The Bible teaches us in Romans 12 that onto every man is given the measure of God’s faith. And actually if you go ahead and study that it’s that God gives the measure of His faith for each one of us to do what He’s asked us to do in life. Because Jesus didn’t die so we could all struggle. He didn’t die so that we could have this hard, hard, hard life. And just struggle and be frustrated all of the time. And He especially doesn’t want us to struggle making the Christian life work. Amen. So He gives us faith. Faith is a word that we throw around a lot as Christians and I know that even sometimes we’ve heard so much about faith that, you know, even tonight when I was going to teach on faith this weekend I didn’t get the reaction that I would have got if I said I was going to teach on how to control your emotions. Everybody would have went ahhhh, you know.
But I just don’t think that we understand, or maybe we need to keep relearning and keep understanding, how important just that simple childlike faith is to this whole walk with God and how important it is to peace, to righteousness, to joy. It’s amazing the problems that are solved the moment you decide to trust God in everything. Onto every man is given the measure of faith.
So, don’t even try to say, I wish I had faith. You have faith. If you wouldn’t have had faith, you wouldn’t have come here tonight. Because you had faith that if you came here, I would be here. You had faith when you parked your car in the parking lot that when you leave tonight and go out there it’ll still be there. You had faith that you would get a seat, have a place to sit. You had faith that you would enjoy this and get something out of it.
It’s amazing how much faith we use every single solitary day. And why we have such a hard time putting faith in God is very interesting. Everytime you sit in a chair, you have faith that it’s going to hold you up. See, I’m not sitting here going I hope this thing doesn’t cave in on me. No, it’s like, I just sat down in the chair, I didn’t check it out first. It’s a chair, chairs you sit in, so I just sat down in the chair. I came in tonight and I had the faith that if I put all of my stuff on this podium that it would hold it up.
You operate in faith all the time. Every time you go out in traffic in your car, you better be in faith. Every time you send one of your teenagers off to school, you better be in faith. So we do have faith. I’ve been doing quite a bit of study again in the past few months, and I think really there’s certain foundational subjects that we have to study and refresh ourselves in all of the time.
Paul told the people that he never got tired of telling them the same things over and over because it rekindled their faith and stirred them up in faith in those areas. So, if I would have come in here tonight and said how many of you are confused, there would have been hundreds of hands go up, if not thousands. And so I can just say to you that if you’re confused you’re not operating in faith. At least not about that thing you’re confused about. Because the moment you trust God, confusion goes. Because when you trust God, you don’t have to try to figure everything out anymore. And the moment you stop trying to figure everything out, you’re not confused. Ah. If I would have said, how many of you are worried? There would have been lots of hands go up.
But if we’re worried then obviously – well that doesn’t mean we don’t have faith in God. But I want to talk to you about something else this weekend. I want to talk to you about not just having faith, every person has faith, but I want to talk to you about releasing your faith. About releasing your faith. Because faith is a powerful force that changes things, it does things. Faith is the only thing that cause you to enter the rest of God, which is the absolute most glorious place to be because you don’t have to try to figure stuff out. You don’t have to try to change things that you’ve already tried a million times to change and the more you try to change them the more frustrated it makes you. So you can finally say well God I’m trusting you with this and if you can’t change it then I guess it don’t need to be changed.
How many years was I frustrated trying to change my husband, change my kids, change my neighbors, and change me, change, change, change? Oh what a relief it was to me to find out that only God could change people. That I didn’t need to be working on everyone else; I had enough issues of my own to work on. Amen.
How do we come to this point of having this kind of faith that will let us enter the rest of God? Well, I’m not going to give you some fancy, spiritual answer. I’m just going to tell you what I think the truth is. I think that the only way you can learn to stop worrying, stop trying to figure things out, stop being jealous of what other people have, and all the crazy things people do, and I’m going to talk to you some more about some of those things later, is I just honestly think that in addition to studying the Word, I think we just have to try it our way long enough. To finally just get worn out enough to just say ok God I surrender. Come on, we’re going to talk about surrender this weekend.
I surrender. I finally just said you know what God you knew what you were getting when you got me. Because you know the beginning, you know the end, and everything in-between. You know every flaw that I have, every fault that I have, every weakness that I have, as well as my strengths. And I just decided I was going to stop apologizing for myself 25 times a day. And just tell God I’m willing to let you do any work in me that you want to do but I’m not going to spend every day of my life trying to change myself. But that doesn’t mean that I don’t operate in any kind of discipline or self-control. But really to tell you the truth it’s the Word of God that changes us. And you’d be much better instead of trying to change yourself to just study the Word more and trust God to do what He says that only He can do.
I finally decided. Decisions are so important. I think a lot of people come to stuff like this and they just listen and never make a decision. I want you to make decisions this weekend. I want you to decide to do things God’s way, and then I want you to leave here knowing that you can’t do it unless He helps you. And I want you to leave leaning, leaning, relying, leaning, leaning, trusting, relying on Him to do what only He can do. You see, when I sit in this chair, I’m leaning on it. Glory to God. So wonderful. Oomph. I might even preach from here a little bit tonight, you never know. I mean, this is a pathetic example but it gives a little example of what it’s like to lean on God, you know. As you lean on Him then you take the pressure off of yourself. And I might add until we learn to lean on God we’re not going to have any victory in our life.
Let’s go to Mark 11:22. So you’re ready for a little journey now about faith. How many of you see what I mean? Oh yes, I’m a faith person, yes, yes, I go to a faith Church, I have books on faith. Yes, yes. Well, why do you worry, why are you confused, why are you jealous, why are you upset? Because you see we can have something and never put it to good use.
God actually dealt with me about I guess it was December, sometime in December, about even our giving. And He said you’ve got in a habit of giving, that’s what God put in my heart, you’ve got in a habit of giving. How many of you know that giving is a good habit? This is what He put in my heart: You’ve got in a habit of giving but you don’t release your faith with your giving anymore. You just do it. And, of course, when you give you will be blessed. But there’s another whole level that you can come into if every time you give you release your faith. I’m giving on obedience to your word and this is what I’m trusting you to do.
You’re going to see in just a minute that the 3 ways to release your faith, or at least the 3 that we’re going to talk about tonight, so simple – if you get this it can be life changing. Through praying, through saying, and through doing what you believe God wants you to do. You release your faith when praying; if you pray sincerely in faith, you release your faith. How many of you understand your faith can’t work unless you release it? Just having it doesn’t do any good. You can have money in the bank and still starve to death. You can have food in the refrigerator and go hungry. You can have a coat in your closet and still go out and freeze.
So having something is no guarantee that you’re going to use it. And one thing’s for sure, if you don’t know you have it, and that’s the sad thing about a lot of Christians, is nobody’s telling them what they have. So one of the things I want to tell you a lot about tonight is what your inheritance includes. It’s not something you have to keep trying to get. You have it. You don’t have to keep trying to be right with God; you are right with God through the love of Jesus Christ.
And if you believe that then out of that position you have, by faith in God, you will begin to behave more rightly. Because you can’t give away something you don’t have. That’s why it’s so important to receive the love of God into your own life. How else can you love yourself and love other people if you don’t have the love of God. You can’t give away what you don’t have. Mercy is another good example. If you don’t receive God’s mercy and you’re really hard on yourself and legalistic every time you do something wrong, you’re punishing yourself for your mistake – and we do have ways to punish ourselves for our mistakes. We give up a lot of joy because we don’t think we deserve it. When you learn to receive the mercy of God, it softens your heart and you begin to be more tenderhearted toward other people because you realize that God has been merciful to you. So it’s very important that we know what’s ours.
And I just want to teach a little higher level of what we talk of in faith. Because the Apostle Paul said, it’s no longer I that lives but Christ that lives in me and the life that I live I live by faith. So, there’s this faith that we come into the Kingdom by, there’s the faith for our salvation, there’s that initial faith to have our sins forgiven, and that’s a beginning. But my goodness what a life is available to us if we’ll learn to live by faith. I don’t just want to believe that one day when I die I’m going to go to heaven and live in the sweet by and by in my mansion and float on clouds, I’m going to be happy then. And that all of the time that I’m here is just drudgery and pain and suffering and misery, trying to make it through until Jesus comes back.
I am so tired of that stuff. Well how are you today, sister? Well I’m under attack, I’ll tell you that. And I’ve just got such a burden. Well then you need somebody to sit down with you that really knows the Word and give you some lessons because we don’t need to be under stuff all the time. The Bible says with the head and not the tail, above and not beneath, and that we’ve already got the victory through Christ that strengthens us day by day. And if we could every understand how powerful faith is, and that faith creates things and it changes things and it moves mountains and it solves problems.
And I love the song that I guess Martin, did you write that song? I love that song that you wrote. He’s saying we can’t give up our faith. You can’t give up your faith. And that’s the thing that’s important. Just because you release your faith, that doesn’t mean everything changes. Sometimes you’ve got to keep believing. And you’ve got to keep holding on. But God is faithful, and anybody that’s walked with God for very long knows that. God is faithful. He may not do it your way, your time, but He’ll do it.
God will bring us through. And if He doesn’t deliver us something He will give us strength to go through it and go through it with a smile on our face. Hallelujah. Mark 11:22.
And Jesus replying to them said have faith in God constantly. Now we could just stop and preach on that for the rest of the night because you don’t need to just have faith occasionally or when you have a disaster but have faith in God constantly. In Romans 1:17, there’s a great Scripture; it says that in the Bible we learn about righteousness, which is a right relationship with God that leads us from faith to faith to faith. I like that. There’s little faith and there’s great faith. And the way that your faith grows is by using what you have. That’s why I say that sometimes you just got to go through some stuff until you finally learn just how great God is and just how great you’re not without Him. Hallelujah.
As a matter of fact, I’ll just say it without humility, you’re never going to have much victory trying to walk in faith because you can’t lean and rely if you still think you can do it yourself. Apart from me, Jesus said you can do nothing and that means nothing. Amen.
I’ve been in front of crowds like this thousands and thousands of times. And I would never get up here assuming that everything was just going to go fine because it has before. I make it very clear to God that I know it’s an opportunity He’s giving me and He could have given it to somebody else, and I appreciate what He’s letting me do. And that I know that I cannot do it without Him. And let me tell you something, no matter what your job is, it doesn’t have to be a preaching or a pulpit job, I don’t care if you clean toilets for a living, you need to lean on God to be able to clean them right and clean them happy.
Have faith in God constantly. Truly I say to you whoever says to this mountain, whoever says to the mountain, not who thinks about the mountain or looks at the mountain or complains about the mountain, talks about the mountain, but whoever says to the mountain be lifted up and thrown into the sea does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will take place will be done to him. 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 there. In God’s economy, you’ve got to believe before you get.
You don’t get it and then believe you’ve got it. It doesn’t take any faith to do that. Not one of you has to believe now for a seat because you’ve got one. You don’t have to believe that I’m here because I’m here. So, once we get something we no longer have to believe but there’s a period of time where we’re going to ask for something, release our faith, we pray – that’s part of releasing your faith, and then we need to keep saying what we believe God is doing. Not ask for it then talk like we’re never going to get it. Amen.
How would you like it if you told one of your kids – They came to you and said, mom I need a new pair of shoes. And you say, ok, I’ll take you real soon and we’ll get those shoes. You didn’t tell them when. You just expect them to trust you that when the time is right you’ll take them to get the shoes. Now how would you like it if they spent the next 2 weeks walking around the house saying, I’ll never get shoes, I’ll go barefoot the rest of my life, I know I’ll never have any shoes. Oh I wish I had shoes, I’ll never have shoes like anybody else.
Why is it that we can understand it with our kids but we can’t understand it in our relationship with God? You tell Him what you need. It’s even great if you know enough of Scripture to back it up with a Scripture because your Word says. And if there’s nothing else, just say well your Word says and I’ll ask for what I need and you’ll give it to me. And then keep saying that you know it’s on the way. Matter of fact, I can tell you if mom planned to take that kid shopping in 2 weeks but every time the kid walked by mom they said, I know mom you’re going to take me soon, I’m so excited, you’re such a good mom, anytime you’re going to take me. How much you want to bet me that you’d move it up a week? I tell you what, we don’t get it. You know?
Making sense? So now we have the praying and the saying. Come on, we’re working on our mountain. We’ve got the praying and the saying. And then He said, and whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him and leave it, drop it, let it go. Because if you don’t forgive others then God can’t forgive you and answer your prayers. So here we have something to do, we have praying, saying, and taking obedient action that God gives you. Now, we don’t need to get into the works of the flesh; that’s our own ideas about how to make stuff happen.
But if I’m praying for something and I’m confessing and nothing’s happening and nothing’s happening then God reminds me that well you know you have 3 people that you’re boiling hot mad at. So, go get it right. I mean, the Bible even says when you bring your gift to the alter if you remember there when you’re trying to worship God with your gifts that your brother has fought against you, it doesn’t even have to be that you’re mad against them.
God is go big on peace He says you go make it right. Well now wait. See the thing is where there’s peace there’s blessing. Where there’s peace and blessing, there’s anointing. The power of God is there. And so we need to do anything we can to be peacemakers because peacemakers are the sons of God. You might say, well that’s not fair. Doesn’t matter, you can go and do it in faith; God you said to do it, I’m going to do it. That’s what we’ve got to come to here this weekend. This is what the Word says, doesn’t matter how I feel, doesn’t matter how it looks, that’s what I’m doing. Your word is greater than anything I think or feel or don’t see or see or anything else. So, we release our faith through praying, saying, and doing what God asks us to do.
Hebrews 11, we want to go there. How many of you can probably tell you already need this tonight? And it’s going to help you. You don’t all have your hands up; I guess you’re tired, I don’t know. How many of you feel like you need this tonight? Alright. The better you respond the better I’ll preach. You know, Christianity is not a passive religion. God’s always going to be telling us things that we need to do, and when He does, we need to do them.
Hebrews 11 gives us a definition of faith, as well as Collossians 1:4 gives us a different definition of faith we want to look at. 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 perceives as real fact what is not yet revealed to the senses. So this is telling us we can have something in the spirit realm before we ever get it in the natural realm. And you know the interesting thing, when you really believe in your heart that you have it, you get just as happy as if you were already looking at it. That’s the absolute truth; you do.
Now, if I said to you, I got a new car last week. You say, oh show me your car. I say, well I can’t show it to you, I don’t have it with me. Well I don’t believe you have a car; if you can’t show it to me, I don’t believe you have a car. You don’t have a car; you can’t show me your car, you don’t have a car. And I said, well, wait a minute, I do have the title. And so you’ll like, oh so you have a car. Or if I say – if somebody says, I bought a new house.
And you say, oh I don’t believe you bought a new house. Oh yeah, I bought a new house. Well, show me your house. Well I can’t show it to you right now because it’s not right here with me but I have a new house. Well I don’t believe you have a new house. Well, here’s the deed to my house. I have a house. And you say, oh well I guess you do have a house.
Well just for a practical example the Bible says this is what faith is. Faith is the title deed. It’s the title deed. It’s the confirmation, the proof that I have what God says I can have and it doesn’t matter if I don’t see it, if I can’t feel it, I’ve got it.
In order to live the fulfilling and joyful life that God intended us to live, it’s really important that we maintain a high level of faith in God. Hebrews 11:6 says without faith it’s impossible to please God and those who come to Him must believe that He is and that He is a rewarded of those who diligently seek Him.
It’s not going to help Him if you’re full of worry and anxiety all of the time so today we’re offering you a 1 hour DVD teaching on how to be free from worry and anxiety. Yummy, yummy, doesn’t that sound good? Think about it. You don’t have to be upset, you don’t have to fret, you don’t have to worry. Instead, you can put your trust in God.
Faith is a creative force. It actually goes out into the spirit realm when you pray and you say and you add that obedient action. That faith, words are powerful. And they go out into the spirit realm and they start releasing the power of God and things begin to happen. But when I began to learn these principles of faith and I began to apply them through praying and saying and doing, and praying and saying and doing, and praying and saying and doing, praying and saying and doing, and praying and saying and doing. I want to say this enough this weekend that you don’t forget it. Through praying and saying and doing.
Confessing the Word of God out loud is a powerful principle that I teach people all over the world. And if you can ever learn how important that is to not just talk about how you feel all of the time, although there is a place for that, and we’re not saying to deny your feelings, but to just talk about your problems, talk about it, talk about it, talk about it, talk, talk, talk about it, talk about it, talk about it – Let me tell you if you’ve got friends and you’ve been talking to them about your problems for 10 years, they are tired of it. I mean, if they won’t tell you, I will tell you. And they got tired of it a long time ago. So we’ll just leave that there.
There was a time when this Ministry was just a by faith thing. I mean, you have no idea how ridiculous it is that God called me to do this. I could never get you to understand how ridiculous it is. I don’t have the education for it, I was told I didn’t have the personality for it, I was told I didn’t have the voice for it, I was told I was a woman. I was like God I’m a woman; He’s like I know.
So, I’m changed. I’ve had different health issues in my life, and God has healed me. I had cancer. I was healed. I had migraine headaches for 10 years. I was healed. Now, when I say I was healed, I did not receive a supernatural miracle but God led me through them, He led me to answers, and, you know, I’d like to be one of the ones that just gets miracles all of the time but God just makes me walk a lot of the stuff out. I think that’s because He just wants me to have enough experience to be able to share with people who have to do it that way.
You know, God does miracles and He’s alive and well, and our first line of defence is always to believe God for an outrageous miracle. The miracle to me for when I had breast cancer was they found a tumor that was so tiny that they said that if a good technician wouldn’t have read that mammogram that I would have been dead within a year. And he found this little, teeny, tiny thing. But it was a rapidly, outrageously fast type of cancer that would have grown really, really fast. And they found it when it was so tiny that although I did have to have surgery none of it had gotten to my lymph glands, I didn’t have to take any kind of chemo, I didn’t have to take any kind of radiation.
I missed 2 weeks on the pulpit, went back to work. Sometimes when you’re believing in God for something, don’t always think it’s just going to show up in the mailbox or fall out of the sky. Walking with God means sometimes you’ve got to wait on Him for wisdom and you’ve got to take a step of faith and do what you feel is right the next day. But now recently I’ve been having a back issue. And I’ve had some back issues on and off for a lot of years, and so I work out and get it adjusted. But you know I guess I work thousands of miles on these platforms in shoes that were stupid to be doing it in for a lot of years. I mean now I look at women that have on these 5” high heels and I’m just like going ewww, and I’m not trying to meddle in your business and you can wear what you want to but I’m just telling you that you better – Of course, I probably wore them a lot more than most people do because I was in situations like this a lot. It wasn’t just like wearing them once a week to church or something.
And just through wear and tear I got a couple of discs that have some degeneration. So in the last month I’ve been having a real issue with my back. Well, the first thing you pray for is a miracle. In the meantime I’m listening to God and I’m doing my part and I’m like ok God I get it, the doctor gave me home exercises to do to keep my back loose. Do I do them? No. When do I do them? When I have an emergency. He didn’t say do them when you have an emergency, he said do them all of the time. So I’ve been seeing things that I wasn’t doing that maybe if I would have been doing my part I wouldn’t be in this situation.
But 3 weeks ago I don’t know that I could have stood here. As a matter of fact, I had to cancel a speaking engagement at a Church and it was only the 2nd time in 30 years that I’ve ever had to cancel anything. It was hard for me to do it. But the thing is, is I’ve been keeping my faith. I’ve been praying and I’ve been saying and I’ve been trying to do each little thing that I feel like God is asking me to do. And I keep praying and I keep saying. You know, they could even tell you, how’s your back today? Well, back still hurts but I believe God is working, it’s going to get better. So I’ve had to have some shots in my back but the good news is it’s the best today that it’s been in 4 weeks. So, and why am I telling you this? Because I want you to know that everybody goes through stuff. We don’t just float around on clouds singing the Hallelujah chorus because we’re in Ministry. I mean, we get attached and, you know? But in the midst of that, you keep praying, you keep saying, you keep it up.
You don’t give up your faith. You keep it up, you keep it up, you keep it up, and you will have a breakthrough. You will have a breakthrough. I had migraine headaches for 10 years, and it was the 1st 10 years I started this Ministry. I don’t have them anymore. Haven’t had them for the last 20 years. But I had to do a lot of holding my faith and staying in faith and keeping a good confession. And that don’t mean I always did it right. I mean, back then I murmured and complained and threw fits and got confused and doubted and full of unbelief and wailed and cried and moaned, and quit the Ministry every time I turned around.
But I’m just trying to tell you, I’m trying to be an example to you, to tell you that doesn’t impress God, that doesn’t impress God, and He’s basically just saying, when are you going to shut up and start acting like you really believe me? Now, there’s a time to sit down and tell God how you feel. But then that should take you about 2 or 3 minutes and then you need to go back to the Word of God.
I mean, the Bible is full of stories about people who did things by faith. I mean, some pretty outrageous things. Abel brought his best offering by faith. Noah built an arc by faith. Well duh they didn’t know what rain was; why did they buy a boat? Abraham left home and followed God and God wouldn’t even tell him where He was going. He said, you leave everything first and you start going and I will show you where to go as you begin to move. And the Bible says in Hebrews 11 that he went although he did not know where to go, nor did he trouble his mind about where to go. Okay, God. Tonight I guess I’ll pitch my tent here and we’ll sleep here. Get up in the morning and move on.
Joseph commanded his bones would be carried into the promise land because when the Israelites were in slavery in Egypt for 400 years Joseph felt that he had a promise from God that they would be delivered out of there and get to live in the promise land. And he was so sure that when he died he said well it hasn’t happened yet but I believe it will and I’m telling you guys you keep my bones from generation to generation and when you leave Egypt you take me with you. And 400 years later when they left Egypt Moses and the Israelites carried Joseph’s bones out of there with them. I say that’s not giving up. Amen.
He still believed it even though he didn’t see it in his lifetime. He still believed it. Can I tell you something? You are better off to believe God, even if you never get it, than to live your life full of doubt and unbelief and negativity, having a sour attitude and feeling miserable, because faith just makes you flat out unhappy. Faith just gives you a good little rest in a world that will wear you out.
Abraham and Sarah had a child born to them and if you go and you look it up it says that she was past the childbearing age. And Abraham, the Bible says, was as good as dead. That’s what it says. That’s – I looked it up today. And he was as good as dead. And here you got a man almost dead and an old woman that’s already had the change of life. I mean let’s just get blunt about it. And they gave birth to a child that was conceived by faith, a child of promise. Let me tell you if you won’t give up you’re going to give birth to something else. Do you hear me?
Some of you are pregnant with a dream and a vision from God, you’re pregnant with hope, you’ve got some stuff rolling around on the inside of you, you want to be used by God and it looks like nothing is moving, nothing is shaking, nothing is happening. All of your friends are against you, your family is against you.
Let me tell you, God is for you. And He’s just looking for somebody that won’t give up. He’s just looking for somebody that will dare to believe Him. People ask me all the time how I feel about what I’m doing now, compared to where I came from. And I can tell you today when I sit down a handful of times a year and we talk about where we started and what we went through and the old van with ball tires and not having enough money to stay in a hotel and pulling over in the McDonalds parking lot and getting a little sleep so we can drive home after a speaking engagement. Then you have all the silly people who want to be jealous because you can finally drive a nice car. People want what you’ve got but they don’t want to be where you were. Amen.
The Israelites crossed the Red Sea by faith. Moses left Pharaoh’s house by faith. He left a place of comfort by faith because he wanted to help bring deliverance to his people. He chose a life where he would have less in the natural but wanted more in the spirit.
I think about the precious wonderful people that leave America to live on the Mission field for 25 or 30 years in conditions that are unspeakable. And how few people will speak to them or pay attention to them or even send them a thank-you card. But I tell you God knows they’re there. And if you’re somewhere where you feel that you’re being unappreciated but you’re there because you feel God wants you there, I want to tell you something. Maybe other people don’t know you’re there but God knows you’re there. You hear me? God knows you’re there. And He sees your face, and He hears your words, and He sees every little act of obedience. We’re saved by faith, there’s no doubt about that. We all get that.
But I love what Paul said in the Galatians. In the first 3 verses of Chapter 3, he said, having received the Holy Spirit by faith, are you not going to reach perfection through the works of the flesh? He was trying to tell the same way that you’re saved that’s the same way you’ve got to live. That simple childlike faith.
But see as believers in Christ we have another set of eyes. We have the eyes of the heart. And we can understand things with our heart that you can never understand with your head. I am particularly fond of this Scripture. In Hebrews 11:3 it says, by faith we understand how the world was made. Now, I think by faith we can understand all kinds of stuff that our head can never understand. Then we don’t have to be confused, we don’t have to be upset all of the time. Because by faith it’s like I don’t know what God’s doing. I can’t explain it to you but I know God’s working. And I know what it looks like but I also know what it’s going to end up like.
Doesn’t the Bible say in Romans that there’s a period of time where we look like sheep being led to the slaughter but right in the midst of all that you are more than conquerors through Christ that loves you. And I don’t have to explain to people why if I’m trusting God that hasn’t happened yet. I don’t know, God’s got a timetable, and He doesn’t discuss it with me. All I know is I’m praying and saying and doing. I’m going to do my very best to do what God’s asking me to do and whatever the results are is up to Hm. If I died believing in God and I still haven’t got it, I’m going to die believing in God. I wish somebody tonight would get over this thing well God I’m going to give this one more week. Come on now.
No, you need to make the commitment. I’m in for however long it takes, God. And even if I don’t ever see anything, I’m in. I mean, faith is amazing. In Acts 3, a man was healed by Jesus’ name. In Romans 1, we lived by faith. In Romans 3, we’re justified by faith. In case you don’t know what justified means, it means to be made just as if you never sinned. We’re justified in Christ. Our town is balanced, all debts paid. We’re made right with God, we’re not in debt, we don’t owe anything anymore to God. By faith.
Through the Holy Spirit’s help, we actually can anticipate and look forward to good things. When you have nothing, you can look forward to abundance. When you’re sick, you can look forward to help. When you’re lonely, you can look forward to good relationships. By faith, we look forward to good things. Every day of your life, you should say I’m expecting something good to happen today. Today I’m expecting something good to happen. I tell you all Hell hates it when you talk like that. So many wonderful things by faith. People do great things, they do impossible things. Faith delivers you from worry. Philippians 4, 6 and 7 says, be anxious for nothing, but in all things by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving. Praying and saying. Let your petition be known to God and the peace that passes understanding.
Hebrews 4, those who have believed God do enter the rest of God. What does the Bible say in Colossians 1:4 that faith is? I love this. Faith is the leaning. The leaning of the entire human personality on God. An absolute trust and confidence in His power and wisdom and goodness. Let me tell you something. God’s got the power to help you. He’s got the wisdom to know what to do. And He’s good enough to do it, whether you deserve it or not. All you’ve got to do is trust Him. If you’re weary and worn out and you’re frustrated, tonight you can make a change. You say, it can’t happen that fast.
I read a lot of stuff by Andrew Murray. He’s got all kinds of books and I just like him. He’s just a really plain and simple writer. And he talked in here about a couple of different guys. One of these stories I’m going to read you tomorrow. But a guy named Canon Battersby who lived in 1873. And he said that he went to a convention called the Oxford Convention in 1873, that he witnessed having a new and distinct blessing to which he’d been a stranger before. He said for more than 25 years he’d been very diligent as a minister of the gospel and from his journals the most faithful incision to maintain a close walk with God, but he was always disturbed by the consciousness of being overcome with sin.
God does not want us always disturbed about anything. If something’s not working the way it’s supposed to be working, if you are disturbed and frustrated and upset and have no peace and no joy, and you’re feeling guilty more than you’re feeling right with God, can I just tell you that something is wrong if that’s the way you feel all of the time. You don’t want to just use your faith to believe God for a thing. I remember when God put on my heart, if you want to really use your faith for something big then use it to live guilt free. Because to be able to believe when you make mistakes, if your heart is right, and you’re really sorry for it, then God will not only forgive you but He’ll work in you to help you change and not keep believing that way. It takes faith.
It takes a lot of faith to have joy when you’ve got nothing to be smiling about. It takes a lot of faith to be peaceful when it seems like everything’s caving in around you.
Don’t just use your faith to get a new this, a new that, another this, another that or a promotion at work; that just such a low level of using your faith. We need to use our faith to stand up and be the kind of people God wants us to be in a world that needs to see Christ.
So he was always disturbed. Long story short, he went to this conference and heard a man speak, just like you’re hearing a woman speak tonight. And the man spoke about the rest of faith. And God opened this wonderful Christian man’s eyes to see that he did not have to be struggling. I pray that someone in this place tonight will get it.
Your struggling will never end unless you give it to God. And if you feel like you just can’t do that yet then I can invite you to go around the mountain another 100 times and then come back next year. Faith is the leaning of the entire human personality, all on God, an absolute trust and confidence in His power, wisdom and goodness. Faith is the leaning of not some of you on God but all of you on God.
Faith is not just trusting God for your salvation but then not trusting God with your kids. It’s not just trusting God to forgive your sins but then not trusting God for your spouse and your marriage. You don’t pick and choose. And sadly that’s what we do. I’m going to believe God for this but this is, you know, probably over God’s head, I better take care of this. We don’t think that consciously but really that’s what we’re saying, isn’t it? He said, I learned that night that I must take Christ at His word. Come on if someone can learn this in 1873, we can learn it tonight.
I learned that I had to take Christ at His word. We have to stop reading this and then acting like it’s not true. Amen? He said I learned that I must believe without feeling, take Christ in His Word, and believe what He said without feeling. It is now 8 years since I have known this blessing as my own. And I cannot say that I have never for a moment ceased to trust because I have. But I can say – I love this – I can say that as long as I have trusted God He has kept me. He has been faithful.
In order to live the fulfilling and joyful life that God intended us to live, it’s really important that we maintain a high level of faith in God. Hebrews 11:6 says without faith it’s impossible to please God and those who come to Him must believe that He is and that He is a rewarded of those who diligently seek Him.
It’s not going to help Him if you’re full of worry and anxiety all of the time so today we’re offering you a 1 hour DVD teaching on how to be free from worry and anxiety. Yummy, yummy, doesn’t that sound good? Think about it. You don’t have to be upset, you don’t hae to fret, yu don’t have to worry. Instead, you can put your trust in God.
Female:
You can help with Hurricane Sandy disaster relief right now. God to joycemeyer.org or call the phone number on your screen and be a hand extending hope to people in desperate need.