Glory to God! I heard on Friday our youth, under the leadership of Dr. Charles and his wife and others, went to the birthplace of this church, Fleetway Bowling, and had a bowling evening.
So we rejoice with them for the good time they had, and we also thank God for people who lead our youth into faith life and build them up for a good faith life, like Dr. Charles, his wife, and other leaders.
It's so good! When I heard about it, I remembered all those early days where at Fleetway Bowling, God provided us a place free of charge for more than a year. So God is good; He is faithful. I am so glad that our youth are in that place now.
One more thing: let us remember this. Each Sunday when you come, you come expecting—expecting a better and stronger victorious life for you. You are not just attending a church to hear sermons. Every one of you, as a believer, whether you have been a believer for just one week, one year, or ten years, it doesn't matter. You are all called and chosen by God to show forth His glory.
I have heard great ministers say, and I have read in books as well, that it is a truth: God cannot do anything on this earth without you and me. The world is not yet destroyed because of a few righteous people chosen by God, like you and me. You have a part to play.
Apart from you growing up spiritually, when you are ready, God will show you your assignment to show forth His glory. Never forget that! Don't just be focused on your day-to-day needs and blessings. Life is greater. Even though we may look like very weak and insignificant people, the Bible says God likes people like you and me because the Bible says He chooses the weak things of the world, the foolish things of the world, to show forth His glory.
He is looking for simple, childlike believers. We expect God to override even natural laws, to override anything that man has discovered. Science tells us that one of the names for Jesus is "Wonderful," and one of the meanings in the English dictionary for "wonderful" means "miracle worker." And He is waiting.
Miracles will not happen automatically. People like you and me have to expect miracles. People like you and me have to expect and want miracles—not only for ourselves but for others.
People ask me, "Have you seen miracles?" Yes! Ever since I got saved, I have seen a lot. Just a few weeks ago, in my own family, my wife had a recurring issue. She is under therapy, doing exercises, and her goal is to very soon lift up both hands and sing with my hands lifted up.
But we saw in the emergency x-ray that this area, this bone just under the socket, was shattered into pieces. They said they would put a sling on it and that nature would take its own course. But we are not natural people; we are supernatural people.
So we came home, started confessing the Word, and trusted the Lord. They said it would take four weeks, and after four weeks, they would check up and see whether it needed surgery to put back all the pieces or this and that. But within two weeks, God put it all together—put every piece together.
After the fourth week, when we saw the x-ray, the chief orthopedic doctor came and said, "Oh, this has been put together excellently. He said it was healed."
You see, God is waiting to perform miracles. It's a miracle that every small piece was put together. If one piece is hanging, it will cause a lot of problems down the road, they said. But all pieces, God is in the putting together business, and God is greater than what science can do.
Then they said, "You will do this exercise next, and pain will last." But we said, "That is what you say, but what is going to happen is what we say." We came home, started praising God, and commanded the pain to leave her body. Pain is part of the devil's curse. The devil is a persistent curse, so pain will keep coming. That doesn't mean you put up with it. Every time you rebuke it, she gets relief. She's doing much better, and very soon she will be standing and being a witness.
She will witness and see what God has done. So miracles do happen even today. As a believer, be encouraged and expect.
Remember this: we are studying about faith. People always say, "Oh, I have faith. I want more faith. I have great faith." But faith without hope is useless.
What is hope? We saw hope is a feeling that I can have it, but that is natural hope. God has given you God's name in Romans 15, which says His name is the very God of hope. So He has given His hope. His hope says, "No matter what, I can expect God will do this for me." That is the hope you have to have so you can expect God to act based on His promises.
So keep your faith and hope together. For a Christian, life can never be hopeless because Colossians says, "Christ in you, the hope of glory." That means the Anointed One is inside you, constantly supplying His own hope of expecting God to do it.
And remember, He never misses time. He is never late; He is never early. He is always on time. He will perform that which you expect. Amen!
So say this with me: "Oh, I give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good, and His mercy endures forever. Thank you, Lord Jesus, You are always good to me, and Your mercy endures forever."
Oh, I give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good, and His mercy endures forever. I am a spirit being; I have a soul; I live in this body because I am born again. The Holy Spirit of God is living in me. He is helping me and doing everything that Jesus said He would do for me.
He is helping me; He is teaching me; He is guiding me; He is instructing me; He is joining forces with me to make the Word of God alive in me and through me so that I can enjoy this life victoriously, giving glory to God in the name of Jesus.
Oh God, You are so good to me; Your mercy endures forever. Thank you, Lord Jesus. Praise God!
So we have been studying about faith. What is faith? We saw it is not just anybody thinking, "Just because you say I believe," it's not faith. We saw what faith is according to God.
So we went and saw the definition of faith in Hebrews 11:1: "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Substance means anything which can be handled, anything which is real.
So faith brings reality to that which you expect in line with the Word of God. Then we said we saw in the same chapter, Hebrews 11:6: "But without faith, it is impossible to please God."
"Whosoever comes to God must believe." What? Believe that God is. That means God exists; God is real; He is there. He is not a boss or someone who comes once in a while. He is there. That means upon approach, He will attend to you, He will respond to you, and He will do what the Word says.
So without faith, it is impossible to please God. Whosoever comes—whosoever means not just Christians; non-Christians, anybody can come to God. If they are non-believers, God gives them faith to get saved so that they can operate with His faith.
We have been studying about that. So you come believing that He exists and is a rewarder of those who seek Him diligently.
What is the meaning of that? Diligently means God is not like our imagination, our mind, or feelings say. God is the holy God who created everything, and He is not sitting idle. He is waiting for you to approach with purpose.
The word diligence means with purpose. See, a lot of people still living today live life without any purpose. "Whatever will be, will be." No! As a believer, it is no longer "que sera, sera."
You come with purpose. Purpose for what? First purpose is you have been a sinner. When you come to Him, He says, "I will save you." So you get saved. When you get saved, we saw He gives faith.
So we saw how faith comes. When you come with purpose, whoever seeks God diligently, He rewards them. Reward means we have been told, you know, in school days when we ran a race or a sports event or did something, they always rewarded you with a blue ribbon or something or a trinket, a small couple.
Then you think reward means that is a reward. Not with God. With God, reward means sometimes He will show you what you are missing to do so that you do your part, and the rest will automatically fall.
Sometimes you may be doing the same thing, making the same mistake, and then trying to get a different result. God says, "I will show you; you fix that, and this will be all right."
Sometimes you may think, "Oh no, I am hard-working, I am healthy, I can do all the same, I am educated, I know everything, I have a well-organized mind." But still, something is not working. He will give you wisdom.
What is wisdom? Wisdom is the ability to use the knowledge you have. All of us nowadays are educated with so many degrees. We have all kinds of education available. Just because you are educated doesn't mean you will be successful. A wise man is always successful.
So God will give you, when you seek Him, wisdom to deal with things, deal with the facts of life, deal with your body, with your mind. See, God wants us to be alert children, sharp children. He doesn't like lazy, you know, dumb children. You wouldn't like your child to be like that; you would do anything to get it fixed. How much more God!
So He will give you reward by way of wisdom. He will give you a reward by way of instruction. He will give you a reward by way of the Word itself. He will give you and say, "You speak it; I'll do it for you."
That is what faith life is all about because faith, we studied the second week, we studied there are two kinds of faith: sense knowledge faith and word knowledge faith. We studied about Apostle Thomas in John, the 20th chapter, and we studied about Abraham in Romans, the fourth chapter.
So we saw God kind of faith is different from sense knowledge faith. God kind of faith is based on the promises of God, the Word of God. And when God speaks to you, people say, "God speaks to me even now."
Yeah! Jesus said in John, the 10th chapter, "I am the Good Shepherd. My sheep," referring to you and me, believers, "My sheep hear My voice. I know them, and they follow Me. I give them eternal life."
You see, God says you can hear. But if you have not been hearing, it may be because you are not paying attention. So you must tell yourself, "Yes, when I talk to God, not only does God hear me, but I can hear Him too."
And we saw Jesus did not recommend the sense knowledge faith because Thomas said, "Unless I feel, unless I touch, then only I will believe; otherwise, I will not believe."
When Jesus appeared, He said, "Come on, Thomas, touch and see." But then Thomas said, "My Lord and my God!" So Jesus said, "You believe because you saw Me. Blessed are those who believe without seeing."
So Jesus recommended God kind of faith.
Okay, what is God kind of faith? If it is so, why God kind of faith? How do I get it? I must know. See, God won't tell you anything to do without providing and doing together with you.
God told you, "Love everybody." One of the Ten Commandments is, "First, love God, and then love one another." But He didn't just give a command; He proved Himself that He loves you and me by sacrificing His Son, Jesus Christ, on our behalf.
So He showed how love works. Same way, God says, "Believe in Me." But God now says, "I believe in you." You may be a wretched sinner; you may be a fallen person, but still, if you come calling on Me, I'll save you and adopt you and give you a new life.
So everything God says, if God says, "Have faith in God," because He has faith in you. He has faith that your life can be better. He has faith that you will be victorious. He has faith that you will be strong. He has faith that you will be prosperous. He has faith that you will live long until you are satisfied.
God has faith in you, which He calls the will of God because it is God's will that you and I live a strong, victorious, successful, healthy, long, prosperous life. That is true.
How do I get it? The reason for faith is to live that kind of life. The Bible itself says you should have faith for two reasons, at least, to begin with.
The first reason is without faith, you cannot please God. And God says there is a kind of faith I have. I operate; I will give you the same faith, and you use that faith. You and I can communicate and be successful.
It is like, you know, you say, "Why can't I operate with my natural faith?" No, it is like a currency. You know, in this, your Canadian dollar won't work in America; you have to change.
Okay, Americans believe only in their currency. The same way you go to England or you go to Europe, the same currency doesn't work there. Even though all currencies are green, the color is the same, but it doesn't work there. You are going to change and deal with their currency.
So with God and His kingdom, His currency, His faith is the currency you use there. It is the same like language. You have got to learn. If you go to, they say a phrase, "When you are in Rome, be a Roman." When you go to another country, you are required to know a language so that you can deal and operate closely.
I am just throwing an illustration for you to understand why faith. Because with God kind of faith, when you operate with my level of faith, I will be pleased, which I am pleased, then freely I can operate with you.
The second reason you need faith, the Bible says that in the Epistle of John, first chapter, I can quote this, but I'm going to read the Epistle of John, the first chapter, I mean, the fifth chapter.
Let us read the fourth verse. The Epistle of John, John 1, fifth chapter, the fourth verse says, "For whatever is born of God is victorious over the world. This is the victory that conquers the world, even our faith."
Who is it that is victorious over that conquers the world? But he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God, who adheres to, trusts in, and relies on that fact. That means saved people who have got the faith of God can overcome the world.
What do you mean by overcome the world? See, because of the world’s fallen nature, even though we are born again, God has given us a new nature, God's nature. He has recreated our spirit man, but still, we are open to temptation. We are open to old habits. We are open to weaknesses.
Human weakness tends to fall into sin. Sin means a simple definition for sin, according to James, is when you know to do good and if you didn't do it, then you sin. It may not be even some heinous thing that will destroy somebody. You know to do good, and if you didn't do it, it is sin.
Romans, the last chapter says anything which is not faith is sin. So if you are not operating in the God-given faith, you may be living in sin. These are simple definitions.
But God says, "Use My faith; you can avoid sinning. You can be successful." You see, people, when God calls something sin, nowadays modern people use language and say, "Oh, I have this addiction; I have this problem; I have this mistake."
See, sin is sin. You call it by any name, but you don't have to live with those shortcomings. You don't have to live with sinning habits. You don't have to live with wrongful habits. You don't have to live in a way that will rob you from getting and walking in the fullness of blessings of God.
So God says, "By faith, the faith I give you, you can be overcomers. You can be victorious. You can be conquerors." You can conquer cities and countries, no! Conquer your own mind, which is sometimes acting against you. Conquer the wrong habits that sometimes trip you.
Conquer the habits that make you abuse yourself, abuse your body, abuse your mind. Many people are destroyed not even by the devil but by their own ignorance and self-abuse. People abuse themselves with words. Not only do they abuse themselves with their words, but in school or relatives, friends, they abuse them by saying, "Oh, you own them under anything."
No! God says it takes God's method. It takes the weak thing and calls it great. One example is Gideon. Gideon was a frail-looking fellow. God addressed him. How did He address him? Mighty Man of Valor!
Because God's faith sees beyond what is natural. So that is the kind of faith God says, "I am giving you." I am training you how to use the faith. Before you start using the faith, you must know certain basic things: first, what is faith, why faith, and how it comes.
So last week we saw how it comes. Faith, God kind of faith, on a continual basis keeps coming to you. How? Three scriptures we said. The first one is in Ephesians. When you get saved, it says you are saved through grace by faith, not by your own works. It is a gift of God.
What is the gift of God? Grace is a gift. No, grace is already free. Something which is free is already given. So it is not the gift of a gift; it is the gift of faith. God gave you His faith.
What is His faith? His faith believes in the heart in God and then speaks whatever He says. He says you don't have to say long prayers and all. In Romans, the 10th chapter, verse 13 says, "Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved."
So you come to God as Jesus, and the moment you call upon the name of Jesus from believing in your heart that Jesus really existed, that says you are saved. It is man who has complicated it into all kinds of theories and complicated ways. It is simple.
So when you call upon God, He gives you His faith and saves you. Once you are saved, you belong to Him. And the same way you believe and speak because that is the basis of faith He gave you.
Then again in Romans, the 12th chapter, the third verse said, "We are talking about thinking. Don't think too much about yourself." And all that means don't waste too much time with your thinking. Start using the faith which is in your heart and believe according to the measure of faith dealt to each man.
The measure of faith. What faith? The measure of God's faith, His own faith. He gave you in a measure, but it uses the word "the" because the measure means God is fair; God is righteous.
Every believer, whether you got saved one hour ago, one week ago, one year ago, or ten years ago, everybody He gave the same amount of faith. Now it is up to you to use it and increase in faith.
It is up to you to exercise that faith and get strong in faith. It is up to you to persuade yourself, "No matter what, hoping against hope, if God said it, I will have it." That kind of faith God has given.
But those things you are learning how to use. So faith is dealt to you. Use the word "dealt" because it didn't come by prayer or anything. You are dealing with God.
Like, for example, another day I was remembering my dad used to be a card player. He was an expert. Even when they play cards, it is called you each one is dealt cards because they are all inter-sitting there dealing with one another.
Similar to that, while they are simply gambling their life away, God says life is not a gamble. Come to Me; I will deal you. When you deal with Me, I will deal with you something real.
So it is called He dealt everybody the measure of faith. So when you interact with God, really believing God exists, you get really His faith.
Why is faith? Because His faith makes you an overcomer. Overcome your wrong habits, overcome your addictions, overcome your self-abuse, overcome your depression, overcome your loneliness, overcome your emotional problems, overcome your physical problems, overcome your relational problems, overcome your financial problems.
No matter what, you are created in the eyes of God by faith ahead of time. God said in Romans 8, you are all more than conquerors. You are not even beginning to conquer anything, but God already says you are more than a conqueror.
So you believe that. So the third way faith—these are three definite biblical ways to show that this faith we are talking about is directly connected to a living God.
Because the word faith is used in all confused ways. People say, "What faith do you belong to?" That means to identify which religion. I'm not talking about that faith.
Or they will say, "Oh, which group do you belong to? Are you in the Pentecostal group, faith group?" No, we are not any group. We are the real believers, born-again believers, using and acting and living by God kind of faith—the very faith which God has got.
He has shared a portion of His faith with you and me to train us to continue to become overcomers so that at the end, you realize what God told you about, like He told Abraham that you are the father of many nations.
"I have made thee the father of many nations." You will realize you don't have to die and realize after a little while walking with God in faith. You will realize, "Man, really, I am more than a conqueror. Nothing can defeat me."
Because you are believing what God says.
So now, God’s faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word. We read last week on that. I want to share a little more.
So let us read Romans, the 10th chapter. I am going to read a few verses. Romans 10:13 says, "For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved."
How then shall they call on Him whom they have not believed? How shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? How shall they hear without a preacher?
See, now before God gives you His faith, it tells you how it operates. He says, "How shall they call on Him whom they have not believed? How shall they believe on Him whom they have not heard?"
So believing and hearing are inseparable. It always goes with God kind of faith. Believing and hearing go together; they are inseparable.
How can they believe on Him whom they have not heard? How shall they hear without a preacher? A preacher, what he does is he speaks. A preacher proclaims; a preacher uses words.
So when somebody speaks words, the other person hears. What they hear, they believe. When they believe, then they call upon whom they believed. When they call upon whom they believed, the person whom they called—that is God—He answers them, saves them from their situation, takes care of their eternal life, saves them, and gives them His faith.
His faith! How? His faith is involved in believing and speaking. Where do you believe? You believe in your heart. That means when the Word of God you hear, you don't just— even though it passes through your natural ear, actually, the Word of God is heard in your heart.
That is why in the previous verse, while teaching how simple this faith operation is, in the same chapter, Israel rejected that kind of faith. He said, "With the heart man believeth unto righteousness; with the mouth confession is made unto salvation."
This is so simple! You believe and speak. Believe in Jesus and call; you will be saved.
See, unbelief comes by hearing theories of men. Faith comes by hearing facts and truths of the Word of God.
So now He says that means this faith you are going to hear and believe, and hearing and believing, when you begin like that, after some time, you also hear, believe, and speak.
So in God kind of faith, three things are involved: that is believing in your heart, speaking with your mouth, and also hearing with your ears. These three go together to keep you alive with the faith of God for now.
And how shall they preach except they be sent? He is talking about anointed fivefold ministries of God who are anointed to go, and they are sent. Sent to do what?
Except they be sent, as it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things."
That means these anointed preachers, their important job is to preach glad tidings and good things.
So this is again, it is good for you to remember when you hear all kinds of preachers: are they bringing good tidings? Are they telling you the good news?
What is good news about God? God is good! Anything what He says is good; anything what He does is good; and anything He Himself is good.
So when you hear all kinds of preachers, you've got to have discernment: are they saying that my life will be good, or are they putting fear or terrorizing or mixing all kinds of their own private theology and their own opinion, their own politics, and using all the gospel work for promoting themselves or getting all kinds of attention from all over the world?
Are they doing it so that you will feel, "Oh, what a great preacher is suffering for this?" No, no, no! That is not good tidings. Good tidings is, "Yes, am I only when first your life gets better."
And better, you can help somebody else to get good. Even when you fly in the plane, you know, most of you might have flown in the plane, and in the plane, they say if there is trouble and there is what you call turbulence, oxygen masks will fall.
And they tell you, "Please put the mask first on your face before you start helping others."
Has anybody heard this? Or just you got in the plane and kicked your feet in the front seat and got into some quarrel with others? You heard that, right?
So same like that, God says, "Make your life good first so that you can help others." Whereas preachers, if they are sent, that is how you know they are sent by God.
Just because anybody can quote the scripture, anybody can tell something in a sweet way, does not mean find out if it is anointed or not. Find out if it is bringing the goodness of God.
It is telling you the goodness, the good thoughts about God towards you. It is glad tidings. That means tidings means like a wave; your life is going up and down. Glad tidings is with God; each side will raise you up and up.
And as all the birds rise up, your boat also will rise up.
Finally, take care of the basics so that you will be strong because it is God's will that you and I are strong faith people.
So much so, He has made for a Christian, it is the profession. He says in Hebrews, He says, "Jesus is the Apostle and High Priest of our profession."
That means our profession is walking and living and speaking this faith.
And what is this faith? Still, there is more! I thought you thought I got excited; it is all over. So it's coming.
So He says glad good tidings. Anything about God when you hear it should make you say, "Yeah, He is good! God is good! I'm going to go and get my life better."
Because when you go, the next level of good is better, and after better, it is best. Together with God and you, it will be best.
So you must have, "Oh, God is good! He can make this all right." That feeling, if it is not coming, if the preacher is always, you know, begging and pressure comes when you hear a preacher, it brings condemnation in your heart.
He might have quoted a scripture, but it is not glad tidings. It is not good tidings because the Word of God will never condemn you.
The Word of God will show you the way out of your wrong life. The Word of God will show you the way out of your weakness and bring you to the strong strength of God.
You will come towards God; you will rise up with God, and that is God good tidings, good news.
And if the preacher is not preaching, you have no business to hear such messages. He may be your favorite preacher or your uncle. Sorry, your uncle needs to come and see me in my office because the Word of God is important.
This is what is going to change. That is what he is saying in the next verse.
So then faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. This God kind of faith not just comes by hearing with your head; your heart has to hear.
Your spirit man hears; the real you hears. So faith comes—that is God kind of faith—comes by speaking, and it comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.
What is the meaning of that? The Word of God in Greek, it is translated—I don't want to miss it, so I wrote it down.
In the Greek, it is the Word of God. In that translation, it says Rhema. Christos word is Rhema.
Even though it is the Bible school I graduated from, this is the original. Rhema means the spoken word.
So faith comes by hearing, and the hearing—the hearing of your heart—comes by you hearing the spoken Word of God.
And God is Christos. Christos means, even though it refers to God, Christo is from the word from where you get Christ, means the Anointed One.
You and I are Christians not because we follow a religion; you and I are called Christians because we are Christ in us, the hope of glory.
The anointing of God is inside you. Epistle of John 2:27 says that anointing is inside of you. That is why we are called Christians—not because we follow a religion.
We are the anointed of God. Say this with me: "I am the anointed of God. I am anointed with the Holy Ghost and power. I am the anointed of God."
Christos means faith comes by hearing. That is, we are hearing with your heart. That happens when you hear the anointed spoken word.
When you hear the anointed spoken word, God kind of faith is birthed inside you.
So the same thing, the Amplified version says like this: the Amplified version says the 17th verse, "So faith comes by hearing what is told."
Because if nobody says anything, you won't be hearing. That is what he is saying.
"Faith comes by hearing what is told, what is heard by the preaching of the message that came from the lips of Christ, the Messiah Himself."
That means anybody, a believer who speaks the Word—what Word? Not any word—the Word of God.
Your Bible scriptures are referred to by God Himself. We back up on the same chapter, the eighth verse. It says "Word of Faith."
So the Bible word is called the Word of Faith, and that Word of Faith produces substance to make it real—that which you believe and expect God to do.
And the faith of God in your heart, in your mouth, will produce those results.
So that is why here he says faith comes by hearing, and hearing comes by the Rhema Christos, which means your faith of God keeps coming inside you to help you to be an overcomer, overcome your difficulties, overcome your chains.
When you speak, not only do you hear the anointed Word of God, you take the same anointed Word of God, and you start speaking.
Then it produces life-changing words; it produces life-giving words by your own mouth. You can produce because this is from God's Word you are using.
It is not your own words which you read in school or college. Their words are all right, but this is the Word of Faith, which is the spoken word, spoken by the Holy Spirit, spoken by the prophet, spoken by God Himself as spoken in several places.
And that Word, when you take it here with your heart and you start speaking, because it is God's will to train you as a believer to be an overcomer, overcome your shortcomings, overcome your weaknesses, overcome anything and everything.
Because this Word of Faith, which not only it is spoken to change things. See, you and I, we speak many times to communicate. You and I speak to each other to communicate our feelings, our thoughts, our opinions.
Nobody wants it, but still, we give it. Especially Christians, we give free advice. Nobody has to come and ask; we freely give that.
That is all wasting your words. Instead, learn to focus on speaking words that will change—words that will bring revival in your heart, words that will restore, words that will heal your body.
The Bible says He sent His Word and healed them all, and they cried unto Him; He delivered them from their destruction.
That way, how did they do that? Because they believed; they called on God through His Word; He healed them.
That means the same Word you can find the promises about. Last week we studied about this, where you find the promise about salvation, you get saved.
You find the promises about getting filled with the Holy Spirit or getting baptized; you do that by faith.
Same way for healing, you find out the scripture about which we will study next week more. You find out promises about healing; you can use it.
And like just now, earlier I testified about my own wife. You know, she is first a believer, then only a pastor and all.
And she had to use the Word instead of sitting and crying and calling everybody. She said, "Wait a minute, leave me alone."
She sat with the scripture day and night with the scriptures: "He Himself took my infirmities and bore my sicknesses. I am healed. With His stripes, I am healed."
She kept on saying, and when the pain comes, she means she is crying to God, "God, this pain, you know why this pain?"
Instead, she spoke to the pain and said, "You stop! You stop! Get out of my body!"
And that is how what she is doing. She was using the faith which was given to her.
So the purpose as a believer is you are constantly learning to use this faith, which involves hearing, believing, and speaking.
So now we know why faith. We learned how faith comes. And when that faith of God, you can constantly have this by you purposing in your heart to hear more than anything else.
Hear what God has got to say. I learned in the Bible School from Brother Hagin. He would always say when you are facing not only trouble, even when something good happens, normally when good happens, you go and lie down, throw some party, and work it.
No! When good happens, the first thing you can train yourself—I have trained so anybody can train themselves.
First, stop, take a deep breath, and say, "What does the Bible say about this?" If I am celebrating, I first celebrate starting giving thanks to God.
I give thanks to God; I praise God; I am thankful to Him because with His mercy and grace, I am what I am.
And that happens; good things happen to me because God is good. But what about problems? Health problems, finance problems, this problem? It comes to all of us.
Then the first thing I think is, "What does the Bible say about this? What do I do with this?"
And people think, "Oh, they don't think like that." So what they do is they just, when problems come, run to God and cry.
No, no, no! Run to God and cry first. Find out what the Bible says. Sometimes the Bible may say something beyond what you are thinking.
I am not belittling prayer; prayer is important. But prayer is not all the way the solution. Prayer fulfills only one part of what Jesus said: "Ask, and you shall receive."
But He didn't stop there. Matthew 7:11 says, "Ask, and you shall receive; seek, and you shall find; and knock, and it shall be opened unto you."
And again, "Without faith, it is impossible to please God." Whosoever comes to God must believe that He is, and He is a rewarder of those who seek Him diligently.
That means you find out what He has got to say about your situation. Did this situation come because of the devil, or is it because of your own ignorance and foolishness?
Or is it because something God is allowing you to overcome and be victorious so that you get the victory, God gets the glory, and Satan is laughed at?
That is how this works. Religion tells you, "You know, you leave it all up to people."
I have met people, "Oh, I left it all to my father," and then go and live like a donkey kicked by the devil and all the time agonizing.
No! You don't live everything up to God. You live what is needed to be left with Him: your faith and rest.
If He says, "Speak," you speak. If He says, "Take authority," you take authority. If He says, "Just sometimes," you will say, "Be still and know that I am God."
Sometimes He will simply say, "It is God's way of telling you to shut up."
Shut up! Because God is God; we are His followers. Are you all His followers? You are believers.
You know now where faith is, how faith comes, what kind of faith you have. Your faith and I—our faith will learn next week how to exercise this faith and how to release the faith.
A lot of people think that is the same thing. No! Exercising and releasing your faith at the appropriate time—these are two basic different things.
When you learn when to exercise faith and when to release your faith, you will get results accordingly.
And because the whole idea is the other end result of this, God's plan is to make you and me one of the best witnesses for Him.
Witness means, remember, Gospel of John, we have been studying. When we survive, we study more. You are a witness.
That means God wants to constantly see something better in your life through the Word and bear witness about it.
Yes, I have done this; it works for me. I have believed and spoken; this works for me. I have given, and it has been given unto me.
I have been fighting; God has been rebuking the devourer for my sake. I have been doing that.
That means you are not just a part-time witness; your life itself is a witness. When people look at you, they say, "These people are different."
They look different. They don't have to come and tell you, but they already know because the Bible says when somebody is full of faith, they can see that.
So we will stop here. I believe everybody got something, and we are going to confess what we learned today.
So say this with me: "In the mighty name of Jesus Christ, I declare Jesus Christ is my Lord, and I am a believer. I am not a doubter. I am a born-again believer, and I am anointed by God with the Holy Ghost and power to not only do good but to enjoy a good life and be an overcomer.
By my faith, I can overcome my depression, my loneliness, because God says, and His Word says, 'I am not alone. My Father is with me,' and He has promised, 'I will never leave you nor forsake you.'
So I can overcome loneliness and depression, and I am strong in the Lord. Therefore, I am all the days walking in the strength of God.
I am very healthy mentally and physically because I believe in the promises of God, and God is always good to me.
For I am fully persuaded that God says, if the spoken Word of God, the Rhema of God, and God Himself, who is my Anointer, dwells in me, I hold fast to my confession that Jesus Christ is my Apostle and High Priest, and I confess what His Word says about my life, and that becomes real in my life.
I am not a weak person. I don't have obsessive habits. Every wrongful habit I can overcome in the mighty name of Jesus Christ.
I believe that; therefore, I speak. As I believe and speak, I continuously hear the anointed Word of God, and the anointing breaks every chain over my life.
Therefore, I declare I am the blessed of the Most High God, possessor of Heaven and Earth. I will not die but live to declare the works of God.
I am full of joy, and I am always victorious. To God be the glory! Let there be glory, honor, and praises to the name of Jesus through my faith walk.
In Jesus' name, believe that! Praise God! Give Him thanks. Thank you! Have a nice day. God bless you!
Don't forget Wednesday prayer meeting and Friday prayer meeting and about the revival in the autumn. The Friday Bible study will keep you updated.
Thank you, everybody! Love you all! God bless you!
Hi, I'm Monica, and I'm on the events team here at Word of His Power Church. Thank you for joining us today.
I would like to remind you to check our website out, wohp.org, and like and follow us on social media. We are a Word of His Power Church, where lives are changed and people are truly blessed.
on Nov 05, 2023
