Faith, Hope, and Love are bound to each other. Where one is so are the others, even though they are not of the same importance.
1 Corinthians 13:13 NIV
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
1 Thessalonians 1:3 MEV
remembering without ceasing your work of faith, labor of love, and patient hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the sight of God and our Father.
1 Thessalonians 5:8 MEV
But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation.
Hebrews 11:1 AMP
1 Now faith is the assurance (title deed, confirmation) of things hoped for (divinely guaranteed), and the evidence of things not seen (the conviction of their reality-faith comprehends as fact what cannot be experienced by the physical senses).
Most of the time, we use our faith for ourselves wether it’s rebuking the devil, seedtime and harvest, healing, etcetera. This is a type of works.
There are times though that we need to hear from God, or it could be said, led of the Spirit, and we need to be willing and obedient.
A couple of notes here:
- Verify what you “hear” with scripture. You should be able to find 2 to 3 verses that agree with it. If not, then it’s most likely not God.
- If you can do it yourself in the natural, it’s probably not God.
Faith In Action
Let’s look at Abraham for a moment.
Genesis 22:1-2,7-13 MEV
After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 2 Then He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you.”
7 But Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” Then he said, “Here is the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” 8 Abraham said, “My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering.” So the two of them went together. 9 Then they came to the place that God had told him. So Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood; and he bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, on the wood. 10 Then Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. 11 But the angel of the LORD called to him out of heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 12 Then He said, “Do not lay your hands on the boy or do anything to him, because now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your only son from Me.” 13 Then Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by his horns. So Abraham went and took the ram and offered him up as a burnt offering in the place of his son.
Some would say that Abraham was crazy, not in his right mind because he was going to sacrifice his son to God. Yet, if we put it in the correct perspective, you will see why he trusted God and was willing to be obedient. You see, Abraham knew and believed that he was to be the father of many nations through his son Isaac. Because he had faith in and believed God, he knew that if he did sacrifice his son, Isaac, then God would have to resurrect him in order to fulfill His promise. As it was, God provided him an alternate sacrifice and spared Isaac.
One thing I want you to see is that God had that ram headed for that thicket before Abraham started his journey to this place. The ram wasn’t early, it wasn’t late, it was right on time for God’s plan. What ever you’re going through, find the answer to it in scripture and speak it out loud often and know that your “ram in the thicket” is on its way.
Receiving by Faith
The key to receiving by faith is knowing His will, believing that He is just, and knowing that His promises are yes and amen.
1 John 5:14-15 NASB
This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 15 And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him.
2 Corinthians 1:20 MEV
20 For all the promises of God in Him are “Yes,” and in Him “Amen,” to the glory of God through us.
Hebrews 8:12 NKJV
For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”
2 Peter 1:3-4 NASB
seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. 4 For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.
The thief and your Word
Salvation/Relationship with the Father
It’s important to know and understand why the devil (thief) comes after the Word of God that you have received. We covered the parable of the sower, Matthew 13, in the last episode and so we know that his stealing the Word can cost us salvation or cause our growth in the Lord to be stunted, leaving us powerless against his antics.
You see if he can keep you from receiving the good news of Jesus Christ then he can keep you from receiving Jesus as your Lord and Savior, and all that goes with it.
If you receive the Word and salvation, then he will try to prohibit you from becoming a spiritual threat to him by stealing the Word and confusing your mind or in the third incident, bury you in the concerns of this world. This takes your focus off of God, who has your solution waiting for you and puts your focus on the concerns of this world. What the enemy doesn’t want you to be is the last example in the parable of the sower. The one who is good soil and bears fruit. This one values and protects the Word of God that he receives and grows there in.
Matthew 13:3-9,18-23 NASB
And He spoke many things to them in parables, saying, “Behold, the sower went out to sow; 4 and as he sowed, some seeds fell beside the road, and the birds came and ate them up.
5 Others fell on the rocky places, where they did not have much soil; and immediately they sprang up, because they had no depth of soil. 6 But when the sun had risen, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away.
7 Others fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked them out.
8 And others fell on the good soil and yielded a crop, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty.
9 He who has ears, let him hear.”
18 “Hear then the parable of the sower.
19 When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is the one on whom seed was sown beside the road.
20 The one on whom seed was sown on the rocky places, this is the man who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; 21 yet he has no firm root in himself, but is only temporary, and when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he falls away.
22 And the one on whom seed was sown among the thorns, this is the man who hears the word, and the worry of the world and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.
23 And the one on whom seed was sown on the good soil, this is the man who hears the word and understands it; who indeed bears fruit and brings forth, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty.”
Armor of God
Ephesians 6:10-17 MEV
Finally, my brothers, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.
11 Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. 12 For our fight is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, and against spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. 14 Stand therefore, having your waist girded with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15 having your feet fitted with the readiness of the gospel of peace, 16 and above all, taking the shield of faith, with which you will be able to extinguish all the fiery arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
The reason I want to go over the full armor of God is because the Word is present in every piece and so if the devil can steal the Word from you, then he can come at you while you are extremely vulnerable and open to attack.
Let’s look at the armor and see what I mean.
14 …having your waist girded with truth…THE WORD IS THE TRUTH.
…having put on the breastplate of righteousness…our righteousness comes through Jesus, THE WORD.
15 …feet fitted with…gospel of peace…again, THE WORD.
16 …shied of faith…faith comes by hearing the Word…little faith…little shield…maximum exposure.
17 …helmet of salvation…the Word in us…and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. No Word, no sword means you have no way of defeating the enemy.
So, if the thief is successful, then he leaves us totally vulnerable to his attack. If, on the other hand, we are filled to overflowing with the Word then we are able to defeat the enemies attacks and stand in victory.
Note:Being filled to overflowing is not something that you can do alone. It takes a well rounded approach tailored to your learning and relationship strengths. Read from the Word out loud each day, if you’re new to the Bible, start in the New Testament, Psalms, and Proverbs. Attend church…wether it’s a house church or a larger assembly is not as important as the praise, worship, preaching, teaching, and fellowship. Everyone has time in their day to listen to an audio of some king, a CD, mp3, or podcast. You can listen while you get ready for work, when driving, making dinner etcetera. Go to truepatriotministries.org/neighborhood for links to a few that I enjoy listening to or ask your pastor or someone you fellowship with who they like to listen to. You are not cheating on your church or your pastor by listening to another minister. There are different anointing’s on different ministers, one may have the Pastoral anointing and another may have a teaching anointing for example…it’s a five fold ministry and rarely does someone operate in more that 2 or 3.
Sowing the Word
The last thing I want to cover on faith in this episode is sowing the Word into others. We can see by the parable of the sower that we are to sow the Seed of Jesus Christ into others. This usually isn’t comfortable, might even be awkward, but the rewards far outweigh the risks. Let’s look at a conversation between Peter and Jesus that happened after the rich young ruler walked away dismayed.
Matthew 19:27-30 MEV
27 Then Peter answered Him, “See, we have left everything and followed You. What then shall we have?”
28 Jesus said to them, “Truly I say to you, in the regeneration, when the Son of Man sits on His glorious throne, you who have followed Me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. 29 And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for My name’s sake shall receive a hundred times as much and inherit eternal life. 30 But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”
In closing, I want to remind you to protect the Word of God that you receive because the devil doesn’t want you to have it. You see, it’s the WORD OF GOD IN YOU that is a threat to him because God works in the earth through man. Remember, you are joint-heir with Jesus and as such, you need to approach everything from a position of victory.