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I HAVE HEARD YOUR PRAYER: Faith is Certainty

God will often just say, “I have heard you,” or “I am able.” God will say this in context, where we are told in modern theology, we need to know the “will of God,” or we need to know that God will give a “yes” from possible combination of “yes, no or maybe.” Yet, God will just say “I have heard you,” “I have the ablity.” Why are the pastors so contradictive to the word of God as if their life depends on it? Why does Jesus, the prophets and apostles sound opposite to our pastors and theologians? Since what they say is a contradiction, then they both cannot be right. Who is wrong?

Faith is certainty.

Hebrews 11 says, faith is absolutely certain in what it hopes for. In fact, the Greek word means “reality, or substance.” A paraphrased meaning would mean, faith is the reality of things hoped for. Faith sees the invisible things promised and faith makes them reality. Faith changes the invisible promise of God into material substance. So of course faith is certain in what it hopes for, it makes the invisible reality. Hebrews 11 is a long list of faith making the invisible into reality. The chapter shows the certainty of God’s promise that surged in the hearts of these heroes. Abraham had certainty in the particular outcome of a son and God’s favor in his life. Abraham was not wishfully hoping for a multitude of options that God might or might not grant him. The same with all the other heroes of faith.

The big takeaway from this is simple. Faith is not a wishful hope of possible outcomes; rather, faith is the absolute certainty of a particular outcome promised by God.  Thus, when we hear some moron say, “God answers prayer by a yes, no, or maybe,” we know they are a servant of the faithless. It is not possible to have certainty in a particular outcome, if you are also saying there are many possible outcomes. Even Jesus appealed to the logic of contradiction, thus, you must not have even a hint of it in your theology. It is a contradiction to say God will give certainty give me ‘x’ when I pray, and then affirm God might give me x, y or z when I pray. Even a child is more intelligence than this. Maybe that is why Jesus told us to have faith like a child. If a parent says to their small child that they will have their favorite meal tonight, the child believes they will have the particular outcome tonight, and not 15 possible food outcomes.

If you say God might give me a “yes, no or maybe,” then by definition you cannot have faith as defined by Hebrews 11:1, which says faith is certainty. The rest of the chapter defines this certainty in a particular outcome, not many.

This is easily demonstrated with the forgiveness of sins. If you say you can ask God for the forgiveness of sin, through Christ, in faith, and God will answer by a “yes, not, or maybe,” you have contradicted the definition of faith. That is, even though you used the word “faith” in your statement, you used a context that contradicts its meaning. You cannot by definition have certainty God will forgive your sins (a particular outcome) and at the same time say God will answer you with a “yes, no or maybe.” No, you do NOT have certainty God will forgive sins, but to sound humble, you say it in a confusing way to make it look you have faith to others when you really do not.

Most will see in the example of the forgiveness of sins, that it is hypocrisy to say you have certainty and at the same time say God might not forgive you. However, many play the part of a spiritual pervert and will apply the hypocrisy to things like healing and answers to prayers about everyday difficulties.  The bible defines faith as certainty, but when it comes to healing, which is a promise and a promised based on the substitutionary atonement of Jesus—just like forgiveness, then God will answer with a yes, not or maybe.

If you pray for healing and think God can answer with a few possible answers, then by definition of Hebrew 11, you do NOT have faith. You cannot be healed thinking like this, unless God shows you kindness and heals you despite your unbelief.

If there is any doubt, any uncertainty, any nubilous outcomes, anything less than the invisible being reality, it is not faith. Anyone who affirms any of the above teaches a doctrine of faithlessness. Abandon such a person or organization.

I Have Heard Your Prayer:

“Then Isaiah sent a message to Hezekiah:

“This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says:

I have heard your prayer...”

That night the angel of the Lord went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand in the Assyrian camp.” (2 Kings 19:20,35 NIV)

“And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—
we know that we have what we asked of him.” (1 John 5:15 NIV)

“And they will stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand.” (Romans 14:4 NIV)

“To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy.” (Jude 1:24. NIV).

Whether it is God’s promise of blessing, fame, healing, and prosperity to Abraham (which we have in Christ-Gal. 3) or promises of safety from the terror that stalks at night (Psalm 91), or safety in sanctification (Jude 1:24), or delivered from sickness (James 5:15), God’s policy is rudimentary: if He is able, then He will do it. If God hears us, then we have what we asked.

The context that makes this work is that God loves us. As Christians, God has revealed He loves us. He has promised to never stop from doing good to us, in both spiritual and material blessings.

Think about marriage. Imagine a marriage of 40 years of faithfulness, love and joy. Now imagine the wife calling her husband at 2 am at night, waking him up from sleep and says, “Honey, my car just broke down on the side of the road, I’m afraid.” What do you think the husband will say? Will he give a 10-minute speech about his love for her? Most likely not. Why? Because in the context of this faithful marriage, they already know that. Rather, the husband will likely respond with, “Where are you, I’ll pick you up.” Because he loves her, he will help his wife, because he is able. Because the husband heard her request for help,” it is as good as done.

This is what God is doing, when He says in our passages, “I am able, I’ll do it.” This is what John means when he says, “if God hears you, your prayer is answered.” He shouldn’t have to repeat with every interaction with a 50 page essay that He loves us. He has already proven that with His Son’s atonement, and covenant. Even though many Christians struggle with receiving God’s love, the way God and the bible interacts with people it assumes we understand how great God’s love is for us.

Jesus was excessive about healing people and then saying over and over in the gospels, “if you ask in faith, you will get it.” Or that is, “If you are stranded on the road, and call me (this calling is faith), I will be there; I will pick you up just like you asked of me.” Jesus made answers to prayers to be anything you “want,” whether spiritual or material, with a special emphasis on healing.

The immature are still struggling with know how much God truly loves them. This is why they contradict themselves when they talk about faith and prayer. For the bible, love is not the issue, in the sense it assumes we get it. The Bible assumes the important issue is about ablity and power, and because God has infinity ablity, your prayers are as good as done. This does not mean God does not recognize our weakness and slowness of heart to receive His love as we ought. This is why we have that great prayer from Paul in Ephesians 3. However, many times God assumes you have matured to the place that you truly understand His great love for you, so that His communication to you assumes it.

Those who are mature know the width, length, depth and height of His love. They can cry out to God for help, who sits on His throne of unmerited favor, and they can hear, through faith in His commands and the voice of the Spirit, “My dear child, where are you? I will pick you up.” “I have heard your prayer.”

 Because faith is certainty, if we know God hears us, we know we have the things we asked for.


ENDNOTES

[1]. The phrase “servant of the faithless,” I first heard from Vincent Cheung.

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Word Of Faith vs God Was Never There

Since, Bill Johnson of Bethel was unable to raise Olive from the dead, that proves he’s a FALSE Apostle because one of the signs of a real apostle of Jesus is that they have authority to raise the dead.
-Chris Rosebrough (twitter dec. 2019)

The real issue here is if Rosebrough can logically deduce that if an apostle or someone claiming to be an apostle prays for a miracle, such as resurrection, but then fails, it “necessarily” infers false apostle. This of course, cannot be done as a sound argument, if Scripture alone is your starting point of knowledge. Now, if one wishes to hybrid Christian epistemology with the Pope or their speculative sensations, observations, history and other human starting points, then they might be able to make a valid, albeit, an unsound argument.

Part of the problem, might come from a strawman concerning the nature of Bethel asking for resurrection. When people were praying for the miracle, some were making declarations of faith as “word of faith.” That is, just like Jesus making “word of faith,” declarations with the fig tree or with Lazarus. Or like Joshua with the sun, or the woman asking Elisha for her child to be resurrected. The issue here is that a “word of faith,” declaration is not the same thing as prophecy. To make this short, a “word of faith,” like Jesus used it or other biblical examples is nothing more than a shorthand prayer. When the Shunammite woman said to Elisha that “all is well,” this was word of faith. (2 Kings 4:18–37) It was not a prophecy. It was faith that God was able to do what she was asking. She still acknowledge the reality saying, “Did I ask my lord for a son? Did I not say, ‘Do not deceive me?’” She, like Jesus, both when questioned acknowledge the persons in question were indeed dead, yet, both made faith declarations about it.

This is like the criminal on the cross or Samson, when they summed up a whole bunch of doctrine about mercy in the shorthand phrase, “remember me.” Instead of saying, “father I ask, through your Son Jesus Christ, that you raise person x from the dead,” they make a word of faith, “they are not dead, but asleep.” Or, “Father, through your Son, forgive me of my sin,” as a word of faith, “I am already the righteousness of Christ.” Or, “Father, through your Son, heal me of this sickness,” as a word of faith, “sickness you have already left my body.” There is nothing complicated about this. It would take a bottom-of-the-barrel stupid person to miss this.

This issue is simple. It is about faith. Faith that God does what He promised. Faith that the blood of Christ is a guarantee for all it is promised for. God cannot lie. God was sovereign and all-knowing when He made the promise. He made the promises because He wanted to. Because He was sovereign when He made it, and is still sovereign, the promises are still guaranteed today.

A prophecy is something different. If a false one is given, then it would indeed make the person a false prophet. One problem with some sects, focusing too much on “word of faith,” rather than on “faith” itself, is that it can give mixed appearances. Some with weak faith, in the “word of faith” circles, focus on faith declarations as empty pragmatics, or a program, when they would be better served focusing on hearing the word of God, so that their faith is strengthened. With great faith, (the type of great faith Jesus pointed out) it does not matter how the prayer of faith is given. If you have strong faith, you will be given what you ask for. Thus, it is a non-relevant issue if it is a longer prayer asking the Father for something, or if it is given as a shorthand of a declaration. What matters is faith. Faith is always the relevant issue. This was Jesus’ focus, and it ought to be ours.

Thus, a prayer in faith that fails, does not lead to the necessary consequent of a false apostle, prophet or Christian. Such a case merely shows this person’s faith is not as strong as they thought it was. Now, a continued lifelong example of prayers and no miracles, at least according to Jesus, would prove you are not one of His true disciples (John 15:5-8). When the disciples asked why they failed in a ministry operation Jesus said, “Because of your little faith, (Matt 17:20 LEB).” Jesus went behind their backs and healed the boy. That is, despite God causing them to have little faith and failed to minister compassion, Jesus did God’s Will by healing the boy. Did this failed ministry moment, because of little faith, make the disciples “false apostles”? But I digress. Jesus, with these weak faith disciples, kept rebuking and comforting them to be better. They did.

One point of concern about this critique is that everything about this situation screams, “this is about faith in God,” or maybe, “faith vs. weak faith.” Their focus was about obeying God will (commandments), and seeking God’s promise and God’s power. Yet, religious fanboys see, “apostles.” It is easy to distinguish an empiricist, because they are so focused on people, on sensual things (sensations). Spiritual, intellectual and invisible things like God’s word and faith, are too intellectual and spiritual for their fleshly minds. They need to focus on men. They need robust histories, stories, heavy smelly books, elaborate traditions and colorful shadows. Because they cannot understand how a sinner like themselves is able to have faith to raise the dead, their focus is thus on other men, and how these other men cannot do it either. God was never in the picture. God was never there. They do apologetics against others by assuming God out of their arguments, when God is their defining epistemology, metaphysics and ethics. These fanboys, manage to talk about the Bible, sovereignty, and grace without God being there. If only in this aspect, they are miracles in how blind a person can be. They are practicing empiricists and atheists when they view the world and when they speak.

100 Times More

“Yes,” Jesus replied, “and I assure you that everyone who has given up house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or property, for my sake and for the Good News, 30 will receive now in return a hundred times as many houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and property—along with persecution. And in the world to come that person will have eternal life.
(Mark 10:29-30).
I was re-watching Narnia yesterday, and the last scene reminded of Jesus’ words. At the beginning, Edmond was tempted to betray his family for the promise of being a prince in her cold harsh kingdom. We know the story of his betrayal and how Aslan saved him. However at the end, Edmond received what the witch promised but 100 times more in property, authority, friends and happiness. He became a king of Narnia.
This is a great reminder. The promises of God yield so much more prosperity, property, friends and blessings than the deceptive lie of sin. Rather than trying to receive blessings by stealing them by an illegitimate way and by your own small effort , receive them in faith and watch the powerful effort of God’s love make that part of your life a king of Narnia.
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Proof That Jesus Is Seated At God’s Right Hand

“If you want to know how the Spirit acts now, just read how He acted when He had full possession of the Church. The book of Acts is a blueprint by which the Holy Spirit wishes to work throughout His dispensation.”[1]

“Now he is exalted to the place of highest honor in heaven, at God’s right hand. And the Father, as he had promised, gave him the Holy Spirit to pour out upon us, just as you see and hear today…

Peter replied, “Each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. This promise is to you, to your children, and to those far away—all who have been called (predestined) by the Lord our God.”
(Acts 2:33,38-39 NLT)[2]

Jesus has sat down at the right hand of the Father, on His throne. The Father fulfilled His promises and Jesus began to pour out the baptism of the Holy Spirit. This dispensation is the millennium, spoken of in Revelation. It is the administration when Jesus rules being seated on His throne while His saints are still on the earth. It is a throne that cannot be moved, or Him moved from it. He rules from it. His rule is a rule of pouring out the baptism of the Spirit and expanding His Kingdom. This is a dispensation of the mighty throne power of Jesus. The baptism of the Spirit is the proof, according to Jesus who sits on His throne, that He does sit on His throne.

Those who are against the baptism of the Spirit, are against Jesus Christ, His throne, His power, His authority, and by extension the authority of the Father and His throne, and power of the Spirit. It is a triple blasphemy against every member of the Trinity. Jesus says if you blasphemy the Spirit, you will never be forgiven.

The resurrection of Jesus is unadulterated POWER! Jesus’ gives witness of this, by pouring out POWER on His chosen ones with the baptism of the Holy Spirit. If you want to testify about the resurrection, which is POWER, then you must have POWER to do so.

Jesus said to the disciples that if He did not do the works of the Father, (miracles) then do not believe that He is the Son of God (John 10). Jesus had no problem giving Himself such a test to prove He is the Son of God. The same with Him sitting at God’s right hand. If there is no baptism of the Spirit, then do not believe He is at God’s right hand. The scripture is our epistemology, thus we know Jesus still pours out the Spirit (because He promised to do it), even if you might not see it in your immediate surrounding. However, it still stands that God has no issue giving proofs, to help our slow hearts believe. An obedient church, who is often filled with the baptism of the Spirit, will help all those who are weak, to have proof, Jesus is at the right hand of God.  The Father promised the Spirit, and said He predestined all those He has sovereignly chosen (which is connected in context of the verse to repentance and salvation – Peter quotes Joel) to receive it. If you deny this power, you deny the resurrection of Jesus Christ; you deny He is seated at the Father’s right hand. If you have not received it, then repent and in obedience receive God’s power so that your life testifies to the resurrection of Jesus Christ and testifies that He presently is seated at God’s right hand.

ENDNOTES:

[1] F.F. Bosworth. Christ The Healer. 9th edition. pg163.
[2] Emphasis and () added by author.

Devil Victimized People with Sickness But God Healed Them

The devil made people sick. God made them well. The devil victimized people with sickness. God destroyed the work of the devil by healing and loosing these oppressed people from Satan’s power. Jesus was the stronger One; He bound and plundered the devil’s house.

They begged him to let the sick touch at least the fringe of his robe, and all who touched him were healed. Matthew 14:36 (NLT)

A vast crowd brought to him people who were lame, blind, crippled, those who couldn’t speak, and many others. They laid them before Jesus, and he healed them all. Matthew 15:30 (NLT)

Holy Spirit and with power. Then Jesus went around doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. Acts 10:38 (NLT)

Science has no truth claim about reality…

Some philosophers and Scientists try to get around Karl Popper’s falsification explanation, which is simple a Modus Tollens. This Denying the consequent is a valid form of logic. Karl points out that science is based upon the fallacy of affirming the consequent and thus all scientific experimentation is logically invalid. The only logically valid option is to falsify a theory with Modus Tollens.
That is , “If hypothesis X is true, then necessarily G will result. G does not result. Therefore, X is false.”
Scientist try to escape this, by saying experimentation is not a simple , If [ X is true] , then [necessarily G results],” argument; rather it has a conjunction in the antecedent). (P() If [theory X, which is supported by auxiliary theory Y is truth], (Q) then [G necessarily will result].
What they do to avoid a Modus Tollens falsifying their main theory X, is to make the antecedent a conjunction, IF [X & Y], then [G results.].
This way if the consequent is falsified, they get throw out the auxiliary theory rather than their main theory of X: (example: evolution/Big bang). However, I do not believe ontology will allow them this logical arrangement. That is, if the auxiliary theory Y—ontologically speaking—is a necessary result of the main theory X, then their argument is not a conjunction in the antecedent, but rather, it is a chain argument with multiple, “If… then’s.”( If X, then Y. &. If Y then G. ) That being said, some instances would be an honest use of a conjunction, but if the category is ontology and ontology, and one is a sub-category of the other, then a conjunction is not a true logical reflection of that is happening.
In this logical form the original X would be falsified if G is shown to be false. If the smaller auxiliary theory X (that is, a smaller sub-ontology) is not a necessary result of their bigger theory of the Big Bang (that is, it is not contained in their bigger ontology), then what ontological antecedent “necessarily” makes it so, God? We are dealing with ontology, because we are going from result to cause. Thus, If X is a necessary ontology of Y, then Big Bang is falsified. If sub-ontologies are “not necessary,” or not necessarily contained in and result from the biggest X ontology of Evolution/Big Bang, then why even bother making an argument in the first place to try and prove your theory? Without necessity or a necessary connection there is no logic.
1.) If Big Bang (B) is true, then this necessarily results in inflation(I) .
2.) If inflation(I) is true, then necessarily (O) quasars will be far away.
3.) Not O.
4.) Thus, not B
.
Also, secular scientists attempt to escape this falsification with huge fudge factors like Dark Matter and Energy. Apart from issue of using an invisible untestable fudge factor every time you are wrong, is this issue: some scientist might say, “the big bang is not falsified because our other, other auxiliary theory (dark matter) effected quasars to be closer than thought.” And thus, if this is true, then “inflation” does not “necessarily” result to quasars being far away.
However, if so, then the scientist has no knowledge about the ontology of the cosmos, for he has no necessary connections to tell how ontology really works. He has no argument, he has no truth. But if his “argument” truly is a claim about “necessary” connections within ontology, then if (O) is falsified, then so to is their (B). The scientist must pick one or the other; either he has a truth clam about necessarily connections of ontology (if so, then falsification would falsify their (B)), or they must admit they have nothing to say about ontology to begin with.
We are now at the beginning of the issue of science to begin with; it commits a triple fallacy with, (1) empiricism, (2) inductive observation and (3) inductive, affirming the consequent. Thus, science is systematically, and habitually irrational. It has no knowledge about anything. In order to be true, it must be false at the same time. Science has no truth claim about reality. It’s epistemology foundation and logical argumentation makes it impossible for it to know anything about reality.

Jesus: “I Am Surrounded by Perverts!”

Luke 9:23–24 (LEB)  And he said to them all, “If anyone wants to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross every day and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life on account of me, this person will save it.”

Luke 9:40-41 (LEB)  … they were not able to [cast out the demon].”

So Jesus answered and said, “O unbelieving and perverted generation! ⌊How long⌋ will I be with you and put up with you? Bring your son here!”

Here is a simple question. Who does Jesus call perverts? Our societies, will use that word to describe particular people; however, since God is our intellectual foundation and Jesus is our salvation, it should be rather important to note who they call “perverts.” To pervert something is to make something curved when it was straight, or to make something that was running efficiently, to now run in a malfunctioned manner.

Jesus in Luke 9 says that famous quote about taking up your cross and following Him. To lose your worldly life, but find a new and better one in Him. Thus, with Jesus in a close context of saying this, and if He was going to use the word “pervert,” then one might suppose He would find a man caught with a hooker, and say, “look, this pervert has not taken up his cross to follow me.” However, that is certainly not the case here in Luke 9. Rather, the Scriptures found it important to highlight Jesus using the word pervert, but in a different context. Again, Jesus is still in near context of saying, “take up your cross and follow Me.” And soon later He points out some “Perverts,” who were not faithfully, taking up their cross. What we learn from Jesus’ use of a pervert is that bearing one’s cross is more than the obvious ethics of, do not murder, and help the poor, (etc.). To carry your cross, is to carry “faith.”

The followers of Jesus were asked to cast out a demon. This takes a level of faith to do this. In fact, dear readers, including you, how many people do you know that if Jesus ask you to cast out a demon, you have full confidence you/they can do it? This is the context that Jesus followers found themselves in. Their faith failed to produce this “goodness in the land of the living.” When it was exposed to Jesus that His personally trained disciples could not perform this basic act of ministry Jesus yells out, “O unbelieving and perverted generation!”

And so, the “perverts” were His very own apostles and other followers. Jesus discovered His disciples were not taking up their cross (putting off their old worldly unbelief and self-weakness), and following Him (putting on the new man who is filled with faith, courage and heavenly power). To carry your cross, is to carry miracle working “faith.” This Kingdom of God, or the new creation of the Christian, is a straight line. This straight line is faith, courage, and power. For a Christian to be weak, unbelieving, and fearful, is to make this straight line curved and bent. It is outright perversion.

Jesus yells out in public that His disciple were Perverts for not having the faith to cast out demons and work miracles. Imagine if that was you on the receiving end of Jesus’ outburst? What if you were being yelled at, in front of other people, by Jesus, that you are a pervert for not having faith to work miracles? Would you still follow Him? Would you be offended? What if you were hoping for Jesus to find an adulteress man to shame for not taking up his cross, when it was you He shamed for not taking up your cross, because you are a pervert who could not work miracles by your faith?

Thank God, the disciples did not leave Jesus. They received His rebuke, and continued to look to Him for help. One day not soon after, power came down from heaven and clothed them, so that even their shadows were more effective in ministry than entire churches today will ever be.