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Promises of
God Consider
making this page your web browser’s home page or bookmarking it! The Context The
plan of God is to end evil and suffering in eternity (Exodus
34:6-7; Psalm 34:15-16; Proverbs 1:24-33; Ezekiel 33:11-20; Romans 6:16-23;
8:12-13; 11:11-29; 1 Corinthians 15:24-28; 2 Corinthians 3:16-17; 6:9-11;
Galatians 5:16-24; 6:7-8; Hebrews 6:4-9; 10:26-29; 2 Peter 2:9, 20-21;
Revelation 21-22). The
ultimate purpose of God in all His present dealings with man is to bring him
back to the place where he was before the fall (beloved fellowship, in
abundance) and purge him of all possibility of failing in the future. “The
object and purpose of our instruction and charge is that all believers would
be filled with love that comes from a pure heart, and a clear
conscience, and genuine faith.” —1
Timothy 1:5 God’s Provision Is in His Promises God’s provision is in His promises. We see this most clearly from 2 Peter
1:2–4: Grace
and peace be multiplied to you in the
knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as
His divine power has given to us all things
that pertain unto life and godliness,
through the knowledge of Him who
called us by glory and virtue by
which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises that through these [the promises] you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. Understand more after enjoying the long list of God’s
promises. Plain, Simple, and Practical Promises There
are 750 promises in the New Testament alone, and only 250 separate benefits
because many of the promises are repeated in different books (see link toward
the bottom of this page). Some are not in the form of a promise, but the
truths they contain make the basis of our claims for gospel benefits, so they
are listed as promises. Here are only 99 of them listed: 1. Comfort (Matthew 5:4; Luke 6:21; 2 Cor. 1:4,7;
2 Cor. 7:6) 2. Peace (Luke 1:79; John 14:27; John 16:33) 3. Joy (Luke 2:10-11; 1 Peter 4:13-14) 4. Eternal love (1 Cor. 13:8) 5. Power, love, and a sound mind (2 Tim. 1:7) 6. Necessities of life (Matthew 6:30,33; Luke
11:9-13;12:31; Phil. 4:19) 7. Material blessings (Matthew 19:29; Mark 10:30;
Luke 18:30; Matthew 21:21-22) 8. All good things (Matthew 7:11) 9. Physical and
emotional healing (Matthew 8:18; Matthew 9:29; Matthew 13:15;
Matthew 17:20; Matthew 21:21-22; Mark 9:23; Mark 11:22-24; Mark 16:15-20;
Luke 4:18; John 10:10; John 14:12; Acts 28:27; Romans 8:11; James 5:14-16; 1
Peter 2:24) 10. Wisdom (Luke 21:15; James 1:5) 11. Knowledge (John 7:17; John 14:20,26>; 2 Cor.
2:12; 2 Cor. 12:8-11) 12. Freedom (John 8:32,36) 13. Freedom from condemnation (John 3:16-18; Romans
8:1; Hebrews 9:13-15) 14. Justice (Romans 2:6,12-16; Romans 8:33; 1 Cor.
3:11-15; 1 Cor. 4:5; 1 Cor. 11:31) 15. Assurance (John 6:37; Phil. 1:6; 2 Tim. 1:12; 2
Tim. 2:11-13; Hebrews 6:1-20; 1 Peter 1:5,9,13) 16. Guidance (John
16:13-15) 17. Love of God (John
14:21) 18. Mercy (Matthew 5:7; Luke 1:50; James 5:11) 19. Immortality of body (Luke
20:36; Romans 2:7; 1 Cor. 15:42-54; 2 Cor. 5:1-8) 20. Honor (John 12:26; Romans 2:8-10) 21. Riches (2 Cor. 8:9) 22. No more tears (Rev. 7:17; Rev. 21:4) 23. Rest from hard labor (Rev. 14:13) 24. No more death (Rev. 21:4) 25. No more sorrow (Rev.
21:4) 26. No more pain (Rev.
21:4) 27. All things new (Rev. 21:5) 28. Eternal healing (Rev. 22:2) 29. No more curse (Rev.
22:3) 30. A right to the tree of life (Rev. 22:14) 31. A visible God (Matthew
5:8; Rev. 22:4) 32. Great rewards (Matthew 5:12; Matthew 6:4,6,18;
Matthew 10:42; Mark 9:41; Luke 6:23,35; Luke 14:14; John 4:36; 1 Cor. 3:8-15;
1 Cor. 15:58; Ephes. 6:8; Col. 3:24; Hebrews 10:35; James 1:25) 33. Divine help (Romans
8:26-27,31,34; Romans 14:4; 1 Cor. 10:13) 34. Help in temptation (Hebrews 2:18) 35. Greatness (Matthew
5:19; Matthew 18:4; Luke 9:48) 36. Forgiveness for missing the mark (sins) (Matthew
6:14; Matthew 12:31; Matthew 18:35; Mark 11:25-26; Luke 5:24; Acts 10:43;
Acts 13:38-39; Acts 26:18; Romans 3:25; Romans 4:7-8; Ephes. 1:7; Col. 1:14;
1 John 1:9; 1 John 2:12) 37. Answers to all
prayers (Matthew 7:7-11; Matthew
17:20; Matthew 18:19; Matthew 21:21-22; Mark 9:23; Mark 11:22-24; Luke
11:1-13; Luke 18:1-8; John 14:12-14; John 15:7,16; John 16:23-26; Romans
8:32; Hebrews 11:6; James 1:17; 1 Peter 3:12; 1 John 3:20-22; 1 John 5:14-15) 38. Inspiration (Matthew 10:19; Luke 12:12) 39. Soul rest (Matthew 11:28-30; Hebrews 4:9) 40. Unlimited blessings (1
Cor. 3:21-23; Ephes. 1:3) 41. Nearness of God [Who is Love] (Acts 17:27;
Ephes. 2:13; James 4:8) 42. Goodness of God (Romans
2:4; Romans 11:22) 43. God to be faithful (1 Cor. 1:9; 1 Cor. 10:13; 1
Thes. 5:24; 2 Thes. 3:3;
Hebrews 10:23; Hebrews 13:5) 44. Boldness and access to God (Ephes. 2:18; Ephes. 3:12; Hebrews 4:14-16;
Hebrews 10:19-23) 45. Unlimited power (Matthew 17:20; Matthew 18:18;
Mark 9:23; Mark 11:22-24; Mark 16:15-20; Luke 10:19; Luke 17:6; Luke 24:49;
John 14:12; Acts 1:8) 46. Deliverance from enemies (Luke 1:74) 47. Preservation (Luke 9:56; Luke 21:18) 48. Mansions (John
14:1-3) 49. Manifestation of God (John
14:21) 50. Abiding Presence (John
14:23; John 15:10; Phil. 4:9) 51. Fruitfulness (John
15:5; 2 Peter 1:8) 52. Justification (Acts 13:38-39; Romans 2:13;
Romans 3:24-28; Romans 4:25; Romans 5:1-2; Romans 8:33; Galatians 2:16;
Galatians 3:24) 53. Edification [Tutoring]
(Acts 30:32) 54. Glory and honor (Romans 2:10; Romans 8:18) 55. Impartiality of God (Romans 2:11) 56. Victory (Romans
5:17; Romans 8:4,13; Romans 8:37; 2 Cor. 2:14; 1 John 5:4) 57. Newness of life (Romans 6:5,8) 58. Eternal supply (Rev.
7:16) 59. A spiritual mind (Romans 8:6) 60. Restoration of creation (Romans 8:21; Ephes.
1:10,12; Rev. 21:3-7; Rev. 22:3) 61. Faith (Romans 10:17; 1 Cor. 12:9) 62. Holiness (Romans 11:16; Ephes. 1:4; Ephes.
5:27; Col. 1:22; cp. Hebrews 12:14) 63. 9 Spiritual gifts (1 Cor. 12:8-11) 64. Perfection (1 Cor. 13:10; 1 Peter 5:10) 65. Destruction of death (1 Cor. 15:26) 66. All promises true (2
Cor. 1:20) 67. 68. Transformation (2 Cor. 3:18) 69. Enrichment in all things (2 Cor. 9:11) 70. Spiritual weapons (2
Cor. 10:4-5; 71. Perfect strength (2
Cor. 12:9) 72. Deliverance from the present evil world
(Galatians 1:4) 73. Redemption (Ephes.
1:7,14; Col. 1:14; Titus 2:14; Hebrews 2:9-15; Hebrews 9:11-15) 74. Restitution of all things (Ephes. 1:10; Acts
3:21; 1 Cor. 15:24-28; Rev. 21) 75. Heavenly citizenship (Ephes.
2:19; Phil. 3:20) 76. God's infinite power (Ephes.
3:20) 77. Long life (Ephes.
6:3) 78. Peace shall keep you (Phil.
4:7) 79. Honor and usefulness (2 Tim. 2:21) 80. Personal representation
(Hebrews 9:24) 81. Eternal substance (Hebrews
10:34) 82. Angel ministers (Hebrews
1:14) 83. God to be the same (James 1:17) 84. God to have pity on sufferers (James 5:11) 85. All things (2 Peter 1:3) 86. Great promises (2 Peter 1:4) 87. The divine nature (2 Peter 1:4) 88. Escape from the corruption of the world (2
Peter 1:4) 89. Security (2
Peter 1:10) 90. An advocate with God (1
John 2:1-2) 91. Renewed life (1
John 5:16; James 5:19-20; Galatians 4:19; Galatians 6:1) 92. Eternal truth (2 John 1:2) 93. Escape from hell (Rev. 2:11) 94. Name retained in the book of life (Rev. 3:5;
cp. Exodus 32:32; Psalm 69:25-28) 95. A right to enter the 96. Plagues of Revelation upon rebels (Rev.
22:18-19) 97. Names of rebels blotted out of the book of life (Rev.
22:19; cp. Rev. 3:5; Exodus 32:32; Psalm 69:25-29) 98. Rebels will be denied the blessings of Revelation
(Rev. 22:19) 99. Soon return of Y’shua the
Messiah (Jesus the Christ) to fulfill all the above promises (Rev.
22:7,12,20; cp. Rev. 3:11) God’s provision is in His promises! We
see this most clearly from 2 Peter 1:2–4: Grace
and peace be multiplied to you in the
knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as
His divine power has given to us all things
that pertain unto life and godliness,
through the knowledge of Him who
called us by glory and virtue… verses
2–3 In
the words of Derek
Prince: Note
that the Christian life is a life of multiplication. It is not static—just
holding on to what you’ve got. It’s not
even mere addition. It’s multiplication.
This comes through “the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.” Everything
that we ever need comes to us from God through Jesus. We need no other source
of supply and no other channel. In
the tense that Peter uses, “has given,” we see that God has already given us
all we are ever going to need for
time and eternity, for every area of our lives—for life and godliness. Many
times we pray on the basis of a misunderstanding. We ask God to give us
something He has already given us. It
is not easy for God to answer those prayers because by answering them He
would support that misunderstanding.
So sometimes we have to adjust our
thinking in order to pray the kind of
prayer that God is able to answer. Thanking
God is often more appropriate than petitioning Him. Notice
again, “all things” are included in “the knowledge of Jesus
Christ.” The original Greek says that Jesus “called
us to His own glory and virtue.” It is not our glory, but His. It is not our virtue, but His. God has already given us
everything we are ever going to need, and it is all contained in the
knowledge of Jesus. The Greek word for “knowledge” can also be translated
“acknowledging.” It means both “knowledge” and
“acknowledging.” It is not
enough that we intellectually know
about Jesus; we must effectively acknowledge Him in our lives. ... by which have been given to us exceedingly
great and precious promises…. verse 4 Here’s the key!
God has already given us everything we are going to need. Where is it? It is in the promises of His Word. God’s provision
is in His promises. This is the vital truth that you must grasp: the provision is in the
promises. Say it over to yourself
until it becomes part of your thinking: the provision is in the promises . .
. the provision is in the promises. Now,
we come to another breathtaking
statement: …
that through these [the promises] you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption
that is in
the world through lust. verse 4 I
wonder whether contemporary
Christians understand that language. I don’t know how to say it any better.
It means that “we become partakers of God’s
own nature.” We receive the actual nature of God. We
become divine. Now,
you might think that is a risky statement to make, and it is. Yet Scripture supports it. When Jesus was challenged about His claim to be
the Son of God, He quoted one of the psalms, saying, “If He called
them gods, to whom the word of God
came (and the Scripture cannot be
broken)” (John 10:35). This
quotation is taken from a psalm which says,
“I said, ‘You are gods’” (Psalm
82:6). God actually spoke to men and said,
“You are gods.” We
may find this hard to receive, but
Jesus gives us the divine commentary. How
could men become gods? What was the basis?
It was that the Word of God came to them. “If He called them gods, to whom the word of God came, and the Scripture
cannot be broken,” the same principle applies to us. Because
the Word of God comes to us through the promises of God, we can become partakers
of God’s nature. We can become
divine. I
realize, of course, that statement could be misused. Nevertheless, I believe
that in the way I have presented it,
it is an accurate analysis of what Scripture actually teaches. And
then the final part of that revelation
is a logical consequence of what has gone before. In proportion as we become
partakers of the divine nature, we are delivered from the corruption that is
in this world—because the divine nature and corruption are incompatible. The
divine nature is incorruptible. Everything in
this world is corruptible. Logically, therefore, as we become partakers of
the nature of God, we are delivered from the corruption of this world. I
would like to now sum up in our own words the essence of what Peter has told
us in verses 3 and 4 above. It can be reduced to five successive statements that describe principle number one: God’s provision is in His promises. ·
God’s
divine power has already given us everything we are ever going to need for
time and eternity. ·
It is all contained in rightly knowing and acknowledging Jesus. ·
God’s
provision is in His promises. ·
As we appropriate (take possession
of) the promises, we become partakers of God’s nature. ·
As we become partakers of God’s nature,
we are delivered from the corruption
of this world. Be
strongly encouraged not to merely read through this summary once—or even
twice. Take time to meditate on it.
The revelation is such that you cannot absorb it in just a few minutes. It
demands that you expose your whole mind and being to it until it becomes a
part of you. The Second Principle The promises are our inheritance. They are what God is bringing us into. There is a very simple parallel between the Old Testament
and the New. In the Old Testament,
under a leader named Joshua, God
brought His people into a promised land. In the New Testament, under a leader
named Jesus (which in Hebrew is the
same word as Joshua), God brings His people into a land of
promises. Old Covenant—a promised land; New Covenant—a land of promises. Let’s look for a moment at the book
of Joshua and see the basic conditions
that God gave to Joshua. God
first reminded Joshua, “Moses My servant is dead” (Joshua 1:2). I find that very significant. Before we
can come into something new, there always has to be a death of something old.
The spiritual life, in a certain sense, is like the seasons of the year.
There is a continuing, ongoing cycle
of seasons. We have summer with its abundance; then fall, a time of
withering; winter, the time of death; and then spring, the time of renewal
and resurrection. This is a principle that goes through our lives. God only
blesses that which has died and been
resurrected. The transition from
Moses to Joshua represents one which
recurs from time to time in the life of every believer. “Moses My
servant is dead. Now therefore, arise, go
over this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I am giving to
them—the children of Israel. Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon, that
I have given you, as I said to Moses. Joshua 1:2–3 Note the word all in “all this people.” God was not going to leave any of the people behind. In most circles today, we would be satisfied if we could get 90 percent
of the people over. But God said,
“Everyone is going to go over.” I sincerely believe that is how God
views our situation today in regard to His promises. Everybody will have to
move in. Then notice the tenses. God says there: “I am giving them the land” (present tense). Then He says in verse 3, “I have given you.” Once God gave it, it was given. From then on, it was spoken of in the past tense. From that moment
onward, the land legally belonged to the children of Israel. But we have to distinguish between the
legal and the experiential. Many times when I talk to a believer from a fundamental background about being baptized in the Holy
Spirit or receiving physical healing from God, he replies, “I got it all when I was saved. There’s nothing more to get.” One way to answer
that is, “If you got it all, where is
it all?” Nevertheless, I do believe, in a sense, they are correct. Legally, when
you came to Christ, you became an heir
of God and joint-heir with Jesus Christ. Thereafter, the whole inheritance is legally yours. But there is
a great difference between the legal and the
experiential. You may own much legally, but enjoy very little in actual experience. I sometimes illustrate this by the following little parable: If Joshua and the children of Israel had been like some fundamentalists,
they would have lined up on the east
bank of the river Jordan, looked
across the river, folded their arms and said, “We’ve got it all!” That would have been legally correct, but
experientially incorrect. If they had been like some Pentecostals, they would
have crossed the river Jordan (which I liken to being baptized in the Holy Spirit), then lined up on the west bank, folded their arms and said, “We’ve got it all!” But actually
they would have been just one stage further—still far from their real inheritance. The interesting thing about the
children of Israel taking the Promised Land is that God brought them
in by a miracle, and then gave them their first victory over Jericho by a
miracle. But after that, they had to
fight for every piece of land they possessed.
In the same way, we cannot expect to
get our inheritance without
conflict! The way the children of Israel were to gain their inheritance
was: “Every place that you put the sole of your foot upon shall be yours.” So
it is with us also. Legally, it is all ours right at this moment. Experientially, however, we have to move in
and assert our claim to what God has given us. We have to put our
foot on each promise as we come to it. That is a very vivid picture for asserting: “God
has promised this to me, and I now lay claim to His promise.” The Third Principle The promises are the expression of God’s will.
God never promised anything that was not
His will. We need to understand this important fact. Suppose
I have a young son and I say to him, “If you’ll
sweep out the garage, put everything in order and do a good job, I’ll give
you ten dollars.” My son agrees and
goes in, sweeps out the garage, does a good job and makes everything neat and
orderly. He comes back to me and says, “Dad,
I want my ten dollars.” What
would you think of me if I said, “I never meant to give you ten dollars. It wasn’t my
will”? You would write me off as an unreliable and undependable person—a failure as a father. So
it is with the promises of God. Suppose we discover a promise that meets our
need, and then we obediently fulfill
the conditions that God has laid down. If we then come to Him for what He has
promised, He will never tell us, “It’s
true that I promised you that, but I never really meant
to give it to you. It’s
not My will.” Such behavior would be unbecoming even in an earthly father. It
would be totally inconsistent with the nature of God as our heavenly Father.
In fact, Jesus Himself has assured us of the very opposite: “If you
then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him!” (Luke 11:13). We see, then, that the promises of God are the expression of
His will. When
we know God’s will, we can pray with confidence. Let’s look at 1 John 5: “Now this is the confidence that we have in Him [God]”
(verse 14). The Greek word here translated “confidence” means literally
“freedom of speech.” It was a very important word in the political background
of the Greek people. One of the things they fought for in democracy was freedom of speech, which
is, of course, very familiar to American democracy. So the verse could read, “This freedom
of speech we have in God.” The
implication is that confidence needs to be expressed in what we say. It is
not enough merely to “believe in
the heart”; we must also “confess with the
mouth” (see Romans 10:10). Now
this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask
anything according to His will, He hears
us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we
have the petitions that we have asked of Him. 1 John 5:14–15 All
successful praying revolves around the knowledge of God’s
will. Once we know that we are asking for something according to the will of
God, we know we have it. Not “we’re going to have it,” but “we have it.” In
Mark 11:24 Jesus says, “Therefore I
say to you, whatever things you ask
when you pray, believe that you received them [this is the correct, literal
translation], and you will have them.” When do we receive? When we pray. The receiving is in the present—now. The actual experiential outworking of what we have received—the “will have them”—is often in the
future. But if we do not receive now,
we will not have later. The
teaching of Mark 11:24 agrees exactly with that of 1 John 5:14–15. In each case, the lesson is: we must receive,
by faith, at the very moment that
we pray. Thereafter, we must boldly
express our confidence that we have
received—even before the thing
received is actually manifested in our experience. One
of the devil’s favorite tactics is to
get us to put off to some future moment
the thing that we ought to appropriate
(take possession of) now. In the book, Faith to Live By, by Derek Prince,
he illustrates this with a vivid story: As a young man of about twenty, while I
was studying Greek philosophy at Cambridge University, I was given a grant to
visit Greece in order to study the
various antiquities on the spot. I
went with a friend of mine who was son of the vice-chancellor of Cambridge
University. We stayed in a hotel in Athens and went out about the same time every morning for the day’s sightseeing. Every
day when we walked out of our hotel,
there was a little group of shoeblacks on the sidewalk waiting
to polish our shoes. Now, if you have never been in the Middle East or the
Mediterranean countries, you will find it hard to picture the scene. But in those countries shoeblacks are
determined! I mean they are going to polish your shoes whether you want it
or not! Every
morning the shoeblacks would approach us and say, “Shine your shoes?” Every
morning we would say in Greek, “No!”—“Ochi!”
When you say no in Greek you say ochi and you throw your head back at the same time. The motion of
the head enforces the meaning of the word. But every morning the shoeblacks
just went ahead and polished our
shoes anyhow. Since this method wasn’t working, one morning my friend decided to try a different tactic. When we got out
of the hotel door and the shoeblacks approached us asking, “Polish your
shoes?” my friend replied in Greek, “Avrio.” This
caught the shoeblacks off their
guard. They paused for a moment and
looked at us uncertainly. Taking
advantage of their momentary
hesitation, we got by without having our shoes polished. Can you guess what avrio means? It means “tomorrow.” Many
times when we are on our way to
accessing God’s blessings the devil resorts to the same tactic. He does not
say, “No.” But he says, “Tomorrow.”
As a result, we hesitate just for a
moment and so fail to access the
blessing we are praying for—the benefit Jesus already paid the price for. What
does Scripture say is the accepted time? Now! We often say, “Today is the accepted time.” But Scripture
does not say that. It says, “Now is the
accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians
6:2). God lives in the eternal now. When
we meet God, it is never yesterday and never tomorrow. His name is not “I was,” nor “I will be.” It is always “I
AM.” (See Exodus
3:14.) The Forth Principle All God’s promises are now available to us through Christ. As a
basis for this principle, let us
look at 2 Corinthians 1:20. This is
a key verse when we deal with
“dispensationalists”—that is, people who relegate nearly all of God’s
blessings and provisions either to the past (“the apostolic age”) or to the
future (“the millennium”). There are several different versions of this
verse, but it seems that the New
King James Version says it about as clearly and emphatically as it is
possible to say it. For all the promises of God in Him [Jesus] are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory
of God by [or through] us. Whatever
translation you use, there are certain key words that do not change. First
of all, “all the promises”—not some, but all. Second,
“are”—not “were” or “will be.” Third,
“in Him”—there is only one channel through which God makes His
promises available to us. That unique,
all-sufficient channel is Y’shua Messiah (Jesus the
Christ). Fourth,
“to the glory of God.” Every
promise that we appropriate in the will
of God glorifies God. God has so
arranged His promises that when we access them, He is glorified. Romans 3:23 says, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” There are different ways of translating that, but in essence we understand
it to mean, “By our sin we have robbed God
of His glory.” How, then, do we repay
to God the glory that is due Him? One
way is found in Romans 4 where it says about Abraham that he “was strengthened in
faith, giving glory to God and being fully convinced that what He [God] had promised
He was able also to perform” (verses 20–21). So we give back to
God the glory that our sin has
robbed from Him by believing His promises. The more we access God’s
promises, the more we glorify Him.
And all His promises are now available to us
through Christ. Finally,
consider the two little words that
come last in 2 Corinthians 1:20—“by us.” It’s
not “by the apostles”; or “by the early church”; or “by special
Christians—such as evangelists or missionaries.” It is “by us.” “Us”
includes you. All God’s promises are now available to you through
faith in Christ. Of
course, you do not need all of God promises right now. In fact, we could not
claim all of God’s promises in just one moment. But any promise we need that fits our situation is available to us right now. This is the way we can sum it up: Every promise that fits your situation and meets your need is for you now. That’s
the fourth principle: all God’s promises are now available to us through Christ. The Fifth Principle The fulfillment of God’s promises does
not depend upon our circumstances, but upon our meeting God’s conditions. When
God gives a promise, it is not limited to a particular set of circumstances.
It does not have to be easy for God to accomplish what He promised. One
common mistake we make when confronted with a promise of God is to say, “Yes, I see that is what God says. But in this particular situation it
would be too much,” and our faith
wavers. The truth of the matter is, God’s promises do not depend upon the circumstances in which we find ourselves.
Circumstances make no difference. You can be a hundred years old and your spouse can be ninety years old, but if God says you are going to have a son, you are
going to have a son. It
does not depend on anything around us or in us. Nothing physical, nothing
temporal, and nothing in the
space/time world can change the eternal promises of God. That’s the
lesson. It is why God so often allowed men of faith to get into totally
impossible situations. He wanted to make
it absolutely clear that in no case
were His promises dependent upon a
favorable set of circumstances. In fact, He usually lets the circumstances become just about as
unfavorable as they could be. Real faith refuses to be influenced by
circumstances. For instance, when
Elijah wanted the fire to come down from heaven to consume the sacrifice on his altar, he doused the sacrifice
in water three times and let the water run around and fill up the ditch. Then he said, “Now let’s see what God can do.” And when the fire came, it burned up the water, it
burned up the dust, it burned up the
wood, it burned up the sacrifice. God’s fire has no more problem with a ditch full of water than with dry wood.
Wet or dry, difficult or easy, possible or impossible—it makes no difference
with God. Perhaps
the most remarkable example of this fact is the provision of God for Israel
in the wilderness. For forty years He
fed them, clothed them, provided for
them, and He guided something like three million people—men, women, old
people, infants, cattle, everything—in a totally
barren desert where there was no water, no food—nothing in fact, except sand
and sun. God went out of His way to
say, “Make it difficult, and let Me
show you what I can do.” In fact, He made it difficult. He was the One who
arranged the situation. It
is so important to understand that
we must not let our focus move from the promise to the situation. Whenever we
do that, like Peter walking on the water, we begin to sink. The Five Principles Let’s review those five principles just
to fix them in our minds. They are: 1. God’s
provision is in His promises. 2. The
promises are our inheritance. 3. God’s
promises are the expression of His will. 4. All
God’s
promises are now available to us through Christ. 5. The
fulfillment of God’s promises does not depend upon our circumstances, but upon our meeting God’s conditions. Two Specific Promises As
a practical application of these principles, consider two specific promises of God, both found in the Psalms. Oh
fear the LORD, you His saints! There is no want to
those who fear Him. The young lions lack and suffer hunger; but those who seek the LORD shall not lack any good thing. Psalm 34:9–10 For the LORD
God is
a sun and shield; the LORD
will give
grace and glory; no good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly. Psalm 84:11 Both
of these are clear promises that God will provide
everything good that His people may ever need. However,
before we plunge into claiming the promises, let’s take the logical step of examining the conditions. Neglecting this step is
where many of us go astray. We say,
“Oh, that’s a beautiful promise. I
want that,” but don’t pause to examine the conditions.
The benefits of most of God’s
promises are conditional: “If you do this—I will do that.” Of course, there are some unconditional promises of
God. For instance, “In the last days .
. . I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh” (Acts 2:17). Another is God’s promise
of the restoration of Israel. These are unconditional
promises of God related to a certain
time. There are some promises that God will do unconditionally when it suits Him. However, the benefits of most
of God’s promises are conditional. Thank you Derek Prince
Ministries Links The Key That Unlocks
All Promises Our
Need to Appropriate the Benefits Promised Benefits
(Blessings) and Curses Are
Conditional! Link to the list of
250 separate benefits
of the 750 New Testament promises “This Good News tells us how God
makes us right in his sight. This is accomplished from start to finish by faith. As
the Scriptures say, ‘The just shall live by faith.’” (Romans 1:17; Galatians 3:11; Habakkuk 2:4) “So
we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.”
(Hebrews 3:19) See Doubt and Unbelief
concerning God’s Word “Beloved,
I wish above all things that
you may prosper
and be in health,
even as your soul prospers.” (3 John 1:2) “For
we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against
powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness
in high places.” (Ephesians
6:12) See the reality of evil,
Satan, or the devil “Be
careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and
supplication [prayer as from neediness] with thanksgiving let your requests
be made known unto God.” (Philippians 4:6)
See The
Art of Prayer “…The
eternal purpose
which He [God] purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Ephesians 3:11). “…Rightly
dividing the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15). Link to God's Plan for
Mankind Thank
you Finis Jennings Dake and Dake
Publishing Thank
you Derek Prince
Ministries and his book entitled Foundational Truths for
Christian Living |
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