What is great faith? Obedience. Why is faith obedience? It’s because I have faith in my God that He is going to do the right thing to increase me that I might fellowship with Him. No one that operates in rebellion will make it. Now, grace is given to you for a period of time when God will help you come out of rebellion and walk in truth. But if you choose not to do it, and you run, you’ll be one of those that He said He will cast into outer darkness where there’s going to be weeping and gnashing of teeth. That’s all there is to it. I’ve done a lot of meditating upon the Lord and the seven eyes of God. The first Church lost their first love. A lot of losing your first love happens as God continues to bring you to a place of being perfected by His hand upon you. There are two kinds of people in the world. One kind runs from that and the other kind thanks God that He’s removing the world and bringing in heavenly kingdoms into their heart because we are the temple of the living God. God is a loving God, and the kind of love that is perfect can only be found in relationship with Christ. The second thing we are blessed with is the wisdom of God. The wisdom of God saves us a lot of time and a lot of headaches if we just allow Him to dress us with His characteristics, which are the love of God, wisdom, and then understanding. When you’re wrestling with wisdom and all of a sudden it opens up and you have understanding, it’s such a wonderful feeling. That’s the way it is in God. We’re so used to that now that we have to be careful that we don’t take it for granted. God has certain things that you don’t have a choice and there are other things that He does allow us to have choices. Now we want to look at faith again. We’ll start in Matthew 6:30, Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Now if you were exactly what you ought to be, does that mean that all the stores that sell clothes would be shut down because God’s going to clothe you? I don’t think that’s what it means, but just like He clothed the flowers and grass and different things that grow with beauty, He will clothe us with His glory. Glory has to do with the labor that God has done. God labored in this creation, so His glory is all over the earth, but only those that have intimate fellowship with God can recognize that glory. The rest of them are looking at evolution and all kinds of things they say are millions of years old. I haven’t found anyone that’s lived that long to be able to really tell us for sure what it was like, except God and His Son. So He says in verse 31, Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? Or, What shall we drink? Or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But this is how He is going to clothe you, verse 33, But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Because He is a Father that is better than any human father on the earth, He wants us to have a good destiny and that destiny is in Him. We have much to be thankful about. God is clothing us with His characteristics so we can fellowship with Him and He fellowships with us. In Matthew 8 there's a centurion that comes to Jesus. Let’s start with verse 8, The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof: but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed. For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me: and I say to this man, go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it. What’s absent in what he’s saying? Rebellion. There's no rebellion in there. He said, I know what authority is. When I’m under authority or am the one that is over someone, I tell him to do this and he goes and does it; I tell him to be this way or to do whatever it is that needs done and he does it. Verse 10, When Jesus heard it, he marveled, and said to them that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel. So what is great faith? Obedience. Why is faith obedience? It’s because I have faith in my God that He is going to do the right thing to increase me that I might fellowship with Him. Jesus said I have not found anybody in Israel that has that kind of faith. Anyone that understands the word of God and the power of it knows that if God speaks it and we believe it, it will be done. We dismiss it because we don’t see it happening much in the world today. Why? Because we’re not obedient. There’s rebellion upon the face of the earth. Several days ago I got up early in the morning like I often do and for about half an hour the Lord took me into His understanding, or His eyes, to see what the world is like. The world was in such confusion I was getting really upset because I wasn’t getting anything done that He wanted me to do. It was frustrating to me. Then I began to realize that He was showing me rebellion because rebellion is the opposite of faith in Him. If you had faith in God that He will do what He says, you would be following Him everywhere. He says, seek Me and I will bring wealth to you in heavenly places. We have some, but David said, My cup is full and running over. That was the faith he had in God, because by faith all things are done. Without faith, it's human activity. But with faith in God, He can do what He wants. God said, My hand is not too small that I can’t do whatever needs to be done. Look at your own body and think of all the things that He made that as you grow up you begin to find ways to train your body to do certain things, like riding a bicycle. I could get on a bicycle and ride it. I could get on a motorcycle and ride it. But if I hadn’t done it before, I wouldn’t want to get on either one of them really, not at my age. Verse 11, And I say unto you, That many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven. It’s kind of a nice place to be, isn’t it? God came to remove the sin within you so you could go into heavenly places in Christ Jesus. But hardly anybody is doing it. Verse 12, But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. The children of the kingdom are those that are descendants of Abraham. God gave Abraham the promise. In the Old Testament they all labored to achieve that. If there was a kink in a family line, a death, then they would see to it that the next of kin would bring the children so the continuation of the promise from Abraham would continue to exist. The problem is that the offerings of sacrifices of animals became more of a ritual than something that changed their hearts. And Jesus said the children of the kingdom are going to be cast into outer darkness, which is hell, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. They thought just because they’re related to Abraham they will get in. You being related to somebody isn’t going to get you in, unless you’re related to the living God and you’ve done what it takes to enter into His presence. He’s had rebellion in heaven, and He doesn’t like it. No one that operates in rebellion will make it. Now, grace is given to you for a period of time when God will help you come out of rebellion and walk in truth. But if you choose not to do it, and you run, you’ll be one of those that He said He will cast into outer darkness where there’s going to be weeping and gnashing of teeth. That’s all there is to it. Verse 13, And Jesus said to the centurion, Go thy way; and as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee. And his servant was healed in the selfsame hour. He didn’t say a bunch of Hail Marys. He didn’t say a lot of anything, other than, I know You can heal the person I want to be healed. And if You just say it, You don’t need to come to my house, it’s going to be done. Matthew 9:2, And behold, they brought to him a man sick of the palsy lying on a bed: and Jesus seeing their faith said unto the sick of the palsy; Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee. Well, that was the wrong thing to say to the Pharisees. Verse 3, And, behold, certain of the scribes said within themselves, This man blasphemeth. And Jesus knowing their thoughts said, Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts? For whether is easier, to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and walk? But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (then saith he to the sick of the palsy,) Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine house. Not all sickness is sin, but I would say seventy-five percent of it or more. If you take drugs and harm your body, God’s not going to protect you unless that would bring you to your knees and you begin to repent and say, Lord, I’m sick of this life. I want You in it. Then God would begin to help you. Otherwise, He doesn’t need another satan that wants to take over His kingdom and disobey Him. He set up rules and regulations in the creation so the creation would obey Him. Even the animals obey Him. But mankind has done a very poor job of obeying Him. I’ve gone to a lot of places: Africa, Israel, South America. There’s one thing I always study when I travel, and that’s the ground sparrow. They hop, they chirp, they do all the actions of a sparrow. Now, how many generations do you think it took for those sparrows to be alive in all those places? There are thousands or even millions of generations but they all do the same thing. And then there’s a cow. She goes off by herself and has a calf. As soon as the calf is born, she gets up and starts licking the calf so it doesn’t get cold. That stimulates the calf. It gets up and goes to her back legs and within half an hour he’s sucking. And within twenty four hours he can outrun you, I can guarantee you that. Now his schooling is better than ours. But that’s because God made him that way. When God breathed into mankind the breath of life, He breathed something incredible; but man lost a part of that life when Adam and Eve sinned. Disobedience removed us from living forever, but Christ came to restore that for those who believe and are faithful. There are three things He does to every person that begins to seek God. You are called, chosen, and then faithful. That’s what it takes for God to be able to use you. What it means for Him to use you is to put His power upon you so you are doing labor for Him in His name and not yours. Matthew 9:22, But Jesus turned to him about, and when he saw her, he said, Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole. She had a disease with an issue of blood for 12 years and she said to herself, if I just touch His garment, I’ll be healed. What faith. Jesus said, Thy faith. Her faith. Why is it her faith? Because faith draws on God and not man. If you have someone that’s drawing on you, stay away from them. They’re to draw upon God, not man. We fellowship with each other because of the relationship we have with God, but we don’t draw upon men. If you do, you’re trespassing, because God owns that person’s soul, not you. We have that everywhere in the world today. Verse 23, And when Jesus came into the ruler’s house, and saw the minstrels and the people making a noise, They had musical instruments there, but Jesus saw that it was just noise. A lot of the “Christian” music today is captured by the way the world has music and it’s not music that comes from God, therefore it’s just noise. It isn’t any more than that. God does not take a foundation that satan has given, that’s full of rebellion, to bring forth anything. It’s all rebellion. Verse 24, He said unto them, Give place: for the maid is not dead, but sleepeth. And they laughed him to scorn. Jesus moved them all out. They didn’t have any faith. Just get out of the house and be on the outside. Verse 25, But when the people were put forth, he went in, and took her by the hand, and the maid arose. I’m just picking a few examples to show the faith that different people had. When you have faith in God, you have the power that forgives sin. Jesus said, what’s it easier to say? Your sins are forgiven, or, Be healed? So faith in God brings healing. I’ve had some tremendous healings in my lifetime and I’ve had some that God wouldn’t heal. Paul had the same thing. Paul said he prayed three times for God to heal a particular thing that was a vexation to him but God wouldn’t do it. Smith Wigglesworth healed thousands of people but God wouldn’t heal him. He uses it as a tool to keep you humble and prove that you are worthy of where God put you. Jesus died, not for Himself, but because the Father wanted to rescue His creation. So if we have the power to forgive, that can be for us and for others. But if God has chosen a particular thing to keep you humble, that’s a good thing too. Matthew 15:22, And, behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil. But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away; for she crieth after us. The disciples wanted Him to send her away because she was disturbing everything. Verse 24, But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me. But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast it to dogs. And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbles which fall from their master’s table. Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour. The thing we can get out of this is that she believed Christ could take care of her needs and she persisted even when Jesus called her a dog. If Jesus was here today and He said, you dog, get out of the way, I’m not sent to you, how many people would respond like that woman did? There would be a lawsuit a mile long. You know, Jesus is so bias that only the Jews could be saved. But that was not the case. If you believe, you go after it until you acquire it. Jesus even said if you keep pounding heaven for a particular thing, the Lord is going to give you that thing you’re asking daily for, just to quiet you. I’m tired of hearing you. Be healed. Because of her vexations she had enough faith to draw the power of healing from Christ and it went to her. He said to her, be it unto thee, even as what you want. So Jesus gave the power to this woman because she had faith to accomplish what she wanted to see in someone else. Matthew 16:8, Which when Jesus perceived, he said unto them, O ye of little faith, why reason ye among yourselves, because ye have brought no bread? Do ye not yet understand, neither remember the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many baskets ye took up? Neither the seven loaves of the four thousand, and how many baskets ye took up? In one place Jesus fed 4000 and at another place he fed 5000, not including the women and children. And in doing that He says, how many baskets did we gather up after it was over? He had 12 baskets leftover for them after feeding all of those people from a couple loaves and a few fish. God gives you what you ask. First he fed the people and after it was over He had several times more than what He did when He started. Jesus said, Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, then all things will be added. Everything of healing has to do with the teachings that Christ gave. And it’s working for Him. He’s the first of many sons. Paul said Jesus was the first of many sons that are going to walk the way He walked. Ephesians 3:1, For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles, If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward: How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery; (as I wrote afore in few words, Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ) He said they’re going to get the mystery by having the spirit of understanding and the spirit of knowledge that God gives those that want and seek Him. Verse 5, Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit; If you remember, in the last part of the book of Daniel, the angel told him to seal up what he was told so that no one knows what is going to happen. In the last days He’ll begin to show that again to those that are faithful, full of faith in God. And He’s doing that today. We are jumping from Daniel’s prophecies, to Christ’s prophesies, to today. Verse 6, That the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel: Whether you’re a Jew or Gentile we are fellow heirs of the same body and partakers of His promise in Christ by the gospel that Paul preaches. Verse 7, Whereof I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power. He’s teaching us to use the power He has given us, which is the righteousness of God. As you learn, He keeps releasing a little more power and a little more. Each time He releases more, you go to a new level of understanding so you can come to a place with great power to accomplish, not your will, but the will of God. Verse 8, Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ; And to make all man see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world have been hidden in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ. In his day, something was brought forth that nobody in the Old Testament knew, except they were given it. Many of the prophecies that are given, are given without having understanding of it. And then after you’ve gone through the processes and you see it working in your life you say, Oh, now I know what that prophecy meant. That means you received the word by faith and God increased it and grew it to the point that you can see what’s happening to you. And then you can grow that much faster because you’ve opened your heart to let God do a wonderful work of whatever it is that He wants you to be doing. Verse 10, To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God, According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord: In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him. When you have faith in God, you become bold. Paul writes that in Romans 7. He says I do the things I don’t want to do and I realize it’s sin in me that’s doing it. Then in chapter 8 he says there is no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus. That’s because faith has changed you. Verse 17, That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God. All the fullness of what? The fullness of God. God’s not satisfied until you become full. David said, My cup is full and running over. Ephesians 6:14, Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. Faith is your shield because you know who your God is. When you come to that place, you say, you can’t change me. That’s your shield talking. I know that my Redeemer lives, and He lives within me. When you come to that place you could be around a lot of people that would try to cause you to change to evolution, or whatever it is they put their trust in. I get a chuckle out of how many times a year they change their theories. And that's why I'm saying you're always changing things because you thought you knew, but you didn’t. But in God, it’s forever. His word shall not pass away. 1 Samuel 15:17, And Samuel said, When thou wast little in thine own sight, wast thou not made the head of the tribes of Israel? And the Lord sent thee on a journey, and said, Go and utterly destroy the sinners the Amalekites, and fight against them until they be consumed. Wherefore then didst thou not obey the voice of the Lord, but didst fly upon the spoil, and didst evil in the sight of the Lord? And Saul said to Samuel, Yea, I have obeyed the voice of the Lord, and have gone the way which the Lord sent me, and have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the chief of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice unto the Lord thy God in Gilgal. They fought and had a great victory, and they brought back the best of the sheep and cows and they were going to sacrifice them before the Lord. What did we just get done saying a little bit ago? If the foundation doesn’t come from God, it’s not worth anything. Saul thought he really was doing the will of God. He wouldn’t say that to Samuel if he didn’t. Verse 22, And Samuel said, Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft… Rebellion is no different than witchcraft to God, because you didn’t do what He said, but you’re trying to put in the place of that something He doesn’t want, and that foundation is of the world. …and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, he hath also rejected thee from being king. Then all of a sudden Saul sees that and he says, I’ve sinned before God. That goes back to not drawing upon people. We draw upon God or we will get into rebellion. Now if God speaks to you through someone then that’s one thing. But I found in my early days when I had prophecies given to me that those that gave me prophecies wanted to guide me, and that is going back to the hand of the flesh. If God promised it, He’s the one that delivers it to you and gets you to that place, not me. The word is in you to accomplish it, but it’s not accomplished through me, it’s accomplished through God and your relationship with Him. When a mother has a baby, they don’t send that baby away to somebody else for a month or two and then bring them back. No, they lay them on their stomach and immediately begin to have relationship, just as Christ does with us. Faith is the power to do and run all things. Faith is the power in God to accomplish all things. Faith is to come into agreement with God. Money is power of the world. I’ve said before, if you don’t have money, you can’t do anything. If you spend all the money you have earned, you won’t get anywhere. But if you look at money as your power source for heavenly things, you’re operating in the flesh. Jesus said it’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. But with God, all things are possible. How is that possible? Yes, in this world we need money to function and to prosper in certain things, but we have also been given wealth in heavenly places by Christ Jesus so that it won’t rust. Nobody can steal it and it’s safe for all eternity. And that’s the answer to Jesus. His disciples said, Well, who can be saved if money is the root of all evil? If money is driving you to make you somebody, it’s worthless. But if you use money to do things that are needed for the kingdom of God, then it’s the word of God working to give you what you need. You’re living in the world where it takes money for the physical but it’s not going to help you in the kingdom of God unless you use that money for the kingdom of heaven. In faith, what is the ultimate goal upon the earth right now? For God to restore all things. He’s going to restore all things. And we prayed that that would be in the standard that we’ve raised. That God would begin, in His timing, to restore all things. I recently harvested 5 pigs over at my barn and I had 4 gilts left. I turned the boar in with them and he became a little strong willed and he knocked one of the gilts down and got to the place that he practically killed it. So a couple guys helped me roll her onto the skid loader. She laid there and tried to kick but we put her in a hut. The next morning I came out and the pig was dead. I’ve had pigs most of my life and I know when a pig is dead. When they’re cold, stiff, and their chest cavity is no longer going up and down, that’s a pretty good sign they’re dead. That pig was dead. Several days later I went out to feed the cattle with the skid loader. When I came back I fed the three remaining gilts and then I put hay out. When I came back out there, one of those gilts was in the pen where we put the dead one. It came out of the hut and I stopped the skid loader and looked. I said, how did you get in here? I just fed you and then I went into the barn and got a bale of hay and put it out there. How did you get in there? And I probably sat there for 15 seconds or more, and I said, No, that’s not the pig that was dead in there. So I reached down and pulled the pin out, the door opened and I backed the skid loader up and she quietly came out and got around and saw a gate open and she took off running like a 100 yard dasher. I revved up the skid loader and took after her to chase her back over where the other pigs were eating. When I got over there, there were three of them eating and the fourth one that was dead was running out in that field. I’ve had things happen before to prove that what we’re doing is right, but I’ve never had anything that dramatic. And by faith I know God raised that pig from the dead, because she was in there 10 days. She died on December 28th and came alive on January 8th. She was in a 4x8 pen, outside with no food, water, or heat. For some reason I didn’t feel like burying her. I wasn’t too worried because it was cold out so she wasn’t going to start stinking. She lay in the same position the whole time. When we agreed for God to begin to restore all things, He raised that pig up. It could be that’s the first pig God ever restored, because they don’t exactly like pigs in their stuff. Every morning I get out there and feed her with the others and I say, there’s my pig, full of glory; the word of God. And of course for a while I heard a lot of chatter in my mind, that I better just be quiet, because that pig could die and then what am I going to say? Yeah, He raised her up, but she died? Then I thought, if she dies, she dies. But the bottom line is she was raised from the dead. The glory of God is in that pig, and the glory of God is in all of us, too. God is in the redeeming process. We’re going to see people redeemed that have gone astray. God is going to begin to speak to them and change their lives so they can live forever with Him. He’s going to use faith and truth. And for us to walk in faith we need grace until we come to that place in the fullness of Christ. And people will say, well, you can’t do that. But the Bible says we can. If you lack faith, that’s your problem. But if it’s in the word that’s He’s going to restore all things, I believe it. That’s like in Ezekiel where He says will those dry bones come alive? And Ezekiel says, Lord, You know. I don’t know. Just tell me. God is going to begin to confirm a lot of things that He has taught us. I believe that for those that walk in great darkness it’s going to be a horrible year. But for those that walk in the power of God in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, and even though they are blessed in the physical, it’s not going to affect their eternal blessings. ![]()
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