FAITH AND BELIEVING IN A GOD WHO CAN DO ANYTHING

Faith is decreasing fear and increasing love. It is believing God can do the impossible.

Faith is essential and powerful - it is the oxygen we need to sustain a healthy life with Christ. However, there are many Christians who lack faith and are suffocating to death as a result.

Jesus desperately wants us to have faith. He even said that if one has faith, he or she can throw a mountain into the sea using just words.

God gives us a story about faith in the Bible, so we may be able to learn what faith looks like and how to grow in our faith.

In Joshua 3, the Israelites wanted to cross over into the land they had dreamed about for years, but there was one problem - a large river in between them and the land.

God did now want them to go across using boats, but faith.

So God tells the priests to wait in the middle of the river while He starts drying it up.

After the priests got into the water, the water stopped flowing in a city further north of where the priests were located. As the priests waited, the water got lower and lower until the Israelites could pass through on dry ground.

Amazing.

Let's break it down:

1.) Priests stepped into water *believing* God would do as He said. That is faith.

Step 1 on having faith or growing your faith: Believe God can do ALL things.

Believe Jesus can forgive you, deliver you, heal you, free you, prosper you, and give you hope and peace.

2.) God stopped the water.

The priests did not stop the water. Furthermore, notice how little the priests did. All they did was hold a box and stood in a river.

I am not trying to undermine the work of the priests, but lets give credit to where credit is due - God stopped the water - not the people.

This shows that faith is not so much about you, but Him. You step in the river and He does everything else.

Faith does not have to be hard. God wants it to be easy for us! He does not want us with buckets trying to get the water out of the river... He wants to do it.

So step into the river believing God will do as He promised.

As the Holy Spirit began speaking to me about Joshua 3 and faith, He brought up a tree to me in my mind.

I planted a small pine tree in my backyard. After a few weeks, the tree began to turn more and more brown. Now half of the tree is brown and the only green is near the bottom. It is pitiful looking.

But God told me to believe that He will heal the dead tree and for me to take a picture of it in its horrible state.

When God heals the tree, I can show others how I had faith and how God healed my tree - it will be a small testimony of the power of God and the power of faith.

So stay tuned for I will post before and after pictures on this site whenever God turns the tree green.

Not sure when it will happen, but it will happen!

~Travis Coffey~