  They really are not believing at all because faith empowers us to act on what God says is done.

Faith is right now, present tense, it believe that it receives right now.  Faith is Christ in us because  “faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God” (Rom. 10:17).  We hear of Christ in his grace and we receive his faith to act on what he says is done.  I say done because all that the Word of God says is already accomplished for us.  The Word of God says that “by whose stripes ye were healed” (I Peter 2:24) if you believe this you will began to do with your body what you couldn’t do before.  In other words you would move in the direction of your faith.

When Jesus told Peter to launch out into the deep, even though Peter doubted he didn’t allow that doubt to stop him from acting on what Jesus said.  For he said, “..,”we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net” (Luke 5:5).  Peter’s acting on the Word brought him the harvest of fish.

Faith comes from the Word of God and Jesus Christ is the Word, therefore, Christ in us empowers us to act on what God says is done.

Don’t Stop Praying

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faith, persistence, prayer

Luke 18:1
“And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that man ought always to pray, and not to faint.”

In this parable of the unjust judge the widow woman was persistent in having the judge avenge her of her adversary.  It didn’t matter how many times this judge said no she kept coming until she heard him say what she wanted to hear.  The bottom line is she didn’t give up.

Being persistent in prayer is not praying for the same thing over and over again.  That would mean that you didn’t believe you received when you prayed.  Mark 11:24 says, “therefore I say unto you, what things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them and ye shall have them.”  Being persistent in prayer means you don’t allow any distractions that the enemy may bring to cause you to give up.  You see, while you are praying the devil may bring a thousand thoughts to your mind.  Thoughts like God’s not going to do it; and you might as well give up or your situation is beyond God’s ability to fix.  He’s trying to make you think your prayers are not being effective.  And if you think your prayers are not being effective you will give up praying.  However, that’s not the time to give up that’s the time to be persistent keep praying in the spirit until there is a release in your spirit about your situation.

James 1:16 says “…the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” Again this doesn’t mean that we keep praying over and over again about the same thing nor does it mean our prayers need to be filled with emotion or that we need to pray for long periods of time.  It simply means prayer that is filled with faith availeth much.  Our faith is our passion in prayer.  We are passionate about what we believe and it is that faith that causes us to be persistent in prayer.  And what we believe is what Jesus said in John 14:14 “if ye shall ask any thing in my name , I will do it.”

Releasing The Power Within

Tags

faith, healing, power, provision

Ephesians 3:14-21

When Paul saw that the church at Ephesus was about to give up, he prayed that they would be strengthened with power by Christ’s spirit in the inner man and then that Christ would dwell in their hearts by faith.  I used to think when Paul prayed this prayer he was praying that they become believers but then I realized they were already believers.  So why would Paul pray this prayer?  Well, I believe that Paul was praying that the church would receive a deeper revelation of the grace of God. Paul goes on to pray that they “being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God.” The breadth, length, depth and height is a picture of the cross.  The Holyspirit was praying through Paul that we all receive a deeper revelation of the finished work of calvary because the more we come to know, understand and believe in what Christ has accomplished for us on the cross the more that his life would be operative in us.  It is His grace that releases His faith, that releases His power within us.

Paul goes on to pray  “now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us.”  Yes God can do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think but it is according to the power that worketh in us.  If we don’t know how to release the power that is in us it will never benefit us.  Yes it is there but it is not being use and therefore God is limited as to how much He can do in your life. For example, you could go to Best Buy and purchase a dvd player,  get it home, plug it up and play dvds but if you don’t read the manual you will never know all of its capabilities. You might not ever be able to record other dvds or record your favorite tv shows or do anything else that it can do.  The power to do it would be there but you wouldn’t know that you have it because you’ve never read the manual. Power that worketh is power that is being used. Christ is the power that is in us and the Word of God is the manual.  The more revelation of Christ that we receive, the more of His power that will be working in us and then God is able to do exceeding abundantly above all we ask or think. 

When I get a revelation of  Christ as my healer, I receive His faith for healing and that faith releases His power of healing  within me.  And with His power of healing working God is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that I ask or think in my body. Likewise, when I get a revelation of Christ as my provider, I receive His faith that releases His power of provision within me and with His power of provision working God is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that I ask or think in my finances.

Okay, now that you know how to release the power of Christ within you, it really doesn’t matter what tribulation, persecution or trouble you are facing you don’t have to give up. You are loaded with power. All you need to do is pick up the manual, the Word of God and ask the Holyspirit to give you a revelation of Jesus Christ in His grace for your situation and you will receive His faith that releases His power within you and God will do exceeding abundantly above all that you ask or think on your behalf.