Head Faith 
By Kenneth E. Hagin 
 
“The other disciples therefore said unto him (Thomas), We have seen the Lord. But he said unto them, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe. 

“And after eight days…came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you. Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and BE NOT FAITHLESS, BUT BELIEVING. 

“And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God. Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: BLESSED ARE THEY THAT HAVE NOT SEEN, AND YET HAVE BELIEVED” (John 20:25-29). 

Thomas’ faith was head faith. And Jesus did not commend Thomas for it. Jesus said, “You have believed because you have seen.” Anyone can have that kind of faith, whether he be saint or sinner. That’s head faith. Head faith is believing what your physical senses tell you. 

Jesus commended heart faith. He said, “…blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed” (v.29). To believe with the heart means to believe apart from what your physical body or physical senses may indicate. 

The physical man believes what he sees with his physical eyes, hears with his physical ears, or feels with his physical senses. But the heart, on the other hand, believes in the Word of God regardless of what the physical senses say. 

Confession: I am not faithless; I am believing. I believe according to what God’s Word says, regardless of what I see, hear, or feel. 

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Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice. Philippians 4:4

Years ago, I decided I was going to walk by the Word of God. I told God that, as far as I was concerned, His Word was final and I’d confess it the rest of my life no matter what. That was the most important decision I’ve ever made.

Not too long after that, I decided that no matter what happened, whether I felt like it or not, I’d walk in love. Because the Bible clearly says “faith worketh by love.” It won’t work any other way.

Those two decisions–to operate by faith in the Word of God and to walk in love–are the two most important decisions I’ve ever made in my life.

Recently, though, God pointed out to me that there was something I’d been leaving out. The force of joy. He told me I have no right to walk by faith and love and just leave joy dormant in my spirit. It’s too important. As He taught me about it, I soon came to realize that joy is an essential part of a life of victory. Without it, I might have an occasional triumph now and then, but I wouldn’t be able to sustain them. They’d quickly slip away.

You see, joy is what gives you the strength (Neh. 8:10) to hold steady when the circumstances get rough. Joy gives you the ability to laugh in the devil’s face when he starts trying to knock you off your faith. Joy gives you a kind of staying power that will make you a winner again and again.

So make a commitment to God that you’re going to walk, not only in faith and in love but in joy as well. Make it a point to rejoice in the Lord always…and there won’t be anything the devil can do or say to steal your victory from you.

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[For my determined purpose is] that I may know Him that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding [the wonders of His Person] more strongly and more clearly. And that I may in that same way come to know the power outflowing from His resurrection. Philippians 3:10

The more you fellowship with God around His Word, the more you’ll know the “power outflowing from His resurrection.” You’ll develop joy. You’ll develop faith. You’ll start developing God’s own characteristics… just by fellowshiping with Him. You’ll begin to understand who you really are in Jesus.

I remember one day I was reading the story of the woman with the issue of blood who touched the hem of Jesus’ garment and was healed.

I’d read the story many times and pictured myself as almost everybody in the story…just experiencing how it would feel to be someone in the crowd or even the one who was healed.

Suddenly God spoke to my spirit and said, “Read that again and this time picture yourself as the one wearing the garment.”

I was stunned. “Lord,” I said, “how can I do that? I can’t take Your place!”

“That’s just what’s wrong with the Body of Christ,” He told me. “That’s the reason the world doesn’t know anything about Jesus. You identify with everyone except Me. But I sent you to be MY witnesses, to imitate ME, to stand in MY place…not everybody else’s!”

So, I read that story again. This time I pictured myself in the role of the one with the anointing of the Holy Ghost. Instead of crawling up to touch the hem of His garment, I was the one wearing the garment, freely giving what God had given me. After all, the Bible does say, “Clothe yourself with the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Did you know who scares the devil most of all? Believers who’ve found out they can do that. Believers who, instead of begging for a little touch from Jesus, are letting His very life flow out to others.

Come on, give the devil a scare. Fellowship with your Father around the Word and start discovering who you really are today.

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No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. Matthew 6:24

God isn’t against your having money. He’s against money having you. He’s against your making it your priority and putting your trust in it instead of in Him.

Why? Because He knows money makes a lousy god. Its power is limited. It will only buy so much. It will only go so far.

If you need healing from an incurable disease, money won’t help you at all. If your family is falling apart, money won’t mend it. But if you’ll seek God first, His prosperity will reach into every area of your life.

God is so generous that He desires you to have the best on this earth, just as you desire the best for your children. His plan is for you to have all of your needs met according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Get in on that plan by keeping your priorities straight. Seek Him first and His righteousness.

Make pleasing God your number one priority. Set your eyes on Him above all else and all these things will be added unto you.

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How Do I Get There? 
By Lynne Hammond 
 
These people draw near to Me with their mouth, and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me.

One of the primary ways to get in the spirit is to put our attention more fully on the Lord. That means setting our thoughts on Him, focusing our hearts and souls on Him. It means making Him our physical focus, ceasing the normal fidgeting and activity of our bodies (as far as the situation allows), and physically honoring Him by speaking His praises with our mouths, bowing our knees, lifting our hands, or simply sitting still and reverencing His presence.

Such things aren’t difficult. They are all relatively simple. But initially, it takes a very determined act of your will to do them.

That’s because we’re accustomed to letting our minds roam wherever they want. We’re so used to being busy with natural things all the time that we have to discipline ourselves in order to set that natural busyness aside and tune into the Lord. Even in church during times of praise and worship, I wonder how often Jesus could say about us what He said about the religious people in His day. “They draw near to Me with their mouths but their hearts and minds are far from Me!”

How many of us while we’re lifting our hands and singing the praises of God are inwardly cold and indifferent? How many times are we praying in tongues while our minds are making a grocery list and wondering where the pastor’s wife bought her dress?

We’ll never get in the spirit that way!

Instead, we must say to ourselves as David did, “Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless His holy name.” We must stop our half-hearted praise and prayers and start focusing on the Lord with all that is within us. We must bow not only our heads and our knees before Him but our minds and hearts too.

The more we do that, the more we’ll find ourselves in the spirit!

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Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. Matthew 18:19

Strife has many dangers. But one serious consequence to walking in strife is that it will hinder your prayers by robbing you of one of the greatest promises ever given to us. You can find that promise in Matthew 18:19.

The devil hates agreement between believers. Agreement opens the windows of heaven to us, and it closes the door on every destructive thing he can do. So he will continually try to disrupt that agreement by causing strife and division in the two places where believers come together in the most powerful way: the family and the church. Until now, you may not have thought of your family as a powerful force for God, but it is if you’re in agreement with one another. So make it your goal to stay out of strife and walk in love at home.

Oddly enough, home is often the most difficult place to be loving. I think that’s because we don’t have our guard up when we’re at home. We’re not worrying about our reputation or trying to impress anyone. At home, nothing will stop you from being selfish—except your commitment to walk in the love of God.

But don’t be fooled into thinking it doesn’t matter how you act at home. It matters a great deal. In fact, years ago, the Lord said this to me and I have never forgotten it: If you allow Satan to stop you with strife at your front door, you’ll be no threat to him anywhere else.

So make the commitment to keep strife out of your home. Learn to live a lifestyle of agreement with your spouse and your children. See to it that your prayers prevail by being in harmony with the members of your family. The moment you mess up and get in strife, make it right. Say to the other person, “Please forgive me. I love you. I don’t want to be in strife with you.” Then say to the Lord, “Father, I repent of that. I’m not going to be a strife person. I refuse to yield to strife. I choose to walk in love.” You may have to repent quite a bit at first because you’ve probably developed habits that will take awhile to change. But don’t get disgusted with yourself and give up. Just keep acting on the Word, and you’ll continue to mature in love.

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Their [Our] hearts…are knit together in love. Colossians 2:2, The Amplified Bible

Our hearts are knit together in love. That’s what God says about believers. The word translated “love” in this verse is agape. Agape never means “I will love you if….” Agape means “I will to love you regardless.” That’s the unconditional love of God that’s brought to life when a blood-covenant relationship has been established. We are covenanted together by the blood of Jesus. We are in Him and He is in us. Now, you may know some people with whom you don’t want to be knit together. They may make some things a significant challenge for you. But you are commanded to walk in love. So do it. Start releasing the love (agape) that’s been shed abroad in your heart by the Holy Spirit. Throw fear out. Throw worry out. Bring in the joy. “It is my will to love you.”

Love, love, love! Love is beyond defeat. The Bible says love never fails. When you release love into a situation, you have released God. Think about that. When you release love into a situation, you have released God into that situation. And then Jesus becomes responsible for its success. The Word of God is love. The Name of Jesus is love. The gifts of the Spirit are love. The blood of Jesus is love. We are born of the Holy Spirit who is love. Heaven is love. Love is heaven.

The person who refuses to love is missing out on the very best God has to offer. Don’t you miss out on any of it. Release love every moment into every situation, every prayer and every thought, until it totally consumes your life. Go for it! It will strengthen you and cast out every fear that has robbed you of God’s greater blessings. It’ll drive the devil out of your affairs and set you free from every torment of darkness.

Be still before the Lord and sense the flow of agape, the mercy and blessed love of Jesus coming up like a fountain from the Holy Spirit into your spirit. Then love others with the love of God. If it seems too hard, remember, once you start releasing love into a situation, Jesus becomes responsible for its success. Love never fails, and Jesus never fails! So love your way to success.

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Pull a New Trigger 
By Kenneth Copeland 
 
“Even so the tongue is a little member, and it can boast of great things. See how much wood or how great a forest a tiny spark can set ablaze!” (James 3:5 AMP). 

Think right now about the sourest lemon you’ve ever tasted. Picture it in your mind. Pick it up, squeeze it just a little and watch the sour juice just trickle out. Now work up your nerve, put that lemon in your mouth and bite down. 

What kind of physical response are you having right now? Your mouth is watering, right? Your lips are probably puckered up like a prune. Science calls that a conditioned response. It’s a physical reaction triggered by a mental stimulus. 

Our lives are filled with conditioned responses like that. Every one of us has scores of reactions that, through repeated experiences, have become totally automatic. There are certain triggers you can use that will affect your spirit as surely as the thought of that lemon affected your body. What are those triggers? 

Words, words, words! 

Words are seemingly little things that produce very big results. They put in motion the inner working of your spirit. 

Words trigger faith or fear, joy or despair, courage or discouragement. That’s a spiritual principle and it works all the time whether you know it or not. 

What’s all this got to do with conditioned responses? If you start listening to yourself, you’ll find you have many, many phrases and expressions you use automatically, without even thinking. “It’s blue Monday again… If it weren’t for bad luck, I wouldn’t have any luck at all… My memory gets worse and worse every year…” The list goes on and on. 

What I want to challenge you to do today is to begin turning those expressions around. Pull a new trigger. Start conditioning yourself to respond to every situation with words of faith instead of words of unbelief. 

Learn to connect faith words with everything you do all day long. Teach yourself to talk in such a way that every situation becomes a trigger to your faith. You’ll be blessed at the difference it makes! 

Speak the Word: Death and life are in the power of my tongue. I determine to speak words of life. (Prov. 18:21) 

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Today’s Confession: I will keep my mind on the Word of God. I will keep His Word in my mouth. I am filled with expectancy of what God is going to do in my life today!

How would you like to lie down at night with peaceful thoughts? How would you like to wake up in the morning with no cares, no worries? If you fill your mind with the Word of God, then He promises that your life will be filled with peace.

“Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee . . .” Isaiah 26:3.

However, it’s not automatic. Your part is to keep your mind on Him. Your part is to renew your mind. Your part is to believe what God says about you. Believe you can do what He says you can do, and you can have what He says you can have.

When you are constantly thinking these kinds of thoughts, then it’s going to create an attitude of expectancy. You are going to expect good things to happen in your life. I love the phrase that Oral Roberts coined – Something good is going to happen to you. When you are constantly thinking on the Word, then you will develop a positive attitude and you will begin to expect good things to happen to you.

I’m not saying that you won’t have problems anymore. I’m not saying you won’t have challenges and I’m not saying that you won’t have trials. You will. As long as you are in this world, you will be faced with challenges. But you don’t have to be defeated by them.

If you keep your mind on the Word of God, and keep the Word of God in your mouth, then you will prosper and you will have good success.

You can either fail or you can succeed. You can either live or you can just exist. You can either barely get by or you can prosper in every area of your life. You can have a negative outlook on life or you can have an attitude of expectancy. It’s your choice.

Start renewing your mind and watch the changes that will take place in your life.

Copyright © Jerry Savelle Ministries International

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