What is faith?  The bible says that faith is the “substance of things Hoped for, and the evidence of things not seen” and that it’s IMPOSSIBLE to please God with out it. But how do we get it, or build it? The Bible says in Romans 10:17 “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” Notice that it doesn’t say that faith comes by God revealing your entire future to you. If God was to reveal to you every plan that He has for you for the rest of your life, when it will happen, who it will happen with or too, why it happens and all the results, it would never require you to have faith in Him and trust the fact that He does actually have a plan for you and that He will also bring that plan to pass IN HIS TIME! 

 Faith is Trust in God.  Faith is taking the next step even if it looks like there is no where to step.  I can remember a few years ago I was in Daytona Beach doing a spring Break outreach and I was sitting by the pool with a friend. He was telling me how He was believing God for direction and how he wished that God would just give him “the blue-prints” for His life. That way He could just get up every morning and look at the plan that God drew out for that day and simply walk it out.  God sometimes uses simple, but sorta silly analogies with me.  We were sitting by the pool, literally a few feet from the edge, and on the other side of the pool deck directly across from us was a tall wall seperating the pool and hotel from the hotel next door.  I told my friend, see that Hotel over there, I said lets suppose for a moment that hotel is the will of God for your life. If you got up from where we are sitting right now and locked your eyes on that Hotel and took off running what would happen?  He said “Well duh, I ‘d get there.” But I reminded him  of our surroundings and where we were sitting and what was between us and that Hotel.   Look if He had gotten up and took off running with His eyes fixed on that Hotel, he would have first tripped over the pool ledge and ended up in the deep end of the pool.  Once He got out of the pool, assuming he could swim, He would then have to deal with that tall wall that seperated our pool and hotel from the other Hotel which represented “the will of God for His life.” There were a number of different obstacles he was going to have to deal with and get through before He ever made it.

 God’s word tells us that every step of a righteous man is ordered of the Lord.  God will drop the vision in our heart and we must keep it there and pray for it and believe it will come to pass in his time.  If we trust God, God will direct every step we take, so that we don’t end up falling into every trap and obstacle that lyes between us and the vision God gave us.  Obstacles don’t change the vision, they are designed to require us to put our trust in Him. Because we know that on our own, we can’t make it. If all we do is run straight for the vision and don’t allow God to work out each step, we will trip and hinder ourselves and ultimately cause a lot of wasted time. 

 I love Pastor Rodney Howard Brownes testimony of coming to America with only $300.  In the natural that is crazy. NO one in there right mind comes to a new country with a wife and three small children with only $300.  But if I have learned anything from Pastor Rodeny Howard Browne, it’s “HAVE FAITH!”  When God dropped the vision to come to America in his heart, Pastor Rodney Howard-Browne tried a few times in the natural to come, but the timing in the natural was not right, it seemed like the doors would close every time he tried.  But when the word of the Lord came and the doors opened, He went.  The funny thing is, that in the natural the circumstances didn’t seem favorable. Not many people were behind it and they didn’t have a lot of money. But the word of the Lord is the word of the Lord. Pastor knew it was time to Go.  There are so many parts of this story, but the long and short of it is, God opened the door in His timing, directed their steps, provided for the family and the rest is history.  And now today I am typing and you are reading this blog because of this ministry.  When you obey God and trust Him and have faith in Him, get ready because He is gonna use you greatly!

 Rodney Howard Browne shares a teaching on The Great Awakening

The Great Awakening is not a new idea; rather it is a continuation of The First Great Awakening that broke out in 1700’s with Jonathan Edwards and George Whitfield, and then again in the 1800’s with Finney and Beecher and Cartwright. The United States of America were founded upon biblical principals. Out of the original 55 signers of the Declaration of Independance, 52 were hardcore believers that stood by the view that you couldn’t even call yourself an American if you didn’t accept and live by the morals and standards of the Word of God. We as a country have quickly moved away from these principals and instead of calling them principals we call them opinions and add amendments to them in order to water them down and to conform them to a more comfortable and acceptable status.

What is wrong with this picture? Everything! When God establishes something, we as the body of Christ must do anything and everything it takes to protect and carry out His statutes. Dr. Rodney Howard-Browne has picked up the torch of these great men that have gone before us and paved a the way for this Great Nation. As Believers we should applaud, support and join in on the efforts of Dr. Rodney Howard-Browne and the other great men and women of GOd around the nation that have picked up this task. It isn’t the easiest thing to do, but if we are going to do the works of Christ, and greater, then we must share in the persecution as well.

It isn’t about a certain man or woman. God is no respector of men, and neither should we. We are the BODY of Christ! And if only one or two or even three parts of that body are busy working while the rest is doing nothing, then the BoDY is not unified, but divided and a house divided can not stand. We must join in on the awesome task at Hand of the The Great Awakening Tour and join Dr. Rodney Howard-Browne and all the revivalists of the 21st Century to see REVIVAL sweep across America AGAIN!

Have you ever read the scripture where God says He will take out the heart of stone and put in a heart of flesh? As a young Christian I really did struggle with that concept. I didn’t understand why God would want us to have something that is “FLESH.” Some of you are like what are you talking about? What I am trying to get at is, we all know that we are not to live by the flesh but by the spirit. That was my struggle, if God doesn’t want us to operate by the flesh, then why give us a heart of flesh? At least stone is harder to break right?Recently I read a teaching by Rodney Howard-Browne about “Hungry Hearts.” This teaching starts off talking about spiritual hunger is the number one ingredient for revival and then what I must do to develope a hungry heart and so on. The points of the teaching were hitting me like a ton of bricks. The Lord brought to my attention Prov 4:23 “Keep your heart with all dilegence, for out of it spring the issues of life.” BOOM! At that moment when I read that scripture I understoud what a heart of flesh was all about.When we give our hearts to the Lord, we literally do just that. WE give him our HEART! Because out of it flows all of life. IF our heart is bad, then life is bad. IF that heart stops, then LIFE stops. Our hearts must be flesh, so that it can be pliable in His hands, so He can shape it and mold it into the Life that He created you to Have. I must protect what or who I allow into my heart. WHy? Because I want to protect with all diligence the relationship that I have with God. My heart is my life source to my natural Body and to my Spiritutal being. I only have true life in HIM and only when HE owns and operates my heart. I’ve only got one life to live on earth and I want it to count for all eternity!When I was younger I got into the club scene. And while I am not proud of that, I did learn a few things. When you go to a club there are always really big dudes at the door checking ID’s and making sure that you are allowed into that Club. See, not everyone is allowed in. You must meet certain criteria. Its the same thing with our heart! Before we allow anything in, we must check the ID’s at the DOOR! Not just ANYONE can come in…Rodney Howard Browne and His staff at the River at Tampa Bay Church have been some of the most influential people in my life. Rodney’s stance on holiness and living a life of purity is extremely encouraging to me as a young minister. I am so thankful for sound, biblical teaching. He does not teach from his own opinion or from the opinions of other people. He is not influenced or swayed by what the “WHO’s WHO in the Charismatic Zoo” is doing!! He is directed soley by the Holy Spirit. Thank you Pastor Rodney…..Make sure to check out the Teaching on the 12 Pillars of My Faith! They are life changing!