I was just thinking back to a time when I was a student at Kingdom Faith Bible college.

We used to have what was referred to as the “8 o’clock”, this basically our early morning meeting.

At one of these meeting’s, John McKay was running it, he asked us all to get into groups. Each group was to have a discussion on faith, and the elected person was to stand up infront of everyone and preach about it.

Pastor John said that the person who was elected could either preach about what had been discussed, or preach on what they have themselves, well, I was the elected person in our group.

As the group was discussing things, other things on faith was running around my head, hense I couldn’t concentrate on what the group was saying, only what was coming into my head about faith, so, it was my turn to stand up…

There were a couple of things I said, but one thing which I have just been thinking about was about Blind Bartimaeus (Mark 10v46-52) (Although I didnt know that was his time and just knew him as the blind bloke who shouted “Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me”).

Jesus knew He could heal, He had faith to believe He could heal, He knew He could give Bartimaeus back his sight, but can you imagine if Jesus said to Bartimaeus, “Wow, Bartimaeus, you have faith that I can heal you, well, guess what, I too have faith that I can heal you, isn’t that brilliant!” but then just carried on, rejoicing in the fact that He had faith to heal. What good would that have done?

Having faith for something is not enough, we need to put that faith into action, because if we don’t, there is no blessing.

This is important, especially when we are believing God for something, yet not putting our faith into action. When it comes to faith, we have to play a part, it’s not all up to God to do it all for us, there is a step we have to take.

It’s like having faith for a job, yet not going to the interview, your faith cannot be blessed because you didn’t take the step to put that faith into action. Catch my drift.

Believe me, I’m speaking to myself here as well as anyone else reading this post.

So if we are believing God for something, lets take the step in order to put that faith into action so it will bring blessing and will give Glory to God.

I guess the disciple I can most related to would be Simon Peter (Peter).

Before Peter became a disciple, you could tell he was a honest hard working man who had great values and stood by what he believed. He was known to be short tempered and hot headed, but he was a man of integrity.

We can learn alot about Jesus through his relationship with Peter and how he responded to Peter.

I can understand why Jesus would have chosen him to be one of his disciples. Peter’s faith was great, yet simple.

When Jesus asked the disciples “Who do people say I am?” They went on to tell Him, what the people were saying, then when Jesus asked “Who do you say I am?”, it was Peter who said “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God”. Jesus told Peter that he was blessed, because it wasn’t man that revealed this to him, but “My father in heaven”. (Matthew 16 v 13-20)

When Jesus walked on water, the disciples thought it was a ghost, yet Jesus told them not to worry because it was him. Peter then said, “Lord, if it’s you, tell me to come to you on the water”. Peter then walked on water (Until he panicked with the strong wind and began to sink). (Matthew 14 v 22-31)

Peter knew that if Jesus told him to walk on water, then he would be able to. He didn’t question whether he could, he didn’t ponder for a few minutes and think to himself whether he could or not, he just accepted without thought that if Jesus told him he could, then he could. It was only when he felt the wind and started to think about what he was doing and remembered the laws of gravity that he forgot his faith and began to sink.

Faith is not about thinking about something and trying to work it out before you decide whether it’s safe enough to do it. Faith is about knowing who God is and believing in Him.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight (Proverbs 3 v 5-6)

We can also read a testament of Peter’s faith in Acts chapter’s 3 and 4 where Peter heals a cripple and creates a stir amongst the Sanhedrin. Peter KNEW it was only for the glory of God that someone would be healed, and he KNEW he was acting out of obedience to God when he was used for healing. He KNEW it was not by him that the cripple was healed, but by the power of God.

When the Sanhedrin questioned Peter by saying “By what power or what name did you do this”, Peter, filled with The Holy Spirit responded:

“Rulers and elders of the people! If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a cripple and are asked how he was healed, then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed.

He is “the stone you builders rejected, which has become the capstone”, Salvation is found in no-one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4 v 8-12)

Wow!!! can you imagine how much boldness, courage and strength in what Peter believed to have stood before the Sanhedrin to say that? I can just imagine how chuffed Jesus would have been with Peter at that time.

Peter was filled with The Holy Spirit which would have bought conviction with those words, but it just shows the faith of Peter, and his character of standing behind his beliefs to have said that, in obedience to God, yet not being afraid of what could have been the outcome. His faith was steadfast in God, he was testifying about who he knew to be the Son of the living God and his friend.

Jesus knew Peters faults, but he also knew the commitment of his heart. This is why I believe Jesus chose Simon Peter and said he would be the Rock on which Jesus would build his church. (Matthew 16 v 18)

Peter messed up as much as we do, but Jesus never deserted him. Jesus loved him and would restore him when he failed, just as Jesus would do with us. Because we mess up, it doesn’t mean it’s the end for us, Jesus still knows us and still loves us and still has a plan to fulfil in our lives.

It is a matter of us putting out faith and confidence in God and believing in Him, not in the things that surround us. This the time that we begin to walk in righteousness according to His will fulfilling the purposes he has placed in our lives.

God doesn’t waste anything, even our failures, we still learn and God still uses them. Praise God!

I went to Faith Camp last night and heard Pastor Colin bring a message on Holiness.

You know, if you have been in a place where you have not been living in holiness and you hear a message on holiness it aint alf challenging like.

The funny thing is, if you have a heart for God, you want to live in holiness, you don’t want to do things that are not pleasing to God, you want to please Him and you want to glorify God in all that you do. Its easy to want though.

I realised that its easy to live your life how you want to live it, and hard to move out of it to live in holiness.

Recently I posted about God giving me faith for a situation, this situation will basically bring me out of the live I am living now and into the will of God. I was all ready to move out into where God was calling me, and then a string of events happened which basically knocked me for six.

Here’s the thing though.

Last night, I realised that, because I was about to move out into what God was calling me to, which would get me in the right place with him, the devil did a load of things which threw me sideways. I knew it was something to do with him, but also knew this couldn’t stop me from the things I was about to step into. The truth is, it did knock me back and put me in a state of confusion about everything, but thankfully, God has made things clear again.

I also realised, that the devil obviously thinks its important that I don’t step out of where I am now and into what God has been talking to me about. Although at the time it knocked me back, I’m now thinking, hmmm, I’m obviously going to be doing some damage for the devil when God gets me where he wants me. That, makes me smile and rejoice, because I know full well that the devil has robbed me from alot in the last few years, and I know that he is going to get back what he has done to me 100 fold!

It’s interesting, but Pastor Colin has written a fair amount of books, and one of the books he wrote was called Revival Fire. Colin mentioned that he was talking to his publishers about this book and told them that don’t expect for it to sell as well as his other books. When the publisher asked why, Colin said “because it is about holiness”.

The publisher didn’t believe him, but months down the line, the publisher spoke to Colin and said that the book isn’t selling as well as his others. Colin reminded the publisher about their earlier conversation and that it wouldn’t sell as well because it was about holiness.

Why is this? Well basically, because there are so many of us Christians who live our lives according to how we want to live them which possibly isn’t the same as how God want’s us to live them. As soon as we start reading about holiness, we realise we can’t live our lives as we want, we can’t do the things that are not right, we can’t watch things on TV that we should not be watching. Holiness brings challenge to our livestyles.

God still gives us choice though.

Let him who does wrong continue to do wrong; let him who is vile continue to be vile; let him who does right continue to do right; and let him who is holy continue to be holy.”  Rev 22 v 11

You know how children test their parents to see how far they can go before being told off. Do you not think that we are a bit like that with God? See how much we can get away with which will still get us into the kingdom? We’re all human, we all sin, we have all fallen short from the glory of God. The only man who ever walked on the earth who lived in complete holiness was Jesus.

Its Gods will for us to walk in holiness, that means giving up the desires of the flesh. Its your choice as to whether you choose to live in holiness, it’s not easy in the beginning, but the reward is more than you could ever have from what you gain by living in the flesh.

Its about pleasing God rather than ourselves.