Dear Partners and Friends,
I recently heard a minister talking about his early years as a pastor. He spoke of the different meetings they had to help people get victory. Although people came up for prayer, cried, shouted, and danced, they came back to church the next week with the same problems. He began to pray and ask the Lord for answers. “Why aren’t the people experiencing any change in their lives?”
The answer the Lord gave him was this: “Prayer cannot do what the Word was designed to accomplish.” This minister began to teach and deposit the Word of God into their lives. The change, the victory, and the breakthroughs they needed came as the Word became established in their heart.
In this fast-paced society we live in, you can drive through and get your food in moments. You can order something online that is located hundreds of miles away and have delivered overnight. You can make instant pudding and pour ready-made cheesecake batter out of a plastic tub. Hot pizza can be delivered to your door. Most everything you may want is readily accessible.
In the process of faith, we can’t bypass the process of God’s Word sown as a seed into the heart and the patience required as the seed grows to produce in our lives. We can’t overlook the hearing and doing of the Word of God. We can’t obtain a full measure of faith in one hearing. There is no drive-thru where you can order a heart abundantly supplied with the Word. There is no delivery service that can establish your heart or provide you with a marriage made in heaven.
Jesus taught us that the only way to build a steady, stable, overcoming life is to become a hearer and doer of His Word. He described is as “digging deep” and “laying the foundation on a rock.”
For everyone who comes to Me and listens to My words [in order to heed their teaching] and does them, I will show you what he is like: He is like a man building a house, who dug and went down deep and laid a foundation upon the rock; and when a flood arose, the torrent broke against that house and could not shake or move it, because it had been securely built or [a]founded on a rock. But he who merely hears and does not practice doing My words is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation, against which the torrent burst, and immediately it collapsed and fell, and the breaking and ruin of that house was great.
Luke 6:47-49 AMP
Take note of this! The storm could no shake or move the house founded on the rock. It tried and failed. Because this house was securely built on a rock, the storm could not shake it. The investment of time given to God’s Word is never a loss of time. Taking our families to church because the Word instructs us to assemble ourselves together is doing the Word. It securely builds my marriage and family on the Word. Walking in love with others and forgiving people who treat me badly are actions initiated by the Words of Jesus. There is no substitute for faith. There is no substitute for following the inward witness. These are important parts of building our lives on His Word.
The Lord gave instructions to Joshua as he was accepting the leadership role being vacated by Moses. The Word was the foundation for his success. The way to make your way prosperous is to do the Word.
This Book of the Law shall not depart out of your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, that you may observe and do according to all that is written in it. For then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall deal wisely and have good [a]success.
Joshua 1:8 AMP
The instruction is the same for the New Testament believer. The doing of the Word is emphasized!
But be doers of the Word [obey the message], and not merely listeners to it, betraying yourselves [into deception by reasoning contrary to the Truth]. For if anyone only listens to the Word without obeying it and being a doer of it, he is like a man who looks carefully at his [own] natural face in a mirror; For he thoughtfully observes himself, and then goes off and promptly forgets what he was like. But he who looks carefully into the faultless law, the [law] of liberty, and is faithful to it and perseveres in looking into it, being not a heedless listener who forgets but an active doer [who obeys], he shall be blessed in his doing (his life of obedience).
James 1:22-25 AMP
There are some actions brought out in this verse that I want you to add to your life of faith.
- Look carefully into the Word.
- Be faithful to the Word. (A faithful copy looks exactly like the original. Make your life reflect the Word.
- Persevere in looking into the Word. Don’t get bored, tired, or faint where the Word is concerned. It is working even when you don’t see it working.
- Be an active doer. Commit to act on every truth you find in the Word. I promise you the Holy Spirit will bring to your attention the things you need to apply so your life can be the stable, established, founded-on-the-rock life that Jesus described. When the storms of life rage, you won’t be shaken or moved!
New Resource Available-Faith Adjustments
The believer can conduct a self-examination of their faith to determine if they are accurately engaged in faith. Pastor Michelle Steele helps us identify the symptoms of faith and teaches us some of the most vital components to bringing our faith to maximum potential
5 CDs $25
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