PASTOR DARRYL BAKER

Hebrews 4:12
For the Word that God speaks is alive and full of power [making it active, operative, energizing, and effective];…

God’s Word is full of power. The definition of the word “power” here means that it is full of energy, and able to accomplish what it says. God’s Word created the world in which we live. Yet as powerful as God’s Word is there are two primary things that can stop it from working in our life. Those two things are unbelief, and the traditions of men. These two things can completely stop the power of God’s Word from working.

In Hebrews 3:19, we find out that the children of Israel could not enter into the promised land of God’s rest for them because of unbelief. God had already said that the land was theirs. He had spoken to Moses and told him that He would drive out all those in the land that He had given to them as their inheritance. Yet even though God had told them it was theirs, they stopped the power of His Word from coming to pass because of their unbelief. Unbelief is simply not taking God at His Word. We choose to belief something other than what God has said.

In Mark 7:13, Jesus tells the religious leaders of His day that they had made the Word of God of no effect in their life because of their traditions. The phrase “of no effect” means to render devoid of power. Because these religious leaders had chosen to live by their own traditional beliefs, they stopped the power of God’s Word from working in their lives. Many today still do so by man-made tradition when it comes to the Word of God. They would rather believe their tradition instead of taking God at His Word. Don’t allow unbelief nor the traditions of man to hinder His Word from working for you.

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Christian Faith Fellowship – Ponder Texas

Deuteronomy 30:19
I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live;

Choices, they determine what our life will become. Many like to say they believe everything happens for a reason, meaning that God had a purpose for what takes place in our life, but the truth is things happen because of choices we make. Galatians 6:7 tells us that God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, that he will reap. We reap in life based on what we believe, which affects the decisions we make.

We all have the same 24 hours in a day. Those who choose the way of life, the way of blessing, choosing to devote themselves in developing an intimate relationship with their Heavenly Father, and they will experience what others will not. Choosing to develop and maintain a close relationship with God will have an influence on the decisions we make in our life. The choices we make today are determining the life we will live in our tomorrows.

If we choose to fellowship with God daily through the Word, taking time to learn who we have become in Christ, making spiritual things a priority in our life, this will lead us into the blessed life that God has made available. We can choose to speak life over ourselves agreeing with what God says about us, or we can speak death agreeing with what the world says. Our future will be determined by our choices we make today. We are just a decision away from what God has for us. The choice is ours.

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Christian Faith Fellowship – Ponder Texas

Ephesians 1:7
In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace …

Through Christ we are redeemed through the blood He shed for us. Redemption means liberation by the payment of a ransom. There are three primary things we have been redeemed or liberated from. The first is spiritual death. Spiritual death means to be separated from God, who is life itself. Being separated from God man no longer found his identity in the Creator, but in the creation itself. But now redeemed we are reunited with our Father and therefore our worth (our value) can be found in Him and nothing else.

We have also been redeemed from sickness and disease. Jesus did not just bear our sins and the punishment our sin deserved, He also bore our sickness, for by His stripes we are healed (1 Peter 2:24). He also redeemed us from poverty as 2 Corinthians 8:9 declares that He became poor that we might be made rich. Rich means to have more than enough. God wants us to walk in the blessings He has for us so we can be a blessing, helping those in need, showing His love for them, but we cannot do that if we lack what is needed to help.

Scripture teaches us that the redeemed of the Lord should say so. This is one of the most important keys to walking in our redemption. You need to start declaring according to His Word who you are in Christ, what you have in Christ, and what He says you can do through Him. According to God’s Word you are His child, you are healed, and you are blessed. Death and life are in the power of the tongue, so let the redeemed of the Lord start declaring their liberty by agreeing with God’s Word.

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Christian Faith Fellowship – Ponder Texas

Colossians 3:9b
…having put off the old man with his practices,

A vital key to walking by faith is found in this verse. When you understand how faith works, you understand that you must learn to put off the old man’s way of doing things, and put on your new man’s way, which is the way of faith. As 2 Corinthians 5:7 teaches us that we are to walk by faith and not by sight. The old fleshly natures way of doing things is to focus on and believe in what you can see or feel in the natural. But doing so is not how faith works.

In Romans 4:19 we have a great example of Bible faith. Abraham did not consider his own body, nor the fact that Sarah his wife was barren and not able to have children. Abraham focused on one thing, what God had said. For faith to work you cannot allow what you see or what you feel to affect what you say or do. This is why many do not see what God has promised come to pass in their life. You cannot walk by faith and walk by sight at the same time.

As Jesus Himself said in Mark 11:24, whatever things you ask when you pray, BELIEVE THAT YOU RECEIVE THEM, and you will have them. If you believe you have received what you asked for, you will then speak and act accordingly and never consider what is seen but only consider what God has said. That is what Abraham did, and that is how he saw what God promised come to pass. If you want to walk by faith, you must put off the old way of going by what is seen and only go by what God has said.

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Christian Faith Fellowship – Ponder Texas

Ephesians 5:8
For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light…

God is light, and when we walk in the light, we walk with Him and in Him. Let me share with you three keys to walking in the light. Psalm 119:130 tells us the entrance of the Word of God gives light. Take time to go through the New Testament and begin to daily declare who the Word says you now are in Christ Jesus. For example, you are more than a conqueror. The more you declare these truths about the new you on the inside, the more they will help you walk in that light of these Truths.

Psalm 119:105 tells us His Word is a lamp to our feet, and a light to our path. Begin to practice what scripture teaches us as it relates to our actions in life. Anything you take time to practice you get good at. Hebrews 5:14 tells us that through reason of use, practicing the Word, we will mature and be able to discern between good and evil. That would be walking in the light.

In 1 John 2:10 we are told he who walks in love abides in the light. We need to be walking in the love of God every day. Doing so is a choice we make. God’s love is not a feeling, but a fruit of our new spirit nature. We simply need to practice treating others the way we would want them to treat us. When we do, we abide in the light of God’s love. Take time to practice these three things and you can walk as children of light, walking out of the darkness.

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Christian Faith Fellowship – Ponder Texas

Ephesians 5:15-17
15 See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise,
16 redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
17 Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is.

When you look at those who have a close walk with God, walking in the light of all God has for them, the primary reason they do so and others do not has to do with how they use their time. We all have the same 24 hours in a day. If we want to live like those who are wise and not foolish people, we must make better use of our time. If we do not use our time wisely, the evil that is in this world will take advantage of us.

To walk circumspectly is to give careful attention to how we use our time every day. If we are doing so then we are redeeming our time. To redeem our time means to take back time that would be wasted. It refers to someone who is proactive, living daily with a purposeful intent of using their time for what really matters, which scripture reveals is knowing God. When you look to great men or women of faith you will find that they have learned to use their time wisely.

When we choose to use those extra minutes in a day reading the Word, and fellowshipping with God, we will come to know God’s will for our life, walking in the light of what He has provided for us in Christ Jesus. Think about how much time is lost each day looking at and listening to things we allow with our time that will not make us stronger spiritually. If we want to live the life of the wise, we must take those moments of time back and use our time for what really matters. Getting to know God, and who we have become in Christ Jesus. Those who do will live a life overcoming the evil of the day. How you are using your time each day matters, therefore choose to use it wisely.

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Christian Faith Fellowship – Ponder Texas

1 Corinthians 3:16
Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?

If the church individually and collectively would ever come to the understanding within their spirit man as to who is dwelling in them everyday, and how that very presence of God wants to manifest through them, what a difference it would make in our world today. When you look through the Bible at the manifest presence of God, what scripture calls the glory of God, you see many examples of this glorious presence.

Moses on mount Sinai after being in the presence of God came down from the mountain and his face shone so bright he had to put a veil over his face when talking to the children of Israel. When Solomon dedicated the temple the glory of God filled the temple, and the priests could not stand because of the glory of God. This same glory is what scripture reveals raised Jesus from the dead and now dwells in every believer.

When the church begins to walk in an awareness of this glory, God’s very presence living in them, it is then His presence will manifest in and through His church to display His mighty power. In Ephesians 1:16-20, Paul prayed that the church would know by revelation within that God’s calling on our life is to know this glorious inheritance is in us now, and as we believe in this truth of what we have, we will see the exceeding greatness of His power manifest in and through us. May we become aware of the greater One within us for God wants His glory seen through His church.

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Christian Faith Fellowship – Ponder Texas

Ephesians 1:6
…to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.

The Father has accepted all who are born again because of what Jesus has done for us. Have you ever seen someone who wanted to be accepted by others so badly that they did whatever they could to gain acceptance, even leading them to act like someone they are not? People do many things in trying to feel accepted by others.

When we as believers in Christ try and find our worth in being accepted by others, it will often lead us to do things we should not do, going along with the crowd just so we can gain their approval. In doing so we then begin to drift away from God, no longer living as a Christ follower, and we therefore break our fellowship with Him. But God has already accepted us through the blood Christ shed for us.

We no longer need to try and find our value and worth in being accepted by others, for our sole worth comes from God. So, as a born-again child of God don’t try to be someone you are not to gain man’s acceptance, and don’t fall for the lie that God has not accepted you. Through the shed blood of Jesus, you have already been accepted by the Father because of what Jesus has done to make you a son or daughter of God.

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Christian Faith Fellowship – Ponder Texas

Luke 12:31
Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and he will give you everything you need.

This is a powerful and I believe often misunderstood truth. Why do believers worry about finances, or about having what they need in this life? It is quite obvious by this verse that if this be true, then we are not biblically seeking the Kingdom of God, for in the previous verses Jesus tells us not to worry about what we need in this life. The word seek simply means to pursue or endeavor to obtain. But what exactly are we in this verse being told what to pursue and obtain? A closer look at the original definition of the word Kingdom is quite interesting and usually taught differently then its actual meaning.

Vines expository dictionary defines this word Kingdom as follows: God calls upon men everywhere, without distinction of race or nationality, to submit voluntarily to His rule. Over and over again through different Greek scholars you continually see the word being defined as submitting to the dominion, authority, reign, and rule of the King over that kingdom. You see this truth in the story of a Roman Centurion, who came to Jesus wanting Him to heal a servant of his who was at the point of death. He knew if Jesus just spoke the Word his servant would be healed, for he to was a man under authority.

There is a lot in this account but simply put, someone who pursues and obtains submission of their life under the King of the kingdom, Jesus Christ, will not worry about anything in this life; for they know being submitted fully to Him means I accept and act upon what He has said. As I do, I will walk in all that is in the Kings domain. Want to never worry about anything in your life again? Then fully accept what God’s Word says about you as a child of God, and act in line with that Word, and all that you have need of will be added to you!

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Christian Faith Fellowship – Ponder Texas

John 8:10-11
10b “Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?”
11 She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said to her, “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.”

Here we have a picture of true love. Jesus is addressing a women brought to Him who was caught in adultery. Her accusers tell Jesus that a women caught in adultery according to the law should be stoned. Jesus said he who has not sinned throw the first stone. They all from the oldest to the youngest drop their stones and walk away. Then the exchange above takes place between Jesus and this woman.

True love said I am not going to condemn you. To condemn means to be damned, separated from the Father because of the sin nature within, and then facing God’s punishment to come. The reason Jesus did not come to condemn us is because we were already condemned. He came to restore us to the Father. When you witness to someone revealing their sin nature and they say you are condemning them that is not true. They are already condemned because of sin, their spirit man is dead, separated from God.

True love not only told this woman He had not come to condemn her, but true love also said to go and sin no more. The love of God addresses sinful behavior because sin is destructive to one’s life, and Jesus who loves us does not want us to continue to live a life that is destructive. If we walk in the love of God, we do not come to people to punish them for their sin, but we address their sinful lifestyle because of its destructive results. That is true love.

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Christian Faith Fellowship – Ponder Texas