Real Faith

What tells me if my faith is effective? How can I know whether I am in faith or presumption?

There are three parts to faith: belief, risk, and knowledge of the will of God. We all believe in many things. For example, I believe hang gliders actually work. However, until I take the risk to actually strap in and run off the side of a cliff I have not experienced it, I have not committed my belief to the point of taking risk. Belief alone without risk is not yet faith.

After risk is the third component, the will of God.  If I set my own agenda and then risk expecting God to come through, I may be in presumption-it may or may not be the will of God. God is not obligated to back up what He did not initiate.

True faith is when we know what the will of God is, we believe that He is able to bring it about and we put ourselves at risk. We commit ourselves to some kind of a course of action and if God does not intervene, we will in fact be hurt.

Update from Robert in Venezuela

Greetings

Today was the last day of the conference. The church here is a worshipping church which really seems to help people to be open. We had a tremendous ministry time today as most everyone in the conference was weeping as God touched them. There was a very successful business man who cried in my arms for at least 15 minutes.

We also saw some physical healings once again. Several women had pain in their chest and stomach and were completely healed. One kept poking herself in the stomach showing the pain was gone. Another lady has had a foot problem for seven months receiving weekly injections for the nerves and unable to move it, she was in tears as she showed all of us how she could now move it. This has not only been one of the more open places I’ve been recently but also one of the hungriest. On top of the meetings I have done 6 one on one ministry sessions with 6 more after the service in the morning.

One of the sessions was very interesting. It was a lady who has lived in Venezuela for about 20 years but is from Cali, Columbia. In her childhood her dad would always talk in favor of leftist guerilla groups and as a teenager she joined one! She was involved for a number of years. At 18 she became pregnant and her mother refused to help her with the child, thinking she would then just return to her activities with this group “19 de Abril”. She had fallen in love with a Venezuelan and so moved here. Four years ago (16 years after coming here) she became tired of never having any peace and always having nightmares from her time in the guerilla group and all the things she had done. She got saved in the church we are working at. One thing interesting that she said is that she has seen in the Bible that we are not supposed to take advantage of the poor, which is part of what these guerilla groups do. They get people stirred up and against the government on the basis of their poverty. As I ministered to her today she forgave her dad for influencing her in that way and received healing over the regret she had over how her life would have been had her dad influenced her toward an education.

Thanks to all who have been praying. We have also had a lot of warfare over this event. I have never seen more sound system problems in my life. Then after the service the pastor will check and find nothing wrong. My Spanish has also gone well which was a big concern of mine as it has been two years since teaching a conference in Spanish.

Healings In Shiliguri, India

healed.jpghealed-2.jpg In the 3 main conferences we did, over 50 people were saved and about that many were healed. One older pastor who had pain in his knees for years started running up and down the stairs at one point, displaying his healing. Another young man who had injured his head and his back had hurt for a long time also—totally healed! Praise the Lord!

Check out photos http://fountainsoflife.org/photos.htm

Check out video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTWASxOMOfM