THE WATERFALL OF GRACE

The answer to this question is that you should ask until you get the answer. When you believe you have the answer, it would be silly to ask again. But how should you determine when you get the answer? What evidence will you require to believe you have the answer? What will God have to do before you will believe He has granted your request? Will God need to send an angel to tell you your request is granted? Will you have to wait until all the circumstances change and everyone sees the answer show up in your life? Or, will you simply accept God's Word as sufficient evidence to believe God has granted your request?  Jesus said in Mark 11:24 that we are to believe we receive the answer when we pray. The key to receiving from God is not long praying, but faith. What we believe is what makes the difference. God gave us the Bible to change what we believe, so we could know His will, pray in agreement with His will, and therefore have confidence that our requests are granted. ...

 Romans 8:32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?  Some Christians mistakenly believe that God gives and also takes away. At funerals, we sometimes hear the minister say, “The Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh. Blessed be the name of the Lord.” I remember an occasion when I was looking at a baby who was suffering from cancer. I heard one of his family members comment, “You can’t be sure what God’s will is. He may or may not heal.” What that person meant was that although the Lord had given the parents this baby, He might later take the baby away from them.  Job displayed this very same attitude when he received the news that he had lost his property and children. Thinking that God was the source of his problems and not knowing that it was actually Satan who had come against him, he said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there. The Lord gave, and the ...

 Mark 8:29 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered and said to Him, “You are the Christ.”  Do you know that how you see Jesus determines what you receive from Him? If you see Jesus as your healer, you will receive healing. If you see Jesus as your refuge and fortress, you will receive protection. The people of Nazareth, Jesus’ hometown, saw Jesus in the natural. They said of Him, “Is this not the carpenter’s son? Is not His mother called Mary? And His brothers James, Joses, Simon, and Judas? And His sisters, are they not all with us?” (Matthew 13:55–56) They saw Jesus in the natural. They did not see Him as God in the flesh. As a result, He could not do many mighty works there. (Matthew 13:58) Today, many people, including some philosophers, see Jesus of Nazareth as a good person who led an exemplary life. They feel that if all of us could live our lives like Him, the world would be a better place. They don’t see Jesus as the bread of God who...

Luke 7:13 When the Lord saw her, He had compassion on her and said to her, “Do not weep.”  My friend, there is no trial, difficulty or challenge we face today that our Lord Jesus cannot identify with. The moment we experience a trial, right there and then, because He “was in all points tempted as we are” (Hebrews 4:15), He feels it too and is able to sympathize with our weaknesses. Jesus’ compassion for you is the same compassion He felt for the widow at Nain when He saw the dead body of her only son being carried out of the city gate to be buried. (Luke 7:11–15) It must have been terrible for her to experience the death of her only son after having already experienced the death of her husband. What a horrible thought to be left all alone in the world with no means of support! When Jesus saw her, He was moved with compassion and said to her, “Do not weep.” Now, some religious leaders might also be moved to approach her, but only to say, “Look sister, something is terribly ...

HEBREWS 10:23 NKJ  Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.  Sometimes it seems like there's no hope and no help. Like you have no more strength or ability to go on. You're at the end of yourself and just can't do any more. Don't worry. Just hang on to your faith in God. God is faithful. He will not forsake you. He has not forgotten you. (It just seems that way when you face a trial of faith -- but it's a lie.)  It may seem dark and hopeless, but God is holding on to you. God is working behind the scenes. Things will work out. When you don't know what to do, just continue to trust in God, and know that He is helping you. Persevere even when you feel like you can't. Just don't give up.  JAMES 1:2-4 2 My brothers, you must regard it as nothing but joy when you are involved in all kinds of trials, 3 for you must realize that when faith has passed through the ordeal of testing the result is ...

What are you waiting for? Most people are waiting for something -- something "special" that will make their life great, so they can be happy.  Ask yourself: have others had this, and are they all happy? No, they're not, and it won't give you lasting happiness, either. Happiness is not determined by external circumstances, but by internal circumstances. Everyone chooses how happy they are by what they choose to think about. Your attitude is determined by your perspective, which is determined by what you think about -- your focus. You choose your focus, so ultimately, you are the one who chooses whether to be happy, or not.  Perspective is what the Beatitudes (Matthew 5) are about. Seeing a bigger picture than just this one small moment of time. (The Beatitudes are where Jesus explained how some are blessed, or happy -- even in difficult situations.) (The word we translate as "happy" in the New Testament is usually translated as "blessed....

 1 Corinthians 1:24 ..to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.  People today run after two things: miraculous signs and wonders, and knowledge. It was no different in Bible times. The apostle Paul acknowledged that “Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom”. (1 Corinthians 1:22) So when Paul preached Christ crucified as God’s solution to them, the message was “to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness”. (1 Corinthians 1:23) They didn’t understand how getting a revelation of Jesus and His death could give them the miracles they needed or the wisdom they wanted. Beloved, we don’t have to run after miracles or wisdom today. We just need to run after Jesus because He is “the power of God and the wisdom of God”. The more we know Christ and Christ crucified, the more we will have the power and wisdom of God. Several church members have shared how they have seen the power of God blast financial...

GENESIS 22:14  Abraham named the place Yahweh-Yireh (which means "the LORD will provide").  One of God's names is Yahweh-Yireh (also spelled Jehovah Jireh) which means, "the Lord will see to it," that is, "the Lord will provide." The Lord sees ahead and provides. That is one of His names! God cares for you, and plans for your provision, even before you know you need it. There will not be one day in your entire life that God has not seen ahead and made provision for you. It may require some searching for you to find it. It may even be difficult to obtain. But God's provision is always there!  MATTHEW 6:26 CEB  Look at the birds in the sky. They don't sow seed or harvest grain or gather crops into barns. Yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren't you worth much more than they are? Jesus said God provides food for the birds, implying that God provides for every creature. Yet, if a bird sits still, instead of gathering the food God h...

1 Corinthians 2:12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. You are probably familiar with the story of how David, with a sling and a stone, slew Goliath, a 10-feet-tall Philistine warrior. But have you ever wondered why David succeeded while the others in the army of Israel did not even dare to face Goliath?  David’s secret was that he was only conscious of victory and not defeat, because he knew a God who had rescued him time and again. You can just imagine him saying, “One day, I was taking care of my sheep when a lion came and took one of them. I was not willing to settle for that! I went after the lion, caught it by its beard and smote it. The Lord delivered me from the lion’s mouth. On another occasion, a bear came and took one of my flock. I went after the bear and smote it. So the Lord delivered me from the bear too. This same God, who delivered me from...

Hebrews 13:15 Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.  Lifting up your hands and thanking God is spontaneous and easy when you have just received a wonderful blessing: “God, I can’t thank You enough for this miracle!” “Thank You Father, for answering my prayer!” “Father, thank You for the windfall!” Perhaps you came close to being in a fatal accident, but God plucked you out of danger just in time. Or your grandmother, an unbeliever for many years, finally received Jesus as her Savior and got healed of a long-term disease.  But there are times when you don’t feel like lifting up your hands to thank and praise God, yet you do it. Perhaps you feel very discouraged lately. Perhaps everything is going wrong for you and you feel like your life is in a mess. You can’t hold back the tears. Yet, you make a conscious decision to lift your hands and thank God for being in the situation...