BVOV Magazine 2013 - present

**********ADVERTISEMENT ********** KCM’s most comprehensive teaching on faith "Your 10-Day Spiritual Action Plan for Faith That Can Move Mountains" is a multifaceted presentation that will enable you to become confident in your faith, keep it from wavering, and develop it into a force that can change everything! by Kenneth & Gloria Copeland • Interactive devotional book • Quick-start guide • Scriptures on CD • Worship CD • DVD teaching • Faith-in-Action cards now $14.99 reg $24.99 #B200302 kcm.org/mag 1-800-600-7395 (U.S. only) FREE standard shipping included. Offer price valid until Mar. 31, 2020 ***************************************** * * * * article from p. 27 continues * * * * The now aspect of faith is important—and it’s where a lot of Christians miss it. They like talking about the great miracles God did in the past or the wonderful things He’s going to do in the future. But they get uncomfortable when someone starts talking about believing God in the present. They draw back when they hear us faith people say things like, “God said it, I believe it and I receive it by faith right now!” “You can’t order God around,” they argue. “You can’t just tell Him what to do.” We’re not telling Him what to do! He’s telling us what to do. We’re just believing and saying what He says. If He didn’t say it, we wouldn’t have any basis for faith. But if we can find it in His Word; if He’s already said something belongs to us, we can believe it and lay claim to it. Take healing for instance. First Peter 2:24 says that by Jesus’ stripes we were healed. So, when sickness attacks us, we can take our stand on that Word and declare by faith we are healed right now. “But Gloria, can’t I just say that God is going to heal me someday soon, maybe next week, or the week after?” Yes, but that’s not faith; it’s hope. And while scriptural hope is certainly good, by itself it won’t get the job done because hope alone keeps us looking toward tomorrow. Faith takes God’s Word and says, “It’s mine today!” Look again at Hebrews 11:1. It says this “now” kind of faith “is the substance of things hoped for…” The word substance means “that of which a thing consists; physical matter or material.” In other words, when we believe what God says enough to live on it right now, our faith takes our hope and gives it materiality. It makes firm in the natural realm what God has already given and established in the spiritual realm. Faith brings healing into your physical body. It gives visible, tangible substance to what you’re believing for, so that you can feel it, see it, drive it, wear it and deposit it into your bank account where you can enjoy it and use it to BLESS others. Do It Just Like God Does I know this flies in the face of religious tradition, but God is not opposed to Christians using faith to receive material things. On the contrary! He’s the One who told us to do it. He not only tied faith and things together in Hebrews 11:1, He said in verse 2 that it was by faith that “the elders obtained a good report.” What does that tell us? It tells us that if we want to have a good report before God, we’re not going to get it by walking in unbelief. We’re going to get it by operating by faith, just like the heroes in the Bible did…and just like God Himself does. Talk about Someone who uses faith to give substance to things! God is the Master at it. It’s how He created this entire physical universe. Releasing faith-filled words, He spoke it into being, “so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear” (Hebrews 11:3). God’s faith is what brought substance to the dirt of the earth from which He formed our bodies. His faith is what gave substance to the trees, the birds, the animals and every other natural thing that exists on this earth. Let this sink in for a moment. Everything around you—the food you eat, the house you live in, the chair you’re sitting in—are all composed of elements that came into being as a result of God’s words of faith; and now He’s given His Word to you, so that you can use it like He does. So that you can put it in your heart and in your mouth and it can become substance. God’s Word will work for you the same way it works for Him! Even though you’re the one speaking it, it’s still His Word, and as He said in Isaiah 55: “As the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it” (verses 10-11). 28 : BVOV

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