Dear One,
My dear friend Matthias challenged me to teach on the seven different types of faith mentioned in the Word, and that coincided with what Holy Spirit was saying about this year, that we will need the gift of faith more than ever before. So, I do a new teaching each Saturday, but I want to devote the first teaching each month to the subject of faith, so that we are continually stirred all year long to rise up in faith and manifest His promises, in spite of what happens in the world. So here we go…
Love you! KRP
THE YEAR OF THE GIFT OF FAITH – FOUNDATIONS
According to your faith be it unto you. Matt 9:29 KJV
Faith is comprehensive to all of life for everyone, including of course the unsaved. Faith and the limitations we put on it define our existence. The limitations we put on faith are the ‘glass ceiling’ that holds your life down; not people, or circumstances, or anything else, but your levels of faith, and faith alone. You are today what you are and where you are because of your faith. You’ll be tomorrow where your faith or the lack thereof takes you. God starts everyone at the same place. The divine brilliance of the concept of faith is the great arbiter that allows the Lord to be a just Judge. True faith is available to every man and has been since the Garden. This explains a Naaman or Nebuchadnezzar – not born into the right nation or religion, but finally becoming true believers none the less. The challenge of understanding faith is crucial to the life of everyone, especially those who seek to glorify and believe God.
God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good? Num 23:19 KJV
My first Bible teacher said that man’s basic spiritual problem is the integrity of God and His Word. Can He be trusted fully? Does He mean what He has said? Has He clearly said what He meant? Is he able to fulfill His words? Can His Word be trusted fully? If we can answer these questions affirmatively with no question or hesitancy then we can begin to believe God and His Word. We naturally question the integrity of others because we know what liars we are at times, for all men lie. But God’s Word says that God does not lie as man lies.
I loved that our brother Sean Feucht opened his worship service ministry with a song extolling God’s faithfulness, that the Lord has never lied to him. I loved that because that is my experience as well. I have let Him down; I have failed Him but He has never failed me. He has never left me. This I prove every time I speak in tongues, because I could not speak without His presence enabling me. Speaking in tongues continually proves God’s presence in my life. Tongues also proves Jesus’ resurrection as the Bible says that I could not speak in tongues if I had not believed in the Resurrection. Indeed, tongues is what makes me a firsthand witness of the resurrection, not a hearsay witness. Meditate on that for a minute…
Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. John 17:17 KJV
For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Matt 5:18 KJV
Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is. 8 For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit. Jer 17:7-8 KJV
I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name. Ps 138:2 KJV
Jesus said that the Word was truth. Jesus said that even the letters, and even beyond the letters, an ornamentation to the letters – a tittle, a little crown – will be fulfilled. One of the best books I’ve ever enjoyed along this line of the subject of the integrity of the Scriptures is Grant Jeffreys THE SIGNATURE OF GOD. I think we still include that book in the auxiliary reading material for the intern teacher training. Another is THE COMPANION BIBLE by E. W. Bullinger. You can trust the books of the Old and New Testament to be the word of God, miraculously given and preserved for our blessing and benefit.
The secure integrity of God and His written Word of God is the first great foundation of our faith.
The next great reality that is foundational to our faith is the fear of the Lord. Modern culture especially in the West has lost the fear of the Lord, which puts us in a very vulnerable and precarious place as a culture. The news sites all cite the statistics that a lot of extra people are dying these days. Corinthians says that many die prematurely from not discerning the Lord’s body in communion. This is a fear of the Lord issue!
Proverbs says that God does not answer prayer for those who do not choose the fear of the Lord. The Holy Spirit continually challenges people, all men from all walks of life, to obey His voice and choose the fear of the Lord. But if they don’t, and catastrophe strikes, the HS says, I will laugh at you and your calamity! But if we choose the fear of the Lord, and walk in the fear of the Lord, some of the greatest promises in the Word await us.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: Ps 111:10 KJV
The fear of the Lord prolongeth days: but the years of the wicked shall be shortened. Prov 10:27 KJV
In the fear of the Lord is strong confidence: and his children shall have a place of refuge.
27 The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, to depart from the snares of death. Prov 14:26-27 KJV
By humility and the fear of the Lord are riches, and honour, and life. Prov 22:4 KJV
Let not thine heart envy sinners: but be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long. Prov 23:17 KJV
The fear of the Lord embodies a constant awareness of His presence, and a desire in your heart to please Him. Holy Spirit will lead you into practices and habits that please the Lord. He understands the smallest details of our lives, and He knows what pleases ABBA, God our Father, and what doesn’t. Just a small example: I knew He wanted me to love my neighbor, so He taught me to smile at and acknowledge even total strangers as I would walk or run past them. The smiles and responses I got back bonded me with my neighbors, and when fire threatened our community, a neighbor was there at 230am to help us.
And the fear of the Lord fell upon all the kingdoms of the lands that were round about Judah, so that they made no war against Jehoshaphat. 2 Chron 17:10 KJV
The first principle in loving your neighbor is – very simply – acknowledging their existence, greeting them. One pastor I know took over a church in a crime filled neighborhood. The first thing he did was go out and greet every home within a mile of his church, asking them how he could help them. He never had a problem with criminals, his church never had anything stolen or damaged, and his ministry flourished. The fear of the Lord covered him!
The third great reality of the foundations of our faith is covenant.
Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine: Ex 19:5 KJV
From before the foundation of the world ABBA planned to have a people that would be His own not by birth, or by the actions of others, but by their own heartfelt loving consent. He knew of the rebellion of Lucifer and his angels, the creation and fall of Adam, and all that would transpire until He could send His son YESHUA as the Redeemer and Lord of His sons and daughters. The Lord planned that when all is said and done, He will have a people with Him in Heaven who have two great qualities – they will be holy, as everything in Heaven must be holy, and they will be there because of their loving response to God’s invitation. They will be there because they agreed to accept the covenant of God.
9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
11 For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.
12 For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him.
13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Rom 10:9-13 KJV
When Moses left Egypt with the children of Israel, there was a ‘mixed multitude’ of Gentile unbelievers that went with them, ultimately causing them great harm. There will be no ‘mixed multitude’ in Heaven. The great lie of ‘universal salvation’ is just that, a lie and a deception, that makes a travesty of the Gospel and of the covenant of God. But for you and I who have loved Him, and accepted His invitation being born of God, we have the covenant with Him that was laid down in Romans 10:9-13, and we will not be ashamed.
Now, does that covenant bring fruit now in our lives, and if so, how do we access that fruit?
The covenant of God gives us access to God Himself. YESHUA is the way, the highway of access to ABBA the Father. No sin, sickness, weakness or death can dwell in the presence of ABBA. YESHUA has redeemed us fully from all that was against us, our sin nature and our self-inflicted wounds called sins, and recreated our spirits in the nature of God. The fullness of access to God brings Heaven to earth RIGHT NOW in all of His perfect will so that we live here on earth like as if we are already in Heaven. Do you see it? There is no sickness, no poverty, no immorality, no danger and disaster, no depression, fear, and loneliness in Heaven, and we live that way as we rise up to the fullness of His covenant here upon earth.
What is our part in the covenant?
Our entrance into the covenant has two great requirements: CONFESS JESUS AS LORD and BELIEVE IN YOUR INNERMOST BEING THAT GOD RAISED HIM FROM THE DEAD. We meet those requirements, and we are born into the family of God.
If ye love me, keep my commandments. 16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; John 14:15-16 KJV
Now, to keep living out the covenant, and maintain practical, daily access to ABBA, we learn to make Jesus Lord in a practical way by obeying His voice, first from the written Word and then from direct revelation. Jesus said that to carry out the covenant we are to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, and to love our neighbors as ourselves. Failure to keep the covenant does not deny us salvation, but it does deny us the blessings that come with keeping the covenant. This is foundational to our faith, because in accessing all the blessings of covenant we must obey His voice!
21 For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. 2 Cor 5:21 KJV
To believe in His resurrection is to believe in all that He accomplished through His death and resurrection, to believe that He became a sin offering for us so that we could be made the righteousness of God in Him. Remember, nothing gets into Heaven without being holy. Jesus made us holy! To believe He was raised from the dead is to believe that He has made us holy so that we can have full access to ABBA and His perfect will. Do you see it? Do you see why COVENANT is a key foundation to true faith in God?
In 2024, why not be intentional about building your faith even greater? Maybe you have already raised twelve people from the dead, but why not hundreds? Maybe get your first one? Why not get your healing this year? Or that new job? Or that OTHER desire of your godly heart? As I sat in the doorway of our new school of ministry in Ndele, northern Central African Republic, I watched the girls with tears in their eyes carrying water from the village well. I said, “Lord how long until these folks live with the conveniences I enjoy?” He said, “How long does it take My Spirit to move, to create a better life for these dear people? I’m WAITING FOR THEM!” Is God waiting for you to believe Him for your dreams? Why keep Him waiting!
These three key foundations of true faith – trust in the integrity of God and His Word, the fear of God, and faithfulness in keeping the covenant of God, position us by faith and the grace of God to receive His blessings. As we grow in these realities our faith grows, and we overflow with blessings. The world may be going to hell, but we are going to Heaven, and we will take as many as we can with us because we live in the blessings of faith. Amen? Love you!
Remember dear ones, we must be about our Father’s business…