Thursday, 18th January 2007
Dearest Theophili and Theophilae
There are some Christians who dismiss the "word of faith" circle as another type of “Positive Thinking”. The secular concept of positive thinking is based on one’s own will-power and human effort. It is devoid of God, and the concept of a Divine Being. On the other hand, "Standing on God’s Promises" is being assured because we know that God is not a liar, and He will fulfill whatever He has promised us in His Word.
Well-meaning people will ask me things like “What if God doesn’t answer your prayers for healing and blessings? Will you lose your faith in Him?”. I used to have thoughts like that as well, but I thank God that He has taught me to practice what Paul asked the church in Corinth to do as recorded in 2 Cor 10:5, and that is to to “demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ”.
For example, I used to have thoughts like “This situation is happening because God is punishing you”. I took captive of them and made them obedient to Christ by examining His Word and remembering Scriptures such as Heb 8:12 and Isa 43:25 that God remembers our sin no more. God meted out all the full punishment of our sins on the body of His Son at the cross 2000 years ago, and will not punish the same sin twice. So once we accept Him as our Lord and Saviour, we become the righteousness of God. I thus began to realize that such thoughts were not from God but from the evil one.
Because of what I went through in the last 4 years (which I have testified to quite a number of fellow members in my cluster and cell), the verse that became a rhema word for me and ministered the most to me is 2 Cor 1:20 “For as many as are the promises of God, in Him they are yes; therefore also through Him is our Amen to the glory of God through us.” This has become my favourite verse now.
To understand what Paul was trying to emphasize, we should read the 3 preceding verses:
17 Are you now going to accuse me of being flip with my promises because it didn't work out? Do you think I talk out of both sides of my mouth—a glib yes one moment, a glib no the next?
18 Well, you're wrong. I try to be as true to my word as God is to his. Our word to you wasn't a careless yes canceled by an indifferent no. How could it be?
19 When Silas and Timothy and I proclaimed the Son of God among you, did you pick up on any yes-and-no, on-again, off-again waffling? Wasn't it a clean, strong Yes?”
What Paul was telling the Corinthian church was that he was very sure about the gospel he was preaching to them. It was not “yes” one moment and then “no” the next. If Paul was so affirmative and assured in his preaching of the Word, how much more affirmative are all the promises of the One that he preached about.
Standing on God’s promises to me means not entertaining thoughts like “what if He doesn’t do this” or “what if He doesn’t do that”, because it is wavering on the “yes” and “no” like what Paul was telling the Corinthians. If God says in His Word, that by His stripes, we have been healed, He means it! If God says in His Word that "we are above and not beneath", He means it! It is “Yes” and “Amen”. Amen?
So, it is not mere “positive thinking”. Rather, it is being aware of what God’s promises to us are in His Word and standing firmly upon them with the attitude of Yes and Amen. This is what is meant by exercising faith, which is the assurance of things hoped for, and the conviction of things not seen (Heb 11:1).
Shalom
No comments:
Post a Comment