Tag Archives: faith

The More Wishes, the More the Kingdom of God Grows

In the movie, The Neverending Story, the protagonist asks, “how many wishes does he get to make?” The princess tells him, “As many as you like, and the more you make the better fantasia gets.”

Jesus tells us, commands us and almost seems to beg us to ask whatever we wish and it will be given to us. He says this 4-5 times in the discourse John records in 14-16.

The protagonist starts to ask for wishes, because it gives him full joy and happiness. Jesus tells us the same. He says to ask so that our joy might be “partially full,” I am sorry, “completely full.” If asking whatever you “wish” for the purpose to be full of joy, is not the definition of a “wish,” then I doubt any definition would.

The princess says more wishes makes fantasia better; it glorifies or values fantasia. Jesus says that by asking whatever we wish it “glorifies” or that is, values the Father. It expands the kingdom of God and values the one who rules it. It was by faith and miracles the Kingdom advanced in the book of Acts. To get our wishes for healing, prosperity, casting out demons and various miracle expanded the kingdom, and destroyed the kingdom of Satan. It is the same today. The more wishes, the more the Kingdom grows. You cannot wish too much or too large, because the value of God’s kingdom is worthy of a trillion wishes as big as the sky.

In the movie, people stop dreaming and wishing. In fact, the servant of the darkness, his mission was to encourage this and kill the hero who was trying to inspire a boy to make a wish. In real life, people stop having faith and stop asking. It is Satan and his servants’ goal to encourage this unbelief and silent lips. The Holy Spirit is to encourage you to know how long, wide, deep and high the Father’s love is, so that you might ask and then God grant your wishes exceedingly beyond what you think or ask. This is why there was so much extra baskets left over, in the feeding of the 5000. More asking, then the more the kingdom of God grows; yet, this assumes professing Christians actually want the kingdom to expand more than their expanding waistlines. The more answered wishes, the more joy grows in His disciples (Jesus thinks this is important), the more the Father is valued, the more unbelievers see miracles and cry out to God for salvation, and the more demons scream as they shrink back as the devil’s kingdom diminishes.

Jesus also said, by asking whatever we wish, it will cause us to personally bear more fruit. This fruit of granted wishes, will endure for eternity, and glorify the Father. Our fulfilled wishes makes us productive in the Kingdom of God.

Lastly, Jesus goes so far as to say that our fulfilled wishes proves we are authentic disciples of His kingdom. If you cannot get your wishes then you prove you are not part of His kingdom, because only a true child of God can ask from the Father and then the Father grant their child’s dream.

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.

NO FEAR, ONLY FAITH & DELIVERANCE

“I sought the Lord, and He answered me; He delivered me from all my fears.” (Psalm 34:4)
“There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear.” (1 John 4:18)

In the above two verses, we see a clear theme. John says God’s love delivers us from the wrath of God so we can stand before Him in confidence. Thus, the way God’s love delivers from fear isn’t a mere psychological Band-Aid. There’s a real material trouble, and it’s removed. The same is true for the Psalmist. There are real threats of sickness, dangers, and more, but God removes these. His love is defined as removing material troubles. The removal of the troubles is why the Psalmist has no fear. The removal of God’s punishment is why the elect have no fear.

This is how God loves us. This is how the gospel works. Anyone against this doesn’t know the love of God or the gospel. Remove such a person from your life.

God’s love isn’t a fluffy pep talk—it’s a wrecking ball smashing real fears like sickness and danger. Psalmist and John spill the tea: faith zaps material troubles, leaving zero room for fear. Doubt this gospel power-up? Kick those naysayers to the curb and watch faith flatten walls with divine swagger.

By faith, we can see the walls fall down before it happens. The certainty of the walls coming down is absolute and imminent. By faith, we can both praise God and reject all fear in our minds because, immediately or soon, the material issue causing the fear will be removed. This is the confidence that belongs to faith. This is how God loves us.

Cut From The Same Rock

“Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness and who seek the Lord: Look to the rock from which you were cut and to the quarry from which you were hewn; look to Abraham, your father, and to Sarah, who gave you birth. When I called him he was only one man, and I blessed him and made him many. The Lord will surely comfort Zion and will look with compassion on all her ruins; he will make her deserts like Eden, her wastelands like the garden of the Lord. Joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the sound of singing.
Isaiah 51:1‭-‬3 NIV

Paul says we have the blessing of Abraham through Jesus. This blessing means the baptism of the Spirit and miracles. This should not be a surprise because even in the Old Testament we see this over and over. In Isaiah 51 God mentions the blessing of Abraham. He says those seeking righteousness are cut from the same blessed rock. Thus, in context of Isaiah 51 God will come and restore Israel, even to the point of great wealth and happiness.

In Christ we are also cut from the same blessed rock with Abraham. If you call out to God in faith, He will restore any lost part of your life, and He will make it like Eden. He will turn deserts into rivers of healing, prosperity and great joy. If it takes 100 miracles to restore you and uplift you, then God’s faithful blessing will insure you get all 110 of them.

One on One Ministry with Jesus

I have been sick the last week. When I had the mental strength, I would ask for healing and praise God for helping me. However, I did not receive the instant healing I was asking for and didn’t know what was hindering it. Then today I felt well enough to walk and pray in tongues. I was doing so along with praising God and making faith declarations of God’s promises. “God you forgive me all my sins. You heal me all my sickness. You cause my cup to overflow. You are my salvation. You are my righteousness.” However, I did notice a slight hindrance when saying, “You are my righteousness.” I mentally noted to work on this, and then moved on continuing to pray in tongues. I was also asking for an interpretation. At one point the praying in tongues intensified, and then the power of God came upon me. It was a continued pouring of power, wave after wave. Then the Spirit of God said,

“I will make you truly understand how righteous you are. You will become strong and powerful from knowing how righteous I have made you. You will know the powerful effects that come from knowing how righteous you are(James 5:16). The years of the Evil one hindering you from realizing how righteous you are, are over. I have removed them. Rejoice!”

Two important takeaways from this.

One. I need more faith in general, and more faith in the doctrine concerning how righteous I am and the powerful implication of this. Second, is how important it is to have God give you one-on-one personal ministry through the Spirit. If you recall how Acts described Phillip and Steven, it says they were filled with “faith and the Holy Spirit.” There is no greater powerful combination on earth than being filled with both the Spirit and faith.

This is an aspect that faith cannot fulfill. Faith is truly the master key. The charismatics are wrong in overemphasizing the spiritual “gifts” over faith, because faith is both more foundational in making the inner man strong and in how it can constantly (morning, daytime and night) bring in miracle after miracle after miracle. The gifts are God’s sovereign choice and they flow when He chooses. This does not mean we cannot do things to encourage a more constant flow of the gifts and the anointing presence of God. However, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12 these are the sovereign work of God. It is not something we do on instant demand, with a possible exception of tongues. This is where faith is different and has an advantage. Faith is on demand of your believing. You need no feeling or situation. You only need to believe. On the demand of faith, God will always work, heal and supply by giving you a fish for a fish, each and every single time. Moring and midmorning, afternoon, evening and midnight, over and over and over again in the same day. If you have faith, you will have whatever you ask, everything you ask and as much as you ask. The only exception is that God will likely give you more.

This is why when spiritual strength is measured for a person, faith has the largest part to play. It is something we need to think about everyday and consider how to increase it by hearing of the world of Christ. Particularly the Christ found the gospels and Acts.

With that being said, one way the Holy Spirit endows us the power, comes from an aspect some overlook or place too small a value on. It is something faith cannot do. (I say this in context of our weakness and imperfect faith. With mature faith there is nothing you cannot do.). Jesus is your personal minister. Because our faith is not perfect, we can benefit from tailored advice for our specific problem or question.

Imagine if you can go back in time and sit with Jesus for an hour and ask Him to bless and give you personalized instruction? How wonderful would that be, right? It would be amazing, which is why Jesus said it is good that He go away and send the Spirit. It is good because then we all will have direct access to God the way the apostles did with Jesus, but for all believers. Do not be tempted to think this is less powerful than going back in time and having one-on-one ministry from Jesus. The Spirit is called the Spirit of Christ in Romans. When we are baptized in the Spirit for power, we have the power that allows Jesus to minister to us as if we were with Him in person. This is amazing power! This is the greatest Master to student training that ever existed, and all Christian have this available to them if they seek it.

I needed to know I had deficiency in not believing how righteous I truly am. I did recognize this in-part, from reading the word and analyzing my own thoughts. But how good is my analyses of myself? Who am I to ask? Who will give me advice? And how do I remedy this? If it takes real power to solve a problem, then will the person giving advice give me the power to solve it? And in age where it is hard to find a church that is expansionist and believes in God’s sovereignty, who can I ask for personal help?

Yet, all this is swept away by the fact God is my personal Minister. He knows His own word, and He knows me perfectly. He knows the problem and cause. God had the power to remove the problem and the knowledge I needed to hear the most. Who cares if it was Satan himself personally hindering me all these years. God just kicked it to the curb and removed the obstacle, so of course I don’t care. I get a tailored-made encouragement and power, that both fixes the mind and fixes the problem. Who can counsel like this, but God? Who can look at a hiding Gideon and say just what was needed and provide the power at the same time? Who can minister like God? Yet, the Spirit gives us the power to have God to be our minister. He can say the perfect word, at the perfect time. He can give the power to remove any hindrance and solve any problem. If God is your minister, then rejoice because the Greatest Master is your personal instructor and helper.

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.

You have Fear, Thus You have No Faith (Logic)

Mark 4:30, “Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?”

When put in a syllogism it shows Jesus Christ is stating premises 2 and 3 of a Modus Tollens.

This little syllogism shows the positive first (faith) and the negative in the consequent (fear). This is a statement about reality about stating a positive in antecedent and denying the contradiction as a necessary consequence. Very basic, but very important foundations for having a correct understanding of reality.

Thus, faith and fear do not belong together. Any teaching that tries to put these together is false. We also see the moral lesson from Jesus. Jesus expects a return on His investment. He has deposited faith into His children and expects a return of faith being produced and not the contradiction of fear.

(1) (p) If you have faith, (~q) then you do not have fear.

(2) ~(~q) You have fear.

(3) ~(p) Thus, You have no faith.

Power is what will Finally Deliver You

I awoke today feeling off and with a headache. Halfway through the day I saw a reminder to seek God in devotion for spiritual strength, and I felt the Spirit prod me to do this. As the day went on the headache got worse and I felt an irrational oppressive pressure on my mind. I even had a difficult time remembering things. Finally it got to a point where it was irrational fears and accusative thoughts coming out of nowhere.

I have been seeking personal inner strength as a priority for about 2 or 3 years now. God has been delivering me from many of my old fears and even sins and etc. I will one day write about this, but even as a young man I experienced a direct demonic attack regarding temptation. It frightened me. I lacked the knowledge and power to know how to deal with such a thing. It caused me years of terrible fear in my heart. Vincent’s materials were helping me, and his essay on Demonic Attacks was a moment of where I began to experience real breakthrough.

Today, I suddenly felt all those old fears suddenly being pressed upon me, like they once did. So, again I did the easy thing and just began to pray in tongues and declares God’s promises over me. When I began this, the oppressive mental attacks ratcheted in up strength. However, after about 15 minutes I felt a sudden power in speaking in tongues. This happens often to me. You will be praying in tongues and suddenly, the power will increase, and you feel power and urgency. The moment this happened I heard the Spirit say to me, “You are a child of God, these things are to be afraid of you, not the other way around!” At this exact moment, all the oppressive thoughts and pressure vanished and even my headache was instantly healed.

In a perfect world of mature faith, a simple word would have stopped this attack earlier on the day. And we are all to seek this level of faith. So, while you work on a strong faith, have compassion on yourself and those around you needing help, by praying in tongues and bringing down the power of God to expand His kingdom.

Vincent Cheung in the essay, “Cure for Psychological Trauma,” says, “Power is what will finally deliver you.” The foundation is first correct theology and promises. But the thing that will deliver from all your troubles is power. Unadulterated power of God. Mature faith will always do this. However, praying in tongues is one of the easiest, (it is so easy it is like having game cheat), ways to move the power of God directly into your soul, body and life. You should eagerly seek this gift. We need less talk and more power! God’s power is able to deliver you, your family, your church and even entire nations.

He Will Do It/We Will Do It

Salvation’s broad foundation, is “God.” God is the foundation of theology and thus salvation. Without Him, there is no point in doing theology. God’s foundation as taught in Scripture, is that of absolute and directly sovereign over all reality. This foundation takes away all the problems for salvation and man’s ablity to obey God.

We will not rehash the absolute reliability of the Contract we have God. God will do what He says, no matter how great and wonderful the promise. That is the summary of the doctrine.

Many look at their sanctification and thus proof that they will be glorified, from a man-centered focus. Doing so will bring heartache, stress, depression, blasphemy, and if not rectified damnation.

When Isaiah 55 says that God’s ways are not our ways, and His thoughts are not our thoughts, it is not referring God’s knowledge versus human knowledge in general. If that was the case, then the knowledge that God’s knowledge is not our knowledge is not our knowledge. It would end up in self-contradictory nonsense. But since Jesus appeals to the law of contradiction, we know anything that leads to skepticism is false. Thus apart from the obvious nonsense we know such an interpretation is unbiblical.

Rather, in this passage God refers to knowledge about His future revelation of unmerited favor that will be given through Jesus Christ. The verse that follows says, come buy milk and honey without price. That is, things like forgiveness and healing (etc), because of Jesus’ finished work, we can buy them without cost. For the audience at that time, such a revelation of grace was beyond their understanding and faith. However, since we live after the finished work of Jesus, then God’s ways of grace are our ways, and His throughs of grace are our thoughts. Paul even says in 1 Corinthians 2 that “we have the Mind of Christ.”

I say this to remind the reader, that the gospel radically changes the believer into a super species. They have a new created reality, fundamentally different from their old reality. The Christian renews their mind to think in line with the new definition given to them in Christ.

In laymen’s terms, what King David says is 100 more true today, when he says, “In your strength I can crush an army; with my God I can scale any wall,” Psalm 18:29

Man’s ablity is God’s ablity. Or stated negatively, man’s limitation is God’s limitation. We are not talking about being deified with attributes that by definition can only belong to God like being infinite, or immutable. What we are referring to is God’s promises to strengthen us, bless us and empower us.

Our ablity to be sanctified is not measured by man’s limitation but by God’s infinite ablity to work in man. Our ablity to know God, is not measured by our finiteness, but by the limitless ablity of the Spirit of God to make us to have the mind of Christ, and to cause us to know all the things freely given to us. Or is the finiteness of man greater than God’s ablity of infinite power? Some perverts not satisfied to limit man, but they are not quenched until they limit God. We are not talking about something irrational like God creating a rock to heavy for Him to lift, when God does not have body. We are talking about the sheer power of God to create and cause. How many propositions can you think of at the same time? Or how high can you jump? Or how long does it take to go 500 miles? Howe well can you cure an incurable disease? How well can you sanctify your actions? The issue is how much ablity does God have to enable me to think of many propositions at the same time. How much power does God have to enable me to jump or go a distance of 500 miles? How much power does God have to renew and heal the body? How much ablity does God have to sanctify my actions? This is the new measure the Christian is to measure their own ablity.

Jesus says, “Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible,” Matthew 19:26. Jesus is making a distinction with God’s power and human power. Jesus points out that human power it limited, but God’s is not.

Paul in Ephesians 6:10 says, “be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.” Also, in Acts 1:1-8, Jesus commands the apostles and believers to be empowered by the Holy Spirit. Lastly, Jesus says about those who believe in Him, “Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these,” John 14:12.

The conclusion is simple. Jesus says in Mark 9:23

“Everything is possible for one who believes.”

We are not pantheists. God is not what He creates. God is separated from creation. When God empowers “you,” then it is “you” not God that is empowered.

It will obey “you.” Jesus says you can command a mountain to be thrown into the sea and it will obey who? God? No. It will obey “you.” In Ephesian 6, it is a command, not a mere suggestion, to be empowered with human limitations? No. To be empowered with God’s own power and strength. Let the sink in. Imagine Zeus freely giving power and his lightning bolt to “you” to empower “you.” But this is what God does for us, and commands that we do. Boldly walk into the throne of grace and grab Yahweh’s lightning bolt and use it. God like this. He wants you empowered with His power.

The limitations of the old man are gone, whether if it is about spiritual things such as sanctification or something like being teleported 500 miles to another city.

We are children of God. His ways are now our ways, and His thoughts are now our thoughts. So much so that “all things are possible to the one who believes.” This is the glory and splendor and privilege that belongs to the sons of God. The corrupted world will be liberated into the “liberty of” the “children” of God.

How To Invent Ethics & Reject God

I saw this heretical garbage the other day.

“(1) I see a different interpretation of scripture. Anxiety is a God given emotion. It is useful. It can keep us physically safe and can drive us to God. (2) Jesus had so much anxiety in the Garden of Gethsemane that he sweat blood. Jesus didn’t try sweep away his anxiety, Jesus didn’t blame his anxiety on the enemy, he accepted it and endured it and went to God in prayer – (3) not to get help with anxiety, but to get help with the cause of the anxiety. (4) The Bible never promises prosperity in this life. (5) It does say that we will have trouble and that we should consider our struggles joy. (6) I think accepting our anxiety and learning to live with it while we walk with God will bring about (7) character development and the deepening of our faith.”

I added the numbers to make this easy to follow.

1. The author says if God gives something, then it is helpful to bring us to God. The unspoken premise here is about ethics. If God cause this “x” type of metaphysics, and x type of metaphysics leads us to God, then we “ought” (ethic) to embrace x type of metaphysics.

This is blasphemy. Ethics is only produced by the commands and precepts of God. Any deviation from this is irrational and human speculation. What God creates or causes is not an ethic. If God causes the prophet to give a false prophecy (Ezekiel 14:9) this causation does not make a false prophecy ethically good. A false prophecy is always wrong because God commands man not to give false prophecy. Ethics is produced by God’s command and nothing else.

Also, to go from metaphysics (God created this or caused this) to metamorphic into an ethic, is no less irrational than saying 5s are blue and 8s are slow. It is a category fallacy. A mind can no less comprehend “5 blues” as they can, “God caused x, therefore ethic.” This is how man invents ethics so that they can reject God. Non-Christians do this for obvious reasons; however, so-called Christians to this so that they can look pious as they throw their middle finger at God.

We are commanded to only fear God. We are to feel anxiety, fear and shame if we rebel against God. It is good feel afraid if you do not fear God. This is the only fear we are allowed by the commands of God to experience. Every other anxiety and fear is breaking God’s command. WE are not to feel anxiety or worry about man, money, our health, relationships and the future (etc.) We are to overcome them in faith, joy and righteousness.

(2) Jesus experienced anxiety leading up to the cross, because He was a condemned man, without hope facing God’s punishment. He should never have known this. He experienced it for our sakes, not His. He is experiencing what it means to face the wrath of God, with no way out. This is what we should have experienced. Jesus experienced this, in our place so that we do NOT experience it. Thus, to use this to say we ought to experience anxiety, is to trample on the suffering of Jesus as a worthless thing, in that even the things Jesus substituted for us, we still must go through them ourselves.

(3) This makes no sense? If you get rid of the thing that is causing anxiety, then you get rid of the anxiety. Thus, you get rid of the anxiety. When a person wants to get rid of anxiety, they will directly seek the cause (to get rid of it), with the goal that it will get rid of the anxiety. Thus, to seek the cause, is (in relation of the person’s goal) seeking to get rid of the anxiety. Why do I need to say this to adults, as if they don’t know this?

(4) This point has no rational connection to the previous 3 points. Also, it is blandly false. There are many such promises, but we will deal with one that is directly tired to the gospel. Paul says in 2 Corinthians that Jesus suffered poverty in our place so that we experience His wealth. It is said to Christians, who Paul was asking for an offering . You cannot spiritualize this away. This statement is mocking the gospel and blood of Jesus Christ.

(5) This statement is true as far as it goes. The bible does make a distinction between common everyday troubles, such as money, health and relationships, and the other category of troubles directly related to persecution for the gospel’s sake. With the first type of troubles we are commanded to be victorious through faith in God’s promise.

(6) The implied connection here, from point 5, is irrational. The author without warrant, manufactured out of nothing that “anxiety” is part of the troubles that God supposedly gives us. After this, the irrational transformation of an ethic from metaphysics comes up again: therefore we ought to embrace anxiety from God as a good thing. Demonic.

(7) Character development is not produced by anxiety. The bible never says this. It comes from inner growth and strength. This is produced by the renewing of the mind. Experience, is the worse teacher there is. God’s word, is however, the only good teacher. Experiences do not give better character, rather is the word of God and faith that gives better character as we seek Him and His promises when we are troubled.

As for faith, the bible explicitly says faith comes by hearing the word of God, and not something else.

Oshea Davis

Systematic Theology. Logic. Faith. Healing. Power.