joseph4inspiration

(Mark 9:23)

The word "if" is a word that does not belong in any declaration of faith. It's a word we often ignore because we use it so much. But if we're not careful that word can keep us from truly putting our faith in God for what He promised or what we've been praying for. When I wanted God to do something in my life I would pray and believe Him for it. But as I started thinking - leaning on my own understanding, I would pray again and say if it's your will. After thinking some more I would say if it's your will confirm it in a dream for me. If I didn't get that dream I would say then it must not be God's will and stop believing. To my own understanding I saw nothing wrong with asking for that confirmation, after all I was asking if it was His will or not. But God wanted me to stop trying to "know His will" and instead believe Him for something. For me, the word "if" meant: I will believe You God on condition that I know I am right and therefore didn't have to believe. God saw me using my logic instead of my faith.

(Matthew 19:26)

Sometimes when we're looking for new opportunities in life we tend to think about what we lack, wishing we had more education, money, connections, and so on. But what we lack doesn't compare to what we have. When we have God by outside we have more than enough, and we need to realize that. God wants us to step out, that's why we must have faith. It's when we step out in faith and take a chance that God gets the glory for what He did for us, not what we did for ourselves.

David was nothing when compared to Goliath. David stepping out onto the battlefield was basically a joke. But David trusted God for victory and God blessed him to do what was impossible in his own strength. It wasn't the stone that killed Goliath, it was the God behind the stone.

(Matthew 17:20)

Faith in God is the access card needed to get God working on our behalf. No matter what the situation may be faith is the answer to that situation. From the Old Testament to the New Testament no command is repeated more than for us to trust in God. In fact without faith present in our lives it's impossible for us to even please Him (Hebrews 11:6).

Jesus tells us that if we have faith the size of a mustard seed, we could move mountains. But how could something so small move something so big? It's because it's not the mustard seed size faith in our ability, but rather our faith in God's ability.

But we are always in a battle for our faith. Whenever the enemy sees faith, he immediately tries to sow seeds of doubt - even faith in God the size of a mustard seed is dangerous to the enemy because that faith will bring you out of what he tries so desperately to keep you trapped in.

Revelations 3:19)

(Isaiah 46: 10)

When some people find themselves in a situation, they constantly worry about how God is going to make a way out of it for them. All they can see is the difficulty of the situation and that's it. This is because they only view their situation with their natural eyes. If they viewed the situation through their eyes of faith, they would see that God already solved their problem a long time ago.

Fear is the reason behind this. Fear says look at what you're up against! There's no possible way things could work out in your favor! But in Revelation 21:6, God says, "And He said unto me, It is done. I Am Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give unto him that is thirsty of the fountain of the water of life freely."

When God said it is done, He's not just talking about biblical events, He's talking about EVERYTHING - old and new! Your way out was included, your opened door was included, your miracle was included! Everything that pertains to this life and the next is complete and is in the process of being fulfilled.

When God viewed our situations, He wasn't looking at the problem, He was looking for a way that He could get the glory.

(1st Kings 19:4)

Discouragement is something that all believers will come face to face with one time or another - you may be discouraged right now. But if you noticed Jesus never got discouraged, yes He got sad and even cried, but never discouraged.

Discouragement happens when we take our eyes off of God and start looking at things through our eyes of flesh and start leaning on our own understanding to figure things out. Unable to figure things out or understand how can something good come from something so bad, we say like Elijah, "I have had enough, Lord" - enough of this waiting, enough of this faith, enough of this patience, enough of this person, enough of this trial, enough, enough, enough!

Moses said enough when he got fed up with the children of Israel in the wilderness and stuck the rock instead of speaking to the rock like God told him to (Numbers 20:11) and as a result he lost his chance of entering into the Promise Land.

If Jesus would have said enough in the Garden of Gethsemane, we would all have lost out on our chance of getting into heaven.

So it's as if discouragement brings us out of the will of God, because instead of continuing on in faith, we stop trusting God and become overwhelmed by how we see things.

If you notice in Numbers 20:12 the reason God gave to Moses as to why he would not be able to enter into the Promise Land was lack of trust.

God knows what He's doing in your life. Things may be hard and confusing, but trust that His plan will bring everything together to workout perfectly.

Don't listen to the voice of sight! Don't listen to the voice of discouragement!

(Psalm 27:14)

We all know that God does everything in seasons and times. Although every season may be different, they are all equally important and serve a purpose in making us a better Christian.

But there is one season that is different from all the rest but still equally important and that is the season of waiting.

Every Christian will experience a season of waiting - there's no way around it, and because there's no way around it, many Christians decide to give up on the wait, which causes them to miss out on God's best.

Let's be honest, waiting on God can be boring, really, really boring. But whether or not we're bored isn't on the top of God's list when He has us in wait mode. He's more concerned with us being obedient than anything else.

We see waiting on God as boring or stressful but when we decide to wait on the Lord without complaining He sees it as doing His will for that season.

David was king of Israel, but yet even he had seasons of waiting on the Lord. He saw that waiting on the Lord was actually doing God's good pleasure, and God always blessed him for his patients.

In the verse above, David saw that waiting on the Lord can make you weak at times, but he said the Lord will strengthen your heart to help you through the process.

If God has you in a season of waiting, don't give up and don't complain. It's hard sometimes, that I know. But we must speak the promises of God while we're waiting; don't just keep your mouth close letting all that frustration build up, remember what the Lord has promised you and speak it.