By Jim Kaseman
Hebrews 11:6 declares that without faith it is impossible to please God. Therefore, when we come to God with faith we please God.
Sunday after Sunday pastors preach on faith and will often quote Jesus in Matthew 17:20-21, “IF YE HAVE FAITH AS A GRAIN OF MUSTARD SEED, ye shall say unto this mountain. Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and NOTHING SHALL BE IMPOSSIBLE UNTO YOU.”
However, Sunday after Sunday people continue to walk away from their churches and assemblies knowing they should have faith but nobody has told them where and how to get this “Mountain Moving ” faith.
They don’t know what to base their faith on. They don’t know how to make their faith a reality in their lives today.
The Word tells us in Romans 10:17, “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.”
Jesus said, “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word shall never pass away.
This is the basis for faith. The integrity of the Word of God.
THE LIVING WORD
Hebrews 11:3, “By faith we understand that the worlds have been framed by the Word of God, so that what is seen hath not been made of things which appear.”
All that God did to create the World and everything that’s in it was to say, “Let there be” and they leaped into existence! Everything that there is, God first SPOKE IT and then it appeared. In other words God created everything with “faith filled words.” And according to Hebrews 1:3 He continues to uphold all
things by the word of His power. God is a faith being. He operates by faith. We have been created in His image and God expects us to operate like He does, by faith (Hebrews 11:6).
The Word of God is the Word of Faith (Romans 10:8).
The Word of God is exactly what it declares itself to be. It is God speaking to us now! TODAY!
God and His Word are one. He named Jesus “The Word.” “in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
The same was in the beginning with God. All things are made through Him; and without Him was not anything made that hath been made (John 1:1-3).”
“And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (John 1: 14). ” This was the eternal “Logos” (Word), the very son of God.
He is not only in His Word, but He is back of His Word. You cannot separate Him from His Word.
That’s why Jesus said in John 14:23, “If a man love me, he will keep my words:” And John 15:7, “If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.”
Moffett’s Translation of Hebrews 4:12-13 reads, “The Logos (Word) of God is a living thing, active, more cutting than any sword with a double edge, penetrating to the very division of soul and spirit, joints and marrow, scrutinizing the very thoughts and conceptions of the heart (spirit). And no created things are hidden from Him. All things lie open and exposed before the eyes of Him with whom we have to reckon.”
The Word was real. The Word is real. This Word is taking Jesus’ place! When you read the Word it is just as if God himself were standing before you speaking personally.
The Word of God is a living thing. But it will only come alive to you as you accept it and act upon it.
REASON VS. THE WORD
Reasoning will take the Word’s place if we allow it to. Acting upon the Word doesn’t appeal to the senses (flesh). The senses (flesh) call acting on the Word “FANATICISM.”
Many times theologians have been our enemies. Through their reasoning they have taken the
Word of God and made it a philosophy or turned it into a dogma and creed instead of treating it as though Jesus were here speaking to us today. Reason must give place to the Living Word of God. The mind must be renewed with The Word or the Word will never have a place in the believer’s life and he will continue to live in defeat. Satan, sin, sickness and fear of death will dominate the believer who walks by reason instead of by the “Word of Faith.”
WE MUST ACCEPT THE WORD
There are those who try to read certain things into the Word because they want it to say what they believe. They are trying to fit the Word into their beliefs rather than fitting their beliefs to the Word.
SOME PEOPLE will even OVERLOOK certain portions of the scriptures or try to EXPLAIN THEM AWAY in order to back what they believe. They place their beliefs above the Word of God. Which is no small thing in God’s eyes.
It’s time that we simply believed in God’s Word. Don’t interpret the Bible by what church doctrine, tradition or some theologian says. Instead, interpret church doctrine, traditions and theological ideas by what the living Word of God says.
It’s time we stopped putting man and his reasoning above God and His Word.
It’s time we stopped playing religious games.
It’s time we stopped playing church.
Remember that Christianity is not a religion-it is your personal contact with the Father God through-His Son Jesus Christ. Christianity is a family! (Eph. 3:14-15)
We must accept the Word-of 6 God for what it says and walk in the light of it. We must believe what the Word says, not what we think it says.
As you begin to study the Word in this light, accepting it as it is, you will be amazed to learn that some of the things you have always believed are not in the Word at all. You will wonder why you believed some things the way you did.
The Christian life became a reality and victorious way of living for me when I decided to make the Word of God the final authority in my life. It was when I decided to base my faith on the Living Word, instead of man’s doctrines and traditions, that the biggest part of the battle was won.
But in order to actually believe God’s Word I had to go against, not only the teachings of my church, but of my family as well. It’s amazing how church-minded instead of Bible-minded we can become if we are
not careful.
Oh, Brother Kaseman, you must be against churches! NO, I’M NOT AGAINST CHURCHES. LET THAT BE UNDERSTOOD. It’s just that I look at a lot of churches and feel the same way about them that God does. Read chapters I and 2 of Revelation and you’ll find many examples of churches as they are today.
For example in Revelation 3:16 God said that he would spit the church of Laodiceans right out of His mouth because of what they were! But praise God for churches today like the church in Philadelphia as described in Revelation 3:8, “I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, AND HAST KEPT MY WORD, AND HAST NOT DENIED MY NAME.”
Praise the Lord! It’s great to know that there are churches today that declare the whole Word of God and do not deny the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ!
We need to be determined to follow the Word of God, knowing that this is God speaking to us today.
We must commit ourselves to pleasing God instead of men. And the only way to please God is by faith believing and acting on His Word. Many will not ACT on God’s Word for fear of what men will think. What a disgrace to the Living Word of God and what He did for us at Calvary’s Cross.
THE WORD IN ACTS
In the first 33 years of church history the Word holds a unique place. And it was intended that the Word would hold this place throughout the entire dispensation that we are living in today.
Acts 2:41, “They then that received the Word were baptized: and there were added unto them in that day about three thousand souls.” They received the Word-not the doctrines, not the teachings, not a creed-but the Logos (Word).
Acts 4:4, “But many of them heard the Word believed; and the number of the men came to be about five thousand.” It doesn’t say that they heard the Apostles, but that they heard the Word.
Acts 6:7, “And the Word of God increased; and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly; and a company of the priests were obedient to the faith.” Notice here that it was the Word that increased.
Acts 19:17-20, “And this was known to all the Jews and Greeks also dwelling at Ephesus; and fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified. And many that believed came, and confessed, and showed their deeds. Many of them also which used curious arts brought their books together, and
burned them before all men: and they counted the price of them, and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver. So mightily grew the Word of God and prevailed.” Here we see the Word of God as the prevailing Word. It prevailed over the great city of Ephesus.
The miracles recorded in the book of Acts were all performed by the Word of God.
When the Word is given its place today in assemblies and churches, it will produce the same results.
THE REALITY OF THE WORD TODAY
Today, wherever the Word is given in its place, people are born-again, healed and delivered from the power of demons with the power of God as it is released with “faith filled words.”
The Holy Spirit can’t use the Word unless someone will allow Him to put it on their lips. it is on the lips of a born again believer that the Word becomes a living thing-otherwise it is a dead thing. God’s Word on our lips will drive away fear, doubt, Satan, sickness, poverty, and death. It will cast mountains into the sea as Jesus declared in Mark 11:23.
LET’S MOVE THAT MOUNTAIN!
We have seen that there is only one basis or foundation for faith and that is the Living Word of God.
As we become one with the Word in our believing, thinking, confessing and actions, then faith becomes an unconscious reality.
If you wish your faith to grow and become healthy and strong, you must soak in the Word, feed on it, meditate on it, until you become one with it. Get into the Word and find out where you are in Christ, who you are in Christ, what your abilities are in Christ, what your standing is in Christ and what our privileges are as a son of God. IT’S ALL IN THE WORD!
Believe, think, talk and act as if what God’s Word says about you is true and you will begin to live the victorious life that the Lord Jesus Christ has provided for every single born-again believer!
This article is from: Jim Kaseman Ministries, November, 1994, Vol. 20, No. 11.
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