Abraham’s Children In Trouble Part 2 Series

ABRAHAM’S CHILDREN IN TROUBLE PART 2

Dr. D. K. Olukoya

Beloved, this week, we are looking at the concluding part of the message entitled, “Abraham’s children in trouble.” Last week, we looked at various reasons a person could be a child of God and yet be in trouble and why Abraham’s children sometimes suffer. The reasons we saw were living in sin, ignorance and breaking the laws of faith. We started looking at the laws of faith so that we could know when we were breaking them. We stopped at law number 15. In this edition we are starting with law number 16.

16. Faith does not work for those who want to operate with other people’s timetable: Your faith cannot work when you are comparing yourself with others, because what you are basing your faith on is not the plan of God for you. We have to be very careful about this. In Psalm 73, we see a man that wanted to make a comparison and found out that he was making a great mistake.

17. Faith is never envious of other people: If somebody is doing very well, you don’t have to envy him. Rather you have to support him in prayers. The more you do that, the more God will bless you. The spirit of envy is from the pit of hell fire and it destroys very quickly. Also, when you take advice from envious people, you get into trouble. A sister had problem with her husband and went to a friend of hers for counsel. The friend told her that she must not take nonsense from her husband. She advised: “If the man talks nonsense you give it back to him raw.” And the sister said, “If I do that, there will be quarrel.” Her friend replied, “Ah! That is the only way you can deliver yourself from somebody that wants to be controlling you any how.” Sadly, the person giving this counsel to this sister was practically a slave to her own husband. She would not say one word when her husband began to talk and here she was, counseling somebody else to be rebellious to her husband because she was envious of that woman. The funny sister actually took the advice and trouble started in her home. When she ran to this counsellor one night to tell her that she had been thrown out, she said, “I am sorry, I don’t want my husband to meet you here, it will cause trouble. Take your things and go.” The shocked sister shot back: “But you are the one that advised me.” The evil counselor countered; “Anybody can advise anybody. Sometimes, it works and at other times it does not. So, it is not my fault.”

18. Faith focuses on God alone: It does not start looking for alternatives but God alone. The moment Peter removed his eyes from Jesus, he began to sink; another law took over him, the law of doubt. So faith focuses on God alone and it does not look for alternatives. This is the blind Bartimeaus kind of faith. He cried out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me,” and he was not ready to stop until Jesus showed up.

19. Faith rejoices in the Lord always: No matter what the situation is, faith rejoices in the Lord always. Sometimes what a person sees as a setback could be a divinely appointed staircase to climb into a higher realm. But if you look at it as a setback and get depressed, faith jumps out.

20. Faith is buried by worry and anxiety: When you are worried and anxious it will seem as if you had never prayed. Worry and anxiety nullify prayers. A white man friend of mine would always say, “Why pray, when you can worry?” He used to say so because praying and worrying do not go together. If you worry don’t bother to pray or you drop the worry and pray.

21. Faith knows no impossibility: Somebody who moves by faith must not work by sight. If you must move by sight you will never praise God.

22. Faith must start in the heart: Romans 10:8-10: “But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart; that is, the word of faith, which we preach. 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” Faith must start in the heart and not in the head.”

23. Faith must be expressed by words and actions: Once you believe God; begin to confess that what you are asking from Him is so. Once you believe God, begin to act on it.