Do We
Believe
God's
Promises?
PDF Documents
Mark 6:5
And he could there do no mighty work,
save that he laid his hands upon a few sick folk, and healed them.
John 15:5
I am the vine, you are the branches: He that abides in me,
and I in him, the same brings forth much fruit: for without me you can do nothing.
John 15:7
If you abide in me, and my words abide in you,
You shall ask what you will, and it shall be done unto you.
John 14:12
Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me,
the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works
than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.
1 Corinthians 2:4
And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom,
but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power:
2 Timothy 3:5
Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof:
Christianity without power is Christianity without Christ,
for he is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
The saddest thing to see is the loss of power
without knowing it is missing.
The Jefferson Bible
Thomas Jefferson, making good on a promise to a friend to summarize his views on Christianity, Jefferson set to work with scissors, snipping out every miracle and inconsitency he could find in the New Testament Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Then, relying on this cut and paste technique, he reassembled the excerpts into what he believed to be a more coherent narrative and pasted them onto a blank paper, thus making 46 pages called "The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth."
The age of agnostic Christians - difference between an atheist and agnostic, one is certain he believes nothing and the other isn't sure of anything. We have become a Christian subculture of semi-Jeffersonians who aren't sure the Bible is true and reliable, at least not for today. God's promise are for a people of another era. God's miracles ceased with the death of the Apostles, so there is really nothing to do but go to church and be moral people and to live "missional" lives by doing good works the best we know how.
Believe What?
Hebrews 11:6 explains it quite simply"
"But without faith it is impossible to please Him;
for he that comes to God must believe that He is,
and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him."
Believe Who He Is
He is "the same yesterday, today, and forever." (Hebrews 13:6) You cannot claim to be a "believer" and disbelieve that Jesus
is the same as he was when he walked on earth. This present-day business of cessationism, that the miracles ceased with the death of the Apostles,
is nothing more than a cop-out to believing that Jesus can do what he always did, and will do what he promised.
If you believe in cessation of miracles then you don't believe in a Jesus of the Bible, who "is the same yesterday, today, and forever."
Believe He Rewards Diligent Seeking
The vast majority within the church today do not believe prayer changes anything. Prayer to the average believer is something we do to put our requests into
the wishing-well of God's grace, and hope that just maybe he might answer 10% of them. Friend, that is not faith. It has nothing to do with faith. That is
the world's way of treating prayer. The world, everyone who prays, in every religion, asks God for stuff. That's what they believe God is for. He is the
Santa Claus, the Genie-of-the-Lamp, rub him the right way, say the right words, impress him with you giving or holiness, and you might get what you ask him
for. The world sees God as a last-ditch resource when all else fails.
Believers are to be, well, "believers," that is, they believe God's word and his promises supremely. God does not lie. God does not make vain threats or vain
promises. All his promises in Christ are "Yes and Amen, to the glory of God." Prayer then is not a wishing well of vain hope, nor is it a last-ditch effort
when all else fails, nor it is an exercise in futility. Prayer is, or should be our first response, not our last hope.
Prayer is God's avenue for fulfilling his promises. Prayer is the means by which we allow God to be glorified through keeping his promises and
answering our prayers.
Jesus made it clear, and the writer of Hebrews makes it abundantly clear that "without FAITH it is impossible to please God!" Faith is not hope, or
wishful thinking, or a coin tossed in the wishing-well. Faith is the ABSOLUTE ASSURANCE that what God promised, he will do! Do you have faith in God?
Do you practice believing his promises? Are you daily laying hold of his promises and quoting or reading them back to him? Do you lay hold of God's promise
with all of your heart and soul and claim it, knowing that God will answer, either what you asked or something magnificently better, for his glory,
and ultimately for your good?
If we believe God, we will see miracles.
John 14:12
Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me,
the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works
than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.
Ephesians 3:20-21
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine,
according to his power that is at work within us,
to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus
throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
Mark 16:16-18
Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved,
but whoever does not believe will be condemned.
And these signs will accompany those who believe:
In my name they will drive out demons;
they will speak in new tongues;
they will pick up snakes with their hands;
and when they drink deadly poison,
it will not hurt them at all;
they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well."
Where Are All The Miracles?
Gideon asked a good question of the angel Gideon, "If God is with us, where are all the miracles our forefathers told us about?" - Judges 6:13
Where are all the miracles and manifestations of Jesus' presence with us in the church today? Unfortunately for 99% of the churches claiming Jesus as Lord
and Savior rarely see a miracle, and never see a manifestation of the Spirit, which is promised to the church of all ages in the Book of Acts.
"For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call." (Acts 2:39)
OK, Pastor, I'm in. Where can I get this kind of faith?
"..faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." (Romans 10:17) If you want faith you HAVE TO get into the Word of God. I'm not talking about
daily reading the Bible, which we all ought to do as a personal discipline. I'm not talking about reading through the Bible in some marathon effort to
say you've acheived that goal. I'm talking about reading the Bible with your spiritual ears on, and your antenna up as you search diligently for the
promise of God to your own heart and life. GOD DOES NOT LIE! God always fulfills his promises to his children. If you are a genuine child of God, that is,
if you have at some point in your life realized your sinful, lost condition, and have invited (received, not accepted) Jesus Christ to come into your life
and forgive your sins, and make you his child, then you are born again into his family. You are a child of God with all the rights and privileges of a son,
who has inherited everything that is Christ's. Your inheritance is the promises of God! But you must find them and lay claim to them by faith.
TEST YOUR FAITH: What We No Longer Believe
(Evidently, because we don't practice it)
- Matthew 7:7 Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:
- Matthew 7:11 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?
- Matthew 17:20 And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.
- Matthew 18:19 Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven.
- Matthew 21:22 And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.
- Matthew 19:26 But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.
- Luke 1:37 For with God nothing shall be impossible.
- Luke 11:9 And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. 10 For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.
- Luke 11:13 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?
- Luke 17:1 Then said he unto the disciples, It is impossible but that offences will come: but woe unto him, through whom they come!
- Luke 18:27 And he said, The things which are impossible with men are possible with God.
- Mark 10:27 And Jesus looking upon them saith, With men it is impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible.
- Mark 16:17 And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues;18 They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.
- John 14:13 And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
- John 14:14 If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.
- John 15:7 If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.
- John 15:16 Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go
- and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.
- John 16:23 And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you.
- John 16:24 Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.
- John 16:26 At that day ye shall ask in my name: and I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you:
- 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.
- James 1:5 If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. 6 But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.
- James 4:2 You lust, and have not: you kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: you fight and war, yet you have not, because you ask not.
- James 4:3 You ask, and receive not, because you ask amiss, that you may consume it upon your lusts.
- 1 John 3:22 And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.
- 1 John 5:14 And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us:
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