INTRODUCTION
When God speaks, everything and everyone hears and responds. He spoke to the wind, the wind heard.
He spoke to fish, fish heard and brought money out. The situation in your life will hear him this morning and will respond.
As I was preparing for this message, I prayed and told God that I don’t want to speak empty words today…he said, you are worried about empty words because you planning the message in your words. Make it my word and it can never be empty.
…You sent your word and it heal their disease. Lord we need your sent word this morning.
The title of my message is GROWING YOUR FAITH. Heb. 11:6.
Luke 22:31-32 And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat:
Luk 22:32 But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.
Faith failure is life failure, everything may fail, please don’t let faith fail. Money may fail, career may fail, if all this things fail and faith is still in place, you can still recover all.
Faith is so important that Regarding His second coming, Jesus asked this question: “When the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?” Luke 18:8.
Whenever we hear FAITH! We think of what I call the ‘exercise of faith’. The applications of faith.
“Lazarus come out!” “Silver and gold have I not, but what I have, I give: in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth get up and walk!” you must have the faith before you use or apply it.
Why was Jesus concerned about people having faith?
Hebrews 11:6 tells us why: “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.”
The passage says, it is IMPOSSIBLE! As important as prayer is, it is dependent on faith to work.
Faith comes from greek work that means (1) a firm conviction, producing a full acknowledgement of God’s revelation or truth, e.g., 2 Thess. 2:11,12; (2) a personal surrender to Him, John 1:12; (3) a conduct inspired by such surrender, 2 Cor. 5:7.
Then we need to understand this faith. And if it grows, we need to understand how.
2 Thes.1:3-4. These passage suggests that faith grows, faith can increase. If faith can increase and grow then faith can also decrease and diminish, it can also stay where it is.
Sometimes you look at other people you think that they have more faith than you do. They give more testimonies. You hear other people’s theories on faith you doubt whether you have any faith at all.
DEGREE OF FAITH
When it comes to the subject of faith, is it only a matter of having it or not having it? No, the Bible makes it clear that there are degrees of faith. Jesus described some people of His day as having little faith and others as having great faith.
So it’s good to ask ourselves: How much faith do we currently have? And how dedicated are we to increasing our faith? Our faith needs to be growing. None of us has enough of it.
This also means that faith can be measured, it is measurable. All faith is faith but the measure is not the same.
So how is it possible for some people to have great faith and others little faith?
To be able to answer this question there are Three (3) things we need to understand about faith:
Eph 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
Eph 2:9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.
1. Faith is a Gift – here we see Faith as a gift from God. We cannot generate it by ourselves. It is not something you have out of your hard work. For if you receive something out of hard work it is not a gift….it becomes a reward. But here faith is a Gift. Then if it is a gift, you must accept it, and must appreciate it.
At this point we receive the same faith. The gift is the same measure for everyone.
2. Faith can be measured
Rom 12:3 For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.
With this we can understand that Faith is a gift and that God have given each one the measure. So, no one can say, you have faith, I don’t. And each of us start with the same size of faith – the measure. God did not start some with Great faith and others with little faith. However what you do with the measure is up to you. God has given everyone the measure of faith, now you can increase, or decrease that measure. It’s up to you. And
3. We operate spiritually at the level of our faith. Matt. 9:28-30.
Mat 9:29 Then touched he their eyes, saying, According to your faith be it unto you.
So we receive from God according to our faith. If your faith is at low level, you will operate at low level spiritually. You receive according to your faith.
Illustration: Electricity is carried by cables and wires. The cable have to be of certain amps or capacity to determine the wattage it will carry. Therefore, the cable you will use to power your TV set will not be the same as the cable you will use to power your air conditioner. The electricity in your house maybe the same but the wires and cables will carry different capacity that will determine what it will carry. Similarly, God is all powerful but our faith is the cable the capacity of God’s power that can power the things we are desiring. Let’s say you are believing God for a 1000 watts miracle but you operate in a low capacity cable. It will be like trying to power you Electric cooker with a TV cable – it will generate some power but it won’t be enough. Jesus said, according to your faith. That is to say what I am receiving today is in direct proportion to the level of my faith. You can’t blame God at this level, he is still all powerful. It your faith, so something has to be done to boost your faith from a lower to a higher level.
Heb 11: 6 says it is impossible to please God with faith in other words it is possible to please God with Faith. Let then look at this faith that can please God.
This same passage tells us how to come to God.
1. He that comes to God must believe that he is. That he is “self-existing”. This is where faith begins. This one is easy and I think we all do well here. Human in their natural state whether educated or not believes there is God.
2. Knowing that he rewards those who diligently seek him. He don’t just Exist, he is also involved in our lives.
Believing there God is one and kind of Natural. But believing he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him is FAITH.
Then James puts belief in perspective: “You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble!” (verse 19).
No one would say that the demons are pleasing God just because they believe! The same is true of human beings who claim to believe but don’t obey.
So, believing there is a God is good but not good enough. You need to move from this point to knowing he is a rewarder. The Hebrew word for rewarder is pay, deliver, perform, recompense, restore, render. This means that….
1. if I call him, he will answer,
2. He will do what he says he will do.
3. if I seek him he will reward me
This knowledge will determine how you live, will determine your works. You should live differently.
If you steal, he is a rewarder, If you lie about somebody he is a rewarder. If I cheat, steal, lie, and do all the bad stuffs that come by then I believe there is a God but I don’t believe he is a rewarder.
If there is a God and he is a rewarder, then what I do in secret he sees it and he will reward accordingly. Do you believe that if you cheat people if they call on God, he will hear them? You will see yahoo boys cheat and made a lot of money… they believe in God but they dot don’t believe he is a rewarder.
TYPES OF FAITH
Natural Faith – this having faith in the things that happen in the natural. Like. Day and night, putting your car key in your car ignition and you are confident that your car will start.
All of us operate in natural faith, believing things will happen the way they are expected to.
Natural faith gives us confidence in Life.
2. Saving Faith. This faith leads us to salvation, makes us born again: Roms 10:8-10. Saving faith makes us children of God, qualifies us for heaven, and opens our eyes to spiritual things.
So, natural faith will give you confidence which is very good but you need to secure that life with the saving faith.
3. Living Faith. Living faith is dynamic, active, growing, good fruit-producing, full of love, full of conviction and full of repentance.
James wrote that
“What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead” (James 2:14-17).
James is saying that if a person has faith then they will have works. Good works are a result of faith not a contribution to faith. If a person’s says that they are saved and has no good works then they show that their faith is not genuine for a person that is saved naturally does good works for the Spirit of God is in them. It is a faith that works not works that produce faith. A faith that saves is a faith that works and that is why James work that a “faith by itself [that] does not have works, is dead!”
We do not have faith by those works but those works show that we have faith.
It is possible to believe in God, to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, to even believe that what Christ did He actually did, to affirm the cross and the resurrection and never be delivered from sin and never be given eternal life. That is what James would call dead faith. He mentions it in verse 17, “Faith, if it has not works, is dead.” He mentions it again in verse 20, “Faith without works is dead.” And he mentions it a third time in verse 26, “Faith without works is dead.”
HOW TO GROW YOUR FAITH.
1. Feed you faith……through the word of God
“Faith begins to grow when the will of God is known”
Rom 10:17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
Reading the word allows the allows the Holy Spirit to bring to our remembrance exactly what we need to apply to our daily situations
You should take in the word of God to the point of intoxication.
2. Stand on your own faith. 2 Cor. 13:5
You can’t grow your faith while depending on another person’s faith. If everything you expect in life is based on what a pastor say or what a pastor told you, then you can’t grow your faith.
These days we have super hero pastors, who are super human’s for the congregation. So people go to church not on their own faith but believing in the man of God. It is good to appreciate the man of God, admire hi ministry, support his ministry, but you faith must be in God and must stand on its own. It is not what I can do for you, it is what God can do you when you trust him. When you are in trouble or under devils attack by 2am. What do you do? The work of a man of God is to equip you to stand on your own not to make you climb on their faith and go along. A personal faith will produce a personal testimony.
Let your focus be on God. Don’t claim you are looking up to God while you are looking up to a man.
Someone asked me “can God put our future in the hands of a man?”
3. Unity Based faith.
Unity based faith is split into two.
a. There should be unity between what comes out of your mouth and what goes on in your heart.
b. Partnering with a person(s) of same faith or fellowship. Two is better than one. Eccl. 4: 9
Here we will support each other but the unity is that we depend on God for our solution bot on ourselves.
Matt 18:19 – A lot of great things will happen when we agree and partner our faith with others.
The Unity here is that we all agree that God is the only one to look up to, the only miracle worker. The focus will not be in any man, whoever he is, it should be on God.
4. Exercise your faith: God makes His children's faith grow strong by exercise. To Abraham's, Killing his son. To Jacob's, the loss of a Benjamin. To Daniel's, a den of lions; and to Job's, a succession of messengers of evil; Paul and Silas in the Prison; and think not believer that you will be an exception.
5. Keep growing your faith. Decide to never stop growing in faith.
FAITH SHOULD NOT ONLY GROW, BUT GROW EXCEEDINGLY.
PRAYER:
Lord Jesus, increase our faith as we learn to depend on you and trust you more and more. Help us to crave Your Word: to read it, to heed it, and to test it, so it can truly become part of our lives. We long to be doers and not just hearers. Lord, we desperately need more of you and less of ourselves. Thank You for Your faithfulness in always keeping Your Word.
