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Believe Part 3 Series
Contributed by Lorraine Greeff on Apr 7, 2022 (message contributor)
Summary: Part 3 of RAPTURE READY, BELIEVE do you really believe?
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BELIEVE …. DO YOU?
Welcome to Rapture Ready Part 3, we have discussed Salvation and Faith, now for question
Are you rapture ready?
Do you believe in Jesus Christ, and do you know God?
We human beings have a deep-seated need to believe in something, anything, majority of us believe in material stock, sports or even a person, we can only believe in what we can physically see, hear, or touch.
We should be allowing the spirit of love, truth and forgiveness rule our thoughts and deeds, but no, we are negative and focus on how bad it is, we listen to people who say we can’t, it won’t ever happen…yet we say no problem, no worries, God has got me, in the palm of His hand, yet do we really believe it.
NOTHING IS GOING TO HAPPEN UNLESS YOU BELIEVE.
I want to speak you about the power of believing.
We have already heard that we must take the limits off God, to have our faith stirred up, so just maybe, we need to reprogram our computer, upgrade the software, remove the malware.
Have you ever felt like God showed up too late?
You quote the Bible, pray, you stood on God’s promise, yet you did not get that promotion, the company in fact let you go…
Do you remember the story of Lazarus?
His sisters blamed Jesus for being late, yet the Bible states He was on time. Jesus said to them, take me to the place where you have laid him. In other words, Jesus wanted them to take Him to the place where they stopped believing in Me, where you decided it was over.
I want you all to go to that place where you stopped believing, were you decided that is it…are you there, in that place, now ask yourself: is my God still on the throne?
Is my God still EL Shaddai, the God who is more than enough?
IT IS YOUR JOB TO BELIEVE!!!
To know God is to believe in His Son and to believe in the Gospel.
Turn with me to 1 Peter 1:20-21
Having been foreknown indeed before the foundation of the world, He was made manifest in these last times for you, who through Him believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.
There is an interesting theme throughout the Bible that many people overlook and that is believing in God, from Abraham and Sarah in the OT to the Roman Soldier, whose servant was dying in the NT, they believed.
We find ourselves in situations all the time, in which we have a choice, to believe the lies of the devil or to believe the word of God, majority of the time, we believe the biggest deceiver, the devil himself, we want those lies to be true and we fall for it all the time. LET THIS BE A WARNING TO ALL OF US: one way or another, whether through sin or no sin, we all will finally believe in the Lord.
Martin Luther once said: ‘Miracles take place not because they are performed but because they are believed’
So how do we reset our belief system?
- Believing God helps you overcome the impossible
He is more capable to do more than we could ever ask, just think of one time in your life when you cannot begin to think how you got through it, you cannot doubt, you must put all your trust in God, believe in the written word of God.
What do you want God to do for you?
Turn with me to 1 Thess 2: 13-16
Because of this we also give thanks to God unceasingly, so that when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you received not the word of men, but just as it truly is, the word of God, which also is at work in you who believe. For you, brothers, became imitators of the churches of God which are in Judea in Christ Jesus, because you suffered the same things from your fellow countrymen, just as also they did by the Jews, who killed both the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; and they do not please God and are against all men, forbidding us from speaking to the Gentiles so that they may be saved, so as always to fill up the measure of their sins; but the wrath of God has come upon them to the uttermost.
What does it mean to believe in the Bible?
Paul uses two words in verse 13 that we need to look at:
- You received the Word of God
Whether it was by hearing or reading, you received it.