When I was growing up in the fifties, the church near our home was the center of our family’s life. Mother kept the financial records at the church and volunteered in other capacities, and we kids tagged along. We developed a respect for God, though it was based on very little Biblical understanding. But, there were seeds planted that later bore good fruit. One such seed was a promise that was quoted so often at church that I memorized it.
Matthew 5:6:
Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.
After leaving home at age seventeen, my focus strayed to other interests, and the seeds planted during my childhood lay dormant. Then at age thirty-five I began to have an earnest desire for the things of God. I started reading the Bible and visiting different churches. I was searching diligently. During this period of time, the promise in Matthew 5:6 and the simple prayer “Father, show me the way” were my focus. I typed a copy of each on three-by-five cards and placed them on my refrigerator door and car visor to keep reminding myself of the goal.
God chose the words “hunger and thirst” in Matthew 5:6 to communicate an earnest search for something very important and needful. Anyone without food or water for even a day would almost certainly be concentrating their efforts on getting that need met. This was certainly the case for me. I had a need, and it was a top priority and focus in my thinking and action. I was doing all I knew to do to acknowledge Him.
Proverbs 3:6:
In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.
A remarkably specific answer came to me by believers from The Way Ministry. Seeing “The Way” on their nametags as we approached each other in the mall was quite an attention getter! They invited me to a home fellowship, and of course I accepted their invitation. My hunger began to be filled as God showed me the way via the research, teaching, and fellowship of our wonderful ministry.
Though I didn’t know it at the time, I had been operating this principle of focused believing action based on God’s Word. If there is a category of life in which we have a lack of abundance and power, one in which God’s Word makes these qualities of life available, then focused believing action is key to getting our need met and obtaining our heart’s desire. We will see what focused believing action is, and then look at examples from the Word of believers operating this powerful principle.
One way to illustrate “focus,” as it pertains to believing action, is the two “C’s” of release—clearness and concern. In The Bible Tells Me So, by Victor Paul Wierwille, in the chapter “Release from Your Prisons,” the two “C’s” are described: “Get clear on what is wanted, and then become concerned about receiving it. Get God’s Word of deliverance and release into your mind and into your heart; eat it, drink it, sleep it, and walk with it…. Soon the negatives drop off and the positives become yours….” Eat it, drink it, sleep it, walk with it. That’s focus.
God wants to meet our need and to give us the desires of our heart according to His Word. He only asks that we believe. Psalms 21:2 says, “Thou hast given him his heart’s desire, and hast not withholden the request of his lips….”
It is not that we concentrate on ourselves and our need. Quite the contrary. Our focus is on God and His solution. We enjoy God’s abundance as we make Him and His Word our top priority. As we apply what we are learning and fellowship daily with like-minded believers, the introduction of light will meet needs we are aware of and perhaps even ones we did not know we had. We get clear on God’s solution and become concerned about receiving it. The concern will be manifested by our believing action.
Confessing and believing the Word are keys to appropriating the promises of God. This is illustrated in Romans 10:9 and 10. The subject of these verses is the new birth, but the keys apply to believing in other categories as well.
Romans 10:9 and 10:
That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
The words “shalt confess” in verse 9 and “confession is made” in verse 10 are the Greek word homologeō. Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament defines homologeō as “to say the same thing as another, i.e. to agree with…” and also “to declare openly….” For example, someone desiring to receive salvation must get clear on the promise in Romans 10:9 and 10 and get concerned about receiving it. When he confesses with his mouth that Jesus is lord and is fully persuaded in his heart that God raised Jesus from the dead, he is born again and the need is met….
This is an excerpt from the January/February 2006 issue of The Way Magazine.
Copyright© 2006 by The Way International. All rights reserved.
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