Faith Till The End! (part 3)

Believing In What You Cannot See

6.19.2022

Review

Today is part 3 of this series.

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

This is not for the person with one foot in God’s kingdom and the other foot in the world and its way of living with sex, parties, drugs, with a life filled with the focus on yourself and what you want and like, with very little thought to what Jesus wants out of your life…

Last week we 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.

Living by faith has to do with saying what God says about you and your circumstances, even when life contradicts!

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 gave you some personal anecdotes from my walk of faith for the last 46 years.

1 John 5:4 (NLT)
For every child of God defeats this evil world, and we achieve this victory through our faith.

Romans 8:2 (NKJV)

For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.

In aerodynamics and flight, the law of gravity is superseded by the laws of lift and thrust.

In a similar way, the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus moves us away from the death and destruction produced by Adam’s sin!

Matthew 8:13 – “…as you have believed, so be it done for you.”

 

Matthew 9:29 – “…according to your faith let it be to you.”

 

Mark 5:34 – “…daughter, your faith has made you well.”

 

Mark 9:23 – “…If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.”

Mark 10:52 – “…Go your way; your faith has made you well.”

 

Matthew 19:26 – …with God all things are possible.

Smith Wigglesworth Quote:

There’s something about believing God that will cause God to pass over a million people just to get to you!

Dr. J. Oswald Sanders Quote:

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

Today – Eight things you need to know about faith:

We’ll cover the first 2 today.

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

Ephesians 2:8-9 (NKJV)

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast.

Romans 12:3 (NKJV

For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.

Mark 4:26-28 (NKJV)

And He said, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground, 27 and should sleep by night and rise by day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he himself does not know how. 28 For the earth yields crops by itself: first the blade, then the head, after that the full grain in the head.”

Mark 4:30-32 (NKJV)

Then He said, “To what shall we liken the kingdom of God? Or with what parable shall we picture it? 31 It is like a mustard seed which, when it is sown on the ground, is smaller than all the seeds on earth; 32 but when it is sown, it grows up and becomes greater than all herbs, and shoots out large branches, so that the birds of the air may nest under its shade.”

Start with the small:

Forgiveness

Righteousness

Healing

Start – June 19, 2022! Believing In What You Cannot See

The position of faith is a place where you give your heart life to Jesus, and trust Him with your entire life!

Jesus gives you the faith to trust Him! What He wants from you, He gives you!

Everything you need is available from heaven.

Ephesians 1:3 (NKJV)

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,

2 Peter 1:2-4 (NKJV)

Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, 3 as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, 4 by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

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

Hebrews 11:3 (NKJV)

By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.

Colossians 1:15-16 (NKJV)

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him.

2 Corinthians 4:18 (NKJV)

While we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

John 20:29 (NKJV)

Jesus said to him, “Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

Hebrews 11:1 (NCV)

Faith means being sure of the things we hope for and knowing that something is real even if we do not see it.

Elisha and his servant’s experience with being surrounded by the enemy is a great illustration of things existing in the spiritual world and then manifesting in the physical world.

Through the word of knowledge, Elisha was telling the king of Israel where the Syrian troops were. The Syrian King found out what Elisha was doing and came after him!

2 Kings 6:13-17 (NLT)

Go and find out where he is, the king commanded, so I can send troops to seize him. And the report came back: “Elisha is at Dothan.” 14 So one night the king of Aram sent a great army with many chariots and horses to surround the city. 15 When the servant of the man of God got up early the next morning and went outside, there were troops, horses, and chariots everywhere. “Oh, sir, what will we do now?” the young man cried to Elisha. 16 “Don’t be afraid!” Elisha told him. “For there are more on our side than on theirs!” 17 Then Elisha prayed, “O Lord, open his eyes and let him see!” The Lord opened the young man’s eyes, and when he looked up, he saw that the hillside around Elisha was filled with horses and chariots of fire.

It is the same with us. What we need exists the moment we ask God for it!

Hebrews 11:1 (NKJV)

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

Substance – Greek – Hupostasis – Hupo = under, stasis = a standing

A standing under, that which stands, or is set under, a foundation. Used in the technical sense of a title deed, standing under the claim to the property to support its validity.

Evidence

Something that furnishes or tends to furnish proof; that which supports the existence of something.

Examples:

Footprints on the shoreline

A wake following a ship

A white streak in the sky

Toys scattered in the yard of a home – a kid lives there!

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].

And our personal faith connects us to God’s place of living – the spiritual world, and to what we have asked for – until it manifests.

God Himself has made sure that you have the means to be helped by Him and to connect with His provisions for life; He gives you a measure of His own faith.

If you want to pick up the internet from your phone, you have to turn on the wifi receiver and connect. It’s the same with faith.

God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit are in the realm of the spirit. And it takes faith to connect to them to receive what you need.

There is an emerging generation that wants experience first, so, for instance, many of our songs speak of feeling the Presence and don’t speak much about believing without feeling!

When we are saved, Jesus gives us all the faith we need to navigate through life and receive everything we need from Him.

With the internet, what you need is available, but it takes wiFi to connect to receive it. To receive from God, what you need exists, but it takes faith to connect to it, and to finally experience it.

It is faith that taps into the resources that God has given us.

You may say, well, I don’t have enough faith for this or that. But in reality, you have all you need, given to you as a gift from God. It’s enough to navigate through life and receive everything you need from Him!

A little bit goes a long way!

Matthew 17:20 (HCSB)

Because of your little faith, He told them. “For I assure you: If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will tell this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”

You have all of the faith that you need to receive from God. Use it every day!

The problem with most believers is that they only use faith for emergencies.

Or as a last resort when nothing else works!

Jerry Savelle helped me in 1977 when he came to my first Bible School in SC – He said that we should exercise faith for everything: a pencil, a pair of socks, a shirt, a pair of pants, shoes, etc.

What if you exercised faith for everything, by praying as you go through your day and asking God for His help?

I have learned to pray about everything and expect God to answer!

I started doing this when I was young. When Susan and I were dating, I asked God to help me to know what to say to her and to help me in conversation.

When we moved to Tulsa to go to Rhema Bible College, I asked for a certain job that looked impossible. The starting wage was what today would be around $30 an hour.

It was a unionized grocery store and seemed hopeless to get a job there.

But I asked, and set my faith in God to provide the job. Again, He put the desire to ask for it in my heart.

It took over 6 weeks to get the job. I had no money coming in while waiting. I lived off of my savings!

I took time every day throughout the day to praise and thank God for what I believe that He had given me – this $30 an hour job!

One day the call came and I was hired as night manager!

This showed me that God can do anything that you believe Him for!

As I got into ministry and the pressures it brings, I learned that faith can keep you up when things look down!

I learned to trust God to help me minister to people one on one. I trusted God to help me to do what He was asking me to do as I started churches, as I traveled in ministry for 2 years, as I pastored before I came here in 1994.

And since I have been here, faith in God’s Word helped me raise my family, helped me trust God for the finances as ministry grew, as we moved to a shopping center, then bought property and built a building on Averboro Road in Garner, and then moved here in 2013.

Whatever God has for you, He wants you to use your faith to bring it to pass.

As we get closer to Jesus’ return, and as things get tougher, your God-given faith will bring you through every challenge, every hard place, and every difficulty.

Lester Sumrall traveled with a man named Howard Carter for many years as a young man. Mr. Carter bought a Bible school for 90,000 British pounds and signed a 3-month note for the money to purchase. The whole 90,000 British pounds was due in 90 days. He had none of the money until the very night before the payment was due.

Notice Hebrews 11:1 (NCV)

Faith means being sure of the things we hope for and knowing that something is real even if we do not see it.

Action Points:

1. You have the faith you need from Jesus to be victorious over every obstacle life brings.
2. Everything you need exists with God in the spiritual world.
3. Your faith draws what God has promised into your life.