What do you believe? Do you believe you are protecting someone when you tell them that what they are attempting to accomplish will not work or is impossible? Do you warn and educate others in the ‘reality’ of a situation to keep them from being disappointed?
Pastor Rick Renner shares how fellow Christians tried to keep him from being disappointed and obeying what he felt God was asking him to do. “When God called us to start our church in the heart of Moscow, people came crawling out of the woodwork to tell us, ‘Moscow is the seat of demonic principalities and powers. This heavily concentrated demonic influence is so strong that no one has been able to break through and establish a powerful church in the heart of Moscow. We want to prepare you so you won’t be too disappointed, because you probably won’t be able to do it either!’” Thankfully, this pastor did not allow others to influence his decisions and chose to trust God. His faith in God allowed him to plant and grow a thriving church in the heart of Moscow! When we believe and trust God, He is glorified!
Jesus says in Mark 9:23 “…if thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.” “The word ‘believeth’ is the Greek word pisteuonti, from the word pistes, the Greek word for faith. However, when pistes becomes pisteuonti, as in this verse, it pictures a person who is believing. This is not someone that once had an experience of faith in the past; rather, this is a person who is presently believing right now. He didn’t just believe in the past; his is a believer. His faith is actively reaching forward right now to grab hold of what God has promised. His faith is habitually, constantly, consistently, unwaveringly straining forward to take hold of that desired goal he sees before him!” (Sparkling Gems from the Greek by Rick Renner)
If God asks you to do something, or gives you the desire to accomplish a particular goal in your heart then act in faith and do it. As fellow Christians what right do we have to tell another that his goals will not succeed? In 1 Thessalonians 5:11 ESV God asks us to build one another up. “Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.” God never tells us to remind people of the slim statistical chances and likely impossibility of what they are setting out to accomplish, praying or believing God for. Our God specializes in ‘small chances!’ As 2019 approaches and your friends and family share resolutions with you choose to encourage them and build them up in faith and remember that with God ‘all things are possible!’
Written by Jamie Shaver