FAITH CHALLENGE

I am on a faith-walk of late and stretching my beliefs about an all powerful God, particularly in the area of seed faith giving. We all come from different backgrounds and different denominations, but we have the SAME God who says he is the same yesterday, today, & tomorrow. I recently watched a story of a miraculous happening on the news and it made me wonder why Christians only believe the miraculous once in awhile. In the New Testament there are many references to a God that has given us awesome power-to do even greater things than Christ did while on earth(SAYS THE WORD)-and the power he left for us was the Holy Spirit! But, how do we see that? Do we take the scriptures at face value or do we cloud them with our pre-conceived worldview thoughts & beliefs? How do we choose what to believe & what not to believe? Isn't it all the Word of God?

What does the Word of God say about the gifts of the Holy Spirit? What are they? What are they for? When will they cease? (the Word says when Christ returns) Why do we have them? Why don't we believe them??? Why don't we use them?? What is our reasoning for not believing the Word of God, and not using the gifts God gave us? FEAR is one reason we shy away from operating as the spiritual beings God made us to be. (Remember, in his image) We put a precious, valuable, powerful gift our Lord left for us to use on the shelf and about all we can say about the Holy Spirit is to maybe include reference to Him in a prayer? Remember, Jesus, the Father, and the Holy Spirit are ONE. He created us, died for us, and left a part of himself here with us. We say we are indwelt by his spirit at salvation, but then we do nothing with that. Does that really sound right? One thing I like to anchor on when thinking about our worldview prejudices about what seems "odd" to us-would you have believed Jesus when he healed a blind man with MUD?

Why is our prayer life, our faith, and our growth sometimes seemingly drab, ineffective, or confusing? What does Paul say he wishes we all would do? I would challenge you to read the scriptures about the Holy Spirit-every one-pray about them, and see if God shows you what you may be missing to bring greater power to your walk with God. You have nothing to lose, and as a believer who is growing in the area of seed-faith giving, I can say you may be ready to grow in the area of Holy Spirit-believing faith. When I first became aware of the immenseness of the Holy Spirit it made SO MUCH sense and it has brought enormous power & comfort in my walk of now 35 yrs. The part of the Bible we get the most out of, is the part we believe. I am so glad I chose to believe it all, even though I am still growing in areas, as we all are. I heard about a man who got to heaven and God took him to a room of unopened gifts. He explained that had he opened these gifts his life would have been more victorious. I hope to open all my gifts & I hope you do too.