Thur. 4/26/2012 Promises From God 8

"Have faith in God," Jesus answered. "I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea' and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins."

Good Thursday morning, my dear brothers and sisters, it is a beautiful morning here at the Southern Location of the North Pole, just beautiful. Today we pray for our churches, our schools and our families, and please remember the "family of God." Please keep praying for Allison and Ronald, cancer, Pastor Larry, heart, Dolores, infection, and another knee failure. Please pray also for Vicki who will be having knee surgery tomorrow. As we pray for families, please pray for the Saylor family, and please pray for Noah, that his dad would step up to the plate and take care of business as a dad, like Jesus wants him to do.

4/26/2012 Promises From God 8.  Mark 11:22 - "Have faith in God," Jesus answered. 23 "I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea' and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. 24 Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. 25 And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins." (NIV)

Brothers and sisters, have you noticed one common thing about all these promises from God that we have covered so far? I want you to really think about it. One thing, they are based on Love from Jesus, but the big thing I have noticed, they all talk about having faith. If anyone ever asks you about our religion, which I like to call "followers of Jesus," you could tell them real fast that our religion is "faith based." When we step out speaking out for Jesus, what are we doing? We are taking a walk out in faith for and with Jesus.

As we look at the scripture of today we see again Jesus starts out by saying, "Have faith in God." So I say to you, dear brothers and sisters, do you have that faith today? Our scripture goes on to tell us that "whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours." It is telling us that as we ask, if we ask in faith and have faith, it has already been done. Often I close our prayers by saying they will be done, and folks, it is to be done as per the will of God, but He wants us to have the faith in Him that is that strong that His will and ours will be the same. Several places in the Bible it talks about having faith enough to move a mountain. I want you to think of those men and women back years ago before the days of the big earth moving machines, how they went with picks and shovels and built those turnpike tunnels. They moved part of the mountain so they could just go right through them. And then with the talent that God has loaned man, big earth moving machines were made. At one time we called them "steam shovels." I am talking big digging machines, and today we have those big pans, and folks, those big contractors must have faith in God for they in many cases have leveled mountains, by moving the peaks into the valleys and they built highways and byways and big shopping malls, etc. All spelled out in the Bible if we care enough to dig in and look beyond just a few words and really study what the scripture means to us today.

Jesus has not changed, my brothers and sisters, and nor has His word, but He for sure opens it differently as we grow in Him. Even since I started writing years and years ago, I find different things in the same scriptures, and sometimes I can write on a scripture one day and the very next day He will open my eyes to see it differently. So on this Thursday on the day we pray for churches, schools and families, I ask you, where is your faith level? When you pray to our Father in Heaven through our Lord Jesus Christ, do you pray as if the answer has already been received? Or do you keep praying trying to change God's mind? Let's go to God today and just have faith that what we are asking is answered as we finish our prayers...

Dear Father in Heaven, please bless our churches and the families and people who attend them, please, Lord, I pray for the pastors that they preach the truth as it appears in the Bible and not spin it to say things are ok when they are not. Lord, bless our schools and help us to teach our children and grandchildren and great grandchildren about Jesus so that they may take Jesus back into our schools. And Lord, Father of us all, I pray today for families, and I pray that men, all men, will remember that they are to head up that household under You, of course, and take charge. I pray for the one who has a son named Noah and pray that he, who confesses to love You, will step up to the plate and get involved with Noah. Lord, I pray for all families today, Lord,  and ask a blessing on them. And Lord, please take care of Vicki during surgery tomorrow and please heal Ron and Allison and also Dolores this day... I claim victory in You this day, dear Jesus, as I pray in Your name. Amen.

Now go forth and IN FAITH share those blessings. Love ya, Pastor Dan.