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Faith 19/07/2006 My question is about fertility drugs. My husband & I are trying to have a child and I’ve been diagnosed and told that basically, the only way that I can have a child is with a drug called Clomid which makes me ovulate. So, I’m wondering if it’s a lack of faith to go ahead and proceed with some type of fertility drug? Or do I just pray about it and just wait for something to happen? First of all, no, it is not a lack of faith on your part that you would consider taking fertility drugs. But you do need to make sure that you do not have a lack of knowledge also. You need to know what the side-effects and the consequences are of those drugs. And you need to make sure that you go into it with open eyes and an open mind. And you need to know what your expectations are going to be. No, it’s not a lack of faith because even if you use the drugs, you just need to make sure that you put your faith and your trust is in God. “Whatever is not from faith is sin.” And the Bible says, “Let every man be convinced in his own mind. Have your faith unto yourself.” Or make sure that your faith is yours and you’re not trying to imitate somebody else’s or reproduce somebody else’s. But if you truly believe that this is something that you and your husband are in agreement about, something that you guys desire, then that is not something that is against your faith and it’s not something that proves you lack faith. It actually proves that you do have faith, that even though you’ve been told that you can’t have children, you’re believing God that you can. And you’re willing to explore the opportunities and the possibilities of fertility drugs and those kinds of things. And that’s okay. I encourage you and welcome you to explore those, but do that with knowledge. Make sure that you gather all the facts. Proverbs talks about gathering the information before you set out to accomplish something. Make sure that you know what you’re getting into and you know what the side-effects are and all of that and you’ve counted the cost according to Luke chapter 14. Before you build something, make sure you’ve counted the costs to make sure you have enough to build. And we’ll be praying for you to have success and to have great results in that regard.

Faith 12/04/2006 Why is it that bad things always happen to Children of God and then God wants us to be faithful and trusting and hope in Him? And even when you hope in Him, you always find difficulties in so many ways. Well, life’s not fair sometimes. There’s a devil in this world. People make bad decisions. Let’s talk about some of the reasons why bad things happen to good people, why bad things happen to Christian people. Number one, because Adam and Eve’s sin put into motion a lot of bad things in this world: from bad weather to bad circumstances in life to physical health that is passed down from generation to generation that is unhealthy and heart problems and digestive problems and you go through the list. Where did all these things come from? They came from when Adam and Eve sinned. Adam and Eve’s sin is one of the reasons why bad things happen to good people. The second reason is because just because you’re a good person, doesn’t mean you made a good decision. So, bad things happen to good people because good people make bad decisions. And when you sow bad seeds, you get bad harvests. When you make bad decisions, you’re going to get a bad life. A good life comes from good decisions in many cases. A bad life comes from bad decisions in many cases. Again, that’s the rule of thumb. There’s always an exception to that, but that’s just one more reason, to answer your question, why bad things happen to good people. The same thing could be asked, “Why do good things happen to bad people? Because bad people sometimes make good decisions and they end up having good things happen in their life sometimes. A third reason why bad things happen to God’s people, or to good people, is that there is a devil in this world. The Bible says in John 10:10, “the thief comes to steal, kill and destroy.” Jesus said, “But I’ve come that you would have life.” James 4:7 says, “Submit to God and resist the devil and he will flee from you.” He’s not going to flee if you don’t submit to God and resist the devil. But if you submit to God and resist the devil, he will flee, he will run. So that’s another reason. Now, when bad things happen, we need to fight them off, we need to resist them. We don’t need to just accept them and tolerate it and say, “alright, since I’m a good person, bad things have to happen to me.” They don’t have to happen. They do happen, but they don’t have to happen. And in life, you’re going to have tribulation, but that doesn’t mean that you live to have a disastrous life. You’re going to have trouble, you’re going to have tribulation, but you’re going to overcome it. God has given us His Word. God has given us His spirit, God has given us His love, His anointing, His gifts, His Scriptures, His promises, His blood. He’s given us all those things to overcome tribulation, to overcome bad things and to fight against those things and defeat them. “Greater is He that is in you than He that’s in the World,” the Scripture says in 1 John 4:4. So don’t accept, don’t tolerate, don’t just lay down and say, “Alright, fine. I’m just going to take every bad thing that comes.” No, resist it and fight it with the Word of God and claim your covenant rights as a Christian and speak the Word of God over your life. Psalm 91 says, “No evil will come near your dwelling place, nor will any plague come near your tent.” So, you’ve got to speak those things and believe the promises of God.

Faith 12/04/2006 I would like to know if it is possible to regain my faith in God? Is it possible to regain your faith in God? No question about it, you can regain your faith in God. He has never given up on you. And He will never lose faith in you. The Bible says in 2 Timothy chapter 2 that “even when you are faithless, He remains faithful for He cannot deny Himself.” Our God remains faithful to you. And He is waiting with His arms open wide. A perfect example is in Luke chapter 15, when the Prodigal Son lost faith in his father, lost faith in God, and then he came to his senses and came back to his father and his father came running to him. His father didn’t rebuke him; his father didn’t get mad at him; his father came running to him and said “thank God for my son. My son was lost and now he’s found.” And he killed the fatted calf and he celebrated and rejoiced and they had a party because the son came back. So, God is waiting for you to come back to Him. He’s ready to show you what your name represents. He’s ready to show you mercy and to show you grace. You can regain your faith. Where does faith come from? Romans 10:17 says, “Faith comes from hearing the Word of God.” What you need to know is that God says He’ll never leave you or forsake you and that will produce faith in you. God promises in Hebrews chapter 13, “I will never leave you; I will never desert you; I will never forsake you,” and therefore it is possible to regain your faith.

Faith 12/04/2006 I have a question about healing. I know that Jesus said with his stripes we are already healed and I believe that God is a healer. My sister was diagnosed with cancer and we’ve been praying and confessing God’s Word and speaking life to her. I’m working really hard to keep her encouraged and keep her faith up. But sometimes I get so frustrated and feel so helpless, because I want to fix her; I want to do something, and I feel powerless. I was just wanting to know, does that mean that my faith has been compromised? No. It certainly doesn’t. I think that a lot of times we feel powerless and we have to go to the source of all power, and that is the Word of God. Remember the Scripture out of 1 Kings 8:56, that there is not one promise from God that has failed. And so I think that you just need to not throw away your confidence. Hebrews 10 says, “Don’t throw away your confidence.” Don’t give up. You keep fighting. Somebody said, “Well, what if I keep fighting and keep standing on the Word and my relative still dies?” Well, it’s a good way to go. There’s no better way to die than to be standing on the Word of God. There’s no better way to go home to be with the Lord than that you were faithful and you finished the race and you kept fighting, you didn’t quit. You keep believing God. You keep believing for your sister.

Faith 12/04/2006 I recommitted myself to the Lord two years ago. I attend church now and read my Bible, but every day, some doubt comes into my mind. I get one question answered and another comes up. Are these constant doubts affecting my salvation? Doubt is not healthy. It’s wrong, it’s bad; it prevents a lot of great things from happening in your life. So you need drive doubt out with faith. Here are two Scriptures that you need to build your life upon. One of them is Romans 10:17: “Faith comes from hearing and hearing from the Word of God.” You cannot get answers from people to build up your faith; you have to get answers from God’s Word. The other Scripture that I want to give you is 1 John 5:13: “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.” So, God gave us these things in the Bible so that we would know that we have eternal life. Look up those Scriptures and all the others concerning salvation in your Bible and feed on them, meditate on them. They will give you the assurance of salvation because you have to believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead and you have to confess with your mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord. You are not saved by going to church. You are not saved by reading the Bible. You are not saved by praying. You are not saved by being a good person. You are not saved by giving money in an offering. What saves you is you putting your faith in the blood of Jesus and only the blood of Jesus. The devil is the author of doubt. He wants you to doubt, to be double-minded, because James 1 says, “A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.” And a double-minded person cannot receive from God. But you are not alone; we all have had doubts. Just make up your mind that the Bible, the Word of God, is God’s inspired Scripture; there is no doubting it.