Where Is Your Faith
Where Is Your Faith
Where is your faith?
Introduction
Luke 8:22 “Now it happened on a certain day that He got into a boat with His disciples and He said to them LET US GO OVER TO THE OTHER SIDE OF THE LAKE and they launched out. But as they sailed He fell asleep.”
I want you to notice what Jesus is doing here. Is he exerting all sorts of effort in what’s going on? No. He is taking a nap.
He simply plots His destination, says, “We’re going to the other side, let’s hit it”, and takes a nap. That is our context.
“And a wind storm came down on the lake and they were filling with water and were in jeopardy.”
“A wind storm came down on the lake and they…were in jeopardy.” I was comparing this portion of Scripture with the other Gospels and found that Matthew recorded the same incident and he adds a little more light to it. He not only says that it’s a storm, he adds that a “tempest” came up. The word tempest there is actually the Greek word, “seismos”. This means there was an earthquake happening at the bottom of the lake.
My wife Sharon and I took a trip to Marin County recently and visited the Point Reyes Ranger Station at Olema.
Olema California is where the epicenter of the 1906 San Franciso earthquake was located, and they have seismographs where they pick up and show seismic activity that has been going on all around the world. Or, in other words, earthquake activity. A “seismos”, or tempest, is an earthquake.
Do you get the picture? It’s not just a storm that is on TOP of the water, it’s a storm UNDERNEATH the water also.
There is a wind storm which has come up and it’s whipping up the waves and tossing them to and fro but also the very foundations of that sea or of that lake were being tossed and torn up at the same time.
They were getting both barrels. They were getting it coming and going. They were getting it below and above. And what was Jesus doing during all of this? Sleeping.
Have you ever noticed that when there are earthquakes and windstorms going on in your life the devil doesn’t want you to sleep? He doesn’t want you to relax and rest in the love and the grace of God.
Allow me to point out that there is a vast difference between being asleep concerning the devil and having nervous faith. We need to learn to relax in the arms of Jesus while using our FAITH in Him to put the devil to flight.
Paul says in the book of Romans, that it’s high time to wake up and put on the armor of light and go after the devil, Amen?
But we’re bringing out something quite different. We are talking about the “rest” of faith as Jesus asks them a question here in just a moment.
Let’s go on reading.
“They were in jeopardy and they awoke him.”
The earthquake didn’t wake Jesus. He knew where he wanted to go, He said where He was going, He was on his way there and so as far as He was concerned he was done and He went to sleep and took a nap.
He went down below deck and took a nap. So the storm didn’t wake Him up. The water coming in the boat didn’t wake Him up, the earthquake didn’t wake Him up.
The disciples had to come wake Him up. They came and awoke him saying, “”Master, Master we are perishing”.
Then He arose and rebuked the wind and the raging of the water and they ceased and there was a calm. But He said to them “Where is your faith”? And they were afraid.
They were afraid because first He rebuked the wind, then He rebuked the water and then He rebuked them. Over in Mark the 16th chapter, one of the last things the Lord did was upbraid them for their unbelief.
Actually, the only thing that I can think of that gets Jesus about half mad at you is when you choose not to believe Him. Thank God, that you can repent and get back in faith but about the only thing I can see that gets Jesus, upset at you is unbelief and doubting Him when He tells you to do something.
The Lord gave me a four part message from those four words “Where Is Your Faith”.
The following message is anointed by the Holy Spirit in order to help you LOCATE and then put into operation the faith you already have in God’s word.
My prayer is that you will be lifted into a place of total victory as you find the answer to these three questions:
1.WHERE is your faith?
2.Where IS your faith? and
3.Where is YOUR faith?
“How To Release Your Faith,” deals with the dynamic involved in causing your faith to become an effectual tool through which God can manifest His power.
May God bless you richly as you first learn, and then implement these truths in your walk of faith and victory.
Acknowledgment
I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to Teresa Romero for the hours of her time donated in typing this material.
WHERE Is Your Faith?
The disciples had more faith in an earthquake and a windstorm that they did in the word of Jesus.
WHERE is your faith?
What is your faith based upon? Is it based upon sense knowledge; that which can be seen, touched, heard, and smelled? Or is it based upon the word of the Lord Jesus Christ?
Romans 10:17 states that, “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.”
More literally it says, “Hearing by the word of Christ.” The Amplified says in Romans 10:17 that; “Faith comes by hearing the message that comes from the lips of the Messiah Himself.”
Jesus had given them a message. He had given them a direction. His Word is alive and full of power and that Word when acted upon in faith, has enough power resident within it to get the job done regardless of any ensuing circumstances.
Actually it was acted on in faith, until things got rough. It was acted upon in faith at first. Until their circumstances came against it. It was acted upon in faith until their circumstances said something opposite to what Jesus had said.
This portion of Scripture paints a beautiful picture of exactly what happens to me and to you during times of trial and conflict.
Each one of us is full of great faith and power as long as everything is going smooth. As long as everything is smoothly plodding along. My boat is gently gliding across the water; merrily, merrily we row our boat across the stream.
All of a sudden!! An earthquake.
All of a sudden!! They are all in jeopardy, the boat is filling up with water and it’s ready to be capsized and then… Jesus rebukes them.
Jesus is a funny person. He is an unreasonable person. He is totally unreasonable.
He has this feeling that when He tells me something in His Word or if He tells me something in my heart by His Spirit, and says; ” Ray go do this, ” and I make excuses for why it can’t be done,then I am acting in unbelief.
Not, “Being reasonable.”
Not, “Showing good common sense.”
Unbelief.
An evil heart of unbelief in departing from the Living God is the proper Biblical terminology.
Should you be reasonable? Yes, you should be reasonable EXCEPT when Jesus tells you to do something. Whether it’s in His Word or just the Spirit speaking to your heart, if He tells you to do some thing that’s unreasonable, do it.
Do you remember the record in the 2nd chapter of the Gospel of John where Jesus attended the wedding of Cana and they ran out of wine for the wedding? The servants went to Mary, Mary went to Jesus and then she told the servants, “Whatever He tells you to do, do it”.
What does Jesus tell them to do? Does He tell them go down to 7-11 and buy some more wine? No. He says, “See those water pots over there? Go out and draw water out of them and take them to the governor of the feast.”
That’s unreasonable. They are asking for wine, not water. But, thank God the servants obey His Word and this unreasonable request of Jesus becomes His first miracle whereby He displays His glory.
The servants bring back the jugs of water and by the time they get there and pour it out, it has become the very finest of wines. In fact, the governor of the feast, the Toastmaster as we would put it, tells the host, “Boy, most people use the good stuff first and then after everybody gets a little bit drunk they bring out the cheap stuff. But you’ve saved the best for last.”
How many of you realize that it is unreasonable to dip a pitcher into a big container of water, and when you pour it out into a glass it has become the finest of wines?
Is that unreasonable? That is most definitely unreasonable.
Faith is not a thing of reasoning. Faith is a thing of the heart. Faith is something that says, “If I believe in my heart and doubt not, I will have it.”
Jesus believed in His heart and doubted not that they were going to the other side. He wanted them to believe that. He asked them,
“WHERE is your Faith?”
Where IS Your Faith?
Let’s move on to IS. Where IS your faith? Hebrews 11:1 says NOW faith is. Real living faith is never WAS or WERE or GONNA BE.
Faith IS: present tense.
Bible faith is ALWAYS right now.
Although you may receive some blessing and some encouragement through reminiscing on how God moved in the past of your life or the past of someone else’s life, that is no guarantee that something good is going to happen today.
Yesterday faith doesn’t work on a today problem. Let me point out very clearly that we not discussing doctrine, we are not even talking about living right (although we certainly should live right!).
What we are talking about is living, vital faith. The type of faith that says, “If Jesus tells me to do it, I don’t care how hard the winds blow or how big the earthquake is, I’m going to do it!”
“I’m going to buckle down and I’m going to row and I’m going to do it! Plus which, I’m going to follow my faith because I know what the answer is going to be. I know what the result is going to be. Victory!”
Faith always knows the end result before it happens. That’s why faith can, “calleth those things which be not as though they were,” Rom. 4:17. Abraham did that, we are told to do that. To, “Call things which be not as though they were.”
Do you realize just how unreasonable that was in the case of Abram and Sarai? Abram was 100 years old. Sarai was 90. They were both barren and unfruitful.
Yet Abraham changes his name because God tells him to. He changes his name from Abram to Abraham which means Father of a Multitude.
He changes Sarai’s name to Sarah, meaning Mother of Princes. (See Genesis 17:1-17.)
Can you imagine what the neighbors thought?
Here is this childless couple, an old lady and old man, running around calling one another “Father of a Multitude” and “Mother of Princes.”
I imagine the neighbors said things like this:
“She’s loco. She calling that old coot Abraham. They don’t have any kids. What’s wrong with her?”
Then they would hear Abraham answering Sarah’s call.
“Yes Sarah, yes Mother of Princes”.
I can imagine the people saying:
“If that guy wasn’t so rich, We’d lock him up. If he didn’t own this whole county, he’d be in big trouble.”
Abraham and Sarah were not crazy, they were operating in the NOW area of faith.
“NOW faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen”.
NOW faith is the substance of things hoped for.”
We are emphasizing the NOW. In other words, having NOW faith will get the job done.
Yesterday’s faith doesn’t accomplish anything today. It’s a sweet memory, and we all love sweet memories and testimonies; but I’ve got problems today. I need help from heaven today!
Jesus said that the evil of tomorrow is going to be sufficient unto itself also. Do you remember reading that over in Matthew the 6th chapter?
Don’t borrow troubles from tomorrow because it will have its’ own, it can take care of itself. You don’t have to worry about bringing any troubles from tomorrow to today; there will be plenty left over when you get there.
So, YESTERDAY’S faith WON’T WORK ON TODAY’S PROBLEM and FUTURE, SOMETIME faith, WAY OFF OVER THERE faith doesn’t get the job done today either.
Those guys in the ship when there was an earthquake and winds and the thing was sinking didn’t need faith concerning the millennium right then, Amen? They didn’t need faith for the second coming of Christ right then. They needed faith for not drowning, is what they needed right then. That is NOW faith.
NOW faith is the substance of things hoped for. I like another translation which says “NOW faith is giving substance to things hoped for..”
NOW faith is the EVIDENCE of things NOT SEEN.
Do you know what was being seen at that point in time? What was being seen at that point time was an earthquake. What was being seen at that point in time was the winds whipping up the waves and rocking the boat. What was being seen at that point in time was all kinds of water coming into the boat trying to sink them.
What was NOT being seen at that point in time was the Word of Jesus.
“LET US GO OVER TO THE OTHER SIDE…”
So I must make the choice of what I am going to see. Whether I’m going to see with the eyes of this natural body or if I’m going to see with the eyes of the heart that the Bible talks about. I must decide whether or not I am going to see with the eyes of faith. I must decide if I’m going to let Jesus anoint my eyes with eyesalve so that I can see His Word as being the greatest reality.
Because His reality is that His Word is strong enough to get the work done. Windstorms, earthquakes and water not withstanding. He made it all, it’s all at His disposal. Amen?
Where IS your faith?
When everything is falling to pieces is definitely not the time to allow yourself the luxury of worrying about what things look like.
That’s the time to say, “Lord Jesus, thank you that you’re the one who told us to shove off for the other side and we’re going all the way across.”
“We’re not stopping halfway. You didn’t call us out halfway to drown. You said we were going to the other side and we’re going to the other side, that’s all there is to it.” Amen?
Where Is YOUR Faith?
The Bible states in several places that the just shall live by HIS faith. That means HIS OWN FAITH. Not someone else’s.
It is imperative that you learn how to develop and expand YOUR OWN FAITH. You must learn how to operate in and release YOUR OWN FAITH.
Jesus in not interested in how much faith you have in your pastor’s faith. He is not interested in the faith you have in some other believer’s faith.
Jesus wants to know; where is YOUR faith?
Romans 10:17 says, “Faith comes by hearing.” Remember He says, “Where is YOUR faith?”
Does YOUR faith leave town when the earthquake says hello?
Does YOUR faith pack it’s bags and go off on a trip when the wind starts to blow? Does YOUR faith hide under the bed when you are in jeopardy, hoping the devil will go down the street and bother somebody else?
Faith CAME when they heard Him say, “Let’s go to the other side.”
Faith LEFT when they saw the earthquake.
Faith LEFT when they saw the storm come up.
Faith LEFT when the water came into the boat.
Jesus did not say that there was any good reason that it (their faith) should have left. He upbraided them for their unbelief. Again, let me emphasize that Jesus is totally unreasonable concerning this one thing.
He says, “Ray, if I tell you to do something, you can do it and if I command you to do something, I want you to do it and I don’t want you to make excuses why you can’t.”
We need to be like Paul and say, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, ” Amen?
Romans 10:17 Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.
Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Faith comes by hearing and hearing and hearing and hearing and hearing and hearing and hearing and hearing and hearing and hearing.
Especially when you get sick of hearing it because everything is going wrong. Especially when you get sick of hearing about faith and say, “I’m going to burn all those old Hagin books, I’m going to throw away all those Norvel Hayes tapes. That guy says you just have to believe God and you can have whatsoever you desire. It doesn’t work for me and I’m sick of it!”
The problem with that sort of an attitude is that you are turning your back on the truth concerning faith. Faith ALWAYS COMES when you hear the word. Your faith is rising up now as you read this book, preparing you to believe God for anything.
Mark 11:22, 23. And Jesus answering saith unto them, {Have faith in God.} {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.}
This is not Hayes 11:22. This is Mark 11:22.
This is not Copeland 11:22. This is Mark 11:22.
This is not Charles Capps talking, this is The Lord Jesus Christ talking.
“So Jesus answered and said to them have faith in God” or more literally, “have the faith of God” or “have the God kind of faith”.
Have the kind of faith God operates in. This takes us to the fourth and final part of this lesson; How to release your faith.
“How To RELEASE Your Faith”
Jesus showed us where HIS faith was. He said, “I’m going to the other side, ” and then He went down below deck and went to bed.
He showed us where HIS faith was. He said “I’m going to the other side, ” and that was flat all there was to it.
Earthquakes, windstorms, and water not with- standing. “I’m going to the other side, ” and with that he went and took a nap. This is a great picture of what Hebrews the 4th chapter calls the REST of faith. Faith is not: “(Crying, sobbing) are we really going to make it?” Faith is declaring a positive end result is line with the Word of God.
You need to declare YOUR faith. Declare out loud that the promises of God belong to you. You can talk to yourself like that. Did you know about that? I’ve been talking to myself like that for ten years now.
I remember a point in time about seven years ago when I was driving down the freeway quoting Mark 11:23 to myself and meditating on it and I started crying because waves of God’s Spirit washed over me as I realized;
“Hey, I believe this stuff! I’m not TRYING to believe it anymore, I REALLY believe it!
You know how I got to the point where I really believed it?
Romans 10:17 “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.”
I heard MYSELF over and over and over again out my own mouth, speaking the Word of God. Declaring the promises of God over my life and circumstances.
More faith comes when you hear yourself speaking God’s word because you believe yourself a lot more than you do anyone else. This is a powerful fact. Don’t let it get past you. This truth can change your life forever.
It is one thing to sit somewhere and hear me say this, but it is a totally different experience to speak God’s powerful Words over yourself. It’s like taking a bath on the inside (the washing of water by the WORD!). It washes out all the unbelief from your soulical parts. It feeds your faith and starves your doubts to death!
Believe me I know what it is like. I am a person in a body on the earth too! I know, believe me I know. But I started ten years ago, and when I first started to get a handle on this great truth I would think:
“You mean I can have NOW faith? I can have my faith built up? I can actually have the power of God released in my life just by saying the Word of God?”
It sounds too wonderful to true. And yet it is true. It is the truth of God’s Word. Faith comes by hearing, especially by hearing yourself speak the Word of God over your life.
My lovely wife Sharon can verify what I have done at different times. I have taken a tape recorder, and pulled out my Topical Bible, the one where it has all the Scriptures on one subject together in one place, and I just read those things into the tape recorder.
Or I have sat down and wrote them out in long hand while speaking them out loud to myself and putting them in the first person. Applying the specific Word to my specific need. Scriptures on healing, or on righteousness, or on mercy, or on God’s power or whatever I might need to build my faith on at that particular point in time.
If you want to build your faith, do what I am going to describe next.
Confess fifteen or twenty minutes worth of the Scriptures that fit your case out loud into the tape recorder and then just take that tape everywhere with you.
Listen to it in the car, listen to it at home, listen to it while you are working at the office. Put that tape on, and hear your own voice speaking the Word and agreeing with God. You can’t always be speaking it right now, but you can HEAR yourself speaking it, and let it get down in your spirit and then when the earthquake rises up, when the windstorm comes up, the word rises up inside you to feed your faith and make it strong.
There have been times that satan has come to me to try to get me to back off from the Word through fear, and feelings of unbelief about what the Lord has called me to do and then in my spirit I’ll hear, “Ray, where is YOUR faith? Where is YOUR faith Ray?
“Oh Lord but this came up, I mean …”
“But does that have anything to do with what I told you to do?”
“Oh, no Lord. No, it doesn’t really.”
“Do you still believe, Ray? You believed you were obeying me until this came up, didn’t you? Well, what made you change your mind?”
“Well Lord, isn’t everything supposed to be sunshine, lollipops and rainbows everywhere? Isn’t that what it is supposed to be like?”
That’s the idea many people have concerning faith. That it is a place of great ease, or of the denial of reality. Nothing could be further from the truth. Faith is a fight. A good fight. It is a good fight because you win!
Begin to put Romans 10:9, 10 into effect in your life.
Romans 10:9, 10 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
This is the principle that faith operates on. I believe with the heart and I confess my faith with my mouth. It is so simple.
“Jesus thank you that your blood has cleansed me from all sin.”
The blood of Jesus has already been shed for the cleansing of my sin. God does not have to do it all over again for me. He is just waiting for me to become a partaker of His blessing. It has already been “legally” accomplished through the cross of Christ.
All I do is say, “Lord, I am becoming a participant in that blessing. I am receiving that which you have already accomplished through you blood.” In this way I am “mixing faith” in my heart with the Word of God. This will cause it (the Word) to become an effectual reality in my life.
This same principle of faith works in the area of Divine Healing because Isaiah prophesied 700 years before Jesus went to the cross, “By His stripes we are healed”. Isa.53:5.
Peter inspired by the Holy Ghost as he looks back at the physical reality of this prophecy says, “By His stripes we WERE healed”. (1 Pet.2:24.)
But you have to see and hear this truth with faith and not with your “reasonable” mind. Not with the natural or “carnal” mind. Not with your brain. With your heart. Believing is a thing of the heart. The natural mind is an enemy of the things of God.
I have relatives, bless their darling hearts, they love Jesus; they work for Jesus and they love Him. But they get sick just about anytime the devil wants them to because they just cannot grasp the reality of healing in the Atonement. Also, the idea of “CALLING THOSE THINGS THAT BE NOT AS THOUGH THEY WERE.., ” seems like lying to them.
“If I said I was healed before I was, that would be a lie, wouldn’t it?” NO! The bible says you were healed.
“That means spiritual healing.” No it doesn’t! It doesn’t mean that at all.
Matthew 8:16 When evening had come they brought in many who were demon possessed and He cast out the spirits with a word and healed all who were sick that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet saying “He Himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses”.
I don’t know how you could get more plain than that. These are people getting delivered from PHYSICAL SICKNESSES AND UNCLEAN SPIRITS. This portion of Scripture makes no reference to “spiritual healing.”
“Oh, I know, but Dr. Soandso interprets it this way.” Or, “Our doctrine doesn’t agree with your interpretation.”
Well, I’d rather have the Bible, personally. I mean, God bless Dr. Soandso, but it’s not my fault if they never taught him how to read at seminary. If he can’t understand that when it says here that those people were healed to fulfill Isaiah’s prophecy that “He bore our sicknesses, ” then I need to pray that Dr. Soandso will get some “spiritual eyeglasses, ” because he has been blinded (2 Cor. 4:3&4) to the plain truth of the Word of God.
The Bible is very simple and easy to understand. I once heard someone put it this way; “You have to have somebody help you to misunderstand it.”
You just read the words and believe them.
It’s great.
I love it.
Remember Jesus in Luke the 5th chapter when they brought in the palsied man? They dropped him down through the roof and Luke states that Jesus SAW THEIR FAITH. You know where THEIR faith was?
They ripped up the roof to get that guy in there. They knew where THEIR faith was. Their faith was where Jesus was. They believed that if they could get their friend to where Jesus was He would be healed. To make a long story short, they did and he was.
This brings to my remembrance a young man who heard my radio broadcast one day. He lives in another city several miles away from where our ministry is located.
He heard me preaching on the Baptism with the Holy Spirit. He had a great desire in his heart to receive this promised blessing of power from heaven.
He didn’t really know this area very well. But one day after he got off work, early in the afternoon, he said, “I’m going to go to that town. I heard that broadcast about being baptized in the Holy Ghost and I’m going to go there and have that pastor pray with me and I’m going to receive the Baptism with the Holy Ghost and pray in tongues as the Spirit gives me the utterance.”
He didn’t even know where the church was. He just drove over to our town on the off chance there might be somebody at the church. I was praying in the sanctuary when he came into the back and I said, “Hi, what can I do for you”.
He said “I want to be baptized in the Holy Ghost”.
“Well, you came to the right place.”
I began to share some Scriptures with him and then I prayed with him and he was ready to receive. He DID receive.
Where was HIS faith? HIS faith was saying, “I want to get baptized in the Holy Ghost. I heard this guy talking about it on the radio, sharing the word of God concerning it, I’m going to go out there and get it.”
He didn’t pray some kind of prayer like, “Oh Lord, if you want me to have it, please let me have it, but if not I’ll just understand that you don’t want me to have it.”
There’s not a lick of faith in a prayer like that. That is the prayer of consecration or dedication where the will of God is not known.
You pray, “If it be thy will,” when you don’t His will. This young man knew from hearing the radio broadcast that it was the will of God for HIM to be baptized in the Holy Ghost, receive power from heaven and speak in tongues, all he did was FOLLOW his faith to where Jesus could bless him.
God’s will is His word. And His word says those who believe in My name shall speak with new tongues.
You don’t need eighteen chapters to prove out the will of God. One verse is all you need. If you can find one verse which covers your need and is in harmony with the rest of God’s word, that is all you need to base your faith on for that specific need.
What I am about to say next is so powerful you almost hesitate to say it but, it’s true. Because there is so much power in any word of God.
I heard one Bible-teacher say:
“That relative of yours that died and went to hell was only one verse away from salvation.”
“If they would have believed one verse of Scripture they could have been saved and gone to heaven.”
“That person you know that died young from some kind of sickness or some kind of disease; they were only one Scripture away from total and complete healing.”
They could have lived and not died if they would have believed that one Scripture that applied to their situation. If they would have believed it in their heart and begin to speak it with their mouth the devil would have been forced to leave their body.
If they would have just taken that Scripture in the Psalms that says:
“I shall live and not die, ” and placed their faith in it and confessed it boldly before God they would be alive today.
Notice what it says in Mark 11:23;
“…but shall believe that those things HE SAYS shall come to pass”.
There are two very important facts which Jesus brings out concerning effectual believing. First, I need to be SAYING things and secondly, I need to believe that the things I SAY will come to pass.
That’s why you just can’t make up your own confession. “I believe . .” and then come up with something off the wall.
Find a SCRIPTURE that has to do with your circumstance, with your situation. A Scripture you can base YOUR faith on. Then begin to apply the Word to your situation. You apply it with your MOUTH.
“Father God, thank you that You said believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved and your whole household.”
“Father I thank you that it applies to Uncle Ned. He’s part of my household, he’s going to be saved, I don’t care if HE thinks he wants to or not, the devil is not going to have him because you promised ME, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved and your whole household.”
Now Uncle Ned may resist God and resist your prayers until he is on his death bed, he has his own will and that is his choice to make. But if you will hold on to your faith and confess the word of God over him like that, his spirit is not going to be able to get out his body and go to hell. That is the promise of God to YOU!
What will happen is, before he leaves his body he’s going to call on God. It would be much better if he did it now and enjoyed the blessings of God in this life, but deathbed repentance is still much better than an eternity in hell.
Acts 16:31 is a promise to YOU, and there is no person or devil who can keep you from receiving the promises of God through YOUR own personal faith.
This is especially true in the area of physical healing. There is not a person on the face of this earth that has more to say about the healing of your physical body than you do. That means that there is not a person on the face of the earth that can keep healing away from you, if you don’t let them.
“But Dr. Soandso says that those Scriptures don’t apply to us today.”
Well, who cares what Dr. Soandso says (We are speaking about Theological Doctors, not Medical Doctors). Dr. Soandso doesn’t have cancer. You are the one who has cancer. What do you care what Dr. Soandso thinks? What about what Dr. Jesus thinks?
Jesus is a better theologian than Dr. Soandso. I want the opinion of Jesus and He seems to think that “By HIS stripes I WAS healed.” Amen?
Jesus fulfilled a whole lot of prophecy when He first came to this earth in human form. He fulfilled a whole lot of prophecy during His ministry. He fulfilled a whole lot of prophecy in His crucifixion and His resurrection.
Hey, who knows? Maybe, by His stripes, I really WAS healed. Yes, praise God, healing is the childrens’ bread.
So, what does it say in Mark 11?
“But shall believe that whatever he says shall come to pass”.
Actually we have all experienced this at different times in the NEGATIVE sense. This is not a promise, it is a principle. It is a law. The law of faith.
Did you ever believe that you were going to fail, and you did? You know why you did? Because you believed in your heart that the words of your mouth were going to come to pass. The reason you did that is because you looked back and said;
“I always fail.”
“I always mess up like this.”
Well, you need to start replacing those words of defeat and begin to say, “He always causes me to triumph.” I use that one on the devil all the time.
The devil comes to me to say, “You’re not going to get it this time.”
My response is, “Oh thank God, He ALWAYS causes me to triumph.”
The devil says, “You’re going under.”
My response, “Now thanks be unto God who ALWAYS causes me to triumph.”
“Well, not this time.”
“ALWAYS means ALWAYS devil. Can’t you read?”
Now for the part of faith that probably trips up more people than anything else. Because, not only are you supposed to verbalize your faith to yourself and to the devil. Jesus also said that we are to talk to the problem.
“But, I’d feel silly.”
Jesus talked to fig trees.
That’s our conflict here. He got mad at the fig tree. The fig tree had some leaves on it, but it didn’t have any fruit on it,
He said, “Well I’ll tell you what, no man’s going to eat anything from you again.”
From the moment those words left His mouth that thing started drying up. From the moment He spoke those words of faith, that thing started drying up from the roots, from the inside.
When they walked by it the next day it was history. That’s how faith attacks problems, it drys them up from the inside.
Your problem may still look healthy on the outside for awhile. The situation which is negative towards you may look like it is doing fine from the outside for awhile. Keep talking to it. It’s drying up from the inside. This is where a steadfastness of really knowing the difference between God and the devil comes to bear. Just being real simplistic in faith and believing that Jesus meant it in John 10:10 when He said “The thief cometh not but to steal, kill and destroy; I come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly”.
Just put a line right down the center of your life and say, “All this junk is the devil’s will for my life. And all this great stuff over here is God’s will for my life. And I’m going to choose this good side.”
Isn’t that simple?
God is very simple. Paul wrote to the church at Corinth in 2 Corinthians 11:3, “I fear lest you would be removed from the simplicity that is in Christ.” I fear that you would be removed from the simplicity that is in Christ.
Whenever I hear of somebody getting into all these long, deep, complex, convoluted, equational kinds of dissertations on Scripture and on doctrine and all that, I want to shut them up, because there is not an ounce of faith in it.
If there was any faith in it they would talk in P-L-A-I-N S-I-M-P-L-E W-O-R-D-S that fisherman could understand.
Plain and simple words that tax collectors could understand.
Plain and simple words that publicans and sinners could understand.
But when they lay on heavy theological terminology and L-O-N-G high sounding words and all the rest of their camouflage then you have no idea in the world what the Bible is really saying to you. Have you ever been in that kind of a situation?
“I don’t know what he said but golly, it was nice.”
It reminds me of a story which is told of Calvin Coolidge.
He went to church by himself one Sunday and when he arrived home his wife asked him, “Well, honey what did the minister preach about?”
“Sin.”
“Well, what did he say about it?”
“He was against it.”
Did you ever leave a service with about that much positive input?
It is no wonder then that by Wednesday night there is such a need for a refill of the Spirit and faith. You need to be filling yourself up daily. Speaking to yourself in songs and hymns and spiritual songs. Making melody in your heart to the Lord.
Faith ALWAYS comes when you hear the Word. Get up and look at yourself in the mirror in the morning and say, “God is in you today.”
“Oh, but that sounds like that positive suggestion stuff.”
Well, where do you think they got it from? We didn’t get it from them, they got it from us.
“That sounds like Christian Science.”
Where do you think they got it from?. We didn’t get it from them. It’s been in the bible longer than they’ve been around.
“Well that sounds like that affirmation stuff.”
We didn’t get it from them, they got it from us.
Jesus said in some ways the children of this generation are wiser than the children of light. They are using the principles of faith even though they have not put their faith in the Lord Jesus for their salvation. Meanwhile the church of the Living God sits and says, “I don’t know about this confession business, it sounds unbalanced to me.”
If Jesus said, “Believe it in your heart, confess it with your mouth,” then He meant, “Believe it in your heart, confess it with your mouth.”
If He said, “If you doubt not in your heart and believe that those things you say will come to pass then you will have whatsoever things you say, ” then what he REALLY meant was, “If you doubt not in your heart and you believe that those things you say will come to pass, then you will have whatsoever things that you say.”
He didn’t mean something else. He said what He meant and meant what He said.
Did you ever have one of those Bibles where half the page is taken up by Dr. Soandso’s notes on why the Bible doesn’t mean what it says? You know the kind I mean, where the the text of the Scripture is on the top half of the page and the bottom half of the page has Dr. Soandso’s notes explaining to you why you can’t have everything that is on the top half.
My wife Sharon had a Bible like that once. I had to scratch out all the notes on 1 Corinthians 12 and 14. I had to scratch out all the notes on Mark 16. I had to scratch out quite a few of the notes in that Bible.
Jesus would say things like, “Whatsoever things you desire when you pray, believe that you shall receive them and you shall have them, ” and the notes at the bottom of the page would say, “Now of course, we understand and realize that this is qualified by the will of God”.
God’s Word IS His will. What Jesus said was, “Whatsoever things you desire when you pray, believe that you receive them and you shall have them.”
That is exactly what He said. That is exactly what He meant.
When you and I put these principles of locating, building and releasing the FAITH OF GOD into our lives and circumstances we will begin to walk in the reality and manifestation of the great promise of God revealed in John 16:7, “If you abide in Me, and My WORDS abide in you, you will ask what YOU DESIRE, and it SHALL be done FOR YOU.”
Remember, for YOU:
NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE!!!