Extra Baskets Left Over #5

Some agnostic named Alex O’Connor struts into a video and declares the “problem of evil” is the argument, the obvious point that wrecks any worldview. John Lennox calls it hard for everyone, but let’s skip the polite dance and get straight to it: the guy is just making stuff up. The Bible never once frames evil as this big, scary “gotcha” against God. Not a whisper. Not a footnote. Why? Because from God’s own starting point it isn’t even worth mentioning.

Scripture says it alone is true, and it says everything else is false. 2 Timothy 3:16 says the whole Bible is God-breathed and equips us completely. So when someone starts with a human starting point of observations, or “inductive logic” and pretends it produces subjects and predicates, they’re operating from an anti-Christian foundation. Christians are forbidden to treat that garbage as intelligent. To do so would be to crown their human starting point and anti-logic higher than the Logos, and the Bible shuts that rebellion down cold.

God creates. God controls. God decrees every single thing that exists. Ephesians 1:11 nails it: He “works all things according to the counsel of his will.” Isaiah 45:7 is even blunter—He forms light and creates darkness, makes peace and creates calamity. The Lord does all these things. Since God is good by definition, whatever He likes, wants, or causes is good relative to Him. For us? Good is whatever His arbitrary command says it is. No debate. No blender-mixing their made-up “free will” fantasies with His absolute sovereignty and then acting shocked when the contradiction explodes in their face.

That’s the rookie error they keep tripping over. They take their worldview, slap it next to ours, and gasp, “Look—they clash!” They are so dumb they don’t understand they are mixing up worldviews when they attempt to attack the bible; they think they are showing a contradiction in our internal system, when all they have shown is our view doesn’t work with theirs. No duh. Tell me something I don’t already know. Thus there is no problem for us. The so-called problem of evil is their problem, not ours. They start from superstition and speculation, and they don’t even have enough intelligence to critique an internal system question, without making a category error by blending two worldviews together. They pose no threat, expect to embrace themselves.

And this same sovereign God who decrees us to be seated with Christ far above every power. He gave us His name, His authority, His Spirit. And so, sickness, demons, lack—they don’t get a vote. They flee when we speak in faith, just like they fled when Jesus spoke. The same power that rested on Him to heal the sick is here for us right now. Pray in tongues. Command mountains. Reclaim everything the enemy tried to steal. No fear—only believe.

This is our worldview. It has no problems. It is Unstoppable. Tangible. Explosive.

*97 God gets glory when we ask for ourselves.

Some clown hit me with this gem after my last post on prosperity: “We’re not selfish—we “pray for others, not ourselves.” Mind-numbingly dumb. Straight-up fleshly nonsense dressed up as humility. Even for the sake of argument, let’s use their exact phrase—the Bible and Jesus teach us to be very selfish in our prayers, and God loves it.

From the moment you’re born again, you’re crying out, “Forgive me, Lord, for my sins.” You can call it selfish if you want, but whatever you call it, God commands we pray this self-serving prayer for God to forgive me. Also, Jesus doesn’t say, “Pray for your neighbor’s lunch.” He says, “Give us this day our daily bread.” Jabez didn’t whisper a polite group prayer—he looked heaven square in the eye: “Oh that You would bless me indeed, enlarge my territory, let Your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so it would not pain me!” And God granted what he asked. The Psalms are packed with raw, personal shouts for prosperity, protection, and blessing. Jesus seals it: “Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.” Not someone else’s. Yours.

Jesus says it plain in Matthew 6: Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things—the exact level of wealth the pagans chase like it’s their god—will be added to you. He wants you to have it, but you get it by worshiping Him first. Tithing works the same: bring God His, watch your barns overflow. Even the baptism of the Holy Spirit follows the pattern—Peter tells the crowd panting for that power upgrade, “Repent first, then you’ll receive this gift.”

And yeah, you can just ask and believe like Jabez did, like the Psalms do. It’s available to anyone walking in faith without doubt. But if you’re not seeking the Kingdom first, or you’re double-minded when you pray, don’t expect a thing.

This whole “asking for yourself is selfish” scam? It’s like hiding your flashlight under the bed because you’re scared the darkness might notice you’re lighting up the room. But lighting up the room and running off darkness is exactly what we are to be doing. The gospel is God showing off by lavishing righteousness, healing, wealth, and power on His kids. He becomes poor so we become rich. He bore our sickness so we walk healed. Why? So we live in the overflow and our joy explodes in praise.

Abide in Him, let His words sink deep, then ask whatever you will. The Father is glorified when you receive big—when you run to the throne like a son who knows his Dad delights to give. It’s humility to obey God by asking for ourselves and walking in the new definition God gave us in Christ. It honours God as God. To reject this is arrogance and unbelief.

God gets glory when we ask for ourselves and He forks the bill with a smile, filling our lives with tangible joy and power.

That’s the God of the Bible. That’s the life He bought for you.

*98

When Jesus healed the blind man, it was spiritual blindness. And when they pulled the coin from the fish’s mouth it was a spiritual wealth not a real coin. When Phillip was casting out demons and healing the sick it was only spiritual healing, and the demons were metaphors for other spiritual problems. When Jesus took stripes for my healing, the lashes that fell on Jesus’ back were spiritual and also the healing was only spiritual. When Jesus was naked and penniless, it was only spiritual poverty he experienced and so the riches we get in exchange is only spiritual.

Look mom, I’m a world-class theologian now!

*99 Joy for Benefits

If you do not serve the Lord your God with joy and enthusiasm for the abundant benefits you have received… (Deut. 28:47 NLT).

God doesn’t drop commands into thin air. He builds them on reality. This verse doesn’t say “serve Me with joy in case I might give you something someday.” It says serve Me with joy for the abundant benefits you have received. The command presupposes the gifts are already in your hands—health that makes doctors scratch their heads, provision that turns empty cupboards into overflow, miracles that make the devil look slow and stupid. If those benefits weren’t real and received, the command would be cruel nonsense. God isn’t cruel. He’s the One who loaded the gospel with every good thing Jesus purchased.

Look at the cross again. Isaiah 53:4-5 (NLT): “Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down… He was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed.” Same blood that took your sin took your sickness. 2 Corinthians 8:9 (NLT): “You know the generous grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty he could make you rich.” Not spiritual-only rich—real, pay-the-bills, bless-your-family rich. James 5:14-15 (NLT): “Are any of you sick? You should call for the elders of the church to come and pray over you, anointing you with oil in the name of the Lord. Such a prayer offered in faith will heal the sick, and the Lord will make you well.” Same faith that receives forgiveness receives healing. No asterisk. No “maybe next lifetime.”

The centurion understood this. He didn’t beg Jesus to maybe heal his servant. He said, “Just say the word and my servant will be healed—I know authority when I see it.” Jesus called that great faith. Peter preached election and immediately pointed to the baptism of power. James taught God’s total sovereignty over tomorrow and then commanded the prayer of faith that guarantees healing. They didn’t treat the benefits like lottery tickets. They treated them like signed contracts written in Jesus’ blood.

Stop tiptoeing around like a spiritual pauper begging for scraps. You’re seated at the King’s table. The benefits are already yours. Grab them. Speak to that sickness like the centurion’s servant heard the word—gone. Command that lack to bow like reality bowed to Jesus’ voice. Then turn around and serve the Lord with loud, over-the-top joy and enthusiasm because the abundant benefits are not coming—they are here.

The gospel is not a theory. It is God showing off on you. Let the world see the proof: healed bodies, blessed homes, bold faith, and a Christian who can’t stop grinning because the Father loaded him up with every good thing.

The command presupposes the gifts are already in your hands—health that makes doctors scratch their heads, provision that turns empty cupboards into overflow, miracles that make the devil look slow and stupid. If those benefits weren’t real and received, the command would be cruel nonsense. God isn’t cruel. He’s the One who loaded the gospel with every good thing Jesus purchased. The abundant benefits are already yours in Christ, so get your praise on and make it joyful and loud.

*100

People get lost in end time timelines and charts. They want to know what happens during the “last days.” Peter quotes and interprets the scripture to help us understand what happens during the “last days.” Peter quotes Joel’s prophecy, saying “In the Last Days, I will pour out My Spirit…”

Peter, under the power of the Spirit, says this means the baptism of the Spirit, which Jesus called “power.” The context was praying in tongues by the Spirit’s baptism.

This is how God, Jesus and Scripture define the last days. This is God’s “last days” agenda and testament. If you are not doing the baptism of the Spirit for power to pray in tongues, prophecy, heal the sick, raise the dead, and cast out demons, then you are existing in the last days, without living in them.

*101 God-grade dynamite

2 Corinthians 10:4-5 (NIV)
“The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”

I have often focused on the middle and latter parts of this passage, but I want to highlight the first part. The scripture says we have “weapons.” These are not weapons God reserves for Himself, for we reject pantheism. No, they are given to us. We are the ones to use them and pull the trigger, not God. Then it says these weapons are infused, not with TNT, but with divine power. Finally, it declares that these divinely empowered weapons “demolish strongholds.”

This reminds me of the story of David and Goliath, often moralized to encourage Christians to face their giants with faith; this is good because the bible moralizes itself. And we will do the same. And so, although moralizing is legit, Paul isn’t just moralizing—he directly states that we possess powerful weapons to dismantle strongholds. Many strongholds, at their root, are intellectual, which is why the passage emphasizes knowledge, and intellectual systems in the public forum that creates strongholds in the mind. The direct meaning is in the public forum to destroy any anti-Christian thought and doctrine. But it can also be moralized to ourselves. We have the Word and the Spirit.

For example, if you are battling depression, the mighty weapon God has given you is praying in tongues. Praying in the Spirit allows God to directly edify and strengthen your inner being. It’s like aiming a machine gun at depression. You have this weapon, and you can choose to use it or not. Jesus directly ties “power” to the baptism of the Spirit (Acts 1-2).

We also have the weapon of Jesus’ name. Jesus said, “Ask for anything in my name, and you will receive it”—be it healing, provision, or restoration of relationships.

We have the mighty weapon of speaking to our mountains and commanding them to move.

We hold the high ground with our weapons because we have authority over all demons and sickness.

We have many divine weapons at our disposal to destroy strongholds.

2 Corinthians 10:4-5 is handing you a divine arsenal that makes Rambo look like he’s wielding a plastic spoon. These aren’t your average worldly weapons—nope, they’re packing divine power to obliterate strongholds. Forget TNT; we’re talking God-grade dynamite. From praying in tongues to blast away depression, to commanding mountains to skedaddle in Jesus’ name, you’re armed to the teeth with faith-fueled firepower. So, grab your spiritual machine gun, take aim at Satan, and show those strongholds who’s boss. You’ve got the high ground, and it’s time to let ‘er rip!

*102 Spiritual Power and Miracles

Galatians 3:5 Therefore He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does He do it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?

The miracles and the Spirit came to the Galatians church, because as Paul said, the atonement of Jesus gave them the blessing of Abraham(v13-14). Their faith in Jesus’ atonement, which gave them the blessing of Abraham is what caused them to receive the Baptism of the Spirit, with all the power that comes with this, including miracles.

However, something bad happened. They stopped having faith in Jesus’ atonement that gave them Abraham’s blessing for free, which gave them the Spirit and miracles. They traded this faith to receive Abraham’ blessing through Jesus, for the works of the law.

There are more than one important observations and applications to reap from this passage, but consider this one. Paul’s presupposition is that people who are operating in God’s grace by faith in Jesus, giving them Abraham’s blessing, are filled with Spiritual power and miracles. The other is obvious, if people are operating by works of the law to get Abraham’s blessing and good things from God, are people who do not demonstrate Spiritual power and miracles in their lives.

Grace by faith in Jesus finished atonement is shown by Spiritual power and miracles.

Works to receive God’s blessing, is shown by no spiritual power and no miracles.

This is a good test to see where you are at with God and to see if your faith is in vain. Like the Galatians, if you are making a mistake, correct yourself and operate with God based on faith not works.

It also shows that many church denominations and traditions make works of the law their formal religion because there is no spiritual power and no miracles among them. Their whole religion is in vain. Spiritual power and miracles shows your faith is true and not in vain.

*103 What I Have and What I Give, Not God

“What I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” Acts 3:6

Peter had the authority, power and Name of Jesus to heal. Thus, imagine how dumb it would be if Peter looked at the crippled and prayed, “Jesus, I don’t have the power and authority to heal, but you do. I am nothing, but you are everything. Please heal this man, if it is your will.”

This is how most pray, and there are many things wrong with it. However, I only wish to point out the one aspect that Peter said he already had the power, authority and name of Jesus to heal. He did not say, Jesus has it in Himself to heal you. No. Peter said a very unchristian like thing. Peter said he has it, and he gives it. Peter did not say, he had it, but Jesus gives it, nor did he say, Jesus has it, but Peter gives it. No. Peter both said, he had it and he gives it, referring to the healing.

Thus, it would make no sense for Peter to ask Jesus to heal the man, when Peter already had it to give it away. However, we are not different from Peter. The stripes of Jesus that brough Peter healing and the cripple were also for us (Isaiah 53:4). The Name of Jesus is given to all believer to ask for whatever we want (John 14-16). The authority to ask whatever we want and to cast anything, including mountains to the sea is for all believers (Mark 11:22-24). The same Spirit that baptized Peter with Power is the same Spirit that baptizes all believers in power, based on Jesus’ resurrected and seated on the right hand of God (Acts 1-2). All spiritual blessings have already been given to all believers. The same power that God work in Jesus to put Him above all names and powers and dominions, is the same power in and flowing out of all believers today. All believes are already seated with Jesus above all names and powers. (Ep 1-2). Cancer is name, and we are already above it.

This is why asking God to heal you, as if you don’t already have it, is as strange to ask God to forgive you, as if you don’t already have forgiveness and God needs to grant it. Jesus’ atonement is already finished. We confess to obey God, but the forgiveness has already happened. The atonement is already finished. It already belongs to us in faith. Peter already had it and gives it. We are the same. We already have healing and so we give. We have it and we give it, not God.

*104 Shut the Jaws of Death

Living in the Spirit is the gospel. It is life itself. It is living with God. The Spirit is the Spirit of God. The Spirit is the Spirit of Christ (Romans 8 ). Being baptized in the Spirit is to live with the Father; it is to live with Christ. Praying in the Spirit keeps me in the love of God. Praying in the Spirit causes God to directly minister to my spirit and build me up. Praying in the Spirit and getting interpretation makes God my personal trainer—think of Him as the ultimate cosmic coach, always spotting you for that next level-up. Praying in tongues is to bring heaven on earth. Praying in the Spirit is a hug around my heart. Praying in tongues is to bitch-slap Satan across the face like a piñata being whacked by an MLB player on a home-run streak. Praying in tongues slams Satan’s face into the ground over and over again. Praying in tongues is to expand the kingdom of God. Praying in tongues pushes back against the kingdom of Satan. Praying in tongues stops the mouths of lions. Praying in tongues shuts the jaws of death.

I was praying in tongues last night, along with praising God and confessing words of faith in His promises. When the Spirit gave me a few interpretations of the tongues—or they could just be words spoken without direct relation to the tongues, but from the general presence of God overflowing around me—one message was this: “I have delivered you from the jaws of death. I have spared you and delivered you. Praise me, because I have delivered you from the jaws of death.”

Of course, I began to praise God for delivering me. I did not know exactly what God had delivered me from (I have a few ideas, but the Spirit did not tell me what it was). The important part was that God has been faithful to me, even when I do not see all the many ways He has kept me and spared me. God was letting me know that, even from unseen dangers, He keeps me safe and spares my life, over and over again. Both from the things I see and do not see, God keeps me and delivers me. He made the promise, and so it is the most common and average thing in all reality for God to do what He says. He is a God of truth and faithfulness.

In moments like this, I often remember the Roman Centurion, who asked for an upgrade to his miracle. Jesus said He was going to heal the boy—that is, to give him an iPhone. But the Centurion told Jesus, “Just say the word, and he will be healed right here and now.” Jesus granted his upgraded miracle request. He got an iPhone Pro Max—because why settle for basic when you can go premium with a divine warranty?

And so I told God: “Even if you meant that the jaws were inches from closing down on me, I don’t see them next to my face or smell their breath. Destroy it in front of me, so that I see you slam your fist into my enemy’s face from a distance.

”I don’t have to guess. I know God has granted my request, because He does the things I ask—after all, when He sees me, He sees His Son. This is the life of righteousness. This is the life of the Spirit—like plugging into the universe’s infinite power source, no batteries required.

To pray in tongues is life. It is the life of God. Why settle for less? Why short-circuit your own adventure by not obeying Jesus’ command to pray in the Spirit? Why reject life?

*105 Miracles Overcome Delay

Today my mom realized at noon she’d forgotten to haul the trash cans out that morning. She loves doing it for the quick exercise, so I told her, “Hey, sometimes the truck runs late—wheel ’em out and see.” She has hesitant for a bit, but did it anyway. Minutes later she came back grinning ear to ear: the trash truck rolled up right as she hit the curb; a perfect hand-off like some divine relay race.

It’s a loud reminder that with God, it’s never actually “too late” for His kids. If you’re in Christ—truly an insider with Abraham’s blessing stamped on your soul—then despair over missed chances is just a lie from the pit. God specializes in flipping dead-end clocks into explosive breakthroughs.

Think about it. Abraham and Sarah were way past prime time—bodies as good as dead, yet God fired up their reproductive systems again. Isaac arrived, and Abraham kept fathering kids into his old age like it was nothing. Joshua and Caleb spied the land at 40, waited decades in the wilderness because of everyone else’s unbelief, but at 80 and 85 they were still flexing the same strength, ready to conquer mountains (Joshua 14:10-11). Joseph rotted in prison one morning, forgotten; by evening he was second-in-command of Egypt, running the show for Pharaoh (Genesis 41). Rahab the harlot thought her city was doomed, but she threw in with Yahweh’s spies and snatched salvation for her whole family. That woman bleeding twelve years, bankrupt from doctors, shoved through the crowd thinking, “If I just touch His clothes…” Boom—healing hit instantly, and Jesus called her faith beautiful (Mark 5:25-34).

And don’t get me started on Joel 2:25—God straight-up promises to restore the years the locust devoured. Not some vague hope; a sovereign decree from the One who owns time itself. He doesn’t wring His hands saying, “Oops, too much delay.” When you step out in faith, He meets you right there on the street with perfect timing.

Listen, some of us feel like we’ve blown years on unbelief, sickness, bad choices, or just waiting. And it is true that you have lost some time. But if you belong to Jesus, those lost seasons don’t have to be permanent losses—they can become miraculous restoration. God wants to give you the miracle more than you want to grab it. The issue isn’t His clock; it’s whether we’ll ditch the doubt, fix our eyes on the promise, and move. Stop staring at the missed pickup and start confessing the yes in Christ. Speak life over dead situations. Believe for strength in old age, sudden promotion, instant healing, family salvation.

Faith isn’t polite suggestion—it’s violent appropriation of what Jesus already bought. So wheel that trash out, even if it feels late. Act on the Word. Your divine truck is coming, and the Driver never misses His route. All the promises are yes and amen in Him.

*106 On His enemies

I recently wrote in “Is Something My Will If I Already Did It.” “ Acts 10:38 says healing is good, and Jesus did this good thing called healing. It is true that God is good, and so also Jesus is good. Because God is good, by definition of His nature, anything He does is good. However, this is not what the verse says. It says that healing is good, and Jesus is doing this good thing. Thus, the Bible declares healing as a category of good. Thus, it is always good to heal. Healing is good… Sickness is bad, and the devil does this bad thing called sickness. Thus, to oppose healing is bad. You’re a bad person because you do bad things when you do anything to oppose the supernatural healing ministry of God.”

Some might be prone to ask “But doesn’t the Bible show God sending sickness sometimes?” Sure it does—on His enemies! Remember the Philistines swiping the ark? God hit them with tumors so bad they were stacking golden hemorrhoids as peace offerings (1 Samuel 5–6). That’s God treating outsiders like the cosmic pests they are. Plagues on Egypt? Same deal—judgment on those who hated Him and His people. Even Job: Satan was the one dishing out the boils and misery, while God set the boundaries (Job 1–2). Ultimate level? God sovereignly decrees everything. Human level—the one Scripture keeps hammering when it talks about us under the New Covenant? Satan ministers sickness; God ministers healing.

Acts 10:38 couldn’t be clearer: Jesus “went around doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, because God was with him.” Every single person Jesus healed was being victimized by Satan, not lovingly disciplined by the Father. Jesus never once looked at a sick believer and said, “This cancer is my gift to teach you humility.” He saw sickness as Satan flipping the bird at the atonement and crushed it every time.

Because here’s the punchline: the blood of Jesus changed the game. Isaiah 53:4-5 (quoted directly in Matthew 8:17 about physical healing) says He bore our sicknesses the exact same way He bore our sins—substitutionary atonement. Three different ways He took sickness off us: became our curse (Galatians 3:13), carried it away like the scapegoat (Leviticus 16 language), and swapped His stripes for our health. Healing is as much the gospel as forgiveness. To say God now hands out the very thing Jesus died to remove is to call the Father a covenant-breaking deadbeat who re-crucifies His Son every time a Christian gets the flu.

If sickness is coming from God to you—a blood-bought, adopted, co-heir with Christ—then God sees you as an enemy, not a son. But Romans 8:32 screams the opposite: He who did not spare His own Son will freely give us all things. All things includes healing, prosperity, power—children’s bread on Abraham’s table (Matthew 15:26). Sickness is Satan’s ministry of death; healing is Jesus’ ministry of life, and life abundant.

So stop begging God to maybe heal you if it’s His mood today. The contract’s signed in blood—He already did. Open your mouth, command that sickness to get out in Jesus’ name, and watch reality obey the word you just spoke. Anything less is letting the devil squat in territory Jesus already paid for. And frankly, that’s just bad manners at the Father’s table.

* 107 Strength of Days

In Deuteronomy 33:25, Moses blesses Asher with this gem: “As your days, so shall your strength be.” This isn’t just pretty poetry—it’s a rock-solid promise of sustained vigor, where your endurance perfectly matches every day you’re given.

Flip over to the curses in Deuteronomy 28, and you see the dark flip side: weakness piling up, infirmities stacking like unpaid bills. Doctors describe exactly what they observe in aging bodies—and too many believers nod along, calling it “normal.” But if you agree with that narrative, you’re unwittingly giving Satan and the curse a foothold in your life.

You’re not a helpless bystander. You’re a royal priest in Christ Jesus, wielding irrevocable authority whether you feel like it or not. When you open your mouth and agree with decline—”Yeah, I’m just getting older”—you’re using that God-given authority to empower Satan and the very curse Jesus died to cancel.

Here’s the game-changer: Galatians 3:13–14 lays it out plain. “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us… so that the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus.” Jesus didn’t just pay the penalty—He reversed the curse entirely. Abraham’s blessing package? Overflowing health, miracles, and the promised Spirit (the same baptism Peter preached in Acts 2:38: repent, be forgiven, then receive the gift of power). We’re not outsiders scraping by under the law’s shadow anymore. The Spirit of God quickens our mortal bodies—not the curse.

Words aren’t neutral; they’re weapons. Proverbs 18:21 warns that death and life are in the power of the tongue. Agreeing with a grim diagnosis without countering it with God’s promise is dangerous. Nothing wrong with stating what you see, but stopping there makes you like the ten fearful spies. They told the truth about what they observed—giants, fortified cities—and God called their report evil because they left out His promise. They didn’t follow up with, “But the Lord has empowered us to take them!”

When God’s promise collides with what we see, we side with the promise. We confess it, decree it, and align our words with heaven’s reality. “By His stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5) isn’t a hopeful maybe—it’s a finished fact, received by the same faith that grabs forgiveness. James 5:15 promises that the prayer offered in faith will heal the sick, with forgiveness thrown in as a bonus. No begging required—just bold declaration, like Peter in Acts 3: “What I have, I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!”

Joshua and Caleb saw the same giants but declared, “They are bread for us!” (Numbers 14:9). God-ordained obstacles? Breakfast. Your days dragging with fatigue? Decree the Deuteronomy promise over them. Psalm 1 says the person who meditates day and night on God’s Word will prosper in everything.

Don’t let unbelief (Satan’s favorite product) water this down. Jesus said faith as small as a mustard seed moves mountains. Your strength isn’t fading—it’s fortified by rivers of living water flowing from within (John 7:38). Romans 8 doesn’t say the curse quickens our mortal bodies; it says the Spirit does. But Doctors see bodies; they don’t see the Spirit or God’s promises. So open your mouth and agree with God instead. Watch weakness lose its grip as His blessings stack higher and higher.

*108 All Things Are Possible Means Certainty

Let’s cut through the fog that surrounds one of the most misused statements in Scripture. Jesus looked at the desperate father whose son was tormented by a spirit and said, “‘If you can’?” Then He declared, “Everything is possible for the one who believes” (Mark 9:23 NIV). Immediately the father cried, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!” And what happened next? Jesus commanded the spirit to leave, and the boy was completely healed. No hesitation, no “let Me check with the Father,” no partial result. The miracle followed the moment belief was exercised.

Yet the vast majority of Christians quote this verse as if Jesus were offering a polite possibility rather than a divine guarantee. They pray for healing, for provision, for breakthrough, and then tack on, “if it’s Your will” or “we’ll see what happens.” That is not faith; that is unbelief wearing a pious mask. When Jesus says “everything is possible for the one who believes,” He is not handing out lottery tickets with slim odds. He is stating a categorical truth: when belief aligns with God’s revealed promise, the outcome is certain.

Look at the parallel accounts. In Matthew 17:20 Jesus says if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, “Nothing will be impossible for you.” Not “almost nothing” or “some things on a good day.” Nothing. In Mark 11:23-24 He teaches, “Truly I tell you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” Notice the tenses: believe that you have received it (already done), and it will be yours (future manifestation of what faith has already grasped).

James brings the same certainty to healing: “And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up” (James 5:15 NIV). Will, not might. There is no room for the weak, wavering, “well, God is sovereign so maybe He’ll heal, maybe He won’t” nonsense that passes for humility today. That attitude is not humility; it is rebellion against the clear testimony of Scripture.

People object, “But what if it’s not God’s will?” The question itself exposes the problem. God has already revealed His will in the finished work of Christ. By His stripes we are healed (Isaiah 53:5; 1 Peter 2:24). He took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses (Matthew 8:17). The same gospel that saves the soul also heals the body.

Here’s the frank reality: most believers treat “all things are possible” like a vague inspirational poster instead of a contractual promise sealed in Christ’s blood. They approach God like He’s a cosmic vending machine that sometimes jams. But Scripture presents a Father who has already said “Yes” to every promise in Jesus (2 Corinthians 1:20). When we believe — truly believe without doubt — we are not hoping for a maybe. We are enforcing a certainty that heaven has already ratified.

To read “all things are possible means a vague idea of possibility” and not, what you ask is what you will get, show that you read the bible like outsider to God. You read it, but don’t believe it. God sees reality in one way, but you see reality in a contradiction to God’s. You have a worldview problem.

So stop praying timid, double-minded prayers that cancel themselves out (James 1:6-8). Start praying with the confidence of a son who knows his Father’s word is unbreakable. Command that mountain to move. Speak healing to that body. Declare provision over that need. Believe you receive when you pray — and you will have it.

Because with man, all things are possible. For the one who believes, what they say God will do for them is as good as done.

* 109 Dominates the course of your Life

What you believe God will do for you, is God will do for you.

This single axiom unlocks more of Scripture than most people ever grasp, and it explains why some lives overflow with power while others limp along in quiet defeat.

I first heard Vincent Cheung phrase it in “Have Faith in God,” (Borders Vol.1) “God wants us to live as though whatever we truly believe He will do for us, He will in fact do.” The statement is biblical, concise, and comprehensive. It applies to both the positive and the negative without partiality.

Consider the ten spies. They looked at the land, looked at the giants, looked at themselves, and concluded, “We are not able.” That was their doctrine of God: He brought us this far, but He will not give us victory here. So God looked at them and said, “Fine. Because you have spoken in My hearing that you cannot take the land, you will not take it.” Their unbelief became a self-fulfilling prophecy. God honored their confession. Every human being is, in this sense, a prophet: what you say God will (or will not) do for you, He will make certain. God sovereignly ensures you are a prophet, whether you want the job or not. The issue is not if you are a prophet, but whether you will confess goodness or evil over your life.

The same principle runs in the opposite direction. The woman with the issue of blood reasoned, “If I merely touch the hem of His garment, I will be completely healed.” She did not pray for partial relief or for strength to endure the sickness; she expected full, immediate deliverance. And that is precisely what she received. Her expectation defined the outcome.

The Roman centurion provides an even starker example. He told Jesus, “Only speak the word, and my servant will be healed.” He did not ask for a visit, a laying on of hands, or a prolonged treatment plan. He believed that Christ’s bare command was sufficient. Jesus marveled and declared that He had not found such great faith in all Israel. The servant was healed that very hour. Again, the man’s conviction about what God would do determined what God did.

Most Christians live far below this level. They confess, in practice, that God helps those who help themselves, that He heals through physicians, that prosperity is dangerous, that suffering is usually His will. Then they are shocked when their lives conform exactly to that confession. They spend decades and fortunes in waiting rooms, submit to procedures, and call it “trusting God” when the real trust was placed in human methods. God, being sovereign and just, gives them what they believed He would give: a little help, some relief, occasional encouragement—never the explosive demonstration of power promised in the gospel.

Your mouth is steering the ship. If you confess with settled conviction that you are the righteousness of God in Christ, that by His stripes you are healed, that He daily loads you with benefits, that no weapon formed against you will prosper—then those realities will dominate your experience. If, on the other hand, you hedge every prayer with “if it be Your will” (on matters He has already revealed), you will receive exactly the uncertainty you confessed.

If you believe God will give you best case blessing, that is what you get. If believe for only some minor help, then that is what you will get. If believe the Christian life is about suffering and pain under the hand of God, then that is what God will give you.

Recently I’ve heard of a famous Christian writer confessing an 8 year long adulterous relationship. He is now surrounded by pain and suffering. I also heard how he often spoke in his writings that we often use our faith to sustain pain and suffering. And so, Like with the 10 spies God has given him what he confessed.

A man will not rise higher than his confession

Show me a man who says, “Lord, only say the word and it is done,” and I will show you a man whose life is governed by the dauntless power and goodness of God rather than by circumstances, statistics, or medical prognoses.

The gospel of Abraham is so radically high and the gift of Jesus’ righteousness and adoption is so great, you cannot error in confessing goodness too great about your life. You only run the risk in believing too small.

Stop limiting God with small, cautious, respectable expectations. Scripture is clear: according to your faith—your doctrine about what He will do for you—is what God will do for you. This is what has already determined your life up to this point, and it will continue to dominate the course of your life into the future.

* 110 Moving mountains is a possibility?

Sometimes I see promise verse posts boil down Jesus’ statement to “Faith Can move mountains.” However this is a lazy or possible misleading way to say it. Does Jesus teach with faith the broad idea of moving mountains is a possibility? Not exactly. What Jesus teaches is more direct and definite. He doesn’t merely say Faith Can Move Mountains, as a mere possibility, He says, if you have Faith the Mountain will move.

Listen, folks, Jesus wasn’t spitballing hypotheticals when He dropped this bombshell in Matthew 17:20—right after His disciples flopped at casting out a demon. He looked them square and declared, “Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” Notice the bite: “it will move.” Not “it might” or “if the stars align and God feels like it.” No wiggle room. He hammers it home again in Mark 11:23, post-cursing the fig tree: “Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them.” Believes it “will happen”—future tense locked in, no probation period. Luke 17:6 echoes the tune: even mustard-seed faith lets you uproot a mulberry tree and plant it in the ocean, and “it would obey you.”

Logic demands we take this at face value, in context. Jesus ties mountain-moving faith to everyday discipleship, not some elite apostle gig. It’s deduction from His promises: God decrees all things, sure, but His commands to us insiders—born-from-above sons—override the curse, flipping sickness, lack, and obstacles into bread for the taking. Isaiah 53 swaps our pains for His stripes, making healing as definite as forgiveness. Peter in Acts 10:38 calls Jesus’ heal-everybody rampage “doing good,” demolishing Satan’s oppression. So why the lazy memes watering it down to “can” when Scripture screams “will”? It’s like spotting a buffet and whispering, “I suppose I could eat”—nah, dig in, because the Father loaded the table for you.

Frankly, these half-baked posts reek of unbelief dressed as piety, like those Pharisees Jesus roasted for tradition over truth. They rob glory from the Father, who gets praised when we snag “whatever we ask” (John 15:7-8). If you’re tired of mountains mocking you, renew that mind on His word day and night (Psalm 1). Assent to the facts: you’re Abraham’s heir, Spirit-baptized for power, and nothing’s impossible. Watch those peaks bow—then give God a shout-out. He loves a bold heir who grabs the goods.

* 111 He Gives New Strength

Isaiah 40:29 NIV – “He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.” NLT: “He gives power to the weak and strength to the powerless.” Different translations, same punch – God pumps up the drained and depleted soul.

Even after we’re born from above, life’s battles can leave us weary because of our lack of faith and immaturity. In this light, it makes sense to ask for new strength. However this isn’t the norm for Christians, because the norm is regular supernatural Vigor and power. This is the maturity we should all strive for.

When we do find ourselves wearied, it didn’t happen because God is trying to teach us a lesson by dangling renewal just out of reach, forcing us to beg for what isn’t already ours, to keep us humble. No, that’s Satan’s priesthood. Through Jesus’ finished atonement, power and vigor are etched into our spiritual core, part of the inheritance sealed by His blood. The good news? God delights in meeting our needs, eager to respond when we cry out.

And here is the big idea: God loves us and has promised to help, but we ask from a position of victory. Victory is our new identity in Jesus. It is given to us as part of us. Victory is the hill we fight from. Colossians says that the Father has already conveyed us out from the kingdom of darkness and into the kingdom of the Son of His love. Ephesians says God has already seated us in Christ in the heavenly places. Not that it will happened, but that it already has happened. Reality is created by what God thinks and decides. And God thinks these are true for us, and so they are.

Strength is ours through Jesus’ atonement; it’s our definition. Paul doesn’t say to ask for God’s armour or ask to walk in His power; he says to put on the armour because you already have access to it, and to walk in the power because you already have access to it. You already have God’s strength, but you must take responsibility to put it on and use it. Ask for God’s help, but also use the power God has already given you.

Satan loves flipping the script, turning strength into some elusive prize behind a paywall of striving, begging, or “if it’s His will” nonsense. He wants you fighting on the wrong hill, seeing yourself as lacking. He wants you to view your identity as lacking this strength, so that you view yourself pushing and striving from a position of not having. He lures you to battle on the wrong hill, viewing yourself as deficient, scrambling from a place of lack, to get to a place of strength above you. That’s a hellish deception, designed to keep you in perpetual defeat.

You’ve got the shield of favor already strapped on and the sword of the Spirit (aka. Praying in tongues) in your mouth. Release His authority, release Jesus’ name that is already branded on your tongue. God is not the one withholding, He has already given you all blessings in Jesus. Do not fear, only believe.

God’s decrees secure our redemption, attributing Jesus’ wounds to our wholeness, His humility to our exaltation, His life surging through us. Affirming His faithfulness while wallowing in weakness? Sensation is the real fraud—your fleeting feelings and fatigue don’t dictate truth; faith in God’s revelation does.

Confess Philippians 4:13: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Command that weariness to bow – “Weakness, get out in Jesus’ name; strength, flow now.” Watch God back it up, like He did for Elijah, turning a drained prophet into a marathon man (1 Kings 18). Or Hezekiah, grabbing 15 extra years through faith-fueled appeal (Isa. 38). That’s your blueprint.

God’s strength isn’t a “someday” tease; it’s your now-reality through faith in His Word. Don’t be stupid and tempt God by never getting enough sleep, and then blame God’s inability to refresh you. Hear His Word, believe His Word, pray in tongues to encourage your inner man and receive the miracles to uplift you and yours. Do it from the place of victory Jesus has already given you. You do not need to fight to get to the hill of victory, because Jesus has already put you there. You need to catch up to reality and believe Him, because those walls will fall, as surely as the sun will rise.

*112 I consider this logical

I came across this idea today: “Many people argue that a good God must allow critical thinking and questioning of God. I consider this logical.”

This isn’t logical at all. Consider the law of contradiction, a foundational principle of logic. It states that something cannot be both true and false at the same time in the same sense. To affirm that it’s good to allow critical thinking and questioning of the law of contradiction itself is not logical or good—it’s actually anti-thinking. You cannot intelligently question the self-authenticating nature of the law of contradiction without relying on it to make your case. To question it is to use it; to deny it is to affirm it in the denial. Claiming that anti-thinking qualifies as critical thinking is a delusion, leading to insanity. The Bible commands us to have a sound mind, as in 2 Timothy 1:7 (NIV): “For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline” (or “sound mind” in other versions like NKJV). A sound mind aligns with God’s knowledge, logic, and syllogisms—faith itself is a sound syllogism rooted in divine revelation.

The same principle applies to Christianity. I don’t know how to intelligently question the biblical worldview without falling into anti-thinking and delusion. Questioning Christianity requires using elements it alone provides, like incorporeal knowledge, contradiction, identity, time, space, cause, difference and other aspects of intelligibility and public knowledge. Yet the Bible declares itself as the sole truth, with all others false. All necessities for intelligence—such as subjects and predicates and innate knowledge and the laws of identity and non-contradiction—converge only in the biblical system. John 1:1 (NIV) states, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Here, “Word” (Logos) means divine reasoning and logic itself, embodied in Jesus Christ. To question the basic laws of logic is to question Jesus who is the Logic, which is impossible without employing it. The Bible is self-authenticating revelation from God, providing substantial knowledge for all life. Any deviation from obeying God’s Word is a deviation from critical thinking itself. You cannot critically think while questioning God’s Word, because to do so uses the Word, yet the Word calls such questioning foolish and rebellious.

Job 38 (NIV) shows God responding to Job’s questions with divine authority: “Then the Lord spoke to Job out of the storm. He said: ‘Who is this that obscures my plans with words without knowledge? Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me. Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you understand.'” God doesn’t submit to human interrogation; He reveals truth, and we assent by faith. To say it’s good to allow questioning of God affirms it’s good to halt thinking altogether, reducing the mind to anti-logic and delusions. The biblical command is for a sound mind filled with God’s revelation.

By definition, critical thinking means obeying God’s Word and having faith in it—a sound syllogism applied from revealed premises. I consider this logical. Any stray from this, slams the brakes on thinking itself.

(As a reminder, Vincent Cheung has helped me with this specific type of presuppositionalism based only on scripture. Read his works for more.)

*113 Christ-Centered Prayers

Let’s talk about this trendy obsession with “Christ-centered” theology. Sounds holy, right? But hold up—sometimes these buzzwords get twisted into man-centeredness, no matter how spiritual they sound.

Being humble is not produced with fancy labels like “gospel-centered” or self-deprecating whiplashes. No. True humility kicks in when you ditch the sensation circus—your feelings, observations, all that empirical fluff—and grab hold of God’s Word as your sole knowledge factory. Cast off that inductive nonsense, believe what He straight-up says, and boom, you’re at humility’s peak. It’s like upgrading from a rusty bike to a rocket ship; suddenly, you’re soaring on faith (aka, a syllogism) straight from divine premises.

Now, doctrines like Christ-centeredness or that redemptive-historical hermeneutic? They can sparkle like diamonds when handled right, unveiling gems in the Bible. But in the grip of the faithless? They become ugly and transmute into demon dogmatics. Push them too far, and you’re forcing Scripture to dance to your tune, stripping its authority and handing the reins to control freaks who crave power over people. In fact, this is the end game for such perverted pastors. Christ-centeredness is a man-made doctrine to transfer the Bible’s authority over to man. That’s not faith; that’s faithlessness.

Take those complaints about modern worship songs from churches like Elevation or Vertical Worship—not being “Christ-centered” enough. Only a spirit straight out of the pit could have such sub-animalistic thinking. Flip through the Psalms and you will find plenty are not Christ-centered. Heck, many passages of Scripture zoom in on other truths without that spotlight. Imposing a “must-be-Christ-centered” rule is like demanding the Bible jump through hoops it never set for itself. To impose such a standard is to impose a standard that the Bible itself does not even impose on itself, nor demands we do.

Jesus’ extreme faith doctrine is focused on the will of man, not God’s will.

Then there’s Jesus dropping truth bombs in John 14-16. He doesn’t whisper, “discover God’s will and pray in My name for it to be done on earth.” No, that is not what He instructs here. He boldly declares, “Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it” (John 14:13-14). Or later: “Whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you… Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full” (John 16:23-24). Think about that carefully. Jesus’ extreme faith doctrine is focused on the will of man, not God. Jesus flips the script to your will, not just God’s. Use His name as your VIP pass to ask the Father for what you will. It’s man’s will in the driver’s seat, powered by Christ’s Name. He doesn’t say to seek and ask what God wills, and then pray for it in Jesus’ name; rather, He says to discover what you will, and then use Jesus’ name as a stepping stone to ask the Father to provide for you what you will.

If this is the type of Christocentric focus they want, then I have no quarrel with them.

As Jesus told Peter, who had a similar problem with God serving man, that “if Peter did not let God become Peter’s waiter, then God would become Peter’s executioner,” (paraphrased from Gabrial Arauto.)

*114 Have You Received the Spirit?

“Paul… reached Ephesus, on the coast, where he found several believers. “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” he asked them.” Acts 19:1-2

Paul rolls into Ephesus, spots some believers, and his first question isn’t about their theology creds or how they’re handling sin—it’s straight-up, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?”

So the first thing Paul does when finding some new believers, knowing nothing about their experience or theology education is to ask if they had received the Holy Spirit, which is the baptism of the Spirit for power (Act 1:4; ch 2). The original encounter is them speaking in tongues (Acts 2) and the other times we see this, as in this same Chapter 19 and with the gentiles Peter preached to, also showed speaking in tongues as the sign of being baptized in the Spirit.

Think about it. If you were to meet some Christians on your missionary journey, and you knew nothing about them, what would be the first thing you ask them? What doctrine and application would be the number one first importance to you? What doctrine is one doctrine you must get across to new to Christians at all cost, in case you might not see them again? Would it be the baptism of the Spirit for power. It was for Paul.

He did not first ask about the crucifixion of Jesus. He did not first ask about repentance. He did not first ask about knowing how sinful they were. He did not first asked about the resurrection of Jesus. Why? ‘Cause the gospel’s not just forgiveness; it’s Jesus swapping our mess for His mastery, including that Joel promise of dreams, visions, and wonders for all God calls to Himself (Acts 2:17-21, 39). Deny the Spirit’s splash for miracles? You’re basically mocking Jesus’ bloody climb to authority, acting like His throne’s just a fancy chair, not the source of kingdom conquest.

By asking about the receiving the Spirit He was by consequence making eschatology his priority because baptism of the Sprit is the application of eschatology. It is the application of Jesus sitting at the right hand of God and communicating with that Jesus Christ.

Maybe this is why we do not see the book of Acts type of church in our families and churches? We do not put first importance on the baptism of the Spirit above all other doctrines when meeting other Christians for the first time? And then after teaching the baptism of the Spirit and leading Christian to be baptized in power commanding them in the name of Jesus to eagerly seek the gifts even if they are abusing them?

Paul makes even Pentecostals look like cessationist as compared to his priority he book on receiving and growing in the Spirit. He even thanked God that he spoke more in tongues than the gift abusing Corinthians. Paul says that speaking in tongues leads to God edifying your inner man. Thus, by thanking God that he spoke in tongues more than them, he is thanking God that his inner man was more edified than theirs.

Maybe that’s why our churches look more like social clubs than Acts explosions—no fire because we’re skimping on the fuel.

This is the type of importance Paul placed on the baptism of the Spirit. Do you? If meeting believers fires you up to probe their power level first, you’re tracking with Paul. If not, time to rethink: is your eschatology man-centered politics or throne-powered punch?

*115 Confess It with Me—Father of Many Nations!

Confession of faith is foundational and non-negotiable in biblical Christianity—it’s not some optional add-on or “nice-to-have” for the super-spiritual elite. Scripture treats it as an ethic, a commanded way of life that flows straight from believing God’s promises. And where does it all start? With Abraham, of course.

Paul dubs Abraham “the father of all who believe” (Romans 4:11-16; Galatians 3:7, 29). His name change from Abram to Abraham—”father of a multitude of nations”—was God’s clever mandate for perpetual confession: “No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations” (Genesis 17:5).

Every time Sarah, his servants, neighbors, or random passersby called him “Abraham,” they were unwittingly confessing God’s impossible promise—years before Isaac even showed up. Abraham lived this daily, as Romans 4:17-21 describes: He “believed God… and gave glory to God” by calling things that weren’t as though they were. He didn’t waver over his century-old body (basically dead) or Sarah’s barren womb; he confessed the promise right in the face of reality.

Abraham basically forced everyone around him into the habit of speaking faith. His name was a walking, talking sermon: “Confess it with me—father of many nations.” That’s the ultimate Word of Faith Confession (WOFC) lifestyle. As I outlined in my Systematic Theology 2025 (pp. 603–610), Abraham’s confession wasn’t primarily about sin or forgiveness—it zeroed in on goodness, fruitfulness, healing, prosperity, fame, and supernatural favor. Forgiveness came later to lock in that original blessing package.

This is why Paul insists true children of Abraham do the same works (Romans 4:12; Galatians 3:7, 29). If we’re not confessing God’s promises against what we see, hear, or feel, we’re not walking in his footsteps.

How crucial is confession of faith? It’s not just important—it’s the heartbeat of Christianity, pulsing all the way back to Abraham, the OG father of faith (Romans 4). God didn’t just hand Abram a promise and call it a day; He rebooted his entire identity, turning him into a living billboard for the impossible. Every introduction, every shout across the tent—”Hey, Abraham!”—echoed the promise: “Father of many nations.” No kids in sight, bodies failing, yet his name was a bold, daily declaration that flipped off every visible fact. That’s not quiet belief; that’s aggressive, reality-bending confession. Abraham didn’t wait for circumstances to play catch-up—he spoke God’s word until the world aligned.

Paul echoes this in Romans 4:17-21: Abraham trusted the God who revives the dead and calls non-existent things into being. He didn’t waver in unbelief but grew stronger in faith, glorifying God and fully convinced of His power to deliver. The sequence? Believe first, then speak: “I believed, therefore I have spoken” (Psalm 116:10, echoed in 2 Corinthians 4:13). This isn’t a fluffy devotional hack; it’s the core ethic of the covenant. Confession means aligning with God’s reality over sensory illusions— not denying what your eyes see, but refusing to let it trump God’s word as the ultimate starting point for knowledge.

It’s not just Abraham’s story. It’s the blueprint for every believer grafted into his blessing through Christ (Galatians 3:13-14, 29). Romans 10:9-10 spells it out for salvation: “If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Heart and mouth team up; confession seals it. But it doesn’t end there—Jesus amps it up in Mark 11:23: Speak to the mountain, believe without doubt, and watch it splash into the sea. Say it. Believe it. Receive it. The faith that justified Abraham unlocks healing, provision, victory—every “yes” promise in Christ—when we confess it against the odds.

Too many Christians treat confession like a polite suggestion, whispering hopes while belting out complaints, then scratching their heads when mountains don’t budge. (Pro tip: Mountains aren’t great listeners unless you speak faith at them.) But Abraham? His name shouted the promise every time it was uttered. We follow suit by confessing God’s Word over sickness, lack, fear, or failure—not ignoring reality, but upgrading it to God’s premium version.

Speak it relentlessly, daily, even publicly if it fits. Make the world echo the promise back, Abraham-style. It’s not arrogance; it’s obedience to the faith patriarch. And hey, if it feels a bit cheeky, remember: God started it by renaming a childless old guy “Dad of Nations.” Divine humor and triumphalism at its finest.

In short, confession is everything. It’s how we embody our new identity as sons and daughters, claim Abraham’s blessing, and advance the kingdom. Don’t muzzle God by staying silent or confessing weakness—proclaim His strength, favor, and finished work. You’re not chasing the promise; it’s chasing your agreement.

Let’s crank up the volume on what God’s already declared. Your confession today blueprints your tomorrow, because faith doesn’t whisper—it speaks. This is why Word of Faith Confession isn’t “name-it-claim-it” gimmickry; it’s the primordial orthodoxy of God’s people, from the first believer onward.

Bottom line: Confession of faith is as vital as faith itself, because Scripture doesn’t split them—faith naturally spills out in words. They are the antecedent and consequence of a necessary logic. If you have one, you have the other. Abraham lived it. Jesus commanded it. The apostles rocked it. The church is built on it (Matthew 16:18—”on this rock” = Peter’s bold confession). If we’re silent or parroting what we see instead of what God said, we’re not living as Abraham’s kids.

Live a life of confessing God’s promises so infectiously that you rope everyone around you into it. Be like Abraham, the Father of Faith. And if anyone rolls their eyes, just smile—after all, it worked out pretty well for him.

*116 The Spirit Is Spirit

I saw someone commit the unforgivable sin today in a random FB post. Regarding speaking in tongues they said, “speaking in tongues does not lead you from the carnal into the spiritual realm, it leads from you being spiritual into being carnal. Study the letter to the church at Corinth; there, Paul says it’s the least of the gifts.”

With such a person I would never waste time talking to them, or even befriending them. They have no present or future. They have lost all hope of forgiveness after blaspheming the Spirit.

To claim tongues is “least” and thus dispensable violates the law of non-contradiction: either all manifestations are needed, or none are, but Paul affirms all. If tongues were “least” or led to the carnal, Paul contradicts himself by desiring it for all and practicing it most. Scripture cannot contradict itself, since Jesus is the Logos. If praying in tongues takes you out of the Spirit, and into being carnal, then Paul was the most carnal Christian there was. This is the insane looney world that unbelief puts people into.

Tongues is utterance by the Spirit (14:2)—he who speaks in a tongue speaks “not to men but to God…mysteries in the Spirit.” This is direct spiritual communion, edifying the inner man (Jude 20; 14:4). It builds up faith, sharpens the mind for the helmet of salvation and sword of the Spirit (Ephesians 6), and keeps one in God’s love. Far from leading “from spiritual to carnal,” it is purely spiritual operation that produces spiritual strength and often flows into interpretation, prophecy, and miracle power. To call it carnal denies the Spirit’s work and likely risks blasphemy (Matthew 12:31-32).

Paul identifies speaking in tongues as a direct manifestation of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:7-11), given “for the common good” as the Spirit wills. He commands, “Do not forbid speaking in tongues” (14:39), and describes it as speaking “to God…mysteries in the Spirit” (14:2)—pure spiritual operation, not human invention. To assert that tongues “leads from spiritual to carnal” is to declare that what Scripture calls a work of the Holy Spirit is in fact fleshly (carnal). This directly denies the Spirit’s agency and attributes His operation to the flesh.

By the law of non-contradiction (upheld by Christ the Logos, who cannot lie nor deny Himself, Titus 1:2; Hebrews 6:18), the same act cannot be both a manifestation of the Spirit and merely carnal. The statement chooses “carnal,” thereby speaking against the Holy Spirit—exactly parallel to the Pharisees who, seeing the Spirit’s power, called it demonic or unworthy. Whether one labels the Spirit’s work “carnal,” “psychological,” “demonic,” or “least/inferior” in a way that rejects its divine origin, the effect is the same: rejection of the Spirit’s testimony about Himself.

The Spirit Is Spirit; why do I need to explain this to adults? The statement in question is not neutral exegesis; it reverses Paul’s teaching and demotes a commanded spiritual gift to something fleshly and downward-pulling. On Scripture’s own terms, this is not harmless error—it is the very attitude Jesus pronounced unforgivable when persistently held against clear divine operation.

Pursue love—and eagerly desire spiritual gifts (14:1). Tongues is not least; it is commanded, coveted by Paul, and a direct line to God’s throne for personal edification and greater power. Forbid it, and you forbid Scripture and your soul along with it.

*117 Mortal Flesh Animated By The Spirit of God

Romans 8:11 hits like a thunderclap straight from heaven: “If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.”

The old man you used to be? Dead and buried. That guy lived locked under the law of sin and death—a merciless law with zero opt-out. The curse God put on the earth didn’t just make the ground fight back and bodies decay; it ripped man away from God’s life. Suddenly all you had was human strength in a world rigged against you. Combine that with a curse actively animating your mortal flesh and it was devastating. Doctors and medicine operate right there in that old system. They patch up the body using its own depleted ability to heal itself because that’s all the old man ever had—human limits trapped inside the curse

But you are not that guy anymore.

You are a brand-new creation. The old is gone. The curse and the law of sin and death no longer animate your body—the Spirit of the living God does! Jesus already became your curse for you. That means your “human limits” got evicted when the old tenant died. The same resurrection power blasting Jesus out of the tomb is now pumping life through your mortal flesh right now. Your body is not being moved by mere human ability trapped in decay; it is being animated and sustained by God Himself.

Here’s the real problem with leaning on doctors and medicine as your main lens. The Bible doesn’t condemn them, but you’ll hunt in vain for any real endorsement as the go-to for God’s people. Why? The new creation isn’t defined by the old way. Doctors can only tell you what human limits can do under the curse. They look at scans and symptoms and treat you like you’re still that old man—still animated by decay and weakness. They have zero category for a body powered by the Holy Spirit.

Stick with that long enough and it trains your thinking into a carnal habit. It keeps teaching you to define yourself as if the curse still rules, as if you’re still the dead man walking. It’s the exact same trap people fall into with guilt. They refuse to let the old man stay dead, so they drag around a conscience of sin instead of the righteous, Spirit-animated one Jesus gave them. Same with sickness. Same with lack.

Until you stop agreeing with any definition of yourself that died on the cross and start declaring the new creation reality, you’ll stay stuck with a conscience full of sin, sickness, poverty, and death. The New Testament commands you to renew your mind in the knowledge of Christ. The fact that God commands it means you can do it—and you will.

You’re not some weak victim of human limits. You’re a hero of faith in Christ, with God’s own resurrection life surging through your veins. Rise up, renew your mind, and start speaking life over this body every single day. The power is already in you!

*118 He Must Increase

“I must decrease so that Jesus must increase.”

Sounds pious enough, doesn’t it? So pious the faithless love quoting it like it’s spiritual candy. They chew on it, nod solemnly, post it with sunset filters, and then go right back to living powerless, prayerless, and unchanged. But unfortunately it’s wasted breath on faith-fumblers who treat the Bible like a manual for masochism instead of the living command of the King.

John the Baptist said it in a very specific context—pointing crowds away from himself to the Lamb of God. Nothing wrong with moralizing the principle now that Jesus is seated at the right hand of power. The real question is: how did the believers in Acts actually decrease so Jesus could increase?

They didn’t do it by trying harder to be humble. They didn’t do it by endless navel-gazing and “dying to self” seminars. Jesus commanded them, “Wait in the city until you are clothed with power from on high” (Luke 24:49). Then the baptism of power hit like a holy freight train. “And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance” (Acts 2:4 ESV). The Spirit surged in, and the flesh got displaced. Boldness replaced fear. Miracles replaced excuses. Tongues replaced timid prayers. Jesus increased because the same power that raised Him from the dead was now overflowing through ordinary people who simply obeyed.

That’s what real humbleness looks like. Not a religious performance of decreasing yourself through willpower, but obeying the Commander who said, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you” (Acts 1:8). The more the Spirit increases, the more the old man decreases—automatically. It’s physics in the spiritual realm. Fill a glass with water and the air has to go somewhere. Fill a believer with the tangible power of God and the fleshly thinking, the doubt, the weakness, the religious show—it all gets pushed out.

The faithless hate this because they don’t have the faith to believe and obey Jesus on this point. They’d rather stay in their safe little “decrease by discipline” theology where nothing actually changes and nobody gets healed or delivered. They mock the power baptism, call tongues weird, and act like miracles are for first-century superstars only. Meanwhile the rest of us are out here watching Jesus increase through us by signs, wonders, and everyday believers who refuse to live below the command.

Listen, the gospel isn’t God showing off man’s humility. The gospel is God showing off His Son’s power through us. So stop quoting John 3:30 like a bumper sticker and start obeying the last thing Jesus told us to do before He ascended—get filled. Pray in tongues until the overflow starts. Lay hands on the sick like it’s the most normal thing in the world. Speak to mountains like they have ears. Watch what happens when the Spirit increases and you decrease the only way that actually works.

Jesus is ready to increase in your life today in ways that make the faithless clutch their pearls. The only question is—are you ready to obey?

*119 GOD’S WORD IS HIS WILL

Think about that. Really sit with it. If you deny it, you’re forced to say God’s Word is not His will. And since we only know God through His Word—His self-authenticating revelation—then we could never know His will at all. What an insane world that would be. Like trying to read a map that keeps rewriting itself based on how you feel today. Fleshly thinking loves that chaos because it lets you dodge responsibility. But Scripture doesn’t play games. God’s Word is His will, full stop. No qualifiers, no hidden escape clauses. For those with faith, that is the best sort of news

Look at what His Word actually says. James 5:15 (ESV): “And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up.” Not “might,” not “if it’s My will.” It will. Same sovereignty that guarantees forgiveness when you confess also guarantees healing when you pray in faith. Same chapter, same promise. You can’t slice one out without slicing the other. Jesus Himself said in Mark 11:24 (NIV): “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” John 14:12-14 (NIV) doubles down: “Whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these… You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.”

If God’s Word is His will, then it is always His will for the prayer of faith to raise the sick. It is always His will for you to ask in faith and receive. It is always His will for believers to do greater works than Jesus did on earth—if you believe. Deny that and you’ve just admitted you can’t know God’s will at all. If this cannot be admitted, the it is impossible to know God’s will at all, because it would mean God’s Word is not His will.

God’s word is not theory it is His will. The centurion got it. He understood authority: his word made servants move, so Jesus’ word makes reality move. Jesus called that great faith. James pointed to Elijah turning rain on and off like a faucet—same human as us, same God. Peter preached election and immediately applied it to receiving the baptism of the Spirit. They didn’t theorize sovereignty; they commanded results with it.

Stop the sensory nonsense. Stop the “if it be Thy will” cop-out that turns bold promises into maybe-so prayers. That’s not humility; that’s unbelief wearing a religious mask. God’s Word already revealed His will. Believe it. Speak it. Act on it. The same Spirit that raised Jesus lives in you. The same authority that made mountains obey Jesus now belongs to you.

You must come to this crucial decision. Is God’s Word His Will? If not, then you cannot know anything about God’s will and so stop trying to know God at all. But if so, then all the wonderful things Jesus promised are true. All the things Jesus said about faith are true. Thus, right now, wherever you are, pray in faith for that healing, that breakthrough, that greater work. Confess it. Expect it. His Word is His will, and His will is to give you more than you even know how to ask.

*120 God who is too wise to err

The God who authors every circumstance is the same God who commands faith and rewards every single act of it with overwhelming victory. He is the only real cause in reality—period. In the ultimate sense He sends the disappointment, the hardship, the heartbreak; He decrees it all because everything is by His direct and absolute sovereign cause. Yet on the relational level—the level where you and I actually live as beloved sons—He has already written the script so that your faith turns that same disappointment into a victory so ridiculous it makes the devil look like he showed up to a gunfight with a limp noodle.

Look at Moses again, because the Bible never lets us forget how this works. Sea in front, chariots thundering behind, people screaming like they just realized their vacation was cancelled forever. Moses did not whimper, “Lord, help me endure this disappointment with longsuffering knowing you are in control of it.” No. He lifted the rod and told the water to get out of the way. He saw the invisible God who had already decreed deliverance before Pharaoh ever woke up that morning. That is not a special-case miracle for Old Testament superstars. That is the normal, expected, glorious existence of every single person born from above.

The Christian life is supposed to be the kind where mountains pack their bags and leave when you speak, demons file for unemployment, sickness checks out of the hotel of your body, and provision shows up like Uber Eats from heaven. Every visible obstacle is under orders to yield to the one who refuses to stop looking at the invisible Sovereign. Anything less is not “mature endurance”; it is just unbelief wearing a fake beard and calling itself deep.

False teachers hate this. They spit the words “presumption,” “name-it-and-claim-it,” “prosperity gospel” like they just bit into a lemon soaked in vinegar. Cute. What they are actually attacking is the faith once for all delivered to the saints—the same faith the apostles lived and the early church multiplied by the thousands. It is what Jesus commanded when He said, “All things are possible to him who believes” (Mark 9:23). Not “some things.” Not “spiritual things only.” All things. The same Jesus who became poor so you could be rich, who carried your sicknesses so you could walk in health, who was condemned so you would never be—He is not up there changing the rules because some seminary professor got his feelings hurt.

So when disappointment knocks on your door wearing that smug little grin, do not invite it in for tea and a theology lesson about “suffering under God’s hand knowing that God is in control,” like a Hindu drunk on fatalism. See the invisible God who sent it, then command it to leave in the name of Jesus like you actually believe He is Lord of the circumstance. When hardship presses in like a bully at recess, do not romanticize it with flowery journal entries about “what God is teaching me.”

Recognize the sovereign hand behind it—yes, God caused it in the ultimate sense—but then relate to God and reality exactly as He commanded: exercise the faith that moves the trouble out of your way. When heartache threatens to crush your chest, remember the God who is too wise to err and too loving to be unkind has already promised beauty for ashes, joy for mourning, and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness (Isa. 61:3). Claim it. Speak it. You will have the good things you say, because Jesus became your sanctification and your faith is perfected by the One who started it.

This is the endurance that never fails—because it is not endurance in weakness; it is overcoming in power. The believer who knows his God does not beg; he receives. He does not grovel; he reigns. He does not limp through life hoping for a participation trophy; he walks in the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead and makes demons scream.

May the Lord open our eyes to see Him who is invisible more clearly every single day. May He deliver us from the caution of unbelief that dresses up like wisdom and fill us instead with the bold, declarative, mountain-moving faith that honors His sovereignty by taking Him at His word. This is the life God has given us. Anything less is just faithlessness with better lighting.

Now go lift your rod. The sea is waiting to obey a man with faith. A man with faith is never at the mercy of circumstances; rather, circumstance are always subservient to a man with faith.

*121 Sick and Demonized—It’s Dinner Time, Saints

Matthew 9:35–38 (NKJV) Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.”

It is interesting when we think about what Jesus meant by harvest, right? Growing up, preachers seemed to only look at passages like this as a proof text for evangelism—to go share the gospel with our co-workers. Now, that would include it; however, what Jesus says here is much more than that. The context is about preaching the good news of the kingdom, and Jesus healing every sickness and every disease. The context is not preaching repentance specifically, although that would be included. The context is the good news of the kingdom.

What is this kingdom? Jesus said that if He casts out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom has come upon you. Thus, when Jesus is talking about kingdom He means exactly that—Kingdom power that advances and occupies. Jesus applies this to casting out demons and healing, which often happened when demons were cast out. This is the good news of the kingdom. The original passage bears this out because Jesus’ kingdom preaching was healing all who were sick.

Now consider Jesus’ remark about seeing the context of Him preaching the kingdom and enforcing God’s kingdom in the physical realm by healing as a “harvest” ready to be gathered. This is like Joshua saying about the inhabitants of Canaan, they are bread for us. Joshua did not fear, but looked at destroying giants and fortified cities as food—as donuts and coffee. Jesus is saying a similar thing about the harvest. All the sick and demon-possessed people were a food-gathering harvest for Jesus. Seeing a sea of sickness and demons did not bring fear, but a hunger to harvest and eat.

This is the vision and attitude Christians need to look at sickness and demons with today. The idea of fear for a new creation is long gone. We do not fear; for that was part of the old man that died. There is a new vision for a child of God. Sickness and demons are food to be harvested for the expansion of God’s kingdom and conquering the spiritual and the physical.

That’s why the centurion stunned Jesus: “Just say the word and reality obeys.” That’s why Peter tied election straight to the baptism of the Spirit—power now. That’s why James said the prayer of faith will make the sick person well, guaranteed. This is the full Good News: Jesus bore our sicknesses in His body, became poor so we could be rich, and now commands us to harvest what He already paid for. The atonement isn’t partial; it’s total. The Kingdom isn’t begging—it’s feasting.

Stop seeing the hospital beds or tormented people like the devil is winning. He’s not. He’s serving us lunch. The old man who feared is dead. The new creation sees opportunity. Reality obeys the command of faith the same way those soldiers obeyed the centurion. Sickness bows. Demons pack their bags. The Kingdom advances.

The harvest is plentiful. The power is already in you through the baptism of the Spirit. Let’s stop praying the verse and be the laborers who actually understand the Kingdom. Find one sick person today. Find one tormented soul. Look them in the eye and declare, “The Kingdom has come near—be healed in Jesus’ name!” Watch the harvest come in. That’s how we expand. That’s how we show the world the King is alive and His sons are eating the giants for breakfast.

All things are possible for the one who believes. The table is set. Pass the hot sauce and let’s eat.

*122 It’s a Sin Not to Be Healed by Faith

Stop the Category Blunders, Saints

Listen up. The Bible doesn’t play games with categories. Jesus hammered home God’s absolute sovereignty – ultimate level, where He moves everything directly like the Master of the chessboard. “You did not choose Me, but I chose you.” But then, right in the same breath, He switches to the relative level and says your faith will save you, your faith will heal you, and whatever you ask in My name, the Father will give it.

That’s not contradiction; that’s divine precision. All material blessings flow from the spiritual ones we already possess in Christ. Healing? It starts as a done deal in the atonement – “He bore our sicknesses.” Wealth? “He became poor so you could be rich.” Righteousness? “He became sin so we become God’s righteousness.” These are commands to receive by faith in the relative realm where we operate.

James doesn’t mince words. Sick? Call the elders for the prayer of faith that WILL save the sick and raise them up. Lack wisdom? Ask in faith without doubting, or don’t expect a thing. If you pray with doubt and stay sick or stupid, you’ve sinned against the command to believe. It’s the same as not repenting in faith for forgiveness. Paul commands all men everywhere to repent and believe – no excuses.

Look at the centurion. He got sovereignty right at the relative level: “Just say the word and my servant will be healed,” because reality obeys Jesus like soldiers obey orders. Jesus called that great faith! Peter applied election straight to the baptism of power. James skipped Nehemiah’s hidden providence and pointed to Elijah turning rain on and off like a faucet. “The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power.”

Yet here come the theologians and pastors, committing category errors faster than a reprobate dodging tongues. In the context of faith for healing (relative/material), they drag in ultimate sovereignty – “Well, God might have decreed this sickness for His glory” – and blur the lines like mixing oil and water. That’s not wisdom; that’s twisting the Word and sinning. It’s like saying grace is works. Stupid and sinful. The antecedent ain’t the consequent!

God’s sovereignty guarantees the certainty of both forgiveness AND healing when asked in faith. Don’t waste the gospel by unbelief. Your faith moves real mountains. Reality obeys the sons of God.

Stop tiptoeing around like spiritual paupers. March to the throne as co-heirs. Ask, believe you receive, and watch the tangible power hit your body and bank account. The same Spirit that raised Jesus lives in you!

Who’s ready to stop the sin of doubt and receive what Jesus already purchased? Faith isn’t optional – it’s the victory that overcomes the world. Do it now. God is boasting about those who believe.

*122 Absolute Sovereignty in Application

It is sad—downright hilarious, actually—when Arminians, who in their fancy doctrinal statements deny God’s sovereignty left and right, somehow manage in everyday life to affirm God’s absolute sovereignty and decree better than a whole crowd of Calvinists who’ve been arguing about it for 500 years.

Take Joseph Prince in that one little clip (starting at 4:00 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GONV8BO7rxc)). The man outshines most Calvinists while they’re still arguing over the order of the decrees. Commercials are designed to make you live by sight, and not by faith. Health surveys hit you with “one in ten will get cancer” and suddenly you’re supposed to bow your head like that’s wisdom. Nope. That’s not living by faith in Isaiah 53, by whose strips we were healed. That’s living by induction and empiricism—the same pathetic anti-logic the world runs on. Doing what Joseph is talking about here would force you, every single day, to affirm God’s unbreakable promise, His ironclad decree, and the absolute authority of His Word over man, over symptoms, and over that superstition called “common sense.”

I heard Benny Hinn say it the other day and it hit like a sledgehammer:

“Healing comes when you find God’s Word more real than your symptoms.”

One sentence. That’s Christian epistemology, metaphysics, and ethics in a single mic drop. If you can write a 10,000-page book on how sovereign God is and another 20,000-page monster with 100,000 perfectly ordered supralapsarian decrees, yet you’ve barely seen answered prayer, a real miracle, or the baptism of power in your own life in the last twenty years… congratulations. Your doctrines just became very expensive wallpaper. You don’t believe them. You’re doing exactly what the religious leaders did in Jesus’ day—surrounding yourself with the Word while secretly despising the very thing you claim to love.

I now use this as my quick-and-dirty test for any theologian or layperson:

Do you affirm or deny the doctrine of God’s absolute and direct sovereignty through His promises in everyday life application?

Seriously—what is the use in shouting “God is sovereign! God is in control!” if you’ve barely applied it once in twenty years? That’s not theology. That’s theological cosplay.

The centurion in Matthew 8 had no seminary degree, but he understood something most “sovereignty experts” still don’t: reality obeys Jesus the same way servants obey their master. Jesus was amazed and upgraded the miracle on the spot. Peter took election and slammed it straight into the baptism of the Spirit. James grabbed sovereignty over tomorrow and turned it into guaranteed healing by the prayer of faith and wisdom received without doubting. Jesus Himself tied predestination to “ask whatever you wish in My name and you will receive it.”

True sovereignty is not some vague mysticism. It is faith that makes Isaiah 53, 2 Corinthians 5:7, and Mark 11:24 your daily, tangible reality. The promises are more real than the symptoms. The Word is more real than the report. The decree is more real than the diagnosis.

Anything less is just religious theater. And the curtain is about to drop.

*123 What God Actually Delivers

Hold up, fam — Jesus didn’t whisper polite suggestions. He dropped the ultimate mic-drop faith bomb statements: “Whatever you ask, it will be given to you.”

No wiggle room. No escape hatches. Just straight-up category logic that slaps harder than a double espresso on Monday morning.

Here’s the simple truth using basic categories: ALL things you ask for (in faith, in His name, abiding in Him) are things God gives you. Period. Every single request falls inside the big circle labeled “God Gives It.”

Picture this Euler diagram in your head — the little circle of “Whatever You Ask” is completely swallowed up by the giant circle of “What God Actually Delivers.” No overlap issues. No leftover crumbs outside the promise. It’s airtight. ALL A is B, and that B is massive. NONE of your asks are left out. What we learn is what you ask is what God delivers.

One massive consequence from, what you ask, is what you get is this: what you believe God will do for you is what God will do for you.

Jesus did NOT say something weak like, “If you ask, I will give an answer.” That would mean ALL asks get some kind of response — maybe a yes, maybe a no, maybe a maybe later. That could leave tons of room for disappointment and doubt. But our King doesn’t play that game. He said the strongest thing possible: Whatever you ask, it will be given. ALL requests in line with man’s will are granted . NONE are denied. SOME preachers soften it, but Jesus went maximum strength.

No “name it and claim it” preacher on the planet can express Jesus’ extreme faith doctrine more extremely than Jesus Himself did. He already maxed it out. They can hype it up, but they’re just repeating what the Master already said.

And He didn’t say it once and ghost — He repeated this same extreme force over and over so we couldn’t miss it! Check Mark 11:24: “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” Boom — ALL your prayed asks? They’re already yours in the “given” category. NONE left hanging. Not some. But all. Or John 15:7: “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” ALL wishes in that abiding circle get done. No “some” exceptions. Then John 14:13-14 hits even harder: “Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do.” Straight category lock — ALL asks in His name land in the done-and-delivered zone. Jesus stacked these promises like divine dynamite because He wants us locked in, not fumbling around with doubt.

Matthew 21:21-22 NIV

Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and it will be done. If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.”

The religious elites and servants of the Faithless One? They twist it into “Well, God answers with a yes, no, or maybe… or He gives you what He thinks is best instead.” Nah. That’s not what the King said. Jesus went full radical — the strongest possible statement in easy category premises — because He’s not playing games with His words.

And get this: the same Jesus who spoke these unbreakable promises is sitting on the throne RIGHT NOW at the right hand of power. He’s the One who’s gonna call every account when the books open. The promises and the judgment come from the exact same mouth.

This isn’t fluffy inspiration. It’s judicial-level truth from the Judge Himself. So when you pray, believe like the logic demands — because the Author of the promise is also the Finisher of your faith.

Here is the regular and common aspect of this. Standing on these exact words IS the highest form of reverence you can give the King. The faithless crowd adds their little “but maybe” clauses because deep down they’re scared or doubting. But true fear of the Lord? It means taking Jesus at His word without chopping it up to fit our unbelief. ALL your bold asks belong in God’s massive “YES” category — that’s the Lord’s Will He set up Himself. No twisting allowed. It’s not vague hoping, it’s locking into the promise like it’s already done.

I’m telling you, when you pray like this — no hedging, no safety nets — you’re honoring the throne-sitter who’s coming back to settle every account.

*124 The Pull-Out Game

You can’t turn Onan’s story into a divine smackdown on family planning in every possible way. Sounds intense, right? Like God’s running a cosmic hit list for anyone who isn’t going full “multiply and fill the earth” mode with nonstop baby-making sex, all while sovereignly letting the Lord decide exactly how many kids you get.

But since we’re diving into this the Bible’s own way—starting from Scripture as the rock-solid foundation, where Jesus is the Logos (pure logic itself, John 1:1) and everything flows deductively from what God actually reveals—we’re not smuggling in extra rules from culture, majority opinion, or lab stats. No induction games. Just straight deduction from the words on the page.

Here’s the scene in Genesis 38, straight from the source: Judah tells Onan, “Go in to your brother’s wife and perform the duty of a brother-in-law to her; raise up offspring for your brother” (v. 8). Why? Big brother Er died childless, and this levirate custom (later spelled out in Deuteronomy 25) was all about preserving the dead guy’s name, inheritance, and line in Israel.

Onan’s response? He knew any kid would legally count as Er’s, not his—so “when he went in to his brother’s wife, he spilled the semen on the ground, lest he should give offspring to his brother” (v. 9). Boom: “What he did was wicked in the sight of the Lord, and he put him to death” (v. 10).

The sin isn’t some blanket “playing outside the rules to avoid kids” in marriage. The text pins it squarely on his refusal of that specific commanded duty—disobeying his father’s direct order and sabotaging the family lineage tied to God’s covenant promises. It’s rebellion against clear authority in that exact context.

Later, Deuteronomy 25:5-10 keeps the levirate rule but swaps the death penalty for public shaming if you bail—no automatic lightning bolt from heaven. You can’t logically leap from “Onan got zapped for dodging his brother’s heir” to “every birth control method ever, in any context, is an audacious act that God punishes with cancer or car wrecks.” That’s smuggling more information into the conclusion than the premises actually provide.

Genesis 2:18 establishes that marriage is first for companionship and oneness (hello, pleasure in sex)—“It is not good for the man to be alone.” Being “one flesh” is about deep unity. Paul in 1 Corinthians 7 treats sex in marriage as mutual pleasure and duty (verses 3-5), not a baby-making quota, and even notes that some people are better off single. This companionship and pleasurable oneness also pictures the union of Christ and the church. Children come third.

No verse anywhere says, “Thou shalt never plan your family or God will smite thee with a traffic accident.” That’s injecting fear where the text actually gives freedom under God’s sovereignty. The command in Genesis 1:28 is a “Corporate Creational Ordinance” (see my essay “The Corporate Creational Ordinance”), not an individual marching order.

Let’s be crystal clear: Nowhere in Scripture does God command married couples to have frequent, unprotected sex so He can “sovereignly decide” how many kids to hand out. That conclusion crams way more into Genesis than is actually there. It never entered the mind of God or the pen of the biblical writers. It’s an extra-biblical premise that quietly turns a corporate blessing into an individual obligation.

What this shows us is that if someone starts with the wrong presupposition about Genesis 1:28—treating it as a personal command for maximum baby production—it’s no wonder they read Onan’s story as a proof-text that any form of family planning will be met with God’s vengeance.

Christian marriage and sex are about that deep oneness and pleasure God designed, not some nonstop unprotected baby factory where God alone calls all the shots. The Bible never adds that extra rule. Children are a blessing, but they come third in the biblical order.

According to the actual words of the text (not even needing the broader context), Onan’s issue was straight-up disobedience to his father and failing the levirate duty to honor the family line. It’s not framed as a universal “birth control = instant death warrant” for modern marriages. The text gives zero room for the speculative leap that “avoiding kids means you’re attracting sudden death.”

Stretching the text past what the words allow is exactly what we’re warned against. Bible worldview on its own terms? God’s authority is real, but He reveals it precisely. Fun fact: if we deduce from the whole counsel of Scripture, the real “challenge to His authority” is rewriting His commands to fit our favorite soapbox.

Stay grounded in the Word. Interpretation rule #1: Read the actual words. (Yes, this is more important than context in the most basic sense.) And there’s nothing wrong with proof-texting—the Bible does it all the time—but it only works if your overall systematic theology is solid to begin with. Wrong categories and commands upfront? Proof-texting will just make the mess worse.

*100

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