♪ (Music playing) ♪ Good morning, class. Class: Good morning. Hi, I'm Keith Moore, and welcome
to Faith School. Faith School is the place where
our spirit gets fed, our faith grows, and we learn how to
please God and be an overcomer like He intended for us to be. We've saved you a place right up
here in the front, and would like for you to go ahead and get
the Textbook, get your Bible, and get something to take notes
on, and just come right on in. Sometimes people say, "We're
coming into your living room." No, no. You're coming in to join us into
the classroom in this environment of Holy Spirit
anointing, and teaching, quickening our minds,
illuminating the eyes of our understanding and our spirit. And we're going to pray right
now and believe for exactly what you need to hear, what we need
to hear today. Only the Lord can minister
simultaneously to thousands of people at once or millions of
people at once. It's amazing what He can do, but
He can do it. Let's ask for it. "Father, in Jesus' name, thank
You for the opportunity to have Faith School. Thank you for the opportunity to
send this Word around the world, and everyone that you have
joined to this class. We're praying your quickening,
teaching anointing, and healing, and restoring anointing on them
and on us, exactly what we need to see, and hear, and know, what
we need to receive, a supply of the spirit. We ask for it in Jesus' name,
and we say we won't be forgetful hearers, but we'll hold onto it,
and we'll put it into practice. And as surely as we do, You'll
watch over it and perform it. We thank you for doing that in
Jesus' name. Amen." Well get out your Textbook,
class, and let's go to 2 Corinthians the fourth chapter. Second Corinthians chapter four. We were actually talking about
some of these things on last week's Faith School. But if you are joining us now
for the first time, let me encourage you, go online and go
back to the previous classes. You'll see them week one, week
two, week three. And what we're doing is
progressive. We are building now on the
foundation that was laid from week one all the way up until
now. And it's okay if you want to,
you know, pause this and go back, and get that, and work
your way up to this. But for you regulars, here we
go. Second Corinthians 4:13 he said,
"We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is
written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also
believe, and therefore speak." Down in verse eighteen he also
said, "While we look not at the things which are seen, but at
the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen
are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal." Down a little bit later in
chapter five and verse seven he said, "For we walk by faith, not
by sight." Here he mentions faith as the
Spirit of faith, and that is significant to notice. Particularly this week I believe
we'll get into the Spirit of faith. It didn't just say the
understanding of faith, or knowledge of faith. Faith is not knowledge. Just knowing about something
doesn't mean you have faith in that area. The Spirit of faith. The Spirit of faith - actually
if you look in Timothy he talks about the spirit of fear. So what a difference between a
spirit of fear and a Spirit of faith. Well fear is not rational. When someone is having a panic
attack, for instance, sometimes people around them may try to
express to them, "Look, there is nothing to be that upset about,"
but fear is not based on reason. Fear includes feelings,
emotions, and what many people don't understand, spirit. Spirit influences. And so you can sense fear, feel
fear when there might not be any rational reason to be afraid. Even as a young boy, I know I
didn't know a lot of Word, but thank God I had been to some
Sunday school classes, and they had taught us the twenty-third
Psalm. And I remember there was one
particular thing that was really bothering me and scaring me as a
boy. And I didn't realize it, but the
Spirit of God quickened, and brought back that phrase to me
from the twenty-third Psalm, and I just said it out loud, didn't
know what I was doing, but the Spirit of God will lead you the
right way even when you don't know in your head. I said, "Yea, though I walk
through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil. I will fear no evil. I will fear no evil." Well, I was feeling fear, I was
sensing fear. Fear is more than reason and
knowledge. Well faith is more than reason
and knowledge. This is Faith School, Faith
School Broadcast, but just, you know, making notes, and finding
the Scriptures, and logging the information, that doesn't mean
you are full of faith. Knowing about faith is not the
same thing as being full of faith. Knowing about fear is not the
same thing as being full of fear. So, he says that we have the
same Spirit of faith. Everybody say: "Spirit of
faith." Let's read it again, "We having
the same Spirit of faith." Now Corinthians talks about
watching out for corrupt communications because it can,
well, it's kind of like your mother might've told you - don't
hang out with the wrong crowd. They can influence you. Well, it's true good or bad. You want to hang out with faith
people, and especially people that have more faith than you. That's a really good thing
because it can get off on you. The Spirit of faith, and the
Spirit of faith is seen - you can hear it in the tone of a
person's voice, you can see it in the way they carry
themselves, you can see it in their words and their actions. Well, you can see the spirit of
defeat, can't you? I mean, people slump down, and
they whine, maybe they're mumbling, and they're
complaining - or the spirit of fear, you know, "I'm just so
afraid this is going to happen. I'm just so afraid this is not
going to happen." Well, if the spirit of fear and
depression, and all like that, if that is obvious, the Spirit
of faith is obvious too. And the Spirit of faith is the
Spirit of victory. The Scripture said in 1 John, it
said, "This is the victory that overcomes the world, even our
faith." And so you can detect the Spirit
of faith by the Spirit of victory. Say it out loud: "The Spirit of
faith is the Spirit of victory." Now you'll notice in other
Scriptures, it says, "He has made us overcomers. He has made us more than
conquerors. He always causes us to triumph. He gives us the victory through
our Lord Jesus Christ." Do you hear these words:
overcomer, more than a conqueror, victory, triumph? These all describe a
faith-filled individual. If you're full of faith, you're
full of victory. If you're full of faith, that's
what you see. Even though you might be in the
middle of so much duress and problems, you see beyond it, and
by faith you see victory. You see you coming out. You see you overcoming even
though you might be in the worse trials of a situation, you don't
just focus here - remember our Scripture, "We look not at the
things that are seen, but at the things which are not seen." If you walk by sight you will
have the spirit of fear. You know, just looking at the
world, and looking at what is going on, all the problems, if
you feed on that, and you just look at that, fear will be fed. It will be fed into you, and the
spirit of fear will grip your life. That is how people get to the
place where they don't think they can even leave their
apartment, or leave the house. People get to the place where
they feel like they can't - they are afraid to eat anything. They're afraid to drink only
this kind of water, or only this kind of thing. Listen, friend, there is enough
stuff in the air we breathe to kill us ten thousand times. There is enough stuff in any
kind of food, no matter how great you think it is. Everything down here has been
affected by the curse. Because of man's sin, death
entered in. And so there is nothing down
here that is truly pure or truly clean. There is nothing down here that
is perfect. Everything has been flawed,
everything has been contaminated, everything has
been affected by sin, by death, by the curse. But we've got the greater one
inside of us, and He can even help us overcome things that
would otherwise be fatal. Do you remember the Scriptures
in Mark how that the Lord talked about those that believe on Him
and believe in His name, and the things that they would do? And among other things he said,
"If they eat any deadly thing it shall not hurt them." We see Paul, in the Book of
Acts, on the island when a snake bit him. Well, and everybody around that
lived on the island, they knew what snake that was. They knew if that snake bites
you, you are a goner. But Paul just shook that thing
off in the fire, and then the people were astounded when no
harm befell him. Nothing happened to him. He didn't swell up, he didn't
choke, he didn't fall over and die. What does that mean? Even though there are poisons,
contaminates, all kind of things around us in this world,
"Greater is He that is inside of us than he that is in the
world." And the greater One inside us
can quicken our immune system, can quicken our bodies, our
glands, our organs, and can even - the power of God - can even
render poisons, venom, poisonous things in food or drink, can
render them inert, can render them harmless. Isn't that wonderful, saints? If we'll believe it, but now
fear, fear will kick he poisons into overdrive. I read some years ago a study
that some people were doing on what they called emotions and
the immune system. They did some tests and studies,
and they had somebody that had all the symptoms of the worst
kind of flu that would go into a place where other group of
people were, and then they would find out about it. And the people that would get
into fear and go, "Oh no, why didn't you tell me you have the
flu? I can't be in here with you,"
and they would try to - they had them monitored. And they said their pores
literally would open up the more fear that they were in -
literally drawing whatever contaminate might be around
them, or virus, into them. The pores open up, the immune
system weakens. Spiritual things affect natural
things. Well, if fear would do that to
you making you more susceptible to it - there's a spiritual
principle, you know. In the book of Job he talked
about, "The thing I greatly feared has come upon me. So there is a spiritual law that
fear draws to you the thing you're afraid of. But there were other people,
they would come in there, and they are coughing, and sneezing,
and then they'd say oh man, they've got this terrible flu. And a few of them said, "Ah, it
won't bother me. I never get the flu. It won't bother me." And they had monitors on them;
their pores did not change. Their blood pressure, their
heart rate did not change. Their immune system seemed
unaffected. Can spiritual things affect
natural things? Absolutely, absolutely. The Bible said there is life and
death in the power of the tongue. It's not just that somebody said
that, but if you really believe, "It won't bother me," or if you
believe, "Oh no, I can't be around this. I'm going to get it. I'm going to get it," the
spiritual laws affect physical things. And so you see the spirit of
fear over here, you see the Spirit of faith over here. And if you hang around fear,
that fear can contaminate you. If you're around people that
have a lot of fear - you're going to go one way or the
other. Either you're going to influence
them out of their fear, or you are going to join them in their
fear. And unless you feed on something
that boosts your faith, you are going to have fear because
everything in this world is trying to put fear in you. Bad reports and statistics, and
most of the statistics you hear people emphasize the negative. People will say, well you know,
four out of five, four out of five are going to get that
sometime. Well a faith person would go,
"Well one person lives their whole life and never gets it." Somebody has got to be that
person, right, so I volunteer. I'll be the one, one out of
five. You might think this sounds
strange, but it is Bible. Go with me to Psalm ninety-one,
and you see the Spirit of faith. Psalm ninety-one which is a very
familiar Psalm to many people. Many call it the protection
Psalm, and it is a faith building Word. He said, Psalm 91:1, "He that
dwells in the secret place of the most High shall abide under
the shadow of the Almighty." Now notice the very next verse,
"I will say," something. Verse two, "I will say of the
Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in Him will I
trust." Notice as we read through this,
he is not talking fear. He's not saying, "Oh no, this
happens to three out of ten or five out of ten. Oh no, I don't know what we're
going to do. He said, "I will say the Lord,
He is my refuge." Verse three, "Surely He'll
deliver you from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome
pestilence. He'll cover you with His
feathers, and under His wings you'll trust: His truth shall be
your shield and buckler. You shall not be afraid for the
terror by night; nor for the arrow that flies by day; nor for
the pestilence that walks in darkness; nor for the
destruction that wastes at noonday." Can you see speaking confidently
that God is my protector and keeper, and no fear, no fear? Everybody say it out loud: "The
Lord is my refuge. I will not fear." Now I want you to notice this
next verse how bold he is to speak. He says, verse seven, "A
thousand shall fall at your side, and ten thousand at your
right hand; but it shall not come near you." Now this is not how most
Christians talk. Many Christians, many
churchgoing people, what they say is, "Well, you just never
know. You just never know what is
going to happen, do you? None of us want bad things to
happen, but you just never know." You just never know is not a
Scripture, and you need to get it out of your mouth because you
can know some things. Certainly we don't know
everything, but you can know some things. And if you were with us on last
week, we began to get into that in order to have faith, you've
got to be sure. In order to have faith, you have
to have heard enough of God's Word on that subject until
you've gotten settled and you're confident. Notice what he didn't say, he
didn't say well, it's happening to a thousand people over here,
and I'm not any better than they are. And we sure hope it doesn't
happen, but you just never know. No, He didn't say, "Well, and
ten thousand over here it happened too, and that a whole
lot of people. And I sure hope it doesn't
happen to me, but oh, you just never know. If it's the Lord's will, if it's
the Lord's will." Well, he didn't say that. Not one time did he say in here
"if it's the Lord's will we'll do this. If it's the Lord's will I'll
make it out of here". Why didn't he say it? Because he is already convinced
that it is God's will to protect him, and keep him, and to the
point that he spoke boldly saying, "A thousand may fall
over here, ten thousand may fall over here, but it won't happen
to me." Not too many Christians talk
like that, which is why not too many Christians experience much
different as far as protection and keeping than unbelievers. There should be a difference
between believers and unbelievers. Do you remember reading in the
Old Testament when God delivered the Israelites out of Egyptian
bondage? He made a difference between His
people and the people that didn't believe in Him. I mean, when the plagues swept
through Egypt, it got to the boundary of the land of Goshen,
which there was no wall. There was nothing physical
there; it would be like a state line that you came up to. But the plagues stopped, and
none of God's people were affected by it. Is it true that even though
something terrible might be happening all around, God can
keep you in the middle of it? He can protect you in the middle
of it? It is true if you'll have faith
- and if we have the same Spirit of faith that they had, we not
only believe, but we are bold to say it. Listen to what the Spirit of
faith sounds like. This is what the Spirit of faith
looks like, sounds like, he said, "A thousand will fall at
your side, and ten thousand at your right hand; but it shall
not come near you." Well, what if it is God's will
for it to come near you? What if it's God's will for you
to be destroyed? Apparently they didn't take that
into consideration. See, this thing about adding "if
it be God's will" to every phrase, every prayer, is a
religious mistake. It is something men have come up
with to avoid having to walk by faith. There are a lot of things we
don't know, that's for sure, but when the Bible clearly reveals
His will to us, we are no longer to question His will. Just like we don't question if
it is God's will for somebody to be born again, we shouldn't
question if it is God's will to protect us, to keep us. It is His will to protect us,
but He needs something from us. He needs us to believe that. He requires us to trust Him, and
faith is not just believing. Faith is - if we've got the same
Spirit of faith, "I believe, therefore I have spoken. We also believe and we therefore
speak." Let's do our faith duty, class. Say it out loud: "I believe my
God is my fortress, my refuge, my protector. I will not fear what might
happen, what man might do. Though a thousand fall at one
side of me, though ten thousand fall on the other side, it won't
happen to me because God keeps me. He protects me. Hallelujah." You know, I've seen situations
like we mentioned earlier where people had become virtually
imprisoned concerning their diet - couldn't eat anything without
having all kind of problems. And one of the issues there is
their words. If you say, "Oh, oh, I can't eat
that. Oh, I can't eat that. Boy, it will cause me problems. It will keep me up all night. It gives me terrible gas. It does this, it does that. Heartburn. Oh it will just mess up my
stomach for days." If you've been saying that for
years, then it has locked you into that. But you ought to be able to eat
anything that anybody else can eat. And God can change your
digestion, digestive system. He can change your glands, He
can change your blood. He can change whatever needs to
be changed, but you have to give Him something to work with. Now don't override your heart. Don't eat something in fear
because it will cause you a problem, but even though you
might feel limited, begin to say by faith, "I have a perfect
digestive system. I can eat anything that I want
to eat. This doesn't bother me." Say things to change the way it
has been, not just yielding to it and say, "Oh, I can't eat
that, oh I can't drink that, oh I can't go here, oh I can't go
-, I can't be around this, I can't be around that." That puts you in bondage, and
that fear draws the problem to you. So begin to say this: "I call my
immune system strong. I call my digestive system
strong. I can eat anything that I need
to eat. If I eat any deadly thing it
won't hurt me. It won't bother me. My God is my healer, and my
keeper. I trust in Him and am kept." Hallelujah, praise God. Well, that's it for class today. I believe the Lord has helped
us. Again, you can go back to
previous lessons and get caught up. And join us again tomorrow. Until then, say it out loud: "I
live by faith, I walk by faith, I overcome the world by faith. I'm strong in faith giving glory
to God."
