Psuedo Faith vs. Real Faith

Pseudo-Faith = telling everyone you're believing God while you tell them specifics of all the things you need and all your circumstances.
Real Faith = telling God about your needs and circumstances. And going from that point with thanksgiving that the need is already met.

The first puts trust in others being moved with compassion, the later puts trust in God moving with His power to prove Himself faithful to His Word! Are you a manipulator of Psuedo-Faith or a Activator of REAL Faith?

I often notice in social media and in person, some people will tell you every single burden in their life and every single thing they are believing for, usually material and/or financial. I believe some of these people have a misconception of what real faith is. It's almost as if "faith" and "believing God" and "making good confessions" are used to manipulate others into being your provider. I've never felt comfortable with such behavior. Perhaps it's the way I was brought up and the ministers I was brought up under. Raised on Kenneth E. Hagin, Kenneth W. Hagin, Kenneth Copeland, Creflo Dollar, Scott Webb, Jesse Duplantis, and many other leaders in the faith movement some of who have gone on to be with The Lord, I had many years of the Word of Faith being planted deeply in my heart. I never heard these ministers instruct people to speak their problems to others, in fact I heard them talk against such behavior. And most importantly, in the Word I have never seen examples of such behavior. What I have seen is encouragement to speak, with your mouth, to the circumstances and to thank God for His Word and Promises and faithfulness to perform His Word! To tell people all your circumstances and problems, will cause well meaning people to "feel led" to give to you, because compassion rises at hearing your need. And then, if you have a conscious, you have the guilt of feeling like you manipulated a "blessing" out of them. I speak from personal experience, I have been in a place where I was pressured and pressured because someone wanted me to do something with them that I didn't have the finances for. However, I knew this person's heart and giving personality and didn't want to take advantage of it. I kept making excuses and finally got pressured into telling them I didn't have the finances to do it, and of course they said they were providing and wouldn't take no for an answer. Even in that instance I felt so guilty. Felt like a manipulator. We never want to live life like that, and we never want to go through life questioning whether we manipulated the "blessing" into working for us, and begin to question faith. That's when we enter into works and get to a place where it's me making faith work and it's my power, and forget why faith works.

When we get unbalanced in reference to the gospel, we find our selves doing things in our own strength, using cute "Christianese" and "faith-lingo" to sound like faith warriors when really we are carpetbaggers riding on the coattails of victory, using and manipulating it for our own personal advancement and material gain. True faith works in an entirely different manner. The believer that truly understand faith and how it works appears to be facing no serious battles. Often a true warrior of faith is understated by those around them. They appear to have a carefree life never facing serious issues like WE face, by the casual onlooker. But the truth of the matter is, they wage spiritual warfare on the true battlefield. They know who their source is, and it is not people. They understand people may be a vessel, but the vessel only transfers what is needed from the source to the receiver. They understand God is their source and that He is the one who takes care of them. They may be facing battles you can't even fathom, but you'd never know it. Because they know the victory has already been won, they've taken hold of it and seized it by faith in the midnight hours and they have joy and peace because they know God will bring it to pass!

It is truly wonderful to see God bring about answers to the deepest desires of your heart, to prayers and needs you've told no one but Him about. When these things happen, faith explodes and grows. Your vision and capacity to believe increases enormously. I've experienced such events in my life as well. Once small example, my sister and I were struggling financially during our time at bible school. I had no money and was waiting on a paycheck that got delayed. We had boxed Mac and cheese, some butter, and soured milk that was gross to smell. We made Mac and cheese and ate it, feeling reminiscent of the widow woman who said to the prophet, "I have enough to make a meal for my son and I, and then we will die." perhaps our situation wasn't that drastic, but at the time it felt like it as we had no idea where our next meal was coming from, BUT GOD. We told no one, not even our parents. As we ate, we prayed over our food and prayed that our storehouses were full, even though in the natural our cupboards and fridge were empty, we chose to believe God's Word works. The next day, bags of fresh groceries were on our door. And it was all really nice, organic and top of the line! We ate like queens! We cried and knew it was ALL God! Our faith in Him and Him alone had activated the blessing in our life. Like manna from heaven, groceries we needed to survive until the finances turned around were provided, and we ate even better than we had been eating off of our own finances. When you put your trust in God and His word, it is an unexplainable feeling of joy that HE,not another person, BUT HE heard the cries of your heart and your greatest needs and HE was faithful to perform His Word in your life!

When God meets your needs, it's always bigger and better!

That is truly living by faith and in God's prosperity!

Who is your source?

JRT

In the Midnight Hour

In the Midnight Hour

Written: October 31, 2011

Tonight, I am just so thankful for the Word of God and the knowledge of the Authority of the Believer. I am so thankful for having grown up in a Rhema graduate's home and basically attending Rhema my whole life. So thankful that rather than fun, silly music about the "Itsy Bitsy Spider" my parents raised us on David Ingles, Rhema Singers and Band, Shekinah Glory, SuperKids, and other faith-filled music because we needed it last night!

Last night right around midnight I went into my sister's room to check on her because she hadn't been feeling well. When I went in and saw her, it was obvious something was not right. She was burning up with fever, but she was shivering like someone with hypothermia and saying she was freezing, yet her head and body were on fire. Her hands, feet, and lower legs were white as snow and had no warmth, they literally felt like ice. If I touched her, she said it hurt and she said her stomach felt terrible, her head felt like it was going to explode, and she just hurt and ached all over. I am not going to lie, at that moment fear began to take hold of my mind, but something on the inside stirred and I knew what she needed. I laid my hands on her and spoke the Word over her body. I went into my room still not at peace with the circumstances and knew I needed to call my parents to let them know what was going on.

The Fear of Rejection

 A growing plague among young people is the fear of rejection. I speak both from my own personal experience and also from observation. I have seen so many fail to reach their full potential because they were crippled by fear. What causes such fear? I believe it is the result of societal lies and images of what is acceptable and beautiful that gives us a wrong view of ourselves.

Speaking from personal experience, I know the hardships of people rejecting you for who you are and the challenge of trying to fit the “mold” that society presents as normal. As a young person I was often rejected by people because of my strong faith and beliefs. I was even benched on an athletic team because the coach discovered I was one of those “Hagin-ites” and “tongue-talkers,” which, as a young and impressionable person, is very disheartening. I often lost friends because they wanted me to let loose on my standards and compromise a little here and there, and I wouldn’t. Guys didn’t want to date me because I talked too much (I am a big talker as any of you who know me well can attest, but I know my future husband will love that about me.) and my strong faith intimidated them because I was too mature in that area. This lead to some years of feeling slightly isolated, actually very isolated. I began to think something was wrong with me and just could never understand why people didn’t want me in their life, simply because I loved God and was passionate about His love and goodness. As a result I developed insecurity and fear of talking to people, when before nothing could stop me because I knew I was going to travel the world and preach the Gospel. Years passed and I began to tone down my Christianity and faith. Kept quiet about it and sadly, looking back, lost the opportunity to truly be a light to some people who were in dire need of truth. I allowed the fear of rejection to cripple me from being the person I was and the person God called me to be. I wouldn’t talk much, was known for being so sweet and quiet and accepting, and had lots of “friends” but now I couldn’t stand the person I had become. I began crying out to God and He began speaking to me and reminding me of the life I was born for, I remember so vividly hearing His voice one night, “I didn’t call you to be like them, I called you to make them like you…. SPOTLESS in my sight. You were created for more than this, Jessica.” That was a wakeup call to me and I got my fire back and began moving back to the boldness and faith that I had once had, which cost me those “friends” but looking back I see following God was worth the price to be able to reach the people He’s called me to reach. It took a long time, but I was able to trust God, listen to His voice and get back to being myself, the uniquely special person He created me to be.

And no, everything hasn’t been perfect since then, and I’ve had to deal with people coming in and out of my life because they don’t understand me or because I’m a stickler for preaching the UNcompromised Word, but I am becoming more and more confident in the person He created me to be and not allowing the fear of rejection to rule in my life. Even now that fear will try to creep in through circumstances, but that is when I remind myself of who I am in Christ and the call that is on my life and that words have been spoken over my life and I will have to go alone for a while, but in the end it will all be worth it! The path of following God and not compromising is usually one that not many walk on, and there will be times where you feel like you are the only one, but I’d rather walk on the right path alone than to follow the crowd on the path of mediocrity.

Now, why am I sharing all this? Is it to talk about myself? Most certainly not, but I needed to share some experience to build on and what God has been speaking to me about, through my own life on this topic. I have really been seeing this fear prevalent in young people lately, just go to the mall and you will see. At the mall and other public places I see young people who all dress and act alike and sometimes you’ll hear the group mock one girl or guy for expressing an idea that they think is stupid because it isn’t their social norm. It saddens me the pressure of perfection that is placed on young people; we’ve lost the freedom of individuality and uniqueness. And I know this breaks God’s heart, because He put such thought and care into creating each one of us unique and special, He didn’t create us to be clones! It seems, though, that this fear of rejection causes people to not truly be who they were called to be and to simply follow the crowd. I know it is a ploy of the enemy to keep us down and to cripple us from being all that God has destined us for.

I am reminded of the story of Esther. Esther was a Jew living in Persia and hid her true identity to find favor with the king. So, she hid the fact that she was a Jew and even changed her name from Hadassah to a Persian name, Esther, and ended up winning the king’s favor, winning his heart, and was crowned his queen, sort of a fairytale if I may say. But the story tells much more, it is truly a story of destiny, as God didn’t call Esther to simply live the rest of her life enjoying the comforts of the palace while her people were slaughtered. Esther had to face the fear of rejection, but this rejection had a much great price than losing a friendship or acquaintance.  If the king rejected her, she could be executed. Now, that is what I call fear of rejection, but Esther faced that fear and overcame it. She marched right into the throne room uninvited and waited to see if he would reject her or accept her. As many know, he raised his scepter and allowed her to approach, but the story doesn’t end there. She had to reveal her true personality to him, the fact that she was a Jew, not Persian, and again face the fear of rejection wondering if he would banish her or even execute her with her people. She eventually told him the truth and because she overcame the fear of rejection and looked to the fact that God had a destiny and divine purpose and plan for her life she was able to save her people from Haman’s noose.

If Queen Esther could overcome the fear of rejection, that came with the threat of death, and go on to fulfill the destiny God had laid out for her life, I believe we can too. We just have to trust God and know that he made us and our personalities uniquely different for a reason, even though we may not fully see “why” at this stage in our life. I know that He has a great and divine plan for each of us and when we live free from the fear of rejection we are able to walk fully in ALL that God has for us! In this freedom you will be able to go anywhere in life that God has promised you!

Let His voice reign supreme in your life and let the voice and criticism of others just roll off you back, like water off a duck’s back!

You were born for glory!

A Voice of Boldness,

JRT

Rejected Love

        

I have noticed that one of the primary areas the devil targets us is in our love walk. He always seems to find the right person, to push the right buttons that push you away from them, while the whole while you are trying your best to walk in love. Often he send the people closest to us to break our heart and make us never what to extend the unconditional love we had given that person to another, in an effort to protect ourselves. Many times love is the key factor to many people’s problems. A depletion of love, being denied love, false love… and so on. More often than not, it is these people you invested your heart into, the people you freely gave to, who the devil uses to turn on you.

It is so hard to live in this world and truly show agape, the God-kind of love, to other human beings. And often, this is where we fail. We become hardened because we never want to hurt like that again. I am one who is guilty of that, having experienced past and recent hurts that push you to the edge to where you just want to shut your heart to people completely, never to be hurt again. And why is it that some of us seem to be gluttons for punishment and still keep loving people who “despitefully use us,” who speak wickedly of us, who rip our heart out of our chest and stomp it into a million pieces? Is it because we are weak cowards with no backbone to defend ourselves? Is it? I chose to believe that is the exact opposite of that and that believing the previous is a worldly view.

Diligence: Get Busy for God!

“If you’ll get busy for God, then, when He gets ready for you to do something else, He’ll know where to look for you. If you’re not busy, He’ll know you wouldn’t do it anyhow, so He’ll know there’s no use in talking to you, ‘cause you wouldn’t do it anyway. Sometimes people say, ‘Well I just don’t know what my place is, so I’m waiting to find out.’ Well, they’ll be waiting 10 years from now, if they’re not careful, and doing nothing. Do whatever your hand finds to do, and you’ll find as you’re busy working for God He’ll open up other doors to you, and He’ll witness to your spirit and to your heart just what He does want you to do!” ~ Kenneth E. Hagin

Hebrews 6:9-12

 "     Even though we speak this way, yet in your case, beloved, we are now firmly convinced of better things that are near to salvation and accompany it.

    For God is not unrighteous to forget or overlook your labor and the love which you have shown for His name's sake in ministering to the needs of the saints (His own consecrated people), as you still do.

    But we do [strongly and earnestly] desire for each of you to show the same diligence and sincerity [all the way through] in realizing and enjoying the full assurance and development of [your] hope until the end,

    In order that you may not grow disinterested and become [spiritual] sluggards, but imitators, behaving as do those who through faith (by their leaning of the entire personality on God in Christ in absolute trust and confidence in His power, wisdom, and goodness) and by practice of patient endurance and waiting are [now] inheriting the promises."

We need to be diligent in our work. I found the following definition of diligence inspiring:

Diligence is a zealous and careful nature in one's actions and work, exemplified by a decisive work ethic, budgeting of one's time, monitoring one's own activities to guard against laziness, and putting forth full concentration in one's work... 

Diligence is the act of doing all things efficiently and relentlessly to the best of one's ability in order to achieve success in every endeavor.

This is how we should approach every task we perform! In doing this, we exemplify our maturity and ability to take on greater tasks. If God sees that he can trust us with the "small" things He WILL use us for the "big" things! Praise God! 

Seek to be diligent in everything you set your hand to and watch doors of opportunity open up right and left! God's got an AMAZING plan for YOUR life, just hold on to His hand and you WILL see that His Word IS TRUE!!!!  Don't you DARE allow satan to rob you of that hope, YOU will walk in those things God has placed in your heart. Your past is in the past, you can't change that, but you CAN change your present and future by being diligent to do that which honors God.... even if that means cleaning the toilets at your church. God took a illiterate, british plumber and used him to RAISE THE DEAD and CHANGE THE WORLD! That "illiterate, british plumber" was Smith Wigglesworth! Just think about it..... if God could use someone from that background to change the world, imagine what he can do with YOUR life!!!!!!! :) 


BLESSINGS,
JRT <3 

"Come on, God, I'll Put You Up in a Great Condo!"

Recently I watched a movie that some of you may be familiar with, in this movie a guy stops to ask for directions and meets a girl, eventually things develop between the two and the guy realizes he has feelings for the girl but he isn't ready to make a serious commitment to her, so he forms a compromise. He offers to put her up in a nice apartment, get her a car and some money, and take care of her so that when he is in town he can stop by and see her. Her response to this offer is what struck me, she says the following statement:

When I was a little girl, my mama used to lock me in the attic when I was bad, which was pretty often. And I would- I would pretend I was a princess... trapped in a tower by a wicked queen. And then suddenly this knight... on a white horse with these colors flying would come charging up and draw his sword. And I would wave. And he would climb up the tower and rescue me. But never in all the time... that I had this dream did the knight say to me, "Come on, baby, I'll put you up in a great condo."

After watching this movie, this quote just really stuck with me and God began to use it to speak to me about Christians. How many times do so called Christians make similar offers to God?

You ARE Welcome in This Place!

I just wanted to share this AWESOME song with you guys! 

This is what Worship is all about, inviting/welcoming the presence of God and the move of the Holy Spirit into our services and gatherings as believers. THAT is what REALLY changes the hearts and minds and lives of the people. Not a rock climbing wall for the kids, cappuccino and Christ, or all the other man plans, but opening ourselves up to do HIS will and flow with the move of HIS spirit!

I Love God, but Not Enough to Tithe...

Abram tithed before there was a law to tithe, he was not under 'mandate' to tithe. He did it out of love for God. He gave His son to die for us out of love, then out of love we should do the things He has asked us to do. If you claim to love God with all your heart, all your soul, all your spirit, then He should not have to make you tithe, you should tithe because you Love Him. If you say you love God then show Him! Top of Form

What happened to the GOOD NEWS?

Today I was righteously angered when I heard the following song playing on the Christian radio station ... No wonder people aren't eager to be Christians! Will someone please tell me how this is the Gospel/GOOD NEWS?????????

Held
Two months is too little
They let him go
They had no sudden healing
To Think That Providence
Would take a child from his mother
While she prays, is appalling

A God of Limitations?

God is only a God of limitations, when we place limits on Him because of our underestimation of His ability and lack of knowledge in who He is! He is still the God who supercedes our expectations, desires, needs, etc. He is still the God of the Bible! He NEVER changes, so if He doesn't look mighty to you, check your thoughts!


"Now to Him Who, by (in consequence of) the [action of His] power that is at work within us, is able to [carry out His purpose and] do superabundantly, far over and above all that we [dare] ask or think [infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, hopes, or dreams]--"
Eph. 3:20 AMP

I Want to be a True Child of God

Wow, this verse is pretty clear!


Those who think they are exempt from correction and discipline are illegitimate offspring of God... That's not my opinion that is what the Bible says, puts a fire under you to make sure you are listening to God and any correction He may be speaking into your life.

He does it because He loves us, not because He wants to be mean!!!! I don't want to be an illegitimate child of God, illegitimate children tend not to inherit the family blessing and end up hidden in a shack somewhere. I don't know about you, but I sure do want to be a true, legitimate child of God and inherit all the blessings and benefits that are included in that and live in the family mansion...