Does anyone else feel a big demand on our "claimed faith" coming? I do and Holy Spirit has also shared with me, its coming.
Our faith is built as our daily walk brings us to the throne room of God.
Sometimes that means circumstances happen in our lives which force us to trust God, especially in areas we are weak. He may have gently been prompting us to spend more time in prayer, but, we did not have time for him. When we blow him off, I believe he not only allows obstacles to be placed in our lives, but, depending on how we recieve those things, he also intensifies those same circumstances in our lives in order to drive us back to him. In other words, things that are beyond our control and pinning us against the proverbial wall, trapped, no way out, forcing us to walk into the split red sea or allow Pharoah to kill us. A true call of faith and where we stand in it.
Some real life examples of this: A sudden job loss. One may have a family member who is a drug addict leaving everyone else to live on pins and needles, waiting for "that" phone call. How about one who is rock solid in their faith and because of that, they watch the lives of the ones they love the most crumble around them, in turn, they suffer too. Someone recieves a stage 4 cancer diagnosis. Someone takes the MRNA injection against your advice or just the divisions around this destroys your family and/ or friendships (designed to).
If we are who we claim to be, we must recognize we have the power of prayer to deactivate the MRNA injection's side effects, to heal cancer and protect our more adventurous loved ones. Please remember, prayer from a righteous man avails much. Please do not give up on people, love them. Pray for them. God is the one who keeps his hand on them or removes it. God is the final judge.
Have you ever thought of how intricately we are weaved together. MAYBE these things come across our desks, so to speak to drive us into the saviors arms. Maybe he tried other ways and we ignored him? We serve a merciful, righteous God.
Our children, pets, younger siblings or a family member suffering from dimensia have established boundaries, right? Well, so does God. Free will yes, freedom to pass into eternity without interference, not so sure? He loves us too much not to try. Nevertheless, the choice is ultimately ours.
The only way to mentally bare the anguish that comes from such circumstances presented to us is to trust God. Sounds so cliche' when it is the other guy saying it. We have no other choice, do we? We are forced to trust until we are not. This is an example of refinement. We must all submit to it if we want to be a child of God.
This is where earthly problems meet heavens resources. This is when human nature has relied on its own strength and failed. Then we say, "well, I guess we will just have to give it to God and pray". Duh!!! God has been waiting for us to spin out and look up. If we decide to humble ourselves, our flesh especially, this is when our prayer life will become engaged. Prayer is a humbling thing to us. This is also when God does his best work on our behalf. He is waiting for his church to get engaged.
We all want to go home, sooner rather than later. News flash!! Most if us are not going anywhere unless we are willing to get our hands dirty. It is time to get to work. He is waiting on engagement from his church.
We do not go to church to hope for things to happen. No no no! We prepare ourselves through prayer and fasting. We wait on him, we journal, pray, study and read his word. THEN- we go to church so the Holy Spirit can make things happen through us.
95% of the churches go something like this: We greet one another, sing a few songs about ourselves, listen to the announcements about everything but God, take an offering so the preacher can make his house payment and support the building fund (always seems to be a building fund), listen to a 20 minute sermonette with a loving scripture, then go home!? Lather, rinse, repeat!?
This is why people do not stick. This is why "christians" live an unfulfilled life, this is why "christians" are bad witnesses, this is why "christians" walk in zero power and authority, this is why no one believes the word of God. This is why God weeps.
Meanwhile the clergy is racking their brains for church growth, failing to address the lack of spiritual power. Great, they show up a couple of times, then they leave. Why? Because the only difference between them and the world is the church folks get up, dress up and go to a dead/semi-dead building on Sunday morning. Then go to lunch in their "church clothes" and not tip the waitstaff at lunch. Then they try so make some clever comment about God because they have a forced, captive audience. How does this honor God? How does this win souls? I would say we lost a few. More than a few!!!
God is calling us to be people of faith, for real. We are called to bring something to the table, not take something from the table.
We have to allow God to refine us now. This world is not getting better.
We, who are called by his name are to be out in the field being used by Jesus to do signs, wonders and great healing. (These signs follow them that believe.)
Some are ready for this, not everyone. Statistics show 95% of the church is deceived and asleep. Sadly, deep down, we know better, but, we choose the luxuries of this life instead of winning souls. (cell phones, gaming, fakebook, fine dining, tv etc).
We have to wake up, wake up now. Time is running out to learn the things God wants us to know for this next chapter.
Many times our walk with God only shows us a step or two ahead at one time. Again this is to build our faith and trust in God. We think we know better, we think we should always be in control. How is that working out for us so far? God has to teach us to lean on him in ALL things. After all, he did give us ALL things. (everything we are concerned about, he gave to us).
In the coming days, it will be absolutely imperative for us to fully trust God. Things that will be happening in the future, very near future, will cause us to cash in the faith that we have accumulated over our time with God. In other words the Jesus that we claim is inside of us, will be called out in situations where either we have the faith to execute on God's behalf, or we do not.
We must take this time to really get to know God, the holy spirit and Jesus. This pause between birth pangs is called grace.....We must seek the face of God fervently to effectively serve him to our full capacity and to his desires.
I will give you a quick story concerning faith. My husband works out in the field and meets different people every single day. He happened to come upon a traffic light and there was a homeless man sitting there with his head hanging down, not asking for anything. My husband asked him if he was hungry, the man said yes, I am starving. So my husband gave him His breakfast and part of his lunch, asked him if he knew Jesus, he said yes and then he went on his way. This man had his prayer answered for a couple of meals (or an angel testing my husband). This man had nothing and he has to rely on God for every single meal. How is that for faith?
A lot of people end up on the streets and do not know what to do. It is up to us as as a church, and ecclesia to not only feed these people, but to pray with them, help them physically and bring them to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. Not say be well and go on our way. Be ready, get ready. Its coming.
Consider where you are at in your walk with God. Use this time and ask him to refine you while things are still pretty calm.
There will be a big demand upon his people as things ramp up. He will equip you. Step out in faith and ask him to get you prepared.
May you be blessed on this beautiful Summer day. (I had spring written there, been working on this for awhile)
End-