Spiritual Awakening

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Just over 4 years ago my Spiritual eyes were opened to a truth that may seem extremely obvious but it’s a truth that many believers never fully grasped.

I was awakened to the reality that
the Bible really is God’s word, His word really is truth, and His word means exactly what it says.
I became very aware of the fact that God’s word is the only absolute truth that we can be sure of and that I should base my life on the truth of His word.

As a result of this revelation of truth, I started feeding on the word like never before; and as I began taking everything that I read literally, the same Bible that I’d heard people talk about my entire life (but could never personally identify with) started coming alive to me…and my soul (which was dying of starvation) came alive like never before.

My personal awakening to God’s word also opened me up to some vital truths that have been pivotal to my spiritual growth; I was awakened to the almost too good to be true gospel and to the reality of God’s unconditional love and grace. My encounter with the one true, living God (Yahweh) and awakening to His word have changed my life forever. Because of this, I have a burning desire to see this Generation have their own personal, life changing encounter with God and awakening to His word – Generation Ministries was birthed from this desire…and that’s where you come into this story.

Think about what you’re doing right now; the web page or blog that you’re on and the story that you’re reading. Now consider your life – I’m sure that many of you can identify with my story.

Maybe you know exactly what it’s like to attend church, and try to live a good moral life, yet wonder why you still lie in bed sometimes telling yourself that there must be more to life than what you’re experiencing…and wondering why you can’t seem to find real happiness, real peace…real love

. If you can’t identify with this then I can almost guarantee that you know someone who can. Now consider that what you are doing at this very moment is not a chance occurance…we truly believe that everyone who is reading this was led to us by the Holy Spirit for a specific purpose.

We consider it a privilege to share the truth of God’s word and His life-changing love and grace with you. Our prayer is that you’ll stick around and get connected with us as we open up the Bible and present truth in a way that you’ve probably never seen it presented. God delivered me from mechanical, performance based religion and now I walk in peace, love and real freedom…I know that He’ll do the same for you if you allow Him to.

Blessings

Allen

Welcome

X

Just over 4 years ago my Spiritual eyes were opened to a truth that may seem extremely obvious but it’s a truth that many believers never fully grasped.

I was awakened to the reality that
the Bible really is God’s word, His word really is truth, and His word means exactly what it says.
I became very aware of the fact that God’s word is the only absolute truth that we can be sure of and that I should base my life on the truth of His word.

As a result of this revelation of truth, I started feeding on the word like never before; and as I began taking everything that I read literally, the same Bible that I’d heard people talk about my entire life (but could never personally identify with) started coming alive to me…and my soul (which was dying of starvation) came alive like never before.

My personal awakening to God’s word also opened me up to some vital truths that have been pivotal to my spiritual growth; I was awakened to the almost too good to be true gospel and to the reality of God’s unconditional love and grace. My encounter with the one true, living God (Yahweh) and awakening to His word have changed my life forever. Because of this, I have a burning desire to see this Generation have their own personal, life changing encounter with God and awakening to His word – Generation Ministries was birthed from this desire…and that’s where you come into this story.

Think about what you’re doing right now; the web page or blog that you’re on and the story that you’re reading. Now consider your life – I’m sure that many of you can identify with my story.

Maybe you know exactly what it’s like to attend church, and try to live a good moral life, yet wonder why you still lie in bed sometimes telling yourself that there must be more to life than what you’re experiencing…and wondering why you can’t seem to find real happiness, real peace…real love

. If you can’t identify with this then I can almost guarantee that you know someone who can. Now consider that what you are doing at this very moment is not a chance occurance…we truly believe that everyone who is reading this was led to us by the Holy Spirit for a specific purpose.

We consider it a privilege to share the truth of God’s word and His life-changing love and grace with you. Our prayer is that you’ll stick around and get connected with us as we open up the Bible and present truth in a way that you’ve probably never seen it presented. God delivered me from mechanical, performance based religion and now I walk in peace, love and real freedom…I know that He’ll do the same for you if you allow Him to.

Blessings

Allen

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The purpose of the Law

Today during our Bible study we were studying Galatians chapter 3. Because of the discussion I realized that there is some confusion about the purpose of the law being given. So I’m writing this teaching to help clarify this issue. Please understand that this is a deep reaching Biblical issue and a core doctrine of Christianity. So don’t take this as a complete account of the purpose of the Law but rather a synopsis.

The Law was given for two main purposes. First, the fear of God’s punishment constrained sin in people’s lives, thereby diminishing Satan’s inroads. In other words; If you think that God is going to punish you for breaking the law then you will naturally try to sin less; and by sinning less, you will spare yourself some of the effects of sin in your life.

2 Corinthians 10:12,
“But they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise.”

I realize that this is a New Testament Scripture, but this has always been the case. Mankind had compared themselves with each other so often and for so long that no one knew what God originally intended. In other words; if one person gets by with sin, others will take that as an approval of sin. God’s withholding of punishment for sin had led to a total loss of a true standard of right and wrong. That wasn’t the way God really wanted it to be, but sin had to be restrained until Jesus came on the scene…something had to be done. So before a person could be born again (when God lives in us and guides us through the indwelling of His Holy Spirit), He placed restraints on sin that even lost people could understand. “You sin and you die.” That’s the way it was.

Sin was destroying the human race and needed to be restrained. Therefore, God gave the Law. But why didn’t He give the Law to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden 2,000 years earlier and prevent these problems? It’s because the Law had serious side effects of condemnation and guilt. God didn’t want us running from Him out of fear but to Him because of love and grace…So He withheld the law (that we couldn’t keep) as long as He could because of love.

The second purpose of the Law was that it totally took away all hope of being saved by anything that we could possibly do. The Law made everyone guilty before God with no hope of justice. In other words; the Law made us realize that we really don’t want Justice….we needed mercy.

When Israel was given the Law (through Moses) and the responsibility that goes along with it, they tried and tried and did everything they could to prove that they could keep it. When the Law was first given they said, “Oh, yes, we can keep it,” but they failed. In fact, from the very moment that Moses came down from the mountain, they were worshiping a golden calf, even though one of the first commandments of the Law was, “You shall have no other gods before me. Molten images or graven images, you shall not make them.” Time after time they failed and failed. Why? Because the entire obligation to keep it was on them and without a Born Again Spirit (Christ like nature) they had no hope of ever keeping it. God gave them a holy commandment that they couldn’t keep and every time they tried to keep it, they kept exposing their problem (their nature). They looked to the Law as an answer but all it did was to make their problem worse. But God knew that they could never keep it…That was its purpose – to show them that they were sinners who desperately needed a savior.

When Moses’ Law came along, it was begging for someone to fulfill it. Since the mediator (Moses) was a man, a man had to fulfill it….and to make a long story short – one day Jesus came along and fulfilled it. Jesus said, in Matthew 5: 17, “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.” And when Jesus hung on the cross and said, “It is finished”, He meant it! He had fulfilled the Law.

So we can see that the Law was never God’s plan for salvation. It was God showing us that we could never measure up to His holy standard. It was given to drive us from self-righteousness and toward receiving the sacrifice of Jesus by faith.

Amazingly, a large portion of  the church has interpreted it in the opposite way. Many Christians think the Law is wonderful, that God expects us to keep it, and that His response to us is based on how well we keep it. That’s just not true! I could go on about this for a while but for the sake of brevity I’m just going to say that line of thinking is absolutely wrong and extremely detrimental to your relationship with God.

So, those were the two main purposes of the Law. It was not God’s list of steps one through ten thousand of what he expects us to do to be in right standing with Him. It was God’s list of all you have done wrong, proving that you can never be right with God unless He provides another form of payment. It was not to set you free. It was an extreme eye opener for the whole human race to turn us from sin and self-salvation and to turn us to Jesus.

Blessings

Allen

Experiencing God’s love

In my last post I talked about how we can manifest all of the fruits of the Spirit simply by walking in THE fruit if the Spirit – love. I’ve received a great deal of positive feedback from that post and much of it is centered on the question of how; meaning how do we walk in God’s love? In order to understand how we walk in God’s love, we must learn (like I said before) to see God properly. In light of this, the core of our next few teachings are going to be about understanding God and His love, according to His Word.

I truly believe that the very first thing that we MUST comprehend (to see God correctly), is the simple fact that God is a good God! He isn’t mad at us. He not only loves us, He likes us! He will never leave us nor forsake us, no matter how badly we miss it. His mercies are new every morning! Our sin does not affect His opinion of us nor cause Him to withhold His blessing!

Those are some awesome statements! Just think about the typical Christian teaching concerning God today. Usually, God is represented as stern, angry, and ready to get us for the slightest mistake. Or at least He certainly won’t answer our prayers if we sin. That’s wrong, and it leads to wrong conclusions and attitudes toward God that hinder an intimate relationship with Him.

Ephesians 3:19 – ” to know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”

I believe that knowing God’s love experientially will drastically change anyone’s life. What I mean is that experiencing God’s love always surpasses mere head knowledge, and it always results in us being filled with all the fullness of God. I could also say it this way; If you aren’t experiencing all the fullness of God, then you aren’t experiencing God’s love.

Some people would argue with that. They would say that they know God loves them but that they are just under some bad circumstances at the moment. My answer would be, “What are you doing under there?” God’s Word tells us we are to be above only and not beneath – Deuteronomy 28:13. When we are truly walking in and enjoying God’s love, everything else pales in comparison. No problem can measure up to to the unsearchable riches of God’s love.

There is more than just having an external knowledge that God loves us. In Ephesians, chapter 3, Paul prayed that we would get a greater revelation of God’s love for us; “For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height – to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” – Ephesians 3: 14-19.

Notice in verse 18 that God’s love isn’t just one-dimensional. There is width, length, depth and height to it. Many Christians only see God’s love in one-dimension. They’ve never seen the multi-dimensional reality of God’s love.

In verse 19, Paul said as we experience God’s love, which is superior to mere knowledge of God’s love, then we would be filled with all the fullness of God….Praise God! What an awesome statement! Are you lacking fullness in any area of your life? If so, then you’re probably not experiencing God’s love. Experiencing God’s love is being filled with the fullness of God.

I’ve said all of this to say that a real, experiential revelation of God’s love for us is the most important thing we can receive. 1 Corinthians 13:13 says; “And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” Most Christians have a head knowledge of God’s love for them, but because of wrong thinking, it seldom translates into experience. There are things (primarily religious teachings) that dilute and weaken that revelation of God’s love.

Because of this wrong thinking (based on wrong teaching), we are going to focus our next few teachings on seeing God properly, in light of His incredible love for us. We’re going to learn some truths from God’s Word and (prayerfully) change some thinking regarding  things such as;

The sovereignty of God - Wrong thinking about God’s sovereignty is one of the biggest problems people have in experiencing God’s love. If you believe God is the One who is causing all the problems in the world, it will definitely affect your relationship with Him.

We’re also going to talk about God’s unconditional love – How can a holy God love unholy people? Nearly all of religion links God’s love and acceptance of people to their worthiness. In other words, God’s love is proportional to their performance.

Now be forewarned; if you’re comfortable where you are and you don’t want to walk in the freedom of God’s love, then you may not want to hear what we’re going to discuss…but if you’re sick and tired of being sick and tired, and you’re ready to walk in some real freedom and real victory then you’re going to want to stay tuned because it’s about to get very interesting.

Blessings

Allen

The fruit of the Spirit is love

I was reading Galatians chapter 5 today. Most people know this chapter as where we find the fruits of the Spirit: …the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law – Galatians 5:22-23.

As born again Christians, we all desire to display the fruits of the Spirit in our lives. But do you ever find yourself wondering how to do this? I’ve often wondered this myself and if you know me then you’ll know that this is the time when I usually talk about living a life of faith in His Word apart from feelings. In other words trusting the truth of His Word (no matter what we may feel) and by doing this your mind begins to line up with His word, causing your born again Spirit to outwardly manifest in your life. While this is always true, I want to point out something that Holy Spirit showed me today.

Notice Galatians 5:14 – For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself”. Now consider that Paul made a point (after listing the fruits of the Spirit) to tell us that there is no law against this. This is important because he has just told us how to fulfill the law in the verse that I mentioned (Galatians 5:14). So basically, He tells us how to fulfill the law in verse 14 and then shows us what we will look like when the law is fulfilled in us (verses 22-23).

This may seem deep but stay with me; actually, it is very simple, yet so profound. God is telling us that there is really only one fruit of the Spirit, love. Every manifestation of the characteristics of a Spirit led life is nothing more than a manifestation of love! Not just any love, but divine love, the love of God, the same love that is present in us from the moment we are born again. The best example I can use of a fruit is the orange. Think of an orange; when opened up, it has many sections. Each piece is a section of one orange. Joy is one section of the fruit of love. Peace is another section of the fruit of love. What I am trying to say is this: Stop trying to walk in joy, peace or patience etc… If we walk in love, we will be joyful, peaceful and patient. After all, God is love (1 John 4:8) and we know that God has no trouble being full of joy, peace and patience. As it says in 1 Corinthians 13, love is patient, love is kind, etc.

Romans 5:5 – The love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. When you focus on, and submit yourself to His love (remembering that the love of God is poured out in your heart by the Holy Spirit) you will begin to manifest every section of the fruit of the Spirit without trying.

Blessings

Allen

Do you want blessings or a miracle?

It’s true that we serve a God of miracles. But the Lord’s preference is not to meet your needs through a miracle.

I know this may come as a total shock to you but before you think I’ve lost all my faith, hear me out. I define a miracle as the suspension or superseding of natural laws, and personally, I’ve received many. There is no doubt in my mind that the Lord performs miracles and uses them like a bell to draw people unto Himself. But let me ask you, would you rather receive a miracle of healing or live with the blessing of good health? Would you rather have the Lord perform a miracle to pull you out of bankruptcy or be so blessed financially that He wouldn’t have to? Of course the answer to both of those questions is obvious.

It’s always better to avoid problems, which is the result of living in blessing, than it is to be delivered out of them, which requires a miracle. Blessings prevent crises, while miracles deliver from crises; therefore, if you’re living from miracle to miracle, it probably means you’re living from crisis to crisis.

God’s original intent for His creation was to function under His blessing. If sin hadn’t corrupted God’s creation, there would be no need for miracles. Everyone would be healthy, everyone would be prosperous, and strife (the cause of broken relationships and wars) wouldn’t even exist. Unfortunately, sin did corrupt God’s creation and because of that, there is corruption in the earth. However, through Jesus we not only have forgiveness of our sins, but we are also redeemed from the curse that comes from sin and through Him we have the opportunity to walk in His blessings.

Galatians 3:13 – Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”.

If we will believe that we are blessed and act accordingly, we can avoid many of the problems that make us reliant upon miracles.

For example; The Lord told us to work so that He would bless the work of our hands and that if we would give, it would be given unto us.

Deuteronomy 28:12 – The Lord will open to you His good treasure, the heavens, to give the rain to your land in its season, and to bless all the work of your hand. You shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow.

Luke 6:38 – Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you

If we aren’t receiving the blessings that are promised in these scriptures, it doesn’t mean that God is mad at us. It means that unbelief and/or disobedience is stopping the blessing He has spoken from coming to pass in our lives. If we don’t obey Him in these commands, it’s either because of ignorance or because we don’t fully trust His promises. Some believers pray for financial miracles but aren’t practicing the principle of giving and they will not work. They aren’t obeying God’s Word in faith, so they can’t receive the blessing God has spoken over them. They know God loves them, so they’re counting on and believing for a miracle; and honestly (because they’re not walking in the blessing that is available) a miracle is what they need. Lack of faith in God’s blessing causes us to enter into crisis, and right before disaster, if we continue steadfast in our belief for a miracle, we receive just enough to get us over the hump. Then next month we need another miracle…..believe me, I know this drill from experience.

Because miracles are “unnatural,” they are never permanent. The Lord created laws that govern the operation of His creation. He sometimes, temporarily, supersedes them, but always returns the situation back to the natural operation of those laws. For instance, if we abuse our bodies, we can receive a miracle of healing. But if the root of the problem isn’t dealt with, the sickness or infirmity will return, and we’ll need another miracle. But when we believe God’s Word and follow its instructions, it will teach us how to eat, exercise, and enjoy emotional health that works like a medicine (Prov. 17:22). God would rather keep you healthy through His blessing than to heal you by a miracle.

So, what is the blessing of God, and how do we receive it? To begin with, the blessing of God isn’t things. The blessing of God will produce things, but the blessing isn’t things. The blessing of God is His divine spoken favor. 2 Corinthians 1:20 tells us that “all of the promises of God in Him are yes and in Him amen”; in other words, if we believe that His promises are true and act accordingly, it will happen! And that blessing, if mixed with faith and obedience, will produce abundance in spirit, soul, and body.

The good news is, you are already blessed. The bad news is, most don’t know the power of that blessing. They would rather have a miracle. If you can make the adjustment from a miracle mentality to a blessed mentality, you will begin to prosper as never before. If you receive this teaching in your heart, you will come to a place where you will pray, “Father, help me to never need a miracle from You again. I want to live in the blessing!”

It’s true that we serve a God of miracles. But the Lord’s preference is not to meet your needs through a miracle.

God Bless.

Allen

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Do you have spiritual dyslexia?

Many of us think that we really understand the love of God, but our lives prove otherwise. We feel lonely, depressed, discouraged, and defeated. Every one of these negative emotions would be turned to positive by a proper revelation of God’s love for us. When we struggle to believe that God’s promises to us will come to pass, that’s unbelief; but the root of that unbelief is a lack of love. Galatians 5:6 tells us that faith works by love. That means love is the driving force behind our faith. If you really don’t understand love or diminish it’s importance, then faith ceases to be what it should be. Many of us try hard to believe when really we should be seeking a greater revelation of God’s love for us….then, faith would just naturally work.

You may be in what seems to be a desperate situation. Right now I know that many people are hurting financially, and because of that your faith could be starting to waiver. Maybe you’re fighting with all that you have and you’re really trying to believe that God is going to supply all of your needs; but your circumstances are really screaming unbelief at you. Believe me, I understand. I have been there and have the T-shirt. But what I have found is that whenever I find unbelief starting to creep in it’s usually because I have let my circumstances blind me to God’s love. This lack of understanding is the very thing that was keeping my faith from working.

Look at Luke 12:32 “Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom”. Our Father gets no pleasure from watching us struggle. Actually it’s just the opposite; he gets pleasure from giving us the Kingdom! Also Psalms 35:27 tells us that He takes pleasure in our prosperity! I almost hesitate to write this because some people have such a skewed view of what prosperity really is but just know that God wants and takes pleasure in our needs being met. I pray that as you read these scriptures and soak on them that a revelation of God’s love comes flooding over you and swallows up any unbelief that you may have. See not understanding our Father’s love can really affect your faith and actually hinder a blessing that He wants to give you. I praise God right now knowing that there are people who are reading this who are starting to open up to His love, having their faith revived and receiving their blessing!

Understand that there are many ways that Satan uses to try to block the revelation of God’s love for us. One of the most subtle, and therefore the most deadly, ways is that he has deceived us into thinking that God’s love for us is tied to our performance. We think we have to do something to earn God’s love.  That is not what the Bible teaches. In the natural world you pretty much get what you deserve. People do things for you based on what you do for them. Basically you have to perform. If you perform badly, then you will get bad results. But the awesome news is that when it comes to God’s love for us, we don’t get what we deserve. Thank you Father!

God’s love for us is unconditional. That means, God doesn’t love us because of something that we do or don’t do. He loves us because “God is love” (1 John 4:8), not because we are worthy of love. Think about that for a moment; God is love. This doesn’t say that God loves, or that God is loving (even though He is). It says that He IS love; that means that if you have a relationship with God then you have a relationship with love, because that’s just who He is!

Religion is one of the biggest propagators of the conditional-love-of-God lie. Many people teach that God’s love for us is conditional, based on our performance. In other words; if we are good boys and girls who always do the right thing, then the Lord loves us and answers our prayers; but if we fail, then the Lord won’t answer our prayers. That’s just not true.

There is a disease that I call “spiritual dyslexia.” Dyslexia is where a person sees things backwards. A dyslexic person sees the word “god” as “dog”. There’s a huge difference between God and a dog; yet spiritual dyslexics don’t see it. Spiritual dyslexia has a similar effect on people. Those infected with it see scriptures backwards. For instance, 1 John 2:3-5 says, ” now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says, “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him.

A spiritual dyslexic sees these verses and says, “If want to know God, then I must keep His commandments”, Or “Keeping His commandments is how I know God”. Actually these verses are saying just the opposite. Keeping God’s commandments is a RESULT of knowing God. You can keep His commandments and live a holy life without knowing God; the Pharisees proved that. However, you can’t know God without living a holy life as a result. When we truly know God and get a revelation of His love is for us, keeping His Word will be the natural result. Any attempt to reverse this order is “getting the cart before the horse.” It won’t work; and yet this is what the majority of Christians are trying to do. They are seeking to know Him better by living a holier life. It’s just the opposite. Experiencing God’s love more will produce a holy life.

This is a powerful Truth and not understanding this has caused many to tie God’s love for them to their performance. When they do well, they let God’s love for them flow. When they do poorly, they condemn themselves. They think God is condemning them, but He’s not. In many cases, it’s not even the devil condemning them. Satan has caused them to believe a lie, and they are condemning themselves.

Allen

The reality of Faith

There was a time in my Christian walk that I lived in a serious state of unbelief. You may find this hard to believe but I actually took pride in my unbelief by proclaiming myself to be a “realist”. I believed that it was somehow intellectual to believe in what I could see over what I couldn’t see……without going into a long story let me just tell you that over the last 4-5 years God has changed my view of what reality is. Now I can proudly tell you that I am still a realist; but unlike before I have found that there is a greater reality than what we can perceive with our 5 senses. Maybe some of you are walking in the same unbelief that I was in and don’t even realize it. If so, then I humbly ask that you will be open for a few minutes and allow God reveal the Truth of His Word to you.

Many people believe that faith is acting like something is reality when it really isn’t a reality; and if we believe that it is a reality long enough then it will actually become a reality. But that’s not what faith is.  Faith is believing in a reality that is greater than what you perceive on the physical level.  Hebrews 11:1 says that “faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen”.  This tells us that faith is substance. Substance is something that is real . So we learn from this verse that faith is real. It is the evidence of things not seen. Evidence means proof. So the proof of faith is in something that is invisible in the physical realm.  Notice it didn’t say that the proof of faith is in something that doesn’t exist. The evidence does exist, it just can’t be seen with physical eyes. We live in a culture that is shaped by what is picked up through the physical senses.  We’re trained to believe only in what we see and to trust our feelings (or instincts). But God tells us to believe in and trust something that is invisible. It’s easy to see how these two realms contradict each other.

Understand that the Spiritual (unseen) realm is always greater and more real than the physical (perceived by sight or feelings) realm. So when Paul tells us in 2 Cor 5:7 that “we walk by faith and not by sight”; he is reminding us that even though we live in physical bodies that have the tendency to be swayed by our physical senses, we must determine to only be swayed by the reality of the Spiritual (invisible) realm.  Also in Gal 3:11 he tells us that “the just will live by faith”. Notice that he says “live by faith”; that’s a strong word. Many of us take a one day getaway (usually on Sunday) in faith; or the really spiritual ones will take a weeks vacation there. But Paul told us that we should LIVE by faith! That means 24 hours a day 7 days a week staying in the invisible realm.

Living by faith is not living in denial of the physical realm. If the doctor tells you that you have the flu, it’s silly to pretend that you’re not physically sick. That’s not faith. The reality of faith is that even though you may be physically sick; His Word says that by His stripes you are healed.  So I can acknowledge the existence of sickness in my Physical body but realize the greater reality is that I was healed 2,000 years ago! Unbelief is nothing more than putting your faith in something other than God. It’s up to you to either put your faith in what you can see or in what God has promised.  Is this the way that you live? I know that it’s not normal…but do you want to be normal? Do you want to get normal results?  Living by faith is a great way to live and it should be the normal Christian life.

Allen

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Will you always feel God?

This is an audio teaching on Faith. More specifically walking by faith and not by sight (2 Cor 5:7). Those of you who know me know that I usually don’t  preach or teach down to people. I like to throw big hunks of meat out there and let you chew on it for a while…..Well….get your fork and knife out because this word is meat!

And yes….one of these days I’m going to remember to turn my phone off while I’m recording LOL!

Audio teaching – Faith

Reaction to error usually produces error

Many Christians, fearing excess or imbalance, have ironically embraced unbelief.  We must realize that reaction to error usually produces error, and that response to Truth always wins out over reaction to error. It seems to me that some people would have a very small belief system if it were not for the error or excesses of others. Most of their thoughts and teachings are nothing more than the direct opposite of what others believe and practice. If you were to point out the fact that they are actually reacting out of fear and unbelief rather than faith in God; you would be met with the battle cry of the modern day, crowd-pleasing, sin-petting,  anemic church “you’ve got to have balance”.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m all for balance when it’s in proper context, such as: having a well balanced diet or maintaining a good balance between work, hobbies and family time. However, the idea that you must have balance in your relationship with God, or in your Kingdom assignment is not a biblical thought pattern. Many of you reading this are probably in a bit of a shock right now and that is just a testament to the prevalence of this un-biblical thought pattern that has been made popular over the last 10-15 years with the arrival of the seeker sensitive, mega-churches. I call this desire for balance un-biblical because that’s exactly what it is. The word balance has come to mean “middle of the road”; of no threat to anyone (especially the devil), unwilling to take a risk, and above all unoffensive (the best way to keep your image intact). As a result those who strive for balance have instead become powerless.

The modern church will go to great lengths to warn it’s members not to be presumptuous (in other words don’t assume that you know God’s will); when Jesus warned His disciples about unbelief (and rebuked them for it). Jesus didn’t ask “when I return will I find people who are over-zealous and presumptuous?”; He instead asked “when I return will I really find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8).

Those with real faith blaze a trail that threatens all of our comfort zones, because real faith offends the comfortable. People of great faith may be hard to live with because their reasoning is oftentimes…..well….unreasonable. Sometimes they make other people feel uncomfortable. We tend to either become like them, openly oppose them or avoid them altogether. We find their lifestyle either contagious or offensive with little neutral ground.

There is also something amazing about unbelief; it is always able to fulfill it’s expectations. Unbelief is safe because it takes no risks and almost always gets what it expects-nothing. Then after a person gets the expected answer, unbelief says “I told you so”.

Allen