Faith for Dummies

Faith for Dummies

Pastor Riaan Niemand - Eastside Community Church 26th May 2013
Content and personal reflections!

Gift of faith is often God just saying 'Push through!'

Faith, an internal awareness that we can't explain but prompts us to respond!

Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for. By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible. (Hebrews 11:1-3 NIV)

In today's language we saying 'I know in my gut that God is going to do this!' Faith is not a magic potion. Great men and women of the faith acted on this gut feeling and God came through for them.
Faith means responding to God, showing himself to us through the wonder of the creation that he has made.

However, having faith in my view can only be appropriate if lived by following the core of what we should be learning from, Gods word, the Bible?!?

So how do we filter what is in your gut?
... It's more than just the power of positive thinking.
... Understanding that this inclination toward faith is something that God has placed in you. Ecclesiastes 3:11
... God initiates the process in you towards faith. Romans 1:20
... You have to learn to hear the whisper of God by being in His presence. Hebrews 11:3 and
Romans 10:17 Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ. (Romans 10:17 NIV)

... Be open to whatever God wants to say.

Faith can be rewarded because God is ABLE!
When you have the correct gut feel you have to trust God for the outcome.

Godly gut feelings can and does happen on all levels.
... Personal life - a life of meaning and purpose, a healing from past hurts, a restoration of the vision of Gods vision for your life.
... Work
... Marriage
... Children
... Community
... Church
... Country.
Seek God to be able to listen to His promptings!

Would we arrive late for a sporting event - not often because the sense of expectation we arrive with is enormous.

So when I arrive into Gods presence, Gods holy place am I coming with the same sense of expectation and actually an expectation much greater to be in the presence of the King of Kings, Lord of all!

Reach out in Faith!
So we can be either ordinary dummies or we must continue on assignment, the assignment God has set in place for us as a church and on our individual paths.

A great Kingdom impact, through walking in faith, by His word!

Could you become this missionary coaching the best in the world?

Sometimes greater plans are in place for you without realizing it at that moment in time, but time eventually shows you are have the ability to coach and develop athletes to become the best in the world. 

www.nytimes.com/2013/05/26/sports/improbably-missionary-trains-stars-in-kenya.html?smid=tw-share&_r=0

Hillsong Cape Town

Hillsong Cape Town
14th April 2013

The power of invitation!

Greatest is Christ entering our lives and us entering His.

Revelation 3:20 Behold I stand at the door and knock!
... It's open and available to us.

The Holy Spirit is with us and in us. He is all the time with us!

The wonder and miracle that Heaven holds for us! The Holy Spirit seeks to draw us to Him through knocking on our hearts.
God will use whatever it takes to draw us closer to Him.

John 10:9 I am the door and who ever opens to me ... A rich green pasture.
... You we will be astounded.

Many of us are drowning in misguided valleys ... Valleys of loneliness and despair.
Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. (Joel 3:14 NIV)

"Under the surface, none of them feel like they belong!" The impression could be there that people look as though they have everything and belong. But if its not about Jesus Christ and belonging to Him, then we don't belong! We get locked in e valleys!

The older we become the longer we been walking the road, the more we need to seek His face and walk closer through a strong desire and will to do His work.

There's no formulae to Christ coming into our lives and inviting others in, but the truth of the greatest love story of all time, the love story of God sending His son, Jesus Christ to save each one of us!

Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, like some people, letters of recommendation to you or from you? You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everyone. You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. Such confidence we have through Christ before God. Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. (2 Corinthians 3:1-6 NIV)


Our Hope in Christ should be magnetic in a toxic world!

let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching. (Hebrews 10:22-25 NIV)

Inviting to come celebrate in the glorious celebration of the truth!

There is miracles everywhere and in everyone, we need to be aware of it and be willing to share it!

Jesus he knocks to come in and knocks to go out! To go to the mission - go and share Gods greatest!










Sent from my iPad