Hebrews 4:2
For we also have had the gospel preached to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because those who heard did not combine it with faith.
The Israelites failed to trust what God was saying to them in the wilderness.
God promised that he would care for them and give them victory.
They didn't believe God.
They grumbled and complained, and wanted to turn back to Egypt.
This is the human condition: people will KNOWINGLY go back to horrible conditions rather than believing and standing and trusting almighty God! OMG!!
This unbelief BECAME their disobedience.
Here is that same verse in another translation:
We received the same promises as those people in the wilderness, but the promises didn't do them a bit of good because they didn't receive the promises with faith.
We cannot receive what we do not believe.
1st Thessalonians 2:13
And we also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is at work in you who believe.
They had received the Word and it was WORKING!!!
Hebrew 4:12
For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
As we read the Word, it is like a living being who is studying us, and revealing to us what we need in the very moment we are reading it.
The Word is examining us; we are not examining it.
It has already diagnosed our illnesses.
It is examining our hearts.
It knows, as we read it, where we are in our faith!
It exposes what it knows about us to us.
It reveals back to us what it wants us to know about ourselves.
It tells us what is important for us to know about ourselves in order to have what it offers us.
The Word becomes a supernatural power that enables us as we believe it.
The Word exposes all our deceptions and replaces them with TRUTH!
It examines our thoughts, and knows exactly how to increase our believing.
Q. Are we trusting the promises of God or aren't we?
We have to see things the way God does, or it won’t matter how much Word we read or hear.
What the Israelites were seeing did not line up with God!
I repeat: The word did not profit them, not being mixed with faith.
Good recipes are a mixture of all the right ingredients.
Mixing the Word with anything other than faith won’t bring life.
We can wander in the wilderness like the 12 tribes IF we, LIKE THEM, don’t believe we can take the promised land and drive out the inhabitants.
These thoughts will rob your faith:
I’m unloved.
I’m not worthy.
I’m too insecure.
I’ve got a problem with lust.
I’m not as talented as other people.
I have such a temper.
We can cancel our own future with what we don’t do now.
Romans 4:20
Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God,
Even before Abraham received God’s promises, he had faith that he would!!
You say:
I’m in financial trouble. How can I have faith for that?
God says tithe and I will open the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing so big your storehouses won’t be able contain it all!
If we seek God first and His righteousness, what we need will be given to us.
Is that what we are trusting will happen?
Or, we can choose to live in fear. We can go back to Egypt.
You say:
I’m struggling with inner turmoil from my childhood.
God says we are new creations.
Our childhood is no longer ruling us!!!
God has erased all the sorrow and pain.
Is your faith mixing with that Word?
Or, we can be swallowed up by the junk.
What are some things we can do to INCREASE our faith?
Step #1
When God speaks to us from His Word, we have to do something about it.
James 1:22
Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.
We have to demonstrate to God that we believe what He has spoken to us.
Mixing faith with the word is more than committing it to prayer and then doing nothing.
We will not see the Word come to pass if we do not to step out in obedience.
Many people are afraid to step out in obedience fearing they will get it wrong.
They say: Maybe it’s not God.
How can we experience God if we’re not prepared to act on what He says?
HINT: If it’s in the Word IT’S God!!!!
Growing may mean making adjustments until we get it right. That’s ok!
The principle of mixing faith with the word heard = hearing and doing.
The whole purpose of hearing the word of God is so we can apply it in a practical way in our day-to-day living.
Here's what the Word said one more time:
If we do not mix faith with the word, then it profits us nothing; it is useless; non-productive.
Whatever we do, we must not complain and make excuses!
All of us have very busy lives.
But God wants to know who and what we really put first in our lives.
The power that works in us has no limitations.
Why? God has no limitations.
We must stop mixing worry with the Word.
Mark 4:19 The Parable of the Sower
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.
We can let the cares and anxieties overpower the Word of God.
Step #2
If we want to see the power of God manifest in our lives, we have to pay attention to what we say.
Our words tell us what we believe.
It is important to speak faith and not fear.
When the Israelites came to the edge of the promised land, they sent in twelve spies to spy out the land.
10 spies came back with a negative report of fear, doubt, and unbelief.
2 spies said, “We are well able to overcome it.”
The people believed the evil report.
What they spoke happened. They died in the wilderness.
Except for the 2 who gave the good report.
The Word of God spoken by us releases our faith and makes it active!
Everything we see was created by words of faith.
God’s faith.
Therefore, everything we see will respond to faith-filled words!
They have to respond because words are the parent force.
The way we think controls the way we talk.
If we believe we are going to be sick or if we believe that we will always be poor, and then confess that with our mouths, we will get what we believe.
Proverbs 18:21
The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.
Step #3
I have to stop comparing myself to where other people are and what God is doing in their lives.
This is huge! And the devil uses it to make a train wreck of our faith.
We can’t have what someone else is believing.
We can’t have someone else’s faith.
We have to have our own!!
Everyone has been given a measure of faith.
No believer is given more faith than any other.
However, some do a better job of growing what they have been given.
In fact, growing in our faith is a natural part of what is required of us.
People don’t start out with faith for all things.
In fact, God has factored in the reality of a growing faith.
Exodus 23:29
But I will not drive them out in a single year, because the land would become desolate and the wild animals too numerous for you. Little by little I will drive them out before you, until you have increased enough to take possession of the land.
Read this again in another translation.
Exodus 23:29
You know these enemies? They’re bigger than you. But I’m not going to give you the whole land in the first year. You’re going to take it over a little bit at a time — one battle at a time. You’re growing stronger. When you’re strong enough to handle it all, you’ll get it all.”
The only truth I need to motivate myself is this:
The person who does nothing with his or her faith will have weak faith.
There are only 2 choices: We will be obedient or we will be disobedient.
Which do you think is pleasing to God??
Faith pleases God!!!
God blesses those with whom He is pleased!!!
2nd Thessalonians 1:3
We ought always to thank God for you, brothers, and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more…
That’s what God wants for all of us!!
He wants our faith in Him to GROW!!
He wants our trust in His Word to Grow!!!
There is no such thing as status quo faith!!!!
Speak the victory found in His Word and you will live in victory!!!
Growing faith with a growing knowledge of God’s Word is the RECIPE for an abundant life!!!
Which is what Jesus promised we could have NOW on this earth!
As it is in heaven…..amen.
