Hi I really felt the Lord speak strongly to me about this blog so I have allowed it to be longer than my unusual writings I encourage you to read this and share it with anyone you know who is going through some chronic problems. This will help them to walk out into a new place in the Lord.
Faith WORKS by LOVE
Another way to say the above phrase is LOVE WORKS. When agape (the unconditional love of God) love is at work in your life you will win all the time. Faith is the vehicle that helps you get stuff done in Gods realm and love is the fuel. We have a lot of believers that cannot walk in victory because they are not walking in love. The enemy goes about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour’ and we need to resist him steadfast in the faith. In other words you position in God and in His Word is your guarantee for victory over this guy who is like a roaring lion seeking to devour you. You need to make a decision whether you want to win or not, if the enemy can make you feel justified in your decision to not walk in love he will win over you.
Love covers a multitude of sins and if you chose to walk in love there will be no occasion for offense in your heart and your faith will work and get the desired results. The devil has deceived many people to thinking that church is a place where perfect people are waiting to go to heaven and when they discover that this is not true offense comes in and we fail to walk in love. The truth is church is a place where people with many weaknesses gather to be perfected by the ministry of the Word and of the Holy Spirit. He gave gifts unto men (Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Pastors and Teachers) to work on the saints and equip them to be more like Christ in their conduct and lifestyle.
So church is not full of hypocrites like many have been made to believe it is made of it is made up of people whose sins have been forgiven and washed in the blood. So spiritually they are perfect and look like Jesus but naturally they are still dealing with the flesh that wants to do its own thing. Even Paul said there is a war in my members after the renewed man I want to do the right thing but the flesh wants to do something contrary. Was Paul a hypocrite? No he was human he was seeking to serve God and be a blessing to the nations just like you. Hebrews 12:12-24 brings out some interesting truth. The Holy Spirit through the Apostle Paul begins by advising us to strengthen the weak to make sure the body is strong then in verse 14 he exhorts us to “pursue peace with ALL people” and to live holy lives and warns that without these you will not see the Lord.
Then he warns us again on the state of our hearts towards each other, he says make sure you do not fall short of the grace of God by allowing bitterness to grow in your heart like a root that will blossom into a tree of death. Later in the chapter he tells us that we have come to Mount Zion the mountain of God the church and general assembly of the firstborn. He says these people are registered in heaven (citizens) spirits of just men that have been made perfect. Now this is deep, what he is saying is that your brother or sister that you are holding that grudge against is a just spirit whose name is registered in heaven. God loves him and accepts him as he is though he expects him to renew his mind and live a transformed life.
If God considers him just and has registered him as a citizen of Zion then what right do you have to be bitter against one that is forgiven. That is why we are encouraged to forgive even as God for Christ sake has forgiven you. If you don’t forgive other neither will you be forgiven. It’s not worth holding onto that thing, let it go forgive that person and you will be free. Faith works by love and love covers a multitude of sins. Notice verse 24 he mentions that Christ is the mediator of the new covenants and the blood sprinkled in this covenant totally deals with the sin issue. The blood that speaks of better terms and conditions than the blood of Able seals this covenant.
So lets go back to the beginning and see what that blood spoke about and what happened for the mess we are in to be this way.
Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have gotten a man with the help of the LORD.” And again, she bore his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a worker of the ground. In the course of time Cain brought to the LORD an offering of the fruit of the ground, and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the LORD had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his face fell. The LORD said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.”
Cain spoke to Abel his brother. And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him. Then the LORD said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” He said, “I do not know; am I my brother's keeper?” And the LORD said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood is crying to me from the ground. And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. When you work the ground, it shall no longer yield to you its strength. You shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth.”
(Genesis 4:1-12 ESV)
Notice that the offence or the problem started in church during offering time, the brothers were giving to the Lord and one made a mistake in his offering and became angry with his brother for pleasing God with his offering. Having been a Pastor for many years I have come to learn that people in church are at different levels of maturity. Some get offended at the way someone looks at them. The way she is looking at me says that I do not have money or they are despising me because I have no car or my hairstyle is old. Why are the rich people always closer to the pastor? How do you know they are rich or are thinking bad about you?
Cain and Able were brothers in every sense of the word but offense came in and destroyed the relationship. Did you notice what God said to Cain when the root of offense was still small. Why are you angry if you do well your offering will be accepted but if you don’t deal with this thing it will destroy you because sin is crouching at the door and its desire is for you and you must rule it. What God is saying here is so powerful, he is telling Cain and all mankind that when offence waits for you at the door it is out to kill you but you can rule it because I gave you that authority in Genesis 1:28 when I blessed you. Its up to you whether sin will overcome you on not, you are its master. Unfortunately He did not take heed to Gods words like many believers today, sin overpowered him and he killed his brother and the blood that was shed cried out for revenge and justice. The result was that Cain was separated and became a fugitive and the ground lost its ability to produce a full harvest, to get the same return on investment man had to work harder.
Do you realize that your failure to walk in love is hindering your progress, you tithing, offering, praying and serving God is not bringing to you the correct return on investment that it should because the root of bitterness like thorns and thistles in your garden choke your crop so it is with your walk with God. Ask yourself is it worth it holding onto this grudge you cost benefit analysis will tell you that you are holding onto something that has diminishing returns so sooner or later like Cain you will want to kill that person in fact holding onto the unforgiveness is equivalent wanting that person dead. That’s why the bible calls you a murderer if you hate your brother (1st John 3:15)
Let go of the resentment, anger, bitterness, unforgiveness, hatred and malice that you are holding against your brother. Seek reconciliation and let God heal you, as much as lieth in you be at peace with all men. Read Romans 12:18-21 it will help you there are instruction on how to deal with this plague. Finally as an encouragement it has been proved that a lot of diseases are sponsored by offense and unforgiveness if you are able to deal with this you will overcome the devil and not be overcome. Listed below is a list of some of the diseases you will overcome.
High blood pressure
Migraine headaches
Stress
Chronic fatigue
Heart attacks
Heart failure and other heart diseases
Arthritis
Muscle and bone diseases
Chronic pain
Cancer
Depression
The list goes on and on. Research shows that unforgiveness results in stress in your body and when your body is in stress it produces a chemical called cortisol, which is a stress hormone behind a lot of the disease and dysfunction in the human body. The human body was never designed to carry unforgiveness we are made in the image and like ness of God and as such we should walk in love as God does. In fact they have also proved that forgiveness will boost your immune system. Over an extended period of time when one harbors bitterness and unforgiveness the production of cortisol will affect your heart and blood vessels thicken and restrict the flow of blood and headaches come in damage to the brain results and when your heart is weak and your brain is stressed all the other diseases come in. medically they have begun what they call forgiveness training where they train someone facing chronic or terminal disease to forgive and let go of their offenders and there has been wonderful results.
The church has known this all along from Genesis 4 God told Cain when his countenance fell and anger set in that sin was waiting by the door and he had to master it (rule over it) failure to do so opened the door to mans life and disease became a normal part of life. When I was in high school I had four major problems 1. I was depressed and attempted to commit suicide about three times. 2. I was asthmatic and could not do physical sport. 3. I had migraine head aches that would affect my studying. 4. I was not as sharp as I should have been. The solution came when I came into a love relationship with Christ and I was able to forgive my father who at the time when I was in school was filing for divorce. My mother had looked like a victim of a bad marriage’ and she was but I became so angry that my father would do this to my mother that I was unforgiving for years.
The asthma left immediately the migraines disappeared the chronic depression left I have been joyful for 22 years. My eyes were healed I stopped wearing spectacles and guess what my mind became so creative I have birthed some amazing things in my short lifetime. I have written so many resources that are helping people. I have authored a book and I have five books waiting to be published. This is all because I was able to forgive and move on.
What are you missing out on in life because you will not forgive, if doctors can coach patients to forgive and receive healing how much more the children of God? Look at this excerpt from an article I read by Dr. Bernie Seigel.
“I have collected 57 extremely well documented so-called cancer miracles. At a certain particular moment in time they decided that the anger and the depression were probably not the best way to go, since they had such little time left. And so they went from that to being loving, caring, no longer angry, no longer depressed, and able to talk to the people they loved. These 57 people had the same pattern. They gave up, totally, their anger, and they gave up, totally, their depression, by specifically a decision to do so. And at that point the tumors started to shrink.”
[Yale Medical School]
The curse that came on Cain was reduced productivity of the land’ what would happen if you decided to walk in love? Your marriage, you job, career, business ministry or body would begin to yield more
A new study from Duke University Medical Center demonstrates that those who forgive others experience lower levels of chronic pain and less associated psychological problems like anger and depression than those who have not forgiven.
