Mix faith with God’s Word and you will profit from it!

“For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.” (Heb. 4:12 NKJV)

Precious and very great promises

I spoke recently with a friend about God’s many promises scattered throughout the Bible. I told him God has put thousands of them there to meet every possible need he could have, physically, mentally, socially and spiritually. And, that all the promises are “yes” and paid for by Jesus Christ. (2 Cor. 1:20). And that the Bible calls them “precious and very great promises” for us to be “partakers of”. (2 Pet. 1:4). He just shook his head and told me he didn’t believe all the promises in the Bible are for us today. I asked him which ones he thought aren’t for us today, and he had quite a list of them, including healing, miracles, and even God's personal provision for us. It was sad to listen to him say this because he could have benefited greatly from God’s wonderful promises! He was always going through some kind of personal problem that the promises of God clearly addresses and takes care of, yet he didn’t think they were for him!

If you don’t believe them, they WON’T work for you!

The promises of God are all faith activated! Hebrews 4:12 tells how two groups of people heard the same gospel preached to them (which is God’s promise of salvation), but, only one of the groups profited from hearing it! That’s because one group failed to mix faith with it when they heard it.

“But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord." (James 1:6-7 NIV)

“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” (Heb. 11:1 ESV)