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The LADY WITH ISSUE OF BLOOD – in Mk. 5:25-29
is a perfect example of faith speaking and acting. She SAID and DID something. She SAID – “If I can but touch His clothes, I will be healed,” and she DID something. She broke Jewish custom and law and got to where she could touch Jesus’ clothes. We can look at this woman who had suffered immeasurably with constant bleeding for 12 years, and see that she tried everything to get better. She used up all her natural resources and was still not better, in fact, she was worse. Then she heard about Jesus! She knew that it was against the laws and customs to even be in public, but she decided, as she spoke to herself, ‘If I can only touch his clothes, I will be healed.” She had a need, and she went directly to the One who meets needs, even though she knew that there could be serious repercussions in her world. Even as Jesus was totally surrounded by people, he knew when someone touched Him with faith. Someone “withdrew” healing from Him. Perhaps you feel like you know exactly what the woman with the issue of blood was feeling. Maybe you have had symptoms that no one has been able to help you with. You might feel discouraged, or maybe even have lost hope. We serve a healing Jesus! He longs for you to be well. In fact, he wants our bodies to “prosper”, even as our soul “prospers” as it says in III John verse 2. The next verses go on to say that there is no greater joy than hearing that God’s people are walking in that truth. God wants to have His healing power touch our lives and have His virtue and life flow through our physical bodies so we can walk in health. The words of Jesus in Mark 5: 34 are the words He speaks over your life. Child, your faith has made you well, go in peace (Shalom which means nothing missing and nothing broken) and be healed of your affliction.

During this season of Pentecost, we will be talking about how the Holy Spirit can impact our lives, every single day. Hi, this is Dorette Schaal with your dailyeword. The Holy Spirit is our helper, comforter and guide, and He is with us to empower us to do great things on the earth. During this series, my prayer would be that each day you would recognize the power of the Holy Spirit more and more in your life. Each dailyeword has a specific scripture attached, so make sure to read the specific scripture, but why not add the whole chapter to your study if you can make time. Let’s see how the Holy Spirit and our faith walk work together. Here is your daily eword.

I think we could say that David had giant killing faith. Sometimes we need faith to be spider killers, or varmint killers! Especially if you live in the country like we do. But David had faith to kill a giant. What I love about the story of David when he was up against the Philistine giant, he had total confidence in God. He rehearsed his past victories, and built himself up as he stood before the giant with a slingshot and 5 smooth stones. David was pretty confident. He had had trust, reliance, conviction, belief, assurance and commitment that with God’s ability within him, he would overcome even the biggest giant in his way. We have heard that Goliath had 4 brothers, and perhaps that’s why David took some extra stones. David had built his confidence before he had to overcome a giant, that what ever came his way, he was well able to over come. Sometimes we wait until we face something huge before we start growing in faith. Let’s start now. Build yourself up on your most holy faith, by praying in the Holy Spirit. We need to exercise our faith muscles. Truly, sometimes we are totally unprepared for an attack of the enemy. We have to remember that God is with us. Sometimes we are ambushed by the enemy, and are totally caught off guard. How we can we be prepared? By daily building our faith. Faith comes by hearing! Be full of the Word, and then stand strong in faith. What mountain are you facing today? Does it feel like a giant that can’t be conquered? You are well able to overcome! God is on your side!

I love the story of Abraham when we re talking about faith. In Genesis 22, Abraham was asked by God to sacrifice his son Isaac on the altar on the mountain. That is a pretty heavy request. What is interesting is that Abraham didn’t take a week to think about it, it says immediately the next day Abraham started on the journey. Talk about immediate obedience. I love that Abraham told his two helpers, my son and I will go to the mountain and we will come back to you. He knew that Isaac was the son of promise and that God would ultimately supply, which we see that He did, by providing a ram that was caught in the bushes. The obedience of Abraham and Isaac show that they had complete trust in God. There isn’t an argument between God and Abraham, or even Abraham and Isaac, even as Isaac lay upon the altar. That confidence in God’s provision shows that Abraham deserves to be in the Hall of Fame of Faith in Hebrews 11! He was an amazing man of faith! The word faith has these synonyms: confidence, trust, reliance, conviction, belief, assurance, and commitment. Abraham demonstrated all of these qualities when He was asked to do the unthinkable, of sacrificing his son Isaac. Abraham knew that faith was “the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen.” Let’s put our faith into action! Let’s be believers who have confidence, trust, reliance, conviction, belief, assurance and commitment that “God is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all we could ever ask or think.”

How good are you are following directions? Whenever my husband and I travel together, especially before everyone had a GPS system, he would sometimes ask directions from some random person on the street. Sometimes it would help, and sometimes they would be directionally challenged and not help at all. Christians can be like that too. We can know what we need to do, or where we want to go, and never ever get even close to the desired destination. When it comes to God’s directions in His Word, they aren’t just a suggested route. He asks us to do something because He wants it done. Parents, you know what I mean. You don’t just give your children options of things they could do, you tell them, clean your room. Mow the yard. Make your bed. Clean up after yourself. The message is get it done. Jesus has done the same thing in Mark chapter 16. This is the go ye into all the world scripture. We are to go into our world and tell others about Jesus. How are you doing at that? It’s called the great commission, not the great suggestion!! I do love verse 20 of the same chapter that says that the disciples went out, and did what they were told, God working in them, and God confirmed the Word with signs following. When you obey, God empowers us to get the job done. Yay! What a promise. What does faith do? It says yes, when God says go. Faith obeys the Word, and gets the job done, empowered by the Holy Spirit.

Faith acts! The whole book of Acts in the Bible is all about how the Holy Spirit made a huge difference in people’s life and their life of faith. Our “acts” are another way to reveal where we are in our faith. In James chapter 2, James reminds us that faith must have corresponding action. If you glance at the verses in James 1:21-27, you will see that there are things Christians are told to lay aside. We could have a really long list of things that we shouldn’t do, but it all comes down to one big word….the flesh. Our flesh is selfish, self seeking and self absorbed. If we want to live for God, we have to put self on the altar everyday. We are here not to do our thing, but to do “God’s thing.” Doing His will should be our aim. I love verse 27 because it breaks faith acting down to the simplest level Faith at work is helping those who can’t help themselves. Being a doer of the word is caring for widows and orphans and keeping ourselves unspotted from the world. We want to be clean before the Lord, and known for our love and care for ones in need. And then it comes back around to the fact that faith has a voice. If you can’t bridle your tongue, your faith is useless. Introspection time….how are you acting and speaking? Are your actions and words filled with grace? Do we need to get you some duct tape for your mouth? I’m teasing! We can act and speak words of life and blessing. Make that your goal today, and for your lifetime. Let no word or deed lead people away from Christ, but may all your words and deeds lead others to the foot of the cross.

Faith’s expression is two-sided. Faith has a 1) a voice, and 2) is shown through actions. Today we are going to talk about faith speaking. Faith’s voice is demonstrated in what we say. What we say is one way to let us in on where we are at in respect to faith.
Jesus said in Luke 6:45 “out of the abundance of our heart, we will speak things.”
Earlier in Luke 6, Jesus talks about a good tree, bearing good fruit, and every tree being known for its fruit. You have probably noticed this that your apple tree will not grow avocados. It just won’t happen. The treasure that is on the inside of the tree, will be shown through the fruit that grows. The apple tree will grow apples. How that translates to our life is what we have on the inside of our heart will be evidenced by what comes out of our mouth. If we call Jesus our Lord, we will be doers of the Word, through our actions for sure, but through our mouth as well.

Are you ever surprised by what comes out of your mouth? Sometimes it can happen in a positive way. Perhaps your kids are irritating you and suddenly, instead of reacting in anger, you say, lets take a break and go outside and kick a ball around. Or your mate has hit your hot button and instead of reacting, you ask if there is anything you can do to make their day go better.

I know the opposite reaction has happened for sure. You hit your thumb with the hammer and you say I love you Jesus, but with out the I love you! We all have been shocked by words we have heard ourselves, our kids and others say. What faith does is speak life words. Here are some words that can remind you of who you really are:
I am a child of God. My life is hidden in Christ. I am a new creation, old things are passed away. I have the life of God in me. I have His nature and His ability in me to do all things through Christ. These words bring life…..faith in action.

Everything living has Expression. Expression gives us a glimpse into the essence of what something is. Me, you, dogs, horses, cats, pigs, etc…have expression. Humans and animals have expression. Expression shows on he outside what the animal or person may be thinking or feeling. Are they angry, elated, depressed, happy, excited, defeated, joyful, or joyless?
You can tell a lot about your children, your friends, or your mate by their Expression. When someone is training a horse, he/she can tell by the horse’s expression how the animal is responding. If its ears are back and they are swishing their tail and turning back to look at the one in the saddle, then we know that something is bothering the horse. You can see the horse’s Expression.
Faith is living when it has Expression. James said in 2:20, “faith without works or expression is dead”. Faith is spiritual, but must have natural expression to effect our lives in a practical way. James goes on to say in 2:17-18 that “faith cannot be alone, but needs expression to give it life.”
James goes on to say that he has evidence of his faith by seeing it active. What kind of expression are you seeing from your faith. Is it at work in your life? Are you finding ways to serve others? Are you using it in your church, in your community, in your family? As you put your faith into action by serving God, you bring Him glory, and you get to see your faith expressed in your world. As you love and serve others, you are giving your faith expression and seeing your faith to work!

If you read the book of James, you will notice that James is trying to see some evidence that faith is working. In the book of Acts, when the Holy Spirit was poured out, there was some evidence that something significant had happened. The promise of the Father was left for believers on the earth, and there was evidence. People were speaking in tongues. We see the connection when receiving anything from God. We live by faith, there should be some evidence that faith is working. Hence, the statement in James, that faith without works is dead. Works by itself is dead. We can’t work our way into heaven, or into God’s favor or grace or blessing. It is a total gift. Just like faith that we receive. Once we are in the faith, there should be some evidence that the “fire of God” is on the inside. So if you liken your body to a house, if there is a fire in the fireplace, there should be smoke coming from the chimney. How would you rate your own life? Is there evidence in you that your faith is working? Is there some smoke in your fireplace? Let’s having living faith, alive and active, accomplishing much for the kingdom of God. That’s what faith is designed for!

There is nothing more near and dear to my heart than talking about the Holy Spirit. During this season of Pentecost, we will be talking about how the Holy Spirit can impact our lives, every single day. Hi, this is Dorette Schaal with your dailyeword. The Holy Spirit is our helper, comforter and guide, and He is with us to empower us to do great things on the earth. During this series, my prayer would be that each day you would recognize the power of the Holy Spirit more and more in your life. Each dailyeword has a specific scripture attached, make sure to read the specific scripture, but why not add the whole chapter to your study if you can make time. Let’s get the Word in us! Here is your daily eword.

Last we looked at the question that those who followed Jesus and saw Him crucified and raised from the dead asked— WHY? We found that they obviously moved from that question to, “I WILL TRUST”. Something had to happen in them to make that paradigm shift – I think that thing was the most basic of building blocks of the Christian life…..the concept of FAITH.
We are saved by faith, live by faith and die in faith. Faith affects every part of our Christian life. We need to understand and have a grasp on the concept of faith, because FAITH IS WHAT PLEASES GOD!
Hebrews 11:6 says, “without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”
For the believer who truly wants to please God, we should take these words to heart. It we want to make God our number one priority, we make our faith walk a number one priority. God is looking for faith in you. When you read all of Hebrews chapter 11, you see the hall of fame of faith. Men and women who were challenged on every side, who not only survived, but thrived because of active, dynamic faith! God is looking for faith in you. Let’s be Faith People, because that’s what pleases God.

Trust is an active process…not passive in any way. Here are some points that may help in developing trust….
1. Surround yourself with the Word of God…this is God’s voice speaking to you what He wants to do for you…He is no respector of persons. He has written this letter to you, don’t ignore it, or read it only when you are in trouble. He has daily guidance available for you. Read it, speak it, live it. Make the Word of God part of every part of your life.
2. Consider how your patterns of thinking line up or agree with the Word of God that you have discovered. When your thought patterns are contrary to the word of God, renew them to the Word. That means you capture any contrary thoughts, and align them with God’s Word.
3. Consider how your actions line up with your thoughts.
a. Changing complaining to thankfulness to God for His goodness when talking with others. Remember how good God has been to you in the past. Rehearse your past victories. Practice remembrance!
b. Stop worrying about the situation – Think on things that are lovely, and good report as it says in Phil 4:8 and plan on trusting instead of worrying.
Matt 6:33 says do not worry about your life…… Trust God! It is an active process, put your trust in our Great Big GOD!