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Bonnke Shipalana's inspiring article on faith opens a conversation for you to consider how you think, and your relationship with God or Higher Power. If you haven't read the first part yet click here for the introduction of this article on faith: 'A Willing Faith' Click here for Quotes on Faith
The Opportunity It is impossible to know exactly when your faith is going to be exercised. Get this right: Faith is a reactive skill rather than a proactive skill. You only see the need to exercise your faith when enormous challenges pick on your small life. (If you didn't read the introduction to this article on faith, click here) To simplify the description of faith, I would go a step further and say that faith is like an insurance. You never phone the insurance company to check up on your policy, but you will definitely call them if what ever you have insured gets lost or broken. When ever you are facing immeasurable challenges, please look at it as an OPPORTUNITY to ACTIVATE your Faith. Beyond your skill There are two steps that life utilizes in order to break you down or maximize your faith. The first step is to challenge you in a level that you can manage. Maybe you have been able to survive through your credit cards for the last 3 years; able to tolerate your boss/job for the last 18 month etc. In Step One, life is (1) stretching out your strength to the limit and (2) giving your false confidence. Even though you are coping with the situation, you are not necessarily solving the situation. Look at your life; are there situations that you are just coping? If you answered yes, then be ready for the second (step 2) attack. In the second step, life will raise the challenge bar to a level far far beyond your solution barometer. This will occur when you have maximized your credit cards and suddenly find out that you are pregnant. Your boss decides to promote someone junior to you to replace him, and you are left reporting to the junior person. The Attack vs. Defense Opportunity and Skill phase are non-negotiable in our lives. You like it or not, you will go through them. We are only empowered to fully participate in the third phase which is the Attack or Defend phase. Life desires for you to just sit down, cry your lungs out, blame God/Family/Apartheid/Husband, bottom line life desires for you to just sit and defend what you already have. By adhering to its wishes you will be fully dependent on it for the rest of your life, and will become a slave to this world. For those who believe that they are winners or conquerors, attacking is their only option. Even though (1) they have no energy left and (2) lack solutions, they BELIEVE that they have the alpha and omega of all solutions in their faith. Read the following sentence slowly: To attack means to offer a sacrifice or plant a seed! The only way that you can activate your faith is by PROVING that you are not depended on the desires of this earth, but dependent only on FAITH. To sacrifice or plant a seed is dramatized by forcing your words to turn into action... ...This means that you have to (mentally) live as if you have already conquered your challenge. Your mind (the root of faith) can not distinguish between a real mind image and a hoped for mind image. The minute you beginning celebrating the birth of your baby, imagining your baby as the future president, give it all that you have at work, imagine you are working in a peaceful environment… ...your mind (root of faith) has no way out, but to bare the fruits related to the environment that it has been planted in. Conclusion Brothers and Sisters, here is the key secret to living a victorious life at all times. The minute life challenges you on STEP 1, do not be stubborn and fight it on your own. The minute you see and opportunity to exercise faith, do not attempt to prove your capabilities. Allow faith to be your shadow during the day and your light at night. Allow faith to fight small and big battles for you. Allow faith to take over you life. Regardless of how big, small, hard and easy the challenge is, let faith take care of it. By allowing faith to be the driver in your life, you will see the Lord take your ordinary and transform it into the extraordinary. Amen Bonnke Shipalana Copyright Bonnke Shipalana 2007 For another article on faith,or to contact Bonnke,
visit Bonnke Shipalana's website
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