Rest

"For we which have believed do enter into rest" (Heb. 4:3). 

Through the years, I've had the greatest time putting the Lord to work for me - just letting Him do the work. 

Since I learned about faith and that the Bible said, "we which have believed do enter into rest." I have been in a state of rest. 

Grasp what this scripture says! It doesn't say that we have entered into a state of fearing, fretting, griping, worrying, or fighting. No! It says we have entered into rest. 

I haven't seen a "battle" in more than 65 years. When someone asks me, "How goes the battle?" I always answer, "The victory is wonderful!" There isn't any battle. I'm in the victory. Faith always has a good report! 

Confession: I have believed. I am a believing one. Therefore, I have entered into rest. I am in a state of rest. I act like I am in a state of rest. I do not fear or fret. I do not worry. I do not gripe. I do not battle. The battle is the Lord's. The victory is mine. I am in the victory. 

Source: Faith Food Devotions by Kenneth E. Hagin.
Excerpt permission granted by Faith Library Publications

They Shall Recover

And these signs shall follow them that believe;...they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.
(Mark 16:17-18)

In 1953, I was ministering at the Oakcliff Assembly of God Church in Dallas, when a young woman was brought to the service in an ambulance. She had been bedfast two years due to an automobile accident that broke her neck and her back. After being in the hospital for two years and at home for almost a year, she regained the use of her arms. But from her shoulders down, she was unable to move. 

When I knelt by her stretcher and laid hands on her, I had the impression that it would not be an instant healing. When I laid my hands on her feet, I felt a "warmth" go into her. She didn't have any feeling in her feet. But her legs began to tingle and she said, "I feel that warmth coming out of your hands and up my legs." 

I said to her, "That's the healing power of God going into you. Move your feet." Well, she moved both feet. 

Then I said, "Pull up one leg at a time." She pulled her left leg up, but she couldn't move her right one. Then I said, "Now, sister, when I walked down here, I knew that this wouldn't be an instant healing. Just keep the switch of faith turned on, and you'll walk." 

Some time later, I saw the woman again. She said, "Brother Hagin, I had feeling in my left leg, but my right leg wouldn't work for a while. Gradually, it started to work, and now I'm walking everywhere!" 

Confession

Thank You, Father, for Your healing power. Thank You that Your healing power is actively at work in my body to effect a healing and a cure.

Source: Health Food Devotions by Kenneth E. Hagin.
Excerpt permission granted by Faith Library Publications

What are the different kinds of prayer?

Whatever kind of prayer you pray, it is simply communicating with God. It’s an opportunity to talk with God, share your heart and desires with Him and to have Him answer. It’s not complicated. It’s essentially very simple because what is most important is that your prayers be open and heartfelt.

Deepening your understanding of prayer is not to make it more complicated, but simply to increase your awareness of the different functions prayer can serve. Below are the main kinds of prayer mentioned in Scripture:

1. The prayer of agreement is when you pray with someone else and it increases the power of your authority at least tenfold (Matthew 18:19).
2. The prayer of commitment is casting your cares over on the Lord (1 Peter 5:7).
3. The prayer of faith can heal your body (James 5:14-15).
4. Simply giving thanks to the Lord is the prayer of thanksgiving (Ephesians 5:20).
5. Praying for the lost to be saved is the prayer of intercession (1 Timothy 2:1-2).

Prayer is a powerful thing and God wants you to walk in the fullness of it. For further teaching on this subject, we recommend Brother Copeland’s book entitled Prayer—Your Foundation for Success. In this book, he goes into detail on the various kinds of prayer and how to use them. You’ll also find many teachings on prayer in the Real Help section of our website.

- See more at: http://www.kcm.org/read/questions/what-are-the-different-kinds-prayer#sthash.VqlaOdyQ.dpuf

Four Words That Work Kenneth Copeland

Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.

Mark 11:24

Believing. That's the key to everything in the kingdom of God. It's the way we tap in to the very power of Almighty God. Most of us know that. But few of us are sure exactly how to do that kind of believing. We don't know how to put it into action.

Actually it's so simple, it's startling. It's as simple as saying, "I believe I receive."

Something happens in your spirit when you say those words. I don't understand how, but it does. I don't understand how my digestive system knows what to do when I swallow something, but it does. All I have to do is take a bite of food and it goes to work. I don't have to make it happen. I don't have to feel it happen. It just happens. That's the way the body is made.

In much the same way, when you feed on God's precious promises and "swallow" them into your spirit by saying, "I believe I receive," faith is released. You don't have to make it happen. You don't have to feel it happen. It just happens. The reborn spirit is made that way.

When you constantly say with your mouth, "I believe I receive my healing" or "I believe I receive my financial needs met," and then quote the scriptures that back those things, faith is released to bring power to bear on those needs.

As Dr. Kenneth Hagin says, you need to "keep the switch of faith turned on." And Gloria and I have discovered that speaking out that phrase, "I believe I receive," is one way to do it. We say it when we pray. We say it when we praise God. We say it when we read the Word.

We especially say it in the face of darkness when it looks like we're not receiving. When everything looks the worst, we say it the loudest. I believe I receive!

Do you want to activate your faith today? Then make these four key words the most important words in your vocabulary. Use them every day. You'll soon discover, just as we did...they work!

Scripture Reading:

Mark 11:12-24

- See more at: http://www.kcm.org/read/faith-to-faith/01/31#sthash.NFlW7Ut3.dpuf

Do I Have to Be in Church to Take Communion?

You don’t have to wait until you go to church to receive Communion. You can even receive it at home. When you take the time to put yourself before God over the Communion table it will be time well spent.

When a believer partakes of the Lord’s Supper, he should do so with full understanding of its significance. Communion, to many people, has become only a religious observance. But it has a much deeper meaning than that. The Communion table is an emblem of Jesus’ sacrifice for us. “Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it…and said, Take, eat; this is my body. And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; for this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins” (Matthew 26:26-28).

Primarily, the Church has centered its attention on the wine as an emblem of Jesus’ blood that was shed for sin. We take the emblem of blood and say, “Thank God, we are delivered from sin,” and that’s true! But the blood is only half of Communion. The bread is an emblem of Jesus’ body that was broken for us. The emblem of His body is just as important as the emblem of His blood. According to Isaiah 53:4-5, Jesus’ sacrifice covered every area of man’s existence. When you receive it, you should be ready to partake of everything Jesus’ sacrifice provided—salvation, peace of mind, healing, total prosperity. He bore spiritual torment for our sins, mental distress for our worry, care and fear as well as physical pain for our sickness and disease. The stripes He bore were for our healing. “With His stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5).

Every time we partake, we should examine ourselves closely according to 1 Corinthians 11:28-29. “But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body.”

God instituted the Lord’s Supper for a reason. In the past, we missed the full meaning of Communion by not completely judging ourselves when we partook of it.

When you partake of Communion, make a point of judging yourself to the fullest extent. Don’t just receive it halfway. Accept everything Jesus’ sacrifice provided. If you don’t examine yourself—if you receive Communion just as a religious exercise—you will be eating and drinking unworthily, not discerning the Lord’s body. Paul wrote, “For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep” (1 Corinthians 11:30).

No matter what you may be faced with—sin, sickness, drugs, a weight problem, worry, strife, old habits—you can be delivered through properly receiving the Lord’s Supper. The body and blood of Jesus cover every area of your existence. By discerning His body and judging yourself before Him, you can receive your deliverance. Place yourself before God and receive Communion—and get ready to receive your deliverance!

- See more at: http://www.kcm.org/real-help/spiritual-growth/learn/do-i-have-be-church-take-communion#sthash.FYpd1Lf8.dpuf

BEWARE OF OPPORTUNITIES

Opportunity is deceptive, never be trapped by it. Stay within divine plan – that is where your security is.

Whatever opportunity offers is inferior to divine plan. Rather than responding to opportunity be in search of divine plan and abide in the same.

Stay away from anything and everything that isn’t in divine plan.

Stay away from it otherwise it can take you away from your place in destiny.

You need to possess a strong perception and discernment to know what comes from God and what is sent by satan.

Jesus was offered opportunity to be made king among men but He understood that He’s been made King of kings by destiny so He ran away from the opportunity offered by men to abide in His destiny Jh.6:15. Opportunity may appear to be a fast way of assuming prominence but it cannot last.

THE GOD FACTOR IN SUCCESS

“I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: For without me you can do nothing”

John 15: 5

No branch survives without the vine. A branch that is cut off may maintain its greenness for a while but it is dead from the moment it is cut off.

God never said, “Without me you can do some things” but, “You can do nothing.”

Without Him we cannot succeed but with Him we can do all things (Philippians. 4:13).

If you want to know the helplessness of a branch cut it off from the vine. Likewise, if you want to know the nakedness of a man cut him off from God.

Only those who cleave to the Lord remain alive (Deuteronomy 4:4).

Accomplishment is only possible through permanent relationship with God.