Luke 2:14
“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among people with whom He is pleased.”
The angels appeared and declared that peace was available to all with whom the Lord was pleased. What does that mean? What pleases the Lord? How can we accomplish this and become God pleasers?
Hebrews 11:5
By faith Enoch was taken up so that he would not see death; and he was not found because God took him up; for he obtained the witness that before his being taken up he was pleasing to God. 6. And 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 (or the One who answers prayer) of those who seek Him.
Trusting the Lord to be your Savior starts with an act of Faith… where does that faith come from? Joel 2:28-32 ‘AND IT SHALL BE IN THE LAST DAYS,’ God says, ‘THAT I WILL POUR FORTH OF MY SPIRIT ON ALL MANKIND; AND YOUR SONS AND YOUR DAUGHTERS SHALL PROPHESY, AND YOUR YOUNG MEN SHALL SEE VISIONS, AND YOUR OLD MEN SHALL DREAM DREAMS; (This is how the Lord chooses to reveal Himself to all mankind, through dreams and visions and the spirit of encouragement, edification, exhortation and comfort. He will use His servants and He will use His angels and He will use any form of medium including creation itself to reveal that He is, He is Alive and He is an ever present help in times of trouble.
Romans 1:18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, 19 because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. 20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.
For some the revelation will come directly from the Father Himself as with Peter in Matthew 16:16 17 And Jesus said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. For some it will come from simply from hearing the Word of God as it says Romans 16 However, they did not all heed the good news; for Isaiah says, “LORD, WHO HAS BELIEVED OUR REPORT?”17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.18 but I say, surely they have never heard, have they? Indeed they have; “THEIR VOICE HAS GONE OUT INTO ALL THE EARTH, AND THEIR WORDS TO THE ENDS OF THE WORLD.” For some it will only be if they see signs and wonders. John 4:48 So Jesus said to him, “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you simply will not believe.” However there is are those who do not need to see signs and wonders to believe and to them there is a greater blessing. Jesus said to the man in John 20:29, “Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed.” This blessing is described in 1 Peter 1:8
Though you have not seen him, you love Him; and even though you do not see Him now, you believe in Him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy. FAITH PLEASES THE LORD GOD!
OUR FATHER Abraham did not see yet he had the audacity to believe for the resurrection of the dead and we are reminded of this in Romans 4:17 WOW!!! (as it is written, “A FATHER OF MANY NATIONS HAVE I MADE YOU”) in the presence of Him whom he believed, even God, who gives life to the dead and calls into being that which does not exist.
The Word of God declares that His Words are life and His Words are Truth and that His Words have power when applied to any given situation. The Word of God is defined in Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the [a]assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. 2 For by it the men of old gained approval.
Hebrews 11 uses the testimony of biblical patriarchs to reveal faith and its rewards. Faith is ultimately the trusting in and relying on and adherence to the proverbs, the wisdom and the prophetic instructions of the Lord as He reveals them to you for your protection, salvation healing and deliverance from evil.
1 Timothy 1:18-19 This command I entrust to you, Timothy, my son, in accordance with the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you fight the good fight, 19 keeping faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and suffered shipwreck in regard to their faith. Where did Paul connect faith to ships that go down in a storm? How did he relate that to putting your faith in the instructions of the Lord?
18 Now when Jesus saw a crowd around Him, He gave orders to depart to the other side of the sea. 19 Then a scribe came and said to Him, “Teacher, I will follow You wherever You go.” 20 Jesus *said to him, “The foxes have holes and the birds of the [t]air have [u]nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.” 21 Another of the disciples said to Him, “Lord, permit me first to go and bury my father.” 22 But Jesus *said to him, “Follow Me, and allow the dead to bury their own dead.” 23 When He got into the boat, His disciples followed Him. 24 And behold, there arose [v]a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being covered with the waves; but Jesus Himself was asleep. 25 And they came to Him and woke Him, saying, “Save us, Lord; we are perishing!” 26 He *said to them, “Why are you [w]afraid, you men of little faith?” Then He got up and rebuked the winds and the sea, and [x]it became perfectly calm. 27 The men were amazed, and said, “What kind of a man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?”
Faith apprehends destiny as you trust in the Lord with all of your heart and do not lean on your own understanding and allow His Word and His Spirit to direct your path! Faith is the active ingredient in apprehending the benefits, promises and multiplied blessings of the Lord!
Faith apprehends healing!
Matthew 8:5-10 And when Jesus entered Capernaum, a centurion came to Him, imploring Him, and saying, “Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, fearfully tormented.” Jesus *said to him, “I will come and heal him.” But the centurion said, “Lord, I am not worthy for You to come under my roof, but just say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I also am a man under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to this one, ‘Go!’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come!’ and he comes, and to my slave, ‘Do this!’ and he does it.” Now when Jesus heard this, He marveled and said to those who were following, “Truly I say to you, I have not found such great faith [l]with anyone in Israel.
Faith applied to the Prophetic Word apprehends whatever it has declared! That is why we can trust the Lord Jesus because His testimony is the very SPIRIT of PROPHECY and if you will put your trust in Him then you will surely see it come to pass because His Word is Truth, He is not a man that He could lie. He is watching over his Word to perform it and He is faithful Who has promised us and we are encouraged to grab ahold of HIS TESTIMONY in Hebrews 10:22-24 let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; (be like the prophetic gift and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds.)
Faith apprehends through Love the destiny the healing and the deliverance and protection and salvation of the Lord in every area of our lives. When you know the Lord loves you and that His Word is Truth and you know that He is Faithful who promised and is watching over His Word to perform it then you begin to fall in love with Him and you begin to see Him as alive and resurrected and present to move mountains in your life. Nothing is impossible any more for you because you know that you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you. You know that it is He who is working within you to will to do His good pleasure and He is bringing to completion the good work He has begun in you. You begin to obey Him because of His unlimited and unrestrained pleasure towards you because you refuse to be moved and stubbornly resist all attempts by the enemy to get you to believe the voices of fear, oppression, depression, hopelessness and apathy. Because you have set your eyes on Him like a dove and will not be moved He sets His eyes on you and pours out blessings on you pressed down shaken and running over so abundant that you cannot even contain it. Doors begin to fly open and abundant life begins to manifest all around you. He said in John 14:21 Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and manifest myself to them.” This is the way that the Lord manifests Himself to you… by answering (rewarding) your petitions and your prayers because You begin to Trust the Lord that His plan for you is for good and not evil. Plans to give you a future and an expected end. You will begin to hunger and thirst for more. You will cry out for rivers of living water and you will look for ways to be used mightily by the Lord.
So now, if faith comes by hearing His Word and is produced by seeing His signs and wonders and is revealed by His Creation or even revealed within us by the Father Himself then revelation has nothing to do with anything in and of our own selves. The Mystery that is Jesus Christ is revealed by the Father by His Spirit who operates like the Wind for His children and their children. Duet. 29:29 We don’t play any part in that and in reality Faith is a gift sent to us through the many Winds of the Spirit. In essence Faith is a Gift provided to us so that we can make the choice to believe. We have a choice to believe that which we already know because we all are without excuse as we saw in Romans 1. When we hear with our ears the Truth or see whether it be with our eyes and ears physically or with by the Spirit of God we still have the choice to believe and grab ahold of what we have seen and heard. Those who do are said to have eyes to see and ears to hear. They are the ones who understand that His Word is not released as a dead covenant Law but as Grace through a new Law…. the Law of love through Christ Jesus which says there is therefore now no condemnation and we can trust the Law of the Spirit of Love to bring His Word to pass in our lives if we would trust Him.
Now for those who need finances let us pray that the Lord God your Provider gives you a job. Repent for giving up or being lazy and trust Him to open the door for employment.
For those who need Healing let us ask the Lord God our healer to heal us and stand on His Word and not be moved by what we see because we walk not by sight but we (who want to please God and are after the reward walk by faith (2 Corinthians 5:7.) The Spirit of Jacob who was a liar sought after the reward until He apprehended the inheritance while Esau despised the inheritance and did not receive his reward because he could not see past his appetites. Don’t let your appetite seek to be filled with the spirit of pity or identify yourself with your infirmity because you find attention for your condition. Believe the Truth of His Word and forsake the lies of the enemy that tell you its impossible or that the Lord will not truly heal you or that your not worthy to be healed our unclean and undeserving of healing. Don’t believe anything other than the Truth that by His Stripes you are Healed. That you can go to the elders of the church and allow them to lay hands on you and you shall recover.
