Lay Hold

Lay Hold

1 Cor.13, tells us of a most excellent way of being, 1 Cor. 13:13
and now these three remain; faith, hope and love. But the
greatest of these is love. The most excellent way to abide in is in love. It also tells us to live, to abide in faith and in hope. The Greek definition of faith is, reliance on Christ. We are to live everyday squarely dependent on Christ. It is in Him that we live and have our being. The bible says that we are crucified with Christ, never the less I live yet, but not I, but Christ lives in me. The life that I now live in this flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God.Other definitions of faith is conviction of the truthfulness of God, to rely by inward certainty, to agree, believe, to have confidence, obey, trust, and yield. Yield our thoughts, our ways to His ways.

Casting down all imaginations. We are to live in hope. The Greek word for hope means to anticipate usually with pleasure, to excite, to expect, trust, and/or have confidence. We are to anticipate the Lord with pleasure. We are to expect Him. We are to expect Him to intervene in our lives, we are to trust Him and to have confidence and have faith in Him. Heb. 11:1 Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. Our faith is the substance of what it is we are hoping for. God framed the whole world by faith, by the Word, His spoken words. Did you catch that word, “substance.” The Word of God is our substance and the more you put into your being the more you begin to rise, mature. It’s like baking a meatloaf. You need a biding agent, the eggs, to hold the meat together. If you don’t put in the eggs your meat falls apart. The substance in the eggs holds the meat together. It is no different with the Word of God. The Word is our meat and our faith is what holds us together and the more you add the more you hold together and receive the promises of God. Everyday you need to add to your hope, to your faith by reading, hearing and then doing the Word of God. God is the author and finisher of our faith.

Now when God laid before us our Wellness Ministry there is one thing that we did. Go to Proverbs 16:3 Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and your plans will succeed. He will cause our thoughts to become agreeable to His thoughts. All we do is step out in faith and believe that He will secure a fruitful purpose. No matter what is said against us, we just keep pressing forward. His Word gives me security that HE will take care of us, and that gives me hope. When it looks like there is nothing left to cling to, we can have the assured hope of Christ Jesus and what He did for us. The place He secured for us with our Father. No matter what, hope and expect to hear and receive from God. Jer.29:11 For I know the
plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. He wants you to have a future, one with hope and expectancy of the good things. Psalms 139:16 your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. God formed the days for us even before we were formed in our mother’s womb. How exciting to know that God, before you were formed, He fashioned your days for you. Knowing that now, from this point forward you should no longer try to form your outcome, if you continue you’ll be working against
God and what He fashioned for you. He wrote down in His book all the days and all the blessings He wants us to walk in. He has plans for us, that should give you hope. No matter what is happening all around you, God has given us, His people assurance. The assurance of hope that He truly has us wrapped in His loving kindness. You can say from this day forward, Lord, I know that you have good things prepared for me, and today I call it into my life. I don’t care what I see and hear around me. I know that you have good things prepared for my life today. Being rich is having peace and joy. I am rich when I have peace when all hell is breaking loose all around me. If I can have joy, loving-kindness and patience I am a rich women. I can lay hold of those things that God has for me. God wants all of our needs met yes, but the riches of the Lord are those characteristics that He is and that He wants to form in us. I am rich when I know God’s love, peace, joy, patience, kindness. I know He
loves me no matter what, stuff does not matter. Paul learned contentment no matter the circumstance he was in, and that my friend is richness. Being rich in the things of God, not the things of this world. Have you ever seen a worried frantic bird? No, of course not! They don’t even think about what they should have because God is faithful to His Word. He provides for them all their needs and He will do the same for you if you get out of His way and allow Him to do so.

Do you know that the devil will come to steal your joy first. If your
not at rest your no good for anyone. Your tossing and turning at night, your restlessness in the day creates havoc in your life. Once your joy is gone he comes for your strength next. Where does your focus go? On the circumstance instead of God. What is Gods promise here? Know that your at peace with God, the JOY OF THE LORD IS MY STRENGTH.
I have to stir up joy when I don’t know how to stir up joy. When I
have to stir up praying blessings on people that hurt me when I don’t know how, but God shows us how. He shows me how. I am rich when I can do that. Even when I know people are saying things about me that are not true, when I can go to the Lord and ask for a blessing on that person, I am rich. Go to the Lord and tell Him, “Lord I am so hurt I don’t even know what to pray.” You know what? God will begin to heal you, He will cover your wound with the blood shed on Calvary.
You went to God and not the circumstance that day. He knew you would, He just waited patiently for you to ask. He will begin to heal your wounded heart, He will place the love in your heart that will cover the circumstance. God will give you the words to say, blessing to pray and your day recorded before you were even formed went according to His will. That ground was a fruitful harvest! Praise God! You better be looking up that day, because a window just flew open in heaven and your blessings are about to rain down.

You need to be able to lay hold of God’s promises, the trials that come into our lives are meant’ to mature us not kill us. All these things around us will pass away, but let the things I am doing today remain as gold and silver, not wood, hay and stubble. Let it count, let it cause a holy ghost riot in your people today. Lay hold of the promises of God and to do that you must have knowledge of His promises. The Word of God is your weapon, its your sword. That’s your offensive weapon, you’ve got a shield of faith, that is for your defense. All the other armor is for your defense. The sword is the sword of the spirit, its your weapon. It is what you attack with, that is how you gain territory. You never back up, never, never, never give the devil ground. Always charge forward with the sword of the spirit! The word of God! Hosea 4:6 my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Knowledge of what? The Word of God! Being armed with His Word, putting power in your weapon, the sword! God expects you to dig it out, He expects you to attain and go after the knowledge of the Word of God. We are destroyed because we don’t know that God has provided it, we don’t know how to stand in faith for it and expect the Lord for it because we don’t know it. If you can quote it and you still fall to pieces when a crises hits you don’t truly believe what you quote. It’s like telling someone that you love them.
Saying it is the easy part but showing that person that you love them
is the hardest part. Why? Because it involves an action on our part.
That is the same way with God’s Word. We can quote it all day long, but if we don’t back it up with an action it becomes just words. What is that action? FAITH, remember faith is that substance that binds it all together.

1Cor 2:12 We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. We need to have knowledge of what has been given to us as children of God. Joint heirs with Jesus Christ, what is in the ‘will,’ what belongs to me, I want everything that God has promised me. Not some fake imitation that I can’t take with me when I die. In 3 John 2 it says beloved, I pray that above all else that you prosper and be in health even as your soul prospers. He expects for your soul, your mind, your emotions to prospering. He made you the head and not the tail.

We need to know that God rewards. Heb.11:6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. He rewards you when you seek Him out. To lay hold of what He promised you, you have to seek Him out. He can not lie. His Word is absolute truth. Heaven and earth will pass away but His Word will remain. He expects you to keep your word too. To be a person with virtue, if you say it you better do it. Heb.6:18 God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is, impossible for God to lie, we have fled to take hold
of the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged. It is impossible for God to ever prove false or deceive us. If He said it, it is true. It is important for us to remember that God is sovereign and we know what the promises of God is. You must learn to be dependant on God. If I’m going to live and even have my next breath I have got to learn that it comes from Him. He has a plan and sometimes we don’t understand what it is or why it is but we need to know what He said in scripture to be TRUE. Just like the leper that went up to Jesus and said, If you are willing I shall be healed and Jesus replied I am willing be thou made whole. Always know that it is His will for you to be healed and blessed.

Part 2

Our faith is built as we hear the Word. Your faith cannot be built if
you don’t hear the Word. Romans 10:17 Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ. Do you know what that means? Our faith comes by hearing and by hearing what Jesus said out of His own mouth. You know when you get hungry for a certain food and your taste just won’t be satisfied until you eat that food. In your spirit you probably find that you do the same thing, sometimes I just need to hear the gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. I just need to read about what Jesus said, about how He walked, how He talked, the things that He did. My faith is built when I read about what He did. It helps you to know Him. This builds your faith. If your going to lay hold of promises, your going to have to have faith to believe God for anything.

You have to study to rightly divide the Word. 2 Tim 2:15 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth. You know, we do a lot of things to seek approval from a lot of people other than God. I see that in the church a lot, that people want to please other people or seek approval from other people in the church. You are not seeking approval from man, you need to be eager to show yourself approved unto God. A workman that be not ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of truth because your familiar with God and how He thinks. The Holy Spirit is the teacher and he does not stop talking. Jesus said it is good if I go away because if I don’t the comforter cannot come. I taught you in parables and so does the Holy Spirit. I once heard it said that no
one can consistently hear from God. If you consistently seek Him you will consistently hear the voice that never stops talking and guiding you. If you don’t know His voice you don’t know His Word. To understand you must be like a little child, if you don’t you can’t even enter in. You have to come to Him with an open heart like a little child. You have to remain so open and hungry for ‘Daddy’s’ attention. You don’t have to scratch and crawl for what He can give you.

You must be obedient in all that we KNOW to receive the promises of God. We stand off and like to judge other people for what it is their doing when sometimes other people just don’t know yet. Did you know that’s when grace picks up. For what you know, you are responsible for, but after that God’s grace kicks in and is there for you. We never need to stand off and judge another person because maybe they just don’t know yet. Some people do know but we are not the judge, we are not the accuser of the brethren. God is the judge. God did not send us hear to be fixers of the brethren. He sent us to spread His Gospel and to be a light, a lamp to that brethren. If we attempt to fix someone then we become their judge. You become the accuser of the brethren. How can I say that? Even the devil goes before the throne and becomes the accuser of the brethren. So when I go up before the throne in prayer and attempt to pray something out of somebody, I am accusing them. We should go up in prayer and pray blessings upon that brother or sister. God will handle His children. Deu. 28: 1- If you fully obey the LORD your
God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations on earth. 2 All these blessings will come upon you and accompany you if you obey the LORD your God: 3 You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country. 4 The fruit of your womb will be blessed, and the crops of your land and the young of your livestock – the calves of your herds and the lambs of your
flocks. 5 Your basket and your kneading trough will be blessed. 6 You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out. 7 The Lord will grant that the enemies who rise up against you will be defeated before you. They will come at your from one direction but flee from you in seven. 8 The Lord will send a blessing on your barns and on everything you put your hand to. The Lord your God will bless you in the land he is
giving you. 9 The Lord will establish you as his holy people, as he promised you on oath, if you keep the commands of the Lord your God and walk in his ways. Obedience to receive the promises of God, the blessings of God. A good proving time is a trial because He will try your obedience on the way to your promised land. Deut. 8:2 Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the desert these forty years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart,
whether or not you would keep his commands. You see, we want to get to the next level of glory but we lean on our understanding and not God’s. That’s what gets you into trouble. We stumble around out there in the desert parched and dying of thirst and asking God WHY! WHY! WHY! Deuteronomy 8:2 just answered it for you. There is no other answer that’s it and it is that simple. To humble you and test you to see if you obey. To see if you are just a hearer of the Word or a doer of the Word, that’s James 1:22. If you are a hearer only, you deceive yourself. You have to be a hearer and doer of the Word, it is by grace that the Word works. At some point we have to put legs to what it is we believe, what it is we are proclaiming.

After we come to the Lord don‘t we get in the water and prove to
everyone what’s happened on the inside of us. It is an act of our faith, faith is an action. Obedience brings God’s manifested glory. Let’s look at the story in John 2:1-11. This is Jesus’ first miracle. It took place in Cana in Galilee at a wedding. The wine ran out to soon. I want to point out just certain verses: verse 5: Jesus’ mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you. Verse 7 Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water”; (they obeyed) Verse 8 Jesus told them to draw some and take it to the master of the banquet, (they obeyed.) Because of their act of obedience Jesus’ glory manifested and people believed in Him. Obedience in God’s Word.

Waiting to receive the promises of God. This is the least fun
part. Be patient and so utterly confident that you never question God or his waiting time. Jesus let me get to that point because it’s hard not to be impatient when your waiting. Understand that it is your human nature its your flesh. As long as your trying God meets you. Your going to need endurance, confidence and expectation if your going to be a waiter. Not the kind that brings your lunch, the kind that waits for God to fulfill His
promises. Psalm 27:14 Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD. The position of faith is expecting because when your expecting your waiting for something. Know what the promises of God are, stand in expectation of those promises. Whether you see it or not you stand firm in faith.
I am a child of God, I am to be blessed only above only and not beneath. I believe above all else that you prosper and be in good health. If my God wants me to be in good health then my God will show me how to stand and receive it. I expect the promises of God to be flowing in my life. Live in expectation. Heb 10:35-36 So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. 36 You need to preserve so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. You have need for stead fast patience. You have to have it. James 1:4 Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking in anything. Pray for patience He will give it to you.
Let it come and just work you over. Just brace yourself make sure you’ve got your armor on and just say, “COME GET ME, PATIENCE.” I NEED IT! Let it do a through work so that you may be perfectly developed with no defects lacking in nothing. We need to be growing up and moving on to the next level with God. Proverbs 3:6 in all your ways acknowledge him, he will make your paths straight.

Not wavering to receive the promises of God. Heb 10:38 But my
righteous one will live by faith. And if he shrinks back, I will not be pleased with him. God does not like it when we draw back and shrink in fear. We have to live by faith and be confident in His promises. Once you start confessing the Word don’t waver. Mark 10:46 talks about old blind Bartimaeous crying out to Jesus. You know sometimes when you in your stand, people even well meaning Christians will tell you, ‘you just need to give up.’ They told old blind Bartimaeous, hush be quiet, but he cried out even louder. Even when Jesus stopped and called him over, he took off his robe that said he was a blind beggar and threw it aside, which signified that he would not be that anymore. He went up towards Jesus and he got what he was asking God for. He didn’t listen to those yelling
at him to shut up. Don’t listen to peoples negativity, listen to God. Confer with God and you will get what it is your standing for. James 1:6 But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. God says don’t waver, no hesitating. Fast and pray to receive the promises of God. Sometimes we have to put our selves under and really seek the Lord. You will hear the Lord the loudest when you fast and pray. You have to conquer your flesh or it will conquer you. James 4:2,3 You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do
not ask God. 3 When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. Your not asking to according to His Word or His Will. Why do we question God when our prayers are not answered? Well, James 4: 2-3 just plainly and simply answered it for you. We have to seek to know what the will of God is. It is not grab it and claim it. That leaves the door open for confusion. We can stand on the promises of God but we have to know His timing and His will and what it is He’s doing in our lives. He’s cleaning us up, getting us ready to be with Him for eternity. Praise God. Our flesh if it is not under submission, it won’t understand what He is doing. My
prayer for each and everyone of you tonight is for you to gain a fresh understanding of God’s will. What God wants and what God has already planned for you to begin to open up and be laid at your feet and all you have to do is walk into it. Your eyes open, your heart open and you Spirit prospering with the riches of what God can bring to those that truly belong to Him. Amen!

God reminding me HE is in control....