Seeds of Faith

By Lois Hathaway Vlad

Have you ever struggled with your faith in God? Do you feel like you are sinking into waves of discouragement over your situation? If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, nothing is impossible for you. We are called to live by faith not sight. Yet trials come and it feels like He has abandoned you when He delays in answering prayer. Fear and doubt may try to overcome you, but faith must be tried to be true. God is bigger than anything you come up against but you must stand on His promises in His Word. You cannot fail if only you dare to believe, put your hope in God, and keep your eyes ever focused on Jesus alone.

If you wish to know God, you must know his Word. If you wish to perceive His power, you must see how He works by his Word. If you wish to know His purpose before it comes to pass, you can only discover it by His Word. C.H. Spurgeon

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Jun 1, 2016
• ISBN: 9781512743821

Lois Hathaway Vlad

Lois Hathaway Vlad received her Certificate of Ministry at Sliver Lake Bible College in Mill Creek, WA. . She served on the Woman’s Council at Silver Lake Chapel as a speaker, Counselor to women with abuse issues, an event planner/coordinator, and graphic artist. She was part of the prayer support team for the Senior Pastor. For the last 9 years Lois has served as Head of Woman’s Ministry at Amherst Christian Church in Amherst, NH. In this position she began her writing career. She has written two Bible study’s for Woman’s Bible Study. “Seeds of Faith” came out of that first Bible Study. Her unique life experiences have greatly influenced her writings.

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Copyright © 2016 Lois Hathaway Vlad.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Unless otherwise stated all Scripture quotes are from the New International Version (NIV) Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

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ISBN: 978-1-5127-4383-8 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-4384-5 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-4382-1 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016908525

WestBow Press rev. date: 6/1/2016

Contents

Preface

Dedication

Chapter 1. Knowing God for Who He Is

Chapter 2. Live by Faith not by Sight

Chapter 3. Faith through Trials

Chapter 4. Fear Doubt & Unbelief

Chapter 5. Devine, Deliberate, Delays

Chapter 6. Putting Faith to Work

Chapter 7. Standing on the Word of God & His Promises

Chapter 8. Praise and Worship

Chapter 9. Watch~Rest~Hope~Grow

Preface

In the summer of 2012 God started laying this message on my heart. At its conception I was not so sure. I was content as Woman’s Ministry leader to just love on the ladies and see them prosper in their faith. But God had other ideas. As I kept doubting and asking Him if He was sure about this He gave me subjects and outlines. He continued filling me until I had to carry a note pad around so I could keep up with Him.

I was not feeling worthy of this calling, yet a prophetic word in June 2012 spoke to me about walking out of the shadows and into the (sun) Son shine. I’m much more comfortable in the shadows, working out the logistics, organization and helping others to accomplish what they are called to. But, who am I to question God, right?

Originally this it was a Bible Study for my beloved sisters at Amherst Christian Church. I was trusting God to fill in all the blanks as I spent the next few months putting the study together for them. Interesting that He gave me Seeds of Faith for a title, faith relies on trust and I was certainly in that place, I had to trust Him and believe He would continue to lay this all out before me. He is ever faithful to supply all my needs, moment-to-moment, day-to-day. I had to make a conscious effort not to rush ahead and get anxious because the provision wasn’t there yet. His timing is always perfect; tomorrows needs will be met tomorrow.

I am excited and blessed to now publish this as a book.

Lois Vlad

Dedication

I would like to dedicate Seed’s of Faith to all the ladies at Amherst Christian Church who inspired and encouraged me through all of my writing.

I was especially blessed to have Dolly Gosselin as my personal editor. Dolly’s knowledge of Scripture and proper content and wording was invaluable to me.

Chapter 1

Knowing God for Who He Is

"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for,

the evidence of things not seen."

Hebrews 11:1

Without faith in God, our Creator, and His promises to each of us in His Word, we will not live a triumphant Christian life. Faith requires something from us. To know God and who He is means we have to study His Word, as well as desire to know His heart and His plan for us in this life He has given us. We are told, without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him (Hebrews 11:6). It is essential to study and hear God’s Word to know Him and the power we have through faith in Him as Romans 10:17 (NKJV) states, So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.

As we study His Word, the seeds of our faith are watered bringing prosperity to our souls, and we gain confidence in Him and His promises to us. Active, powerful faith requires building our spiritual foundations on the solid foundation of the Bible and Gods’ character.

It is of the utmost importance to really understand who God is in all of His grandeur and awesomeness so we can do all things through Christ (Philippians 4:13 KJV). Let’s start with a study of Gods’ attributes and characteristics.

His goodness is an attribute that we can posses as well as one of the fruits of the Spirit, however; human goodness cannot begin to describe God’s goodness. If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask Him! (Matthew 7:11).

The Psalmist declares of our Lord, You are good, and what You do is good. He then requests, teach me Your decrees (Psalm 119:68). We too must desire to know His decrees and all of who He is. Isaiah 63:7 (NASB) proclaims, I shall make mention of the loving kindnesses of the Lord, the praises of the Lord, according to all that the Lord has granted us, and the great goodness toward the house of Israel, which He has granted them according to His compassion and according to the abundance of His loving kindnesses.

God’s grace flows from His goodness; it is sovereign and eternal. But even though we were dead in our sins God, who is rich in mercy, because of the great love He had for us, gave us life together with Christ—it is, remember, by grace and not by achievement that you are saved—and has lifted us right out of the old life to take our place with Him in Christ in the Heavens. Thus He shows for all time the tremendous generosity of the grace and kindness He has expressed towards us in Christ Jesus. It was nothing you could or did achieve—it was God’s gift to you. No one can pride himself upon earning the love of God. The fact is that what we are we owe to the hand of God upon us. We are born afresh in Christ, and born to do those good deeds which God planned for us to do Ephesians 2:8-10 (Phillips).

A.W. Tozer¹ in his book The Knowledge of the Holy states, Grace is God’s good pleasure; it is what He is like. We are saved by God’s grace, which comes through Jesus. Grace came in the beginning through Jesus Christ and was manifested on the Cross. God never measures His grace against His justice or His mercy against His love. God is all one. But God measures His grace against our sin.

He continues by noting, Grace is an incomprehensibly immense and overwhelming plentitude of kindness and goodness. If we could only remember the grace of God toward us who have nothing but demerit, we would be overwhelmed by this incomprehensibly immense attribute, so vast, so huge, that nobody can ever grasp it or hope to understand it.

Ephesians 1:6-7 speaks of His glorious grace, which He has freely given us in the One He loves. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace. His grace is freely given to us because He loves us with His everlasting love (see Jeremiah 31:3). He is the God of all grace (1 Peter 5:10), and we have His assurance that we can approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need (Hebrews 4:16).

The story of the prodigal son in Luke 15 speaks to us of His grace: as the father received his lost son back, so our heavenly Father will always receive us back into His loving arms.

This is a beautiful story on grace by Robert L. Deffinbaugh²: "To illustrate the grace of God, I have often told the true story of my friend who bought a brand new Jaguar convertible upon returning as a veteran from Viet Nam. While still wearing his army fatigues, my friend set out early one morning driving down a lonely stretch of road in Oklahoma. Deciding to see just how fast his car would go, he allowed it to accelerate to its maximum speed. Just as he came to the crest of a small hill, he reached top speed. And there, just over the hill, out of sight until it was too late, was a highway patrolman with his radar. My friend knew it was all over, although it took him a mile or so to bring the car to a stop, where he sat waiting for the policeman to catch up with him.

"The patrolman stopped his car and slowly proceeded to approach my friend, waiting with driver’s license in hand. ‘Do you have any idea just how fast you were going?’ he asked. ‘Not exactly,’ my friend sheepishly replied. ‘One hundred and sixty-three miles per hour,’ the policeman responded. ‘That sounds about right to me’, my friend said. My friend did not expect the patrolman’s next statement: ‘Would you mind if I took a look at that engine?’ he asked. ‘Not at all,’ my friend said. A half hour or so later, the two men finished a cup of coffee at a nearby coffee shop before the patrolman drove off, never having given my friend a ticket!

I therefore must revise my illustration, adding a little fiction to more accurately describe the grace of God. As my friend broke over the top of that hill at 163 miles per hour, he slammed on the brakes, causing the car to go out of control, smashing into the police car, nearly destroying it and shaking up the police officer badly. Instead of letting my friend go, without a ticket, the officer must write out a ticket, and then pay the fine himself. He must not allow my friend to pay for anything—even the coffee. Now that would be grace, the kind of grace the Bible speaks of, the grace of God toward those who are saved.

God is love and this is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins (1 John 4:9-10).

His Love is unconditional; He holds the well being of others as His primary concern. God’s love is not emotion but action.