Start the New Year “Walking by Faith”
Sinvce everyone standing for marriage restoration already knows that we just couldn’t do it without walking by faith instead of looking at and falling for every trap and lie the devil sends to deceive and discourage us, I want to share the following message posted on the private website about faith. It’s very simple; yet very powerful! And I thank Dave for allowing me to share it here. So, if you remember 2 Corinthians 5:7, which says For we walk by faith, not by sight., YOU WILL BE BLESSED AND ENCOURAGED!
Hello all…
This is a passage from my reading of a daily devotional taken from a sermon on faith by Smith Wigglesworth, who was an extraordinary faith healer during the early to mid twentieth century. Since the biggest problem in my developing walk with Christ is unbelief, this sermon really hit home with me. And it’s not as if I haven’t heard/read this message on faith before, especially the always excellent and spiritually-gifted SOF posts by Linda and Dan. But for whatever reason, God has decided that for me, this is the message on faith and prayer that I absolutely needed to have. Hopefully, it will speak mightily in the heart of anyone else who is struggling with their faith as well.
There is only one way to all the treasures of God, and that is the way of faith. All things are possible, even the fulfilling of promises is possible, to him who believes (Mark 9:23).
There will be failure in our lives if we do not build on the base, the Rock Christ Jesus. He is the only way; He is the truth; He is the life (John 14:6). And the Word He gives us is life-giving. As we receive the Word of Life, it quickens, it opens, it fills us, it moves us, it changes us, and it brings us into a place where we dare to say amen to all God has said. Beloved, there is a lot in an “amen”. You never get any place until you have the “amen” inside of you. That was the difference between Zacharias and Mary. When the Word came to Zacharias, he was filled with unbelief until the angel said, “You will be mute… because you did not believe my words” (Luke 1:20). Mary said, “Let it be me according to your word” (Luke 1:38). The LORD was pleased that Mary believed what He had spoken. When we believe what God has said, there will be results.
We may do much praying and groaning, but we do not receive from God because of that; we receive because we believe. Yet sometimes it takes God a long time to bring us through the groaning and the crying before we can believe.
I know that no man by his praying can change God, for you cannot change Him. Charles Finney said, “Can a man who is full of sin and all kinds of ruin in his life change God when he starts to pray? No, it is impossible”. But when a man labors in prayer, he groans and travails because his tremendous sin and circumstances are weighing him down, and that’s when he becomes broken in the presence of God. When properly broken, he comes into perfect harmony with the divine plan of God, and that’s when God can work on that clay. He could not before. Prayer changes hearts, but it never changes God. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever: full of love, full of compassion, full of mercy, full of grace, and ready to bestow these gifts and communicate to us as we come to Him in faith.
Believe that when you come into the presence of God you can have all you came for. You can take it away, and you can use it, for all the power of God is at your disposal in response to your faith. The price for all was paid by the blood of Jesus Christ at Calvary. Oh, He is the living God, the One who has the power to change us! “It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves” (Psalm 100:3). And it is He who purposes to transform us so that the greatness of His power May work through us. Oh, beloved, God delights in us, and when a man’s ways pleases the LORD, then He makes ALL things move according to His own blessed purpose.
From: Smith Wigglesworth Daily Devotional (Whitaker House Publishing, 1999).