What is Faith and How do we use it?
Living the supernatural Lifestyle • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 48:34
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What is the Gift of Faith? How do we get it? How do we use it?
What is the Gift of Faith? How do we get it? How do we use it?
Happy Mothers day to all the mom’s out there. The ones who are, or want to be.
Its great we can take a day and reflect on such a vital part of our society and culture.
No one is here, without a Mother,
So thank you mother’s for your love and sacrifice. We all know you do a whole lot without getting noticed, or even appreciated.
Today we want to fix that, Thank you for all you do. Each on of you is Loved and appreciated:
Quotes
If evolution really works, how come Mothers only have two hands
I want my children to have all the things I couldn’t afford. Then I want to move in with them
When my kids become wild and unruly, I use a nice, safe playpen. When they’re finished, I climb out.
If your kids are giving you a headache, follow the directions on the aspirin bottle, especially the part that says ‘keep away from children’
It’s not easy being a mother. If it were, fathers would do it
Transition
Traditionally the song faith of out mothers is sung in churches on Mother’s Day
but instead of a song I’d like to continue our series on living the supernatural Lifestlye
Specifically dealing with the aspect of Faith.
So what is Faith?
Good for us the Bible defines this word for us.
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
Its the ability to know something is going to happen even without see the proof of it.
There are many types of faith:
Natural Faith
This is a characteristic every human being has and exercises.
Now some may argue and say I do not believe in faith, I only believe what I can test with my own senses!
Really?
When you go and sit on a chair. Do you have absolute certainty it going to hold you up?
Or are you simply believing it will hold you up without testing the chair 1st?
When you turn the key or press the button on your vehicle, do you know how it starts the engine. Or just believe it will.
When you power on your laptop, do you know every aspect of how the A/C power is converted to DC power,
How the Bios tells the boot process where to to get the bootloader, which pulls the kernal into memory so it can look at all the hardware in the system so it can load the operating system which loads the drivers and the Gui, and enables applications to run so you can watch your cat videos’s
Or when you press the power button do you just believe it will do all that for you without you even knowing
That’s natural faith, and its a necessary part of everyday life.
Whether its ordering a meal in a restaurant, or driving on the whitemud.
There is alot of information we do not know, and would be very debilitating if we had to know everything before we proceeded.
That’s where faith comes in. It fills in the gaps of the things we don’t know.
everyone operates in natural faith.
But let’s move on to the supernatural.
There are still many types of faith .
Saving Faith
Its the faith you have to come to Christ in the 1st place
There are certain things we are required to believe about Christ, namely, that He is the Son of God, that He is our Savior, that He has provided an atonement, and so on.
One can know about the Christian faith and yet believe that it is not true.
We might have a doubt or two mixed with our faith, but there has to be a certain level of intellectual affirmation and conviction if we are to be saved.
Before anyone can really trust in Jesus Christ, he has to believe that Christ indeed is the Savior, that He is who He claimed to be. Genuine faith says that the content is true.
Knowing and believing the content of the Christian faith is not enough, for even demons can do that
You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder.
Faith is effectual only if one personally trusts in Christ alone for salvation.
It is one thing to give an intellectual assent to a proposition but quite another to place personal trust in it.
No-one can unequivocally prove Jesus died and rose again, sure there is a lot of evidence for it, but its not like we can each go back in time machine and watch it for ourselves.
Beyond evidence requires faith
And 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 seek Him.
So intellect alone, can’t get you saved. It requires faith.
Today I’d like to look beyond natural faith, and saving faith and look at the fruit of faith as described in Galatians 5
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
remember our definition of Faith is believing something even if you don’t have the proof to back it up
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
I was watching a video a few weeks back of a street evangelist, claimed he was a Pastor, but the whole video revolved around him demanding his rights from a police officer so he could use His bull horn to preach on the streets. He was so proud of putting the officer in His place and demanding his rights. There was absolutely no love displayed.
It broke my heart, This channel has 840 videos and 162k subscribers and go by a name that would make you think they are christians. I started watching another video, and it was even worse. They were bashing another church. and began with this statement.
God made us logical and intellectual, we should be able to understand everything God does. If we don’t understand it then it’s not from God.
My heart just sank at this heretical statement.
But this person is not alone in this thinking.
We’ve had people leave this church because they shared this same belief.
It’s like this. I have my little box of beliefs, If something happens that does not fit within this Box, then it must not be from God.
But what does the Bible say about this?
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord.
“For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are My ways higher than your ways
And My thoughts than your thoughts.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart
And do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He will make your paths straight.
The rebuttal usually comes in, we Now have the mind of Christ so we can understand all God does.
I believe That to be true, But having the mind of Christ does not limit God to whatever you are comfortable with!
rather it expands you thinking to encompass God thoughts!
And the Lord said, “If you had faith like a mustard seed, you would say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and be planted in the sea’; and it would obey you.
And He said to them, “Because of the littleness of your faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you.
Many theologians have made statements like:
First, it’s critical to note Jesus is using an illustration. He’s not literally talking about moving mountains and uprooting trees. There’s no example in Scripture of mountains disappearing because someone had faith.
Seeing at a distance a fig tree in leaf, He went to see if perhaps He would find anything on it; and when He came to it, He found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs.
He said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again!” And His disciples were listening.
As they were passing by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots up.
Being reminded, Peter said to Him, “Rabbi, look, the fig tree which You cursed has withered.”
And Jesus answered saying to them, “Have faith in God.
“Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is going to happen, it will be granted him.
“Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they will be granted you.
The reason why no mountain has disappeared is because that has not lined up with the will of God. Not Jesus was just using a illustration
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I believe the number one thing limiting God today is not the devil, the government or non Christians but actually unbelieving believers!
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Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us,
WHAT Faith is Not
Faith is NOT name it and claim it
“Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
“In Jesus Name”: Not just a conclusion to a prayer
Has to be in accordance to Jesus’s will
ie. Ambassador being recalled
Faith is NOT everything going perfect in Life
“These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.”
Faith is NOT being comfortable
And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.
We focus to much on our own comfort, and not enough on God’s plan of redemption
The next area of faith we want to discuss is the Gift of Faith
The gift of faith found in 1 Cor 12 is a little different,
it is not referring to the fruit of faith developed for the individual
but rather having faith for those who are lacking or faith for a corporate issue
Story of N&T
Faith IS seeing through God’s eyes
seeing How God wants things to be.
Faith IS a gift from God
Story of me receiving faith for healing
God gives it, but we must choose to walk in it!
Conclusion
Let’s agree to let God out of the little Box we have Him in
God’ can’t do that.......
Let’s allow Him to choose what He can and can’t do!
Even the belief God can do it, but were not sure when.
“It has often thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him. But if You can do anything, take pity on us and help us!”
And Jesus said to him, “ ‘If You can?’ All things are possible to him who believes.”
Immediately the boy’s father cried out and said, “I do believe; help my unbelief.”
When Jesus saw that a crowd was rapidly gathering, He rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, “You deaf and mute spirit, I command you, come out of him and do not enter him again.”
God I believe…help my unbelief!
Impartation
Prayer
Mother’s Blessing