An Unshakable Kingdom and an Unshakable Life

Hebrews 12:27-28 (NKJV) ²⁷  Now this, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain. ²⁸  Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.

As I was praying about what God wanted to do this year, I felt the Lord say that it was time for us to rise up as more than conquerors in Christ.  We have looked at the words of Jesus in John 16:33.  It says something very similar to Paul’s words in Romans 8 concerning being more than conquerors.  Jesus said we can be of good cheer and have peace because he has overcome the world.  2020 was a year of unprecedented fear, instability and shaking of what we all thought was true.  2021 needs to be the year the church leads the way in changing that. 

As I was praying about what might continue to reinforce the thoughts in these two scriptures, I looked at something I taught many years ago from Hebrews 12.  In verse 28 it says we are receiving a Kingdom that cannot be shaken.  Again, that correlates perfectly with Paul’s words in Romans 8 and Jesus’ words in John 16.  With as many things locked in uncertainty as we have today, the idea that we can be part of an unshakable kingdom is just what the world needs. 

As we begin looking into this, we need to lay some foundation.  It says that a shaking came in the earth.  In context, this is talking about the shaking that came when Jesus redeemed mankind.  The writer is using a comparison between the Old Testament shaking at Sinai and the shaking that occurred when Jesus was crucified. 

In both cases, there was a physical earthquake.  However, the writer of Hebrews tells us that the shaking felt in the crucifixion of Jesus was not just a physical shaking.  In the Old Testament God shook the earth.  In the New Testament, he was shaking heaven as well.  More precisely, he was shaking the order Satan had established in the heavens around the earth as the God of this world. 

Ephesians 6:12 (NKJV) ¹²  For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.

When Jesus paid the price for man’s sin, the order in the earth was shaken but the order in the heavenly realms Paul describes in Ephesians was also shaken.  We see this confirmed in what Jesus said at the resurrection.

Matthew 28:18 (NKJV) ¹⁸  And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.

At the fall of man, Satan had become the God of this world.  He had claimed the keys to man’s eternity and became the dominant spiritual force in the earth.  God allowed this to remain largely unchallenged until he made covenant with Abraham and eventually introduced the law at Sinai.  That shook the earth because it gave man physical access to the Lord through the physical law and the physical covenant.  Through that access, God could bless man, heal him and give him victory over his enemies. 

As powerful as Abraham’s covenant was, it did not deal with the spirit of man.  It did not give man access to God in a spiritual or heavenly sense.  Satan remained the dominant spiritual force in the world with the exception of those who walked in the covenant of Abraham.  They could override Satan’s rule in a limited way.  When Jesus paid the price of redemption, this all changed.

In redemption, Jesus overthrew Satan as the God of this world.  When he died there was a natural earthquake just as there was under Moses at Sinai, but there was much more “shaking going on” than that.  Satan’s kingdom was being shaken.  His authority in the earth was being shaken.  The corruption of the fall had even extended to the heavens, but Jesus blood was cleansing that as well.  (Hebrews 9:23) 

Today’s verse tells us that everything that could be shaken was shaken in heaven, on the earth and even in hell.  The whole order of things was shaken and reformed according to the will and purpose of God.  Now Jesus is the dominant spiritual authority in the earth.  Those who choose to trust in him can walk in that authority.  Those who do not choose to trust in the Lord remain under the old order. 

Matthew 28:19 tells us who are partakers of the new order to go into the entire world and tell everyone they now have a choice.  They can choose the Kingdom of God in Christ Jesus or they can stay in the kingdom of darkness governed by Satan.  The Kingdom of God offers eternal life and the blessing of God in the earth.  The kingdom of darkness offers eternal separation from God and Satanic dominion in the earth.

The writer of Hebrews tells us in verse 28 that the purpose for the shaking was to remove all that is unstable and to produce a kingdom that cannot be shaken.  That is the Kingdom of God in Christ Jesus.  The Old Covenant could be shaken when the people of God broke it.  They would end up in captivity or defeated in battle.  They sometimes brought plagues and death upon themselves because the flesh limited their covenant.  What God produced in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus is not limited to the flesh.  It is a New Covenant and it is unshakable!

There is nothing that can limit the power of the New Kingdom in Christ Jesus.  Although we may step outside the protection and blessing of that Kingdom, the covenant remains firmly in place.  Nothing can challenge it or change it.  Under the old kingdom, when the leaders sinned the whole nation went into captivity.  In the New unshakable Kingdom, only the individual is affected by his sin.  The Kingdom remains unshaken.  The covenant remains in place waiting for the sinner to return to its divine blessing and protection.

This unshakable kingdom was established at the death burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  The heavens and the earth have been shaken.  Anything that remained of the fall of man which caused instability has been removed from the equation.  The New Covenant is unshakable.

All of this is true.  It is an established fact.  However, I believe there is a further application to this scripture.  While I know the Kingdom of God and the New Covenant are unshakable, what about me?  I am still pretty shaky sometimes.  How can I make my connection with this unshakable Kingdom as unshakable as the Kingdom itself?  I believe that is what God wants to show us.

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What Does Faith Hear 2

Mark 4:35 (NKJV) ³⁵  On the same day, when evening had come, He said to them, “Let us cross over to the other side.”

In our last post we began looking at another “faith sense.”  2 Corinthians 5:7 says that we walk by faith and not by sight.  If we can see by faith, I believe we can also hear by faith.  From Mark 4 we heard the Words of Jesus tell us to give priority to the voice of the word of God if we want to hear what faith says.  From Matthew 8:31 we found an important thing faith hears.  Jesus said I am willing.  Whatever may be the reason you have not yet seen the manifestation of the promise of God in your life, unwillingness on the part of God is not one of them. 

Today I want to look at some more specific things that faith hears.  Part of what I am saying is that faith has a way of speaking and we need to tune our ears to that voice.  I know the voice of my wife.  In a crowded room I can hear her voice among many others even if I am on the other side of the room.  I know what she would and would not say.  If you tell me she “cussed you out” I will laugh in your face.  She just never talks that way and never has.  When we give attention to the Word of God, we begin to recognize how he speaks and also what faith sounds like. 

In the verse above we see another way to recognize the voice of faith.  Jesus told them to go to the other side.  When Jesus speaks, his words carry the power to bring about what they say.  When I hear Jesus, either in the written word or in my heart, I need to understand that they carry the authority of God.  If I obey them, they will produce what they declare. 

In this case they were going to go across the sea of Galilee to get to the other side.  On the way they encountered a storm.  The disciples were afraid because the storm was so strong it threatened to sink their boat.  When they woke Jesus, who was asleep in the back of the boat, he calmed the storm and turned to them and asked why they did not have any faith.  It seems that this was a bit harsh.  Their boat was sinking.  Why should he rebuke them for being afraid?  The simple answer is that he told them to go to the other side.  That command contained the power to get them there.

What might they have done?  When they woke Jesus up it was with the words, “Don’t you care that we are going to die (Mark 4:38)?”  I do not believe Jesus would have rebuked them if they went to Jesus with the right attitude and said, “We know you said go to the other side and we need your help to get there.”  To question Jesus’ care for them was something else entirely.  I also think they could have done something else if they understood the nature of the words Jesus spoke.

They might have stood up in the boat and spoken to the storm themselves.  They might have said, “Storm, Jesus said go to the other side.  By the power of that statement, I tell you to be still.  You will not keep his Words from coming to pass.”  They also might have just declared to each other.  “Jesus said we are going to the other side, so we just need to trust him.”  In that case they would have had to ride out the storm, but they would have gotten to the other side. 

When Jesus said go to the other side, faith hears that we are going to get there.  Sometimes in the midst of a faith battle, we just need to go to Jesus and ask for help.  When we do, we need to go in faith.  Sometimes we may be inspired to speak to the storm and it will end immediately.  Sometimes we will have to stay in the boat of the command of Jesus until we get through to the other side.  Any one of these scenarios is a response to hearing by faith. 

What did the disciples here in this story that was not the voice of faith?  They heard what many of us hear in the midst of the trial.  They heard, “Jesus must not care for us.  If he did this would not be happening.”  When we hear anything like that, we must understand that we are not hearing the voice of faith.  We are hearing the voice of fear and unbelief.  One response to that voice which will stop it in its tracks is, “Jesus loved me enough to die for me, I refuse to believe he does not care for me.  Understanding that faith will never say Jesus is unwilling and that there is no time or circumstance that is telling us Jesus, God, does not love us, will put us in a place to hear the voice of faith in any situation. 

In Mathew 9 we see another way we can recognize the voice of faith.

Matthew 9:20-21 (NKJV) ²⁰  And suddenly, a woman who had a flow of blood for twelve years came from behind and touched the hem of His garment. ²¹  For she said to herself, “If only I may touch His garment, I shall be made well.”

Here we find a woman who had a sickness that threatened to consume her.  It was something that, by the Law, would cause her to stay away from people and especially anything holy.  However, there was a voice inside that she responded to, and moved her to Jesus.  That voice told her that if she could touch him, she would be healed.  The voice of faith comes from our spirit.  That is the innermost part of us.  When we hear from that place, we hear what faith is saying.

There were many reasons she should not go into that crowd to try and touch Jesus.  She was weak.  She might have been trampled by the crowd.  It was religiously unacceptable.  Many times, the voice of faith and the voice of religion are at odds.  Listen to the voice of faith.  She was a nobody with nothing to offer for her healing.  All of these things were good reasons for her to stay in her room.  Nevertheless, she said within herself, “If I can get to him and touch his garment, I will be healed.”

There is a still small voice that comes from the heart of the believer.  It is the place where faith truly resides.  It is the part of us that has been Born again.  When we hear from that place, faith is arising.  What we hear often goes against logic, but it will always lead us to Jesus.  It will always declare his power and ability.  In my life, I have faced many challenges.  Sometimes my mind screams out, “I am not going to make it through this.”  When that happens, I take a moment and look inside.  When I find that quiet place of the heart and determine what I believe there, I know I have found the voice of faith.  That is the one I respond to and the one I obey.

I want to leave you with one more.  The voice of faith will always lead you to “fear not.”  In the same chapter, Jesus had promised to heal the daughter of Jairus, a ruler of the synagogue in that town.  Jesus was on his way to do that when this woman touched his garment.  He stopped to hear her story.  Jairus’ daughter was gravely ill to the point of death.  I can only imagine how he must have felt.  Jesus knew as well and turned to him saying, “Fear not, just keep believing.”  That is what faith must hear.

Jesus said he would never leave nor forsake us.  He is with us in any storm, sickness or trial.  Do not let the voice of fear turn you from the voice of faith in Jesus.  Jairus’ daughter died, but even death could not stop the power of God.  Jesus raised her up. 

Fear often seems to be the logical response to pressure.  I know that all of us will, at times, be afraid.  In the midst of that fear, you can turn your ears to Jesus.  You will hear him say, “fear not.”  When you hear that, give in to the voice of faith.  It is often very difficult, but when we choose to hear “fear not” in the midst of fearful times, we will see God do great things.

Hearing what faith hears is a powerful tool in overcoming the world.

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What Faith Hears

Luke 8:19-21 (NKJV) ¹⁹  Then His mother and brothers came to Him, and could not approach Him because of the crowd. ²⁰  And it was told Him by some, who said, “Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside, desiring to see You.” ²¹  But He answered and said to them, “My mother and My brothers are these who hear the word of God and do it.”

We have been looking at the kind of faith it takes to overcome the world (John 16:33)  Last time we looked at what faith sees.  From Numbers 13 and 14, we found that 10 of the 12 spies Moses sent to the land of Canaan saw the promise through the challenges they would face to take it.  They said, “We will never be able to do it.”  Joshua and Caleb saw the difficulties through the filter of the Promise of God and their response was, “We can take the land right now!

In 2 Kings 6, Elisha saw beyond the impossibilities of the natural world by seeing into the world of the spirit.  When the servant saw a natural army arrayed against the two of them, Elisha saw an even greater angelic army there to protect them.  We have that same army at our disposal.  In Hebrews 1 we find the angels of God are “sent forth” to minister for the heirs of salvation.”  That is, you and me.  We also have the word of God at work for us not to mention the Holy Spirit and many other aspects of the world of the spirit.  We see those things by “setting our minds on the things above (Colossians 3:1-3.)  We do that in prayer, worship, meditating on the Word and fellowship with the Lord.  By doing those things we will begin to see beyond the natural problem to the supernatural solution.

Today, I want to look at what faith hears.  There are many voices vying for our attention today.  We rarely go without something plugged into our ears.  We listen while we walk, drive or work.  With all of these voices bombarding us, it is hard to hear anything else.  I am not a proponent of never listening to things we enjoy, but we have to ask ourselves a question.  If we are using all that listening time to hear the voice of the world, how will we ever overcome the world.  Look at what Jesus said from the Amplified Bible.

Mark 4:24 (AMP) ²⁴  And He said to them, Be careful what you are hearing. The measure [of thought and study] you give [to the truth you hear] will be the measure [of virtue and knowledge] that comes back to you—and more [besides] will be given to you who hear.

In this verse, Jesus is pointing to hearing the Word of God.  However, this is a principle.  The thought and study we give to the other things we hear, determines how much of that gets into our hearts as well.  We will not get back virtue and knowledge, but we will get things like fear and ungodliness.  That brings me to my first point of what faith hears.  Faith hears the Word of God.

In today’s scripture Jesus defines his “relatives” as those who hear and do the Word of God.  He is not showing disrespect for his mother and half-brothers.  He is giving us a principle that will help us overcome the world.  We must choose to hear the Word of God.  Romans 10:17 says something similar. 

Romans 10:17 (NKJV) ¹⁷  So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

I must note that this is a statement made in a particular context.  It is talking about faith for salvation.  I believe it is also a statement of principle.  If faith for salvation comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God, all faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.  Hearing the word is the source of the faith connection that enables us to overcome the world. 

Although there are specific things faith hears, just like there are specific things faith sees, we must start by making a decision to find time to hear the Word of God.  In a recent post I mentioned that we hear with our ears but also our eyes.  We need to spend time reading the Word, hearing the Word preached and speaking it to ourselves.  Among other things, this familiarizes us with the sound of the Word of God, so we recognize it in other forms.  If we fill our ears and eyes with the noise of the world, we will not recognize the voice of faith when it speaks around us.  That said, what is it we hear when we are hearing in faith.

Matthew 8:1-3 (NKJV) ¹  When He had come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed Him. ²  And behold, a leper came and worshiped Him, saying, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.” ³  Then Jesus put out His hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing; be cleansed.” Immediately his leprosy was cleansed.

I want to start with this thought.  I believe if we hear this accurately it will help us hear the other things faith is saying to us.  When this leper came to Jesus, he makes a statement half of which most of us who are believers in Christ would easily agree with.  He told Jesus he knew that Jesus was able to heal him.  If we believe that Jesus is the son of God and if we believe in God, we know that he can do anything.  That is the essence of what it means to be almighty.  If you are not a Christian, you might question God’s ability, but if you believe in God at all you accept to be God means he must be unlimited.

The real problem comes in the other half of this man’s statement.  He says, “If you are willing you can.”  That is the problem we face most of the time.  We know God can do anything, but for many reasons we question whether he will do what need done for us.  I want you to listen to the voice of Jesus.  There was no hesitation here.  He did not make any qualifications or requirements.  The man had come as far as he could by faith and the voice of faith in the mouth of Jesus brought him the rest of the way.  Jesus says, faith says, “I am willing. Be cleansed.”  In other words, “Be healed.” 

I want you to think about that today.  There are many reasons we wonder if Jesus is willing to do what we need.  There are times when there are reasons he may not have done it yet, but unwillingness is never one of them.  We may question his willingness because of what we have been taught doctrinally.  We may question his willingness because we feel we are not worthy for him to move for us.  We may question his willingness because we have sinned in some way.  We may need to repent of sin because it blocks our ability to receive, but that does not mean Jesus is unwilling to touch us.

Most often we do not realize we are questioning Jesus’ willingness to help us.  We do not know why things have not happened.  However, when our answer is delayed, the devil will make sure we feel that God may not be willing to deal with our situation.  If we are not careful this will create a little bitterness that keeps us in a place where receiving is difficult.  I want you to hear this again.  I want you to open your ears of faith.  I want you to repeat what faith hears to the devil.  Jesus said to the man, “I am willing.”

Whatever the problem you may be facing today, Hear the voice of Jesus.  He is telling you the same thing he told that leper.  “I am willing.”  Whatever you need to overcome the world today, Jesus says I am willing.  Let your faith ears hear that.  I am not saying it will all change immediately.  I am saying that the more we open our faith ears, the more we will know that if Jesus is willing and we continue to listen to faith, we will see the answer. 

More next time.

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What does Faith See 2

2 Kings 6:17-18 (NKJV) ¹⁷  And Elisha prayed, and said, “LORD, I pray, open his eyes that he may see.” Then the LORD opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw. And behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. ¹⁸  So when the Syrians came down to him, Elisha prayed to the LORD, and said, “Strike this people, I pray, with blindness.” And He struck them with blindness according to the word of Elisha.

In our quest to walk in the promise from both John’s gospel and 1 John 5, we have seen that faith is at the heart of our ability to overcome the world.  In our last post we looked at what faith sees as it looks at the challenges faced in the world.  As we observed the two groups of spies sent into the Promised Land, we saw two contrasting ways of viewing the challenges of life.  Ten of the twelve spies saw the promise through the filter of the challenges they faced.  Their conclusion was that though the land was what God promised it would be, the challenges were too great to overcome.  They refused to even try.

Joshua and Caleb, on the other hand viewed the challenges through the lens of the promise of God.  If the promise about the nature of the land was true, so was his promise that he would give it to them.  Neither group had any idea how God was going to do that, but Joshua and Caleb said, “Let’s go take it now.  We can do this because God is for us.” 

One thing I want to point out is that you cannot see the challenge through the lens of the promise if you do not know what the promise is.  The general truth that God was giving them a promised land, was know throughout Israel.  I believe Joshua and Caleb must have known it on a different level.  I believe they talked about the promise, thought about the promise, and probably planned for living in the promise.  By the time they saw the difficulties facing them, the promise was so big and real in their heart that the challenge was dwarfed in comparison. 

Today I want to look at a second witness to the fact that we can see beyond the limitations of the natural world.  In 2 Kings we see one of many stories about the prophet Elisha.  In that day Israel was at war.  The opposing king of Syria did not understand why every time he attacked Israel, they knew his plans and were able to defeat him.  He was told that there was a prophet in Israel who was seeing things so clearly that it was like he was in the king’s bedroom.  Needless to say, the king found out where this prophet was and sent an army to destroy him.

When the army of Syria got to where Elisha was, they surrounded his camp from a hill above his home.  In the morning Elisha’s servant went out, he was greeted with this great army surrounding them.  He was understandably distressed.  He went and called Elisha who went out and saw the same information.  His response was quite different.  “There are more with us than against us.”  I can see the servant looking at Elisha and then himself and then the army arrayed against them.  Elisha must have sounded like a lunatic at that moment.  The difference was how each of them was seeing. 

I am not sure Elisha saw the angelic army with his natural eyes.  He may have, but I think he saw them with the eye of faith.  He knew that God would protect them because of the anointing he was walking in.  He was Israel’s protection.  If God would give him the information to defeat the Syrians, He would protect him.  Whether he saw them with physical eyes or spiritual eyes of faith alone, he had to help his servant to see beyond the natural. 

Elisha prayed that his servant’s eyes would be opened and when they were touched by God, the servant saw into the realm of the spirit.  Surrounding the Syrian army was a second army of greater size with chariots of fire.  What was the difference between Elisha and his servant?  Elisha saw beyond the limitations of the natural into the unlimited realm of the Spirit of God. 

What are you looking at today?  What army is arrayed around your home and circumstances?  There is another reality at work for you.  We have just as difficult a time as Elisha’s servant seeing beyond what is there in the natural.  Hebrews 1:7 says that the angels are God’s ministers and a flame of fire.  This is the same fiery army described in 2 Kings.  It is even more powerful for us when we read Hebrews 1:14

Hebrews 1:14 (NKJV) ¹⁴  Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for those who will inherit salvation?

Those same angelic warriors have been sent forth for those who are born again in Jesus.  I know that I am open to ridicule from many who would think it silly to imagine that there are really angels and especially that they have been put to work for me, but I choose to believe what the word of God says.  It says that is exactly what I can expect.

It is important to note that this story started with a supernatural manifestation.  The prophet was providing supernatural intelligence to the King of Israel so that he was able to defeat the Syrians.  It continues with a supernatural manifestation of God’s angelic army to protect the man of God.  The servant had no idea what was going on behind the scenes.  God revealed it to Elisha, and it was Elisha who revealed it to his servant.  Elisha believed in the power of the supernatural.  It was as real to him as what he could see in the natural.  If we do not believe that there is a supernatural God at work for us today, we have nothing to see but what our natural eyes can see. 

One of the most important scriptures to me over the last number of years has been Hebrews 11:6.

Hebrews 11:6 (NKJV) 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.

Without faith we cannot please God.  If we do not please God, we will never overcome the world.  What is the essence of faith?  We must believe that he is.  He exists.  He is real and he is there.  We also must believe that he is a rewarder of those who seek him.  The supernatural is real.  The angels are just as real today as they were in Elisha’s day.  They are sent out to help us and they respond to the Word of God.  That is only one aspect of the supernatural that we cannot see with our natural eyes that is at work for us today.

We are generally limited in vision to what our physical eyes see.  We can train ourselves to see beyond the natural if we diligently seek him.  We can see into the promises of God.  We can see by our relationship to God through Jesus.  We can see into the spirit as we pray, worship and study the Word.  The more we give attention to the spirit the more we will see beyond the possibilities our physical eyes show us until we, like Elisha, will say, “There is more that is with us than is against us.”  In that we will see how to overcome the world.

Let me make one more quick point.  Someone in Elisha’s day had to see.  His servant was never going to see the angelic army on his own.  Elisha had no fear because he could see in the spirit.  Someone has to see beyond the natural today as well.  I believe the only ones who can are those who are part of the body of Christ, the true church.  It is up to us to help others see beyond the natural.  It is up to us to be at peace and have good cheer because we can see.  In this way we will lead others to the same relationship with the Lord we enjoy and, in turn, help them to see how to overcome the world as well.

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What Does Faith See

Numbers 13:30-31 (NKJV) ³⁰  Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said, “Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it.” ³¹  But the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we.”

I want to begin looking at another aspect of faith in God.  We have already dealt with the fact that the battleground of faith is the mind.  That is where we really overcome the world.  There are some things we can focus on to help us with that battle.  The first one I want to look at is what faith sees as opposed to what the natural eye and unbelief sees.  In Numbers we have the story of two groups of people whose eyes saw the same thing, but whose hearts interpreted it very differently. 

When the children of Israel were within striking distance of the Promised land of Canaan, Moses sent out 12 spies.  They all went into the land to see what it was like.  Note what God said they were supposed to see.

Numbers 13:2 (NKJV) ²  “Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the children of Israel; from each tribe of their fathers you shall send a man, every one a leader among them.”

It does not say go see if we can take the land.  It does not say go find out the strength of the enemies so we will know what we have to do to take it.  This is not an intelligence gathering mission.  God told Moses to send them out so they can see the land that he was giving them.  This was a mission to confirm that what God said about the land was true.  He has already given the land to them!

In verses 17-20 we see that Moses is the one who told them to find out about the people and their defenses.  That was a perfectly logical thing to do.  In the natural, they would need to know this information.  However, I do not believe that was God’s intent for this mission.  Many times, we have a problem with believing God because we add to or subtract from what God tells us or what the Bible says.  We tend to lean to what we see in the natural first and try to apply what the Word says to whatever information we learn.  This is not what God said to do.  He said go see the land I am giving you.  He did not say, “Go see how difficult the land will be to take.”

10 spies came back with what the Bible calls an evil report.  In verse 27 they told Moses and the people, “This land is just what God said it would be.”  That is all God needed them to see.  They continued in the subsequent verses to go into detail about how hard it would be to take.  God never told them to “see” that information.  The land was what God said it would be.  That should have been the end of the report.  We know that from what comes next. 

Caleb immediately says in verse 30, “Let’s go now.  We can take the land easily!”  They saw the same thing that the other 10 saw.  They saw the giants.  They saw the walled cities.  They saw the inhabitants that lived there and how strong they were.  Why did they give such a different report?  I believe it is because they saw all those things through the eyes of faith in the promise of God.  The other 10 saw the promise of God through the eyes of the physical reality of the land.  In Numbers 14 we see how seeing through the promise changes perspective.

Numbers 14:8-9 (NKJV) ⁸  If the LORD delights in us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us, ‘a land which flows with milk and honey.’ ⁹  Only do not rebel against the LORD, nor fear the people of the land, for they are our bread; their protection has departed from them, and the LORD is with us. Do not fear them.”

I love what they say in verse 9.  In our modern language what they said was, “We can have these guys for lunch!”  It is not that they were ignorant of how strong the inhabitants of Canaan were.  They were not ignoring reality; they were seeing into a higher reality.  They were not ignoring that they would have to fight and there might well be casualties.  They were simply running all that information through a different filter than the rest of the people.  “If God delights in us than he is for us and if he is for us, giants and walled cities are no problem.  This is our land because God promised it to us and God will provide whatever we need to obtain it.”

The people believed the bad report.  Why would they do that?  They believed the bad report for the same reason we do.  It made more natural sense.  That was the logical conclusion given the circumstances.  “They are stronger than we are.  They have cities with huge walls, and there are giants!”  Their conclusion when the promise of God was run through the natural information was shown in verse 33 of chapter 13.

Numbers 13:33 (NKJV) ³³  There we saw the giants (the descendants of Anak came from the giants); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.”

Because they judged the promise of God by the natural information, they saw themselves as insignificant insects.  They said, “We are like grasshoppers in our own eyes.  Oh, and by the way, that’s how they see us too.  The truth was that the people of Canaan did not see them that way. 

In Joshua 2 when Joshua also sent spies, they found themselves in Jericho hidden by Rahab.  She tells them that all the people were terrified by what God had done for Israel.  One of the reasons she gives is how the Lord dried up the Red Sea to defeat the Egyptians.  That had happened before the time of the spies sent by Moses.  They did not see Israel as grasshoppers.  The problems was that Israel saw themselves as grasshoppers because they judged the promise by the natural information alone. 

None of them knew that God was going to deal with the greatest walled city, Jericho, with miraculous power.  Joshua and Caleb did not know that walls would fall at the sound of a trumpet and a shout.  What they did know is that they were going in to spy out a land that God had already given them.  They saw what God wanted them to see.  His promise was true.  If the land was what he said it was, the promise that it was theirs was also true.  Joshua and Caleb were not concerned with how they were going to take it.  God was with them.  That was guarantee enough.

Today we are faced with some very troubling realities.  We cannot deny them.  Covid is real.  Economic failures are real.  Political and cultural problems do face us.  They are part of what the world has for us today.  They are there but there are promises in the Word of God to deal with them.  Our success in overcoming the world is determined by what filter we see them through.  Do we see them through the promise, or do we see them through natural logic alone?  If we choose to see them through the promise of God, we will say with Joshua and Caleb, “I am well able to overcome the world.”

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The Correct Environment for Faith to Overcome the World

Luke 17:3-6 (NKJV) ³  Take heed to yourselves. If your brother sins against you, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. ⁴  And if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times in a day returns to you, saying, ‘I repent,’ you shall forgive him.” ⁵  And the apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith.” ⁶  So the Lord said, “If you have faith as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be pulled up by the roots and be planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.

We have been looking at the idea that Jesus overcame the world and that we can also overcome the world.  For faith to be effective it must be applied in the right environment.  Let me be clear that we do not have to be perfect to have faith in God, but the more we cultivate the right environment the more effective our faith will be and the easier it will be to overcome the world.

We know the right environment is necessary in other areas.  Children need the right home environment if they are to grow and be healthy.  Marriages also need the right environment to thrive.  We may have good seeds to plant, but if we do not live in a place with the right environment, they will not grow.  We need the right kind of soil, the right amount of rain and the proper temperature range.  If we do not have those things, the seed will not produce.  It is the same with faith.

In today’s scripture, Jesus teaches his disciples about the power of forgiveness.  He has just revealed that they must forgive a person seven times a day for the same offense.  In the face of the necessity of such an extreme requirement, the disciples cry out to Jesus, “Please, you have to increase our faith if we are going to do something like that.” 

Jesus answers them by saying, “If you have faith at all it will work.”  They did not need more faith, they needed it to be effective.  I believe that is what we need as well.  If we are still walking with Jesus in light of the world in which we live, I believe we have faith.  We may not be seeing everything we would like to see changed around us, but that does not mean we do not have faith.  There are many things that can hinder our faith from being effective in overcoming the opposition of the world.  I want to share a few that I have found to be a problem at times for me.  If we deal with them, it will produce the right environment for our faith to be productive. 

Matthew 6:33 tells us if we seek the Kingdom of God first, everything we need to live in the world will be added to us.  The first kind of environment we must cultivate is one that is focused on the Kingdom of God and not just on self.  In this teaching, Jesus assures his listeners that God knows they have need of provision for everyday life.  I raised 6 children.  I know the pressure to make sure that children have what they need.  I know that when it looks like we cannot provide, that becomes an overwhelming focus to us.  The problem is that when we allow that to be our focus it takes away from our ability to trust God.

Faith works best when we are actively serving God and doing our best to extend his Kingdom.  What I am not saying is that if we do not work for God, he will not take care of us.  What I am saying, because Jesus said it first, is that when we get our focus off our need as much as we can, we have created an environment where our faith will flow naturally and what we need will come to us because of the environment of trust that is produced.  The key is that we cannot do anything to make things happen by focusing on the need.  That just causes the environment our faith is working in to be hindered.  Seeking the Kingdom first enhances the right environment.

Second, faith will not work in a selfish environment.  This is related to what we just said, but with a slightly different focus. 

Galatians 6:10 (NKJV) ¹⁰  Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith.

Faith cannot be effective in a selfish environment.  Whereas Matthew 6 is focused on reaching out to the world and prioritizing kingdom principles in our own lives, this scripture tells us that we should be looking for ways to help others in the body of Christ.  When we need to overcome the world in some area, it is easy for us to get so focused on self that we forget that faith works by love (Galatians 5:6.)  Something happens when we begin to focus on what others need and get our minds off our own.  Since we are not focused on our own needs, the devil cannot easily attack our faith for those things.  This kind of focus creates an environment where faith for what we need flows naturally. 

Another environment which will hinder our faith is a self-seeking environment. 

Philippians 2:3 (NKJV) ³  Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself.

Why do we do what we do for God.  Do we seek recognition by man?  Do we want to build our reputation or our ministry?  Are we seeking personal fulfillment?  Paul tells the Philippians that they must do nothing out of this kind of motivation.  It is a natural tendency to want to be recognized and to be needed.  However, if we allow self-seeking to become a part of why we do what we do, we create a negative environment for our faith.  How do we combat that kind of attitude?  We consider others more important than ourselves.  That does not mean we think of ourselves as worthless.  It simply means that we refuse to see others as less than we are.  We choose to elevate the other person’s value.  Peter said we must humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt us in due time (1 Peter 5:6-7.)  If we consider others before ourselves, God will look after us.  In that kind of environment faith works. 

Finally, faith will be hindered in an environment of pride.  We cannot think of ourselves as something special when we do what we should for the kingdom. 

Romans 12:3 (NKJV) ³  For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.

All we have, all we are and all we can do comes from God.  The King James says we have the measure of faith.  I think this is clearer.  We all have the measure of faith.  I do not have more faith than you do.  I am a minister of the Gospel and have been for more than 40 years.  I know I have faith in God.  I have seen it produce wonderful things.  However, the minute I think that makes me special, I have created an atmosphere where faith has a problem producing. 

I have known many people who have the opposite problem.  They feel they have not done anything.  The do not feel special at all.  Many times, these people try so hard to be somebody, that they get jealous of anyone who gets recognition.  It is the same process at work either way.  If you think you are special, you create the wrong environment.  If you think you must become special, you also create the wrong environment. 

Obviously, this is not a complete list of the things we need to get out of our lives for faith to have an environment for faith that overcomes the world.  Ask the Holy Spirit to guide you to what may be a problem in your life.  I know that these are things many people deal with and I know that if we have the right environment for faith to work, our faith will overcome the world.

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Overcome Worry and Overcome the World 2

1 Peter 5:6-7 (NKJV) ⁶  Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, ⁷  casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.

How do I win the battle of worry?  Let me say that worry is, for most people, the default response to challenges from the world.  We have been conditioned to believe that if we are not worried, we are being irresponsible.  There is nothing wrong with analyzing a situation and planning how to face the problem.  That is not worry.  In Matthew 6, Jesus is pointing out that worry is useless.  Planning and things of that nature is not.  Worry is when we run something over and over in our mind, picturing how many ways bad things can happen with no forward motion of any kind to deal with the situation.  That will only produce defeat and it will hinder our ability to continue to believe God.  What should we do?

Jesus said, “Therefore, do not worry saying what shall we eat.”  The King James says it this way, “Take no thought saying what shall we eat etc.”  There is something here about how we allow thoughts to get into our hearts.  Have you ever noticed the pressure that most people feel to speak about the problems we face?  Of course, part of that is the very human need to not feel alone.  We need others to know what we are going through for that purpose, but that is not all there is to it.  It is a principle that the thought we put into words is the one we are accepting as most true.  The devil knows that. 

There are some things we must do in order to move that process in the right direction.  First is what we find in yesterday’s verse from Philippians 4.  We must make our requests known to God.  Instead of allowing the thoughts to run around our minds with no productive purpose, go to God instead.  Go to his promises and pray the promise or promises that apply in your situation back to him.  Once you have made your request, give thanks to God.  Replacing worry with thanksgiving is a powerful tool.  In that way we are actively choosing what thoughts we will take into our minds by speaking.  It is difficult to speak about the problem when we are thanking God for the answer. 

Another thing we can use against worry comes from today’s verse in 1 Peter.  In verse 8 of this chapter, Peter speaks about the enemy who goes about like a roaring lion.  That enemy is the devil, and the roaring is the worry words and thoughts that fight to control us during difficult times.  To me, the implication is that he is a roaring lion, but he has no real power.  Last time we found that Jesus defeated him and took away his weapons (Colossians 2:15.)  Here is what Peter says we can do to put a stop to the roaring of the lion.  We cast our care, upon Jesus because he cares for us. 

The word translated care implies pressure, worry and stress.  In the definition of the Greek word it uses the term distraction.  This is a clear picture of what the devil wants to accomplish through worry.  He wants us distracted from the power and promises of God.  What should we do with all of that?  The pressure of it is very real.  We feel that if we do not worry, we are ignoring the problem.  In truth, worry only strengthens the problem and makes it more sure we will face a trial. 

The thing is, we were not designed to take the burden of the problem.  We are not the burden bearers.  Peter says, “Cast all your care on Jesus because he cares for you.”  Casting your care on him is not ignoring the problem.  It is putting it somewhere that it can be handled.  In order to do that we must first humble ourselves.  That means we must acknowledge that we cannot handle it. 

Worry is a form of pride in a way.  We simply cannot let go of the thought that we must take care of business.  We have to find the solution.  We have to bear the worry and stress of the problem we face.  That is the battle that goes on in the mind.  When we cast the care on Jesus, he is the one who begins to carry the burden.  We are free to concentrate on the Word and promise of God.  We are free to think of all the ways God could meet our need.  We win the battle of the mind and we overcome the world.

There is something that I learned some time ago that has helped me cast the care of whatever situation I face on Jesus instead of carrying it myself.  Look at Philippians 4:6 in the original King James Version of the Bible.

Philippians 4:6 (KJV) ⁶  Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.

In this version, Paul says “be careful for nothing.”  In other words, do not be full of care about anything.  When the pressure that comes with every trial presses in on me, especially trying to make me give over to worry I like to tell the devil, “I don’t care.” 

We understand of course that we are not saying we do not have concern for the problem.  It would be a lie, for instance, to say that I do not care if I lose my house.  Of course, I care about that.  I care about my family, my health and many other things.  If something happened in those areas, I would certainly feel something and I would do anything I needed to do to deal with the threat.  What I am talking about is simply a tool to use to short circuit the devil. 

If I am threatened with the loss of something, I tell the devil, “I don’t care.”  What I am saying is that I refuse to carry the burden of the situation.  I choose to cast it upon the Lord.  That is not just some mind game to help me get by.  What I am really doing is saying that I acknowledge my inability to carry the weight of the problem and I am giving that problem to the Lord.  In my heart I am telling the devil, “If you want to talk to someone about this, you will have to talk to Jesus.  It is his problem now.” 

We do something similar in the legal field.  If we are faced with something that threatens us where the law is concerned, we hire a lawyer.  When we are questioned, we tell our accuser, “You are going to have to talk to my lawyer.  I cannot comment on the situation.”  The lawyer becomes our advocate with our opponent or accuser and the courts.  We trust him to take care of the situation because we pay him.  When we cast our care upon Jesus, we find that there is a much more powerful reason we can trust him to deal with the problem.

Peter says that we should cast our care on Jesus because he cares for us.  He loves you and he is more than willing to become your advocate before the accuser and before the Father.  This is exactly what Jesus said about how to deal with worry.

Matthew 6:31-32 (NKJV) ³¹  Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³²  For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things

If you are not comfortable saying, “I don’t care” when the devil pressures you to worry, that is fine.  Instead tell him, “You will have to speak with my lawyer about that.”  The point is that we do not have to give in to worry.  However, the pressure to worry is so built in and universal that we need to do something to fight against it.  We need to cast our care upon Jesus.  He can handle it and he will because he cares for you more than any of us can imagine. 

Worry is our enemy.  It is trying to enforce the fear of the world in our lives.  Real problems come and we may have to research and plan to overcome them.  Again, worry is neither of those things.  The more we overcome worry the more we will overcome the world.

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Overcome Worry and Overcome the World

Philippians 4:6 (NKJV) ⁶  Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God;

Jesus told us in John 16:33 that, despite the fact we may be in trying times we can still be at peace and have good cheer because he has overcome the world.  1 John 5 says that anyone who is born of God can also overcome the world and that the victory is in our faith.  Last time we looked at 3 basic truths about faith in God and how it works.  Today I want to look at the main battleground upon which we fight and the weapon that Satan most often uses to defeat us.

Faith in God is unstoppable for the devil.  If we stay in faith, we will win every battle.  That does not mean we never have difficulties or hard times.  That is why Paul told Timothy to fight the good fight of faith.  There are some who, in trying to encourage people to believe God, tended to become judgmental if a person who professed faith struggled in any way.  That is not right.  Peter made it clear that we have an adversary named the devil and he is actively opposing us.  Jesus said in the world we will have tribulation.  That word also means troubles or trials. 

Going through trial does not mean we do not have faith.  Nevertheless, we do not have to accept that the trial we are going through is the end of the story.  We also should not just passively wait for something to change.  We are not just victims as we go through life.  Nor are we at the mercy of the devil.  We can and should actively believe God by studying and meditating on the promises he gave us, by speaking his word over our lives and by doing the word in any way we can.  This involves acting on the promises as the Lord reveals them to us.  Battles are a natural part of our faith life if we are going to overcome the world. 

That said, we need to understand something about the enemy that is against us.  He is a defeated foe. 

Colossians 2:15 (NKJV) ¹⁵  Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.

In this we see that Jesus disarmed the powers and principalities and that included Satan himself.  Paul says that Jesus triumphed over them.  This is harkening to a Roman practice.  Unlike our military which is funded by the government, in Roman days a general would be commissioned to raise a legion and it would be his responsibility to find a way to fund them.  As a result, the armies of Rome were often more loyal to their generals than they were to Rome.  To protect the city and the government from overzealous armies and generals they were never allowed to lead their army into the city.  There was one exception. 

If a Roman General had won a major victory, he might be granted a triumph.  This was a parade through the city at the head of his army and leading his captives behind him.  This was demonstration that this particular enemy was no longer a threat to Rome.  That is exactly what Paul was telling us in this verse.  Satan has no weapons that can be effective against the church.  It has been demonstrated to the whole spirit world that he is no longer a threat.  There is only one thing he can use against us.  That one thing is a perversion of our faith called fear.  Fear is fueled by worry. 

The battleground where we fight to overcome the world is not primarily the world itself.  The battleground of faith is the mind.  Today’s scripture tells us to be anxious for nothing but in everything make our requests known to God with thanksgiving.  Why thanksgiving?  Because we know that no weapon can prosper against us (Isaiah 54:17.)  If we go to God with thanksgiving, we can be assured he hears us and will take care of the problem.  There is no need to fear and no need to worry.  That sounds easy but it is not.  Jesus addresses this in Matthew 6.

Matthew 6:31-34 (NKJV) ³¹  Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³²  For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. ³³  But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. ³⁴  Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

This scripture is talking about food, clothing and shelter.  These are things we often worry about.  They are representative of all the things we may worry about in life.  We use the term “stress.”  Stress is the cause of many maladies faced by people in our world.  Everything from heart disease and cancer to hair loss can be produced by stress.  Stress and worry are basically the same mechanism.  They have one basic goal when applied by the enemy.  They are designed to get us to stop trusting God and his word. 

Meditation in the Word of God builds, strengthens and imparts faith.  The more we meditate on the Word, the more we believe what God said is true.  The more we believe what God said is true, the more we expect him to do what he said.  The goal of this progression is to see life as God sees it.  We begin to view things through the lens of God’s love and God’s power.  Confidence rises and we move forward. 

Fear is the reciprocal of faith.  Reciprocals cancel each other.  Fear and faith are opposing forces.  You cannot function in both.  For balance, let me say that I am not talking about being afraid at times.  We are all afraid at times.  I am talking about that fear that becomes so strong that it produces stress, inaction and oppression.  That is something deeper than just being afraid.  That kind of fear will at least hinder our faith and often cancels it all together.  We begin to believe more in the inevitability of the thing that the world is bringing against us than we believe in the power in the promise of God to change that thing and make it work to our good.

What mechanism causes us to come to that place?  Faith comes by meditation in the Word of God.  Fear comes by meditation in the word of the world.  Worry is the process where we meditate on and think about what could happen to hurt us or even destroy us.  We worry about things that have not yet happened.  Once they happen there is no more need to worry.  We worry about what we fear and the more we do, the more convinced we become that what we fear will happen.  Eventually and to varying degrees, the fear becomes stress that attacks our minds, our bodies and even our spirit. 

Jesus said that worry does not work.  You cannot add an inch to your height with worry.  Nevertheless, we do it all the time.  My mother raised her family during the depression.  I was the last of seven but by 15 years.  I did not grow up in those days but most of my brothers and my sister did.  My mother got saved late in life and she never quite got over the things she developed to get through.  She was a worrier.  She worried about everything.  She expected bad things to happen.  I tell people that if worry was an Olympic sport, she would have been a gold medal winner.  She did her best to pass that on to me.  I know the power of worry.  I know that it is very difficult to overcome.  I also know that what Jesus said in Matthew 6 is true.  It never helps to worry.  Worry feeds fear until it can become a paralyzing force in our lives.  Since everyone worries, should we just accept the fact that we cannot escape it or is there something we can do to defeat it.  Jesus obviously thought there was.  He said in verse 31 do not worry!  If he said not to worry it is possible.  Next time I want to look at the Word to see how we can overcome worry and, by doing so, take a long step closer to overcoming the world. 

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Three Basic Truths About Faith that Overcomes the World

Romans 10:17 (NKJV) ¹⁷  So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

Over the last few weeks I have been looking at John 16:33.  In this verse Jesus tells his disciples that they can have both Peace and “be of good cheer” even though he tells them that they will have problems as long as they are in the world.  The Greek translated “to be of good cheer” also means to have courage.  The idea is that we can have a joyful, positive attitude even in difficulties.  The reason is that Jesus tells them he has overcome the world, the system that controls the earth at this time.  It says in 1 John 5 that anyone who is born of God also overcomes the world. 

We have the capacity to overcome whatever the world brings against us.  That does not mean everything will always be the way we want it to be.  It does not mean that we always get what we want or what we think we need.  It does mean that, in the end, we can walk away from any trial victorious and have joy, peace and love as we go through it.  1 John 5 also said that it is our faith that is the vehicle which overcomes the world.  (I would like to recommend a book I wrote called Faith: Origins and Application available on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/Faith-Origins-Application-faith-relationship-ebook/dp/B07DD4CRS4/ref=sr_1_8?dchild=1&keywords=Bill+Kiefer&qid=1617715734&s=digital-text&sr=1-8) 

If faith is the victory that overcomes the world, it would seem necessary to know what faith is and how it works.  I am not going to look at faith extensively in this post or the next.  The book I linked to above does that, but I do want to look at some important truths about faith that will help you release it in your life.  Romans 10:17 tells us that the source of faith is the Word of God.  From 2 Corinthians 4:6-7, we found that what we can see, anything from the world, is subject to change.  What we cannot see is unchanging.  The most important connection to what is unseen and our hearts is the Word of God. 

I have traveled to many nations.  I have heard preaching in many languages.  No matter what language we speak, the Word of God is always the same.  I understand that there can be problems in translations.  Nevertheless, I believe that God watches over his Word.  If our hearts are open to him, he will guide us to the truth.  Even when there are problems in translation, the vast majority of the written Word of God is the same. 

Over the years I have had to learn to believe God in the financial realm.  Philippians 4:19 says the same thing in any language.  My God will supply what I need according to his riches in Glory by Christ Jesus.  It may vary in wording, but it says the same thing.  Over the years when I have faced financial challenges, I have been able to go back to that verse and read it over and over again.  My circumstances may change, but that word remains the same. 

The faith connection between that which is unseen and that which is seen is the Word of God.  If I want to build and strengthen my faith so that I can walk in an overcoming position, I need to build the Word into my life.  This is true because I can not believe someone will do something he or she has not told me they will do.  The Bible is the revelation of what God will do in, through and for his children.  It s the covenant he gave to all who trust in him.  The more we know and hear what he says he will do, the more the confidence that he will do what he says grows.  This is the faith that overcomes the world. 

The next truth is the fact that the Word of God and the ground of the heart were designed by God to interact. 

Mark 4:14-15 (NKJV) ¹⁴  The sower sows the word. ¹⁵  And these are the ones by the wayside where the word is sown. When they hear, Satan comes immediately and takes away the word that was sown in their hearts.

There is a great deal to this teaching from Mark’s Gospel.  I believe it is one of the most important teachings in the whole Bible.  In verse 14, we see that the seed being sown is the Word of God.  Verse 15 tells us the ground in which it is sown is the heart of man.  When good seed is planted in good ground, there is an interaction that happens.  The life in the seed is released and a fruit bearing plant is produced.  It takes some cultivation of the conditions, but the process is, for the most part, automatic. 

How do we plant the Word?  We hear it.  That is what Romans 10:17 tells us.  We can hear it preached, we can hear it read and we can hear it in our minds when we read it ourselves.  We also hear it as we meditate on the Word by thinking about it continually (Joshua 1:8.)  The more we hear it, the more seed we plant and the more we cultivate the seeds already planted.   Paul calls the result of this process the renewing of the mind (Romans 12:2.)  That is the changing of how we think and the changing of the filters through which we view life.

This brings me to the next truth we must understand. 

Hebrews 4:12 (NKJV) 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 is able to change our hearts because it is alive.  It is a living truth.  There is a great deal of difference between true and truth.  What is true is, like what is seen, subject to change.  It is also subject to the influence of the world.  For instance, it is true that it is usually cold in December.  However, it is also true that December is one of the hottest months of the year.  It just depends on where you are in December. 

If I am home in upstate New York, December is cold.  If I happen to be in Nairobi, Kenya it is one of the hottest times of the year.  True is relative.  Where the Word of God is concerned, truth is not.  2+2=4.  It is 4 in New York and it is 4 in Kenya.  It is 4 in December and in July.  It is 4 at all times and under every circumstance.  However, the difference between mathematical truth and the truth of the Word of God is that one is alive, and one is not.  One created the universe and the other did not.

Hebrews 11:3 tells us that God created the worlds by releasing his faith in Words.  Genesis 1 and 2 tell the story of this.  The Word of God is not only truth, but it is the highest truth.  It is the truth that created all we see.  It created the worlds.  It is also the truth that can cause what is true in the world to conform to its will.  When I plant the seed of the Word of God in my heart, the interaction that occurs between these two living things is a release of the same power that created the world.  Therefore, that power is able to overcome the world.

The interaction of the Word of God in the heart of man produces faith.  In the context of both Romans 10 and Mark 4, this is speaking of the release of faith that produces salvation.  That does not change the fact that both scriptures also speak of a biblical principle that was designed by God to release his power in the earth.  If faith for salvation comes this way, faith for everything else comes this way as well.  If it can reverse the death that came into Adam at the fall, it can influence and reverse the influences of the world system as well.  This is the faith that overcomes the world.

The devil knows this is true.  That is why Jesus describes the different soils in Mark 4.  One of the things that the devil uses against us is to keep the Word from taking root when we hear it.  If he cannot keep it from taking root, he wants to strangle it so that it cannot produce life.  The battleground for overcoming the world is not really the world.  It is the mind.  The thing the devil uses above all else to win that battle is worry.  That is what we will look at next time.

For audio teachings by Bill Kiefer visit our Podcast at: https://anchor.fm/

Go Tell My Disciples…..And Peter

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Mark 16:6-7 (NKJV) ⁶  But he said to them, “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He is risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid Him. ⁷  But go, tell His disciples–and Peter–that He is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him, as He said to you.”

In our last post, I talked about the importance of the resurrection in terms of the existence of Christianity.  Simply put, if there is no resurrection, Christianity is a fraud: it cannot exist.  Paul said as much in 1 Corinthians 15:12-19.  In verse 20 he makes this statement, “Christ has risen from the dead.  After more than two thousand years and all of the scientific and cultural change we have seen, a great deal of the world still deeply and honestly believes Paul’s words to be true.  Jesus rose from the dead and that changes everything.

As important as this aspect of the resurrection is, there is another side that I want to look at today.  The resurrection is a personal thing to each of us who has received the sacrifice of Jesus as the payment for our sin.  Properly understood, the new birth that Paul said takes place in the life of every believer is a personal resurrection.  2 Corinthians 5:17-21 tells us that anyone who is in Christ is a new creation.  Old things have passed away and all things have become new.  When I celebrate the resurrection on what has come to be called Easter Sunday, I am celebrating the fact that I was raised from my spiritual death.  Every sin was forgiven.  Everything has become new.  My past is gone, and I am alive in a whole new way.

There is a person of the time of the resurrection in whose life we can see this graphically played out.  His name is Peter.  If the story of Jesus ended with the cross, Peter’s life would have been an abject failure.  However, it did not end with the cross.  It went on to include the resurrection.  Although this event was important to the whole world, it affected Peter in a very personal way.  When I read today’s scripture, I was struck with one thing the angel said to the women who came to the tomb.  He said, “Go tell my disciples, and Peter…..”  Why did he single Peter out in this way?  Was it because Peter was no longer a disciple?  That could not be true.  Peter was to be the leader of the group.  There was another reason the angel wanted to make sure that Peter was included. 

Who was Peter?  He was an ordinary working man like many of us.  He was no one special.  Let us compare him with Paul, for instance.  Paul was highly educated while Peter had little education.  Paul was well connected.  He had many friends in high places.  Peter was from a place far from Jerusalem and removed from where “things were happening.”  Paul was from a wealthy and influential family.  Peter was a fisherman who worked hard everyday to feed his family.  God needed Paul and he needs those kinds of people today.  I suspect that more people who read this will identify with Peter. 

Which of the disciples who were with Jesus during his earthly ministry might we consider the most qualified to lead?  Matthew was a tax collector and probably would have been good at administration.  John, not Peter, was the disciple that Jesus loved.  Andrew was a wonderful gatherer of people.  He is the one who brought Peter to Jesus.  He also showed himself to be a faithful man.  Nathaniel was a man who according to Jesus had no guile.  That meant he was honest and transparent.  Any one of these would seem to have made a good leader but what about Peter.

During his time with Jesus, Peter might have been considered something of a “wanna be.”  He wanted to lead, and he tried to lead, but he often fell quite short.  He was given the revelation that Jesus was the messiah, the son of God.  Before the chapter was over, he had to be rebuked by Jesus.  Jesus told the disciples that he was going to Jerusalem to die.  Peter said that was not going to happen.  Jesus said, “Get behind me devil!”  That is pretty harsh, but he was not really talking to Peter but to Satan who was using Peter.  To Peter he says, “You are thinking like man not like God.” 

One of Peter’s greatest victories was the day he walked on water.  I always like to point out that he did walk, yet before it was over, Peter once again fell short.  He got his eyes off Jesus and began to sink.  Jesus asks him, “Why did you doubt.”  He just never seemed to quite be able to get all the way to the end of things.  He was brash, outspoken, probably braggadocios but not quite what he needed to be.  Not the qualities one would look for in a leader who was going to spearhead a movement that would change the world.  How often have each of us felt like Peter.  We have good intentions, but we do not quite follow through as we should.  We just do not feel we measure up to what God expects of us and often with good reason.

What about Peter at the end.  He has made it clear that he will go with Jesus no matter what.  He will die with him if necessary.  That is a wonderful sentiment, but how did Peter do?  In John 13 when Jesus was preparing them for what was coming by washing their feet, Peter wanted no part of it.  He said he did not want Jesus to stoop so low for him, but could it have been his own pride that was in the way? 

At the communion table, it was not Peter who rested his head on Jesus’ breast.  When they went out to the garden to pray, Peter fell asleep.  When the soldiers came to get Jesus, Peter turned to violence, cut off the ear of a servant and, once again, had to be rebuked.  In the end he followed Jesus but from far away.  His worst hour came when he actually denied knowing Jesus.  He denied that he was a disciple even reverting to his old fisherman’s ways and including profanity in his denial.  Jesus had predicted this would happen saying, “Before the rooster crows twice, you will have denied me three times.”  What must have Peter felt when he heard that rooster crow the second time?  I think most of us can relate.

I do not know about you, but I have felt as Peter must have felt.  I love the Lord.  I have given him my life in the service of the ministry.  Yet there are days when I have failed.  I know I have often fallen short of my best and not followed through with my commitments to him.  I am sure I am not the only one.  From where Peter must have been in Mark 16, I can understand why the Angel had to mention him specifically. 

The calling of God on his life had not changed.  He was going to have to lead the disciples.  I am sure he felt totally unqualified.  He had tried to do it his whole time with Jesus and had failed.  In the end his failure was so complete that I am sure he must have felt he was useless to Jesus.  I have felt that way.  I expect you have as well.  Then, with the words of the angel, there came a glimmer of hope.  “Go tell my disciples…..and Peter.”

Because of the resurrection, all of Peter’s past failures were wiped away.  Peter was a failure, but the resurrection gave him a second chance to succeed.  His failure did not change his calling.  His failure did not change the love that Jesus, God, had for him.  Jesus wanted Peter to know that his story was not over.  That did not mean Peter was perfect.  It meant that what God did in Jesus was far greater than his failure.  He still had to do his part, and it would never be easy for him.  Nevertheless, he made it to the end.  Like Paul, he finished his course and ran his race making it all the way to the finish line (2 Timothy 4:7.)

Do any of you feel like Peter must have felt at the time of the resurrection?  I believe the angel would say to us, “Tell my disciples…..and Bill (put in your name) that I am still with them.  Their story is not over.  I can and will still use them in spite of their failure.”  That is the personal power of the resurrection.  That is what Jesus wants you to know today.

So, as you celebrate this most important of Christian holidays, remember that the resurrection defines Christianity and the world as it is today.  Also remember that the resurrection is personal to you.  It represents your second chance.  Whatever you may feel is lacking in your life, Jesus is saying, “Tell my disciples…..and you!”

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