If the Lord knows our needs before we ask, why would we even speak them? And, couldn’t we just praise and thank God for answered prayer without stating it? (Mat 6:8)
More and more I have come to understand why we need to be involved and participate…. First, when we release some thoughts with words, we are the first to hear what we have just said. That reinforces what we were thinking. David cried out to God in the Psalms all his needs and fears…..ah…..but then he always turned to God as the answer to all of it–we then see much of David’s life was spent in worship and thanksgiving.
Second: Under the marvelous Grace of God, being one with Jesus, as we declare a thing we are taking dominion over the air-way with the will (desire and will of God), so that the enemies we ‘wrestle’ with, know that we know the truth. (Eph 2:2;6:12)
In Matthew 16:19; 18:18 Jesus ‘declares’ whatever we bind on earth or loose on earth will be done in heaven. As speak our declarations they are received in Heaven. Hebrews 4:14 tells us we have a high Priest in Jesus, to hold fast to our profession. Jesus backs up our confession, out declaration in line with His will….His love for us!
Then after we declare we praise, worship and thank God for meeting us in the heavenliest–that Jesus will be our advocate against our spiritual enemies. (John 10:10; I John 2:1) And, we can trust God will meet our needs (with our declarations of faith) according to His riches and Glory in Christ Jesus! (Phil 4:19)
May we all declare our faith to a wonderful Faithfull Heavenly Father, in due season for all things!
I was praying with a friend about forgiving someone and said to her, “You don’t have to want to forgive them, just be willing to forgive and Heaven will pour out blessings on the situation.”
One of the most exciting personal revelations I have received was that FORGIVENESS is a universal law, a power, like the law of gravity in the earth. There are some groups that build their following on simply teaching others to forgive. It does not matter whether you are a Buddhist, Muslim, Atheist or Christian…..if we are willing to forgive…..I mean, to forgive by a decision of our will, God honors that and peace and favor will follow.
Luke 22:42,43 tells us Jesus went to the mount of Olives and prayed, with such intensity that the capillaries burst on His brow and were as great drops of Blood falling to the ground (Re: Kenneth Wuest’s New Testament)…..in agony Jesus ask the Father to take away the upcoming things that He must endure. But in verse 44 Jesus declared God’s will be done, not His own. Jesus did not want to take the beatings, the mock and abuse, to die for all mankind, but was willing.
In Luke 23:34 Jesus said, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” And, the universal law of forgiveness was set in motion–by the words of His mouth–that we might use the example and do the same. Forgiveness is not just available but must be given by the words of our mouth and the intents of our heart.
John 20:23 Jesus reinforces this with His authority to the disciples to forgive sin or retain sin…..our choice. Even though this works for anyone willing it would be ludicrous not to honor, love, respect, worship and follow Jesus as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords as He paid for this privilege with His precious Blood.
There are so many things we don’t want to do, but will be a blessing if we are willing to do them…..how nice to know we have the choice. God is soooooo good!!!
Whoops!!! Had to come back in to say, nothing is an ‘always’ situation. We do most adamantly need to not only be willing but want to invite Jesus into our lives and make HIM LORD of our very existence. And, once we do that we want to do as JESUS directs because we love, respect and honor HIM.
I am sure there are other areas where ‘want’ is important, but isn’t it a wonderful picture of G OD’s grace that many times we just need to be willing.
I heard that the producers of the movie “Noah” said it was not totally based on the Biblical account…..WOW…..I am glad they said that and wish they had called the movie, “The Great Flood” or “Giant Rock Monsters and Wet Rescue” or something other than Noah.
I go to ‘Christian’ movies to see what the world is seeing…..enjoyment hoped for! The movie not only disappointed me but made me angry as there was so much judgment and legalism in the movie made man called Noah. I found it very sad and grieved me greatly.
Hebrews 11:7 says “God warned Noah and he built the ark out of fear, (and respect) and was declared righteous by faith. 2 Peter 2:5 tells us Noah was a preacher of righteousness…..sounds more like the people ignored Noah rather than fighting to take the ark, as they did in the movie.
In the movie one son, Ham, goes into the world to find a wife before the ark left–finds a girl, helps her escape from captors. As they are running to the ark the girl steps into and is caught in an animal trap. Noah looking for Ham finds them, pulls Ham away leaving the girl to die. Now, that sure looks like a ‘preacher of righteousness’ doesn’t it ? Well, that did not happen in the Bible so it doesn’t matter, just part of a truly fictitious story.
The rock giants looked like monsters out a science fiction movie and the whole world looked ugly and dark most of the time. In the Bible Noah takes his wife, three sons and their wives into the ark. In the movie only one son with one wife, who gave birth to twins born, while on the ark…..Noah declares he will kill the babies if they are girls so they cannot bring more ‘evil people’ into the world. Ugh! What a nail in the coffin of female bigotry.
In the movie Noah does not kill the baby girls but sees (finally) the love of God in them and feels so guilty he goes off by himself and gets drunk. They don’t spend any time (good thing, the movie was long enough) on the facts that they had planted grapes and made wine after the flood was over.
There are some awesome points in the Biblical account of Noah….I hope everyone will read the Bible looking for the goodness of God and the mistakes men made…..so that we might not repeat their pattern. Hosea 4:6–we perish for lack of knowledge of God’s ways.
It has been said “Nothing happens in the Kingdom of GOD (on earth) without a declaration.” Well, I have seen and experienced some things I never declared, but the statement is a goooooood one, because:
Therefore, Holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider JESUS, the APOSTLE and HIGH
PRIEST of our confession. (Hebrews 3:1)
I read a small book by Derek Prince (Who has written many wonderful books and is now in Heaven with our JESUS, called, DOES YOUR TONGUE NEED HEALING.) Even though I have read and heard teaching on speaking, words, etc. this little book really convicted my heart the truth of confessing the words of JESUS….declaring them out loud….is our way of being junior partner with our Senior Partner, JESUS.
Since JESUS is PRIEST over our confession HE uses our declaration on our behalf. How wonderful to have insight into the ways of our GOD, HIS SON JESUS and the HOLY SPIRIT….one of many ways….declaring the TRUTH. The first to hear what we say is our own ears, then the enemy and our JESUS. Very powerful and anointed plan to change our lives and our world. Check out Romans 10:8-10 and James 3:4-5 for more revelation.
What fun, that we do not see what happens in the Supernatural Realm….but ‘things’ do happen there….all the time, and we just need to believe that.
The news release about a piece of parchment with writing that suggests Jesus was married has made national news. The woman who releaded the news says it certainly is not confirming that, rather something to consider.
So, I considered this…..we the church are called the Bride of Christ….wife or bride….is it a question of semantics or language interpretation? Then the papyrus read “She will be my disciple….” Yes, the Church, the Body of Christ, will be always be Jesus disciple.
And Jesus said He was God….and God as a man married a woman? Did He have children and no one talked about either through all those early years?
Doesn’t seem worthy of consideration to me, but maybe we can be thankful Jesus made the news, and that the Holy Spirit will use it to stimulate interest to His advantage and more people will receive Jesus into their lives. We can be thankful and expect the best!
