Richard--believe in WHAT? "What" is the issue, not merely believing.

One MUST believe in what Jesus said and taught and not have merely have faith in Jesus. Even Satan believes in Jesus and that and a dollar might buy him a cup of coffee.

You wrote: "Therefore I say unto you, whatever things you desire, when you pray, believe that you will receive them, and you shall have them."

Is this true for you? Is it true for anyone you know? Does it not sound like a 'Gennie in a bottle'?

Jesus also said if you love Him you will abide in His words. He did not say 'if you love Him you will abide in what other people believe have to say.'

My argument is that Jesus never said anything about "righteousness by faith". Did He? Faith and a dollar will only buy you a dollar's worth. Why, because you could have faith in the wrong thing. The "Jesus" you think you have faith in could be Satan himself!

Jesus didn't say this for nothing: "Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in You name perform many miracles?' And then I will declare to them, I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice LAWLESSNESS." (Mat. 7:22-23) He went on to say: "Therefore, everyone who hears these words of Mine, and acts on them...."

He did not say to just have faith on them. One must ACT on them.

Read the new testament and pray for guidence from the Holy Spirit this time, and you will see WHAT Jesus is calling on you to believe. That He is the Son of God, and that He came to deliver us FROM sin, (not in sin). And yes, keeping the commandments is part of that, but He will give you the power to do it, because you can't do it on your own. The difference between the old and new covenant, is that one depends on mans power, and the other one depends on God's power.

When his disciples heard it, they were exceedingly amazed, saying, Who then can be saved? But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible. Matt 19:25,26




First of all, I didn't say that, Jesus did. Here it sounds like you are calling Jesus a liar. Or saying that His words are not reliable. (I know. You of all people. The great self professed Jesus follower.)
If this has not happened for you, me, or anyone we know, then it only points to a lack of faith. Not a lack of truthfulness in Jesus' words, like you are insinuating.

Personally I have never had the need to ask that a mountain be moved. But I have asked for other things that at the time seemed just as hard. And I can testify that He does answer prayer. Praise the LORD!

Can I get an amen?

Yes, you can get an amen. "Believe that you will receive them" is not the same as "hold them in your hand." Still, we have plenty of past evidence of prayers answered to spur us on to more prayer. I think we should ask God for more prayer and better prayer, just like we should ask the genie in the bottle for more wishes.

But, we walk by faith and not by sight. If I need to see that someone else has already received the answer to my prayer before I pray it, this is going to massively curtail my prayer life.

I pray for stuff I have no idea will happen. I pray for people I've never met. I pray for the whole human race.

Think big. Pray big. God is big.

The "Good Lord" picked my vehicle out of a ditch in the Andes and another time gave me a vision as to where to find a lost book 50 miles away. 'Nuff sed

Ya Richard, I will give you a big AMEN! Of course no mountain has moved for me either,(to be honest, I have never prayed for a mountain to move) but I personally have experienced other answers to prayer that would make your hair on your arm stand straight! A couple were life and death experiences. So yes, I do understand about this and you are right-but I call it trust and not faith.

One must remember that Jesus said to seek first the Kingdom of Heaven AND His righteousness--and then all these other things will be given to you. So here we find a BIG condition. Most people that I know are not seeking the Kingdom of Heaven because they don't even know anything about it. And they certainly are not seeking the righteousness of Jesus Christ because they believe they can't live without sinning.

But I have this against what you said about the difference between the old and new testament. If one believes that they have died, as in what Paul taught to die daily, and that since you are dead, that Jesus now lives in you and His righteousness will make your righteous, then where in all this is your power of choice? Paul's gospel makes it very convenient to believe that it does not matter what you do because you (people) have accepted Jesus as their personal savior and He knows you can't keep the law so that is why He died for you already.

And NO--Jesus didn't lie! Jesus did have conditions for salvation though.

I was just sitting here thinking about all the times that you guys have demonstrated that you have no understanding of Paul's writings whatsoever. And it dawned on me. Maybe the fact that you have discarded not only Paul's writings, but many others, is the reason the Holy Spirit won't open your eyes and give you even the most basic understanding. You call the work of the Holy Ghost, the work of Satan. I do believe that is blasphemy. Of the Holy Ghost no less.

Isa 5:20 Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!

Mat 12:31 Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men.

I guess that would also explain the fact that what scriptures you do claim to believe, you don't properly understand either. But have twisted them this way and that, putting all kinds of words in Jesus' mouth that he never said.

Richard, you twisted (deceived) the words I wrote to your understanding. Luke wrote Acts--as such, Acts is not to be trusted as the real truth in a court of law. Anything that Luke wrote is subject to rejection if it disagrees in any way with what the eyewitnesses of Jesus gave us. Luke wrote (as I assume Paul told him to write) that Ananias was given a vision (and I assume again that this vision was the same entity that gave it to Saul)and it was Ananias that restored Saul's sight and caused the 'Holy Ghost' to come upon Saul. It goes on to say that "..immediately he [Saul] proclaimed Jesus..."

Sounds like a story to me on how the Holy Spirit will download the truth to someone so they don't have to learn it from others. As for me, I don't think this is how the Holy Spirit works.

Please do a little homework on this story. Try to find anywhere in this story where it says that Saul REPENTED of his sins?

Dr. Rich I have not figured out what you have against Paul? Did he say something that you can't agree with? or what? It seems to me that he is the most stauchist (sp) supporter of our Lord Jesus Christ. By that I mean he took the message to more place's than the others, and more times. That doesn't take anything away from the others that did there share of bringing the gospel to the world.

pk

You have to make a lot of assumptions for your paradigm to work don't you? That's one of the reasons I don't buy it.

You know what happens when you assume don't you?