Faith to Faith Conference 2016 I Dr Mensa Otabil - Prayer, Faith And Understanding

I'm speaking tonight on the theme for the conference which is faith and I'm speaking on faith prayer and understanding faith prayer and understanding the whole subject of faith I think it's so critical to us especially the church in Africa because more and more I'm seeing that we grow in a people whose faith is not in God but in the man of God and we are getting to the point where people believe the word of the apostille more than the written word of God and I think it's a very dangerous place to take the body of Christ the the Apostles were very careful to let Christ be who he is and never attempted to supplant the importance of Christ in our lives and I I trusted throughout this week we would learn to anchor our faith in Christ and not just in the man that Christ is using I'm going to just look at a couple of examples and I'm going to look at two major stories in the Bible to talk about faith prayer and understanding I'm going to talk about how understanding is critical to our faith faith is not just a belief faith is confidence in what God says without the Word of God there is no basis for faith faith comes from the Word of God and anytime people have taking the Word of God out of reckoning they undermine the on faith so we're going to look at two stories they're both in the Old Testament pastor Paul and I'm sure somebody who come into the New Testament later I'll stay with the old for them for now and and they all talk about how understanding affects faith and how the Word of God effects faith please turn with me in your Bibles to the Book of Daniel chapter 9 verses 1 to 4 I'll read several scriptures and I hope they can put them up quickly enough Daniel chapter 9 verse 1 to 4 now most of you are familiar with Daniel a very profound prophet of God and this is his own testimony and he says in the first year of Darius the son of Ahaz arose in the lineage of the Medes who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans in the first year of his reign I Daniel understood by the books the number of the years specified by the word of the Lord through Jeremiah the Prophet that he would accomplish 70 years in the desolations of Jerusalem then I set my face toward the Lord to make requests by prayer and supplications with fasting sackcloth and ashes and I pray to the Lord my God and made confession and said O Lord great and awesome God who keeps his covenant and mercy with those who love him and with those who keep his Commandments Daniel was a man in captivity and at this point in his life he is about 85 years old he's a very old man and he he is in captivity he went into captivity when he was very young about seventeen years old and so he's been in in Babylon and Persia for most of his life he went as a young man rose through the ranks and became a counselor to three different kings so he was a very influential person at a certain point in Daniels life as he says in this passage he understood by the books he understood by the books the times the years specified by the word of the Lord through Jeremiah the Prophet that he would accomplish 70 years in the desolations of Israel Israel had gone into captivity and Daniel at this point felt that it was time to pray now if you look at the past Daniel says that he studied the books or the record of God's word the word books there is no just secular books he was not studying physics chemistry and biology when he says the books he's talking about the Old Testament prophetic books the prophets of old had recorded their words and in this particular context he's talking about the prophetic books of the Prophet Jeremiah Jeremiah was a prophet when Daniel was a young man and he roamed the streets of Jerusalem prophesying about a time when Israel will go into captivity and and that they were going to be there for 70 years and at that time Daniel was a very young man about 15 years old and he had this prophet in the streets of Jerusalem crying and crying that Israel was going to go into captivity and they're going to go for 70 years so if you look at Jeremiah's prophecy in Jeremiah chapter 25 verse 11 to 12 we read and this whole land this is Jeremiah prophesied this whole land shall be a desolation and an astonishment and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years and it shall come to pass when the seventy years are completed that I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation and the land of the chaldeans for the iniquity says a lot and I'll make it up a page well desolation this is what Jeremiah said when Daniel was a young man in Jeremiah chapter 30 verse 18 we read that says the Lord behold I'll bring back the captivity of Jacobs tent and have mercy on his dwelling places the city shall be built upon its own mound and the palace shall remain according to its own plan so Jeremiah stated clearly that Israel and Judah would go into captivity and Jeremiah stated clearly that they will go into captivity for 70 years he actually said that says the law that means this was an expressed declaration of God they'll go into captivity for 70 years so Jeremiah had for these words 1 Daniel was a young man he's now about 85 years old he's an old man he's been in captivity for almost 70 years and it struck him it struck him that when he was a young boy there was this guy in Jerusalem called Jeremiah who used to say that Israel will go into captivity and will be there for 70 years and so he went to reference the prophecies of Jeremiah and realized yes Tara Manson is going to be 70 years and he counted the sequence of years and realized that the 70 years were almost within his time and his day and so he starts praying because he had understanding of the time he was in and his prayer was specific in regard to the fulfillment of what God said through the Prophet Jeremiah Israel went into captivity in 605 BC Daniel received his revelation of inside in 538 BC that is 67 years after captivity so 67 years after captivity Daniel receives revelation from his reading of the Word of God from Jeremiah and begins to pray his prayer is an alignment with the Word of God when Daniel begins to pray the next year the children of Israel are giving permission to go back to Jerusalem and they start the process of going back so if you add one year to the 67 years they started going back in 68 years the prophecy said there will be in captivity for 70 years they actually started moving back two years earlier very important so how come God says you're going to go into captivity for 70 years but they spend 68 years because somebody had understanding of the purposes of God and his prayer was not just a mouthing of words his prayer was specific to what God had said and in the process of the prayer he shortened the captivity of Israel by two years why I will answer that later there's a second case study I want to look at in Genesis chapter 15 verse 12 to 14 Genesis chapter 15 verses 12 to 14 I want you to file Daniels episode in your mind as we read this concerns Abraham after God's eyes a covenant with Genesis 15 12 to 14 now when the Sun was going down a deep sleep fell upon Abram and behold Hara and great darkness fell upon him that simply means he fell into a trance verse 13 then he hid is Yahweh God said to Abram know certainly know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs and will serve them and they will afflict them for hundred years and also the nation whom they serve I will judge afterward they shall come up with great possessions it's generous a very profound moment when Abraham makes a sacrifice to God he falls into a trance and God speaks to him in a covenant covenantal way and he says without any shadow of doubt no certainly this is Yahweh speaking no certainly no without any shadow of that your descendants will become slaves for 400 years and after 400 years I will bring them back with great possessions so similar to what we read in Jeremiah so there is a season of slavery which is 400 years and then after that there will be liberation that's what God said to Abraham you're going to be your descendants will be there for 400 years after 400 years I will bring them back this is a dust it's not even that that says the Lord this is the Lord speaking not a prophet speaking for the Lord but the Lord speaking directly to Moses now we know that whatever God says happens if he says they're gonna be there for 400 years they will be there for 400 years but look at what happens in Exodus chapter 12 verse 40 and 41 the Bible is summarizing the years of captive of Israel and listen to how the Bible describes their captivity now the surgeon of the children of Israel who lived in Egypt was 430 years and he came to pass at the end of 430 years on that very same day it came to pass that all the armies of the Lord went out of the land of Egypt the prophecy is 400 years the experience is 430 years so in the case of Israel they prolonged their captivity in the case of Daniel he shortened the captivity so how come Daniel is able to shorten captivity from 70 years to 68 years and Israel prolongs a 400 year captivity to 430 year captivity both are responding to the Word of God in Daniels case God says is going to be 70 actual experience 68 in Ezra's case God says is going to be 400 actual experience 430 so the question is why what caused the delay and the acceleration well to understand what happened in the days of in the case of Israel we have to jump to the New Testament to have an explanation of why Israel was in captivity for 430 years instead of 400 and 400 years Acts chapter 7 verse 23 to 28 Acts chapter 7 verse 23 to 28 this is Steven speaking and and speaking to the people and if you know the the story surrounding what happened at this time Steven is under an anointing it's right after this that they stone him but he's narrating the story of Israel in a way that brings understanding to God's dealing with the land Acts chapter 7 verse 23 to 28 now in this narrative Steven is talking about Moses and I want you to listen carefully to what Stephen says he says now when he that Moses was 40 years old it came into his heart to visit his brethren the children of Israel and seeing one of them suffer wrong he defended and avenged him who was oppressed and struck down the Egyptian for he supposed that his brethren would have understood that God would deliver them by his hand but they did not understand and the next day he appeared to two of them as they were fighting and tried to reconcile them saying man you are brother why do you wrong one another but he who did his brother wrong pushed him away saying who made you a ruler and a judge over us do you want to kill me as you did the Egyptian yesterday interesting when Moses was 40 years old remember Moses has been raised as an Egyptian something done on him and told him he was a Jew and he received a burden in his heart to go visit the Jews and when he went he went with a full assurance that he was a deliverer and he believed that God has sent him to deliver the people and so he starts the delivery process when you see an Egyptian who is supposed to be your oppressor fight your oppressor on your behalf it must indicate something to you but the Bible says they did not understand so Moses had to go into captivity for 40 years if you wet the records when it dawn on Moses to go and deliver the children of Israel the first time Israel had been in captivity 390 years so 390 years got triggered the process of deliverance and he raised a most unlikely deliverer called Moses Moses goes to the people and he starts the process but they reject him and so he goes into captivity to wait another 40 years by which time he comes they had been in captivity 30 years extra not because God wanted them to be in captivity 30 years extra but they had no understanding so Daniel had understanding he chaton the process Israel lacked understanding they prolong the process just praying is not enough because if you don't have understanding of the times and seasons you live in you're gonna pray for your personal needs when God wants you to pray for a nation or a continents transformation and I believe there's a lot of fire power coming from Africa but it is misdirected fire power we are praying for a car for a shoe for socks for for clothes for a house and God wants to touch and change Nations and so although we're praying a lot our nations are corrupt underdeveloped the inconsistency in Africa is mind-blowing the most the richest natural resource continent in the world were the poorest people the most spiritually active continent in the world were the most corrupt people in the world something is not aligning right we are praying but there is no understanding so in Israel when God sent Moses he seemed an unlikely leader but I always tell people when an unlikely person starts to do likely things common sense you make you put 1 & 2 together to see that this person may not fit the bill but what if he had come to the kingdom for such a time as this you have to design the times it's not just about how long you pray not how much tongues you speak it's about whether you had understanding of the times after the Second World War you know what happened the second world war Hitler wanted to take over Europe and took over Poland Czechoslovakia you know just run route of everybody's country [Music] France almost took over the UK so after the Second World War the League of Nations of the group that preceded the League of Nations came together and signed a declaration which said in effect that nobody had a right no nation had the right to rule another nation and they made the declaration for themselves because of Hitler a little Indian man called Gandhi the document was not for him but he picked that document in 1946 1945 there about and and and read it and said by your own rule no nation has the right to rule another nation to colonize another nation based on his understanding of that document he got India independent and triggered the whole process of decolonization that affected Ghana in Nigeria and all of us it didn't happen because the British loved us it happened because one little tiny Indian understood what he was reading understood the times and understood the seasons the question you need to ask yourself is whether you understand what is going on all around you in our prayer in our fasting is their understanding faith is not the same as bravery and faith is not the same as courage faith is not the same as being brutish and inconsiderate faith is realizing what God has said and latching your heart to it and asking him to honor what he has said and recognizing the messengers he sends to help fulfill his word so that when the season of visitation comes you don't miss your day of visitation faith requires the Word of God the second thing I want to talk about regarding faith prayer and understanding happened with Abraham pastor Paul just mentioned a bit about it Abraham's life is is just amazing he is called the father of faith so if anybody knows about faith it's Abraham he knows about faith more than everybody else and the reason we call him the father of faith including everything is because of how he believed for his son Isaac and he received a promise for about 25 years and waited for that promise to become a reality but the question we always have to ask is why did Abraham's prayer delay why did it take him that God wants him to have a child that old in life could he have had his son earlier could Isaac have been born earlier I believe so and I'm going to show you from the scripture that Isaac could have been born earlier but something delayed the process for a child to be born - Isaac - to Abraham it involved Abraham and Sarah Abraham and Sarah but when God made his promise and when God spoke he spoke directly to Abraham and said I have made you the father of many nations abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness Sarah did not hear from God she believed her husband but not God and Sarah believed that her husband had a calling from God to be the father of many nations but she didn't believe that she was a part of that calling so abraham exercised faith and sarah was a bystander to that now when Sarah realized that she wasn't having a child she took her mate seventh for Abraham anytime I read where the Bible says Abraham staggered not at the promise of God I used to be confused I said but he staggered but really he didn't stagger abraham believed he was going to have a child but he didn't know that it necessarily involved Sarah and Sarah believed Abraham was going to have a child but she also didn't think it involved her so when she gave Hagar to Abraham she thought she was fulfilling prophecy because Abraham is the father so let me help him be the father so here are two people one walking in faith the other just having confidence in a man we're having a lot of that in the church people have faith in their pastors faith but not their faith in God so Genesis chapter 17 this is after Ishmael had been born from verse 15 to 19 Genesis 15 17 15 to 19 he says then God said to Abram as for Sarai your wife you shall not call her name Sarai but Sarah shall be her name and I'll bless her and also give you a son by her and I'll bless her and she shall be a mother of Nations kings of people shall come from her then Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said in his heart shall a child be born to a man who is 100 years old and shall Sarah who is 90 years old bear a child and Abraham said to God all that Ishmael might live before you God said no Sarah your wife shall bear you a son and you shall call his name Isaac I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant and with his descendants after him so God made Abraham know that his promise required Sarah there were no shortcuts Abraham had already believed God so Abraham was not important at least the experiment worked Haga came and didn't take long and she was pregnant and when abraham was 125 years old he married cateura and had six boys the guy didn't have problems because his problem was solved the bible says abraham believed god and god touch his body so at a certain point in Abraham's life he believed God God went with him and he became capable of producing a child his wife on the other hand is trusting that Abraham's faith will work for both of them so Sarah is coasting along nothing is happening coasting along nothing is happening now Abraham comes to God and says God I think we can settle this in a nice way I have Ishmael here I think you can work with him he's a boy too he's my son God says good try good effort but what I intend to bless is gonna come from Sarah so at this point Abraham realized there's no shortcut now Genesis chapter 18 they have a visitation from God Genesis 18 verse 9 to 15 this is when the angel of the Lord came to their home and they said to him where is Sarah your wife so he said here in the tent and he said I will certainly return to you according to the time of life and behold Sarah your wife shall have a son Sarah was not was listening in the tent door which was behind him now Abraham and Sarah were old well advanced in age and Sarah had passed the age of childbearing when the Bible uses repetition to say something it means describing how serious the situation is they are old well advanced in age and past the age of such a bear that just just to make you know that that's a bad case verse 12 therefore Sara laughed within herself remember Abraham to loved alia both of them are laughing they think this can happen therefore Sarah laughs within herself saying after I have grown grown old shall I have pleasure my lord being old also and the Lord said to Abraham why did Sarah laugh saying surely shall I bears child since I'm old is anything too hard for the Lord at the appointed time I'll return to you according to the time of life and Sarah have a son a son but Sir denied is saying I did not love for she was afraid and he said no no but you laugh he did love now let me just explain something Sarah's laughter was not just for having a child he says she loved because he says can I have pleasure being old so she's thinking of the process and it's it's it's ridiculous she says we haven't gone through this process for a very long time and I can see it happening so she's laughing because nothing happens but this is the first time Sara heard that she was gonna have a child from God this is the first time she heard from God herself not Abraham coming to say well I was I was out then and Yahweh said you I will have a child no this is no secondhand revelation this is a direct word from God faith comes by hearing and hearing the Word of God this is the first time the Sarah had directly from God now you say well what does it prove now we always have to go to the New Testament go to the New Testament so go to Hebrews chapter 11 verse 8 to 12 Hebrews chapter 11 verse 8 to 12 and this is what it says by faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out of the place which he would receive as an inheritance and he went out not knowing where he was going by faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob the heirs with him of the same promise for he waited for the city which has foundations whose builder and maker is God verse 11 by faith Sara herself also received strength to conceive seed and she bought a child when she was past the age because she judged him faithful who had promised now the verse 11 is very interesting because there is repetition there it says by faith Sara herself now the Bible could just have said by faith Sara but it says Sara herself in other words so Sara has faith not but not by herself she believes Abraham will would have a child Abraham is the one and the promise but by faith herself also also means in addition to so prior to that what was happening Sarah had faith but in Abraham but not in Yahweh and it wasn't her personal faith but on her 90th birthday she had a visitation from the Lord and she had a direct word from God and she has so believed also and the Bible says the reason she believed is because she judged him faithful who had promised when did that moment happen it happened on her 90th birthday what if she had done that her 80th birthday or 70 or 60 or fortieth or 30th the child would have been born long ago God was not pushing them to ridiculous extent God just wanted them to believe by themselves that he would do what he says he would do and if they didn't get to that point of faith nothing was gonna happen if she didn't believe that she was going to live for 120 years 150 years until the promise could find faith [Applause] God is not a cruel capricious deity the gods of the Greeks and the Romans they play faith with people's lives they test people they they make people suffer for nothing they play games and zingers who say can you do this and this one say I can do that and then human beings are pawns we are not pawns in God's game he's not capricious on thinking on feeling God he doesn't mess up with our feelings and our thoughts God has great concern for us but whoever comes to him must first believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him for without faith it is impossible to please so if God say if you're sick and God says I'm gonna heal you and you come to me your posture you say pastor pray for me I believe they are noin ting is on you what you are doing actually is you are postponing your healing past I believe they are launching sore knee if you lay hands on me past I believe you I'll be healed I pray for you and you go you know heal because God will not share his glory with man you have to believe yourself and judge him faithful that faithful is he who has promised who also would do it you know these days people believe in the laying on of hands of a man of God than the word of God you know many times I see people sometimes in the airport they need up lay hands on me I will oblige you oh yeah I'll lay hands yeah that's what you won't get it but you can have a thousand hands laid on you and still your life will be moving in circles it's not my anointing it his promise the book of ads after the man who was at a beautiful gate has been healed people are watching on Peter says why do you look at us as if we did it by her own strength he says this man who stands here has been you through faith by faith through faith in the name of Jesus we have to believe God for our selves thank God for pastors but they are not mediators there is only one mediator between God and man that is Jesus my job is to point you to him so that your faith will not rest in me but your faith will rest in him Sara herself believed God but it had taken her a long time to get to that point including getting hair made to the husband such a desperate Act which craze has created a problem that we can solve because the woman couldn't believe that God could use her herself so what have I said about faith it's not just about prayer understanding there has to be spiritual discernment of the times and seasons we live in how do you know the times and seasons you live in when there's preponderance of evidence indicating something happening that shouldn't be happening when you see God raise people to defend you who used to fight you when your enemy begins to speak well of you don't doubt what God is doing because he's going to use unlikely people to do your bidding God rules in the offense of men and sometimes he uses people we wish he wouldn't use but when people you never thought would be on your side on your side and you see the same thing happen once twice three times God is telling you something and if you don't embrace that visitation in your life you can prolong your suffering you have to discern the times if you put your faith in another man and you don't trust in him yourself you will prolong your suffering he wants us to care to the point where it's not about who is preaching it's about who is there Jesus when I see people running for anointing you know these days it's amazing what Chris Christians believe in olive oil made in Italy then the Word of God olive oil you go to people's home they have all kinds of oils anointing for warfare anointing for marriage anointing for promotion when he's going for interview he picks a little oil smears it on himself drinks a little of the oil it will help your cholesterol it'll bit when you drink it but where it's faith in God in all these bottles where it's faith in God in all these handkerchiefs where it's faith in God in all those talking's you carrying in your pocket that somebody bless for you to keep where it's faith in God no wonder you go in circles and circles or next time you hear somebody's more anointed you go for more anointing more anointing more anointing more anointing more anointing stop running after the anointing look to Jehovah trust in him take his word go to him by faith yourself not your pastors faith we will pray for you I pray for you as much as I can but I also have things I need my faith to work on oh yeah I have to have stuff I'm believing God for and believe between my stuff and your stuff you can be sure my stuff will be number one so you believe God yourself believe him yourself he hears you he loves you he sent Jesus to die for you and if he gave you Jesus how much more who he not with him also give you often as we begin this conference on faith I pray that your faith were resting Christ on Christ the solid rock all other grounds sinking on Christ the soul and I pray that God will grant you understanding of the times and seasons that were living god bless you [Applause]

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Length: 46min 42sec (2802 seconds)

Published: Sat May 28 2016