SPEAKER_00: Hi, my name is Michelle Steele.
SPEAKER_00: Pastor Phillip and I want to thank you for listening to this message from Life of Faith Church.
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SPEAKER_01: And uh we're gonna continue to look at that tonight.
SPEAKER_01: We've looked at so far uh concerning faith, the sacrifice of faith, the walk of faith, the work of faith.
SPEAKER_01: Last week we dealt with the obedience of faith.
SPEAKER_01: And uh this evening I want to deal with the three steps of faith.
SPEAKER_01: The three steps of faith.
SPEAKER_01: And uh Hebrews 11 and 13 in talking about these men and women of faith, it says these all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
SPEAKER_01: So here we see the three steps of faith, and they are number one, seeing.
SPEAKER_01: The first step of faith is seeing.
SPEAKER_01: It says that they saw them, and then secondly, is embracing, seeing and embracing.
SPEAKER_01: So they saw them, they were persuaded of them, they embraced them, and then thirdly is receiving three steps of faith: seeing, embracing, and receiving.
SPEAKER_01: Seeing, embracing, and receiving.
SPEAKER_01: You cannot embrace what you cannot see.
SPEAKER_01: You can't embrace what you cannot see.
SPEAKER_01: That's why the Bible tells us in 2 Corinthians 5 7, we walk by faith and not by sight.
SPEAKER_01: And that in in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, that's a parenthetical statement in parentheses, and Paul in the perfect context is talking about heaven, and he's talking about us in heaven.
SPEAKER_01: And he says, what we're gonna be, we don't see it yet.
SPEAKER_01: Because we walk by faith and not by sight.
SPEAKER_01: All right?
SPEAKER_01: We walk by faith and not by sight.
SPEAKER_01: If you're not walking by faith, you can't see anything that faith can get you.
SPEAKER_01: I just can't.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Because I'm limited.
SPEAKER_01: I'm limited to this natural existence, this natural world.
SPEAKER_01: So you can't embrace what you can't see.
SPEAKER_01: It's right there.
SPEAKER_01: I've said this over and over again.
SPEAKER_01: The space between the natural world and the spirit world is not great.
SPEAKER_01: It's very thin.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: And and if I'm if I can't see it, I can't embrace it.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: The bigger problem that a lot of folks have is they're not seeing anything by faith.
SPEAKER_01: And because they're not seeing anything by faith, they can't embrace it.
SPEAKER_01: I have to embrace it.
SPEAKER_01: I have to do that.
SPEAKER_01: I have to do the seeing, and I have to do the embracing.
SPEAKER_01: So you can't embrace what you cannot see, and you cannot see what you cannot embrace.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: Because we don't preach the message of faith and prosperity so we can center on materialism.
SPEAKER_01: That's not why we preach it.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: We preach it so that we can believe God for the things we need to help other people.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: That that's why, that's why, that's the main reason that you need to be blessed.
SPEAKER_01: Is so you can be a blessing, so you can help other people.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: So some are at the seeing stage.
SPEAKER_01: Some are at the seeing stage.
SPEAKER_01: I'm beginning to see it.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm beginning to see it by faith.
SPEAKER_01: Some are at the embracing stage.
SPEAKER_01: I'm reaching out for it.
SPEAKER_01: I'm seeing it, I'm reaching out for it, I'm taking it in, and then some are at the receiving stage.
SPEAKER_01: So seeing, embracing, and receiving.
SPEAKER_01: See, that's why it's important to remember.
SPEAKER_01: I said this uh a couple weeks ago.
SPEAKER_01: That I've heard people say, well, you know, faith is just trust.
SPEAKER_01: No, it's not.
SPEAKER_01: Faith is conviction, being convinced that something's true.
SPEAKER_01: I trust because I'm convinced.
SPEAKER_01: And then people say, well, believing and faith are the same.
SPEAKER_01: No, they're not.
SPEAKER_01: I believe because I'm convinced.
SPEAKER_01: They're all a part of faith, but they're not faith.
SPEAKER_01: All right?
SPEAKER_01: If if I'm gonna embrace something, it requires more than trust.
SPEAKER_01: If I'm gonna embrace something, it requires more than just believing.
SPEAKER_01: It requires conviction that that thing is mine.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: It requires conviction that that thing is mine.
SPEAKER_01: You know, in the natural, if you get convinced that something you've been putting in your body is not good for you, you will stop.
SPEAKER_01: When you become convinced.
SPEAKER_01: Until you're convinced you're going to keep eating what's causing you the problem.
SPEAKER_01: When you become convinced that's not good for me, you'll cut it out of your life.
SPEAKER_01: When you become convinced, right?
SPEAKER_01: When you become convinced that this is what God wants you to have, you'll have no trouble trusting God.
SPEAKER_01: You'll have no trouble believing God because you're convinced that God is faithful.
SPEAKER_01: You're convinced that his word is true, you're convinced that's what he wants for you.
SPEAKER_01: You can become so convinced that you're healed, there's no way to stay sick.
SPEAKER_01: You can become so convinced that you're blessed that you can't stay poor.
SPEAKER_01: You can become so convinced that God wants you to have whatever it is that there's no way you'll not have it.
SPEAKER_01: Because you're convinced.
SPEAKER_01: When you're convinced, you start reaching for things.
SPEAKER_01: You start seeing them, you start embracing them.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: These people, according to Hebrews 11, had seen the promises.
SPEAKER_01: They had seen them afar off and they they embraced them and they received them.
SPEAKER_01: Now, right there in Hebrews 11 and verse 1, which is a very familiar scripture, now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen, and I always put yet.
SPEAKER_01: The evidence of things not seen yet.
SPEAKER_01: See, if I'm in faith, I'm going to see what I can't see in the natural right now.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to see it.
SPEAKER_01: I just don't see it yet.
SPEAKER_01: Not yet.
SPEAKER_01: Always put the yet in there.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: Over the years, people have said to me, Well, you know, I've I've been standing on the word and I don't see it.
SPEAKER_01: And I always say, yet.
SPEAKER_01: Yet.
SPEAKER_01: You stand on the word, you'll see what the word says.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Now, then verse 7 concerning Noah, it says, by faith, Noah being warned of God of things not seen yet, moved with fear, with respect, with awe, with honor for God, and prepared an ark to the saving of his house, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is of faith.
SPEAKER_01: Now notice, this does not say these things did not exist.
SPEAKER_01: It said they're not seen yet.
SPEAKER_01: Didn't say they don't exist.
SPEAKER_01: Remember the scripture in 2 Peter, it says, uh, according as God hath given us all things that pertain to life and godliness, has given.
SPEAKER_01: I was teaching Tuesday in healing school.
SPEAKER_01: It says in Psalm 103, He sent His Word and healed them.
SPEAKER_01: He sent His Word and healed them.
SPEAKER_01: So in the mind of God, when were you healed when He sent His Word?
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: I was healed when He sent His Word.
SPEAKER_01: When was I healed when Jesus took stripes on His back?
SPEAKER_01: There's a flesh and bone man at the right hand of the Father that still has scars on his back.
SPEAKER_01: That is proof positive that you already have been healed.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Already been healed.
SPEAKER_01: So that's when it happened.
SPEAKER_01: I may not see it yet, but the price is paid.
SPEAKER_01: So what am I gonna do?
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna talk healed, I'm gonna act healed, I'm gonna confess healed.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because according to God, I'm healed.
SPEAKER_01: Do you see this?
SPEAKER_01: So you're gonna talk blessed, you're gonna act blessed, you're gonna think blessed because according to Scripture, Jesus became poor so that you through his poverty could be made rich.
SPEAKER_01: Is that right?
SPEAKER_01: So did he become poor?
SPEAKER_01: Then I can be rich.
SPEAKER_01: And again, it's not just about materialism, it's not just about things.
SPEAKER_01: It's about so the kingdom of God can be advanced.
SPEAKER_01: It's so the power of God can be displayed in other people's lives.
SPEAKER_01: It's so that you can have more than enough that you can go to somebody's life and change their life by being a blessing to them.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Now, if he became poor, then he says, I can be rich.
SPEAKER_01: You may not see rich yet.
SPEAKER_01: Now, people get hung up on that word.
SPEAKER_01: Rich.
SPEAKER_01: Just means fully supplied.
SPEAKER_01: That's all it means.
SPEAKER_01: No, no, no lack, fully supplied.
SPEAKER_01: I've had people I've had people say this about me.
SPEAKER_01: Well, you're one of them rich preachers.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, say it again.
SPEAKER_01: Say it again.
SPEAKER_01: I'll agree.
SPEAKER_01: Wherever two or three will agree.
unknown: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Now, if you go just by the definition, if you go by the definition, then I am, because I'm fully supplied.
SPEAKER_01: God has met our needs.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Are you following me?
SPEAKER_01: But here's what I want you to understand.
SPEAKER_01: If that's gonna occur, I've got to see it.
SPEAKER_01: I don't see it yet, but faith is the substance of those things.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: God did not create the earth out of things that do not exist, He created it out of things that were not seen.
SPEAKER_01: And so faith by definition, the Bible definition, is it's the substance, the grounds, the conviction, the title deed of the thing that you don't see yet.
SPEAKER_01: You don't see it yet.
SPEAKER_01: If you have the title deed to a car, you have more, the car is more real to you with the title than it is with the car.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: If somebody comes and steals that person's car, but they have the title, they still have a right to the car.
SPEAKER_01: The car is more theirs than the person driving it.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: When you have it by faith, it is more real than when you see it with your own eyes.
SPEAKER_01: Because having it by faith is what produces what you can see.
SPEAKER_01: I already have it.
SPEAKER_01: I have it by faith.
SPEAKER_01: When someone says, I have it, and I have it by faith, well, what they're saying is, I have possessed it, I have embraced it, I have received it.
SPEAKER_01: I may not see it physically yet, but I see it.
SPEAKER_01: I see it.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: I know you've heard the story, but it's it's so important that it bears repeating.
SPEAKER_01: When uh Walt Disney finished, I think it was Disney World in Florida, when he finished, it was it was finished and they were opening it, but he had passed away.
SPEAKER_01: And one of the guys that worked very closely with him was there, and he turned to his wife and said, I wish Walt could have seen this.
SPEAKER_01: And she said, He did.
SPEAKER_01: He did.
SPEAKER_01: Everything you see came out of what he saw.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Everywhere a person's life is, their life is where it's at based on the level of faith that they're operating in.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: Because there's more.
SPEAKER_01: No matter where you're at, there's more.
SPEAKER_01: I've got to see it, I've got to embrace it, I have to receive it.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: So you may not have seen what you're believing God for yet, but it already exists.
SPEAKER_01: It's already there in the realm of the Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: How do I know that a house exists for you?
SPEAKER_01: Because he said, I'll give you houses that you didn't build.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: Is that right?
SPEAKER_01: How do I know that all of your needs are met?
SPEAKER_01: Because he said, I'll supply all your need.
SPEAKER_01: How do I know that God doesn't want you to just get by?
SPEAKER_01: Because he said, I have given you the power to get wealth that I may establish my covenant in the earth.
SPEAKER_01: How do I know that God doesn't want you just calling yourself an old sinner saved by grace and I'm nothing and I'm nobody?
SPEAKER_01: Because he called you the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: He called you a son and a daughter of God.
SPEAKER_01: He called you accepted in the beloved.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: And you may not see all of that operating in your life yet, but you will see it.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because you're embracing it.
SPEAKER_01: Say it out loud.
SPEAKER_01: My faith is working right now.
SPEAKER_01: My faith is strong.
SPEAKER_01: My faith is working now.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: The way we get what we cannot see yet into the realm where we can see it is by faith in God's promise.
SPEAKER_01: His word.
SPEAKER_01: And again, that's that's one of those things that at times we we we hear that a lot, but that's how I get what I cannot see yet into this realm.
SPEAKER_01: By faith in his promises.
SPEAKER_01: What did the word say?
SPEAKER_01: That's what I'm gonna receive.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: And remember, faith is that conviction.
SPEAKER_01: Faith is the spiritual force that we use to contact God.
SPEAKER_01: We live by faith through faith.
SPEAKER_01: One the Weese translation says, through faith, we're ordering our manner of life, not by something seen.
SPEAKER_01: By faith, I'm ordering my manner of life.
SPEAKER_01: I demand of myself to live by faith.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Because that's the only way I can see what God wants me to have.
SPEAKER_01: People that don't walk by faith are bound by temporary circumstances.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Because that's what 2 Corinthians chapter 4, verse 8 says.
SPEAKER_01: It says, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things that are not seen, you cannot not you cannot refuse to look at what is seen and look at what is not seen if you're not living by faith.
SPEAKER_01: Here's a sure sign that somebody's not living by faith.
SPEAKER_01: They're always telling you about their problem.
SPEAKER_01: They're always telling you about their issues.
SPEAKER_01: They're always telling you about how bad things are.
SPEAKER_01: They're always telling you about how much of a struggle they're having.
SPEAKER_01: And I understand that people go through those things.
SPEAKER_01: I get it.
SPEAKER_01: I've been through it myself.
SPEAKER_01: Still facing myself.
SPEAKER_01: But here's the point.
SPEAKER_01: I'm looking beyond that.
SPEAKER_01: Faith looks beyond.
SPEAKER_01: Faith sees beyond.
SPEAKER_01: So I may be in the middle of a challenge, but faith is looking beyond that.
SPEAKER_01: And the place that I always find myself in is looking at my life, looking at our ministry, looking at everything that God's doing, and asking myself, am I satisfied with this?
SPEAKER_01: Because if I'm satisfied, I need to pull my faith back.
SPEAKER_01: If I'm not satisfied, I need to release it more.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: Because faith is the spiritual force that we contact God with.
SPEAKER_01: In Luke chapter 1, verse 35.
SPEAKER_01: This again is a familiar passage of scripture because it has to do with the birth of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Am I helping you tonight?
SPEAKER_01: I feel like I'm fire hosing you.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: You know, faith, and I gotta be cautious with this because faith is what changed my life.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: And and uh because you know that there's faith is what radically transformed everything.
SPEAKER_01: When I begin to really understand faith, and I'm not saying people don't understand faith, my job is to teach you faith the way I learned it.
SPEAKER_01: That's what the Lord told me.
SPEAKER_01: But here's the thing when I begin to understand faith, then a whole new world opened up.
SPEAKER_01: Because now I'm talking God's language.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: There are people that say things and they they say they're talking God's language.
SPEAKER_01: Well, Lord, I'm just gonna do my best to believe you.
SPEAKER_01: Well, dear Lord, you might as well say, twinkle, twinkle, little star.
SPEAKER_01: I wonder what you are.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna do my best to believe you.
SPEAKER_01: No, Lord, I'm gonna believe you.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Remember the man that brought his son to Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: And he said, I brought my son to your disciples, and they couldn't cast the devil out.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus said, Well, bring him to me.
SPEAKER_01: And while he was coming, the devil threw him on the ground.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus said, How long has he been like this?
SPEAKER_01: He said, Since he was a child.
SPEAKER_01: He said, If you can do anything, help us.
SPEAKER_01: If I'm glad Jesus loved that man, because right there, that man was farther away from his miracle than he had ever been.
SPEAKER_01: Because he's looking at the answer saying, if you can help us.
SPEAKER_01: Brother Hagin would say what?
SPEAKER_01: If is the badge of doubt.
SPEAKER_01: If you can help us.
SPEAKER_01: And people will come and I'll have them say, I've had them say it to me recently.
SPEAKER_01: If God don't do something, you really think he's not going to.
SPEAKER_01: There's no, that should never be in our vocabulary.
SPEAKER_01: If God doesn't come through, you really think he's not going to come through?
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: He said, no matter what you're going through, he said, when you go through the flood, don't worry about it.
SPEAKER_01: He said, you're not going to drown.
SPEAKER_01: When you go through the fire, don't be concerned.
SPEAKER_01: I'll be there with you.
SPEAKER_01: He said, it won't kindle around you.
SPEAKER_01: You'll be, you're not gonna, you're not gonna fall apart.
SPEAKER_01: You're gonna make it.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: I got to see myself.
SPEAKER_01: See, that's the point with the word of God.
SPEAKER_01: He said that no matter what you face, you are an overcomer.
SPEAKER_01: You are more than a conqueror.
SPEAKER_01: I see myself in the word of God.
SPEAKER_01: When you see overcomer, you see you.
SPEAKER_01: And what happens?
SPEAKER_01: Then your faith begins to engage, and everything that comes along, you overcome, you get the victory over it.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Here it is.
SPEAKER_01: It's real simple because you have faith that you're gonna overcome.
SPEAKER_01: So why do people not overcome?
SPEAKER_01: They have faith.
SPEAKER_01: That they're not gonna overcome.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: Remember what the Apostle Paul said?
SPEAKER_01: There's a lot here.
SPEAKER_01: That's probably why we'll preach more on this next week.
SPEAKER_01: But here's the thing.
SPEAKER_01: Remember what the Apostle Paul said?
SPEAKER_01: He said he in the Greek, it was like he was holding up a list of enemies.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, if God be for us, then he said, who?
SPEAKER_01: In the Greek, that's an emphatic question.
SPEAKER_01: Who?
SPEAKER_01: And it's like he's pointing at this list.
SPEAKER_01: If God is for me, who on this list could possibly be against me?
SPEAKER_01: Who can overcome you if God's for you?
SPEAKER_01: Who can take their part against you if God has taken his part for you?
SPEAKER_01: Nobody.
SPEAKER_01: What did he say?
SPEAKER_01: They'll form weapons, but what would happen?
SPEAKER_01: Help me out.
SPEAKER_01: They wouldn't prosper.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: So you can't stop them from forming the weapon, but they're not going to prosper.
SPEAKER_01: They're over there making plans, they're over there forming weapons, and you're just sitting there happy and joyful and believing God because it's not going to prosper.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: Luke 1 and 35.
SPEAKER_01: The angel had said, answered Mary, and said, The Holy Ghost will come on you, and the power of the highest will overshadow you.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, also that holy thing which will be born of you shall be called the Son of God.
SPEAKER_01: Now we know Mary believed God.
SPEAKER_01: But faith was needed.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Jesus was in the spirit world.
SPEAKER_01: And Mary's faith in the word she heard caused him to be able to be manifest in the natural world.
SPEAKER_01: If Mary had not said, be it unto me according to your word, this isn't happening.
SPEAKER_01: Because she had to believe.
SPEAKER_01: See, when she said, How will this be?
SPEAKER_01: that wasn't doubt.
SPEAKER_01: That was an honest question.
SPEAKER_01: I don't understand how this is going to happen.
SPEAKER_01: You know, God doesn't mind that.
SPEAKER_01: If God tells you to go after something and you look at your resources and there's not enough, God doesn't mind you going, now, Lord, you're going to have to help me here because I don't see it.
SPEAKER_01: How's this going to happen?
SPEAKER_01: Now, he may tell you implicitly or he may not.
SPEAKER_01: He may tell you you're just going to believe me.
SPEAKER_01: But right?
SPEAKER_01: But Mary's wondering, how am I going to be able to have a child?
SPEAKER_01: And I've never known a man.
SPEAKER_01: I know how this biology things works, and this is impossible.
SPEAKER_01: And what the angels say, with men it's impossible, but with God, all things are possible.
SPEAKER_01: Is that right?
SPEAKER_01: And he said, this is how it's going to happen.
SPEAKER_01: So she had to have faith that that's how it was going to happen.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: How are you going to come out of whatever you're dealing with?
SPEAKER_01: Because God said, I'll take your part and I'll fight for you.
SPEAKER_01: Is that right?
SPEAKER_01: So that's what God said.
SPEAKER_01: So you just believe what God said.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: We do the same thing every time we release our faith.
SPEAKER_01: When you see something in the Word of God and the Holy Spirit convinces you that what you're seeing is yours, that's faith.
SPEAKER_01: Then what do I do?
SPEAKER_01: I grab it.
SPEAKER_01: I grab a hold of it, I embrace it, and I release it out of my mouth.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: I release it out of my mouth.
SPEAKER_01: All those years ago when the Lord healed me and then he gave me Naham chapter 1 and verse 9.
SPEAKER_01: This affliction will not arise again the second time.
SPEAKER_01: I saw that.
SPEAKER_01: I call it my battle verse.
SPEAKER_01: And every time that thing would try to come back, I'd say, nope, that affliction will not arise again the second time.
SPEAKER_01: What had I done?
SPEAKER_01: I had embraced that, I grabbed a hold of it, and then I released it out of my mouth.
SPEAKER_01: When you grab a hold of something and you embrace it, if you don't release it out of your mouth, faith has not been released.
SPEAKER_01: You can see it, but then you got to release it out of your mouth.
SPEAKER_01: That's mine.
SPEAKER_01: I have it.
SPEAKER_01: It belongs to me now.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: If I'll give you a guarantee, I can give you an absolute, I start to say money-back guarantee, but you're not paying for anything.
SPEAKER_01: The absolute guarantee.
SPEAKER_01: I live here in the city, I'll be here next Wednesday.
SPEAKER_01: I'll be here a Wednesday in a year or two or three or four or how long it is.
SPEAKER_01: And if it don't work, you can come tell me.
SPEAKER_01: But I've never had anybody come tell me.
SPEAKER_01: You start operating these principles, really operating these principles.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not talking about expecting something to happen to you because you go to a faith church.
SPEAKER_01: It's not going to happen to you because you come to a faith church.
SPEAKER_01: It's not going to happen because the name of your church is Life of Faith.
SPEAKER_01: It's not going to happen because I have faith.
SPEAKER_01: It's going to happen because you have faith.
SPEAKER_01: If you really take these principles and you're really declaring, boy, the Lord help me with this.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to say something, I've got to say it right because I need to say it real kind.
SPEAKER_01: You're not going to ever tell me that you're consistently declaring God's word over your circumstance and it's not changing.
SPEAKER_01: That's a physical impossibility.
SPEAKER_01: Because he said, My word will not return to me void, but it will accomplish the thing that I send it to do.
SPEAKER_01: And so very often, if I'm looking at why is my faith not seeming to make any inroads in my circumstance, I've got to be honest.
SPEAKER_01: Am I working my faith?
SPEAKER_01: Am I operating my faith?
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: And so if you will really operate the principles of faith that are found in the Word of God, it won't be six months.
SPEAKER_01: Your life will take a drastic turn.
SPEAKER_01: Has to.
SPEAKER_01: Because you're embracing it, you're receiving it, and you're declaring it.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you, Lord.
SPEAKER_01: In Hebrews 11 and 13, oh, we need that rain.
SPEAKER_01: I was talking to a guy in the gym today and he said, How are you doing?
SPEAKER_01: I said, I'm glad it's cooler.
SPEAKER_01: And we both laughed.
SPEAKER_01: We said, Isn't it funny?
SPEAKER_01: When it's 95, it's cooler.
SPEAKER_01: Oh my goodness.
SPEAKER_01: I was going home the other day.
SPEAKER_01: I left the office here.
SPEAKER_01: And uh, it was 105 when I left the office.
SPEAKER_01: By the time I got them all mail, it was 109.
SPEAKER_01: Whew, man.
SPEAKER_01: Hot.
SPEAKER_01: But glory to God.
SPEAKER_01: About February, we'll be thinking about these hot days.
SPEAKER_01: Hebrews 11, 13.
SPEAKER_01: These all died in faith, not having received the promises.
SPEAKER_01: But having seen them afar off, were persuaded of them and embraced them and confessed they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
SPEAKER_01: Notice they confessed that what God had said is what they would have.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord said to me one time, He said, Philip, I can be dependent upon to do exactly what I said in my word.
SPEAKER_01: You'll hear people preach and they'll say, God is not predictable.
SPEAKER_01: God is the most predictable being in the universe.
SPEAKER_01: He can be predicted to do exactly what he said in his word.
SPEAKER_01: See, when you think of God and and his ways as so mysterious, and his ways are mysterious and past finding out, and oh, glory to God.
SPEAKER_01: That's a person that never receives anything from God.
SPEAKER_01: Because I know he said, what did he say?
SPEAKER_01: Ask me.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Whatever you ask the Father in my name, he'll give it to you.
SPEAKER_01: You gotta have faith in that.
SPEAKER_01: I've run into people and they say, Well, I don't want to bother God with my little old problems.
SPEAKER_01: He told you to ask.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: So they confessed that what God had said was what they would have.
SPEAKER_01: Say it out loud.
SPEAKER_01: What God has said is what I'll have.
SPEAKER_01: Tell your neighbor what God has said is what you'll have.
SPEAKER_01: What God has said.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: I was talking to a person one time and they kind of got upset with me.
SPEAKER_01: Because they kept responding, telling me these different things.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Well, what did the word say?
SPEAKER_01: What does the word say?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I'm not trying to be arrogant or facetious, but this person knew these things.
SPEAKER_01: I said, What does the word say?
SPEAKER_01: Finally, they got upset with me.
SPEAKER_01: They said, Oh, you and the word, the word, the word.
SPEAKER_01: Well, that's the answer.
SPEAKER_01: They said, Well, that's not fair.
SPEAKER_01: You're a preacher.
SPEAKER_01: Well, what's that got to do with anything?
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: I'm looking at a group of people to hear tonight that the word has changed your life.
SPEAKER_01: And it was the word of God that did it.
SPEAKER_01: And what you believed about the word of God.
SPEAKER_01: Don't ever lose sight of that.
SPEAKER_01: That's the answer every time.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Let me hurry.
SPEAKER_01: 2 Corinthians chapter 4.
SPEAKER_01: And verse 18.
SPEAKER_01: Notice what it says.
SPEAKER_01: It says, while we look not at the things which are seen, but the things which are not seen, for the things which are seen are temporal or temporary.
SPEAKER_01: Brother Jerry would always bring out subject to change, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
SPEAKER_01: You don't get the message of faith just hearing it one time.
SPEAKER_01: It's a lifetime of study.
SPEAKER_01: It requires a lifetime of study.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: A man told me one time I was actually working pastor's table at a faith convention that we were at.
SPEAKER_01: And a man came up and he said, Yeah, I used to go to Agape.
SPEAKER_01: He said, and I learned, I learned all about faith, and so now I'm going over here somewhere.
SPEAKER_01: Learned all about faith.
SPEAKER_01: Huh.
SPEAKER_01: Saying that you've learned all about faith is like saying you've learned all there is to know about God.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says faith will last forever.
SPEAKER_01: It's eternal.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: You don't understand, you don't grasp it all at one time.
SPEAKER_01: Notice, he said, we look at the things that are not seen yet.
SPEAKER_01: The things that are not seen yet.
SPEAKER_01: The things not seen are greater than the things seen.
SPEAKER_01: The healing you don't see is greater than the physical ailment you're dealing with.
SPEAKER_01: And it'll just swallow it up.
SPEAKER_01: When people say, well, where'd that cancer go?
SPEAKER_01: It just got swallowed up by healing.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: I told the story again uh in healing school Tuesday.
SPEAKER_01: I'll I'll I'll say it again.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, a young man and his wife that uh went to the church in Kansas.
SPEAKER_01: I've known him since he was three years old.
SPEAKER_01: And him and his wife got they they got married and uh had uh their first child, and he called me uh in the office and and I was talking to him, and he he began to tell me what the doctor had said.
SPEAKER_01: And uh uh this uh his son Jalen uh was born uh with uh a heart condition.
SPEAKER_01: It's a uh a congenital heart condition, and basically he was born without half his heart.
SPEAKER_01: And he and he had he had no uh uh ability.
SPEAKER_01: Uh it it it it it it was called he was born without the the septum in his heart, and the problem with that is there was no way to oxygenate the blood.
SPEAKER_01: So the the heart pumps the the blood into your lungs from through the right ventricle.
SPEAKER_01: Well, he didn't have a right ventricle.
SPEAKER_01: So there was no way to oxygenate his blood.
SPEAKER_01: And the doctors looked at him and his wife and said, Watch, zero percent chance of him living.
SPEAKER_01: And they said, We need to just listen, we need to, I we need to spare you the pain and suffering.
SPEAKER_01: You need to just take him off the machines.
SPEAKER_01: And they said he he might live 10 minutes, but you can say your goodbyes.
SPEAKER_01: And and you know, they were just doing what natural people know to do.
SPEAKER_01: Well, he called me and he said, What do I do?
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Well, let me pray about it.
SPEAKER_01: And so I got off the phone and prayed about it, and went and talked to my wife, and we prayed about it, and it just came up in our spirit.
SPEAKER_01: They can't tell you what to believe.
SPEAKER_01: You know, the Bible says faith is the substance of things hoped for or expected.
SPEAKER_01: Nobody can tell you what to expect.
SPEAKER_01: You decide what you're gonna expect.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna expect to love life and see good days.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna expect to not die but live.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna expect to have all my needs met.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna expect to do everything God told me to do and more.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Aren't you?
SPEAKER_01: See, that's what I'm expecting.
SPEAKER_01: And when other people start trying to uh uh uh forecast their expectations on you, don't allow it.
SPEAKER_01: And so we weren't rude, we were not, but I said, you need to just go to the doctor and tell him very politely that you're gonna keep your son on the machine and you're gonna believe God.
SPEAKER_01: Well, they thought they thought they were in shock, obviously.
SPEAKER_01: You know, a normal person would be.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: And folks, they stood for over a year for that boy.
SPEAKER_01: But he's he's 10 years old today.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: A miracle.
SPEAKER_01: How do you live with half a heart?
SPEAKER_01: Because faith is the substance of the other half of that heart.
SPEAKER_01: He sent me a video today of his son witnessing downtown Kansas City.
SPEAKER_01: And here's the thing we never laid physical hands on him, we sent a handkerchief up to the hospital, and God healed him.
SPEAKER_01: Now, I'm telling you this story for a reason.
SPEAKER_01: You could not see what he needed, but yet it was there.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: The things we see are subject to change, but the things we don't see are eternal.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: And the things not seen are greater than the things seen.
SPEAKER_01: In John 8, 56, Jesus talking to the religious leaders of his day, said, Abraham saw my day and rejoiced.
SPEAKER_01: Abraham saw my day.
SPEAKER_01: Most people believe that Abraham saw his day on Mount Moriah when that ram was caught in the thicket.
SPEAKER_01: He saw the day of redemption.
SPEAKER_01: He saw the day, right?
SPEAKER_01: And God said, I can share with Abraham what I'm going to do because he'll teach his family right.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: But he, what did he do?
SPEAKER_01: He rejoiced because he saw the day of redemption.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: You can write this down.
SPEAKER_01: Job 19, 25 through 27.
SPEAKER_01: Job said this: He said, Even though my body's going to go into the ground and going to be eaten by worms, he said, I know that my Redeemer lives, and in that day I will see him.
SPEAKER_01: Job saw the rapture of the church.
SPEAKER_01: Job saw the second coming of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: How'd he do that?
SPEAKER_01: By faith.
SPEAKER_01: You can only move into greater by seeing through faith.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: So after they saw the promises, they were persuaded.
SPEAKER_01: They embraced them.
SPEAKER_01: They greeted them.
SPEAKER_01: They welcomed them.
SPEAKER_01: They prepared to live accordingly.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: So they you see the promise and then you prepare to live that way.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Do you see that?
SPEAKER_01: And so you see the promise ever what it may be, and then you prepare to live that way.
SPEAKER_01: When you see the promise, Nehemiah 8:10, the joy of the Lord is your strength.
SPEAKER_01: You prepare to live joyfully.
SPEAKER_01: You prepare to live in the strength of God.
SPEAKER_01: You prepare to live with all of your needs met.
SPEAKER_01: You prepare to live with your family well and whole.
SPEAKER_01: Because you find it in the Word of God.
SPEAKER_01: That's embracing it.
SPEAKER_01: That you prepare to live accordingly.
SPEAKER_01: And that's why whatever you find in the Word of God, you make that work in agreement with God.
SPEAKER_01: Whatever I find in the Word, that's how I'm going to do.
SPEAKER_01: That's how I'm going to live my life.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: So we claim as our own God's promise and expect its fulfillment.
SPEAKER_01: That's mine.
SPEAKER_01: I expect to see that fulfilled.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: We claim God's promises.
SPEAKER_01: God cannot lie, so we can live on what he says.
SPEAKER_01: I can live on what he says.
SPEAKER_01: See, I've learned this.
SPEAKER_01: I learned a long time ago not to entertain the questions.
SPEAKER_01: Well, why this and why that?
SPEAKER_01: What did the word say?
SPEAKER_01: I'm not gonna just sit and entertain the questions.
SPEAKER_01: Because the more you think about the question, the farther you get away from the answer.
SPEAKER_01: No, this is the answer.
SPEAKER_01: I've had to look at people before and they say, I want to know why this happened.
SPEAKER_01: And I've had to look at them and say, I don't know why it happened, but I know what the word said.
SPEAKER_01: This is what the word said.
SPEAKER_01: See, that helps me.
SPEAKER_01: If I'm dealing with something in my body, I don't go through a thousand different reasons why it could be happening to me.
SPEAKER_01: I don't spend two days repenting over things that had nothing to do with what I'm dealing with.
SPEAKER_01: Or trying to find 15 gates that have been left open.
SPEAKER_01: Now, Father, this is under the curse.
SPEAKER_01: And according to the word of God, I'm redeemed from the curse.
SPEAKER_01: Now, if there's something I've done to allow this to come on my body in my life, I ask you to show me, right?
SPEAKER_01: And I'll correct it.
SPEAKER_01: But here's the bottom line: I'm healed.
SPEAKER_01: I'm whole in the name of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: You said that I'm to give you glory in my body and in my spirit, that both of them belong to you.
SPEAKER_01: I can't give you glory in a sick body.
SPEAKER_01: People say, yes, you can.
SPEAKER_01: No, you can't.
SPEAKER_01: You cannot glorify God in your body with a sick body.
SPEAKER_01: Let me move right along.
SPEAKER_01: Quiet in Zion.
SPEAKER_01: That's just the reality of it.
SPEAKER_01: I can't glorify God and my finances broke.
SPEAKER_01: I can glorify God, I can give him praise and glory, but he's getting no glory out of my financial situation.
SPEAKER_01: God gets no glory out of people being sick.
SPEAKER_01: He gets no glory out of people dying sick.
SPEAKER_01: I've got to make the decision, this is how I'm going to live my life.
SPEAKER_01: And that's not an indication or a knock against anybody that died sick.
SPEAKER_01: Both of my parents died of diseases.
SPEAKER_01: But that doesn't mean I have to.
SPEAKER_01: This is important.
SPEAKER_01: I say, this is important.
SPEAKER_01: Our citizenship is not of this world system.
SPEAKER_01: Our citizenship is of heaven.
SPEAKER_01: So we have to have faith in the faithfulness of God.
SPEAKER_01: Hebrews 11 39, and we'll finish up here.
SPEAKER_01: God having provided some better thing for us, that they, without us, should not be made perfect or complete.
SPEAKER_01: So they received some of the promises, but they didn't receive all the promises.
SPEAKER_01: Now, why is that?
SPEAKER_01: The reason is that this is our privilege.
SPEAKER_01: We're a privileged generation.
SPEAKER_01: Somebody had to live in the last days.
SPEAKER_01: And that was us.
SPEAKER_01: So we don't live in the age of promise.
SPEAKER_01: Live in the age of fulfillment.
SPEAKER_01: We live in the age of fulfillment, the new covenant age.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible tells us right here in Hebrews 11 that Abraham saw the end result of his son.
SPEAKER_01: He said that by faith he offered him, accounting that God was able to raise him up even from the dead, whence also he received him figuratively.
SPEAKER_01: God received him figuratively.
SPEAKER_01: Even if he had to go through death, he saw him raised up.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, I know I'm dealing with this right now, but I see me as healed.
SPEAKER_01: I know I'm dealing with this right now, but I see me as blessed.
SPEAKER_01: I know I'm going through this with my family right now, but I see them all saved.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: I know I'm dealing with this, but Lord, I see it in victory.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: That's how I see it.
SPEAKER_01: So the whole time Abraham's walking up Mount Moriah, the whole time he's building an altar, the whole time he's binding his son, the whole time he's reaching for the knife and raising it up and in the downward motion, he's going to go through this.
SPEAKER_01: The angel of the Lord stopped him.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: And said, Now I know that you believe me.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: But why was he willing to go through that?
SPEAKER_01: He said he accounted that God was able to raise him from the dead.
SPEAKER_01: Glory to God.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: See, that takes all the ammunition away from the devil.
SPEAKER_01: That takes all the ammunition away from your circumstance.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: Well, you know, you're going through this and you're, yeah, but I count that God will be, God is able to do this.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: That changes the whole situation.
SPEAKER_01: So true faith begins with counting on what God has promised, then it leads you to actual possession and experience.
SPEAKER_01: True faith begins with counting on what God has promised, then it leads you to actual possession and experience.
SPEAKER_01: First of all, though, I have to count on what God has promised.
SPEAKER_01: I have to count on what God has promised.
SPEAKER_01: We'll never have or possess or experience anything until we see God's promise and embrace it.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: And you've got to take time doing that.
SPEAKER_01: I'll close here.
SPEAKER_01: I was praying about some things, well, today actually, and at other times again.
SPEAKER_01: And I saw some things.
SPEAKER_01: And, you know, I just saw some things that I'd kind of backed off on.
SPEAKER_01: And I hadn't backed off on because I wasn't believing God, but they just became less important.
SPEAKER_01: And it was like the Lord was asking me, when did that become less important?
SPEAKER_01: Well, you know, when God asks you a question like that, you know what?
SPEAKER_01: It's time, it's time to eat some carpet and repent, right?
SPEAKER_01: And say, Lord, I'm sorry, I backed off on that.
SPEAKER_01: You never told me to.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: I I even got a hold of my pastor and said, I need you to help me with this because uh, you know, I've I backed off this and I've repented.
SPEAKER_01: He was like, Well, good.
SPEAKER_01: Then I had to go in my wife's office and repent to her because I backed off of it.
SPEAKER_01: You know, the Bible says, whatsoever is not of faith is sin.
SPEAKER_01: This is important.
SPEAKER_01: I can I can miss God by backing off of what he told me to do.
SPEAKER_01: So I just repented.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: And you know, there are already there's already some things that have started opening up where that's concerned.
SPEAKER_01: Already.
SPEAKER_01: Some things in the spirit, some things in the natural.
SPEAKER_01: That was just this afternoon.
SPEAKER_01: Well, you know, it doesn't take God six months to get things working again.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: You know, our air conditioner went out in the in the summer.
SPEAKER_01: Well, it's well, it's not summer anymore.
SPEAKER_01: Getting coming to a close, beginning of summer.
SPEAKER_01: Thankfully it wasn't too hot.
SPEAKER_01: We spent a few days with no air because they they needed to get some parts and whatnot.
SPEAKER_01: But here's the thing.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the thing.
SPEAKER_01: Once they got the parts and got up there in the attic, once they got all the parts installed, you know it wasn't very long we had cool air.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Brother Eddie, we got everything back in line and that cool air could start flowing.
SPEAKER_01: Man, you just get everything back in line and watch how quick your faith starts operating.
SPEAKER_01: You just got to get back in line.
SPEAKER_01: Just get it going.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Let's stand up tonight.
SPEAKER_01: I'm glad you came tonight.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: We'll just call it a faith clinic.
SPEAKER_01: In the Lord good.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: Just close your eyes and just say this out loud.
SPEAKER_01: Say, Father, in the name of Jesus, I thank you for your word.
SPEAKER_01: I thank you for the working of your word in my life.
SPEAKER_01: And I thank you for the privilege of operating your faith for the promises that you have made in the name of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: Well, don't forget, of course, Sunday morning is.