Greetings in the Name of Jesus and welcome to the PLN Sunday Night Bible Fellowship!
The fact of the matter is, most Christians have difficulty believing that God really wants them to prosper financially in this present life. Although the Bible says clearly that Jesus came to give us life more abundantly (John 10:10), that He became poor so we can be rich (2 Corinthians 8:9) and that He wants us to experience ALL sufficiency in EVERYTHING (2 Corinthians 9:8), Church tradition has taught that financial prosperity isn't included in these scriptures. Rather, tradition maintains that God regularly withholds and manipulates our finances to lead us, teach us, put pressure on us, get our attention, punish us and/or make us humble even though there are NO scriptures to support that our loving Father God actually does such things under the New Covenant.
When we're in the midst of HARD TIMES like many folks are these days, it's even more difficult for all those doubting Christians to receive and believe the TRUTH about what the Word of God actually says. In fact, that worldwide Recession a few years ago tended to reinforce all those traditional teachings that we're supposed to be poor. So there's a crisis of DOUBT in the Body of Christ when it comes to assessing God's real intentions for our finances: DOUBT that He wants us to prosper, DOUBT that He is good and loves us enough to prosper us, DOUBT that He's working to get us out of our financial HARD TIMES, etc. And that very same DOUBT is actually one of the main causes of all the negative factors many folks are experiencing in their lives. Why? Because the Bible clearly teaches that if we have faith in God and don't DOUBT in our hearts, WE CAN HAVE WHATEVER WE SAY (Mark 11:22-23). We just have to say the right things and not DOUBT. And one of those right things to say and not DOUBT is this: "God loves me and wants me to prosper financially with all sufficiency in everything because that's what His Word says and I believe it."
So, if you truly want to overcome HARD TIMES in your life, you'll have to stop DOUBTING God's intentions for good in your life and blame the right causes for your problems. Put your faith in the love and goodness of God and ACTIVELY RESIST the real sources of your HARD TIMES which are: the World, the god of this World (Satan), other people, your FLESH and any of your own related choices and decisions that were in disagreement with the Word of God and got you where you are today. You need to see DOUBT for what it is: it's something that's trying to destroy your faith in the promises of God and without faith it's impossible to please Him (Hebrews 11:6). Instead of being complacent about your DOUBT, you need to become proactive and recognize it for what it is so you can effectively resist, defeat and destroy it.
Defining Doubt
In short, the way to overcome HARD TIMES is by faith. Everything leads through faith and the greatest hindrance to the full release of our faith is DOUBT. DOUBT is actually UNBELIEF and it's the principal thing that causes us to become indecisive and to forget about the promises we're waiting for God to bring about. The word DOUBT actually means to waver or stagger in one's belief or to be unstable. In other words, TO DOUBT means to be double-minded (James 1:8). In fact, both of these words come from the same root. DOUBT (double-mindedness) is what your enemy uses to weaken your faith, to separate you from God's promises and to delay their full and timely manifestation in the natural. What the Bible actually says is that if you DOUBT, in other words if you're double-minded, you shouldn't expect to receive anything from God (James 1:7). Therefore, it ought to be apparent that in order to overcome HARD TIMES Believers need to awaken to the principle that the routine DOUBT we're not resisting gets in the way of the Lord's desire to deliver His promises to us and extricate us from the midst of our trials.
Looking at this from another perspective, we've already noted that the Bible says you can have what you say if you believe (release your faith) and don't DOUBT in your heart (Mark 11:23). Most Christians read this verse and gloss over it as something that's impossible to perform; but why would Jesus have spoken it and encouraged us to do something that's not possible? No, this is an invitation to move mountains with the force of one's faith! What's required is to speak out what we believe, be sure that what we say is in agreement with the Word of God and then make a diligent effort to NOT doubt that God will deliver on what He's promised in His Word. HARD TIMES are mountains faced by many Christian families these days. So, do what the Bible says to do: SPEAK TO the mountain, tell it to remove itself from your life and then release your faith without doubting in your heart, without being double-minded about your authority to move that mountain by the force of your faith.
How to Resist Doubt
The truth is most Believers frequently forget or disregard or ignore that resisting and overcoming DOUBT is a big part of faith and that faith is required for overcoming life's trials and tribulations. The result is that we routinely fall FAR short of our potential so that biblical prosperity is not fully manifesting in our lives and beating back the HARD TIMES. Therefore, we need to recognize that DOUBT is actually an ongoing problem that we must work diligently and continuously to overcome. The battle never ends and once we've reached that level of awareness, there're some actions we can begin to take that will lead us eventually to overcome DOUBT.
1. Ask Christ to help you with your doubt - To start with you're going to need some help. You can't overcome something as big as unbelief in your own strength. On one occasion a certain father brought his demon possessed son to Jesus and asked Him if He could do something to help him. Jesus responded that "all things are possible to him who believes." And the boy's father cried out and said, "I do believe; HELP MY UNBELIEF" after which Jesus delivered the boy from the oppressing spirits (Mark 9:14-29). The point is this: Jesus will help us with our unbelief. All we have to do is ASK HIM and then release our faith that He'll give us what we ask for.
2. Study the Word to make your faith grow and strengthen - The development of strong faith requires that we immerse ourselves continually in the Word of God. Faith comes by hearing the Word (Romans 10:17) and strong faith is essential for resisting doubt. If we're negligent in studying the Word, our faith will be weak and our ignorance will cause us to act in unbelief (1Timothy 1:13). Even if it's been strong at times in the past, if we stop studying, our faith will regress and return to weakness. Strong faith, a faith that can move mountains requires a steady diet of God's Word as well as our commitment to obey and live by what we find there. Soon you can come to the point where your faith becomes a force that moves God's promises from the supernatural to the natural.
3. Confess the promises of God - In order to resist doubt, what you speak must agree with the Word of God and with your understanding of what He has promised to do on your behalf. When doubt presents itself, speaking is your first line of defense. If you're believing for debt freedom for example, then your speech should agree with it even though your circumstances appear to be entirely to the contrary. It's not denial to agree with the Word instead of your circumstances because you're agreeing with what God already has done for you in the supernatural. Your job is to let the power of your confession draw the promise by faith from the supernatural into the natural. When you decide to let your speaking agree with your faith instead of with your doubt, you'll be resisting that doubt and you'll soon see the promises of God manifesting in your life.
4. Speak directly to your problems - Once you've asked the Lord to solve a particular problem in your life or you see in the Word that Jesus has ALREADY taken care of it, you should believe that He's heard and answered your request. That means you don't have to ask Him anymore to take care of that same problem. Rather, by faith you should begin to speak directly to the problem (Mark 11:23), command it to get in agreement with the promises of God and get out of your life. You can also speak directly to the good things you've asked for and command them to manifest in your life. If your faith is strong in the Word, your commands will move the promises of God into the natural. I realize this isn't TRADITIONAL thinking but stop letting tradition get in the way of your faith and your speaking! Traditions are killing your finances!
5. Cast down negative thoughts - When thoughts of doubt come to you, instead of passively entertaining them and allowing them to weaken your faith, cast them down. Cast them out and away from you. The Bible tells us to cast down every reasoning that is raised up against the knowledge of God and to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5). By casting down wrong thoughts, you'll be resisting doubt. If the Bible tells us to do these things then in Christ we have the power, authority and ability to do them and make something happen. How do you cast down negative thoughts? You speak cancellation over them and you move your focus from the things you were thinking about over to Christ. And you focus on Him and think about Him and abide with Him and rest with Him and fellowship with Him and talk with Him. You CAN do this or the Bible wouldn't tell us to DWELL on whatever is true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, of good repute, on excellence and on anything that's worthy of praise (Philippians 4:8). The Word says we CAN take every thought captive and make it obey the Word of God now (2 Corinthians 10:5). The question is, do you believe the Word tonight?
6. Rest, don't worry - Once you've heard from God, begin to rest on His promises instead of worrying about how and when they're going to manifest. Worry is the outward evidence of a lack of faith (Mark 4:40). In fact, it's one of the primary things that chokes the Word and causes it to be unfruitful in your life (Matthew 13:22). When you start to worry you need to get yourself into the Word so you can transfer your focus from the thing(s) you're worrying about over to Jesus. If you focus on Christ, you won't be worrying (Isaiah 26:3). Rather, you'll be enjoying the peace that passes all understanding (Philippians 4:7) where the force of a mature faith can move mountains (Mark 11:23).
7. Walk in love - Finally, the essential requirement for overcoming anything and abiding with Christ in the Kingdom of God is walking in "agape" love. Your faith won't work without love (1 Corinthians 13:2) and the result of faithlessness is doubt and fear. God is love (1 John 4:8) and perfect love casts out fear (1 John 4:18). Since fear is the opposite of faith, the logical and correct conclusion is that perfect love RELEASES your faith. You cannot be in strife or unforgiveness and at the same time walk in either love or faith. You also can't be rude, quarrelsome or easily offended. The absence of love will always produce doubt. Every principle and law of biblical prosperity depends on love (Matthew 22:37-40) because God IS love.
In sum, resisting DOUBT is an ongoing requirement. As time goes on it might get easier to resist your DOUBTS but you can't ever stop resisting. You can't ever let up! HARD TIMES will flee if you NEVER stop resisting your DOUBTS about the Lord, about His Word and about His sincere desire to set you free from financial lack and insufficiency.
Some Final Thoughts
Having thoughts that contradict our faith or the Word doesn't necessarily mean that we're in DOUBT; but we DO need to speak to those thoughts, actively take control of them and then kick them out of our minds. It's all about what we do with those thoughts that defines whether or not we've actually entered into DOUBT. Friend, the truth is you just can't be passive about DOUBT. If you can aggressively resist it and make it a high priority to walk in love, you'll come to the point that you receive what you say without delay and without fail. Indeed, if you can overcome DOUBT and walk in love, your faith can become a force that will move mountains and convert your HARD TIMES into Heaven on earth.
Thanks for stopping by tonight. We'll be looking for you again NEXT Sunday night on October 5. In the meantime may the Lord bless you with every spiritual blessing (Ephesians 1:3), compelling you to PROSPER in every area of life!
Sinners' Prayer
If you've never invited Jesus to be the Lord of your life, you need to and you can do it today just by saying out loud the following simple prayer:
Jesus I declare today with all my heart that I believe in you and that God raised you from the dead. I acknowledge that my sins have been forgiven and I ask you to come into my life today and be my Lord and Savior. Thank you for salvation and eternal life.
If you were sincere as you prayed this prayer, God has already come into your life and you are a new creation, a totally new species recreated in His image. Now ask the Lord to lead you to a good faith-based, bible-teaching church where you can be equipped to fulfill your potential in the Kingdom of God.
And, when you get a chance have someone help you look up the following scriptures because they confirm what you've done by saying this prayer today and believing what you said:
Romans 10:9
2 Corinthians 5:17
Ephesians 2:8
Prayer Requests
If you have a Prayer Request, please connect to the Link below and follow the promptings. The PLN staff members pray over Prayer Requests every Tuesday morning at 10:00 AM eastern time. Agree with us for God to answer your petition.
http://www.creditcounseling.net/prayer-request.aspx
Donations
If you've been edified by Prosperous Life Newsletter, you may want to consider making a SEED FAITH offering to support the Ministry (Galatians 6:6-7). God has instructed us to simply provide folks with an opportunity to sow seed into good ground so in due season you'll be eligible to reap a harvest and the rest is up to you as the Spirit leads. For your information PLN is a nonprofit gift to the Body of Christ so your financial offerings will usually be tax deductible (consult your tax advisor). Just go to the secure Shopping Cart on the Cornerstone web site by connecting through the following link. We appreciate your support and generosity.
http://www.creditcounseling.net/shop/item.aspx?itemid=1
About Prosperous Life Newsletter
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