Semaj was a typical African-American
young adult, raised by a single mom who grew up in a pretty rough
urban neighborhood. He had seen a lot,
more than he would ever truthfully admit to anyone, for his youthful age of 19. He was practically a living legend in his
“hood”. He didn't do drugs, had more than his share of
fights growing up, but he had never been shot, never been to jail, he even
graduated with honors, but he made it clear to his counselors he didn’t want
them announcing it. He was working a
little part-time job until next semester when he would attend Ex'Pressions College.
While getting his haircut on
Saturday, he overheard two OG’s talking about God. It was weird to him because he had never
heard grown men talk about how they loved God.
One of the dudes said the Preacher was teaching about faith the last two
Sundays and some lady who was in a wheelchair got up and walked because the anointment
was all over him (whatever that is). While he
put his headphones back on he said to himself “man, these nigga’s is crazy,
that lady was probably faking.” The only
information he knew about God was from attending summer church school with his
childhood friend Chaz. He learned The
Lord’s Prayer as a homework assignment which he could still recite to this
day. He recalled
that Chaz had a real bad asthma attack and they couldn’t find his inhaler. One of the OG deacons told somebody to get
the oil and he started praying for Chaz; a couple of the ladies started
speaking in Spanish or something, he didn’t know what they were saying. The OG put the oil on Chaz, kept praying and he got loud like he was hollering at God and he said “yes, sir, Master”;
“won’t he will”. All of a sudden, Chaz
started breathing normal but Semaj couldn’t believe it because he had seen Chaz
have asthma attacks many times and his momma usually ended up taking him to emergency, but Chaz was normal like
nothing ever happened. Then all those
people start getting the Holy Ghost. It
was crazy.
The next day Semaj woke up early for some reason and decided to go to church, that same church where he attended summer church school. He didn’t know why, he just felt like he had to go. When he got there they were praying and he heard somebody holler: “Won’t he will”, Oh
“How ya’ll
doing today. Look at your neighbor and
say you look good, but I look better.”
Everybody cracked up and then settled down as he continued: “We’re
gonna continue our series on Faith. Most
people get tripped up on that word and make it all spiritual and deep. Faith is what you believe. For example, if I ran up on you, put a glock
to your head and demanded your money, you would do one of three things: 1)
resist me and take the chance of getting your head blown off because you believe you could take me down (have
faith in yourself); 2) give up the money, remember what I looked and/or sounded
like and hunt me down; or 3) give up the money and hope to God I don’t kill you
anyway (because you believe I will take you out). From a spiritual perspective faith is firm
relying trust (not in what you see) but what God said in his Word. Faith has NOTHING to do with your abilities,
your bank account, etc. That's some real talk right there. We must develop a habit of
consulting God before making big decisions to avoid loss, heartache, money,
etc. to avoid failure. God wants to
answer your prayers but you have to ask without hesitation and you can’t be
weak. When you pray with the spirit of
boldness it will always help you to be confident God will come through for you.
This is the
confidence that we have in our relationship with God: If we ask for anything in
agreement with his will, he listens to us. 15 If we know that he listens to whatever we ask, we
know that we have received what we asked from him.1 John 5:14-15”
Semaj
couldn’t believe the preacher used an example with a glock. Man, this is crazy.
The preacher
continued: “What is the will of God? The Word of God (the Bible) and God’s will (His
plan for us) are inseparable. When we
pray for things that line up with His will (e.g. basic necessities; physical,
emotional, spiritual healing; prosperity; peace; protection, rest; restoration;
salvation for others, etc.) we are presenting the Word – which is God -- to God. God will not deny his Word because God cannot
deny himself. Huh? I know, just follow me.
·
In the beginning was the Word and
the Word was with God and the Word was God.
John 1:1 (CEB). The
Word is another name for Jesus Christ. Remember,
we serve a triune God: God the Father;
God the Son (the Word); God the Holy Spirit.
One God, three persons. Think of
it like this: water can be: ice, steam or liquid, but its still water.
After you
pray the prayer of faith, release the request – give it to God – but look out for
the enemy (self and the devil) because they will try to bum rush you with
doubt. You cannot let fear and doubt get
in between your thinking and what God said in his Word. You’ve gotta protect yourself (the request) at
all times because the devil wants to place you in the realm of thought versus
the realm of faith. What do I mean by
realm?
Realm
(Webster): the region, sphere, or domain
within which anything occurs, prevails,
or dominates: For example:
Matthew 6:31 says: Therefore, don’t worry and say, ‘What are we going to eat?’ or ‘What
are we going to drink?’ or ‘What are we going to wear? The enemy can inject thoughts like: ‘who do you think you are? God ain’t gonna
answer your prayers, they gonna cut your lights off or You’re broke like your
momma ‘nem, you ain’t never gonna have nothing; blah blah blah blah blah’. If you’re not careful, you will start to
think about what the enemy is saying and it will open the door for you to
reason and question whether God can deliver you from the situation you are
facing. Once you open the door for
reasoning and questioning and start agreeing with him out loud; ‘I can’t;
that’s right; I gotta find a way to fix this’.
Though it’s not impossible, it’s hard to recover once you allow doubt
in. Listen, you cannot stop the thoughts
from coming but you can stop yourself from accepting the thoughts and speaking
them out loud. People of God, you must
hear me on this: the enemy wants to take your words and use them against you. He wants to play you out of your blessing.
·
Death and life are in the power
of the tongue; those who love it will eat its fruit. Proverbs 18:21
· For as he thinks in his heart, so is he. ’Eat and drink!’ he says to you, but his heart is not with you. Proverbs 23:7a
(NKJV)
You are what
you think. If you think you are a
failure, congratulations. If you think
you will succeed, congratulations, you will, and nobody, I mean nobody will stop
you.
Hey, I’m out
of time. Remember, Faith is what you believe.”
Church was
nothing like Semaj thought it would be.
When it was over he saw the Preacher shaking hands with people at the
front door but when he saw Semaj he gave him dap and told him he hoped to see him
back again. Semaj said he would be back and as
he left the church. As he walked away shaking his head trippin off how cool the Preacher was. He could hardly wait to go
back.
In His Humble Excellence
Tania
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