Have you seen what God has in store for you in 2015??

So much has happened this year. A lot of good has happened but bad things have happened as well. As a country we have gone through some really hard times but as I reflect on all that has happened I realize God has brought me this far! Through all the times of testing, trials, challenges, and disappointments, God has been faithful. He has been with me every step of the way. He has been by my side and has not abandoned me.

What has YOUR year been like? Are you looking forward to 2015? Are you dreading it? Do you get fearful when you look at 2015? Can I confess something to you?

In the natural it looks like 2015 is going to be worse than 2014.

It looks like nothing is going to change for me.

It looks like I have come to the end of the road.

It doesn’t look like any doors could open for me.

I know God has a plan for me but going into 2015 I have no idea what He has in store!

 

Can you believe that? I am just being honest. Our country is going through a lot and it looks like things are just going to get worse but…………….

 

I was convicted the other day as I was thinking like this.

Since when did my circumstances determine what God had for me???

My circumstances have rarely being “just right” for God to work, but He has done amazing things! God does not wait for circumstances to get better to work! He doesn’t wait for the drought to finish to provide! He doesn’t wait for the sick person to get stronger to heal! He doesn’t wait for the poor to get rich to bless him!

What He waits for is FAITH! It is faith that compels Him to move on your behalf. So what does that mean?

As you read Hebrew 11 you will see how men and women of God were able to look ahead by faith and obtain the promises God had promised them!

By an act of faith, Enoch skipped death completely. Hebrew 11:5

By an act of faith, Noah built a ship in the middle of dry land. Hebrews 11:7 

By an act of faith, Abraham said yes to God’s call to travel to an unknown place that would become his home. when he left he had no idea where he was going. Hebrew 11:8

So what am I trying to say?? 2014 was a difficult year and it had it’s fair share of challenges, challenges that could deceive me into thinking 2015 is going to be the same or worse but I can choose to believe different.

You can choose to believe different! 

You can declare what God has shown you by faith! Even if it sounds crazy, and even if it looks like it’s impossible, trust God!

 

2015 is going to be a great year for me!

The doors that were closed in 2014 will be opened for me in 2015!

New opportunities are waiting for me in 2015!

Blessing and prosperity are waiting for me in 2015!

God’s favor is with me 100 fold in 2015!

My country is going to turn around in 2015!

God is going to perform amazing miracles in my country in 2015!

My church is going to a new level in 2015!

Going is going to do something really significant in our church in 2015! Something that will impact the world!

2015 is a year God is going to establish me!

 

My circumstances say I am crazy for speaking like this, but my circumstances are not the god I worship!! I serve a real and powerful God who says,

For I know the thoughts and plans that I have for you, says the Lord, thoughts and plans for welfare and peace and not for evil, to give you hope in your final outcome. Jeremiah 29;11

What do you see when you see 2015? You can choose to see 2015 in the natural, what you see is what you get. So if you had a bad year then next year will be the same or even worse and there is no hope!

Or you could choose to believe in God and believe He has a great year in store for you! Your faith will be tested but it will make you stronger.

Can you imagine how Noah felt as he built an ark in the middle of dry ground??

What was going through Abraham’s mind as he traveled to an unknown place. He had no idea where he was going but he trusted God!!!

Your faith in God will set you apart. It may make you unpopular or seem crazy but don’t stop! God will come through for you! Don’t be discouraged, 2015 is going to be an amazing year for you if you only choose to believe in God! That is my declaration! God bless……

Rolain

 

 

 

The promise of God under attack!!

 

 

I could go on and on, but I’ve run out of time. There are so many more Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, the prophets….Through acts of faith, they toppled kingdoms, made justice work, took the promises for themselves. Hebrews 11:32

 

I have been writing a series on faith for the past month or so and I have been meaning to finish it which I will do in this post. If you want to read the last post I wrote on faith please click here.

The word tells us the men and women of old obtained promised blessings by faith! God had promised them things but they could only obtain them by faith! There was no other way those things could be obtained!!

That got me thinking, what does it mean to obtain promises by faith? What does that look like? When the word says we need faith to obtain the promises He has promised us what does that mean? Why do we need faith to obtain what God has promised us?

The word is filled to the brim with answers. Let me show you a few.

• Abraham was given some amazing promises. (Genesis 17) But there was a slight glitch…..

Abram was ninety-nine years old when the LORD appeared to him again and said, “I am God All-Powerful.  Genesis 17:1

Did this very important fact slip God’s mind??? How could He call a ninety-nine year old man seriously? But this is God the Creator of the Universe we are talking about. He knew what He was doing. He knew the only way Abram would walk in what He promised him would be if he trusted in Him. There was no other way he would obtain the promise!

God knows what your situation is, He knows the circumstances you are in and He wants you to trust Him no matter how impossible things seem. Let’s face facts, without faith you will not be able to obtain the promise. I didn’t say “not willing” but “NOT ABLE”!!! You will not be able to no matter what you try. God’s calling for your life is too much for you to accomplish on your own which would mean in your flesh! You will fail….. Yes, you just heard me say you will fail. I didn’t make a mistake or mix up my words! You will fall and not be successful.

Let us look at another example:

• The Israelites were in a hard place. On one side there was the Red Sea and on the other side the Egyptian army! There was no way for them to turn back and fight the Egyptians because they had no weapons and they were not trained warriors! They would be massacred….In front of them was the Red Sea. They didn’t know how to swim, they would surely drown but by faith the word says, “They walked through the Red Sea on dry ground.” (Hebrews 11:29)

I hope you are beginning to see how important a role faith plays in you obtaining God’s promises. Without faith you will not be able to obtain what God promised! The Egyptian army thought they could walk through the Red Sea but like we all know, they couldn’t! The water crashed in on them and killed them! They didn’t know about faith! And without faith they died…..Is that the reason things don’t seem to be working out for you? Maybe you have been trying to do this in your own strength when God wants you trusting in Him. Sometimes doing nothing and waiting patiently for the breakthrough is what you need to do and at times that is so much harder to do. Anyway let’s move on….

• The Israelites thought taking the promise land was a small thing. They thought they were strong enough but that was quickly proven wrong. The Israelites were finally at the gate of the land flowing with milk and honey. All they had to do was obey the word of God and storm the city but they believed the ten spies! They believed them and were filled with fear. There was talk of appointing a new captain to lead them back to Egypt and there was talk of stoning Joshua and Caleb! But God stepped in and everything changed. The Israelites repented but it was too late, the damage was done! Let’s pick up the story in Numbers 14:39

 

When Moses told all of this to the people of Israel, they mourned long and hard. But early the next morning they started out for the high hill country saying, “We’re here; we’re ready – let’s go up and attack the land that God promised us. We sinned, but now we’re ready.”

 

As we know, the Israelites were defeated. Without faith, without God they couldn’t obtain what God had promised them! Let that be a sober reminder for us all…….I am going to stop here in the hope you got the heart of what I was saying!. God has some really amazing things in store for us but we will need to exercise our faith to obtain those amazing things. If you don’t know what God has planned for you know He has great and amazing things in store for you, things that are too big for you alone to handle and accomplish. If you can accomplish it on your own it’s probably not from God! It is clear in scripture that God called the men and women to a greater vision one that was too much for them! But with God and faith in God they accomplished what God had planned for them. It was not because of their wisdom or their good looks, or their strength but it was through faith!

 

I could go on and on, but I’ve run out of time. There are so many more Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, the prophets….Through acts of faith, they toppled kingdoms, made justice work, took the promises for themselves. Hebrews 11:32

 

God has a plan for us, so may we take it by faith!

 

Rolain

The world will know the truth by faith….!!!

And what shall I say further? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets, [Judg. 4:1-5; 6:1-8, 35; 11:1-12, 15; 13:1-16; I Sam. 1-30; II Sam. 1-24; I Kings 1-2; Acts 3:24.]

 Who by [the help of] faith subdued kingdoms, administered justice, obtained promised blessings, closed the mouths of lions, [Dan. 6.]

Extinguished the power of raging fire, escaped the devourings of the sword, out of frailty and weakness won strength and became stalwart, even mighty and resistless in battle, routing alien hosts. [Dan. 3.] (Hebrews 11:32-34 AMP)

In my previous post (you can read it here) I spoke about some of the insights I got about faith from reading Hebrews 11. This is part two of that post. In the first part I asked if we really understand what faith is. I concluded that we don’t and upon reading Hebrews 11 I realized how true that was. So let me move on.

In the scripture I just shared we see some pretty amazing things. Look at what faith did for the men and women of old:

– By faith they subdued kingdoms

– By faith they administered justice

– Obtained promised blessings

– Closed the mouth of lions

– Extinguished the power of raging fire and a host of other things……

By faith they administered justice! The principalities and powers in the time of the men and women of old worshipped idols, burnt their children in honor of them, and committed other atrocious things but by faith the men and women of God administered justice! They never stood by as the world committed unspeakable acts. God called men and women to speak out, and do something. They were the voice of Justice to the world at that time!  When their home was destroyed they looked to Him to repay them for what happened. By faith they administered justice!

Today there are things happening that need to be stopped. ISIS freely killing Christians in Iraq, trafficking is at its highest, Israel is at war and so on and so on. There is just so much injustice happening but by faith justice can be administered! How exactly, I don’t know! Maybe through prayer or maybe through speaking out I don’t know but if the men and women of old administered justice through faith so can we!

We see faith in action in a way we have never understood and have never tried ever. The men and women of old understood much more about faith. They were looking at a much bigger picture, and maybe it’s like that because someone never showed us and told us how to REALLY use our faith, I don’t know, but what I do know is our faith can do much more than heal the flu we had two days ago!! We can use it to affect change in the world. But realize something; the person making the change is God! We are the ones who come to Him in faith and He is the One who does the changing…..!

Faith was used to subdue kingdoms, obtain blessings (which I will talk about in more detail in an upcoming post), administer justice; close the mouth of lions………

It has been hard writing this post because Hebrews paints a very foreign picture of faith. It paints a different kind of faith, a faith that can subdue kingdoms, administer justice, close the mouth of lions; obtain promises and so much more. But what does that mean in our everyday life? If the faith we have been given is so powerful what does this mean for us?

It means we can make a difference. As we have faith in God we can make a difference in the affairs of earth. We don’t have to sit back discouraged and helpless. Our faith can make a difference in a broken world if we only believe in Him. Apart from faith we can do nothing. Apart from God we are powerless. As I think about the things the men and women of old did, they were on their own. They were alone most of the time, abandoned, cast out, persecuted, betrayed, unpopular, considered weird, uneducated, poor and so many other things but because of their faith in God they did amazing things, things that would impact the world forever!! May God give us understanding and may He open our eyes to see the truth. We have been called to do great things but that will only happen when we have faith in God. Trust that He can and WILL do great things through you!

Stay tuned for part three which will be coming soon……..

 

Rolain