Faith is the Solution: Example

The Word of God puts so much focus on the subject of faith that we need to realize "faith" is the solution to overcoming sin, Satan, the carnal world system and the sin nature that haunts all of us.

Faith is the "victory" that overcomes the world. Without faith it is impossible to please God.
So what is the bottom line? How do I exercise this faith?

Faith is a choice. We need to choose to mix faith with the Word of God. When we discover a wonderful promise in God's word we need to mix faith with that word so that we can experience the "essense or reality" of that word.

Here is a great example. One night I was lying in bed and the Word of the Lord came into my heart and mind. "You are in Christ. Christ is in you." When this Word entered my heart and mind the "reality" of its truth hit me. I really am in Christ. He really is in me. The power and presence of the Lord came upon me in such a way that it saturated the whole of my being in the Glory of God.

Now, the Holy Spirit is teaching me that "exercising faith" in the Word of God is the only way in which I will be able to maintain constant spiritual victory in Christ.

As we exercise faith in the Truth of God's Words we enter into the "reality" of His words. I am telling you this is the solution to overcoming our own carnal nature. Enter into God's Righteousness by faith. Enter into God Realm by faith. Be filled with the Holy Spirit by faith. Then, the faith of God will begin to fill your heart and you will begin in earnest the transformation process. God will do the work. He will fill you with the Mind of Christ. He will fill you with His Holy Spirit.

Now His faith will begin to operate in you and His gifts will begin to flow through you.

Faith is the Solution

Yesterday I was journaling as I often do and I sensed the Holy Spirit speaking to my heart about faith being the solution to living in the Victory of Christ continually. We often get distressed as we wrestle with our persistent sin-nature. It is so easy to fall back into old habits of neglecting prayer and vegging out in front of the television because we are too exhausted to pray or read the Word. Once the process starts it can be a rapid downhill slide. All the good intentions are gone and we find ourselves ensnared by that old sin-nature of ours once again.

We all have the same struggle, but God, the Father has a solution that cannot fail. I felt the Holy Spirit telling me that I should recognize that the "real" sin is "unbelief". We sense the carnal nature pulling us down into sin's power and feel at times so helpless to resist. We find ourselves vulnerable to temptations because we are not "living in the Spirit".

So what is this solution? If the "real" sin is unbelief then the "real" solution to overcome sin is "faith". This is why we are told that "faith is the victory that overcomes the world".

The Holy Spirit opened my eyes to see this truth so clearly. Without faith it is impossible to please God. When we place our faith in the "reality" of Christ's redemptive work, we immediately experience a glorious spiritual transformation. There is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. As soon as we place our faith in Him and His Spirit begins to fill us we are translated from the kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of God's Light. When you "really" believe you enter in to God's Realm.

Those who trust in Christ have eternal life. They have this eternal life now. They entered the Kingdom of God through faith in Jesus Christ. It is this simple.

We have forgiveness of sins through faith in Christ's redemptive work. We are then made ready to receive the very Spirit of Christ into our hearts. We are born again and can now enter the Kingdom of God and see the Kingdom of God.

This is how it works for me. I see by faith that I really am in Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ really is in me. It is on my lips and in my heart. "I am in Christ and He is in me!" This reality brings God's joy, peace and presence into my conscious realm. His Joy is my Strength. His peace releases all the stresses of life and the guilt of sin and shame. His presence fills my heart and His thoughts, desires and emotions begin to fill both my heart and mind. I am free in Christ.

Christ is the answer and "faith" is the solution. Faith is the "only solution". Unbelief is the greatest sin of all. We need to mix faith with the Word of God all day long. Then, we will cease from our failures and experience continual victory in the spiritual realm.

The Power of Faith.

In the gospel of Mark Jesus says, "Have the faith of God". This is the Greek rendering of the sentence. It literally is saying that we should, "Have God's Faith". God has dealt to every man a measure of faith. Wow! In our spirit we can grasp this "reality" but the natural or carnal nature of man cannot understand this. Through Christ and the Holy Spirit dwelling within our hearts we have access to the very "faith" of God.

I was thinking of the Bible phase "Your life is hid with Christ in God." What an amazing statement. It is not about us or our failures and inadequacies. Rather, it is about the Grace of God at work with in us through faith in the word of God. You are "in Christ" and "Christ is in you". The word Christ means "anointed one".

So we could read it this way. You are in the Anointed One and the Anointed One is in you. Christ is the Anointed One and He was given the Holy Spirit without measure. This means the fullest measure of the Holy Spirit was given to Jesus and that in Him we have access to this fullest measure of the Holy Spirit as well. This is why Jesus said, "He who believes in Me the works that I do shall he do also and greater works than these shall he do." This would include all kinds of miracles, signs, wonders, healings and deliverances. I really believe that I am in Christ and He is in me.


I am hungry for more of God's fullness in my life. I am exercising "faith" in the Word of Truth. He is taking me into His Glory and instructing me in His Ways. He is showing me that He is going to visit the earth in great glory through His church. There will be signs, wonders and miracles, healings and deliverances such as we have never seen in our life times. This He will do through His people who are hungry for His Righteousness and passionate to Honor Him by their obedience to the Holy Spirit.

Absolute Total Commitment to God

Recently I was journaling and the Father spoke to my heart and asked me to make a solemn commitment of my life to Him "afresh". I understood and immediately my spirit responded. I told the Father that all that I am and all that I have is His. I gave Him absolutely everything.

Immediately I was met with a glorious infilling of the Holy Spirit's Presence. It was so powerful as His energy flowed through my body, soul and spirit. I am nothing. Apart from Him I can do nothing. When we really "believe" we are filled with His Spirit. His Righteousness and His Holiness are imparted into our spirits, our souls and even our bodies. There is nothing like it in this world.

Isaiah 61 is where Jesus quotes "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me and He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor.... Then come the following words.

He gives beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, that they might be called oaks of righteousness the planting of the Lord for the display of His Splendor. And they shall rebuild the ancient ruins; they shall raise upthe former desolations and renew the ruined cities.

The point is this! When we give God the Father all that He asks of us, it is nothing compared to the incredible blessing He gives us in return. He gives us His Spirit. There is no greater gift than Christ and the Holy Spirit. When the Holy Spirit fills you and remains in you, you have access to the thoughts of God and His joy and peace as well.

Often believers are afraid of what God might ask of them if they were to give Him everything. He is a loving God. He will enable you to be a better spouse, parent, child, employer or employee if you get filled with His Spirit.

On top of this He will use you to help turn society around...that is what He means when He says, They shall rebuild...raise up...and renew the ruined cities. Let's give the Father everything so that He can use us the way He wants to and make us part of the solution to humanities problems. He can heal the sick, cast out demons, and raise the dead. He can do miracles, signs and wonders. If we yield over everything to Him He may even begin to do things like this through you and I. Wow! What a thought and it is Biblical.

Jesus said, He who believes in me the things that I do shall he do also and even greater things than these shall he do.

Listen To God and Show Some Respect

As believers we love God and worship Him. Our sincerity of worship is tested by the manner in which we listen to His Voice. The Word of God is full of examples of men and women who have heard the Voice of God and obeyed Him.

Jesus said, "My sheep hear My Voice." We must get to the place in our worship and praise where we stop and listen to what the Father would say to us.

Have you ever tried talking to someone who was so preoccupied with everything else going on around them that they give you little or no eye contact. You are talking away and they are saying, "Yes, yes" or whatever and you just know that they are not really listening? Have you ever done this to someone else? They were talking to you and you heard them, but not really?

If you do not stop what your doing and pay close attention and give genuine eye contact to the person who is talking to you, they will get the impression that you do not feel that they are important or they may feel that you are not showing them respect.

Recently I went through one of these events in which I was the guilty person who was not really paying full attention and I was confronted. I immediately knew I was guilty. I prayed about it and I heard the Father say to me by the Spirit, "My People do this to Me all the time." Wow! What a revelation! I was so deeply convicted. Here we are God's people and we do not give Him our full attention and really listen to what He wants to tell us.

God will talk to you if you will listen. Try it and see. Having a conversation with Him is always encouraging and enlightening.

A Vision for the City

Recently I attended a conference is Syracuse that was organized by a dear Sister in the Lord Rose Prunoske. She brought together a group of Christians from the general area to hear some extremely "gifted" men of God.

These servants of Christ were impressive as they ministered in the "gifts" of the Spirit and in the Word of God. My heart was profoundly stirred. During one of the morning sessions the Holy Spirit came upon me and allow me not only to hear the "voice" of the Father, but to "see" what God was doing and about to do in Syracuse. I saw what appeared to be beams of light that were shooting out of the clouds over the region of Syracuse. The beams of light were like laser beams that "lasted". First there were a few across the region. They would flash as they appeared and then they would sustain themselves. More and more beams of light would flash and continue burning. Again and again more would flash until the beams of light were many and all over the region. The whole area was being "visited" by the Glory of God and the "visitation" was growing and being sustained by hungry believers who were "yielding" to the Holy Spirit.

We began the services at 10:00 a.m. in the mornings and there was no effort to hurry things along. The morning service would continue even into lunch time. The next service would begin at 2:00 p.m. and continue until it was over. In the evenings again there was no rush. We did not worry about time, we just soaked in the Glory of God and allow the Holy Spirit to take us where He wanted to take us. There were some dramatic healings and many of them.

I just soaked it all in. I began to see several things. It would be very difficult for a local church to try to sustain such a move of God were it to come to the city and continue. The multiple services, the length of the services and with the meeting going on day after day would require multiple worship teams, usher teams, technical people to run the sound system in different time slots, and a team made up of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers to train the people for the works of ministry and allow everyone on the team time off to attain to their marriages, families and churches.

The church in our cities need the five-fold ministry to come together to build the body of Christ so that the people in our local congregations can do the work of the ministry in the market place. I really feel that this type of movement could begin in a local church but it could not continue in any local church without a sustained community effort by the larger body of Christ in the city.

Marriages and families should not be neglected by those who attend the meetings. I believe that God would be pleased if we all spent days at a time soaking in this glorious visitation of the Holy Spirit in a rich environment of the five-fold ministry. But, not to the end that we neglect our marriages, families or businesses and careers. What I "see" is we all need this type of "visitation" produced by the five-fold ministry. But, it would serve the broader community on a demand type basis or a rotation approach, which provides constant "visitation" with each individual making a commitment according to a Holy Spirit directed duration.

Would it not be wonderful to provide a continuous five-fold ministry visitation of the Holy Spirit in our cities that is pure and unadulterated with carnality? Imagine being able to go any day, afternoon or evening to a center place where the worship and ministry never stops. I am talking about mature Spirit-directed ministry by Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Pastor, and Teacher. Men and Women under the direction of the Holy Spirit moving in the gifts of the Holy Spirit as He directs. Oh Father, deliver us from trying to take any honor from You.

What I "see" is a five-fold ministry that teach the Body of believers by moving in the "gifts" of the Spirit themselves. I see the team functioning as a team. Like a relay team, first one shares and then another. Would it not be a "beautiful" thing to see shared "ministry" where the person with the "word" from God shares fully what God lays upon the heart and then stops and another person begins to share as the Holy Spirit leads them. Perhaps even a tag team approach. We would of course have to learn how to do this under the direction of the Holy Spirit, but what a glorious thing it would be if we just let the Holy Spirit take us into what ever He chooses. Now, there would be a need for discernment and spiritual judgment to keep things on track and to keep out of the picture those who are full of themselves and full of "religious" spirits. Any time there is a valid move of God there needs to be great freedom in the Holy Spirit, but at the same time a careful attendance to the evil one's attempt to gain attention and frustrate the movement of the Holy Spirit.

To participant in such a visitation of God the leaders and the believers should be certain to walk in purity and integrity before both God and men. Many leaders and believers have fallen under the power of their sin-natures or the evil one and have become spoilers of revival, renewal or a visitation of God.

There is so much more that I want to write on this subject. I think it would be good to close down the meetings entirely upon Sunday mornings and insist that all the local believers and visitors attend the local congregations that support the work. I think that notices should be posted that the tithe should be given to the local church and only offerings are to be given during the meetings. These offerings should be used to offset the expenses of the "gatherings" and to support the five-fold ministry and pastors of the local churches who participate.

This is what I "see" what do you see?

How to Journal and Hear God's Voice!

This is a subject that is of great interest to me and to many other Christians. How can I hear the voice of God? How can I be certain that it is really God speaking to me and not some demon or just myself?

We need a quick foundation: Without faith it is impossible to please God. Jesus said, "My sheep know my voice." Genuine faith touches the "reality" of God's Presence. True faith repents of any known sin. Once sin is under the blood of Christ and we sense that we are forgiven we can sense the Presence and Favor of God. Then we are ready to listen to what He might say to us through the Holy Spirit who dwells within our hearts.

I usually begin my journaling sessions with praise and worship and if needed repentance. Then, once I am sensing God's Presence I simply ask, "Father have you got any thing that You want to say to me right now. Without exception He begins to speak to my heart and mind. I simply write down all the words that come to me.

(An important note here: the reason that I focus on writing these words down is that it frees me from needing to judge or analyze immediately what is being said. Later I will apply three major tests to the text: First are the words that I am hearing Biblically sound and second is there a dark spiritual element in any part of what I have written. The devil is the father of lies and he cannot speak the truth without corrupting it. Thirdly, I test it to see if is just my own thoughts or really the heavenly Father speaking to me. So if there is something unscriptural in the text or the text simply inflates human ego or selfish desires I will reject it. Finally, if the text has passed the other tests and I sense God's peace and presence when I am writing and in reading the text over I have an inner confidence in my heart that it is accurate and reliable.)

I have taught a good number of people how to keep a spiritual journal in this manner. Another helpful hint is to share what you feel the Father has shared with you with another believer whom you feel listens to His Voice as well and lives a godly life style.

Almost always when the Father begins to speak to me He addresses me as "My son". He is after all our heavenly Father and we are His children through faith in Jesus Christ. Many times He explains the scriptures to me in a fresh and powerful way. The Word of God comes alive under the direction of the Holy Spirit as we hear His Voice speaking within our hearts and mind.

One example of the explanation of scripture was a journaling session in which He told me that, "You are in Christ and Christ is in you! You are One with Me through faith." When I heard these words spoken in my heart and mind, the Presence of God was so strong I felt an incredible Oneness with Him in that moment of time. There are literally hundreds of things that I have learned through this process of journaling and listening for His Voice.

So I encourage you to "invest in faith" some quality time with God in prayer and worship. Relax and soak in His Glory and listen respectfully for His Voice. When you feel His Presence ask for more of a saturation of His fullness.

But, by all means be careful to apply the scriptural and common sense tests to make certain you are not just talking to yourself or even worse hearing some other spirit not from God. Many people have deceived themselves and have not genuinely repented before God. It is very dangerous to try to hear from God when you are unrepentant and self-centered. We have all heard the accounts of people telling other people that god told them to do some awful thing, "that god" was not the True and Living God.

Be careful when asking the Father about something you want very badly regardless of what it is because our emotional element in the matter can open us up to deception. The best way to deal with these types of issues is to genuinely submit these desires to Him and ask Him to show us His perfect will. He is God, Almighty and He loves us so much He will protect us from ourselves if we will let Him. You can be certain His Master Plan for your life is better than anything you can dream up on your own.