| Tough Faith For Tough Times The Bible Says But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him." Heb 11:6 (KJV) The scripture tells us that, "it is impossible to please God without faith." As Saints of God, we should do everything within our power to seek after faith and the things that will increase our faith. Faith is an essential part and tool necessary in our daily walk with Christ. Without it, we will not be able to succeed. We Receive Faith By Hearing The Word of God! So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Rom 10:17 (KJV) For us to receive faith we must, receive it through the word of God or hearing the word of God. When ever we receive faith from God, we must do all within our power to guard our faith from vicious attacks from the enemy. We as saints of God should stay free of anyone who does our faith harm - negative, doubting, fearful, complaining, critical, gossiping and carnal-minded people - they are contributors to the work of Satan for the destruction of our Faith in God. Just as faith cometh by hearing, fear and doubt also come by receiving information. Just as your ears should never hear your mouth speaking negative, in the same manner you should never tune your ears in to the negativism of others. If we hear it, our spirit acts on it. It is very important to find ourselves in the company of those with faith, instead of those with negativism and doubts. Confess what you believe and not what you see: When we choose to walk by faith, it becomes imperative that we speak positively rather than negatively. We cannot allow our senses to blind our faith. We must never be hindered by what we see! Opposition never changes the promises of God, neither does it create a problem for Him. (Read Numbers 13:26-31 / The story of the 10 spies) We are only affected when we give more attention to what we see than what God said. When we are more willing to talk about what we see, rather than to express what we say we believe, we will have a tendency to experience doubt and fear. We must learn how to trust God during these situations. Trusting our natural faculties will cause us to be intimidated by circumstances, because sight and faith are just the opposite. Negative information will sometimes paralyze a person�s vision and hope. Our churches today would be better off if people who are afraid would keep quiet and not spread their disease of doubt. But these are the people who are doing all the talking and drawing the large crowds. We must learn that the one thing that kills our faith is that we speak too much about what is evident rather than what we believe. We need to realize that the more our ears hear what our mouth says about God�s word, the more our spirits are influenced in the faith realm. We are recipients of what we confess. Sometimes we find ourselves saying things like, "Every year about this time I get sick," or "I guess I�ll never have anything." Sometimes we will catch ourselves saying, "I will never be what God wants us to be." When we do this, we hinder and cripple our faith. The scripture tells us in Prov 18:21, "Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof." Matt 12:37 tells us that; "For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned." When we choose to believe God, we will speak what we believe and not what we see. We must have faith enough to speak to circumstances what God has spoken to us through His word. We will never be able to accomplish God�s purpose in life if we are influenced by doubt. If we have faith, then we will speak faith. (Read the story of he Shunammite woman and the death of her son in II Kings 4) Most people would think that she lied, when she said, "All is well," but she spoke faith. The Shunammite woman was justified in saying what she said because the bible tells us in Rom. 4:17 to, "call those things which be not as though they were." We must learn that faith does not wait to see what is going to happen, but faith depends on what God has already said. If we have faith, then we should speak faith, because faith is contagious. That�s why it�s important to be in the company of those who walk by faith. A person cannot have faith without someone hearing or seeing it in action. Faith is active, alive and impossible to hide. |
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