Hello there, today, we'll be talking about faith. Or, if this is being read on the internet and not used as a sermon, today you will be reading about faith :)
To begin, a pair of verses...
Hebrews 13: 8. Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.
Malachi 3: 6. For I am the Lord, I change not; [...]
People today have this concept in their minds that God does not work miracles. That it was another time in another day when prophets stood against kings and queens, fire rained from the skies and visions were seen, when wells opened up to the thirsty and when rivers were turned to blood.
People believe that God is real and there, but yet he does not work his power anymore, that somehow he has ceased to pour out his grace on his people, that his children cannot call on his power anymore, that miracles only happen in biblical tales, that Gods power has ceased to be seen on this plane of existence.
Its not true.
How does anyone reconcile this? The only reason anyone anywhere could ever give is that they have not seen a miracle, and therefore they must not happen. That is INSANE. Its like a blind person saying that color must not exist because he cannot see it. You need SIGHT to see color, and you need FAITH to call on Gods power.
Does Yah change? He is the same God he was in the days of Elijah, the days of Moses and of Christ, and has he changed today? Is he not, as the scripture says, the same yesterday today and forever? Yah does NOT change. People change and people may shift in their faith, their concepts of reality, but the same God that brought back Eutychus from the dead is there today, and he is watching over his people.
What has changed? Faith. Who has faith in this world? What is faith? Faith is trust in Yah, Simply and basely put. People have got it into their minds lately, that by some chance, the world has gotten so wicked, that Yah will not heed the call of his people and his messengers, to give his gifts to them.
How many ways is this ludicrous.... When has God showed his miracles most? Was there an abundance of God fearing people in the earth, when Elijah was the LAST prophet standing?! Were there millions of faithful and upright people in the earth, or even ONE in the 450 priests of Baal? Was Egypt an empire of love and of Godly grace when Moses was sent to bring down plagues on Pharoah, and turn the Nile into blood?
God has shown his miracles in the utmost power, always, when the world had its back turned to him and had gone their own way. And yet people seem to believe that we have gone too far this time, when the only difference between then and now is, Christ has died now??? Why did he die? Are we to believe that God would work his power in times before we had reconciliation to him, but now that we have been bought back, he cant hear us anymore?
Yah is God. He is the same God that spoke to Moses. He is the same God that spoke to Elijah. He is the same God that spoke to Yahshua (Jesus). He. Is. The. Same.
If Yah is the same, how dare we say that he has changed? What else can be assumed, by a person saying that God cannot and does not perform miracles, does not answer prayers faithfully, will not do what is asked of him WHATEVER it may be?
We are told in scripture over and over that Yah is the same, yesterday, today, and forever. We are told that all we need do is ask, anything, and it shall be granted. We are told that if we had faith as a GRAIN of mustard seed, we could move mountains! Mountains! How many here have moved a mountain? And why not? Because God has not the power to do so anymore, if called upon TO do so?
God has promised that if we ask, we WILL receive. However we must act in faith. No one has seen a miracle, because they are waiting for Yah to make the first move. Humanity says, "Show us a miracle, and we will believe." Yah says, "Believe, and I will show you a miracle."
Yah does not make the first move. As with the brothers of the rich man, in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus.. they had the testimony of Moses, and believed it not. They would not believe any more, even if one was raised from the dead to tell them to their faces.
People today would no more have faith if they saw a miracle, than if they didnt. We have sufficient evidence for faith. We have books of prophecy that have shown true time after time after time. We have the words of Christ Yahshua, we have the testimony of him throughout the entire Old Testament. We have reason after reason after reason to have faith, and if, after knowing these things we cannot trust the creator, a multitude of firey pillars could not bring faith to us, even as the children of Israel did not have faith when they wandered in the wilderness.
This is why it is so sad when someone says they wonder why Paul got a vision on the road to Damascus, and that they will believe when they have their own. They wouldnt.
Yah does not change, and his people, his reflecters, cannot change as a result. If we are his reflections on this earth, how can we be different? How can we say that those servants, those reflectors in times past, are somehow better or higher or have more faith? We are his children just as they were. We are his servants just as they were. We are the reflectors of the one true living and eternal, NEVER changing, God. If what we reflect is unchanging, how can we then say that they had the power to do it yet we do not?
Whos power is it? Is it the power of ourselves? Did Elijah make the fire rain from the sky? Did Moses make the Nile turn to blood? No. They called on the power of Yah to glorify his own name. The power was, is, and will be, Gods forever. The power is there and always will be, because it is of Yah and not of men. Men are simply his messengers, we as servants are just that, servants. We have no power of our own, all we do is what we are commisioned to do, and play the role of the highest honor any creation can ask for... the role of messenger, the role of having an active actual part in the work of Yah, our creator.
Can we do this without faith? Can we have a part in Yahs work, if we do not believe in him who has sent us?
Yah has given his people a comission to spread his word, can we fulfill the role he has for us in his work, if we do not believe him?
Do we doubt him? Do we say that he is not there? Do we say we do not have enough faith? There is no amount of faith. You have faith, or you do not have faith. Yahshua said that faith as a grain of mustard seed would be enough to call on Yah's name to remove a mountain. You have it, or you do not.
Do you have faith? Trust the word. Yah says it.... do you believe it?
It is written in his word, that whatsoever we shall ask, believing, we shall receive. Do we believe in him that created heaven and earth? Do we take his word for it, or do we shuffle our feet and say "....mm I dont knowwwww.......?"
NO!! We do not shuffle our feet, and we do not stand by and wait for Yah to make the first move. He HAS made the first move, he has given us so much evidence to believe, he has stated, clearly, in his word, that if we ask we will have it. He made you, He made earth, He made heaven, He made Angels and He made the laws of the universe. He can make whatever he wants to happen, happen. All we need do is ask him, call on his name for his glory, and he WILL answer.
We cannot be witnesses to the world if we do not have faith... We cannot preach the word to the masses if we ourselves do not believe it.
We must, if we are to make any change in anyone anywhere at any time, trust in Yah and his word. Believe him. Take our creator at face value, and know that his word is true and eternal. For, if we dont.... we are simply reading a historical comic book called "The Bible."
The word is there and has always been... it has always been the same, because it is from the mouth of He that never changes. The word is the only steadfast thing we have in this earth..... read it, and decide to believe it. Because, without faith, without choosing to believe, without deciding to trust his word over anything, over others, over our own feelings, though the heavens fall.... we are nothing but leaves wavering in the wind, waiting to be blown away.
Do not waver. Let it be known to the world that his people have the faith of Yahshua, that Yah has not changed one bit since the time he revealed to his servant John the entire book of Revelation, or the time he stopped Paul from being harmed by the bite of a viper. And, let it be known, that we are reflectors of Him in whom there is no change.
Yah bless and be with you always.
- Luke