a mama of faith

"Created in the image of God"

[faithfilledmama]

TRUST IN THE LORD (2)

PROVERBS 4:20-24 - My son, give attention to my words; incline your ear to my sayings.  Do not let them depart from your eyes; keep them in the midst of your heart; for they are life to those who find them, and health to all their flesh.

God is a good God and He loves you.  I promise you He was not taken by surprise by COVID-19, He knew about it all the time but had enough faith in each and every one of us to trust in Him and His Word.  The Word of God is powerful, in fact we are told in HEBREWS 4:12 - For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.  The Word of God never fails all we have to do is put our trust in it like the leper in LUKE 5:12-13 - And it happened when He was in a certain city, that behold, a man who was full of leprosy saw Jesus; and he fell on his face and implored Him, saying, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.”  Then He put out His hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing; be cleansed.” Immediately the leprosy left him.  Let’s just study this a bit.  First of all, we see that Luke, who was a medical doctor, describes this man as being full of leprosy.  We have learned that leprosy is a disease straight out of the pit of hell, it literally eats away at a person’s body leaving them disfigured.  It is a highly contagious disease, so contagious that in the days of Jesus lepers were not allowed to walk about the city freely. They were usually kept in leper colonies, and when they went out, had to ring a bell announcing their presence, and crying out, “Unclean, unclean,” so the people around were warned that    they were there.  Luke says he fell on his face which means he was down on the ground, yet he goes on to say that Jesus put out His hand and touched him.  Picture the scene, for Jesus to touch him, He had to get right down there beside him.  That was seriously close proximity, definitely no social distancing, yet Jesus wasn’t even scared of contracting the disease.  It took me years to digest that without hesitating Jesus touched him. This man was full of leprosy which meant he had oozing sores all over his body, and was probably smelling so bad because who knows when he was able to attempt to clean himself, yet without hesitating Jesus reached out and touched him.  How was Jesus, the Son of man able to do that.  This man was a carrier of leprosy but Jesus was a carrier of healing.  You too are a carrier of healing, you are full of it, you’re contagious with it. Face disease head on knowing who you are and whose you are, a carrier of the Spirit of God.  We are the most powerful people on the earth, and our manual for life contains the most powerful words on the planet.  Don’t ever let go of the Word.  As our opening scripture says: My son, give attention to my words; incline your ear to my sayings.  Do not let them depart from your eyes; keep them in the midst of your heart; for they are life to those who find them, and health to all their flesh.  God has never broken His Covenant and won’t now.  You have to hold on to the Word and allow it to produce in your life. Remember one thing, the devil is not after you, he’s after the Word in you, he wants to try to stop it from coming out of your mouth with power – and once he gets any negative word he’s got you!! Watch your words, speak what your Covenant says and expect a miracle every day no matter what it looks like. We have no idea how that miracle is going to take place, all we have to know is that it will.  Years ago Oral Roberts started his daily broadcast saying: ‘God is a good God, so expect a miracle every day’.  You would think that those listening would have been thrilled and encouraged, but unfortunately, they weren’t, they thought he was being presumptive.  I pray and trust that we are a different breed, and that we are secure in our knowledge of God and His Word, and that we are excited about what God is doing in our lives.  This year is going to end well, very well.  Dream big, and stay in the Word at all times.  We are contagious with the Word of God, allow it to have full range in your lives.  Believe what it says, NO FEAR HERE!

1 PETER 2:24 - who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed.

 BE BLESSED

 YOUR MAMA OF FAITH

 #Jesus      #healing     #trust      #love       #carrier of healing

[faithfilledmama]

HAVE FAITH IN GOD

JOHN 6:5-13 - Then Jesus lifted up His eyes, and seeing a great multitude coming toward Him, He said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread, that these may eat?” 6 But this He said to test him, for He Himself knew what He would do.  Philip answered Him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may have a little.”  One of His disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to Him,    “There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two small fish, but what are they among so many?”  Then Jesus said, “Make the people sit down.” Now there was much grass in the place. So, the men sat down, in number about five thousand.  And Jesus took the loaves, and when He had given thanks He distributed them to the disciples, and the disciples to those sitting down; and likewise of the fish, as much as they wanted.  So, when they were filled, He said to His disciples, “Gather up the fragments that remain, so that nothing is lost.”  Therefore, they gathered them up, and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves which were left over by those who had eaten.

If He needs to, He’ll create it!  We see that in the above scripture.  People, COVID-19 is not your problem, if there is a problem for the believer it’s ignorance of the Covenant.  Somehow, you’re either not hearing, or understanding, or practicing the Covenant of God.  God takes His Covenant very seriously, and it’s time for us to as well.  This Covenant is with Creator of the universe, and it cannot be broken!  In fact, this is what God Himself says - PSALM 89:34 - My covenant I will not break, nor alter the word that has gone out of My lips.  God is very serious about this.  You know the story of the widow woman in the Old Testament whose sons were in danger of being taken from her by the creditors, but she placed a demand on her Covenant – 2 KINGS 4:1 - A certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha, saying, “Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that your servant feared the Lord. And the creditor is coming to take my two sons to be his slaves.” She demanded of the prophet what he was going to do about it!  2 KINGS 4:2-7 - So Elisha said to her, “What shall I do for you? Tell me, what do you have in the house?” And she said, “Your maidservant has nothing in the house but a jar of oil.”  Then he said, “Go, borrow vessels from everywhere, from all your neighbors—empty vessels; do not gather just a few.  And when you have come in, you shall shut the door behind you and your sons; then pour it into all those vessels, and set aside the full ones.”  So she went from him and shut the door behind her and her sons, who brought the vessels to her; and she poured it out.  Now it came to pass, when the vessels were full, that she said to her son, “Bring me another vessel.”  And he said to her, “There is not another vessel.”  So the oil ceased.  Then she came and told the man of God. And he said, “Go, sell the oil and pay your debt; and you and your sons live on the rest.”  This woman knew her rights and she was not just going to sit by and take what the creditors were handing out to her.  She went straight to her prophet demanding what are he was going to do about it, and he gave her instructions.  Apply pressure to the Covenant, in other words you have to have confidence in it, you have to have faith in it, and when you do that it will produce.  You can’t cry and make it produce, Hannah tried that; you can’t pray and make it produce, we’ve all tried that; you can’t get mad and make it produce, no, it produces because of one thing, you have to act on it.  If you do, if you do your part, then God guarantees His part.  Don’t back off, sowing and tithing, that’s the time to step right up.  Go to the problem, don’t back off.  Get off the defence, God is on the offence, He is moving ahead; if you have a problem you charge the problem.  The enemy tries to get you to step back, but don’t do that, be confident and have faith in God’s system.  Remember, lack is not the result of not enough, it’s ignorance of your Covenant. Your Covenant is the Word of God; love it, trust it, read it, meditate it, believe it, and watch it come to pass.

ISAIAH 55:11 - So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; it shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.

ISAIAH 55:11 (AMPC) - So shall My word be that goes forth out of My mouth: it shall not return to Me void [without producing any effect, useless], but it shall accomplish that which I please and purpose, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.

BE BLESSED

YOUR MAMA OF FAITH

[faithfilledmama]

ATTACK YOUR LACK

PHILIPPIANS 4:15-20 - Now you Philippians know also that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church shared with me concerning giving and receiving but you only. 16 For even in Thessalonica you sent aid once and again for my necessities. 17 Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that abounds to your account. 18 Indeed I have all and abound. I am full, having received from Epaphroditus the things sent from you, a sweet-smelling aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, well pleasing to God. 19 And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. 20 Now to our God and Father be glory forever and ever. Amen.

As we see from the above passage, the Philippian Church was always quick to give. At every opportunity they rose to the occasion.  They never hummed and ha-ed about sowing into the Kingdom of God, and I am sure it is because they were simply believers who actually believed the Word of God, never finding reasons not to sow but rather looking for opportunities to sow, be obedient, and be a blessing.  You might say, that’s easy for them, they never suffered a pandemic and were laid off work, but no my friends, If you are born again famine is never your problem. If there is a problem economically, it is a problem about ignorance of your Covenant with God.  When I say ignorance, it’s not a put down; simply put ignorance means that you’re in the dark about your Covenant.  You and I have a Covenant with God, and that Covenant is something that supports us no matter the economic conditions surrounding us, our city, our country, or the world, it doesn’t make any difference.  Yes, we know the curse is out there, but we’ve been redeemed from it!  It’s like it’s raining but we’ve got an umbrella.  We see in GALATIANS 3:13-14 - Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”), 14 that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.  We’ve been redeemed from the curse of the law which in a nutshell means that because of Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection we’ve been redeemed from poverty, sickness, and spiritual death.  So He became a curse for us, 2 CORINTHIANS 8:9 – For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich.  God made Him poor so that you could be rich.  Going back to verse 14, he says that the Blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles, and this Blessing of Abraham is a tangible blessing.  Sometimes people think it’s spiritual, no, the spiritual part of the blessing of the Lord came with Jesus; the tangible, material, physical part came with Abraham. Let’s see what God told Abraham in GENESIS 12:2 - I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing.  This is the Blessing of Abraham.  If we look at it in the Amplified it says, And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you [with abundant increase of favors] and make your name famous and distinguished, and you will be a blessing [dispensing good to others]; in other words, you’ll be a walking supply house.  God cut a covenant with Abraham, and remember what I have said before, anything that pertains to Abraham pertains to every born again child of God on the earth.  This Blessing that is on you is there so that God can take care of you no matter what the conditions around you.  God has total and complete responsibility for you, no matter what goes on, whether it’s up, down, sideways, no matter what the economy does, you’re going to be Blessed.  He’s going to take care of you.    Notice there was a famine in Abraham’s time and we see what God did to Abraham in the midst of a famine - people getting laid off, disease, it tells us that GENESIS 13:2 - Abram was very rich in livestock, in silver, and in gold. So Abraham was very rich, I didn’t say this, God does.  Next we see Isaac in GENESIS 26:1-3,&12 - There was a famine in the land, besides the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went to Abimelech king of the Philistines, in Gerar. 2 Then the Lord appeared to him and said: “Do not go down to Egypt; live in the land of which I shall tell you. 3 Dwell in this land, and I will be with you and bless you; for to you and your descendants I give all these lands, and I will perform the oath which I swore to Abraham your father. 12 Then Isaac sowed in that land, and reaped in the same year a hundredfold; and the Lord blessed him.  He never prospered because he had the good jobs, or things were going good in the economy, or people weren’t in a shut-down, no, the Lord Blessed him independent of all that!  Why?  Because He promised it to father Abraham, He Blessed him.  Now I’m saying that you are just like Isaac, GALATIANS 4:28 – Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are children of promise – that’s us!  The same way He blessed Isaac, He’s going to Bless you.  So I’m saying to you, no matter what situation you’re in,  it doesn’t make any difference, God’s got your back.  He’s got enough to take care of you and He knows where to get it from.  Just be confident and believe that you are in Covenant with Him, and expect.

GALATIANS 3:29 - And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

PHILIPPIANS 4:19 - And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

 BE BLESSED

YOUR MAMA OF FAITH 

[faithfilledmama]

HAPPY 2020

EPHESIANS 1:16-19 – (I, Paul) do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers:  that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him,  the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,  and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe……

Happy New Year everyone!  It’s a new year, and a new decade, and God has glorious things in store for us.  He is taking us from faith to faith, and from glory to an even higher level of glory, praise God.  God is desiring of us to be more and more spiritually aware of Him and His ways, and to always keep Him in the forefront of our minds so that whatever circumstance might arise, without hesitating, we just turn to Him and rest.  This year being 2020 lends itself to vision, that’s where most of our minds go when we hear that number, and I want to encourage you to sharpen your spiritual vision and see what God has in store for you.  AMOS 3:7 - Surely the Lord God does nothing, unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets.  At the beginning of every year, God’s prophets begin to prophesy, and the body of Christ listens excitedly to see what God has to say.  This is great, but I add a word of caution, you must know who the true prophets are; those who live a godly lifestyle, those whose words from God have come to pass, and who are endorsed by other proven Christian leaders. Kenneth Copeland is one such prophet, and the Lord gave him a word for 2020 – ‘2020 will be a year of great change - wonderful and magnificent changes in the Kingdom of God in the earth.  Changes that will come because of insights, ideas, and concepts directly from Jesus to His Church by His mighty Spirit.  Glorious concepts of how His laws work: the laws governing increase and financial prosperity; the laws of the Spirit that release miracles and divine healings and manifestations of His Almighty power on the earth.  New concepts of His love, His very person, for He is love, with insights into the true power and strength of His joy.  2020 – The year of Change and Manifested Power,’ says the Lord.  In our opening scripture Paul is praying for the church, and here we see him praying that ‘the eyes of our understanding be enlightened that we may know…’, in other words that we become more spiritually aware of God.  That we may know – know what?  Know and understand what God is saying to us, showing us, teaching us.  God is a good God and all He wants for us is His very best. He tells us this over and over again in the Scriptures, and the secret is to believe all that He says to us.  The Word of God, the Bible, has to be the foundation upon which we build our lives.  We need to read and hear the Word, then do it.  It is not going to be of any use if we don’t implement all we read and hear. Jesus tells us this very clearly in LUKE 6:46-49 - “But why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do the things which I say?  Whoever comes to Me, and hears My sayings and does them, I will show you whom he is like: He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently against that house, and could not shake it, for it was founded on the rock.  But he who heard and did nothing is like a man who built a house on the earth without a foundation, against which the stream beat vehemently; and immediately it fell. And the ruin of that house was great.” Unfortunately too many of us are like the man who heard and did nothing, and as a result we never seem to get anywhere significant.  We get excited over the Word and can even quote it, but never put it into practice, instead the situation overwhelms us and that is that, no victory.  I want to encourage every one of us to make a determined effort, in fact to make a quality decision that this year we are not going to be hearers only, but doers of the Word; unshaken by any circumstance and living from victory to victory because He always causes us to triumph in Christ - 2 CORINTHIANS 2:14. A huge key to living this way is to live from the inside out.  We have Jesus dwelling on the inside of us, His wisdom and also His faith.  So as I said, let’s remember what God is telling us and the moment it looks difficult shut your mouth and turn inwards, see how Holy Spirit is leading and ONLY speak faith filled words of victory, then sit back and watch Him work all things out to your advantage.

MARK 11:22-24 - So Jesus answered and said to them, “Have faith in God.  For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says.  Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.”  

 Be Blessed

Your Faith Filled Mama

[faithfilledmama]

LIVING THE LIFESTYLE OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD

ROMANS 5:19 - For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.

One thing you must realise, there is no way that God gets you born again then puts you in a world where there is crime, there is murder, there are accidents, there are plagues, there is sickness and disease and then just leaves you there on your own.  There is no way He is going to put you in the world and say, “Now go fend for yourself!” There is just no way; that would be out of character with our Father, God.  So, although God has put you in this world, you are not of this world and He talks about it in LUKE 10:19 - Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you. Now does that sound like you are supposed to come down with everything they come down with?  That your children have to get chickenpox or measles because all children do?  NO!  My point is that God has truths in the Bible that have to be taught, and unfortunately the secular schools have really taken the word of God out of school and left people with only intellect and scientific solutions.  The woman with the issue of blood had gone to all the physicians, and they had gone to all the big schools, but they couldn’t get her healed, then she heard about Jesus – and we can call Jesus the Word of God, all of a sudden she began to say something different, “If I can just touch His clothes, then I will be made whole.” How about at the graveside of Lazarus, even Martha herself said, ‘You can’t do anything for him; he’s been dead four days and stinks!’  But what did He do?  He said, ‘Roll away the stone.’  How about going to a marriage and they’ve run out of the traditional wine they had. They told it to Jesus, who said, ‘Fill the water pots up!’  Now none of these were natural solutions, they were all supernatural; they were all Kingdom of God solutions, the best of God.  But, in the Kingdom your inheritance only comes in proportion to your new identity!  Your vast inheritance comes only in proportion to your new identity.  Who do you see that you are?  And Jesus kept asking that question.  In MATTHEW 16:15-16 – He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”  Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Peter caught it, he caught that Jesus was the Son of God.  So once again I ask the question, “Who do you see that you are?” Homo sapiens?  A normal human being?  A mere man?  The word I want to get across is sonship; who do you see yourself as, a son or something/someone different?  Let’s see who the Bible says that you are, 2 CORINTHIANS 5:17 - Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.  That doesn’t just mean that your old sins have passed away, it means that who you were has passed away and that you have become a totally new species of being!  A new creation with the life of Christ in you - you are a god man (little ‘g’), and according to 1 JOHN 4:17 - Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgement; because as He is, so are we in this world.  As He, Jesus, is so are we in this world.  1 JOHN 4:4 – You are of God, little children, and have overcome them (the evil spirits he was talking about before) because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. If you can develop that mindset and be a doer of the Word and not a hearer only, then you are well on your way to:

DEUTERONOMY 28:13 - And the Lord will make you the head and not the tail; you shall be above only, and not be beneath, if you heed the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today, and are careful to observe them.

 BE BLESSED

YOUR FAITH FILLED MAMA

[faithfilledmama]

IT IS WRITTEN

LUKE 4:3-4 - And the devil said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.”  But Jesus answered him, saying, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.”

Jesus had just been baptised and was led into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.  He hadn’t eaten for forty days and was hungry.  The devil knowing this came to tempt Him when He was at His weakest point. Jesus was not only hungry, he was starving hungry and it would have been nothing for Him to command that stone to become bread, but instead He answered with what was written in the Word DEUTERONOMY 8:3 - So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord. You see, Jesus knew who He was, and more importantly whose He was and He modelled His life on His Father and His Word.  That’s why He had success in everything He did, and we can have that very same success if we do things the same way He did. Jesus tells us very clearly in JOHN 14:12 - “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.”  So He is expecting us at the very least to do the same things He did, and the only way that is going to happen is if we do things the way He did.  In GENESIS 1:3 When God looked out and saw darkness, He never said, “Oh no!  It’s dark out there,” no, He looked out and said, “Let there be light, and there was light.” God, the creator of the universe created everything with words. Originally words were intended more for creation than for communication, and if we can get back into that mindset we’ll be on our journey to creating and doing the works that Jesus did.  So, you might ask, what words are going to make the difference in our lives because we are speaking words anyway.  The secret is to do what Jesus did and speak what God said about the situation, and line your words up with the Word of God, with all that He promised us in redemption.  The only way you are going to find out all that is in our redemption package is to read the Bible, it tells us very clearly.  Let me encourage you and give you a couple of biggies!  We know that between the cross and His resurrection the great exchange took place.  Jesus took ALL our sin upon Himself, (that was what enabled Him to get into hell legally and defeat the devil) – 2 CORINTHIANS 5:21 - For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.; He took our sicknesses and diseases upon Himself 1PETER 2:24 -  who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed.; and He took our lack and poverty 2 CORINTHIANS 8:9 - For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich. These truths are loaded, so if you meditate on them till the enormity of what is being said here gets into your soul and you start changing your mindset, you will find that your words will change because our words follow our thoughts.   For example, you might be hurting, but when asked how you are, instead of saying, ‘Awful, I’m in such pain,’ you’ll find yourself saying, ‘I might still have pain, but it is written, by His stripes I am healed and I believe the Word, so I declare myself healed.’  Once you start doing that, in no time at all you will notice the pain has gone.  The same is true of your finances.  Never confess, ‘I can’t afford it,’ rather say, ‘the finances are on their way so it will soon be mine!’  You will also notice that one of the greatest benefits of declaring ‘it is written,’ is the peace that comes with it, and peace can’t be beat!  So start using your words wisely, cancel any negative confession and replace it with what is written and see your life change and improve dramatically.

3 JOHN 2 - Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers.

 BE BLESSED AND HIGHLY FAVOURED

YOUR

MAMA OF FAITH

[faithfilledmama]

GOD HAS GREAT PLANS FOR YOU:

MATTHEW 6:31-33 - “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’   For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.  But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”

What a wonderful time of the year this is, it’s the beginning of the year, 2018, the time of new beginnings, and I am sure that most of you have thought long and hard about what you want to do to improve on last year.  All of that is good but I want to add to your thoughts by suggesting that you ask God to reveal the ideas, dreams, and visions He wants you to achieve, and am sure that you will be pleasantly surprised to find that they not only match your desires but far surpass anything you could even think or imagine!  He has the perfect plan for each of us and knows exactly how we can achieve it.  In fact, He put all those plans and ideas in us before we were formed in our mothers’ womb: PSALM 139:1-2 & 13-16 - O LORD, You have searched me and known me.  You know my sitting down and my rising up; You understand my thought afar off. For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb.  I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvellous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well.  My frame was not hidden from You when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.  Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed.  And in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them.  God had planned our days for us before we were even formed in our mothers’ wombs! Each of us have been ‘handmade’ by God, with our own individual talents and giftings, dreams and visions, thoughts and ideas, likes and dislikes placed within us for us to work/walk out.  He is such an awesome God and takes great delight in us seeking His plans and purposes for what He has planned for each of us.  God is wanting to expand our borders, lead us into places we dream of but never dare to go. It is time for us to step out by faith, knowing that if God has planned it, He will work it out.  Nothing that God has planned for us is doable in our own strength or with our own resources!  Think about this for a moment, the creator of the universe dwells on the inside of you – 1 JOHN 4:4 – You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. The ‘them’ referred to here are evil spirits of the Antichrist and John says quite plainly that we have overcome them – already – because He who is in us is greater than he who in the world!!!!!  Nothing and no one should be able to come against you and prevail because the greater One dwells in you.  This is such a huge truth, and I have made a commitment to meditate it and get the reality of it so strong in me, that no circumstance or situation will ever get the better of me again!  If we become God inside minded, we’ll be like little Johnny standing behind his older brother who was confronting the bully who had just bullied him, and sticking his head out and saying, ‘yeah, yeah’ when his brother threatened to thrash the bully if he ever hurt Johnny again.  Johnny had faith in his big brother’s strength, and that’s how we must become, having faith that the greater One, who lives inside us, will protect us in all circumstances.  Once we have that kind of confidence, our faith will allow Him to lead us into bigger and better things.  Fear, the biggest roadblock to our fulfilling all that God has for us, will no longer be an issue, because we know whose we are, and that He dwells within us.   So, I encourage you to dream big, plan even bigger, and allow Holy Spirit to have His way in you and lead you down paths you never ever thought you could walk.

EPHESIANS 2:10 (AMP) - For we are God’s [own] handiwork (His workmanship), recreated in Christ Jesus, [born anew] that we may do those good works which God predestined (planned beforehand) for us [taking paths which He prepared ahead of time], that we should walk in them [living the good life which He prearranged and made ready for us to live].

BE BLESSED AND HIGHLY FAVOURED

YOUR

FAITH FILLED MAMA

[faithfilledmama]

WHAT DOES YOUR PICTURE LOOK LIKE?

LUKE 4:18-19 – The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor.  He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed and to preach the acceptable year of the LORD.

This awesome verse is our Lord Jesus Christ talking about Himself. It paints a perfect picture of Him, and causes us to understand exactly what He looks like.  There was once a pastor who was invited to preach in another country. He landed at the airport and waited to be picked up.  An hour passed, and then another.  Bu this time he was quite irritable and called the church almost demanding to know why there was no one at the airport to meet him.  The man on the other side answered, ‘Sir, someone is definitely there, he just called me wondering where you were!’  So the pastor waited a while longer, and in the end a man came up to him and asked if he was pastor so and so?  He replied in the affirmative, and the man said, ‘Sir, I have been here all the time looking for you, but you look nothing like your picture!”  You look nothing like your picture!!!!  He had sent a picture of what he looked like twenty years earlier.  It sounds far-fetched but it was true, he looked nothing like the picture they had in their hands.  Jesus, on the other hand looked exactly like His picture.  He healed the sick and raised the dead; the maimed were made whole; blind eyes were opened and deaf ears healed.  He preached the BLESSING of the Lord and gave hope to all who heard Him. In fact even the Pharisees wondered at His words, wanting to know where He got such wisdom and understanding. They were the preachers of that day and they had lost all idea of the enormity and magnificence of the Blessing of the Lord which was and is available to all who will believe in it. Jesus preached liberty to those who were oppressed of the devil, totally delivering all who were captive.  He preached the acceptable year of the LORD, giving all who heard and believed an expectation of good for their lives.  Jesus looked like His picture, which brings me to my point in question, do you look like the picture that God has of you?  JEREMIAH 29:11 – For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of good and not of evil, to give you an expected end. An expected end, that’s the end that God has in mind for you.  I can think of nothing better than reaching and fulfilling the end that God has for me, but what do we look like?  Do we look like the picture that God holds of us?  His picture is that we are brand new creations; His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them; ambassadors for Christ; anointed; redeemed; righteous in Him; completely healed and whole in our bodies; at peace knowing that we have been totally taken care of spiritually, emotionally, physically, and financially, or do we have fear?  Paul exhorts us in PHILIPPIANS 4:5-6 – Be anxious for  nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God, and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. So, like Paul, I exhort you to take stock and get into the Word and let it guide you.  This is the season of peace, peace of earth goodwill towards men the angels declared.  Always follow His peace.  If something doesn’t sit right with you, don’t do it, follow His peace.  Don’t listen to the lies of the devil, rather believe the Word of God.  I praise God for updated pictures that look more and more like the image of God than ever before.

I wish you all a blessed and wonderful Christmas.  Make efforts, especially with those who are inclined to be impossible, and be ambassadors for Christ.

ISAIAH 9:6 – For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder.  And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

 BE BLESSED AND HIGHLY FAVOURED

YOUR

MAMA OF FAITH

FAITH        ANOINTED      HEALING    FINANCES    RIGHTEOUS     JESUS    CREATED

[faithfilledmama]

The Secret to Success

DEUTERONOMY 30:19 - I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live; that you may love the Lord your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days.

Life is made up of choices, and every day we each make hundreds if not thousands of choices, but the secret is to make the right choice.  Sounds great, but just how do we do that?  First and foremost we have to believe that the Bible is God speaking to us personally, and build the Word of God into every fibre of our beings.  I have been going on and on about not being just hearers of the Word but doers as well, because it is the very foundation our lives are being built on.  In fact Jesus, Himself, said so and gave us an excellent example of how we should live – LUKE 6:46-49 – “But why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do the things which I say?  Whoever comes to Me, and hears My sayings and does them, I will show you whom he is like: He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock.  And when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently against that house, and could not shake it, for it was founded on the rock. But he who heard and did nothing is like a man who built a house on the earth without a foundation, against which the stream beat vehemently, and immediately it fell.  And the ruin of that house was great.” That, my friends, is not what we want to be like!!  We want to hear, then do as an automatic response.  

All too often we read the Word, enjoy it, get enthusiastic, highlight what we have just read in our Bibles, even share our revelation with someone else, but remember what I have often said before, ‘a revelation not acted upon is a wasted opportunity’ because the revelation will fade and soon disappear.’  We are tri part beings, we are a spirit (the Bible often refers to our spirit as the ‘inner man’ or the ‘spirit man’); we have a soul; and we live in a body.  Revelation takes place in your spirit, and if you don’t forcefully take it and act on it, you will have a problem recalling what was told you.  Our spirits are so powerful.  When we got born again the Lord Jesus Christ took up residence on the inside of us, right there in our spirits, and we became a new species of beings that had never existed before.  The Apostle Paul puts it this way 2 CORINTHIANS 5:17 - Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.  This new spirit man has the love of God in it, the faith of God, the ability of God, in fact everything that pertains to life and godliness is right there on the inside of every one of us.   It’s virtually a case of ‘anything You can do, I can do’ because it’s the Father in us, He does the work (John 14:10).  As Jesus Himself went on to say in JOHN 14:12 – “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.”

The thing is, will you choose to believe that Word that Jesus said, or will you just toss it off and think it’s crazy impossible.  It is a matter of choice.  It’s a matter of choosing to be a hearer of the Word and a DOER as well, or choosing not to be.  If Jesus said it, it must be true so we have a choice here.  Do we look at the natural circumstances around us and try to figure out with our heads how on earth this is ever going to happen, or do we rather look to the spirit man inside us and look for the wisdom of God to show and guide us as to how this is going to be accomplished.  I know I am setting the bar high, but honestly I’m tired of business as usual, I want it to be business unusual; business supernatural not just plain old natural.  I both challenge and exhort you to start thinking along these lines and let’s change ourselves; our environment and our cities.  

COLOSSIANS 1:27 - To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

BE BLESSED

YOUR MAMA OF FAITH

[faithfilledmama]

CHRIST IS RISEN

LUKE 24:33-34 – So they rose up that very hour and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven and those who were with them gathered together, saying, “The Lord is risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!”

Alithos Anesti, He is risen, indeed has to be the sweetest phrase in all the world.  I get excited every year on the Saturday night going into Sunday morning when, from every direction, you hear the church bells ringing and believers all around wishing each other for Easter saying: “Christos Anesti” which means Christ is Risen, and the person wished answers with: “Alithos Anesti,” meaning Indeed or Truly He has.  This resurrection was the single most important event ever since the creation of the world, and it is up to us as believers to walk in the fullness of all that Christ did for us to ensure that His death was truly a sacrifice and not just a murder.  

COLOSSIANS 1:12-14 – Giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light.  He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. We have been qualified by the work on the cross to be new creations in Christ Jesus, which means that all believers have been put back into their rightful position, just below God yet far above every angel, both good and bad, and all principalities, powers, rulers of the darkness of this age, and spiritual host of wickedness in the heavenly places, including the devil.   In other words, we are just like Jesus and God expects us to walk in the fullness of all that that means.  Writing to believers in Rome, Paul is teaching them their responsibility as sons of God: ROMANS 8:19,21 – For the earnest expectation of the creation (that is the earth and all that is in it) eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God, because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.  God never changes; He is the same yesterday, today and forever (Hebrews 13:8) so to see His original plan for mankind and the creation we have to go back to the beginning.  In Genesis we see that God created the earth and everything in it; then He created man and put Him in the Garden to tend and keep it, and to spread that garden spot to the rest of the earth so that the result would be an extravagant garden spread all over the world for man to occupy and live in, without a thought for provision or anything else.  This is the earnest expectation of the creation, to be delivered from the bondage of corruption and become that garden spot it was intended to be.  Now that is all very well said and done, but how did God actually intend Adam to do that?  As I said, God never changes; His methods are the same now as they were then. First, with words, He put the power, His power into Adam as He was creating Him, then He actually spoke the power over Adam and instructed him.  GENESIS 1:26-27 – Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Man was now an exact duplicate of kind of God, in looks, in nature, in ability, he was just like God, and then God spoke to him and     instructed him as to his mission on the earth.  GENESIS 1:28 – Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air; and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

Jesus died to bring us back to that position, and has also empowered us to do what He requires us to do.  He brought back the blessing into the earth, and more specifically into our lives to equip and enable us to live in victory and recreate the Garden of Eden wherever we are. (To be continued…….)

GALATIANS 3:13-14 – Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree’), that the BLESSING of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

BE BLESSED AND HIGHLY FAVOURED

YOUR

MAMA OF FAITH

[faithfilledmama]

MERRY CHRISTMAS 2015

MATTHEW 22:34-40 – But when the Pharisees had heard that He had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?”  Jesus said to him, “You shall love the Lord your god with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.  This is the first and great commandment, and the second is like it: You shall love your neighbour as yourself.  On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”

God, on the other hand, loves us as much as He loves Jesus; Jesus told us so it has to be true – JOHN 17:23 – I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.  God loves us so much that He sent Jesus to save us from the clutches of the devil, to save us from sin, and sickness and disease, from lack and poverty, to give us eternal life with Him, and to literally fill us with Himself.  

It was a cool winter’s evening when Joseph eventually trudged into Bethlehem with Mary, his very pregnant wife.  They arrived to the hustle and bustle of an unusual number of people who were there - according to the decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. So all went to be registered, everyone to his own city (LUKE 2:1&3).  While they were there Jesus was born.  LUKE 2:8-14 – Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night.  And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid.  Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people.  For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord.  And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.”  And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying:  “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”  And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!  That was the message our loving Father sent the angel to deliver, peace on earth where you live, and goodwill from heaven towards men.

Love gives, and God gave His best, just because He loves us.  JOHN 3:16-17 – For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.  For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. God knew what it was going to take to rescue mankind, but He still did it. This was a pure act of love. Everything God does is for our good and for our benefit, and the sooner we realize this and act accordingly, the better it will be for us.  We also know that love never fails, so let’s see exactly how we can demonstrate our love towards God and walk in this love.  JOHN 14:21 – He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me.  And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.  From this passage we see that the answer to how to walk in love is to do whatever we are instructed to in the Word of God.  The Word must be our manual for life.  If you follow the manufacturer’s handbook for anything manufactured,     then that item will always function well and be in good condition.  So with our lives, if we follow our handbook/manual for life, then we will always function well and be in good condition, it’s that simple!   Life happens though, and it is so easy to get off track, but if we have seriously considered what the Word says for various situations, and that Word comes up inside our consciousness when the situation happens, then it is up to us to choose which way we will go.  If we just don’t care and do what we feel like doing, then nine times out of ten we will end up in a mess, but if we determinedly follow the instructions in our handbook (whether we feel like it or not) then we will always come out on top. As I said earlier, love never fails, and doing His Word and not what we feel like, is love in its purest form.  I encourage you to praise God for where you are at the moment, and to thank Him with all your heart for sending Jesus just for you.  Have a wonderful Christmas and just celebrate Him.

ROMANS 5:5 – Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

 BE BLESSED AND HIGHLY FAVOURED

YOUR

FAITH FILLED MAMA

[faithfilledmama]

HAVE FAITH IN GOD

MARK 11:22 – So Jesus answered and said to them, ‘Have faith in God.’

 Such a simple statement, but loaded.  All we have to do to live our lives to the fullest, is to have faith in God at all times.  God is a good God who loves us and wants the best for us, but as we have discovered, nothing is automatic.  God has His part and we have ours.  And our part is to have faith in God!  It is actually that simple, but requires effort on our part.

 First and foremost we need to establish whether we have faith in God or not.  Do we believe what we hear about Him; do we believe what we read about Him? And does what we read and hear about Him line up with the Word of God, which is the final authority.  If we have committed our lives to Jesus, and are born again, then we should be able to safely say that we believe that God is who He says He is, the Almighty God, El Elyon the Most High God.  We believe in our heart and confess with our mouth Jesus as our Lord and Saviour.  Once we have done that, then we can expect to live the life that God has made ready for us to live, and that takes faith in God.  “Ok, this is great, but,” you might ask, “where do we get this faith, and how do we develop it?”

 Know one thing, God never just leaves us dangling. Salvation was a free gift, and with that gift came many gifts.  By salvation I don’t just mean a “fire escape”, but salvation encompasses healing, deliverance, provision, everything   we need to live as He planned for us to live – 2 PETER 1:3 – “As His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness…..”   One of these “all things” was the gift of faith.  ROMANS 12:3 – “… … … as God has dealt to each one of us the measure of faith.”  So, the first gift we were given was the gift of faith which we received immediately upon confession of Jesus as Lord and Saviour.  Notice we were given the measure of faith.  God has one measure of faith which He deals out to each individual upon salvation, and once we receive this measure then it is up to us to grow it.  We grow our faith by regularly getting into the Word of God.  We need to read it, talk about it, listen to sermons based on the Word, and that is how we grow our faith, because we are told in ROMANS 10:17 – So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing the Word of God. I love what Charles Capps used to say, “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing, and hearing…..!”  In other words, you need to continually hear the Word of God. You cannot hear it once and think that you are done, it takes exercise to grow faith.

 Why did Jesus tell us to have faith in God, is it so important to keep our faith level up?  As His children, we love God and desire to please Him at all times, and we are told in HEBREWS 11:6 – But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.  So, if we want to please Him then it is most important for us to have faith in Him.

 Another reason we need to have faith is because we access the promises of God by faith. God is love, and loves us more than we can ever begin to comprehend,   and it is His will and desire that we walk in all His promises and provisions that have been made available to us.  As we see in the verse above, God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. One thing I am beginning to realize about God is His appreciation of our taking advantage of all that He has provided for us.  That is so awesome.  He appreciates our believing in Him and our having faith in Him, and as a result He wants to shower us with blessings.  It is almost as if God is saying, “Thank you for believing My Word, and for putting your faith and trust in Me.”  That makes me want to please God even more, to draw even closer to Him, and we do that by being obedient to what Jesus said and “Have faith in God.”

 HEBREWS 12:1&2 – Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.

 BE BLESSED AND HIGHLY FAVOURED

 YOUR

 MAMA OF FAITH

[faithfilledmama]

YOU ARE BLESSED AND CANNOT BE CURSED:

NUMBERS 23:20 – “Behold, I have received a command to bless; He has blessed and I cannot reverse it!”

 Whom God has blessed, cannot be cursed! In NUMBERS, chapters 22 – 24 we see an interesting story about the children of Israel as they were almost about to enter the Promised Land.  NUMBERS 22:1-4 – “Then the children of Israel moved, and camped in the plains of Moab on the side of the Jordan across from Jericho.  Now Balak the son of Zippor saw all that Israel had done to the Amorites. And Moab was exceedingly afraid of the people because they were many, and Moab was sick with dread because of the children of Israel.  So Moab said to the elders of Midian, “Now this company will lick up everything around us, as an ox licks up the grass of the field.”  And Balak the son of Zippor was king of the Moabites at that time.”  

 As we can see from these few verses, the Moabites were extremely afraid.  It was common knowledge in those parts that there was a man, Balaam by name, who had a relationship with God; so Balak, who had an understanding of spiritual things, sent for him.  NUMBERS 22:6 – Therefore please come at once, curse this people for me, for they are too mighty for me.  Perhaps I shall be able to defeat them and drive them out of the land, for I know that he whom you bless is blessed, and he whom you curse is cursed.  Balak sent men with promises to Balaam of great wealth and position.  

 Balaam told the men to lodge there the night, as he had to talk with God first, then he would give them his answer in the morning. God told Balaam not to go with the men, as the people were blessed and he was not to curse them.  Balak was persistent, and sent the men back with offers of even greater wealth and anything that he wanted.  Balaam was beginning to lust, but God told him no! Anyway, to cut a long story short, the offers of wealth became too much for Balaam to resist and he went with the men. (This is such an interesting story, I recommend that you read the whole of it – I am hardly skimming!) God dealt with Balaam in a most spectacular way along the road, so that by the time he got to Balak, NUMBERS 22:38 – And Balaam said to Balak, “Look, I have come to you!  Now, have I any power at all to say anything?  The word that God puts in my mouth, that I must speak.  In other words, I am not my own man; God tells me what I must say.

 The next morning, after the Lord had put a word in Balaam’s mouth, we are told that among other things he said, NUMBERS 23:8 – How shall I curse whom God has not cursed?  And how shall I denounce whom the Lord has not denounced?  Balak was furious, but there was nothing that Balaam could do about it.  This went on for a time, and he responded – NUMBERS 23:20 – Behold, I have received a command to bless; He has blessed, and I cannot reverse it!  

 I want to highlight this particular occasion, and point out something very interesting, which just displays God’s overflowing love for us.  We must never forget that although the children of Israel are His people, we are His children.  In this same passage, Balaam went on to say in verse 21 – He has not observed iniquity in Jacob, nor has He seen wickedness in Israel.  This is awe-inspiring.  We all know how wickedly Israel behaved in the wilderness, even God called them a “stiff-necked people”, but God’s message here is clearly “they belong to Me, and don’t you forget it!”  Personally I find this awesome.  By the same token, we belong to Him, and beware anyone who comes against us!

 We have this same blessing in us, on us, and around us, working 24 hours on our behalf!  And no one can curse us.  We are blessed, and cannot be cursed!  Jesus was nailed to the cross to take the curse that was on us, onto Himself, in order to get that blessing to us.  GALATIANS 3:13&14 – Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree’), that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, … …”  We are blessed and cannot be cursed.  

 DEUTERONOMY 28:1-4 – Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the Lord your God will set you high above all nations of the earth.  And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the Lord your God: blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the country.  Blessed shall be the fruit of your body, the produce of your ground and the increase of your herds, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks.  Verses 6-8: - Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out.  The Lord will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before your face; they shall come out against you one way and flee from before you seven ways. The Lord will command the blessing on you in your storehouses and in all to which you set your hand…………”  

 YOU ARE BLESSED!  

 BE BLESSED AND HIGHLY FAVOURED

 YOUR

 MAMA OF FAITH

[faithfilledmama]

BLESSED TO BE A BLESSING:

GENESIS 12:2&3 – I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

 This is God talking to Abram, He said to Abram, “I will bless you, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”  God said and declared it over Abram.  This is most important that you take note of the fact that God said it because that is how you bless, by the words of your mouth.  So let’s recap a little and see exactly what the blessing is - the blessing is the empowerment to have dominion; to prosper and succeed at whatever we put our hands to.  It is God’s ability on our ability, giving us the ability to get the job done!  Any job!  We have to remember that this is all God’s idea; He wants us to prosper and succeed at everything we do.  We are His representatives in the earth and this blessing is a supernatural empowerment, so it is so important for us to understand and have a working knowledge of how it works.  

 Let’s go back to the first time the blessing is mentioned and track it to where we are today.  GENESIS 1:28 – Then God blessed them (Adam) and said, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every thing that moves on the earth.”  

 When Adam sinned, he fell from the supernatural realm to the natural so he lost the blessing, and we don’t see or hear of it again till Noah.  Mankind just got more and more wicked, and God knew that if He didn’t step in then both man and the earth would self-destruct.  All along, however, in spite of the wickedness all around, there was a righteous line from Adam through his son Seth, and on down to Noah. So we see how God destroyed the earth - everyone and everything that was not in the ark was wiped out, but He saved Noah and his family and every species of animals that were on the earth at that time.  Once the earth dried out, it was a time of new beginnings and God made a Covenant with Noah promising that He would never destroy the earth again with a flood, and then we hear those wonderful familiar words again, GENESIS 9:1 – So God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them: “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.”  Well they were, and they did, and then we are introduced to Abram.  

 GENESIS 12:1-3 – Now the Lord had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you.  I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing.  I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”  Those are awesome words, and we know that Abram believed God, because he obeyed Him. Obedience to the Word of God is the secret to success.  As we read on in Genesis, we see that the blessing (the empowerment to prosper and be successful) is already at work in Abram’s life, working things out on his behalf.  GENESIS 13:2 – Abram was very rich in cattle, in silver and in gold.  Interesting! From just an ordinary man, we see the blessing beginning to take effect in Abram’s life and now he is very rich! Listen to me, when you honour the blessing and acknowledge it in your life, it goes to work on your behalf and gives you the advantage in every situation.

 After approximately 2 000 years we see the blessing in operation again in its fullness and as strong as it was in the Garden of Eden. Jesus had arrived on the scene demonstrating for those who would eventually believe in Him how to live a blessed life.  He healed the sick, raised the dead, paid His taxes with money from a fish’s mouth, turned water in wine, and had not a care in His life.  He depended wholly and completely on His Father and Holy Spirit’s guidance for everything.  Jesus never lacked either, in fact He even had His own treasurer!

 I know there are many frustrated people reading this and saying, ‘Great, but what about me? How do I get this blessing?  How do I walk in the empowerment to prosper and be a success? I know that I am meant to be blessed because Jesus is my example, but how on earth do I do it? How do I get it?”  Jesus has done it all for you.  When He was crucified and died, He took our sin and according to 2 CORINTHIANS 5:21 – God made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. Jesus accomplished the most awesome deed ever - the great exchange!  And in this great exchange, He took the curse upon Himself and gave us the blessing, the very same blessing He had.  All we are required to do is to believe it.  It is done!    

 GALATIANS 3:13&14 – Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”), that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

  BE BLESSED AND HIGHLY FAVOURED

 YOUR

 MAMA OF FAITH

[faithfilledmama]

THE BLESSING continued

GENESIS 12:2&3 – “I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing.  I will bless those who bless you    and curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

 As we saw last time, the blessing is not the house, the car, the ‘thing,’ but it’s the empowerment to prosper and succeed.  It’s God’s supernatural power on us, empowering us to get the job done; God’s ability on our ability causing us to be able to do what we were created to do.  GENESIS 1:26-28 – Then God said, “Let us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”  So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.  Then God blessed them and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”  I want you to notice something very, very important in connection with the blessing, it is both imparted and received by words.  Notice verse 28 again, Then God blessed them and God said, “Be fruitful etc.” Everything in this earth begins with words.  Everything God did in creation was done with words.  All the way through Genesis 1 we see God saying, then God seeing; God saying, then God seeing.  Again in JOHN 1, John refers to the fact that everything in creation, including Jesus, started with the Word.  JOHN 1:1-3&14 – “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God.  All things were made through Him, (Him who? Him the Word) and without Him (the Word) nothing was made that was made.  And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, … …”  

 I said all of that to say this, that the blessing, the empowerment to prosper and succeed was imparted by speaking words.  It is an action.  Then God blessed them, and God said…. God blessed them by saying.  By the same token the curse is imparted with words, by saying, which is one of the reasons I tend to go on and on about watching the words of our mouths.

 So we see that the blessing is an empowerment to succeed; it’s the supernatural ability to get the job done; literally the Anointing of God working in and upon us, and that it is spoken over our lives.  

 This blessing is an active force which God released in and over man when he was created, to work on his behalf and cause all things to work to his advantage.  Unfortunately Adam blew it and lost the blessing, and all that went with it.  Sin, fear, and guilt entered his life, and dominion went out the window.  Sin infected the whole earth, and man was put out of the Garden.  Although it was punishment for Adam to be put out of the Garden and to have to work by the sweat of his brow, it was also for his own sake that he was.  In the midst of the Garden was the Tree of Life, and if Adam had eaten of it in his fallen state, he would have remained that way forever, and there would have been no redemption for mankind.  God is a faithful God who loves His creation.  As a faithful Father, He determined to get the blessing back into the earth, and into His man, to fulfill His original plan of dominion. What God has planned for us is more than we could ever begin to imagine.  He loves us as much as He did on the day in which we were created, and that which He has planned will come to pass.  Expect the blessing to manifest in your life and declare daily that you are highly favoured and exceedingly blessed of God and watch it happen.

 PROVERBS 10:27 (NIV) – The blessing of the Lord brings wealth, without painful toil for it.

  BE BLESSED AND HIGHLY FAVOURED

 YOUR

 MAMA OF FAITH        

[faithfilledmama]

THE BLESSING

GENESIS 12:2&3 – “I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing.  I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

  Blessed, blessing and bless have to be the most widely used of all words in the Christian vocabulary.  You sneeze and someone says, “Bless you”; or someone asks how you are and you reply, “Blessed!” and so on.  I am not saying that this is wrong; in fact it is great IF you know what you are saying.  Although “blessed” might be the most widely used word, it is probably also the most misunderstood.  You might have just bought a new car and declared “that The Lord blessed me with this car.”  Or even have referred to the car as a “blessing” from God.  Lovely as that might sound, it is not really the truth of the matter, because the “blessing” is not a “thing” – but the “thing” is the result of the “blessing”.  What I am trying to say is that the “blessing” is not the fruit, but the root of the matter.

  Let us track this word in the Bible to get a correct understanding of it.  The very first time the word ‘blessed’ is used is in reference to the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, GENESIS 1:22 – “And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.”  Then six verses later we see this same thing again, but this time it is in relation to man, GENESIS 1:28 – “Then God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”  In both these verses, and our foundation scripture, we see that the ‘blessing’ was not in reference to a physical thing being given, but to a bestowed empowerment or ability.  To be ‘blessed’ – is to be empowered to succeed, or empowered to prosper in whatever it is that you are undertaking.  God empowered the birds and fish to multiply, and empowered man not only to have dominion over everything created, but also to replenish the earth, and spread and grow the Garden of Eden till it filled and covered the whole earth.  This was one of God’s original purposes for man, and it hasn’t changed.  God knew what it would take to accomplish this task, so He empowered, or gave man the ability to do it.  You could say it this way, that the ‘blessing’ is God’s ability on our ability enabling or empowering us to be able to do what He wants us to.

  I want to repeat this again so that it sticks in your understanding.  Before I do, though, I want to dig a bit into that word ‘prosper’ because I shall use it a lot in connection with the ‘blessing’.  When we think ‘to prosper’, most of us immediately think money and finances, and stop there.  Although that is correct, it is only partially correct.  The dictionary defines to ‘prosper’ as to get rich financially; to flourish; well being; thrive and to be successful.  So, once again, to be ‘blessed’ means to be empowered to prosper, or succeed – to be empowered with supernatural ability to get the job done.  God blessed and said to Adam, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”  God told Adam to do a pack of things, and He is not unreasonable.  God would never tell us to do whatever we cannot do, so obviously He expected Adam to be able to do whatever He told him to.  I want you to notice something very important – before God said anything, He ‘blessed’ him.  Before God told Adam to do anything, He empowered him to do it.  That is awesome.  The same thing goes for us as Christians.  Have you noticed that God never makes suggestions.  He never suggests that we do anything, He just tells us to do it! God expects us to behave in a certain way and to accomplish certain things, and He has empowered us to do so.

  As you read your Bible from now on, every time you see the word ‘bless; blessed; blessing’ I want you to “Amplify” and expand your thinking, and substitute the word with ‘empowered to prosper’ and ‘empowered to succeed.’   It will open and enlarge your understanding of this most important subject.  Let us do this as an exercise together and see how nicely it reads.  See what good God has in store for us:

  DEUTERONOMY 28:1-6 – “Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the Lord your God will set you high above all nations of the earth.  And all these blessings (empowerments to prosper/succeed) shall come upon you and overtake you because you obey the voice of the Lord your God.  Blessed (empowered to prosper and succeed) shall you be in the city, and blessed (empowered to prosper and succeed) shall you be in the country.  Blessed (empowered to prosper and succeed)shall be the fruit of your body, the produce of your ground and the increase of your herds, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks.  Blessed (empowered to prosper and succeed) shall be your basket and your kneading bowl.  Blessed (empowered to prosper and succeed) shall you be when you come in, and blessed (empowered to prosper and succeed) shall you be when you go out. 

  The way I read it, God wants us blessed and empowered to prosper and succeed no matter where we are, and no matter what we have do.

  BE BLESSED AND HIGHLY FAVOURED

  YOUR

  MAMA OF FAITH                        

[faithfilledmama]

THANKSGIVING:

PSALM 103:1-5 – Bless the LORD, O my soul; and all that is within me bless His holy name!  Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits.  Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases, Who redeems your life from destruction, Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies, Who satisfies your mouth with good things, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

  What a mighty God we serve!  One thing I have learned to love about America is the tradition of “Thanksgiving.”  An attitude of gratitude goes a very long way in God’s economy, and even if it is only for a few moments on that one day, the whole nation takes it seriously.  You can actually feel it in the very atmosphere, and it is so good to be appreciated by so many people.  One neighbour even gave us a “pie” just to say thanks for being caring neighbours!

  Thanksgiving and praise have to be among the mightiest weapons that God has given us.  You can overcome any adversity in your life by just staying in thanksgiving and praise unto God.  Moses tells us that the children of Israel vexed God greatly by their constant murmuring and complaining, and that is what caused them to wander in the wilderness, going nowhere on purpose for forty years till everyone of that generation died – DEUTERONOMY 1:27,34&35 -  And you murmured and complained in your tents, and said, “Because the Lord hates us, He has brought us out of the land of Egypt to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us.”  And the Lord heard the sound of your words, and was angry, and took an oath saying, “Surely not one of these men of this evil generation shall see that good land of which I swore to give to your fathers.”

  The attitude that we adopt towards any adversity in our life affects the outcome.  If we have a good, positive, appreciative attitude then we will come out of it much quicker than if we complain and have a bad attitude.   When you are negative, you can’t see the wood for the trees and the answer might be staring you in the face, but because of your attitude you keep missing it.  On the other hand, when you keep smiling, and give praise and thanksgiving to the Lord, you give Him something to work with.  For starters, you are showing Him that you trust Him to work on your behalf, and showing faith by lining your words up with his Word.  One of my favourite examples of the power of thanksgiving is demonstrated in ACTS 16: when Paul and Silas were thrown into the dungeons in that Philippian jail.

  Paul had wanted to go east into Asia, but in a vision, he saw a man of Macedonia pleading with him to “Come over to Macedonia and help us.”  So Paul and Silas set out and went to Philippi.  Whilst there the multitudes rose up against them, and they were seriously beaten and thrown into the inner prison, with their feet put in stocks.  At that point they could easily have murmured and complained to God that He had guided them there, just to have them thrown into prison.  In the natural that is what it looked like, and in the natural they might have been justified.  But, they refused to be in the natural, instead they pulled out the weapons of their warfare!  ACTS 16:25 – But at midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.  Suddenly, there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were loosed.  They gave God something to work with, and He honoured their faith.  

  God always honours faith; and thanksgiving, especially in hard times, is showing faith.  Faith in God that He will do what He has promised to do.  It doesn’t matter what it looks like, if God said it, then He will do it.  PSALM 119:89 – Forever, O LORD, Your word is settled in heaven.  That settles it!  So every morning when you get up, thank God for the day that He has made, for the blue or grey skies, whichever apply, it doesn’t matter; for your health and for your wealth.  And as the apostle Paul tells us to do –

  PHILIPPIANS 4:4,6-8 – Rejoice in the Lord always.  Again I will say rejoice!  Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.  Finally brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy – meditate on these things.

    BE BLESSED AND HIGHLY FAVOURED

  YOUR

  MAMA OF FAITH