(Music starts)
♪ The Word is working
mightily in me ♪ ANNOUNCER>> Welcome to the Concepts of Faith Broadcast. This program is dedicated to teaching you how to put the Word of God to work so that it will make a positive difference in the everyday circumstances of your life. (Music) CHARLES CAPPS>> Welcome to the Concepts of Faith broadcast where we are going to be talking about something I believe you will be interested in. We're going to be talking about how to believe God. Now, you know I was raised in a full gospel church. From a teenager, in fact, I guess from 5, 6 or 8 on up. I always knew that you ought to believe God and everybody always said that you ought to have faith. But you know, I don't remember anybody ever teaching on how to believe God. Have you ever thought about it? How do you believe God? You know, do you just wake up some morning thinking, you know, I just feel like believing God. No. That's not the way it works. There is a pattern established in the word of God and faith cometh by hearing the word of God and the word must abide in you. I want us to go to Matthew 21 and I want to read what Jesus said, and if you have your Bible, you ought to get it out and look at it. Jesus has just cursed the fig tree, now that meant he spoke words to it, and said, "No man will eat fruit from you hereafter forever". The thing withered and died and the next day they came back by and the disciples asked him about it. We will start with verse 21, "Jesus answered and said unto them, Verily I say unto you, If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done." Now that sounds almost unreasonable, or, it does, at least to the religious head but now notice Jesus goes on and goes a step further, verse 22, "And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive". Now what an awesome statement that is. All things that you can believe, that is based on the authority of the Word of God, you can have it. If you ask it in prayer. Now, actually, when you study the principle of this, it goes beyond prayer. Because when you get over into Mark 11:23-24 it talks about whosoever shall say to the mountain, or the problem area, be removed, be cast into the sea, shall not doubt in his heart but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass. He shall have whatsoever he saith. Now what does it mean to believe God? The scripture tells us that the apostle Paul reveals to us in Romans 10:17 that faith cometh by hearing the word of God. Faith in God comes by hearing the word of God. So we know then we have to hear the word of God to believe God. See, somebody said, "I'm just trusting God". Have you ever stopped to just think about what you've said if you've said that or what someone else meant when they said that? If someone says, "Well, I'm just going to believe God". Well, what are they going to believe about God. Or if they say, "We're trusting God". That means they are going to trust his word because that's the way that we believe God. We release our faith in what he said in his word, in the written word of God. Now, when he says all things, whatsoever you ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive". That means that you are only limited by what you believe based on the authority of the word of God. If you can find authority in the word for it, a promise for it, in the word of God, or the fact that it's already accomplished fact, then if you can believe it, you can have it. But, if you can't believe it, you can't have it. Because faith cometh by hearing and when you hear you understand and you conceive and perceive. Actually, it's through the eye of faith that there is an image created inside us. You have to live out the reality on the inside. You have to see the image. Let me say it this way: You have to have the image of the fulfillment of the promise on the inside before you live out the reality of it on the outside. Now, number 1, I've got about 9 points I want to deal with here. Number 1) Do I want to know the truth. That's the first thing you have to consider if you want to believe God and if you are going to believe his word. Ask yourself; Do I want to know the truth? Now, I've met some folks in my time, I've had them to write my ministry office and start saying a lot of things about criticizing something that I said on the broadcast. They say, "Now, here is the way we believe". They believed it a whole lot different than what I did and we both had the same Bible. But they would actually take a scripture that was a faith scripture and preach unbelief out of it; or a healing scripture and preach sickness and disease out of it. Some of these people just simply been taught wrong. Some of them are willing to change but I've run on to a few that were not willing to change. They did not want to know the truth. It was kind of like the fellow said, you know, they are thoroughly mixed up and firmly set, they are like concrete. They are thoroughly mixed up and firmly set and they don't want to change. They really don't want you confusing them with the facts of the word of God. They have been indoctrinated. I remember something T.L. Osborn said years ago, I've never forgotten it, he said, "When people get indoctrinated, they quit thinking". That is the truth. Some people indoctrinated with what their doctrine teaches, or what their church teaches as doctrine. Well, is it the truth? Do you want to know the truth? Now, the Bible tells us how to know the truth. Jesus gives us that information in John 8, the Jews that believed in him, he said to them, "If you continue in my word, then you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free". Now notice he said, if you continue in the word. You have to continue to meditate the word of God and deal with the word of God to know the truth. And then, when you know the truth, you have to make a decision that you are going to believe the truth. So, first of all, find out what the truth is. Now what you have been taught in a religious setting and what some indoctrination has taken place might not be the truth. You understand what I'm talking about. I mean, I don't mean that people are just deliberately teaching something wrong but if they misunderstood it, didn't have the whole thing together, then you may have been in the position where you didn't know the truth. Now, I've heard people say, "Well, you know the Bible says". And when they say, "You know the Bible says". About fifty percent of the time you are going to hear something that the Bible didn't say at all. You have to determine whether it is the truth or whether it is not the truth. So, number 1) If you want to believe God, first of all, find out what the truth is. Because to believe God you have to believe his word. If you are going to trust God, you trust his word. So you are going to have to go back to this book, the Bible, and find out what the word of God said about whatever it is you are going to believe God about. Then number 2) Ask yourself this question: Is that truth valid for me today. Now you see, you find some things under the old covenant that is not valid under the new covenant today. You know, for instance, the apostle Paul said in Romans 3, he said, "There's none righteous, no, not one". Well, now, he was quoting an Old Testament scripture. We know that under the old covenant and that Paul said later in his writing in the book of Romans, if there could have been a law given that would have brought forth righteousness then righteousness would have been by the law. But we know that the old law passed away. There was something better. It's the new covenant. The new covenant is better than the old covenant. So then, what Paul said in Romans 3, he was quoting an Old Testament scripture. When you come down a few versus, I think it's verse 19, he said, "And we know that whatsoever the law saith, it saith to them that are under the law that every mouth might be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God". So he reveals the intent of what is said there. So, when you consider what the word said, or what somebody said the word said, go to the Bible and find out if that's really what it said. And then discover, is it valid for me today? Is there a time that it passed away? Now you get all kinds of opinions on things. You hear people say, "Well, you know, Jesus used to heal in his ministry but you see healing went away when the last apostle died". No, I can't find that in the word of God anywhere. It's still happening today. You know, it's a finished work at Calvary, it's a finished work. You're healing is paid for. Jesus doesn't have to suffer one more stripe for you to be healed. So, the scripture tells us in Hebrews that Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever. So if he ever healed, he is still healing today through the word of God and through your faith in his word and faith in what he said in his word. So it is important to know what the truth is. And the other part is, find out if it is valid for today. Now I want us to go to Psalms 89:34, says, "My covenant will I not break, nor altar the things that have gone out of my lip, once I have sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David. His seed shall endure forever, his throne as the sun before me, it shall be established forever as the moon and as a faithful witness in the heavens". When God makes a decision to do something he does it that way. When his word is out, my covenant, I will not break, nor alter the things that have gone out of my lips. So when you find in this covenant, in the new covenant, the things that the scripture says, then you can rest assured, then you can bank on that. It's going to happen that way if you believe it. If you act on the authority of the word of God. It has to be based on the authority of the word of God. Remember Jesus said, "all things whatsoever you ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive". Now, we go over here and find that Abraham, in Romans 4, you find that Abraham, the scripture says Abraham believed God and it was imputed to him for righteousness. Now, you know that Abraham didn't just wake up some morning just feeling like believing God and just decide I'm going to believe God and the promised child was born. It was a process. God spoke to him, he had the promise for 11 years, no manifestation of the promise. When God appeared to him, he said, "What will you give me, seeing I go childless?" God had given him a promise that he would be, multitude would come from him, that he would bless all the nations of the world and he was 75 years old at the time and his wife was barren and didn't, he didn't have a child. But, he had the promise of God. God appeared to him and he said, "What will you give me seeing I go childless?" He still saw himself childless. Now here is a point that I want you to get a hold of: When you have a promise in the word of God, you meditate that promise. If it's something you're believing God for, find out what God said about it. Don't just take somebody else's word for it because some folks will talk you out of believing God or believing his word. Find out what the word says because it's important. You can't possibly believe or act in faith or pray in faith if you don't know the will of God concerning what you are praying about. It's important to know the truth. And if you know the truth, then decide if it's valid for today and, of course, you get into this New Testament, you find out what is valid under the new covenant. Some things passed away under the old covenant, that's right. But under this new covenant, we are living under better promises, established on better promises and Jesus is the guarantee that it will work. So, Abraham, or Abram, his name was before, Abram was 99 years old and still didn't have the promised child. God appeared to him. Now, he had, had the promise for 24 years, from the time he was 75, no manifestation of the promise, God appeared to him when he was 99 years old and said I have made you the father of many nations. Notice, past tense, he has God's word for it. Now, one thing I want to point out about it; Abram had God's word for it from the time he was 75 years old but he wasn't able to conceive it in his spirit and see it because he said to God, when he appeared to him in the 15th chapter, "What will you give me, seeing I go childless". He couldn't see himself with the promise manifest in his life. So, if you can't see it, you can't have it. Now, we know the scripture says that the inference of the word bringeth life. Why is it we can't see some things in the scripture? Because we don't have enough light. I hear people saying, "Well, now, you know, Brother Capps, I just can't see this healing business". Well, you won't be bothered with it more than likely because you have to see it and understand it. You have to conceive it and know that it's true from the scripture to enter into it. It comes by faith. Faith is how we access the promises of God. So here's Abram, 99 years old, God changes his name to Abraham. Now he must tell everyone that my name is Abraham and that meant: father of multitudes or father of nations. So, all the people worked for him said, "Oh, Abraham, where do you want to put the well? Abraham, where do you want to put the sheep, where do you want to dig the well. How many times do you suppose that he heard his name called? He's hearing father of nations, father of nations, father of nations. The point I want to drive home to you is the fact that by the confession of his mouth is what caused Abraham to believe God. What you speak you tend to believe. That's the reason you shouldn't speak things that you don't believe or the things that are contrary to the word of God. Find out what the word of God says about it. Just say what God said about it until faith comes because that's what faith is. Faith is believing that what God said is truth. It releases the divine energy of God that is resonant in the word in you. So you believe God by determining what is the truth, making a decision that, is that valid for today, is that truth valid for today. Then, count the cost of believing God. Jesus himself said, "No man would start to build a tower unless he would sit down to count the cost". Well, you count the cost of believing God, then you count the cost of believing the devil. You find out that it is much easier to believe God than the devil because you don't have any Bible for believing the devil. You have all this word of God for believing God's word because he won't altar the thing that has come out of his mouth. It's valid in this new covenant and it's valid for every believer. It belongs to you. 2nd Peter 1, Peter says, "God has already given to us all things that pertain to life and Godliness through the knowledge of him that called us to glory and virtue. And here is the way he did it: through the exceeding great and precious promises. That by these you might be partakers of the divine nature. So you make a decision to believe God based on the authority of the word. Count the cost of believing God and believing the devil. Now over in Psalms 105 there is an interesting scripture here. Verse 19 speaking of Joseph it says, "Until the time that his word came. The word of the Lord tried him". Now you remember the story of Joseph. He had the dream and he saw his brothers bowing down to him and he saw all of these things that God revealed in that vision. It was a word of the Lord for Joseph and he believed it and he thought everybody would be as excited about his revelation as he was. Boy was he surprised. I mean he told it to his brothers and they got all upset about it and bent out of shape and finally threw him in a well and you know, killed a goat and put blood on it and told his Dad he died. Then sold him into Egypt and it says the word of the Lord tried him. I mean, he believed the word of the Lord that came in that vision. But that word, tried him, that means that he had to hold onto that word and not let go of that promise of God that was given to him. Now, you see, in Hebrews 10, we find a scripture that says, "Let us hold fast to the profession of our faith without wavering". Now the word profession means confession. In other words, hold fast to your confession of faith. If you're confessing the word of God, you find the word of God, hold fast to it. Now why do we want to hold fast to it? Because you don't want to lose it. The indication is that if you don't hold fast to it, you might lose it. Somebody may talk you out of it and by telling you, "Well, you know, brother so and so believed that way. He trusted God and he died with an ingrown toenail", or something as foolish, you know. Well I'm sorry about brother so and so but you see we are determining what the word said, going to believe the word rather than somebody else's experience. We don't know what brother so and so believed. We don't know whether he acted on the word of God or not. So, if you are going to believe God, you make a decision to hold fast to the confession of faith when you find the word of God. Now here is Joseph, he's put in jail there in Egypt for something that he didn't do and it says the word of the Lord tried him. Boy, I'll tell you, when you get a hold of this word and go to standing on it, there will be some trials of your faith. They are not sent of God. God knows this stuff works. Jesus is the Author and the Finisher of our faith so he's not the one trying you. Who was trying him? It was the enemy and the circumstances that he was put in that were trying him. The word of the Lord tried him. In other words, the word was there and that word said the same thing and was he still going to believe the word when he was in the well and it looked like none of it was going to come to pass. Is he still going to believe God when he is thrown in jail for something he didn't do? Now, you know, we know what Jesus said but sometimes we get all upset because somebody said something wrong about us, or somebody misunderstood something that happened and falsely accused us of some things and people get all depressed. But you know Jesus said, "Rejoice and be exceedingly glad" when they accuse you of something you didn't do. So just get all excited and get happy about it. Now, I know it's easier to say than it is to do but that's what the word says to do. So, Joseph just stayed steadfast on what that, he just kept that word before him and you know the story. They finally brought him out of prison and made him the head over everything in Egypt and it was God's way of bringing his family to Egypt where there was plenty. And you see, God had a million ways to get him there and get him to be ruler over Egypt without having him thrown in the well by the renegade brothers, you know. That wasn't God's purpose and wasn't God's plan but you see, God got in on the scene and caused this thing to work out for good. And you see this happen many times in the scripture. Now, number 4) Be willing to do what you must do to set it in motion or to act on the word of God. Now, in Luke 6:38, I call it Jesus 6:38, it says, "Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom". Now, we know that there's more to it than that. That's just part of it. It says, "Judge not lest ye be judged and condemn not and you will not be condemned". So, you see, you have to make a decision to do whatever it takes to get this promise to work in your life. Be obedient to the word of God. Give and it shall be given. Now, you see, most of the time we take that as giving to the church, giving to the ministry or whatever. But, now, that would include other things. It would include giving to the poor, it would include giving to your neighbor, and it would include giving to somebody that had a need. So, you see, we must validate these things according to the word of God. And when you give, now this is a law, a universal law of the word of God, is give and you will receive. If you give love you receive love. You give out strife and you are going to get in strife and you are going to have strife. You walk in love and the blessings of God will be upon you. You have to avoid strife at all costs and be a doer of the word of God. You really have to make a decision to believe God. Number 5) Make a decision to believe God based on Bible facts. Not based on hearsay. You know I discovered, down through the years, that there are people that about all they know about the Bible is what they've heard that somebody said they thought they heard somebody said the Bible said. Now they really don't know for themselves. I had a man say to me one time, "Well you don't pray about financial things do you?" I said, sure I do. If you have a need you, the scripture says, he that asketh receiveth. Well, he said, "I thought the Bible said we ought to not pray about material things". Well, I asked him, I said, whose Bible have you been reading? Whatsoever things you desire, the scripture says, when you pray, believe you receive them and you shall have them. Well, the truth of the matter was that he probably hadn't been reading anybody's Bible. All he knew about the Bible, or what he heard that somebody said they thought they heard the Bible said it. But you see, you make a decision to do what the word says to do. Make a decision to believe God, based on Bible facts, not based on what somebody said they thought the Bible said. Now, some of you have been indoctrinated and you need to go back and see if what you heard the Bible said is what it really said. I tell you it will be a blessing to you when you do that. Believing God. How do you believe God? You make a decision to believe God based on Bible facts and we are going to talk about that some more. But, before we leave the broadcast, I want to talk about the offer this week. It's offer #2011, it's called, well actually, there's, "The Tongue a Creative Force", three articles, "The Tongue a Creative Force" on tape. It's called, "The Talking Book". Then the book itself, the book is, this book has sold about 600,000 copies, "The Tongue a Creative Force". This is the first book that I offered in 1976. This book will be a blessing to you. And also, we are going to include this, "God's Creative Power Will Work for You". This is a confession book taken out of this book. All three of these, three audio cassettes, this is the book on tape, narrated by myself and I know some of you don't have time to sit down and read a book but you are traveling in an automobile day after day, mile after mile. I tell you what, it makes it go faster. Seems like time goes faster when you have something to listen to. So, these three audio cassettes, its "The Tongue a Creative Force" and its audio tapes, three tapes plus the book, plus the mini book. This is a confession book, it's a work book. You confess these scriptures daily: I'm the body of Christ. The enemy has no power over me. I overcome evil with good. I am of God and have overcome the wicked one. Greater is he that is in me, than he that is in the world. That's offer #2011, 2011. The book, The Tongue, three audio cassettes, the mini book for $23.00 plus postage and handling. That's offer #2011. We have a toll free order line, that's: 1-877-396-9400. That's 1-877-396-9400. Three audio cassettes, the two books for $23.00 plus postage and handling. (Music) Until next time, this is Charles Capps reminding you that the enemy is defeated, God is exalted and Jesus is coming soon. Are you ready? He's coming. ♪ ...the Word is working
mightily in me. ♪ ANNOUNCER>> To order a copy of
today's show or any product offered on this program, call
1-877-396-9400. Or visit our website at Capps.tv, where you
can order downloads of our MP3 teachings, eBooks, and watch
other programs on demand. This broadcast has been sponsored
by Capps Ministries and is dedicated to helping you put
the Word of God to work in the everyday circumstances
of your life. (Music)
