FAITH OF GOD-BY TAURAI MAKADHO

 The first verse of the eleventh chapter of the book of Hebrews describes faith as a substance of things

hoped for though not yet seen. Our faith in God is hinged on the truth and reality that Jesus Christ is the

salvation of God and by believing in His holy name we shall be established in God for eternity. All things

we do in the name of the Lord should emanate from this fact.

Faith is strengthened by our engagement with Christ. The more we become closer and closer to him the

more we became more of him and less of ourselves. The adoption of the nature of Christ enables us to

operate in almost the same wave length as him who gave himself for our redemption. You cannot go

beyond your level of spiritual growth. Our faith works in proportion to our level of intimacy with Christ.

Faith makes us sharper in all spiritual matters. Scripture tells us that if an Axe is blunt, he that uses it

should deploy more power. I have seen some preachers who lose voices trying to cast out devils yet to

no avail. They shout and shout while calling on the name of the Lord Jesus for hours until they get

exhausted yet the demons remain steadfast.

I know of an old preacher who used just to kick people and the demons would leave. At times would just

slap those who were in wheel chairs and they would immediately get healed. Some young pastors would

imitate and also slap congregants but they would be slapped back. They would kick people and they

would be kicked back.

A few years ago a certain preacher was casting out demons with the help of his juniors and some elders.

A very senior demon told the younger pastors that they were too junior to deal with Him. He told them

that he would only go if their Apostle would cast him out. At hearing this, the man came from his office

with haste and pompy and immediately laid his hand on the man. The demon possessed man held him

by the throat and thrusted him to the wall.

The junior pastors and some elders came to his rescue. They tried to unplug the demon possessed from

their Apostle but he pressed tightly. You could hear some Junior pastors shouting"leave our apostle in

the name of Jesus!. Leave him by fire by thunder!" The thing never worked until they opted to go

physical. The whole drama took about half an hour.

When I was new in my Christian walk,After fasting for 60 days I joined a team of prayer worriers at a

crusade in Atilantis South Africa. As I walked to the stage lifting my hands, demons cried out. The heard

pastor hasted up, laid hands on those who manifested and the following morning he was on sickbed.

It is one thing to operate in faith and it is another thing to function in presumption. Faith is produced by

a deep constant fellowship with Christ while presumption is generated by mere confidence and courage.

This tells us, to operate in faith,one has to rigidly believe in the saving power of God embedded in Christ

Jesus. Those who function in presumption just have to believe in themselves.

At one point I attended a night prayer meeting in town. A so called invited mighty man of God was

struggling casting out an aggressive demon from a certain young man. I walked upfront and touched the

man without saying anything and the demon left and everyone was surprised. When they wanted to

include me in their program I disappeared that night and went to another prayer meeting just across the

road.

While there is invincible power in the name of Jesus,it is dependent on who utters the name. What

determines the effectiveness of the name Jesus is one's level of spiritual growth. As a child or minister of

the living God,you ought to desire to grow daily. Spiritual growth is spantaneous. We should desire

spiritual food until we grow into the full stature of him who called us to his marvelous light.

The word of God tells us in the 19th chapter of the book of Acts that certain vagabonds, sons a priest

named Sceva invoked the name of the Lord Jesus against a demon possessed man. The demon repelled

and told them that he of course knew Paul and Jesus but he was clueless about them. He attacked and

seriously wounded them.

It is not necessarily about the name of Jesus. It is about who uses the name and what is the instruction

of the Holy Spirit. If we are led by the spirit of God,we will not be moved by emotions and zeal. We have

to attentively listen to the one who is inside.

Our faith in God is directly proportional to our level of spiritual growth. You cannot function beyond

your spiritual capabilities. Your spiritual capabilities will not exceeding your level of engagement with

Christ. We adopt the nature and stature of Christ through constant fellowship with Him.

The 10th verse of the 10th chapter of Paul's letter to the Romans tells us that faith comes by hearing

and hearing by the word of God. This means that one has to be hearing the word of God now and again

to grow in faith. The moment you abstain from God's word,your faith gradually dimishes. We therefore

ought to tenaciously embrace the word of God to be established in Christ.

When I signed up for Christ a couple of years ago,I read the bible back to back in less than 50 days. I also

gathered and gave myself to various Christian material constantly. The fact that I read the bible back to

back did not mean that was my end of reading the word of God. It was just the beginning. I can hardly go

for a day without going through at 5 chapters of the bible. As a matter of fact I read through the whole

bible at least three times every 12 months.

Apart from that I also give myself to regular bible study activities. The more I give myself to the word of

God,the more my nature is depleted and the nature of Christ is gradually manifested. When I first

seriously read through scripture everything about me completely changed. It seemed as I had migrated

to a new planet altogether. New people, new environment and new everything.

However, going through the pages of scripture does not guarantee one's spiritual growth. There are a

lot of unbelievers who are much acquainted with the contents of the bible yet they are out of touch of

the truth of the gospel. Going through the bible can only bring forth fruits if it is triggered by the

conviction that Jesus is the Christ of God and in Him is everlasting life.

Going through the bible without this conviction is a futile exercise. It is one thing to go through the bible.

yet it is another thing for the bible to go through you. Going through the bible gives us intellectual stuff

regarding the existence and operations of God All Mighty but if we allow the bible to go through us,it

gives us the character and nature of Christ.

To hear the word of God does not necessarily mean to gasp what has been said. It means to

inhibit,accept and perceive what has been uttered. Constant fellowship with God's word catapults our

faith in God. It is when we are fully established in faith that we can easily execute God's will. Faith

overrides natural laws. It can also work against some scientific principles. It is indeed a very powerful

force.

One day some pastors were struggling connecting a wall projector using a laptop when a young

Gabonese lady walked in. She asked if they had prayed for the laptop and everyone got amazed. She

took the laptop,prayed for it and it connected instantly. The lady was clueless of the science behind

information technology. The girl walked out of the auditorium and left everyone appalled.

An old pastor friend was telling me a story where a teen girl went out for soul winning with a group of

young pastors. When they met a notorious mad man,they all ran into bushes for fear but the teen girl

confronted the mad man and adjured the demon in the name of Jesus. When the young pastors saw the

demon possessed man submitting to the girl,they immediately withdrew from the bushes speaking in

tongues and laid hands on the man. The folks had previously warned the girl against the act and

encouraged her to run away as well.

Faith does not work with titles. It works with spiritual levels. The titles we give each other on earth have

little significance on building our faith in God. Faith is not something we can chose to have. It is a

product of our deep and constant fellowship with the eternal God through various spiritual exercises.

The truth is that almost everyone want to have faith in God. Most preachers in our church

denominations are always steering believers to have faith in God. Unfortunately little is being said on

how this faith can be cultivated. Most believers end up having presumption or mere courage and

confidence other than faith. There are some folks who have been operating in confidence for years and

think it is faith.

As I pointed out early,confidence is generated by constant psychological capturing and indoctrination. It

is a product of mental manipulation and enhancement. Confidence can produce carnal positive results.

It is instrumental to our everyday lives in the flesh. If we eliminate confidence, most things will come to

a stand still.

Presumption is false confidence. It is based on a misguided perception regarding things at stake. In

another words presumption can be described a misplaced and miscalculated act of courage. Real faith

enables Christ Jesus to work through us. There are some spiritual activities that we need to employ for

Christ to effectively work through us. We have got to put on Christ. The question is how do we do that. I

have realized that the more I spend time with God in word and prayer the more I grow in faith. There is

a basic law of association. We generally become who we associate with.

When Moses spent 40 days on the Mountain with the Lord,his face began to shine with the glory that he

got imparted from the Lord . When he came down to the camp, the children of Israel could hardly look

into face but as time Went by, his glory vanished. We have got to gear up frequency and intensity in

fellowshipping with the Holy Spirit.

A few years ago I could not easily pray for people anywhere. They had to come through and sing and

pray before I could lay hands on them. But now I am a bit grown in faith. I dont need to somehow

generate God's power before laying hands. I can even pray for someone via a phone call or through a

chat on social media and things get done.

There so many people who sent their prayer requests electronically that fed back positively. If God uses

you in a tremendous way,you face the danger of being idolized. You dont stand firm you may end up

being an object of worship. Trying to step into the glory that belongs to God is a dangerous act. It kills

the faith of many.

Most folks had exchanged faith in God with faith in some preachers. They believe their so-called spiritual

fathers are their spiritual gateways. This is deception. There is only one mediator be man and God, the

man Christ Jesus. I not saying that our preachers are useless bunch of fellows.

I am not saying that. Our preachers can be instrumental to our faith in Christ if they represent the

infallible gospel of everlasting life. They may however be dangerous fellows if the arm twist God's word

to psychologically enslave brethren into their subjects,all in the name of submission. As much as it is

good to reverend our leaders in Christ, the principle of of submission is being used to bewitch souls into

eternal condemnation.

Some fellows no longer believe it possible to access God's gracious throne without their prophets or

apostles in the equation. They were indoctrinated to invoke the god of their denominational founders to

get their prayers answered. This the highest level of deception. This is in fact witchcraft at its best.

Denominational leaders do this to control and maintain members. The quest for denominational

expansion is the order of today's church. As a result preachers are coming up with some complicated

schemes to lure and maintain members. In general,the more members we have the more funds were

likely to get to finance the system.

To lure more members into the denomination, a preacher has to shy away from the truth of the gospel

because it is foolishness to those do not believe. Replace the gospel with some fun appealing stuff

attracts unbelievers who presumably treat God as a goblin that could spoil them with hard cash for

worldly enjoyment.

False preachers may also use some so-called anointed objects to brainwash their followers. Some of

these things a deeply spiritual and at times workout some stuff in your fleshly life but their main

objective is to psychologically capture or charm you into loyalty. They will spent sleepless nights

engaging their spiritual masters and they will come to telling you it is in fact an annointing for

breakthrough. There are a lot of things done behind the scenes.

That is the law of hunting. In order to catch you will have to deceive with a bait yet children do not need

a bait to come to their father. But brethren we have believed in him who chose us from this world to his

marvelous light,that our faith maybe hinged on the power of his word.Jesus Christ is the author and

finisher of our faith.Let us therefore engage him more and more to grow into his full stature.

Here are some of the activities that you need to employ to grow in the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Number one: Pre occupy your mind with the word of God. Be given to the reading of scripture and

mediation of God's word. Meditation of the word of God destroys barrier within your inner being and

paves way to the will God to be manifested.

Number 2: Pray without ceasing. Prayer gives you power to the word of God in your spirit. To pray

effectively,you will need to be thoroughly given to the gospel of everlasting life. Those who pray without

a proper foundation force the danger of being hijacked by some counterfeit spirits.

Thirdly: Surround yourself with men and women of faith. The bible says iron sharpenth iron. Our

association also brethren in the Lord gives us a plus in as far as our walk with Christ is concerned.

Lastly but not least: Sing unto the long in hymns and Psalms. Glorifying the Lord God from a pure heart

cultivates our hearts for every good work and catapults our faith in God.

Thank you for reading this article. If you received the gospel of everlasting life,you are God's treasured

possession. You shall find eternal rest at His appearing.If you haven't,You are driving down an extremely

dangerous road. What are you waiting for? Call us today and we will help you sign up for everlasting life.

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