"Erase All Doubt"

 "Jesus saith unto her, Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?" (John 11:40 KJV)

  "For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare and not carnal but mighty in God for the pulling down of strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled." (2 Corinthians 10:4-6 NKJV) 

 Not quite sure what I said, but someone was not happy about my post yesterday. Regardless, this is more than just some sort of hinderance to faith, it holds back those who God wants to use, by making them think they are unusable! Think about that poor widow, she gave as a sacrifice, not out of her abundance. She could have easily thought to herself, this offering is worthless, and compares nothing with that which others are giving. But she gave it based upon faith! 

 Okay, so maybe the simplicity of that statement gets overused and has grown stale. But faith is only as good as what you put that faith into! Do you believe that Jesus is the Son of God? If so, then put down your physical weapons, whatever that represents, and start using your spiritual weapons, for the tearing down of the strongholds in your life! What is a stronghold, besides that which is holding back! 

 What was blocking Martha from seeing God's glory? Well, her brother being dead for one; that surely set her up for needing a little recovery. But being that he had been dead for four days, that was pretty much the clincher. Jewish tradition of belief, supposed that the soul would circle around the body for two or three days, hoping to get back inside; but after decay started setting in, the soul would give up and leave. 

 Really, it doesn't matter what was going on inside her heart and mind, she just needed to believe in Jesus Christ, which means, she needed to believe that what He said was what He meant, period! If He said that it is so, then it is so! If Jesus said your sins are forgiven, then they are no more, and you can start living a sinless life!

 But I still sin! Then start sinning less! And when you have removed sin, replace it with good deeds, not with a lesser sin! Sin is still sin, regardless of what it might be; if God is asking you not to do certain things, then you must be obedient to what He says. And if God is telling you to do certain things, then you must be obedient to do them, otherwise, that becomes sin, for not being obedient! 

 Think about this and place yourself in Abraham's shoes. God told Abraham to leave his father's land, and to go into a land that God would show him. Abraham's leaving the land is what God used to count Abraham righteous. Did Abraham sin after God called him righteous? If lying is a sin, then that would count against him; but God did not count a sin against him, and still called him righteous.

 We get so caught up on what we see with our own eyes, but fail to see what God sees! God is Judge, Jury, and Prosecutor, there is no one else that we will answer to, period...

"Clearly. God's promise to give the whole earth to Abraham and his descendants was based not on his obedience to God's law, but on a right relationship with God that comes from faith, If God's promise is only for those who obey the law, then faith is not necessary and the promise is pointless. For the law always brings punishment on those who try to obey it. (The only way to avoid breaking the law is to have no law to break!) So the promise is received by faith. It is given as a free gift. And we are all certain to receive it, whether or not we live according to the law of Moses, if we have faith like Abraham's. For Abraham is the father of all who believe. That is what the Scriptures when God told him, "I have made you the father of many nations." This happened because Abraham believed in the God who brings the dead back to life and who creates new things out of nothing." (Romans 4:13-17 NLT)