<< Week 20 >>
Go through the Study Guide by Dr. Kevin Zadai
Consider The Project given in this Lesson
Warrior Church Home Fellowship Study
Dr. Kevin L. Zadai
He is Your Rewarder
"Treat people as you would treat Jesus because every person was made in the image of God"
~ Dr. Kevin L. Zadai
After you watch the video and read the study notes on this page, answer these questions here on the Blog mentioned above:
Jesus said to him, “What do you mean ‘if’? If you are able to believe, all things are possible to the believer.”
—Mark 9:23 TPT
DISCUSSION:
God is a rewarder, and the body of Christ needs to be told and made aware of this. We often get into work mode because we want to please God, but He also rewards us. He is your rewarder. In today’s verse, Jesus asked the man, “What do you mean if I'm willing?” It was as though Jesus was shocked because the man said, Lord if you're willing, you can make my servant well. Then, the demon left. Earlier, when the disciples, the nine that were left, did not cast the demons out, the man was hurt, and his faith was damaged by it. So, he asked Jesus that if you're willing, you can do this. Jesus was shocked that he would ask that, which is why He replied with the question, “What do you mean if I am willing, do you believe?” In the Aramaic, this is exactly what it says. Jesus said that all things are possible to those who believe.
Hebrews 11:6 NLT: And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.
The problem is we have many people that say they seek God. We can seek God for most of our lives and desire to know Him, yet we never learn because it’s not taught that God wants to reward us. When you encounter demons, they don't even flinch when you mention the name; God or if you mention the spirit of God. There’s no reaction at all. They only flinch when you say the name of Jesus Christ and you mention the blood of Jesus. When you begin to worship Father God, you talk about Holiness, righteousness, and justice. You can see the demons responding, and they get unnerved. It's the same way when you start talking about God wanting to do something for you versus you doing something for God. In religious circles, if you tell the people about how God wants to do something for you, you'll see the breaks being put on and that they want to shut you up.
The reward for giving your life over to God is being filled with God. When you give something, that void has to be filled. When you give yourself over, you're going to receive the Holy Spirit in a greater measure; it occupies that place. Once that happens, there's going to be an outflow in your faith, and your faith is your response. Your faith manifests because of a transaction that happens inside your spirit. You can't just come to God and believe that it exists. It says you have to believe that He exists and that He rewards those who diligently seek Him.
Demons know God exists. It's not like you are any different. Even if you say you believe in God. The demons believe in God. The key here is you must believe that He exists. It says in Hebrews11:6 that He rewards those who sincerely seek Him. In other words, I don't seek God thinking I'm not going to be rewarded because it says that I'm going to be. To say that you believe in God isn’t causing you to excel because the demons believe in Him. The excelling comes when you seek God, knowing He will reward you. Why would we pray if we didn't think we would get an answer? Why would we give something up if we knew that God wasn't going to fill that void with something from Him? It's emptying all of yourself. God's plan comes into your life to manifest through you.
Mark 5:36: But Jesus refused to listen to what they were told and said to the Jewish official, “Don’t yield to fear. All you need to do is to keep on believing.”
Jesus spoke to the Jewish officials and said that all you need to do is believe. People would come and put pressure on them, and Jesus encouraged them not to yield to fear but to believe. He was told that Lazarus was dead, and the people said to Jesus that if He had come, that wouldn’t have happened. However, Jesus waited four days and didn't respond right away; He kept telling them that they would see the glory of God. He waited and waited because He knew the will of God.
So, what about you right now? Are you going to yield to fear? Are you going to stop seeking God because you say you believe in God? The demons believe in God, but do you believe He's a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him? I received this key in Heaven. Jesus gave me this message, and He said, tell the people that it's not enough just to believe that I exist, that you have to believe that He's a rewarder. Jesus has told me; all you do is keep seeking me because you will receive your reward.
Talk about how you don’t lean into fear, but keep believing because it will lead to your reward.
I often try to weigh what it's costing me in my life with time and energy versus what the return is in my investment. Is it helping people? I always ask that. The Lord said, if you keep diligently seeking me, I'm going to keep filling you, I'm going to reward you with more. I realize now that He trusts us, and He gives us the ability to have access to other things. All of you out there feel overwhelmed, and I can feel it in the spirit. You feel overwhelmed, and Jesus is telling you, don't yield to fear; keep on believing. The rewarder of your faith is the one who started your faith, and He's the one that's going to finish your faith.
Discuss how Jesus is the rewarder and finisher of your faith. What does that mean?
God wants to be actively involved in rewarding you for your diligence and seeking Him.
Discuss how you can seek the Lord and be diligent about it.
You can seek Him by reading one verse and meditating on it. Take Hebrews 11:6, for example, and just eat it. My secret is I do a lot of studying and a lot of writing, but for my devotional time, I take one verse a day —I read and think about that verse all day.
Warrior Church Home Fellowship Study
Dr. Kevin L. Zadai
Essentially, there is only one family in Heaven and on earth. I'm studying Ephesians right now, and I'm thinking about that all day.
The fact that I'm tied with the family in Heaven, and we’re one is all I'm thinking about each day. I can't wait to go to the next verse tomorrow in Ephesians. I'm also doing a study in Hebrews right now and a commentary on Hebrews and Ephesians both at the same time. I can't wait to dive into the second verse in chapter one of Hebrews, and I'm going to eat that. That's one way you seek God. Another way you seek God is you see God in other people, and you honor those people. You treat people as you would treat Jesus because every person was made in the image of God, and there's nobody that should go to hell.
James talks about blessing and cursing people with your tongue and that we’re made in the image of God. He doesn’t distinguish between Christian or non-Christian. The way you seek God is to see God in everything and everybody. I pray for people that I don't know I'll ever see again, but I pray for their Salvation because I remember witnessing to them at work, and I remember telling them about God's love. This week, a very important person that I witnessed to over 30 years ago just went to be with the Lord. I just believe that that word took root in her heart. This week, she came to my mind, and I just found out that she passed away yesterday. For a whole week, I had been praying for this person. You can seek God by seeing what God is doing in people and situations. You can do this by giving to the poor, calling somebody, and encouraging them. I found that people scour at you, and if you smile, they're almost shocked. The minute it goes in, it's like an arrow. You can smile and be nice to people. You can do all these things, and it’s part of seeking God.
Another thing that I think is very important is that I sit in silence and let the Holy Spirit speak to me, and we were talking about this recently. We talked about the environment we're in is so busy, and there's so much going on. There's so much going on in the spirit realm. There's a lot of screaming and yelling coming from the demonic. When they scream, you feel irritated, but you don't know why. Suppose you could hear what's happening; demons scream because they see the Holy Spirit coming upon you. When they see an angel come, they know you're about to get spoken to by God, so they start screaming. Then you begin to feel irritated, and you want to pick something up and throw it, and you don't know why. The reason why you feel that way is because the demonic is sensing that you're about to get a visitation, and there's a word that God's synchronization is coming from Heaven to earth, and you're about to go into God's next step. The Lord instructed me that sometimes it's not asking God to talk louder; it's turning down all the noise around you.
Pastor Ryan:
I reminded our Church what you said, and that was that the greatest way to hear God's voice is to turn all the other voices down. To be honest with you, Hebrews eleven six is one of my favorite verses. Diligence can just be yielding to the voice of God and turning down everything, as you said. The Lord loves it when you do that. I saw the reward system in Heaven in an encounter I had, and when I said that on TV, I got blasted by the religious community because we don't do things for rewards. Jesus said to store our treasures in heaven, and He rewards us in this life and in the life to come. You saw what is waiting for us if we’d seek the Lord diligently. Kevin, you said this off-camera earlier; if I could steal it from you, you said, “I am praying and sowing in things today that I'm going to reap the miracle tomorrow.”
Kevin:
The Lord wants you to give Him a couple of minutes where you don't worry about a thing. You'll begin to cry with relief because you realize that you're burdened and you've been pushed. It's time to let the Lord love you and talk to you. He tells me all the time that He has a surprise for me.
He told me that this morning, “Oh, you’ve got something coming tomorrow. It's big.”
I asked, “Well, what is it?”
He said, “I'm not telling you, but the Lord wants to reward you.”
He's a Father that loves you and wants to reward you. I've had the Lord say to me; “thanks for just being you.” You can’t resist someone that just loves you for you, where they don't expect you to be something you're not or meet the expectations. They just like you the way you are. God loves you, and He made you the way you are, and He just wants to love on you.
PRAYER:
Father, in the name of Jesus, we just give You two minutes to love on us and say some profound things to us that we probably wouldn't even believe, that You'd think about us, but you're thinking good thoughts toward us. You have plans for us to prosper. Plans for an expected good end. Lord, you're planning for us to receive our rewards. I thank You, Lord God. Right now, I just receive Your smile from Heaven. Right now, I receive your smile as You just smile upon us. Lord, we just let You love on us. No more unrealistic expectations. We just love You, Lord, and we just receive You, Lord. Right now, You're our reward. You came down from Heaven, and You lived among us, and You're our reward. We just love You, Father. We just accept Your love right now. Father, just provide a supernatural kiss from Heaven right now to everybody watching. A supernatural sign; a kiss from Heaven. Hallelujah. Lord, Your approval rating is above and beyond the charts. We approve of You. We love You. You are the most awesome God. There's no one like You.
Hallelujah, Lord. Thank You. Hallelujah. We receive your love right now.
DISCUSS
1. How can you please God by just receiving His love?
2. What rewards do you think God has for those who diligently seek Him?
3. We get to see a part of God that we've never seen before, so we're expecting something. Are you expecting a physical gift from God, or are you expecting to encounter His love and His approval?
