FourFifteen

Hebrews 11:3 " By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen  were not made of things which are visible ." Natural Substance vs. Spiritual Substance You and I were born into this natural world. We understand how things work here. We have a grasp on the natural laws and physics of how to operate in our natural environment. For example, we know that things don't just appear out of thin air - they must be  made from something . When we were born again, we literally entered a new world. Sure...we still live in the natural and operate in the natural. But with the supernatural recreation of our spirit, we became creatures that operate in  two realms;  the natural and the spiritual. Just like this natural world, the spiritual world has laws that govern it. If we want to be effective in the kingdom of God, we must dig into the Word of God and learn the laws of the spirit. As you do, you will begin to real...

Quick recap: We've already learned that faith is  believing what God said in His Word , no matter what we observe with our natural senses. We've also learned that faith is like a seed that grows stronger whenever we  hear the Word . God's Great and Precious Promises 2 Peter 1:2-4 " Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him Who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us  exceedingly great and precious promises,  that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. " The Bible  is full of promises for God's people. For every area of our lives - from our eternal salvation, to our physical health, to our financial prosperity - there are promises in the Word of God for us! Here is a  limited  list of exampl...

Luke 17:5 " And the apostles said to the Lord, 'Increase our faith.'" Have you ever prayed something like this? Have you ever asked God to give you more faith? After all, who wouldn't want stronger faith to trust God more? I think most Christians know someone who doesn't seem to have any problems believing God, no matter how things appear. When we see people like this, we tend to pray along these lines, "I want that much faith too!" The Measure of Faith But there is a problem with asking God for more faith... it's not Biblical ! God has already given each of us all the faith He will ever give us. Romans 12:3 tells us that " God has dealt to each one the measure of faith. " This means that God gives everyone the same amount  of faith. Every believer, from the weakest and most fearful, to the strongest who seem to always trust God - we have all been given the same measure of faith. When were we given this "measure" o...

Do you believe what the Bible says? If you are a Christian ( a “believer” ), then there is only one answer to this question: of course you believe! Why? Because the Bible is the word of the all-powerful, all-knowing, unchanging God . Hebrews 6:18 tells us that God cannot and will not lie. It is impossible for Him to do anything other than tell the truth. So then, the following statement is reasonable: If God will not lie , and if the Bible is His word to us...then everything in the Scriptures is true. Because of that, we must believe it! So let me ask you that question again...Do you believe what the Bible says? Really? What about this passage from 2 Corinthians 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. ” Do you believe this? Do you believe that ( according to Romans 4:6 ) every believer in Jesus has been made righteous ? But what about all the things you’ve done wrong? What about all those times...

Genesis 2:1-3 “ Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.” Just Stop! The Hebrew word for “rested” that we see in Genesis 2:2 is the word “ shabath”. While it is translated here as “rest”, it literally means “ to stop.” This is the word that is most often translated “Sabbath”. This is the word that has applied to every seventh day since the very beginning. Every seven-day work week has its pattern here, in the first two chapters of Genesis. Every other measurement of time has some kind of outside factor. Our years are governed by the earth’s revolution around the sun. Our months are governed by the cycles of the moon. Our days are governed by the rotation of the earth. But the seven-day week has...