Now!

Now

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. (Hebrews 11:1)

Now: at the present time, or moment, without further delay, immediately; at the time being referred to. In these times, nowadays. (Webster’s Dictionary)

We’ve been taught what faith is. We believe faith is believing in something we have not seen. Our perception of faith is sketchy at best, because everyone has their own unconscious definition of what faith actually is. However, today, I am going to concentrate on the first word of this scripture, now. If you have to have faith, and you plan to have faith, but you don’t have faith now, what good is it going to do you? For instance, if you believe (have faith) that there is unseen gasoline in the gas pump, but you never actually drive up and pump some of it into your vehicle, you are going to run out of gas.

The word now is as tricky as the word faith. It’s a tiny little word, and we usually skip right over it to see what follows . Our society, (world’s system) is based upon getting the job done now, acquiring the thing we want or need, now. For example the salesman tells us if we do not act now, the chance to buy will be gone. We take a pill to get better now. We are an impatient people, believing that we must get everything now, before we die. We are always running out of time. Insterestingly enough though, everything connected with the kingdom is placed somewhere in the future. We’ll clean up our act sometime soon. (preferrably not now) We’ll take the responsibility of fighting for this unseen God when we have been taught enough, but right now we don’t know how.

Last night I heard yet another teaching about how the people of God are in a battle. We are soldiers for Christ. Somehow we get the idea that if we are ever faced with having to defend our faith, hopefully we will be prepared to stand up and fight. But now, we must learn to become good soldiers. I suggest to you that you are in this battle right now. The battle for your soul is going on right now. And you are in the position of soldier, right now. If you are not prepared to defend the kingdom of God right now, what good are you?

If those brave men in our armed forces are not ready to fight at a split second’s notice, it could mean defeat and loss of the battle. They are not given the priviledge of learning for years and years, they are given basic training, armed, and placed on the battlefield. They face fear, death, and intolerable situations, and they are required to know what to do or they will perish. They must recognize the enemy and destroy him, before they are destroyed themselves.

Who is our enemy? The destroyer of our own soul. Most of the time, it is strongholds, (bunkers if you will) wrong beliefs, lesser gods such as ambition, greed, fear. If we never recognize the enemy, he is sure to destroy us. That is his only pupose, to kill, steal, and destroy. So when should you fight these thing? Now! What are you waiting for? We have an idea, that when we die, (and no one really ever looks forward to death) we will somehow be swooped up and taken to safety. Try doing that on the natural battlefield. Wait in the path of the enemy, and see if someone comes at the now moment, and swoops you to safety. This is a fantasy we all like, in the movies, everyone cheers when the cavalry comes riding in. However, how many lost their lives, when they were waiting for the cavalry to show up?

The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, they are mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. (2Corinthians 10:4) What are our weapons? How do we execute punishment on our enemy? Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a two edged sword in their hand, to execute vengeance upon the people, and punishments upon the people. To bind their kings with chains and their nobles with fetters of iron. (Psalm 149 6,7)

Our weapon to defend the kingdom of God, is our high praises, and our worship. You are in the army now! Your weapon must be ready now! Not when you are dead and in the ground, it is too late to fight then. Do it NOW!

Life Unlimited

Life Unlimited

He that has a bountiful eye shall be blessed, for he gives of his bread to the poor. Cast out the scorner, and contention will go out, yes, strife and reproach will cease. (Proverbs 22:9,10)

We hear it everywhere, “Think positively.” “Don’t let negative thinking stop you from enjoying your life.” “Name it and claim it!” Some preachers declare. So why do we live such limited lives? All of these statement have a measure of truth. We can’t go around thinking negative thoughts, speaking ill of others, spreading contention and expect life to be anything but mediocre at best, miserable at least. I believe the answer lies in the second verse here: “Get rid of the constant nagging of the skeptic, (possibly in your own mind) and reproach will cease”

That nagging has become a bad habit that we do not realize is sabotaging everything we know God is capable of bringing about in our lives.

For instance, I want to fulfill my destiny. One I believe is to help set captives free, particularly widows and orphans. Many of you know I am a hairdresser by profession, and I have a chance to speak to many people. Much of what we say is small talk. After making comments about the weather, we may begin to comment about the economy, or health issues, the price of gasoline. Most of the time, without even giving much thought to what I am saying, I may just automatically nod and agree with what is being said. Recently it was pointed out by my coworkers that I, in fact am agreeing to the perpetuation of these problems. I agree that it is impossible to live on this planet with enough of everything to go around. However, this is an out and out lie. We all know there are people who have more than enough to go around, and many people who share what they have with others. In essence, I am placing myself and the person I am agreeing with in the former category.

It has come to my attention, that the habitual repetition of these phrases has placed my in this very limited position. God did not say that, I did. God did say, “Give and it shall be given unto you, pressed down, shaken together, running over.” I, in turn say, “I sure wish somebody would give to me, pressed down, running over.” Or “I can’t afford to give much.” I guess I was just born to be broke.” These statements, though spoken lightly, go out with the same power as any other powerful word, and they become a belief, and finally a circumstance in my life.

Even though we may know the word of God, and we believe it to be truth, speaking counter to that word, brings about limits to our life. It really never occurred to me that these little small talk statements could bring about these negative situations.

How do we eliminate this “scorner” from our lives? How do we cast him out of our beliefs? God tells us we must eliminate him or it if we want the reproach to cease. If we consider these statements as prayers, that are spoken in the presence of God, we would probably think more carefully about them. Thus the statement made in the first verse here: “He that has a bountiful eye, shall be blessed” We needn’t agree with the speaker of these doom and gloom prophesies. Wouldn’t you rather bless them instead? By countering these negative statements with what we know to be true of our God, we are not only blessing them, but we are praising our God in the process.

We all want to live a limitless life. No one I know would rather stay mediocre on purpose, but these nagging thoughts and mindless conversations may be much more powerful than we knew. They in fact, may be bringing about the very reproach we wish to eliminate from our lives. It’s difficult to know where we have spoken mindlessly and with careless words that speak against God. However, casting them out may be the very answer we seek to living limitless.

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