©September 27, 2013 Revive Israel Ministries

Faith through Love

Asher Intrater

To help other people, we must believe in them. People will rise to the level of faith you have for them. This is a secret of supernatural friendship and\or leadership. You see a person with all of their failures, faults, and frustrating qualities -- but can you also see the divine potential in them?

Your faith should focus on that potential, as you nurture and encourage God's image within them. During the process, you have to put up with their negativities—a kind of cross that you must bear in order to build them up. It is painful, but in the spirit of Yeshua, you "bear with them," taking up their psychological and personality disorders (Isaiah 53:4).

Words are important. We rebuke people for their errors; and we must also "speak by faith" to the potential within them. That is how a good coach encourages his young trainees.  The divine destiny within another person may be just a tiny seed, but we see it as a mighty tree (Matthew 13:32). We speak to them that way, and believe our words will come to pass (Mark 11:23). We receive them by faith now as they could be in the future (Mark 11:24).  We call them by what they are not, as if they already were (Romans 4:17).

It is easier to have faith for a mountain to move (Mark 11:23) or a sea to be quieted (Mark 4:41) than for a person to change. Why? Because a mountain does not have a free will to oppose you.  With a human being, you have to apply faith for him even while he opposes the process that is for his own good.  Sin is always deceptive and self-destructive.

Most people are stubbornly attached to their own faults. Therefore we have to apply faith for them repeatedly over a long period of time. This process demands faith together with an extraordinary amount of patience (Hebrews 6:12). You feel like it may kill you to keep going. But we must be faithful unto death (Revelation 2:10).

To build someone up, we must believe in him more than he is able to believe for himself.  That is "faith working through love" (Galatians 5:6).  If you "move mountains" but do not use faith to develop people, then you have "faith without love" (I Corinthians 13:2). If you love people but do not have reality-changing faith, then you are acting out of human sympathy alone, which will not transform them to achieve their destiny.

If we put faith (Mark 11) together with love (Galatians 5), sacrifice (Isaiah 53), and patience (Hebrews 6), then we can help people break through into God's calling for their lives. They will be "activated" and put into action, bearing fruit for the kingdom of God - 30, 60, and 100 fold.

Ron Cantor, Tiferet Yeshua Congregation

Those were the words of Irina, one of five Israelis whom we immersed in water last Friday. As we were singing and worshipping on the shores of the Mediterranean, she looked up and noticed the clouds…and then, she saw Yeshua emerging from the clouds!

Emma, another Israeli, had been declared clinically dead a few years ago. Doctors told her not to be fully submerged in water for a long time. However once she had waded into the Mediterranean, she said she felt fire, not water. When she came up, she was glowing with joy.

Barak came to faith through a couple that work with Jews for Jesus in Tel Aviv. As soon as we finished praying for him, a wave came and drenched us all. It seemed like Yeshua Himself wanted to immerse Barak.

Leah started coming with her friend Yosi in February. They both just finished a 12-week New Believers course. They were visibly touched by the Holy Spirit during the immersion. Leah is unashamed of the gospel and is already sharing with her friends.

The congregation was so blessed that evening at our weekly service to see pictures and hear testimonies of those freshly immersed.