And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. Romans 8:28.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God says:
Yours is treasure without measure in Me. I am your great reward. You find everything pertaining to life and godliness in Me. You find everything you desire, long for, and need in Me. One eye on time and one eye on eternity and then your two eyes have perfect vision as they work together focused on time and eternity. What you are giving your efforts and time to must include vision of both. And they actually are one in working things together for good.
The crowd that had experienced the multiplication of the loaves and fish sought Jesus for perishable food, their god was their belly, so to speak, but Jesus instead told them of the imperishable food that gives eternal life. He spoke of His body and blood as the food of life eternal. Many who did not comprehend because their spiritual eyes were shut tight, left Him and no longer walked with Him. Jesus asked His twelve disciples if they wanted to leave with the others. And the reply? Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life.” John 6:68. If you want eternal life—abundant life now and forever—there is no other you can go to.
One eye on time and one on eternity working together in unity of vision for purpose. You build your life in this world with the Sword of the Spirit, which is My Word in your mouth, ever ready and the shield of faith up to protect you. “The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John; since that time the gospel of the kingdom of God is preached, and everyone is forcing (biázō: to use power to forcibly seize, laying hold of something with positive aggressiveness; i.e., to advance forcefully) his way into it.” Luke 16:16. “Truly I say to you, among those born of women there has not arisen anyone greater than John the Baptist! Yet the one who is less in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven is forcibly entered (biázō), and those aggressive in pursuit (biastés: one who is aggressive and forceful in eager pursuit of a prize) seize (harpazó: to seize, catch up, snatch up in full view, not secretly but openly) it by force (biázō).” Matthew 11:12. What force? The force of faith.
I tell you that things happen, such as healing, according to your faith. If mighty works happen according to your faith—such as mountains moving into the sea and trees being plucked up by their roots—then faith is the strongest force in man. Fight the good fight of faith. You fight the good fight of faith by faith in My power in My Word. So you are actually fighting with My faith that is contained in My Word that feeds your faith and sets it in motion.
Faith is a spiritual force. I speak of the spirit of faith. Not by your own power and might, but by My Spirit. Do not grieve My Spirit in you by speaking contrary to My Word. Agree with the Spirit of truth that is in you by speaking My Words from your mouth. But they must first be written in your heart. The spirit of faith is that you believe in your heart and speak with your mouth words that match your heart. 2 Corinthians 4:13. The mouth speaks from the heart’s abundance.
Faith hacks out and despoils fear, doubt, and evil. I talk about the shield of faith, saying that you should have it up in all circumstances to extinguish ALL the flaming arrows of the evil one. Ephesians 6:16. In My Word you will find an answer to all the confusion, trials, and thoughts the devil shoots at you. I am a shield to you—a sun and a shield.
If you will use the Words that I put in your mouth that are living and working, sharper than a two-edged sword, and hold up the shield of faith you will reign in life through Christ Jesus and the evil one cannot reach you.
I tell you that by faith just the size of a mustard seed you can uproot huge trees of great strength and throw them into the sea, where they can no longer be seen or grow. Even deep-rooted strongholds you have allowed the devil to entrench in your life can be pulled out and destroyed by faith.
Faith is being so fully persuaded that what I promise I will perform that you refuse any other result and pull out anything that is hindering the result in you. My Son told you to pull out and cut off anything in you that causes you to stumble, that hinders you, Matthew 18:8-9. Whatever it be, you can cut it off and pluck it out by faith.
Faith disables the evil result and enables the good result. That is why everything that is not of faith is sin. It has permitted the evil result.
You enforce My Word by your faith in it. The reason the Israelites I redeemed from Egypt refused to enter the Promises Land, and thus failed to enter My rest, was because they did not mix faith with My promises. Whether the promise gets enforced or not in the earth is a product of your faith.
The process of faith is you first must hear that there is a promise, say of healing, prosperity or peace, and then you visualize it in your own life. And you write it down so you can return to it to reinforce that Scripture in you. Then you petition Me by presenting My Word as the “assurance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not see,” and then speak the promise as if it had been performed with praise and thanksgiving. “Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they will be granted you.” Mark 11:24.
Faith is a spiritual force. I speak of the spirit of faith, so it must originate in the spiritual realm, not in your soul—it is not of your analytical mind, your will, and your emotions—but is birthed in your born again spirit. The strong spirit of a man can get through any trial, but a broken, depressed spirit dries up the bones.
My Words are Spirit and life. The flesh is useless in giving victory and eternal life. The flesh is focused on this world only and cannot see into the spirit realm.
Faith first changes the atmosphere from negative charges to positive charges, from the darkness of fear to the light of confident assurance. It is not a retreat to defeat but an all out offensive attack till the victory is enforced that you had all the time in My Word.
Faith is taking back what is yours already in Christ Jesus and not obtaining something new. Faith is the crown of a life rooted and grounded in love, built up on My Word, and filled with the Spirit. When you know and believe in My love for you and how important and worthwhile you are to Me and how perfect I have made you in My sight in Christ Jesus, when you have gratitude for your life that gives you joy and confidence in every situation that I will come through since I am the one who planned you and willed you to be, when you have the right self-image of who you are in the mirror of My Word (an overcomer who is more than a conqueror), and when you have close fellowship and partnership with Me, faith comes as naturally as the air you breathe. When trouble comes, you know, like David, that I am for you no matter how you got in trouble, you know you can take a whole army down, leap over a wall, and run to the finish line in victory as your foes fall by the wayside.
But to have fully persuaded faith that overcomes all obstacles and will never give in and give up till you have the promise in My Word you must know something. My servant Paul had this and he wanted you to have the same. He wrote by My Spirit, “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to purpose.” Romans 8:28. Faith is a constant trust in Me for a good result, no matter what has raised its ugly head in your life.
To have this promise of good result there are two conditions, first that you love Me, and I know if you love Me, for I see your heart and I know if it is turned towards Me. Jesus explains to you the way to know if you love Me. “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him. He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me. John 14:23-24.
And the second is that you are called according to purpose. The word in Greek for purpose translated there as “purpose” is “prothesis” which is formed from “pró,” which means “before” and “títhēmi,” which means “purposefully set forth.” This same word is used as both a noun and a verb in this passage also written by My Spirit through Paul that sheds light on the “purpose” to which you are called before the foundation of the world. “He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed (here is that same word used as a verb, “protithémi”: to set before, design beforehand) in Him with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth. In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, having been marked out beforehand (proorizó: foreordain, predetermine, mark out beforehand) according to His purpose (prothesis) who works all things after the counsel of His will, to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory.” Ephesians 1:8-12.
The purpose then is My purpose for you in Christ, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.” Ephesians 2:10.
I have purposed things in Christ before the foundation of the world that are only being set forth now—the summing up of ALL in Christ, past, present and future. In Him you understand the Old Testament and what was taking place in all the Covenants of promise, the Law, the prophets, and also in the New Testament in the New Covenant, all the way to the end of time as you know it when the eternal day with the new heavens and earth joined with My Kingdom as one begins. And it has no end. In Him is eternal life.
And what was My purpose in Christ? To reconcile you back to Me. You came out of Me when I formed you and then you wandered off after other gods, seeking other sources than Me, but it just caused you to wither and die, like a branch severed from the vine, but now, in Christ, I draw all who will come back into Myself—back into My perfect rest, perfect day, perfect goodness, perfect wholeness—back into the Shalom of shabbat, the seventh day. He told you, “Now judgment is upon this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out. And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself.” He was saying this to indicate the kind of death by which He was to die. John 12:31-33. “I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.” John 14:3.
I love you. I know well the plans I have for you, plans for your shalom and not evil, to give you a future and a hope, that is, Tikvah, which means “cord.” I draw you back with human cords with bands of love. Jesus. The Word became flesh to reconcile the world to Me and pull you all back into My bosom from whence you came. John 1:18. Will you come? And will you draw others with you as you offer them the cord that pulls you back in as if you had never left? “Draw me after you and let us run together! The king has brought me into his chambers.” Song of Songs 1:4.
We who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil, where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. Hebrews 6:18-20.