rmyers

Luke 8:11-15 describes the word of God as a seed that is sown into the heart of the hearer, which the devil immediately goes after to remove through lack of understanding, trials and tribulations, or through the cares and pleasures of the world. However, the hearer who keeps the word with patience is able to bear fruit. Every experienced sower understands that a seed comes with promises, that if planted in good soil, given plenty of water, and the right amount of sun, that seed will bear fruit in due season. As the seed of God, the word also comes with an expectation of bearing fruit, that if watered by the meditations of the heart and rightly positioned in a heart that is filled with the SON, that seed will bear fruit of the promises of God in due season. In my earlier posts, I described the root that keeps the seed in place in the heart as faith. Faith is that stick-to-it-ness that doesn't let go during the trials and tribulations or to chase after the pleasures of the world. While this seed of God is grounded in our hearts, it is watered by the continuous meditation of faithful thoughts and nourished by words of faith coming out of our mouths, while being protected by the steadfastness of faith demonstrated in our walk. Patiently waiting for due season, faith holds the word in our hearts until harvest time. We walk by faith and not by sight!!! "Be a witness and witness God move"

Praise God for your faith!!!!

I agree. No man should boast in him or hershelf but it is a good thing to boast in the awesomeness of our God!

Double Amen!!

You are more than welcome PrairWarur. I thank God for your listening ear.

Romans 10:17 says faith comes by hearing the word of God. This faith, which comes by the word of God, serves as a shield against attacks aimed at dislodging the word from us. Unable to dislodge the word from our hearts because it is held in place by our faith, the enemy then seeks to attack our faith. He tries and challenges our faith by throwing as much heat at us with the flaming arrows described in Ephesians 6:16. The authenticity of our faith is tested during this trial by fire. When our faith remains steadfast and unmoveable, the same fire which came to burn out our faith is in fact extinguished by our faith. The shield of faith enables the people of God to move into enemy territory to advance the Kingdom of God. By faith, Abraham left his country to dwell in the land of promise. By faith, Sarah received strength to conceive and bear a child. By faith, Moses and the people of Israel passed through the Red Sea, and by faith the walls of Jericho fell down. By faith, in 1999, a local outreach ministry I serve in began ministering in an area that was commonly referred to as an open air drug market. By faith, the members of the ministry began ministering to drug dealers and drug users about the love of Jesus. By faith, ministry went forth during drug transactions and an occasional police raid. By faith, no harm came to the members even during disputes among the folks in the community. By faith, the drug dealers left the area for good. By faith, drug users became clean of drugs. Today, by faith, the ministry members along with the community sing praises to an almighty God who cleaned up the area where darkness used to reside. This shield of faith, which protects the saints of God from the flaming arrows, keeps the word of God firmly in the hearts of God's people so the word can manifest as the sword of the Spirit to strike down spiritual wickedness in high places. Raise up your shield of faith my brothers and sisters and see the salvation of the Lord! "Be a witness and witness God move."

With my faith I hope to achieve obedience in the word of God and to walk in my purpose. I am one who believes that every person was created for a purpose. walking in faith leads you to a more intimate relationship with God and allow Him to use you as a vessel to do his will. Your purpose is one thing that no one can do better than you.

It has already started. All of my posts are about evangelizing. We have to first have faith that God will respond to our acts of evangelism before we make it an active ministry. Don't get me wrong many of evangelize to the few people we come in contact with by the way we live our lives. However, I am talking about going into the streets to evangelize, on our jobs, and in our families.

Sis Agapelove, I would suggest that you did respond to God. Revelations 3:20 says "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him/her and dine with him/her and he/her with Me. After reading that book, God knocked on the door of your heart and you responded by opening it and allowing Him to come into your life and change it forever.

I really do agree with the comments that God is all-knowing and knows whether we have faith. I also agree that God gives us a measure of faith. I also believe that those in my family know that I love them. They still want me to show acts of love towards them. God wants his people to use the faith He gave them to change lives of others who don't know Him. Since He responds to our acts of faith, we can give Him something to bless by moving out in faith to witness to the lost.

The point of saying faith is a transaction is to describe faith as action that God responds to. The man who said help my unbelief came to Jesus believing that He could heal his son. He showed an action of faith just by coming to Jesus and asking for help in the areas of unbelief. On the other hand, Mark 6:6 says Jesus marveled at the unbelief of the people in His own country and could do no mighty work there. The whole purpose of the thread is to promote actions of faith. James said faith without actions is dead.

Does God know what you believe? Does He see evidence of your belief? Hebrews Chapter 11 says faith is the evidence of what you believe. This is supported by Mark 2:3-5, when a paralyzed man was being lowered from the roof down to Jesus to be healed. The bible says, "when Jesus saw their faith..." Their faith told Jesus what they believed and what they were hoping for. Their faith told Jesus they believed He could heal the paralyzed man. Jesus did not disappoint them. He told the paralyzed man to arise and take up his bed. When it comes to faith, many of us have a credit based mentality. We want credit for believing without showing the evidence of believing. When we purchase an item on credit, we receive credit for purchasing the item even though the purchase transaction is not complete until full payment is made. Let me bring it closer to home. When we tell someone that we will pray for them, typically the person will say thank you. The reason they say thank you is because, based on your word and based upon my word, they believe that you or I will combine our faith with their faith to reveal to God what we believe and are hoping for. However, what if you or I never prayed for them? What if we simply forgot and did not pray the prayer of faith on their behalf. The truth is we received credit from that person when he or she said thank you but we never completed the faith transaction with the act of prayer. It is the same with evangelism, we want credit from God that we will be witnesses for Him, but too often we don't actually follow up with actions to give Him something to bless. James 2:15-17 says faith without action is dead. Evidence of faith is reflected in what we say and what we do. The lady with the issue of blood said, "If I may touch His clothes, I shall be whole." If she had stopped there, her illness would have remained. If she had stopped there, she would not have completed the faith transaction. She didn't stop there. She completed the faith transaction, by reaching in from the crowd and touching His clothes. When she completed the faith transaction, healing power left Jesus and went into the woman and healed her. When asked, "Does God know what you believe? we must answer "yes" because He hears what I believe in my words and He sees what I believe in my actions. "Be a witness and witness God move."

I don't think the tares know they are tares because they don't believe in tares and wheat. They don't believe in our Savior. However, there will come a day when they will know. When that day comes, it will be too late. I often wonder if during Judgment day someone I knew on earth will say to me why didn't you tell me about becoming a wheat.

Hebrews 11:1 says, faith is the substance of things hoped for. Webster's dictionary defines substance as the material of which anything is made. However, Webster also defines substance as material possessions and wealth. Certain passages of the bible also depict substance as wealth. Luke 15:13 says the prodigal son wasted his substance with riotous living (KJV). The description of substance as wealth or something of value falls in line with my topic of faith being a spiritual treasure. As a spiritual treasure, faith is the spiritual medium of exchange that allows the believer to transact business in the Kingdom of God. Without faith, there is no salvation. Without faith, there is no deliverance. Without faith, prayers are not answered. Faith is the substance we come to the throne of grace with to lay hold of the things we are hoping for. In the natural, we acquire things with worldly treasure (e.g., money) that we use as a medium of exchange to acquire the things we desire. In the Spirit, money won't work. If you want to acquire the things of God, you must come with the treasure of faith. The bible says the woman with the issue of blood spent all of her natural substance going from doctor to doctor to get healed and did not get better. In fact, she grew worse. However, when she heard that Jesus was in town, she put aside her natural substance and decided to make a transaction in the Kingdom of God using the substance (or treasure) of faith. She said if I can just touch Him, I know I can be made whole. When she touched Him, Jesus turned and said, who touched Me? The disciples said, Master there are a whole bunch of people touching You. Jesus said you don't understand. Someone touched Me with the touch of faith. Someone just transacted business in the Kingdom of God. When the woman explained that the touch of faith came from her, Jesus said your faith has made you well. The woman discovered that faith is the greatest treasure available to man or woman. This treasure of faith is in every believer. Question: My brothers and sisters in Christ: Are you sharing this wonderful treasure with others so they can discover its value and its availability to them? "Be a witness and witness God move."

I would be thrilled if my forum buddies could join me in weekly topics that focus on evangelism. I believe a crowd discussing something of importance will create a bigger crowd talking about something of importance. For starters, each week, I will introduce a topic to get the discussion going. For this week, the topic is "The Just shall live by Faith. Romans 1:17 says the Just shall live by faith. We are the just and we are to share our faith with the world. Our faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior defines us. It is our identity. It is what makes us tick. It dictates our actions and our behavior. Our faith dictates how we are going to respond or react to certain situations we face in the earth and our level of success over those situations. In fact, 1 John 5:4 lets us know that faith gives us victory over the world. Faith also gets the Lord's attention. In Matthew 9:2, when the paralyzed man was being lowered down to Jesus from the roof, it doesn't say that Jesus saw the men. It says he saw their faith. It was their faith that got Jesus' attention, not the commotion they were making. Let's share this blessed treasure that we have with our family, friends, and co-workers. Next week's topic: Faith is a spiritual treasure.