Faith Till The End (part 4)

Faith In God Is Faith In His Word

6.26.2022

Review

Matthew 19:26 (NKJV)

But Jesus looked at them and said to them, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

Mark 9:23 (NKJV)

Jesus said to him, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.”

We are living in the time just prior to Jesus’ Second Coming, which is a time of judgment and extreme challenge.

It is going to take faith to navigate through this time. God will meet us in every challenge.

John 16:33 (NKJV)

These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.

1 John 5:4 (NKJV)

For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.

2 Corinthians 5:7 (NKJV)

For we walk by faith, not by sight.

Today is part 4 of this series.

Living by faith is for people who have decided to sell out for Jesus, to give Him their all.

We have talked about believing that you have what God says you have when it looks like you don’t have it!

Abram’s name was changed to Abraham when God told him that in her old age his wife Sarah would conceive a child.

Abram gave himself unreservedly to God.

We talked about the illustration Jesus gave the disciples about faith when He spoke to a fruitless tree.

Speaking to the mountain of problems to “be gone,” and then believing that we receive the answer from God before any physical changes, is the God-appointed way of life for a Christian!

I am explaining 8 things you need to know about faith.

We have gotten through the first two

1. Faith is a gift given to you by Jesus.

Ephesians 2:8-9

Romans 12:3

Mark 4:26-28

Mark 4:30-32

Start with small things: forgiveness, righteousness

2. Everything exists in two realms – first the spiritual realm, then the physical realm.

Ephesians 1:3

2 Peter 2:3-4

Hebrews 11:3 – NKJV

2 Corinthians 4:18 – NKJV

2 Kings 6:13-17

Hebrews 11:1

Start now to exercise your faith in God for everything in life!

Today –

3. Faith can be increased by meditation and practice of the Word.

Faith in God is really faith in His Word. It is believing that God has or is working on your behalf right now.

Develop your faith in God’s Word.

He does exactly what He says.

To believe God’s Word, I had to get over a mental kink about believing people’s Word.

Example – As a kid I met a friend on weekends at a store. He just would not arrive when he said he would.

As I matured, that gave me the idea that people just did not do what they say.

If you are not a person of your word – you say things but do not do what you say, it will affect your ability to trust God’s word.

Mark 11:23 (NKJV)

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.

There is no faith if there is no Scripture.

You say you are living by faith? Then what scriptures are you living by right now?

If there are none, then you are not living by Bible faith.

Faith does not come to you by praying. And no one can give it to you. You must pick up the Word of God and read for faith to come!

Romans 10:17 (NKJV)

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

You may say, I don’t have enough faith. But God has already given you all you need. Develop what you have.

We all have the same number of muscles. But some use what they have been given more than others!

Faith is like muscle. You have them all at birth, all 650 to 850 of them, but they must be exercised to work efficiently.

The capacity for faith comes from knowing the Word. Then faith is actually developed as you exercise the Word of God against the circumstances of life.

 

Mark 4:24 (AMPC)

And He said to them, Be careful what you are hearing. The measure [of thought and study] you give [to the truth you hear] will be the measure [of virtue and knowledge] that comes back to you — and more [besides] will be given to you who hear.

 

Colossians 3:16 (NKJV)

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.

Be aware of what you consume mentally. If you have a pain and the first thing you do is Google it, you just put your faith in the wrong thing. Put your faith in the Word of God.

I take time every single day to develop my faith.

There will never be a time in your life that you do not need faith, either for yourself or for someone else.

An athlete doesn’t wait until the game begins before he exercises! Most people wait until crisis time before they seek to develop faith.

If a problem comes, like illness, a financial challenge, or believing for some personal circumstance to change, and it is like a 100 pound problem, and you have 50 pound faith, you are going to struggle.

I started small with cycling – 3 miles, 5 miles, 8 miles, 10 miles, then 15,20,25,30, and then 40,50. I had to work up to it.

What you do regularly gets easier and easier.

If you wait until you need faith to get it, you’ll be at a disadvantage.

Exercise your faith every single day in small things…

Work on your future now!

Travel…Because of my intense personality and way of thinking, I would become stressed during long trips, like from here to India, or here to Africa.

So, I began to pray ahead of time about every leg of the journey – Raleigh to DC, DC to London or Dubai, then from there to Calcutta, or there to Addis Ababa.

I am saying now what I believe for our future. Full building. Finances met. Personal – strong mind, strong body, close walk with God…

So walk with God by faith every day. Don’t wait for a crisis to seek God. Seek Him now! Build your faith now.

You get ready for big problems by walking by faith in small things. It boosts your confidence.

Let me also mention that you can be strong in faith in one area and struggle in another area!

When I gave my life to Jesus in 1976, I learned that God’s will was healing and health. I never knew that all my life before that time! I began immediately to build up my faith in God for healing since I was so fearful for years that I would die young.

Over the years, I found it fairly easier to believe for physical healing.

I had never really had to believe God and exercise faith for finances. I had good jobs that paid well, and always had a salary.

The Lord spoke to me in 1985, and let me know that one day I would go through a financial test. That started 3 years later when I started a church in SC.

I had never had to trust God alone for finances before. I had always had a salary. For the first time in my life I had to believe that God had and is supplying the money I needed.

It was the same faith, but a different slant.

If you find yourself struggling in one area with your faith while finding it easier in another, take time to build your faith up and exercise it in the weaker area.

You will see it grow!

4. Faith is never future. Faith is always in the present tense.

Hebrews 11:1 (NKJV)

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Hebrews 11:1 (NLT)

Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see.

Hebrews 11:1 (AMPC)

NOW FAITH is the assurance (the confirmation, the title deed) of the things [we] hope for, being the proof of things [we] do not see and the conviction of their reality [faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses].

Mark 11:24 (NKJV)

Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.

Mark 11:24 (NLT)

I tell you, you can pray for anything, and if you believe that you’ve received it, it will be yours.

Mark 11:24 (GW)

That’s why I tell you to have faith that you have already received whatever you pray for, and it will be yours.

Mark 11:24 (NCV)

So I tell you to believe that you have received the things you ask for in prayer, and God will give them to you.

Mark 11:24 (BBE)

For this reason I say to you, Whatever you make a request for in prayer, have faith that it has been given to you, and you will have it.

Mark 11:24 (AMPC)

For this reason I am telling you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe (trust and be confident) that it is granted to you, and you will [get it].

Hope is always something in the future.

Faith takes hope, and acts as though it has it right now.

Joshua 6:1-2 (NKJV)

Now Jericho was securely shut up because of the children of Israel; none went out, and none came in. 2 And the LORD said to Joshua: “See! I have given Jericho into your hand, its king, and the mighty men of valor.”

Example – 1981 – man in hospital

Example – Financing for building.

9 years ago ..11 banks, 9 no, 2 yes…

If you are afraid, you are not in faith; you are in hope.

Well, I hope this works. No faith there.

Faith is a confident expectation.

Dr. J. Oswald Sanders quote:

Faith enables the believing soul to treat the future as present and the invisible as seen.

Action Points

1. You have the faith you need from Jesus to be victorious over every obstacle life brings.
2. Take time every day to build up your faith. Go to the Word of God first when problems come.
3. Faith replaces what you need or have asked for until it shows up.
4. Make sure that you are believing that right now your needs are met, and not at some point in the future. Hope is future; faith is now.

Scriptures that boost your faith

(New King James)

Numbers 23:19

God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?

 

Psalm 84:11

For the LORD God is a sun and shield; The LORD will give grace and glory; No good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly.

Psalm 89:34

My covenant I will not break, nor alter the word that has gone out of My lips.

Psalm 119:89

Forever, O LORD, Your word is settled in heaven.

 

Psalm 138:2

I will worship toward Your holy temple, and praise Your name for Your lovingkindness and Your truth; for You have magnified Your word above all Your name.

 

Isaiah 40:8

The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever.

Isaiah 55:11

So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; it shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.

Jeremiah 1:12

Then the LORD said to me, You have seen well, for I am ready to perform My word.

 

Matthew 24:35

Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.

Matthew 21:22

And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.

Mark 11:24

Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.

 

John 15:7

If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.

John 16:23-24

And in that day you will ask Me nothing. Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you. (24) Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.

 

1 John 3:22-23

And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight.

1 John 5:14-15

Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. (15) And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.