Oasis of Faith Christian Center

07/03/2026

Pastor's Word of the Month message for July 2026:

I want to encourage you with what I believe is affecting many Christians today when it comes to the negative situations they’re facing. Wrong thinking produces wrong speaking. There’s no doubt that problems come to everyone. We all face trials and opportunities to enter into calamity. But God’s will is that we resist these problems by the power of His Word. God’s will is that His Angels deliver us from these situations and circumstances. Look at Psalm 91.

Psalm 91:11-12 says, “For He shall give His Angels charge over you, to keep you in all of your ways. They shall bear [lift] you up in their hands, lest you dash your foot against a stone.

Now, if this is God’s will, then why do so many Christians experience defeat? There are three links in the chain of defeat: (1) Wrong Thinking, (2) Wrong Speaking, and (3) Wrong Praying. You are what you are, not because of your experiences, but because of what you think and believe about experiences. Many Christians feel sorry for themselves and wallow in self-pity. They think God is against them and that kind of thinking leaves the door wide open to the devil. Many Christians use what happened to Job as their excuse.

They will says, “Look what God did to Job!” What did God do to Job? He gave Him twice as much as what he had before. It was the devil who stole from Job, not God. It was the devil who caused all of his problems, not God. In Finis Dake’s Annotated Bible, Mr. Dake points out that Job falsely accused God seventy-four times. The reason was because he really believed that God was at fault. But Job couldn’t read the first chapter of the Book of Job to find out that it was the devil who was behind his problems. He was too busy living it out! Here are just a few of the statements Job made about God.

In Job 13:15, the Bible says, “Though the Lord slays me, yet will I trust in Him: but I will maintain my own ways before Him.” It was admirable that Job felt this way, but he was wrong in his thinking. God was not the problem.

Job says in 16:12, “I was at ease, but He [God] has broken me asunder [into pieces]: He has also taken me by my neck, and shaken me to pieces, and set me up for His mark.

Job 16:14 says, “He breaks me with breach on breach, He runs upon me like a giant.” No, that wasn’t God. It was Satan.

And in Job 19:8 Job says, “He has fenced up my way that I cannot pass, and He has set darkness in my paths.” God didn’t set darkness in Job’s path, although Job thought He did. There are two factors that caused Job more problems and troubles: (1) Wrong Thinking and (2) Wrong Believing.

When you think wrong, you believe wrong. When you believe wrong, you speak and act wrong. Wrong thinking causes you to make wrong choices. The reason there is so much wrong thinking today is that people don’t know what God has said in His Word. Victory and freedom come through the knowledge of God and His Word. When people believe tragedy is working good in their lives and problems are making them strong, they’re opening the door to the devil. They will not stand against the devil because they believe what they’re experiencing is from God. They let the devil run over them and then blame God! The deception of the devil is to make you believe that it’s God will that these things happen or are happening to you. This is why the doctrine of praising God for everything that happens to you is very dangerous. If Satan can deceive you into believing whatever comes to you is from God, then you won’t resist it! It’s vitally important that we agree with God, not the devil. If you believe the lies of the devil, you will never possess what rightfully belongs to you from God. God has given you life and blessing.

Look at First Peter 2:2-4, “Grace and peace be multiplied to you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord. According as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him Who has called us to glory and virtue. Whereby are given to us exceeding great and precious promises, that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”

God has given to you all things that pertain to life and Godliness. But in order to enjoy that kind of life, it requires the knowledge of God, which is His Word. Don’t invite tragedy through the words of your mouth. Don’t agree with the devil and all that is bad and evil. You can change adversity with your words and God’s Word. God will change your life and situation if you will agree with Him. You don’t have to give up because, “Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever!” Jesus said in John 10:10, “I have come to give you life and have it more abundantly.” Don’t choose death; choose life! Don’t choose sickness; choose health!

In closing, I want you to look at Psalm 91:15-16, David is writing what the Lord had to say, “He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honor him. With long life will I satisfy him, and show him My salvation.”

I want to encourage you to stay in faith, stay in prayer, stay in the Word every day, make your daily confession, pray in the spirit for our nation, our leaders, and all who are in authority, pray for the peace of Jerusalem; and remember “God loves you; we love you and JESUS IS LORD!”

In The Service of Our King,

Darrell G. Harrelson

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05/31/2026

June 2026 Word of the Month

The Bible tells us in John 5:2-8, “Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches. In these lay a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, and withered, waiting for the moving of the water. For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water, and whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had. And a certain man was there, who had an infirmity for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lie there, and knew that he had been now a long time in that case, He said to him, ‘Will you be made whole?’

The impotent man answered him, ‘Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool, but while I am coming, another steps down before me.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Rise, take up your bed, and walk.’”

There is an event recorded here that reminds me of myself many, many years ago, when I majored on problems instead of answers. When Jesus asked this impotent man at the pool of Bethesda, “Will you be made whole?” The man told Him the reason he couldn’t be made whole. Jesus simply ignored the man’s reasoning and commanded him to “…Rise…and walk.” Even though God’s Word can change situations in your life, so many seem to be set on talking about the problem.

You will notice that Jesus didn’t mention the problem at all, but He asked the crippled man to do something he couldn’t do within himself. When the man obeyed, he received his miracle. I have come to the conclusion after being a Christian myself for forty-five years and now I have been pastoring for thirty-eight years, that there are two kinds of Christians. There are Christians who act like thermometers. They rehearse the problem over and over, but never do anything to change it.

Then there are some who function as thermostats and change things for the better. The thermostat on the wall of your home is wired to the heart of that unit which is designed to control the temperature in your house. That thermostat has a built-in thermometer to reveal the present condition or temperature, and a dial or keypad to make the desired change. When you change the setting, it makes a demand on the heating and cooling unit. The thermometer only tells you how it is at that present time. But by setting the thermostat to what you desire, you can change the present facts to what you want them to become. God never intended for us to become “Thermometer Christians” and keep rehearsing things as they are or seem to be. Even though it may be a fact—if it’s not lovely and of a good report—so don’t spend your time talking about it. Paul told us in Romans 10:17 that faith comes by hearing, so we are to always to give preeminence to the Word of God, regardless of the present facts or circumstances.

Later in Hebrews 11:1, Paul tells us that faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen. Real Bible faith comes from the Bible, and that it is the evidence of the things that are not yet manifest in the natural realm. But what some people call faith really isn’t Real Bible faith at all. It’s high expectations based on wrong information. You may have heard someone interpret Mark 11:23 as: “All you have to do is say it to receive the promise.” Saying is a part of applying the principle of faith, but there is more to it than just saying it. You must believe and doubt not in your heart. Then you must believe that those things you are saying will come to pass. Faith is not just a quick fix for your problems. It’s a whole way of living. Sometimes it takes weeks even months to get your mind renewed to God’s Word and to get rid of years of unbelief.

Yes. Jesus did say, “…he shall have whatsoever he says..” That statement is in the Bible. But we must keep it in the context of which it was spoken.

Let’s look at that verse, Jesus said, “For verily I say unto you, that whosoever shall say to this mountain, Be removed, and be cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he says shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he says.

Notice Jesus said, “…whosoever shall…not doubt in his heart, but shall believe…” This implies that you must also believe in your heart, because faith works in your heart and not in your head. The “whosoever” Jesus referred to in this Scripture said with his mouth what he already believed in his heart. And Jesus said, “…he shall have whatsoever he says.” Notice that he didn’t have it when he said it, but he called it in by faith so that he would have it. The problem is that some people have high expectations based on what happened when everyone else was operating in faith. But without faith in the heart, they are thermometers trying to get the results of a thermostat. There is no faith connection between the words of their mouth and their heart which is designed to produce the results.

I want to encourage you to stay in faith, stay in prayer, stay in the Word every day, make you daily confession, pray in the spirit for our nation, our leaders, and all who are in authority, pray for the peace of Jerusalem; and remember “God loves you; we love you and JESUS IS LORD!”

In The Service of Our King,

Darrell G. Harrelson

05/31/2026

Amen

Your Word for today! For more resources from Dr. Dennis Burke, visit www.dennisburke.org