How to Grow in Faith

 Garbage in, garbage out.

What you consume daily wires your brain. Your beliefs and standards are shaped by what you take in the most. This can either lift you and help you grow closer to God, or it can tear you down and create a division between you and God. This is why what you feed, or what you take in, and spend time with matters.

This is the new series that we will begin today, entitled “How to Grow in Faith.” Let us pray.

Heavenly Father, we come before you today with loving hearts and thankfulness for all that you have given us, from life to life everlasting. Your Word declares this. “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness." We read this in your Word.

“For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” Romans 8:5-8

We desire to please you, Father. We yearn for knowledge to grow in our faith and to overcome worldly desires. Please grant us the ability to see, hear, and understand what you wish us to know about you, your Word, and your ways. We ask this in Yeshua’s holy name. Amen.

How do you overcome the world, and how can a newborn child of God grow in faith, knowledge, and wisdom? This is what we will discuss.

1- Having the right mind.
2- Praying and talking to God.
3- Turning away from the world's ways.
4- Keeping company with like-minded folks.
5- Gathering together in His name.

Let’s start today with having the right mind. How do you do this? Stop feeding it worldly nonsense. Here is a good place to start. (Holding up the Bible.) This is the Bible. This is the Word of the everlasting God.

Forget what the World tells you is right and wrong, grey, or acceptable. Start learning what God says. The world is a world of flesh, and the things therein are for the flesh. It is opposed to God or anything spiritual. As Paul wrote to the Churches in Rome in Romans 12:2

"And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God."

The world will lie to you. It will tell you that this “book” is just like any other “religious book.” They were all written by men and are filled with contradictions. It is not. There are NO contradictions. There are misunderstands, differing points of view, or misinterpretations. But no contradictions.

“All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,” 2 Timothy 3:16

OK, OK, but what makes it different from, say, the Qur'an, the Mahabharata, Torah, or the Book of Mormon?

There are many differences. However, there is one that makes it final. There are 1,239 prophecies in the Old Testament and 578 prophecies in the New Testament for a total of 1,817. This is according to “The Encyclopedia of Biblical Prophecy” by J. Barton Payne. If the Bible contains numerous predictions and they are found to be false, then we can conclude that the Bible itself is false. However, since about 26 percent of the Bible consists of prophecies, any predictions that have been proven correct would support the claim that the Bible is true.

Here are some examples. The general prophecy is that Babylon would rule over Judah for 70 years, as stated in Jeremiah 25:11-12. During this period, Babylon took many Jews captive, destroyed Jerusalem, and devastated the Temple. This domination of the Jews ended in 539 BC when Cyrus, a leader of the Persians and Medes, conquered Babylon, thus bringing an end to the empire. This event was foretold in Isaiah 45:1. Additionally, Jeremiah 49:15-20 and Ezekiel 25:12-14 both predict that the lush and beautiful land of Edom, which is now part of Jordan, would become a desert and wasteland.

Israel itself can be seen as a prophecy fulfilled. The Israel we know today, including the exact location and construction sequence of Jerusalem's nine suburbs, was predicted by the prophet Jeremiah about 2,600 years ago. Jeremiah 31:38-40; Ezekiel 37:21-22.

Additionally, Isaiah 66:7-8 describes this happening in a single day. This rebirth of Israel became a reality in 1948, once again occurring in just one day, and the construction of the nine suburbs has progressed exactly in the locations and sequence foretold. 

Then you have Jesus Himself. Who is he? Where does He come from? How does He live? How does He die? Even the rise from the dead? These are all in the Bible, some thousands of years, some hundreds of years before Jesus was even born. In extreme detail. Turn to Isaiah 53. We are going to read the whole thing. Ready?

“Who has believed what he has heard from us?
And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?

For he grew up before him like a young plant,
And like a root out of dry ground;
He had no form or majesty that we should look at Him,
And no beauty that we should desire Him.

He was despised and rejected by men,
A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;
And as one from whom men hide their faces,
He was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Surely he has borne our griefs
And carried our sorrows;
Yet we esteemed him stricken,
Smitten by God and afflicted.

But he was pierced for our transgressions;
He was crushed for our iniquities;
Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
And with his wounds we are healed.

All we like sheep have gone astray;
We have turned--everyone--to his own way;
And the LORD has laid on him
The iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
Yet he opened not his mouth;
Like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
And like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
So he opened not his mouth.

By oppression and judgment, he was taken away;
And as for his generation,
Who considered that he was cut off from the land of the living,
Stricken for the transgression of my people?

And they made his grave with the wicked
And with a rich man in his death,
Although he had done no violence,
And there was no deceit in his mouth.

Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him;
He has put him to grief;
When his soul makes an offering for guilt,
He shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;
The will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.

Out of the anguish of his soul, he shall see and be satisfied;
By his knowledge shall the righteous one,
My servant, make many to be accounted righteous,
And he shall bear their iniquities.

Therefore, I will divide him a portion with the many,
And he shall divide the spoil with the strong,
Because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; 

Yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.” Isaiah 53

Sounds like Isaiah is describing Jesus? Right? However, this was written some 700 years before Jesus was born to Mary. As a matter of fact, Jesus is in the entire Bible. Yes, the Old Testament as well as the New. Without Jesus, there is no Bible. No other “religious book” can say this. Others are written telling stories of their leaders, teachers, and messiahs. But the Bible IS Jesus. Therein lies the difference. Jesus IS the Bible. He IS The Word of God. He was with God, is with God, and IS God. There is no Bible, New or Old Testament, without Jesus.

Here is something that some have a hard time understanding. Jesus was there in the beginning.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.” John 1:1-3

"All things were made by him;" The Word is a Him??? "and without him was not anything made that was made." "Without HIM, was NOTHING Made." Then, a little bit later, John makes it clear.

"And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." John 1:14.

Jesus even tells us directly that the Bible is all about Him.

"And the Father himself, who has sent me, has borne witness of me. You have neither heard his voice at any time nor seen his form. And you have not his word abiding in you: for whom he has sent, him you believe not. Search the scriptures; for in them you think you have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. And you will not come to me, that you might have life." John 5:37-40

What is Jesus saying here? He is saying, you, the religious folks, look to the Bible for salvation, yet reject Him Himself. He said you can't do that. Why? Because all Scripture points to Him. He is saying that if you reject Him, then you must reject the very Word of God because HE is the Word of God. He, Jesus, is the Word of God in the flesh. The Bible is the very Word of God, who is Jesus in the flesh. Are you following??

You have to feed your spirit this. The Word of God. If you do not, you will fill it with the junk of the world. Always remember that thoughts lead to actions. When you start to think about something, play it over and over again in that movie theater of the mind, you allow the good or the temptation to take hold. 

Let's say you were an alcoholic. Or a smoker. Or someone who used to look at porn. You give it up. You want to remain free of this bondage in your life. God sets you free from it. Yet, you see a commercial, or a movie, or a pretty young thing walking down the street, and it puts an image in your head. Does that make you revert to it? No. How you choose to deal with it is what matters.

You could immediately reject that thought, cast it out of your head. Or, you can dwell on it. Remember how much fun you think you had when you were doing these things. You remember the taste, the feelings, the "good times" with friends or whatever, that you can associate with them.

I smoked for like 35 years. I quit in 2016. Kinda had to. I was in the hospital with pneumonia and the flu. I was on death's door. Do I regret quitting? Never. Do I still have "Smoking Dreams" 10 years later? Yup. I can still taste it, smell it, and yes, from time to time, I still crave it. 

Your mind may start convincing you that you’ve been good, suggesting there’s nothing wrong with having just one cigarette or one beer. After all, many people smoke and drink every day. Some of your friends still do. You might think there’s no harm in looking at just one picture since no one will find out. But once you give in, it’s easy for that one moment to lead to another, putting you right back where you started.

Just like there’s a saying about feeding your body—“garbage in, garbage out”—the same applies to your mind and spirit. What are you nourishing them with? The quality of what you put in will determine what you get out. If you plant tomato seeds, you can’t expect to harvest watermelons, right? Similarly, if you consume a lot of candy, you can’t expect to be healthy. If you feed your mind and spirit with drugs, alcohol, pornography, and negativity, how can you expect to grow in faith in a holy God? It just doesn't work that way.

Again, you have a choice as a child of God. A choice that the world does not have. For the world is against God. They are not of God. Therefore, they obey the things of the flesh and make manifest the works of the flesh, for they know no better. However, by spending time reading this, the Holy Word of God, you do know better, and you do know there is a far better way. His way.

I know, a little long today. Join us next time, as we will discuss the fact that God wants to have a one-on-one relationship with you. He wants you to pray, AKA, talk to Him, always.

The email, if you wish to contact me, is truthbygod1@gmail.com

May the comfort of the Holy Spirit and the peace of our Lord Jesus be with you all. May God bless and be with you always.

Until next time, be blessed, be a blessing, and Jesus is Lord!