Believers of all ages and faiths…

The following 7 post have been re entered in an order that will flow the information as you read down the page. We hope you enjoy the message.

These posts are designed as the foundational teaching behind “Prayer Works”      Prayer Works is a non profit ministry dedicated to bringing to conviction the fullness of the love of God through the Word of God within every believer.

OUR CORE BELIEFS

·         John 14:6                Jesus, The word of God, is our access pathway to God; through its prophecy and promises and commandments it demonstrates the way Life should be; and it is the substance of that very Life

 

·         Matthew 11:25-30               God, through the eyes of His Son,  does not see the world primarily as hopeless and bad but rather as tired, worn-out and burned out on trying to get it right by its own methods and energies. Jesus promised us a new and better way!

 

·         John 14:16-21                Jesus made good on His word and by cultivating a loving relationship with Him we are made able and fulfilled by the Power of His Holy Spirit living inside us

Copies of these materials and presentations are available for your family, church or organization by contacting us at -                   atgodspd@earthlink.net  Ft Myers, Florida – 239 851 7947

On Faith…

In Describing this things fundamental nature, several other definitions and certainly more questions will emerge. I will do my best to return as needed to help clarify some of these questions and definitions in the future. I promise!

 

From Webster’s we get : 1 a: allegiance to duty or a person : loyalty b (1): fidelity to one’s promises (2): sincerity of intentions2 a (1): belief and trust in and loyalty to God (2): belief in the traditional doctrines of a religion b (1): firm belief in something for which there is no proof (2): complete trust3: something that is believed especially with strong conviction; especially : a system of religious beliefs

 

This definition is fairly typical. Most everyone agrees that the fundamental nature of faith is existential, in the realm of feelings or opinions or desires. When they say they have faith about a thing what they are most often saying is they agree with and have confidence toward something with deep felt emotion or desire. I must however disagree.

I believe (a term I will enjoy explaining some other time) what the bible has to say about faith. Hebrews 11:1 says,

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

 

In our first definition we relegate faith to a feeling or ideal which leaves us with certain specific consequences. It also limits us to specific avenues by which we might obtain or develop faith. As a feeling I can seek support from others who think like me. I can read books and try to make sense of their theories and in so agree with their philosophy. My agreement becomes then a feeling of certainty or faith. The most profound contrast I read in this first definition to my own is the idea of a belief for which there is no proof. Since real things exist as reality and are therefore verifiable and provable…What do you call people who “believe” in things that are not real?  But of course, insane people… Is it any wonder this religion seems so un obtainable?

 

Contrast this with our biblical definition. What strikes me first is the clear statement that faith is a substance. It is the substance of, yes but what does it mean by “substance”. I will offer you an analogy which has helped me. If it does not help you, please ask and I shall try to accommodate in some other way.

Picture the nature of matter itself. If we look at a table we see it in a shape and form we recognize. A form made and shaped by design, which works to perform a predetermined assignment or need. But if you examine the table very closely, very very closely, you will see that it is really made up of molecules of particular order and form. In reality we can continue this process on to atomic particles and sub atomic particles and so on. You get the point I hope, that what we call the table is really the accumulation of and designed formation of a bunch of specific particles which in fact are the pure substance of the actual table. Ok you were not expecting a science lesson and how does this relate?

 

First I want to add this bit of trivia. Science does not know why the molecules of say Wood or any formation of matter come to be together. They can observe the effects of forces such as electricity and magnetic fields and temperature etc but they cannot explain the why behind them. Science does not deal with why in the first place. In fact in order for science to make any statement of known fact that scientific discipline must assume a confidence in unknown causal recurrences.

 

But lets not digress into the science stuff too deep. I don’t want to loose you just when this is getting to the punch line. Faith is a real substance just like atomic particles are real substance.

 

In any process there must be a proper division of labor and things often must happen in a proper order and sequence. The God of this universe is logical and reasonable. His word, the bible, has never suggested you must have confidence in something which is not real.

The nature and substance of all that exist is created out of the substance faith.  Knowing this then we might understand that to get or have faith cannot be a mental emotional process like feeling for or agreeing with a particular philosophy. Logically something does not come from nothing. So lets stop trying to convince our selves of things in an intellectual or emotional sense thinking we are “having faith”. We are told we must have faith. Without faith it is impossible to please God… of course that has to do with our designed purpose.

 

So faith is a tangible substance akin to an atomic form of matter, which we need in order to form that which we desire and hope for, and it stands as evidence of things not yet formed.

 

So how do we get this substance “faith”? I have a great deal I can help you with that also… perhaps, another blog?  Until then get back to the bible. Read it, meditate on what it says about faith. Test me in this and see if I am right or wrong. We shall have this Life, precept upon precept, bit by bit… because He said that was how it would be, and now we have … Faith.

Believing…

So we are told in the bible to have faith in order that we might believe. So if faith is a substance and not just a feeling, than believing must be something more than we have thought it was.

 

I looked up the word in a concordance. The image of believing I most want to share with you comes from the Greek word “pistis”. 1) a conviction of the truth of anything, belief; in the NT of a conviction or belief with respect to man’s relationship to God and divine things, generally with the included idea of trust and holy fervour born of faith and joined with it.

 

Start with the word “conviction”. this refers to the legal concept of a final verdict or being convicted. It means there is no more to be said about the issue. The time of debate and questioning outcomes is past. In fact the root word here breaks down as “pi” meaning “to be, or final ”  and  “stis” which means “condition or state”.

 

Believing is “the state of being” without contingent… an empirical state of being. 

 

Now granted this is a hard line and is only useful in a transitive application. One could still say I believe this or that concept. This is to say I agree with the concept philosophically. There is no reason to torture this comment into saying you express the state of being this concept. It may be practical but it strains the point a bit, this is an unfortunate shortfall of the English language.

However it is equally useless to say I agree philosophically with the concept of Jesus Christ or intellectually with the words of God. This is not what Jesus meant when He told his disciples to believe.

 

To believe something that is a living actual thing is a very old and very biblical truth but it is one largely lost on today’s Christians. The word of God is a living word. In this application you and I are expressing a transitive or relationship which is in reality the same state of being.

 

Maybe this helps us see why Jesus taught to believe on Him as love meant you would love also, to believe on Him as forgiveness meant you would forgive also, to believe on Him as anything means we must “be” a state of being Him. Being like Christ is not born of duty or obligation but of an actual oneness of state.

 

“Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.” John 17:20-23 (KJV)

 

Believing the word of God is existing as a living manifestation of an accumulated amount of faith in the word of God without contingent. It is being alive as He is alive.

 

I hope you have a better understanding of what it means to “believe” this word of God. We are designed to be a living testimony of the word of God, just as Jesus was and is.

The way to make that happen is dealing with the “born of faith and joined with it” part as well as the greater work of the Holy Sprit; perhaps yet another blog…

So How do I Know if I Believe???

This may just be too simple for folks but it is what it is… you believe when you notice the substance of that which you believe for is and is bearing the fruit of life.

 

Think of a stalk of corn. I can visualize it, I can imagine it, I can describe other corn I have seen, I can create such a fervor and desire for this stalk of corn that my body will react physically and cause saliva in my mouth and rumbling in my stomach. But the only evidence of a fully mature stalk of corn is its presence in the natural world including the full stalk tall and dripping with ears of corn. Every step along the way is simply an advent of time including the essential step of bearing fruit. Its not corn until its corn…yall.

 

None of what the bible has to say is worth two cents stacked against any other religion or philosophy ever expounded. It is just a book of stories and predictions… unless

What we have been talking about, things like faith as a substance and believing actually being a tangible state of being, provable and without contingent are true!

 

The hard and necessary truth is when our lives do not reflect the words promised and spelled out in the bible we are either developing away from that being state or developing towards that being state, but without question we do not fully believe.

 

Several very biblical concepts can become clearer with that one simple admission. If we can understand what it is to believe and admit we do not  yet reflect that “state” we can see what it is to be sinful, a word which means “short of the mark”. We can know we need to repent, which includes a couple of concepts within itself, admitting the shortfall status of our current being, confessing this to God and expressing our desire to change toward belief of His truth, and finally acting on that desire. The most wonderful thing to remember when thinking of repentance is God’s Mercy and assurance gives us help to accomplish the task. He gave His Son and He continues to give His Holy Spirit.

 

In any case… the truth is this: If I believe, I reflect a state of… “being” that which I believe and the maturity of that state produces fruit. This is not a one trick show by any means. Jesus Christ is as beautiful and radiant as a diamond with a billion perfect facets. Our believing in Jesus Christ begins with our reflection of only some of those facets… our perfection is assured as a promise for when He returns.

 

So my message here? Don’t kid our selves on about belief. Pay attention and give attention to having faith in order to believe. And at the same time walk in the Mercy of God and don’t condemn when we notice a shortcoming. Repent, get busy, get some faith and believe.

 

Having Faith

I did not want to begin a conversation about being born again and developing/receiving faith without having first mentioning repentance in my last blog.

 

Far too many preachers in my opinion spend far too much energy trying to identify sin and “guide sinners” away from its evil grasp…oooh, spooky spooky. I don’t mean to be disrespectful to these pastors and teachers but… 

 

THE FIRST thing to BELIEVE is SALVATION IN JESUS. This is the state of being born again. This is the state of being “a believer” in Jesus.  That state is fully actualized and bears the fruit of salvation and demonstrates your repentance the day you said I believe Jesus died for my sin and Jesus is the Christ and the Lord of my life. For the rest of your eternal life you should move towards sanctification and toward perfection. To try to do this by identifying sin, in order to “not do sin” is like driving a tractor trailer rig using its rear view mirrors, it can be done but it is backwards and slow and dangerous and it will ware you out!

The key ideal to know in repentance is it involves simply noticing a short coming confessing it, knowing the resurection proves your forgiveness and moving FORWARD toward the mark of a righteous and higher call, to reveal Jesus. You have already been forgiven if you “believe”… It is Jesus’ Life that stands as evidence for your new life in Christ and your confession was the fruit. Not the other way around…Enough said! Let’s get some faith!

 

Cardinal Point: There are some very old church traditions that make a great deal of confessing sin and doing penance by praying to God. Without going into detail I want to make two observations about them. One, these habits came out of the church very early on and do have sound biblical grounds as doctrine (a fancy word for a set of principles or guidelines). However I also want to make clear what the Old Testament said about traditions. In Joel and Amos and several other prophets God spoke out against useless religious traditions. His contempt was for those acts of principle being done ceremoniously without meaning or substance. So while this blog will out line steps or principles to receiving faith, no amount of practice of dead works will ever produce a living state. This tiny precursor to my message is precisely the pivot point between salvation by Grace and salvation by works. PLEASE make no mistake in my message, it is by Grace that we receive eternal life and all that God has for us for eternity, including faith!

 

Faith comes by receiving the Word of God in love. The substance faith exists as elements within the seeds we know as the Word of God. To receive in love is to relate to God through His Word as someone relates to another person who loves you. This begins as parental love. It grows to friendship love. It develops into every stage and experience of love until the fullness of love becomes manifest as a reflection of “agape”

Faith comes as we relate to God in all these forms of love, but each of these stages so to speak can easily be counterfeited as lust until you reach agape. Our concern should always be to know the fullness of Gods love. Agape is an undefeatable benevolence and an unconquerable goodwill that always seeks the good of the other person no matter what the circumstance. A self giving love that freely loves without any need or demand for anything in return

 

Love not lust, remember what I said about Grace and not works? Same point different words. Love seeks for the purpose of reflecting back or expressing out its experience. Lust seeks for the purpose of gathering in or satisfying self through an experience.

 

The means to have faith and believe is a process which must in the end come from your desire to love God. Selfishly pursuing your needs cannot produce life. It can only become an exhausting effort to maintain what cannot be maintained. You have bee blessed with faith to believe Jesus as your savior, not for the sole purpose of your eternal life but so others might see and know and receive faith to believe too. Everything which comes from God produces life.

So with the proper mind set to approach this effort to receive faith I conclude with the simple process of reading, praying out loud and meditating on the word of God, singing and making the melody of praise and love in your heart. Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of God. Love in the natural comes by time spent in relation to another soul, talking sharing and getting to know them. The transaction is spontaneous but it can only happen if you seek God’s heart with an open heart.

If you wish to become the state (believe) of any fulfilled promise of God you must receive through a love relationship the substance of that promise (faith). The evidence of your love relationship with God will be an expression of a new life. Believe… be alive.

 

The simplest of  statements are often the most profound… God bless

The Mason Jar

GK Chesterton once said that if you give a man an analogy and he does not understand it give him another. I he does not understand this one give him a third. If this man does not comprehend the third attempt then compliment him for see so clearly that he did not understand.

 

I offer this as an analogy of mankind from God’s perspective… I hope you understand.

 

The Mason Jar

 

In the image of God…but not God – Picture a mason jar on a table along side a large clear glass pitcher. The pitcher filled with crystal clear water, the Jar half full of dirt and dry for the moment. We are made in the image of God. We are a soul which is our mind our will and our emotion represented here as the glass container a mason jar. God similarly exists as a soul demonstrated here as a glass pitcher. We are alike in the substance of our soul and we both have a capacity to contain but we are separate and unique from God; as unique as these two separate vessels.  

 

Designed to contain… but only so much – the pitcher itself represents an endless supply of water. Obviously as an analogy my example breaks down a bit here but bear with me.

The mason jar is smaller and is designed to contain a fixed amount of whatever you put in it. Two quarts if you will of anything placed into a one quart jar would result in some spillage.

 

Only what goes in can come out – imagine reaching down with your hand and gathering a large hand full of dirt and releasing it into the open top of the Mason jar. If it were full with dirt it would overflow dirt. By the same token we could choose to fill our jar with the water from the pitcher and then water would overflow. A combination of the two nets a muddy sort of combination of the two overflowing… you get the idea.

 

Has no appendages… filling requires a relationship with another – Our large pitcher has a handle and is designed to be a source for other containers. But our jar has no appendages. It can neither work to fill itself nor serve to fill others. If any two jars were to contact each other some of what is in one may spill over to the other. But by design mason jars are created to contain, like the soul of man is a container not a source.

 

Fulfillment is … being full – as a soul, that is a mind a will and emotion, taking the form of a container our purpose is to be full. All our desire and efforts and thoughts really just center on the problem of needing to be full. The natural movement of life tends to spill our contents. Our constant desire is to be full.

 

A safety lid, the purpose of the cross and Holy water – here is where things get interesting! Like any good mason jar we have a matching lid. But the lid which covers our soul is uniquely designed backwards, to keep a particular something out not to seal anything in.

Our safety lid is designed by God to protect us from…ironically…God.  Follow this real close now; we all heard the story of how sin has separated us from God. What we may not have realized is the substance of God is so perfect that it destroys anything, which is not perfect. When we introduced sin into our soul God had to protect us from his fullness in order to keep us from being eradicated completely. I am calling the method of insulation here a safety lid because it flows with the analogy but the bible calls the insulator many things. In the Garden after the fall we see two creatures standing guard. In the Old Testament there is always a cloud, a curtain, a cleft in the rock or a special box or boat, each representing Gods effort to protect us from His perfection. Finally in Hebrews 10 we find a revealing little note that explains this safety lid was Jesus all along. So the penalty of sin in our soul would have resulted in our destruction but Jesus covered us like a lid. In comes the cross. We should probably know by now Jesus died on that cross for us. But this transaction did some very wonderful things on our behalf. On that cross Jesus absorbed all the penalty of sin which ever entered into mankind’s soul and in that sin filled state He died. Our lid, which was this hand of God called Jesus, was gone. This left us for the first time exposed to God. But we also know Jesus rose again three days later. And the bible says He is seated at the right hand of God, meaning all God’s perfection and Glory now come through His right hand man so to speak, Jesus. We are exposed to God’s perfection and that would be very bad for us, except…He said before He died, if we believe in our hearts and confess Jesus as our savior He forgives us for our sins. He just says nope, that bit of dirt is just like the one I was tempted with and they acknowledged me so I say NO CHARGE, paid in full! Only the right hand man can say that ya know. Finally the Holy water… because Jesus’ transaction makes it ok for us to receive from God He lets the water flow into us as much as we want. So what happens when you pour water into a mason jar full of dirt? Yep, it flushes out the dirt. The more water in the more dirt washes out. Before the cross, the words God gave us stood as rules. Or as you might guess by now they represented a reason we could not receive from God… kind of a backwards …safety lid. Now that same word of God lives in heaven and flows God’s Holiness and goodness into us to cleanse us and make us look more like Him…a clear perfect container.

 

Last, the embodiment of God’s word and Character…like Jesus.

We remain for now a mason jar with no lid. Our soul has a free will to receive into it what ever it desires to fill itself with. The choice to fill ourselves with the Word and character of God forever remains ours to decide. But someday we have to answer for what is in our soul. We are called by God’s word to be like Jesus. If this analogy made any sense you know that doesn’t mean doing a lot of Jesus stuff. It means spending the precious time you have left trying to fill yourself with the kind of stuff that can make you like Jesus. A container, having self-awareness or a mind, will and emotions choosing only to contain God’s Holy water would be called something like a brother or sister as compared to Jesus. God made us like mason jars… its up to us what we choose to fill our soul with.

The Gospel

So my mason jar analogy is really a depiction of the Gospel message. The Gospel is the really good news that the connection between mankind and God has been restored. Now at first glance you may be thinking, “right, I got it… someday when we die we can go to heaven…great message but not relevant to my current state of affairs.”

Quite honestly, for reasons I won’t go into, this has been the full extent of belief for much of Christianity the last couple of thousand years. So I acknowledge your position and understand where it came from but that is simply not the complete truth.

The only thing that happened was our opportunity to connect was restored. If we have accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior we have only believed the first shipment so to speak of God’s Grace. Why would God restore a relationship conduit if it were only for a one time deal? If that was the total event then why don’t we go straight to GO and collect our 100 dollars of heaven so to speak?

This is the rest of the really good news we haven’t paid enough attention to. The lid is off! By design we are constantly pursuing being full. And as we have looked at we have to overflow when we get too much of anything. The restoration allowed us for the first time since the fall of mankind to receive what God has meant for us to become the state of… all along.

Salvation is only the beginning. The Bible says we have been given according to His Devine power all things that pertain to life and being Godly through the knowledge of Him who called us to this Glory and virtue. In other words our access has been made possible by our knowing Jesus and accepting Him as savior. Then the real kicker… whereby are given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that by these promises you might be partakers of the Devine Nature, because you will have proven to have escaped the corruption that exist in the world because it operates by lusting.

Translation: Our access is a done deal. Because of it we receive God’s Devine nature or His God like supernatural productive life through knowledge of Jesus, who by now you should know is actually the Word of God, remember the lid, the word made flesh, you know… so we receive by knowledge of God’s word which gives us “promises”… that is plural promises not just heaven someday! It was the promise of salvation that you believed when you call Jesus Lord. Now we know there are many promises available in God’s Word. We can have more! And here is the really cool finish, we received eternal life by a promise but the substance (faith) of this current state of being (belief) is as a result of the out pouring of the Love of God. The last line here is saying our eternal life in Christ is a result of God’s Love filling us up, unlike the rest of the world which has nothing but the substance of lust to fill itself. Remember Love seeks for the purpose of reflecting back or expressing out its experience. God’s love is Life. 

So our desire for fulfillment and propensity to overflow makes us the perfect tool for God to spread His love. The things we can get from God, those promises we talked about, are great and precious and available to every believer but the reason is so God’s love can manifest Life in an otherwise dead world. The Gospel serves His love not just our needs.

 

So I began this series of messages with this end in mind, only to tell you this last message is about a beginning. I have only one more blog to write. It is the one where I tell you details about this Prayer Works Ministry. I can hardly wait to tell you how wonderful and easy it can be to apply these 7 simple lessons to help you change your life and the lives of people you love.  Be looking for that blog to come soon, until then may God bless you with fullness of LIFE as you study and seek His way, His truth and His Life…through His Word!