WHAT FAITH IN GOD IS - By Reinhard Bonnke

WHAT FAITH IN GOD IS
by Reinhard Bonnke (http://reinhardbonnke.com/)

Faith is believing God. I don’t believe in miracles but I believe God FOR miracles. Not believing in “things” so that miracles will happen. That would be faith in the power of faith, which is not Bible faith. It is part psychology, part superstition, part worldly-wisdom. It is mind over matter, Positive Thinking, and self-reliance. That kind of faith has nothing whatsoever to do with what Jesus meant when He said “Fear not. Only believe” (Mark 5:36). His message was “You believe in God. Believe also in me.” (John 14:1).

The assurance of faith is like the assurance of swimming – you must act! If you want faith, put God’s Word into action.

Faith is only a wiring system. It has no power. We don’t have faith in the power of faith, but it links us with the power generators of Calvary and the Resurrection. Growth in faith is like a flashlight, which one can focus. First it picks out one promise, spotlights it, but we can widen the beam until it covers a larger and larger area of the promises of God. Faith does not increase, but its coverage does.

No task is bigger than another when measured by faith. A fence, a house, a hill or a mountain makes no difference to a bird flying over them, or to faith. By faith ‘we mount up on wings as eagles’ (Isaiah 40:31). Soaring, not snoring. Spread your wings of faith today.

With God FAITH is the qualifying factor. He places His resources at our disposal. God did not honor the famous characters in Scripture because of their own natural greatness…nor for their moral greatness. The life-style of most of them would shock us today. Saul was more moral than David, but God chose David, because David was a faith-activist. It isn’t even “great” faith He wants, just simple “every-day-faith”. Jesus called his disciples “Little-Faiths”, but He chose them and made them the most effectual figures of history. Compared to the resources open to us in God our natural abilities are a drop in the ocean. But our own limitations mean nothing to Him. When we have faith, gifted or not, we stand at the threshold of great usefulness.

Faith is the link with God—not aesthetics! Faith does not end in faith but blessing. Faith is the end of fantasy. Some accuse us of “preaching an emotional gospel”. It cannot be avoided! If the Gospel is not emotional then nothing ever was. “Sensational Gospel”? GOD made it sensational. When the preacher appeals to “believe in Him who raises the dead and calls those things which are not as though they were” (Romans 4:17) …surely it is a sensation.

Never comfort anyone in their unbelief. God does not anoint ‘honest doubt’.

Faith is not the absence of fear; it is its conquest.

The absolute ABC of faith is that as we act God acts. We respond to Him by faith and He responds to us for faith. Paul found that faith operated like the blood flowing through his veins. ‘I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me. The life that I now live, I live by the faith of the Son of God’ (Galatians 2:20). An example from Philippians 2:13 ‘…for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure’. This has a play on words. ‘God is in you to will to do His goodwill’. He puts the desire in us to do His desire. That is what being ‘led of the Spirit’ means.

Faith is not presumption but assumption. You rightly assume that God will never let you down—and thus “enter into rest”.

Faith is a kind of immune system filtering out fears that otherwise would paralyze all activity. When it fails we develop all kinds of phobias and compulsions. It is a nervous breakdown. Jesus said not to have phobia but faith (Luke 8:50).

True faith is not faith in faith. We are never asked to believe in what faith can do but what God can do. Faith in faith is really faith in yourself – your own inner force of faith. Preaching that kind of faith is tough work, for very few have such dynamic self-confidence.

Faith is a torch. Switch it on and darkness is no problem! That is my recommendation to all! Need more light? Put your trust in Jesus Christ.

Faith is the eye to see the unseen. Physical optics are not the instruments to see God. He is a Spirit. Human eyes are too weak to discern “the invisible God, the King eternal, immortal, invisible” (Col 1:15; 1 Tim 1:17). We have to deal with Him as He is. “He who comes to God must believe that He is…” (Hebrews 11:6). Trust Him.

Faith is not a talent that some people possess and some do not. Nor is it merely a feeling. Faith is action and decision available to all of us. The Bible makes that clear. “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent” – namely, Jesus. You decide to believe. Each person must do it for themselves. If you do that now, the Lord will not delay. He will not investigate your suitability, your worthiness, or your past. No matter who or where you are, in the nick of time as you repent and believe, the parachute of salvation opens with a bang, and you are absolutely safe – for real.

Some say that the Christian faith is out of touch with reality. But the life and death of Jesus show this simply is not true. Nothing is more in touch with reality. A real Jesus was pinned with real nails to real wood and shed real blood. The cross was a bitter, bloody execution. It was more sober and practical than any other event in human history. For Christ’s real sacrifice provides real salvation from sin and destruction – for YOU. How? “Whosoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

Faith is like strength – you get more by using it. Stop walking and soon your legs would be crippled. Never use your arms and you would become paralyzed. Never do any believing and you’ll be a cynic crippled in spirit. Begin trusting God and you’ll find He’s there.

Faith is not built on reason or even on one’s own personal experience of healing or the lack of it, but on looking to Jesus. A thousand years before Christ’s incarnation a Psalmist wrote, “It is time for you to act, O Lord” (Psalm 119:126). Two thousand years after Christ’s incarnation that same Jesus is still “acting”, working, as he did when he walked this earth. It is time for us to acknowledge it. “Take up your bed and walk,” Jesus said.

Faith is not one particular religious act. It is the transfer of responsibility for one’s life to God in total when our own resources are inadequate. It is spiritual fusion, making us one with Christ. It seems such a simple attitude – and it is.

Faith is a personal relationship, not a mathematical relationship between numbers. We know what God did yesterday, but we have to trust Him for tomorrow. Faith is similar to love. It is a heart matter. We do not decide to fall in love after weighing all the pros and cons. Couples get married on trust, not on scientific evidence or conclusive logic. “O how I love Jesus, because He first loved me.”

Faith obeys the word of God. James gave us the blueprint of what faith is and what it does. Its characteristics are unmistakable. It removes discrimination from our hearts, proves itself by works, controls the tongue, generates wisdom, exalts humility, and overwhelmingly produces a deep dependence on God. In conjunction, faith triumphs when we pray for the afflicted and even when we confront the errors of our brother. “Brethren,” James wrote, “if anyone among you wanders from the truth, and someone turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins” (5:19–20).

Faith is just a common human faculty, ordinary everyday trustfulness. Faith has no mystique, nothing esoteric or rare. It is as good among humble people as among spiritual geniuses, religious giants or mighty Samsons of the church. A theological doctorate is not usually any help. The mixt crowd ‘only believed’ and the woman with an issue of blood ‘only believed’, and their faith put their feet into the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom which is where Jesus Christ is. He is the miracle-worker.

FAITH is the only currency accepted in the Kingdom of God. The church has often courted the wealthy and powerful but in God’s kingdom the truly great are those “poor in the eyes of the world (but) rich in faith” (James 2:5). They are God’s somebodies. He has big business to transact but only with believers. His purposes are rather greater than those of politicians. When God wrote a roll of honor He never mentioned one king or an emperor. Every golden name was a man or woman made famous by faith. (Hebrews 11). Believers are God’s begotten children. The natural abilities of these men and women were not the qualities of greatness. They were ordinary people. Only faith made them extraordinary. “By faith the elders received a good report” – nothing else. Faith is the new notation from which they composed songs of triumph no one else could sing…. Jesus said “only believe”.

For more on the ministry of Reinhard Bonnke check out this short video: Awakening 2011 - Reinhard Bonnke (original: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71MOoD8sbUg)

Won't you follow Jesus?

To you who do not believe in and currently follow Jesus Christ as Lord, including those who are now wayward and have walked away from Him:

Without faith in, and obedience to the Son of God, your sins remain, and the wrath of God abides on you. You will die in your sins and there remains a judgment from God against those sins. The payment for those sins is death, but not just death, Jesus Himself says it will be everlasting fire (Matthew 18:8, Matthew 25:41), and everlasting punishment (Matthew 25:46), and Paul says it is everlasting destruction (2 Thessalonians 1:9).

Jesus who was perfect and sinless (the only Man who ever was) came to set all those who would believe in Him free from their sins and the judgment to come and to reconcile them to God. He did this by being yet perfect, sinless and guiltless Himself, He died the death that you should have died, received the punishment you should have received in your place, and then He raised from the grave so that you may receive new life and one day be resurrected to receive a new body that will live forever with Him. He came to give you eternal life today. To know Him is LIFE and PEACE. To know Him is eternal life. To not know Him, is death and restlessness and no peace. If you honestly look deep inside yourself, you will see, without Him it is empty and you most likely even fear death. You fear death because you know there is more, even though with your mind you may not know it. You were created to be eternal and that is why you fight death and fear it. That is why you want to be fixed and go to the doctor when you have something wrong in your body. You know that you weren't meant to be that way. You weren't meant to be sick and die. In the very core of your being you crave eternal life. We all do. Well, He came so that you COULD be forgiven of all your sins, set free from them, and so that you COULD live forever with Him.

So I say, repent and believe, follow Him, and be forgiven, be free, and receive eternal life! If you turn from your sins and turn to Him, believe with your heart that God raised Jesus from the grave and confess Him as Lord with your mouth, you will be saved! Trust in Him that He took your sin debt for you. Call out to Him, receive Him. To confess Him as Lord isn't just in word though, it means in deed too. You actually follow Him, and if you do, you will be where He is, that is heaven, not only when you pass on, but here and now.

This is some of what the Bible says regarding this:

Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him. John 3:36 ESV

Then Jesus said to them again, "I am going away, and you will seek Me, and will die in your sin. Where I go you cannot come." So the Jews said, "Will He kill Himself, because He says, 'Where I go you cannot come'?" And He said to them, "You are from beneath; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins." John 8:21-24

Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when He had found him, He said to him, "Do you believe in the Son of God?" He answered and said, "Who is He, Lord, that I may believe in Him?" And Jesus said to him, "You have both seen Him and it is He who is talking with you." Then he said, "Lord, I believe!" And he worshiped Him. And Jesus said, "For judgment I have come into this world, that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may be made blind." Then some of the Pharisees who were with Him heard these words, and said to Him, "Are we blind also?" Jesus said to them, "If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you say, 'We see.' Therefore your sin remains. John 9:36-41

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:23

"When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on His right hand, 'Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.' Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?' And the King will answer and say to them, 'Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.' Then He will also say to those on the left hand, 'Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels: for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.' Then they also will answer Him, saying, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?' Then He will answer them, saying, 'Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.' And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life." Matthew 25:31-46

Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire. Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea. Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away. Revelation 20:11-21:4

how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him. And we are witnesses of all things which He did both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem, whom they killed by hanging on a tree. Him God raised up on the third day, and showed Him openly, not to all the people, but to witnesses chosen before by God, even to us who ate and drank with Him after He arose from the dead. And He commanded us to preach to the people, and to testify that it is He who was ordained by God to be Judge of the living and the dead. To Him all the prophets witness that, through His name, whoever believes in Him will receive remission of sins. Acts 10:38-43

that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. For “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Romans 10:9-13

He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor. John 12:25-26

Feel free to contact me if you would like to discuss this further.

Grace, peace and love in Jesus Christ!

Awesome Testimony from Nigeria!

Hi friends,

I just wanted to share this video testimony of some crazy God miracles in Nigeria. This is so good!! Jesus is so good!!!!

I will also summarize the testimony in the video below:

150,000 people got saved!!! A glory cloud came, and it rested on about 10 lepers and when it lifted, noses, fingers, ears had grown back!!! At the words "rise up" about 30 people in wheel chairs came running to the front!!! All who were missing limbs, feet, hands, you name it, they were called to the front. About 500 people in all came to the front and ALL received new limbs!!! Praise JESUS!!!! After the conference at a pastor's house an 8 year old girl was raised from the dead!!! And there was a father there who lost his son. He drove to the morgue, got his son, and then he got raised from the dead too!!! JESUS!!!!