The Power of Faith

I'm sure we (those who are familiar with scripture) have heard that faith is more important than deeds, however on top of that i must say that when two combine its a powerful thing. We know that Abraham was one who did good deeds through good faith, and he was very blessed by God for his obedience and his faith in him.

with the recent activities I have been partaking in God has slowly been revealing some small things of big importance, i feel the lord nudging me towards a season of prayer in my life, prayer for me personally has always been a hard thing, i often feel uncomfortable and inferior whilst praying knowing that he knows my thoughts, my heart and where I'm at, it almost feels unnecessary for me. However things have been unravelling for me and it seems that i have missed an important piece of knowledge, as humans we have senses and we all know that some of us have better smelling than others and so on. however god has also designed us with the same spiritual senses and once again they are unique to us as his children, there is a story of a person that i came across who could literally smell the sense of the holy spirit in the room of which he was in. consequently we all have spiritual ears, and we use these when we pray - our prayer is like out communication centre with the lord and it is this part of our life that the devil wants to attack, why?. because the he knows that once our communication centre is out our spiritual ears will not get any more orders from God, and on that it is important for us to acknowledge the importance of what the military like to call 'Last Standing Order' (LSO) which means that we need not hesitate if we haven't heard from God in a while, simply continue living how you have been since his last communication with you and he will use that growth to speak to you again.

I have come to quick realisation of this importance in prayer, during last weeks church service there was an alter call for healing, two people came up to the front and the first had three people praying for him so there wasn't much room for me to act there, i noticed another woman coming up the front and walked over to meet her.
I cannot remember what i prayed for her yet i KNOW that it was a prayer of complete faith in god to heal her of whatever the problem was for her, she approached me today and thanked me for the prayer, she had been suffering from major back pain the weeks prior to that service and it was affecting her sleep, work and pretty much all aspects of her life. The very next day after i prayed for her, she slept completely, her pain had completely gone away. She told me this today and i stumbled for a second, its like she was acknowledging me for her healing?!?! like wow. As the day went on i focused on the fact that it was gods healing and not mine however i did make the connection that if it had not been for my prayer, my faith combined with my deeds, she would still be in pain today. It was certainly a wake up call to me, and I'm beginning to make an effort for sorting out my prayer life and making it feel more comfortable for me to do so.

A while ago, i was talking to a man who was telling me his beliefs and his experiences with god, its important to note that this man was not christian although he did have complete faith that god was real and that he could move in his life. He was at a party (not drinking) for a Friends sake and he was watching the drunks try to balance a stick on their fingers - whoever held it the longest won, he was speaking to a woman about his beliefs and was touching on the fact that it was all a a matter of faith, 'for instance' he said 'i could make the stick stay still' as he pointed at the stick on the drunks finger which was completely vertical and rock solid, it was apparent to everyone in the room that it was a defiance of gravity (due to the intoxication of the player of that game) and he was explaining to me how, with the faith, we can all act god in one sense or another. It seemed blasphemous at first but with my constant intention to stay open minded i though about it and realised the connection between this statement and Christianity itself. The meaning of christian is literally to be 'Christ like' i think, honestly, none of us can attain this and there is the statement that i came across which says 'there was only ever one true christian, and he died on the cross for us', in being Christ like we are agreeing that we are to some extent living as god himself, due to the deity of the trinity we can twist it to say that being christian is to be 'god like'. is it so hard to believe that you could deify gravity, that you could provide miraculous healing for someone, that your prayer could completely change a town or even an entire nation?

in fact if you search youtube for 'chriss angel' you will eventually find a video of him walking water, i do not know the spiritual orientation of this man but i know he has faith, and it seems apparent that that is all that matters, however I do not believe this to be the case (not because i would sound blasphemous if i didn't believe this) as it seems to me that as the majority, the most miraculous of healing have occured through churches, i know of a town in africa where it was normal for your kid to say 'oh dads in prison for the night' the town was absolutely ridden with crime and hate. three women continued to pray over the years and miracles took place, God told them to crack open a rock that was on the main hill in their town and after they managed to get a miner in from OUT OF THE COUNTRY they cracked it open and water gushed out of the hill. Here was a town that was in complete famine and poverty with a small church with a few people who prayed with FAITH and served their God with their DEEDS and now the town only has 3 police members, no prominent jails and they are so nourished that they are sharing their food and water with outlying towns.

I do not wish to claim that i am god, not in the literal sense, however i do wish to make you all acknowledge that "The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love." and that when we have deeds with faith we "can do all through christ who strenthens us" our very faith tells us that nothing is impossible, the man with faith will move mountains.

I hope you can gain something out of my long rant tonight.

Peace.

Daniel