2024, A New Year, can have New Beginnings, Even a Renewing of the Mind

Little known and scarcely understood Spiritual Principles from God’s Word.

I have long mar­veled at the spir­i­tu­al teach­ings of Jesus dur­ing his brief time here on earth.  Many times he taught using para­bles, but at times he was much more direct.  One such teach­ing, I imag­ine, went some­thing like this.  He was with his dis­ci­ples, it was morn­ing and they were return­ing to the city, and feel­ing hun­gry, Jesus spot­ted a fig tree and no doubt thought to him­self he would have some figs to eat.  Going to the side of the tree he found no figs, only leaves.  He spoke to the tree say­ing, “Let no fruit grow on thee hence­for­ward for ever.”

Some­time lat­er, he and his dis­ci­ples were in the same area.  They spot­ted the fig tree which had with­ered and died; a result of Jesus words.  See­ing the fig tree again the dis­ci­ples spoke in a sur­prised tone, “how soon is the fig tree with­ered away!”

Jesus, then answered them and said, “Ver­i­ly I say unto you, If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also if ye shall say unto this moun­tain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done.”

Little known truth of the power of Spoken Words:

Notice, too, in Mark how Jesus respond­ed to his dis­ci­ples:  And Jesus answer­ing saith unto them, Have faith in God.  ²³ For ver­i­ly I say unto you, That whoso­ev­er shall say unto this moun­tain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have what­so­ev­er he saith.  ²⁴ There­fore I say unto you, What things soev­er ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.

Ahh so, the “name it and claim it” Chris­tians may not be entire­ly wrong.

These are tru­ly pro­found teach­ings reveal­ing how mankind can be in charge of his des­tiny.  We can learn to take full advan­tage of God’s plan of Sal­va­tion.  Think of that!  You can take con­trol of your des­tiny when you learn how to use this knowl­edge to pros­per your body, your soul, and your spir­it?  To get the full ben­e­fit from these truths includ­ed in God’s design for man you must con­sid­er the “rest of the truth” includ­ed in this scrip­ture where Jesus said, “…and doubt not, ye shall….”  Remem­ber doubt comes from the heart; then also con­sid­er the state­ment “…ye shall…”  The dic­tio­nary defines shall as an order, a promise, a require­ment, or oblig­a­tion, and as some­thing that will take place or exist in the future.

Don’t Own it:

One of the least rec­og­nized faith killers is the act of own­ing some­thing you DO NOT WANT.  Some will think this triv­ial.  It is NOT triv­ial it is major.  God’s Word says we can have what we say when we believe what we say.  As long as you claim it by say­ing “I have .….” you will have.  I know it is not easy but one could say “I have symp­toms of…” instead of say­ing “I have.”   Then RESIST say­ing things like “It is not work­ing” or I still have…”  Pray about it.  God will help those who ask, believ­ing.

Dead Without Works:

While there are some true instances of mir­a­cles in which the answer to prayer will come like a bolt of light­ning out the heav­ens, chances are most prayers will require “the believ­ing prayer” to be active in bring­ing that prayer forth to real­i­ty.  Remem­ber, the words “faith with­out action is dead.”  And by his actions thru faith that main­tains the prayer prayed, the answer “shall” come.  Only believe!

I now remem­ber a very pop­u­lar radio host, jour­nal­ist, and broad­cast speak­er, Paul Har­vey, and his short sto­ries of his­to­ry and sci­ence that he pro­claimed to be “the rest of the sto­ry”.   I now want to give you the rest of the les­son Jesus offered his dis­ci­ples on that morn­ing I write about here.

Little known and scarcely understood “…we shall..:”

In the Jesus teach­ing that morn­ing on faith and doubt­ing not, [In my opin­ion, He includ­ed the rest of the sto­ry] he very clev­er­ly used the fig tree event to shine God’s light onto a true and pow­er­ful truth includ­ed in mans cre­ation.   Jesus’ faith in GOD was such that his prayers came forth instant­ly as he spoke. He learned from God to speak things into exis­tence.  He tells us we can do this as well, pro­vid­ing we believe it in our heart, and doubt not.  He also tells us we “shall” [in the future] have our prayers answered when believ­ing and doubt­ing not.

In his teach­ing that morn­ing Jesus includ­ed in his les­son on faith and doubt­ing not, lit­tle known and scarce­ly under­stood truths about prayer when he said, “And all things, what­so­ev­er ye shall ask in prayer, believ­ing, ye shall receive.”  Notice Jesus said, “….all things, what­so­ev­er…”

I know a well qual­i­fied and wise Chris­t­ian min­is­ter who teach­es of Math­ew 21: 18–22 that Jesus was teach­ing his dis­ci­ples about faith and prayer; and that verse 21 is the faith teach­ing, and verse 22 is the pray teach­ing.  I agree.   I also believe that besides our prayers being in line with God’s word, our faith filled actions and reac­tions to our prayers are sig­nif­i­cant to our “answered prayer.”  They actu­al­ly demon­strate the faith from our heart.   In the time after your prayer requests; in the min­utes, hours, and days fol­low­ing prayer requests we are respon­si­ble for our actions, our words spo­ken.  Do they line up with our prayer request?  If not, what will result?   Will our actions demon­strate “faith” or “doubt?  Temp­ta­tions to doubt will be every­where.  Take no doubt­ful thoughts, but replace them with “vocal thanks” to God for answered prayer.  I know from expe­ri­ence it is very dif­fi­cult to main­tain faith filled actions and words.  Chris­tians must learn that declar­ing vic­to­ry while still expe­ri­enc­ing symp­toms is not lying.

As anoth­er year comes to a close, I like to look for­ward to the New Year as it can brings us new begin­nings, new oppor­tu­ni­ties, and even a renew­ing of our mind depend­ing on what comes from our hearts.  Jesus taught that out of the abun­dance of the heart the mouth speaks.  I believe we must be very care­ful what goes into our hearts; for out of the abun­dance of our heart “faith” for answered prayers shows forth, as well as the shap­ing of our des­tiny.

I pray your 2024 will be filled with bless­ings of hap­pi­ness and pros­per­i­ty body, soul, and spir­it.

These truths described here, I took from KJV of bible in Math­ew 18–22, and from Mark 11:22:24.  High­light­ing and under­scor­ing I used for empha­sis.

Math­ew 21:18–22.  ¹⁸ Now in the morn­ing as he returned into the city, he hun­gered.  ¹⁹ And when he saw a fig tree in the way, he came to it, and found noth­ing there­on, but leaves only, and said unto it, Let no fruit grow on thee hence­for­ward for ever. And present­ly the fig tree with­ered away.  ²⁰ And when the dis­ci­ples saw it, they mar­veled, say­ing, How soon is the fig tree with­ered away!  ²¹ Jesus answered and said unto them, Ver­i­ly I say unto you, If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also if ye shall say unto this moun­tain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done.  ²² And all things, what­so­ev­er ye shall ask in prayer, believ­ing, ye shall receive.

In Mark 11:22–24.    ²²  And Jesus answer­ing saith unto them, Have faith in God.  ²³ For ver­i­ly I say unto you, That whoso­ev­er shall say unto this moun­tain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have what­so­ev­er he saith.  ²⁴ There­fore I say unto you, What things soev­er ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.

Join me next time when I bring more lit­tle known and scarce­ly under­stood truths from God’s design for man dis­closed in “No Deposit-No Return.”