Faith in Action: Embracing Challenges and Divine Timing

"We've been talking about faith specifically how faith works so unsurprisingly the series is faith works and we've said a few things we've said that the first step to activating a faith that really works in your life a faith that makes the impossible possible a faith that heals things that you thought were unhealable a faith that takes things that are going negatively in one direction and turns them 180 and gets them in the other direction a faith that works more powerfully than you mean money and resources and networking and connection and training and all of that the first step is moving from if to can that it's good for us to have faith in God and most Christians do but what is the degree of your faith is it just enough to come to Jesus or are you convinced that he is the true source of your deliverance and so I think Christians today you know they they go to church it's good they read their bible that's a very good thing" [00:00:16]

"Now, faith is something you have, belief is something you exercise. And so a lot of times we have faith, we have a quality faith, but in order to exercise it, there is some challenge that stands in the way of that. In other words, you really don't know how authentic your faith is until you have to do something that pushes you out of your comfort zone. In order to actually depend on God. And we saw the feeding of the 5 ,000 out. Jesus fed others with small resources." [00:02:10]

"And Peter had quite a bit of belief because when he saw Jesus walking on the water, he stepped out of the boat, and he was walking on the water. He probably wasn't even thinking about it, you know? Jesus called him. He probably didn't think about it much. He says, well, if Jesus is calling me, it must be good. He wouldn't want me to sink, right? And so he gets out and starts walking, and then he starts to think about it. Wait a minute, where the heck am I? And it says he looks at the wind, and of course you can't see wind, which means that he became distracted by his own machinations. He became off -center and took his eyes off of Jesus because of his own fears and worries and imaginations that drummed up out of him but weren't there when he was just having faith in Jesus." [00:03:08]

"And he actually says that earlier what he says is you are of your father the devil that is why you don't can't hear me he's bold so they asked him to you know they asked Jesus to tell him plainly he's told them plainly he's saying your heart is hardened you're spiritually not in the right place you have all the accoutrements you have all of the window dressing you look all pretty you have all the political power but you're not a god and he says and that's why you can't hear me because deep inside your soul is not responsive to the Spirit of God because you are not of God so when he says that they decided to kill him so they pick up stones to stone him Jesus is quite the agitator because when the reapers went out to kill Jesus they found him ready to kill Jesus is quite the agitator because when the reapers went out to kill Jesus they pick up stones to stone him he says so of which of my miracles are you stoning me for oh boy that really rubbed salt in the wound you know right we're not stoning you because of your miracles we're stoning you because you called yourself God you've called yourself a son of God you've called yourself equal to God he goes on with some other explanations the bottom line is he gets out of there because they're about to kill him so he's in Jerusalem and he crosses over the Jordan" [00:06:13]

"into a place called Bethany which is near where John was baptizing of course he was dealing with a lot of stuff and he needed a respite he needed a place to rest he needed a place of peace and restoration and he took the disciples with him now I don't know about you but I have found that sometimes when I've been persecuted when I'm true my heart is troubled when I need to get a recharge a charge I go back to the place back to the place of that initial infusion of the power of God it's like I need a recharge I got to go back to the reach recharge station and of course this is where Jesus was baptized he was baptized by John the Baptist this is when the heavens opened up and said this is my son in whom I am well pleased right this is when his his ministry started at that spot so with all of this persecution he's fully God and fully human so he's got to go back here and get himself together because I just got almost got killed okay now some people might say well wait a minute he's the son of God what is he running from he's God he can do all that he can do all that he can do all that he can do all that he can do all of these miracles why is he running but you know I maintain that there's a song" [00:07:43]

"all right so elijah had whipped all these people and then so elijah starts running and fleeing and there are people who said oh this was elijah's failure look at elijah running but i'm sitting here saying elijah is smart as jesus you got to know when to hold him and know when to run all right and so he takes off running all right so he runs to a brook and he says god i don't know what i'm going to do this king is after me now he's persecuting me now you know his wife's going to kill me now and so he's at a brook and the ravens come and feed him and eventually he goes to a widow with oil and flour that helps him in other words he was going through a tough time but god was still caring for him and moving him in the right place and ahab never caught him but things really turn when eventually he takes a 40 -day walk to mount horeb and goes to the mountain and when he goes to the mountain he's going to kill him and so he goes to the mountain god speaks to him and he is discouraged he wants to die and god says what's the matter he says all of the prophets have been killed i'm the only one who's left and there's nobody it's just me and then god says guess what it's not just you there's 7 000 more just like you you know what the enemy does his strategy is to make you think it's just you to make you think you're a problem to you to make you think you're a problem to you to make is that that somehow your issue is bigger and more difficult than everybody else's" [00:15:31]

"And so often we think, why do bad things happen to good people? You know why we think that falsehood? We think that falsehood because we think that only good things happen to good people. And the reason we think that only good things happen to good people is because we think the rest of the world is good. But we live in a polarized society. If you are good, then to a bad person, your good is bad. So they're going to come up against you, not because you're bad, but because you're bad to them. But if they're bad, then their bad is actually good. Did I make any sense at all? Probably not. Okay. All right." [00:17:44]

"So, when we experience a difficulty in the present, if you have faith in God, then God is using that to educate you, to prepare you for something greater. Because if we have genuine faith in God, that means we know who he is. And if we know who he is, we know that he is loving. We know that he wants the very best for you. We know that he has a great plan for your life. We know. We know that all things are working together for the good, for those who love God and are called according to his purpose. So, if we have faith in God, we don't give up in God just because we're having a hard day. Amen." [00:19:26]

"to the contrary when the enemy comes out of the woodwork we ought to say oh I must be on the right track amen and when you see the opposition that should that to pull you to a higher level of walking faith in him and that is God actually bringing you closer to him and allowing you to become your greatest self why because God knows that he always wins he knows that he's better than the enemy it's the enemy that's all messed up in the head thinks he can really compete with God it's the enemy that thinks that this is this is a fight it's not a fight the God is just toying with him but you see we have to have that understanding and faith and so" [00:20:11]

"Bethany it's interesting that Jesus goes to the place of his calling so that he can go back into the situation he just left he's going back to where he was persecuted with greater strength and when he goes back in they greet him from a distance first it's Martha if you had been here here we go with if again right and then after that he goes to Mary if you had been here and Jesus wept but I think he was weeping for two reasons I think he was weeping because he loved Lazarus and he had compassion on everyone who was there because the Jews were actually weeping too because eventually Mary came out when when well when you know when you know when you know when you know when you know when you know it was announced that Jesus was on the way by Martha and then the Jews followed her out and they thought that he was that she was going to Lazarus's tomb but they ended up crying with her so everybody was crying but I think the other reason he cried was this I think he cried because everyone was grieving for no reason at all everyone was weeping and distressed and they forgot that the Son of God was right in front of them" [00:21:44]

"okay but but he said did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God so here's the thing you see we all have this place in us we have this this this little car compartmentalized closet where we've stuffed our mess right and then we go on with our life and then we wonder why we can't go on but just because we ignored the mess doesn't mean that the mess isn't there and doesn't need to be dealt with and what Jesus wants you to do is he wants you to take the stone and the stone is you pretending like there isn't any reason why you're having these problems and why is everybody against me and I don't get it and really the reason is you're just ignoring this over here and he wants you to address that stone and take it away but you don't want to address it because it's so horrible that's ugly it's nasty you don't want to deal with it you don't want to deal with it you don't want to deal with it you don't want to deal with it you don't want to deal with it but he's saying guess what with me together we'll deal with it and you will be released and so when it comes to resurrection in your life when it comes to progress in your life when it comes to joy and freedom in your life there's stuff that you're just gonna have to bring to Jesus and address but then once the stone is moved away then after that he says a prayer and he thanks God that he hears me that he hears him and he tells everyone else that so they know it" [00:24:49]

"if you really want to exercise faith in your life then find that place where you first believed spiritually mentally emotionally not to go physically get the recharge go back into this situation in faith faith and watch the situation be resurrected if you believe you will see the glory of God amen" [00:29:25]