{"id":13254,"date":"2012-02-16T14:49:40","date_gmt":"2012-02-16T20:49:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/buddymartin.net\/blog\/?p=13254"},"modified":"2020-01-10T17:13:28","modified_gmt":"2020-01-10T17:13:28","slug":"a-story-of-gods-faithfulness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buddymartin.org\/blog\/2012\/02\/16\/a-story-of-gods-faithfulness\/","title":{"rendered":"A Story of God&#8217;s Faithfulness"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t<span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-13276\" src=\"http:\/\/buddymartin.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/Lawrence-Everett-Buddy-Martin-young-204x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"204\" height=\"300\" \/><span style=\"color: #000080;\">&#8220;Trust in the LORD and do good; dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness. Delight yourself in the LORD; and He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the LORD, trust also in Him, and He will do it.&#8221;<\/span><\/em>\u00a0(Psa 37:3-5 NASB)<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ffffff;\">x<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-size: xx-large;\">J<\/span>ournal,<br \/>\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">I tell these stories largely as a testimony for my children, for my grand children, and for all who have been affected by my ministry through the years. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">I tell these stories by way of encouraging others to follow hard after Jesus Christ. But most of all I want others to realize that God is faithful in all His ways. The apostle said that even when we are unfaithful, the Lord is always faithful.<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-13318\" title=\"image-58\" src=\"http:\/\/buddymartin.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/image-58-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">What David said about his walk with the Lord through the years is also my testimony, and most surely the testimony of every child of God who has served Him through the many years.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 60px;\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\"><em>&#8220;<span style=\"font-size: medium;\">I have been young and now I am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his descendants begging bread.&#8221;\u00a0<\/span><\/em><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">(Psa 37:25)<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #3366ff;\"><strong><span style=\"font-size: large;\">A Love For Jesus<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">To begin with, I have deeply loved the Lord for the greater part of my life. In fact I answered my call to the ministry at age 24. This August I will turn 72. But to say that I have loved Him all these years is not to say that my life has been without failures. Yes indeed, I have stumbled many times. Yet in all this the Lord has remained faithful in His love to me.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">But it didn&#8217;t begin at age 24. I&#8217;m very certain that m<\/span><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">y mother dedicated me to the Lord from birth. And e<\/span><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">ver since my mother taught me the children&#8217;s prayer of, <\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino;\"><em><span style=\"color: #003300;\">&#8216;Now I lay be down to sleep&#8217;<\/span><\/em><\/span><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">, I have carried a\u00a0pulling on my heart that I belonged to the Lord. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">This pulling on my heart carried throughout my childhood. Even in my early teens I remember making a vow to the Lord that I would preach the gospel if He would take care of a situation that I had gotten myself in to. (Don&#8217;t remember the situation but it was troublesome. I do remember that the Lord took care of it.)\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">The pull of the Lord could not be ignored.\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">Can you believe that I would actually corner some of my cousins in an out house while I blocked the door, and did my preaching. Boy, were they were ever\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">so happy when I let them out. <span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino;\"><em><span style=\"color: #003300;\">(For you who don&#8217;t know what an outhouse is, an outhouse was the answer for nature&#8217;s call before indoor plumbing.)<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright  wp-image-13256\" title=\"Outhouse\" src=\"http:\/\/buddymartin.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/Outhouse.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"306\" height=\"372\" \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">Then at age 18,\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">I joined the Navy.<\/span><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">\u00a0For the next four years t<\/span><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">he\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">call of God pretty much drifted into the background.<\/span><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">And of course I did all those things that are not worthy to be mentioned. Yet the Lord never forgets. He would not let my heart stray too far. It was all a matter of His time.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">It is like the sage said &#8212;\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"color: #000080; font-size: medium;\"><em>&#8220;He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also set eternity in their heart, yet so that man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end.&#8221;<\/em>\u00a0(Ecc 3:11)<\/span><\/p>\n<div><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">Then at age 24, I found myself responding to God&#8217;s call of service in His kingdom. For the next eleven years I would serve the Lord in various roles of ministry beginning in the local church under a pastor, and afterwards on to becoming a pastor and then as an evangelist.<\/span><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">Yet there was something amiss. Even though I loved Jesus fervently from my heart, I didn\u2019t always understand that much about God&#8217;s character. Most of the preaching I had heard was filled with passion but short on teaching on the ways of the Lord, or on discovering the very heart of God. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">My ministry was molded around what I had been taught and had observed. There was a lot of emotional pushes but not much by way of true Biblical substance.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: large;\"><strong><span style=\"color: #3366ff;\">A Need for Understanding<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: medium; color: #000000;\">In 1971, I left the full-time ministry. The drain was just too much. So, for the next three years I devoted myself to serious spiritual adjustments. Sure, I preached out and continued my ministry of winning souls to the kingdom, but I also went into business. In my mind being in full-time ministry was a thing of the past.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Those three years became a mile stone in my walk with the Lord. It was during that time that I began to <\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">experience the Lord on a level that I never knew existed. What had been a mixed struggle and a strain in my walk of faith, was now becoming a joyful walk filled with stability and grace. The Lord was teaching me His heart. A whole new world was opening up.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_13285\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-13285\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13285\" title=\"God's Way\" src=\"http:\/\/buddymartin.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/Gods-Way-300x203.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"203\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-13285\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">God&#39;s ways are not our ways.<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: medium; color: #000000;\">And through the years I&#8217;ve come to realize that a believer&#8217;s walk with the Lord is an ever ascending walk. We are always discovering wonderful things about the Lord Jesus Christ.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">But let me draw attention to an incident that became one of the many ascending points in my walk with the Lord. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">It had to do with what I will call&#8230;<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><span style=\"color: #ffffff;\">x<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium; color: #3366ff;\"><span style=\"font-size: large;\"><strong>Conducting Business With the Throne<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">Psalm 37 is a\u00a0<\/span><strong style=\"font-size: medium;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino;\"><em><span style=\"color: #003300;\">\u2018a fullness Psalm.\u2019<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/strong><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"> It has to do with God\u2019s wisdom for life. Psalm 37 is designed to help shape our faith walk, to teach us how to think and what to believe. The essence of this Psalm is that we need to learn to trust the Lord in every circumstance of life. I point to Psalm 37 because it had a major place in reshaping my faith walk some thirty-eight years ago.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">And now for the story &#8212;\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: medium; color: #003300;\">With my first cup of coffee in place I\u2019m into my morning devotion. That morning my devotion brought me to Psalm 37. When I came to verse 4, I read, <span style=\"color: #008080;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino;\"><em>&#8220;Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.&#8221;<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: medium; color: #003300;\">I had to pause. It was one of those divine moments in life. As I sat there looking at that verse, I said a prayer in my heart, <span style=\"color: #008080;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino;\"><em>&#8220;Lord, did you mean that?&#8221;<\/em>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>That was when I heard in my heart, <span style=\"color: #008080;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino;\"><em>&#8220;Try Me and see.&#8221;<\/em>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium; color: #003300;\">It was like God had given me an invitation to ask of Him anything that I wanted. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: medium; color: #003300;\">Now, I have always loved my sons, but I really wanted a daughter. I quietly responded in my heart, <span style=\"color: #008080;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino;\"><em>&#8220;Lord, I would like to have a daughter.&#8221;<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: medium; color: #003300;\">Almost in the twinkling of an eye, I heard once again in my heart, <span style=\"color: #008080;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino;\">&#8220;<em>She&#8217;s yours.&#8221; <\/em><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium; color: #003300;\"><em><\/em>That was it. Business had been conducted with the throne of God.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium; color: #003300;\">At the time Betty was expecting our fourth child. We had no idea what our next child was to be. The Lord had already blessed us with three sons. <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium; color: #003300;\">I shared with Betty what the Lord said. Then when I shared this with some of the church members, they gave me this kindly smile, sort of like, <span style=\"color: #008080;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino;\"><em>&#8216;<\/em>Y<em>eah. We&#8217;ll see.&#8217; <\/em><\/span><\/span>Someone even challenged me on what I shared, that the Lord does not tell us things like that. <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium; color: #003300;\">It made no difference. I had heard from the Lord.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: medium; color: #003300;\">The nurse walked down the corridor towards the window where I was standing behind the glass pane. She mouthed to me, <span style=\"color: #008080; font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino;\"><em>&#8220;It&#8217;s a girl.&#8221; <\/em><\/span>The tears of happiness rolled down my face. My heart overflowed with joy. Once again the Lord had shown Himself faithful.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium; color: #003300;\">But my happiness was not limited to the fact that we now had a daughter. My happiness wrapped itself around a promise that the Lord had given me. The Lord had given me His Word.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #3366ff;\"><strong><span style=\"font-size: large;\">The Anchor of God<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: medium; color: #000000;\">For some reason this learning experience was different. The Lord had often shown me things. I\u2019ve had dreams and visions. I\u2019ve had the Lord put in my heart things that were going to happen. And they did. So what made this event so different? <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: medium; color: #000000;\">This time there was a direct connection with a promise written in God\u2019s sacred Word. The Lord said that if I would delight in Him, that He would <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-13292\" title=\"God's Promises\" src=\"http:\/\/buddymartin.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/Gods-Promises-300x194.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"194\" \/>give me the desires of my heart.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">What was the great lesson I was learning? <\/span><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">I\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">was learning that you cannot separate God from His Word, and that a life of faith must have an anchor. The anchor for our faith journey is to be based entirely upon the promises of God. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: small; color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">I was learning that everything I would ever need in life, that is, to live by and to carry out God&#8217;s work had already been provided. God even put His provision in written form, the Bible. My entire faith journey was to be an out working of God&#8217;s promises. The Bible is a book of living words.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: medium; color: #000000;\">Jesus said, <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium; color: #000080;\"><em>&#8220;It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; <\/em><em><strong>the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.&#8221; <\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: medium; color: #000000;\">Did the Lord stop dealing with me by dreams and visions and other directives in my heart? Not at all. What I had now was a deeper appreciation for God&#8217;s holy book. I found that the Bible is given to us as a guidebook that God uses to instill His promises into the deep of our heart. God&#8217;s words are spirit and life words.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #3366ff;\"><strong><span style=\"font-size: large;\">Hearing the Words of a Book<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: medium; color: #000000;\">Oh yes, the Bible is much more than a book of facts where we can collect information and argue doctrine. When the Holy Spirit moves on God&#8217;s Word and begins ministering to our heart, it then becomes a living book. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">Listen closely to what God spoke through the prophet Isaiah &#8212;<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"color: #000080; font-size: medium; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\"><em>&#8220;On that day the deaf will hear words of a book, and out of their gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind will see. The afflicted also will increase their gladness in the LORD, and the needy of mankind will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.&#8221;\u00a0<\/em>(Isa 29:18-19)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">And this, my friend is a major cause of the new covenant. Listen carefully to how God&#8217;s prophet describes the covenant of Christ:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium; color: #000080;\"><em>&#8220;&#8216;Behold, days are coming&#8217;, declares the LORD, &#8216;when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, <\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium; color: #000080;\"><em><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-13294\" title=\"God Provides\" src=\"http:\/\/buddymartin.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/God-Provides-300x211.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"211\" \/>&#8220;&#8230; not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,&#8217; declares the LORD. <\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium; color: #000080;\"><em>&#8220;&#8216;But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,&#8217; declares the LORD, &#8216;I will put My law [&#8216;instructions&#8217;<\/em><em>] within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. <\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium; color: #000080;\"><em>&#8220;&#8216;They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, &#8220;Know the LORD,&#8221; for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,&#8217; declares the LORD, <\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium; color: #000080;\"><em>&#8220;&#8216;&#8230;for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.'&#8221;<\/em> (Jer 31:31-34 NASB)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">I broke the afore Scriptures into paragraph portions because I wanted you to read each segment on its own. God writes His instructions upon our heart. Don&#8217;t just glance over these Scriptures. Meditate on them until your understanding is opened.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Not long afterwards, the Lord open the gate to miracle land for me and my family.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-size: large;\"><span style=\"color: #800000;\"><strong><span style=\"color: #3366ff;\">The Gate of Miracle Land<\/span><br \/>\n<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Do you remember what the Lord said about the gate and the narrow? Listen:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"_mcePaste\" style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><em>&#8220;Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.&#8221;<\/em> <\/span><span style=\"font-size: small;\">(Mat 7:13-14 NASB)<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">I&#8217;m not sure the Lord was simply referring to the salvation alone. Salvation reduces itself down to a matter of conviction, <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-13296\" title=\"Gate of life\" src=\"http:\/\/buddymartin.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/Gate-of-life-300x230.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"230\" \/>of repentance, of confession, and of calling upon the name of the Lord. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">No, it seems to me that the Lord is speaking of how we can learn to live in the life that He has for us.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">In my case one more step was needed. At the end of my three years of spiritual adjustment, I made a contract with God. My heart was filled with the things of heaven. But there was something that I needed to do. I realized this sounds strange but the Lord Himself had drawn me to this place.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center; padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"font-size: large;\"><strong><span style=\"color: #3366ff;\"><em>A Contract With Heaven<\/em><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: medium; color: #000000;\">Yes, I made a contract with God. This was my contract \u2013 I told the Lord that I would go anywhere He wanted me to go, and I would do anything He wanted me to do, that my life was no longer mine to direct. But there were two things that I wanted from Him. First of all I ask the Lord to tell me personally what He wanted me to do and not send someone else to tell me. And, secondly, I must have my wife.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The Lord accepted my contract.\u00a0In such a short time He opened to us the gate to miracle land. Betty and I, along with our sons and our new daughter were back into full-time gospel ministry. That was 1975. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Oh yes, there were many more lessons to learn, but into miracle land we ventured. Now we had the answer to every need, to every trial, to every circumstance that would come our way. We were experiencing God\u2019s character, God&#8217;s heart, and God&#8217;s faithfulness. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">I wish I had time and space to share more on our journey into miracle land. But alas, the story is still being written.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><span style=\"color: #ffffff;\">x<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><span style=\"font-size: medium; color: #3366ff;\"><span style=\"font-size: large;\">God&#8217;s Great and Mighty Promises<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">So, what is the real point in all this? Let&#8217;s hear it from the apostle Peter &#8212;\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium; color: #000080;\">&#8220;<em>Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; <strong>seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness,<\/strong><\/em><em> through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. (everything has already been provided for.<\/em><em>)<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium; color: #000080;\"><em>&#8220;For by these <strong>He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises,<\/strong> so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.&#8221;<\/em>\u00a0(2Pe 1:2-4 NASB)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Did you catch it? Living by faith is nothing less than living on His precious and magnificent promises. The land of faith is also called the land of promise. You don&#8217;t earn the promises. You are an heir of the promises.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Listen to how Paul adds to this:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium; color: #000080;\">&#8220;<em>For the Son of God, Christ Jesus, who was preached among you by us&#8211;by me and Silvanus and Timothy&#8211;was not yes and no, but is yes in Him. <strong>For as many as are the promises of God, in Him they are yes<\/strong><\/em><em>; therefore also through Him is our Amen to the glory of God through us.&#8221;<\/em>\u00a0(2Co 1:19-20 NASB)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The Lord God has laid out before us great and mighty promises. We are the heirs of those promises.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Here\u2019s the problem. How can you live by the promises of God if you don\u2019t know what they are? Living by faith is not living by our feelings, or emotions, or <em>&#8216;<\/em><\/span><em><span style=\"color: #000000;\">I hope so&#8217;<\/span><\/em><span style=\"color: #000000;\">, or, some esoteric experience, and so on and so on and so on. Living by faith has to have an anchor. It has to have a divine connection with the Lord Jesus Himself. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The anchor of the faith walk will always center on the Word of God. We are to believe in, and live from the promises of God. We are the very heirs of God and of all the Christ promises.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">What more can I say. I shared just a bit of my walk down memory lane. I&#8217;ve had so many people ask me to write a book about the things I learned. But how can I do that. The book has already been written.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Have you made your full surrender? Here is a song. Let it speak to your heart.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><object style=\"height: 390px; width: 640px;\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" classid=\"clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000\" codebase=\"http:\/\/download.macromedia.com\/pub\/shockwave\/cabs\/flash\/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0\"><param name=\"allowFullScreen\" value=\"true\" \/><param name=\"allowScriptAccess\" value=\"always\" \/><param name=\"src\" value=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/idQ1n3cdgfo?version=3&amp;feature=player_detailpage\" \/><param name=\"allowfullscreen\" value=\"true\" \/><param name=\"allowscriptaccess\" value=\"always\" \/><\/object><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Think about it.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Always your servant in Christ,<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-size: xx-large;\">B<\/span>uddy <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ffffff;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/span>\t\t<\/p>\n<p>Views: 68<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Trust in the LORD and do good; dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness. Delight yourself in the LORD; and He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the LORD, trust also in Him, and He will do it.&#8221;\u00a0(Psa 37:3-5 NASB) &nbsp; x Journal, I tell these stories largely asContinue reading &rarr;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"_editorskit_title_hidden":false,"_editorskit_reading_time":0,"_editorskit_is_block_options_detached":false,"_editorskit_block_options_position":"{}","_crdt_document":"","_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[19,244,520,655],"class_list":["post-13254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-a-love-for-jesus","tag-gods-faithfulness","tag-promises-of-god","tag-the-call-of-god","no-thumb"],"featured_image_src":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Buddy","author_link":"https:\/\/buddymartin.org\/blog\/author\/buddy\/"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>A Story of God&#039;s Faithfulness - Brother Buddy&#039;s NEW Journal<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/buddymartin.org\/blog\/2012\/02\/16\/a-story-of-gods-faithfulness\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Story of God&#039;s Faithfulness - Brother Buddy&#039;s NEW Journal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"&#8220;Trust in the LORD and do good; dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness. 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