Word Power ~ Rabqa

We have been looking recently at the power  words have that we speak, today is no different as we are looking into God's word.

The eighteenth century humanist philosopher Voltaire once said that the Bible was archaic, outdated & would go out of vogue in his lifetime. Well, his lifetime is long gone, but the Bible is still the worlds largest selling book. Ironically, his former house in Paris now houses an office of the international Bible Society. 

Voltaire would have done well to heed what God says about His Word never passing away (Matt 24:35) & to  have paid more attention to his own imminent passing away. 

Sadly, Voltaire's opinion is rife in the world today. When God's Word is ridiculed or ignored, society experiences great periods of darkness & distress. Crime becomes rampant as authorities throw up their hands in despair, not realising that ignorance of God's Word is the reason behind people's fall into greater levels of sin. 

No political gender or program of social reform has ever solved the problem, or for that matter ever will. Only Jesus, the living Word of God, can solve this disease of the human heart. 

When God's Word is ignored, human life is no longer valued. Today the plight of an an endangered species or a beached whale has multitudes of folk volunteering their services & donating their money. But those same people who will stand in freezing water all night to nurse a stricken mammal are unwilling to help a drunk in the gutter or a drug addict in the street. 

Human Life has become cheap. The planned efforts of the abortionist to end life before it begins are matched by the efforts of supporters of euthanasia to end it all before it is really over. Abortion, perhaps more then any other issue, reveals the hedonist tendency of human begins to enjoy their actions without any thought of the outcome. God abhors the taking of a life, for He is the author of life. 

If the world is a mess today it is because the church has failed to take hold of God's Word & preach the true gospel, which will always liberate people form the curse of the fall of man. There are very few people in our generation who know the liberating truth of God's Word. Even those who profess to be religious are often ignorant of the Scriptures. They blindly follow traditions of their denomination without knowing if their doctrines & practices line up with the Word of God. 

Jesus rebuked such people in His day, the learned scribes & Pharisees Matt 22:29 

You are mistaken,...not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God.

Under Jesus' ministry, people were truly set free from the bondage on them through the law. They saw the power of God expressed in His life because He knew the power of God's Word & allowed the Holy Spirit to destroy their burdens. 

Jesus lived by the Word & the Spirit, & His life was filled with freedom & power. God wants every one of us to live the same way way. The key is in the power of the word that we confess. 

God's Word is the most powerful force in the universe. This is because He & His Word are one. They cannot be separated. God is always watching over His Word to fulfil it. 

God's Word is true, His Word is His bond. His Word is eternal & unchangeable because it is settled forever in heaven through the shedding of the blood of Jesus at Calvary. When we speak God's Word into our earthly situations, we are saying that the things on earth are to be the same as they are in heaven.   

God's Word is holy & pure Philippians 4:8 says that we are to keep our minds on things that are true, noble, just & pure. Determine your own thought life, do not let others do it for you. Cause your mind to dwell on those things that bring peace to you & glory to God. Follow holy leadership as a pattern for life & faith. You will the discover that God's Word is pure Prov 30:5 says... Every Word of God is pure. 

 God's Word is eternal. God has never drawn the power of His words from earth, nor will He. For is Word is eternal, just as He is. God's Word is the only restraint on evil & the only way that evil can be changed. God has given us his Word as our life book for living. 

God's Word has power. It has the power to change situations & transform lives. It has the power to bring people to salvation, to loose then from bondages & addictions of the world, to heal everybody who is sick in mind & body. 

Psalm 107:27 & He sent His Word & healed them, & delivered them from their destructions.  When God's Word comes out of the mouth of a believer, it is just as powerful as when it came out of the Living Word, Jesus! 

Now the Bible does not contain God's Word, for it is God's Word. Every Word in the Bible is God breathed:2 Tim 3:16 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, 

We must revere God's Word highly, recognise its fully divine source of inspiration, & to submit to it absolutely. 

God's Word is full of golden nuggets of wisdom. Gold prospectors have found the richest veins of ore are buried deep in the earth & require time, energy & expense to remove. Likewise God's Word is available to all, but it takes time, energy & some expense to dig out the treasure. Desire & diligence on our part are needed to extract that wisdom & apply it to our lives. 

Most homes have a Bible, but very few of us know what is written in it. When I started my walk with Christ I didn't know basic instructions like reading, studying & memorising the Scriptures, just as we take a daily food. My meals consisted of religious pomp & traditions A menu which undermines the word of God. 

When I finally understood the power of God's word my life changed. I learnt that the Bible is the only source of all Spiritual knowledge. It is our instruction book for everyday living. When we live by its precepts, we will live a godly life to fulfil our potential & purpose. 

If we buy a new washing machine & don't follow the manufacturers instruction, we will never get the maximum benefit from our our purchase. It is just the same with our life, we can't expect success if we don't follow our Makers instructions. What we are in fact are doing is rejecting them to our own peril. 

The devil, of course, will do whatever he can to make us ignore God's Word. He attacks the Bible like nothing else. He knows all to well that his chances of populating hell are greatly diminished when people find out the truth about God-& about  himself. He is content to hide behind his caricature as one dressed in red carrying a three pronged fork.  Could anyone possibly believe that? People's ignorance of satan is his greatest weapon in deceiving them into tasting the tree of evil under the illusion that there is no price to pay. 

Satan has many ways of attacking God's Word. For a long time he had made sure the Bible was taken out of the hands of the common person & controlled by the clergy, the majority of whom greatly abused their position as custodians of God's words. They hid the liberating truth of the gospel to advantage themselves. Instead of teaching God's Word as it is written, they preached their own man-made traditions & enslaved men & women in religious bondage. 

These were truly the dark ages. They only lifted when great reformers brought the truth of God's Word back into earth. 

Today satan is still attacking the Bible through the very one who should be defending it. The church has so often compromised God's Word to accommodate political power, situational ethics, human ideas, & hedonistic pleasures. God's Word never changes to meet any situation; it remains the same yesterday, today & forever. 

The body of Christ worldwide needs to stand up & say what God says about the issues that confront the world today. 

It is no wonder satan hates the Bible. God's Word is the way He has given us to overcome the forces of evil. We see this clearly in Jesus' ministry, who was able to defeat the devil time & time again simply by saying It is written. The devil could not stand against what God had decreed. 

If we take God's Word into our lives & begin to speak & act on it, it will be a barrier to the devil's plans of destruction. God has given us His Word to protect us from the devil, who cannot rob, kill or destroy us if we stay under the protection of the Word. When Israel obeyed God's commands, they came out of Egypt with no one sick & every one prospering. When we obey His Word & walk in love, we too will enjoy His many blessings. 

You may be wondering where you can find God. You can find Him in His Word. There is only one God for all people for all time, not many gods for different nations. Philosophies teach that God is not a real spiritual being, but it is whatever the individual sees him, her or it to be. This them permeates modern thought, for the devil has done a good job convincing the world that Christian intolerance of any other way but Jesus is a contradiction to the Beatitudes taught by Him.

The idea that all roads lead to God sounds just the go, but that is not true. There are absolutes. God is Spirit, a three-in-one being, Father, Son & Holy Spirit, with Jesus taking on human form to give the godhead expression in the world. God is not an aura, a cosmic consciousness or a fragment of the imagination. & Jesus died for the whole world. as He said in John 14:6 I am the way, the truth, & the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me We see that Jesus is the way to the Father. He is the truth about God & the very life of God. & He reveals truth to us & gives us life. 

Many people embrace New Age practices & Eastern mysticism in an attempt to find the spiritual reality in their lives. They know they have not found it previously in religious practices centred around human traditions & ceremonies.  Chanting OMs is not the way to find God either. He is found only in His written Word. 

In God's Word you find the realities of the spirit, for God is spirit, & His Word is spirit. 

I mentioned earlier that we need to read our Makers instruction book, just as you need to read the manual for a new washing machine to make it work. As for me even if I do read the manual the sad truth is I just wont understand it I need someone to explain it to me. 

It is this way with the Bible. we have been given a wonderful gift of life, & without our Makers guidelines on how to maintain & live that life successfully & productively. Some who read the guidelines find them hard to understand, & throw them aside instead of seeking help. 

I have often found other people very helpful in my attempts to understand what God's Word is saying. But the most important help comes from God Himself, who has sent His Spirit to help us John 16:13 

However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. 

The Holy Spirit wonderfully illuminates the Word of God to us. Jesus, the Living Word was conceived by the Holy Spirit. & the Word of God is also conceived in our spirit by the Holy Spirit. 

Before we were born again of the Spirit of God, we were totally dominated by our body & mind, which were conformed to the negative ways of the world. Change only comes when the eyes of our understanding are opened to the truth of the gospel. This is the wonderful ministry of the Holy spirit who brings illumination to our minds & conviction to our hearts by revealing the truth of the Scriptures.

Eph 1:18 says 

the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, 

The eyes of your understanding being enlightened literally means that your heart may receive the brightness of hope resulting when the wealth of God's investment in you is understood. 

If we are NOT hearing the Word of God. It means that our spirit cannot receive it & grow in faith. All the rejections, hurt, bitterness & unforgiveness, in our lives will make it worse. & we will not know how to overcome those emotions. 

Since we have no faith in theses areas we could almost give in to them & forget all about living in victory. 

But when we sit under faith filled teaching instructing us to hear God's Word everyday, we then start to recover. It is so important to read the Word everyday & find the specific Scriptures relating to our circumstance, & speak those words out aloud, personalising them by making the "you's in the Bible a "me". At first we may not truly believe them, but as long as we keep on we will get that revelation deep down in our spirit. 

A key Scripture is Phil 4:13 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. We must know & believe that Jesus Christ will enable us to do anything He asks us. Nothing is impossible to those who believe. 

Our inheritance as believers can only be received fully by taking a stand on what God has said in the face of contradicting circumstances. Sometimes even suffering death. The stance of faith eliminates fear & worry & brings the freedom to rejoice evermore. True faith never says I cannot! Such an utterance betrays unbelief. 

Isaiah 40:31 says Those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run & not be weary, they shall walk & not faint.  Understand that spiritual strength comes from waiting upon the Lord. 

Faith takes God at His Word when circumstances seem to deny the truth of His promises. Our ability to endure to the end will depend upon our allowing the Holy Spirit to train us in this kind of faith. 

The Holy Spirit will work with us in a powerful way, & will take the Word that we have diligently placed in our spirit & paint a wonderful picture of being sound in mind & body on the canvas of our hearts. When we finally truly believe He will be able to act on the words which we speak in faith & bring our miracle to pass. For faith come by hearing & hearing by the Word of God. 

All the doubt, fear & unbelief will leave, & days of sickness & defeat are over. 

God is listening for His Word to come out of our mouths so He can act on it & bring it to pass in our lives. Now the devil is also listening for his words to come out of our mouths, so he can bring his word to pass. Our choice of words give God or the devil permission to work. 

God fulfils His Word when hears us speaking it out in faith. 

So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it. Isa 55:11 

Choose to believe that God's Word is the most powerful force in the universe & act accordingly. 

Remember not to listen to anyone who will compromise the Bible, it certainly will not glorify God or bring peace to you.   

Acknowledgement Dr Margaret Court. 

Walking with Jesus. ~ Ganeida.

1 John 2:6 says: He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also so to walk, even as He walketh. The NLT puts it more bluntly: Those who say they live in God should live their lives as Jesus did.

Before we get into our subject this morning I would like you to think about a couple of questions.

Do you believe Jesus was sinless?

Do you believe Jesus was led by the spirit always?

Did Jesus ever express anger?

Can you think of an incidence where Jesus’ words might be considered less than loving by today’s standards?

You see how you think about these things impacts your understanding of who Jesus is & what it means to walk as Jesus walked. Let’s let scripture answer those first questions.

1 John 3:5 You know that He appeared in order to take away sins; and in Him there is no sin.

John 8:29 "And He who sent Me is with Me; He has not left Me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to Him.”

Mark 3: 4~6 And He said to them, "Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath, to save a life or to kill?" But they kept silent. After looking around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, He said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored. The Pharisees went out and immediately began conspiring with the Herodians against Him, as to how they might destroy Him.

Matthew 23:33 Snakes! Sons of vipers! How will you escape the judgment of hell?

I think we have a problem.  If God is love, how do we walk by the Spirit of God?  How do we walk in love? How do we express anger?  What justifies it? What does *walking by the Spirit* really look like because it is obvious from these examples that Jesus was hardly wishy~washy in His thinking, statements or actions. His love did not *tolerate* anything & everything.

We have become so conditioned to not ever rocking the boat with others in the name of love, especially other believers, that we are in danger of straying from the heart of the gospel.  Jesus never shrinks from saying the hard things.  He never shrinks from doing the difficult things.  He is never going to love someone into hell.

Let’s start with some of the things Jesus Himself says about love.

John 14:15 If you love me you will keep my commands.  Love is agape.

John 15:10 If you keep my commands you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands & remain in His love.

Again love is agape.

John 13:34 This is what I command you; love one another. Agape again.

Hmmm.

It has become cliché ~ which is unfortunate~ but the instruction is always to love the person, never the sin. Unrepentant sin in the life of the believer brings consequences because it is an abuse of God’s grace. What’s more there are certain things that are not to be tolerated because Jesus Himself does not tolerate them. Tolerance is not love ~ & it can have disastrous results.

In the book of Revelation we have 7 churches & Jesus has something to say to all of them, some good, some bad. Of Ephesus He complains that they have forgotten their first love for Him; Of Pergamum He complains of false teaching, idolatry, sexual sin;  Thyatira He accuses  of permitting a Jezebel to teach & lead people astray; Sardis He accuses of being dead even though they think they are alive; Laodicea is accused of being lukewarm. There is a grave warning to those churches if things do not change.

There are things we are expected to deal with ~ especially within the body of believers.

Ephesians 5:3 Let there be no sexual immorality, impurity, or greed among you. Such sins have no place among God's people.

Sexual sin is particularly grave within the body of believers because we know that our bodies have become a temple for the Holy Spirit & the church as a whole is a living body.  As such it is to be kept pure & holy, undefiled. Greed is the love of money & it is the love of money that is at the root of all evil. 1 Timothy 6:10. Neither is to find a place amongst God’s people. It is not loving to tolerate what God calls sin in the name of love.

We know that each of us is a 3 part being.  We are a spirit who has a soul & inhabits a body.  Every moment of our lives one or other aspect of our being is in pre-eminence. Paul says in Galations 5:19 that if we let our flesh control us the results are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarrelling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division envy, drunkenness, wild parties.  This is diametrically opposed to a life lived controlled by the Spirit of God.   Such a person exhibits love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness & self~control. Galatians 5:22

So how do we walk in love, yet not tolerate the intolerable? Galatians 6 says If another believer is overcome by some sin, you who are godly should gently & humbly help that person back onto the right path ~ but we are also to ensure we don’t become ensnared in that person’s sin ourselves!

Amos 2:3 says How can 2 walk together unless they agree?

This is really our first clue to bringing this all into alignment. We cannot walk with God unless we are in agreement with God. We call things by their true names.  Sin is sin. Truth is Truth. This is why a believer cannot walk with an unbeliever & why a believer who is in error cannot walk with a believer who isn’t.  It probably accounts for most of the division in the churches for Paul says in 1 Corinthians 11:19  But, of course, there must be divisions among you so that you who have God’s approval will be recognized!

I am not saying that there cannot be outreach or witness but there can be no true fellowship unless we are all in agreement with what God Himself says. Thus we guard our hearts carefully, discerning the spirit that is in a man or woman with whom we are engaging.

So here are some practical steps for doing that.

Revelation 12:10 Satan is called the accuser of the brethren. Here is where we need to untangle a person from their actions.  The person is not what they do, even though their actions may be sinful.  Their actions may call for some sort of discipline by the church & on at least one occasion Paul handed a person’s flesh over to satan that he might be saved.  [1Corinthians 5:5]

This is not to condemn anyone to hell. Rather it is part of the refining process by which the things of the flesh will be purged from that life, allowing for the work of Grace via the Holy Spirit to accomplish His purpose in that life.

In contrast we have Jesus, the advocate.  An advocate pleads another’s cause; an intercessor. It is Jesus who lives in us.

The accuser will always work with our flesh.  He will accentuate the negative & minimise the positive.  He will highlight the bad whereas the Spirit will look on the heart, will focus on the good.  He neither condemns nor condones, accuses nor excuses. However He does need us to co~operate with Him. So we need to keep our own hearts with all diligence never allowing the seeds of accusation to take root & grow, but neither allowing, or tacitly condoning, sin either in our lives or in another believer’s.

How do we do this? Romans 8:5

1.Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit. Or in other words we are to renew our minds! Romans 12:2 gives greater insight:  Don’t copy the behaviour and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.  Remember, according to 2 Corinthians 10:5 we are to take captive every thought to make it obey Christ.

When we think the way God thinks we will have the discernment Jesus had.  We will know when to be gentle, when to be firm & how to discern what is going on around us.

2.Put to death the deeds of the body Romans 8:5. Most of us will have struggled at some point with a particular sin that we just don’t seem to be able to ditch. We will always fail when we do this in our own strength but we will have success when we do it by the empowerment of the Holy Spirit.

3. Pray! Pray! Pray! 1 John 5:16 Remember there is great power when we pray in the Spirit for we are praying out the will of God in the language of God through His Holy Spirit. Remember Jesus could call out sin without sinning Himself; be angry with a righteous anger & yet maintain His composure.  Do not act until prayer has brought your flesh under the control of the Holy Spirit.

Lastly: Trust & obey
“In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established.” 2 Cor 13:1

If you believe you have heard correctly from the Holy Spirit on a matter & the testimony has been established & confirmed by 2 or 3 witnesses then obey!

The joy & the blessing of walking in the Spirit is knowing the sweetness of Christ as a living reality & knowing Him it becomes grievous to us to in any way displease Him & thus we will always strive to please Him & in pleasing Him He reveals more of Himself.  The more He reveals of Himself the more we will delight in Him. May it be so, both in your life & in mine!

Words of Faith.~ Rabqa

Last time we looked at the power of words, today we are going

to be looking at words of faith.

In Rom 10:17 says Faith comes by hearing & by hearing by the Word of God.


Every person who is born again is of the Spirit of God & already has faith...God has dealt to each on a measure of faith. Rom 12:3. If you are a believer, faith is not something you can have, or not have; you have it!


No one can pray for faith, nor is it right for any Christian to say they don't have faith. For every person has been given a measure of faith, & no one receives a greater measure then another.


The day we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord & Saviour is the day that God gives us His kind of faith in our spirit. This faith is a spiritual force that enables us to accomplish the seemingly impossible & to be an overcomer of every of adversity.
For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.1Jn 5:4 Know that those who are born again can never be defeated. Faith is based on knowledge of God's Word & His character. The Spirit of the world is in opposition to God. But when we determine to stand in faith, the world looses its controlling influence over us. While each of us have a measure of faith, however, we can live in ignorance of what we have. People are destroyed from lack of knowledge. Hos 4:6 & satan loves to keep us in the dark that we have the God-kind of faith in us. Every person is responsible for developing their measure of faith to its fullest. All we have to do to develop it is to turn the switch of faith on that is with our mouths. When I first started my relationship with the Lord I had a great hunger to know more things of God but sadly the Church I was worshipping in had little knowledge so I shopped around till eventually I found a Church where I could learn the revelation in the Word & that Church was Victory Life in Perth. Pastor Margaret Court teaches the importance of reading the Word for

yourself & when I did i saw that Without faith it is impossible to please God... Heb 11:6 seek God diligently, believe that He will reward you for it. Without faith we cannot live the way God intended for us to live. Clearly faith is essential for our walk here on earth. Rom 10:17 tells us that faith grows by hearing the Word of God constantly. The quickest way to grow in faith is to hear yourself saying the Word, meditating on it, muttering it, affirming it. Scriptural meditation is simply saying & thinking what God says. A bit like a cow chewing it's cud, you go over it again & again, meditate on it, speak it, again & again-until it gets down into your spirit & the Holy Spirit gives you a revelation of it's truth. Now it is not enough just to have a snack of God's Word on a Sunday if we want to live in victory every single day of the week, nor can we pray for our faith to grow, it is up to us to develop our spiritual faith muscle, to do this we must work out on God's Word every day. There are no short cuts. A low Word level is a low faith level. It may surprise you to know that it is news to too many people that hearing God's Word is the way to grow spiritually & increase the force of faith.
Many think that faith grows through tests & trials. We have to learn to know our righteousness in Jesus & know that nothing we could or could not do could affect our status as God's child. Tests & trials don't increase our faith they only prove our fear. FAITH COMES NOT BY ADVERSITY BUT BY HEARING. The time to develop our faith is not in the middle of a time of testing.

That's when we need to use the faith we already have. If we are constantly feeding ourselves faith when we don't need it, we will be able to release it when we do. What is faith like You may ask that God has placed in our hearts? One of my favourite faith Scriptures says For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. Mark 11:23 Notice it says what he says, that is the key, not whatever he prays. So the key is what you say not what you pray. What is the mountain your life? Sickness? Depression? A difficult marriage? Financial
hardship? Cancer? When you speak the Word of God in faith to that mountain, the Holy Spirit will act. All He is waiting for, are your words. God doesn't want us to put up with the mountains in our lives. If you are sick in your body for example don't let the mountain of sickness remain; Speak to it remind it that you are are a temple of the Holy Spirit, & that it cannot remain, for God's Word promises you redemption from the curse of the sickness. You are not lying when you say what God says. Keep speaking what God says about you. Keep the Word of God coming out of your mouth & going into your spirit. Faith is a force that flows out of the spirit & acts independently of the mind. Since the Word of God is spirit, alive & living, it is exactly the type of food our spirit needs to grow the God kind of faith in us will overcome the world. When God says we are to believe the things we say will come to pass, it implies we must have faith in our words. It's one thing to talk about having faith in God's word but faith in my own words... you may wonder what does that mean. It means for example that you may be very sick but don't believe in your words so you would be
speaking the wrong things, hitting yourself over the head, telling yourself that you are no good. When you start to speak God's word you must believe it not doubt it in your heart. Once you start to flood yourself with God's word you will notice that you do believe, that you do believe in your heart, & when when you start to speak it out (Aloud) you will find yourself growing in trust because they are God's words. Start by saying I believe the things that I say shall come to pass; I shall have whatever I say. I have faith in my words because my words are alive, & living, my words are tangible, & anointed because they are God's Words, & He & His Word are one, & I & my words are one. We need to believe the words we speak before we can believe the words God speaks.

There were two men who believed their own words because they were founded on God's Word, they were Joshua & Caleb. In Numbers 13 we read they were among twelve men that Moses sent out to spy the promised land before the Israelites went in. After forty days in Canaan they returned. Ten of the spies gave a wonderful picture of a land flowing with milk & honey. Two men even carried back a huge cluster of grapes on a pole! But these men also said they found strong enemies there; including giant men who made them fell like grasshoppers. On this basis, they were forgetting God's Word that He had promised them victory, they changed their good report into an evil report, concluding that the Israelites were not able to go up & possess the land. Joshua & Caleb, however, brought back good a good report silencing the people before Moses, who had been distressed that the land couldn't be taken.. Joshua & Caleb said,...Let us go up at once & take possession, for we are well able to overcome. Num 13:30 An evil report is one that contradicts God's Word. A Good report is one that believes what God says, despite the evidence of things in the natural realm that say the opposite. Joshua & Caleb, according to God were of a different spirit to those who refused to believe.

Num 14:24 says they were totally convinced that what God had promised He would preform. Like David when he faced Goliath & declared openly that his God would deliver the Philistine into his hands (1Sam 17:4) Joshua & Caleb likewise knew that the enemy awaiting them in the Promised Land would be delivered into their hands, for God had already said that the land was theirs. They had to go forward in faith & trust that God would fight their battles for them. A solid faith confession, in which we say what God says & not what our circumstances say, will always bring the desired victory. it may not be instant but as the faith confession continues, the force of patience will grow to under gird our faith till the evil report finally becomes the desired good report. Joshua & Caleb never said anything contrary to their belief that Israel would possess the Promised Land. But because of the unbelief of their fellow Israelites they had to wait forty years, but they did finally receive what they believed. Their patience was tested, but they never changed their 'good report' to an 'evil report' just because it looked as if was not going to happen. In Jos 1:6-9 God told Joshua to be Strong & of good courage & to be very courageous. To be courageous is to have the ability to meet danger without giving way to fear. Faith is the opposite of fear, & a large part of being courageous is to step out on God's Word alone & speak it in faith at all times, no matter of the circumstances.

After forty years it was only those who agreed with God that finally entered the Promised Land. Those who doubted His Word died in the wilderness of their own making, just because they refused to believe, speak or act on the Word of God that He had given them. This just the same in our lives. God has already spoken about our 'Promised Land'. The Bible speaks of how we can claim all the promises that our ours because of our wonderful new status as sons & daughters of God. He is not speaking anything new today, apart from a greater revelation through His Spirit of what He has already spoken through His written Word. When our circumstances say something contrary to God's Word, we have to choose what we will believe-a good report based on what God says or an evil report which is totally opposite to God's Word. God's good report of our new life in Christ is found in the Bible. we are what the Word says we are, regardless of how we feel or think about it. among other things: * God Word says are the Righteousness of God therefore we are righteous-despite what we think about our unworthiness.
2 Corn 5:21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. * God's Word says we are forgiven, therefore, we are forgiven despite our feelings of guilt & self condemnation. Rom 8:1 There is therefore no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus. * God's Word says we are healed, therefore we are healed-despite what our bodies tell us to the contrary.

1Peter 2:24...By whose stripes you were healed. * God's word says we are over comers & have victory in our lives through our faith-even though we may look as though we are defeated. 1 John 5:4-5 For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? All this & so much more describes who we are in Christ. Whatever you find in the word of God you can claim it as being personally for you. It is then up to you to take hold of it.

Let me explain it this way somebody could give you a title deed for a block of land that you have never seen, but you know that you have the land because you have the deed in your hand. It is just the same with the Bible. The Word of God is your title deed to all that is rightfully yours even though you may not be able to see it. I believe that our failure to confess God's Word out of our mouth has time & time again has stopped the power of our tongue creating what is good for our lives. Many, many times we speak of our fears, but how often do we speak of faith? Some theologies tell us that confession with our mouth is childish & foolish, so we keep our mouths firmly shut. & when we do speak we are so engrossed in our fears, guilt & emotions that we fail to confess faith. To confess God Word is not, as some claim, a name it & claim it theology. It is, after all, God's Word we speak. We are not lying when we say what God says about us. Now some people have named & claimed things, but not by speaking out in faith. It is in the motive of the heart. If your motives are not right, & if you
are not looking at Jesus, you will not receive anything. If your eyes are focused on Jesus & you have the right heart attitude towards Him He will bless you. You may ask why do we need to speak God's Word aloud. Surely it is enough to think it in our mind? Let me put it this way God did not think the world into existence; He spoke it into existence! It is when the Word is expressed that it has creative power. When we speak God's word out aloud it strengthens our faith, Faith comes by hearing &hearing the Word of God. So when we speak it aloud we hear it first hand. We generally only speak what we believe, & what we believe is directly governed by what we hear. 2 Corn 4:13 And since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, “I believed and therefore I spoke,” we also believe and therefore speak, The mind is a battlefield of conflicting thoughts that gravitate somewhere between faith & fear. Faith & fear are complete opposites. where there is faith there cannot be fear, & where there is fear there cannot be faith.

Faith will always bring out the desired positive result. It is so important to build our faith into our thinking by hearing lots of God's Word. Again, & I can't stress it enough Faith comes by hearing, & by hearing by the word of God. Rom 10:17 I know faith works because it was by faith that my whole life was changed. It was by faith that I was set free from the devil & his cohorts & it was by faith that I was redeemed from fear. Victory only came when I took God at His Word & spoke & acted on His Word. I believed I was free from all fear even when it didn't seem like that on the inside, I just had to ignore those feeling & stand in faith. I choose to exalt the Word of God over my circumstances. Now circumstances are only temporal so are subject to change. They are part of the 'seen' things which the Bible contrasts with the unseen. 2 Corn 4:18 while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal. The words "do not look" in this verse does not mean ignore but do not keep looking at, or gazing at.

Paul recognises that the outward man is perishing (v16) but by faith he sees more then the temporary things in the light of the eternal. As long as I faithfully I diligently applied the Word of God to my circumstances they had to change, & eventually they did! Spiritual things are more real then physical things. Any change in our life must take place in the spiritual realm before it will be manifest in the natural realm. Faith is the connection between the natural realm & the spiritual realm. Faith brings the things the Word says from the realm of the supernatural, that is where they are already a reality to the realm of the natural-where they need to become a reality. We need to think about, speak about, & see our answers before we have them. If we can't see then we will never have them: Prov 29:18 Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint; But happy is he who keeps the law. Another translation says where there is no vision, the people will perish If we are sick for example we need to see & speak ourselves into health through faith in God's Word.

Isa 53:5 By His stripes we are healed. By faith we bring the blessing of the spiritual realm into the natural
realm. The Supernatural realm is like the wind; it can't be seen but when it operates are it's effects are obvious. & Faith is the same-invisible, but powerful in effect. Heb 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Acknowledgement Dr Margaret Court.

Seeing Jesus in Communion ~ Ganeida

This is a communion Sunday & so our focus is particularly on the Lord Jesus & what He has done for us.  We have taught on the elements & what they represent.  We have taught on all that Jesus redeemed on the cross but this week I felt the Holy Spirit wanted something a little different.

I was quite worried when I got to Friday night & not even a hint of a sermon for today [not the first time, probably not the last & panic tends to set in despite the fact Jesus has never once let me down!]~ & trying to force something spiritual without the unction of the Holy Spirit would be like forcing you to eat dry sticks ~ nasty at best & downright unpleasant.

I believe one of the things the Holy Spirit wants for this church is to know Jesus. He wants us to know Jesus as well as knowing about Jesus.  There is a difference!  All the knowledge in the world will be of no benefit to you unless you know Jesus, deeply, personally, intimately; until you know Him as Job knew Him, able to say: Though He slay me, yet will I trust in the Lord; until you know Him as Abraham knew Him, able to lay your most precious belonging on the altar of sacrifice trusting that the Lord is indeed able to raise up that which is dead; until you know Him as David knew Him ~ Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for thou art with me…

Relationship makes all the difference when you come to God for something whether it’s healing or finances or the salvation of a loved one.  If you only know about then if you don’t get what you asked God for in whatever timeframe you deem acceptable then the easy conclusions most people make are along these lines:  God doesn’t love me; God doesn’t do that anymore; God doesn’t answer my prayers; God doesn’t care about my suffering, my fear, my worries.  Nothing could be further from the Truth but the ability to Trust as you wait is dependent on your relationship.  If God is good then it is His nature to be always good, to look for opportunities to help & bless us.

So I want us to turn to Matthew 26 because Matthew was the gospel to the Jews & Jesus was a Torah observant Jewish man & one of the things He accomplished during His time on earth was to fulfil all the demands of the Torah.  We will start at verse 17: On the first day of unleavened bread… As we know the Feast of Unleavened Bread follows Passover we are looking at a translation misunderstanding.  It is referring to the day before~ Passover Day ~ as a Jewish day goes from sunset to sunset, not sunrise to sunrise.  In the evening Jesus will celebrate the Passover meal with His disciples.  Naturally His disciples are anxious to know where they will be celebrating because at sunset the Sabbath begins & no more work can be done.

Note: they have to travel into the city from Bethany, about 2 miles away. Passover is one of the High Holy Days when every Jewish male who was able travelled to Jerusalem to worship.  Now, just think for a moment.  Have you ever travelled at Easter?  Christmas?  Labor weekend?  The roads are clogged.  So it was for Jesus & his disciples & why he sent Peter & John ahead to prepare everything. [Luke 22:8]

The roads were unpaved or cobbled.  The dust & pebbles would have worked into their open sandals & the dust would have been sucked up under their robes.  The crowd would have jostled & bumped them as everyone hurried to get into the city because the city could not house everyone so the surrounding districts would also have had people staying there but on this day everyone had to get to Jerusalem. Fit as the men were they would have become hot & dusty.  The sweat would have itched between their shoulder blades & rolled down their faces into their beards.

We have celebrated a Passover seder so we know some of the things that Peter & John had to do: buy wine, bitter herbs, cinnamon & apple to prepare the haroset; make salt water, but not gifilta fish, nor a boiled egg or a bare lamb shank bone, since this practice does not date back to the time of Jesus; lay out the cups, set a place for Elijah as well as prepare the celebratory meal.

At some point the lamb that had been chosen a month earlier for the sacrifice was taken to the temple for slaughter. I can only imagine!  Thousands & thousands of lambs: the baaing of terrified animals; the stench of blood & death; the chanting of the priests as they sang the hallel continiously; the press of bodies in the courtyard…& then the quiet of the house, the seder things laid ready, the meal prepared, the anticipation as the day draws to a close & dusk quietly settles over the city.  Jesus leads his disciples in the ritual search for leven & somewhere in the city a woman lights the first seder candle & proclaims the blessing.

Jesus washes His disciples feet ~ & they would have been filthy after walking from Bethany & through the holiday streets of Jerusalem. There is the ritual handwashing & everyone gathers around the low table from youngest to oldest around the head, at this seder, Jesus. That John rested his head on Jesus breast tells us he was probably the youngest disciple, something of a hot~head, & perhaps explains Jesus special affection for him.

As the head it was Jesus who lead the hallel, His disciples chanted the responses. This was a celebratory festival remembering what God had done for Israel when he led them out of bondage in Egypt ~ & there were those 4 cups of wine to be drunk!  I imagine it was joyful, even rowdy.  Into this atmosphere Jesus drops a bombshell. One of you is going to betray me.V21

Scripture says that these men, who had spent 3 years with Jesus, who believe Him to be the promised messiah, his closest friends, were greatly distressed by this revelation.

It is easy for us in retrospect, with the Holy Spirit to help give us revelation, but the disciples did not have that luxury. They are probably on something of a high.  A month before the people had waved psalm fronds & yelled hosea.  They are celebrating Israel coming out of Egypt & may have hoped Israel was about to come out from bondage to Rome.  More importantly, they are friends. They have a close & complicated relationship, that of disciples as well as friends but friends who sometimes vie for pre-eminence,  who don’t always get it ~ or get it then do something dumb, friends who have seen & experienced miracles, healings, the casting out of demons ~ & who knew the Sanhedrin was just waiting for an opportunity. They have literally been trusting each other with their lives for 3 years.

But Jesus hasn’t finished.  He takes the matzoh & breaks it & he says: Take this & eat for this is my body. V26 The Greek is soma & literally means a dead body.  What’s more we quote Isaiah 53:4~5:  By His stripes we are healed ~ because the bread used is stripped & pitted to remind us of the blows Jesus suffered for us & the crown of thorns He wore but here is the interesting thing: In Hebrew the word *blow* [wound or stripe] has the same root as the word *friend* so we could just as truthfully say, In His friendship, we are healed.

Then He took the cup & said: V28 Each of you drink from it for this is my blood, which confirms the covenant between God & His people.  It is poured out as a sacrifice to forgive the sins of many.

Then they sang a hymn & went out to the Mount of Olives. V30

As we prepare to come forward as sons & daughters of the most High pause for a moment & see Jesus step out into that night.  He is surrounded by His closest friends but He knows before too many hours have passed one will have betrayed Him unto death & the others fled in terror for their own lives. Their footsteps slap against the cobbled streets.  In all the windows light spills from the sabbath candles & there can be heard sound of voices singing:  His love endures forever. In His heart Jesus knows he is the Passover Lamb prepared from the foundation of the world but His love carries Him, step by step, to the mount of Olives & from there to a wayside cross to be displayed as a curiosity for all who pass by.

Yet do you know something very wonderful?  There in the garden when Jesus prayed, He prayed for you & I.  My prayer is not for the world, but for those you have given me, because they belong to you. Jn 17:9 We are a gift from the Father to the Son, from the son to the Father & we are protected by the power of the Name. We deserve that love no more than Peter or John did but even so Jesus bore it all that we might have friendship with the Father, & the Son, & the Holy Spirit.

Our words, our power~ Ganeida

We have been looking at words;  words of praise, words that define our reality.  Next Rabqa will look @ words of faith.

Dictionary.com defines words  as:a unit of language, consisting of one or 
more spoken sounds or their written  representation, 

that functions as a principal carrier of meaning.

Greek has 2 main words for word:  Logos & Rhema.  

Rehma is the spoken word. So when Romans 10:17 says: “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word [rhema] of God”  it is referring to the Rhema word, the spoken word.

Logos means logic. Theologically when used of Christ Strong’s defines it as: expressing the thoughts of the Father through the Spirit.

(Philippians 2:16).  “Holding forth the word [logos] of life”  or the logic of life ~ according to God. Or Luke 8:11 “The seed is the word [logos] of God” ~ the logic of God as expressed in the thoughts of the Father through the Spirit.  When that manifests in the flesh they are Christ.

The Hebrew for word is davar ~ order, particularly spoken order or a spoken commandment.

When John says in his gospel In the beginning was the word he uses the Greek Logos ~ the logic of God but in Genesis 1:26 the Hebrew word is way-yō-mer ~ to utter; to command.

So you see, when a believer utters the Rhema of God he concurs with the Logos of God.  This is why whingey whiney prayers are useless.  They do not concur with the logos.  That’s our flesh screaming fleshly logic.  God’s logic is not concerned with our circumstances because whatever those circumstances are He has already overcome everything that is in the world & of the world. John 16:33 What God wants us to do is to agree with His logos by speaking His rhema.  When we pray By His stripes we are healed Isaiah 53:5 we are agreeing with what God has already said.  As He is not a liar [Numbers 23:19] then what He has spoken is Truth.

I am not going to deal with the faith aspect of the confession of our words as Rabqa is doing that.  What I want to look at is our authority for doing so.

A lot of Christians add this little rider to their prayers: If it is your will ~ as if we can’t know the will of God.  This is contrary to scripture which plainly outlines any number of circumstances in which we know without doubt the will of God. Take 2 Peter 3:9 for example.

The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.

Plainly God does not wish that anyone should perish!  You can pray confidently for loved ones salvation because this is the will of God for them!

Or Exodus 15:26: He said, “If you will listen carefully to the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in his sight, obeying his commands and keeping all his decrees, then I will not make you suffer any of the diseases I sent on the Egyptians; for I am the Lord who heals you.” What’s more, Jesus sealed that promise on the cross with His own body.

Or what about 1 Thessalonians 5:18?  It doesn’t get any plainer than this: In everything give thanks for this is the will of God.

God is not a monster that He would send death & destruction on those whom He loved enough to sacrifice His very own son. Satan is the liar ~ & the father of lies. John 8:44   It is he who robs & murders & destroys. Do not attribute with your words the acts of the evil one to God the Father. Again & again scripture asserts that His hassad, His lovingkindness, His grace & mercy endure forever.

Hosea 4:6 says:  My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge…but John 8:32 asserts that the truth will set you free.

The moment you come into agreement with the Father that you are a sinner in need of a saviour, that you do indeed believe that Jesus is Lord & the Father raised Him from death, through the spoken word, immediately you are transferred from satan’s kingdom of Darkness into God’s kingdom of Light.

We know that Light is constant.  We know that there is no darkness in light.  We know that we can’t travel faster than light because to do so would be to be outside time.  The science is complicated but it’s a fact. You quite literally become a citizen of God’s kingdom & all the rights, responsibilities & privileges of the kingdom become yours.

Citizens have rights & responsibilities, just as we do in the natural.  In Australia a citizen has the right to vote, the right to a passport, to social benefits if need be, to medical care & police protection.  In God’s kingdom we are given power to witness Acts 1:8, authority to cast out demons Mark 3:15, the right to come boldly before the Throne of Grace Hebrews 4:16, authority to overcome all the power of the enemy Luke 10:19… What’s more we are joined to the Lord in one Spirit 1 Corinthians6;17; He is the head, we are the body.

In Matthew 28:18 Jesus says all authority is given to me in heaven & earth. If we are His body we have exactly the same authority as He does.  The head is not separate from the body.  They are one & the same.

I am not saying we are little gods.  I am saying our authority derives from our head.  Our head is Christ & all authority has been given to Him.  Thus if the Head says lay hands on for healing we are perfectly within our right & our designated authority to pray healing for anyone. What’s more, we will use the logos of God to declare the rhema of God.  We will declare those things not yet seen because we believe the word of God to be true. That is faith & faith is God’s logic.

But we are more than just citizens of God’s kingdom; we are His dearly beloved children: 

John 1:12~13

But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

The children of a family get special privileges not accorded to outsiders ~ inside information, privileges only accorded to those who belong.  Jesus made this abundantly clear when he said: "It is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs.” Matt 15:26

One of the privileges of a Kingdom child is the restoration of the dominion we lost in the Garden. Genesis 1:28 gave Adam & Eve dominion over the earth.  They ceded their dominion to satan.  Christ took it back at the cross & now those who are in Christ share in His victory.

The Hebrew word is radah: to rule over, tread down, prevail against but the children have been told: And the God of Peace will crush satan under your feet shortly Romans 16:20

It is no good crying & asking Why does God allow…? If His people have allowed because Jesus said: “I tell you the truth, whatever you forbid on earth will be forbidden in heaven, and whatever you permit on earth will be permitted in heaven” Matthew 18:18 Permitting & forbidding is done primarily through what we allow to come out of our mouths. We exercise our dominion by what comes out of our mouths.  When we line our words up with God’s we take dominion.

Lastly we are ambassadors 2 Cor 5:20.  Ambassadors serve as representatives of their country. The primary thing about citizenship is rights & responsibilities.  The primary thing about family is relationship but the primary thing about ambassadors is language.  Words.

Ambassadors negotiate with other countries through their words.  When we come out of the kingdom of Darkness into the kingdom of Light most of us have to learn a new language; the language of the Kingdom of God. James 3 says the tongue is like a rudder steering a great ship, a flame of fire that can set entire forests alight, a world of wickedness ~ so much so that if we could control our tongues we would be perfect.

Part of that new language is learning new terms for things we may never have known before: walking in the spirit; walking by Faith; Prayer of intercession; Tongues…. But the far greater part of what we must learn is undoing old habits: grumbling becomes Do everything without complaining or arguing. Phil 2:14 Arrogance & boastfulness must become humility because the Lord resists the proud James 4:6. Gossip must cease; it is listed amongst the things that will keep us out of the Kingdom.  We learn to *pray always with every kind of prayer* 1 Thess 5:17 & to rejoice always 1 Thess 5:16

Proverbs 21:23

He who guards his mouth and his tongue, Guards his soul from troubles.

 Of the 6 things God hates, 3 are to do with our words.

Proverbs 6:16-19

There are six things which the LORD hates, Yes, seven which are an abomination to Him: Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, And hands that shed innocent blood, A heart that devises wicked plans, Feet that run rapidly to evil, A false witness who utters lies, And one who spreads strife among brothers.

We must be careful what we say because In the end…

 … by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned” (Matthew 12:36-37).