BVOV Magazine 2013 - present

********** ADVERTISEMENT ********** Your Faith Can Change the World! Agree with what God says about you and your circumstances, and live the high life God has provided for you through Jesus. Dig into God’s Word with Kenneth Copeland’s "Faith Series." Discover: • How to develop and strengthen your faith daily • How to release the force of faith to change your circumstances • How to tap into the type of faith Jesus had in His earthly ministry. Order today "Faith Series" 5 CDs $24.95 reg $60 #B190701 FREE standard shipping included. Offer price valid until July 31, 2019 kcm.org/mag 1-800-600-7395 U.S. only ******************************************* * * * * article from p. 5 continues * * * * Talk about a less than warm welcome! That woman got one, didn’t she? Not only did the disciples want to get rid of her, Jesus said He wasn’t called to minister to her. Imagine for a moment how most people in our touchy, easily offended culture today would react to that kind of reception. They’d end the story right there! They’d storm away with their feelings hurt, saying something like, “I don’t care how anointed Jesus is, I’m not going to put up with that kind of treatment. If He doesn’t think I qualify for Him to minister to me, I’m out of here!” But the Canaanite woman wasn’t like most people today. Instead of getting offended with Jesus, she did just the opposite. She humbled herself. “Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me. But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it to dogs. And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters' table. Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour” (verses 25-28). Those verses provide us with one of the greatest examples of humility in the entire Bible. They paint the picture of a woman who had no pride at all. She didn’t understand why Jesus called her and her daughter dogs. She didn’t understand that He’d said it not to hurt her, but to provoke her into declaring her faith so He could get her little girl delivered. Yet she humbled herself and agreed with Him anyway. She kept her heart open to what Jesus was trying to accomplish in her and took the attitude, If You say I’m a dog, I suppose I am, but I came here to get deliverance for my daughter and I’m not leaving without it. What happened as a result? She rose above all the circumstances that were stacked against her and wound up getting a miracle. Despite her heathen background and lack of covenant, God exalted her by responding to her request as if she was His very own child. Pride Will Keep You Up at Night If humility could have such a powerful effect in that situation, think what it can do for us as New Covenant believers! It can make the difference between our living below our divine privileges and living the high life God has provided for us through Jesus. It can spur on the development of our faith and open the door for us to walk in great grace. That’s why God talks to us about it so much in the Scriptures. It’s why 1 Peter 5 says: “...all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble. Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time: casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you” (verses 5-7). Clothing ourselves with humility doesn’t mean putting ourselves down. It doesn’t mean we go around saying, “I’m unworthy and no good.” True humility is simply agreeing with what God says. It’s giving up on trying to exalt ourselves, casting all our cares over on Him, and trusting that if we simply believe and obey Him, He’ll exalt us Himself at just the right time and in just the right way. Pride, on the other hand, is taking the attitude that we know best. That we’re right and we can handle our cares ourselves. Pride will keep you up all night trying to figure out a way to fix whatever problem you’re facing. And when your fix doesn’t work, pride will put the blame on everyone else—including God. You’ll find yourself saying things to Him like, “I just don’t understand why You didn’t help me with this!” You won’t realize that He couldn’t help you, because you were carrying the care of it yourself instead of giving it to Him. I remember some years ago I got into that situation where our ministry finances were concerned. We’d gotten behind on paying our TV bills and over about a 12-month period we’d kept slipping further back until we were $6 million in arrears. I was just beside myself over it. 6 : BVOV

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