March 31, 2025

Dear friend,

Let the weak say they are strong! So many times people blame God for things that they have permitted to happen in their own lives. God has given us the power to bind and loose, the authority to forbid something on earth or to permit something on earth.

“And I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven. Whatever you forbid on earth will be forbidden in heaven, and whatever you permit on earth will be permitted in heaven.”
  Matthew 16:19 (NLT)

It’s not about what God forbids or permits, it’s about what we forbid or permit. It’s our choice. God isn’t going to do it. You and I have the formula or the recipe.

For example, if I baked a cake and you liked it, you’d say, “Pastor, I’d like to have that recipe.”

I’d give you the recipe, or the formula, and then it’s up to you how you bake it.  If I can bake that cake, you can, too. What God will do for one person He will do for another. You bake the cake. You choose to be healthy or weak. Every time you say you are sick, you make yourself weaker.

When my stomach is upset, I say, “Stomach I’m talking to you.  You’d better not throw that up!  You better keep it down!”

Everything I eat stays down.  It doesn’t come up.  That is just one very small illustration of how we can live in victory, binding or loosing, forbidding or permitting, and laying hold of the promises in God’s Word. 

Let the weak say they are strong!

Pastor Jo