FAITH & "CHURCH"

FAITH & "CHURCH"

Read these scriptures a couple of times before reading my blog. This blog may cause some controversy for some, may make some think I’m a bit confused and every is entitled to their opinions nevertheless, I shall write from my heart what inspires me based on the Word. Again read these scriptures a couple of times and think about them and meditate on them.

Romans 10:17 “Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ”

Romans 12:3 For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.

James 1:22 “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.”

Luke 17:6 “He replied, "If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it will obey you.”

Matthew 13:3b – 9 “A farmer went out to sow his seed. 4 As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5 Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. 6 But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. 8 Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. 9 Whoever has ears, let them hear.”

Acts 17:24 The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands.

I’m not even sure how to write this. I haven’t been to an actual fellowship meeting in a while. I refrain from calling it “church” for I am the “church”, we each are the “church”, we don’t go to “church” we are the “church”. We don’t go to fellowship meetings looking for Yahweh, we don’t have to He is already within us. The Word does instruct us not to neglect meeting and fellowshipping with other like believers on a regular basis. Nevertheless it has been widely accepted to call some places of worship “church”. We as Christian have accepted a lot of things and adapted them into practice that we shouldn’t but that is neither here nor there no room for that in this blog.

So someone told me that my son needs to be raised in “church”. I was speaking to someone else about someone who is going through something and they asked, “are they still going to “church”?” In both instances, to a large extent I understand what they were trying to tell me, however, to a large extent I disagree as well. There are plenty of people raised in the “church” that have never actually picked up a bible and read it let alone studied it. There are people raised in “church”(es) that don’t know basic things/concepts that are in the bible. There are people raised in “church” that don’t know that we don’t know the name for the Most High for it was so holy that it was not spoken or written. More importantly for the sake of this blog, there are people that grow up in “church”, attend “church” until the day that they go to sleep for the final time, we don’t die!, that lack FAITH.

There is a saying that if your faith doesn’t have proof it’s a fake. My goal is to grow and increase in faith daily. Trust me my flesh and spirit are having some serious battles right now. My thoughts, oh my thoughts are sometimes not what they should be, however, I think before I speak and I choose to speak faith, life filled words. Why? Because the Word is powerful enough to bring itself to pass. The Word is powerful enough to transform me, if I let it do so. That can only happen by me speaking and believing it.

This morning Pastor Winston spoke on self-sabotage. How it is not always the devil that holds us back but our own image that has been engrained in our self-conscious that keeps us from our breakthroughs. Instead of looking at the situation and taking ownership of our situation, we will say oh the devil is at it again. No, you are at it again, you spoke words last week, last year, yesterday that are manifesting in your life right now. More importantly, you lack faith in the situation, you have taken your eyes off Yahweh and placed your eyes on your circumstances. You are listening to the media, news reports, doubts of others, your own fears instead of believing in Yahweh. Nothing is impossible for Yahweh, NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR YAHWEH!!!!! It is time we all started believing that, walking in it, and living it.

Think of the people that say I don’t have the money to do this or that. I don’t have enough time to do this or that. I never get any good breaks, bad things always happen to me when I am on vacation. Words are energy that send vibrations out into the earth and return those same vibrations back to you. If you don’t want to see it in your life don’t speak it at all period, not even in joking. If you want to increase your faith and you want your words to always have power and meaning you must only speak the Word. That is how you train your spirit and activate your angels on your behalf. A lot of people that speak this language attend “church” regularly, listen to the Word regularly, listen to gospel music and all types of things. So what is the problem? That is all they are doing is listening and hearing and nothing else.

Scripture says without faith it is impossible to please Yahweh. To my knowledge there isn’t a scripture that says if you don’t go to “church” you won’t please Yahweh. Do I personally have anything against ““church”” absolutely not, I do feel that more people place more value on going to ““church”” attending ““church”” services than they do on living and walking by faith. Now in Romans 12:3 scripture says, “For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.” We have all been given the same measure of faith, so we all start out with the same amount of faith. With that said, Romans 10 says, “Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.” So in order to maintain and increase in faith you must hear the Word of God. You can hear the Word by attending a fellowship meeting, reading the Word aloud, listening to a CD or watching a DVD, or simply reciting aloud to yourself.

BUT……. James tells us, “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” It is not enough to listen/hear the Word, attend “church” we must do it. Scripture also tells us that faith without works is dead. So pretty much faith comes by hearing the Word, once you hear it you must do it, or your faith dies. As believers we should be using our faith daily for scripture says, the just shall LIVE by faith.

We as people however, cannot deceive ourselves into thinking that hearing the Word is doing something for us. That is where “church” comes in again, too many people feel they are doing what is right because they go to “church” regularly and hear the Word. Well Jesus had something to say about that too in Matthew 13:3-9:

“A farmer went out to sow his seed. 4 As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5 Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. 6 But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. 8 Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. 9 Whoever has ears, let them hear.”

We have all in our lifetime been or had seed that was ate by a bird, scorched and withered, choked, and those that produced crop. What if we got so into Yahweh that all of our seed produced crop? That is the type of life that we should be living for and leaning towards. Many of us hear a Word that we immediately reject, to me that is the seed that fell along the path, others of us hear the Word, we know how it applies to someone else and is a need for them and we can’t wait to tell them, for me that is the soil that was shallow, what the person failed to realize is that they needed the word more so as quick as they were excited it died out because it didn’t apply to them, or at least they thought. Then you have those people who are just negative, they feel like they’ve tried faith, they tried positivity, they’ve tried it all and it didn’t work, they are the thorns. Then there are those few people that hear the Word, they go home and pray and say, they meditate, they re-read the word and they recite the Word, and the Word goes to work for them and produces crops.

Scripture tells us you will know a tree by the fruit it produces. I don’t know about you but I am ready to see some beautiful, juicy, delicious fruit on my tree. I want to experience abundance in every area of my life, my health, finances, relationships, career, business, EVERY area. For lack in any area as Pastor Creflo explained means I am living in poverty or lack. It is not enough to have abundance in your finances and your health, career, business lacks and so on and so forth. Just because you are better off than your neighbor doesn’t mean you are living a blessed, favored, prosperous life.

In closing, I have no issue with attending large or small fellowship services to be with like-minded individuals in the spirit. I actually plan on attending this Sunday just to be in that atmosphere. There is also a women’s fellowship that I would like to attend happening soon. I am going solely to be fed for I know a word will be spoken that shall touch my heart. I am not going because that is what I am supposed to or have to do. Or because I don’t want someone calling me asking me where have I been. Nor because I feel like it means if I don’t go I am not in right relationship with Yahweh. Going to “church” for those reasons makes it a religious practice and not a spiritual experience. However, do I feel it is vital for my praise and worship experience? No. If I attend services Sunday after Sunday, year after year, and lack faith in any area I need to examine myself. The Pastor can’t give it to me, none of the other members can increase it for me, I have to have it for myself. I have to choose to start living the Word in order for my faith to increase. I have to start living the Word to see increase in my life. I have to step out of my comfort zone and what I think I can have and realize that my Father, the Creator, owns everything in this earth and the fullness there of and it already belongs to me and start possessing it.

So what is my hope, my hope is that we start placing more emphasis on knowing the Father than going to “church”. My hope is that less people try to condemn others for not attending “church” and start living a life so worthy of the calling that it draws people to want to come and fellowship and worship with them wherever they are. I don’t believe that what is missing in people’s lives is “church” I believe what is missing is Faith in Yahweh to be able to do the IMPOSSIBLE and make the INVISIBLE VISIBLE although HE does it time and time again. I believe that people need to find Yahweh in their hearts, minds, and spirit before they can find him anywhere else. But hey this is just my opinion!

Be a blessing and be blessed,
Epiphany Essentials