You Gone Have To Work Your Faith
Text: Hebrews 11:1 says Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Hebrews 11:6 says But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
All of us have one thing in common. That one thing we all have in common is the pursuit of our dreams and our goals. All of us should be after purpose. This is called destiny. We have it in our view and we understand clearly what it takes to get to it. It takes an incredible amount of faith to believe that it is possible, yet we pursue it because we believe it exists.
At the same time we have needs they we have not met. Many today stand in the need of healing, understanding, support, and supernatural intervention.
What prevents a lot of these things from happening as it relates to destiny are the needs that we have to have met along the way. Often we are not where we should be not because we are trifling, but because we have some needs that need to be met along the way.
It takes a big amount of faith to get to a point where we simply trust God. We have to have faith to believe that it is not only possible, but also that God can provide for us the things that we need along the way.
Anyone can tell you that the moment you begin to try and pursue things, the enemy will do everything in his power to try and discourage you and try to make you disillusioned by the problem. When people don’t believe in what you believe, you have to reach way down inside you and say “I yet believe, because of my faith”.
Faith is so simple, but we seem to complicate faith.
The Greek word for faith is 4102. pistis (πίστις) pis’-tis which simply means belief.
We throw faith around so carelessly.
We think it is something everyone just has automatically.
We tell people who don’t read the word and who don’t have the word inside them to simply to have faith and we expect them to have it. We tell them everything is going to be alright, but we forgot that Romans 10:17 says So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. – In other words, the only way a person can have faith is by being exposed to revelation.
They have to sit under a word that produces faith in their lives. Somebody will tell you that if you have the faith, God has the power. This message is really about moving beyond the lip service of faith and telling people that we believe. We have to go to the next level and learn to work what we believe. There is something that God has given us. It is the ability to work our faith until what we are hoping God for begins to manifest in our lives.
Many will tell you if it wasn't for their faith they would have given up a long time ago.
Faith sustains us, keeps us in the race, and keeps us from losing our mind. It is not only important to have faith. We also have to work our faith.
Many of us need this word today.
Look at your neighbor and say...."You Gone Have To Work Your Faith"
To work our faith we need:
I. The right perspective on faith
Hebrews 11:1: Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Faith is active, faith simply is. Faith must be present and current. In other words, it can’t be applied in one area and not applied in another. Our faith is always both active and current. This means you can’t have faith and believe God for a job and then not have the faith to tithe. We can’t have faith that God can get us into school and then not have the faith to know he can cure our cancer. If faith is here, it must be there.
2. Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. Faith creates a sense of expectancy. This is really what hope is all about. We heard a word that brought about the hope for things that we cannot see. We therefore live in expectation of what God’s word said was possible for our life. In faith, we have walk like it and believe it.
3. Substance of things hoped for. The substance of faith is the word. The word produced the hope. By this we mean we wouldn't have believed it if the word of God hadn't told us.
4. It is the evidence of things not seen. Since we hoped for it, and because we don’t see it in the natural, it doesn't mean it doesn't exist in the spirit. We don’t walk by sight, we walk by faith. Now we start making preparations in the spirit based on what we know. We don’t walk around with our head down, because we know what God promised us.
Tell your neighbor to tweet this on Twitter, “If you believe what He told you in the light, it will work in the dark.
Hebrews 11:2-3 says For by it the elders obtained a good report. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.
Everything that began did so through the word.
Go back to Genesis and you will see that God employed the word. God gave the word a job. God said it and it was the Words responsibility to create it while the Holy Spirit brought it into existence. This is why the Bible does not attempt to prove the existence of God; it simply declares it. The writers of the Bible accepted His existence as a settled fact. As a matter of fact when you open up the Bible, the first words you will read are, " In the beginning God!"
Belief in the existence of God is absolutely foundational not only to an understanding of the Bible but also to life itself. Hebrews 11:6 tells us that he who comes to God must believe that He is, that He exists and that He is a rewarded of them that diligently seek Him. I .E. Belief in the existence of God is a prerequisite to having faith in Him personally. If a person rejects the fact of the existence of God he has no reference point for correctly understanding himself or the world around him.
Nothing can be received or known of God unless one believes in His existence. Faith is the only connecting link between the Creator and the creature, God and man. Our text say's ( Quote Hebrews 11:1) Faith is the proof of the reality of things not seen. God as a Spirit being is invisible to the human eye, but it through faith in Him that His existence is substantiated to us.
Romans 1:20 say's For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:
So despite the fact of what the fool hath said in his heart, that there is no God. Psalms 53:1
We have too much on record that tells us otherwise: He is the Creator of the Cosmos - "world". He is the Architect and the designer of each blade of grass you see, each snow flake you see though each one be different. Every element indicates to us that there is a purpose for everything and that everything that exists they exist in harmony with each other. Though man is Gods crowning glory, the Psalmist in beholding the glory of the heavens, asked a question,"What is man..... That thou art mindful of Him?"
One of the reasons God created man was to have someone share in His function of ruling the universe. He not only purposes that man be something by reproducing His nature and character. God the Father wanted His children to look like Him on the inside. He wanted them to bear the family "image and likeness" Gen 1:26
Character is one of the main thoughts in the word "image". In Hebrews 1:3 Jesus is described as being " the express image" of His fathers person. The Greek word translated image in that verse is pronounced CHARACTER and it is the word from which our English word "character" is derived. God wanted man to partake of His divine nature 2 Peter 1:4-7, to be conformed to the image of His Son (Romans 8:28,29, and to be changed into His image by the Spirit ( 2 Corinthians 3:18;4:4). Since it was a corruption of character (disobedience) that broke mans relationship with God, it is necessary that mans character be changed, restored and made just like Gods own nature. This is why Romans 12:1,2 tells us, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. Can somebody say
"character" So not only does He purpose that man be something (character) but also that he do something (function).
God wanted man to share in His function of ruling the universe. i.e. He wanted His children to be involved in the family business. He not only purposed that Man be something in "character" but also that he do something in his "function". God wanted Man to share in His dominion (Genesis 1:26.)
To do this God told man to subdue, which means to conquer an enemy. (Genesis 1:28). At that time the only enemy there was to conquer was Satan and in mans first encounter with him, he lost (Genesis 3). Man lost his dominion and came under bondage to Satan,sin,sickness and death. Now, only through Christ,who has conquered all, can mans dominion be regained.
If God said in Genesis 1:26,27 "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
If God said,"Let them have dominion",then why aren't we working our faith? God created man to be His kingdom agent, to rule and subdue the rest of creation, including the aggressive satanic forces, which would soon infringe upon it. Tell your neighbor, "It's time to subdue the earth!"
(Overcome, quieten, bring under control)
So we see that the creative power of the word in Genesis, is the same word that exists in you and me today. The devil doesn't want you to get a word, because you will start hoping, start seeing, and start saying. Once you start saying, it will start manifesting. Even if we don’t see anything right now we open up our mouth and speak those things that be not as though they were!
Some of you sit back and keep your mouth closed too much!
When we ought to be quiet, we talk and when we ought to talk, we are quiet.
Because we have faith, you have to learn to create stuff in the Spirit of God.
5. Faith is active. It can’t be over here and not over there. We can’t doubt God. That is an insult to God.
II. We have to be ready to prove our faith.
Hebrews 11:4-5 says By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh. By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.
Enoch lived and pleased God and was translated or caught up. In other words, he didn't experience death. In the word, we see that people had trials and trusted God through their faith. Faith was used to establish a testimony. Faith allows us to be examples and witnesses of God. Your faith is as strong as the test you survive.
2. When you go through something, God knows that you are in pursuit of something awesome up the road. You have these challenges, because the devil is trying to block you, so it takes faith for you to get to your destiny.
Do you remember Peter? He becomes a defender of the 1st Century Church. He becomes the first Pope. This is the same Peter that denied Christ three times. Early on, Jesus saw this coming. In Luke 22:31 it says 31 And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: – Jesus said the devil wants to sift you wheat…In Luke 22:32 it says 32 But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren. – Jesus says he has prayed for Peter. Jesus prayed that Peter’s faith would not fail. We must then know that faith is essential.
3. God wants you to outlive what is trying to outlive you.
Your testimony ought to be that you desire to hang in there. We have so many people that give up because they don’t have faith. People, who have faith, are inevitably faithful. It is impossible to have to faith without being faithful. Faithful is the ability to believe in the process. People who supervise can tell when their workers have lost faith in the vision of the company. They can tell, because their people start coming to work when they want to come. They have made a shift already. They are already looking for something else. When we hang in there, we are saying to God that he can still count on us to be here. Our presence is an indicator that we are still faithful and are willing to hang in there. It is saying we will still be here even when the storm is over.
(Closing)
III. We must rejoice in the promise of faith.
Hebrews 11:6 says But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
We don’t’ have faith for nothing. We have faith to apply it to something. We have to give it an assignment. Only then will God who has the ability work with what we have spoken, create a situation for our faith to be applied. God doesn't heal for nothing. He heals for something. If the something didn't exist, we wouldn't ever develop our faith. We can’t have more faith in our doubt, than faith in our faith. You can’t be wishy washy with your faith. You can’t have until faith either. You have to trust God even when things are difficult. You have to learn to hold on to your faith regardless to what comes in your life. Without faith is it impossible to please God, because those who come to God must believe that God is. The moment we stop having faith, we doubt the very existence of God. As long as God is, our faith is! The moment we start wavering or the moment there is fear, there is absence of the revelation of God. When we know where God is, we know where our faith is. Whatever you need, God is. If you need a healing they tell me that He is a Balm in Gilead, If you need a breakthrough, God is a Deliverer! God is a rewarder of those who diligently seeks him, those that won’t let situations devour them, and those that will keep their eye on the prize. These are the ones that receive the promises of God. You have to trust God without having a plan B.
2. Faith is not believing He can, because God can whether we believe it or not. Faith is not believing He will, because that is hope. Faith is believing it’s done. Faith says, the moment I was privy to a word, I know God would never give me a word in the natural, that wasn't settled in the spirit. We are just waiting for what God has already settled in the spirit and we are waiting for it to trinkle down into the natural. Ex-If someone needs $1500 to solve their problem, they would be happy for a check that a stranger writes for them, but more happy after it clears. Once the check is cashed, they develop a sense of gratitude. Faith is rooted in the credibility of the rewarder. When another person that they already trust pulls out their check book, that same person who needed the $1500 starts shouting right then They know that this person don’t’ write bad checks. If we know you, we are not going to wait until the check clears. We are going to give God the glory before the check clears. Just like this, when we cant see that God is moving, we have the tendency to wait until the check clears. Tension exists in believing God for a thing and it hasn’t shown up yet. Hebrews 11:39-40 says 39 And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: 40 God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect. – God says, your faith has to get to a point that even if God doesn't do this, you know he’s got that and that is much better than this. In other words, if I don’t get this job, my faith will hang in there, because he is preparing me for that job! If I don’t get this Prince/Princess then he’s got that King/Queen waiting on me!
Give God glory for the that he is getting ready to give you.
Every time God says no, he’s got something better for you up the road. Real faith says God I trust you in the midst of things that don’t work out the way we want them to. The promise is not based on what you want, but what God wants for our life! Ex- We asked a pew how come people trust them so. People come in and sit all their weight on the pew, but they never look and see if the pew is sturdy. People just flop down and put their whole future on the pew. We asked the question, why do people trust the pew so much? The pew responds, because I held them up last time. We hear the Lord saying, I carried your weight last time, so why do you doubt me this time? I been carrying you through this and that why are you doubting me now ?
I know that for some it takes them a long time to get to a level of faith because of their doubts.
Doubt means that there is distrust. It means that we believe in God but we don't trust him to handle our situation.
That often happens when we leave the
mountaintop experience of worship and move into the valley of reality.
When we are faced with the hard circumstances that life presents, doubts enter our minds.
Those doubts keep us from doing what we should be doing. They detain us. They restrain us. They hold us back.
It should have taken Israel about two weeks, a month at the most to leave Egypt and make it to the Promised Land.
However, because of their doubts they wandered in the wilderness for 40 years.
Doubt is why it took them so long. If we want to claim our promise we must trust God. To trust God is to stand in the face of adversity like the three Hebrew Boys when questioned whether God would deliver them.
Our response should be the same as theirs "Our God is able to deliver us..." It should be the same as Daniel, faced with a tenacious and horrible death in the lion's den, but he entered it confident that God would make a way.
Our faith should be the same as that expressed by song writer Douglas Miller when he said, "But if the storm don't cease and if the winds keep on blowing in my life my soul has been anchored in the Lord."
One reason the ashes were removed from the altar on a daily basis is because, ashes smother fires.
The fire on the altar represents the presence of God; the very spirit of God himself. However, there are some who cannot experience the presence of God because they pour ashes on the altar.
They come before God with so much mess, stress, drama and trauma that they extinguish their own fire.
