I was a bit naughty yesterday, and didn’t sit down to write. My toddler didn’t have a sleep yesterday, so then I didn’t sit down to write during her nap, and then when my husband came home, instead of sneaking off and writing we watched my fourth Enid Blyton dvd show for the day that I found at the library.

I knew what I was writing about though, today I’m sharing about building faith to partake in communion.  What exactly does that mean, you ask, and do I need faith to partake at all?

It’s not so much that your starting place in taking communion, needs to be a complete understanding of why you are doing, many of us have been taking communion in church for years not really getting why.   It’s that as we study communion and what God’s Word says and really means, it builds faith into our lives to expect bigger things from when we do partake.  Expecting protection and healing, because we understand that’s what is part of the covenant and that in sharing communion we are reminding ourselves, God and the enemy of this fact.

So what is faith and how do we build it?

“Now  faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.  This is what the ancients were commended for. ”  Hebrews 11:1

In the above passage being sure what we hope for, is being sure of and following out the Word God had given these ancients, even though they didn’t necessarily understand it or see it.

Romans 10:17

¹⁷ So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

So how do I build faith in my life?   Reading God’s Word is a good place to start, reading books by people who are delving into God’s Word, and listening to teachings by people who are doing the same.  Looking at this verse, it’s not just the written word that builds faith but the spoken Word, which is why I have included video and audio links to a lot of what I’ve been writing about.   You can read it now and then listening to it someone will say it and it clicks and builds faith, so if me just writing about it, isn’t building your faith in the area of communion, you need to listen to it.

This whole communion challenge has had me digging into places that I didn’t think I would be, including our covenant with Christ and what it looks like.  We can have faith in something, for example an insurance plan, only if we know what we’re covered for.   Likewise our faith is our insurance plan for salvation, but also because it’s in the Word of God, for our healing, for our protection, for our joy etc.  The list goes on.  As we study each thing we come to an understanding of what we are entitled to in that area. 

This year I’ve studied joy, because one lady prayed that I would become the most joyful person I knew.   I felt that in order to activate and understand that better, I needed to delve into every reference to joy in the Bible and what it meant in the Hebrew and Greek and whether there were specific actions attached to these words, which there were.   You can look at this study and free printable here.

As you can see, I’ve also been studying communion, but this has led me into many other areas.  It’s been a great habit to begin in studying and writing out what I’m getting from the Word.

Another area I will be digging into probably early next year is what God says about pregnancy and childbirth, and see what is included in our covenant in this area.  I already briefly skimmed through some teaching and books on this topic last time I was pregnant, but I want it so ingrained and built into me that I have faith to pray for those with infertility, problem pregnancies and birth issues and see things happen.   If you want to have a look at a few links in this area.  God’s Plan for Pregnancy is an awesome resource as is Supernatural Childbirth, and Born in Zion.  

Does God just not want you to have a baby because that’s what the doctor says?  What does God’s Word actually say about this?  Sometimes it’s such a small sentence we overlook it.

These books that I’ve just mentioned have had couples with those same prognosis and yet they’ve had children and are now believing with other couples for children.

Yes I have a toddler now, and I fell pregnant the first time we tried, BUT  for years before we got married I was praying into this issue because I knew that in my family line were issues surrounding pregnancy, in fact my parent’s weren’t supposed to have any of us.   And while I was pregnant my husband and I were able to pray with another couple who hadn’t been able to stay pregnant, and I have the pleasure of staying in contact with them now and their healthy 18 month old.

So, is God talking to you about an area you need to build faith?  Have you really explored what your ‘insurance plan’ contains and dug into the details?  I’m trying to.  It’s a challenge God first gave me last year and I’m finally digging and being so blessed.