Two Dwellings For Faith
“The just shall live by faith; But if anyone draws back, my soul has no pleasure in Him.” Hebrews 10:38
Recently I have been restudying faith since I have experienced disappointments in unanswered prayers – prayers that I prayed in what I thought was great faith. This presents challenges in fully believing some of the promises God makes in the Bible especially when we pray and pray and then we WAIT for the manifestation to show up. In my situation, it was issues of physical healing for myself and others.
I sure do not want to draw back in any way or get into pouting with the Father so this led to rethinking my understanding of faith. E.B. Kenyon, in his book Two Kinds of Faith, gave this clarity for me. He describes “sense” faith and “revelation” faith. The sense faith is what we believe in our minds based on what we see, feel, or hear and our study of Scripture. Then that knowledge has to go down into our hearts (spirits) to become revelation knowledge. This will cause us to grab hold of the promises we need whether it be for healing or other promises. Just knowing a truth in our head is not enough. It has to get down into our spirits and then come out of our mouths as we claim the promise aloud.Hebrews 11 is often referred to as the hall of faith. Reading of the great faith examples of the many listed is very inspiring and causes me to pray for more faith and to position myself to hear the Word more. Faith is a gift. We can pray for more faith, but faith also comes by hearing (Romans 10:17).
I aspire to be a believer who lives more and more in the realm of faith by revelation where the promises are written on my heart, come back up in my declarations, and I see the manifestations. I will still need to be patient. “Through faith and patience inherit the promises” (Hebrews 6:12).
Pray with me: Lord, help me to get a tight grip on the concept of revelation faith, to walk in that faith and not try to reason everything out. I pray in Jesus name. Amen.
Copyright © Peggy Park. All rights reserved.
Mailing Our Prayers
“Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Hebrews 11:1 nkjv
Recently I was struggling with a prayer concern which I could not seem to release and leave it with the Lord. My husband shared a devotion out of Streams in the Desert by L.B. Cowman which really spoke to me. To quote, “Genuine faith puts its letter in the mailbox and lets go. Distrust, however, holds on to a corner of the envelope and then wonders why the answer never arrives.” This caused me to examine my heart and see if this was the case with me. I had to admit that yes, it was. I was hanging onto the envelope rather than mailing it.
Zillions of words have addressed every aspect of prayer and I do not have a firm grip on releasing as opposed to the often taught, knock and keep on knocking. I did ask the Lord’s forgiveness, prayed the prayer I was concerned over and in my mind’s eye I mailed it to the Lord and let go of the envelope. Now when it comes to the forefront of my thinking I just thank the Lord He has heard me and is working on my request.
We are told to “Cast all your anxiety on the Lord.” I Peter 5:7 and “Do not be anxious about anything.” Phil. 4:6.
I read a story about a man on a train in a foreign country who held his heavy suitcase on his lap for the entire long train trip. As he was getting off the train the conductor asked, “Why didn’t you put that heavy suitcase down?” The man replied, “I didn’t know there was a place to put it.”
We, as followers of Jesus, know we have a place to leave our heavy burdens. We do not have to carry them. We just have to disciple ourselves to put them in the place provided for us. That is at the feet of Jesus.
Pray with me: Lord, help me to learn this valuable lesson of putting my burdens over onto You and leaving them there remembering to praise You for working in the situation.
Copyright © Peggy Park. All rights reserved.
Faith (part 5)
Faith has always been somewhat of a mystery to me. I have been mulling the topic over in my mind for months now in preparation for writing a new brochure. I came up with something I call the circle of faith which has helped bring clarity to the subject. I pray it does the same for any of you reading this.
I think the circle of faith is self explanatory but will comment on it anyway. As you can see god gives each of us a measure of faith. (I believe it is the same measure and comes at the salvation experience.)
We are given the wonderful privilege of adding to that faith by hearing the word as described in the previous blog. We return the word of God to Him by speaking His promises aloud (the scriptures that apply to the situation we are dealing with at the time). This gives Him His own word to work with and to honor. According to Isaiah 55:11 His word will not return void.
I compare speaking His word back to Him to the joy a parent feels when their child quotes back something the parent has struggled to get them to understand. It is if to say, “They finally listened and got it.” God wants us to be diligent to study and believe His word. When we quote it back to Him it is as if, “We got it”.
The gift of faith is also mentioned in I Corth. 12:9 as a gift. I believe this is in addition to the measure given to each believer but I will rest on this as I have not studied it enough to understand this aspect of faith.
© 2010 Peggy Park.
Faith (part 4) How Does Faith Work?
As stated earlier we are each given a measure of faith when we accept Jesus as Lord and Savior. In addition we are told that faith comes by hearing the word. God gives us faith, we believe His word, offer His word back to Him, consider not the circumstance, and remember to praise. Faith starts with God, comes to the heart of the believer who then returns God’s word to Him by speaking. God declares His word will not return void but will accomplish what he pleases and prosper in the thing for which He sent it (Isaiah 55:11).
We have established the fact that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word. We are challenged to be diligent to build on the measure He gave us. Scripture also tells us that faith expresses itself through love. We can not be in unresolved conflict with others and expect our faith to operate.
James 2:17 tells us that faith without works is a dead faith.
Let us resolve to be full of the word of God and return His promises to Him to fulfill. That puts a demand on the word. It pleases Him to know His children have taken the time to seek out His promises and return them to Him. Yes, faith is circular. It starts with God, then passes through man who builds it by hearing and believing the word. Then man returns the faith words to God who then moves to fulfill His promises. His faithfulness feeds our faith. Our inner man is built up and our faith increases as we recall His faithfulness in our lives.
Let us remember to offer up praise for He is worthy of all praise.
1. Hagin, Kenneth What Faith Is. Rhema Bible Church, 1983
© 2010 Peggy Park.
Faith (part 3) How do we use Faith?
There are many examples recorded in Scripture where faith was the key that moved the hand of God to pour out His provisions. There are a number of stories of healing where Jesus said, “Your faith has made you whole.” Sight was restored, the paralyzed could walk, bleeding was stopped, lepers were healed, the lame leaped up and stood erect. Their faith was ignited when they encountered Jesus. When He spoke the word they grabbed hold, believed, and received. This should inspire us to do likewise.
Faith as a Belt
God has provided a belt of truth as part of the believer’s armor (Ephesians 6:14). The belt of truth is His word wrapped around us instead of the misconceptions, lies, and marginal half truths some of us have accepted as truth. We can not pay attention to Satan’s distortions and God’s truth simultaneously. We are to embrace God’s truth. “Your word is truth.” John 17:17b
Belts in the natural hold our garments of clothing together. Let us be mindful of the need to wrap ourselves in Biblical truths and keep the belt tightly around us. Scripture is the test of truth.
Faith as a Shield
Faith is also referred to as a shield. (Ephesians 6:16). It is used to extinguish the fiery darts shot at us by our enemy Satan. When he comes with his lies, accusations, and overwhelming problems, we are to hold up the word of God as a shield. We can not pay attention to Satan’s distortions and God’s truth simultaneously. We are to embrace God’s truth as revealed in His word. Jesus, Himself, quoted Scripture to Satan when He encountered his attacks in the wilderness with, “It is written” (Matthew 4).
Faith is also referred to as a breast plate in I Thessalonians 5:8 and Ephesians 6:14. We know a breastplate offers protection.
© 2010 Peggy Park.
Faith (part 2) How do we Get Faith?
Each believer is given a measure of faith (Romans 12:3 b). It is up to us to feed it so it grows. We do this by hearing the word (Romans 10:17) either through good sound biblical preaching/teaching, reading Scripture aloud to ourselves, or sharing Scriptural insights with others in Bible study groups or with individuals. We seek out Biblical promises related to the problem we are facing and declare these aloud.
Faith is also built by recalling the works of God in our lives. We can pray for more faith, but God has given us the practical means to increase our faith. Hebrews 11:6 tells us without faith it is impossible to please God; so each of us, as followers of Christ, need to be intentional about building on the measure of faith we have.
Our challenge is to find out what God says in His word and resolve to believe it.
As we quote Scriptural promises aloud we are built up in our faith. The word of God is the food that feeds our faith. Let us be diligent to feed our faith.
God says even faith as small as a mustard seed moves mountains (symbolic for trials/problem’s in our lives) and nothing will be impossible to you (Matthew 17:20).
He explained the power of the Word in the parable of the seed. When the word, like seed is sown on good soil, believers will hear the word, accept it, and produce a bountiful crop.
© 2010 Peggy Park.
Faith (part 1)
Faith is a secure belief in God and His promises. It involves trust and confidence.
If God makes a promise in His word then faith grabs hold of that word and refuses to let go until the manifestation comes forth in the natural.
“Faith is the confident assurance that what we hope for is going to happen. It is the evidence of things we cannot yet see.” Hebrews 11: 1 nlt
Hebrews 11 is sometimes referred to as the ‘hall of faith.” It contains some amazing stories of the working of God which defy natural reasoning. Consider Abraham who believed God when He promised that He would make his descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky; yet Abraham and his wife were old and beyond natural reproductive age. Human reasoning says their son, Isaac, was an impossibility but with God all things are possible.
Another example of a man of faith was Noah who with-stood ridicule as he followed God’s instructions and built a huge boat on dry ground. There was not a body of water in sight on which it could float.
Hebrews 11:6 nlt, “So, you see it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that there is a God and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.”
Abraham’s Faith Formula
1. Abraham had God’s Word
2. Abraham believed God’s Word
3. Abraham considered not the contradictory circumstances
4. Abraham gave praise to God. 1
Faith is the doorway through which God comes to man. God rejoices when we manifest a faith that holds Him to His word. His word is the key to the treasures laid up for those who have named Him as their Lord and Savior through receiving the sacrifice of Jesus’ blood to remove their sins.
© 2010 Peggy Park.
Flesh vs. Faith
My heart’s desire is to share weekly with my web site visitors how the Lord is working within me/teaching me. This week I gleaned from reading that God referred to himself as the God of Abraham rather than the God of Adam. It was set forth that Adam was a man of the flesh while Scripture refers to Abraham as a man of faith (Hebrews 11).
This led me to ask myself the question, “Do I want to be a woman of the flesh or a woman of faith?” I propose to choose the faith position and to pray for the discernment of knowing when the flesh is trying to rule. This is often a challenge. I resolve to choose the faith position!
© Peggy Park, 6/30/2008