Church Family Update

Hi Church Family,

The book of James says: “Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, "You have faith, and I have works." Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.” James 2:17-18

As we close in on the end of June I was looking over our calendar from the first six months of 2008 and thought to share a synopsis with you. Sometimes we can forget what a powerhouse of life and activity we have here at CMCC. Here goes:

So far this year, we’ve had the following special ministry events: Strongman Steve Carrier and Team Mega-Force (over 100 people made decisions for Christ in these meetings); Evangelist Randy Goudeau, the young Louisiana-born church planter currently working in New York City; Caryl Mallory from Wycliff Bible Translators; Youth and music ministers Mark & Mary Meyers from Orlando; Paul Moore, Sr. from CitiHope International in Andes; Former NFL star, Paul Costa; Rev. Bob & Cara Grimm from Walla Walla, Washington and Sue Brown from Arising to Excellence Ministries in Dallas. Also, many of us took an overnight trip as a group, attending the two day Battle-Cry youth event at the Meadowlands in New Jersey where thousands of youth gathered as T.D. Jakes and other notable speakers and music groups ministered.

Additionally we’ve had monthly women’s meetings with special guests including Mrs. Kris Mirocco and regular men’s meetings including an eight week Saturday morning video series teaching on the subject of ‘honor’ with John Bevere. So far this year, we’ve also had a CMCA school spelling bee, family game night, coffee house, Valentine’s dinner, 24 hour prayer vigil, CMCA awards ceremony, Good Friday Passion film presentation, Easter sunrise service, Easter breakfast and Little Pond school picnic.

Our regularly scheduled activities included 26 weeks of Sunday morning services with record high attendances, Wednesday mid-week services (with separate worship team), weekly home groups, weekly prayer meetings, and twice weekly music practices. We also conducted weekly Power Kids, adult and children’s Sunday school, True Beauties, Royal Rangers and Youth Group. Our Beacon University/Christian Life School of Theology program continues to feed the minds and satisfy the souls of some of our most intelligent members through weekly college level studies. We are always providing pastoral counseling, marriage and pre-marriage counseling, funerals and bereavement counseling, hospital visitation, and prayer ministry in addition to leadership development and personal discipleship to our expansive leadership team.

Catskill Mountain Christian Academy, finishing its thirteenth year, continues to educate students with excellence in a full academic program, caring for the minds and spirits of 50 children from pre-k through senior high. Seven hours a day, five days a week for forty weeks a year our facility is home to a world-class school program. CMCA students continue to score well above average in standardized tests, including the SATs, and a large majority of our graduates continue to move immediately into higher education. This week, four academically prepared and spiritually mature young scholars will graduate from CMCA and move forward in their lives. We pray for God’s protection and good success for Deanna Barto, Sarah Keator, Lani Odato and Morgan Spaulding.

Our senior citizen weekly dinner/fellowship, in its eight year, continues to serve a free hot meal to 30-50 local seniors each Wednesday evening and our Nursing home ministry rolls on, as it has for over fifteen years, presenting a song service each month to the residents of Mountainside Nursing Home. Home group leaders meet regularly for training and problem solving, our prayer team is coordinated and active and our usher team is well equipped to protect and serve at every service.

The power-house CAP program/Family Table, our rural food initiative, is caring for the needy in our region, having provided over two hundred thousand dollars in food-aid so far this year alone. Another major portion of our Main Street, Margaretville facility is occupied by this life giving grocery store/warehouse. The Family Table store buzzes with activity during store hours six days each week as the blessing of food is available to income-eligible families. The Family Table also holds monthly evening work parties including dinner and fellowship for the CAP membership. Since starting four years ago we have distributed over 1.2 million dollars worth of groceries to local families below the poverty line, serving thousands of our neighbors in need.

To put the icing on the cake is the unseen work of maintaining the CMCC facility and grounds and running the business/administrative office. Each week cleaners are cleaning, fixers are fixing, books and finances are being kept in order, bills are being paid, trucks are being fixed, broken furnaces repaired, insurances are being negotiated, snow is being plowed, grass is being cut, our web site maintained, meetings organized, sermons prepared, classes taught, and the list goes on and on. Literally thousands and thousands of man-hours of work are being conducted under the covering of CMCC, all for the glory of the King! To Him alone: To Jesus, the Christ, the Son of the Living God, be all praise for ever and ever! This is our purpose. This is our cause.

On a more personal note, but still part of the productivity of CMCC so far this year:

• Nancy and I conducted ministry weekends at both the City of Refuge Church in San Antonio, Texas and at the Word of Jesus Church on Long Island.
• I was a conference speaker at the Eagles Wings Ministries annual national minister’s conference in Pennsylvania.
• Nancy and I had the privilege of representing CMCC last month at the United Nations in New York City at the 60th Birthday Party for Israel along with many notable dignitaries.
• I spoke in April to a group of mainly police officers at the 1st anniversary memorial event of Trooper David Brinkerhoff’s tragic death here in our town.
• Nancy served on the board of directors of the Pregnancy Distress Centers of Ulster County.
• Both Nancy and I have preached at various regional churches including Greenville and Athens.
• My latest book revision, The Sovereignty of God, originally written in 1901 by A.W. Pink and revised, edited and updated by me came out within the past two months. Published by Bridge-Logos Publishers this book is the second Pure Gold Classic I’ve revised—the first being four years ago, entitled Power, Passion and Prayer by nineteenth century revivalist Charles Grandison Finney. I spent nearly every spare moment for over seven months in 2007 on the Pink manuscript and it is a good feeling to finally see it in print. My first sole authorship book, Family Church, is now being edited by the publisher and will be out sometime next year. The Sovereignty of God is available for purchase from the church office.

A couple closing thoughts. I have had the necessity to travel a little more this year and participate in several organizations that will ultimately benefit the work of CMCC. As a member of the International Coalition of Apostles, the ecclesiastical advisory board of the International Christian Wealth Builders Foundation, the board of directors of CitiHope International, a member of Your Ministry Consultation Services, Eagles’ Wings Ministries and several other organizations that we are closely affiliated with, my active participation by attending various meetings and conferences enables CMCC to be connected with the greater Body of Christ and draw resources from some of the most cutting edge, godly and prophetic ministry partners available.

Nancy and I along with the other elders/trustees of CMCC are constantly prayerfully considering new opportunities and trying to make our church run in a way that pleases Jesus. We are highly fortunate to have had seventeen years of growth and life and never take one moment for granted. We are deeply grateful to the Lord for the good He has given and our deepest most heartfelt prayer of all is that we can continue into the future with unity, hope and love. Our hearts desire is to make a place for people to be able to serve the Lord and grow in His grace as we work together to represent God’s interests in this generation and prepare the way for generations still to come.

Some things out there in the future that are in various stages of development are:

1. Second story for our main building which will be able to expand our services to the community and the Kingdom of God even more.
2. Business school and entrepreneurial empowerment program.
3. Young adult’s residency discipleship program.
4. New flooring for CAP.
5. Two grants are currently under review by the USAID for foreign-aid projects. If approved, one will fund a program in Kenya, the other in the Dominican Republic.
6. Senior citizen’s housing project.
7. Reprisal of our radio ministry.
8. Women’s care center.
9. Church planting.
10. Growth and expansion of our school of ministry.
11. Development of Bethesda Ministers Association.

Finally: I hope that you are as excited about the future of Catskill Mountain Christian Center as I am. To everyone who has worked with love on behalf of our Lord and Savior... thank you. "For God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love which you have shown toward His name, in that you have ministered to the saints, and do minister. Hebrews 6:10
See you Sunday!

Signposts: The Happening

The new M. Night Shyamalan horror movie, The Happening, is indoctrination into a suicide ethic. It imagines that plant life on earth, in a sudden evolutionary advance, intentionally releases a toxin that takes away the human survival instinct resulting in mass suicide. Most disturbing to me was the unspoken but apparently self-evident truth that suicide is the single universal action humans will take when their survival instinct is removed. Of course the human-species-hating, politically correct, green movie-line reveals that this 'happening' is ultimately evolution righteously acting and protecting earth from the overpopulated human locust hoard.

In one sense 'The Happening' is a classic 'The Birds'-like scary movie, where a force of nature becomes our worst nightmare. On the other hand, it imparts a desensitizing and dispassionate visual imagination of suicide by thousands of people with no sense of conscience or transcendence. To enhance the cringe factor, the movie depicts scores of innovative variations of self-murder with an Alfred Hitchcock kind of indirect morbidity.

The Happening is actually kind of silly and would bother me a lot less if it didn't play so conveniently into the pro-suicide agenda being promoted to our society as a rational solution to environmental concerns and government budgeting woes. For example, consider the real life story below.

--"Oregon says cheaper to die than treat” by Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow - 6/13/2008 8:30:00 AM
Thus far Oregon is the only state to legalize physician-assisted suicide, which is loosely regulated. But respect for life may be facing another threat there.

Oregonian Barbara Wagner is dying of lung Cancer.

Oregon's Health Services Commission has said it will not pay for more treatment, but will provide $50 in lethal drugs so she can kill herself.

Dr. David Stevens heads the Christian Medical Association. "I think this is a terrible situation for patients in Oregon, and something that's going to happen in other states as physician-assisted suicide is legalized," he laments. "Oregon is rationing health care and is also sending a message to dying patients that physician-assisted suicide is the cheap option and they would encourage people to take it."

Stevens believes that is a conflict of interest for the state because it controls the medical funds.

"End-of-life chemotherapy can cost thousands of dollars a month, and bureaucrats -- in an attempt to save money -- are telling patients [they] can't provide money for ... chemotherapy, but here take these pills and they will comfort you [and] end your stress."

The situation goes against the grain of medical ethics, says Stevens. "Palliative care means helping take care of symptoms when you can't eliminate the cause of the patient's illness," he explains. "They're stating [that] the way to comfort someone is to get rid of the patient. That's a terrible message to send to seriously ill patients."

As it would be, he says, to send the same message to people with chronic diseases or physical handicaps, or to the comatose who cannot make the decision themselves, that they are doing the state a favor in dying.

A pharmaceutical company is now providing Wagner with cancer drugs for which the state will not pay."--

Why shouldn't people consider suicide as a natural solution? Here are seven quick reasons:
1. It is against God's law. Remember, 'Thou shalt not kill?' Back when we started killing innocent babies through abortion, Christian ethicists prophesied that soon we would come to other convenience killing like euthanasia, physician assisted suicide and infanticide. Welcome to the future.

2. You cannot repent of a sin until you have committed it; therefore you go into eternity with the sin of murder on your soul. You will stand before God as an unrepentant sinner, not in Christ. How badly we need good strong 'Hell' teaching!

3. No righteous person in the Scripture ever took his/her own life to escape personal pain.

4. Human bodies are technically God's property. A person does not own his/her body, God does. People have the responsibility to nurture and use their bodies for God's designed purposes but not the right to kill them. "The earth is the LORD'S, and the fullness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein." Psalms 24:1

5. Humans are made in the image of God and killing a person is killing God's image. This is the devil's greatest objective--killing stealing and destroying everything in God's image. We believe that human life is sacred and precious because people are made in God's image, not because we are comfortable or happy.

In addition, Human bodies are designed to contain the Holy Spirit. "Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?" 1 Corinthians 6:19

6. What goes around comes around. Welcome to Hitler's world. It's all fun and games until you get old or sick and still want to live but the government decides otherwise. When the government and Hollywood agree as to an appropriate social remedy that opposes the Word of God, watch out.

7. The one escaping into death leaves a legacy as a coward for the living.

Frequent Churchgoing Protects Against Adultery

Story by AFA Journal Staff. Sources cited for News of Interest indicate source of basic information only.
June 2008

A study published in the June 2008 Journal of Marriage and Family showed that strong faith in God by itself does not protect against marital infidelity.

However, according to the study by Fuller Theological Seminary researchers David C. Atkins and Deborah E. Kessel, regular attendance at church did make a difference. People who rarely attended services were four times more likely to have an affair than those who went to church often.

Atkins and Kessel proposed that frequent churchgoers hear about the moral aspect of marital infidelity in their services and therefore are likely to practice what is preached.

At the same time, other religious activities such as prayer did not make a statistical difference as to whether couples cheated.
http://www.foxnews.com/, 4/15/08

Lakeland Revival and Ministry Weekend

My wife Nancy, daughter Sharon Rose and I have been at the Lakeland, Florida Revival for the past two days. This two-month-old outpouring of God’s grace is led by Canadian evangelist Todd Bentley and is noteworthy for several reasons, including many notable physical healings reported and over 20 (apparently substantiated) reports of people raised from the dead. This is the first major revival being covered in over 200 countries on live TV (God TV) and world-wide on the internet (freshfire.ca) with many of the reported miracles coming from people watching at home.

As with other contemporary outpouring-type revivals like Toronto and Brownsville, thousands of people (4,000 each on the two nights we attended) are coming from all over the world every single night of the week. There were people from at least 30 different countries in attendance in the meetings we attended.

The powerful, loud, rock-style worship music was led (for the two nights we attended) by the Heather Clark Band and is strong, anointed and altogether wonderful. The people crowd the platform like a rock concert to worship for a good part of the five straight hours each night. The bass guitar sets the aggressive attitude of the music and perfectly matches Todd Bentley who is covered with tattoos, wears a number of earrings and piercings, bald head, beard and a Harley-Davidson shirt. As a matter of fact, the entire revival has almost a biker feel to it; very blue collar; lots of Harley shirts, biker vests and in-your-face Christian tee shirts.

We arrived both nights well before 5:00 pm to get good seats for the official 7:00 pm start of the service and each night we stayed until after midnight when the service ended. Todd Bentley is a passionate exhorter with a gift of faith for healing and miracles. There was no official preached message in the meetings we attended but after the first two hours of worship, Bentley essentially moved back and forth from prophecy to exhortation to healing to testimonies. Many people with serious health conditions came forward and testified of healing (sort of Benny Hinn style) and Bentley prays with evidence of power as most people fall over, some dramatically. It is heartbreaking to see the sick people who are so desperate for a healing touch from God and it is wonderful to see people healed. An example was an elderly woman who came with a walker and was running back and forth across the platform. The dear woman was just overjoyed to be able to move freely after years of disability.

For me, the best part was the palpable presence of God in the worship. To be with 4,000 people from all over the world who are hungry for a touch from God and to feel the living presence of God is such a wonderful thing. My daughter, Sharon, had the sensation of heat on her hands for over an hour and both Nancy and I felt God’s love filling our bodies and refreshing our souls. Outstanding! If anyone is interested, I will be organizing a church trip to the revival in Lakeland, Florida within the next month or so. Keep watching for details.

We have a great weekend of ministry coming up. Pastor Bob and Cara Grimm from Walla Walla, Washington will be our guests. They oversee Christian Life Center in Walla Walla which is where my son, David, is pastor of Generation Ministries. The Grimms lead a very fast growing church with a strong youth orientation. Come and be blessed by their passion and fire for God! Check our web site for details on this weekend’s activities: www.cmcconline.org

See You Sunday!

What A Week!

***The ministry of Dr. Paul Costa last weekend at CMCC was truly special. It started on Saturday evening, May 10th when some of our men met at the Engelhardt’s home for an impromptu meeting with Dr. Costa who shared insight on economic development for Christians. According to Costa, this is a time in the history of the church where God is giving creative ideas for making money for the sake of supporting the work of God’s Kingdom. He told of a start-up business that he is personally involved with that proposes to grow and harvest algae as a fuel source (like ethanol) and he went on to encourage the guys to dream, think, create and work strategically to invest their time, faith and money in creative endeavors.

On Sunday morning May 11th at our main service, Dr.Costa encouraged us to open our eyes of faith and believe God for the promised miraculous power to heal the sick and expect signs and wonders. The Notre Dame educated former NFL star has a unique ministry style that is non-emotional and intelligent, and his faith is so matter-of-fact that he is the veritable anti-type of the stereotypical healing evangelist. During his ministry Sunday morning several notable reports of people feeling a healing touch from God were reported including relief from pain in problem knees, back pain gone, and arthritis pain subsided. In particular was the testimony of one of our members who is battling serious lung disease and on his way out of church remarked that he had not breathed so freely in months! Thank you Lord Jesus!

On Sunday evening Dr. Costa met with our college-age group and taught the kids how to pray for one another for blessings and healing. Of special note was the way Dr. Costa did not actually pray for the people himself but taught our members how to pray for others and be open for the genuine power of God to be displayed.Great fun!

***Last Monday a group of CMCC members traveled to Latham for the annual Alight Care Center banquet. Alight is a help & health center for women-in-need run by our friends at Victorious Life Christian Church in Troy. The center offers pregnancy counseling, parenting classes, anger management classes, clothing and referral support. Alight saw over 3,000 clients in the past year. Attending from CMCC were Pastor Bob and Nancy Engelhardt, Pastor Renard and Gina Barto, Lynn Keator, Marie Spaulding, Stephanie Seminara and Toby Roe.

The keynote speaker was Dr. Bob Paeglow, a physician from downtown Albany who has sacrificed big-money medicine to serve, mostly for free, the poorest of the poor in inner city Albany. His office, ‘Compassion in Action/Koinonia Primary Care’ is part of a larger ministry called the Capital District Prayer and Healing Center where their mission is caring for people spiritually and physically. Dr. Paeglow has been widely recognized for his good work and received many honors including winning the Albany Medical College Humanism in Medicine Award and being named a2006 People Magazine Hometown Hero. There is one who makes himself rich, yet has nothing; And one who makes himself poor, yet has great riches. (Proverbs 13:7)

***This past Wednesday evening’s mid-week service was a very special time of impartation from Nancy Engelhardt when she taught a message entitled, ‘So Close and Yet So Far.’ Using the story of the healing of Naaman the Leper by the prophet Elisha (2 Kings 5), Nancy focused on Elisha’s servant, Gehazi, who secretly took the payment offered by Naaman despite Elisha’s orders not to take it.

Gehazi was the closest servant of the greatest living prophet of the time and yet his love of money twisted his heart and in the end, he ended up with the very leprosy that was cleansed from Naaman. In our materialist society it is vital that we remember the commandment, ‘Thou shalt not covet’ (See my blog entry for April 28th). The truth is that we can be very involved in church and good work and never catch God’s heart. What a shame to think that all of the effort and sacrifice that goes into our faith could be for nothing if we don’t obey when it counts. So close and yet so far! Come out this Wednesday evening at 7:00 pm for a great mid-week boost.

***On Thursday evening, May 15, Pastor Bob and Nancy Engelhardt along with CMCC members Ron and Julie Odato attended a 60th Birthday Party/Banquet for Israel at the United Nations in New York City. The event was supported by a diverse group of religious, government and business leaders from both the Christian and Jewish communities and was lead by Rev. Robert Stearns of Eagles’ Wings Ministries. Because of CMCC’s support over the years for Eagles’ Wings mission in building bridges with Israel, our group was given VIP status, enjoying a special pre-banquet reception. This sunset reception was held outdoors on a magnificent terrace several stories up in the UN complex overlooking the East River.

The banquet was attended by Pat & Shirley Boone, Paula White, Michael Little (President of CBN), Rev. John Hagee (the keynote speaker) and many other national leaders from the Christian community. In addition, the Jewish community was very well represented includingspeakers: Asaf Sharif, the Counsel General of Israel in New York; and Rabbi Dr. Schlomo Riskin, an internationally renowned educator, speaker and author. Other distinguished members of the Jewish Community were businessmen/philanthropists Ziel Feldmen, Harvey Krueger, Irwin Hochberg, Robert Rothenberg, and Israel Borovich (Chairman, El Al Israel Airlines).

An especially touching moment was a presentation by German pastor, Rev. Daniel Mueller, leader of one of Europe’s largest evangelical churches. His church has supported Israel since 1982 through social work, community improvement projects and establishing 38 schools in Jerusalem. He is a pioneer in establishing Jewish-Christian relationships and his humble presence at the 60th birthday of modern Israel, given the still-vivid memory of the Holocaust was truly powerful.

***From 2002-2004 CMCC had a billboard on Route 28 near Pine Hill, visible to westbound traffic. Over the years many have shared how they miss seeing our words, ‘Welcome to God’s Country’ and how it used to warm their heart. Well, we are back in business! Within the next four weeks the same spot will be used to post our new and improved ad and greeting to those coming into our region. It will still say “Welcome to God’s Country,” but this time we are adding a full-color photo of our campus and our most recent slogan:Catskill Mountain Christian Center, A World-Class Church with a Hometown Heart. I think you’re going to love it! Thanks to Jessie Moore for the design work.

***Please keep Sherry Bush in your prayers for healing as well as Matty Beutel, Irena Lanzilotta and Lee Jenkins. As always, please also remember our brave American heroes protecting us from harm in the military, law enforcement and fire service.

***Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen. Ephesians 3:20-21

Question and Answer: Gifts of the Spirit

Hi Pastor Bob, I have some questions.

I’m taking a theology course, and the author of the textbook talks about the gifts of the Holy Spirit. He says "the first generation of Christians experienced spectacular signs and wonders which the second generation apparently did not. Citing 1 Corinthians 13:8, the author says that the gift of tongues evidently died as did the gift of prophecy because the gifts were only for the founding period of the church and then withdrawn.

What does this scripture say/mean? Can you tell me from what perspective/ doctrine the author is coming from? Thank you.


Answer: Dear Reader,

Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. (1 Corinthians 13:8)

The interpretation you cited is a common anti-charismatic position on the gifts of the Spirit. It is called Cessation Theology, meaning the gifts ceased after the entire body of Scripture was compiled. It is wrong doctrine for multiple reasons:

1. There have been documented miracles throughout the church age.

2. It causes us to be guilty of the indictment against false Christians... "Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof" 2 Timothy 3:5

3. This Scripture clearly interprets itself further down as to when the gifts will pass away along with knowledge... For we know in part and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away. 1 Corinthians 13:9-10

The gifts will pass away, ‘When that which is perfect has come.’ So then, when will ‘the perfect’ come? ‘The perfect’ will come when Jesus returns. He is the ‘Perfect’ one. Anti-charismatic teaching claims that ‘the perfect’ refers to the complete collection of the Scriptures but this is theology based on their desire to reconcile their pre-conceived position. It is clear that, although the complete Scripture has been around for 2000 years, our understanding and power is still pretty imperfect.

Paul is saying that when Jesus returns and His Kingdom comes in its fullness we will not need the gifts and knowledge because, "For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known." 1 Corinthians 13:12. The gifts will pass away when, "I SHALL KNOW JUST AS I AM KNOWN." It is easy to agree that we do not see the Kingdom this clearly yet. Paul says that we will have a complete, open, pure and reciprocal knowledge of God and His plans and purposes. Honey, we ain't there! The gifts are still vital for seeing God's Kingdom still coming.

4. The gifts are given as garden tools, to weed out the works of the flesh and produce the fruit of the Holy Spirit (Gal. 5).

5. Even if tongues were not practiced for a long time it only proves what Jesus said, "Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain” (John 12:24). Although Jesus is directly referring here to His death and resurrection, it reveals a universal spiritual law. The gifts were largely lost to the church for a long time but the seed of God's Word has sprung up again at the beginning of the 20th century and produced incredible life again for the past one hundred plus years.

These are just a few thoughts off of the top of my head so let me know if they help at all. I love this subject!

Question and Answer: The Nature of Faith

A recent insightful question was posed to me and I thought the conversation was worth posting.

Q: Hi Pastor Bob, I was reading Hebrews 11 and was wondering what it means when it says "Each one of these people of faith died not yet having in hand what was promised, but still believing." Hebrews 11:13 and it says it again in 11:39 "Not one of these people, even though their lives of faith were exemplary, got their hands on what was promised." He gave the examples of Abraham and Sarah, but they were promised a child and they had Isaac. Is he just referring to Heaven and being there? What does this mean? Thanks! Have a great day!

Answer:
Hi, great question! This really speaks to the true nature of faith. Faith is being so convinced of the truth of the Gospel that even death cannot separate you from that truth. Once you get hold of any promise of God, that truth becomes more certain than the laws of nature.

Jesus spent His entire earthly ministry trying to convince His disciples to increase their faith regarding, not just the promise of eternal life, but the reality of the unseen Kingdom of God invading the time-space dimension. "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen"(Hebrews 11:1).

Therefore, your question accurately identifies the real point of contention between many evangelicals and Spirit-filled Christians. Evangelicals tend to only believe that faith is for our eternal salvation and not for issues of the present age. Many feel that fighting the fight of faith is standing for Jesus in the face of persecution. They do not typically believe actively for the promises of God to be manifested in the here and now.

Spirit-filled believers agree with all of the above and also include the segments of the Bible where we are instructed to have faith for God's manifested glory in our present lives. We believe in the importance of the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5) as well as the gifts of the Spirit (1Corinthians 12-14).

We believe that the fight of faith includes finding all of the promises of God revealed in His Word and exercising our faith to reveal the full range of God's power. We believe that God is pleased with this more aggressive fight of faith. Mark 11: 23-24... Jesus commanded His disciples to "Have faith in God. "For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be removed and be cast into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. "Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them. Mark 11:22-24 (NKJV)

I hope this sheds a little perspective on this. When you fight the fight of faith for salvation or any other promise, you believe until...
Blessings, Pastor Bob