As we step into 2025, let’s build our faith. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. I want to build faith around what God has given us access to.
In Mark 10, people were bringing children to Jesus, but the disciples were rebuking them. However, Jesus said, “Let the little children come.” He did not want the children’s access to Him to be cut off. We need to be careful receiving a “no” from people when we are getting a “yes” from God. It's important to understand that we serve a God of permission and possibility, not restriction. While our world often focuses on limitations and "nos," God's kingdom operates on a foundation of "yes" through Christ.
Why Do We Struggle to Believe in God's Yes?
We live in an age of cynicism and militant unbelief that can wage war against faith. However, everything God does in our lives happens through faith. God is able to do what He has promised He will do. I believe in irrational faith and I believe God over everything else. What has God said “yes” to in your life? You just need that one “yes” from Him.
For clarity, when I talk about the gospel of permission, I am not talking about evil or the ungodly, things outside of the bounds of the Word of God. There’s a difference between license and permission. License is when we do something and then tell God He should be ok with it. The permission I’m talking about is what God has given us the ability to believe for and to pursue. There are “nos” in the Bible but they are there to protect the “yeses” of God. Everytime God tells you “no”, He is trying to get you to the right “yes” so you can experience the blessing, favor, and goodness of God. You can’t read the Bible as if you are David and you are fighting Goliath. It is not about us, it is not our story. But it is FOR US to understand what God did then and that He is able to do it now. What He did in the past is a prophecy for what He will do. He is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. He is our unchanging God.
Understanding Access to God's Presence
Have you ever prayed for something sincerely and in faith and had it not go the way you expected it to go? We have limited information. Trust God to take you in the right direction. Jesus did not deny access to the children and blessed them when they came. He redefined the value of children at this moment. While we're not guaranteed specific outcomes, we are guaranteed access to God's grace. Through the eyes of the Kingdom of God, Jesus was declaring that this access isn't based on our status or achievements but on our faith, just like the children Jesus welcomed despite cultural norms. Hebrews 4:16 encourages us to "draw near to the throne of grace with confidence that you may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need."
How Do We Work Out God's Yes in Our Lives?
If God has given us access to blessing, we should be tenacious in pursuing that blessing, for our lives and for our churches. Permission should inspire persistence. The current culture is gravitating toward a victim mentality but God wants to call you higher. The woman with the issue of blood who pressed through restrictions to touch Jesus was isolated from family and society but decided to ignore the “nos”, pressed through the crowd and touched Jesus’ hem. In one moment, she received the “yes” needed for her miracle. Touch prayer, touch the Word of God, touch generosity and it will mark your life. What you touch by faith will touch you.
Look at Jabez who prayed for enlargement despite his name that depicted the painful circumstances of his birth and existence. How many of us are labeled by negative circumstances. But one day (I Chronicles 4:10), Jabez rose up and prayed a bold prayer for blessing and expansion and received what I call the “nod of God”. A life that was filled with pain and restriction was turned into a life that was abundant and full. God’s not the God of “just enough” but “more than enough”, more than we can ask, think or imagine. He never barely meets the need. He is the God of greater.
Knowing the will of God is important. God is able, and God is willing. Remember the leper, also ceremonially unclean like the woman with the issue of blood, leading a life filled with restrictions and “nos”. The leper came to Jesus and asked for healing “if He willed”. Jesus' stretched out His hand and said "I will". The leprosy disappeared and Jesus gave him further instruction of what he was to do. Believe. God is willing to do what He has promised He would do.
The Power of God's Yes
Think on all God has done in your life and let it build your faith for what He will do. Believe for the miraculous. Paul told us that God does not change His mind. 2 Corinthians 1:20 reveals that all of God's promises have been fulfilled in Christ with a resounding “yes”. Our “yes” ascends back to God for His glory. Permission is potential that shouldn't be wasted. We're living under heaven's yes, regardless of what our circumstances say. You have permission to believe for increase, to see a mountain moved, to see a life restored. Let’s say “amen” back to the promises of God. He is looking for our “yes”. We're called to be exceptional people with exceptional faith.
This week, identify areas where you've accepted a "no" that God hasn't given. Believe God. You have permission to walk on the promises of God. Don’t be confined or settle for what the world has given you. We have grace to go before the throne of God and ask God what we need from Him. I pray for you to have the faith to believe something greater. You're living under the “yes” of heaven. Don't let the world's "no" override God's "yes" in your life.
