Faith & Prayer.........

Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Matthew 28:18

He called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out evil spirits and to heal every disease and sickness. (Mat.10:1, 5:23-24).

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Why don't we pray anymore? Christians don't believe in the power of prayers and fasting anymore. When someone we love gets sick, whether it is the common cold, diabetes, or cancer, I want you to know that it did not come from God. We are too quick to accept affliction and diseases as the will of God. Scripture tells us that the will of God is for His people to be well and to live long prosperous lives and to help win souls for His Kingdoms. It would be impossible to accomplish that from the grave. In fact, most wonders of the devil in the gospels are to produce all kind of sicknesses and diseases. Jesus gave us the power to heal the sick and to cast out demons. The demon-possessed boy was healed by the faith and prayer of the father. The best thing we can give to our relatives is our faith and prayer, to our spouse, children, and grand-children, and even our neighbors. We don't have to run to anyone, you can pray for your family. Some people never even try. Jesus says "Everything is possible to those who believe" Mark 9:23, and then He says: if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you." (Mt.17:20).

"Faith in Christ" is the most powerful force of the universe, able to heal the body, to stop storms, to move the mountains of hatred and doubts, and most specially to fill us with love, with Jesus in our hearts, the seed of the love, joy, peace, and security that nothing or nobody can take away (Rom.8:37-39). Faith in Christ" is something very simple and yet powerful, when we trust God, amazing things happen:The father of the boy above believed and Jesus healed his son, by the faith of the father. The woman in Mark 5 believed Jesus could heal her if she just could touch him she touch him, and she was healed, she stopped the bleeding she had for 12 years.
Jairus, in the same chapter, thought Jesus could resurrect his daughter, and Jesus resurrected her! Glory to God!

The Syrophoenician Woman in Mark 7:25-30/Matthew 15:21-28 believed Jesus could heal the epilepsy of her daughter and the daughter was healed, by the faith of the mother.
And the same goes on and on with the leper, the blind Bartimaeus, another pagan and again another miracle. Nowadays for you and me to have "faith in Christ" is the same. God is no respecter of man, what he did before, He has the ability and the will to do again.

Are you facing a difficult season right now? Release your disappointments, your heartbreaks, your hurt, your pain, your failure, your bills, your lack, your loneliness and all other burdens to God in prayers. Trust Him to take care of your needs and He will. God is able and willing, and all He needs is "your" faith. Only in one occasion in all Gospels Jesus "could not" make miracles, and it was in His own town of Nazareth, (Mark 6:5). Not even Jesus "could" make miracles when there was no faith! It is faith that allows God to work miracles in your life.

Would you put your faith to work today?

Praise the Lord!

Psalm 44

We have heard it with our ears, O God;
    our ancestors have told us
what you did in their days,
    in days long ago.
2 With your hand you drove out the nations
    and planted our ancestors;
you crushed the peoples
    and made our ancestors flourish.
3 It was not by their sword that they won the land,
    nor did their arm bring them victory;
it was your right hand, your arm,
    and the light of your face, for you loved them.

4 You are my King and my God,
    who decrees[c] victories for Jacob.
5 Through you we push back our enemies;
    through your name we trample our foes.
6 I put no trust in my bow,
    my sword does not bring me victory;
7 but you give us victory over our enemies,
    you put our adversaries to shame.
8 In God we make our boast all day long,
    and we will praise your name forever.[d]

9 But now you have rejected and humbled us;
    you no longer go out with our armies.
10 You made us retreat before the enemy,
    and our adversaries have plundered us.
11 You gave us up to be devoured like sheep
    and have scattered us among the nations.
12 You sold your people for a pittance,
    gaining nothing from their sale.

13 You have made us a reproach to our neighbors,
    the scorn and derision of those around us.
14 You have made us a byword among the nations;
    the peoples shake their heads at us.
15 I live in disgrace all day long,
    and my face is covered with shame
16 at the taunts of those who reproach and revile me,
    because of the enemy, who is bent on revenge.

17 All this came upon us,
    though we had not forgotten you;
    we had not been false to your covenant.
18 Our hearts had not turned back;
    our feet had not strayed from your path.
19 But you crushed us and made us a haunt for jackals;
    you covered us over with deep darkness.

20 If we had forgotten the name of our God
    or spread out our hands to a foreign god,
21 would not God have discovered it,
    since he knows the secrets of the heart?
22 Yet for your sake we face death all day long;
    we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.

23 Awake, Lord! Why do you sleep?
    Rouse yourself! Do not reject us forever.
24 Why do you hide your face
    and forget our misery and oppression?

25 We are brought down to the dust;
    our bodies cling to the ground.
26 Rise up and help us;
    rescue us because of your unfailing love.

Change!

Strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. (Matthew 6:33)

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Striving for the kingdom of God means to always stand for what’s right, but it is a difficult thing to accomplish; it takes determination, because when you are in the process of changing, the opposition is going to come from unlikely places. Your family and friends may turn their backs on you. People fear the unknown and the person you’re becoming is unknown, a stranger to them and they will be afraid and they may even call you a few names such as weirdo, goody two show, and extremist, just to name a few. The truth is you will also be puzzled by the transformation. You will lose interest in certain familiar things because you are “under construction”. The old you will start dying in order to make room for the new anointed you. It can be a very lonely place to be but I am urging to keep on and move forward by continuing to follow God. It may be confusing now but it’s going to make sense soon. You are going to find out that you are indeed an extremist: extremely blessed, extremely prosperous, extremely smart, extremely excited and extremely changed and anointed child of God.

When you are saved, turn your life over to Christ (born again), the Holy Spirit begins to work within you and brings the best out of you. Your perspective on life changes because you will learn to walk by faith and not by sight. It will not matter what the situations of life is, you will learn to trust the word of God and you will always have peace in the midst of great challenges. It is an exciting transformation and the people who are close to you may become intimidated because as you spend more time reading the word of God and growing spiritually, you end up spending less time with your family and friends and it’s going to take some getting used to. You have to find a way to communicate to love ones what’s happening to you and hopefully they will understand, but if they chose to forsake you or ridicule you, don’t panic. God has a way of accepting those who are forsaken and He certainly bless those who put Him first. When you give God’s word your full attention you will find true happiness and fulfillment you never thought possible and you can be assure that you will never face another lonely day in your life because the Holy Spirit will always be with you. Friend, embrace who you are becoming in Christ Jesus. Enjoy the person God created you to be, and savor the transformation, don’t resist it. Find balance in the word and be blessed.

Praise the Lord!

Focus On God

For our present trouble, which is only for a short time, is working out for us a much greater weight of glory; (2 Corinthians 4:17)

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Matthew 9:28-29 tells the story about how Jesus asked these blind men, "'Do you believe that I am able to do this?'" What did they say? "'Yes, Lord.' Then he touched their eyes and said, 'According to your faith will it be done to you,' and their sight was restored.'" The Bible is full of God's promises, but unlike the promises that we make, God's promises are true and he fulfills every one. Abraham believed God's promise that he would be the father of many nations. He did not waver through unbelief but was made strong as he believed in the promise of God, because he knew the one who promised it was able to perform it. You have to rest assured that God is still able to perform miracles. He is able to hear and answer your prayers. God gives us grace every time we pray. God is able to answer your prayer, and if you are born of God, He will most certainly answer it. Contrary to popular belief, God does not only answer prayers about our great needs. He gets involved in our minor troubles as well. He is a loving and concerned father. He cares about everything about us. You can trust Him and go to Him with all your complications.

Jesus Himself lived like that, in daily unhindered communion with the Father, He went to Him all the time so that He could say to His Father and our Father, "I knew that you hear me always" (John 11:42). And all the teaching of Jesus about prayer shows that we too can have communion with God. Friend, the normal Christian life is a life of regular, daily answer to prayer. It is perfectly normal for an obedient child to ask God for things in prayers and get it, get all he wants. "If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?" (Matt. 7:11). Trust God, He will not fail you. Dare to be a Daniel. Read your Bible for the better you know God, the easier you'll find it to trust and obey Him. And the more you'll sense how deeply God cherishes you, and how desperately He wants to answer your prayers. So learn more about God each day. Grow closer to the glorious God who treasures you beyond your wildest dreams. You can trust Him.

Focus on God. Focus on His love. Focus on His plan for your life. Focus on Him and be blessed!