Heal me O Lord

Heal me O Lord
And I will be healed
For you are the One I praise

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What Is Faith?

In order to identify what saving faith is, it would be ever so useful to describe what it is not. Various misperceptions regarding the true essence of faith are fairly common nowadays. So let’s call them by name and show their insufficiency.

What Faith is Not

Firstly, saving faith is not ‘dogmatic faith’. By that I mean a merely intellectual assent to the cardinal doctrines of the Christian faith without a personal commitment to them. One may believe in the existence of God, the historical crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth and the goodness of Christian morality without experiencing a personal transformation of one’s own heart. After all, the devils believe and tremble (James 2:19). Faith is something more than cerebral.

Secondly, saving faith is not ‘temporary faith’. Jesus referred to such a faith when He recounted the Parable of the Sower (Mark 4:10-20). Folk with this brand of faith initially receive the Word of God, but when Satan or tribulation or worldly seductions come knocking at their door, they denounce the Word and sell their souls for a plate of lentils. Such rootless faith is of no value in God’s Kingdom.

Thirdly, saving faith is not ‘miraculous faith’. Pharaoh’s magicians and Nebuchadnezzar’s wizards did wondrous works; but they were not sons of God. Even Judas Iscariot had power to heal the sick and raise the dead; yet he was a child of perdition. Deuteronomy 13:1-3 makes it crystal clear that even false prophets can predict the future with pin-point accuracy. In other words, faith needs something more than miracles to be proved genuine.

Fourthly, saving faith is not just ‘credulous belief’. Before faith can flourish, it first needs to hear the uttering of a divine promise. Without this Word from God, there can be no faith. This fourth point is especially relevant given our contemporary church scene wherein multitudes are taught to dream up ideas and visions in their own hearts whilst confessing “in faith” that God will bring them to pass. Such a faith is no faith at all because genuine faith relies on the testimony of the Spirit of God; not the flippant spirit of man. Only when God speaks can faith be exercised. You cannot have faith in something that God has not spoken.

What faith is

We cannot get anywhere in determining what biblical faith is all about without the term ‘trust’. This is true both in Hebrew and Greek. Charles Hodge analysed that, “Faith, in the comprehensive and legitimate meaning of the word, therefore, is trust.” Faith’s primary element is trust. But this prompts a question: trust in what?

Scripture’s uniform answer is trust in God. But it’s a lot more than just a general confidence in some vague deity out there in the great beyond. Perhaps the best recent example of this kind of nebulous belief in the academic world is the late Anthony Flew (1923-2010). After championing the cause of atheism throughout the course of his life, he converted to Deism at the turn of the century confessing that all the evidence pointed to a designer God. Nonetheless, the distant and disinterested deity of Deism is not the intensely near God of the Gospel, that is, the loving Father God who reveals Himself in and through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Faith trusts in the God of the Gospel. But to dig a little deeper we need to ask another question: what exactly is it about the God of the Gospel that faith must trust? This is where the concept of ‘promise’ becomes all important. Faith puts its confidence in the chief promise of the Gospel, namely, that whosoever believes in Christ is not condemned (John 3:18, etc.). He (or she) has passed from death to life! Faith lays a hold of the mercy of God manifested in Christ crucified and refuses to budge an inch. Faith, therefore, glories in God’s merciful promises.

The first generation of Protestant Reformers stressed this connection between saving faith and God’s promises relentlessly. Martin Luther wrote, “Faith gives the honour to God that He can and will perform that what He promised, namely, to make sinners righteous.” His right-hand man Philip Melanchthon continued much in the same spirit, “Faith is clearly the recognition of that mercy by whatever promise you apprehend it.” And again, as one of the spokesmen of the second generation Reformers so eloquently put it, “We shall now have a full definition of faith if we say that it is a firm and sure knowledge of the divine favour toward us, founded on the truth of a free promise in Christ, and revealed to our minds and sealed on our hearts by the Holy Spirit.” A century later the Protestant Puritans kept preaching the same holy doctrine. Here’s a quote from just one of them, William Gurnall, who defined faith in the following matter: “It is the act of the soul whereby it rests on Christ crucified for pardon and life, and that upon the warrant of the promise.” In other words, faith is inseparable from the merciful promises of God. And all these merciful promises hone in upon Jesus. As the New Testament repeats time and time again in manifold texts, Christ is faith’s supreme object.

This observation helps us to understand another important facet of faith i.e. that it is not self-sufficient. The glory of faith does not reside in itself. Faith always points above and beyond itself. It cannot be content alone. Faith’s grandeur consists in being the avenue through which Christ’s righteousness is applied to the sinner’s heart. Faith is the tunnel that draws vast goodness from the lake of Christ. Jesus is an end in Himself; faith is but a means to Him.

Faith, then, is entirely captivated by Christ. This explains why I think that the best way to think about faith is a pair of arms wide open waiting to embrace the love of God. Whereas repentance signifies a turning away, faith is a drawing near, a coming close and a kiss of deep affection. It is so much more than a scholarly agreement. To go back to the original definition we proposed, faith is heart-warming ‘trust’. This is the essence of what true faith is all about. Faith believes that God will be eternally merciful to sinners because that is what He has promised. Or as the writer of Hebrews declared, “Faith is the substance of things hoped for; the evidence of things not yet seen” (Hebrews 11:1).

Application

To conclude, faith is neither ‘dogmatic faith’ nor ‘temporary faith’ nor ‘miraculous faith’ nor ‘credulous belief’. It is a solid trust in the merciful promises of God of the Gospel revealed through Christ. Since faith is entirely orientated towards Jesus, it is a thoroughly affectionate substance that sets the heart of men (and women) of God ablaze with holy passion.

So I ask you today: have you placed your faith in Christ? Are you depending on what Jesus has promised or on the whims of your own heart? Is Jesus everything to you? Does your heart ache for Him on the one hand and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God on the other?

If you haven’t called upon the name of the Lord yet, I repeat the apostolic promise: “Believe on the Lord Jesus and you shall be saved!” And if you have already trusted in God’s goodness, then I urge to keep walking from faith to faith finding full satisfaction in the sweet presence of King Jesus- the One in whom faith finds its reason for being.

By William Graham

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Effect of Antiperspirant

This is very helpful information for everyone. I would be glad if you find it useful and willing to share it with friends.

Sometimes ago, a question was raised by a group of people. The question is base on the use of deodorant- A lot of people use deodorant to keep their armpit fresh and make it smell pretty good. But they don’t know its effects.

Breast cancer has affected so many lives and even killed millions of people in world record. About 70 to 80% products in market are combination of antiperspirant deodorants. Anyway, deodorant is still okay but antiperspirant is very harmful to the body due to much concentration of toxins causing mutation in the cell; likely cancer.

Few areas in the body like the armpit, side of kneel or behind, and some other areas can eliminate toxins. Through perspiration, toxin is eliminated. Antiperspirant prevents the body from perspiring, thereby making armpit the alternate way to eliminate toxin.

Breast cancers mostly take place in the upper sternum. This is common in both male and female. The use of anti-perspiration open way to breast cancer; it is advisable to use good water and soap in washing your armpit rather than using some other product.

My conclusion is stop using any product that can open your body to cancer or any other diseases.

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SNAKE POISON NEUTRALISED BY ANOINTING WATER

Here is yet another powerful testimony concerning the Anointing Water from the nation of Malawi…

“My name is Mrs Wema Mizwa; I live in Lilongwe, Malawi. I write to glorify the name of our Lord Jesus for the great things He has done to my family through the medium of the Anointing Water. Indeed, God does everything according to His words. He said, “You shall drink deadly poison and shall not die; you shall step on snakes and scorpions and nothing shall harm you”. In the book of Acts, it happened to Paul on that Island of Malta when a viper did no harm to him.

“Last Saturday, I had made up some fire from wood to heat up water for the family to take their bath. As I was trying to collect some firewood which was heaped under a tree within our courtyard, a snake just came out of the woods and I moved backwards screaming to alert my husband and my brother who were just nearby. At this time my 11 year old daughter was playing some distance from where I was and got interested to see what was happening. As she rushed towards us, she too stepped on another snake which was lying underneath some dry grass along a path.

“Since she could not see it she stepped on it with all her force. The snake immediately lept up and bit her on her left foot. It then started to run away at high speed. A neighbour who was just nearby also saw the snake. He ran over, shocked, saying that it was a very poisonous type and my daughter needed immediate medical attention. She started crying and blood was oozing from the bitten area. Knowing how serious it is to be bitten by a snake, I knew that only faith in Jesus and His Grace was the way my daughter would survive. We had heard several cases in my area of people losing their lives through such poisonous bites.

“Before any first aid was given to her, I quickly took out my Anointing Water, sprayed it on the affected area and made her drink some in the name of Jesus. I was doing that while praying and meditating on the words and promises of God, remembering what happened to Paul on that island. I knew with faith in my heart that through the Anointing Water, all the snake poison had been neutralized and no harm would come upon my daughter. We decided to take her to the hospital so that she can receive an anti-venom injection.

“While we were driving to the hospital, I kept on praying and reading the Word. Surprisingly, I felt very relaxed as if nothing serious has happened; even my daughter kept asking me why we were taking her to the hospital after ministering the Anointing Water because all her pain had gone! I told her that there was no need for her to worry as I didn’t want me and her father to argue about the issue. I encouraged her just to wait and see how things would end up.

“We arrived at the first hospital but did not get any treatment as they said they did not have any treatment for snake bites; they only referred us to other clinics and pharmacies. We spent two and a half hours going around clinics, pharmacies and other veterinary clinics looking for the anti-venom drug to no avail. We were advised to go to the government central hospital where they put her on a fast running drip as they had no anti-venom drugs in stock.

“The clinician told us that normally all patients with snake bites are admitted into the wards for observations to check for any effects associated with snake poisons like swelling, shocks, headaches, heart running very fast and the like. However, my daughter had none of these symptoms. After running the drip for less than an hour, the clinician said he saw no reason of keeping her admitted in the hospital so he discharged her and gave her some antibiotics to take for some days.

“To the glory of God, she is completely fine – no swelling, no headaches, not even a single side effect! My daughter even refused to take the antibiotics; she only ministered the Anointing Water. Indeed, Jesus is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. He is the one who rescued Paul and He has rescued my daughter today. There is nothing too hard for my God: Praise be to His Holy Name. May God continue to strengthen and bless you Prophet TB Joshua and your ministry in Jesus’ name. Without the grace of God in the Anointing Water from your ministry, we would have been saying something else about my daughter.”

Mrs Wema Mizwa, Malawi

Visit: Daily Word

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Ceased Menstruation For 12 years Miraculously Restored

When you acknowledge God as your Healer, Deliverer and Redeemer, He will do it again and again. Be inspired in your faith as you read this awesome testimony:

“Emmanuel! My name is Liberty Akpan and I am a Nigerian. I want to testify to the goodness of God in my life! First of all, I thank the Almighty God and I also thank Prophet T.B. Joshua for allowing God to use him. I was having the problem of ceased menstruation for 12 years from 2000 to 2012. I had gone to hospitals, done evacuation on numerous occasions and taken many herbal roots they had given to me yet it was all to no avail. I had prayed and fasted about this problem but everything I tried seemed to yield no result.

“Last year, I was introduced to Emmanuel TV and saw what God was using Prophet T.B. Joshua to do in the lives of people. I went and bought a decoder and began to pray along with Prophet T.B. Joshua on Emmanuel TV. During this period, a friend came and gave me some Anointing Water which I also ministered to myself. Shortly afterwards in August 2012, I started seeing my menstruation! Incredibly, the cycle was complete, just as it supposed to be. Since that month until the present, my menstruation has been flowing normally! To God be the glory!”

Visit: Daily word

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