Archive for March, 2008

Hi Everyone,

I’ve decided to start keeping a Christian faith healing journal. I am going to use it to chronicle my the healing journey that God is leading me on.

I was actually very leery of doing this online because I did not want it to cause people to question God’s ability to perform instantaneous healing miracles. But, I feel God leading me to do this because there are so many Christians who are so confused about the nature of faith healing. They think that if they were not instantly pain and symptom free the moment they prayed that God did not heal them.

That is not so.

So, throughout my faith healing journal, I am going to list the different areas God is working on in my personal healing journey, and how He is restoring me to health. I will include any treatments that I am experiencing and the ups and downs that go along with those as well.

I am going to try and be as honest and vulnerable as possible here, in an effort to give you a real glimpse into one Christian’s healing journey.

I pray that it give you the strength and faith to follow God along on your own journey as He leads you back to living in His divine health.

God Bless!

Ameerah

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Today I was asked an interesting question by a frequent visitor to The Hem.

She asked me, “Ameerah, how do I develop a passion for studying the Bible?”

This question really caught my attention because I too have struggled with this issue. In fact, I think all Christians who are willing to be honest with themselves will admit that they too have wrestled with it.

We want to want to study God’s Word, but, for some reason, the passion and zeal for studying the Bible just isn’t there. Then, we feel guilty for not studying as much as we know we should.

So, how Do you develop a passion for reading the Bible?

You read it when you have NO passion to do it what so ever!

One of the key things that we as Christians must remember is that we are 3 part beings:

1. We are a spirit
2. We have a soul (mind, will and emotions)
3. And we live in a body (our fleshly nature).

Sometimes we forget that we still have a fleshly nature. That flesh does not like anything that has anything to do with God. In fact, there have been times when I would try to praise God or read the Word, and my flesh would revolt so badly that I literally felt physical pain!

But, the only way to crucify the flesh and deprive it of its power is to starve it and feed your spirit. That means doing the things that will build up your spirit man – Especially when you don’t feel like doing them!

Why?

Because if we don’t do them before we feel like it, then we will NEVER feel like it – Period.

So, whether you feel like you need more passion for praise and worship or for studying the Bible, there is only one solution:

Do It While You Have Not Passion…And the Passion Will Come!

God Bless!
Ameerah

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As Christians, we all want to glorify God, but when is God glorified? Is He glorified by how much suffering we can endure for His sake? Or is He really glorified when we bear good fruit in His name?

Here is the third installment into my Christian Joy Bible study notebook.

Date: March 20th, 2008

Scripture:

When you bear (produce) much fruit, My Father is honored and glorified, and you show and prove yourselves to be true followers of Mine. I have loved you, [just] as the Father has loved Me; abide in My love [continue in His love with Me]. If you keep My commandments [if you continue to obey My instructions], you will abide in My love and live on in it, just as I have obeyed My Father’s commandments and live on in His love. I have told you these things, that My joy and delight may be in you, and that your joy and gladness may be of full measure and complete and overflowing. ~John 15:8-11 (AMP)

My Thoughts:

I think that sometimes we as Christians get confused about how to glorify God. Many of us have been taught that God is glorified by our suffering. But that is not what Jesus tells us in this scripture. He says that our Heavenly Father is glorified when we bare good fruit for Him – When we are producing a harvest.

That is so significant to me because I know that I have been in churches before that preach a certain kind of theology that makes you feel like God is only glorified by our pain and suffering. Somehow I had internalized the idea that if I was enjoying my life that I was doing something terribly wrong. It was like I had to be miserable to be a good Christian!

When I read all of John: 15 I was actually amazed by one thing in particular. The entire scripture focuses on baring good fruit for God, and then Jesus adds in: “I have told you these things, that My joy and delight may be in you, and that your joy and gladness may be of full measure and complete and overflowing.”

His goal and intention for speaking with them about baring good fruit and glorifying God was not for His benefit, but for theirs – For ours. He wanted us to have joy and gladness that overflowed!

Where was that joy supposed to come from? From following the Lord’s commands, abiding in Jesus’ love, and baring good fruit.

Well, I’m not perfect, but I do try my best to follow the Lord’s command’s, Jesus’ love does abide in my hear, and I do try to bare good fruit.

So, I have to ask myself, do I have joy and gladness that overflows? Am I filled with God’s joy and delight as Jesus said He wants me to be?

Day by day I am more able to say “yes” to that question, but still only with a little “y.” But, I want to be able to say “YES! God’s joy and gladness is living within me!” I want it to bubble up until it overflow onto others.

Why?

Because then my joy can be a witness to the world of the joy available in Christ.

Then, my joy will bare good fruit, and that is how I truly glorify God!

My Closing Prayer:

Lord, please help us all to bare good fruit for You so that You may be glorified. Please guide each of us to the callings and giftings that you have stored up inside of us. Help us to use them to reach out to others in the world and bless them in Your name. Help us all to rid ourselves of any thoughts that we are not meant to enjoy our lives as Christians. Fill us with your joy so that it can be a witness in a world that has lost their’s. – In Jesus’ Holy Name, Amen.

Want to Keep Your Own Online Bible Study Notebook For Free?
I provide the online Bible and free webspace, you bring the topic, and God with supply the revelation!

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Christian Meditations in a Minute: You Don’t Grow Weary In Well Doing 

Today’s Scripture:

For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.

And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. ~Galatians 6:8-9

Today’s Meditation:

I do not sow to my flesh.
I deprive my flesh of strength by starving it
and instead, I feed my spirit.
And, since I chose to feed my spirit,
I shall live forever with my Father in heaven.
I do not let myself become frustrated in my efforts to please God.
I act on God’s Word and the leadings of His Holy Spirit.
I do the work that God has given me to do in this world
By Faith.
When I do the sowing, God does the growing.
And I will reap the harvest that He has for me
because I refuse to give up!

Free Bible Study On the Power of Using Christian Meditations.

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Read: Exodus 4:10, Exodus 6:12, 1 Kings 3:7

Today’s Scripture Focus:

Then the word of the Lord came to me [Jeremiah], saying, Before I formed you in the womb I knew [and] approved of you [as My chosen instrument], and before you were born I separated and set you apart, consecrating you; [and] I appointed you as a prophet to the nations^. Then said I, Ah, Lord God! Behold, I cannot speak, for I am only a youth. But the Lord said to me, Say not, I am only a youth; for you shall go to all to whom I shall send you, and whatever I command you, you shall speak. ~Jeremiah 1:4-6 (AMP)

I have to be totally honest with you – Without the help of the Holy Spirit, I can be a bit of a perfectionist. In fact, sometimes, no matter how hard I work at something or how much success I’m having, all I can see are my shortcomings and glaring imperfections.

But, praise God, that’s not what He sees when He looks at me. He’s not staring at my Pitfalls – He’s staring at my Potential!

And that’s exactly what He sees when He looks at you too!

Satan likes for us to get all hung up on what we think we can’t do. He wants us to be so focused on our flaws that they are all we can see. Why? Because if we are too busy looking at us, we will forget to stop, and look up at Jesus.

Our enemy wants us so wrapped up in the problem -Us – that we miss out on the solution – God.

You know, God showed me something a while back. In that passage that we just read in Jeremiah, God said “Before I formed you in the womb I knew [and] approved of you [as My chosen instrument].”

Before you were even created, God didn’t just know you – He approved of you. In all of your imperfections, the One who knows you better than anyone else on this earth approves of YOU.

Each of us has a special calling in Christ. Still, most Christians feel too unworthy and inadequate to even attempt the great things that God has for them to do.

But, God did not call you ignorant to your shortcomings. He was not surprised to find out that you stutter or that you’re afraid of speaking in public.

So, knowing your flaws, why would He chose you? Because He knew when He created you that He would be enough to cover them. He knew that, by His Spirit, you could do anything He had for you to do.

Now, if God approves of you, don’t you think it is time you finally approved of yourself? If He believes in you, isn’t it time you started believing in yourself?

Lord, Help each of us stop looking at our flaws,
and start looking at Your immense power working within us!

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Christian Meditations in a Minute: Faith Without Works – Becoming a Friend of God

Today’s Scripture:

Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.
But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect? And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God.~James 2:19-22

Today’s Christian Meditation:

Today, I will put my faith into ACTION.
I will not just say that I believe but I will act on those beliefs.
I will listen for the voice of God,
and act on the Leadings of the Holy Spirit.
Lord, lead me and guide me this day to be like my father Abraham
who used his works to make his faith perfect before you.
That I too may be called
A Friend of God.

Click Here For a Free Bible Study On Using Christian Meditations. 

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Christian Meditations in a Minute: Godly Wisdom

Today’s Scripture:

[For I always pray to] the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, that He may grant you a spirit of wisdom and revelation [of insight into mysteries and secrets] in the [deep and intimate] knowledge of Him, By having the eyes of your heart flooded with light, so that you can know and understand the hope to which He has called you, and how rich is His glorious inheritance in the saints (His set-apart ones), And [so that you can know and understand] what is the immeasurable and unlimited and surpassing greatness of His power in and for us who believe, as demonstrated in the working of His mighty strength… ~Ephesians 1:17-19 (AMP)

Today’s Meditation:

God has given me the spirit of wisdom and revelation.
Today, by the power of His Holy Spirit,
I receive a deeper and more intimate understanding of who God is.
My eyes and heart is flooded with His light
that reveals the great hope that I have in Him.
I believe in His limitless power living inside of me.
I receive the rich inheritance of my Father in Heaven.

Christian Meditations Can Help You Grow In Godly Wisdom!

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