The other day I was speaking to a dear friend after Wednesday night service, and he was telling me about an Evangelist who had traveled to Africa to minister the Word of God, but as it turned out his trip ended up being more of a learning experience for him. While in Africa spreading the gospel, this Evangelist met a women who in the name of Jesus raised 16 people up from the dead! Wow! can you imagine the kind of faith it would take to raise that many up from the dead? Some denominations teach that these things have done gone away with when the last Apostle died, but on the contrary these things still go on today!
Jesus says in John 14:12, "I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father." Jesus says in Mark 11:24, "Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours." Jesus was always talking about faith! It is impossible to please God without faith! A good example in the Bible that shows what faith can do is the women with the incurable issue of blood. She had been seen by every doctor in the land and no one could cure her, but she didn't give up. She said, "If I could only get close enough to touch Jesus' garment I will be healed!" She fought her way through the mob and did it! Mark 5:30, "At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, "Who touched my clothes?" And verses 32-34 "But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering." You see the power came from the Holy Spirit, but faith was what activated the power! The power of faith is weaved throughout the gospels. Jesus was always saying, "Your faith has healed you." He never said pray and if it be God's will it will happen and if it doesn't then it wasn't His will. No, No, No! His will is for us to have faith! Not doubt!
Now don't be running off in a ditch and start claiming Christian Science on me. Today we have people practicing doctrine based off a scripture they miss interpreted. To experience the full potential of your faith you have to use solid fundamentals. First of all faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. (Rom 10:17) You can't expect to get the results with your faith if you never hear the anointed word preached. Once you hear the Word of God preached you need to put the Word to work in your life. In other words, be a doer of the Word of God. James 1:22-25 "But don't just listen to God's word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves. For if you listen to the word and don't obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror. You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like. But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don't forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it." Often times people want to confess it and believe for blessing to come into their life, but they forget that it is the doer of the Word that receives the blessing! When used in the right way faith is a power to be reckoned with! God promises to bless those who sincerely do the work of the Father to glorify Him! Some may say, "I've tried that and it don't work!" Yeah well I can grantee that the problem lies with the man and not God. God is always faithful to His Word! God never said to be a tryer...No, He said to be a doer!
Now when you are praying like Jesus says to in Mark 11:24, "Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours." It is critical that you find scripture to stand on when you pray. God's word is full of promises to those who have the faith to believe them. Like I said earlier you can not expect to receive blessings without doing something. In this case when you pray the action is to believe. If it is healing you are believing for from God, then dust off that old Bible and find the scriptures that tells you that He bore you sickness and disease and meditate on it! Confess it with your mouth till you believe that you have received it in your heart, then go into your prayer closet or where ever you go to pray to God, and praise Him for your healing. So many want to see the healing then believe they received, but that is not what the Word says to do! Believe you receive first! Then it will be given to you! I can't stress how important it is to find scripture to back up what you are believing for. If God promised it then it is rightfully yours if you have been adopted into God's family. But avoid foolish babbling and foolish thoughts of material prosperity that don't benefit the kingdom! Yes it is true God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus! (Phil 4:19). And yes it is true that God doesn't want His children to struggle financially! But you can't expect God to go against His Word and bless you without you being a doer of the Word! Yes God wants to bless you, but not at the expense of jeopardizing His faithfulness to His Word.
Now before I close I want to stress something and lay it out there and make my point clear. There is a denomination out there that does a great job of getting souls saved, but at the same time they turn these once lost souls loose with bad doctrine. Teaching Calvinism (once saved always saved) it is false doctrine! I repeat false doctrine! This denomination gets these souls saved and then these folks go out into the world claiming to be Christians and live their lives as if nothing ever happened. So they continue on in their sinful perverted lives believing in a lie that there is nothing they can do to lose their gift of eternal life. They never submit to Jesus or make Him their Lord. They never crucified their flesh and they never renew their minds. The issue with this is that this false doctrine corrupts the flock, and other babies that are still on the milk of the word get consumed by the wolves in sheep's clothes. Anytime you teach that it is okay to give Satan a foot hold in your life there should be an immediate red flag going up in your spirit. If there is not then something is wrong. This same denomination also rejects the essential gifts of the Holy Spirit that edifies our walk and allows our spirit to commune with the Father. Why would a denomination want to restrict our ability to talk to the creator one on one and fellowship with Him? There is only one thing I can think of and that is many have yielded to their own natural human faith, and choose to not fully have faith in God. To have faith in God is to have faith in God's Word. If someone rejects the word then he rejects God Himself. Don't listen for one minute to these ravenous wolves who twist the scriptures to conform the Word of God to their beliefs. That is an abomination to God, so don't be fooled.
We believers don't have to be scared to be approached by people from this denomination. God has given us His Word (the Bible) and with it we are to filter out all the lies of this world. And that goes for false doctrine too. I am not saying this to condemn anyone but to rather make it aware that it is critical that we read and study scripture and that we practice it in our lives. This is our only defense against the enemy who prowls around looking for whom he may devour. By strapping on our full armor of God we can walk boldly and confidently in this world not bothered by the trials and tribulations in our lives because we understand that we are not here for long and that in the end it all works out for the good of those who love God!
In Christ,
Eric R. Cox
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Friday, March 5, 2010
Why Do Bad Things Happen!
Mark 3:23-25 Jesus says, ..."How can Satan drive out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand." The teachers of religious law were accusing Jesus of casting out demons by the power of demons. This scripture tells us a lot more than just casting out demons. This Scripture is true for nations divided or families divided or even churches divided. So you see what Jesus said here is a law. Just like gravity, if something is divided and no resolution is made, the outcome is it will fall or collapse. But what many fail to realise about this scripture is that is pertains to everything and everyone, even God Himself. God can not be divided against Himself. God can't love everyone then turn around and cause evil earthquakes to crumble buildings down on top of those He sacrificed His Son for. That is not God's nature, and if He did do that, then He would be divided against Himself and He would not stand because the words of Jesus says so.
What folks need to realize is that the source of these catastrophes are not from God but rather from the enemy. "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy;..." (John 10:10). So you see this scripture testifies to the source of these bad things. The second part of that verse Jesus says, "...I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." This clarifies that there are two opposing forces and that they are working against each other. They are complete opposites. It is important for us to identify the source of the problems in our lives. That way we can get in the Word and find the solutions so we can fix it with our faith in God's Word. Once we realize who the enemy is we can stand our ground easily, because Jesus has already defeated him, Satan is a defeated foe. This is true for the battles in our lives each day. The battles that take faith to conquer.
As for bad things happening such as earth quakes and other severe tragedies, these things happen because man sinned. Not because of those individuals in particular that were effected by the storms, but because Adam chose to listen to the devil. This event that took place in the garden gave birth to sin. It was the choice of man that allowed sickness and disease to enter into the world, and all of creation was effected (Gen 2:17). These things happen because of the sin of man. Some say, "God lets them happen though!" But again that is not the case. When God created the earth He gave dominion over it to Adam, and we Adam listened to the devil he yielded to him and Adam committed high treason. Adam handed over his rights to the devil and now instead of man being god of this world, the devil is the god of this world (2 Corinth 4:4).
But the devil is on borrowed time and any day now our Lord and savior Jesus Christ is going to return for His church and take them home. And Satan and his clan will be put away. God is in control of it all yes, but He is also bound by His own words. Because He is a fair God, He will not come back until all have had the same fair opportunity to come to Him through His Son Jesus Christ. Also that means that if others had endure hardships, then so will we until the whole world hears the Gospel. God has no favorites (Acts 10:34). Jesus said in Luke 6:40, "A student is not above his teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher." If we continue to build our life on God's Word then one day we will be like Jesus, Jesus died so we will die too, but when we are perfectly trained, or in other words fully developed or when we become fully mature in our faith we will be like Him and we will be resurrected from the dead like He was. And we will join Him in the heavenly places.
Don't get mad at God when bad things happen. Just know the reason why they happen is that man made a poor decision to listen to the devil. Let it serve as a reminder to us that what yielding to the enemy could cost. Though we are saved by grace through faith, that doesn't mean that we are immune to crisis. Keeping your spirit feed every day is our best defense to the enemy. So join me in a fight to take back what was lost by reading God's Word 10 minutes in the morning and praying 10 minutes in the morning, and also at night before you go to bed. This is how we are going to battle the enemy and contribute to the win at the end when victory is awarded. Glory be to God! Amen!
In Christ,
Eric R. Cox
What folks need to realize is that the source of these catastrophes are not from God but rather from the enemy. "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy;..." (John 10:10). So you see this scripture testifies to the source of these bad things. The second part of that verse Jesus says, "...I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." This clarifies that there are two opposing forces and that they are working against each other. They are complete opposites. It is important for us to identify the source of the problems in our lives. That way we can get in the Word and find the solutions so we can fix it with our faith in God's Word. Once we realize who the enemy is we can stand our ground easily, because Jesus has already defeated him, Satan is a defeated foe. This is true for the battles in our lives each day. The battles that take faith to conquer.
As for bad things happening such as earth quakes and other severe tragedies, these things happen because man sinned. Not because of those individuals in particular that were effected by the storms, but because Adam chose to listen to the devil. This event that took place in the garden gave birth to sin. It was the choice of man that allowed sickness and disease to enter into the world, and all of creation was effected (Gen 2:17). These things happen because of the sin of man. Some say, "God lets them happen though!" But again that is not the case. When God created the earth He gave dominion over it to Adam, and we Adam listened to the devil he yielded to him and Adam committed high treason. Adam handed over his rights to the devil and now instead of man being god of this world, the devil is the god of this world (2 Corinth 4:4).
But the devil is on borrowed time and any day now our Lord and savior Jesus Christ is going to return for His church and take them home. And Satan and his clan will be put away. God is in control of it all yes, but He is also bound by His own words. Because He is a fair God, He will not come back until all have had the same fair opportunity to come to Him through His Son Jesus Christ. Also that means that if others had endure hardships, then so will we until the whole world hears the Gospel. God has no favorites (Acts 10:34). Jesus said in Luke 6:40, "A student is not above his teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher." If we continue to build our life on God's Word then one day we will be like Jesus, Jesus died so we will die too, but when we are perfectly trained, or in other words fully developed or when we become fully mature in our faith we will be like Him and we will be resurrected from the dead like He was. And we will join Him in the heavenly places.
Don't get mad at God when bad things happen. Just know the reason why they happen is that man made a poor decision to listen to the devil. Let it serve as a reminder to us that what yielding to the enemy could cost. Though we are saved by grace through faith, that doesn't mean that we are immune to crisis. Keeping your spirit feed every day is our best defense to the enemy. So join me in a fight to take back what was lost by reading God's Word 10 minutes in the morning and praying 10 minutes in the morning, and also at night before you go to bed. This is how we are going to battle the enemy and contribute to the win at the end when victory is awarded. Glory be to God! Amen!
In Christ,
Eric R. Cox
Monday, March 1, 2010
The Greatest of These is Love
Wow can you believe that it is already March...Man where has the time gone? From time to time I pause to take a journey to look back at where the Lord has brought me from. And for a brief moment there is a celebration in my spirit. A celebration that I think brings back to remembrance of what God has done for me. And I believe that it is important to look back and see where you used to be, so you can appreciate what you are now. I believe that if you don't do that from time to time you become desensitised to the love God has poured on you. As a result you yourself may become less in tune with the very purpose we are here on this earth in the first place.
No matter where your walk may take you or where you are at in your walk, love needs to be at the front. People are graced in many different areas for the kingdom, and have their own place for the purpose of God. But all parts of the body have one thing in common. With out the blood, that part is useless. Just like our physical bodies need blood to survive, the body of Christ can not and will not survive without Love. 1 John 4:8 says, Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. So we see here that God is Love. How many don't stop to think about this. If God is love then how much of God is in me? Do I stop to think about others and offer the love of God to everyone without favoritism, or do I pick and chose who I want to offer the love of God to? If not, how does someone become more like Christ?
First of all you have to be born again and not just say the words, but actually receive the Holy Spirit. You will have proof of this for it says in 1 John 4:12-13, No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us. And God has given us his Spirit as proof that we live in him and he in us. There is no such thing as not knowing weather or not you are born again, His Spirit is proof and with His Spirit in you, you can not hide the love for one another. This same Spirit is the very same Spirit that is in Jesus The Anointed One. The One who loved each and everyone of us before we surrendered our lives to Him. Before, when we were sick along with the worst in the world. That same love that drove Jesus Christ to the cross at Calvary, is the same love that dwells inside the born again believer. If there is no compassion and no love for one another in you, then you missed it. No matter what great deed you did, no matter if you cast out a thousand demons in the name of Jesus, no matter if you healed ten thousand sick in the name of Jesus, and no matter if you were a good person and didn't do any wrong to anyone...Without love for one another you will not qualify for the Kingdom of Heaven that is at hand...
John 1:1 says that God is the Word. So in order to be walking in Love, you must put the word first in life. Applying the Word to your life is applying the love to it, remember God is Love. When you are being a doer of the Word, what you are really doing is walking in the highest form of power, which is love. You can apply all the fundamentals of faith to your life, and you may get a few good results, but when you apply love to all of those fundamentals, you super charge that faith and you can't help but be a blessing to everyone you come into contact with. Love prospers everyone so if you aren't prospering, try loving everyone and watch your life turn from barely enduring to overflowing. And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.(1 Corinthians 13:13)
Saints, being a doer of the Word of God is going to be our best defense against Satan and his clan. By following God's commandment to Love one another (John 15:12), this allows the Spirit of God to operate for us. The world has stole some ground from us, and the only way we will be able to gain it back is to get God involved. What better way to fight against the enemy then to release the very Spirit of God upon our enemies by loving them? Loving your enemies forces them to change their position against you. If you are walking in love your enemy will see that and one of two things will happen, they will either repent and join you in love, or they will turn and flee. That is the power of Love...
May God bless you all who love one another!
In Christ,
Eric R. Cox
No matter where your walk may take you or where you are at in your walk, love needs to be at the front. People are graced in many different areas for the kingdom, and have their own place for the purpose of God. But all parts of the body have one thing in common. With out the blood, that part is useless. Just like our physical bodies need blood to survive, the body of Christ can not and will not survive without Love. 1 John 4:8 says, Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. So we see here that God is Love. How many don't stop to think about this. If God is love then how much of God is in me? Do I stop to think about others and offer the love of God to everyone without favoritism, or do I pick and chose who I want to offer the love of God to? If not, how does someone become more like Christ?
First of all you have to be born again and not just say the words, but actually receive the Holy Spirit. You will have proof of this for it says in 1 John 4:12-13, No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us. And God has given us his Spirit as proof that we live in him and he in us. There is no such thing as not knowing weather or not you are born again, His Spirit is proof and with His Spirit in you, you can not hide the love for one another. This same Spirit is the very same Spirit that is in Jesus The Anointed One. The One who loved each and everyone of us before we surrendered our lives to Him. Before, when we were sick along with the worst in the world. That same love that drove Jesus Christ to the cross at Calvary, is the same love that dwells inside the born again believer. If there is no compassion and no love for one another in you, then you missed it. No matter what great deed you did, no matter if you cast out a thousand demons in the name of Jesus, no matter if you healed ten thousand sick in the name of Jesus, and no matter if you were a good person and didn't do any wrong to anyone...Without love for one another you will not qualify for the Kingdom of Heaven that is at hand...
John 1:1 says that God is the Word. So in order to be walking in Love, you must put the word first in life. Applying the Word to your life is applying the love to it, remember God is Love. When you are being a doer of the Word, what you are really doing is walking in the highest form of power, which is love. You can apply all the fundamentals of faith to your life, and you may get a few good results, but when you apply love to all of those fundamentals, you super charge that faith and you can't help but be a blessing to everyone you come into contact with. Love prospers everyone so if you aren't prospering, try loving everyone and watch your life turn from barely enduring to overflowing. And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.(1 Corinthians 13:13)
Saints, being a doer of the Word of God is going to be our best defense against Satan and his clan. By following God's commandment to Love one another (John 15:12), this allows the Spirit of God to operate for us. The world has stole some ground from us, and the only way we will be able to gain it back is to get God involved. What better way to fight against the enemy then to release the very Spirit of God upon our enemies by loving them? Loving your enemies forces them to change their position against you. If you are walking in love your enemy will see that and one of two things will happen, they will either repent and join you in love, or they will turn and flee. That is the power of Love...
May God bless you all who love one another!
In Christ,
Eric R. Cox
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