Archives For Jesus

All the world’s a stage

Brad Stanton —  August 1, 2015 — Leave a comment

Stream“All the world’s a stage” William Shakespeare

Shakespeare was a brilliant man. He understood that this world that we see and can touch with our hands is not the real world. Just as a stage has props made of wood and other materials to look like the moon or a boat or castle, they aren’t the real moon, castle or boat. It is the same for us. The things we can touch and see are not as real and important as the invisible things of the spirit world, such as angels.

Jesus said that the Holy Spirit (and therefore love) flows like a river to us and through us from heaven in John chapter 7. Romans 5:5 says that God pours out his love on us. In the book of Revelation, John saw prayers being poured out of a bowl.

The more I focus on spiritual things, the more I can imagine the love, joy and well-being that constantly flow to us from God. Sometimes when I read or listen to the Bible I can feel myself relaxing. It as if some healing tonic is flowing over me. Please leave a comment. Do you ever feel the presence of the Holy Spirit? What does it feel like to you?

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A little humor with a big message

Brad Stanton —  June 5, 2015 — Leave a comment

sundown-at-the-bayA mayor of a city and his wife were driving down the street when they passed a gas station. The mayor saw a man who had dated his wife before they were married.

“Wow!” he said. “Just think, if you had married that man you would be spending your life with a gas station owner. You might be pumping gas now” he said grinning.

“No” his wife said. “If I had married him, he would be mayor.”

Maybe she was right.

Do you build up your loved ones? Do you encourage them and help them become the very best person they can be?

What would you ask your father/mother for if he/she was mayor of a city? What if he was governor of a state? What you ask for if your parent was president of the US?

What if your father was king of the universe? What would you ask him for?

If you really believe your father is the king of the universe, you can pray really big prayers. Jabez was called more honorable than his brothers because he prayed big prayers.

I Chronicles 4: 9 Jabez was more honorable than his brothers… 10 Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, “Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain.” And God granted his request.

Jesus said faith is the key to answered prayer. In fact he said that about three dozen times. A few times he said that God’s will is important when you pray. Why did he mention that so seldom?

Matthew 21:21Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and it will be done. 22 If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.”

Matthew 17:20 Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”

Matthew 9:22Jesus turned and saw her. “Take heart, daughter,” he said, “your faith has healed you.” And the woman was healed at that moment.

It took the apostles three years of full time study with Jesus to build their faith. Mountain moving faith is not built overnight. More verses about faith. https://bradstanton.com/2012/08/15/faith-bible-verses/

I wrote a book about the power of prayer. In it I list some things the Bible says hinders prayers. Click here.

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Want to see what type of person reads this besides you? It might surprise you!

Brad Stanton —  March 26, 2014 — 2 Comments

Please take the short survey. Click “vote” after each question to see the results. Thanks and have a great day!

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Reasons prayers are not answered

Brad Stanton —  January 11, 2014 — 11 Comments

1524848_10151925510973460_1359905029_nI can’t list all the reasons prayers are not answered here in this short blog post, but I will list a few.

God has the following answers to your prayers:

  1. Yes
  2. Wait
  3. No – which means God has something better for you than what you prayed for.

Here are some common reasons prayers are not answered.

Weak prayers

Most of us pray weak prayers, not the kind of prayers Jesus taught us to pray. Jesus taught all his followers to say the prayer in a commanding way, such as the apostles prayed in Acts 3:6 “In the name of Jesus, get up and walk!” Acts 14:10, Paul told a lame man “Stand up on your feet!” At that, the man jumped up and began to walk. This is a very important point. Jesus often prayed this way. He was modeling for us the correct way to pray.

In the Old and New Testament, everyone who got answers to prayer spoke the prayer out loud. In Matthew 17:20 Jesus said “If you have faith…you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you.”

Notice Jesus said “you will say.” You will speak it out loud.

The prayer is not prayed in faith.

When Jesus healed a woman, he told the woman who had been bleeding “Your faith has healed you.” Matthew 9:22. Why did he say it was her faith that healed her? It is because he was emphasizing the power of faith. Over two dozen times Jesus says that the key to answered prayer is faith. See Matthew 9:22, 9:29, 17:20, 7:8, 21:22; Mark 9:23, 11:24, Luke 8:50, 18:1 and John 14:14, 15:7, 16:23. See verses http://wp.me/p2rHBL-mO See also James 1: 6 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. 7 That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord.

Wrong motives

James 4:2 You do not have because you do not ask God. 3 When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

Someone might ask for a gun to kill their enemy, but that is the wrong motive and God almost certainly will not answer it.

How to strengthen your faith

Memorize Bible verses on faith and say them out loud twice a day or more. Saying them out loud is more powerful than thinking them silently.

Be grateful to God. Your gratitude makes your faith stronger. That is not just my idea, many experts on faith say this is true. Also, secular psychologists say that gratitude is a powerful attitude that brings good things into your life.

Imagine the prayer is answered. See it answered in your mind. This is another thing that psychologists say is important for achieving goals. Olympic athletes do this. They visualize going through their routine perfectly and then standing on the gold medal platform to receive their gold medal.

Think about how happy you will feel when you receive the answer to your prayer. Your emotions are good indicators of your faith. Any negative emotion shows a lack of faith and any positive emotion shows strong faith. For example, if you pray for finances and you still worry about how you will pay your bills, that is not faith. Feeling peaceful about the money coming in to pay the bills as you believe for abundance, is strong faith. The fruits of the spirit (Galatians 5:22) are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. These all strengthen your faith and indicate strong faith.

Pray once and then thank God for the answer, don’t beg by repeating the same request over and over. That shows lack of faith. Asking God, “Why aren’t you answering my prayer?!” shows lack of faith. Thanking God that the answer is coming, that it is already answered but the result is not seen yet show strong faith. Example: “Thank you God that you have given me the money to pay my bills.” Unfortunately, it sometimes takes time for the answer to come to us.

More about faith https://bradstanton.com/2012/07/10/faith-makes-your-prayers-powerful/

My book, The Amazing Power of Prayer explains more of this. since the book is not edited well, I am selling it for a low price. Once it is edited, the price will go up. 100% of the profits from my book go to the Street Kids Project. Buy it here https://bradstanton.com/buy-ebook/ The paperback with proper editing will be available soon.

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Miracles part 2

Brad Stanton —  June 1, 2013 — 4 Comments

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A man told me that while his daughter was on a mission trip in Africa he woke up in the middle of the night feeling like he should pray for her. He prayed for her for almost two hours. Later he found out that she had been in a car wreck (it was daytime there in Africa at the time) and the jeep she had been a passenger in was totaled. No one in the jeep was seriously hurt, they only had minor scrapes and bruises, but people who saw the wrecked jeep were amazed that people weren’t killed. Apparently he was awoken at the right time to pray for her.

Years ago I lived in southern China and made a trip to Hong Kong to go to a seminar to learn about the Holy Spirit. I assumed it would give me some knowledge that I was curious about. The missionary leading the seminar was Jackie Pullinger, the writer who started an outreach to drug addicts and prostitutes in the walled city in Hong Kong. I sat in a crowd of people listening to her when she began saying that she saw angels and that there would be healings at the meeting. I thought she must be crazy, but later I realized that my injured elbow didn’t hurt anymore.

Once in the 1980’s my car began having problems. It would lose power for a short time and then if I pumped the gas pedal, it would begin to run again. The problem got worse and worse every day until one evening when I was driving a friend and her son to church it stopped and wouldn’t start again. We were close to church so we walked. At the end of the church service she went forward and asked people to pray for my car. I was embarrassed because I had never heard of anyone praying for a car before. The people prayed and I left to walk to my car. I thought there was a small chance that it would start, so I got in and turned the key. It started and didn’t have any problems at all after that.

While I was in China I saw and heard about many miracles. People were healed, saved from auto wrecks and many other things. Another time I went to Hong Kong to Pullingers church and a man from the USA was there preaching. He had been high up in the Italian mafia in the States until someone invited him to church. He became a Christian and turned himself in, but told the police about some other mafia men. Because of that the mafia decided to kill him. While he was in prison for his crimes, someone brought in a bomb with a detonating device on it. He put it in the man’s jail cell, left and pushed the detonate button. Nothing happened. He took it out to a field, pushed the button and it exploded. He tried the same thing with a second bomb in an attempt to kill the reformed mafia man. The same thing happened again, no explosion in the cell, but it exploded out in the field. Apparently God had plans for the reformed man and now he travels the world telling his testimony about what God did for him.

https://bradstanton.com/10-keys-to-success/

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