The reason that Jesus said faith comes by hearing and hearing the Word of God, is because true Christian faith is simply knowing and believing the Word of God. Since faith is knowing and believing the Word of God, and fear is the opposite of faith, that means fear is calling God and His Word a liar!

Remember that the next time Satan tries to pester you with ‘what if’ worry-bound thinking. How would you feel if somebody called you and your word a liar? No wonder the Bible tells us that without faith, we cannot please God!

Hebrews 11:6, “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”

I was reading the Bible tonight, and one verse jumped out at me…

John 14:2-3 In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.

Think about that… Jesus, the one-and-only begotten (unique or original) Son of God, is preparing a place for us in heaven!

What did we do to deserve this great love?? Was it not enough that He died to pay for our sins, and was whipped for our healing and carried our burdens… was that not enough? I guess not… Jesus went from one work for us (the cross) to now preparing a mansion for us in heaven! What did we do to deserve such amazing love?

Did you know that God doesn’t determine how deep of a relationship that we have with Him? That He leaves up to us.

The Holy Spirit lets us choose the level of relationship with Him, as this ensures that our relationship with Him is genuine. God promises to draw near to us if we will draw near to Him:

James 4:8, “Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.”

Our Heavenly Father desires to have an intimate relationship with us even more than we do! But He is waiting on US to begin drawing near. It is OUR job to welcome Him into our lives and draw near.

I have seen this before on the Internet, and it is a very touching video about our Heavenly Father’s love for YOU and I!

Father’s Love Letter

This is a must-see for anybody who cannot seem to draw close to God or sees Him as distant and angry with them!!

I don’t usually praise books unless they far exceed my expectations… and this book is worth it’s weight in pure gold. It is one of the most uplifting and life-changing books I have ever read! Bill Johnson is a powerful man of God who has a heavy anointing and speaks from deep revelation on our relationship with God. It will transform the way you see yourself, God and how your relationship with Him was intended to be… it is truly a faith-building book that will show you a whole new level of intimacy with your heavenly Father that you probably never dreamed of!

I am almost done reading this book, and I cannot speak high enough of it. The Holy Spirit has been speaking me on intimacy with Him, and this book goes hand-in-hand with what the Lord has been showing me. Get deliverance, tear down strongholds, and then pursue intimacy with Him with everything you’ve got… and it will be only a matter of time before you have the faith needed to raise a person from the dead!

When Jesus told us that faith the size of a grain of mustard seed can move a mountain, and that nothing is impossible to him who believes… He meant business… but it takes an entirely different mindset to come into that walk out that faith in real life… this book will help you get on the fast track to mountain moving faith!

If you want to go deeper with God and come to know Him on a whole new level, then I would strongly encourage you to get your hands on this book! It has to be one of the best $10 I’ve ever spent!

Pastor James Brandt has a 3-part teaching series entitled “Keys to an Effective Prayer Life” that is a perfect companion to this book… you can download or listen to these sermons online at www.GreatBibleStudy.com/Pastor_James

Last night I was reading in Jeremiah 3, where the Lord gave me another glimpse into how He feels about our relationship with Him and how much He desires to bless and show us His goodness!

Jeremiah 3:11 Then the Lord said to me, “Even faithless Israel is less guilty than treacherous Judah!
Jeremiah 3:12 Therefore, go and say these words to Israel, `This is what the Lord says: O Israel, my faithless people, come home to me again, for I am merciful. I will not be angry with you forever.
Jeremiah 3:13 Only acknowledge your guilt. Admit that you rebelled against the Lord your God and committed adultery against him by worshiping idols under every green tree. Confess that you refused to follow me. I, the Lord, have spoken!’ ”
Jeremiah 3:14 “Return home, you wayward children,” says the Lord, “for I am your husband. I will bring you again to the land of Israel-one from here and two from there, from wherever you are scattered.
Jeremiah 3:15 And I will give you leaders after my own heart, who will guide you with knowledge and understanding.
Jeremiah 3:16 “And when your land is once more filled with people,” says the Lord, “you will no longer wish for `the good old days’ when you possessed the Ark of the Lord’s covenant. Those days will not be missed or even thought about, and there will be no need to rebuild the Ark.
Jeremiah 3:17 In that day Jeremiahusalem will be known as The Throne of the Lord. All nations will come there to honor the Lord. They will no longer stubbornly follow their own evil desires.
Jeremiah 3:18 In those days the people of Judah and Israel will return together from exile in the north. They will return to the land I gave their ancestors as an inheritance forever.
Jeremiah 3:19 “I thought to myself, `I would love to treat you as my own children!’ I wanted nothing more than to give you this beautiful land-the finest inheritance in the world. I looked forward to your calling me `Father,’ and I thought you would never turn away from me again.
Jeremiah 3:20 But you have betrayed me, you people of Israel! You have been like a faithless wife who leaves her husband,” says the Lord.
Jeremiah 3:21 Voices are heard high on the windswept mountains, the weeping and pleading of Israel’s people. For they have forgotten the Lord their God and wandered far from his ways.
Jeremiah 3:22 “My wayward children,” says the Lord, “come back to me, and I will heal your wayward hearts.”…

Quoted from the New Living Translation (NLT).

Often when a person finds it hard to believe something that God has shown them, I will ask them to simply imagine if it were true. This gets your faith-juices flowing, and makes way in your mind for true faith to begin to germinate. Meditate on what the Lord has shown you as if it were actually going to come to past! Then once you imagine God’s Word being true, you only have one more step… that is to actually accept it as truth. If God said that you will be blessed, then you need to accept that as a fact and stand upon it.

I have found that imagining something can be a very powerful step towards faith. The devil uses this same technique to tear us apart, when he gets us thinking about “what if… this or that”. That is HOW the devil plants seeds of fear… it is by first getting you to imagine or think about what it would be like if something bad happened. Once you start to think about those things, fear will begin to quickly grow in your mind. In the same way, we can begin to ask ourselves “what if… God showed me will come to past?”

The same is true with God’s Word. If your Bible tells you that your sins are forgiven (providing that you’ve confessed and repented of them and forgiven others), but you don’t feel like it… then simply start by imagining what it would be like if your sins were indeed forgiven as you were freely justified by the Blood of Christ! You will begin to feel really good about what Jesus has done for you, and faith will arise in your soul!

True Christian faith is as simple as knowing the Word of God and believing it… if God’s Word tells us that we are seated with Christ in the heavenliness (a spiritual seat - see Ephesians 2:6), and that we believers have the authority (or ability) to cast out demons (Mark 16:17), then it is up to us to take God at His Word and exercise our authority through faith!

Faith comes through hearing (and receiving) the Word of God (see Romans 10:17).

Do you know what the blood of Jesus signifies or represents? It was shed out of the DEEP LOVE that God has for US! Even while we were sinners, God had this DEEP love for us… we were loved to a point where Jesus was willing to pay the steep price for our sins so that we might be forgiven and our relationship with God restored!

Romans 5:8, “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

Jesus didn’t HAVE to shed His blood for us, but He did it… He did it because we meant THAT MUCH to Him! Jesus said that there is no greater way to show your love for a person, but to lay your life down for them:

John 15:13, “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”

I believe it’s important to realize how much love was being demonstrated when Jesus shed His blood for us! It is beyond what our minds can comprehend without the Holy Spirit helping us realize how much we are TRULY LOVED!

One common problem I find among many is that they will justify their weakness, thus making it nearly impossible to minister lasting freedom to them. Sometimes we need to be shown how wicked our weakness is before we are willing to give it up. For example, people who are bitter usually will be quick to explain to you why they are bitter… people who are controlling will do the same… while the rebellious will share with you their side of the story. They don’t stop to think that their rebellion, bitterness or controlling of others does nothing but glorify the devil and keep them in bondage. If something in our lives does not line up with God’s Word, then we need to rid ourselves of it… stop defending or justifying why we are like that!

“But my parents are so controlling or mean!”… that is no excuse to disrespect them, because God’s Word tells us clearly to respect our parents. There’s a difference between disagreeing with them and disrespecting them. The question isn’t what they are doing, it’s what God’s Word requires of you to walk in the Lord’s ways!

“But that person has done me wrong so many times, I have a right to be angry!”… again, this  is no excuse in light of what Christ has done for US on the cross. When Christ died for our sins, who are we to be bitter against others who have wronged us? People who do this are known as the unthankful servant in Matthew 18:23-35. What if somebody has repeatedly offended us? Look at Matthew 18:21-22 and tell me what you should do:

Matthew 18:21-22, “Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.”

The question is, are you doing what is right in God’s eyes? If not, then there is no excuse or justification for your behavior! Bitterness, controlling and manipulation, disrespecting of parents, etc. are all sins and wrong in the eyes of God. Trust me, if all we need is an excuse, then Satan will be glad to provide us with one… he will allow something to come across your path that will cause you to fall into his hands. Unforgiveness lands countless into bondage and in the hands of the enemy (see Matthew 18:23-35). It is a deadly poison, or as John Bevere calls it… “The Bait of Satan”.