We walk by faith and not by sight.2Corinthians 5:7.
Sight speaks of our senses what we see,what we can feel.when a man walks in his sight he is walking in the natural.
God gave us our senses to help us relate to the earth.we are in this world though not of this world.
The faith sight,rules all the others,the faith sight is the sight that operates from the supernatural.The supernatural rules the natural,so we must develop our faith sight,which is the sixth sense.
Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen.Hebrews 11:1
Our senses relates only to things they can either see or fee,but men of faith walk on what is not seen,because what is not seen is eternal.2Corinthians 4:18.
How can you achieve your vision,your purpose without faith in God?
FAITH-FUL ABRAHAM
“By faith,Abraham,when called to go to a place,he would later receive as his inheritance,obeyed and went,even though he didn't know where he was going..” Hebrews 11:8
Sometimes God would ask you to do something unusual - God asked Abraham to kill his son Isaac and Abraham obeyed,he asked Abraham to leave his kindred and family,Abraham obeyed,he told Abraham that Sarah though she was barren would give birth to child,the bible says Abraham believed God and it was credited to him for righteousness.Romans 4:3,Genesis 15:6.
If you will be great in this life you must have this reckless,on the word of God; faith that Abraham had,such that he was called the father of faith,a man of faith.Galatians 3:9
Sometimes demands are placed on us,your faith must be tested and tried.
What kind of life do you want to live,extra-ordinary men are ordinary people who did extraordinary things,Abraham was an ordinary man who believed God and held on to his word.You want to go to where you have never been do what you have never done.
DAVID A MAN OF SACRIFICE
David was a man of faith he said I will not give to God what cost me nothing,great people make great sacrifices.
What are you willing to give to get you to your destiny.everybody wants to have a good life but no one wants to make the sacrifices,greatness can never be achieved without some level of sacrifice.
Democracy experienced in most parts of Africa today,some men gave their lives for it,what are you willing to give your life for?
Jesus gave his life,Paul said my life is nothing for the gospels sake.If you have nothing you can die for,then you have nothing to live for,then you are going to be ordinary.
Check out the great people of faith mentioned in Hebrews 11,they were all ordinary people,from Enoch to Noah, to Abraham,to Isaac,to Jacob,to Joseph,to Moses,to Rahab,Gideon,Barak,Samson,Jepthah,David,Samuel,and the prophets,they were all ordinary people who did extraordinary things they risked their lives for their faith and purpose in God.
What kind of faith do you have in GOD?
With all their sacrifices they received only commendation but not the promise,they are not made perfect except we rise up and run with the baton.Hebrews 12:1-2;tells us that they are watching us,calling on us to run,because the baton has been passed to us,its now our time and turn.
Imagine we are in a relay,they have done their part and passed the baton on to us,they started well and passed the baton well,now its our turn to finish.
HOW TO BECOME EXTRAORDINARY – HEBREWS 12:1-3
- Throw off everything that entangles and the sin that so easily besets us
- Run with perseverance the race set before us,cause its not going to be easy,it will be tough.
- Fix our eyes on Jesus,totally not on anyone else
Men of faith always sacrifice something to get something greater.
I remenber a few years ago,I and my friend were going to take a flight from Abuja in Nigeria to Warri,my town and for the first time my seat was just right at the emergency exit and I remenber as the hostess began to give instructions in case of any troubles what we needed to do,cold ran through my body with fear,just as she said,"in the case of a crash landing” someone else said “I reject it in Jesus name,we don’t need it” good prayer,but it was serious for me because I knew I had the responsibility with me to do something,in the case of any trobles,but thank God we landed safe.
An emergency exit in a structure is a special exit for emergencies such as a fire: the combined use of regular and special exits allows for faster evacuation, while it also provides an alternative if the route to the regular exit is blocked by fire, etc.It is usually a strategically located (e.g. in a stairwell, hallway, or other likely place) outward opening door with a crash bar on it and with exit signs leading to it. Emergency exit is vital for safety in the event of a fire outbreak and for easy evacuation of people out of the building. This is not a show of fear but wisdom,there are people who believe that when you as a child of God put such things in your building you are only attracting what you are trying to avoid,I would like to help such people think in the right direction. We say in my country “Prevention is better than cure” it is wisdom to have an emergency exit in your house,its for your safety and the safety of those in your household,not just exits but fire extinguishers and all the other safty equipments in the event of fire. We also need to build an emergency exit in our lives,this is important for safety in our relationships and businesses.We must learn to apply wisdom and faith in our dealings with other people. We need to clearly distinguish between faith and wisdom and foolishness.I see people confuse faith a lot for something else,sometimes we act in foolishness and call it faith.But we must have understanding in our dealings we must be wise. Faith is acting on the word of God.The word of God is the basis of our belief,we act on what we believe and that is the word of God.So it is vital that we understand scriptures clearly before we apply them. Wisdom is the application of understanding,as we know,knowledge is the acquisiton of information and understanding is the ability to put the information to their right places and wisdom is the actual application of understanding. So just having knowledge doesn’t make you wise.Experience is important for wisdom,experience can only be developed with time in practice,so as I use the understanding I gathered in reality,experience is built and with time wisdom is developed.Wisdom doesn’t come with prayer but with practice,putting to use what you know. Presumption,which is the the act of presuming,the assumption of something as true,but lets understand the word assumption,which is the act of taking for granted or supposing. Foolishness is resulting from or showing a lack of sense;ill considered;unwise;lacking forethought or caution. Some practice we call faith is total presumption or foolishness and I would like to give clear examples from scriptures some of the things we do out of lack of understanding but call faith and real life stories to also help; The bible in mark 16:18 says they shall pickup serpents and it shall not hurt them,some persons have gone on to the streets to start picking up serpents but got bitten by the serpents and some ended up dying that’s foolishness,because the bible never said,go out and pick up serpents,the emphasis was not on the serpent but the power of God that they receive.
I remenber some years ago how a man jumped into a lions den in the name of the lord and the lion ate him up after first taking out his private part,that’s another foolishness because even daniel didn’t opt to be thrown in there.
I remenber years ago,a friend has this dog and the dog was barking in a strange way,so he went out and shouted at the dog,with the finger pointed at the dog,saying in the name of Jesus shut up,and the dog bit his finger,foolishness in display.
I am not saying faith doesn’t work,but all I am saying is that we must be wise at all times,there are some things we can avoid and sort out by our selves,we must learn to use our discretion.
Sometimes we forget that the brain we have in our heads come from the lord and not from the devil.our brain is given for use,you can not understand mathematics by praying but by study,the holy spirit will not remind you of what you don’t already have some knowledge of,nobody is dumb,we all have the potentila to be better at anything if we can give ourselves to study,that is not to say we don’t need God but that God has given us all we need for life and Godliness.
We must put everything in its right place.We must be men in application.
Its not a display of fear to have an emergency exit in your life,its not a second plan but a plan with the main plan.Its not a second option but it goes with the original option.
Most people fail in business because they assume that everything will be okay we don’t have to worry about anything.
- You are about to get into partnership with someone you know nothing about,and you are not doing the right things by getting a lawyer and writing the necessary agreements,but you assume he is a good guy and wont give you any problems.
- A lot of people marry without taking certain things about eachother into deep consideration,you just assume he or she will be ok with time.
- You change jobs without checking details about the new company,you just assume without doing the checks and you think its ok,when something goes wrong we cry God help.
Jesus said “For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it? Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him” Luke 14:28-29 ; starting is not the issue but finishing,some people will say,leave it for the lord or when we get to that bridge we will cross it,well what if the bridge collapse and you can’t cross or crash with it?
- You employ people without necessary qualifications but plenty of sentiments,maybe he is your relative sometimes they are the ones who run down the business,you got to put up your emergency exit.
What causes most accidents on the roads today? because people disobey traffic signs and not care about the traffic lights and drive when they should stop,then an accident,don’t worry lets go by faith,its foolishness.
We got to be wise,wisdom is profitable for all things,add wisdom to your faith,faith doesn’t walk alone there are other virtue that is necessary to add to faith to make it more effective.
Add to your faith virtue and to virtue knowledge and to knowledge self control and to self control perseverance and to perseverance godliness and to godliness brotherly kindness and to brotherly kindness love,it ends there because love is the totality of the christian life and if all these things abide in you,you will neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our lord Jesus Christ,for he who lacks these things is shortsighted,even to blindness.
Faith doesn’t walk alone if you must be a success in life and in your walk with God you must add these things to your faith.
watch out for continuation.
“Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things [are] possible to him that believeth.” Mark 9:23
It is easy to say for with God all things are possible,yes the responsibility is on God to do the impossible,and he is a God that makes impossible to become possible.We all face some situations that seem to be stubborn and look impossible but with God all things are possible.No matter the situation if God is on your side you can turn that impossible situation around.
The bible says in Luke 1:37 “for with God nothing shall be impossible”
when we read scriptures we must read carefully,it didn’t use the word “somethings shall be impossible”,it didn’t use “few things shall be impossible”,it used nothing shall be impossible,with God.There is no further explanation to this scripture, it is self explanatory,nothing shall be impossible.
I am sure you know what the word nothing and impossible mean,but just to help throw more light,I would define the words.
The word Nothing means “ something that has no existence; something that has no substance or importance- a nonentity.the absence of anything.”
And the word Impossible means “not capable of been accomplished; extremely difficult to deal with or tolerate.”
So simply put with God impossible doesn’t exist.In Gods dictionary there is nothing like impossible.
No matter the situation proving difficult,never categorize it as impossible,impossible doesn’t exist,if you have God wipe it out of your vocabulary,that’s why I turned it to mean I’M POSSIBLE.
The word only exist with men,I mean those men that are not with God,Jesus said of such people,that its impossible.For with God ALL THINGS are possible,everything,there is nothing in life that’s not possible with God.
Now with men somethings are possible,but not all things even with all the wealth,somethings are not possible with men.
God doesn’t worry about those things men can handle,that’s why scriptures say those things that are impossible with men are possible with God.God starts from mans impotency,as men we are weak and have weakness,but the man with God is above all weakness.
So how can we get to the rein where we can do the impossible,its okay with for with God all things are possible,yes God can do all things but I have learnt that a true leader wants you to be able to do all he can do and much more,if truly we have all of God in us then we should be able to do the impossible too,if our God could create then we have creative ability,so if our father is a God of possibilities then we are people of possibilities.
HAVE FAITH
I would like to define faith as a double edged sword,it is Acting on what you believe,so the double edge sword is believe and your actions.
Faith is an action word,just believing and confessing is not enough,until you Do it its not faith.Faith is a now word,not I will be,that is a future word,that is hope,faith says now I am healed, now I am delivered,then you start acting it.
In mark 11:24,when you pray you believe you received it,you shall have it” it didn’t say if you believe you will have it it said if you desire a thing pray,believe that you received it then you will have it.
BELIEVE
Mark 9:23 “to him that believes all things shall be possible”
so the first thing you need to do is believe,the word believe here is a verb a doing word,an action word just like the word faith is an action word,it is translated from the greek pisteuo meaning ; to be persuaded;to credit;to place confidence in.
Another translation says if you have faith,so if you must do the impossible you got to have faith in God,your confidence on the word of God,the disciples had difficulty with casting out a spirit from a boy who had been tormented for a while,but Jesus said if you believe,you can do the impossible,so the impossible is not something left alone for God,if you believe,you can do the impossible;do you really believe?
The size of your faith is not the issue,we must realise that when we gave our hearts to christ we all received the same measure of faith but our growth is dependent on us.But to do the impossible you don’t need to have great faith,faith in God is powerful for any situation,if you can believe and apply it on that situation,you will see results.
All you need to do is believe,that means unbelief restricts us from doing the impossible.
We restrict God when we walk in unbelief.The bible says that the Israelites “limited God because of their unbelief” ,and “Jesus could do not much miracles because of the unbelief of the people in his town.”
How then can I receive faith? when I accept Jesus as my lord and saviour.
How can I grow my faith? by hearing the word of God consistently and putting it to practice.
So all things can be possible if you believe,all things not somethings or few things all things.
ACT ON YOUR BELIEFS
Just believing is not enough but doing the word is what brings the word to manifestation.Doing brings the manifestation of the word,so just believing it and confessing it is not enough but doing,that’s where faith is faith in the doing.
That’s why faith is defined as “Acting on what you believe” so confession is a part of acting but the actual acting is doing what you confessed,let me give you a clear example;
Jesus walked on water,ok its jesus he is God so its easy for him to walk on water,but when the disciples saw him they weren’t sure even when he said “its I don’t be afraid”,so Peter being the forward guy said,I know that, Jesus can walk on water and he can make me walk on water too,so if you are him,bid me come to you,so Jesus said come,then peter obeyed and he too walked on water,if Peter didn’t obey he wouldn’t have walked on water,now he walked on water for a short time because he saw the boisterous wind and his faith wavered so he began to sink,the bible says.
What does this tell us if you can do,that is Act on the word,what the word says,you can see impossible turning possible.
After Jesus ,Peter was the only other person that walked on water,because he belived and acted on his belief.
So if you can believe as well,then nothing shall be impossibl with you,you can do the things God can do and even more.
If its possible with God,then its not wrong to say its also possible with you,just believe and act on it.
The doctors may say you have an incurable disease,say that by his stripes I was healed and the act healed,do those things you were told not to do,because just believing without acting isnt enough but be sure you believe,if you don’t have enough faith for that level,go see the doctor.
Abrahams faith in God got him greatness,he obeyed God he was gonna kill his son Isaac,if God had not stopped him,do you see that level of faith,Abraham was allowed to taste the powers of the future because he acted on his faith he believed God and acted on it and it was credited to him as righteousness.
Faith is acting on the word,the word of God is a double edged sword,so is faith,believing and acting on what you believe,all impossibilities disappear when you act on the word of God.Faith is totally acting on the word of God.
Scriptures : Mark 6:45-52;Mark 9:23;Mark 10:27;Mark 11:24;Mark 17:20;Mark 19:26;Luke 1:37;Hebrews 4:12
