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Hi, my name is Michelle Steele. Pastor Phillip and I want to thank you for listening to this message from Life of Faith First. We have more resources available to help you build your faith and bring your world by the Word of God. From our website, lifeoffface.net, you can connect to our YouTube channel. Watch the live stream feed from our church services. Access books and downloads in our web store and discover more about Life of Faith Church. Producing life city, state, nation, and world. Visit lifeoffface.net today.

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Let's go to Hebrews chapter 11. And as we're going to Hebrews chapter 11, say out loud, I'm hungry for the word. Say it one more time. I'm hungry for the word. We have been looking at this series entitled The Core Values of the Believer. And uh Wednesday night we kind of had some things that we had to do by the Spirit of the Lord. Uh, but we're back on this topic. And if you'll remember, there were seven things that the Lord gave me. He called them core values of the believer. And we've dealt with a couple of them so far. Number one was put the word first place. And then the the uh the fourth, the fifth one was determined to walk in love, and we dealt with that. Today we're gonna deal with number two, and we may be on this one for a while as well. Determined to walk by faith. Determine to walk by faith. Amen. Say this out loud. I walk by faith and not by sight. See, he says, determine to walk by faith. Amen. In Hebrews chapter 11, and we'll start in verse 1, we'll read down through verse 6, we'll spend a lot of time in this chapter. The writer says, now faith is the substance or the grounds or the confidence or the title deed of things hoped for or things expected, the evidence or the proof of things that you do not see. And we'll talk about this at length in a little bit, but this is important to see that faith is the proof. Faith is the proof of what you don't see. See, faith is not a waiting game. Faith is not just hanging out till something happens, faith is proof. Faith is a spiritual dialogue in the spirit. Faith is the spiritual organ or the spiritual hand that receives what you're expecting. And so what many people call faith is just this holy waiting. Faith is active. By definition, faith is a verb denoting that it is action. It denotes action. Faith is receiving, faith is speaking, faith is talking, faith is walking, faith is moving. Amen. The Bible says you have to have faith and patience to obtain the promises, but that means that there's this forward movement in faith. And so faith is the proof of the things that you don't see. For by it, the elders, by faith, the elders obtained a good report. Through faith, we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God. So things which were seen were not made of things that do appear. By faith, Abel offered to 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 translated him, for before his translation he had this testimony that he pleased God. But without faith, it is impossible to please him, God, for he that comes to God must believe, that's faith, that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Because of the the uh conjunction, and and he must believe that he is a rewarder of those that diligently seek him. Hallelujah. Now, the writer starts off by contrasting the faith of Cain and Abel. And Abel's sacrifice was more acceptable. The Bible says that by faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain. Hallelujah. Now I've had people over the years wonder, well, why was it this, that? It was a more excellent sacrifice, and he did it by faith. And the Bible tells us what he brought. It says he brought of the first of his flock an offering unto the Lord, and that Cain brought the fruits, the vegetables of his labor. Abel's sacrifice was more acceptable, and he did it by faith. Don't lose sight of that. You can get focused on the sacrifice and miss the reason that the blessing is there. By faith. How did he do it? By faith. Over 30 times in this chapter, the Bible says they did it by faith or they did it through faith. Amen. His sacrifice was more acceptable, and he brought it by faith. And then he says in verse 6, but without faith, it is impossible to please him. So he talks about Abel's sacrifice pleased God. And then verse 6, he says, but without faith, you cannot please God. What does that mean? No matter what you're doing, no matter what you're going after, no matter what you're trying to accomplish, if you're not doing it by faith, you cannot please God in it. Because it has to be by faith. There's no pleasing God except through faith. And so that tells you and I faith's not optional. Right? The book of Jude, verse 3, says we're supposed to contend for the faith. The book of Luke says when the Lord returns, will he find faith on the earth? Amen. So there is no pleasing God without faith because faith is not optional. And that's why you have to understand faith is not a message. People say, well, he's one of those faith guys. Well, faith is not a message. Faith is not a camp. Faith is not those faith guys. Faith is not a house, a car, a suit of clothes. That's not faith. Faith is the way the just are supposed to live to please God. I got to use faith in all of those things. But those things are not faith. Faith is a lifestyle. Faith is my life that I live as the just. How do you live justified? By faith. How do you live righteous? By faith. How do you live holy? By faith. Amen. Because there's times you wake up and you don't feel holy. And you live holy by faith. Right? You get up and what do you do? You call yourself holy. You don't go and live unholy because you don't feel holy. You live by faith. Amen. Isn't that freeing? You live holy by faith. And what happens as you do it by faith? What happens? It gets easier to do. The more you think righteous by faith, the more righteous you think of yourself as being. So faith is not just for things, faith is my life. Faith is how we live. I receive things by faith, but I live by faith. Amen. Faith is the way the just are supposed to live to please God. Why? Because we're the redeemed. And we talked about that over the Lord's Supper. We're not Jew or Gentile, we're the redeemed. We're born again. We're Christians. We're believers. Amen. In the Lord Jesus Christ. And so that is how the just live to please God. The way we're to live as the redeemed is by faith. That's how we're supposed to live our lives is by faith. Amen. And when you when you begin to understand that concept, then I'm living by faith. Not just receiving by faith. I'm living by faith. The way you live by faith determines what you can receive by faith. If I don't see myself as righteous by faith, it's going to be hard to receive by faith. Because I'm going to be living in a state of condemnation and shame. Amen. Do you see this? And so it makes it hard to receive by faith because I'm not living by faith. Amen. You know, we don't have this so much anymore. Used to have it decades ago. Thankfully, we don't have it so much anymore. People used to think living by faith meant quitting their job and doing nothing. I counseled a lot of those people when they couldn't pay their bills. So that's that, right? You God might have you take a step of faith, and that's part of it, but living by faith is not living without a job. Living by faith is looking in the Word of God and finding out what God said to you and spending time in the Word until you become convinced by that's faith. Till you become convinced that you are what the Bible just said you were. Now that's faith. Now you're living by that. Amen. Hallelujah. Do you see that? Remember when you used to think that there was none righteous? No, not one. Nobody but me. I heard that a lot. Oh, there's none righteous, no, not one. Now they didn't mean anything bad by it. They just weren't reading the whole Bible. They were reading what grandma taught and they bought. Right? Do you understand that? Well, we did find out, and we kept reading, that in myself I can't be righteous. My righteousness, my human righteousness is as filthy rags. But glory be to God. What happened in 2 Corinthians 5.21? He gave me his righteousness, and I became the righteousness of God in Christ. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 1.30, but of him are you of God? Are you in Christ who has made unto us righteousness, sanctification, wisdom? Amen. I am righteous by faith. And what happens is I live righteous by faith. The force of righteousness starts operating in my life at a whole other level. And guilt and shame and condemnation, fear begins to leave my life. Why? Because I'm living as one righteous in the eyes of God. I stand before God with no fear, no condemnation, no shame. I stand before people and before the devil with no fear, no shame, and no condemnation. Why? I am righteous in God's sight. That's how I gotta live my life. That's how you have to live your life. Amen. If you talk to some people, the first thing that comes out of their mouth is their failures. Where they missed it. How much they've messed up. That's a sure sign they don't see themselves as the righteousness of God in Christ. You know, when Paul wrote his testimony, and he was talking about the grace of God that was manifest to him, and talking about the love of God, he made the statement, and he and he and boy, he just told off on himself. He said, I was a blasphemer, I was injurious. Hallelujah. That means he did injury to other people and enjoyed it. He enjoyed taking those people to court. He enjoyed standing there and watching them be put to death. He he thought he was doing God a favor. Right? He said, That's what I was. But he said, God showed me mercy. God showed me mercy. And he gave me this anointing and this assignment to preach him to the Gentiles. And that's why he could write that church and say, Receive us, because we've wronged nobody. How do you go from I was a blasphemer and injurious and enjoyed this to I've not done anything wrong to no one? By faith. Paul at some point had to start saying, That's not me. That's why Paul had the awesome, life-changing revelation of the new man in Christ. If any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. Now here's the question: When you got born again, did you become a new creature? You did, right? Amen. What how did you start living in that new creaturehood? You had to start living in it by faith. Amen. When thoughts from the old life came, what'd you say? No, I'm a new creature in Jesus' name. I'm a new creature in Christ Jesus. Old things are passed away, all things are become new. You weren't believing for a car, a house, a suit of clothes. You're living your new life by faith. Do you see this? And then it's easier to believe for what you need when you start living by faith. Oh, hallelujah. So faith is not an option, it's the way the just live. Think about those words that God uses about us: righteous, holy, forgiven, justified. Amen. One theology class that I taught, I defined just justified as just as if I'd never sinned. Right? How many people do you know that think of themselves that way? Just as if they've never sinned. Well, Pastor, I know I've sinned. But see, if that's what comes out of their mouth, that's the first thing that's on their mind. That's how they live. They're not living by faith. To live by faith, do you know you live just as if you never sinned? Everybody has. But if you're going to live by faith, how do you live? Just as if I'd never sinned. Amen. Remember what 1 John says? It says that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know he hears us, we know we have the petitions that we've requested of him. So what does that mean? Praying is the same as answered prayer. If you ask, did you receive it? How do you do that? By faith. Oh, hallelujah. So you're here today, and in the eyes of God, you never sinned. Now, either the Bible is true or it's not. If He tells you to look at yourself as if you never sinned, then God looks at you as if you never sinned. And how are we doing this? By faith. You're living by faith. Hallelujah. Look at uh Hebrews 11, 6 again. Notice it says, 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 those that diligently seek him. Amen. Hallelujah. Verse 7 says, By faith, Noah being warned of God of things not seen as yet. Faith, by definition, is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. But you always want to say, yet. He was warned by faith. He was warned of God, of things not seen yet. Hallelujah. Faith is the substance of things not seen yet. Not seen yet. It's the grounds, the confidence, the title deed. If I have faith, I have the title deed, even though I can't see it yet. Amen. You see this? If a person had a car stolen, a car they owned, and they made a report, one of the first things they're going to want to know is do you have the title? Because if you've got the title deed, you have that car, you have a stronger tie to that car than the person that stole it and is driving it. They might be driving it, but the title says it's not theirs. It says it's yours. And that's why Moffitt says faith is the title deed of what you're believing for. You can't see it yet, but do you have it? Yes. And people say, I have it by faith. Come to this understanding that if you have it by faith, you have it. Because faith is the title deed. Hallelujah. Say out loud, I may not see it, but I have it by faith. And that's why I say faith is not just waiting. Faith is not just hanging on, faith is a standing on. The Bible calls faith the substance of things hoped for, the bridge, the grounds, the confidence. It carries the idea of a bridge going from one place to another. Faith is the way you're going to get to where you need to be. That's why he says, the just. The Hebrew says, My man that is justified. This is how he lives by faith. This is how we live our lives by faith. Hallelujah. Faith is not something you can afford to be against. You can't afford to be against faith. Amen. You know, there are people that have taken principles of the faith message and they've got over into shipwreck and they've got other people into shipwreck. But folks, listen, I don't quit spending $20 bills because there's some counterfeits. Right? Yeah, but there's people, you know, it's the most popular bill to be counterfeited. Doesn't stop me from spending them or taking them. Why? Because there's fakes out there, but there's more real than there are fakes. Faith is not something you can afford to be against. I've had people tell me, you're one of those faith guys, guilty, just guilty, just absolutely guilty. Right? Why? Because that's what changed my life. When I got a hold of the principles of living by faith, and I'm thankful I got a hold of it by balanced teachers that weren't just teaching me to believe God for a thing. They were teaching me to learn to live my life by faith. Amen. I would have children, I would have children that wouldn't be in the world today if we had not learned to live by faith. Amen. And I learned early on that in the very early days of learning to walk in the Word of God, that the little bit I did know was bigger than anything the devil could throw at my family. The little bit that I knew, the little bit of knowledge that I had about faith was enough to make him turn and run. And it will for you too. Why? Faith, 1 John 5, 4, what's it say? Faith is the victory that does what? Overcomes the world. So how are you an overcomer? By faith. Oh, hallelujah. If you're born again, you belong to the faith camp. If you're a Christian, you've got to live. By faith. If you don't live by faith, you live on a lower level. Amen. If you don't live by faith, you live on a lower level. And understand, that's not just where things are concerned. It's a lower level for a Christian to live like they're not righteous. It's a lower level for a Christian to live like they've not been set free. It's a lower level for a Christian to live like they're not free from the bondage that they were in. It's a lower level. It's a lower level for a Christian to live like they're just a sinner saved by grace. Amen. And I've had people say, well, yeah, and talking to me, well, you know we're all just sinners. And I'll just say, speak for yourself. I'm not a sinner. Listen, it's important. You're living by faith. You're living by faith. You don't want to let any of that sneak in there. The Bible says it's the little foxes that spoil the vine. You start thinking wrong about who you are in Christ, and you quit living by faith, as far as that's concerned, man, you'll mess the whole thing up. You'll be back in bondage. Why? Because that's what set you free. Is that right? Hallelujah. That's why we used, you know, that's why the church came up with songs like this. He set me free. He set me free. Right? I was in bondage, but he set me free. Amen. Now we we think about that. Well, that's an old song. I understand that. I'm not saying it because it's old. I'm saying what would make somebody sit down and write a song like that? Because I used to be bound and now I'm free. And how do I stay free? By faith. By faith. By faith. Amen. If you're supposed to live by faith, and that's the only way to please God, you have to learn how to operate it in your life. Because I gotta live by faith, and that's the only way that I can please God. Learn the operation of faith. Look at Hebrews chapter 10 and verse 38. It says, Now the just shall live by faith. But if any man draw back from what? Living by faith, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. This is an indication of the pleasure God gets through your faith. Hallelujah. This is an indication of the pleasure that God gets through your faith. See, God wants to live through you. God wants to live through you. And if you let God live his life through you, he is going to live by faith. Everything that God asks you to do will be by faith. Everything that God asks you to believe will be by faith. Every step that God asks you to take will be by faith. You'll never get to the point where you're not living by faith. I asked Pastor write the forward to my book, Every Day is a Faith Day. And he so graciously did. And he said one time him and a friend were sitting and they were talking. And they were talking about how it was going to be wonderful, you know, when we reach a place where we don't have to exercise our faith and live by faith every day. And he said the Lord arrested him and said, No, that's not true. He said, You'll never have a time that you're not living by faith. Ever.

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Why?

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Because remember what the Bible says? It says, three abide forever faith, hope, and love. The greatest is love because it energizes the other two. But that means for eternity we'll be living by faith. Amen. So what is this world that we're living in now? It's a dress rehearsal for where we're going. We're just going to be living by faith. Hallelujah. Say out loud, I live by faith. I walk by faith in Jesus' name. Oh, hallelujah. If we draw back from living by faith, God doesn't get any pleasure from us. Well, what does that mean? It means if I draw back from living by faith, I quit seeing myself as righteous. I quit seeing myself as forgiven. I quit seeing myself as holy in God's sight. I quit seeing myself as a child of God. I quit seeing myself born of God. I quit seeing myself as one that God's DNA is in my spirit. I quit seeing myself as one that is born again by incorruptible seed. Hallelujah. And then I just live that existence that so many Christians live. Well, you know, we're just doing the best we can, just an old sinner saved by grace. God does not give birth to sinners. And when you were born again, God became your father. We've studied that at length here. 100% at the core of who I am, I'm God's child. Amen. This body is not God's child. This body carries God's child. This is a carrying case for God's son. One of them. Not his perfect son, but his righteous son. Amen. I got to do that by faith. I say, I got to do that by faith. I remember one time I was talking to two gentlemen, and we were we were running. We were in the afternoon, we were running, a couple guys used to run with me. And they were always big on, boy, I need to do this, and I need to do this better. And this day they were on this kick of, boy, I need to be a better husband. I just need to be a better husband. Well, you know, we all could be better husbands. Don't look away from me. You know that's right. And anyway, finally I just looked at them and I said, guys, when are you gonna quit talking about it and just do it? Just be better. Folks, you if if you find that there's an area you're not living by faith, just decide right here during this service. Okay, I settled it. I'm gonna start living by faith in that area. Nobody can stop your decision. It's my decision whether I live by faith or not. Hallelujah. It's your decision. And nobody, nothing, no devil, nothing can stop it. Amen. If we draw back from living by faith, God does not get any pleasure from me. Why? Because I'm not living at the height of where he wants me to live at. He doesn't want me living like just a saved version of what I used to be. There are Christians I know and you know. They are just, they are just a more moral version of what they used to be. They don't really have any more victory. They don't really think of themselves any different. They just don't smoke, cuss, chew, run with them that do. But they really don't have any more victory. The same thing that knocks the world around knocks them around. And it shouldn't be that way. Why? Because we've been redeemed. Is that right? We've been redeemed from the curse. How do you live redeemed from the curse? By faith. How do you, when the curse knocks on your door, how do you answer it and say, no, sir, I'm redeemed by faith? When it looks like the curse is trying to attach itself to you, when you're battling a sickness, when you're battling something, how do you stand by faith and say, I'm not moved by what I see, I'm redeemed from the curse in the name of Jesus? You do that by faith. Those are not just words. That's not just our theology. That's just not what we believe is good, charismatic, word of faith people. That's how the just, everyone that is born again is the just. I don't care if they're Baptist, Pentecostal, charismatic, Methodist, Presbyterian, Lutheran, it doesn't matter. They are the redeemed, they are righteous in God's sight. That's how they're supposed to live. They're supposed to live it by faith. And there are people that have great confidence, great faith that when they die, they're going to go to heaven. They have great faith there. But they have no faith that they can live victorious in the world that they live in now. Do you see that? I don't know about you, but I'm not waiting on heaven to get some good things. I'm not waiting on heaven to walk in victory. I hear people saying, and they'll get that religious tone in their voice. Oh, won't it be a great day? Right? Sound like a sheep. Won't it be a day? Get to heaven. No more devils. We've been given victory over the devil and all of his ability and authority in the earth. Behold, I give unto you authority to trample on serpents and scorpions and over all the authority, the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you. How do you do that? By faith. When I was a boy growing up in church, there was a lady that her chest we had testimony service back then. And I'm not making fun of testimony service. Some of them were really good. Some of them, the Holy Spirit would start moving, we'd just shout for an hour. But this one lady, she'd always stand up, and her prayer was always this y'all pray for me. The devil's been kicking me around like a football. And you know, I'm just a kid, right? I'm just a kid. And I can just see a goalpost, and that lady sat on you know on something, and the devil's just kicking her through the goalpost. That's how I saw it. I thought, I don't want to be that way. That looks that look like it hurt. That's not us. How do we get there? By faith. I know this seems elementary, but that's how we got to live our life. People of faith are not always talking and conversing about what the devil's doing. How rough things are. Because faith does what? Faith looks beyond. Faith doesn't deny what is, but faith is what? It's looking to the victory. Faith is looking beyond. Amen. Faith is the spiritual force that deals with the spiritual. Just like your senses deal with the natural. Faith is the spiritual force that deals with the spiritual. You know, the spiritual force of righteousness manifests itself in your physical life. And it does it by faith. When you first started calling yourself righteous, you may not have looked righteous nor acted righteous. But you know, in actuality, righteousness, acting righteous, is not just an absence of sin, it's a boldness. People that won't boldly enter the throne room to find help when they need it are not sure of their righteousness. I know people that would not sin, they don't live a life of sin, but they have no boldness where the things of God are concerned. Why? Because they don't see themselves as righteous. So they have faith that they're saved, they just don't have faith that they're righteous. They don't have faith that they have a right to enter the throne room and find help. Hallelujah. I have a right to enter the throne room and find help. Why? Because I'm right in God's sight. I'm seated at the right hand of the Father in Christ Jesus. Amen. That's the turning point of your Christian walk, is when you realize I'm righteous, I'm holy, I have a right to be bold. Amen. Faith is the spiritual organ, the spiritual hand through which we contact the spiritual world. That's how you receive anything out of the spirit is by faith. Hallelujah. You know, the barrier between the spiritual world and the natural world is really thin. It's really thin. It's just right there. Amen. If you could see by the discerning of spirits this morning, there are angels all around this room. There are angels all around your car. There's angels all around your house. They're there 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Brother, you see them, sense them, feel them, or not, they're there. What has to happen? All you have to do is tune into the spiritual realm. You tune into the spiritual realm and you start seeing things. It's thin. It's real thin. Faith is the hand that reaches into that realm and brings out to you everything that you have need of. I used to teach the kids in children's church, faith is the rope, faith is the chain. And you hook that chain up and you just start pulling what you need out of the spirit realm. Amen. Those exceeding great and precious promises. But here's the thing. Let me say this. There are two worlds the natural seen world and the spiritual unseen world. And the problem is that most believers live too much in the natural world. They live too much in the natural. They think too natural. I didn't say sinful or immoral, they think too much naturally. The spiritual world and the natural world. And many believers live too much in the natural world. I can't live too much in the natural world and expect to live by faith. Just can't do it. I can't give all of my attention to natural things and expect to live by faith. We live in a natural physical body on this earth, but we're supposed to live according to the principles of the spiritual world. When you live according to the principles of the spiritual world, you see yourself as the redeemed. You see yourself as a believer. You see, right? Because I'm not spending all of my time according to the natural world. If you live according to the principles of this physical world, you're dead. Spiritually dead people live according to the principles of this physical world. Amen. If you do not live by faith according to the spiritual principles, then it faith is dead or non-productive. Because I'm not living by faith according to those spiritual principles. That's what James said. If you're a hearer of the word and not a doer, your faith is dead because it's alone. So I have to hear the word and do the work. That's called faith. Hearing the word and not doing it causes faith to be inoperative or dead. Hallelujah. See, we live in a physical world, but we're not of this world. John 17, Jesus said twice. He prayed to the Father for the disciples and us. He said, I pray that they would understand that they are not of this world, even as I am not of this world. Whoo boy. That's better than a dip of Copenhagen. Amen. Amen. That'll make you shout. When you start declaring that, I'm not of this world just like Jesus was not of this world. Amen. Try that out. Say, I'm not of this world as Jesus was not of this world. And then you live that way. You live like you're not of this world. Hallelujah. When God, well, let me say this. Faith is the spiritual force that puts you in contact with the spiritual world. It's the spiritual force that puts you in contact with the spiritual world. When God recreated your human spirit, he placed in you the measure of faith. Romans 12, 3 says, for no man to think more highly of himself than he ought to think, but according as God hath dealt to each man the measure of faith. Now Charles Caps used to teach and preach, and he would say the measure of faith is the Word of God, the Bible, that you have on your lap. And that God has given to each man the measure of faith. Now, if you believe that, that's perfectly okay. That's all right. But here's what I believe, here's what I believe, and others believe. It's that measure of saving faith. That you could call it a measure of starter faith. Everybody gets the same measure. What you do with the measure determines how far you go with it. Amen. The spirit of faith is in every born-again believer. It's up to us how we grow it up. Amen. Faith comes by hearing, faith goes by saying, and faith grows by using. All right? It comes by hearing, it goes by saying, and it grows by using. So when a person gets saved, they have that measure of saving faith, the measure of faith that everyone has. And if if they learn to use it and they learn to receive it and they learn how it grows, it'll do great things in their life. But it's up to us. Hallelujah. It's up to us as to how we grow it up. Faith grows and matures by hearing the word of God. That's why you can't do without the word of God. Amen. It has to be going in your ears. Listen to me. Every day. It has to be going in your ears. It has to be going in your spirit. Why? That's how you grow. That's how faith comes. Amen. Our job, if you want to call it, our job as believers is to hear the word. That's what we do. Amen. That's what we do. I remember Scott Webb used to come to our churches and he would minister and he'd get to preach and he'd say, My Lord, y'all are gluttons for the word. Yes, we are. We're doing everything we can to overdose. We are trying to get so obese with the word of God that we waddle when we walk. Why? Because I want so much of the word in me. You want so much of the word in you that there's always an answer. There's always an answer for what you face. There's always a solution for what you face. It bothers me when Christians come to me with their head in their hands and say, I just don't know what I'm going to do. That's a sign to me that the word of God is not ruling and reigning in their life. When you have the word of God in your life, you always know what to do. You always have an answer because you're living by faith. You may face things that you've never faced before, but you have an answer. Hallelujah. If it isn't anything other than Deuteronomy 23, 5, God turned the curse into a blessing. Then no matter what I'm dealing with, that's what He's going to do. And I'm doing this living by faith. Say out loud, I'm living by faith. When faith becomes mature, you begin to realize that this world that you see is not the real world. When faith becomes mature, you begin to realize the world that you see is not the real world. It is a world, but it's not the real world. It's a world, but it's not the real world. It's a real world, but it's not the real world. Hallelujah. Because there's another world, there's the spiritual world. And you live in the spirit world different than you do in the natural world. You can't live in the spirit world the way you live in the natural world. Hallelujah. You live in the spirit world by the force of faith. You live in the spirit world by the force of faith. Say it out loud. I live in the spirit world by the force of faith. See, there are people that live above the emotional realm. They live in the spiritual realm. Hallelujah. They live above the emotional realm. They live in the spirit realm. That's the realm of faith. Amen. Now, erroneous teaching has taught us that, you know, we don't basically that we don't have emotions. Well, we do have emotions. You you are an emotional being. You have emotions for a reason. You know, my family makes me happy. I'm glad I have that emotion of happiness. Amen. They bless me. Coming to this church, seeing y'all's happy faces blesses me. Amen. It blesses me. I enjoy being here. Isn't that good? You wouldn't want your pastor to not enjoy it. Hallelujah. I was gonna tell a joke, but that'd take away from what I'm trying to say. The spiritual realm. So I don't live a life void of emotion, but they don't rule me. Right? They don't rule me. Anger doesn't rule me. Now we know anger in its proper place is okay because Jesus got angry. And Jesus never sinned. But yet he got angry. Is that right? He got so angry he sat down and purposely made a bell and drove them out of the temple. Jesus went over in the corner and sat down and made a whip. Because he was incensed at what they were doing in the house of God. It's important. Emotions. But godly emotions. Where emotions become an issue is when they cause you to stop living by faith. And I start living by emotion. I'm living by emotions when the words coming out of my mouth are I don't know what I'm gonna do. This is hopeless. There's no hope. There's no way out. I'm living by my emotions now. Why? Because I'm living by what I see, what I hear, what I feel, the pressure that's on me. Amen. Yeah, but this pressure I'm under, I just can't bear up under it. Wait a minute. You have the shield of faith, right? The Bible says the shield of faith quenches all the fiery darts of the wicked. It didn't say you wouldn't feel the pressure. You might feel the pressure, but faith's taking care of it. And how do you live? By faith, not by pressure. Anyone ever made bad decisions because you got under pressure? I have. And if I'd have made the decision faith was trying to get me to make, I wouldn't have gotten into any of that trouble. But to escape the pressure, physical living people just want to get out from under the pressure and they give way to their emotions. They give way to how they feel. And faith is not of our feelings, faith is of the Word of God. Faith is of the spirit. Amen. So you can live above the emotional realm and live in the spiritual realm. That's why you can see people that when calamity comes their way, they don't crumble and fall apart. They've tapped into a spiritual force. Amen. I had a person come to me one time and say, you know, Pastor, I'm going to tell you this, and I just want you to know I'm not like you, you know, meaning, you know, I'm not, I'm not this super spirit, and things get me down. Look, I understand. We all face things. But understand, it's not just being like me. This is not Gatorade. You're not trying to be like Mike. Right? I'm living by faith. So when you see somebody that they face challenges, they face calamities, they face things, and they don't fall apart, it's because they tapped into a spiritual substance that anybody can tap into. It's called faith. Faith is the victory. Hebrews 11 was written to show us how things were done by faith. The Bible says that by faith they surrounded Jericho, walked around Jericho, and the walls fell. They did that by faith. Faith will take the courage of your enemy. There might be people that are set against you. Faith will take their courage. Faith will take their heart. They won't be able to be against you. They won't have the strength because faith will take it. That's what the Bible says. Amen. It said their courage left them. Well, the Bible says they crossed Jordan by faith. When the spies went to Jericho and talked to Rahab, she said, when we heard that it was Yahweh, she said, every man's heart in the city left him. Because we know we can't win. You know the first group that got to that same Jordan River, got to that same border. The Bible says they backed off because of unbelief. They wouldn't believe God. You know, God would have taken the courage of all their enemies. God would have taken the courage of all the people that were set against them too, because he promised. But what did they refuse to do? To walk by faith. Whatever you're facing does not have the courage to stand up against you because you're living by faith. Whatever you're, if you're dealing with sickness in your body, that sickness does not have the power to continue to operate in you because you're living by faith. Amen. The word of God, faith, is going to drive it out, drive it from you, drive it away, dry it up, cause it to shrivel and be a non-existent thing. Why? Because that's it doesn't have the courage. The life force of that thing is not rooted deep enough to outdo the life force of the force of faith that's in you. Hallelujah. Say it out loud. I live by faith. So when calamity comes, they don't crumble, they don't fall apart. Because they've tapped into a spiritual force. Oh, hallelujah. Hebrews 11, 1, excuse me, it says that faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. So faith, we talked about this earlier. Faith is proof. Faith is proof, faith is substance, faith is evidence, faith is proof. Evidence supports something. Evidence supports something. God's word is enough evidence if I use it in the spiritual realm. It's enough evidence. I know, especially in our circles, yes, the word of God's the only evidence I need. It is, if you use it. But I've got to use it. Amen. I remember Brother Brian brought this back to my remembrance, and I remember, you know, uh John and Dodi Osteen, and some of you may not know who they were, mightly used by God a number of years ago in the body of Christ. And, you know, when their oldest daughter was born, she was born with cerebral palsy, cerebral palsy. And the doctor said there was nothing, obviously, that they could do. They were Baptists. And they just decided if God Jesus healed in the Word, he'll heal today. And they just stood, look, with no help. Nobody outside believing anything that they were believing. What does that mean? You don't have to have 55 people on your team. It helps if you do. But just you and the word of God is plenty. And they believed God, listen, they believed God and didn't even know really how to do it. And God healed their daughter. Hey, she's alive and well preaching the gospel today. Amen. I had I there's a couple in in the Kansas location, uh uh Daryl and Yolanda Pennington. And their daughter, uh Ivy, was born. And when Ivy was born, she was born with sickle cell anemia. Now, understand this about sickle cell. It's incurable. You live with it for the rest of your life. It's incurable. Been a plight, been a horrible thing, especially in the African-American community. She asked me to pray for her daughter. Prayed for her daughter, cursed that sickle cell anemia. She took the baby back to the doctor. The doctor said, This boggles my mind. I know it was there, it's not there now. She uses that as a testimony because it has to, it has to, by law, stay on your medical record forever that you had sickle cell anemia, could because it can affect your blood transfusions and things like this. So every year when she was in high school, the nurse would see that on her chart and she would call, call the family, call Ivy into the office, and they'd just sit back and say, Ivy, you tell her. And she'd say, Yes, that was there when I was born, but Jesus healed me. Now here's what I want you to see. They were not very, they were not very old believers in the things of God. They started coming to our church because we taught that we were the righteousness of God in Christ. They didn't come because they needed a healing. I don't know that they'd ever heard a message on healing. They had heard that God would heal. They heard from they hadn't been there long enough. But when they found that their daughter was born with this, they thought, now wait a minute. God will heal her. Right? And what'd they do? When they said that, they stepped over into that spiritual realm. Now they're over here in the realm of faith. They're not over here making decisions based on what I see or what I feel. I'm over here in another realm. And when you get over and you begin to operate by the spirit of faith, and you're operating in faith, your eyes can see how hard it is, your ears can hear how hard it is, your body can feel the pressure. But on the inside, you're strong, you're rejoicing, you're overcoming. Why? You're in another realm. You're in another realm. You're not in this natural realm anymore. Amen. Oh, hallelujah. Glory to God. You know, I just saw that child uh uh a few weeks ago in her 20s now, still healed, and will die healed because they tapped into this spiritual realm. Amen. Say it out loud. I live by faith. Say this anything in my body that the Father didn't plant is being rooted up and removed in the name of Jesus. Hallelujah. You know, I Lord, I'll say that. I feel the Holy Spirit telling me to say this. And we know this, but you need to hear this from the ears of faith. If God's got to recreate a brand new organ and put it in your body, that's what He'll do. Just because they say the one you have isn't any good anymore doesn't mean that you just need to resign yourself to that. Amen. I had a woman come up in the church on a Sunday morning and she wanted a prayer cloth. She had brought a cloth to be prayed over. Her sister-in-law lived in uh uh Colorado, Denver, and uh she had had some issues with cancer uh uh a couple years before, and they had used rip uh radiation uh to work on the cancer. Well, I mean, things went well as far as what they were expecting, but it also destroyed her ability to conceive, it destroyed her ability to have children. Her ovaries were destroyed. It was, it was, it, I mean, just everything was gone. Well, this this couple, again, they hadn't been saved very long. But were teaching, preaching about the things of God. She comes up with this handkerchief. I laid hands on the handkerchief, we prayed. She sent it by mail to Denver, Colorado. It's good to know the USPS doesn't take away the anointing. Amen. Now, now you know where I'm going with this, but don't get too far ahead of me. Because we're talking about this realm. She took that handkerchief and I had sent implicit instructions. I said, lay it on the part of your body that's been afflicted and believe God. Hallelujah. She took that handkerchief out, put it on her body, and believed God. Two, three weeks later, she wakes up sick. Right? I ate something, a bug, whatever it is. So she's like, I'll be better tomorrow. She waked up, waked up. Lord, heal my tongue in Jesus' name. She woke up the next morning sick. Three mornings in a row. Finally, she said, I guess I gotta go to the doctor. Went to the doctor, same doctor that had put her through all this treatment, same doctor that knew everything about her medical history. Now you know where I'm going, but you should be glad anyway. The doctor comes in. Now, I don't know if he was shaking his head, I wasn't there. But here's what I know. He came in, and this was her words, because I received the letter, and I'll tell you something else in a moment. But I received the letter from her, and the doctor said, I'm gonna tell you this, but it's impossible. Isn't it interesting that somebody can be looking at something that faith did and say, I see it, but it's impossible. See, faith looks at the impossible and sees the possible. Natural people look at the impossible and don't see the possible. Hallelujah. He said, I'm gonna tell you this. I'm gonna tell you why you're sick, but it's impossible. You're pregnant, but it's impossible. How can I be something that's impossible? Folks, listen, all of her ovaries were back. Every reproductive organ was back in her body, but it had been taken out, but it was back. See, you're too late to the dance to tell me that what this this faith, what they call faith stuff, doesn't work. It works every time. You just got to step over into that realm. Here's what she didn't do. She didn't look at that cloth and go, boy, I hope this works. She put it on her body and believed. If you're facing an impossible situation, let me ask you something. What do you have to lose to believe? What do you have to lose by believing? If the doctor says there's nothing we can do, what do you got to lose by believing? If you stay there with there's nothing we can do, you're staying in the natural realm. And there's no hope in the natural realm. You got to step out of that realm into another realm. You got to step into the spiritual realm, you got to step into the realm of faith. We don't live under that curse of there's nothing we can do. It's impossible. This can't change. All things are possible to the one that believes. Everything. Glory be to Jesus. Amen. I got the picture of that woman with the baby that the doctor said it was impossible for her to have. Hallelujah. Now people will say, isn't that wonderful, Pastor, how the Lord used you? Isn't it wonderful that that woman believed God? Has little or nothing to do with me. She believed what God said. If I lay hands on you and you're instantly healed, people will walk out of here saying, Whoo, Pastor Steel healed that guy. Don't go lie on me. I laid hands on him, God healed them. Because they believed. Amen. I've laid hands on people so much that you could rub the varnish off their head. And they didn't believe nothing. And then I've had people come in and you just barely barely swipe them. That's it, I got it. And walk out healed. And people say, Well, I'll have you tell me why that good, good, good Christian been believing God all these years. They didn't get anything. And then that person came in and just barely here and they got healed. I wish you'd tell me why, because one believed and one didn't. One was willing to step over into the spirit realm and say, I take it. Am I helping you? Don't let time rob you of what God has for you. If you've been standing for six months or a year, you just keep standing. You dig your heels in and you keep believing God. Why? Because he said his promises are yes and amen. He that began a good work in you is faithful to complete it. Don't you give up now. Don't you drop your shield. Stay in the spirit realm. Keep living by faith. God's gonna do what he said he would do. Amen. Woo! Hallelujah. You know that just calls for a praise. Hallelujah. Glory to God. Amen. Thank you, Jesus. See, Satan wins every time in the sense realm. Because it's in the sense realm that he can prove to you that you're sick. He can prove to you that you're broke. He can prove to you that your children aren't living for God. He can prove to you all these things. All he's got to do is show you your checkbook. Show you the doctor's report. All he's got to do is bring up your child, not living right. And what's he do? He'll whip you in the sense realm. Amen. Brother Hagin taught us years ago. Brother Hagin taught us years ago that if we keep the devil in the faith realm, we win every time. But we got to keep him in the arena of faith. I preached a series 25 years ago, The Arena of Faith. You got to keep the devil in the arena of faith. This, what people call the faith message, that changed my life. That changed my life. I will never quit teaching and preaching. There's a man in St. Joseph, Missouri, I'll never forget. Started a church, and man, that thing took off. And his fathers in the faith were Kenneth Hagen, Till Osborne, R.W. Schambach, right? All these guys. Amen. He said, all my mentors have two letters, you know, T L, R W. He said, I'm gonna start going by two letters, but he didn't. Anyway, the Lord said to him, he said, the Lord told him, as long as you preach and teach faith, your ministry and your church will thrive. As long as you preach and teach faith. One day he started thinking that the faith message wasn't quite deep enough. It wasn't theologically deep. He said it's shallow. He quit teaching it. Three-quarters of his church left. Why their answer quit being taught? I don't care. There are people sitting on the sound of my voice. You've probably heard hundreds, yea, multiplied hundreds of faith messages. I know what church y'all used to go to. I know the people, the caliber of people that you've sat under. Do you think I'm intimidated to preach on faith, even though you've heard it from what we call the best? Not a bit. Not a bit. That does not does not impair me at all. Why? Because it's the answer. There's nothing more deep than this. The just will live by faith. Everything that we do is by faith. Amen. I say everything that we do is by faith. I was sitting with my pastor one time. And this was after the first thing that we talked about when that when I don't know if you all were. Will remember when uh all of the if you were had on air, if you were a television station, you had over-the-air capabilities, you know, antenna, you had to go digital, right? So VTN had to go digital, which was a few million dollars. I talked to him about that. And here's what he said to me we're just gonna believe God. And he believed God. And the people in agape and the people partners of VTN got together and gave, and God did what he said he would do. But why? Because he said, I'm just gonna believe God. Look at your neighbor and say, I'm just gonna believe God. Well, I was talking to him again, and now they gotta go HD, high definition, and they gotta replace all their cameras. Now I don't know if you know it or not, but television wrote the book on expensive. Right? And now you gotta replace all your cameras, HD, multiplied millions of dollars. I'm sitting at lunch with him, Cantina Laredo. I'm sitting at lunch, we're talking about it. You know, when I'm talking to people of faith, I don't go, well, how are you gonna do that? Well, duh. So I'm just listening. The Lord told me years ago, you have two ears and one mouth. That means you should listen twice as much as you talk. Amen. And so I'm listening. And my wife, my wife always asks the inquiring questions. You know, inquiring minds want to know. And she said, Well, Pastor, what's your plan? He said, Well, I had a meeting with the staff the other day, and we were tossing things around, and we could do this, and we could do that. And he said, Finally, I just I pushed all those plans aside. He said, Not that they were good, not that they weren't valid. And he said, I just looked at them, I said, Here's what we're gonna do, we're gonna believe God. He said, I'll do what I've always done. I'll just believe God. I know people in here today, I know you're facing things. You know what we're gonna do? We're gonna do what we've always done. We're just gonna believe God. And what's gonna happen? Your belief is gonna become reality. I say your faith is gonna become reality. Right now, your faith is working on whatever is going on in your body, in your family, whatever it is, your faith is working because listen, you're stepping over into another realm. Faith, and I'll close with this: faith is the spiritual hand that reaches into the spirit realm and brings what you need. Now, the Bible says in the book of John, I won't take time to have you go there, but it says, when the Holy Spirit is come, that he would reprove the world of sin. That world repro that word reprove means to convict. How do you get by his stripes, I'm healed, from the pages of this book into your body by faith. Faith is the conviction. Faith is the conviction. The word pistis is the Greek word for faith, and that's the base definition of it, to be convinced that something's true. Conviction. Here's faith. When you know that you know, that you know that you know. That's faith. That's faith. Once you're convinced, it's all over, but just seeing it manifest. Amen. And there are people, and I'm closing here, there are people I know. I I know personally, and then I there are people I just know by the Spirit. You've been standing for some things, and some of it is physical things. Folks, I listen, I know what it's like to stand with that. I'm not up here telling you things I haven't done. I've been to the doctor and have the doctor go, not a lot we can do. Amen. Well, it's that it's at that moment that you don't resign yourself to this natural realm. That's when we're thankful we have a great physician. One that said, if sickness is there, I'll take it from you. Oh, hallelujah. You know, I and I'm not gonna ask you to come front to the front, but if you're dealing with any any organ issues, and when I say organ issues, I mean malfunctions in any any part of your body. And I'm seeing things like kidneys and liver and spleen, these different things. Heart, if there's anything, anything that you're dealing with, you don't have to raise your hand. But right now I'm gonna pray for you, and we're gonna step over into that other realm. And God's gonna do something for you. I say, God's gonna do something for you. Hallelujah. I've known people that organs weren't there and hands were laid on them and they were there the next day. That's not just something we tell to excite people. That's what God will do. I say, that's what God will do. Your fruitfulness will return. It feels like your body's not been fruitful in those areas. Your fruitfulness shall return, because that's the will of God. He said you would be like a green bay tree that spreads its roots out and its leaves out. He said that in your old age you would be fat and flourishing, not dead and shriveling up. Father, I speak to those organs. I speak to those different organs that need Father number one to come alive. You come alive in the name of Jesus. You are not beyond repair. You are not too old. You are not beyond repair. And just as Jesus spoke to Lazarus, who is dead in the grave, and he told him to come forth, and he came forth hat bound, hand and feet, but yet alive. I speak to that organ. You come alive in the name of Jesus. You start secreting the right amount of product that you're supposed to secrete. I speak to that spleen, I speak to every part of that body, and I tell you to secrete the exact amount of insulin that is necessary for the correct living of that individual. I speak to that heart and I tell you in the name of Jesus, you shall beat with the rhythm of life. You do not beat too fast or too slow. You beat perfectly in the name of Jesus. You come alive in Jesus' name. I speak to every organ in that body, and I declare to you in Jesus' name that you are hearing the word of the Lord, and the word of the Lord says, be well, be whole, be complete, be healed in Jesus' name. I speak to every person that's dealing with any pain in their body, and it matters not the source, it matters not the reason, it matters not, Father, that it was, it may be inherited, it may be an accident, it may be something other than that, but I speak to the pain in that body, and I tell you now, be gone. Cease to operate in their life, dematerialize in Jesus' name. And I call for the cause of it to be well and whole in the name of Jesus. And you shall sleep tonight, and you'll even sleep on that side, and you'll even sleep on that area, and you'll find that the pain's gone in the name of Jesus. And as you find that the pain's gone, be very careful to get up or get up out of your bed, out of your chair, wherever you're at, and give me the glory. Because I care about you in the name of Jesus. Oh, hallelujah. Oh, hallelujah. I believe God. Thank you, Jesus. Oh, hallelujah. If you agree with that, you agree you're healed and well and whole, just say hallelujah, real loud. Oh, glory be to Jesus. Amen. And it shall go, and it shall, that affliction will not arise again the second time. That affliction will not arise again the second time. Loretta, I'm gonna tell you something. My dad prayed for a man in a camp meeting, and he had had a knee replacement. Had the knee replacement. All metal. My dad prayed for him. He's having pain. My dad prayed for him. The man went out in the power of God, went to the doctor the next day, and there was no metal in his knee. It was a brand new knee. Folks, I'm not telling you things that I'm not saying this like something I heard. This is documented. Everything that I tell you, I want proof that it happened. Because I'm not just up here, I'm not, I'm not up here just giving you preaching fodder. Amen. It happened. And if you you need replacements in your body, listen, there's nothing wrong. If you need to get one, you feel like you want to get it. There's nothing wrong with that. That's not a lack of faith, and it's not that you didn't believe God. But here's what I do know: that the same God that created it perfect and right in the beginning can create, recreate it perfect and right in your body. My eyes are good, my ears are good, my joints are good, I'm strong in my body, strong in my mind. Old people are gonna call me old. Amen. Hallelujah. Glory to God. Let's stand up today, shall we? I believe you received this morning. Hallelujah.