Having Faith in What God Has Said in His Word; PART I

Matthew 8:5-17.

'5.When Jesus Returned to Capernaum, a Roman Centurion came to him asking for help.6."Lord", he said,"my servant lies at home paralysed and in terrible suffering." 7.Jesus said to him, " I will go and heal him."8. The centurion replied, "Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just

say a word, and my servant will be healed. 9.For I myself I am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, 'Go,'and he goes; and one, 'Come,' and he comes. I say to my servant, 'Do this ' and he does it."10.When Jesus heard this, he was astonished and said to those following him, "I tell you the truth, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith. 11 I say to you many will come from the east and the west,and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of heaven. 12 But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of the teeth."13 Then Jesus said to the centurion, "Go! It will be done just as you believed it would." And his servant was healed at that very hour. 14 When Jesus came into Peter's house, he saw Peter's mother-in-law lying in bed with a fever. 15 He touched her hand and the fever left her, and she got up and begun to wait on him. 16 When an evening came, many who were demon-possessed were brought to him, and he drove the spirits with a word and healed all the sick. 17 This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah:"...He took our infirmities...and healed our diseases."

Dear Beloved Reader and Brethren,
I greet you once again in the magnificent name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ of Nazareth, the Son of the Most High. I am grateful to God for yet another opportunity to share with you the message of hope and good tidings. You can trust what God has said in His word. Have faith in what He has said. No matter what... Keep on and just hold fast the WORD of Life. He who has said is faithful to accomplish it.

God, as the Creator, created us. We are spiritual beings living in a fleshly body. This clay house is of this world of the visible. But you and me are spiritual beings. God is Spirit. We are also of the Spirit for that is our nature. Our nature is not of this flesh and blood, the visible but the invisible. For those who have surrendered their lives to Christ as their Lord and Saviour through faith in this only begotten Son of God; for those who through faith have trusted the blood of covenant which was shed to cleanse us from all wickedness, then, we have been linked to the all-powerful and invincible God in the spiritual realm, and from there, we reign with Christ in God.

Since salvation through faith in Christ links us back to God, we have to know the workings of the Kingdom in which we have been restored. The Kingdom of God suffers violence and the violent takes it, so says the Bible. The Kingdom is not earthly but spiritual although we in this flesh, walking in the Spirit we partake of this kingdom here on earth. So the Lord taught us 'Thy Kingdom Come!' We can experience the blessings and benefits of the Kingdom NOW ! But you will ask ..."how?". Oh, YES! It is possible. We can touch the spiritual world, live the spiritual world and experience the spirit world through FAITH and in Faith. That faith comes by hearing , the the hearing of the WORD of Christ! We experience the physical realm through the five senses. But we cannot experience the spiritual world through the same way! The knowledge of God who is Spirit is one that surpasses our common understanding. It is beyond and operates in a different realm called the realm of faith.

Having laid down that foundation, it is important to understand that God's kingdom is a kingdom of 'Promises.' These promises are YES and Amen. This means that they are what has been said by God they are. But to reach to them or to acquire then it needs FAITH! Only believe! All things promised by God are possible. They are Yes and Amen. A big lesson about FAITH in Christ and His Word is that ' Faith brings us to the abundance of God's treasures.' We need it and must always strive to build it or stir it up to reach or come into contact with God's hand! And what is the key to all this? What God has said, dear reader and brethren, is the key element in building our faith. Few basics are listed below to help you and me to build our faith in God and His word if we dare to grasp them to heart:

1. Accepting without wavering that there is "Power" in what God has said. As we all know, all creation came into existence by the 'Power of His word.' (Hebrews 1:3). Whatever God said came to pass and all creation exist on the Spoken Word to date.The world of God is the only one that sustains all creation. Hebrews 1:3 says, among other things, that He (CHRIST) upholds all things by the word of his power! Our salvation is based on the word which God spoke (see Gen.3: 15). What God says has power and it produces results in its appointed time. Our faith, therefore, is produced through accepting the word without any shadow of doubts. (Romans 10:17) proves that.
2. Scaling in Faith without Doubts. This is yet another point to take note of. The more a person believes the word, the more he acquires the ability to unlock the treasures of heaven. The two incidents we read in Matthew 8:5-13; 14-17 are important to clarify this. The centurion knew or might have heard what Jesus can do or had done. He believed what he heard in toto,and with no doubts at all. By the way, he knew the Power of Words, he himself being a man of authority. He transposed what he does in the physical to what could be done, even beyond, in spirit. And, I we learnt earlier, the spirit world is as real as the physical world. So things can be done in the spiritual world to affect the physical world. In fact it is the Spiritual that rules and dictates what happens in the physical! That is the supreme reason why Paul, the Apostle of Christ, admonishes us as believers to 'walk in spirit!' (Galatians5:16). We can conquer our battles in spirit before they manifest in physical! How? By walking in Spirit of God! The Spirit gives us light and guidance of what to do and how to it at best! What a victory my friend! Determine as I do and pray that I will not give up for despair is for the defeated. I am not among the defeated nor those who doubts God's word and its Power! So continue believing no matter what the circumstances you are going through are. You know,... the centurion knew all the circumstances through which his servant was undergoing. He even rendered an account of it. He also knew that he was a Roman and not a Jew, in fact that could have been a reason to let Jesus go since 'I am not even one of his", the man could say! But that did not make him to ignore the faith he has built on what he has heard about Jesus. There are people who suffer today and ignore the free gift of salvation, healing and deliverance which is in Christ, simply because ' I am not a Christian by the way!' What a pity to die of hunger while food is plenty in a neighbourhood that is open to all? Christ was not given to Christians! Christ was given to the whole world so that whoever believes in him shall not be condemned but have everlasting life! (John 3:16). So even if you who may feel rejected, the door of faith, healing, restoration and acceptance into God's family and plan is open to you. Behold! it is open (Revelation 3:20 is clear to all).
3. Understand that when God Speaks His Word is Life. When the word of God comes to you it carries with it the nature of God. God is life, he is light and in him there is no darkness, nor death! When Christ rose from the dead, death was conquered by LIFE! When Jesus raised Lazarus from dead (John 11:17-44) he SPOKE WORDS and the dead man was alive again! God's words are Spirit, they are LIFE. (John 6:63). His Spirit goes with his word and God's own life goes with his word! God's authority to accomplish whatever needed, goes with his word! And this is what the centurion knew and believed to the point that he did not need the Lord physically in his house! He believe in the authority of His Spoken Word! And indeed it paid him!

I challenge you dear brethren and readers! Dare to believe the word of God as revealed to you in the Bible! Dare to take it with unwavering faith! Dare to deep yourself in its depths by reading and meditating on it! It will pay you benefits in due time. Until then, I hope to come back to you next time with part 2 of this message of Faith. For those who would like to take a step of faith and invite Christ in your life, making Him the Lord and Saviour please repeat, with full commitment of faith in your heart, the following prayer of repentance and live by the new confession as a forgiven person free from the past. The simple prayer of faith is below:

Dear Jesus, I come to you as a Sinner. I repent of my sins and ask for your pardon Lord. I am sorry for all my past and my disobedience to you and to your word. I accept your sacrifice which you paid for my sake at the Cross of Calvary. Wash me clean by your precious blood and restore me into your love once again. I believe that you came in flesh, died on the cross for my sins, buried and you rose from the dead. I confess you as the son of God and surrender my entire Life to you oh my King. Thank you for saving me and making me a child of God. Thank you for writing my name into your book of life. I pray all this in your holy name. Amen.

If you have prayed this prayer, please find a community of believers who truly believes in Jesus so that you may learn more about your NEW LIFE IN CHRIST. (2Cor.5:17) and they will also help you to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.

Until then.....Bye!

Ev. Dr.Deo J. Nangela.