WE MAY CLAIM WHAT BELONGS TO US

There are Christians who never understand faith. They walk according to feelings, opinions (reasoning), but not by faith.

Paul said, that we should not walk by sight but by faith.

Faith is having something, which is invisible; something we do not yet see. There is an invisible world. There are many things that belong to us. We must know what belongs to us.

Some people walk by presumption. They expect that God is going to give them everything without faith. When it doesn't happen as they thought it would, they think it is God’s will not to give them the blessing they asked for.

If God gave us anything without faith, He would ruin our faith. God loves to build faith in us. Without faith it is impossible to please God (Heb 11:6).

Anotherscripture says that the just shall live by faith (Gal 3:11). The opposite is: the unjust are dying because of a lack of faith; or they are suffering because of a lack of knowledge (Hos. 4:6). Any religious man who is acting according to tradition and men’s teachings operates in this manner.

Some believers do not think that we can claim what belongs to us. They believe that God is sovereign and, therefore, we cannot approach God. They think He decides what to give us and what not to give us.

Remember the time when Adam sinned? Satan came to garden of Eden; and Adam believed his lies. Adam and Eve had dominion over the earth. God told Adam: Have dominion over the earth.

And God said, let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth (Gen 1:26).

Adam did not need special permission to take anything he needed from the garden. He was not to eat from only one tree: the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

God asked Adam to guard the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve had everything. They had food; they never had to work manually. They had animals, trees; all beauty and all nature was theirs. They had gold and precious stones, everything, even things they did not need. In addition they were never sick and had eternal life.

All these things, however, they turned over to Satan, they did not trust in God’s Word. They believed Satan's lies. It was a tragedy we are still feeling the effect of today.

As soon Adam disobeyed God’s Word, faith in God’s Word was broken. Adam became the spiritual child of Satan and Satan became the spiritual father of man. Everything Adam had was turned over to Satan’s control.

But Jesus came, He shed His blood and paid the price. He died for our sin, became sin, took on the cross our poverty, sickness, disease, all pain, and finally died for us.

Poverty, diseases and death are curses of the law (Deut 28). They are not sin, but the result of sin (disobedience of God's Word).

After Jesus died, He went to hell and defeated Satan. He dethroned Satan and stripped him from the dominion stolen from Adam.

After the resurrection, Jesus gave all authority to His church - those who turned away from the lies of Satan and believe His Word.

Jesus took our sin upon Himself on the cross. Jesus did not redeem us from the blessings of the law only the curses; we may receive blessings of Abraham by faith.

Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, curse is every one that hangs on a tree: That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the spirit through faith (Gal 3:13-14).

Jesus Christ our Lord redeemed us from the curse of the law. We may have the Abrahamic blessing - all blessings.

Abraham was the father of faith. He lived beyond the average age, which were 120. He lived 175 years. He was never sick. He was the first man in history who prayed for sick by faith.

King Abimelech became sick. He would have died if Abraham did not pray for him.

So Abraham prayed unto God: and God healed Abimelech, and his wife, and his maidservants; and they bare children (Gen 20:17).

Abraham was a very rich man. It did not ruin his faith.

And Abraham was very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold (Gen 20:17).

We must understand that we cannot claim anything without faith. You do not have to be worried about claiming what belongs to you.

Once you are born into God’s family His promises belong to you. It needs to be released by faith. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.

It is important that you understand your birthright. Use your home as an example.

You do not need to have permission from your parents to go to the refrigerator and eat if you are hungry. If you believed in strict permission and your parents went on vacation for three weeks, you would starve.

You do not need permission to go to bed and sleep. You do not need to have permission to go home from school. You learn about sovereignty of parents if you do something wrong. But you do not need permission to do well or eat if you are hungry.

Mother was upset if you came late for supper. But you did not need her permission to eat supper. It belongs to you since you are a part of the family. It is part of your birthright.

Claiming those blessings means actual confessing and the building of our faith. We have to speak aloud to build faith and to receive what belongs to us. Confession of God's Word is positive. It cannot be one of doubt or anything negative.

We were programmed by natural man. We have to renew our minds by the Word of God so that faith can come. Then we will receive blessings in our work. We will be blessed in everything we touch. It will become rewarding. God will not put us down.

In the past we concluded that when God did not give something to us automatically we wrongly assumed that it was His will not to do so. But this isn't true.

We have to believe and practice faith in everything because only in that way are we justified and will live. The just live by faith and only by faith.

We do not name and claim without faith, but rather exercise faith by confession of God's promises that we may live. Jesus gave us abundant life. We receive it by faith, God's kind of faith.

No. 92194 ET-109

© 1994 Vladimir Uhri