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This was quite a miracle. Not only was the money supplied for their taxes, but it was the exact amount needed, and it was from the first fish that was caught.
Although this sets the precedent that God can supply our needs in a miraculous way, it's important to remember that God doesn't counterfeit money. He didn't create money in the fish, but rather he had the fish miraculously find and swallow the exact Roman coin that Peter needed. It's a mistake to just pray and then wait on God to rain the money down from heaven.
As Luke 6:38 says, God uses men (and sometimes fish) to give...
Prayer and fasting do not drive certain demons out. If the name of Jesus and faith in His name won't do the job, then fasting and prayer won't either. Jesus is saying that fasting and prayer are the only ways of casting out this type of unbelief.
An unbelief that comes as a result of ignorance can be done away with by receiving the truth of God's Word (Rom. 10:17; 2 Pet. 1:4). However, the unbelief that hindered the disciples in this case was a "natural" type of unbelief. They had been taught all of their lives to believe what their five senses told them. They were simply dominated by this natural input more than by God's supernatural input (God's Word). The only way to overcome this unbelief that comes through our senses is to deny our senses through...
The disciples' unbelief in this instance was not a disbelief in God's power to produce deliverance, but rather a "natural" kind of unbelief that came from a hardened heart that was more sensitive to what it saw than to what it believed. Jesus said that a very small amount of faith (a "mustard seed") is sufficient to remove a mountain, if no unbelief is present to hinder it.
Jesus was disappointed that His disciples had not been able to cast this devil out. Most people would have had no criticism of these disciples. After all, it wasn't normal to have power...
ALL THE THINGS WE HAVE ON THIS EARTH WILL BE HERE LONG AFTER WE ARE GONE BUT TO GIVE ALL OF THEM UP??? 2ND CORINTHIANS 4:18 TELLS US THE THINGS WE HAVE ARE TEMPORARY "While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal." THE THINGS WE DON'T SEE ARE THE REALLY IMPORTANT THINGS IN LIFE. JESUS SAYS IN MATTHEW 6:21 THAT "For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." I WANT MY...
It is interesting to compare Jesus' transfiguration with that of Moses'. Jesus' face shone as the sun and His garment was as white as the light. This certainly exceeded what Moses experienced, and yet Jesus' face did not continue to shine when He came down off of the mountain as Moses' face did. Moses' face reflected the glory of God, but Jesus was the glory of God (Jn. 1:14; Heb. 1:3). Moses put a veil over his face to conceal the glory of God (Ex. 34:29-35) so that the people would not be afraid to come near him.
Jesus' body was His veil that concealed His true glory within. During His transfiguration, He pulled back the veil of His flesh, and we simply caught a glimpse of His glory that he had with...
Despite the abundant and clear prophecies about His death and resurrection, Jesus' disciples didn't understand or remember Jesus' words until after His resurrection (Lk. 24:5-9). Luke records twice that Jesus' sayings about His resurrection were hidden from the disciples. It is interesting to note, however, that the chief priests and Pharisees remembered Jesus' prophecies about His resurrection (Mt. 27:63) when His disciples didn't.
One of the great truths of the Bible is that Jesus died for our sins, not for His own. Jesus was totally sinless. This is one of the major differences between Christianity and the religions of the world. No...
