What Faith Is (Part 3) - Dr. Fred Price

father we praise you again and thank you for the privilege and the opportunity of gathering around your word it is our continuing and sincere desire to know you more perfectly that we may serve you more faithfully we thank you again and again that we can call you abba father and that you're not ashamed to call us and on us as your very own children your very own redeemed and blood washed family we thank you for jesus our great redeemer our high priest and someday our coming king for all that he has done for all that he is doing and for all that he will do when he returns to receive us to himself we thank you for the holy spirit whom you have sent into our midst to be our teacher and to be our guide we know that without his anointing we can do nothing as we ought to do it without his inspiration in revelation we can know nothing as we ought to know it but we do rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory that he is here and that he will guide us into the truth i thank you that even now he is anointing every ear to hear and every heart to believe and i thank you that my lips are now anointed to speak your word that i will speak it accurately and that revelation knowledge would flow freely in this service tonight unhindered and unchecked by any force and in obedience to your word we covet earnestly the best gifts of the spirit that they would be in operation and in manifestation that the needs of this assembled body may be met in a supernatural way i personally thank you that your word declares that greater is he that is in me than he that is in the world therefore with great boldness and confidence i look to the greater one who indwells me and i know that he will think through my mind he will speak through my lips and he will minister through this vessel of clay to your people and for all that shall be revealed and for all that shall be manifested we promise in covenant with you now in advance before we ever begin that we will give you alone all of the praise the glory the honor the adoration and all of the thanksgiving for we ask it in that name that is above every name the name of jesus and all who agreed with that prayer said then they said praise the lord then they say glory to god then they said good evening fred good evening y'all okay let's turn in our bibles to the gospel of mark chapter e 11. we've been talking thus far from the subject what faith is what faith is or how important is faith we found out thus far that the simplest definition of faith is that faith is acting on what you believe we found out that there is definitely a difference between belief and faith they are two sides to the same coin however if all you do is believe something even though your belief may be correct it won't change your circumstances but faith can so it's very important to understand the difference because sometimes people can be very sincere in their belief and wonder why things are not happening because they know their own hearts and they know they believe but they didn't move to the next phase which was acting on what they believed now there are two primary actions the first action would be a verbal confession of what you believe followed by whatever physical act you could perform that would support what you've said with your mouth let me say that again well you already knew that anybody want to say that again i just want to be sure you get that faith is acting on the word it's acting on what you believe actually faith in the natural realm works the same way that it does in the spiritual realm only the difference is that in the spiritual realm it's based on god's word so it's the god kind of faith but in the natural realm we do that all the time in everyday life we do that on a daily basis we act on what we believe we believe if i put the key in the ignition start it up i can drive but just believing that won't get us out of the garage we've got to actually do it we sit in front of a plate of food so i believe if i eat that food it'll keep me from starving to death and that's absolutely true scientifically historically and experientially but you know what you could starve to death at the table with food in front of you if you don't ever eat it so it's still acting on what you believe then i said that the basic actions are two things that you do number one you believe something and then the first thing you do is to confess it with your mouth faith here's a rule faith is released by words through your mouth you have to say it there is no such thing as a silent prayer there's no such thing as an unspoken request jesus said when you pray say so if you're not saying you didn't pray your only thought no promises are based on thinking it's only based on saying so you have to say it and so when you say it then you follow that up with whatever action is appropriate and that you're able to perform that supports what you have said are you following me so you say it first based on what the word says then you follow that up with an action that supports what you have said and and the condition that you're in or the thing you're believing god for would determine what your action might be for instance let's say you're a paraplegic let's say you're you're you're you're paralyzed all the way down to your toes the only thing on your body that you can move is your toe but you can hear so you hear the word you believe the word and perhaps that you can talk but you so you confess the word and then the only action you might be able to do is to move the big toe on your right foot that would be your act of faith you're walking i'm moving that toe that's all i can do but that's my act of faith are you following me so whatever else it might be that you're believing god for first of all a confession then followed by an action faith is acting it's not passive it's always active if you're not active first of all on your confession then followed by physical action and you're not in faith it won't work for you won't produce now we left off with mark 11 24 last night and i wanted to emphasize it because mark 11 24 is an example of what's called petition prayer or literally the prayer of faith i have found and we have it i have it out in my new book called answered prayer guaranteed i have found them because i'm not perfect i may have missed some but i found at least six different methods of prayer and each method is circumscribed by its own set of rules prayer is not just prayer is prayer is prayer is prayer is what some christians say or think and you hear people say well just pray well pray what you know you need to know what you're doing all of the things of god they are precise in precision it's not just haphazard and so you you have to know what kind of prayer you're praying they're different kinds of prayer they're all circumscribed by different set of rules i like to use the illustration of sports basketball baseball football soccer are all classified under the heading of sports but you can't successfully and legally play baseball with basketball rules you'll be called out on a technicality yet you're still playing a sport well prayer is the same way this prayer is the most common prayer mark 11 24 that a christian would praise the most common as it were daily prayer that you would pray the prayer of faith and or petition prayer there's a prayer of consecration and dedication that's the one that jesus prayed in the garden that's the only time you'd ever use and if it be thy will if you use and if it be thy will on a petition prayer you'll cancel the prayer if you say to god lord i'm sick i need to be healed if it be your will heal me you just signed your own death certificate you're on your way to the cemetery or certainly in intensive care because you're violating the word of god see the word of god see the prayer of faith and prayer have to be based on the known will of god that's why satan has cleverly kept the word of god out of most churches so most christians don't know the word they don't know their covenant so they operate on instinct and or emotions and god doesn't respond to that he only responds to his word but when you know the word then you'll know that the word says in matthew 8 17 for instance that himself jesus took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses took and bore past tense designations indicative of the fact that the time of the action has already taken place not taking place a done deal common street done deal he took and bore then first peter 2 24 says and with his stripes referring to jesus the christ with his tribe you were healed not you are being healed present not you will be healed in the future ye were and if ye were then ye are and if ye are then he is and hebrews 11 1 says now faith is present tense okay so if you ask god to heal you you've just said he hadn't done it he said he has you don't agree can't work are you following me so the prayer of faith is mark 11 24 petition prayer that's the prayer just you and god and a lot of christians because they don't understand that they're always praying prayers like that for other people and then the person ends up dying then they'll say well see that face stuff doesn't work it's not god's will for everybody to be healed because see they knew their sincerity but they were praying the wrong prayer but they didn't know it because their church didn't tell them that so out of their sincerity the only conclusion can be i couldn't be wrong so it must not be god's will seems reasonable doesn't it see and so they try to pray the prayer of faith you can't pray the prayer of faith for someone else you can stand in agreement with them or you can get into another kind of prayer the prayer of agreement matthew 18 19 if two of you shall agree on earth is touching anything that they shall ask it shall be done for them plural if two of you and it could be more but if two of you agree on earth is touching anything that they the two of them shall ask it shall be done for them the two so they gotta they have to you gotta be on the same road you can't be believing to go south and i'm believing to go north and at work it won't work and sometimes you're praying for people and they don't want to be healed good good illustration is my wife's mother she was stricken with arthritis terrible arthritis for for years what 20 some years and uh but she had she was a gracious lady just awesome lovable person she gave her the last stitch of clothes off her back for somebody else and she had helped people over the years and and she was a very hard worker she worked they had what 12 kids 12 kids and so a big family it came from mississippi gravitated up to to california and so they had to wear husband and wife both had to work just to put a roof over their heads you know what i mean and she worked she was a cook a chef and so she cooked as she worked and she got stricken with this condition and uh then she had to be finally became bedridden and all these people over the years that she had helped man they came like these to the honeycomb they came to help her to do clean her house cook her food shoot mama said what's with this i've been working all these years and burning the skillets and the pots and things i'm gonna sit back and enjoy this book we're bringing her bonbons and cleaning her house she didn't want to get well because if she got well she'd have to go back to work you'll see that sounds strange but you don't always know the motivation of people see so sometimes when things don't work it's because they don't want to be healed they get healed they gotta go back to work and they kind of like all this attention they've been getting you know what i'm saying so you have to be careful you can't pray the prayer of faith for someone else now if you have an infant child or a very small child that can't believe for themselves you're the parent then you can exercise your faith on their behalf but when you get up to the point where you're at the age where you know right from wrong you're gonna have to use your own faith now i can help you when i say me we can help one another if it's a baby christian and they really don't know the route as it were we can get into agreement with them but you can't just indiscriminately pray well i believe so-and-so is healed or i believe so and so got a new job right no no no you can only agree with them the prayer of faith and the prayer of petition prayer is for you and god look at the scripture mark 11 24 jesus said what things so ever you desire i'm reading from the traditional king james what things so ever you desire when you pray believe you receive them and you shall have them notice what it does not say does not say what things so ever you desire when you pray believe he receives it and she'll get it no it doesn't say this is what things whoever you desire when you pray believe you receive them and you shall have them not your wife not your cousin aunt uncle dog hog or frog only you and you got to be careful when you pray that now watch it he says what things whoever you desire when you pray when you pray when you pray remember hebrews 11 1 which talked about that now faith is when is faith now faith is i told you the most important thing that you can find out about faith that is always present tense always now and so jesus said when you pray so when would when you pray be you'll be now if i pray in november on thanksgiving day just before we destroy the bird and thank the lord for all of his bountiful goodness when we pray when i pray before we cut up the bird it will be now when i pray december 25th the day that we basically agreed to celebrate the birthday of our lord jesus christ before we open up all the presents that god has provided us with all the good things when i pray and thank the lord for that when i pray on december 25th it will be now when i pray i don't understand that what's he talking about now he might be crazy it's going to be december 25th it's not going to be now they miss it meaning whenever it's always going to be present tense and that's what you have to understand when you pray not after you pray not when you feel something not when you see something but when you pray believe believe what believe god is oh yes i believe that god is well you ought to believe that but not when you're praying about your desire for things whoever you desire when you pray believe oh yes believe that jesus is coming again yes i believe that the lord is coming that's great and you ought to believe that but not when you're praying about your desire it says when you pray believe that you receive them what things soever you desire when you pray believe that you receive them when you pray believe that you receive them when you pray believe that you receive them when you pray believe not feel like you receive them not see them just believe it well how can i believe i got something when i can't see it well i have a question for you do you have a brain when is the last time you've seen it see somebody told you you had a brain it might be something else up there and actually based on the way you've been acting it's doubtful is anything in there [Laughter] are you following me so will you tell me we do it all the time come up i can't believe i got something i can't see yes you do you believe you got a job do you believe you're gonna get paid next week or you may be at the end of this week on friday you haven't seen the money have you have you well how do you know you're gonna get paid well they said they were gonna pay well jesus said when you pray believe you receive and you shall have why can't you take him at his word you believe some stranger and you can't believe your lord he said well things whatever you desire when you pray believe that you receive them when you pray believe that you receive them and you shall have notice that when you pray his present tense now shall have his future tense future to the now it could be future one second one minute one day one hour one year could be future but you got to believe i made a claim one time some years back it took 13 years for it to manifest i said someone is going to give me one million dollars not to the church not to the ministry but to fred personally one million dollars now i use this as an illustration because sometimes when we pray about things we're not taking everything into consideration everything that we pray about is already in this earth realm most of it's in the hands of someone else that's why we are praying about it because we don't have it and it has to come through human channels god doesn't drop money out of the sky god can't create money out of nothing because he would be arrested as a counterfeiter and i didn't say that to be funny if you think i'm joking you try to print you some money and see what happens to you they'll catch you out at you going to jail you're a counterfeiter all the money's already been authorized by the united states treasury anything else that's put into circulation would be out of sequence the numbers wouldn't add up so god can't just indiscriminately drop money out of the sky he has to speak to somebody to go give somebody or do something for someone he uses human instrumentality so number one that's a big thing a million dollars everybody's not walking around with a million bucks in their pocket so when i made that claim god number one had to find someone that had disposable income of a million dollars that could afford to give it away and it not hurt their lifestyle and then the most important thing of all god had to find somebody that was listening to him because the average person would say i rebuke you devil come out in jesus name that can't be god million dollars i rebuke that all six of you demons come out now you know i'm telling the truth because some of you having a hard time tithing giving ten percent you know god until you give a million dollars you're gonna really i'm gonna move on i'm not gonna i'm not i'm not even gonna finish that statement but so somebody had to have the million dollars so finally god found someone who had the right heart believed the word and had a million dollars so that's why it took that long and so i had to make my confession and stand up one day he came gave me one million dollars certified check for one million bucks then when he found out what i wanted it for he ascertained what you know why why would you want a million dollars well we had our the house that we live in now we wanted to pay it off uh way before the 30-year mortgage and it's a big house it costs a lot of money so it took a little bit longer than the previous house we paid the previous house off uh in uh three and a half years but this one took a little bit longer and so i told him i wanted to pay it off and i had been making some principal reduction payments hundred thousand dollars at a shot in the house i got it down to 998 thousand dollars is all i owed on it and so i told him that's what i wanted to pay with then i told him i said if i get two million dollars then i'm gonna have to pay my tithes out of that i think at that time we were tagging thirty percent thirty five i was tithing thirty five percent so i'd have to take thirty five percent right off the top then because of the tax bracket i'm in i'd have to give away 53 in taxes so i wouldn't end up with the 998 thousand dollars so he was this person was so gracious he paid the ties and the taxes so that i would come out with a hundred thousand dollars clear and free and as soon as i got it i made it to the mortgage folk and said give me the title deed on my property paid that sucker off and then immediately boosted our ties up to 40 percent so my point is you have to be careful when you're praying about things because other people are involved particularly if it's about money it has to come to other people's hands now that could come through overtime opportunity that nobody else gets could be a raise could be a promotion it you don't know how it's going to come and frankly i don't give a care as long as it comes do i have a witness that's right yes so i you can put the money in a brown paper bag put it in a colleague dog's mouth and let him trot down the street and bring it to me i ain't mad i'm not mad you understand that okay now so he said with things wherever you desire when you pray believe that you receive them and you shall have them so your confession is i believe that i have received don't say i'm healed because if you were healed you wouldn't have to believe it so if the manifestation hasn't come yet then you're still it's a faith confession not a fact confession but it's the faith confessions that produce the fact confessions so you have the faith fact then the physical fact so your confession is i believe that i am healed now see god said you're healed but you have to believe that so your confession until it physically manifests is i believe you lord so therefore i believe that i am healed i believe that my need is met i believe that i have the property i've claimed i believe i have the job i believe we have a child whatever it might be it's i believe until such time as it physically manifests once it does then you can say thank you father i have it that's the end of the transaction let me give you an illustration really quickly let's say you wake up on monday morning and you have this huge knot on your left forearm just painful it's red it's purplish color it just wasn't there sunday night when you went to bed but this thing is ugly and hurts like the blazes so you say i know this is not god and i know i don't need to keep this so you lay hands on yourself and say i curse this thing in the name of jesus i believe i receive my healing based on mark 11 24 matthew 8 17 and 1st peter 2 24. so i believe that i am healed father thank you i believe that i am here i wake up tuesday morning thing is still there hurts just like it did on monday i wake up wednesday morning same thing thursday morning friday morning every single day i say father i thank you i believe that i am healed you have to keep it in the present tense so friday same thing saturday same thing sunday same thing i wake up monday morning everything's gone look just like normal flesh like i've always had at that time my prayer is father i thank you i am healed how do you know look at my arm i got the proof got the evidence before that i believe i am how can you believe that look at the word the word is my evidence himself took my infirmities bore my sickness with the stripes i am healed do you understand that now that same that formula works for everything in reference to just you and god we're talking about the prayer of faith now you might ask well why does jesus say when you pray which is now that that's a good question it's extremely important i had to come to realize why because you you would say well why can't he just do it now why can't it just you know i can i can handle this now we don't have to wait so why does he say now well the reason for this is and listen carefully the reason that you have to believe you receive when you pray is because if you don't believe you receive when you pray god cannot hear you tomorrow yeah what did he say okay listen carefully this is not this is not funny it's it's a truism you got to understand it god can only hear you pray now he cannot hear you pray tomorrow because he doesn't have a tomorrow in which to hear you god lives in one eternal now there is no tomorrow with god there is no yesterday with god there is only now with god because he has now we can't we can't disprove it so we might as well go with the flow until we get better information i i don't know how but based on the bible god has always been and will always be how i don't know but i can't refute it therefore i might as well go with it until some other information comes along so god lives in one eternal now he doesn't have a tomorrow and he doesn't have it yesterday we do because we're creatures circumscribed by time time is important to us it's of the essence because every single moment that we breathe we are getting closer to our point of departure and further away from our point of origin every day you live you're not getting more life you're using up life every day you live you're getting closer to the cemetery not further from it but since god has no beginning and has no end then therefore god doesn't have any clocks in heaven and he doesn't have any calendars and he never celebrates anniversaries or birthdays we do because time is important to us everything we do is relative to time not to god there is no time with him so that's why jesus said when you pray believe you receive because that's the only time god's going to be able to hear it you understand that it's very important when you pray believe you receive because that's the only time god can hear it god lives in one eternal now everything with god is now how i don't know when you find out clue me in send me an email but but it is and and i can prove it because everything about god is always in the now do you remember or are you familiar with the story when moses was watching jethro's sheep and he saw something strange over there near the mountain and it was bright and flickering so he said i'll go over and investigate when he got there he saw a bush that seemed to be literally on fire but was not consumed and then he heard a voice saying take your shoes off the ground on which you stand is holy ground he was amazed and then the voice came and said i've heard the cry of my people in israel in egypt and i've come down to send you to let them go to deliver them and moses thought he could get out of it the assignment so he tried to remonstrate with god and said well blah blah blah i i i stutter and it's so he said that's all right don't worry about thin aaron with you he'll be your mouthpiece then he tried to come up with another one said wait wait a minute some years back you know i had to leave egypt and my driver's license has been revoked my social security card is no longer valid what am i going to do what am i going to tell pharaoh and what did god say to him a lot of people pick up on this but they missed the whole thing god said to moses he said you tell pharaoh that i am that i am has sent you now what kind of name is that hello i am i hope to be but you am seriously he said you t he said tell him i am that i am has sent you what tense is i am now god didn't say you go tell pharaoh i was has sent you you don't go tell pharaoh i will be someday you tell pharaoh i am that i am and when his son jesus the christ came on the scene he picked up on his father's mo and began to say the very same kinds of things i am he that liveth and was dead i am the first and the last i am the alpha and the omega i am he that was dead but behold i'm alive forevermore i am the shepherd of the sheep i am the door of the i am i am i am present tense same thing that his father said so when we pray we've got to believe that we receive it right now because that's the only time that god can hear us he's a present tense god now we need to make and understand that we need to make our confession and it needs to be verbal you don't have to say it to people because they won't understand they think you crazy you know that's their problem but you you know you don't want to to say things where people are going to come against you so but you have to say it out loud at least loud enough for your ears to hear it and you know we looked at the scripture in romans 10 17 so then faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of god and notice what that verse doesn't say it does not say who you have to hear it from you can hear it from your own mouth i believe that one reason that many christians have a real problem with this in in faith coming is because they know their word is no good it's worthless so that's why they didn't want to say anything because they know their word is not any good so then faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of god you have to say it with confidence in your own word and confidence in your word is a choice it's not genetically transmitted it's not in the dna just a choice you make i have made a choice years ago to make my word good but i would rather die than break my word because actually that's all you have is your word you are no better than your word i alluded to that i think earlier if i can't count on your word that means i can't count on you you are only as good as your word that's why god himself says in his word that he has magnified his name over all his word over all his name because god is only as good as his word and most people's words worthless no good they say stuff and they don't do it they don't follow through so if there's no point in saying anything because they know it's not going to come to pass because they don't believe it themselves so you have to believe in your words you have to believe in your word now so you want to you want to continuously say it every time in your prayer time and say father thank you i believe i've received whatever it is particular item you may have asked for now the reason you have to keep saying it and using your words is because you're in a warfare you're in a spiritual battle you have an enemy he doesn't want you to succeed and he doesn't want you to obtain anything that god has said belongs to you in his word so i want to show you a scripture that will just emphasize this so clearly go in your bibles to daniel chapter 10. this is so important how how important your words are he said when you pray believe you receive you'll have so you have to say i believe i have received i believe my need is met now another thing that you have to be aware of that that faith is progressive the beautiful thing is according to romans 12 and 3 we all start out with the same measure of faith and this is the good news nobody but nobody has any more faith than you do it appears sometimes that some people do because they have perhaps learned how to develop it and have used it and like anything use produces growth or development where non-use produces atrophy or wasting away but that's the beautiful thing about it i was so glad when i found that out that i wasn't at a disadvantage in the things of god but everyone is on par you have you'd have to be because if i have more faith than you do then that means the bible has been invalidated because the bible says that god is no respecter of persons so if he gives me more than he gives you he definitely is a respecter of persons and he is not a respecter of persons and it's interesting sometimes this is a danger i've been on television since 1978. so i've been on a long time and and people think that because you're on television you know what you're talking about [Music] but like the old song says it ain't necessarily so i hear a whole lot of stuff on tv and i just go click and change channels i can't i can't listen to that it may be for somebody feeling for free and so i've had people write me letters i remember i even had a lady i think she came from ohio all the way out to los angeles for me to pray for her now my ego would like to think i'm somebody special but i'm not a fool i know whatever i may be i am that because of god i'd like to think i'd be the man you know come on we all want to be you know i'd rather be important than less important you know but i got better i know better than that's the anointing not me god uses yielded vessels all i've done is attempt to yield and this lady came all the way out to california for me to pray for she had arthritis for years and years and years and 25 years she had arthritis and as i mentioned last night and i'll be praying for ministering to the sick tomorrow night to those that have arthritis prositis and rheumatism and a lady came up in the line and and and i laid hands on her instantaneously she was healed 25 years of pain and all the rest of stuff gone just like that but she didn't have to come from ohio to california because i didn't do the healing it was the power of god see what i mean but because she thought i had all this faith because i teach on it and because i'm on television oh this is god's great man of faith and power well you know i'd like to think i beat a man but i know that's not true everybody has the same measure of faith you start out with the same measure now you're going to have to develop it romans 12 3 god is dealt to each one of us the measure of faith so what you have to do is you should be growing in your faith and you should use some methodology to determine that you're growing are you following me if i if i want to go from from fort worth to dallas i would push the little button on my odometer tripometer i should say back to zero and at any given time i can tell how far i've traveled and how far knowing how far mileage wise dallas is from fort worth i can determine how much further i have to go i can check myself out when we were kids in the summer time where we lived it was we used to have alleys behind the houses and a lot of people had these bored fences up and so we would stand each kid up and take a little straight thing and put it up against his head and then on the wall and draw a line and put his name on there and then next summer we would come back and take the same kid stand at the same line and you could see the difference between the year that had passed that there was growth so you need to have some way to measure the fact that you're growing in faith because faith can be at a greater or lesser degree of manifestation at any given time faith is not just faith his faith is faith it is something that can be developed you ought to know this from i'll give you two scriptures real quick not the scriptures but to illustration one time jesus you're probably familiar with this one time jesus was walking down the road and an entourage came to him and said that the centurion has sent us he has a servant at home that's sick he wants you to come and heal him jesus started on the way and then the centurion sent a delegation back to him and said it's not not needful for you to physically come to my house just speak the word and my servant will be healed jesus turned to the crowd and said i have not found such great faith no not in israel that word great is a descriptive term it describes a degree a quantity an amount or a condition when you hear great you don't think of minuscule or minute you think of something humongous and big right then another time jesus had been up on the mountain praying the disciples were on the sea of galilee a storm arose they were being whipped by the way jesus went to them walking on the water got near the boat and said be of good cheer it is i be not afraid peter said if it be you jesus just got through saying it is i and peter said if it'd be you see that's the way we do it we don't even think about it when we're saying we don't even realize what we just said he said be of good cheer it is i be not afraid peter said if it be you let me come to you on the water jesus said come the bible says peter got out of the boat walking on the water but when he saw the wind when he looked at the circumstances instead of that the word of god he began to sing jesus caught him and said oh you of little faith now don't tell me there's not a difference between little and great so faith can be a different level so it's not just faith is faith to say where are you where are you do you even know where you are in terms of your development of faith well one of the ways you can test it i like to use this because it's something people can see and relate to what can you now listen carefully this is one way that you can test it doesn't mean you're better than anyone else or less than it just means now i have a point of reference i can determine where i am and whether i am actually growing you can keep hearing and not grow it's not automatic so i'm gonna ask you a question think about this this will this can help you they have to be careful because the mind is a tricky thing and what you will do is you will hear what i didn't say because it almost sounds like a trick statement but it's not it's designed to help you locate yourself ask yourself the question what can you believe god for i believe the lord can do anything i didn't ask you that that goes without saying i ask you what can you believe god for can you believe him for a tricycle can you believe him for an suv or can you believe him for a bentley arnage at 300 000 see what can you believe god for are you following me and so you can measure yourself you can use your giving as a measuring rod again it doesn't make you better than or less than but if something it's tangible you can see it you know what's going out of your pocket as easy to track that in and and tell where you are so what can you believe god for way back my wife and i started as i think i mentioned earlier in the other service about tithing and we started out with the traditional ties which means ten percent or a tenth and it took all all of the faith that she and i could put together it took every ounce of that faith and with literal fear and trepidation because we weren't making it on a hundred percent that we received as an income how can we take 10 of it and make it on the 90 but i saw that it was god's way i saw that the reason i was having all these problems was because i was robbing god and i was operating in the curse and i didn't realize i was because my church didn't tell me that i was they just said hold on to god's unchanging hand [Laughter] and and that wouldn't have been so bad if i could have found his hand i gotta where he where's the hand you know just cliches don't do anything and so we decided we were gonna tithe and do it god's way because what we were doing definitely wasn't working so we had nowhere to go but up because we was already down as far as you could get so wouldn't that we couldn't lose anything we could only gain so we started at 10 now again it doesn't make you better than or more spiritual it just means you have made a commitment and now you can tell where you are it took all of our faith to believe god to give away ten percent and make it on the ninety percent it was left as of today tonight we give away forty percent of all of our money and live better on the 60 than we did on the 90 when we first started out now it took time to develop that we didn't start out with 40 but step by step by step so it's easier for me to believe that i can give away 40 of all my money all of my income and live as good on the 60 as leftover as i could if i had kept the whole hundred percent i couldn't do that when we started i told you it was with fear and shaken and trepidation that we gave up to 10 but over time so that's one area that's very observable it's it's it's it's physical you can relate to that what can you believe god for see again it's not to put you down or to make you think you're less than or better it's just an idea that's something that's very easy to track your money honey very easy to track i'm not doing any credits i didn't tell you that for some kind of no no no no it's just showing you what you can do if you dare to believe god's word and we believe we we receive more giving away 40 than we did we was only giving away 10 percent because it goes on the beat goes on and on and on so where are you do you even know where you are what can you believe god for listen if you can't believe god to get rid of a headache don't mess around when that doctor tells you you got a lump go get that thing fixed because brother sister if you didn't have the faith to keep it from coming how are you going to get rid of it with your faith amen satan to take you out okay so that's how you want to do five where are you in reference to your faith if you can't believe for ten percent how are you gonna believe for forty percent see what i mean just it's just a place where you can gauge yourself it doesn't make you better than or more spiritual than it's just a matter of a commitment a matter of a choice that's all but that's one area there are other areas probably but that one is so real because that every one of us can relate to money because that's the only reason you're working on your job that's the only reason you're gonna get up tomorrow and go to your job is because of the money if your company unless you're in business for yourself but if your company are you working for somebody else and your company told you tomorrow we can't we don't have any more money but we want you to keep on working we can't pay you anyway i'm out of there take the desktop i'm out of there you know i'm telling the truth you're not going to stay there at work you're working for one reason only the money and you want more of it because if you liked your job so much you'd work for free and tell them you give that money to somebody else i just love my job i don't think so so you have to know where you are before you start laying claim to your desire see you can have a desire for a bentley and don't have volkswagen faith in manifestation i mean there there be a little difference between a volkswagen and a bentley not a lot but a little difference so you don't want to try to you don't want to try to to to believe for too much even though you may have a desire for it put that desire off to the future until your faith can match it i don't know if anybody here works out in gymnasium or has worked out in a gymnasium or even pump a little iron or something for for for for exercise purposes well if you've never lifted any weights at all and you go into the gymnasium and load the bar up and you're going to do a bench press with 500 pounds we're going to have your funeral ain't no way you're going to pump 500 pounds you've never even been in the gym before your muscles can't handle it but if you go out there and start with 10 pounds and keep on working on that long enough you can get to the point where you can pump 500 pounds men do it but they didn't start out with that so you don't want to start out with 500 pound faith objective and then rupture yourself or kill yourself and become discouraged because it didn't work your muscles or your faith muscle is not up to par yet work on the little things that gradually work up to the bigger things to where your faith can happen are you are you following it make any sense to you you get that did i tell you to turn to daniel chapter 10 you thought you thought i forgot i didn't forget okay watch this now we're talking about jesus and when you pray believe that you receive them and you shall have them i said you've got a basic way that you exercise your faith number one you start out with the confession and then you follow it up with whatever action is appropriate and available to you that supports that confession that's based on god's word faith has to be based on the known will of god you don't just grab it out there in the middle of nowhere because god only responds to his word now i said daniel but let me give keep your finger on daniel go to mark's gospel the 16th chapter and let me give you a confirmation of what i just said because some people they think they can just come off the wall with anything and it's going to work see when jesus said what things whatever you desire you have to understand the whole modus operandi that god operates by it's not just anything you can desire that's going to happen again i'll guarantee you i'll guarantee you you can't just say well i believe i'm gonna be a pilot and i'm gonna fly for british airways and it's my desire to fly a 747 400 jet so i'm gonna go over to british airways and put in an application you can't even drive a car you think you god's gonna let you behind the the yoke of that airplane not so not so so the desire has to be consistent with what the covenant tells you and in studying the covenant i have found that it covers everything say everything everything i think i said this before but it'll be a repetition it covers everything that you will ever need and any and everything you could ever desire that is consistent with a godly life notice how i qualified that okay i can't say oh i like her she looks good i want to go to bed with her and then i think i have her and i think i oh oh i really like that one over there that ain't gonna work that's not a godly life that won't work are you following me but people do have some strange desires you know i'm telling the truth amen all right what did i say mark yeah i wanted to show you this mark chapter 16 if you haven't seen i have it verse 20 said and they went out and preached everywhere the lord working with them and confirming them with the word through the accompanying signs or as the tradition says science followed listen to it again and they went out this is the apostles after jesus went back to heaven they went out and preached everywhere the lord working with him and confirming them with the word no how dare you say no no it doesn't say that does it it says working with them and confirming the word with signs following the signs don't come until after the word god does not confirm males or females black white brown red yellows he doesn't confirm methodist or baptist or catholic and no offense please don't take offense but he doesn't confirm denominations he doesn't confirm theology he doesn't confirm geographical location he only confirms his word with signs following the signs come after the word no word no signs comprende no word no sign god doesn't confirm you he doesn't confirm me he confirms his word so if i don't give him his word he doesn't have anything to confirm you can't just go off on a tangent and just say no it's got to be in line with the word and then you're sure of a successful conclusion to the illustration all right back to danielle chapter number 10. if you have it see i have it i want to show you about the words remember i told you the first thing is confession of your mouth then followed by whatever physical action you can come up with that's consistent with your confession because see he said what things whatever you desire when you pray believe you receive it and you shall have it well if you've prayed and you believed you receive it then why can't you say it why wouldn't you say it and then some christian bless the little hearts because they don't know they'll say well i i have it in my heart the lord knows that i have it in my heart i don't always say anything and i don't always talk but but god knows that i have it in my heart that's right and god knows you're the biggest liar in town you know why because the word says out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks so if the mouth is not speaking must not be anything in there because out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks so if the mouth is not speaking apparently to use my best grandma ain't nothing in there i hope you got that you have to say it you have to talk it all right now daniel um let me give you a little scenario daniel had had a vision he didn't understand the vision so he prayed as it were and asked god for the vision god sent him an answer daniel chapter 10 verse 10. suddenly a hand touched me this is daniel speaking suddenly a hand touched me which made me tremble on my knees and on the palms of my hand and he said to me oh daniel man greatly beloved understand the word that i speak to you and stand upright for i have now been sent to you while he was speaking this word to me i stood trembling now watch this then he said to me do not fear daniel for from the first day say first day for from this this is 21 days later that this event occurred with this angel but but the angel said for from the first day that you set your heart to understand and to humble yourself before your god your words were heard watch this now and i have come because of your words he didn't say i have come because of you i have come because of your words god that's why your words are important that's why you have to speak it he didn't say i've come because of you i have come because of your words don't tell me that's not important then watch this verse 13 but let me read verse 12 again then he said to me do not fear daniel for from the first day that you set your heart to understand and to humble yourself before your god your words were heard and i have come because of your word but the prince of the kingdom of persia withstood me 21 days and behold michael one of the chief princes came to help me for i for i had been left alone there with the kings of persia he's talking about a demon spirit that was over the kingdom of persia and these demon spirits are working in the spirit realm to thwart the answer to your prayer that's why you have to stand and having done all to stand that's why you have to continue to make that confession 21 days daniel spoke and the angel said i have come because of your words your words are what allowed me to get through and pass through the demonic forces that we're trying to hinder see you're in a warfare and satan doesn't want you to obtain the desires of your heart he doesn't want you to get to a position where you become a threat to his uh continue to rule over you when you break out of his bonds and walk in the fullness of your covenant benefits he doesn't like that but guess what who gives the care what he likes okay but you got to fight the good fight of faith and that's where it means to stand so your confession you can make that confession i don't care how long it takes i told you 13 years i kept saying somebody's going to give me a million dollars i just kept saying they just kept saying they can't stand here here's my philosophy guess what this is where i look at stuff i'm a real simple person it's what i look at let's say i said it and it didn't work so what i'm no worse off than it was before i had nothing when i started if i don't get nothing at the end then nothing from nothing is nothing i don't know if you know it but zero minus zero is zero and zero plus zero is zero and zero divided by zero is zero and zero times zero is zero you got nothing to lose go for it it doesn't work you've lost nothing but oh if it does work and it does oh glory to god you ahead of the game brother sister go for it go for the gold don't settle for the bronze he said i've come because of your words god hears your words and when those words agree with his word you have a connection and god will pass over 27 million people to get to one man or one woman that will dare to take him at his word god is not impressed with your designer clothes god is not impressed with your alligator shoes god is not impressed with your big fancy house with your flat screen tvs in every room nothing wrong with that god responds to his word through your mouth learn to speak god speak and then you'll have his power in manifestation hallelujah you still here i like that i like that and see oh boy all right let me see where am i going to go now now i think i've i've covered what faith is we found out there's a difference between faith and belief i would like to to spend the rest of our time together tonight talking about what faith is not because as i've had the privilege to travel all over the world and and particularly zeroing in on this particular subject as i as i told you that's this is my assignment outside of my pastorate this is one of the areas where god uh has anointed me to uh to teach again not that i know everything but that's just the anointing and i've seen it as i've gone to different countries different continents and i found people are people our people are people because they have to deal with the same devil i mean there's no chinese devil over in china and there's no russian devil in russia and there's no south american devil in brazil it's the same old same old same old same old and uh in in in dealing with people you pick up on some things and one of the things i've noticed that a lot of people somehow they've got the wrong slant on some things and there are certain things that they think are faith because they've heard people say it but they've never seen it in the word so just so that you could be armed with this you may already know it but you'll be able to help other people and it may confirm some things that you know so i want to just talk a little bit about some things that that faith is not go to second corinthians chapter four many times it's just as good to know what a thing is not as to know what it is because i know at first when i first was introduced to the principles the law of faith there were some things that that that i heard you know in the church world and sometimes because we have confidence in people which is not wrong in and of itself but sometimes we have to be very careful and it's an awesome thing to stand in a position of ministry personally i don't take it lightly because one of these days i'm going to have to give an account of my stewardship of what the lord has told me and it's it's a it's an awesome thing because somebody is going to believe that what you say is true and that's a that's a horrendous situation if you're telling people the wrong thing so i do the best i can to be sure that i'm sure that what i'm saying is truth and can be validated by the word it's not truth because i say it in a clever way that sounds reasonable that's not the name of the game it better be you should be able to find it even if you can't find the fully developed plant in the word you should find the seeds because everything in the word is not fully developed it's seeds and they have to be planted in your heart watered with the confession of your mouth and then they grow and develop and so we have to be careful we want to talk about what faith is not um second corinthians chapter four if you haven't seen i have it verse 18 it says while we do not look at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen for the things which are seen are temporary but the things which are not seen are eternal now if you will remember hebrews 11 1 you talked about now faith is the substance of things t-h-i-n-g-s things hoped for the evidence of things not seen remember that and i gave you an alternate rending rendering of that word scene instead of saying seen because it limits us to visual perception and when you do that then you miss everything you could hear everything you could smell everything you could taste and everything you could touch because that's how we relate to the physical three-dimensional world that we live in is through our physical senses that are located in our body and so just to say to use the word seen it it it it conveys the idea of visual perception but then you miss all those other things so i gave you an alternate rendering which i really believe is what the spirit of god was conveying but again the writers of the bible they they put things many times in the context of what they know or at least what they think they know and so we can miss it so i want to use that that alternate i gave you instead of saying seem perceived by the senses because that's bottom line that's what's going to happen it's going to be what we perceive by our senses so i want to read verse 18 that way while we do not look at the things which are perceived by the senses but at the things which are not perceived by the senses for or because the things which are perceived by the senses are temporary temporal or subject to change but the things which are not perceived by the senses are eternal can you buy into that okay now some christians have said teachers have said or let me say it this way they've left the impression that to walk by faith means you deny what the senses are telling you in other words you deny that sickness is there you deny that poverty is there they are thinking that to walk by faith means you deny what's in the sense realm but that's not true it's not true the word we just read it if you you might have missed it but what we just read proves what i just said watch this it says while we do not look at the things which are seen [Music] or perceived by the senses the very fact that paul says we do not look at them means that them exist because if them did not exist you couldn't look at them anyway so there would be no need for him to tell you not to look at something is not there you get that see he says while we do not look at the things which is seen so the things which are seen must be there he's not telling us to deny that they're there he simply says don't look at them well brother price if i don't look at the things which are seen what am i supposed to do about the things what you're seeing ignore them don't deny them ignore them but how do i do that the same way you ignore me when you don't want to be bothered with me you act like i'm not there stick your little pointed nose up in the sky and walk right by me just like i don't exist that's how you do it you know i bet you can relate to that um [Music] i mean standing right next to you just keep on talking to somebody just like i did wasn't even there you know how to ignore folk well you ignore those ignore their right to dictate your lifestyle not deny their existence because they exist look at it while we do not look at the things which are seen he didn't tell us to deny that they're there he said just don't look at them well what do i look at i look at the promise of god what does god say about those things i see okay watch this now while we do not look at the things which are seen or perceived by the senses but after things which are not perceived or not seen or perceived by the sins what are those things those are the things of faith those are the things that we can't see with the natural eye those are the things that faith is the evidence or proof of based on god's word that's what we look at we look at the promise of god the circumstance they tell me i'm going down the word of god says i'm going up i have a choice what am i going to look at we have more confidence in what the senses tell us than we do and what god tells us and the thing about it is so awesome is god's the one that created the senses so if he tells you not to look at them then he must know what he'd be talking about [Applause] right okay he says while we do not look at the things which are seen or perceived by the senses but at the things which are not seen or perceived by the senses why paul for or because the things which are seen or perceived by the senses are temporary temporal or subject to change but the things which are not perceived by the senses are eternal and everlasting they never change everything in the physical three-dimensional environment around us is in flux it means it's changing even though you may not perceive it or see it it's changing in fact if you don't believe it go find your high school graduation picture look at it and then go look in the mirror [Applause] yeah yeah right uh-huh praise the lord hallelujah glory to god yeah yeah yeah we all change everything changes everything changes that's that is perceived by the senses it's all temporal or temporary the only thing that's eternal is the everlasting word of almighty god it cannot fail so instead of looking at the things we don't deny the things we don't say they're not there sickness is there if sickness wasn't there you couldn't be healed by jesus strife because if there's no sickness there's nothing to be healed wouldn't god know that so faith doesn't say that bad things don't exist faith says i don't look at them to allow them the luxury of telling me how i live my life i let god's word be my guideline i go by what god says by his word for his word is forever settled in heaven are you following me so to walk by faith doesn't mean you deny that sickness is there you deny poverty is there you deny the pain is there no you don't deny it you just don't look at it in other words you don't allow it to tell you how to live your life so if i'm if i'm in if i'm in pain or something's wrong and and i believe i receive my healing but i'm still in pain i'm up all night long keep up i'm keeping the kids away keeping the dog the cat both of them are awake they're howling in the screech because i'm whining all night long because i'm in pain what am i supposed to do if i were you i'd get you some pain medicine now see i didn't say that to be funny but i said it because there are those there are those that think that because to walk by faith means that i don't take any medicine well i don't if i don't need it but if i need it i take it what medicine can't cure you but it can affect the symptoms that are keeping your tail awake at night and not allowing you to sleep so you can't go to work and come to church and sit here and sleep while the pastor is teaching because you've been up all night fighting the pain all the medication you're going to do is anesthetize your whatever so that you're not aware of the pain it's not going to take it away because if it did you wouldn't have to pray or believe anything just take a medicine and cancer would leave take the medicine all the rest of the stuff would go away but i know when i first got started they almost had us in bondage just scared to take anything scared to take a uh you know aspirants well if i'm gonna walk by faith i can't take medication i don't know why who do you think admitted medication the devil i don't think so if it was left to say there wouldn't be any doctors or operations or treatments or medication he lets you die god did it to help his kids who are going to a lot of these churches where they never learn anything keep them alive until they can get to a place like this and find out their covenant rights and be able to overcome it so don't let anybody put you in bondage i don't look to the medication i don't look to advil to heal me but it deals with the present pain i'm believing god that i'm healed because see remember this pain is not causative pain is symptomatic it is telling you it's an alert system that god built into your body to alert you something is wrong when that red light comes on the dashboard of your car saying your engine oil is low you better do something about it you're going to burn the engine up it's not trying to scare you try to warn you keep you from ruining a good vehicle and so the pain factors are built into your body so that you can know if you didn't know you had pain if you kept putting your hand on the fire and you didn't feel anything from it you could burn your hand up and not know it so the pain alerts right away you move out of there are you following me i mean i never will forget when i first started out in this and god was sending me all over the country ministering i went down to a place in kentucky and uh oh lord jesus and there there was a there was a man i won't mention his name but but he was being i guess used of god very prominently in the charismatic renewal and his main thing was you take no medicine if you really believe god you don't take any medicine and you don't have any insurance that's absolutely right and then i and i didn't know all of this when i was first invited to this meeting and so i'm in this meeting and this guy spoke before me and he got up with all that stuff and i'm saying to myself man the poor sheep are already demoralized enough and confused now what's it going to look like if i get up and refute all of this garbage that this guy was spewing out and i could do it from the word of god it put me in a real real bad position see watch this listen very carefully you learn something what he was doing and many like him he was not having faith in the word of god his faith was in not taking medicine didn't get that you didn't get that see his faith was in not having insurance he had people in bonnie and he ended up dying himself of something because he probably wouldn't take any medication no i mean to deal with with the symptoms if you don't do something i'm telling you if that light comes on and it tells you your engine oil is low and you don't do anything about it you'll burn that engine up i remember one time when i was very very young and i got up with a bunch of our my crime partners we were just seven i was 18 they were 17 and we were gonna we stole this car and and we were gonna really we were to go to mexico and we're going to start a steal stealing cars and selling them crazy iron is crazy but when you're kid you do you know you do some dumb things and and so and so did the guy that was that whose car we were riding in it was a car that his father had given him and we were going to go down and he's going to let us off and we'd steal the cars and then we'd sell a car then we'd have a way to get back in his car and he didn't take care of the car like he should and and we were we were driving along this is god's honest truth we were driving along and the car started god is my witness we opened we stopped the car and opened the hood the engine was white hot it had frozen up because of no oil it's ruined but if he had paid attention to the warning lights he wouldn't have suffered the loss and many times christians do that what does insurance have to do with faith to have or not to have that is the question well and people are so gullible christians and that's why they need somebody that'll give them the real truth without any mess okay if if if walking by faith means you don't have insurance because you're believing god that you'll never have an accident so that means then god has to control all the other crazy drivers keep them from doing something dumb and hitting your car so then if you don't have insurance and you really believe that that means i'm walking by faith because i don't have any insurance well then tell me why you are using deodorant [Laughter] why don't you believe god that you're never going to smell if you don't use deodorant and take all the money you've been spending on deodorant and give it into the kingdom because that's all deodorant is is an insurance policy i wonder if i'm right about that amen and then if you want to really get technical about it if not having any insurance is means you're walking by faith then why do you have locks on your house locks on your car the insurance is irrelevant and immaterial but it can be a hedge against the thief who come to steal kill and destroy in taking everything that belongs to you my wife and i were on a preaching mission one time we left our daughter at home and she she had the car while we were gone and she was in a line of traffic the car in front of her did a panic stop she couldn't stop quick enough and ran into the back of the car in front of her messed up our car more than it did the other guy's car and uh the guy got out of the car and looking like everything was all right so then they started exchanging driver's license and insurance stuff and because she didn't she didn't have it the guy all of a sudden he was hurt now and so when we got home from our trip got a telephone call from some lawyer insurance somebody representing this guy about the accident i didn't even waste time talking to the dude i said uh here's the number of my insurance agent and i haven't heard from them till this day because they were getting ready because see i don't know about here but california is a ripoff when it comes to to suing they'll sue you for anything and they thought they had a a fish on the hook but see all that insurance did he just stop the accident from happening and thank god god and his angels kept her from getting hurt that's the most important thing cars can be replaced but my children cannot be replaced and so the insurance kept the devil from trying to steal from us through a lawsuit are you following me because we're not perfect i mean i'm not i know these first three rules i can tell that y'all are absolutely perfect so y'all don't need any locks on your house and no you don't have no none of you use deodorant and [Applause] because y'all walking by faith are you seeing what i'm talking about we had a we had another situation we first started out in this we had a lady in the in in our church who had she had two boys and she was a single mother and the boys got on this one guy got on drugs he got all messed up anyway long story short made him left him blind and uh so he couldn't see so she had to take care of him and we were on a trip somewhere in another part of the country and unknown to us she misunderstood as much as i made it a point to try to explain it to her tell him i'm not here i'll call him back later uh she uh did something that was foolish and didn't get it from me but some kind of way she didn't understand it and so we didn't know this but she had insurance medical insurance she cancelled it we didn't know this see she canceled the insurance so while we were on this trip some kind of way she um i can't remember whether she ran the bath water for him to take a bath some kind of way he tripped fell into the bathtub and drowned in the bathtub and when we got back to actually heard about they call us on the phone let us know about it come to find out she had no insurance she couldn't even bury the boy so the church had to do it well at least the insurance would have paid for burial see what i mean see we're not perfect and sometimes we do things inadvertently have you ever stumbled and fell somewhere i know you did it on purpose didn't you you felt like a jack and i went how could i have been that dumb to trip over that but we're not perfect so we we need help some of those things they can help us our faith my faith not in insurance my faith not in medication but i use it just like i use other tools to ward off the enemy and to deal with things that until the manifestation comes as i started to say earlier when i was over here pain is is is not cognitive it's it's symptomatic so even though you anesthetize the pain so you're not consciously aware of it you still got to deal with what caused the pain and that's where your faith comes in you use your faith on the cause once the cause goes the pain is automatically gone but in the meantime i got to go to work i can't stay home and i can't do my job with this throbbing pain about to blow my brains out i need some help so my when i take the pill it's not because i don't believe god i'm only dealing with symptoms okay so you so it's not automatically faith because you don't use a medication you don't go to the doctor you won't have treatments you won't have operation and you don't have insurance or you don't use deodorant hallelujah it doesn't automatically mean that you're in faith so don't get you know hung out on that now i don't argue with folk i don't know if firing with me if that's what you believe and you want to do that's fine but just know don't try to put that off on somebody else because not really not what the word says are you following me so faith is not denying the circumstances it's just simply not allowing them to dictate the terms of your life now while you're right there in second corinthians look at the fifth chapter verse seven says for we walk by faith not by sight what does that mean it simply means we walk by the word and not by the senses we walk by the word not by the senses in other words again we don't allow the senses to dictate to us and tell us how to live our lives we abide by them when we need to like i said last night when i get ready to cross the freeway out there i don't cross by faith i cross by sight i'm looking in all the directions because i have been a hit-and-run victim by an automobile before satan tried to take me out when i was very young hit dead-on should have been killed only the angels of god preserved me and another young man that was with me at that time just kids so i don't cross any street without looking north south east west down and up just might be a buzzard flying overhead or something decide to drop some you know what on me and i can't see and i step out in the highway and get hit by a car i ain't going there amen

Channel: Austin Lingerfelt

Views: 34,167

Rating: 4.7695169 out of 5

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Id: dhHjhnzxObI

Length: 81min 14sec (4874 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 24 2021