♪ (Music playing) ♪ Good morning, class. Welcome to Faith School. I'm Keith Moore, and Faith
School is the place where our faith is fed, our spirit grows
stronger, and we learn how to be overcomers which is God's plan
for every believer, every child of God. There's no such thing as
God-ordained failure and defeat. God has not ordained that some
of us be, you know, sick and defeated, broke and defeated,
confused and defeated, while others live great and good
lives. That's just not true. Jesus took our place and took
all of the judgment for our sins and mistakes. He became sin with our sin. He took our infirmities, and
bore our sicknesses, and carried our pains. The chastisement of our peace
was on Him. He even became poor for us, so
why? So that we could be free from
all of those things. We could be made righteous. We could be made healed and
whole. We could have peace. We could have joy. Faith School is the place to
come get our faith built up so that we can rise up and lay hold
of what the Lord has already bought and paid for. So we've saved you a seat, got
it right here ready for you. Get your Bible. Get something to take notes
with, and come right on in and join us. And let's pray and release faith
for His will to be done today in our faith growing. "Father, in Jesus' name, we join
together, all of us, reaching out in faith, laying hold of
revelation, of nourishing words, of that thing, and those things
that will bring us up to the next place in You that pleases
You. And we know that our enjoying
Your blessing pleases You, our enjoying victory pleases You,
and we thank You for it. We praise You for it. We say we will be doers of your
Word, not forgetful hearers or hearers only. In Jesus' name, amen." Thank You, Lord. Turn please in the Textbook
again today to Scripture we've been looking at all this week,
Hebrews 11:1. Then also looking at Hebrews the
tenth chapter leading up to this passage. In Hebrews 11:1 says, "Now faith
is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not
seen," or as the Young's Literal says, "Faith is of things hoped
for a confidence, of matters not seen a conviction." Confidence. If we back up to the
thirty-fifth verse in Hebrews ten, Hebrews 10:35 says, "Cast
not away therefore your confidence, which has great
recompense of reward." Verse thirty-eight says, "Now
the just shall live by faith: if any man draw back, my soul shall
have no pleasure in him." That goes right along with 11:6,
"Without faith it's impossible to please Him," because faith is
confident. And drawing back and pulling
back is not faith and not pleasing to God. The only way you can be
confident is to be sure. How can you be sure? Well, faith comes by hearing,
and as we've studied in previous classes, hearing by the anointed
spoken Word. If you'll let it, God's anointed
Word will free you from your fears and doubts. When you hear what He has said,
it should settle our spirit and mind about what His will is. It should cause us to stop
questioning and guessing and wondering and wavering and be
forever settled because His Word is forever settled. Let's go with-go with me please
again to First John, Scripture that we wound up looking at on
yesterday's class. First John, second chapter, and
the 20th verse. First John 2:20, it says, "But
you have an unction," or that word could be translated
"anointing," "from the Holy One, and you know all things." You have an anointing. Go to Romans 8:14 and our
wonderful assistant on the chalkboard will write it for us. Romans 8:14 describes how this
works. It talks about, "As many as are
led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God." When you talk about the Holy
One, that's the same person, the Spirit of God. And verse fourteen, "As many as
are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God." Sons of God, that's male and
female, can and should expect to be led by the Spirit of God. Not led by all of the external
things that so many people are looking to. God gave us a mind. He wants us to think, but we're
not supposed to be led by our understanding or by our
reasoning. Do you remember Proverbs 3:5
that said, "Trust in the Lord with all of your heart; and lean
not to your understanding?" Well, why trust in the Lord with
all of your heart? We've learned in previous
classes, that's the part of our being we have faith. That's the part of our being we
believe with. "With the heart man believes,"
Romans says. So use your mind, use your
understanding, but when it comes time to make the decision, don't
trust in your reasoning, your understanding. Trust in what you're getting in
your heart. Trust in the Lord with all of
your heart. Well back to Romans 8:14, "As
many as are led by the Spirit of God," well, where is the Spirit
of God? He dwells inside us in the inner
man. It said "They're the sons of
God." Verse 15, "You've not received
the spirit of bondage again to fear; but you've received the
Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father." Timothy said, "God didn't give
us a spirit of fear but of power, and love, and a sound
mind." You could say it like this, "Be
led by the Spirit of God, not by the spirit of fear." And that is-that's such an
important lesson to learn. If you're led by fear, you can
wind up with the enemy leading you, and that's not the Spirit
of God leading you. Well, where's the enemy going to
lead you? He's going to lead you into
destruction. He's going to lead you into
failure. Fear, we've all experienced it,
anything from a mild dread to an out-and-out panic attack is all
the same spirit of fear, just different degrees of the evil
stuff. Just as a boy, the Lord
quickened to me and helped me from all the Scripture I knew. I was going through a situation,
I remember, as a young boy that scared me, that bothered me. Fear was there. I didn't know what to do about
it, but the Spirit of God was leading me without me even
realizing. He brought to my remembrance
Psalm 23 that said, "Yea though I walk through the valley of the
shadow of death, I will fear no evil." And before I had learned
anything about faith or confession or any of those
things, I just started saying that not knowing why I was
saying it. I just begin to say, "Yea though
I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no
evil. I will fear no evil." And the moment I begin saying
that, fear left me and strength and confidence came to me. Well, without realizing it, the
Spirit of God was telling me as a boy, "Don't follow fear. Follow Me. And follow the Spirit of peace
inside you. Follow the Spirit of grace and
goodness." Now, in Romans 8:16, we're given
detail as to how the Spirit leads us. It says, "The Spirit
itself"-actually a lot of modern translations will say "Himself,"
and that's more accurate because the Spirit is not an it. You know, you wouldn't want us
to refer to you coming to class and say, "Did they come to
class?" And they say, "I think it's
here. I think, yeah, there it is." No, you don't want to be
referred to as an "it." Don't refer to the Holy Spirit
as an "it" either. He. Jesus referred to the Holy
Spirit as He. He will teach you. He will guide you. He will show you things to come. He'll bring things to your
remembrance. "The Spirit Himself bears
witness with," what part of our being? "Our spirit, that we are the
children of God." Now, I really believe this will
help us in class today. This witness, you could also
refer to it as that same thing we're talking about in 1st John
2:20, the anointing, the unction. And the unction that causes us
to know everything we need to know, and the witness of the
Spirit that leads us is a knowing. Knowing. Does that that word sound
familiar with what we've been talking about? Knowing is confidence is faith. And that shouldn't be surprising
that the Lord is going to lead us into faith. He's going to guide us into this
confident, fully persuaded, full assurance knowing. Look at a couple of examples of
this, New Testament examples, in the book of Acts, with a great
example of faith and being led, Brother Paul. Paul, the apostle, who gave us,
the Lord through him, gave us so much of new testament revelation
in the form of the epistles and the writings of the New
Testament. How did he function? How did he operate? How did Paul, for one thing, how
did he know where to preach? How did he know where to go and
when and what to do? We know you're supposed to live
by faith and walk by faith. We know you can't separate that
from hearing from God because faith comes by hearing. We know the Spirit causes us to
know and leads and guides us. You see a perfect example of
that in the book of Acts. If you'd turn there with me,
book of Acts chapter 16. Acts chapter 16, in the
infallible Textbook for faith class and Faith School. Acts chapter 16, the Scripture
said that Paul and his company were looking for where to preach
next, and it says in verse 6, Acts 16:6, "When they had gone
throughout Phrygia and the region of Galatia, and were
forbidden of the Holy Spirit to preach the Word in Asia." Forbidden of the Holy Spirit. Now, how did they know that? The Great Commission of the
church in Mark 16 is to "go into all the world and preach the
gospel, proclaim the good news." Well, then, if the if the Great
Commission is "go into all the world and preach the gospel,"
then it ought to be, you know, good to go anywhere and preach
the gospel anytime. Right? Apparently not, because Paul and
his company were apparently looking at going into that part
of Asia and preaching the Word, but the Holy Spirit forbade
them. Why? Well, the Great Commission is to
the church, the whole church. "Go into all the world and
preach the gospel to every creature," but a single
individual is not going to be able to accomplish that. I mean, you, you can't go
everywhere in the world and preach to everybody, everything
in the Word of God. So with our limited time, if you
live a hundred years, that's going to go by really fast. And part of that was growing up,
and part of it sleeping, and part of its eating. Right? So our remaining time that we
have to do things like this have Faith School are precious hours,
are precious minutes. And so where should we do it? How did I know, and Phyllis and
I know that to do this, to do Faith School? Why aren't we doing something
else during this time with our time and strength and money? The only way to get it right for
any of us on any given day is to hear from Him and to be led by
the Spirit. It goes on to say that in verse
seven, "After they were come to Mysia, they assayed to go to
Bithynia, but the Spirit suffered them not." So here's another place they,
they know, don't go there right now. Don't try to preach there right
now. "Passing by Mysia they came to
Troas. A vision appeared to Paul in the
night; There stood a man of Macedonia, prayed him, saying,
Come over into Macedonia, and help us. After he had seen that dream,
immediately, that vision, we endeavored to go to Macedonia." Verse 10 do you see this this
language? "Assuredly gathering that the
Lord had called us to preach the gospel to them." And so they went to Macedonia. Can you see no matter how it
comes, whether it's a witness, whether it's a quickening from
Scripture, whether it's dream, a vision, the result is that now
you know? Oh did you see that, class? Now you know. They were wondering, even a
great man, a spiritual man like Paul. Until you have that knowing,
that confidence, you don't have the direction of the Spirit. And until you have that knowing,
that this is the will of God, you can't do it in faith. If you can't do it in faith, you
can't please God, you can't do it in power, you can't do it in
victory, you can't overcome. We must have that knowing, that
unction of the Holy One that causes us to know all things. Phyllis and I in the ministry,
we've seen that thing after thing. You know, there came a point
where we believed we should start a church. Where? The U.S. Is a big place. The world is a big place, right? Where? Where? And it took some time of seeking
and looking, and there were a time or two we thought, well,
maybe over here and even looked over there, but you know the
Spirit forbade us. And then we thought well, what
about over here? And the Spirit suffered us not,
but then eventually, there was something came up, and the more
we looked at that, the more we just knew, and the more we
prayed about it, the more we knew. And we got to a place of
settled, knowing. Oh, come on, can you see this? And when you get to that place,
not only have you heard from the Lord, not only do you have
direction, but because you've heard from Him, you've got
faith. That knowing is confidence, and
when you do it in faith, the resources of God will confirm
it, hallelujah. And it'll please the Lord. It'll please Him. This is how Paul operated. We've got the same Holy Spirit
he had leading us and guiding us. Go with me over to the book of
Philippians and notice this. This is such a tremendous thing
here. Both of these are so good, but
this is how Paul lived. You believe Paul lived by faith,
don't you? Walked by faith, pleased God. You know he did. So much of what we've learned
about it came through his writings. But in Philippians one, Paul is
near the end of his life and the end of his ministry, and he
begins to talk about the saints at Philippi who were strong
partners of his. Toward the end of the book, he
brings up them giving to him repeatedly when nobody else did. The Philippian church loved
Brother Paul and were hooked with him, but he said in
Philippians, let me get it right here, the first chapter, and the
about the twenty-first verse. He had talked about in verse 20
about, well I need to read verse 20. "According to my earnest
expectation and hope, that in nothing I'll be ashamed, but
that with all boldness," we know that's a faith word, "as always,
now Christ will be magnified in my body, whether it be by life,
or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and
to die is gain. But if I live in the flesh, this
is the fruit of my labor: yet what I shall choose I wot not,"
or I know not. You can say it like this, "I
don't know which one I will choose." Which one what? Whether I will stay or whether I
will go. Now, there's a whole lot of
people to jump on this and go are you kidding Paul? When your time comes, you're
going, and it's not up to you. Well, apparently, he didn't know
that, and apparently of the Holy Spirit inspiring him didn't know
that. So you need to forget it. No, we have more to do with
these things than people have imagined. He said, "Which one? Whether I stay and live a while
longer, or whether I go on to be with the Lord, which is far
better than being here." He said, "I don't know which
one?" So, all of us, I don't care if
you're Paul, all of us, are at times where we don't know, but
we can't stay there. We've got to get to the place
where we do know, where we're settled. How do you get there? He said, "I'm in a strait
betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ;
which is far better. Nevertheless, to abide in the
flesh is more needful for you." He said, "You know I've been
ministering for years now, for decades, and I've been looking
forward to going and seeing Jesus, going and being with the
Lord." And he said, "I want you to
know, going to be with the Lord is way, way better than being
here." How many believe it is? It's way better than being here. He said, "But I think about you,
and when I think about you, you know, you need help and I know I
can help you. And if I stay in the flesh, in
my body, if I live a while longer, I can help you. And it's needful to help you." So can you see even when he's
writing a letter he's going, "Do I stay? Or do I go? Do I stay? Or do I go?" You see that when he was in the
book of Acts, "Do I preach over here? I do I preach over there?" Before he can do it in faith,
what has to happen, class? He has to get settled to where
he knows, right? This, "Hope so. Don't know. We'll see. Maybe so." That don't cut it. You've got to get-before you can
get in faith, which is the key to victory and everything,
you've got to get settled to where you can say, "I know. I know it's the will of God for
us to just go over there and preach." And when you know that, and you
step out by faith to do it, God's going to be with you. The Spirit of God is going to
help you, guide you. His angels are going to protect
you. He's going to deal with you
people to support you. I mean, it's going to be a
success, but going off not knowing, not sure, "Well, we'll
try it and see," that's how disasters happen. Notice how he, the very next
verse, he said, back up to verse 23, "To depart and be with
Christ is far better," you might say, "for me. Nevertheless, to stay in the
flesh a while longer is needful for you. And having this," what? Have we been working on this all
week? Having this what? Confidence, and what's the next
two words? "I know." Can we see he's hearing from the
Lord here? "Having this confidence, I
know," that what's going to happen? "I'm going to stay. I'm going to abide and continue
with you all for your furtherance and joy of faith." Paul is a faith man. He is the faith preacher. He said, "I preached the Word of
faith." Is that right? In Romans 10. And he told us-he's the one who
told us how faith comes, by hearing. He's the one who told us by the
Spirit of God that we're led by the Spirit, and here he is
making-is this an important decision? "Do I go now to be with the
Lord? Or do I stay a while?" This is big stuff. How are we going to make the big
decisions in our life? Exactly the same way. We put our nose in this Book. We pray in the Spirit. We commune with God. And when we think about doing
this and check the Witness, and we think about doing the other
and check the Witness. And when we don't have a
Witness, and the Spirit of God's not causing us to know, we don't
do that thing because we're not settled and we don't know. But if we keep looking at it,
and we keep feeding on the Scriptures about it, and we keep
praying about it, and praying in the Spirit, that thing that is
the will of God will begin to stand out to us. And we'll begin to be more and
more sure about it until that confidence rises up in our
Spirit, and we have a knowing by that Holy One, by that
anointing, by that unction. We know everything we need to
know at the time and place that we need to know it. And when we stand up like he
just did here and we say, "Okay, I got it. I've got it. I'm not going to get to go to be
with the Lord right now. I'm going to stay with you my
faith class. I'm going to stay with you my
church at Philippi and Ephesus and on and on. I'm going to stay with you. I have this confidence, and I
know it, hallelujah." That's faith. Say it out loud like we do: "I
walk by faith. I live by faith. I overcome the world by faith. I'm strong in faith, giving
glory to God, hallelujah." That's a good class for today,
praise God. The class-that's our time for
now, but if you would stay put, I'm going to come back in just a
minute and talk to you about partnership. Hi friends, thank you for
staying. We've been talking about Paul
and his partners at Philippi. And you'll note that he talked
to them about provision in the end of the fourth chapter. I'll just read a couple of
verses. He said, "You have well done,
that you did communicate with my affliction. You Philippians know, in the
beginning of the Gospel, no church communicated with me as
concerning giving and receiving, but you only. Even in Thessalonica you sent
once and again to my necessity. Not because I desire a gift: but
I desire fruit that may abound to your account." Then he told them later, he
said, "My God will supply all your need according to His
riches in glory by Christ Jesus." All of our classes, all of our
ministry resources, all the teaching and preaching, music,
everything's available through the ministry at no charge to
those that receive it. That's because of the
faithfulness of our God and the faithfulness of all the people
that He deals with to sow into this. We call our partners "Word
Senders." If these things are valuable to
you and have benefitted you, and you're glad you don't have to
pay for them to receive them, if you want to, you can become a
Word Sender Partner. There's information there on
your screen. You can contact the ministry, or
go online, and you can become a part of sending these truths and
sending Faith School to other people all over the world. And the Lord said, "Those that
honor me, I will honor." And like Paul said to them,
"You've given to me repeatedly and you can count on this, my
God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory
by Christ Jesus." And that'll be true with you and
I as well. Thank you for becoming a part.
