Faith in Action: Transforming Lives and Communities

Faith Works, how we initiate a faith in our life that can move mountains, that can change trajectories, that can heal what we thought maybe couldn't even be healed. That's the power of faith. And certainly faith is this capacity in our life to transform. When we initiate a truly powerful faith in our life, we transform our lives and our families and our workplaces and our churches and our communities. [00:03:43]

And when we have a focus on Jesus Christ, that means that the things that we do, for example, our ministries, are what Jesus would do. That's our focus. It's so easy to get off focus, to get caught up in all kinds of things that have nothing to do with the very straightforward ministry of Jesus. Who did he come for? Why did he come? What is his mission? [00:06:01]

And so what we're seeing is that if we have an assurance, if we take action in doing those things, we step out and do those things and are focused on those things, then God steps in and does amazing things. And then also we said refinement, meaning that once you start doing God's work, the enemy comes out of the woodwork and he has a way of turning up the fire. [00:06:26]

And so our faith, whatever it is God has called you to, whatever vision he's given you, whatever your purpose in life is, that will be the manifestation of that faith seed in your life. And your fulfillment as a human being will be knowing that you did what God called you to do on this earth. During our short journey here, before you know it, you'll be with him face to face, giving an account. [00:07:39]

Gives us these examples so that we know what it means in our lives to have that kind of faith. He talks about Abel and he says, by this faith, Abel gave the very best that he had, even though God didn't ask him for the very best, indicating that when you have true, authentic... you're listening to your heart, the very best that you're listening to your story, [00:08:29]

So we see that a fulfillment of our purpose in life requires these aspects of faith. To cut off things that you love for what God wants. To cut off comforts that you might want to be able to serve to God's capacity. To be able to give more than what we think we have and more than enough. These are the elements of a truly powerful and authentic faith. [00:10:52]

By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of what is visible. So, it's something out of nothing. It's creating what you need without the tangible resource, but you got the divine resource, and that's more than enough. And so we have all of these witnesses. [00:11:36]

and so what is a witness a witness is a testimony you know I used to say a prayer in the morning and I still say it I would say Lord give me an opportunity to share my testimony with someone this day and when I would say that prayer in the morning invariably God would give me some opportunity to share some good word with another it could be a life experience it just could be an inspirational word a testimony of how Christ has worked in my life [00:12:07]

Most of the Bible actually is written to groups of people, not individuals. and so what we see is that our faith is perfected in community in our interaction with each other with iron sharpening iron as it were i have a gift david has gifts alec has gifts gail has gifts carol has gifts if i keep on calling i'm going to leave someone else i'll stop but we all have gifts and the body of christ is a combination of those gifts to fulfill what god has called us to do [00:14:41]

So, I maintain that one way in which you take off that load is self -forgiveness. You see, we carry guilt, we carry blame, we carry shame, we look at our past transgressions, and when we're continually thinking about what we have done, it is very difficult to move forward. And the enemy loves that. He loves to get you into your corner pity party, you know. [00:19:44]

getting rid of or blocking things that are hindering your offense we can't just focus on the offense we've got to stop things that are blocking and hindering the offense so how do we do that well i used to meet with my ministers when i used to train ministers used to have a you know a team of ministers and we would meet on a regular basis and i would tell them you know the enemy is not just going to come and bring um bad things in front of you [00:22:56]

deferred gratification later in the scripture god says i was saying god says through the author of hebrews that look at esau esau took his inheritance and exchanged for immediate gratification and in other places god says that he hated esau that's pretty strong language so in other words god despises this immediate gratification this desire for immediate gratification you see it's immediate gratification that will continue to delay the completion and perfection of our faith [00:25:48]