What an evening. Worship was again at another level, and what really blessed me was so many singers and instruments.
I started praying for more musicians and singers in all of our churches, especially Dagenham. A flute would be awesome, drums, and so much more. The increase of sound will make worship easier and more fun! It will help prepare people to hear the Word.
Then Ashley Terradez shared one of the most powerful offering messages I have ever heard, on sowing and reaping. He challenged us to all grow in the grace of giving and share with those who have taught you the Word. We all should be desiring to reap generously and prosper, and the only path to reap generously is to sow generously. Ashley defined sowing generously as giving to the point your flesh is uncomfortable. We should all have giver’s remorse as we stand on the Word and expect a return. I agree entirely, I see so many people are scraping by because they have never given beyond the comfort of their flesh. I have given away everything I have four times, and God has never let me down. I have given money that was essential for the church, and God has never lete down. Last Sunday, at Pastor Lawson’s church God told me to empty the churches’ current account into Pastor Lawson’s offering. I obeyed instantly, and this week we have seen so much money come in, TV partners that have never given before have given us hundreds of pounds, other churches have given us thousands of people, and our people have upped their generosity so much. And I didn’t do anything but give! It works!
Then Dave Hinton played a song on the power of John 3.16 then they turned the meeting over to Bob Yandian.
Bob then preached the clearest message on faith I have ever heard. He started off sharing that we are hand picked for this generation and rebuked us (gently) for wishing we had been born in different times.
Then he got into the meat of his message. It could be summarised easily as it was so clear. When we get saved we get a seed of faith. That faith is enough to move trees and mountains. Therefore our problem is never that our faith is too small or that our problem is too big.
Bob pointed out that our faith has already moved us from hell to heaven, from death to life and from sin to righteousness. Therefore, moving us from sick to healed or broke to bountiful is so much easier. The greatest battle for any Christian is not in the future, it was the day of salvation, and every battle after that is tiny compared to this.
So what is our problem? Our problem is unbelief. Bob quoted Matthew 17. 29 showing the reason a young boy did not recieve healing and deliverance was unbelief.
Unbelief is not a lack of faith, because we don’t lack faith. Our seed of faith can move mountains. Our faith doesn’t increase, we increase. We don’t need more faith, we need to deal with unbelief.
Bob pointed out that in Matthew 17, although the disciples had worked many miracles, this time was different. There was a negative crowd around, Pharisees were jeering, the boy was manifesting right in front of them. All the circumstances of the world overwhelmed them. They were moved more by the world than their faith. They stopped expecting their faith to work. That is unbelief and it is the only thing that can stop faith.
If unbelief is the only thing that can stop faith, we have to learn how to deal with it. If uncontaminated faith always moves mountains we have to uncontaminate our faith.
And the answer is prayer and fasting (Matthew 17.21). Prayer is attaching ourselves to God and fasting is detaching ourselves from the world.
We deal with unbelief by feasting on the Word amd the presence of God, and fasting the world and information from the world. Bob used a few illustrations, but the one that spoke to me was about the car. It’s no secret I spend a lot of time in my car. Bob challenged us to spend our time in the car listening to the Word, to sermons, to worship music, rather than the radio or news. That act alone will deal with unbelief and enable our faith to move mountains.
You don’t need more faith. You have plenty. Your faith is not too small, your problem is not too big, all you need to do is deal with unbelief.
Selah.
Tree of Life Blog 