God is challenging me to believe His Word. I mean really believe it. That challenge has just started, so I’m sure there will be future blogs about it, but let me give you a taste of what God’s been whispering in my ear lately.

In Matthew 9:29 Jesus said the following to two blind men as He healed them:

“According to your faith let it be done to you.” (NRSV)
Matthew 9:29b

This is not blog about healing, healing faith or faith healing,  and I don’t want to take the verse out of context. On the flip side, I don’t want my lack of faith to limit God’s work in my life.

Do you believe this…or that…

God can heal you…or that you have a condition that you’ve had all your life and at best God can alleviate some of the symptoms sometimes?

God can give you favor with a boss…or that your boss hates you and you will never succeed until he or she retires?

Your marriage can be the most satisfying relationship you’ve ever imagined or…that things will never change?

You can change (set you free from) that habit that keeps you from moving forward…or have you tried so many times and been unsuccessful that you believe it’s a hopeless cause and you just have to keep fighting

While I would like to say that I believe everything on the left side of these equations, I’m afraid some of my actions would suggest that my “faith” falls on the right side. You see, we act upon and react based on what we believe. Our actions are based on our beliefs – our faith! The old adage “actions speak louder than words” is true. Our actions (and inactions) demonstrate our faith.

So when things don’t go quite as I had planned or hoped, do my actions say “I trust God’s Word to bring the outcome He’s promised” or do my actions say “I lost this and will never…” or “I don’t know if…”

What kind of faith do you have?
In the above “this…or that” examples, we see two different kinds of faith. The first might be called “positive faith” and the latter “negative faith.” (1) Positive faith believes God and lives in such a way that our trust in Him is obvious. Negative faith has more confidence in the enemy’s ability to thwart God’s plans and blessings and is just as obvious to those around us. These two kinds of faith are very different but have at least three things in common:

• Both kinds of faith are obvious to those around us – people around us can see from our actions and hear from our conversation that we are trusting God or have given up hope that God can/will impact our situation.
• Both kinds of faith impact what actually happens! In Matthew, Jesus didn’t say “According to your positive faith let it be done to you, but your negative faith has no impact on the situation.” No. He said “According to your faith let it be done to you.” While I believe that God’s grace and mercy transcends all, I also believe that when we have no hope – no confident expectation – that God’s impact is muffled.
• Both kinds of faith have an influence on those around us that goes beyond the blessing they receive when our faith was more active. In other words, others are seeing us stand for and take action based on a confident expectation that God has spoken and God will do what He says…or they are seeing us accept (believe) that the enemy has won. Our actions impact their faith and actions. I want my faith to help others grow in their faith. The alternative is that I am a person who makes it harder for them to believe. Lord, please help me be the positive influence!

Friends, this is impacting my spirit so strongly. I am seeing things in every area of my life where I have exhibited negative faith – where I have been a “doubting Thomas” – and God is opening my eyes to how that very well may have limited God’s blessings in my life. Let me give you two examples from my own life.

• I have written a Bible study on the book of Jonah. While I wrote it quite awhile ago, I have not finished formatting it for publication. That process is nearly complete. I’ve been heard saying “I don’t know if anyone will want the study when I’ve finished it, but…”

Wait a minute! Or as Phil would say “roll back the tape!”

>  Do I believe that the study holds powerful truths gleaned from a book that holds more sovereign acts of God per page than any other book of the Bible? Yes.
>  Do I believe that God gave me those studies? Yes.
>  Have they impacted my life? Yes.
>  Have they impact the lives of others who have seen the material? Yes.
>  Do my actions demonstrate that I believe those things? Uhhh…no, not really. My actions say that I’ve not made this a priority and probably even say that I’m a bit afraid to actually release the study.
Where is my confident expectation in God?

• We’ve owned our business for 23 years. During that time, our income has been very cyclical – we have a good year, then we have a not-so-good year. During the good years we save. During the bad years those savings are depleted. While God has blessed us by keeping our business alive through years when many of our competitors have failed, we’ve not see the kind of steady growth we would like. It has occurred to me as God is teaching me about faith that I have believed that this cycle is “the nature of our business” – I’ve fallen into an expectation of prosperity followed by lack. Don’t get me wrong – God is always blessing and even in our lean years we are blessed more than most of the world. We started this business, however, to be a conduit of blessing to the church – believing that God would use our business and businesses like ours to fund end time ministries. I am seeing my negative faith impacting our business…and therefore all who would be blessed through it.

Laying Aside That Which So Easily Entangles
Now if you’re like me, this also brings up questions and objections. I am laying those aside for now! I am confident that God is speaking to me about faith. I don’t want to stop that flow by throwing in all my “yeah, buts.” I am confident that God will teach me a proper perspective and throwing the “yeah, buts” into the mix right now will simply interrupt the Teacher. It’s not that the Teacher can’t answer my questions, it’s that He knows the best order to present the material. I’m confident that some of those “yeah, buts” will get answered. I’m also confident that some of them will end up on the “you’re too young to understand” list. (Don’t tell me your mother didn’t use that line on you!)

Joining the Great Adventure
This is an exciting journey, friends. Imagine what might happen if the Church (yes, that’s you and me) really believed God’s Word and acted upon that belief. I know God has a great adventure in store for me. He also has one in store for you…will you join Him in the great adventure? I hope so!

(1) One of the books God is using to draw my attention to positive and negative faith is 10 Curses that Block the Blessing by Larry Huch, Whitaker House Publishing.

10 Curses That Block the Blessing By Larry Huch / Whitaker House Publishers Have you been suffering with depression, family dysfunction, marital unhappiness, or other problems and been unable to overcome them? Within the pages of this book, Ten Curses That Block the Blessing, Larry Huch shares his personal experience with a life of anger, drug addiction, crime, and violence. He shows how he broke these curses and reveals how you can: Receive dominion – what it is and how to use it Recognize the signs of a curse, End cycles of abuse and violence Be set free from generational curses Bring your children to Christ

You might also find these books by Larry Huch helpful. Click on the title to learn more:

Free at Last–Book and CD By Larry Huch / Whitaker House Publishers You can break free from your past! Don’t let what’s happened to you and your family hold you back in life! You can find freedom from depression, anger, abuse, insecurity, and addiction in Jesus Christ. Pastor Larry Huch reveals powerful truths from Scripture that enabled him and many others to quickly break the destructive chains in their lives and receive God’s blessings. Learn the secret to true freedom and you, too, can regain your joy and hope, experience divine health, mend broken relationships, and walk in true prosperity – body, soul, and spirit. A study guide and teaching sermon are included on a CD.

The Torah Blessing By Larry Huch / Whitaker House Discover the Jewish roots of your Christian faith in The Torah Blessing. Author and pastor Larry Huch takes you on a incredible journey through the hidden truths in the Torah and God’s Word. You’ll learn deep spiritual truths from Israel’s heritage which will connect you to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Jesus in new powerful ways.

Unveiling Ancient Biblical Secrets By Larry Huch / Whitaker House Publishers In Unveiling Ancient Biblical Secrets, Pastor Larry Huch reveals God’s ancient blessing for your life, such as: destruction of the curse of poverty, healing beneath the wings of the tallit, the covenant of success and more. By understanding and tapping into these timeless truths, Christians can rediscover the destiny that God intends for His people.

God’s arms certainly are.

Here’s a an excerpt from a blog that will challenge you to be God’s Hands extended to the sinner and sinned-against written by Thom Hunter at Signs of a Struggle.

It stands to reason to me that if we, as Christians, can embrace the idea that bad things happen to good people . . . then we would be able to wrap our arms around the idea that good people  – even Christians — do a fair amount of those bad things.  And then we could wrap our good Christian arms around those that did it and those that hid it at the same time we comfort those that got pummeled by it.  ”It” being sin.  Surely our arms are bigger than we let on.  Surely, there is mercy and forgiveness and grace abounding.  Surely we can restore the sinner with the same hope we rescue the sinned-against.  Surely God’s love — which is to be in us — is enough to cover all.

God’s call to love one another is no place for cowards, as Thom writes. It takes great courage and God’s compassion. Take a few minutes and be challenged by this blog today.

Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.
Psalm 139:23

There is an excellent blog called “Signs of a Struggle” written by Thom Hunter. Subtitled “compassionate truth for men and women who struggle with sexual brokenness,” it is extremely well written and gives very candid glimpses into the struggle and recovery while providing sound biblical perspectives on such topics as sin, guilt, shame, forgiveness and God’s tremendous grace. I’ve been reading the blog for a little while and wondered about sharing it with others. I’ve come to the point of believing that I am doing those who need Mr. Hunter’s blog a huge disservice by not sharing it.

I’d like to share a portion of a blog titled It Came from Within! I believe this portion of the author’s blog can challenge and minister to everyone. If you struggle with sexual sin or know someone who does (and you probably do whether you know it or not), I encourage you to read his entire blog. Everything following is excerpted from the blog.

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Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.
Psalm 139:23

He [God] is not busy with someone else. He hears your prayer.

Search me. –Sometimes when I stand calmly before a mirror and focus on my own eyes, I think: “Do I know you?” This evokes moments of honesty, easily diverted with a toothbrush or by plugging in the shaver. God has no such distractions. Ask Him to really search you and He will not look away or busy Himself with the day’s preparations. He created the day and He placed you in it. He sees in and out and every way around.

Know me. – We want people to know what we want them to know, not really know us. God knows us. He knows not only that inner itch, but He knows what happened to us in the world to raise it to a level of irritation that demands we do whatever is in our power to seek relief. He knows that what might have been a bearable curiosity in me, for instance, was fully inflamed to major “I want” status by the double-whammy of father abandonment and childhood sexual abuse. But he also knows the pain some of you may feel because you find yourselves embroiled in a temptation and the only person you can point a finger at is yourself. It may be dissatisfying when there is no one else to blame, but the truth remains the same. Sin is sin. God wants to hear you say “know me.” He already does, of course, but He wants to know you want Him to know.

Test me. – God doesn’t test us the way the world tests us. He’s not the dangle-type, holding something just out of reach to see if we will wear ourselves out lunging along the edge of self-destruction. Remember…He does not tempt. So…can you trust Him to test you? If you asked Him to search you and to know you, then why not let Him test you to see if you know yourself as He does? God tests us to prepare us for victory, not defeat. So…search and know, just like you asked Him to do. Search His word; know His ways. Ask Him to test you. And don’t forget the answers to the bonus question:  “trust and obey.”

Know my anxious thoughts. – No wait…don’t. Not those thoughts. Isn’t that the way many of us approach life? Yet, here is the acknowledgement that we will have those anxious thoughts. You can’t hide them, not from God.

I get anxious sometimes. I listen to the reasoned arguments of people on both sides of the strugglers’ “personal problems.” Most of the time I just don’t like what I hear and I want to straighten it all out, make it clear, stop the pain, bring perfect understanding and healing rain for all. And then I realize that if I had it all figured out…then I would have it all figured out. Truth is, even if I did, why would people listen to me any more than they listen to God?

“When you feel like your heart is broken beyond repair, remember that nothing about this place is ordinary. You are uniquely poised, at this very moment, to share an intimate part of God’s character. It’s the place of the broken heart, and it’s sacred ground.” Stephanie Voiland

Experiencing rejection, betrayal or abandonment? Read Stephanie Voiland’s article “The Sacredness of a Broken Heart.” It’s a great article and you’ll be glad you took the time to read it.

Sometimes our inability to make a decision – to decide which option to choose – leads to waiting…and waiting…and waiting – until it becomes too late to make a choice. It can be tempting at those times to simply say “it wasn’t God’s will.”

Perhaps that’s true. Or perhaps it’s simply that you were too afraid to make a decision – to commit yourself to some task or activity that included some unknowns. There will always be unknowns in life (hence the need for faith). This short blog begins “Today I realized my fear of failure is more influential than I want to acknowledge.”

Check it out. Then consider that decision you’ve been avoiding and…go for it!

¹¹The angel of the LORD came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites. ¹²When the angel of the LORD appeared to Gideon, he said, “The LORD is with you, mighty warrior.”

¹³“But sir,” Gideon replied, “if the LORD is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our fathers told us about when they said, ‘Did not the LORD bring us up out of Egypt?’ But now the LORD has abandoned us and put us into the hand of Midian.”

¹⁴The LORD turned to him and said, “Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?”

¹⁵“But Lord,” Gideon asked, “how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.”

¹⁶The LORD answered, “I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites together.”

¹⁷Gideon replied, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, give me a sign that it is really you talking to me.
Judges 6:11-17

2 Lessons of Hope

Did you catch Gideon’s perspective and attitude?

He is living his life in the midst of a terrorist state. Verses 3 through 5 of the chapter paint the picture for us:

³Whenever the Israelites planted their crops, the Midianites, Amalekites and other eastern peoples invaded the country. ⁴They camped on the land and ruined the crops all the way to Gaza and did not spare a living thing for Israel, neither sheep nor cattle nor donkeys. ⁵They came up with their livestock and their tents like swarms of locusts. It was impossible to count the men and their camels; they invaded the land to ravage it.
Judges 6:3-5

Imagine living in a place where every time you are ready to receive your paycheck, terrorists invade your business and steal your check, then ruin all the equipment and set the building on fire. OK, so the first time that happens you’re pretty devastated, but you pick yourself up and you build again and you work and work until you’ve earned enough money to actually take some money out of the business. Or maybe you find someone else who has built again and you work for them and you are about to get your first paycheck in quite a long time. In either scenario, just as you’re about to receive your paycheck, terrorists strike again. They steal your paycheck and all money in the building, again demolish the property and set fire to the building. What do you do? How do you feel?

That’s where Gideon lived. He was doing the best he could for his family, but he was clearly not at the top of his game spiritually. He was secretly threshing wheat in a wine press to feed his family. I imagine as he sat there alone that he struggled to hold onto the faith of his fathers. I imagine that the voices in his head were leading him to despair instead of hope.

You can hardly blame him for his responses to the angel –

“If the Lord…why? Where are all His wonders…?” (v. 13)
“How can I…” (v. 15)
“If…give me a sign…” (v.17)

Yep! Gideon is at a very low point spiritually. I’ve been there. I’m guessing you have as well.

It’s fascinating that this is the person God chooses to use to save the Israelites.
Lesson #1: God can use us in the midst of our own personal crisis of faith!

Did you catch how the angel addressed Gideon?

Gideon – who is at an emotional and spiritual low point and who is hiding from the enemy in terror – is addressed by the angel of the Lord as “mighty warrior.” The word that is translated “warrior” is chayil and means “strength, might, efficiency, wealth and army.” It is often translated valor. (Tomorrow I’ll blog about more about this word – it’s pretty exciting.) The angel makes his point even stronger by adding an adjective (gibbor) that means “strong, mighty.”

I repeat – the angel of the Lord called Gideon “mighty warrior.” I imagine Gideon looked around to see who the angel was talking to. Given his current mindset and experience, I wouldn’t be surprised if a moment of terror seized his heart as he imagined that the angel was talking to someone about to steal his family’s food again.

Lesson #2: God sees us as the finished product, not as we are in the midst of our failures.
Yes, He sees our sins and our failures. But He sees BEYOND our sins and our failures to the person we truly are. Our sin and failure does not need to define us for all our life.

Perhaps my real-life example helps illustrate this: Yesterday, I was experiencing a moment of weak faith, wandering about mentally and emotionally and fighting against despair about my future (I’ll blog about this in a few days). But even in that moment, God knew that I would skirt the brink of despair and settle on the Rock of Hope. He would have been totally correct to address me as “Rock of Hope settler” had He spoken to me as I was resting at “Despair Place” because that is where I ended the day.

“Mighty warrior” is the person God saw in Gideon. “Rock of Hope settler” is the person He sees in me.

Where are you, friend? Are you hiding from the world, having been terrorized by the enemy? God can still use you. He sees beyond your weaknesses and failures and even beyond your sin. Be encouraged. Gideon went on, after a bit of coaxing by the Lord, to be that “mighty warrior” the angel found hiding in the wine press. You can too.

²⁸And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. ²⁹For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. ³⁰And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

³¹What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? ³²He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? ³³Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. ³⁴Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. ³⁵Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? …

³⁷No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
Romans 8:28-37

Six Temptations of Failure, Day 6 of 6

Temptation # 6: Living in Fear of Failure
Sometimes we overreact to failure and build walls around ourselves and our activities so that eventually we wall ourselves in and no longer live in the freedom God has given us. Instead, we live in fear that we will fail again. So we essentially stop living. Sure, we’re still breathing and walking and talking, but the life has gone out of our life. Failure is a part of life, friends. We cannot build ourselves into such a safe place that we will not experience it, and to try to do so places limits around us that diminish our lives.

Fear ultimately leads to living a life characterized by legalism. We make rules and regulations to govern our lives and build a hedge of protection around ourselves to keep from ever being hurt again. Most of these new rules aren’t biblical. God never tells His people to stop stepping out in faith. These barriers you erect to prevent future failures all too often separates you from God and His best will for your life.

Fear is the antithesis of faith. Fear is believing that Satan will win instead of believing that the outcome will be what God has said it will be. Choose to believe God, friends. Engage your faith and live life to the fullest.

It occurs to me that perhaps I seem uncompassionate in this blog. Trust me, friends, I have compassion for those experiencing failure. Been there — done that. Refused to buy the T-shirt and don’t want to go back to have another opportunity to do so. But I also know that the temptations listed in these blogs are Satan’s way of binding us to the failure and blinding us to the plans God has for us.

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
Jeremiah 29:11

God desires to give us freedom. God desires for us to be whole. God desires to make something great out of your failure and mine. Let’s resist Satan’s bait and trust God for the good stuff!

Six Temptations of Failure, Day 5 of 6

Are you still with me? So far we’ve covered the following temptations:

1. Believing that You are the Failure
2. Allowing a Failure to Spread its Branches
3. Making Inappropriate or Unintentional Vows
4. Blaming Others

Only two more to go. I pray that God is speaking to your heart as you read this series of blogs.

Temptation #5: Avoiding Others
In the midst of a failure, you may be quite tempted to avoid others because of feelings of humiliation.

First, know that the feelings of humiliation are probably totally inappropriate. Humility is a good thing; humiliation is a bad thing. Experiencing a failure may be humbling, but you should not feel humiliated by it. You tried something and it didn’t go as planned.

Repeat after me: “Everyone fails.” It’s a part of life. There’s no reason for you to feel humiliated. And everyone makes mistakes. If a mistake on your part lead to the failure, it wasn’t your first mistake and it undoubtedly won’t be your last. Learn to live with not being perfect. Only God is perfect and you’re not God.

So resist the temptation to avoid others – you need them to love you as you recover from the failure. You need people around you who will regularly remind you about the great talents and gifts God has given you, and about how special you are to God and to them. You need people to love you. Trust me, avoiding friends is debilitating and will prolong your recovery process.

And perhaps most importantly of all, the world needs to see how a confessing Christian deals with failures and setbacks in their lives. This might be the most important message that your life could ever deliver to the watching world around us. Hiding your failure and avoiding the world will never get that message across. It’s like burying your talent in the sand.

If you’ve avoided others lately, let me encourage to right now think of someone you will call later today or tomorrow. Or perhaps you can reach for the phone right now. Go for it!

Six Temptations of Failure, Day 4 of 6

Temptation #4: Blaming Others

Taking responsibility for our actions is an important step in our emotional and spiritual maturity. Guard yourself against placing the bulk of the blame on someone else for everything that is wrong in your life. Doing so has several consequences:

• It changes the way you think, eventually causing to think of yourself (consciously or subconsciously) as a victim.
• It stunts your emotional and spiritual growth because it cheats you from learning what God wants you to learn from the experience.
• At some level, you are lying to yourself and others. God does not honor dishonesty.
• On a practical level, you’re not fooling others and you will develop a reputation as a blame-shifter and someone who lacks integrity.

It’s no fun shouldering the responsibility for a failure, but when it is appropriate, don’t hesitate to do so. Remember, don’t let the failure define you or spread it’s branches, but do accept the responsibility for your mistakes. Then take these actions:

• Ask God to forgive you if there was any sin involved.
• Ask others to forgive you if you committed any wrong against them.
• Ask God (and perhaps others) for His leading in the current situation and future situations.
• Let it go. Don’t carry the failure with you into the future. Leave it in the past. Don’t let a failure take root or spread it’s territory. It’s time for God to begin a new work!

Six Temptations of Failure, Day 3 of 6

So far we’ve looked at two temptations we often face when we experience failure: The temptation to believe that we are the failure instead of properly identifying the event or situation as a failure, and the temptation to allow the sense of failure to grow until we believe that we can’t do anything right. Both temptations can have debilitating affects on our lives. Let’s look at a third that can also impact our lives for years beyond the failure.

Temptation #3: Making Inappropriate or Unintentional Vows
Sometimes when we fail, we are so intent on not having it happen again that we make inappropriate and/or unintentional vows. Those vows can take on a life of their own and begin to define us in ways that we don’t want to be defined. Let me give you two examples:

• Perhaps your marriage failed and you were so devastated by it that you said in your heart, “I’ll never let anyone be able to hurt me like this again.” That’s a vow and God honors our vows. Years later you may wonder why you are so unhappy in your next marriage. The answer may be because you are not making yourself vulnerable to your spouse – after all, if you allow yourself to be vulnerable again, you may be hurt again.
• Perhaps you have a business that failed and in the aftermath of the failure you vow that you will never take a financial risk again. Years later you may wonder why you find yourself in a position that gives you no fulfillment and brings little income. Perhaps it’s because you resisted trusting God when He made another position available that required you to take a reasonable risk.

In the midst of a failure, guard against the temptation to make rash statement and inappropriate vows. Our words mean things and vows have authority that only Christ can break. Don’t let rash words that you have spoken define your life. If you find that you have made inappropriate vows, specifically renounce them before God in the name of Jesus. Ask Jesus to free you from the vow.

A friend shared this story with me. She’s given me permission to share it with you.

“As a child, I did something that turned out to be a big mistake. My mom wouldn’t listen to me when I tried to explain that it was an accident. I vowed in my heart never to tell her anything again. Nearly fifty years later, the vow was still in force…I have spent a lifetime accepting blame without speaking truth and a lifetime ‘never telling [anyone] anything of any importance.’ But now Christ has broken that vow, and freed me to share more openly than ever before.”

Renouncing vows are worth the effort!