Sunday, December 19, 2010

Daily Devotional December 19 - Believe

"And when much people were gathered together, and were come to Him out of every city, He spake a parable:  A sower went out to sow his seed: and as he sowed, some fell by the wayside; and it was trodden down, and the fowls of the air devoured it.  And some fell upon a rock; and as soon as it was sprung up, it withered away, because it lacked moisture.  And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprang up with it, and choked it.  And other fell on good ground, and sprang up, and bare fruit an hundredfold. And when He had said these things, he cried, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.  And His disciples asked Him, saying, What might this parable be?  And He said, Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God: but to others in parables; that seeing they might not see, and hearing they might not understand.  Now the parable is this: The seed is the Word of God.  Those by the wayside are those that hear; then cometh the devil, and taketh away the Word out of their hearts, lest (for fear that) they should believe and be saved.  They on the rock are they, which, when they hear, receive the Word with joy; and these have no root, which for a while believe, and in time of temptation fall away.  And that which fell among thorns are they, which, when they have heard, go forth, and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to perfection.  But that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the Word, keep it, (believe) and bring forth fruit with patience."  Luke 8: 4-15

This word (keep it) literally means, (to hold fast to, possess and retain, continue to believe in).  I am going to show you something about this word believe that will change the way we you look at and define belief, forever.
To believe: To be fully persuaded; having your mind made up, convinced beyond question, without any doubt, past the point of turning back, trusting implicitly, that the object of your belief, (what you are believing for), will be accomplished.
Read this carefully
Can we just believe God for what He does with us?
Can we believe God for what He tells us?
If we believe - we can't help but to receive:

What are some things that we cannot help but receive if we believe?  Salvation - the indwelling Holy Spirit - power to overcome - answered prayer - healing for our bodies emotional healing - many blessings - new creation

I want you to establish where you are in relation to God.  Instead of saying where am I in time? Or where am I in God's overall plan for mankind, the question I want to ask is where are you in relation to God?  The answer to this question lies within what you believe.

I want to reveal, that what a lot of people call belief is not belief at all, and what is true belief works just like Jesus says it does.  What most people call belief about God, the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ and the indwelling Holy Spirit, and other essential truths, is not belief. It really should be called guessing.

Here's the thing. Unless we are convinced, thoroughly convinced, like: Let's say we take a sponge and we squeeze the sponge and push it down into the water, and slowly release it so that the sponge is thoroughly saturated; Unless we are convinced of a truth, in the same way as the thoroughly saturated sponge, we have no authority with that truth. That truth has no efficacy in us.

Until you truly believe a truth, it stays the truth, but you cannot operate under the power of it. That truth remains stored for later use. It is stored in the Word of God, until, by faith, you believe it. Then and only then, is it released to you for use.

The principles that God established to be put into operation by His people can only be made available to His people when sponge-like belief is present.  It is belief that ignites or activates a truth and takes it from its hidden or stored state and puts it into operation in its active use state.

Are you ready to believe God for more than the daily hum-drum of an uninspired life/lifestyle?  God has made it easy to believe Him and with each new truth you believe God will activate it so that you can operate in the power of it.  I hope you are as excited as I am to look for new truths from God.

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