What’s Your New Year’s Resolution?

Are you speaking the right things?

Every year people make promises for the New Year. The goals and dreams left unaccomplished are written by some or just rehearsed by others. The promise is that they will be fulfilled in the coming New Year. These are called New Year’s Resolutions. They often take the form of “I am going to lose weight” or “I want to make number of dollars this year.” But year after year, resolutions go unfulfilled. Why is this? I have a theory…

Most people, when stating something, they will use words like “will”, “want”, “desire” and “hope”. Let’s look at each of these words and examine the potential power in them. To say “I will” do something is to place that action in the future. Because of the many variables in life, there is a chance that the task can be interrupted, postponed or even cancelled. To want to do something is a desire. We all have desires. The problem is that many of them go unfulfilled for as many reasons. So a want is simply that. Powerless! All of us have desires. The problem is that simply desiring a thing accomplishes nothing more than wanting it. But it is a start.

The Bible states in Hebrews 11:1 that “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen”. Hoping for things does not make them tangible. Substance is something tangible, so it goes to say that to hope is another starting point but not what brings it about. So let us look at two other words, IS and AM.

Looking back at Hebrews 11, the writer stated that “Faith is”. The bible also states that God is. And if you are reading this, you are. Note what all of these phrases have in common. They are all quoted in the PRESENT TENSE! Just like ‘will’ is the future and ‘was’ is the past, ‘is’ is the present. To say that something is puts that thing in existence right now. For instance, “The sky is blue” is a right now fact. Let’s get a little deeper. The Atlantic Ocean is on the East Coast. Let me ask you a question. Are you on the east coast at this very moment? Are you looking at the Atlantic Ocean? If not, is it really there on the East Coast? How do you know? You have seen it before or on television or on a book. That is fine, but how do you know it is still there? You take it on faith, don’t you? Because of this, you say it IS there.

God said, “Let there be …” and it was. See the pattern? He spoke present tense and it became or came to pass, which is saying, IT IS in the past. What do you think would happen if you spoke this way about that you wanted? Before we go there, let us look at the word ‘Am’. God again said to Moses, “I AM that I AM”. See the present tense again? He did not say He is going to, or want to, or would like to, or even hope to. He stated that He is! Now, you might be thinking that to say you are something you are not is lying. Note what Jesus said in Matthew 5:48, “Be ye therefore perfect …” If we could not ‘be’, would He have said such a thing? He did not say work on it. He said be. So, to state that I am something is to speak in faith about being. Mark 11:23 states, “For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou 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.” So to say that I am losing weight, or that I am healthy is to speak what I believe I am, not what the circumstances seem to be. Proverbs 23:7 says “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: …”

That being said, before you come up with you resolutions this year, think about how you phrase them. Think about how you talk to yourself, your internal dialog, each day. Speak to yourself in the present tense and watch how the word of faith causes your words to become tangible. Your words will cause God’s universal laws to manifest what you speak.

Popeye said, “I AM what I AM and THAT’S ALL that I AM” … But what you say YOU ARE will make you so much more!

*All scripture references are taken from the King James Version.

The Biblical Return of Christ!

The Return of Christ!

It is called by several names … The Rapture, The Blessed Hope, The Second Coming, The Return of Christ. No matter what it is called, it is the day every Christian since the beginning of the early church has been looking for. What do we know about this time? Is what we know about it truth? In brief, the present teaching on this event goes as follows:When Christ returns for the church, those who are ready to return with him to heaven will hear the call and be caught up in the twinkling of an eye. No one will know it took place until those left behind notices that people are suddenly missing. Planes will fall from the sky, autos, trains, and ships will crash. Babies, small children, and Christians will be gone. It will happen in silence. The world will be left in turmoil … Is this the event as described in scripture? Is this the way God does things? Is there any scriptural precedence for this? Let us look closely at the event itself and see if this is what the bible says will really happen.

Titus 2:13 says ”Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ”. By this we know that the church is and has been looking for this event to take place. But how will it happen? Let’s take a look at First Corinthians 15:51 – 52:”Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.”What does these verses say really? Remember, the present day teaching is that we will vanish in a moment. No one will see the saints go. But I see something different here. Look at the last six words of verse 51 and the first portion of verse 52. It says in essence, we shall be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. Do you see anywhere that we will be caught up in a moment? So no sudden vanishing act here. Only a sudden change from mortality and corruption (death, decay) to incorruption (immortality). Next we will look at the rest of the event.

First 4:13 – 15 starts off by saying; “But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.” We see here that the dead in Christ will come forth and not be hindered by the living. As Christ himself rose from the dead, so will those that sleep in him now rise on that day. Let us continue with verses 16 – 18; For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.”Where is the secret rapture? There seems to be a lot of noise in these verses. We have no less than two sources of sound, the Lord’s shout through the archangel and the trump of God. Since this is the case, there will not be a silent rapture. The entire world will hear the shouts and trumpet blasts. Not a believer yet? To know what God will do, let’s see what he has done …

Read Joshua Chapter Six. Here are verses 1 – 5; ”Now Jericho was straightly shut up because of the children of Israel: none went out, and none came in. And the LORD said unto Joshua, See, I have given into thine hand Jericho, and the king thereof, the mighty men of valor. And ye shall compass the city, all men of war, go round about the city once. Thus shalt thou do six days. And seven priests shall bear before the ark seven trumpets of rams’ horns: and the seventh day ye shall compass the city seven times, and the priests shall blow with the trumpets. And it shall come to pass, that when they make a long with the ram’s horn, andwhen ye hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout; and the wall of the city shall fall down flat, and the people shall ascend up every man straight before him.”As we can see, God instructed Joshua to have the people march around the walls of Jericho, shout, and blow trumpets. No secret attack, no sneaking in and stealing anything. God showed himself strong by being direct. He will do the same when he returns.This topic will be under constant revision. But what you have read here should be enough to get you studying again. Let me know what you think.

I leave you with these words: 2Timothy 2:15 – “Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”

All scriptures taken from the King James Version of the Bible.