Our Type of Evidence

We talked throughout this week about EBC (Evidence-Based Christianity), but that does not mean living a life of Faith implies we should live life walking in the dark with nothing tangible to hold on to.

God has given us an Evidence for all times and for all seasons. An Evidence to keep us in our moments of weaknesses and doubt.

“Well, Greg, what’s the Evidence?”

Sorry, I think you skipped it while reading to this point. It’s that small, five-letter word that begins with an ‘F’; have you seen it now?  That’s the type of evidence we have.

Heb 11:1 says, “Now Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

OK, I’m aware that’s one of the most quoted verses in scripture, but look at what it actually says:

“Now faith is…the EVIDENCE of things not seen.”

The evidence that the miracle you’ve prayed for but have not seen yet, is your Faith. That’s why some translations call it a “title deed”. You could also see your faith as your receipt.

When you order for a laptop online, you don’t go around looking at other people’s laptops to encourage yourself that yours is coming; no, you look at your digital receipts. And when the order is been delayed, do you say, “What do you know, my laptop’s not coming after all.”? No! You go back to the company and ask what’s going on. (And what’s the first thing they’d ask for when you make a complaint? You guessed it, your RECEIPT).

In the same vein, we shouldn’t be looking at what other people have or don’t have to know whether our miracle is coming. No! We look to our God in faith; because that’s all the evidence we need.

AMEN.

More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.

GREG ELKAN

Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery

For your Maker is your husband; the LORD of hosts is his name; – Isa 54:5

EBCs (Evidence-Based Christians) generally live their lives on the lookout for signs and external validation. They’re unaware that God generally detests that approach to dealing with Him.

Jesus called people who look for signs, “evil and adulterous” (Mat 12:39). An adulterous person is never satisfied; they’re always looking out for the next ‘thing’. Which is precisely what EBCs have turned the Church into.

Again, Christianity is all about the supernatural and the miraculous; but we cross the line when we act as if the Holy Spirit is there to thrill and impress us.

Take John’s account of the feeding of 5,000 as an example. The people didn’t ask Jesus for a miracle; He just observed their need and miraculously fed them all. All was fine and well even the next day when they came to Him, but the conversation went south when they began to ask for a “sign” if He wanted them to follow Him (John 6:30). This elicited some of the harshest words of Christ to the people – words that caused several of His disciples to permanently leave Him.

Why was Jesus strong on this issue? Because that’s what distinguishes Holy Spirit Miracles from Satanic Magic. The Devil always appeals to the senses, to the spectacular, to the exciting. Holy Spirit miracles lead to faith, satanic magic leads to more and more dependence of sense feedback.

That’s why many Believers today cannot make simple life decisions without the help of a ‘Prophet’, that’s why many place undue emphasis on their dreams as opposed to scripture, that’s why many flock around latest ‘revelations’, etc. Our Lord calls these “evil and adulterous”.

Expecting God to use loud, irrefutable ‘evidences’ to lead you is asking Him to leave His realm of Faith to our realm of the senses. He’s not going to do that, and if we keep insisting on it, the Devil will humour that ‘evil’ desire.

AMEN.

More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them IN Jesus’ Name.

GREG ELKAN

Hannah’s Approach to Prayer

For by it the elders obtained approval. – Heb 11:2

Believers do not live their lives around campgrounds, or “prayer altars” or Revival meetings. Most of our lives are lived out here in the real world; with noise, sweat, temptations and distractions. Road users aren’t going to shout “bless you” as they navigate around you and your Boss isn’t going to send you a memo reminding you of the “365 Promises of God for Bad times”. The atmosphere and setting of the real world is just not primed for miracles.

That is why you cannot afford to rely on sense feedback or sensations to know what God is doing in your life. Take prayer, for example. Many of us pray and look to the world around us to know if God has answered us or not.

Hannah, the mother of the prophet Samuel has something to teach us in this regard (1Sam 1:1-20).

We know the story, she was praying somewhat unorthodoxly in the Tabernacle at Shiloh because she was manifestly barren. When Eli the High Priest confronted her for her ‘disgraceful’ behaviour, she explained that it was because she’d been “troubled and tormented;” (vs. 16 GW).

Eli did not know what kind of trouble or torment she was facing, yet when he said, “Go in peace: and the God of Israel grant you your petition that you have asked of him,”… “she went away, ate some food, and was no longer sad. (vs. 17,18).

Think about it, she was still at the Tabernacle; she had not gone home with her husband; even if they met themselves that day, she still needed at least several days (even weeks) to know if the prayer had worked; yet she went away with joy.

Mar 11:24 says, “Therefore I say unto you, whatever things you desire, when you pray, believe that you will receive them, and you shall have them.”

Well, one thousand years before our Lord said that, Hannah showed she already understood this principle: we get our miracles at the place of prayer, not in the outside world.

AMEN.

More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.

GREG ELKAN

An Oft-Overlooked Nature of God

Then said Jesus unto him, “Except you see signs and wonders, you will not believe.” – John 4:48

Have you ever wondered why Jesus didn’t appear to any of the elders, chief priests and scribes after His resurrection? Think about it; that would have been a perfect witness and end to all arguments, wouldn’t it? Instead, he appeared to His disciples and followers: people who already believed in Him!

This is an oft-overlooked nature of God that we believers sometimes forget: the primary way of dealing with God is by faith; God does not try to impress people; Heb 1:6 says whoever comes to God must “believe…”.

Does God perform miracles?  Absolutely! Does the Christian life entail manifestations of the supernatural? Most certainly! But notice that Mark 16:20 says that the “signs” in the early Church were “following” the Believers, not the other way round. A “Believer” who goes around seeking for the supernatural is like a trained soldier who’s thrilled by the sound of fireworks.

God may in His sovereignty, come down to the level of an unbeliever with signs; but if after salvation that Believer refuses to be satisfied with His Word alone, something has definitely gone wrong.

Jesus stopped Paul on the road to Damascus with blinding light and a loud voice; but the same “Spirit of Jesus” didn’t have to use theatrics to stop the same Paul from going to Bithynia after his salvation; He just did not “let” Him.  (Acts 9:3; 16:7)

Beloved, your life is already full of miracles; acting like other super saints have all the fun while your life is just humdrum and unexciting is both a sign of spiritual insensitivity to God’s preferred way of dealing with you and also an act of ingratitude.

 “That which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” John 3:6; your life is already supernatural by definition. Everything you do is supernatural, live with that understanding.

And here’s the irony of it all, Jesus said “these signs shall follow THEM THAT BELIEVE…” (Mar 16:17). So when you decide to live your life as a Believe-er, the signs of the supernatural will start following you without your permission, imploration or begging.

AMEN.

More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.

Greg Elkan

EBC (Evidence-Based Christianity)

For whatever is not of faith is sin. – Rom 14:23

It’s quite interesting that the Bible refers to Christianity not as “Holiness”, or as “Power”, or as any other positive virtue, but as “FAITH”. Indeed, a synonym for Christianity in the book of Acts was “the Faith” (6:7; 13:8; 14:22; 16:5).

We are saved by faith, we walk by faith and we live by faith (John 3:16; 2Co 5:7; Rom 1:17). Paul’s broad definition of “sin” was anything that occurred outside the realms of “Faith” (Rom 14:23).

Even today, Christians call themselves “believers”, attesting to the pre-eminence of “faith” in their lives.

It is therefore unfortunate, considering the nature of our spiritual foundations that many of us “Believers” regress from a life of faith to what I call EBC – “Evidence-Based Christianity”.

EBC is the kind of Christianity that constantly seeks evidences and physical, fleshly feedback in their spiritual walk and actively seeks such as validation for their spiritual exercises.

An EBC Christian is always looking for assurance that God still loves them, that the Holy Spirit has not left them, that God is speaking through their pastor, that their prayers are being heard, that the weekday Bible Study is “anointed”, etc.

An EBC Christian’s spiritual life rises and falls based on the external goings-on in their lives. An EBC Christian is not likely going to attend a church where there are no weekly miracles and ‘slayings in the Spirit’; and those of them who for some reason are unable to join such churches show little regard for their own pastor because he clearly does not have the ‘anointing’. 

An EBC Christian will not believe what is clearly written in their Bibles until the same verse is repeated – with much pomp and theatrics – by a ‘Man of God’. 

An EBC Christian is a ‘believer’ all right; that is, they only believe what they can see, hear, touch, taste or feel. EBC Believers are a danger to themselves, firstly because they lose out of an overwhelming majority of what the spiritual life is all about, and secondly because they set themselves up as easy targets for the manipulating antics of the Devil.

Beloved, we got saved by BELIEVING “As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him”

AMEN.

More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.

GREG ELKAN