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Don't Worry, Be Happy! ©
John Stemmons, Amazing Grace Church, Fujisawa, Japan - 101106 - rev. 110906
　
We are commanded by God not to worry

Philippians 4:6 In nothing be anxious; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.
V.7 And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall guard your hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus.(ASV)

The peace that passes all understanding results from knowing God personally and understanding his ways.

Jeremiah 9:23 Thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches:
V24 But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the Lord.

If God tells us to be anxious about nothing, then it must be possible to be "not anxious", otherwise, God is unjust to command it. Since God cannot be unjust, it must be possible to be "not anxious".

Anxiety disobeys God's command, and disobedience to God's commands is irresponsible. There must be a way to be obedient to the command. "Be anxious about nothing."

I had just been treated badly in a business deal. I was broke, unhappy, depressed, angry, and of course, being a "responsible" person, anxious about the future.

I did not know Charlie well...he was the landlord over the business. When he heard about my situation, he walked up to me and shoved a considerable sum of money into my hands. "Take this", he said, "you're going to need it". Of course, I protested, but there was no arguing with him, and I certainly needed the money. I was grateful to God and to Charlie, but I had no idea why Charlie gave that money.

The next day, Charlie surprised me again with another rather large sum of money and said to "give half of that to Elisabeth", a missionary from South Africa. I wondered why he didn't give it to her himself, since they were friends. Later, I realized that he wanted to get a "flow of giving" going through my life. Charlie was not God, but he was God's ambassador to me. God gives seed to the sower.

2 CO 9:10 Now he that ministereth seed to the sower both minister bread for our food, and multiply our seed sown, and increase the fruits of our righteousness;

Many Christians have learned that God can get money to us if He can get the money through us! If it stops flowing when it reaches us. the flow stagnates, and dries up.

Charlie then said to me, "I have something that I want to teach you. Will you listen to me?" What would you say? I said "Yes, sir!."

Charlie taught me about the difference between depending on God and depending on myself, and showed me how to make scriptures work for me like tools. He told me to memorize and say each of them out of my mouth "at least 1,000 times". The first one was PHP 4:6-7, quoted above.

Of course, I was confident that this could not solve my problems, but I was grateful to Charlie for taking such an interest in my well-being, and if this is what he wanted, I chose to agree with him, and did as he said.

The results of this revelation were beyond description. I won't even try. But my life was changed forever, and I am grateful to God and to Charlie for what I was taught on that day.

I began learning to walk by faith.

Since that time I have tried to understand the mechanics of using scripture. I believe that it works on the same principle as a seed. In other words, as the seed of an apple is contained in the apple itself, the seed of God's promise is somehow contained in the promise itself. The parable about the Sower and the seed (Mark 4:3-20) shows us that the heart is compared to soil. If a good seed is planted in good soil, and then tended, watered, weeded, fertilized, etc., it will produce a harvest many times greater than the seed.
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Nobody knows how a seed produces, but even the simplest farmer knows that it will. Seeds are planted, because the farmer believes he will get a harvest. He is not trying to "support" the soil, or to "do his part" to help the soil out. He is looking for a harvest.
If the soil is faulty, you may not get fruit, but the soil we are describing is our heart, and therefore our responsibility. If the soil of our heart is hard, we can change it! We can make our heart sensitive to the things of God by praise & worship, prayer(especially praying in tongues). and obedience to the Word. Spiritual seed is planted when we hear with our ears. That is why we need to speak it out of our mouth.

Unfortunately, this principle also works in reverse

When we worry, we meditate on the things of Satan, not God, and we reap results.

Romans 10: 17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

"Watering" is done by saturating the mind with the Word of God; "weeding", by staying in an obedient attitude toward God; "Fertilization", by making what comes out of our mouth consistent with what we have planted in our heart. In other words, don't be "double-minded".

James 1:6 But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.
V.7 For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.
V.8 A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.

The faith produced is the very faith we need to receive God's promise. Just as the seed of an apple is contained in the apple, the seed for the promise we need is contained in the promise itself!

This was a breakthrough for me, personally. Years of sitting under great bible teaching has been a mighty factor in my life, but without the revelation of the Holy Spirit, teaching alone can not change our life. We need the Word and the Holy Spirit, working together to teach us, and we get understanding by walking it out in our lives.


There are thousands of promises in God's Words to cover every possible situation in life.

My immediate problem was that I needed money.

Money cannot buy happiness, but I believe lack of money buys plenty of UN-happiness, don't you? Nobody made God make the promises. They are seed for the use of his children. God supplies our needs in this way. Here's a few for finances:

Deuteronomy 8:18. But thou shalt remember the Lord thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he sware unto thy fathers, as it is this day.

Psalms 35: 27. Let them shout for joy, and be glad, that favour my righteous cause: yea, let them say continually, Let the Lord be magnified, which hath pleasure in the prosperity of his servant.

2 Corinthians 8: 9. For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.

Salvation of the soul requires our unperfected mind(RO.12:2) to come into agreement with our perfected spirit (HEB.10:14). We can not receive anything from the Lord if we are double-minded.

James 1:7 For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.
V8 A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.

We must learn to believe what God says, not only in our spirit, but also in our mind.

Our actions tell whether or not we actually believe something in our heart.

Believe it first, and get understanding later. Believe it by listening to yourself say it and pray it until you have made it yours.

Mark 11:24 tells us to receive WHEN we pray. Almost everyone prays and then waits to see with their eyes if there are any results. But scripture says that anything that is seen is not faith. (HEB.11:1)

Believe it first, and see it afterwards...just as a seed grows underground before you see the little green shoot break through the soil.

The things of God will not submit to the human intellect for "approval", but God will abundantly satisfy even the most skeptical intellect if it is humbly submitted to him.

There is coming a day when we will give an account to the one that bought us with His own blood. I do not want to tell Him that I didn't think His promises would work.
Believe, or don't believe, that is everyone's choice. Walking by faith is a higher kind of life, called in the Greek language, "Zoe" (Zo-ei). It is the life of God himself.

As a child of God, you don't have to settle for less.
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