Sometimes a person’s words, actions, testimony, or quiet example can encourage us during a difficult season.
Has there ever been someone whose faith strengthened your own? What was it about them that made an impact?
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I remember one day walking into Ascent Church. Which is at 4175 SE Cove Rd, Stuart, FL, 34997. Are you in the area at 8:30 or 9:45 am on Sunday? Stop by. You will be blessed. I walked into the building, and this Godly woman, Mary, came up and gave me a hug. It was a real hug. It was a loving hug. A meaningful hug. I’m telling you something here: If Mary hugs you, and tells you she loves you, and she is praying for you? There is no doubt about it. I have walked into that building in various states of being. Happy, sad, more and more depressed. Depression is real, folks. It does not really matter who you are. But when Mary hugs you? Yeah. Peace and comfort come over you.
You do not get moments like this alone. I listened to the Pastor teach on various topics. I started to have a better understanding by hearing the Word. I learned this, too.
“So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” Romans 10:17
“Well, I can watch that TV Preacher. I do not have to actually go to a church.”
That TV Preacher? He does not know you. No one in that ministry knows who you are. They do not know what you are going through. They have no way of knowing if you are happy or sad. They do not even really care about you to tell you the truth. They care about numbers and revenue to keep their ministries on the air.
When you join a local church. They know when you are there. They know when you are not. They know when you are happy and when you are sad. They truly do care about you. It is not just the Pastor. It is the Marys. The Johns. The Peters. It is the friendships you make and the people who become family.
They are there to celebrate with you. They are there to cry with you. They are there to do life with you. As I learned the hard way, you cannot get that alone. You cannot get that from that TV Preacher. You cannot get that in any other way.
Peter
There’s a Brother in Christ that I know from a Christian board but have never met. We became good friends and exchanged phone numbers so we could study and talk over the things of the Lord. Now evenso, people you have never met before, you do not tell all to. It’s just, more about the Lord and not so much about our private lives, some perhaps but not much. But he called me one day and slammed me, lol. He said Ed, I dunno what this means but the Lord told me to tell you to give your business to your son and move to Ohio, something that wasn’t on my radar and wasn’t likely to be! I immediately in my mind rejected it because that’s not my agenda, geez. I moved away from Ohio and live in Colorado for 30 years. We didn’t want to raise our kids in Ohio.
So in my heart I had rejected it, but my firnd kept talking about me. And he bagan telling me details on my financial situation which I know for sure I had never told him, so that made sit up and take notice. He spoke of private aspects of my life and finances and I realized that this man had received a word of knowledge about me. Why would God give a near stranger knowledge about me? Oh! This then, was the Lord’s confirmation to me, that this message is real and truth, and really from the Lord. So this is a serious thing here.
And true to man’s nature, I still rejected it. (Facepalm). I didn’t want to move to Ohio. During the 30 years we lived there we made trips to Ohio to visit relatives two times. And both times we cut the visit short and went back home to Colorado. Nothing had changed. Drama everywhere. Let’s go home! No, I’m not moving to Ohio. SO I put it out of my mind and carry on dumb one. I get up the next day and prayed and then began watching Youtube teachers/Pastor messages videos. Hmm, there’s an interesting one, click…Let’s talk about the prophet Jonah today…Wow there’s a coincidence. I watched it, good teaching. I clicked on another video. The teaching wasn’t about Jonah this time, something else. But he made referance to Jonah in some way and when he made his point it sounded like he was talking to me personally. Next video, same thing! Jonah, Jonah, Jonah, everything is Jonah now! Anything I clicked on was about Jonah. It didn’t take long for the Lord to scare me to Life by warning me with Jonah. I did get scared and did obey and did exactly what my Broker Mike said the Lord told him to tell me.
If Brother Mike got a word of knowledge about me from the Lord, how many people would dismiss it and not even mention it to their friend? Probably his imagination, right? But he did deliver the message and with alll seriousness, as if it were real. Tis Brother had enough faith in God to receive it as truth and act on it. That’s…admirable and inspiring, even aside from all of the Jonah warnings being given to me. Geez I had so many confirmations about that message that I was scared not to move here. So I did and long story short, I was mightily blessed for my obedience. I certainly repented of my hestation!
I have had two people in Christ get words of knowledge about me and that encouraged my own faith very much so.
Brother Mike had told me that he had spent a little time in prison when he was younger and so he turned to the Lord and, another inmate tried to poison him and put bleach in his coffee, which he drank. And as soon as as took the final gulps he realized it was poisoned, something was in it. But scroture says tey will drink poison and it wont harm them, so he prayed and went on his way and never did have any effects of it. That’s faith. An important to make the proclamations of the Word in your own life. Declare it to be so, because the Lord has spoken it. That’s enough to affect a persons faith in a good way. I see that in people, where they have applied to their life and walk in it, many times through proclamation and declaration.
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