2015 Volume Two

faith fi lled words as opposed to
words of doubt. What-you-sayis-huge.
Open your Bible and
read Mark 11:23-24. I truly enjoy
the King James version of this
(Jesus is speaking), “For verily
I say unto you, That whosever
shall say unto this mountain, Be
thou removed and be cast into
the sea; and shall not doubt in
his heart, but shall believe that
those things which he saith shall
come to pass; he shall have
whatsoever he saith. Therefore
I say unto you, whey ye pray,
believe that ye receive them,
and ye shall have them.”
Believe in your heart, and say
it with your mouth! And then
stay-in-belief even while you are
waiting to see it. Don’t ever say
things like, “I prayed but nothing
happened.” These are words
of doubt, and your prayer, dies.
Do what Jesus just said to do,
“Believe you receive them, and
ye shall have them.”
Secondly, before anyone “gives
it to God” they need to be
sure they’ve have “done all”
themselves, fi rst. Too many
people are running around
repeating a bumper sticker that
says, “Let go and let God.” It’s a
bumper sticker, not the Bible! This
teaching has disappointment
written all over it. In Ephesians
6:13 we are instructed stop
working and “stand” only after
we have “done all.” How many
Christians have “done all” fi rst?
My point is, all of us have a
works to play in the process of
prayer. Works are a part of our
faith, and in Matthew 9:29 were
are told, “By your faith be it onto
you.” If you haven’t done all you
can fi rst, your faith will suffer,
and you will fall into doubt.
Praying with doubt, that’s a no-go
in the world of prayer. Saying you
believe in God, and then praying
with doubt is to be “double
minded.” In James 1:6-8 we are
told that a “double minded man
shall receive nothing.” It doesn’t
get much any clearer than that.
Let’s look at a real world example
of this. Suppose a person is
praying for weight loss. They
have two choices. They can
pray, and then turn it over to God.
Or, they can pray, unceasingly
(1 Thessalonians 5:17) while
staying in the Word. In addition,
they can also change their eating
habits, and begin exercising
30-minutes every day. In other
words, they begin adding “works”
to their faith. Having prayed
in faith, backed by works, this
person can stand before God
with a confi dent expectation of
receiving their requested prayer
blessing. To take their faith even
a step further, they can begin
thanking God for their weight
loss, every day, even before
they see it in the natural world
(…believe you receive it and you
shall have it.). This also shows
the kind of faith God taught
Abraham, and is taught again
in Romans 4:17 “…and calls
those things which be not as
though they were.” I absolutely
guarantee that the person who
adds works, and words, of faith
to their prayer life will be begin
seeing the supernatural results
they are looking for.
You write about your godson
Robby. He had a profound
impact on the way you viewed
your relationship with God.
Can you tell the readers more
about the importance of that
relationship with him?
Robbie is a boy who was raised
by his single mom and his
sister. They were fi nancially
strapped and living with only
the essentials. And whatever
else they had around the house
was in Robbie’s own words, “girl
stuff.” Robbie was an awesome
little kid, and since I was living in
comparative abundance, I begin
gifting him with “guy stuff” and
taking him to “guy places.”
To this day I have never met
anyone who was so thankful for
everything little thing. Robbie
thanked me, constantly, for
everything. People eventually
began asking me if I was afraid
I might be “spoiling him.” My
answer was always the same.
“When Robbie stops saying
‘thank you,’ I’ll stop giving.”
It was Robbie’s appreciation
and constant thanks that fi nally
opened my eyes to all that the
Lord had been doing for me, but
that I was failing to thank Him
for. But what really opened my
eyes, was when Robbie began
giving me credit for things in
front of his friends. There were
many things Robbie could have
taken for granted or worse yet,
taken credit for, or been prideful
over, but never once was he.
Robbie would always give me
the praise…give me the honor…
for what he now had. And he
did it publically. It was Robbie,
literally, who taught me to say
“thank you” to the Lord, and to
honor and give praise to the
Lord to my friends and in public.
What an amazing blessing he
has been to my life.
You write about the hot topic
of money, both in the form of