Last chance to sow into Lightbearers in 2023!

Not because I desire a gift: but I desire fruit that may abound to your account. Phil 4:17 KJV

Many have gotten very blessed GIVING TO THE LORD through tithes and offerings to Lightbearers over the years, not that we are anything special! We desire FRUIT that may abound to your accounts, both in your pocket and in Heaven. Rewards in Heaven and rewards in your pocket, bless God forever!

You can conveniently sow below through the donate button. Thanks for sowing into Lightbearers!

THE YEAR OF THE GIFT OF FAITH

One of my favorite ‘gift of faith’ stories involved a little boy with a crippling illness.

It must have been 120 degrees Fahrenheit in that makeshift church structure with three hundred excited parishioners in the Nairobi suburb of Korogocho. The service had lasted about six hours. I had preached for an hour and a half in my wool suit which by now was so soaked with sweat you could wring it out with the twist of a wrist. The Lord showed up with anointing and miracles but the best was still yet to come! The pastor, Stanley Njuguna, brought me back to his little office and got me a cold Coke. Then he left again…

8 Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give. Matt 10:8 KJV

He came back in carrying a little boy. He said, “This young man needs your help.” It’s important at this point to understand that you are commanded to heal the sick, with God’s anointing, and not to wait around for ‘God to do the healing.’ Do you understand? If the boy was going to get healed, he would need my help. I saw that his right hip was dislocated, and his leg was facing backward. Holy Spirit said, Take his knee and turn it around. So, I did! Now his foot was facing backward. I assume he was a polio victim. Holy Spirit said, Take his foot and turn it around. So, I did!

Then Holy Spirit said, Massage his foot. So, I did! His bones were as soft as putty as I massaged them back into shape. Now, with two legs properly aligned, and feet properly aligned, we had him do deep knee bends, then sent him running home to his mother. As Paul Harvey would say, the rest of the story involved me praying in tongues for almost eight hours the day before the service until Holy Spirit said I was ready. Then I quit because I was ready! When the pastor came in with the boy, I was ready…

Let’s understand the gift of faith.

God’s Word is everywhere. In a TV commercial Nike says NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE. Another says JUST DO IT. Truth written even on the devil’s heel is still what? Truth. This year, 2024, will be the year when we come into the fullness of understanding the gift of faith. Faith will become as simple as sitting in a chair. You don’t analyze the chair before sitting, you just sit. You don’t question the load bearing capabilities of its legs, or the angle of the back support. No! You just sit if nothing – like a broken leg – is awry. If nothing is awry in your relationship with the Lord, you will just ‘sit’ comfortably on His promises with all the faith you exercise in sitting in a big, old LAZYBOY chair.

Your faith, the supernatural gift of faith, the faith of Jesus Christ, the faith of God, the household of faith, the fruit of faith, community faith – all mentioned in the Word. Many times even mature ministers are slack jawed when I say that there are different kinds of faith, that faith is mathematical, that faith to do the impossible is as easy as sitting in a chair. We have oversimplified – to our detriment – a complex topic which when understood fully answers so many questions and restores trust in the living God. This year we will master faith or we will be overwhelmed by the circumstances.

The two great gifts that make all the difference in your walk are speaking in tongues and faith. Both are scientific and mathematical. Both produce precisely to the degree they are used properly.

Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us… Eph 3:20 KJV

When you speak in tongues, you are speaking a tongue of men or of angels, a language you have not learned. Some languages are very simple, and it appears at times when people first speak they are almost speaking on a very young child level. Then as they mature spiritually their language in tongues seems to become more complex and deeper. You pray in the spirit in love and the only way to improve upon it is to do it more. When you get a group of people to pray in the spirit, the community faith goes through the roof. When you pray in the spirit more it has ramifications that extend all through your life and ministry. This year we had unprecedented success with our schools in numbers of graduates. Why? In January I began consciously praying two more hours in tongues a day in response to a crisis. Coincidently this was when our schools in one African nation took off, producing almost four thousand graduates this year. More tongues helped, perhaps pivotally, bring more success, not just in ministry but in our personal lives as well.

The gift of faith is what turns revelation into reality. God gives every born again one revelation – Jesus said, My sheep hear My voice – but few know what to do with it. I certainly didn’t! I had to be taught. I had to learn to believe the revelation, to believe that God was speaking to me precisely; then to command or decree it to come to pass, and to hold on to my belief in the revelation until it did come to pass. Want to receive more revelation about more things? Meditate in the Word then take that level of inquisitiveness and imagination to all the world around you. Imagination is a function of the soul that prepares the mind for revelation. God can’t talk to you about something until you believe that ‘something’ is possible. Remember that revelation is prerequisite to the gift of faith, which is the bridge to miracles and healings.

Another of my favorite ‘gift of faith’ stories involves a couple who didn’t have children. See how imagination and passion laid the groundwork for this miracle story. How many miracles have we missed because of lack of those qualities?

For over twenty years they sought the Lord for children. The wife wanted twins, so she would buy two sets of childrens clothes, put them in bags and sleep with them when her husband was traveling. She would wash the clothes and hang them to dry when the neighbors couldn’t see them. Their neighbors, family and ‘friends’ punished them unmercifully for their ‘cursed’ situation of childlessness. Finally the husband came to me with tears and asked for help…

I prayed with him, and later that day Holy Spirit spoke to me and said, They will have twins, and you are to walk with them through the process. Then He gave me specific instructions. Then for two years I walked with them until the twins, Samalie and Samuel Kevin, were born. The gift of faith can be operated instantly, or it can be operated continuously over a season of time until the miracle occurs. Do you understand? In this case we operated the gift of faith for two years, day by day, until the miracle happened.

A great biblical example of this kind of operation of the gift of faith over a season of time involved Elijah.

And Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, As the Lord God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word. 1 Kings 17:1 KJV

The gift of faith is operated by a command or a decree. Here the decree was – no rain or dew until Elijah gave nature permission to bring rain or dew. Rainfall is natural, but the gift of faith is SUPERnatural. Elijah would use supernatural faith to bring judgment upon Israel. Every day, for three years when a potential storm rolled into Israel off the Mediterranean Sea, Elijah would point at it and say, NO! NO! NO! No rain until I say so! You decree the revelation of God in every circumstance until it comes to pass. This is what I did with the man and his wife until the twins came.

17 Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months.

18 And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit. James 5:17-18 KJV

What hinders so many from getting the revelation to operate the gift of faith to see miracles is a sense of inferiority due to shame or condemnation. We should look in the mirror and REJOICE in what we see because Christ is there, in you, in your spirit. John G Lake, who was known to wear fine clothes, would stand in front of his mirror and say, “God dwells in that suit of clothes, and wherever that suit goes, God goes with it!” Get your focus off your lack of ability and on to God’s ability!

17 For if by one man’s offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.)  Rom 5:17 KJV

For many 2024 will be the year of the broken heart because many of the things we trusted in are proving to be hollow and worthless. For instance, trusting in ‘right’ politics to save a country is going to break your heart. Right politics can only help when hearts are right with the Lord. Now there is grace and mercy when even the unsaved make right decisions, but the real long-term solution is to change hearts through salvation.

…He hath sent Me to heal the brokenhearted… Luke 4:18 KJV

To avoid the broken heart trap you must stay in the Word and start your day consecrated to the Lord. Before breakfast, before social media, before the news of the day, weather reports, texts or emails, before your dog or even your spouse, is wholehearted focus and devotion to God. Revelation for the present season comes early in the morning before you distracted by the swirling day. An end-of-the-year teaching is a good time to talk about this stuff. Remember that virtue requires sacrifice. The Holy Spirit must kill the old you before He can release you into new life. Falling leaves in the fall presage new leaves in the spring. The death/life cycle occurs repeatedly in your walk as He takes you higher and higher. There is always hope. Remember that Jesus is the Healer of broken hearts!

Faith controls everything in your life. Levels of faith in different categories of your life detail why you are the way you are. We don’t live at the level we desire but rather at the level we accept. If something in your life is unacceptable – for instance, being chronically in debt – determine to raise your faith in that area and overcome that problem. JUST DO IT! With God in you NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE! Happy New Year…love you!

Remember dear ones, we must be about our Father’s business…