from pastor Rich Allcorn 

 The Bible tells us that "faith" is the evidence, the real world proof of what we are praying for, before we ever see it in the physical realm.  The more real your faith confession is, the more you believe it.  And the more you believe it, the more real it becomes! 

"Now, faith is the evidence of things hoped for, and the assurance of things not yet seen."  Why does call it in Hebrews 11:1, "now faith"?  Because your faith is the "NOW" of what you are asking and hoping for.  It is the real "evidence" of the thing you are talking about and so excited about, before we all ever see it! 

So, I ask you this:  Is your faith ... alive? 

When I left active-duty from the United States Air Force, and returned home, I noticed so much change ... all around me!  In fact, I found myself complaining to God about some of the things that had changed.  I didn't want them to! 

Do you know what God said to me?  He told me this: 

"Rich, if something is not changing, then it - is - dead!"  Now, this puzzled me, until He began to explain a lot of it to me. 

In one example that He used, God reminded me of the streams that ran through our ranch property as I was growing up.  We used to love building dams on these streams.  God reminded me how, after a few weeks, the water in the streams would begin to get mossy and then "gunky", because we had it all dammed up!  It couldn't flow, and it therefore began to get ... "nasty". 

He told me that in life, things have to flow.  They have to grow!  And they have to ... "change", as well, or they will die.  He told me that in damming up the stream, we were cutting off the life flow of the clear stream water from the area that we cut off, and "things" started to grow in that water - not-so-nice things! 

I remember then, that when we removed the dam, and the water began to flow freely again, the stream very soon afterwards, began to clear up.  It was pretty to look at, and inviting to play in!

You notice when someone dies that their body still looks normal.  But, after their heart stops pumping the blood, and the lungs stop supplying the fresh air to that blood, that the body begins to die too!  It can no longer get the life-sustaining oxygen, water, and nourishment that it needs to survive, and it dies!  Pretty soon, it - "looks" - dead! 

In the week ahead, ask yourself and examine your daily activities, your words and your actions, and examine yourself.  Consider your "faith walk", and pose this question to yourself ...

"Is my faith alive?" 

Are you living the life of faith?  Are you a walking, talking source of the Life of God?  Do the words that you speak support and build towards the things you are praying about? 

Examine yourself this week.  Take notes!  And let's resume this next week ...  
Until then, remember this:  "If something is not changing, then it - is - dead."