Did you know that the Bible is full of promises that you can have?
2 Peter 1:4
“And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.”
What an incredible thing to realize. YOU have promises from God himself! Promises that are simply sitting and waiting for you to take hold of.
Promises of peace, health, prosperity, joy, and victory through ALL things.
So why do so many Christians live a life of defeat? Problem after problem. They’re sick, their kids are sick and they complain a lot about their pain and sorrow. Why are so many Christians on anti-depressants?
They lack faith. It’s so simple but overlooked. We, as humans, want to rely on God. We like to put it in his hands. “The Bible says he heals, so if he wants me healed in the here and now his will be done.” Believers have given up their authority! People don’t want the responsibility of their victory to be in their hands. They like to live in the scripture “be still and know” so they take it out of context. We were not created to hand our authority over to the devil. Jesus died over 2000 years ago so that we never have to give him authority again!
It’s our faith that overcomes the world, nothing more nothing less, nothing else. Faith in the promises of God, faith in the FINISHED work of Jesus Christ. It’s not your grit. It’s not your willingness to suffer for a little while for the benefit of getting to heaven. We can have everything in the word of God in the here and now and in heaven. Why? Because Jesus died on the cross and rose again on the third day, taking any and ALL power the devil had and stripping it from him! Collisions 2:15 says not only did he take his power and authority on earth, but he publicly shamed him! Then he gave that authority to those who believe on him. 1 John 5:4 we can win every time!
Matthew 14:28-31 tells the story of peter walking on water. They all see Jesus walking towards them on top of the water. They freak out thinking it’s a ghost. I probably would too! Peter, though, says “If it’s really you, tell me to come out there!”
Jesus said, “Come.”
Peter gets out of the boat and starts walking on water! What an incredible feat. Peter has the faith to say lord let me do what you’re doing. He wanted to imitate Jesus, and he did! His faith in Christ led him out onto the water. Then he focused on the waves and storm around them and started to sink. Remember it was a storm, not just a few waves licking at his ankles. Peter didn’t have enough faith stored up to sustain him on the water. He knew Jesus enough to know he could get out there like him, but not enough to know he could be held up through anything. Jesus himself said he had such little faith. So it wasn’t necessarily what he was looking at, it was what he had faith in. He had more faith in his senses than he did in the power of the Almighty God.
Jesus put the blame for failure on Peter. He didn’t say “I stopped because you weren’t ready” or “you know your heart isn’t quite there, you’re about to betray me so you need to really work on your heart before you can stay on the water.” No! He said Peter had too little faith to sustain himself!
If you’re only digging into the promises and word of God when you need comfort or help then you will never have enough faith to sustain yourself. When you devour the word, reading chapters at a time, studying out prosperity and healing. Finding the answers to life’s problems in the word. That is when your faith will carry you through anything. If you’re so full of the word of God and not terrible music and awful television shows, then you will see the precious promises of God.
Further down in 2 Peter 1, it talks about adding all these different things into yourself through diligence. It’s not easy to drop all else and focus on the word of God. It’s simple, but not easy. The easy thing to do is jump on social media. The easy thing to do is to switch on the news or that trendy television show that dulls you down to sex, drugs, and alcohol. Those are easy, but they will profit you nothing and cost you every promise of God.
Faith comes by hearing, hearing the word of God. Romans 10:17
You will continue to live in lack, defeat, and sickness until you’re so full of faith that you’re continually reminding the devil that he’s trespassing on private property and needs to get lost, in Jesus’ name! You have that authority. No one else can sustain that for you.