Faith Changes how you think! By James Lantz

       Are you willing to change what you think about things if you knew God thought differently than you? There is a natural tendency to think our way of thinking is the right way. Those of us who know God, or have known him for any length of time, know that God is always right. We know that everything God tells us to do is for our good and will bring reward. In fact, God is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the Holy Ghost power that works within us. We know that the Holy Ghost power that is within us is released by faith filled words and actions. In fact the power of the Holy Ghost is everywhere in this earth at this very moment. He came on the day of Pentecost and has never left. Three thousand people changed their thinking concerning Jesus of Nazareth, as Peter preached that this same Jesus they had crucified was raised from the dead and is Lord of all. They now thought of him as their Lord and savior from their sins.  Acts 2:38  Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.  To repent is to change your thinking and your actions. Some may think they are pretty good and don’t need a savior, this is wrong thinking. Some may think their sin is to great for God to forgive, this is wrong thinking, the shed blood of Jesus is more powerful than the worst sin. God put the sins of the whole world on Jesus and considered man’s debt paid after three days of Jesus suffering in hell. Every person who gives themselves to the Lord Jesus Christ is exempt from the torments of hell and granted righteousness through Christ. This raising Jesus from the dead and all of us with him is God’s mighty work. Satan, who once was one of God’s top three angels, could not fathom how God could redeem his man until it was to late.  Eph. 1:19&20  And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to usward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places    Zacchaeus changed his thinking when Jesus came to his house.  Luke 19:8  And Zacchaeus stood, and said unto the Lord; Behold Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken anything from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold.  Zacchaeus now thought more highly of eternal life than he did of money. Jesus said, today salvation has come to this house. Jesus came to seek and to save the lost. Jesus also came to heal every sick person. God placed every sickness upon Jesus as he bare the sins of many, hanging on the cross and suffering in the regions of the dammed for three days and nights.  Isaiah 53:6 .  .  .  and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.  Isaiah 53:10  Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief (sickness).  .  .  Healing and deliverance is part of the gospel, Jesus gave himself for us, spirit, soul, and body. We have the testimony of eye witnesses recorded for us. (Matthew 8:17,  1 Peter 2:24 & Acts 10:38, 3 John 2)  This is good news, this is the gospel of Jesus Christ, Jesus healed them all.  Mt. 12:15  But when Jesus knew it, he withdrew himself from thence: and great multitudes followed him, and he healed them all,   Notice that Jesus healed all who followed him. Bartimaeus cried out to Jesus for mercy. Those around him, said, be quiet, but he made demand on his covenant, calling all the more for mercy. When Jesus called him he threw the beggars coat away and went to Jesus to receive his sight.  Mk.10:52  And Jesus said unto him, Go thy way; thy faith hath made thee whole.  And immediately he received his sight, and followed Jesus in the way.  Faith thinks differently than unbelief. Faith throws away the beggars coat because why would a healed person need to beg. Faith is not swayed by the unbelief of others but gets up and goes after their healing. Don’t let the devil lie to you about being to old to receive your healing. Moses was one hundred and twenty and his eyesight was not dim and he was physically fit to climb a mountain right up to the time of his death. There was a crippled man who heard Paul preach about the healing power of God who began to think, thats right,  I believe God has delivered me from this paralysis when he raised Jesus from the dead. Please understand, it is not just thinking that you were healed but believing you were healed when Jesus was raised from the dead. Believing God causes us to think differently!  Acts 14:9  The same heard Paul speak: who steadfastly beholding him, and perceiving that he had faith to be healed, said with a loud voice, Stand upright on thy feet. And he leaped and walked.  If you need healing or deliverance, it is never to far gone for God to fix.  Mark 9:23  .  .  .  If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.  The Doctor may have said , there is nothing we can do. Others may be saying it is impossible, but not God.  Mark 10:27  .  .  .  With men it is impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible.  This glorious gospel includes the infilling of the Holy Spirit with power to minister, and inner guidance for even the small affairs of life (better than GPS). A life that is sold out to Jesus Christ is a worry free, fear free, and strife free life. Believing is a choice, thinking in line with what God said rather than what things look like is a choice, and being filled with the Holy Spirit is a choice. Be wise, understanding what the will of the Lord is. It is the will of the Lord for each of us  to be filled with the Spirit with the evidence of speaking in other tongues.   Acts 2:4  And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.  Upon arriving at Ephesus Paul found certain disciples and asked them, have you received the Holy Ghost since you believed? Paul certainly believed that every christian needed to be filled with the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in tongues.  Acts 19:6  And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them; and they spake with tongues, and prophesied.  It was the norm for the early church to be filled with the Spirit because Jesus commanded the disciples to wait for this promise of the Father. God never intended for us to try to live this christian life without the Holy Spirit’s power. There is more good news in the Gospel, the blessing also affects our prosperity. Jesus traveled throughout Israel preaching in their synagogues that he was anointed to preach the  gospel to the poor, to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, and to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. The first thing Jesus mentioned  was good news for the poor. This good news was that they did not have to stay poor because the blessing of the Lord will make you rich.  Pro. 10:22  The blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it.  God does not want us seeking the blessing, he wants us seeking first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. The blessing of the Lord was given to Adam and he squandered it and then it was placed on Noah and then we see it being given to Abraham. And of course it has been given to us, the spiritual seed of Abraham.  Gal. 3:13 & 14  Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree: that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.  Gal. 3:29  And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.  We need to be thinking that we are the blessed of the Lord. We are the ones who have been given supernatural weapons. We are the ones empowered to cast down every thought that does not line up with the blessing. We are the ones who possess the life of God! Jesus exhorts us to rather rejoice in our salvation than rejoice in our authority over our enemy the devil.  Luke 10:20 Not withstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven.  To often our thinking is about how blessed the disciples were to hear Jesus preach or how blessed Mary was to be chosen to be the mother of our Lord. One day while Jesus was teaching a woman lifted up her voice and said to him, Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breast which nursed you. Jesus responded, yea rather blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it. There was a time early in his ministry that Jesus Mother and brothers were not with him as he taught the word of God. The crowd was so large that they couldn’t get to him, so they sent word to Jesus that they wanted to see him. When someone told him that his mother and brothers wanted to see him he said this to those who were pressing in to hear the Word of God.  Luke 8:21  .  .  .  My mother and my brethren are these which hear the word of God, and do it.  This would have been a gentle rebuke to his family who should have been right there valuing the word of God above other things but more than that it was meant to show us that spiritual family trumps natural family. In other words Jesus was saying that anyone of us can receive the blessing of the Lord by hearing the word of God and doing it. This is how God wants us to think, that each of us is blessed just by being a child of God. This does not take anything away from Mary being blessed. She was chosen of God because she was a doer of the word and God trusted her to receive the word of God even if it meant losing Joseph. Are you blessed? If you are a child of God you are blessed. Believe that you are blessed! Expect  God’s favor to come on you today! Don’t seek the blessing, find your place in the body of Christ and serve with all your heart and expect the blessing to come on you. Bringing the blessing on you is God’s part, obeying the word and expecting his goodness is our part.  Psalms 23:6  Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.

Pro. 8:17  I (wisdom) love them that love me; and those that seek me early shall find me.