Do You Really Believe it? 3-13-26

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And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”

Christ Ascends to God’s Right Hand-  

So then, after the Lord had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. And they went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked through them, confirming His word by the signs that accompanied it.… (Mark 16:17-20).

Why would Jesus say this if it was not for today. Jesus said these signs will follow (future). It had to be for us because everything that Jesus taught the disciples is for us today.

When Jesus prayed to God the Father about His disciples He also prayed for all who would become born again thereafter. “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who ^[j]will believe in Me through their word (John 17:20).

Warning to those who do not receive what or who the Lord sends to give a His message-

At the same time the Lord spoke by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, “Go, and remove the sackcloth from your body, and take your sandals off your feet.” And he did so, walking naked and barefoot. Then the Lord said, “Just as My servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot three years for a sign and a wonder against Egypt and Ethiopia, so shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptians as prisoners and the Ethiopians as captives, young and old, naked, and barefoot, with their buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt (Isaiah 20:2-4).

Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? They are weaned from milk and drawn from the breasts. For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little: For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people. To whom he said, “This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear” (Isaiah 28:9-12)

We must have proper guidance for those who are immature in their spiritual walk. It is imperative for Christians to have foundational teaching. Why is growing properly on the foundation important?

Most of us were not taught the basics of our Christian walk, therefore were out of balance tossed here and there listening to every kind of doctrine that had us confused no growth (Ephesians 4:11-16).  

For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food.  For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe.

When people’s spiritual eyes are opened:  The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saint (Ephesians 1:18), it brings great joy to those the Lord is using to help them to walk in truth: I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth (3 John 4). How much more is our heavenly Father pleased with the teachers and the learners!

The rejection of God's message leads to a lack of understanding and spiritual confusion. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge, because you have rejected knowledge (Hosea 4:6a).

Betty A. Burnett ~ burnettministries.org