“By faith these people overthrew kingdoms, ruled with justice, and received what God had promised them.” (Hebrews 11:33)

You Just Need a Little Faith

How much faith do you have? A little, a lot? I feel like I have a little sometimes (if any!), but Jesus says that’s ok! In fact, He said all you need is the size of a seed: “I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you” (Matthew 17:20). Faith the size of a mustard seed…that’s all you need! So it’s not a matter of how to get more faith, but how to use the faith you have.

The Power of One Little Seed

Picture a seed. Small, un-intimidating: but it has the power to create an orchard…if it will be planted. Jesus said, “I can guarantee this truth: A single grain of wheat doesn’t produce anything unless it is planted in the ground and dies. If it dies, it will produce a lot of grain” (John 12:24). Your faith is like that. If you will plant it, and really believe God for what you are asking, you can see an incredible harvest! In fact, Jesus said, “Everything is possible for him who believes” (Mark 9:23). Everything. That includes your healing, your marriage, your finances, your unsaved friends and family, the state of your nation, God’s Kingdom coming to earth….everything. But the believing-part is the key.

Identify Your Seed

Open your palm right now and picture a seed in it. The seed represents your desires. What would you name it? Incredible Marriage? Healthy Body? Feeling Fulfilled? I want you to name that seed right now. Now, the way you know if you have a seed worth planting is if it’s something Jesus likes, which you can find by reading the Gospels (the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John). For example, say you’re really sick. You wonder, “Does Jesus want to heal me?” Well, a man in the Bible wondered that same thing: He told Jesus, “If you’re wiling, you can make me well.” And Jesus, moved with compassion, said, “I am willing; be healed!” (Mark 1:41); and the man was healed. So there’s your seed of faith to work with, seeing that Jesus cares about healing people. Now let’s talk about how to plant it.

Planting Your Seed

Surprisingly few elements are needed to make something grow. You need seed, soil, water, and sunlight. That’s about it. We just discovered you have seed; now what about the rest? Good question. Jesus said that the soil is your heart. He taught, “And the seeds that fell on the good soil represent honest, good-hearted people who hear God’s word, cling to it, and patiently produce a huge harvest” (Luke 8:15). When your heart is soft towards Jesus, believing and obeying Him, you have the perfect soil for seeds of faith to grow in. Now let me tell you, I have not had the best heart-soil in the last year, especially. But the Holy Spirit is like an incredible gardener, who comes in if we let Him, and takes out the stones and weeds in our heart. If you feel you have rocky heart-soil right now, ask the Holy Spirit to be your gardener! That’s what He has been doing for me! Thank You Holy Spirit!

Water, Water, Water

Now, time to water! Water is the continual affirmation and rehearsing of your faith. Rehearse just means to “re-hear”…to hear again. Just like a man doesn’t stop telling his wife he loves her after they get married, so we don’t stop confessing what we are believing God for after we first plant that seed of faith…not until we see that answer and bite into that juicy piece of fruit! Then we start thanking! But until then, it’s rehearse, rehearse, rehearse. So you initially say when you plant that seed of faith, “Jesus, I believe You are my Healer.” And then you continue to rehearse it by saying each day, “Jesus, I thank You for healing me on the cross. I thank You that one day in Heaven I will have a perfect body, and I’m asking You still to heal me while I’m on earth.” I want you to picture your words as water, and that each time you choose to continue in your faith, you are watering that seed, and it’s starting to grow.

A Great Harvest Awaits You

The key is not giving up. Galatians 6:9 says, “So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up.” Can you imagine a farmer who quit just before a great harvest? Let’s not do that! Your little seed of faith has so much power! God just taught me yesterday, actually, the power of writing a prayer request down. It’s like placing a formal order, so that when it comes, you know it’s from God, and not your own strength. Because, as it says, “So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow” (1 Corinthians 3:7). At the end of the day, God is the one who is going to make your seed become fruit, and in that day, you can glorify Him and give Him thanks. He is the sunlight. So what’s your seed? Plant it firmly today! And from this day forward, continue to grow that seed with the water of your words until you see that great harvest!

I’ll like to leave you with the words from Henry Ward, he said”Every tomorrow has two handles. We can take hold of it with the handle of anxiety or the handle of faith”

Have a great week!

I love you!

Let’s Face Our Worst Fears

“But I will never stop loving him nor fail to keep my promise to him.” (Psalm 89:33)

What’s Your Worst Fear?

What’s your worst fear? If you’re like me, it’s not spiders, public speaking, or heights. It’s much deeper than that. To see if am normal, I googled to find the top human fears, and I found I wasn’t alone. Let’s see if you identify with them too.

Top 10 Human Fears

Here they are: Losing your freedom; the unknown; pain; disappointment; misery; loneliness; ridicule; rejection; death; and failure. Wow, that about sums it up, doesn’t it? I can identify with so many of those. How about you? Actually, what’s “funny” is that some on that list are worse to me than death. Lifelong failure, for one, is something I would rather die than face. But really, beneath that fear of failure is the fear of not being loved; since to me, the point of success is to get people to love and value me. Growing up, I thought that my worth came from succeeding, so I always tried so hard to do everything right. But then, I went through a time where I purposefully tried to fail at everything (and did a pretty good job), because I wanted to see if people would still love me if I failed.

Jesus Brings You Unfailing Love

I would guess you’re not too unlike me. Maybe for you, it’s not failure; it’s something else. But the root of it is that you want love. That’s the way God created you. There’s a verse in the Bible that says: “What a man desires is unfailing love.” (Proverbs 19:22) Unfailing love: The kind of love that doesn’t quit when you fail or something unexpected happens. It doesn’t quit when someone ridicules you or you let someone down and mess up. God’s love never fails. In fact, here’s an extensive list of all the things that cannot conquer God’s love for you:

“I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love which Christ Jesus our Lord shows us. We can’t be separated by death or life, by angels or rulers, by anything in the present or anything in the future, by forces or powers in the world above or in the world below, or by anything else in creation.” (Romans 8:38-39)

God’s Love Insurance Policy

That is a Love Insurance Coverage Policy that covers everything. It covers divorce, depression, failure, heartache, financial difficulty, not knowing what to do, ignorance, disease, loneliness, and the list goes on. There is nothing that God would take His love away from you for. In fact, that’s why He gave His only Son to die for you: Love. Jesus said, “For God so loved the world, He gave His only Son, so that whoever believes in Him would not die but have eternal life.” (John 3:16) If God was willing to sacrifice His only Son, don’t you think He would go to the depths and the heights to keep His love over you, once He has paid so much for your life?

The Cure To Fear

I know that you’re probably dealing with a lot of fears. I am too. Fear of failure; fear of loneliness; fear of ridicule; the list goes on. But Jesus wants to conquer our fears with His love. 1 John 4:18 says, “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear.” God has that perfect love to drive out your fear. Imagine that your house is filled with little flies, buzzing all around you, bothering you. That’s what your fears feel like in your head, don’t they? God wants to drive them out by the wind of His love. You just need to open the windows in your mind, especially when you’re feeling the buzzing, and just pray, “Holy Spirit, let the wind of Your unfailing love come and drive out all of my little (and big) fears.” When you face loneliness, for example, buzzing around in your head, saying “You’ll always be alone! No one will ever love you!”, you can pray, “Holy Spirit, fill me with Your love” and then just say, “God LOVES me. No matter what. I will always have His unconditional, never-failing love.”

Open Up the Windows

If you have been dealing with a whole lot of fear-buzzing in your head (and I know what that’s like), I want you to take a moment right now and ask the Holy Spirit to open up the windows in your heart and mind and let His overwhelming love fill your inner house and drive our the fear. Remember, God says, “Perfect love drives out fear.” So whenever you’re facing fears this week (or ever), draw upon God’s great love insurance policy for you. It never fails, and nothing can conquer it. And as you let His consuming love in your house, your fears will begin to weaken and weaken until they no longer have a hold on you. That is my prayer for me and you: that God’s love would cast out all of our fears, in Jesus’ name. Take that moment right now and confess your fears to God and ask Him to take control of each one and soothe you with His amazing, healing love. Today can be the start of His love taking control of your fears.

I love you.

Have an excellent week.

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