We stress and torment ourselves thinking we can by our faith make things happen when needed, yet Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 warns us of the falseness of this thinking, for when it is time, it will happen, bult not until God’s preset time for it to happen.
Hebrews 11:5-6 are Scripture verses we have known from childhood, yet we do not understand the importance of faith and how it works for or against us, and because of this, we allow Satan and his evil forces to turn our faith into sin without us ever knowing why life falls apart on us.
Without faith it is impossible to please God, for faith in God knows God exists and rewards faith, yet Galatians 5:6, Romans 14:23, and 1 Corinthians 13:1-2 warn us faith becomes sin when it does not have God’s love to work through, for faith without love is dead, displeasing sin that God hates.
Watch how in Mark 5:25-34 the Godhead—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit— reveal a family relationship; thus, when we, as a child of God (Romans 8:12-17) by Holy Spirit witness or by faith working through love (Galatians 5:6 and 1John 5:1-5), the authority and power of “family relationship” comes from the Godhead into us and from us into Him, for Jeremiah 3:19 says God desires to be called “Father” by His children; then, for Him to call us “daughter or son” is love.
Everything God does is to bring daughters and sons to Him, through Christ Jesus, by the Holy Spirit, so He can give us everything we need during our brief stay on earth, but we do not grasp the importance of this sacred family relationship between God and us who choose to be His children.
Luke 5:17-26 reveals “the power of the Lord was present to heal them”, yet Jesus only saw the faith of those whose faith caused them to remove the roof, so they could get the paralytic to Jesus, for those whom the power of the Lord would have healed doubted Jesus’ authority and power, yet Luke 12:40 warns us to always be ready, for our Lord comes when we do not expect Him, such as happened to the woman with the twelve-year issue of blood in Mark 5:25-34 and the Pharisees in Luke 5:17-26, so always be alert and ready for our Lord to come when it is time for us to receive.
Trying to use our faith to make things happen out of God’s plan, purpose, and timing, becomes sin, and is displeasing to God, for God wants His children to trust Him—His plan, purpose, and timing of everything, for it was decided, written, and unchangeable before God created anything, as we read in Ephesians 1:3-14, Psalm 139:13-16, and Revelation 20:11-15, at the end of Christ’s thousand-year reign from Jerusalem, Israel.
Before time began, before God created anything, in God’s “tomorrow”, every minute detail of everything was minutely planned, with specific purpose, and precision timing; even all our prayers, faith, and obedience to God and His word were already included in all the details of life on earth, so when it is time, it will happen in agreement with God’s plan, purpose, and timing.
The human soul has three parts and in this order: Emotions, mind, and will. When our emotions control us, we become weak and allow Satan and his evil spirits to do for, in, and through us as they please. When our will controls us, we either become an introvert, bashful, or an extrovert, energized, and ready for whatever. But it is the mind that must make the emotions and will obey it, for the mind must control the whole person: What we think and believe is what we speak and do; therefore, the mind of the person inside this body, we call the human heart, controls everything.
Fully understanding this biblical truth and wisely applying faith working through love, we can relax and patiently obey God and His word, making ourselves trust God instead of trying to make things happen before or after God planned it to happen, for all “delays” have purpose and timing.
Marriages fail because people’s emotions put them with the wrong person, or their will to marry out of God’s timing. The wrong job or wrong house in the wrong town happens because of our emotions or will getting ahead of God, or not obeying God when His time for it to happen comes.
Here is where an explanation of Jesus’ parable of “the persistent widow and unjust judge” in Luke 18:1-8 is needed, because Jesus is explaining “persistent praying until the answer comes”, and ending with the question of Him finding faith on the earth when He returns, which obviously shows us how pleasing faith is to God, for He is always looking for faith working through love.
Jesus begins this parable with a command to pray until the answer comes, for the widow prayed day and night, until God changed the mind of the unjust judge, and Jesus will still be looking for persistent faith—faith that never quits until it receives what is needed for God’s glory and honor.
Since Galatians 5:6 says, “faith works through love”, and in the world, we now know, anger and hatred is commonly displayed the world over, so obviously if Jesus came today, He would not find much faith, but since Romans 14:23 says, “whatever is not from faith is sin”, He would find much sin, but very little faith.
In 1 Kings 18, the obedient faith of the Prophet Elijah working through God’s love caused mighty miracles in the presence of King Ahab and Queen Jezebel’s four-hundred and fifty prophets of Baal that regularly ate at Queen Jezebel’s table; however, when the miracles were over and King Ahab, in 1 Kings 19 told Queen Jezebel Elijah had killed Baal’s false prophets, she with an oath, decreed his death the next day; thus, Elijah’s “emotions” overruled his faith in God to protect him, and ran forty days and nights until he reached Mount Horeb the mountain of God’s presence, where God commanded him to go back and choose the Prophet Elisha to replace him, and in 2 Kings 2, God took the Prophet Elijah to heaven in a whirlwind, a tornada.
Either we do everything from faith in God to do the impossible, for His purpose, and timing, or we sin by not believing God and His word, knowing whatever we need will be supplied at His set time, if we believe God has already predetermined for us to receive what He has promised, as we read in Mark 11:22-24.
God requires His children to first believe whatever we need has already been planned and timed for us to receive, but we must continue to believe God has already provided it at His set time, so praise, thank, and worship God, through Christ Jesus, by the Holy Spirit, until we receive.
We should never pray for anything but once, and after that, we should praise, thank, and worship God, for doing for us what He has promised in His word, for Hebrews 6:17-18 says, it is impossible for God to lie.”
Jim, Kim, Tim Nabors
