ROMANS 11:29
For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable (not able to be changed, reversed, or altered in any way).
NUMBERS 23:19
"God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?
GOD is a GOD of Truth, Who cannot lie, and yet we have this passage out of PSALM 89:
PSALM 89:35-37
Once I have sworn by My holiness; I will not lie to David: 36 His seed shall endure forever, and his throne as the sun before Me; 37 it shall be established forever like the moon, even like the faithful witness in the sky."
So why does GOD here make it a point in saying He will not lie to David? He is declaring His truthfulness by emphasizing that He is incapable of lying. Bury this truth deep – GOD Almighty can do anything? Not exactly. He can’t lie (among a few other things just because He is GOD!).
Any of you been shocked to see the sun or the moon rise up over the horizon? You would be shocked if they didn’t!
Why? Because we have witnessed these celestial bodies rising and setting all of our lives; records from antiquity have mentioned sunrise and sunset, and the appearance of the moon in the sky. They are seen regularly, faithfully, and no one can deny their existence and their cycles!
So too with the faithful Word of the LORD – no one can honestly deny its trustworthiness and dependability.
We have also experienced the regularity of rainfall and snowfall. No one can deny their reality and their weather patterns.
Here is what the Scripture says about this:
ISAIAH 55:10-11
10 "For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, and do not return there, but water the earth, and make it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, 11 so shall My Word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void [“empty-handed” as it were], But it shall accomplish [perform, serve, work] what I please, and it shall prosper [be profitable, effective] in the thing for which I sent it.
His Word and His work are so intertwined that there’s no separating the two! When GOD determines to act in accordance with His Word, He is unstoppable! In fact, one definition for truth I once heard is “when the word and the deed become one”:
ISAIAH 43:12-13
12 I have declared and saved, I have proclaimed, and there was no foreign god among you; therefore you are My witnesses," Says the LORD, "that I am God. 13 Indeed before the day was, I am He; And there is no one who can deliver out of My hand; I work, and who will reverse it?"
Think of the magnitude of the following statement by the LORD Jesus Christ:
MATTHEW 24:35
"Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.
Heaven and Earth!! A bit of astronomy about galactic scale:
If you were to reduce the Earth to the size of a basketball, Jupiter would be about 1350 feet away (almost the length of 4 Football fields!).
Our nearest star, closest to our solar system – Alpha Centauri – would be (guess how many miles away) 6,600 miles away!
Suppose you reduced the Earth down to a grain of sand, how big would our Milky Way galaxy be? Approximately 128,000 feet across! A grain of sand, compared to a distance of 24 miles! From Tucson to Green Valley!
To date, scientists believe that there are anywhere from 200 billion to 2 trillion galaxies in the universe (and they’re discovering more all the time). Each of these galaxies on average contain anywhere from 100 billion to 100 trillion stars! That’s approximately 2x10 to the 26th power – or 2 with 26 zeros after it!
And Scripture teaches that GOD holds all of creation in the span of His Almighty Hand (ISA 40:12). He had the power to create all of this, He has the power to maintain all of this, keeping it all in order, and He has the power to one day do away with all of this, only to replace it all by creating a NEW Heavens and Earth (we’ll get to watch Him do His stuff by the way!)!!
But one thing He will never, never do away with, is His Word! He esteems His Word more than His own Holy, Holy, Holy Name (PSA 138:2). Can we stand upon the Word, His promises recorded in Scripture as something stable, secure, immovable and faithful? I’d say so!
GOD has absolute integrity! Unlike too many of our politicians today.
A senior politician took a young politician new to the game under his wing and gave him this advice:
“The one thing you must have if you ever hope to succeed in this profession is integrity! And once you’ve learned how to fake that, then you’ve got it made!”He has given to us “exceedingly great and precious promises” (2 PET 1:4)
2 CORINTHIANS 1:20
For all the promises of God in Him [Christ] are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us.
SO LET’S EXAMINE A FEW PROMISES FROM THE WORD OF GOD:
PROMISES TO PONDER IN THE PRACTICE OF PERSISTENT PRAYER:
JEREMIAH 32:27
"Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh. Is there anything too hard for Me?
“Difficult” isn’t in GOD’s vocabulary regarding His abilities. If He has any so-called difficulties, it’s in the stubbornness of sinners, even saints, due to hard-heartedness. Which is why we want to always have a soft heart towards GOD.
EPHESIANS 3:20-21
20 Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, 21 to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
Since we have a BIG GOD, we can afford to pray BIG prayers. Sometimes I think we dishonor ALMIGHTY GOD by praying too small. He is capable of answering our prayers above all we ask – or even think! I’m not saying that GOD will answer BIG and BOLD prayers every time, but He is capable and willing IF the petition is according to His will:
1 JOHN 5:14
Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.
ROMANS 8:31-32
31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?
The Highest, the Greatest, the Most Precious and Glorious Gift that GOD could have given us, He already has! In the Person of Jesus Christ!
Suppose someone gave you their winning Power Ball ticket worth millions. And you happen to notice that they have a very nice watch. If they’re that generous with that winning ticket, what sort of sacrifice would a watch be to them? GOD is over-the-top generous with His children, and the BEST is yet to come – in the clouds, where we will meet Him Face to face!
CONDITIONS ON PRAYER TO CONSIDER CAREFULLY:
JOHN 15:7
"If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.
What does “abide” look like? Let’s read from John’s 1st epistle:
1 JOHN 3:22-24
22 And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight. 23 And this is His commandment: that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as He gave us commandment. 24 Now he who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And by this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.
Pastor Sonny completed his series on “Hindered Prayer” and they are available for you at the SHINE BRIGHT Church YouTube channel. So if you missed out on any, check it out. And bookmark this series so you can review these from time to time! Here is Part One!
PROMISES ON ASSURANCE By The ALMIGHTY ALPHA & OMEGA:
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, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.
One of the traits of a real, genuine, born again, saved believer is that they continue in the faith. They may have lapses, they may stall, but they can’t stay there – GOD won’t let them. It may take weeks, months, even years, but if one of His sheep strays and gets lost, He will leave the 99 and go after that 1 until He finds them and comes back rejoicing (MATT 18:12-13). And He will set them on the path of righteousness once again.
JOHN 10:27-29
27 "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. 28 "And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. 29 "My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father's hand.
Remember how we were talking about the size of the universe and how GOD holds it all in the span of His hand? Well you are in the hand of GOD the Son, but you are also in the hand of GOD the Father – GOD is holding each and every one of us like this by cupping both of Their hands together, sealed tight! Houdini couldn’t escape from this!
CONFIDENCE In The CAPABILITIES of CHRIST:
2 CORINTHIANS 12:9-10
9 And He said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness." Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
(ISA 40:31 “they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength” – “renew” – replace, change, exchange: human strengths/weaknesses with GOD’s strength).
DEUTERONOMY 33:26-27
26 "There is no one like the God of Jeshurun, Who rides the heavens to help you, And in His excellency on the clouds. 27 The eternal God is your refuge, And underneath are the everlasting arms; He will thrust out the enemy from before you, And will say, 'Destroy [them]!'
And who are your enemies (three of them)? Your own sin nature, this world-system under the governance of Satan, and Satan and all his fallen angels and demons.
DEFEATING DISABLING DEPRESSION & DISTRESS:
PSALM 42:8-11
8 The LORD will command His lovingkindness in the daytime, And in the night His song shall be with me-A prayer to the God of my life. 9 I will say to God my Rock, "Why have You forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?" 10 As with a breaking of my bones, my enemies reproach me, while they say to me all day long, "Where is your God?" 11 Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; For I shall yet praise Him, The help of my countenance and my God.
We can sometimes fall into despair, depression, distress and ask, “Why GOD??” When your wife, children or parents are laying in a hospital bed, and the diagnosis isn’t looking good! When you lost your job, the mortgage payments are overdue and you could lose your house. When you’ve been crying out to GOD day and night and there is no answer in sight!
But the saint of GOD refuses to be ruled by their circumstances. They reject the temptation to submit to their situation. And somewhere along the way, they stop asking “WHY GOD??” and instead ask: “Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; For I shall yet praise Him, The help of my countenance and my God.”
This is when the faith of a child of GOD is tested and by the grace of GOD it’s unshakeable and rock-solid. They don’t know what the future holds, they can’t see their way through, but they’ve determined that they will walk by FAITH and NOT by SIGHT! They have such a surrendered heart towards GOD that they will echo Job’s words “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him!” (JOB 13:15). So they continue to wait and to hope on GOD!
PSALM 27:13-14
13 I would have lost heart, unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living. 14 Wait on the LORD; Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the LORD!
PSALM 4:1,3
1 Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness! You have relieved me in my distress; Have mercy on me and hear my prayer. 3 But know that the LORD has set apart for Himself him who is godly; The LORD will hear when I call to Him.
As you go through the PSALMS, you’ll find that David was often in distress because of his enemies, and even more so, from friends and people he was loyal to, but turned into his enemies!
Apostle Paul also experienced intense distress, even to the point where he and those with him despaired of life (2 COR 1:8-11) but they placed their trust in GOD rather than their own abilities in getting out of those serious situations, and He did deliver them!
PSALM 9:9-10
9 The LORD also will be a refuge for the oppressed, A refuge in times of trouble. 10 And those who know Your name will put their trust in You; For You, LORD, have not forsaken those who seek You.
THE FIGHT OF FAITH, FAITHFULLY DONE:
1 TIMOTHY 6:11-12
11 But you, O man of God, flee these things and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness. 12 Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.
This Christian life is a fight! And we identified the enemies we face (sin nature, the world-system, Satan & his kingdom of darkness). Feeling outnumbered? DON’T! Because they that are with you ARE MORE than they that are with them (as Elisha said to his servant in 2 KINGS 6:16). You have on your side, GOD the Father, GOD the Son, GOD the Holy Spirit, two thirds of all angels GOD ever created (remember, a third of those fell when they followed Lucifer – still, we have a 2 to 1 advantage), and you got godly, praying, teaching pastors – and – look around you! You’ve got a room full of allies!!
HEBREWS 6:11-15
11 And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end, 12 that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. 13 For when God made a promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself, 14 saying, "Surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you." 15 And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise.
Diligence here means: “earnestness, readiness, quick [to respond]” Have that assurance of hope UNTIL THE END – the end of what? Your trials, maybe even your life!
GOD is ever-faithful. As disciples who love our Abba and the LORD Jesus, we want to be! The fruit of the Spirit is love, and one attribute of love is faithfulness (we see that in GAL 5:22). So the more we plant GOD’s Word in our hearts and minds, the more diligently we seek GOD, the more we will grow faithfulness into our lives!
HEBREWS 11:6
But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
“Diligently” means to: “crave, worship, seeking carefully, persistently” So let’s crave the LORD and worship Him Who has promised: “I will never leave you or forsake you”!
The Book of BIBLE PROMISES from georgemuller.org [Check out the pdf link!]
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