FAITH (PART 1)

Inspired by the Holy Ghost,  written by channelofhealing Authors

I woke up today and I asked my Daddy (God the Father , Jesus the Son and Holy Spirit), What the topic was for the day; at first I didn’t get a reply but when I went back to my Daddy and, asked again because I was really itching to blog.

I heard the voice of the Lord tell me to write about “FAITH”.
And I was like oh my God! Faith! where do I start from? When I knew I have been battling with my faith for sometime now. Even though I used to have so much faith in God all my life; but for some time now I found myself doubting Gods word for my life and struggling with my faith and almost crashing emotionally, psychologically and spiritually.

You might say how? but I consider myself so unqualified to write about faith because, I have not actually been a pillar of faith myself.

In recent times, I struggle almost daily with faith and when my Daddy told me to write about it, I was so frightened and I felt a little guilty because I knew that God was telling something about myself. I knew I was going to learn something from the whole experience. so after much shilly shallying I now said YES LORD!!!
I will do it. I decided to go do as I was instructed so here we go;

“Silent prayer” Holy Spirit take control and write this for me, so that in the end you get all the Glory in Jesus Mighty Name Amen.

WHAT IS FAITH!

What is faith? The bible in Hebrews 11:1 defines faith as
1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. 2 For by it the elders obtained a good report.
3 through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. KJV
Also
1 What is faith? It is the confident assurance that what we hope for is going to happen. It is the evidence of things we cannot yet see. 2 God gave his approval to people in days of old because of their faith.
3 By faith we understand that the entire universe was formed at God’s command, that what we now see did not come from anything that can be seen.NLT

The dictionary definition describes faith in the following ways;
Belief or trust: belief in, devotion to, or trust in somebody or something, especially without logical proof
Trust in God: belief in and devotion to God
Loyalty: allegiance or loyalty to somebody or something

With these views we can easily understand what Faith is.

I now asked myself that if this “Faith” is this easy to read and understand ; why is it then difficult for me to “have faith” and "exercise faith" in my daily life and... I became so afraid when I remembered the Bible passage that said clearly that without Faith it is impossible to please God.
Hebrews 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

So I started pondering on what this passage was talking about. I now realized that this is one topic I must let the Holy Spirit write.

The spirit of wisdom lead me to ask my husband what he thought about FAITH...

Like I said earlier this is a topic I am so not worthy to write about; off I went to my husband and asked him what he thought faith was? he looked at me and, then told me that he knows what faith is…

This is what faith is to him:

Faith is doing what God asked you to do even though it has no meaning to physical senses,

Faith is trusting God to do things which are humanly not possible.

Faith is also a supernatural way for relying, praising God’s ability without option or alternative provisions.

He now added that when one is on a journey of faith with God that there should be no provision for spare tyre or a plan B.

He now told me that as he was having his morning devotion one morning , the Holy Spirit just laid a question in his heart and like the Holy Spirit always does; He is there to give the answers...isn’t that great?
The question came thus “DO YOU KNOW WHY FAITH IS DEAR TO GOD?”

Before He could say "JESUS IS LORD" spiritual insight started coming into his heart and he listed the following...

If you have faith, in a God that you have not seen, then you are expressing the value you have for Him that you have not seen.

If you have faith, in God you are regarding the awesomeness of God. You are respecting the Lordship and authority of Him. You are recognizing His creative power you are trying to tell Him that He is above all your circumstances.

In summary... if you have a situation and you are trusting God and you keep your faith; what you are saying is simply; Daddy you are more than this, I know and I have seen your works; by your power you created the sun that is standing sure in the skies
By your power you created the Heavens and the Earth, by the power of your spoken Word, that same power has instructed my heart and I believe.

By this simple act of faith, you are Praising God he now concluded with this... that a heart that is not trusting God lacks faith. A heart that is not trusting God is simply abusing the integrity of God and, he gave a little scenario and told me a little story in the Bible...

He gave a scenario like this, assuming a friend of yours comes to you for help in getting a little assistance like you should help them watch over their house while they go on vacation. You tell your friend to consider it done.
Unbeknownst to you, the same friend has made alternative arrangements with about four other friends of theirs and,  without you knowing you have prepared everything you need to do your task. Alas you now found out that they made alternative arrangement incase you failed. Then you become disappointed and say; why did my friend not trust me enough to believe that I will fulfill my pledge.
After consoling yourself , you now resolve that, should there be a next time you would be ready with an answer for your friend. (I guess I know how that feels)
Mind you this is a human perspective of things because God is God and we can never equate our emotions with His. For we can never understand God‘s ways or His thoughts.

You can see that God, may not be angry and disappointed at our unbelief... but He will most definitely be angry and disappointed at the act of unbelief that is exhibited is undermining His authority and awesomeness.
For instance the story of the two friends could show that there was a lack of trust and loss of integrity.
Also the other friend was now questioning why the friend could not trust in her/him to do what she has agreed and promised to do.
Tel me if that friend comes back to you for your assistance again; would you jump at the chance of helping? or would you wait until you are sure it’s not going to be a waste of your time again... (Knowing human beings very well, will wait until they made sure the friend really needs their help).

Also he gave me Biblical scenarios where absolute faith in God was shown like the story of the “Wall of Jericho” Joshua 6

2 But the Lord said to Joshua, “I have given you Jericho, its king, and all its mighty warriors. 3 Your entire army is to march around the city once a day for six days. 4 Seven priests will walk ahead of the Ark, each carrying a ram’s horn. On the seventh day you are to march around the city seven times, with the priests blowing the horns. 5 When you hear the priests give one long blast on the horns, have all the people give a mighty shout. Then the walls of the city will collapse, and the people can charge straight into the city.”
6 So Joshua called together the priests and said, “Take up the Ark of the Covenant, and assign seven priests to walk in front of it, each carrying a ram’s horn.” 7 Then he gave orders to the people: “March around the city, and the armed men will lead the way in front of the Ark of the Lord.”

We continued our conversation he said that: if Joshua had argued with the Lord at the solution God was giving him; he would have abused God’s integrity.

If Joshua told some of his trusted men that look at what God is saying...I don’t understand why we have to just go round a city and, blow a trumpet to conquer the city! It’s so illogical! Who has ever done it? where has it ever been heard of ? I will be the laughing stock of the people, I won’t be able to show my face again if it fails.
Oh why won’t God just allow us to go with some weapons as the next option, incase what God says doesn’t happen.

No Joshua didn’t think these thoughts He believed and obeyed and the walls fell down Hebrews 11:30 by faith the walls of Jericho fell down, after they were compassed about seven days.

And so many other instances where faith was key to receiving the impossible and doing unimaginable to please God and fulfil God promises. Read Hebrews 11 to get a better understanding of the Word FAITH.

He now concluded with this thought “it’s either with God or with God for the faithful”.

I now said thank you Lord for the insight and I left him alone... for I know him as a man who trusts His God . So I didn’t doubt for a second that it was the Lord who ministered this to his heart.

In my continuous quest for answers about faith... don't get me wrong; I know every one alive today has had to keep their faith at one time or the other, even most have had their faith tested also at some point. so its key to know about keeping faith and ultimately holding onto it with your life... because I have found out that when my faith level drops, I find my self drowning in the Ocean of Life...

No kidding... I mean serious melt down, am talking real depression and anxiety disorders here... the type that cripples your daily life functions for months, suddenly finding it's way into my life without my knowing it. I start jumping from one hospital to the other, start asking every pastor or man of God I come across; whether they have any message from God for me.... totally freaking out. All of this because I stopped trusting God... I stopped believing that God is still watching over me and... that He will never leave me nor forsake me.

The Holy Spirit led me once more in my quest for more definitions of faith. I went to my mum to asked her...for I know her to be pillar of faith and often times she tells me that I have so little faith.
she actually taunts me with my faithlessness at times, she actually tagged me after the  famous quote from the bible “oh ye of little faith” and whenever I tell her mama why do you say that? she looks at me and say... your faith is shaky. Today you trust in God, tomorrow you trust in Hospitals or something else! (I'm not saying medication is bad) I went to my mama to ask her what she thought faith was; don’t get me wrong, I have been with her all these years and I knew her remarkable faith in God and all she has gone through.
So when I was lead to her, I was overjoyed because I knew that people will surely benefit from her walk with God.

A cool Sunday morning, I was with her and I said mum what is faith to you? And she laughed and said:

Faith is more than believing that you can do something supernaturally.

Faith is the strength of God in you to overcome any problem or difficulty.

Faith is believing in God and whatever God says, also believing what the Bible says about any situation and clinging to it and knowing that whatever God says must come to pass.

Faith to her is more than what is written in the Books; Because she is a living a proof that FAITH in GOD is all you need to live in this world...because she knows that her faith, strength, belief always carry her through any difficulty no matter how tough, she knows that she must get her deliverance.

She stressed that for you to survive in life you must have faith, you must believe in that inner strength... even when you are taking your last breath; you must know you are not going to die!!! You must live no matter how that problem or sickness is. You must come out of it!!!
To her... faith is believing and trusting in God and His Word totally!                                                                                                 No matter what comes her way... she knows that God will never disappoint her in Jesus name Amen.

that said...

THE HOLY SPIRIT LED ME TO ASK HER THIS QUESTION; HOW HAVE YOU APPLIED YOUR YOU FAITH?

She looked at me again and reminded me of certain things that have happened in her life. I for one, am aware of them... but in the course of enlightening the readers... I urged her to recount some instances where she has held on her Faith and received the desired result for doing so.

Here is the story of when she was so sick and traumatized. She was told that she was going to die in two weeks by the doctors.
All she did was, prayed and held her faith. She acted on it, in her own words the air she breathed was the blood of Jesus, the water she used in bathing was the Blood of Jesus. She believed every word of God with all her breath and strength and when doctors and nurses pronounced that she was dying, even when she had an outer body experience and she was seeing people around her wailing and crying that she was gone.
She said... I held my breath inside me believing that... I will wake up and give Glory to God; I did!!!

She also shared when her marriage fell apart and she was praying for her children to come to her; she stood on the word of God and she held onto the passage in Isaiah that says, her children will come from afar to her… and guess what she didn't wait for year longer than she expected... for God brought all her Children to her all six of us. Glory to God!!!

she also shared when Armed Robbers, numbering about 30-40 came to the house and surrounded the whole compound and were screaming... we are armed robbers! And we are here to kill you! Where is that woman! when she heard that; she just shouted Lord Jesus save me!!!
They entered house and in the course of beating her and dragging her through the whole house they threw her bible at her because they were throwing so many things at her to injure her, so as she got hold of the bible she just bowed her head still holding the bible tightly... she said she pictured holding onto Jesus Christ and she prayed that God should spare her life and that of the dogs in the house. Also that God should send a human Angel to warn her eldest son my immediate younger brother, that robbers are in the house that he shouldn’t come home for she knew that if they met him; maybe he would have challenged them and they would have shot him.
And after 2hrs of robbing and beating her up, they left without firing even a shot. so many people were not so favored that day because that same day about 30 people were killed and , many injured in the same town... though badly injured she was favored by God Almighty to be alive to tell of God's Goodness.

She recounted when her heart was rotting... it was so bad, that the doctors told her that there is no use doing anything for you madam... the doctor sat there and told her; what you have is what the famous Nigerian footballer Kanu Nwankwo (congenital heart disease) has at the time and had to be flown abroad for heart surgery.
Funny enough she was penniless at the time, and the doctors (am talking the no 1 cardiologists in the state at time) were skeptical because she was older than the footballer by far and the heart has really experienced a hard time. "taken some real knocks if you catch my drift"
So the doctors said that if she would live that the highest would be 4-5months with serious medication and if she goes for the heart surgery... she would live up to 5yrs maximum.
she said immediately the doctors finished with her that...all she did was give her faith in Jesus a chance once more because He had never failed her.
She held onto her faith and was meditating on the word of God and she knew she would be healed.
One good day as she was in the bathroom bathing; a cool breeze swept through her body with a kind of very cold sensation and she screamed thank You Jesus!!! thank you holy Spirit!!! and she was made whole there and then and this happened 12yrs ago.

She now looked at me and said...which one will I tell you? What can I say... God has been so GOOD to me and I know my God is able to do all things for me and all who put their trust in Him.
I surmised everything she said by concluding that God never forgets the faithful but... you must first have faith.

I now looked back on my life and saw that God has been so faithful to me all these years, even when I was not faithful. When I was hungry he fed me, When I was sick He healed me, When I was tired and weary he gave me strength to go with life because I have had it tough and rough, don’t get me wrong it’s not about me I know we all have it rough a times, for I know the world is a tough place to live in. It was also in such days that I memorized this scripture Isaiah 40:25-13 25 “To whom will you compare me? Who is my equal?” asks the Holy One.
26 Look up into the heavens. Who created all the stars? He brings them out one after another, calling each by its name. And he counts them to see that none are lost or have strayed away.
27 O Israel, how can you say the Lord does not see your troubles? How can you say God refuses to hear your case? 28 Have you never heard or understood? Don’t you know that the Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of all the earth? He never grows faint or weary. No one can measure the depths of his understanding. 29 He gives power to those who are tired and worn out; he offers strength to the weak. 30 Even youths will become exhausted, and young men will give up. 31 But those who wait on the Lord will find new strength. They will fly high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint. NLT

I know you will draw strength to hold on to your faith from this scripture in Jesus Name Amen

In conclusion... I pray Dear Lord  Jesus; I say thank you for giving me the Holy Spirit and for showing me those to go for this write up. I knew that God was speaking to me afresh, for like I said earlier I have been struggling with my faith and it has not been easy with me for some time now but I know I have hope and I believe that any body struggling with their faith should Just hold onto what God has told you before in His Word.

Now I say thank you God! For troubles don’t last always, for God always makes a way for His people.

TO BE CONTINUED...