If you really want to have success in this world, a lifestyle of faith in God is the most exceedingly wise way for you to live. God does not drop success or prosperity from the skies. Money do not drop from the skies either. That will make such currencies to become counterfeits. But God will bring success and prosperity to you, in the form of thoughts or ideas with which He illuminates your heart. These thoughts and ideas are often in the form of words whispered into your heart by God’s Spirit. God uses those whispers to your heart in taking you step by step into your expectations in life.
Every act of obedience by you in every step, determines the result that will come your way. But you will need to activate your faith in every step of the way, as you act in obedience to the commands of God to you. Your faith in Christ Jesus is essential to appropriately receive from and respond to God’s Spirit. These thoughts and ideas may also come into your spirit man in the form of images, apart from the spoken words into your heart. But you will still need to speak words back to God about that image, as you step out by faith in doing something about what is being revealed to you.
In whatever way you approach success, your ability to take spoken words back to God; is important for the manifestation of the blessing in your life. That’s how your faith will ever work, to bring the expectations of your heart to you. If you can’t open your mouth to declare what you believe with your heart, nothing will happen. It is good to believe with your heart. And many people do believe with their hearts; but the confession part of faith is where many Christians often fail.
Some think that the confession is meant only for prayers. And that when they go back into the public life, that faith stuff is just an utopia. And that explains why nothing is working for them. But faith always works. It worked for God when He created the heavens and the earth, and it will work for whosoever will believe with the heart (Mark 11:22-23), as you make your confession of faith private and public, without any apology to anyone. You’ve got to always hold on to the same confession of faith at all times (Hebrews 10:23). You can’t be confessing one thing with your friends in the world, but then you want to play or act like the man of faith in the Church. God sees through that hypocrisy. Get it out of your life, and learn to be persistent with your confession of faith (Hebrews 4:14).
How you react to what God is depositing or revealing to you, is crucial to your ability to getting positive results with your faith. God expects you to believe in the invisible things, that He is opening your heart to see; because that’s how faith sees (with the heart and not the eyes). He is waiting on you to do something about, what He had told you or showed to you. Stop ignoring Him. Doing so will only delay the fulfillment of your vision in life.
Apostle Paul once told the Corinthians:
“However, as it is written: “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived” — the things God has prepared for those who love him— these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words.”
1 Corinthians 2:9-13 NIV
The thoughts of your renewed mind are very powerful, and they are part of the “Spirit-taught words” referred to here by Paul. Satan fears you because of those righteous thoughts (Spirit-taught words) on your heart or in your spirit man. You do have a reservoir of the power of God in your daily righteous thoughts, that has not even been tapped into by you. So start listening to hear God on the inside of you for answers. God wants to use those thoughts in “Spirit-taught words” to change your world.
Can you imagine how many thoughts and ideas from God, you had often neglected to pay attention to everyday? God always gives you clues and insights, into the things that matters most to you. But it is often the fleshy desires and the mind that is not yet renewed into the will of God, which hinders a believer’s ability to grasp the mind of God, about such things as godly success and prosperity by faith. They want to take the blessing of Abraham (Romans 4:16-22) with the faith of Thomas (John 20:24-25). It won’t happen.
Thoughts or ideas comes to you from God in the form of words, to which you will need to activate your faith so as to receive it. And sometimes thoughts of wisdom and ideas may come also into your spirit man in the form of images. But you will still need to speak words back to God, about your understanding of them. This is important because whether it is a thought-word or an image, God does expects a response from you with spoken-words about what He is revealing to you. He wants the acknowledgement from you, that you are in agreement with Him concerning what He is telling you; even though He knows what your thoughts are before you speak it out.
For example Daniel once saw a vision that he did not understand, but he had to ask for clarifications about it.
The scriptures says:
“I, Daniel, was troubled in spirit, and the visions that passed through my mind disturbed me. I approached one of those standing there and asked him the meaning of all this. “So he told me and gave me the interpretation of these things:”
Daniel 7:15-16 NIV
Again Samuel had to learn step by step with spoken-words, how to respond to the voice of God, because it was something that was new to him at that time.
The scriptures says:
“The boy Samuel ministered before the Lord under Eli. In those days the word of the Lord was rare; there were not many visions. One night Eli, whose eyes were becoming so weak that he could barely see, was lying down in his usual place. The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the house of the Lord, where the ark of God was. Then the Lord called Samuel. Samuel answered, “Here I am.” And he ran to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.” But Eli said, “I did not call; go back and lie down.” So he went and lay down. Again the Lord called, “Samuel!” And Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.” “My son,” Eli said, “I did not call; go back and lie down.” Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord: The word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him. A third time the Lord called, “Samuel!” And Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.” Then Eli realized that the Lord was calling the boy. So Eli told Samuel, “Go and lie down, and if he calls you, say, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.’ ” So Samuel went and lay down in his place. The Lord came and stood there, calling as at the other times, “Samuel! Samuel!” Then Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”
1 Samuel 3:1-10 NIV
Note here that until Samuel acknowledged the voice of God to him with spoken-words, he did not receive further instructions from the Lord. Until you begin to respond by faith with spoken-words to the voice of God into your heart, you should not expect Him to start doing things for you. God will not involve Himself in your situation without your invitation.
If you have stopped hearing from God, you may need to go back to the last thing that He told you. When you get back into obeying His last command to you, He is going to pick you up from there. Your obedience to His voice far outweighs every other things, that you may be engaged in right now in the Kingdom of God. God is looking for your act of obedience to His voice, and not your sacrifices in service before Him.
God also stimulated the thought in Moses in their initial encounter together on the Mount of Horeb.
The scriptures says:
“So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.” When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!” And Moses said, “Here I am.””
Exodus 3:3-4 NIV
Moses had to acknowledge God’s voice before he was further instructed by Him; even as he responded to the thought in him to look closer at the burning fire. The burning fire was used by God to stimulate godly thought in Moses. As Moses acted by faith on that thought in him, God spoke directly into his heart. The reaction of Moses to the stimulated thought of God in him, opened the door for the word of God to come directly to him. God stimulated Moses’ thought in reaction to the fire. The reaction of Moses to the fire was an invitation to God, to reveal more of Himself to Moses. When God speaks into your mind or heart with thought provoking words, you’ve got to acknowledge Him back with spoken-words. God loves to hear you speak back to Him.
God speaks at all times to us. He spoke everything that were created into existence. We spoke what we believed with our hearts to be saved (Romans 10:9-10); that Jesus Christ is the Lord. Every other blessing of God becomes manifested to us in such a manner also. Our faith in what we believe is shown through our professed words. Your faith is therefore important to you at that moment, as you step out to do whatever God is revealing to you. God is waiting on you to do something about what He had told you or had showed to you.
As Eliphaz told Job during his trial of faith:
“Then you will have delight in the Almighty, and you will lift up your face to God. You will make your prayer to Him, and He will hear you, and you will pay your vows. You shall also decide and decree a thing, and it shall be established for you; and the light [of God’s favor] shall shine upon your ways. When they make [you] low, you will say, [There is] a lifting up; and the humble person He lifts up and saves.”
Job 22:26-29 AMPC
The declaration of what God is bringing into your renewed mind and spirit, is important to the manifestation of your answered prayers. Don’t hold back from Him. The more you speak to Him, the more He will speak back also to you. He will show you more than you anticipated.
God spoke through Jeremiah:
“‘Call to Me and I will answer you, and tell you [and even show you] great and mighty things, [things which have been confined and hidden], which you do not know and understand and cannot distinguish.’”
JEREMIAH 33:3 AMP
Begin to declare those righteous thoughts. You are actually decreeing them through your declarations of faith. They will come to pass, if you really believe what you are decreeing. God will confirm His word through your lips, as you release your faith in declaring them.
Follow the way of faithful declarations to your success
That’s how you will know that you’re going in the right direction in life. If you don’t understand the meaning of the words in your thoughts or in the image, it is then absolutely important that you begin to speak words back to God about it. The interesting thing is that God loves it when you are engaged in conversations with Him, concerning what He is talking with you about. It means that you are paying attention to His word. That’s exactly what He created you for. He’s seeking fellowship and communion on a regular basis with you. And He will respond back in addressing those concerns of yours.
And if you really want to take it up with Him, you can always tell Him to show you from the scriptures that, what you are seeing or thinking continually about is actually from Him. God loves it when we take Him up on His word, based on the scriptures. But don’t ever make the mistake of ignoring those thoughts, ideas and images from Him to you. God is using them to get your attention, so that you can draw closer in your relationship with Him. He is teaching you how to listen with your heart, so as to walk by faith in obedience to Him.
That was how He called Abram out of his parents’ house, to enter into a covenant of faith with him. Abram’s name was changed to Abraham, as he walked by faith in believing and doing everything that God showed him. Abraham spoke words back to God about the promise to him.
The scriptures says:
“And Abram said, “You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir.” Then the word of the Lord came to him: “This man will not be your heir, but a son who is your own flesh and blood will be your heir.” He took him outside and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.”
Genesis 15:3-6 NIV
How did God’s word come to Abram? God spoke directly into his heart, because it is with the heart that we can believe in God, and not with the mind (Romans 10:9-10). Abram took God up on His promise of a child. God then had to take him up by stretching his faith to believe the impossible. He took him out and told him to count the stars. Note that Abram was the one who took God up on His word. God loves it when we challenge him based on what He is showing us. Your thoughts and those things that He is showing you are important. Pay particular attention to obeying Him, as you faithfully declare them.
Don’t ignore God’s wisdom in you. Start using it.
As Christians it is not difficult for God to do anything in our lives. Some people are in the habit of ignoring God’s thoughts, images and ideas; because they seem like foolishness to them.
For example, I do strongly believed that the thought flied through the mind of Adam, to stop the serpent as he and Eve were being tempted. But he just failed to act on that thought, which came across his mind to stop the serpent. He must have mistaken those thoughts to be foolishness, since he knew that he and Eve were in a higher position of authority to the serpent. Adam by ignoring the wisdom that came to him in a thought or idea from God’s Spirit, underestimated the ability of the serpent to deceive. And the devil is no different in our world today. What he did in deceiving Adam, he is still doing today.
Serpents don’t normally talk audibly. But there are witches who do use snakes, to act under the influence of a seducing spirit on their behalf in our world today. I have personally encountered them on the mission field in many nations. The devil is the same everywhere. He just uses different masks in different places to conceal his deceptions.
Those who practice witchcraft can manipulate snakes and animals into seducing people, who are attentive to their evil practices. Their goal is to seduce them into doing what they do not want to do. Snakes in such a manner can be manipulated to hypnotize people. This is why I strongly believe that, this was what Satan did to Eve. By hypnotizing her through the serpent, he was able to transmit words into her mind, in the form of thoughts or ideas. And because Eve was hypnotized, the enemy manipulated her through those thoughts (words) into doing what was against the will of God.
And there are many workers of evil who are still doing the same thing today. That’s why as a believer you don’t need to be exposing your spirit man to their evil practices. It is dangerous to you.
The Bible says it clearly:
““Do not allow a sorceress to live.”
Exodus 22:18 NIV
If a Christian does not patronize them, they won’t have the chance to live. That’s why it is very important to continually renew your mind with the word and thoughts of God. By renewing your mind, God will fill your heart and mouth with the word of faith in rebuking and condemning the enemy. With faith taught words from God, you can silence and stop the activities of witches and wizards in your community. Your pro-active faith overcomes them all (1 John 5:4-5).
What are you doing with the thoughts and images, that God has showed you about your calling? Do you believe what He is revealing to you? Or you are just trying to do what everyone else is doing around you. God does has a unique calling over your life. You’re different from every other person in this world. That’s why He is showing you things that are different from others. You can’t walk in the perfect will of God for your life, if you are trying to be a copycat or a “jack of all trades” in ministry. No, that is the ticket to failure. You must learn to recognize His unique way of communicating with you.
And because we were all created differently but in His image; He chooses to always communicate with us differently. That’s why you can’t be trying to be in other people’s shoes. God has a unique calling over your life, that is part of His end time plan to save the world. Find your calling and start walking in it by using your faith.
God wants to use the foolish things of the world, in doing the exceedingly wise things through you (1 Corinthians 1:27-29). All that He’s asking you to do, is to work on those creative thoughts from His Spirit to you, by meditating on them, until the concept for success or prosperity is formed in your heart. Any thought that you are able to put down on paper becomes a concept, which has the potential of leading you into greater discoveries in life. You are on track to discovering the hidden potentials of God in your life.
You need to acknowledge that your understanding of the word of God, is what gives you faith in Him. His words of wisdom to you comes in the form of His thoughts or ideas, that penetrates through your renewed mind. If your mind is not renewed, you can’t have the mind of Christ.
Your faith stretches you beyond your troubles
In order to be able to think and act like God, you will need His word to first change and transform your way of thinking or seeing things, into the very same way as God sees or thinks concerning those things. When you are continually meditating on the thoughts or word of God to you, then your faith is being strengthened. The troubles of your life are meant to provoke and draw out the thoughts of God in you. Troubles are not meant to destroy you. They are meant to help you in getting into the perfect will of God. Especially if you are still struggling to obey God. Those troubles are there to help you in stretching your faith in the promises of God to you.
God will often inspire you to start thinking beyond your present thoughts, right in the midst of your troubles. That’s how He works through you in setting you free. He will inspire you with ideas and thoughts, that sometimes may seem weird to you. But you will never discover the truth that sets free, until you start doing what He says. You will then have to use your faith in applying and putting those thoughts and ideas into action, for you to get yourself out of the trouble.
If you can’t follow through with His thoughts with creative spoken-words by faith, then your faith is weak or little (Matthew 14:31). If you don’t have a sound and healthy knowledge of the word of God, then you can’t have faith in God to deliver you in trouble. Faith comes by the entrance of God’s word into your heart (Romans 10:17).
It is not what God can do to deliver you in trouble that builds up your faith. But it is what He yearns and longs to do for you in the midst of the troubles, that He uses to stretch your faith in building it up. God uses the yearnings of His Heart to stretch your spiritual muscles, for your spiritual growth and development. He does this to enable you in getting much more than, what you are believing Him for in the midst of trouble. God seeks always to do far beyond the expectations of your heart, as you go through the troubles of your life (Ephesians 3:20). Do you know what God yearns to do for you?
Identify your faith in God
So how do you know if you have the God’s kind of faith or not? The moment you begin to find it difficult to accept, or agree in your heart with what God’s word says; either as a command or a promise to you, then you will start failing to have faith in Him or in His word to you. Faith is developed from your act of obedience to God. It comes from a heart that loves God and His word. If you love God, you will have faith in Him, just as you will love His word also.
You can’t obviously love people that you don’t trust. It is a simple thing. God’s love working in you will always prompt you to obey Him. You can obey God because you trust in His command to you. Your act of obedience will always prompt your faith to work for you. But faith always comes to us by the word of God, that is read, taught, preached and meditated upon (Romans 10:17).
The Christian world today has many “educated illiterates” of the word of God. Too much education about Christianity as a religion can hinder the healthy growth of a good believer in Christ. Dead religion has the power to stiffen your mouth from speaking faith-filled words.
Apostle Paul was probably the most theologically educated amongst the early apostles. And with all of his education, he once said:
“He (Christ) has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.”
2 Corinthians 3:6 NIV
In other words you may be well educated in the (letter) or scriptures, but that does not necessarily make you educated on spiritual matters. It does not even means that you have faith in God. You can’t be a competent minister of the gospel, without living the lifestyle of faith in God’s word.
It is the Spirit of God that gives life to the word of God in your life. Without the impartation of the Spirit, the scriptures cannot give you life. The faith that is sound and healthy, is always full of life and it is active. A sound and healthy faith comes by God’s word, through the impartation of the Holy Spirit.
Therefore faith doesn’t come through some theological or intellectual education of the word of God. A sound and healthy theological or intellectual education may strengthen your faith. It will not weaken it. That’s why you need to be very careful, about what type of theological or intellectual education with other information, that you are receiving. It will either build up your faith or stop it from action.
Most intellectual men are not very interested in faith. They may be able to develop their will power, by seeking after intellectual knowledge. But having a strong will power doesn’t necessarily means that, you do have faith in God’s word.
The same thing goes for a theologian. Biblical theology without the Spirit of God is dead. It does not give life, because it has no force of faith to back it up. Faith is that perfect law of liberty, which comes by the truth that sets us free (James 1:25). The faith that moves the mountain has to be sound and healthy; otherwise it can’t move anything. It may be little, but it has to be sound and healthy. It works as we say what is believed with the heart. It may be a weak faith initially, but as you continue being persistent in saying what is believed, your faith begins to get stronger, as the heart is strengthened through the confession of your mouth.
That’s why as a follower of Christ, you don’t ever say what you don’t believe. You have to keep up with the confession of your faith, so as to strengthen it in what you believe with your heart. In your persistency lies the power of your faith.
Your little faith can do a lot for you, if you start using it now.
Jesus once said to the disciples in answering their question, about why they could not cast out the devil out of a boy:
“He replied, “Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”
Matthew 17:20 NIV
All that’s needed is just a mustard seed faith, for the Spirit to make their faith give life to the boy. But that little faith needs to be developed through confession, and not more and more education. There is absolutely no end to learning in this world. That’s why the mustard seed faith can do anything for you in the Kingdom of God, that intellectual or theological education can never do for you.
Too much education is not needed for the spiritual growth of a Christian. But a believer in Christ who is persistently living by his faith, with just enough education is much more effective in the Kingdom of God, than the one who is highly educated without living a lifestyle of faith to show for it.
You don’t have faith in God either just because you are religious. It is possible to be religious without the word of God in you; just as much as anyone can be theologically educated without having faith in God. There are in fact many theologians today, who don’t even believe the Bible. The academic community is full of them. They are so confused and many of them do not even know, what they do believe anymore. That’s why as a Christian living in the modern world today, you need to be very careful about the word of God that you are reading or listening to. Is it giving life to your spirit man or not?
No wonder Jesus said that the Kingdom of God belongs to those believers with the faith of a little child (Matthew 18:3). A childlike faith believes everything and trusts everyone. Is your faith working for you? Till next week – Selah!
Good