According part 1
I used this verse in my last Rant series but, believe it or not, I kind of got stuck on it. Because I think we need to really get some things straight. Some things about faith, and some things about what we have faith IN. So. Matthew 9:29 says, "Then touched he their eyes, saying, According to your faith be it unto you." And that's my thought for this Rant series: According to your faith. Another way to say it is, "What you see is what you be." What you magnify is what manifests in your life. But you can't just say things like, "I believe I'm a millionaire!" and then check your bank account and expect things to change. God can do things like that when and if He wants to, that's not the point. The point is, basically, you have two choices: "No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon" (Matthew 6:24). According to your faith, it will be until you. You can choose to believe the world's report, and try to win the rat race (which, at best, makes you king rat)... or you can believe the report of the Lord. The WORD of the Lord. Which is Jesus. Which is love. That's why Jesus said, "...Have faith in God" (Mark 11:22). Because what we believe--out of the two choices we have been given--is what is real to us. We can take what the world gives us... or we can operate out of the economy of the Kingdom of God. And we know that the Kingdom is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. We are in the Kingdom right now because the Kingdom is in us right now. We are in heaven right now because heaven is in us right now. Heaven isn't just a place you go when (IF) you die. Heaven is where we all went when Jesus died! The days of heaven ON earth. IN earth as it is IN heaven. Heaven and earth met in the person of Jesus--the Son of God, and the son of man. He brought us that second option. He took away the sin (unbelief) of the world by giving us something--someONE, Himself, love--to believe in. He brought heaven to earth by establing the Kingdom of Heaven. The Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of Love. And He gave us the keys to the Kingdom when He told us what (again, God... love) to have faith in. God is all-powerful, right? And God is love, right? Which means love is all-powerful. Right? So if you're going to put your faith in something, you might as well put it in the strongest thing there is. Love never fails. So if you believe in love... if you operate in love... you can't fail either. But that can be a slippery slope if we don't understand what love is trying to accomplish. Because a lot of people seem to use "love" as a way to get something. And that's wrong. Love is NEVER about getting. Because love IS giving. Giving everything you are and everything you have. Laying your life down for your friends, and destroying your enemies by MAKING them your friends. Letting Christ's love control us, as 2 Corinthians 5:14 says in the NLT. Serving the master that is love, by receiving and releasing the gift that the master has given us. Letting love rule and reign in our lives. TRUSTING love to rule and reign in our lives. That's what the Kingdom is--it is the realm where the King rules and reigns. When we know and believe that we are loved... that's when we CAN love. According to our faith, so it shall be unto us. Have faith in love, and love will be in you. And love will BE you!