Category: Hope

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A true worker of God heals every person he prays for

Recently, a very young Christian who we had just met asked us to pray for a woman acquaintance of hers. We asked what type of prayer was needed. She explained that her non-Christian, non-believing friend, had suffered tremendously in recent years with the sickness of anorexia, which was kicked in beyond her control as a result of a traumatic divorce. The sick woman’s daughter had threatened to kill both her mom and herself “to put both of them out of their misery”. The young Christian then went on to list crisis after crisis this poor woman had experienced in recent past, to convince us that this woman needed our prayers. She said that she had tried to witness to the woman, but the woman would have nothing to do with the Word of God.

As gently as we could, we told our young Christian friend that we would not be praying for this woman. Our friend was aghast, and wondered aloud to her church community how people professing to be Christians could refuse to pray for somebody in such dire straights. She cried to common acquaintances that our position to not pray made a mockery of the love of Christ and bordered on wickedness. Finally, she got up the nerve and shared her disappointment with us.

As a very young Christian, our friend cannot know the ways of the LORD God. It takes concentrated study, practice, walking and grace through the LORD God to gain the mature understandings to grow in the faith. It doesn’t happen overnight, and it doesn’t happen to all Christians.

So often, new Christians think that being a Christian requires you to submit to all worldly pain and suffering in the name of Christ. Sometimes, even older Christians believe that we should attempt to change all pain and suffering in the world. This position causes the servants of Christ to become servants of worldly wickedness.

A wise believer once said to me that a “true man of God heals every person that he prays for.” A doubtful acquaintance looked at him in astonishment and said “that’s not possible…there has never been that many healings on the face of this earth!” The wise man answered “I didn’t say he prayed often for healings! A true man of God knows the ways of the LORD God, so knows the times to pray, and knows when to keep quiet!”

A Christian can never do the Will of the LORD God if he does not know the Way of the LORD God. Yes, the LORD God is completely capable of healing all sickness and disease that exist today. The LORD God is able to wipe out wickedness and change the fortunes of men. The LORD God can do anything He wants. BUT……He does not do anything at a whim. All Works of the LORD God are purposeful and planned, and follow specific ways.

If a mature Christian were to approach the LORD God with a request that conflicted with the LORD God’s ways, then the LORD God would think him a fool. If the LORD God has given the understanding of His ways to a person, that person is then responsible for honoring His ways in their works. The responsibility of every great child, in a very great family, is honoring the ways of the great Father, always.

Kathy L. McFarland, MDiv.

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Why should Christians focus on Word of God, rather than being led solely by the Holy Spirit?

As all things are among Christian brothers and sisters, I was dealing with this exact topic recently in a very painful way. We were forced to meet once again with some people who spitefully use us, who desire our downfall at the least, and admittedly plan for the news of our death gleefully. Needless to say, this meeting is not one we cherish in our walk with Christ, and not one we would even wish on our worst enemies. But yet, we go, over and over, because our precious Jesus Christ has instructed us to do just that.

We talked about if we could ever stop this torturous meeting arranged by people who have such a hatred of us because we love Jesus Christ. We concluded that our actions and our walk identify us as Christians. If we did not live Christ’s Word in the rough times, as well as the easy times, then we would become worse than the most worldly wicked, and betraying our dedication to our Lord.

Your point of Christians quoting the Word of God, but living the ways of darkness was right on. So many Christians are thumping their Bibles, and walking the way of the world. So many know the words, but don’t have the Spirit to guide them. Many gain their stature and their strength from the Word to implement their own agendas.

In fact, every Christian I have ever met has fallen short of Christ’s teachings.

We believe that the Word of God is the Words to us from Jesus Christ. When we hold the Word of God, when we read His Words, it is as True as if Jesus Christ was speaking the Words directly to us.

We have seen these Words twisted and wrongly used by pretend Christians. We have seen pure Christian souls dirtied with the leaven of greed and false teachings.

If we know the Word of God, but fail to embrace and live the Spirit, then our walk with Christ is a lie.

Your stance, however, that studying the Word of God is causing unfavorable eternal consequences for those who study their Bibles, or your suggestion to focus study of the four Gospels only, without regard to the complete Word of God, is wrong.

Please consider this. If you had not known the Word of God, if you had not had access to the Word of God, then you might not have found the Truth of living and walking in the Spirit. Certainly God would have sent His Spirit to guide you toward Him, but so would have the demons of wickedness to guide you away.

I truly do not know how one can know who to listen to with confidence about Jesus Christ today. And if you can’t listen about Jesus Christ from anyone, and it is wrong as you suggest to study the Bible, then I fear you are preventing many people from considering a spiritual life led by Him.

I understand the spirit of your point, because we have the same point.

Every study we have ever done displays the Scripture, and allows the students to know and discern the Truth as led by the Spirit. That’s our whole point, and why we struggle daily to get people to open their Bibles.

Many of our confused brothers and sisters in Christ have been so brainwashed and so tricked by false teachers and false prophets, by greed and power, by laziness and educational arrogance, that they are going to be lost. If the foundation of Jesus Christ is not built on the Truth of His Word, then it is going to fall.

Please remember that young Christians do not have that basic knowledge, because of the ways of the world today, and they have no way of knowing, unless someone leads them in the name of Christ. If they have studied the Word of God, they’re gonna know who to listen to, and how they should really act, to bring glory to His Name.

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Endure with Hope

One summer day my family was lazily floating in individual inner tubes down the Clearwater River. It was the perfect day and the perfect time, and the slow moving river would offer a little excitement every once in a while with a tiny rapid or two. We’d hit those rapids with excitement, shoot down the river for a couple hundred yards, and then settle back down to the gentle flow of normalcy.

The perfect day was suddenly interrupted by horrible screams of animals piercing our peace from somewhere upriver. We all turned our inner tubes as quickly as we could, and scanned the river for signs of the terrible noises that were screaming behind us.

Black clumps of hair, seven of them, were struggling to stay afloat. Kittens, an apparent burden to their owner, had been tossed out the car window into the river. We watched in horror as one, and then another, gave up their struggles of survival, and sank below the surface of the water.

They were so far from us, that we could not get to them in time to rescue. I remember shouting as loud as I could to my son to follow me upstream, as we tried to figure out how to help drowning animals out of our reach.

It was that shout that drew the attention of one of the kittens that was farthest from our grasp. That kitten focused on us, and suddenly changed direction in the river, and started paddling toward us. He had over a half mile to swim, and his brothers and sisters were going under and drowning in front of him.

We knew the chances of the kitten reaching us seemed hopeless, but we watched the last kitten swim with the determination of one with Hope.

A mile and forty minutes later, that little kitten made it to our tubes, and we quickly scooped it from the water, held it tight, and let it catch its breath. It survived because he had hope of rescue, from seeing salvation floating far ahead of him. Where his brothers and sisters had given up, he endured, because he knew he could.

Scientists have found the same conditioning in rats. To test their theory that rats can have hope, they put them in a container of water. The rats would struggle to swim, but at some point give up, and begin to drown after a few short minutes. At the moment when drowning was imminent, the Scientist would reach down and pull the rat out of the water.

The next time the rat was tested with the same conditions, he was able to swim for hours, rather than minutes. It was the hope, the knowledge of rescue, which gave him the strength to go on.

Christians endure and survive because of hope. It is hope in our salvation, in our rescue, in our survival, in our eternal life, and in our loving Savior Jesus Christ, that gives us the strength to continue in spite of all odds.

There is no doubt that we go through many trials and tribulations. There is no question that we suffer from persecutions because of our faith. It is well known that the pains and hardships of a Christian who walks faithfully are sometimes overwhelming to those looking from the outside.

But we have HOPE, and it is that HOPE that let’s us survive to live another day. Our enemies from the darkness do not have HOPE.

When attacks are coming your way, remember and endure! It is endurance that comes from Hope, and if you are a Christian, you are able to go that extra mile to survive another day. So have patience, complete the Works He Wills you to do, and have full assurance of hope unto the End!

“For God [is] not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love, which ye have shewed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister. And we desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end: That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.” (Hebrews 6:10-12 KJV)