The Kingdom of God!
Chapter 146
The world is promoting fear in order to control their people. FEAR has no place in The
Kingdom of God. How did the Church of the Lord Jesus get sold to the place
where we would let tyranny put a mask on our face. How could those washed in
blood get so lost in a jungle of ideas that we won't even open the doors of our
church to pray for the sick and get rid of this plague on the earth?
Paul said in 2 Tim. 1:7,
For
God has not given us the spirit of fear; but of
power, and of love, and of a sound mind."
In Isaiah 43:1-7, God said,
"Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy
name; thou art mine. When thou passest through the
waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow
thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt
not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. For I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel,
thy Saviour: I gave Egypt for thy ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for thee.
Since
you were precious in my sight, you have been honorable, and I have loved you: therefore,
will I give men for you, and people for your life. Fear not: for I am with you:
I will bring your seed from the east and gather you from the west.
I
will say to the north, "Give up; and to the south, "Keep not back: bring my
sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth; Even every one that
is called by my name: for I have created him for my glory, I have formed him;
yea, I have made him."
In the Bible, fear not,
appears 178 times. Paul said in Rom. 8:30,
"What
shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?"
No matter what the world throws at us, we can
be confident that He that is greater than he that is in the world. As a matter
of fact, John said if 1 John 4:4,
"You are of God,
little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he
that is in you, than he that is in the world."
I believe all of you would agree with me on
the validity of these scriptures. The problem we have is,
walking by faith in these scriptures. It is one thing to believe and an
entirely different thing to do what they say. Our problem is our carnal mind.
It will fight us every time we attempt to walk out what the Lord has said!
Paul said in Gal. 3:11 & Heb. 10:38,
"But that no man
is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith."
Living by faith
requires practice. First you must make a decision to
live according to the Lord's word. When you ask the Lord to do something for
you, start walking in that direction and start knocking on doors because you
know the Lord has heard you and if He has heard you, it gives you the
confidence to know what you asked will come to pass.
I shared with you
once before, that I was living in Kansas City in 1969 and had quit my job and
we had gone home to WV on the Fourth of July to visit our family. As we were
returning to KC, my wife said that I should put my application in at the plants
of the Mid-Ohio Valley. I did not want to return to Parkersburg because I loved
living in KC and had made a lot of friends there.
However, I did
want our children to get to know their grandparents in PKB so I prayed and told
the Lord that if it is His will that we move back to PKB just open the door for
me. I was pretty sure that I wasn't qualified to work in chemical plants since my
degree was in Electronics. So, we returned to PKB and
I went down to Dupont late that afternoon and put in my application.
The vice President
of Dupont came down from his office and told me that he had a job open for a
design draftsman if I was interested. Well, I had been a Senior Design
Draftsman for Wilcox Electric in KC designing electronic manuals. So, I told
him I was interested, and not only did he meet my salary request, but he said
that they would have a moving company pack us up and move us to PKB and unpack
us. Not only that but they gave me a week off to return to KC and arrange the
sale of my house. And when it sold, they gave me a week off to return to KC.
All of this
happened because I dared to believe the Lord would open a door for me in PKB if
it was His will. But I had to act on what I believed. And when the door opened,
I had to honor My Lord's action on my behalf.
I told my wife
that I wouldn't accept just any job, but it had to be something that I was
trained to do. The Lord arranged a job offer for me that I couldn't refuse. We
praised the Lord all the way back to KC and of course our family was happy
because they thought I would never return to PKB.
When we went to KC
in the fall of 1960, we had around $350.00 dollars in our possession, but we
were determined to make a go of it and believed the Lord would help us. When we
got to KC, we went first to the college and registered and paid the first month's
tuition and then they gave us some directions to different apartments to look
at. We found an apartment about five blocks from the
college and paid the first month's rent and went to the grocery store and ended
up with about $10.00 to our name.
The next day we
went to look for my wife a job and put in her application at all
of the TV stations because she had experience in TV. None of them had an
opening at the time but we found her a job at the Vernon Law Book company not
very far from where we lived. She worked there for about a month and then the
biggest TV station in KC called her and offered her the job she wanted.
So, I shared this
with you as an example that the Lord looks after His children and directs their
footsteps. All we have to do is to be willing to
follow His leadership and believe in Him and walk by faith.
I could tell you a
lot more stories about the Lord answering my prayers and open
doors for me that I could never have anticipated. All we have
to do is walk by faith in what the Lord has told us in His Word. So many
times, when we endeavor to do this, our carnal minds will oppose us and bring
doubt and fear to our attention.
This is where our
faith and trust in the Lord is put to the test! Are we going to do what the
Lord has instructed us to do, or are we going to give into fear and unbelief?
James said in James 1:3,
"Knowing
this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience."
Faith is a verb
and that means it takes action on our part to bring it
to pass. Faith is something for which there is no proof! Faith will also work
even if it is based on untruths. So many of our people in this nation have been
lied to so many times about what our government is really doing and have bought
into the lies that the evil government officials are putting out. The media are
spreading these untruths and so many Christians have accepted it as truth and
have applied their faith to see it come to pass!
Our faith, as
Christians, must be based in what the Lord has said in His word and if what we
are being told does not align up with His word, we should reject it as being
lies and propaganda from the devil.
Again, this is why
Paul said in Rom. 12:2,
"Be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing
of your mind, that you may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and
perfect, will of God."
My
prayer for you today is what Paul prayed in Eph. 117-18,
"That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of
glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge
of him: the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know
what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches
of the glory of his inheritance in the saints!"