How to Increase Your Faith
Luke 17:5
This morning I want to talk with you from the Word of God on one of the most critical things you will ever study as a child of God - and that is “How to Increase Your Faith.”
Please God
We know that each and every one of us to make it our deliberate and daily goal to live to please God (1 Thess. 4:1). Question: What should I do today? Answer: Whatever will please God. Put that filter on your choices and you will find they become a lot simpler and a lot less painful.
So my goal is to live to please God.
How do I live to please God? Good question. The answer is simple but if you are not intentional you will miss it.
With Faith
We know that without faith it is impossible to please God. (Heb. 11:6)
Paul tells us in Romans (8:8) that those who are ‘in the flesh’ cannot please God.
Conversely, those who are walking in faith are always pleasing to God.
There are many things that please God - heartfelt worship, costly stewardship, unconditional love, diligent study in His Word, a lifestyle of obedience - the list is long - but while there are many things that do please God - unless they are done in faith, unless they are offered or pursued or practiced in faith - they are not, the cannot be, pleasing to God.
Follow Jesus
If you want to know how to live so that God is pleased, how to live so that faith is expressed - look at Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ is the clearest and most perfect manifestation of God’s will.
He is the perfect model for every Christian.
Jesus is not only simply an example for the believer - He is an example of the believer!
Jesus did not do what He did as God walking on the earth - He did what He did as man connecting with heaven.
If Jesus Christ did what He did as God His example for how I should live is practically useless to me. Why? Because I am not god - I am man. If he did His miracles as God, if He did His sings and wonders as God then there is not practical value there in terms of how I should live. But if He indeed did them as man, then His life becomes my pattern and His faith becomes my model.
We All Receive Different Portions of Faith (Rom. 12:3)
God gives each one the level of faith as He chooses.
It is His sovereign choice - but here is what I think we have misunderstood - the level of faith you have received is not the level of faith you will need.
That is why one of the most critical things for the believer is to know how to grow their faith. Why? Because the level of faith you received is not the level of faith you need. It may have been sufficient for yesterday and yesterday’s challenges - but it may not be enough for today and it will not be enough for tomorrow.
That is why so may Christians in the West get saving faith - and are born from above - but then they never see signs and wonders, they never do miracles, they never lay hands on the sick and they are healed, or on those with demons and the are set free, the never see the things promised, commanded and spoken of in Scripture in their lives.
What happened? The received ‘saving faith’ - incredible, miraculous, sufficient for that - and then they received a measure of ‘living faith’ - but they never increased it.
There are some incredible lessons we need to learn from the account the talents - remember the account where the servants received different measures of talent? (Matthew 25:14ff)
1. Each one received the measure of faith God assigns to him (Rom. 12:3)
2. God expects you to grow what He has given you
3. While we start at different levels, there is no cap as to where you can grow
4. God will make a draw on His investment in this life
Everything we have has been given by measure and the way we increase it is through faithfulness with what we have been given.
You steward your way into greater measure.
Every person has been given a measure of faith - and increase in the kingdom always comes as a result of stewardship. If you have the same level of faith you had a year ago it is because you did not steward it the way you were meant to. Good stewardship always brings increase.
Increase always comes with faithful use of your current measure.
The faith God gave you was not your harvest, it was your seed.
There are two ways we receive faith - gift and fruit. Gift is given, fruit is cultivated.
So the goal then, the quest before each and every child of God is to become one who lives by faith. After all, is that not the recurring theme throughout Scripture - the just shall live by faith? We have read it, we have quoted it, we have sung it, we have got excited about it - we just have not understood it and lived it.
How many of you know that people of faith are not always comfortable to be around?
True biblical faith is not comfortable to be with - unless you are walking in true biblical faith. Why? Because the climate of faith is not a comfortable climate to be in - it designed to manifest the authority of God - and people who are not in submission to that authority often take offense at it.
Smith Wigglesworth . . .
Everybody loves Smith Wiggllesworth - but only because he is dead. He is known as the apostle of faith.
You never invited him to a funeral incase the funeral was messed up.
He would take a dead person, drag them out of the coffin, pick them upo and throw them against the wall, and command them, ‘Walk!’
One occasion - it is recorded that he opened the casket, dragged the person out, and threw them against the wall - commanded them, ‘Walk!’ - but they slid down on the floor in a heap because they were dead.
A second time he picked them up and threw them against the wall, and commanded them, ‘Walk!’ - but once again they slid down onto the floor in a heap because they were still dead.
A third time he picked them up and threw them against the wall - and commanded them, ‘Walk!’ - and they breathed out, shook their head and rather dazed from the experience, stood up - and walked.
Not everybody liked Wigglesworth - He had a way of beating people, sucker punching the sickness out of them that was offensive to many.
On one occasion a patient was dying in hospital from stomach cancer, and his brother wheeled him on his death bed to the meeting that Smith was at across the road. Smith sees this patient on the edge of death with stomach cancer, and just launches a strong and a hard punch into this fella’s stomach - and the patient collapses - lost the little bit of life he had. The Dr. Shouts, ‘You killed him,’ and Wigglesworth says, ‘He’s not dead, and nor does he have stomach cancer any more.’ Few seconds later the patient wakes up - cured.
How many of you know people of faith are not always fun to be around?
Some would rather the gentle hand, the prophet word, anything except slugging.
So Smiths disciples also hit people and they did not get healed - they thought the key was the method.
The said to Smith Wigglesworth, ‘Why do you hit people?’ He said, ‘I don’t hit people, I hit the devil, people get in the way.’
Jesus was not always comfortable to be around - He is our true Apostle of Faith.
Assuming He did what He did as a human, and I am going to ask you to do that because I want to teach you something, assuming he did that as a human, what can we learn from Him?
He kept saying things like, “I only do what I see My Father doing,” and “I only say what I hear my Father saying.”
It seems to me that the life of faith is one that is intimately connected with the who God is and what God does.
Let me meddle a little with your theology now. Let me take you to a verse that I misunderstood for many years - and the reason I misunderstood it is that I was taught it by people who misunderstood it.
Romans 10:17 “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ.”
Here is what I thought that said - if I want to grow my faith I must be diligent about my study of and consistent in my study of the Scriptures. In other words, the more time I spend in the Word the greater my faith will grow. Now while that may be true - that is not what this passage is saying - as a matter of fact, it may be the opposite of what this passage is saying.
it does not say faith comes by hearing the Word of God - that is the mis-perception. It says that faith comes by hearing. But your capacity to hear comes from the Word - not the Scriptures, the rhema, the spoken word, the now word, the thing the Holy Spirit is saying to you.
What this passage is teaching us is that if you want to grow you faith grow your ability to hear - not your ability to understand.
Faith by definition requires that we develop ears that hear - and the easiest place to develop ears that hear is to become very relaxed and comfortable with the rhema of Christ. It is about intimate personal relationship with the Lord.
We must be able to say, “I only say what I hear the rhema of Christ saying.” “I only do what I see the hand of God doing.”
The lifestyle of faith is an ongoing relationship with the Lord that welcomes His voice.
I want to take you one more place that will give you a better understanding of this that you have right now. Go with me to Mark 7 if you will.
Mark 7:8-9 “Neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men.” He was also saying to them, “You are experts at setting aside the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition.”
Mark 7:13 “thus invalidating the word of God by your tradition which you have handed down; and you do many things such as that.”
“You invalidate the Word of God” - the word to invalidate means to render void, deprive of force and authority.
Now would you stop with me for a moment and read what it really says?
Did you know that it is possible for either the traditions of men or the position you take based on what you know to completely render void the Word of God?
We are talking about the Word of God - this Word that has so much power.
This word said, “Let it be . . .” and our galaxy was formed. We have something like 8 billion stars and planets in our galaxy - and there are billions of galaxies - that word created them.
Every miracle in the Old Testament and the New Testament is based on the power of that Word.
The world will come to an end, all the galaxies will be destroyed and the heavens will be shut down - and a new heaven and a new earth will be created by the power of that Word.
Yet - the two things that will render this word powerless are the traditions of men and the learning of men. When you become and expert on the Word of God, and you just positioned yourself in a place where the word become powerless for you. Why? Because you rendered it powerless by trying to be in control of it.
• What effect is the word of God meant to have? It is meant to create a tenderness and an ability to hear God.
• What invalidates that? Too strong a commitment to tradition and your understanding.
Many traditions blind our eyes to seeing and deafen our ears to hearing what God is wanting to do today that is different to what He was doing yesterday.
What you know can keep you from what you need to know if you have not developed a greater ability to hear the rhema than you have to pursue the rhema.
Most traditions came from good things but they then replaced good things.
Tradition is the sometimes unintentional positioning of oneself as an expert - I know how this works - what you know can keep you from hearing what God is saying and what God is doing.
While it is true that those who are more mature attract greater revelation, the truth is that those who are uncluttered often see things more clearly.
That is why we need to come as a child. That is why the most skilled in Scripture did not recognize Jesus but the was but the prostitute did. Those who spent their lives studying truth missed it, but the demonized Gadarene saw. Why? Because their approach to Scripture made them experts - and so instead of remaining under the authority of what God says, they become the experts on what God says.
The minute you become the expert on what you know you are in danger of positioning yourself where you cannot hear what you do not know.
Experts desire to be confirmed in what they already know and are critical of anything that does not line up with their thinking. And experts try and control the religious environment around them. God does not reveal Himself to inform us but to transform us.
Your devotion to yesterday’s rhema can keep you from entering an environment of faith for today’s rhema.
As a matter of fact, tradition will nullify the most powerful thing in the universe - the Word of God.
John 7:37-39
This (the river) he spoke concerning the Spirit - the reason the Spirit was not yet given was the Spirit was to make the disciples like Jesus, and Jesus had not yet been glorified.
The Holy Spirit main job is to make you like Jesus, and if the HS was given prior to the ascension, He would make the disciples like the pre glorified Jesus. That is why he was given after the ascension.
If anyone thirst let him come to Me and drink - he who believes in Me out of him will flow rivers of living water.
To the degree you see Him, to that degree you can become like Him.
He does not give the revelation of His nature to inform you - He gives you the revelation of His nature to transform you.
When you drink water from Him, it becomes in you a river.
In other words - what He is you become.
He used to be the salt of the earth - now you become the salt of the earth.
He used to be light of the world - now you are the light of the world
He used to be the voice crying out - now you are the voice crying out.
1 John 4:17 “. . . as He is, so also are we in this world.”
As He is (resurrected, glorified, gifted, anointed, ascended) so you are - not one day in heaven but now - in this world.
The purpose of the rhema is talk to your hearing - and the purpose of hearing is to show you how to be like Christ in your world.
The heart and soul of the whole gospel is the revelation of Jesus.
Are you ready to make that commitment? Are you ready to receive the Rhema, to increase you hearing - and to be in this world what Jesus was. Would you pray with me please.
