As you acknowledge God, you will find the path God is laying out before you. He is not waiting on you to acknowledge him before he leads you. He is waiting for you to change the way you think so you can perceive where and how he is leading you. The definition of the word “acknowledge” gives us more insight into how God leads us.
The Hebrew word for “acknowledge” is yada. This word means:
know
perceive
consider
be acquainted with
declare
to make oneself known
to reveal oneself
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The Law of the Seed: Understanding Faith and the Kingdom of God
When Jesus taught about faith, He emphasized the importance of experiencing God's kingdom. He often used the illustration of the mustard seed to illustrate the connection between faith and God's kingdom, ultimately conveying the message that faith leads to the manifestation of God's kingdom in our lives. In other words, faith enables us to see and experience the presence of God's kingdom in the present moment. Therefore, by embracing and practicing faith, we can live a life filled with the hope and peace that comes from experiencing the reality of God's kingdom every day.
Doubt is a faith killer. Jesus said that all things are possible for those who believe, but he also instructed us to “doubt not.” Doubt is like the opposing force to faith. Doubt chokes the seed of God’s kingdom. Doubt is carnal by nature. Join us today as we discuss how to stay in faith and not let doubt steal our hope.
Jesus said a variation of the same idea most of the time people came to him for healing.
Matthew 8:13 Then Jesus said to the centurion, "Go! As you have believed, so will it be done for you." And his servant was healed at that very hour.
Matthew 9:29 Then He touched their eyes and said, "According to your faith will it be done to you."
Matthew 15:28 "O woman," Jesus answered, "your faith is great! Let it be done for you as you desire." And her daughter was healed from that very hour.
Mark 5:34 "Daughter," said Jesus, "your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be free of your affliction."
Mark 10:52 "Go," said Jesus, "your faith has healed you." And immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road.
Luke 17:19 And He said to him, “Stand up and go; your faith has [n]made you well.”
Then when he taught on faith he said this.
Matthew 13:31 He presented another parable to them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a person took and sowed in his field; 32 and this is smaller than all the other seeds, but when it is fully grown, it is larger than the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that THE BIRDS OF THE SKY come and NEST IN ITS BRANCHES.” 33 He spoke another parable to them: “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three sat of flour until it was all leavened.”
The word "hid" is also translated as "mixed into." Faith doesn't make God do something, he's already offered everything in Christ. Faith makes the effort to mix Christ into the area that needs healing. How will you mix the word of Christ into your issue? Once you do, it will work its way through the whole thing and bring healing.
We walk by faith, not by sight. But our faith is not of our own making, our faith in God’s promises and purposes. To be faithful is to expect God’s promises to come to pass, and to yield to his leading to accomplish his purposes. Join us today as we discuss how to reason in our hearts that God is faithful.
There are laws that govern the spiritual Kingdom of God, just like there are laws of physics in the physical dimension. Like the law of faith or the law of sowing and reaping. We can discover how to cooperate with these laws and experience the benefits of those laws. Mark 11:24 says, Therefore, I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they will be granted to you. That is an amazing statement by Jesus. What does he mean? How can we apply this promise? Click for more on Faith, Hope and the Laws of the Kingdom of God.
You don’t have to prove anything to anyone except yourself. People will place all kinds of expectations on you if you let them. They will tell you what they think you should do based on their own lives. Much of the time, we think about what someone else will think when we’re making our decisions.
We live with an underlying sense of expectation from our parents, spouses, our friends, our boss, and our coworkers. We worry about what our political affiliates will think. We worry about what our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ will think. We worry about what our pastors will think.
But none of those people are living your life. You alone have to process your thoughts and emotions when you lay your head on your pillow night. You are the one who has to determine whether you’re following God or not.
You are the only one you have to prove anything to. You know what you’ve done, you know what you need to do, and it doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks, they can’t live out the results of your choices for you.
The children Manasseh had a giant problem, literally. They had seen God’s deliverance from Egypt’s oppression, daily experienced God’s provision, crossed the river into the land promised their father Abraham but there was still one problem…giants. They were in the promised land, it was under their feet, they could see it but it didn’t quite look like what they were expecting. Have you ever felt like you were where God wanted you to be but it was full of problems? Maybe those problems even caused you to question if you’re in the right place. You’re not alone.
The nation of Israel had the promised land in reach, all that was left was to take the land. We are in a similar position yet under a new covenant. We have been translated into the Kingdom of Jesus, delivered from the power of darkness with all spiritual blessings within our grasp yet our outer world may be full of problems. Let’s check back in with the tribe of Manasseh and see how they handled this issue.
In this series, I define religion as "your attempt to approach and be acceptable to God through your own efforts." You would never say you are righteous through good behavior, but you might say you are unrighteous through sinful behavior. Both are legalistic and TOXIC.
The challenge with overcoming Toxic Religion is the same as overcoming any addiction, if you take on the identity of the sin, you’ll repeat it, if you take on the identity of someone who doesn’t have that problem, you can walk away from it.
Toxic Religion is focused on sin, failure, guilt, and condemnation. Toxic Religion assumes that you’re evil and you can never do enough. Toxic Religion keeps you focused on the old man and never fully puts on the new man. Toxic Religion will leave you continually seeking God for forgiveness and never truly resting in the peace that salvation by grace through faith should bring. Toxic Religion is addictive and must be cleansed from your identity.
