Last Harvest Fellowship - a global church without walls
Faith?
Without a doubt, the most common question I am asked is, "Pam, what am I doing wrong? I am talking the talk, I am confessing and believing for things to turn around ... Why am I not seeing the results?" I trust that this has a positive impact on your faith walk, as it has on mine:
How is your "Faith" working for you? Have you been "confessing" the promises in God's Word, tithing, giving and doing all you know to do and still not "seeing" the fruit of your labor?
I just read a mini book by Kenneth Hagin, Jr. titled, Faith Worketh by Love.
IF you are willing to take a good hard look at your own "Love Walk," then read on. Ask God to reveal any area in your heart or life that needs His love to heal it.
First of all, pay close attention to your words that come out of your mouth. Many times we pray and ask God to help us, or to do this or that - BUT as soon as we "see" something that is contrary to what we have prayed and confessed - we "SPEAK" IT - as if IT were the truth - instead of "Calling those things that be not as though they are." God spoke the universe into existence - He did not see it and then believe it was true.
In other words - stop looking at your circumstances and calling them "Reality" instead of what God's Word says is true. This is what the Bible refers to when it talks about not being "double minded," and not wavering "like a wave of the sea," tossed to and fro by the winds of life. (Jam 1:6)
Second, take a good look at your heart ... every area of your heart. Is there any unforgiveness there? Is there any resentment there? How about your thoughts about yourself - are they loving - or negative? Is there any thing that, to God would not "look" like love?
Consider for one moment the famous "Love Chapter," 1 Corinthians 13:4-8a, 13 (AMP) ...
"Love endures long and is patient and kind; love never is envious nor boils over with jealousy; is not boastful or vainglorious, does not display itself haughtily. It is not conceited - arrogant and inflated with pride; it is not rude (unmannerly), and does not act unbecomingly. Love [God's love in us] does not insist on its own rights or its own way, for it is not self-seeking; it is not touchy or fretful or resentful; it takes no account of the evil done to it - pays no attention to a suffered wrong. It does not rejoice at injustice and unrighteousness, but rejoices when right and truth prevail. Love bears up under anything and everything that comes, is ever ready to believe the best of every person, its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances and it endures everything [without weakening]. Love never fails - never fades out or becomes obsolete or comes to an end. .... And so faith, hope, love abide, ... these three, but the greatest of these is love."
Gal 5:6, (AMP) ... "For [if we are] in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith activated and energized and expressed and working through love." (KJV says) "... but faith which worketh by love."
Since we now know that faith works - is activated - by love, we also now know that faith does not work without love. Are you .... "Ever ready to believe the best of every person" ... "Taking no account of evil done" ... "Paying no attention to a suffered wrong"? Are your hopes "Fadeless under all circumstances?" Have you ever been "Touchy or fretful or resentful?"
We absolutely are not called to be perfect - only forgiven! When we find an area that we have been disobedient in, or possibly just an area we have been 'hiding' until we are ready to "let it go" then we need to let God have it and heal it.
Some ways we may not be walking in love may be ... being angry with a friend, spouse, child, sibling or parent; it may be resenting a boss or superior; or wanting someone else to suffer because of the hurt they caused us. It may look like with holding love or affection from someone we care for, giving them the silent treatment. It may be cutting someone off on the road for the way they are driving! It may be making sure that others know a certain way someone treated us - for it was obviously wrong! It may simply be in considering our own desires, wants or needs above or before someone else's.
It may also be not loving ourselves - not caring for ourselves, thinking negative things about ourselves. We are told to love our neighbors as ourselves, implying that we must love ourselves first.
1 Pet 4:8 says that love covers a multitude of sins. How much is a "multitude?"
We are instructed to judge not lest we be judged. And we are also instructed to confess and renounce our own sin to God (Prov 28:13) and then it is gone!
"When 'faith people' wake up and start checking all areas of their lives, they will find certain areas in which they are not really walking in love - and these areas are hindering their faith from operating to its fullest capacity."
"Love thinketh no evil ... Love covers evil with silence and will not speak of it. It refuses to think about it. Sometimes you can't help what you overhear - but you can refuse to repeat it or think about it. Cast it out of your mind. Love thinks on the truth, the good, the lovely."
"We as Christians are called to love the unlovely. Many of us, however, want the unlovely to straighten up first. THEN we are willing to help them. But it isn't going to work that way." (Excerpt, quotes adapted from Faith Worketh by Love by Kenneth Hagin Jr)
Wanting God to change someone else puts us in a place of judgment. We can only change who we are - and by default, others change in response to that.
One more thing, remember, "Faith without works is dead." (Jam 2:26) So along with your confession and love, be certain to be doing what you need to do - take action!
Pam Caylor
"A life is most important in the lasting positive impact it has in other lives." (Pam Caylor)
How is your "Faith" working for you? Have you been "confessing" the promises in God's Word, tithing, giving and doing all you know to do and still not "seeing" the fruit of your labor?
I just read a mini book by Kenneth Hagin, Jr. titled, Faith Worketh by Love.
IF you are willing to take a good hard look at your own "Love Walk," then read on. Ask God to reveal any area in your heart or life that needs His love to heal it.
First of all, pay close attention to your words that come out of your mouth. Many times we pray and ask God to help us, or to do this or that - BUT as soon as we "see" something that is contrary to what we have prayed and confessed - we "SPEAK" IT - as if IT were the truth - instead of "Calling those things that be not as though they are." God spoke the universe into existence - He did not see it and then believe it was true.
In other words - stop looking at your circumstances and calling them "Reality" instead of what God's Word says is true. This is what the Bible refers to when it talks about not being "double minded," and not wavering "like a wave of the sea," tossed to and fro by the winds of life. (Jam 1:6)
Second, take a good look at your heart ... every area of your heart. Is there any unforgiveness there? Is there any resentment there? How about your thoughts about yourself - are they loving - or negative? Is there any thing that, to God would not "look" like love?
Consider for one moment the famous "Love Chapter," 1 Corinthians 13:4-8a, 13 (AMP) ...
"Love endures long and is patient and kind; love never is envious nor boils over with jealousy; is not boastful or vainglorious, does not display itself haughtily. It is not conceited - arrogant and inflated with pride; it is not rude (unmannerly), and does not act unbecomingly. Love [God's love in us] does not insist on its own rights or its own way, for it is not self-seeking; it is not touchy or fretful or resentful; it takes no account of the evil done to it - pays no attention to a suffered wrong. It does not rejoice at injustice and unrighteousness, but rejoices when right and truth prevail. Love bears up under anything and everything that comes, is ever ready to believe the best of every person, its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances and it endures everything [without weakening]. Love never fails - never fades out or becomes obsolete or comes to an end. .... And so faith, hope, love abide, ... these three, but the greatest of these is love."
Gal 5:6, (AMP) ... "For [if we are] in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith activated and energized and expressed and working through love." (KJV says) "... but faith which worketh by love."
Since we now know that faith works - is activated - by love, we also now know that faith does not work without love. Are you .... "Ever ready to believe the best of every person" ... "Taking no account of evil done" ... "Paying no attention to a suffered wrong"? Are your hopes "Fadeless under all circumstances?" Have you ever been "Touchy or fretful or resentful?"
We absolutely are not called to be perfect - only forgiven! When we find an area that we have been disobedient in, or possibly just an area we have been 'hiding' until we are ready to "let it go" then we need to let God have it and heal it.
Some ways we may not be walking in love may be ... being angry with a friend, spouse, child, sibling or parent; it may be resenting a boss or superior; or wanting someone else to suffer because of the hurt they caused us. It may look like with holding love or affection from someone we care for, giving them the silent treatment. It may be cutting someone off on the road for the way they are driving! It may be making sure that others know a certain way someone treated us - for it was obviously wrong! It may simply be in considering our own desires, wants or needs above or before someone else's.
It may also be not loving ourselves - not caring for ourselves, thinking negative things about ourselves. We are told to love our neighbors as ourselves, implying that we must love ourselves first.
1 Pet 4:8 says that love covers a multitude of sins. How much is a "multitude?"
We are instructed to judge not lest we be judged. And we are also instructed to confess and renounce our own sin to God (Prov 28:13) and then it is gone!
"When 'faith people' wake up and start checking all areas of their lives, they will find certain areas in which they are not really walking in love - and these areas are hindering their faith from operating to its fullest capacity."
"Love thinketh no evil ... Love covers evil with silence and will not speak of it. It refuses to think about it. Sometimes you can't help what you overhear - but you can refuse to repeat it or think about it. Cast it out of your mind. Love thinks on the truth, the good, the lovely."
"We as Christians are called to love the unlovely. Many of us, however, want the unlovely to straighten up first. THEN we are willing to help them. But it isn't going to work that way." (Excerpt, quotes adapted from Faith Worketh by Love by Kenneth Hagin Jr)
Wanting God to change someone else puts us in a place of judgment. We can only change who we are - and by default, others change in response to that.
One more thing, remember, "Faith without works is dead." (Jam 2:26) So along with your confession and love, be certain to be doing what you need to do - take action!
Pam Caylor
"A life is most important in the lasting positive impact it has in other lives." (Pam Caylor)
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