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| FAITH IS THE VICTORY Mark 11:22-26 "Have faith in God. 23) For verily I say unto you, that whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart; but shall believe that those things which he sayeth shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith. 24) Therefore, I say unto you, what things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that that ye receive them, and ye shall have them." I'll stop here for a second to explain something. I have underlined several key words here to emphasize how much importance Jesus put in His words and in our words that we speak. Verse 22 says have faith in God. Verses 23-24 tell you how to have faith in God. Keep in mind that in Genesis, chapter one, God spoke this whole world into existance. He spoke it and it was! God spoke 13 times in Genesis one resulting in the Earth's creation. Believing what God promised us in His word is a part of having faith. Your heart must agree with what you speak of God's word and you must understand what you are speaking. So faith is 1) speaking God's word to the problem you are believing will change, 2) not letting doubt into your heart about your own words or God's, 3) believing God will make what you desire and say come to pass. Then Mark 11:25-26 adds some stipulations (which are why faith does NOT work for everyone that believes: Verse 25) "And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses. 26) "But if ye do not forgive, neither will your father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses." So, walking in love and forgiveness is an essential ingredient for your faith to manifest in this physical world. Galatians 5:6 "...faith worketh by love." Galatians 5:14-15 "For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another." And you cannot 'act' on your emotions (feelings) and what you see when using faith. II Cor. 5:7 "For we walk by faith, not by sight." and "Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God." Hebrews 11:6 "Without faith, it is impossible to please God." Hebrews 11:1 "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not (yet) seen." Everything we receive from God in this world, we receive by faith... even salvation of our souls and forgiveness of sin. James 2:20-21 "...that faith without works is dead. 21) "Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he had offered Isaac his son upon the alter?" Lastly, when we have prayed, believed, spoken, forgiven and we are waiting to see what we prayed for, we must thank God for it and 'act' and 'speak' as if we have already received our answer, nomatter what the circumstances look like to us. Abraham had seen past the present and into his faith, that Isaac would be raised again, had he sacrificed him to God. And Abraham's faith was imputed unto him as righteousness. So, 1) pray, 2) speak God's word over circumstances we want to change, 3) believe God will do it, 4) forgive everyone, 5) act like we already have our desires and 6) Thank God and give Him the glory because it is God who does the works and fights the battles on our behalf. If we do all these things, we become 'Sons of God' (Christians or little Christs) and just as God spoke the whole world into existance by faith, so we imitate Him and we once again have dominion and authority by our faith through Christ over our own part of this world, just the same as Adam had dominion and authority before satan tricked Eve and him. Jesus went to Hell for three days after His cruicifixion, where He took back our dominion and authority out of satan's grasp and then when Jesus rose from the dead in victory, He gave dominion back to us through our faith in Him. Healing and deliverance and victory is yours by faith in God's word and by knowing how faith works and what faith is. Hosea 4:6 says: "My people are destroyed by lack of knowledge." |