Romans 1: 16-17 For I
am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto
salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. 17 For
therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it
is written, The just shall live by faith.
If
we are to be faithful we must understand what faith is, what it takes to be
faithful and what are the enemies to our faith. It is the nature of God to be
faithful because everything in the kingdom of God system
operates by faith and motivated by love.
The scripture says that just shall live by faith. Who is the just? The just then are Christians. We are
justified because of our right-standing with God through Christ. The just are
believers. We know that going to church does not make you a believer. You must be saved to
be a believer. If you are not saved you are not justified. But you have an
opportunity every day to accept and follow Jesus as Lord and Saviour of your
life and to conform your life to His image.
2 Cor 5:7 We
walk by faith and not by sight. We live by faith in God not in
circumstances and situations nor by our 5 senses. We use our 5 senses to
confirm the result of our faith. We have more confidence in the Word of God
than what we see with our natural eyes or hear with our natural ears. That’s
living by faith. We do not live by what is popular in society, not by what is
the latest trend in society, not by the statements of talk-show hosts or even by our own intelligence. We live
by faith.
Faith
is not natural, faith is spiritual. Faith is a spiritual gift from God. You get
this gift when you receive Jesus as Lord of your life, as the
Commander-in-Chief of your life. Unsaved people have natural faith – faith in
Wall Street, faith in their material possessions, faith in their friends, their
employer, and their government. But Wall Street fails, Material possessions
lose their value, Friends disappoint, employers go bankrupt and government
fails. Why because all natural faith have their foundation on natural, fallen humankind. God is beyond man, outside of man. The triune God has all knowledge, is all powerful and is everywhere at the same time. God never fails. So the foundation of your faith must be in God
through Christ by the Holy Spirit.
Now faith is not wishful thinking, a
pie-in-the-sky feeling that everything will be all right. Some people think of
"faith" as either a feeling or a collection of ideas that represent
their convictions. That is not faith. It is God who backs up your faith and guarantees
results when it's consistent with the Word of God (the Bible).
We know how the Bible defines faith. Hebrews
11: 1 The substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not
seen. Faith is substance and evidence. The healing or deliverance you pray
for may already exist although you have not seen it yet. It exists in the
spiritual realm. Then, faith is
perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the human senses yet. In other words we receive our healing by faith.
A word about belief and faith. As the apostle James noted: (James 2:19). "You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons [fallen angels] believe—and tremble!" We must go beyond the level of the faith exhibited by demons.
Faith is not belief but belief is a part of
faith. To believe in God is only the starting point of faith. But believing in
God does not necessarily involve conviction or commitment to Jesus Christ and
God the Father. Belief in God is good, but is incomplete.
Example of belief: I live in the country and
have a job interview in the city. I believe that I will get the job if I travel
to the city. But if I do not act on my belief I definitely will not get the job. So you
have to act to demonstrate your faith.
Heb 11: 6. "But without
faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that
He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him” Diligently
seeking is an action.
Definition: Faith is belief and corresponding
action consistent with the Word of God. To believe God, is to have faith
that God will do whatever He has promised to do in the scriptures. He expects us to act on
that belief. He requires that we have living faith in His existence, power, and
promises.
Romans 12:3 For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly; as God has dealt to each on the measure of faith.
So we are all given the measure
of faith we need to
navigate this Christian life. But our faith must be developed the same way you
develop your muscles. Your muscles develop by resistance to the machines in the
gym or by pushing against gravity. Your faith is developed by fighting against
temptations, trials, and tests as you walk the life of Christ. So you and I
must look at trials as the exercise machine for our faith. Troubles come to
test you and to develop your faith. So we must stop complaining, and worrying
about troubles. The is nothing positive about complaining, murmuring and
worrying. Give God praise and thanks while you are in a trial, facing
temptations and tests. You are not thanking God for the trial but thank Him for
the victory you expect while you are in the trial. That’s how you develop your
faith. That’s what James says in James 1: 2-4 Count it joy when you fall into trials, temptations
and tests, because it is trying or developing your faith which will develop you
to be more like Jesus.
There are many types
or levels of faith – faithlessness, lack, weak, little,
wavering, radical, strong, and great, overcoming faith. Jesus encountered them
all in the Gospels. The three Hebrew boys in the Book of Daniel had radical faith because they placed their
lives on the line for the Word of God. Jesus demonstrated overcoming faith
while he was on earth. Overcoming faith is where you win against trials,
temptations, and tests, every time. That’s the kind of faith you
and I must aspire to have but it can only happen through Christ for we can do nothing worthy without Him.
1
Timothy 4: 12 Fight the good
fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called,
and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.
2
Timothy 4: 7-8 I have fought a good
fight, I have finished [my] course, I have kept the faith:
Paul
is stating that we are in a faith fight. Why? Because we Christians represent
the Body of Christ on the earth, then satan and the kingdom of darkness is fighting against us
through trials, temptations, and tests. Also it is a good fight for those with
strong faith.
The fight is good because we win. You can’t win a faith fight
with weak faith, or little faith or wavering faith. You need to develop strong
faith to win that faith fight against the kingdom of darkness. The challenge is that you develop strong faith through temptations, trials and tests. The Christian life cannot avoid these challenges and it is a life of cross-bearing.
But there are many enemies
to your faith – fear, worry, doubt, and unbelief, the love of money and
dependence on material possessions, pleasing people instead of pleasing God,
love of title or position, believing in your own intellect, accepting the practices of secular society and human
reasoning without spiritual understanding. I want to identify three enemies
to your faith – fear, worry, and doubt.
Fear
I believe that the greatest
enemy to your faith is fear. Because fear comes by hearing the word of the
devil. Fear is the opposite of faith. The source of fear is satan. Fear leads
to worry, doubt, and unbelief
The greatest challenge to
our faith is fear. This is where the devil lives. The greatest fear of the
devil is for you and I to believe that the Word of God would always come to
pass and that the promises of God would not fail. If we live like that we will
defeat fear.
Fear paralyzes you,
intimidates you, and makes you inactive and ineffective. It leads to
depression, sickness, and even death. The devil and his kingdom of darkness does not want you to act on the
Word. He does not mind if you only believe and stay inactive. The Bible says we must be
doers of the Word and not hearers only. The foundation of fear is unbelief that
what God promises in his Word will not happen.
While on a boat in the middle of a storm, the
disciples awoke Jesus and pleaded that He saved them from drowning. He
answered, "Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?" Then He
rebuked the sea and it immediately grew calm (Matthew 8:23-26). That was overcoming faith.
How do you handle fear? You
have to speak to it by reminding yourself of what the Bible says about fear. You speak what the Word says to fear. Remember
2 Tim 1:7 God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of love,
power and a sound mind.
Worry
Worry is negative meditation. Worry is negative
forecasting about things that you do not have control over. Worry means that
you are depending on your own strength and intellect; and that is neither wise nor healthy.
When you worry you dig up the fears of your past, let them disturb your present
and contaminate your future. You forget that God is (omnipresent) in your past,
your present, and your future all at the same time. You have to trust God who
is already ahead of you.
Worry changes nothing positively. It is wasted
energy that undermines your faith. It makes you sick, miserable, and not a nice
person to be around. People don’t like to be around worriers because worry is
like the flu. It contaminates if you stay around it. Worry is a silent killer
of your faith.
I believe that worry is a decision. Some people
think that worry is normal or natural. Jesus tells us differently. Matthew
6:25 Therefore I
say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye
shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more
than meat, and the body than raiment?
“Take no thought” means “do not worry”. Jesus
would not tell us this if he knew we could not do it. Obey Him. Make a decision
not to worry. Instead do what he says in verse 33 - But seek first the kingdom of God"
The apostle Paul gives the same instructions in Phil
4:6-7. Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and
supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. 7 And
the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and
minds through Christ Jesus. He says be careful for nothing or be anxious for nothing –
in other words “Don’t worry about anything”
So don’t worry - pray! Don’t worry – give God
praise. Don’t worry – give God thanks that He is bringing you out of your
trouble, sickness, depression, strongholds. Don’t worry but make a decision to
praise and thank God in the middle of your trial, temptation, or test. It may
not make human sense but we are not interested in making human sense when we
are about pleasing God. Why? Because in Isaiah 55:11-12 He
says the His thoughts are higher than our thoughts and His ways are higher than
our ways. So don’t worry about making human sense, focus on pleasing God. This
is what will defeat the enemy of worry and increase your faith.
Doubt (and Unbelief)
Few attitudes are more disheartening and
destructive to your faith than the notion that God doesn't hear our prayers,
doesn't answer, or doesn't care. It is easy to come to such conclusions when
God doesn't respond when we want or how we want. Too many times we look want
satisfy our senses when we pray. But the Bible says in 2 Cor. 5:7 “We
walk by faith and not by our physical senses)
Doubt is deadly to your prayer of faith (or petition prayer).
This is one
reason why we pray for the same thing over and over and over. It's a lack of confidence in our prayers. When you order
something on the Internet or by phone today, you don’t go back and order the
same thing tomorrow. You have confidence that what you ordered will be
delivered to your house. It is the same type of confidence we must develop in
our prayer. I am not saying it’s wrong to pray for something over and over.
Developing the faith to believe and receive takes time, it’s a process. You
have confidence that you will get what you ordered. You must develop the
confidence that God has answered your prayer by faith and begin to thank Him.
You also must now behave like you already have the answer. This is what the
word says – believe and receive. And even if you don't receive what you pray for, still thank God because He knows what you need more than you and I.
Mark 11:22-23 For verily I say
unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be
thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall
believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever
he saith. 24 Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye
desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall
have them
Remember your prayer request must be consistent with the Word of God. Believe you receive – thank God that your prayer
is answered. But you must continue to pursue a life of holiness and sanctification. Your prayer must also be in line with the scriptures. Believe you receive by faith and thank Him until you see the
answer to your prayers. He may even answer in a way you may not like but we trust Him because he loves us and knows what's best for us.
Do you have confidence in your employers because
they promise to pay you at the end of the week but doubt when it comes to God? God is greater than your employer, so we must believe and receive the promises that God makes in the Bible and eliminate your doubt.
Conclusion:
So we understand that to win the faith fight we
need strong faith, overcoming faith. That type of faith is developed by
resisting temptations, trials, and tests of the kingdom of darkness. They are
enemies of our faith that must be defeated. We must speak and practice the Word of God to
our doubts and fears.
- Don’t worry,
pray. Don’t worry give God thanks. Give God praise and glory
- By faith in God
we expect victory every time. Victory over fear, doubt and worry.
- It’s by our
faith in God that we please Him.
- Let us be “Be
faithful as He is faithful”
Men face many challenges that can stop or delay their advancement in life and the Kingdom of God. Sometimes the things we love are (or can)
become the challenges in our lives. In other words, these challenges are your
giants and every man must confront his giants. Our challenges are both
external and internal - at work, school, church, the community – all external but I
believe it’s the challenges of the inner man that is most central to how we
overcome our challenges and issues.
This scripture identifies every source, the root cause of
every challenge, trials, test you will face in life. Also the Apostle John gives us the
answer to our challenge - He who does the will of the Father will endure. The
will of God is the Word of God. The Bible has the solution to defeat every giant in your life.
