Introduction: Are you frustrated by the struggles in your life? Do you feel like giving up because you’re just not seeing the miracles you need so desperately?
Jesus said that in this world we would have trouble. But praise God, that’s not all He said. He also admonished us, “Cheer up! I have overcome the world!”
How can we achieve God’s promised victory when we face hard times? Through Faith. Faith is fresh, alive, powerful and as relevant today as at any time in history. If you’re going to overcome the world rather than be overcome by it, you’re going to do it with your faith.
We don’t have to guess how to live a life of faith as we face life’s hardships. God’s Word lays out a simple plan for getting from a problem to a miraculous solution. It doesn’t matter if you’ve been a Christian for fifty years or if you were born again five minutes ago. If you submit yourself to God’s order for doing things, your faith will produce the products and results that God’s Word guarantees!
Divine order is the secret to unlocking God’s treasure chest of blessing. It the God ordained way through everything in heaven and on earth operates. God has a predetermined sequence and order through which we must follow if we expect to receive miracles, deliverance and any other spiritual thing in God’s heavenly kingdom.
Even in everyday life, there is an established order to follow in much of what we do. When you want to see your doctor, you must follow a procedure to visit him, or answer and solution to your physical malady will be delayed or forfeited altogether. When follow established procedure that has been set in order for us, things flow easier and we get what we desire.
God’s kingdom is a kingdom of order and God is a God of order. The Lord has a set order for everything. I Corinthians 14:33,40 makes this very clear:
“For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints…Let all things be done decently and in order.”
When we neglect God’s order, His blessings don’t flow. Divine order is the condition that set for miracles and blessings. This truth is illustrated vividly in Jesus’ feeding of the five thousand. Before the people could be miraculously blessed, they had to get in order.
Luke 9:14 tells us “For they were about five thousand men. And He said to his disciples, Make them sit down by fifties in a company.”
Can you imagine the chaos that would have ensued if the disciples had started randomly handing out food to that hungry mob? There would have been a riot!
There’s no getting around it. Follow God’s order and you’ll get the desired results. Ignore it and you’ll end up frustrated and defeated.
So does God have an established order when it comes to overcoming problems? Yes, I believe He does. The Scriptures give us a clear pattern for moving from any problem – be it sickness, debt, family strife, or anything else – to the solution. These steps will work for anyone at any time, regardless of how overwhelming the circumstances, because the steps represent God’s divine order of faith.
I. First, Understanding Faith –
A. What Faith is not?
1. Faith is not feeling that prayer is answered and has not the slightest relationship with feelings and sense-evidences.
a. The average person who seeks to exercise faith depends upon what he can see, hear, or feel.
b. Sense-faith is based upon physical evidence or upon the emotions and feelings of the soul.
c. All who take this road as the basis of faith will sooner or later be deceived.
d. Faith should be based upon the Word of God regardless of any sense-knowledge, or feeling-evidences.
e. People are constantly looking to feelings as to whether prayer has been heard or not.
f. If they happen to feel good, or if something happens that encourages them, they think that it is easy to believe, but if reverses come and feelings take wings, these same people are in the depths of despair.
g. They are quick to accuse God of being unfaithful and untrue to His Word.
h. If they do not go this far they are quick to imagine that it was not God’s will to grant the answer.
i. They become satisfied to go without what God has plainly promised.
j. At the times when men think they have all the faith in the world because of feelings, they have the least in the world, and when they think they have the least, they have more than at any other time in their lives.
k. Many people are surprised to get answers to prayer because when they prayed they thought their faith was nothing.
l. People should not believe they are healed because the pain is gone, or that they are saved because they feel they are forgiven.
m. They should not think that their prayers are answered because things are working out that way. Instead, they should always maintain faith because of what the Word of God says.
n. The Word of God should have first place in their lives instead of the senses. All basing of faith upon what we have done, how well we live, or what experiences we have had will lead to failure in answered prayer.
o. God does not answer upon these grounds. He answers solely upon the grounds of grace and faith in Him and in His Word.
2. True faith is not trusting in the goodness and in the faith of another man.
a. It must be personal faith in God and His Word.
b. People continually go about seeking someone who has faith and who can get answers to prayer for them.
c. This may work temporarily while one is learning about God and His Word, but if we do not properly learn and develop a personal faith that refuses to be denied, we shall eventually revert to failure and unbelief, and we shall have to be satisfied with the modern theory that answered prayer is not for everyone.
3. The plan that will give blessings is that of hating personal faith in God, faith in Jesus Christ, faith in the Holy Spirit, faith in the Word of God, faith in the atonement, and total consecration personally to believe God regardless of anything that might happen to hinder prayer.
a. The right thinking is not talking about faith, or the need of it, but the actual exercise of it.
b. Simple faith in the Word regardless of feelings and circumstances is never possible to the man who lives only in the realm of his senses, for he believes only what he can see, feel, hear, or understand to be possible.
c. This was the kind of faith Thomas had when he declared that he would not believe until he had seen.
d. It was the kind that Martha had when she could see nothing but the natural fact that Lazarus had been dead four days and "by this time he stinketh."
e. This is the Wind of faith taught and encouraged by modern religious leaders, but it is not the kind required by the New Testament.
4. Neither mental faith nor mere assent to truth and dependence upon feelings is enough.
a. The individual must come to life and action before he will realize the benefits of active, living faith that refuses to know defeat and failure.
b. A man must learn to fight the fight of faith and lay hold of God and His Word.
c. He must learn that he is surrounded by an unbelieving world and an atmosphere of doubts, that demons and fallen angels and men have lived for centuries in unbelief and wickedness creating currents of doubt and mistrust that are very subtle, and that effects of the fall have left in the lives of fallen men deep wounds of doubt and wavering that must be healed.
d. He must learn that he has to wrestle with powers of darkness and currents of mistrust and unbelief which make it a struggle to exercise active living faith for things that are not seen.
e. He must not only learn how to do this, but he must do it in order to get results.
B. What is Scriptural Faith?
1. To be fully persuaded of (Romans 4:17-22; Romans 8:38-39; II Timothy 1:12)
Romans 4:17-21 (Amplified Bible) 17 As it is written, I have made you the father of many nations. [He was appointed our father] in the sight of God in Whom he believed, Who gives life to the dead and speaks of the nonexistent things that [He has foretold and promised] as if they [already] existed. 18 [For Abraham, human reason for] hope being gone, hoped in faith that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been promised, So [numberless] shall your descendants be. 19 He did not weaken in faith when he considered the [utter] impotence of his own body, which was as good as dead because he was about a hundred years old, or [when he considered] the barrenness of Sarah’s [deadened] womb. 20 No unbelief or distrust made him waver (doubtingly question) concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong and was empowered by faith as he gave praise and glory to God, 21 Fully satisfied and assured that God was able and mighty to keep His word and to do what He had promised.”
2. Place confidence in (Ephesians 3:12; Phil. 1:6; Hebrews 3:6,12-14; Hebrews 10:35; 1 John 3:21; 1 John 5:14)
I John 5:14 “And this is the confidence (complete assurance and boldness) which we have in Him: [we are sure] that if we ask anything (make any request) according to His will (in agreement with His own plan), He listens to and hears us.” (Amplified)
3. The substance or conviction of things hoped for, the assurance of things not seen (Hebrews 10:19-38; Hebrews 11:1,6; Romans 4:17; Romans 8:24)
Hebrews 11:1,6 “NOW FAITH is the assurance (the confirmation, the title deed) of the things [we] hope for, being the proof of things [we] do not see and the conviction of their reality [faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses]. …without faith it is impossible to please and be satisfactory to Him. For whoever would come near to God must [necessarily] believe that God exists and that He is the rewarder of those who earnestly and diligently seek Him [out].”
4. Absolute dependence upon and reliance in the Word of God and of Christ (Matthew 8:8-10; Matthew 15:28; Romans 10:17; Hebrews 11:1-12:3)
Romans 10:17 “So faith comes by hearing [what is told], and what is heard comes by the preaching [of the message that came from the lips] of Christ (the Messiah Himself).”(Amplified)
5. Full surrender, yieldedness, and obedience to all known truth (Romans 1:5; Romans 16:26; Romans 6:11-23; James 2:14-26; II Corinthians 10:4-7; Hebrews 11:6)
James 2:14-26 “For if what God promises is to be given to those who obey the Law, then faith means nothing and God’s promise is worthless. 15 The Law brings down God’s anger; but where there is no law, there is no disobeying of the law. 16 And so the promise was based on faith, in order that the promise should be guaranteed as God’s free gift to all of Abraham’s descendants—not just to those who obey the Law, but also to those who believe as Abraham did. For Abraham is the spiritual father of us all; 17 as the scripture says, "I have made you father of many nations." So the promise is good in the sight of God, in whom Abraham believed—the God who brings the dead to life and whose command brings into being what did not exist. 18 Abraham believed and hoped, even when there was no reason for hoping, and so became "the father of many nations." Just as the scripture says, "Your descendants will be as many as the stars." 19 He was then almost one hundred years old; but his faith did not weaken when he thought of his body, which was already practically dead, or of the fact that Sarah could not have children. 20 His faith did not leave him, and he did not doubt God’s promise; his faith filled him with power, and he gave praise to God. 21 He was absolutely sure that God would be able to do what he had promised. 22 That is why Abraham, through faith, "was accepted as righteous by God.” (TEV)
6. Trust wholly and unreservedly in the faithfulness of God (Matthew 6:25-34; Matthew 12:21; Luke 12:28-31; Ephesians 1:13; 1 Timothy 4:11; 1 Timothy 6:17; 1 Corinthians 10:13)
Luke 12:28-31 “If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith! 29 And do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink; do not worry about it. 30 For the pagan world runs after all such things, and your Father knows that you need them. 31 But seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.” (NIV)
7. The attribute of God and restored faculty of man whereby both can bring into existence things that are unseen (Romans 4:17; Galatians 5:22; Matthew 17:20; Matthew 21:22; Mark 9:23; Mark 11:22-24; Luke 17:6; Hebrews 11)
Mark 11:22-24 “And answering, Jesus says to them, Be constantly having faith in God. Truly, I am saying to you, Whoever says to this mountain, Be lifted up and be thrown into the sea, and does not doubt in his heart but believes that that which he says comes to pass, it shall be his. On this account I am saying to you, All things whatever you are praying and asking for, be believing that you received them, and they shall be yours.” (Wuest)
II. Identify Your Problem/Decide What You Are Going To Do About It –
A. Clearly define and understand the exact nature of the problem you are facing:
1. Is spiritual? Physical? Financial? Emotional? Whatever it is, the first step in conquering it is facing it head-on and identifying what it truly is.
a. That may seem like a pretty obvious place to start, but you’d be surprised how many believers think that being born again means experiencing no more problems. Then, when they are faced with an attack or affliction, they don’t know how to pinpoint it or what to do.
b. Make no mistake about – problems are going to come. As we saw previously in John 16:33, Jesus said we could bank on it. He said, “…In the world you have tribulation and trials and distress and frustration….” (Amplified)
2. Satan is a Thief –
a. One of the first things you’ll notice when you start getting serious about planting God’s Word in your heart and mind is an increase in problems. As we learn from Jesus in the parable of the sower, Satan’s number one objective is to steal the Word from your heart. If he can’t do that, he’ll problems to try to choke it out:
“The farmer sows the word. Some people are like seed along the path, where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them. Others, like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy. But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful.”
Mark 4:14-19 (Amplified)
b. The Bible contains the seeds to the answers for every problem you face.
(1) Satan is the ultimate planter of trials, affliction and trouble in the life of the believer for the purpose of destroying faith in God and His Word:
• Satan wants to prevent you from correctly hearing or hearing the Word of God at all in order to keep you defeated in the various areas of your life.
• As long as you ignore or are unaware of God’s, you’re no threat to Satan. When you start planting God’s Word in your heart, Satan flies into action.
• Satan will attempt to prevent you from putting the awesome, creative power of God’s Word to work in your life.
• God’s Word will unravel the plans Satan has for you concerning defeat, sickness, emotional illness and general ignorance of truth.
(2) Trouble can also enter into your life through bad seeds (carnal decisions) that you plant yourself:
• I Peter 2:20 and 4:15 tells us that Christians can suffer not because of an attack of the Devil but because of their own actions and decisions.
• Sins, evil words, and unrighteous attitudes can all result in an increase in trouble.
B. Make a Divine Decision to Agree with God About You:
1. The ability to choose, our free moral agency, is one of the main ways in which we’re made in the image of God.
a. Every person born into the earth has a God-given capacity and right to choose.
b. We’re born into a world where everything operates by decision.
c. This is especially true where spiritual things are concerned.
d. In reality, Christianity is really nothing more than a series of decisions.
e. For example, Jesus died on the cross so that you might have forgiveness of sins and inherit eternal life.
(1) That fact does you absolutely no good unless you make a decision to receive what He did for you.
(2) God is honor-bound to respect and protect your right to choose, even if that means letting you spend eternity in hell.
(3) You can say, “I’m waiting on God.” But God is saying, “No, I’m waiting on you. Decide.”
(4) It’s up to you to decide which way you’re going to go.
(5) Life or death, the choice is yours.
Deuteronomy 30:19 tells us plainly, “I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing, therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live.”
f. Truly, we all live in the valley of decision.
2. Faith’s power to change your circumstances is not going to operate in your life until you decide you are going to live by faith in God.
a. A quality decision must be made on which you’re willing to stake your life. It’s not an “ought to” decision. It’s not a “probably” decision.
b. It’s a determined, resolved “I will” decision to trust God and His over any circumstance.
c. Why is such a firm exercise of your will so important?
(1) Because nobody moves into the reality of God’s answers without passing through the door of a determined decision.
(2) Decisiveness is the door to receiving the promises of God.
(3) Waiting on the other side of the door of decisiveness is Almighty God – ready and willing to back you up with all of heaven’s power.
(4) He will move earth and sky on behalf of someone who has purposed to do things by the Book.
(5) Until you make a quality decision to do things God’s way, He cannot and will not do a thing for you. You have to get fed up with where you are.
(6) You have to tear the Devil’s yoke of bondage off your neck and throw it down.
(7) Are you going to choose to continue to live with that problem and let it defeat you, or are you going to make a firm, unwavering decision to overcome it?
III. Discover God’s “Title Deed” Promises -
A. Find God’s “Title Deed” Promise about your need –
1. Evidence is required when we approach the spiritual court of heaven with our petitions. It is like the DA of criminal justice aligning the evidence to be presented to the jury and judge so that He convinces the hearers of the truth of his claims.
2. In the court of heaven, we may claim healing, provision, peace, safety, or some other spiritual blessing which rightfully belongs to you, but without evidence to substantiate our claim, we will fail in receiving a positive answer.
3. The “Title Deed” of faith grounded in the soil of God’s Word establishes your right to claim possession of heaven’s treasures and blessings.
4. If anyone questions whether you own your boat, house, car or some other property, all you have to show them is the title deed.
5. That legal document is the proof that you own this property – it is your title deed that settles the question.
6. Hebrews 11:1 tells us plainly “NOW, FAITH is the assurance (the confirmation, the title deed) of the things [we] hope for, being the proof of things [we] do not see and the conviction of their reality [faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses].”
a. Confirmation is an instructive word. Car rental confirmation.
b. If I showed you the deed to my house, you wouldn’t question for a moment that there really was a house at that address. You may not see the house, but my title deed is ample proof that it exists and it is mine.
c. That’s exactly what Hebrews 11:1 is trying to communicate to you. If may have been told you have cancer, you can go to the Word and find, “With His stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5). That’s your confirmation number – your title deed to health and healing.
7. When you locate a Bible verse “Title Deed” that promises the thing you need, it energizes your prayer.
8. Once you’ve found your title deed in God’s Word, pray and consider the matter settled.
9. This commitment to the Title Deed of God’s Word implies that you are willing –
a. Abandon yourself to the promises of God’s Word
b. Give yourself to an all-out obligation to live by the Word, to think by the Word, and to talk by the Word.
c. Whatever you do, make sure you do it according to the Word.
10. Regardless of what you’re facing today, there is a promise in God’s Word that addresses your need, a promise you can stake your very life on.
11. Find that promise, and get ready to move on to a miracle.
B. Hear and rehearse the promise God has made to you –
1. Your ears are one of only two natural gateways to your spirit. Your eyes are the other.
a. As far as God is concerned, there is no receiving without hearing. A quick reading of Revelation, chapters 2 and 3, will illustrate just how serious Jesus is about our hearing His words. Seven different times in two chapters He says:
b. “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.” (Revelation 2:7,11,17,29;3:6,13,22)
2. Biblical hearing is more than just mere listening. It requires attentiveness, belief and obedience as well.
a. Proverbs 4:10 ties hearing directly to receiving. The promise of long life is for those who both hear and receive God’s wise sayings.
b. If you’re not determined to obey what God has spoken, you haven’t really received it. James tells us to be “doers of the word, and not hearers only” (James 1:22).
c. At the end of hearing and receiving, there is always harvest. It’s an unstoppable spiritual progression. Hear! Receive! Harvest!
d. What you hear, believe and obey determines your ability to overcome a situation directed toward you by the forces of hell.
e. Blessing comes to those control their circumstances instead of their circumstances controlling them.
f. God’s Word must be constantly fresh in your heart in order to produce results. In Romans 10:17, the word “hearing” is in the present tense. You must hear the Word of God often in your spiritual hearing in order to have the faith needed to speak to your situation and circumstances.
C. Meditate on the implications of God’s promise to you –
1. God’s Word is a seed that has the potential to germinate into whatever you need in your life.
2. Real Biblical meditation causes you to engage in thought, contemplation, reflection and pondering through the use of your imagination weighing what God’s says in His Word in your mind.
3. In Genesis 11:4-6 God gives us the picture of an ungodly bunch of people who could accomplish anything they could imagine because they were unified in purpose and language. Their potential was unlimited because they were all imagining the same thing; a blueprint of an incredibly high tower.
4. The fact remains that because imagination is such a powerful tool, God came down and confounded their language in order to destroy their potential unity.
5. Joshua 1:8 tells us that we meditate on God’s Word and base all our decisions on it, our lives will be prosperous.
6. Have you ever been challenged by something you saw in the Word?
a. Have you ever heard a biblical command and thought, “I can’t do that?”
b. I’d venture to say you have. I’ve not yet met a believer who got saved and immediately started walking in obedience to everything he saw in Scripture.
c. When stepping out to a new level of commitment or faith, most of us must face fear. There is fear that God’s Word won’t work for us the way it does for others, and the fear that God won’t come through. We just can’t see ourselves doing the Word.
d. When we hear a truth of God that we can’t fathom, we should then meditate. Remember, Joshua 1:8 said that we were to meditate on God’s Word day and night “that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein.”
e. Meditating on God’s enables the believer’s mind to see and believe in the heart, and what you see and believe in your heart determines your decisions in life.
7. Reading the Word plants it in your head, meditating the Word plants in your heart.
8. How to meditate –
a. Simply speak a verse to yourself (Psalms 119:48)
b. Speaking the Word and its principles our loud – to God, to yourself, or to another person – has a powerful effect on your heart.
c. Take a phrase like “By His stripes I am healed,” and ponder it over and over again until it becomes absolutely real on the inside of you. Squeeze until there’s not one drop left of truth and strength.
D. Speak the promise God has given you –
1. Confessing God’s Word is simply using God’s Word to bring forth. It means to declare a thing in order to establish or confirm it. True confession is an authoritative spiritual proclamation.
2. How to make confession effective:
a. Words are powerful – Each time God wanted to create something new in Genesis, He said something.
b. Words must be based on an underlying faith. Consider Romans 10:10 which says “For with the heart a person believes (adheres to, trusts in, and relies on Christ) and so is justified (declared righteous, acceptable to God), and with the mouth he confesses (declares openly and speaks out freely his faith) and confirms [his] salvation.” (Amplified)
(1) Consider the order of what God tells us to do in that verse –
• Heart belief is followed by mouth confession.
• We confess what is already true in our hearts.
• We can only speak what is real in our hearts, what your heart fully possesses.
• What you know without any doubt in your heart you will confess that as a reality with your mouth.
(2) Meditating the Word of God will help you build a clear image in your heart of the thing for which you are believing.
(3) Your mouth’s confession and your heart’s meditation about and on truth must go hand in hand for your faith to be released and God’s power to invade your situation.
(4) Once the reality of God’s promise is more real in your heart than your outward circumstances, you can’t help but shout your victory. Example “The walls of Jericho” Their silent meditation on God’s promise of victory preceded their shout of victory.
IV. Act on the Word God has given You –
A. Faith without works is dead
James 2:14-16 tells us “What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. But someone will say, "You have faith; I have deeds."
Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do. You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that--and shudder. You foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless ? Was not our ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. And the scripture was fulfilled that says, "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness," and he was called God’s friend. You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone. In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.” (NIV)
1. You can generate faith by hearing the word of God, establish that faith in your heart by meditating on the Word, even put faith into motion by confessing the Word. But unless you take the additional step of acting on it, there’s no life in it to produce the thing you need.
2. The Greek word translated “works” means “an act, deed, thing done.” Therefore it is accurate to say that faith without corresponding action is dead.
3. Living, moving producing faith will always be accompanied by corresponding action.
Examples of faith backed up with deeds:
a. Abraham and Isaac
4. Faith will change the circumstances of your life. A change of action must always precede a change of situation, not the other way around. When you’re acting on real faith, your outward circumstances will be shaped by your belief and actions.
5. Believe that you have received even though the physical evidence says something else to the contrary.
6. Allow faith, not doubt to shape the way you behave and the things you do.
B. Patient waiting will test the depth of your faith
1. Biblical patience isn’t gritting your teeth and bearing some unpleasant or painful burden.
2. When God’s Word mentions patience, it’s talking about the ability to remain constant. A person with biblical patience remains fixed and immovable regardless of how the surrounding circumstances look or feel. Patience stands on the Word of God - no matter what – and aggressively applies pressure to the problem. This is the very quality James talks about in the following passage of Scripture –
“My friends, consider yourselves fortunate when all kinds of trials come your way, 3 for you know that when your faith succeeds in facing such trials, the result is the ability to endure. 4 Make sure that your endurance carries you all the way without failing, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.” (James 1:2-4) (TEV)
3. Why is the trial of our faith a cause for joy?
a. Because patience enables you to overcome trouble, to put pressure on the enemy and the problem, causing the situation and circumstances to line up with God’s Word. That’s why the joy of the Lord is your strength. It slams the devil with God’s Word.
b. If you’re in the midst of trial, you want the power of patience and joy, not bitterness, working in you. Bitterness has no power to help you. You don’t want to employ grief, despair, anger or guilt either. These emotions and thoughts might be a natural response to the trial, but your focus should not remain there.
4. Patience will help you wait for God’s appointed time for manifestation of your answer:
a. God has an established season of time for every purpose in your life.
b. He sees the end from the beginning and has a master time sheet with ordered seasons for all things to take place. This is a concept you must keep in mind as you begin to pray and believe for certain things in your life.
c. Why is God’s timing so important?
(1) He knows what you can handle and when you can handle it, so you want your life to guided by Him.
(2) The things for which you’re asking will directly and indirectly affect other people, believers and unbelievers.
(3) We serve a God who is not limited by our concepts of time and distance.
d. The key to avoiding frustration, fear and the temptation to quit when standing in faith on God’s Word is understanding there is a time and due seasons for everything.
e. When it comes to dealing with frustration so many believers feel concerning the things of faith, in Galatians 6:9 the Bible tells us this to consider:
“And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.”
(1) Somewhere along the road to their answer, the persecution, the affliction, or the seeming lack of results causes them to grow weary. It has happened to the most seasoned faith warriors.
(2) Imagine you are going strong – reading and meditating God’s Word, speaking the truth of God’s promises, going where you’re supposed to go, praying, fasting, and doing anything else you can think of to do – when suddenly you sit down and realize you’re tired. That is the critical moment when you are most tempted to move off of your stand of faith and quit.
(3) Don’t get tired of doing, speaking and living God’s Word. Don’t get tired of standing for your healing. Don’t get tired of tithing and giving. Stay on the Word. Your due season of harvest and blessing is coming.
(4) It is time remember do “not be weary in well doing.” Why? Because you’ll reap in due season if you’ll just hang on.
C. Expect an Answer
1. To expect means “to anticipate or look forward to the coming or occurrence of …to consider probably or certain.” When you expect something, you start mentally or visually “looking” for in appearance.
2. Expectation not only vision but it also involves a change of posture. When you expect something, you begin to suitably position yourself to receive it.
3. Examples:
a. Having a Baby
b. A baseball catcher receiving a ball from the pitcher.
Conclusion: When you pick up your Bible, you hold in your hands the seeds to produce finances, healing, salvation of your loved ones, a sound mind, restoration of your marriage, or anything else you could possibly need. The tragic fact is that many believers are simply too lazy to pick up their Bible, get the seed out, and plant it. Far too many of us want to just line in a prayer line, have minister lay hands on us, and instantaneously – without any effort on our part – see all our problems solved. But it doesn’t work that way.
Successful farming takes effort and hard work. A farmer’s seed does him no good as long as it lies dormant in the sack. But when he plants his seed, he gets a harvest. Likewise, the seeds of provision in God’s Word will never produce for you as long as your Bible gathers dust on your shelf.
