Faith -- The First Step In A Life Of Abundance

    Abundance is the product of Faith, Gratitude, and Generosity. This is the lesson I learned during my time practicing a limited version of Apostolic Poverty. This is also a model we see in the Gospels if we look for it. Jesus shows this to us in His parables, and enacts it for us in His miracles. Faith, Gratitude, and Generosity -- these are all that is required for a life of abundance and prosperity!

     A little with faith is more than a lot with doubt. A little with faith is more than a lot with a reliance on human effort and will. A tiny amount of faith can move a mountain, but human effort requires hundreds of workers and a lot of time to accomplish what faith can do in an instant.

    In the Gospels, Jesus continually praises people for their faith, and He continually chastises those who are not expressing faith. Jesus promises that nothing is impossible for the person who has a tiny amount of faith, even if it is as small as a mustard seed (Matthew 17:20). He told the father who brought his son to Him that EVERYTHING IS POSSIBLE TO THE ONE WHO HAS FAITH! (Mark 9:23). This is because everything is possible for God (Matthew 19:26; Mark 10:27).

Faith is expectation and confidence; it’s a matter of being absolutely certain about what can’t be seen. God approved of the leaders of the past because of faith. Faith allows us to understand that this present age was made from the words God spoke. The visible creation is the product of invisible words.(Hebrews 11:1-3; The New Peace Treaty)

Verse 6 of the first chapter of the Book of Hebrews says that it is impossible to please God without faith. This is not a judgment or a curse! It is a statement of fact: The will of God is for us to be happy, to have everything we need, to be healthy, prosperous and have a life filled with abundance. God wants to give us His Kingdom and it makes Him happy to do so (Luke 12:32). Faith opens up that channel allowing God to give us the abundant life He wants to give us. Therefore, if it is God’s will for us to be happy and to give us the abundance of His Kingdom, and faith is what connects us with God and opens up the flow of that abundance, then it is impossible to make God happy without faith because we block that flow of abundance, and God is unable to do for us what He wants to do for us.
 
   But God is able to do anything God wants! How is it possible for me to block what God wants with my doubt? Certainly, if it is God’s will to give me a life of abundance, God would do that regardless of how I feel about it. Right? Well, actually the Bible says differently. Jesus was unable to perform miracles in His home town of Nazareth except heal a couple of people. All but a couple of people in His home town lacked faith -- those who had faith were healed, but NOTHING happened for those who did not believe.

    Faith activates the power of God and allows it to work in our lives. Faith connects us with God, opens a channel to God, and clears a path allowing God’s will to flow into our lives. Doubt, however, cuts us off from God, closes that channel, and erects barriers and road blocks that stop God’s will from reaching us.

    Doubt is caused by fear. We are afraid that God is not God, or that God does not love us like God loves others, or that God does not exist, or that God cannot be trusted, or that whatever God says may work for others, but it will never work for us. Doubt and fear block the blessings of God. Doubt and fear, therefore, opposes God’s will for us, since it is God’s will for us to be blessed and to receive the Kingdom and its abundance.

    If doubt and fear oppose God’s will and block God’s blessing, then doubt and fear are tools of the devil. The devil blocks God’s will, and if doubt and fear also achieve that end, then doubt and fear are allies with Satan. This is why love is important! The Bible says that perfect love casts out all fear (1 John 4:18). Who has perfect love except God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) Faith in the Son of God allows the Holy Spirit of God to dwell within us, so that the perfect love of God can flow from us as well, casting out all fear, destroying all doubt, and opening that channel of God’s will, which is to give us His Kingdom, and that Kingdom is given to us here and now as a life of abundance (John 10:10).

    The shorthand of all this is simply to say: Faith activates God to act in our lives; fear and/or doubt activates Satan to act in our lives. Which one do you want in your life? Which one do you want actively working in your life. It is like giving the spiritual and mental power of attorney over your life to either God or Satan. Faith gives that power to God; fear gives that power to Satan. The difficulty is that fear seems to be our default setting. It seems more natural for us to fear rather than to have faith. But we are to make sure that we are not giving the devil opportunity to act against us or to act in our lives (Ephesians 4:27). Fear gives the devil that opportunity to come into our lives and work against God’s will and block the blessings and abundance God wants to give us.

    The same faith that is in Jesus -- the same faith that allowed Him to determine His circumstances rather than.be determined by them -- the same faith that multiplied loaves and fishes and healed the sick and worked miracles is the same faith that is in you! Read that again. Read it one more time. Read it as many times as it takes until you become comfortable with that statement. The same faith that is in Jesus is in you! As a child of God made in God’s own image (John 1:12; Genesis 1:27), as a temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19), as a join heir with Christ (Galatians 4:7; 30), as a member in the Body of Christ (Ephesians 5:30), who shares all power in heaven and on earth with Christ (Matthew 28:18), as someone who has been lifted up and placed on the throne with Christ (Ephesians 2:6), you have the same power to determine your circumstances through faith " and when you speak that faith, you are using the same creative power that brought the universe into existence from nothing but God’s words and faith in Himself that whatever He says happens just as He says it.