Thanks for checking out the Anchor Faith Message podcast
from St. Augustine, FL.
Now enjoy this message. I want to talk about the
measure, the measure Kingdom faith, the measure.
You know, we talked about that measuring stick a few Wednesday
nights, you know, last month about how he, God has a
measuring stick, right? And, and, and we talked about
how to grow up spiritually and to mature that we're from where
to go from babes, infants, babes in Christ, right, you know, and
continue to mature up into a perfect man, a mature man.
And we talked about, we gave the the analogy of a child, when
they're first born a baby, they go back to the doctor and he
measures them, doesn't he? He measures them on a percentile
of where this child should be with their weight and their
height and all of these things according to the month that they
are. If they're three months, the
percentage should be right here for a three month old, right?
Or whatever the case, and you take them back for a couple of
years so that he can continue to make sure that what they are
being nourished properly, that they are growing properly.
Well, God has another measuring stick and it's are we people of
faith? Because he has given us all the
measure of faith. He's given us all the measure of
faith. So how does true biblical faith
come? You know, we can.
There's so many misconceptions in the church world, you know,
because I know people that say they are Christians and say they
believe God, but they see him as a God that's way out here and
they just believe that he's a God.
He is God and he's way out here and he's going to do what he
wants to do. That is not true biblical faith
according to the Scripture, OK. And so we have to look at it
according to what the Scripture says.
And then, as I said, we have to test ourselves to see, are we
really in faith? Are we really living a life of
faith? And this means every day is what
I like Pastor Hagen used to say. Is the switch of faith turned
on? Is it on every day?
And we are the only ones that can determine that and know that
Is faith really the switch of faith really turned on in our
life every day in our coming and in our going and everything that
we're doing, right? So we know, and we've been
taught this, that faith is so important because without it we
can do nothing. We can do nothing.
And faith is so important because it's the only thing that
pleases God. I don't care how much you serve.
I don't care how much you do to help the poor, how many
thousands of dollars, whatever. The only thing that pleases God
is our faith, our faith, our faith that pleases Him.
And so faith is so important in the Kingdom because recognizing
that we have to have faith to see the promises of God
appropriated in our life, because as we've been taught
here, faith is the actual currency of the Kingdom.
It is the exchange, it's the currency, it's the exchange.
It is we have to have faith to exchange or to give to God so
that we can see heaven brought to earth, so that we can see
what He says belongs to us. We have to be people of faith to
make that exchange, to get the reality of what He says belongs
to us in the earth. It's the exchange.
It's the currency. Amen.
And the next thing we have to realize about faith is that
faith operates in the unseen. It operates in the unseen, but
the purpose of it is to bring it to the scene, right?
So therefore, we cannot live by what we see because true
biblical faith in God is going to put you in places where you
don't see things until you have faith to believe those things
and bring them into the reality in the earth.
Amen. So how does true biblical faith
comes? We know this.
Romans 10/17. So faith comes from hearing and
hearing from what the Word of God, the Word of God say.
Faith comes from the Word. We do not and should not operate
in any other type of faith outside of the Word of God
because then we can be assured that it is true biblical faith.
I do not have faith on something I heard so and so said is what
I'm saying. I don't have faith in another
book that I may have read that some other person may have
wrote. No true biblical faith for us to
build our foundation on and our life on has to come from the
Word of God and the Word of God alone.
And this is so important because I know many people, their faith
has failed them because they actually had faith in somebody
else's experience instead of the infallible Word of God.
So true biblical faith is only going to come from His Word,
Amen. And His Word rightly divided.
His word rightly divided. Romans 10/8 and 11 says this.
But what does it say? The word is near you, and in
your mouth and in your heart. That is the Word of Faith which
you which we are preaching, right?
The Word of Faith which we are preaching.
And he goes on to say that if you confess with your mouth
Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him
from the dead, you will be saved.
For with the heart a person believes resulting in
righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses resulting in
salvation. For the Scripture says whoever
believes in him will not be disappointed.
Say I believe God, say I believe God and I will not be
disappointed. Hallelujah, glory to God, I
believe God. I have faith in God, true faith
in Him that he will not disappoint.
Hallelujah that He fully, fully is faithful to His own word.
He's committed to His own word. And if I stand on his word in
faith, believing in my heart, and we're going to get into this
later, confessing with my mouth, come on, then I can be assured
that He will not disappoint in my life.
Hallelujah. So the faith that we need to, we
have to have it come from the Word.
And we see that the minute we call on the name of the Lord by
faith, as His Spirit drew us into the Kingdom of God and let
us know we needed Him to redeem us.
Faith was then activated because we called on His name.
We believed in our heart and we confessed it with our mouth.
And that is how faith will operate the rest of your life.
The rest of your life. For anything that He says
belongs to you. You must believe it in your
heart, and you must confess it out of your mouth.
It is written by His stripes. I am healed.
Can be no other thing. So for the rest of your life,
this is the law of faith in operation for anything, any
promise, not just salvation. I have to believe in my heart
what His Word says concerning provision, whatever it is, and
then I have to confess it and believe it.
Come on, until I see the reality of it.
Amen. Hallelujah.
So the minute we get born again, then we see that we activate
faith. Now let's look at this Romans
1012 through 15. For there is no distinction
between Jew and Greek. For the same Lord as the Lord of
all abounding in riches, for all who call on him.
For whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.
How then will they call on Him and whom they've not believed?
You see that belief, faith has to be activated in our hearts.
How will they believe in Him whom they've not heard?
There's that hearing again. If you're not hearing of the
word or you're not hearing of the preacher saying you need to
be born again, then faith cannot be activated because faith comes
from the Word, Amen. And then believing it in your
heart, how can they believe in whom they've not heard?
And how can they hear without a preacher?
Everyone of you are a preacher. The minute you get born again,
you now become a mouthpiece for the Lord, and you are to go out
and preach with the ministry of reconciliation, letting
everybody know that they need the Savior that you just
encountered. Hallelujah, so that they can
hear, because how are they going to hear unless someone is sent?
And you are those someones. You are those someones, not just
me. And pastor, it is also your
responsibility to go out and preach the gospel.
Amen. Every single one of us are
responsible. How will they preach unless they
are sent? Just as it is written.
How beautiful are the feet of those who bring the good news of
good things. So these two scriptures let us
know. And the reason why I use these
first is because I wanted you to see that this is how you got
born again. Faith was applied to your life
through you believing it in your heart and activating what you
heard the preacher say. And that will always be the law
for you the rest of your life and walk with the Lord as long
as we have today. The Lord willing, come on.
But we know he's quickly returning.
Amen. We are living in the last of the
last days and we're seeing things come on happen
prophetically like never before. I mean, my goodness, every day
there's something else that's just taken place just that
quick. So we need to be out about the
Father's business. But anyway, letting people know
so that they can hear that they need the Lord, Amen.
But let's go to Ephesians chapter 2 and verses one through
10. Again, these are all scriptures
that we know, we've read many times throughout the 20 years
here, but it's good for us to remind ourselves of these
things. It says, and you were dead in
your trespasses and sins in which you formerly walked
according to the course of this world, according to the Prince
of the power of air and of the spirit that is now working in
the sons of disobedience among them.
We too all formerly lived in the lust of our flesh, indulging in
the desires of our flesh and and of our mind, right?
And we're by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.
But God, being rich in His mercy because of His great love for
with which He loved us even when we were dead in our
transgressions, made us alive together with Christ.
By grace you have been saved, and raised us up with Him, and
seated us with Him in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that
in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of
His grace and kindness towards us in Christ.
Verse 8 For by grace you have been saved.
Through what? Through faith?
Through faith. So faith had to be heard and
acted upon for you to be able to partake and be partakers of His
salvation and His divine grace. Amen.
So it we have been saved through faith and not at that of
yourselves. It was a free gift of God.
Say it was a gift of God, not as a result of work, so that no one
may boast, for we are his workmanship, created in Christ
Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand so that we
could walk in them. Say we've been saved through
faith, through faith, through faith.
For us to enter into the Kingdom of God, it had to be by faith,
had to be by faith. It could be no other way.
And so faith is not though what I want to say, just a one time
experience. And a lot of people, believers
live that way. They have faith to be born again
and they stay right there, and they do not use their faith to
activate any of the promises that belong to them according to
scripture. They just use their faith so
that when they die, they get to go to heaven, but they do not
know how to activate their faith or or work their faith to live
by faith, which we'll see a few scriptures in a minute to be
able to appropriate all the things that he says is ours in
the Kingdom of God, in their family life with their children,
in their businesses. Come on in, in their occupation.
We should be using our faith every single day, and I believe
we're not every day. We should be using our faith.
It was not ever meant to be, just faith to get into the
Kingdom so that we can live in this world and go through
everything that this world goes through just like everyone else,
and so that one day in the sweet by and by will be with Him in
heaven. No, that is not the Kingdom
life. That is not living in dominion,
That is not ruling and reigning in this earth.
He came to give us a good life. Come on, a prosperous life, a
healthy life, everything, a full supply of whatever it is that He
says belongs to us. We should be appropriating it in
our life by faith. Hallelujah.
And I'm here to stir faith up in you once again, to say, am I
truly activating faith that God had the measure that God has
given me to bring a supply in the Kingdom of God for such a
time as this? Amen.
Until we see him return, Hallelujah, glory to God, say
I'm going to stir up my faith because I'm going to tell you
the more and more we see what's happening in the world, we're
going to have to be people that live by faith, that live by
faith. And living by faith is easy
because he said, take my yoke. It is easy.
But living by faith is completely against everything
you see. And we'll make you look crazy,
just like those four crazy friends that drop busted through
the roof and brought their friend down for healing, right?
You going to look crazy? And the thing about it is, has
we, have we become so politically correct, correct as
believers that we don't even want to have some crazy faith
anymore 'cause we don't want anybody thinking we're crazy.
I don't care what people think. And I'd much rather go to a
church that had some crazy people with some crazy faith
that go to a dead style, burnt out religious exercise.
Come on. And a bunch of hypocrisy and a
bunch of unholiness and ungodliness all through the
church. Come on, we got to get radical
again. I'm telling you, we're asleep.
And we need some radical believers again that will
actually live this thing out and don't care what people think and
call it for what it is. Amen.
We've gotten too quiet. We've let the world lull us to
sleep and hush us up so that we can be politically correct.
We need to just bust through those walls.
We see that once we get born again.
I like to say it this way. The seed of faith gets
impregnated within us and then begins to germinate.
It's the seed of faith. He calls it in Romans, and I
have it down here. Romans 12 verse three, which I'm
jumping ahead. Romans 12 verse three says, For
I say through the grace which has been given to me and to
everyone that is among you, not to have high thoughts above what
he should think, but to think so as to be wise as God has dealt
to each a measure of faith. Say I have a measure of faith.
Every single believer has a measure of faith.
And guess what? God's measuring whether or not
you're using what He has allotted you, because when you
look up that word measure, that's what it means.
I have allotted you an amount of faith that you will need for the
rest of your life in this walk with Him until He returns.
You and every one of us have been given a measure of faith,
and He expects us to be using it, allotted an amount for us,
for the grace upon our lives and whatever it is that He needs for
us to accomplish in the earth. You have been given the measure
of faith and it's up to us to appropriate that faith, come on,
and to use that faith to produce that faith, to increase that
faith, to increase that faith. You know, I love what Brother
Hagin used to say. You know, everybody comes in and
they hear the message of faith. You know, the Word of Faith that
he was called to teach his people, go and teach God's
people faith. And he did that for all these
years. And now Pastor Hagin doing that.
And I remember when we had nothing and God called us to
move to Bible school with three kids, no money, no place to go,
and we had to appropriate faith or we would have died.
We would have went hungry. We would not have had a job,
gotten a job. You know, we wouldn't have been
able to take care of our kids. And we didn't know anything
about faith other than God gave us a measure of faith.
And if he called us to go out to Oklahoma, sell everything that
we own, which was not a lot, pick up our three kids and move
them across the nation, that we didn't know anybody had no job
waiting for us. No.
Well, the apartment we thought we had waiting on us ended up
being a sublease that someone subleased piece out that the
apartment landlord didn't know they were doing.
And when we get there, you know that is a whole nother story.
And maybe through this next few weeks we'll share about that
because I need you to see the progression of faith.
Faith calls you to get out into the unknown where all you have
is the substance of faith, which we're going to read in a minute.
That's all you have. And if that don't work?
And that's what we had to remind God.
If this don't work, it's on you because we're telling you we
believe you and we're going to be obedient and we're going to
be willing to pick up our three kids and go to the unknown
because that's where you're calling us.
And if it all crumbles and crashes, I'm going to tell
everybody you did it. God, either this thing works or
it don't, and I can assure you it worked and we might get into
some testimonies later on. But anyway, so the measure of
faith, the minute you get born again, is the seed that you need
to begin to allow to germinate within your heart, because we
have to believe in our heart, remember.
So the seed now of the Word of Faith is planted in our heart
and we have to then begin to believe and exercise and apply
the faith of God in our life. And as we do that, it begins to
germinate and it begins to grow and it begins to increase within
our life, but it only comes through US allowing it to
operate. OK, Pastor talked about this
Sunday. Remember, he talked about the
choke conspiracy conspiracy. And he talked about the seed of
the word being sown into the heart.
And there was multiple, you know, things that the seed fell
on the wayside, the the seed, you know, fell on good ground.
But then the seeds, you know, got choked out by what the cares
of this world and the deceitfulness of riches and it
did not produce. So again, we've been given the
seed of faith or the measure of faith.
And we have to ask ourselves in this parable, what does our
heart look like? Because when you finish reading
that he talks about and it will produce some 30, some 60 and
some a hundredfold. I'm not going to read it.
I'm just thinking of what he was talking about on Sunday and
correlating it to faith. So it's going to produce and the
3060 and 100 is all dependent on you.
It's not dependent on what God's going to do.
It's only going to be dependent on what you're going to do with
the seed that's been sown in your heart and how you've
prepared your heart and what you're doing to protect your
heart to allow faith to continue to grow within it, right?
And be. Now look at Luke 17.
I do want to read this Luke 17, five and six.
It says the apostles said to the Lord, increase our faith.
And the Lord said, if you had faith like a mustard seed, you
would say to this Mulberry tree be uprooted and be planted in
the sea, and it would obey you. So here we see in this Scripture
that the Lord is, they're asking of the Lord to increase their
faith. And you know what the Lord is
telling them? Use the faith I've already given
you. If you'll just speak right, if
you'll just believe, if you'll just use the faith of a mustard
seed. And we have to ask ourselves,
are we using faith of a mustard seed?
Because there is great things that can be done with just that
little bitty seed if we are appropriating it in our life
correctly, if we're truly believing it in our heart and
standing on the promises of God so that you can see these things
take place in your life. Because you're going to have to
activate it by believing it. Now, when you look up that word
believe or belief in Scripture, and when you look up faith, it
means the same thing. It's the same thing, faith and
belief. So you can interchange those
words. OK, So when we are saying
believe in God or believe in what He said in his promise or
you know, whatever the Scriptures may say, what he's
saying is have faith in God, have faith in God and what you
are believing, that's what your faith has to be activated with,
OK, You have to believe. So in Romans 117 it says this
faith is to be lived by faith is just not something we say like
in the military, all the guys or even when you go to the
hospital, they have to say their religion or their faith.
Or when you go to the hospital and you fill out papers because
you may be having a life serious surgery, they make you fill out.
Well, they used to. I don't know if they even do
anymore. Who knows, maybe they don't even
care. But today, you know, but usually
there's a chap Chapel at hospitals and different things,
you know, but they always ask you what your faith is or what
your religion is. And that's about the gist of
most people's life. Oh yeah, I'm a Catholic.
Oh yeah, I'm a this. Oh yeah, I'm a that.
But He lets us know in Scripture that this is something we are to
live by. This is something we are to live
by. So if we're to live by it, then
He has to begin to show us how to activate this in our everyday
life. OK, Romans 117 says this.
For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to
faith. And here's another Scripture
from faith to faith, which proves to us that we should be
going from faith to faith. We should be increasing in our
faith. We should be going to another.
Oh, I know what I was going to say about Brother Hagin.
I never got to it. Yeah, he said.
I see all these people, they hear all these testimonies of
how people believe God by faith for this or that and they say
they're going to believe God for $1,000,000.
Yet they can't even believe God that they're going to have
enough money to fill up their tank of gas.
And, and have you seen Christians?
I'm going to be the next Joyce Meyers, but they're living from,
you know, paycheck to paycheck, not taking care of their kids,
you know, whatever I mean, that is not living by faith.
We're to live by this thing that we believe.
We're to live by it. That means we're to govern our
life. We're going to see this in a
minute. Govern our life by faith.
That's the only thing that is to govern my life, and that is
faith. Faith in the Son of God, the
Word of God. Amen.
So he says this. He says we're to go from faith
to faith as it is written. But the righteous man shall
what? Say it again.
Shall what? Say it again, Say it again.
Say it like you mean it. That's good.
That's how we ought to be
because we will not live by anything we truly don't believe.
You can say it all day long, but do you truly believe it?
And the way that you know, you truly believe it is that when
you're getting put in the situations from day-to-day that
you have to appropriate this in that situation and in that
circumstance that is living by faith.
When you get a bill show up that's unexpected, do you
crumble and fall and pull out your hair and ring and sweat and
think, Oh my God, what are we going to do?
The first thing I think of God, you knew this bill was getting
ready to come, and you know what else next?
You know that I'm a giver, that I'm a tither, and you said you
would rebuke the devourer and you would provide for your
people. I remind you of your word
because I believe God, that you are my provider.
You are Jehovah Jireh, my provider, Hallelujah, and you
will take care of all of my needs according to your riches
in glory. So I don't know how you're going
to do it, but I believe you will.
And you just show me how to navigate so that we can take
care of this thing. But I'm not going to worry about
it another day because you told me to seek first the Kingdom of
God and his righteousness. Come on.
And everything else would be added to me.
And not to be worried about what I'm going to eat or what I'm
going to drink or what I'm going to wear or anything else that
this world, all of these cares. I'm not going to worry about it
one bit because I trust God. I believe God.
I know what His word says and when I I've done all the stand,
I'm going to stand on the unfallable word of God.
That is faith. I am firmly persuaded that my
God will not fail me. Hallelujah.
I mean, that's the tenacity that we have to have when we see
that, he says in Hebrews 11/1 and six Now faith is the
substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
No, faith is a confident expectation.
And I am firmly persuaded that my God will not fail me.
He never has come on. And if it don't come when it's
supposed to come, I don't care because he's going to work it
out and show me the plan. I'm not going to doubt my God,
and I'm not going to say he couldn't do it.
Never will. I never Hallelujah because he
said he'd never leave his seed begging for bread.
We're not beggars. We got to get that mentality out
of our mind. Nobody owes us anything.
We are not victims, we are not beggars.
We do not have a poverty mentality.
We have a Kingdom mentality. We got to get all all that mess
out of our minds. I don't care where you came
from. I don't care what side of track
you came from. Come on, we are not broke people
and we never will be if we do His word.
But you got to believe it. You have to believe it.
You have to be firmly persuaded.
Hebrews 1038 But my righteous one shall live by faith, and if
he shrinks back, my soul will have no what pleasure in him.
I'm telling you, when things get tight in the world, you see
people shrink back and believers in the church.
I mean, it's one thing, you know, you're believing that
there would be 100% of people that come that are tithers
because they actually believe the word.
But you don't have that. Never has there been that step
in the Old Testament when when they had to stop the people from
bringing, you know, to build the Tabernacle.
But the world's done a great job of distorting all of that.
But anyway, I don't want to get on that.
But you know, it would be wonderful if 100% of people that
say they're believers and that go to church and that this is
where their storehouse is, would tithe.
We could, man. There is no telling what could
be happening in this place. But anyway, but when the World
Economic system, which you know, all of the talk, you know, stock
markets are plummeting, you know, economics, all this stuff
is happening. You know how much you're paying
for eggs and milk now compared to what we were.
All these things happening, but the church gets tight and we
shouldn't even be operating like that on the ups and downs of the
stock market. But if you want to operate like
the world operates, then you're going to have the fluctuation
like the world has. But if you want to just steady
cruise on through and have plenty in the time of famine,
then you have to be steady. You have to be steady.
Hallelujah. You can't shrink back.
No, what you need to do is stir up your faith and trusting God
and not what's happening in the world.
We stir up our faith when we see these things happening, right?
Hallelujah. Because that's how we are to
live by faith. 2nd Corinthians 5 seven says for we do not.
For we walk by faith and not by sight.
So we should not be walking by what we're seeing in the stock
markets is what we're saying because true people of faith
that believe God, it doesn't matter what they're saying.
We're going to be consistent in what we know God has said.
Right. And we're going to activate our
faith in the midst. That's how we are to live by
this thing. We live by faith.
That means when everything else is shaken, I'm stable, I'm
secure, I'm standing on a rock, come on.
Because I have my feet planted on the rock of Jesus Christ and
I'm doing what He says that we need to do in his economic
system and not this world, right?
Because this is how we are to live by faith.
And we could talk not just about finances.
We could talk about other scenarios that we are to live
by, by faith, right? I'm not going to live like the
world lives when it comes to raising my children.
I'm going to raise them by faith and what His Word says I need to
do with my children. I'm not going to let the world
convince me that my child is not a boy when he's a boy.
No, I'm going to live by faith and I'm going to teach them what
the word of God says, that God created man and woman.
You see what I'm saying? This is how we live by faith.
We don't take on the world's mantra.
We live by faith in His word and what His word says.
So let's look at Hebrews 11, Hebrews 11, Hebrews 11/1 through
three, and I'm going to read. I have both of the words that
King James says and the New American Standard Bible says.
Now faith is the substance I put them together, or the assurance
of things hoped for, the conviction or evidence of things
not seen. For by it the men of old gained
approval by faith. We understand that the world's
were prepared by the What if the world's were prepared by the
Word, and he just impregnated us with His word, the Word of
Faith? Come on, how can we not have
faith in God when it comes to our life, in the circumstances
and the situations that we're going through, when He can
create the world with His Word and He tells us that we are to
live by His Word, we're to live by it.
So now faith is when you look that up, it is a firm
persuasion. Another way you can say it is a
confident expectation. And this is what we say.
Faith is a firm persuasion, a confident expectation based on
your belief in the word and accepting it as truth and is
adhering to it. Not just reading the word and
thinking, oh, that's good. No, I'm going to read the word,
I'm going to hear what it has to say.
I'm going to believe it as truth, and then I'm going to
adhere to it. I'm actually going to do it in
my life. That is true biblical faith.
You are firmly persuaded. You are in a confident
expectation. You have full assurance.
You believe it as truth. You adhere to it so firmly that
it governs your life. It governs what you think, what
you say, and what you do. That means I live by it.
The words that I speak are his words, the things that I think.
I don't set my mind on earthly things, but I set my mind on
things above. Come on, these are this is what
we're talking about. I don't think the way this world
thinks anymore because I've allowed His word to transform my
mind. Romans 12/1 and two transform my
mind by renewing it to the word of God.
So I no longer think. I no longer process like this
world. I don't have to have meltdowns.
I don't have to have anxiety come on.
I don't have to have fear. I don't have to have depression.
I don't have to walk in any of these things or think like the
world thinks about anything anymore.
Because if I truly believe in His Word, I'm going to adhere to
it as the truth. That is my truth, that is my
truth. I don't know what all truth
y'all believe in, but this is my truth right here.
That's my truth and that's what I'm sticking with.
Hallelujah. So because I'm firmly persuaded,
this thing don't fail, it's been proven in my life for 33 years
of walking it out. It's proven, it's tried, it's
true, it works. It will not fail.
Come on. So you have to be firmly
persuaded. And when you are firmly
persuaded, then it will begin to govern all the things that
you're thinking, what you're saying and what you're doing.
And this is how we know if you're really living a life of
faith. I can know by the way you act
and I can know by the way you talk if you truly believe what
this word says. So, so he says, now faith is the
substance. Let's look at that word
substance. That word substance is a support
or it is the very thing that will be a secure foundation or
something that you are building your life upon.
It is set, you are setting it under is what it means securely.
It is a secure foundation. So faith is the substance that
you are to build your life upon. It is the foundation.
It is the very thing that's going to hold you up.
It's the very thing, come on, that will cause Peter to step
out of the boat at his word. And didn't, you know, wasn't
going to sink until he decided to look, till he decided to look
and live by sight of what he saw, because it said he saw the
winds and waves. Because we're to live by what
not by. So his substance was faith when
he stepped out. But then he began to see the
winds and waves and he began to sink because he lived by sight
at that time. He looked at what was going on.
And I'm going to tell you, faith will put you in positions where
you're going to want to look at what all the things that are
going on in your life. But what do you believe?
What do you truly believe? What is truly your faith in the
situation that you're wanting to look at?
Because it's a whirlwind. OK, so that substance also
figuratively means concretely or abstract assurance.
So it is concrete, a foundation, a setting up under a secure
thing that you can build your life upon, that you can build
your life upon. Now, the Weymouth reads it this
way. Now, faith means we are
confident of what we hope for and convinced of what we do not
see. And the Moffett translation
reads it like this. You've heard us say this.
Faith is the title deed of the things hoped for, for putting
the proof to prove the things not seen.
It's the title deed. Come on, it's already finished,
already bought. It's already done.
It's the title D Amen. Faith is the foundation that you
can build your life on. Faith is the underlining
structure for your life. Faith is simply what you believe
and it's the foundation of everything that you are to build
your life upon. Amen.
I want to get to that later. Faith must be lived out by being
acted upon for it to become a reality and a revelation in your
everyday life. So you can say you believe it
all day long, but do you act upon it in the situations that
you are confronting in your life?
Do you act upon it when you hear and you've been taught that it
is God's will for you to be healed, healthy, whole, that
when you get a doctor's report, come on and it says, you know
you have the big C word. What is now your faith?
Is it stable and fixed because it's been built upon the
substance of faith? When you hear the word cancer,
if that was to come, or do you know what His Word says?
That by His stripes I am healed. Healing belongs to His covenant
children. Come on.
And I don't care what the doctor says, my God can bring forth
healing to my body right now. And then I don't have to die
like everybody else had to die. Do you truly believe it?
Well, you know, there's lots of people that say they do until
they hear that report. And that's where it's going to
prove. Test yourself to see if you're
really in faith or when they tell you your job is getting
ready to go bankrupt your whole company and everybody's getting
ready to lose their job. Oh and guess what, your 401K
isn't there either because they didn't do it right.
I don't know if that can even be possible but anyway, just
saying. Fits up to the devil.
He can do it. He can take it all because his
his mode is what to he wants to steal everything you have and
destroy everything you have. So what are you going to do in
those moments? Do you truly believe and have
faith in God? Come on.
So it's in those moments that you now begin to have to act
upon what you believe. You act upon it.
Look at James 214 through 26. It says what good is it, dear
brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but you do not
show it by your what? Remember, faith is to govern
your life. What you think, what you say,
and what you do doing is action, right?
Saying is confession. Thinking is you and what you're
meditating on, right? So what are you thinking?
What are you saying, and what are you doing in these moments?
And this truly shows you where your faith is.
So you can say you have faith, but if you don't show it by your
actions, can that kind of faith save anyone?
Suppose you see a brother or sister who has no food or
clothing, and you say goodbye and have a good day, stay warm
and eat well. But then you don't give that
person any food or clothing. What good does that do?
So you see, faith by itself isn't enough.
So I know tons of people that come in and say, Oh yeah, I
believe God. Oh yeah, and we'll get into
this. And it's all about your house
and your boat and your 'cause it got off over into the extreme
and all you worried about is faith for you and yours and, and
what belongs to you instead of faith to believe that my, my
stuff's already taken care of. So now my belief is in helping
everybody else bring them up to a place.
When are we going to get there in the American church?
So he says, What good does that do?
So you see, faith by itself, it's not enough.
Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless.
Now someone may argue some people have faith, others have
good deeds. But I say, how can you show me
your faith if you don't have good deeds?
I'll show you my faith by my good deeds.
And you say you have faith. For you believe that there is
one God good for you. Even the demons believe this.
So you can believe just as good as a demon can, and then they
tremble even in terror. Oh, how foolish.
Can't you see that faith without good deeds is useless?
Don't you remember that our ancestor Abraham was shown to be
right with God by his actions when he offered his son Isaac on
the altar? For you see his faith and his
actions what work together. So faith without action is dead.
It's dead and the action comes when you're in the midst of the
battle and you want to do something else.
Come on. And you want to think a
different way. But do you truly believe what
His word says about that situation?
And if you do, then you're going to act upon that and not about
your feelings or how you feel, because faith goes completely
against your feelings. Faith does not care about your
feelings. Period.
We cannot live by sight. We cannot live by how we feel
and get wrapped up in the emotions of the situation
instead of actually being a doer of the word of God in the midst
of that situation. That argument, come on that
whatever I mean, do you believe God, that God can work this out
right? And then you'll say it, you'll
act on it and you'll act differently.
So he says here he was even called the friend of God.
So you see, we are shown to be right with God by what we do,
not faith alone. Oh that's where he counted him
faithful. Sorry I skipped a scripture.
Rahab the prostitute is another example.
She was shown to be right with God by her actions when she hid
those messengers and sent them safely away by a different Rd.
Just as the body is dead without breath, so also faith is dead
without works. Your faith has to be acted upon.
There will be works that will be required for you to produce to
prove that you are in faith. Just like when you don't have
the money like I didn't. When God called us to go to
Bible school before He went, we went to Rhema because we went to
the wrong Bible school because at that time we didn't know
anything about being led by the Spirit of God.
Not we just knew he called us and we knew we knew nobody in
the ministry knew we didn't. We didn't have mentors.
We didn't know what we were doing.
All we know is that there was a call.
And so we chose to go to a Bible school in South Carolina because
one of my stepbrothers, ex stepbrother, he's not a
stepbrother anymore, but was in that Bible school.
He's not even serving the Lord today, actually, You know, he
owns a marijuana farm. Anyway, the falling away has
begun. So anyway, where was I at?
South Carolina, Yeah. We moved out there just because
that was the only Bible school. That's the only thing we knew to
do. Well, we were called the
ministry. I guess he wants us to go to,
you know, a school. And so we get out there and it
was a living hell. We had, you know, 3 little
children at the time and no job, no money, but we win it go.
We didn't know what we were doing, thank God because a lot
of people let knowing what to do get them into trouble anyway.
So we were actually living by faith and Brianna was little at
that time. She was only not even a year
old. She was only a few months old
and we had no money. And we were having to get food
from the college had a Co-op where they had food and
different things like that. And pastor was working side jobs
because we had just gotten there and he had enrolled and had a
scholarship for the school and everything.
But we just had enough money to pay our house and whatever.
And so she was on baby formula. We did not even have enough
money to buy a can of baby formula back then.
So how old are you now? Oh my gosh.
I was still hanging on to 29 girl.
So that's 30 years ago. And a can of formula, you know,
the good kind, the gold kind, you know, back then was, I don't
even remember, maybe 10-12 dollars.
We did not even have 10 to $12.00 to our name to buy
formula. And you know what?
And he had made work. He had worked and did a side job
painting and he had made just enough and seven of it belonged
to the Lord, $7.00 belong to the Lord.
Now, most people think, well, you're a terrible mother, that
you chose to give $7.00 to the Lord and didn't buy your baby
formula. But you know what?
I did buy her cow's milk. So we went from formula to cow's
milk because it was cheaper. See, it was only a couple
dollars a gallon back then, so I had to make a choice.
Am I going to give my tithe to the Lord?
Because my God, it's only $7.00 and we don't have anything else
and it's not going to help me anyway.
You know, what was I doing? Acting by faith on what His Word
says, that the tithe belongs to the Lord.
And he would rebuke the Devourer and meet all of my needs.
And during that week, someone showed up at our doorstep with
bags of groceries on the front door.
Didn't know him, had not told anybody but my God in a whole
nother place that we had just moved.
Come on. He showed himself to be faithful
with the little that we had because we believed God.
That's faith. Faith acted upon faith believing
God that if God don't come through then I guess we going to
sit right here like these that little widow woman and said
here's my flower. This is all I had to the
prophet. Come on, we going to make us a
cake and we getting ready to get dressed to die.
That's what we were but God every single time.
But God, because we actually believe that God could do it.
We actually did what He said we were to do with what we had.
What do we have so that He could then by faith, go and move on
our behalf to bring it to what we needed in that moment.
This is called true biblical faith.
But in the United States of America, no one wants to live by
faith anymore. They want to.
They want to have conferences about it.
They want to come in and dance around and be excited about it.
But when it comes down to every dime you have, I want to see
them dance around and shout around because I'm not seeing
very many that do it, that actually empty their account
because God said go and you're stepping out on nothing but the
substance of faith. That's true biblical faith.
True biblical faith will call you to do things that you have
no capacity and no resource to do.
And we can barely live by faith to just get to church on time.
We can barely live by faith just to, you know, maybe serve once a
month. We can barely.
I'm just saying, come on. It is time for us to have a
reality check of where we are at by faith because I believe we're
coming in for some days and hours that you're going to
that's the only thing you're going to be able to live by.
And you got to know that, you know that.
You know, I look at the heat the the book of Hebrews in Chapter
11 where we call it the hall of faith with all the old timers
that they did all these things by faith.
Did you see all the things they had to do by faith?
They lived it, they bled by it, they died by it.
And nobody wants to sacrifice or suffer anymore.
And we're not really living a life of faith, but I see these
people, they gave up everything. They gave up everything they
did, whatever it took, whatever. Let's read it and then we'll
close with it. Because I want this to be the
last thing you think of so that you can ask yourself, where am I
in my faith walk? Hebrews 11.
Yes, we're going to read it now. Faith is the assurance.
If you need to go, that's fine. Now faith is the assurance of
things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
For by it the men of old gained approval.
By faith we understand that the world's were prepared by the
word of God, so that that what is seen was not made out of
things that which were are visible by faith.
Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain, through
which he obtained the testimony that he was righteous.
God testifying about his gifts and through faith, though he is
dead, he still speaks. Come on, by far I want my blood
to still speak. If there is still a earth, if
there is still the earth and we are still going on, I want my
blood to speak that people knew I lived by faith, and my faith
would remain in this earth until he burned it up and created the
new one. Come on, does it speak?
That's what I want my testimony to be.
It says here it said by faith Enoch was taken up so that he
would not see death. And he was not found because God
took him up. For he obtained the witness that
before he was taken up he was pleasing to God.
And without faith it is impossible to please him, for he
who comes to God must believe that he is Hallelujah.
He is come on, He is the great I am, and that he is a rewarder of
those who seek him by faith. Noah, being warned by God about
the things not yet seen in reverence, prepared an art for
the salvation of his household, by which he condemned the world,
and became an heir of the righteousness which is according
to faith. By faith.
Abraham, when he, he was called, obeyed by going out to a place
which he was to receive for an inheritance.
And we, he went out not knowing where he was going by faith.
He lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign
land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of
the same promise. And you know, we're heirs of
that promise. Come on, we're inheritance of
that promise of Abraham. Glory to God, for he was looking
for that city which has foundations whose architect and
builder is the God. Come on.
By faith, even Sarah herself can received ability to conceive
even beyond the proper time of life, since she was considered
him faithful who had promised. Therefore there was born even
one man, and him as good, as dead as that, as many
descendants as the stars of heaven in number, and the
innumerable as the sand which is by the seashore.
All of these died in faith. Say they died in faith.
I want to know that I die in faith.
I'm so full of faith that when I die, come on.
I mean, I'm just, it's just faith.
It's all that's left. Just faith died in faith.
I've lost my spot now. OK, without receiving the
promises, but having seen them, having welcomed them from a
distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and
exiles on the earth, come on. That means they were separated
from this world. For those who say such things
make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own.
And indeed, if they had been thinking of that country from
which they had went out, they would have add the opportunity
to return. But as it is, they desire a
better country, that is, a heavenly one.
Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has
prepared a city for them by faith.
Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had
received the promises was offering up his only begotten
Son, and it was he to him, it was said, And Isaac your
descendant shall be called. And he considered that God was
able to raise people even from the dead, from which he also
received him back as a type. And by faith Isaac blessed Jacob
and Esau, even regarding things to come.
And by faith Jacob, as he was dying, blessed each of his sons
Joseph and worship, leaning on the top of his staff.
And by faith Joseph, when he was dying, made mention of the
exodus of the sons of Israel, and gave orders concerning his
bones. And by faith Moses, when he was
born, was hidden three months by his parents, because they saw
that he was a beautiful child, and they were not afraid of the
King's edict. By faith Moses, when he grew up,
refused to be called the son of Pharaoh.
And all the fame and all the fortune that would come to that.
That's my translation. Choosing rather to endure I'll
treatment with the people of God, than to enjoy the passing
pleasures of sin, considering the reproach of Christ,
gathering greater riches than the treasures of Egypt, For he
was looking to the reward. By faith He left Egypt, not
fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured as seen Him who
is unseen. By faith He kept the Passover
and the sprinkling of the blood, so that what He who destroyed
the first born would not touch them.
By faith they pass through the Red Sea as they were passing
through dry land, and the Egyptians when they attempted
were drowned. And by faith the walls of
Jericho fell down, And after they had been encircled for
seven days by faith, Rahab the harlot did not perish along with
those who were disobedient, after she had welcomed the spies
in peace. And what more shall I say?
For time will fail me if I tell of Gideon and Barack and and
Sampson and Jet the and David and Samuel and all the prophets
who by faith conquer kingdoms, and performed acts of
righteousness, and obtained promises, and shut the mouths of
alliance. Come on and quench the the power
of fire, and escape the edge of the sword.
For weaknesses were made strong, became mighty in war, put
foreign armies to flight. Women received back their dead
by the resurrection. Come on.
And others were tortured, not accepting their release so that
they might obtain a better resurrection.
Others experienced knockings and scourgings.
All poor thing. Being politically correct.
Yes, also chains and imprisonments.
Come on, they were stoned. They they were sawn in two.
They were tempted, they were put to death with the sword.
They went about in sheepskins and goat skins, being destitute,
afflicted. I'll treated men of holes in the
ground. And all of these having gained
approval through their faith for us, so that apart from us, they
would not be made perfect. Wow, wow.
By faith, this is how they lived.
Glory to God. And we need to ask ourselves,
are we living by faith the way the word of God tells us that
what faith looks like and how faith acts, that means we are
going, we're not going to have to suffer all these things that
they did, but we will have to suffer in this life to crucify
this flesh, to not go along with the world and the world's way
and to do his will and to do his purposes.
They're going to be things that we're going to encounter.
Mockings, he said. Rejoice when people talk about
you. Come on.
I mean, nobody wants to be talked about poor little thing
anymore and then won't come back to church because so and so
talked about them and hurt their feelings.
Give me a break. What have we become?
Come on, what have we been? This is called living a life of
faith. This is not a religious
exercise. This Is Us adhering to His Word
with everything that is within us and believing God in the
midst of whatever it is. Then I'm going to live for Him,
and I could care less what anybody else does.
I'm going to follow Him. I'm going to live for Him.
I'm going to stand up for righteousness.
I'm going to stand up for holiness.
I'm going to stand in the face of the battle and in the fight
because He tells me to fight the good fight of faith.
That means there's going to be things that we're going to have
to get fighting mad about for us to walk some things out that he
needs us to do in this last day and in this hour.
And I'm going to tell you it is not going to happen by weak
Christians, Americanized, selfish Christians that do not
know what true biblical faith really is.
And I don't care how many conferences you go to that tell
you what faith is and how faith comes and da, da, da, da, da.
And yet one little trial you can't even press through and go
through. You can't even believe God for
your marriage to be restored, for your children to not be
rebellious. Come on, we got to think about
this. He tells us to test ourselves to
see if we are truly in faith. You know, and I graduated from
the school of Mark 1122 and 24 and Jesus answered saying to
them, have faith in God. And we can literally translate
that. Have the God kind of faith.
That's the kind of faith he wants us to have.
God faith, not religious faith, not fake faith.
Come on. Not all this wishful thinking
that God's going to know. How are you firmly persuaded
that you'll risk your whole life on this word and what His Word
says, who He is and what He says He can do?
Because that's when I truly know I believe God.
I have faith in God that His Word will not fail.
Do you believe that He truly is, That He is, come on, the Creator
of heaven and earth, That He is the beginning and the end, That
He is God and that there is no other?
That He is holy? Come on, That He is Emmanuel,
God with us. Come on, That He is my
deliverer. Come on, that He is my Redeemer.
That He is my defense? Come on, that He is my
righteousness, that He is my healer, that He is my victory,
That He is my provider, That He is my rock, He is my shield, He
is my strong tower. Come on, He is almighty power
and almighty God and all the one of all authority.
That He is who He says He is. Hallelujah.
That He is my help. It's time of trouble.
Glory to God. Do you believe it?
Come on then, we got to start acting like it.
We have to start acting like it. Come on.
We have to start walking this thing out and acting like we do
believe who he is. Hallelujah, Glory to God that He
is the author and finisher of my faith.
Hallelujah, glory to God that He is the King of glory and that he
is returning. Hallelujah for his bride.
Glory to God, glory to God. Say I have faith.
Come on, stand up and say I have faith.
Thank you so much for listening to this message.
If you want more, subscribe to our message podcast on iTunes,
Google Play, Spotify, and SoundCloud.
Rating and leaving a comment will go a long way with helping
our messages get better circulation.
If you'd enjoy watching our weekend messages, visit
youtube.com/anchor Faith. We'd love it if you'd subscribe,
leave a comment or a like on the messages.
If you'd like to find out more information about us and how
we're influencing the world and help support the work we're
doing by giving, just visit anchorfaith.com.