“All things are possible to him that believes” (Mark 9:23). 

Real moral fibre is developed through discipline of faith.

You have made your request of God, but the answer does not come.
What are you to do? 
Keep on believing God’s Word.

Never be moved away from it by what you see or feel, and thus as you stand steady, enlarged power and experience is being developed. The fact of looking at the apparent contradiction as to God’s Word and being unmoved from your position of faith make you stronger on every other line. 

Often God delays purposely.
And the delay is just as much an answer to your prayer as is the fulfillment when it comes. 

In the lives of all the great Bible characters, God worked thus.
Abraham, Moses and Elijah were not great in the beginning-
– but were made great through the discipline of their faith, and only thus were they fitted for the positions to which God had called them. 

In the case of Joseph whom the Lord was training for the throne of Egypt-
“The Word of the Lord tried him.” 

It was not the prison life with its hard beds or poor food that tried him.
But it was the Word God had spoken into his heart in the early years concerning elevation and honour which were greater than his brethren were to receive; it was this which was ever before him, when every step in his career made it seem more and more impossible of fulfilment, until he was there imprisoned, and all in innocence, while others who were perhaps justly incarcerated, were released, and he was left to languish alone. 

These were hours that tried his soul, but hours of spiritual growth and development, that, “when his word came” (the word of release), found him fitted for the delicate task of dealing with his wayward brethren, with a love and patience only surpassed by God Himself. 

No amount of persecution tries like such experiences as these.
When God has spoken of His purpose to do, and yet the days go on and He does not do it, that is truly hard; but it is a discipline of faith that will bring us into a knowledge of God which would otherwise be impossible.

(PR)
 

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Times of hardness are inevitable!

It’s true that we’ve been redeemed from the curse.
And there’s nothing Satan can do to reverse that.

But-
– he is going to challenge you on that!

So don’t be surprised when things get tough!
Times will come when you have to stand strictly by faith-
– when you’ll have to speak and act as though what God says is true even when you can’t feel it or see it happening around you.

There will be times when everything looks terrible.
That’s when you must endure hardness as a good soldier.

So many people hear the word of faith and they say, “Hey! I’m going to try that.”
Then when the hard times come, they give up and cave in!

Living by faith is not something you try!
It’s a lifestyle.

You do it when it’s hard.
You do it when it’s easy.
You do it all the time because you’re not doing it just to get in on the benefits.
You’re doing it because you know that faith pleases God (Heb. 11:6).

Things may get a little rough at times.
But-
You’ll always come out on top if you endure hardness as a good soldier!

If you refuse to faint and fall away, you will have the victory.
The only defeated Christian is the one who quits!

(PR)

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The history of Israel in the Old Testament is really the history of all Christians.

Like Israel, we have been redeemed through the blood of the Lamb.
And like the people of Israel, we are heading for the Promised Land.

What is the one thing you need most on the journey from earth to heaven?
The one thing you must do is trust God.
That’s what the psalmist talks about in this passage.

The people would not believe in God and continued to sin.
We see the consequence in Psalm 78:33:
“Therefore their days He consumed in futility, and their years in fear.”
When the Israelites got to the edge of the Promised Land, they refused to go in.

They were at Kadesh-Barnea and would not trust God to lead them.
So they had to wander around for some 40 years in vanity and emptiness, struggling with problem after problem.

Unfortunately, many of God’s people are betweeners!
-they are living between Egypt and Canaan.

They have been delivered from bondage by the blood of the Lamb.
But they have never entered into their inheritance.

They are living between Good Friday and Easter Sunday.
They believe that Jesus died on the cross.
But they are not living in the power of His Resurrection.

Be not a betweener!

Consider how God blessed the people of Israel.
He sent them manna and fowl to feed them.
He provided them with water.

But also consider how God disciplined them because of their unbelief.
In His patience, however, He finally brought them through.

We are like the people of Israel.
Our greatest need is to believe God.

We don’t live by explanations!
We live by promises!

Unbelief leads to futility and fear.

Perhaps you are a “betweener” today–refusing to trust God’s leading.

Trust Him, obey Him and believe Him, and His blessing will come!

(PR)

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A faith line is what you need when you want God to do the “impossible” in your life. It’s what you need when you want to be firm in your faith and yet you keep wavering back and forth between your circumstances and God’s promises 
-believing first one, then the other.

Abraham had natural facts to deal with just like we do. He knew there was no natural way for God’s promise to him to come true.

Yet the Word says Abraham considered not his own body. In other words, Abraham ignored the natural evidence around him and believed only God’s promise. Somewhere he stepped across the line of faith. He made an irreversible decision to go with the Word of God. He made a final commitment. He chose to step past the point of no return.

Read Romans 4:13-21. “And being not weak in faith, [Abraham] considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah’s womb: He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God” (Romans 4:19-20).

And if you and I are ever going to see God do the impossible in our lives-
We’re going to have to do the same thing!

How do you draw that faith line?
Begin with the Word! Search the promises of God and purposely believe what

He has said, and is saying, about your need. Meditate on those promises until faith rises and rests in your heart.

Then draw the line of faith! Draw it in your mind and heart. Draw it across the floor in your prayer room. Say, “In the presence of God, in the presence of all the angels in this room, and in the devils face, I am stepping across the line of faith. From this moment on, I consider this matter done. From this day forward, I give God the praise and the glory in the Name of Jesus, Amen!”

From that moment on, speak only as if your miracle has already happened. Turn your back on the problems, on the doubts, and turn your face toward Jesus.

God will do the impossible in your life! Dare to step across the faith line!

(PR)

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“But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me. And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said to him, O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” (Matthew 14:30-31). 

If there’s any way the devil can get your eyes away from the Word, he’ll do it. He’ll cause trouble. He’ll make the circumstances around you pitch and roll like a rowboat in a hurricane. He’ll do anything he can to get you to concentrate on the realm of the physical senses and the situation around you instead of on the promise of God-
-because he knows that if he doesn’t, you’ll take that promise and beat his brains out with it.

That’s what he did to Peter. When Peter first jumped out of the boat that day in response to Jesus’ word, He walked right across that water without a problem. His whole being was fastened on that word Jesus had spoken to him, “Come!”

But when he took his eyes off that word, he started looking at the storm. He started looking at the impossible thing he was doing. After all, he was a fisherman. All his training and experience told him when the waves were that high, you were going under. He started to focus on what he knew in the natural instead of what Jesus said. When he did that, his faith slipped out of gear and he started to sink.

Don’t let that happen to you. Once you get a revelation from the Word of God, hang onto it. Don’t focus on anything else.

The devil will do everything he can to get you to turn loose of it. He’ll stir up things around you. He’ll try to get you into fear. He’ll push every button he can from the past to get you back into your old way of thinking.

But don’t let go. Keep your eyes on the Word of God until it’s more real inside you than anything else. If you do- You’ll be able to walk your way across the water just fine.

(PR)

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“And it shall come to pass that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered” (Joel 2:32). 

Why do not I call on His name? Why do I run to this man and that one when God is so near and will hear my faintest call?

Why do I sit down and devise schemes and invent plans? Why not at once roll myself and my burden upon the Lord?

Why do not I run at once to the living God? In vain- shall I look for “deliverance anywhere else; – but with God I shall find it!”

I need not ask whether I may call on Him or not, -for that word “Whosoever” is a very wide and comprehensive one.

Whosoever means me, for it means anybody and everybody who calls upon God. I will therefore follow the leading of the text! And at once call upon the glorious Lord who has made so large a promise.

My case is urgent!
And I do not see how I am to be delivered! But this is no business of mine!!

The LORD will fight for me; I need only to be still (Exodus 14:14).

He who makes the promise will find ways and means of keeping it. It is mine to obey His commands; it is not mine to direct His counsels. I am His servant, not

His solicitor! I call upon Him, and He shall deliver!!

(PR)

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“But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me. And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?” (Matthew 14:30-31). 

If there’s any way the devil can get your eyes away from the Word, he’ll do it. He’ll cause trouble. He’ll make the circumstances around you pitch and roll like a rowboat in a hurricane.

He’ll do anything he can to get you to concentrate on the realm of the physical senses and the
situation around you instead of on the promise of God-
-because he knows that if he doesn’t, you’ll take that promise and beat his brains out with it.

That’s what he did to Peter. When Peter first jumped out of the boat that day in response to Jesus’ word, He walked right across that water without a problem. His whole being was fastened on that word Jesus hadspoken to him, “Come!”

But when he took his eyes off that word, he started looking at the storm. He started looking at the impossible thing he was doing. After all, he was a fisherman. All his training and experience told him when the waves were that high, you were going under. He started to focus on what he knew in the natural instead of what Jesus said. When he did that, his faith slipped out of gear and he started to sink.

Don’t let that happen to you. Once you get a revelation from the Word of God, hang onto it. Don’t focus on anything else.

The devil will do everything he can to get you to turn loose of it. He’ll stir up things around you. He’ll try to get you into fear. He’ll push every button he can from the past to get you back into your old way of thinking.

But don’t let go. Keep your eyes on the Word of God until it’s more real inside you than anything else. If you do- You’ll be able to walk your way across the water just fine.

(PR)

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“I am the Lord, I change not.” (Malachi 3:6) 

The world’s order of things is unsure and indefinite.
Desperate words of uncertainty are crying out daily from radio, television, and newspapers.
Everything around us seems to be in turmoil.

If you’re a believer-
You have something you can depend on:
The unchanging Word of God!

God has no double standard!
He doesn’t say one thing today and something else tomorrow.
He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

If you will make the Word the final authority in your life-
– it will give you stability when everything else around you gives way.

If you’ll let what God says settle the issues of life-
– you’ll be confident when others are confused, peaceful when others are under pressure.

You’ll be overcoming!
– when others are being overcome!

What does it mean to make God’s Word the final authority?
It means believing what He says instead of believing what people say.
It means believing what He says instead of what Satan says.
It means believing what He says instead of what the circumstances say.
It means believing what He says instead of what your heart says.

Make up your mind!
– to live by faith, not by sight.

Fearlessly commit yourself to the final authority of God’s Word!
And there won’t be anything in this unstable world that can steal your security from you.

(PR)

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“Who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?” (1 Samuel 17:26).

You may be facing a giant today.
He may be a giant of sickness or failure, of financial shortage or another kind of trouble.

But don’t let him scare you.
You have a secret and a sacred weapon!

A weapon that once turned a shepherd boy-
– into a bear-busting, lion-killing, giant-slaying champion.

That weapon was a blood covenant with Almighty God.
Back in David’s day-
– circumcision was the sign of that covenant.

When he called Goliath uncircumcised-
David was saying: “This guy may be a giant; he may be strong; but he has no covenant with God and that’s why I can kill him”.

Like David, you, too, have a covenant.
But yours is better.

The covenant David had offered a wealth of blessings to those who kept it.
But it also included curses for those who broke it.

Yours doesn’t!
Yours is a New Covenant that Jesus bought with His own blood.

It doesn’t depend on your ability.
It depends on Him and what He has already done.
He has done it all!
All you have to do is believe it and receive it by faith!

Read Deuteronomy 28:16-68.
That’s a list of the curses Christ has freed you from.

You might even call it a list of the giants Jesus has already slain for you.
It contains every diabolical thing the devil could ever use to destroy you.

Don’t let any giant intimidate you.
You have a blood covenant with Almighty God.

There’s no uncircumcised circumstance on the face of this earth-
– that can take your victory away from you!

You are a giant-slaying champion!

(PR)

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“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God” (Rom. 8:28). 

How wide is this assertion of the Apostle Paul!
He does not say, “We know that some things,”
-or “most things,”
-or “joyous things,”

But “ALL things.”
And all things “work!’
They are working!
– not all things have worked,
– or shall work!

But it is a present operation!
At this very moment-
– when some voice may be saying, “Thy judgments are a great deep,” the angels above, who are watching the development of the great plan, are with folded wings exclaiming:
“The LORD is righteous in all his ways and loving toward all he has made. ” Ps. 145:17.

All things “work together!”
It is a beautiful blending!!

Many different colours, in themselves raw and unsightly, are required in order to weave the harmonious pattern.
Many separate tones and notes of music, even discords and dissonances, are required to make up the harmonious anthem.

Many separate wheels and joints are required to make the piece of machinery.
Take a thread separately, or a note separately, or a wheel or a tooth of a wheel separately, and there may be neither use nor beauty discernible.

But complete the web, combine the notes, connect the separate parts of steel and iron, and you see how perfect and symmetrical is the result.

Here is the lesson for faith:
“What I do you know not now!
But you shall know hereafter!!”

(PR)

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