Solution-Focused Faith:
How To Believe God For A Miracle!
Hebrews 6:12 … to be like those who believe and are
patient, and so receive what God has promised.
Ten studies on how positive bible-based faith helps
us to tap into
God’s practical and perfect solutions for our lives.
© Copyright, John Edmiston 2005
Study 1 – The Direction Of Faith
Matthew 9:28-29 MKJV And when He had come into the house, the
blind men came to Him. And Jesus said to them, Do you believe that I am able to
do this? They said to Him, Yes, Lord.
(29) Then He touched their eyes,
saying, According to your faith let it be to you.
Matthew 15:28 MKJV Then
Jesus answered and said to her, O woman, great is your faith! So be it to you
even as you wish. And her daughter was healed from that very hour.
Matthew 17:20 MKJV And Jesus said to them, Because of your unbelief. For truly I say to you, If you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain, Move from here to there. And it shall move. And nothing shall be impossible to you.
These ten bible-studies are on what I call
“solution-focused faith”. Solution focused thinking focuses entirely on the
desired end state and how to get there. Instead of worrying about what is not
working “solution-focused faith” concentrates on what does work and how to do
more of it.
Solution-focused
thinking is the opposite of problem-focused thinking. It does not bog down in
the “paralysis of analysis” or get into gloom and doom predictions. If you get
a flat tire do you get out the jack and the spare and quickly fix it and move
on, or do you say, “How did that nail get there” and get angry and blame
people. The first person is solution focused; the second person is
problem-focused. Solution focused people have faith and hope and move forward
in life, problem focused people have fear, anger and despair and stay stuck by
the side of the road.
God is light and in Him
there is no darkness at all (1 John1:5) and that means God is POSITIVE. God
never says “Oh that is just too hard for Me, I can’t do it.” God calls into being that which is not. He
is creative and creates wonderful solutions. Sometimes God does point out the
problem – but only in order to fix it, not to grumble over it forever.
When Jesus came across a
problem – sickness, disease, death, a storm or whatever, He did not call a
committee to order and analyze it for six months. He just envisioned the
desired end solution and called it into being (e.g., “Lazarus come forth”, “be
healed”, “be made clean”, “little girl rise up”, “peace be still” etc.
Jesus does not say
“leprosy I rebuke you be gone” he says “be cleansed”. He never says to someone
“tell me your life history and why you are sinning” he simply says “you are
forgiven, now go and sin no more.” The focus is always on the future solution
not the current problem.
David and Goliath is
another great instance, or the twelve spies, ten of whom saw the problems and
two of whom saw the Solution. Or the feeding of the five thousand where the
disciples saw the problem (not even ten thousand denarii!) while the little boy
offered up a solution (five loaves and two fish). In the midst of the dark and
terrible storm in Acts (Acts 27) when everyone is convinced they are lost and
going to perish an angel comes to Paul, not with an analysis of the problem but
with its solution.
Over and over again we
see that faith has a direction – the future, and faith has content – the
desired end state, the realization of God’s perfect will for that situation.
Do we truly believe that
a good, wise and perfect God is interested in us and cares about our affairs
and has a wise, good and perfect solution for them that can be known? The
solution-focused saint believes there is such a solution, seeks God for it,
then holds on to it by faith.
This is not an easy
story to tell but shortly after we were married my wife and I were searching
for accommodation near her university in Manila. Nearly everything was taken
and we started looking at a place that I can only describe as a “terrible dump”
little more than a converted garage. We were in need but this was dreadful. But
I said “This is too dreadful it cannot be God’s place for us, this is the
Devil’s offer!” After a bit more searching we found a clean place among good friends.
This, we turned into a beautiful home. God’s place for us was perfect! The
lesson I learned is that the Devil often offers a quick solution that is a
disaster – the car that is a lemon, the wrong woman to marry, the wrong career,
the cheap nasty lawyer, and Satan hassles us to take it to “solve our problem”.
But God’s solutions are
good and perfect solutions! Look at God’s solutions in Creation from the neck
of the giraffe, to the trunk of the elephant, to the wings of the bumble-bee –
they are all good and perfect solutions.
Faith knows that God
loves us and cares for us and that His long arm of power works everywhere for
good and that His justice protects all our interests. (Psalms 23, 37, 73, 103
etc)
Faith knows that God is
wise and creative and has wonderful perfect solutions that He can reveal to us
who believe. (James 1:5-8, 3:16-18)
Faith knows the peace of
God is His perfect “shalom” and is not just an emotion but is also a lifestyle,
a concrete tangible realizable state of actual blessing and favor from God.
(Isaiah 9:1-7, 26:3,12, 32:15-20)
Faith is confident that
God is working all things together for good for those who love Him. (Romans
8:28)
Faith walks in those
solutions. Faith sees the God-given perfect solution and receives it and
believes it.
Unbelief sees the
problem and denies that there is a God-given solution.
Presumption sees the
problem and imagines some crazy solution that has nothing to do with God. Most
prosperity gospel teaching on “visualize your desired car” fits here.
Faith takes one look at
the water and sees wine, one glance at the mountain and says “where should I
move it to Lord?”. Faith listens for God’s solution and does not cook up a
human solution.
The first two verses
from Matthew I opened this devotional with emphasize “according to your faith
be it unto you”. The third talks about
mustard-seed faith moving mountains. Faith is our ability to believe in the
good activity of the perfectly wise God.
Hebrews
11:6 MKJV But without faith it is
impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and
that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
Faith for
ministry finances means believing that God will reveal a financial solution
that honors His name and is adequate for His work and meanwhile making do with
“five loaves and two fishes” and the power of God.
Faith for
evangelism means believing that God will lead you to those He has prepared to
receive the gospel. Faith sees the harvest not the hardness.
Faith for
healing means letting God show you the perfect healing for that person (which
may be passing to glory) and then believing it according to His Word.
Faith is
when the human spirit is firmly set on the promises and power of God, and is
not swallowed up by the waves of doubt and the sight of the stormy problems.
Faith sees tangible real solutions coming from God in good and perfect ways –
because there is no imperfection in God.
Faith walks
in the light, where there is no darkness at all and dwells in the Truth of God’s
goodness power and love, so the direction of faith is always TOWARDS THE
PERFECT SOLUTION – which it calls into being! (And faith lets God decide what
the perfect solution is!)
Questions
- What
does it mean to be solution-focused?
- How was Jesus always solution-focused?
- How does faith see the God-given perfect solution and receive it
and believe it?
- What is the proper and true direction and focus of effective faith?
Study 2 - The God Of Faith
Exodus 34:5-8 MKJV And Jehovah came down in the cloud, and
stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of Jehovah. (6)
And Jehovah passed by before him and proclaimed, Jehovah! Jehovah God,
merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, (7)
keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and
sin, and who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of
fathers on the sons, and on the sons of sons, to the third and to the fourth
generation. (8) And Moses made haste and bowed toward the
earth, and worshiped.
Romans 11:29-36 MKJV For the free gifts and calling of God are
without repentance. (30) For as you also then disbelieved God, but
now have been shown mercy through their disbelief, (31) even so these also
have not believed now, so that through your mercy they may also obtain
mercy. (32) For God has shut up all in unbelief, so that He might show mercy
to all. (33) O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of
God! How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out! (34)
For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who became His
counselor? (35) Or who first gave to Him, and it will be
repaid to him? (36) For of Him and through Him and to Him are
all things; to Him be glory forever! Amen.
James 1:17 MKJV Every good gift and every perfect gift is
from above and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom is no
variableness nor shadow of turning.
God
is not a philosophy or a concept, He is an active Being whose attributes
describe His actions. Thus when God
creates “peace” it is not just mental peace or inner peace – rather it is
tangible peace that is wars cease to the ends of the earth and the field
blossoms and people live to a great age in happiness and contentment.
When
God creates righteousness it is not just inner righteousness (though that is
included) but also overall justice, fair systems, widows are protected from
scams, orphans are sheltered, laws are obeyed, the world is put right way up.
When
God gives grace then bondages are broken, life becomes free, healing breaks
out, miracles occur, the Church grows and “great grace was upon them all”.
And
when God sends joy then the whole of Creation is lifted up in celebration and
rejoices with His rejoicing, life moves up a notch, sadness is banished, the
city celebrates, the spirit of heaviness is replaced by the garment of praise
and the flowers bloom and the wilderness breaks into song.
Because
that which happens on earth is an extension of God’s character in Heaven we
need to understand the nature of the good and wise God we trust, pray to and
have faith in. The nature of God is the nature of the Being that controls
reality. The nature of God is thus directly connected to how things are, how
healthy I am, how much I am paid, and so forth. That is why Jesus could say:
Matthew 6:26-30 MKJV Behold the birds of the air; for they sow
not, nor do they reap, nor gather into barns. Yet your heavenly Father feeds
them; are you not much better than they are?
(27) Which of you by being
anxious can add one cubit to his stature?
(28) And why are you anxious
about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They do not
toil, nor do they spin, (29) but I say to you that even Solomon in his
glory was not arrayed like one of these.
(30) Therefore if God so clothes
the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven,
will He not much rather clothe you, little-faiths?
Jesus is saying that the
goodness and faithfulness of God can be seen in fat sparrows and beautiful
lilies. It is God who is feeding them, it is God who is clothing them. God’s
nature is seen in nature and how it is organized.
It is God’s goodness and
faithfulness that are feeding you and clothing you.
In Matthew 5 Jesus tells
us to love our enemies. The basis for this is that our heavenly Father loves
His enemies and the tangible sign of this divine love is that He sends His rain
on the just and the unjust. The outward
circumstances – rain on the just and the unjust – matches the nature of God –
He loves His enemies.
God’s nature and our
circumstances are meant to be tightly connected. However we ended up
disconnected from God and serving Satan instead, we wanted Las Vegas instead of
Heaven. But being “in Christ” means reconciliation with God and being put back
under His rulership where His nature manifests in all the circumstances of our
lives.
Living faith is when we
realize that God’s nature rules our circumstances and we decide to trust that
absolutely. Faith says: “because God is good then my life will be good because
God will make it that way. He cannot make it any other way because He is good
to those who love Him.”
The fact that God is
“abounding in goodness and truth” means that He has a great reservoir of good
and that He will be true to us, solid, unwavering and eternal in His blessings
in this life and the next. God is not just good in a distant philosophical
sense. Rather He is “working all things together for good”. His outward actions
“working” reflects His inner nature “good”. And this working of God is on our
behalf – “for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose”
(Romans 8:28)
The fact that God is
light means that He is perfect and there is no imperfection in Him at all and
that all His gifts are good and wise and without repentance (see opening
verses). We can trust God to give us what is right for us, in fact what is
perfect for us.
Faith enables us to
experience the nature of God in action. The blind man believed in a healing God
and was healed, David believed in a powerful God and was victorious over
Goliath, the thief on the cross believed in a gracious and merciful God and
entered Paradise. Faith opens the doors to the reality of God’s character in
action in our lives.
When Jesus and the
disciples were at sea and the storm arose Jesus slept because he was confident
about God’s keeping power, and when the disciples were frightened Jesus said
“Why are you afraid o ye of little faith”. Jesus was totally confident of the
goodness of God overriding the circumstances of the storm. Anxiety means we
have stopped believing or are doubting that God’s goodness will rule over our
circumstances.
Solution-focused faith
sees God’s goodness and joy and grace and love and righteousness and providence
manifesting powerfully in the midst of human circumstances to produce “peace,
be still” solutions of total perfection. Faith calls on God to manifest His
benevolent character in the midst of daily life.
If you are getting
“shafted” at the office you can call on God to manifest His perfect justice and
to protect the righteous interests of those who love Him.
If you are knee deep in
debt you can call on God to make manifest His mercy and grace and cause your
debts to be forgiven or removed from you and you can call on His wisdom to
teach you how to be wiser in future.
If
your relationships are a mess you can call on the God of peace to manifest His
peace in all the relationship of your life for He “cause the righteous to be at
peace with his enemies”. Proverbs 16:7 MKJV
When a man's ways please Jehovah, He makes even his enemies to be at
peace with him.
If your
life is depressing and joyless and a grind you can call on God to make His joy
manifest in all your circumstances so that you live a life of celebration. You
can call on the God who removes the spirit of heaviness and replaces it with
the garment of praise.
You are entitled to this
for two good reasons. Firstly you are in Christ and you are blessed with all
the spiritual blessings in the heavenly realms including those above. In a
human sense you may not be so entitled but in a divine sense you are.
Ephesians 1:2-3 MKJV Grace be to you, and peace from God our
Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
(3) Blessed be the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who blessed us with every spiritual blessing
in the heavenlies in Christ;
Secondly all the
promises in the Bible are “yea and amen” in Christ. They are yours by
inheritance in Him.
2 Corinthians 1:20
MKJV (20) For all the promises of God in Him are yes, and in Him Amen, to
the glory of God by us.
To activate your
heavenly inheritance you may need to take some faith actions of your own.
Firstly you may need to demonstrate your faith by speaking and acting in
accordance with what you believe e.g. by deciding not to express fear in the
storm, or by going and getting some stones for your sling in preparation for a
victory over Goliath. Secondly you have to let God have His perfect way and not
entertain panic-stricken short-cuts to grace that produce “Ishmaels”.
Learn to trust God’s
perfect plan and perfect timing (this is a real spiritual training exercise and
it often is stressful at first but leads to peace.)
Solution-focused faith
believes that God will manifest His wonderful and holy nature in wise and perfect
and good ways in the midst of our normal daily lives.
Questions
- Who
controls Reality?
- What
is the connection between the character of God and the actions of God?
- Why
can we trust God to act in good and loving ways in our lives?
- What
are some ways in which we can trust God’s perfect character to bring
perfect solutions into our lives through faith?
Study 3 - The Faithful And True God
In the
last study we saw that the nature of God is the nature of the Person who
controls Reality. God is constantly tuning and tweaking and redeeming and
intervening in this disorderly world according to His attributes and character
and will. Thus because He is peaceful He will establish peace on earth in real
and tangible ways. We finished with the statement that: Solution-Focused Faith believes that God will manifest His
wonderful and holy nature in wise and perfect and good ways in the midst of our
normal daily lives.
Thus faith is, at rock bottom, faith in the character of God. So today we will look at one aspect of His character – God is a Faithful and True God.
Deuteronomy 32:4 MKJV He
is the Rock; His work is perfect. For all His ways are just, a God of
faithfulness, and without evil; just and upright is He.
Lamentations 3:22-24
MKJV (22) It is by Jehovah's kindnesses that we are not destroyed, because
His mercies never fail. (23) They are new every morning; great is Your
faithfulness. (24) Jehovah is my portion, says my soul;
therefore I will hope in Him.
In Hebrew
faithfulness and truth are related words: emeth (truth) and emunah
(faithfulness/firmness), and together they mean that God is established, firm,
true to His Word and faithful about carrying out His promises. Thus God can be
relied on.
But what
can solution-focused faith rely on God for? Do we rely on God to tie our
shoelaces? Do we rely on God to make us a billionaire? Neither of course! We
can only rely on God to carry out His perfect will - in us, through us, by us
and for us. We can rely on God for the promised desired end state! We can rely
on God for the perfect solution from the divine will!
When the
father of the boy having seizures appealed to Jesus to cast out the demon he
was relying on God for a certain outcome – the deliverance of his son. The
expectation of an answer to his problem would have been put in the father’s
heart by the Holy Spirit. The man knew that Jesus had a specific answer to his
immediate problem and he trusted Jesus for it and saw the miracle.
The man had
seen or heard of Jesus healing power and must have thought – “what Jesus
has done for others he can do for me and more”. This is relying on the
faithfulness of God. What God has done before, He does again. He is reliable.
Jesus is the same, yesterday, today and forever.
We gain
faith by witnessing God in action and gradually concluding that what God has
done in the Bible, and what God has done in the Church, and what God has done
in my neighbor’s life – He can also do for me.
We tend to
take the promises of God at an emotional level rather than at a practical
level. We tend to say “that verse warms my heart” rather than “that verse is
true and I will bank on it and rely on it in my life.”
We
sometimes shrink from this sort of practical reliance on God because we have
been disappointed with God, or we have seen others who were disappointed with
God. God sometimes seems unreliable, or slow in answering, or unavailable to
those who pray desperately for the life of a young woman with cancer. It even
gets to the point where we start making excuses for God!
There have
been times in my ministry when I have really struggled to see the faithfulness
of God. This is often either because of an academic calculating understanding
of faithfulness or a great impatience with the circumstances.
We
sometimes rip God’s promises out of scripture and apply them like abstract
mathematical formulas. The promises of God are not abstract rules but are
personal spiritual principles. God is Spirit and those that worship Him must
worship in Spirit and in Truth (John 4:24). The Word of God and the Spirit of
God must work together in the life of the worshipping believer. Only when the
Spirit and the Word agree and witness together can you have faith in the
promise of God. When we treat promises like abstract rules we set ourselves up for
disappointment. Generally the promises of God have to be first “seen with the
spirit” within the Christian. You have
to “know” deep within you that the particular promise A applies to the
circumstance B being considered before you.
When
God confirms His word to you, then you can rely on it, but you must wait for it
to come to pass. Joseph was sorely tested as he waited for God’s word to come
to pass: Psalms 105:17-19 MKJV He sent a man before them, Joseph, being
sold for a servant; (18) whose feet they hurt with chains; he was
laid in iron, (19) until the time that his word came, the Word
of Jehovah refined him.
God was
faithful to Joseph, and God will be faithful to you. God has His perfect will,
His wonderful creative solution, that He wishes to bring to pass in your life
but you must keep on believing and keep on waiting for it.
God is
faithful to His vision of the kingdom of God, and to the establishment of a
perfect and good new heavens and earth under His rule, that is without crying
or pain. God has a similar vision for your life. He wishes to establish His
kingdom in your heart, your home and your circumstances.
You can
trust God to make that happen or you can try your own foolish solutions.
Because
God is faithful and true you can rely on Him to bring His promises to fruition
in your life. You can see God solving your problems in good and perfect ways.
You can believe that He will supply wise solutions to pressing problems. In
your spirit you can sense the solution that God wants you to have. Deep within
your heart you can see this solution emerging. You can see the mustard seed
growing. You know that God will do it because He is faithful and true. Abraham knew Isaac was “on the way”
twenty-five years in advance.
Romans 4:20-22 MKJV He did not stagger at the promise of God
through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God, (21)
and being fully persuaded that what God had promised, He was also able
to perform. (22) And therefore it was imputed to him for
righteousness.
Abraham believed that God was faithful and true: “being fully persuaded that what God had promised, He was also able to perform.” And Abraham’s faith in the reliability of God in a specific practical circumstance “was imputed to him for righteousness”.
Questions
- What
did Abraham believe about God? What did He believe God for?
- How
long did Abraham believe for? Was
God faithful? Why did Abraham get credit for this?
- What
two things need to line up before we can claim a promise from God?
- How
can we rely on God for a specific practical outcome?
Study 4
- Faith In The Goodness of God
God is
good, and He longs to do good to those He loves, and He works all things
together for their good (Romans 8:28). Thus one of the great challenges of
solution-focused faith is to believe in the goodness of God. We live in the
midst of a sinful and wicked world, and at times it seems hard to believe that
we can actually experience this goodness and be rewarded by God. Solution-focused
faith truly believes that God is good and will work out a good and perfect and
practical solution.
Hebrews 11:6 MKJV But without faith it is impossible to please
Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder
of those who diligently seek Him.
Psalms 27:13-14 MKJV I would have fainted unless I had believed
to see the goodness of Jehovah in the land of the living. (14)
Hope in Jehovah; be of good courage, and He shall make your heart
strong; yea, hope in Jehovah.
Psalms 13:6 MKJV I will sing to Jehovah, because He has
rewarded me.
Psalms 142:7 MKJV Bring my soul out of prison that I may
praise Your name; the righteous shall gather around me; for You shall reward
me.
There are those that sneer at the idea of God rewarding
people, they say: “O you should not believe because of the reward, that is so
primitive, true faith just believes in the abstract virtues of God.” True faith
does nothing of the kind! True faith must believe that: “He is a rewarder of
those who diligently seek Him. (Hebrews 11:6)”
There are three notable instances of faith being commended
in the Scriptures - Abraham, the centurion, and the Syrophoenician/Canaanite
woman:
The faith that justified Abraham was not abstract belief in
the virtues of a philosophical God! The faith that made Abraham famous was
faith that Isaac would be born to an old couple despite their infirmity (Romans
4;19-21) and later on the faith that Isaac could be raised even from the dead
(Hebrews 11:17-19) !
And when the centurion was commended for his faith it was
faith that his servant could be healed by a word from Jesus (Matthew 8:5-13).
The Syrophoenician/Canaanite woman was commended for her
great faith in Jesus, because she believed Jesus could and would deliver her
daughter from a demon (Matthew 15:22-28).
My first attempt to believe God for specific things was
shortly before I went into bible college, it was a Monday early in 1980 and I
asked God for a Young’s Concordance, a New Bible Dictionary and a pair of brown
shoes, by the end of the day I had been given all three and none of the people
who gave knew anything about my needs or my prayer. I soon learned the art of
“living by faith” and seeing God’s provision in highly specific matters. Now
hardly a day goes by without some small tangible answer to the prayer of faith.
In fact I think it is better to have a real faith in a good God who provides
parking spaces than a purely philosophical faith in abstractions that maintains
the world is, for all practical purposes, untouched by God.
If you go to the heroes of faith in Hebrews 11 they are all
“looking to the reward” and believing God for quite real tangible things such
as victories in battle, the resurrection of Isaac, deliverance from Egypt, the
future of the sons of Jacob, the resurrection of the tortured martyrs, and
citizenship in the future city of God. They all believed that the invisible and
intangible would one day become the clearly visible and the very tangible. When
we pray “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven” we are
asking for invisible things such as the Kingdom and the will of God to become
tangibly present “on earth”.
Faith
believes that God’s goodness is a present reality that orders our days and our
lives. Faith believes that God’s goodness can undo the Devil’s badness and
restore the years the locusts have eaten (Joel 2:25,26). Faith believes that
even our sin and folly cannot be so powerful to completely prevent us receiving
some of God’s goodness for He sends His rain on the just and the unjust.
(Matthew 5:45)
In
fact it can be said that God is absolutely determined that we will experience
His goodness – from beautiful sunsets, to cool breezes, to falling in love, to
being saved, to being filled with the Holy Ghost. God wants to demonstrate His
goodness to us over and over gain in bountiful and generous ways. Jesus never
knocked back anyone who was determined to experience the goodness of God for
themselves. In fact the determination of the Canaanite woman to experience
grace is what Jesus praised her for (as he also praises the persistent widow in
Luke 18 and many others like lepers and blind men who insisted on experiencing
Gods’ goodness here and now.)
Faith
in the goodness of God, experienced in the land of the living and also in
Heaven, is absolutely fundamental to true Christian faith. If God is good all
the time, then He is being good to me right now as I sit at this computer. Now
experiencing that goodness requires faith. It is always faith that brings the
goodness of God down to earth. It was faith that led to the birth of Isaac, the
New Testament healings, and the miracles and revivals of Acts.
Faith
is the persistent, “stupid”, stubborn opening of our hearts to the goodness of
God despite all the contrary evidence that would make us cynical, defensive and
unbelieving. Faith is asking for Jesus to provide wine at the wedding of Cana
then just doing what He says and seeing the bountiful provision, faith is
believing five loaves and two fishes can feed a multitude and then opening to
God so he can participate in the act.
We have to believe that our God is bursting to demonstrate His goodness in the midst of our daily routine. Faith is simply opening up to this reality.
Though from time to time evil may blight a year or more of our lives we are never finished completely, slowly but surely God’s goodness will triumph, and our days will become filled with joy. No disaster can separate us from the love of God and His goodness to us. Even the martyrs find God’s goodness to them in the end and we are thus “more than conquerors”. (Romans 8)
I have
recently read of the horrors of the siege of Jerusalem in AD 70 and how
dreadful the “siege and sack” was in the ancient world, but even in such awful
situations God’s goodness is not absent: “Psalms
31:21 MKJV Blessed is Jehovah; for He
has worked His mercy wondrously in a besieged city.” No matter how “besieged” your
life may be, God can still bring His wondrous goodness into it.
On a practical note we need to insist on the goodness of
God, just as Job did, just as the Canaanite woman did, just as blind Bartimaeus
did and just as so many others who have been blessed by God have done. The
Psalms are a continual record of David going before God for justice, mercy,
forgiveness, deliverance and the experience of His goodness. David did not take
God’s goodness as automatically granted, he made it a matter of prayer.
In Christ we can come to
the throne of grace for help in time of need (Hebrews 4:16) and we should do so
placing our burdens on Him for He cares for us (1 Peter 5:7). We need to go
before God, in an attitude of trusting faith, and ask that His goodness, and
His blessings will be poured into our lives at our points of need.
Psalms 31:19 MKJV How great is Your goodness, which You have
laid up for those who fear You; You have worked for those who trust in You
before the sons of men!
Psalms 37:3-5 MKJV Trust in Jehovah, and do good; you shall dwell in the land, and you shall be fed on truth. (4) Delight yourself also in Jehovah, and He shall give you the desires of your heart. (5) Roll your way on Jehovah; trust also in Him, and He will work.
Questions
1.
Why is it sometimes very hard to believe in the goodness of
God? (e.g. the tsunami disaster)
2.
Can you give some examples of how faith brings the goodness
of God “down to earth” from heaven? Why
is it essential that we believe that God rewards us? (Hebrews 11:6)
3.
How does God’s goodness restore broken lives?
4.
How can solution-focused faith lay hold of the goodness of
God for daily living?
Study 5 - Faith In The
Acceptance And Love of God
Romans 15:7 ISV Therefore,
accept one another, just as Christ accepted you, for the glory of God.
Romans 5:1-5 ISV
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God
through our Lord Jesus Christ. (2) Through him we have also obtained access by
faith into this grace in which we stand, and we boast in our hope of sharing
God's glory. (3) Not only that, but we also boast in our
sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, (4) endurance produces character, and character produces hope. (5)
Now this hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured
out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.
Sometimes the solutions that faith requires are internal –
in our heart and mind and in our perceptions of the universe around us. Do we
see ourselves as always rejected? Do we often see God as punishing us? Do we
see the world as evil and scheming and out to get us and deprive us? Goethe described the Devil as “He who always
denies.” After living in this world, under Satan’s attacks we can become used
to “always being denied” and end up feeling unblessed, deprived, useless and
rejected.
The cure for this is to
develop faith in the acceptance and love of God. For in Christ God has accepted
us.
If God loves us, accepts
us, justifies us and even desires to glorify us (Romans 8:28-31, John17:22) and
that same God is the Creator and Ruler of all things, then He will be working
to express that acceptance, love and joy to us, in practical ways in the midst
of our daily life. The great saints of old have always beheld a “beautiful
world” that is their friend, with for instance St. Francis speaking of “Brother
Sun and Sister Moon. Because they were in harmony with God they also perceived
themselves to be in harmony with His Creation. The whole world was accepting
them and loving them because God had accepted them and loved them.
Proverbs
puts it this way: Proverbs 16:7 MKJV
When a man's ways please Jehovah, He makes even his enemies to be at
peace with him.
Christians need to wake up to the fact that God loves them and accepts them and the angels love them and accept them (Hebrews 1:14) and the whole of Creation loves them and accepts them – except the Devil, a few demons and those that serve the dark side. When the bad guys are finally vanquished we will discover that we belong in a Universe of love.
God’s
love is based on us being in Christ, not on our spiritual performance. As long
as you are born-again, then His life and His Spirit dwells in you, and you are
acceptable to Him. We are “accepted in
the beloved”:
Ephesians 1:4-6 KJV According as he hath chosen us in him before
the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before
him in love: (5) Having predestinated us unto the adoption of
children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his
will, (6) To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us
accepted in the beloved.
The
cross has put an end to the wrath of God and we are reconciled to Him.
(Colossian1:19-20)
Colossians 1:19-20
KJV For it pleased [the Father] that in
him should all fulness dwell; (20) And, having made peace through the blood of
his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, [I say],
whether [they be] things in earth, or things in heaven.
Given this we are reconciled to God, who has also reconciled all things to Himself, so God, Christians , and “all things’ belong to the one vast community of reconciliation.
I am
emphasizing this because we live in a world where we are informed daily about
terrorist attacks, Internet scams, sexual predators and various plagues and
poisons. This can lead to a semi-paranoid state of utter anxiety about “the
state of the world” and indeed the person without Christ is perhaps justified
in this perception.
But the
Christian lives in the light, in a state of grace and acceptance and at peace
with God and with the entire Universe that He rules. We are accepted and
acceptable not just in a theological and religious sense but in a practical
sense for we dwell in complete acceptance by all things from trees to angels to
God Himself. We must not anticipate rejection, we should by faith anticipate
favor and love and blessing (and persecution from a few).
Evil is not
ultimate, God is ultimate and His love and acceptance is ultimate and final. At
the end of our days we shall be surprised by joy and dwell in perfect love.
Terrible things may occur in this life but they will eventually be forgotten at
the moment when every tear will be wiped away.
Jesus was
rejected but that rejection was not the end of the story for the Stone that the
builders rejected became the Chief Cornerstone and it is marvelous in our eyes.
(1Peter 2:6,7) In Christ we share in His victory over rejection. We are
accepted in the beloved.
Lets look
at some practical applications of this. Say “Joe” is looking for a godly
Christian wife but he has experienced rejection by women before. He is now terrified of dating. He can bring
the problem to God like this: “Lord you
love me and have accepted me and I am reconciled to you and to your Universe.
By faith I believe that that You see me as lovable and acceptable. I pray that You
will work in the perfect woman of your choosing, speak to her at the perfect
time and help her to see me through Your eyes – as lovable and acceptable. Also
help me to see myself as loveable and acceptable and cast out all my fears for
your perfect love casts out all fear. In Jesus name. Amen.”
Learn to
dwell in the perfect love and acceptance of God, not in the fickle approval of
people. If God says that you are lovable and acceptable, and that all your sins
are forgiven and that you are justified in His sight – then you are loveable
and acceptable, as a fact, as an eternal and immutable fact – and no opinion of
any scarecrow man of straw can change that!
Say you are
seeking a promotion at work. You can come to God and say: “Lord I am terrified
of being rejected for this promotion. First show me, teach me, instruct me that
I am lovable and acceptable just as I am, and that my self-worth does not
depend on this promotion. Show me that human rejection is not final and does
not affect me. Give me great peace and joy in the interview O Lord. But Lord I
also ask that You will cause the interview panel to see me through your eyes,
and that the love that You have for me will come to me through them, for the
heart of the King is in your hands and you can turn it as you wish (Proverbs
21:1). May your perfect will be done in Jesus name. Amen.”
The people
blessed by God dwell in unusual favor – Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Daniel,
Esther, Mordecai and many others. They all had both great favor from God and
great persecution from man. But God always won in the end!
God has a
solution to your rejection - for He has accepted you and will make you
acceptable to others, acceptable to the right people, at the right time. Now
enter into that solution by faith.
You may
wish to try the following prayer of affirmation:
I am a
born-again believer and I am accepted in the Beloved, God accepts me just as I
am.
I am
spotless in His eyes, since I am cleansed by the blood of the Lamb.
God
loves me therefore I am fully lovable, God accepts me therefore I am fully acceptable.
God
loves me and accepts me and by His divine power He will make others to love me
and accept me also.
God has reconciled me to Himself, God has also reconciled all things to
Himself, therefore I am in harmony with God and in harmony with His Creation
and am loved and accepted by the entire Universe that God has made.
God’s
favor is upon me and as I go through life I will generally experience a loving
and accepting world.
God’s
love and favor and protection is upon me and I shall rise up and not go down, I
shall overcome all trials and tribulations and I shall be more than a conqueror
for His powerful love is always with me and works all things for my good. I
shall triumph, I shall rejoice, both in this life and in the life to come.
Praise the Lord!
.
Questions
- What
makes us acceptable and lovable?
- What
could you do if you knew for certain that God’s favor would always be upon
you?
- How
can God influence others to accept you and to favor you? (Proverbs 16:7)
- Is
human rejection the end of the story? (1 Peter 2:6,7)
Study 6 - Faith In The Coming Kingdom
Matthew 6:10 KJV Thy
kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as [it is] in heaven.
Matthew 25:34 KJV Then
shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father,
inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:
Luke 10:9 MKJV And heal
the sick that are in it, and say to them, The kingdom of God has come near you!
Revelation 12:10 MKJV And
I heard a great voice saying in Heaven, Now has come the salvation and power
and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of His Christ. For the accuser of
our brothers is cast down, who accused them before our God day and night.
Luke 23:42-43 MKJV And he
said to Jesus, Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom. (43)
And Jesus said to him, Truly I say to you, Today you shall be with Me in
Paradise.
Solution-focused faith
believes in the arrival of the Kingdom of God. For when the Kingdom of God
arrives all relationships are put right and all problems solved.
Solution-focused faith believes in the arrival of the Kingdom both in the
present “repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand” and the future “inherit the
Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world”.
One
of the keys to this is a well-known phrase that is part of the Lord’s Prayer:
“Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.” (Matthew 6:10) In this prayer we are asking
for God’s Kingdom to come “on earth” as in the verse in Luke above: “And heal
the sick that are in it, and say to them, The kingdom of God has come near
you!” The arrival of the Kingdom had a
tangible effect in the real world, in this case healing. When the Kingdom comes
there is healing, exorcism, revival and great joy. (see the previous series on
Acts 1-8 mentioned above)
Solution-focused
faith envisions the arrival of God’s Kingdom both in the present and in the
future.
The
Kingdom arrives in the present most often as a “mustard-seed” – that is in a
small group, a church, a rescue mission or a prayer meeting. These mustard-seed
beginnings are places where people are totally given over to doing the will of
God “on earth as it is in Heaven.”
We
need to pray and believe that the Kingdom will arrive in “mustard-seed form” in
our midst and renew our lives and bring us great joy and healing. We need to
believe for the arrival of the Kingdom even when lukewarmness, friction,
division and apathy surround us. We must not ever give in to cynicism or
despair.
The
Kingdom seldom arrives “all at once” but comes one spiritually hungry person at
a time. We need to kneel down and say “Lord I believe Your kingdom will come
here, You will send streams in the desert and cause the wilderness to bloom,
and the barren lands to rejoice. I ask You to open my eyes to what you are
doing and send me people who can join with me in living in obedience to You.”
If
all you see when you look at the Church is hypocrisy, politics, and
traditionalism, then you are problem-centered and you will remain miserable in
your Christianity.
Solution-focused
faith looks around for where things are working and seeks to do more of them.
It goes to where things are happening in God and joyfully joins in. Wonderful
things are happening in missions, in urban ministry, in Internet ministry, in
the urban slums of Asia, in house-churches and in many other areas as well. It
is frequently when we go among ministries to the poor that the Kingdom is most
evident.
When
the Kingdom comes there is a marvelous feeling of lightness and joy. There is a
releasing of old grudges and bitterness and an outbreak of Christian love. If
you want the Kingdom to come you must forgive others and be merciful and
compassionate. The kingdom never came to the Pharisees because they played
spiritual status games, such games belong in the world , not in God’s house.
Laying
hold of God for the arrival of the Kingdom requires a strong interior vision of
what the Kingdom will look like when it arrives. The development of this strong
interior vision of the Kingdom was part of the purpose of the parables of Jesus
and the sayings of the prophets. An example is one of Isaiah’s pictures of the
Kingdom:
Isaiah 11:6-9 MKJV Also the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and
the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the cub lion and the
fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. (7) And the cow and the
bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together; and the lion shall
eat straw like the ox. (8) And the suckling child shall play on the
hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder's
den. (9) They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain; for the
earth shall be full of the knowledge of Jehovah, as the waters cover the sea.
As
we meditate of these Scriptures and develop our strong interior vision of the
arrival of the Kingdom two things happen. Firstly we see where the present
arrangement falls far short of God’s perfection and feel compelled to do
something about it. Secondly we long for the Kingdom intensely and develop a
vibrant hope that becomes an anchor for the soul. We need both, if we just have
the first we can be overly negative and dissatisfied, if just the second we can
be lost in mysticism without application to the present reality.
Just as
Jesus told parables of the Kingdom and the prophets painted pictures of the
glorious future so we need to develop our own solution-focused faith picture of
what the Kingdom of God will look like in our neighborhood.
This
solution-focused, positive picture of what will happen when God turns up and
sets things right is one of the great driving forces of faith, especially for
the prophets. At one point John the Baptist was imprisoned and his followers
went over to Jesus to ask Him if He was the Messiah. Here is how Jesus replied
to the followers of John the Baptist:
Matthew 11:4-6 MKJV Jesus answered and said to them, Go and tell John again those things which you hear and see: (5) the blind receive their sight, and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear; the dead are raised, and the poor have the gospel proclaimed to them. (6) And blessed is he, whoever shall not be offended in Me.
Jesus
sends John a message that will reinforce his prophetic faith-picture of the
arrival of the Kingdom of God. In other
words Jesus was saying “John, the miracles are happening, the Kingdom has
arrived, you did not preach in vain, your prophecy has come true”.
These
faith-pictures are crucial. When God wanted to help Abraham believe He gave Him
a faith-picture: Genesis 15:5-6 MKJV
And He brought him outside and said, Look now toward the heavens and
count the stars, if you are able to count them. And He said to him, So shall
your seed be. (6) And he believed in Jehovah. And He counted
it to him for righteousness.
God
wants to replace the pictures in your heart with pictures of His Kingdom.
Now
I am not taking about self-centered occultic visualization, which is a demonic
counterfeit to true spiritual vision. True spiritual vision happens when the
‘eyes of the heart are opened” through the work of the Holy Ghost and we
believe in God’s version of the future.
We
have a choice to see with man’s eyes or to see with God’s eyes of faith.
For
instance say we look at our families: Do we see problems and squabbles or
children who have great potential? Do we see future criminals or future
missionaries? Do we see the love in our wife’s heart or just see all her
faults? Do we see the husband becoming a strong leader or do we just see a
hopeless wimp? You have to go to the Lord and say: “Lord, show me what my
family will look like when your Kingdom comes that I may believe You and
through faith see You in action in the midst of them.” We have to see the Kingdom shaped solution
and then patiently believe God for it to come to pass. This takes much prayer.
Put your faith-picture in writing and keep it in your spiritual journal as a
reminder.
In
every situation there is potential for the arrival of the Kingdom. I have even
seen the Kingdom arrive in a tiny pre-school in the middle of a desperately
poor urban slum in Asia. Psalms tells us that God’s love can reach us in the
midst of a “besieged city” – the most hopeless of all situations in the ancient
world (Psalm 31:21). Ancient Israel under Roman occupation was a terrible place
but the Kingdom arrived even there - despite much opposition from the religious
establishment.
Solution-focused
faith says:
“I believe God’s Kingdom can come and
His will can be done right here on earth, in my office, in my family, in my
neighborhood, in my church, in my city and in my nation. Nothing is impossible
with God so this situation is not hopeless. All things are possible to him who
believes and I believe that God’s Kingdom can arrive right here and I will
commit myself to prayer until it does.”
Questions
- Why should we pray for the Kingdom of God to
arrive in our midst?
- What would the Kingdom of God (Christ’s perfect
rule of over people, places and circumstances) look like in your life?
- How does the Kingdom arrive? What does the “mustard-seed
/ear of wheat principle” teach us? (Matthew 13:31,32; Mark 4:26-29)
- Why is the Kingdom so exciting? Can you believe in it and for it?
Study 7 - Faith For Kingdom Ministry
2 Thessalonians 1:11-12
MKJV (11) Therefore we also pray always for you that our God would count
you worthy of the calling and fulfill all the good pleasure of His goodness and
the work of faith with power, (12) that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may
be glorified in you, and you in Him, according to the grace of our God and the
Lord Jesus Christ.
2 Corinthians 9:8 MKJV And
God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that in everything, always
having all self-sufficiency, you may abound to every good work;
Hebrews 13:20-21 MKJV Now
may the God of peace (who brought again our Lord Jesus from the dead, that
great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting
covenant) (21) make you perfect in every good work to do His
will, working in you that which is well pleasing in His sight through Jesus Christ,
to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
Ephesians 2:10 MKJV For we
are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to good works, which God has
before ordained that we should walk in them.
We are created in Christ Jesus to do good
works. This is our purpose here on earth – we have a job to do. We are to have
the divine nature of Christ expressing itself through us in deeds of kindness,
faith and love. We are to be like Jesus and Jesus did many good works (Acts
10;38). While salvation and being born–again is free (just like being born
naturally is free) we are afterwards expected to grow up in Christ and do good
works, which God has prepared beforehand for us to do. (Ephesians 2:10)
This requires faith – faith that we can
do the good works, faith that the difficulties will be overcome, faith that the
results will be worth it and faith for provision, power and poise. Now doing good
works is difficult for at least three reasons that I can think of:
1. Good works go against our sinful human nature and are contrary to our
natural self-interest and our covetousness and materialism. They also take up
sacrificial amounts of time, money and effort.
2. Good
works involve encountering the sick (if we re to heal them), the poor (if we
are to help them and preach the gospel to them), the lost (if we ware to win
them for Christ), the dangerously evil (if we are to bring justice), the dead
(if we are to raise them) and the demonic (If we are to deliver the afflicted).
This is seldom pleasant.
3. Good
works are opposed and resisted by the Devil and those in the world who see them
as foolish, or who are threatened by them. We have to wrestle against
principalities and powers that want to tear down what we build. (Ephesians
6:10)
Because the
continued doing of good works is wearying, difficult, unpleasant and
sacrificial and you can get misunderstood, slandered, persecuted and even
killed, then you can ONLY do good works by having faith in Christ and by
working in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Whether your good work
is teaching fourteen year old girls in a Sunday School class or trying to win
Muslims for Jesus in Asia’s urban slums you will need Jesus to turn up for you
at regular intervals. You will need faith for the Kingdom of God to arrive in
your Sunday School class or in your slum.
You
will have to believe things such as “God’s work done in God’s way, will never
lack God’s supply” (Hudson Taylor) and believe that God is all-sufficient and
that God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that in everything,
always having all self-sufficiency, you may abound to every good work. (2
Corinthians 9:8)
You
have to truly believe that your ministry, the good works that God has called
you to do – are His concern, and He will help you to fulfill them.
Now
there are ordinary good works that naturally belong to life such as raising a
family, caring for a sick neighbor, supporting your parents, being patient with
customers and being honest in all things. These still need the strength, power
and sustaining supply of God. But then there are other works that are “on top
of” not “instead of” these things. (Missionaries still have to raise a family,
help a neighbor etc, they cannot say “because I do X work I do not have to do
Y). These extra good works can seem to tip us over the edge of coping. Life is
just too complicated to involve doing good works, having a ministry and
“getting somewhere in life”. I have had to let “getting somewhere in life”
slip.
When
you are 50 and you have let “getting somewhere in life” slip then you need
grace to sustain you, and to keep your heart sweet. So good works require grace
and faith from beginning to end.
God
want us to abound to every good work and to fulfill every work of faith with
power. So, by faith we need to paint an inner picture of ourselves doing that.
We have to forget the struggles and disappointments and problems and believe
God for the answers, solutions and provisions that will lead to the fruits of
our labors. I often find that success comes about a fortnight after I am absolutely
certain that I am going to fail. The problem often becomes a mountain before it
finally gets cast into the sea.
When
Paul face ministry problems he took a solution-focused faith approach and I
will quote the passage at length and I would like you to notice how at every
single turn Paul turns away from dwelling on the problem and focuses on
believing for the solution:
2 Corinthians 4:7-18 MKJV (7) But we have this
treasure in earthen vessels, so that the excellence of the power may be of God
and not of us; (8) in every way having been troubled, but not
having been hemmed in; having been perplexed, but not utterly at a loss; (9)
having been persecuted, but not having been forsaken; having been thrown
down, but not having been destroyed;
(10) always bearing about the
dying of the Lord Jesus in the body, so that the life of Jesus also might be
revealed in our body. (11) For we who live are always being delivered
to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus might also be revealed in our
body. (12) So then death works in us, but life in you. (13)
For we, having the same spirit of faith (according as it is written,
"I believed, and therefore I have spoken"); we also believed and
therefore speak, (14) knowing that He who raised up the Lord Jesus
shall also raise us up by Jesus, and shall present us with you. (15)
For all things are for your sake, so that the superabounding grace might
be made to abound through the thanksgiving of the greater number, to the glory
of God. (16) For this cause we do not faint; but though our outward man
perishes, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. (17)
For the lightness of our present affliction works out for us a far more
excellent eternal weight of glory,
(18) we not considering the
things which are seen, but the things which are not seen; for the things which
are seen are not lasting, but the things which are not seen are everlasting.
It
is very easy to get morose, disappointed and disconsolate in ministry – and
many ministers of the gospel do! We have to look at our weakness and say “God
has put His treasure in an earthen vessel that He might be glorified”, we have
to look at our sufferings on behalf of those we minister to and say “death
works in us, but life in you”. We have to have faith that these “present
afflictions work out for us a far more excellent eternal weight of glory”.
Above all we have
to have faith in the eternal consequences of our work for the Lord “..not considering the things which are
seen, but the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are not
lasting, but the things which are not seen are everlasting.” Ministry requires us daily to walk by faith
and not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7).
To
do good works we must have a faith vision of these good works being wrought by
Christ in us, and having eternal consequences that abound both to the glory of
God and to our own eternal glory. (2Thessalonians 1:12) We have to “see in our
spirit” lives being touched and nations transformed. All the great saints of
God have had such a clear faith vision e.g. William Booths Vision of Darkest
England or Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” (http://www.aibi.ph/history/
) Like Luther you may nail your vision to the church door, or like Loren
Cunningham of YWAM you may start a youth movement.
You
must have a clear, Spirit-given, faith vision of the good works that God has
called you to do and then you must walk in it, step by step, day by day, by
faith and endurance. You will have to fight your flesh for it, you will have to
go into awful places for it, you will have to wrestle the Devil for it – but it
will be worth it.
Solution-focused
faith endures the difficulties because it sees and fully believes in a “faith
picture” of a wonderful ministry with glorious eternal consequences, which is
fully provided for and empowered by God.
Solution-focused faith brings a positive attitude to the task, which
enables many of the problems to be solved, and it lays hold of God for the
answers to prayer that every ministry needs.
Questions
1. How is solution-focused
faith needed if we are to do good works?
2. What happens if we just
focus on the problems in our ministry?
3. How did Paul view his
trials and tribulations?
4. What sort of a faith
picture should we build in your hearts of the good works that God has called us
to?
Study 8 – Faith For The Powers Of The Kingdom
In our last study we saw that solution-focused faith endures the difficulties of ministry because it sees and fully believes in a “faith picture” of a wonderful ministry with glorious eternal consequences, which is fully provided for and empowered by God. Solution-focused faith brings a positive attitude to the task, which enables many of the problems to be solved, and it lays hold of God for the answers to prayer that every ministry needs.
In
this study we shall see that this involves much more than just a positive
mental attitude, indeed solution-focused faith is a positive spiritual power!
Jesus did not just teach the Twelve to have positive attitudes or to “be
enthusiastic and disciplined” like the motivational speakers do. Jesus actually
gave them positive spiritual powers as well – power to heal the sick, to raise
the dead, to cleanse the lepers, to cast out demons and to forgive the sins of
any. (Luke 10:1,9,19, Mark 16:17,18)
Solution-focused
faith is much, much more than a positive mental attitude or a visualization of
success. Solution-focused faith believes in the power of God being unleashed
according to the character and will of God, in the midst of our daily life,
here and now and forever.
Jesus
taught His disciples to lay hold of the powers of the Kingdom by faith and to
exercise them in servant-like fashion for the benefit of others and the glory
of God. They were to freely give – as
they had freely received. [The Kingdom of God is Christ’s
perfect rule of over people, places and circumstances.]
The
controversial ending to Mark’s gospel lists some of these Kingdom powers: Mark
16:17-18 ISV "These are the signs
that will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons;
they will speak in new tongues;
(18) they will pick up snakes in
their hands; even if they drink any deadly poison it will not hurt them; and
they will place their hands on the sick, and they will recover."
Even
if Mark did not write these words, someone in the early church did, and they
can be said to reflect the beliefs of the apostolic age about the powers of the
Kingdom of God and in the sovereignty of God, these verses made their way into
the Bible. They connect faith “those who believe”, with powers “these signs”.
The
apostle Paul connects faith and miracles when he writes to the Galatians:
Galatians 3:2-6 ISV I want to learn only one thing from you: Did
you receive the Spirit by doing the works of the law or by believing what you
heard? (3) Are you so foolish? Having started out with the Spirit, are you
now ending up with the flesh? (4) Did you suffer so much for nothing? (If it
really was for nothing!) (5) Does God supply you with the Spirit and work
miracles among you because you do the works of the law or because you believe
what you heard? (6) In the same way, Abraham "believed God,
and it was credited to him as righteousness."
In
other words spiritual powers such as the reception of the Holy Spirit and God’s
working of miracles among them, are due to one, and only one thing – true faith
- which Paul implies as being akin to the justifying faith of Abraham.
This
connection between the powers of the Kingdom and practical, solution-focused
faith continues throughout the Bible.
Matthew 17:19-20 ISV Then the disciples came to Jesus privately
and said, "Why couldn't we drive it out?" (20) He told them,
"Because of your lack of faith. For truly I tell you, if you have faith
like a grain of mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to
there,' and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.
Mark 11:21-24 ISV Peter
remembered and said to him, "Rabbi, look! The fig tree you cursed has
dried up!" (22) Jesus said to them, "Have faith in
God! (23) Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, 'Be lifted up
and thrown into the sea,' if he doesn't doubt in his heart but believes that
what he says will happen, it will be done for him. (24) That is why I tell
you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it and it
will be yours.
Most
Christians react to these and similar verses with skepticism or excuses. They
see the problem (many unanswered prayers) not the promise (the powers of the
Kingdom). Our minds are strongly and automatically tuned towards cautious
skepticism about ‘wild promises’ as this is a necessary basic social survival
instinct for intelligent adults. Our reflexes say” “This is wacky, Jesus must
mean something else”.
What Jesus
is saying is that the extraordinary powers of the Kingdom of God, that He has
brought into the world, are available only to those who believe.
Faith is
what worked miracles for the Galatians, faith got the demon out of the
epileptic boy, faith caused the fig-tree to wither and faith can move the
mountains in our life.
This faith
in the powers of the Kingdom, is released by: “believing that we have received”
– and then issuing a command or a statement to that effect.
All healings done by Jesus involve a word
of authority issued in faith. These include: “Lazarus come forth!”, “Be
stilled!”, “Little girl arise!”,
“Receive your sight!”, “Be cleansed!”, “Be made whole!”, “Be healed!” and so on
and so forth. When Peter healed the lame man the format was the same – an
authoritative word of faith: “in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up
and walk”.
Generally we are taught to have faith for a “request from God”, for an answer to something like “Dear Lord, please heal this deaf man.” However the Jesus model is quite different, we have to believe that we have received authority to heal the deaf person and then we have to issue the command “Ears be opened”. The Jesus method is an authoritative commanding word of faith.
First the
faith - then the command or word of faith. I saw no healings at all until I
adopted this method and started using “command prayers” such as those above.
Jesus tells us to use this style of prayer when He says:
Truly I
tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, 'Be lifted up and thrown into the
sea,' (Mark 11:23) AND you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and
it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.(Matthew 17:20)
Jesus
wants us to use of the authoritative word of faith to unleash the powers of the
Kingdom according to the character and will of God. The authoritative word of
faith is based in Scripture and in the inner work and filling of the Holy
Spirit who teaches us how to apply the word of God to life’s situations in an
anointed way. (1 John 2:20,27)
This so
counter-intuitive and so outside most church traditions that we resist it, or
suspect it of being New Age, or even magical - whereas in fact it is thoroughly
biblical. All the miracles I can find in the New Testament involve the
authoritative use of the word of faith in this fashion. Dozens of them! And if we want New
Testament results we should at least try the method that is amply illustrated
in the Scriptures and which Jesus commands us to use (see above).
The powers of the kingdom are not playthings, they are powers God has given us to glorify His name. They were given to the Church in general when Jesus ascended into Heaven and “gave gifts to men” (Ephesians 4:7-12) and placed us with Him in the heavenly realms (Ephesians 2:6) and blessed us with all the spiritual blessings in those heavenly realms. (Ephesians 1:3)
They
are His powers to be used by His Church in accordance with His will in the way
that He has designated – which is the way of faith.
They
are not just the powers of the apostles, James lists them as belonging to
ordinary Christians who were the elders of a local church: James 5:14-15
ISV Is anyone of you sick? He should
call for the elders of the church, and they should pray for him and anoint him
with oil in the name of the Lord.
(15) And the prayer offered in
faith will save the person who is sick. The Lord will raise him up, and if he
has committed any sins, he will be forgiven.
Thus
solution-focused faith believes that ordinary Christians can exercise the
powers of the Kingdom with authority - in order to bring glory to God. To do
this the authoritative word of faith must be based in the will and word of God
and come from the inner prompting of the Spirit of God. We cannot just
whimsically make these things up or our own gratification. We do so to make the
Kingdom of God arrive on earth and to have Gods’ will done on earth as it is in
Heaven. Thus it is a two-step process: a) Solution-focused faith believes God
for a perfect and positive Kingdom solution that is “in the light”. b) We
believe we have received the authority to bring it into being (and thus we
believe that we have already received it) and we command it to happen with an
authoritative word of faith. Anxious scrambling and pleading is not the word of
faith. The word of faith is tested and rested. It is calm and poised and
powerful. This comes from the conviction that God has given you all the
spiritual powers necessary to have Christian mastery over life and to bring
God’s solutions into being.
I do not
expect you to totally believe this, but I do ask you to try it. I promise you
that you will notice a marked improvement in your level of spiritual power as
you exercise solution-focused faith for Kingdom purposes, and do so with
authority and conviction.
Questions
- How
do we exercise solution-focused faith for Kingdom purposes?
- What
authority has Christ given us? How are we to exercise it?
- What
does it mean to believe we have received?
- Discuss
the following: “Faith is not a magic wand that gives me all my most
foolish desires, rather faith is the spiritual vision that agrees with God
about His nature and His ability to change the world around me.”
Study 9 - Faith For Specific
Solutions
I have been a bit of a
tease by putting the study that everyone wants, the one that tells them how to
have faith for solutions to their own specific problems, this far along in the
series. There is a reason for that. It is because without a solid biblical
foundation it is easy to slip into idolatry, the prosperity gospel or even into
magical thinking by misinterpreting what the Scriptures are saying here.
Solution-focused faith is a not some sort of “magic wand” which enables instant gratification of our most immature and materialistic desires. Solution-focused faith is the patient trusting connection with God that envisions the Kingdom of God arriving on earth and which taps into the powers of the Kingdom, which enable that solution to happen. We must seek first the Kingdom of God – that is primary.
There are five steps in
applying solution-focused faith to daily life they are:
1. Reframing – changing your point
of view from being immersed in the problem to seeing the Kingdom solution.
2. Believing – taking the Kingdom
solution and laying hold of it with our spirit and our heart and our faith so
that we believe in the solution without doubting.
3. Activating – by praying, speaking,
commanding, using an authoritative word of faith or by “believing that we have
received.”
4. Waiting – Patiently waiting on
God for His perfect answer in His perfect timing.
5. Receiving – that which was
promised and rejoicing in God’s answer with all thankfulness
The Hebrew prophets used
this when viewing the situations of their day. Firstly they saw the “mess”
through God’s eyes and saw God’s solution arriving – as either justice or
mercy, chastisement or deliverance, they caught God’s vision of the future and
believed it, they then activated this by a prophetic action or by giving a word
of prophecy. Often the prophets spoke about future events in the PAST tense.
This is frequently lost in modern translations as it is deemed “confusing to
the reader” to have future events referred to in the past tense. But the
prophets believed they had received and by faith they spoke about the future as
having already arrived. Here is Young’s literal translation of Isaiah 11:1-9 -
notice the past tense
Isaiah 11:1-9 YLT
And a rod hath come out from the stock of Jesse, And a branch from his
roots is fruitful. (2) Rested on him hath the Spirit of Jehovah,
The spirit of wisdom and understanding, The spirit of counsel and might, The
spirit of knowledge and fear of Jehovah.
(3) To refresh him in the fear
of Jehovah, And by the sight of his eyes he judgeth not, Nor by the hearing of
his ears decideth. (4) And he hath judged in righteousness the
poor, And decided in uprightness for the humble of earth, And hath smitten
earth with the rod of his mouth, And with the breath of his lips he putteth the
wicked to death. (5) And righteousness hath been the girdle of
his loins, And faithfulness--the girdle of his reins. (6) And a wolf hath
sojourned with a lamb, And a leopard with a kid doth lie down, And calf, and
young lion, and fatling are together, And a little youth is leader over
them. (7) And cow and bear do feed, Together lie down their young ones, And
a lion as an ox eateth straw. (8) And played hath a suckling by the hole of an
asp, And on the den of a cockatrice Hath the weaned one put his hand. (9)
Evil they do not, nor destroy in all My holy mountain, For full hath
been the earth with the knowledge of Jehovah, As the waters are covering the
sea.
Though
given eight hundred years before Christ it is in the “prophetic past”. Such
Scriptures “speak over” reality - commanding it into being. When we pray and
command we can “speak over” the situation, as if it is already achieved, and
already accomplished, and already in the past. For instance when Mary exalts
the Lord she speaks of the future Messianic rule as something already
accomplished:
Luke 1:46-55 YLT And Mary said, `My soul doth magnify the
Lord, (47) And my spirit was glad on God my Saviour, (48)
Because He looked on the lowliness of His maid-servant, For, lo,
henceforth call me happy shall all the generations, (49) For He who is mighty
did to me great things, And holy is His name,
(50) And His kindness is to
generations of generations, To those fearing Him, (51) He did powerfully
with His arm, He scattered abroad the proud in the thought of their heart, (52)
He brought down the mighty from thrones, And He exalted the lowly, (53)
The hungry He did fill with good, And the rich He sent away empty, (54)
He received again Israel His servant, To remember kindness, (55)
As He spake unto our fathers, To Abraham and to his seed--to the age.'
So lets
apply this to the problem of anxiety. If you are anxious do NOT pray “Lord take
this anxiety away from me” – that is focusing on the problem. Instead pray “The
Lord has filled me with peace and my heart rejoices, God has solved my problems
and lifted me on high. I am delivered and I am free and I dwell in the joy of
the Lord”.
We often
see this formula in Psalms e.g the well-known Pslam 23:
Psalms 23:1-6 LITV A Psalm of David. Jehovah is my shepherd; I
shall not lack. (2) He makes me lie down in green pastures; He
leads me to waters of rest; (3) He restores my soul; He guides me in paths
of righteousness for His name's sake.
(4) Yea, though I walk through
the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil; for You are with me;
Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.
(5) You prepare a table for me
before ones vexing me; You anoint my head with oil; my cup runs over. (6)
Surely, goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and
I shall dwell in the house of Jehovah for as long as my days.
David is
looking into the future and speaking about the blessings of the Lord as
actually happening. David is not focusing on the problem but in the divine
solution, which he sees as actually arriving in his life.
Similarly
the Lord’s prayer is an invocation of God’s rulership over this world. It is
commanding reality in the name of God, calling new things into existence, and
is properly written with many exclamation points e.g. “Your Kingdom come!”
Matthew 6:9-13 LITV So, then, you should pray this way: Our
Father who is in Heaven, Hallowed be Your name. (10) Your kingdom come;
Your will be done, as it is in Heaven, also on the earth. (11)
Give us today our daily bread,
(12) and forgive us our debts as
we also forgive our debtors. (13) And do not lead us into temptation, but
deliver us from the evil, for Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory
to the ages. Amen.
Thus
when it says: “Yours is the Kingdom,
the power and the glory” it is “speaking over” reality and invoking the rule of
God over all things.
So
we see that solution-focused faith speaks over reality and commands it to take
the shape of the Kingdom of God. When there is a storm it says “Be
still!”, when there is a leper it says
“be cleansed”, when there is a friend in the grave it says “Lazarus come
forth!”, when there is a demon it says “Come out of him!’
Solution-focused
faith speaks so as to bring the Kingdom of God right into the present so that
God’s will can be one on earth as it is in heaven.
So
say your problem is fear you can pray:
“In the name of Jesus Christ the love of God is poured into my heart by
the Holy Ghost and has cast out all my fear, I am bold and brave and I will
rejoice in the Lord” (Romans 5;1-5, 1 John 4:18)
This
may not sound like a “normal prayer” but it does sound like many of the Psalms.
The spiritual realm is binary – either on or off, complete or incomplete,
fulfilled or unfulfilled. When you say by faith “I am at peace, all fear is
gone, God’s love is in my heart, I am blessed with all the spiritual blessings
in the heavenly realms” you are instructing the spiritual realm that these
things “have happened” in the spirit (though they may not yet have happened on
earth) and that causes them to arrive in reality. That may seem weird but it is
the best way that I can describe it.
Just
say that you feel like Joseph in prison
and your life seems blocked and frustrating. You can say “I have been
faithful and God has opened a door for me that no man can shut and has brought
me into the place of blessing and has perfected all that which concerns me.”
There
are two related traps here – impatience and carnality. Impatience sets time
limits on God (remember Abraham waited 25 years for Isaac) and carnality tries
to equate the Kingdom with personal ambitions and dreams. So I dare not say “It
is the 25th of this month and I am driving my own green Jaguar”.
Such a statement would be covetousness which is idolatry and self-focused - not
Kingdom-focused. Though prominent prosperity teachers might say such a thing I
will not and I hope you won’t either!
It is through faith and patience that we inherit the
promises (Hebrews 6;12) and thus we must give God time. The Scriptures call
that process of giving God all the time in the world “waiting on God”. We need
to give God the whole process including the timing. Waiting is not passive or
mystical. Don’t be like the woman I knew who had an engine problem and who
waited for God’s perfect mechanic to be mystically revealed to her for four
months until the engine finally gave out and she needed a new car. She should
have picked up the phone book and checked out some actual mechanics! Waiting in
faith does not preclude the use of common-sense.
Finally
we need to receive the solution with gratitude and thankfulness (see
Philippians 4:6,7).
We
shall apply the five step process to “Joe” who is unemployed and praying for a
job:
- Reframe – Joe should not be
problem-focused and sit around saying “the job market is so hard, why,
why, why, I will never get a job, etc. Joe should see the Kingdom solution
and get up and get moving, and start knocking doors. Joe should write out
the job that he thinks God would want him to have, and be positive about
it. Joe should not sleep in, rather he would use his time well and do some
study or Christian service or even projects around the home. Joe would
send out those applications, and not let them sit in the drawer.
- Believe – that there is a perfect job
for Joe with perfect pay that will come to him in God’s perfect timing.
The job will be a Kingdom job (not necessarily a church job) where Joe can
make a contribution and do useful things for other people. [You can only
“believe” that which is worthy, biblical and true. God had Adam do some
work even before the Fall (Genesis 2:15), thus productive work is God’s
will for all of us. (see 1 Thessalonians 4;11,12; 2 Thessalonians 3:9-12
)]
- Activate - Joe should write out a faith
statement that sees the Kingdom solution arriving such as any of those
below:
a) “Jesus has blessed me and I have a wonderful job with wonderful pay and I give wonderful service in a wonderful way to the glory of God.”
b) “I speak to the mountain of unemployment and I say “Grace, grace to it. The mountain has become a plain. The problem is solved. The perfect ob has arrived and I rejoice in it”.
c) “God works all things together for my good and is bringing me the job that He desires, the perfect job in His perfect time.”
Joe would write it out and say it twice a day and Joe would tell the spiritual realm that this is an accomplished fact.
- Wait – Joe gives God the stopwatch.
He lets the job arrive in His perfect timing. Joe is not passive, he acts
as a person of faith. He believes there is a job for him and acts like it,
sending in his resume and going job-hunting regularly.
- Receive
and Rejoice –
when Joe gets the job he is glad and thanks God. Joe gives the
first-week’s salary in the offering. Just as Abraham gave a tenth of the
spoils to Melchizedek as a concrete act of gratitude.
This five-step process
can be “tweaked” and applied to many of life’s concerns. Just a few things –
let God choose the “perfect answer”, He may have a surprise in store for you.
Secondly see the answer arriving as an outgrowth of God’s character – of his
love and concern for you, not as the outcome of a magical prayer.
Solution-focused faith is not magic, it is getting you out of negativity and
unbelief and aligned with God’s character, processes and will. Thirdly do not
doubt, be unwavering, keep the faith connection solid and trusting (see James
1:5-8).
Questions
- What
are the five steps involved in using solution-focused faith for specific
life solutions?
- Why
did the Hebrew prophets often use the past tense when they spoke of the
future?
- Why
do you think God makes us wait on Him?
- What
is the difference between solution-focused faith and magical thinking?
Study 10 – Faith For Personal Transformation
In the last study we saw
the five-step process of solution-focused faith: “Reframe”, “Believe”,
“Activate”, “Wait”, “Receive & Rejoice”. In this study I want to explain
that process a bit further and then apply it to issues of personal
transformation.
Reframing is necessary
because when we are problem-focused this activates the body’s “fight or flight”
mechanism, which is designed to respond to threats and problems. For instance
if you focus on the problem of a very critical boss at work then you become
defensive and tend to either withdraw or resign (flight) – or to build up steam
and lash out (fight). Stewing over problems produces a whole bunch of negative
reactions in us that activate dysfunctional responses and grieve the Spirit.
In Psalm 37 David tells
us not to be problem focused even when we encounter evil:
Psalms 37:7-9 ASV Rest in Jehovah, and wait patiently for him:
Fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, Because of the man
who bringeth wicked devices to pass.
(8) Cease from anger, and
forsake wrath: Fret not thyself, it tendeth only to evil-doing. (9)
For evil-doers shall be cut off; But those that wait for Jehovah, they
shall inherit the land.
“Fret
not thyself, it tendeth only to evil doing” – modern translation – “Don’t get
your knickers in a knot because it only makes you do stupid things!”. Getting
the right spiritual perspective is an essential part of having solution-focused
faith. The right spiritual perspective in Psalm 37 is: “For evil-doers shall be
cut off; But those that wait for Jehovah, they shall inherit the land.”
The
wrong perspective can be summarized by 3 F’s – Fight, Flight or Freeze. The
right perspective is Life Mastery Through Solution Focused Faith. The idea is
not to run away or blow up or become paralyzed but to master all situations,
through the power of the indwelling Christ, (Philippians 4:13).
Reframing
moves us out of the problem-centered reactions of the flesh and of the natural
man (fight, flight or freeze) and their manifestations (rage, conflict,
cowardice, envy strife - see Galatians 5:19-21).
Reframing
the problem as the imminent arrival of the Kingdom solution is a bit like
playing golf. You can see your ball
stuck in the rough as a problem and either lash at it in anger (fight) or drop
out (flight) or sit there morosely (freeze) or you can master the situation,
visualize the ball landing on the green near the hole, select the right club,
play a great shot and win the game. Great golfers are and calm, masterful and
visualize great solutions. They don’t slash, bash and stomp around. They are confident
and they focus on the solution not on the problem.
Faith
is based on confidence in God’s goodness and love and His absolute control of
events, confidence in the truth and reliability of God’s Word and confidence in
the powers of the Kingdom of God that have been given to us in Christ Jesus. By
reframing from problem-focused to solution-focused we rest in confidence and
faith and in spiritual life mastery.
Reframing
in faith terms moves us into the light and into the positive nature of God and
into the life in the Spirit, which involves grace gifts received through faith.
Reframing moves us towards the fruit of the Spirit (love, joy, peace,
patience…self-control) and enables us to gain mastery over our impulses and
thus over our life in general.
Reframing
also puts us in agreement with the Spirit and with the arrival of God’s Kingdom
on earth and thus sets us in position to have our prayers answered. God does
not answer problem-focused temper tantrums, He answers positive believing faith
in His word.
It is
not just positive thinking to frame your prayers as a Kingdom solution – it is
good spiritual practice that will lead you to a renewed mind and to life
mastery.
I also
want to comment a bit more on the concept of ACTIVATION.
This is can be misunderstood as employing mysterious mumbo-jumbo to influence
God. Rather it is just speaking the language of the Spirit, which is an eternal
language. In Eternity things are either complete or incomplete, forgiven or
unforgiven, resolved or unresolved, accomplished or yet to be accomplished. The
spiritual realm is in some way related to the subconscious realm, I don’t think
they are quite the same but they use similar language and it is well known that
there is no time in the subconscious and that it is also binary (on/off) and
that it, for some mysterious reason “throws out the negative”.
Thus if
you say: “I shall not eat chocolate” it
throws out the “not” and interprets it as “I shall eat chocolate” and you find
yourself craving chocolate! This is because the subconscious operates in
pictures (like dreams) and what is the mental picture you have when you say “I
shall not eat chocolate” – it is you eating chocolate!
The
answer is to change the mental picture and see the solution “I shall eat
healthy foods, I am eating fruit, soy beans and tofu”. One of the reasons
people regain weight is that they are programming themselves to do so “I will
not be fat” – becomes “I will be fat!”,
“I will not fail this diet’ becomes “I will fail on this diet” because
you are seeing the problem – when you say “I will not fail on this diet” you
are visualizing failing and that is what you get! The answer is to visualize
being slim “ I am slim and trim and I am back to a 32 inch waist!” OR “The
Kingdom of God is arriving in my physical body and setting the temple of God in
order, I am fit and healthy and good looking, my blood pressure is 110/70, my
heart rate is 60 and I have a 32 inch waist and can do 100 push ups easily.”
Now to
a spiritual application: If we say “I
will not sin” guess what? Your mind “throws out the negative” and you want to
sin. Your mental picture is one of sinning and so you sin. This is part of what
Paul meant when he said that the command “thou shalt not covet” aroused “all
kinds of coveting” within him. (Romans 7) What is the answer then? The answer
to sin is to state the solution in positive terms: “I am dead to sin and alive
to righteousness, it is no longer I who liveth but Christ who liveth in me. The
blood of Jesus Christ cleanses me from all sin. (Romans 6, 1 John 1:9 and
Galatians 2:20).
Let’s
try it again with smoking: “I can do
all things through Christ who strengthens me and so I am free from the urge to
smoke, I am breathing clean air, I can taste and enjoy my food, God has
delivered me from all my cravings and I have given up for good.”
What
about moodiness and depression: “Mood I rebuke you in the name of Jesus and
break your grip over my mind and heart. God has restored to me the joy of my
salvation and I am filled with the joy of the Lord, I will rejoice, even though
the fig-tree does not blossom and there be no ox in the stall, yea I shall
rejoice. The shadows flee and the darkness has gone and I have come into the
light. The spirit of heaviness is gone and I receive the mantle of praise.”
This
stuff really works! This is because the
subconscious world and the spiritual realm and the eternal realms all operate
in picture language. The prophets painted word pictures for the people, so did
Jesus. Even the prayers of Paul give us wonderful pictures for our inner man.
(Ephesians 3:14-21) It is a lot easier to pray powerfully if we have the right
kingdom picture in our hearts and minds and spirit.
Activation
uses the “words taught by the Spirit” to lay hold of the things prepared for us
by God (1 Corinthians 2:9-16) for a man can receive nothing good unless it is
given to him from above. (James 1:17, John 19;11) and puts us in tune with the
spiritual language of the psalmist, the apostles and the prophets.
Try
this, stand up, raise your hands up to heaven, palms outward and then speak the
Lord’s prayer powerfully into the Heavens as if your powerful voice was
reaching the throne. In a faith-filled commanding voice say “Our Father who is
in Heaven, Hallowed by they name! Thy Kingdom come! Thy will be done! “
etc. You will be surprised how you
become filled with spiritual confidence.
Activation
does not make you a prophet but it enables you to learn from them. The Spirit
will teach you His language and Christ’s mindset (1 Corinthians 2:12-16) and
enable you to understand the things of God.
The
Spirit sees the future as being accomplished and uses language such as:
A)
Using the past or
present tense for the future: “Now, the ruler of this world
is cast out” (John 12:31) OR “The wolf
hath sojourned with the lamb.” Isaiah 11:60, see also the whole of Psalm 72 in
any literal translation.
B)
Invocations:
“Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven”
C)
Participles :”ing” words: See Daniel
2:20-23 “Daniel 2:21 YLT And He is changing times and seasons, He is
causing kings to pass away, and He is raising up kings; He is giving wisdom to
the wise, and knowledge to those possessing understanding.
D)
Using definite futures: e.g “is” “are” “shall” or
“will”: e.g Mary “for all generations
shall call me blessed” (Luke 1:48)
E)
Using “may”:
e.g. “May you be”: “may you be
made higher than all nations” “May it be done to you according to your faith”,
“May no-one eat of your fruit again” (the fig-tree) 2 Corinthians 9:10 YLT
and may He who is supplying seed to the sower, and bread for food,
supply and multiply your seed sown, and increase the fruits of your
righteousness,
F)
Using commands:
“be loosed”, Be made whole”, “be cleansed”, “in the name of Jesus Christ
of Nazareth, rise up and walk”, “Be stilled”
This
takes practice. As you walk in the Spirit you will learn how to use each of
these kinds of prayers in is appropriate place. For sicknesses and demons – use
commands, for blessings use “may you be”, for issues of justice use the past
tense for the future “justice has arrived, the situation has been resolved, the
teeth of the oppressor have been broken”. For obstacles use participles: The
doors are being opened, the opportunities are coming, the ministry is growing”.
Activation
is not instantaneous; it is not “abracadabra” stuff. Waiting on God and having
faith in His nature is very important and all requests must be “according to
His will” (1 John 5:14,15). Activation
simply puts the positive solution-focused faith vision, which you already
believe in, into the language of the heavenly realms.
Well
that is the end of this series for now. Just remember the five steps of
solution-focused faith: Reframe, Believe, Activate, Wait, Receive &
Rejoice.
Questions
- How
does reframing help us to get a more spiritual perspective?
- What
is the “fight or flight response’ - and how does being problem-focused
activate it?
- Why
is important to frame our picture in concrete, positive picture terms?
What does our subconscious do with the negative?
- How
does activation work? What sort of language should we use in spiritual
things?
Appendix 1
- Solution-Focused Faith Statements
Faith needs to be received personally and the Scriptures need to be
applied individually to the daily situations of life. One way this can be done
is by putting your own name in a Scripture e.g
“God so loved John Edmiston that He gave His only-begotten Son so
that if John Edmiston believes John Edmiston will not perish but have
everlasting life” (John 3:16
paraphrase). Another way is by
applying the promises of God to ourselves and our situations using accurate
paraphrases of the Scriptures to bring the truth home. We can then use these
statements as prayer fuel, affirmations etc. Here are some examples that I have
come up with. Of course they only apply to born-again believers!
A Renewed Mind
I have the law of God written in my heart by the Holy Spirit (Hebrews 10:16)
I have an anointing from God that teaches me all things.
(1 John 2:20-27)
I have a renewed mind, the mind of Christ.
(Romans 12:1,2 , 1 Corinthians
2:14-16)
Jesus Christ is opening my mind to understand the Scriptures. (Luke 24:45)
God is giving me a spirit of revelation and of knowledge (Ephesians 1:17) and
freely bestows wisdom upon me without reproach (James 1:5-8) including the
wisdom I need for life and work (Isaiah 28:23-29).
God teaches me which way to go and how to order my affairs in peace. (Isaiah
30:20,21)
All Things Are Possible
Nothing is impossible with God.
(Luke 1:37)
All things are possible to him who believes. (Mark 9:23)
I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. (Philippians 4:13)
With God all things are possible for me and for my ministry. (Matthew 19:26)
The power of God is at work in me (Colossians 1:29) and comes upon me. (Acts
1:8)
God’s Love And Acceptance
I am a born-again believer and I am accepted in the Beloved (Ephesians
1:6), God accepts me just as I am. (Romans 5:1-5)
Christ has accepted me (Romans 15:7) I am cleansed
by the blood of the Lamb, I am spotless in His eyes,(1 John 1:7-9)
God loves me and accepts me and by His divine power
He will make others to love me and accept me also. (Proverbs 16:7)
God has reconciled me to Himself, God has also reconciled all things to
Himself, therefore I am in harmony with God and in harmony with His Creation
and am loved and accepted by the entire Universe that God has made. (Colossians
1:11-22)
God loves me therefore I am fully lovable, God
accepts me therefore I am fully acceptable. (Romans 8:28-39, 15:7)
God’s favor is upon me and as I go through life I
will experience a loving and accepting world. (Psalm 23, Proverbs 16:7)
God’s love and favor and protection is upon me and
I shall rise up and not go down, I shall overcome all trials and tribulations
and I shall be more than a conqueror for His powerful love is always with me
and works all things for my good.
I shall triumph, I shall rejoice, both in this life and in the life to come.
Praise the Lord! (Romans 8:28-39)
God’s Plan
The Lord will perfect all things that concern me. (Psalm 138:8)
God works all things together for my good because I love Him and obey His call.
(Romans 8:28)
My times are in His hand and He will care for me and carry all my burdens. (1
Peter 5:7, Psalm 31:15)
Grace
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ
is mine and comes to me in my daily situation. (Romans 5:1-5)
The peace of the Lord Jesus Christ is mine and comes to me in my daily
situation. (Romans 5:1-5)
The joy of the Lord Jesus Christ is mine and comes to me in my daily situation.
(Romans 5:1-5)
The love of the Lord Jesus Christ is mine and comes to me in my daily
situation. (Romans 5:1-5)
Healthy Body
My body is the temple of
the Holy Spirit. (1 Corinthians 6:19)
My body is for God and God is for my body. (1 Corinthians 6:13)
God loves my
body and will raise it from the dead, making it immortal, spiritual and
glorious (1 Corinthians 15)
The Kingdom of God arrives in my body and makes it whole. (Luke 10:9)
I am becoming slim, trim, strong and healthy and even good looking as God
renews my mortal body according to His perfect design. (Romans 8:11)
In Christ I Am Blessed
In Christ I am blessed with all the
spiritual blessings in the heavenly realms. (Ephesians 1:3)
God has blessed me saying: “be
fruitful, multiply and have dominion”. (Genesis 1:26-28)
In Christ Jesus I have all the blessings of Abraham and his inheritance.
(Galatians 3:7-29)
All the precious promises that are Yea and Amen in Christ are mine. (2
Corinthians 1:20)
All the good things that God has promised and prepared for those who love Him
are mine. (1 Corinthians 2:9)
Joy In Life
God makes me to rejoice exceedingly. (Psalm 68:3)
His plans for me are good. (Jeremiah 29;10,11)
The cross turns His wrath away from me and I am reconciled to Him. (Colossians
1:20)
God’s power works on my behalf in love. (Ephesians 1:19, 3:20, 2 Thessalonians
1:11)
New Creation
I am a new Creation, old things have passed away, behold all things are
new. (2 Corinthians 5;17)
I have a new life that I am living by the power of God. (Galatians 2:20,
Ephesians 3:20)
I have a new self that is being made into the image of God. (Romans 8;29-31,
Colossians 3:10)
Power To Complete The Work
God will
make me like Zerubbabel and I shall finish the work He has appointed for me
with His provision and His power. (Zechariah 4:6-10, 2 Corinthians 9:8)
Protection
I am of God, and am His child, and I have overcome them, because He who
is in me is greater than he who is in the world. (1 John 4:4) I have the faith
that overcomes the world, faith in Jesus the Son of God. (1 John 5;4,5)
I have put on the full armor of God (Ephesians 5:10-18)
I am justified, redeemed and protected by the blood of the Lamb. (Romans
5:9, Ephesians 1:7, Colossians 1:14)
God is My Father and His justice, and His long arm of power is over all my
affairs, everywhere in the world, and protects my interests. (Psalm 23)
Redemption
The blood of the Lamb redeems me and I belong to God alone. (Revelation
5:9)
I have been taken out of the power of darkness and God has put me into
the kingdom of His beloved Son (Colossians 1:13)
I have died to sin and it does not reign over me (Romans 6:2,11)
I have been crucified to the world and the world is crucified to me. (Galatians
6:14)
I have died to all darkness and superstition and false religion. (Colossians
2:8-23)
I have died to the Law and to the bondage of legalism. (Galatians 2:19, Romans
7:4)
All my burdens are taken and the anointing breaks my bondages. (Isaiah 10:27)
All my curses are revoked by the work of Christ on the cross. (Galatians
3;10-14)
I now have the freedom of the sons of God in Christ Jesus. (Romans 8:19-25)
