FAITH IS A PERSONAL ASSET IN THE JOURNEY OF LIFE. IT IS NOT GENERAL, IT IS NOT CORPORATE.
OUR FAITH IS WHAT DETERMINES OUR PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN THE JOURNEY OF LIFE
YOUR TESTIMONY OF YESTERDAY IS AN INSTRUMENT FOR YOUR VICTORY OF TODAY
IF YOU ARE BORN AGAIN, THERE IS HOPE NO MATTER THE CASE. THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A HOPELESS BELIEVER
- Pastor David Oyedepo Jnr at Midweek/Communion Service || Canaanland.
Our Father this evening we have come to give glory and praise to your name for the privilege and blessing of being in your presence. For the testimonies of your hand at work in our midst, we say thank you. Now Lord our eyes are upon you. We ask that you speak to us and your word will transform our lives in Jesus name we have prayed.
Our teaching series for our mid week services all through this month has been UNDERSTANDING THE DEMANDS OF BUILDING YOUR FAITH. God’s word makes it clear to us that every believer’s adventure in life is determined by his or her faith. Matthew 9:27-29. Those two blind men came to Jesus and Jesus said to them “according to your faith, be it done unto you”. So what becomes of us in the journey of life is determined by our faith. That is why God’s word makes it clear that the just shall live by his faith (Habakkuk 2:4). This means that faith is a personal asset in the journey of life. It is not general, it is not corporate, it is personal. Church Gist. The Bible says in Hebrews 11:33-44 that particular men and women in scripture through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouth of lions…”. These particular individuals, their experiences were determined by their faith. Our faith is what determines our personal experience in the journey of life. That is why we said earlier that faith is not general, it is personal. Mark 11:23. I pray this evening that for each one of us may that personal asset of faith move to a new dimension.
It is important for us to understand that, so our experience is faith determined. Even the devil cannot determine your experience, it is faith that can. Ephesians 6:16. Our faith is what determines our ultimate experience in the journey of life. Faith must be consciously built. Jude 20. Faith is not automatic, it must be consciously built and God’s word makes it clear to us that the primary factor for the building of our faith is the word of God. Romans 10:17. Church Gist. The word of God is the food that feeds our faith. The more you take in God’s word, the more your faith grows up. Growth is always a product of nutrition. God’s word is the spiritual nutrition for the building of our faith. Where the word of God is absent, the strength of faith is depleted. It is the word of God that we gain access to that determines the potency of our faith. Proverbs 4:20. It is important for us to understand that the building of our faith requires an appetite for God’s word.
Quickly tonight, what does it take to continue to grow our faith? We have seen that faith is a necessity. Faith has an unlimited capacity to grow (2 Thessalonians 1:3). There is no limit to the growth capacity of our faith. What does it take for our faith to grow?
- To grow our faith we must connect with the ministry of anointed teachers.
Isaiah 30:20-21.
Every one of us as children of God have God ordained teachers sent to us. Individuals that God has put words in them on your behalf. It is gaining access and connecting to those teachers that catapults our faith to another level. Ephesians 4:11-13. God makes it very clear that for us to grow into spiritual maturity in terms of the potency of our faith, we must connect to teachers. There are things that you will never discover on your own, you must be taught. Psalm 36:9. Your God ordained teacher is a light bearer sent on your behalf with light that you require.
If you heard the first testimony that was shared. The woman said her husband stumbled upon the teachings online and after that day we became members and connected with the reality of Matthew 6:33, it was a light they saw in God’s servant but it was the light they needed for their own change of story. God has given men on the earth today, the light that you require, it is your duty to connect to that light in order to experience what that light has to offer in your lives. It is vital and important for us to understand that. We must seek out our God ordained teacher. When you find your God ordained teacher, connect and you find your life producing results in the same order.
- That will be your experience in Jesus name.
How do we connect to these God ordained teachers?
i. By hearing them. As we hear the world of God from our God ordained teachers, there is an infusion of the faith content that they carry.
Ezekiel 2:2.
Don’t forget we have said earlier that faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of God. You connect to them by hearing them and there is a building up of our faith for delivery. Acts 14:8-10. The lame man’s faith to be healed came from the word he was hearing. He heard Paul speak. As we connect to our God ordained teachers by hearing them, you naturally find your faith building up from one level to another. Church Gist. That testifier said they heard that word (Matthew 6:33) very clearly and began to engage with that word. They got fliers and were going from house to house, they asked God for creative ideas on how to carry out this task and suddenly the God of covenant showed up and not only did He give them ideas for winning souls, He gave them ideas for business breakthroughs and their income doubled.
- Your testimony shall be brighter.
We must understand that we have a responsibility to connect to every word of our God ordained teachers by hearing them.
ii. By reading books. Scripture makes it clear to us the power of reading books. One of the ways we gain access to the insight that is carried by those that are sent to us is by reading their books. They asked Kenneth Hagin who it was that carried the spirit of Smith Wigglesworth, he said I may not be able to tell but what I know is that I read his books until something in him rubbed off on me. Church Gist. When you look at their manifestation, you will see it is similar. As he connected to a teacher through his books, what the teacher was carrying entered into him.
Two examples of individuals in scriptures that connected through books and the effect that those books had on their faith.
Our first example we are going to look at tonight is the example of Paul the Apostle. 2 Timothy 4:13. Paul was a man of books. Acts 24:14. Paul came to a point where there was nothing he could not believe for. There was no limit to the potency of his faith and he arrived there by books. If our faith is going to grow after the order we saw in Paul then you and I must be men and women of books. Philippians 4:13. There was no limit to his manifestation because of his dedication to reading. Every month we are given books of the month, why is that so? In the services of the month it is not everything that can be taught there. Church Gist. There is far more to go into and we go into them via the books. Books are subject specific because faith is also subject specific. A person can have faith for one thing and not faith for another because it is the depth of your understanding of God’s word that determines the strength of your faith for every area of life. So you and I must become committed to reading books and reading it to the point of understanding. Until you see it like the author saw it. God’s servant said he went before the Lord and said “show me the secret of kingdom prosperity”. He took his Bible and took books and went before the Lord. He said he had read that book on prosperity several times before that but this time he went digging for light. It is not information that transforms, it is revelation that transforms. Church Gist. As soon as light broke forth, he jumped and screamed with a loud voice “I can never be poor”. The backbone of poverty was broken on the entrance of light. You will know the weakness of the enemy when you go for light. He has also shared how a man came to him and was weeping. When you see a full grown man weeping it is a serious matter. It began to explain all manner of things and he said ‘you know what? get ‘Satan Get Lost’ and go and read it’. By the time the man came back he was laughing. He said I didn’t even know that the devil is this cheap. I didn’t even know. Why? Because his faith grew by the books he connected to. Settle down with the books of your God ordained teachers and wait for the light in those books to break forth into you and you begin to experience the testimonies you desire after the same order.
- That will be somebody’s experience here.
God’s servant has said over the years that there is no mountain anywhere, every man’s mountain is his ignorance. What seems to be intimidating you is simply displaying an area where there is knowledge to be gotten.
The second example we look at is the example of Daniel. Daniel 9:2. Daniel was a man of unique wisdom but he said my understanding came from books and as a result Daniel became a man of great faith. Daniel 6:20-23. Daniel’s faith was intact and the impact of that faith was God stepping in on his behalf. How did the faith come? It came from books. Commitment to a life of study is one of the vital secrets to a life of faith.
- We grow our faith by engaging with the testimonies of others. Testimonies are vital faith boosters. Psalm 119:111. God’s word makes it clear to us that testimonies are pointers to our heritage in Christ. In fact they are raw interpretations of the truth. There are things you might not freely understand in scriptures but testimonies are interpreters of those truths. Church Gist. The moment a testimony goes forth and your heart is open to receive them, your faith goes up supernaturally. Isaiah 8:20. Testimonies are simply light bearers, they inject potency into our faith. All through scripture we have examples of testimonies of others emulated by others and we see those testimonies reproducing. We also see those who recorded their own testimony and the testimony brought to them greater testimonies.
David went before Saul and said the God who gave me the lion and the bear will give me this uncircumcised Philistine and by the arrow of testimony Goliath fell. If you know anything about catapults because what David carried was a catapult, the Bible said he took the catapult with stone and flung it and it entered into the head of Goliath. Even a bird that you shoot with a catapult sometimes will still fly away, now a giant. Church Gist. The bigger a man is, the more fortified his bone structure. Which means that the bone structure of the head alone would have been stronger than the normal one yet the stone entered the head because the testimony had already created the hole before the stone arrived. Testimonies are arrows. 1 Samuel 17:49. The stone sunk because of the hole created by the testimony. Your testimony of yesterday is an instrument for your victory of today. The good news is this: even the testimonies of others are instruments on your behalf. Matthew 9:21-22. Matthew 14:36. Same results because they heard the testimony of Chapter 9. Every time you hear testimonies it is a pointer to your heritage in Christ. Anytime something has been done before it means it can be cheaply done again.
Many of us have heard of how Sir Edmund Hilary was the first man to climb and conquer Mount Everest: the tallest peak on the earth. He went and tried several times and did not go through with it. One day he came and said “mountain you are the same size, the same height and weight. The same level of difficulty. Since the last time I was here you have not changed but I have changed”. So he went and scaled the mountain, what was impossible before was scaled by him. Since that testimony, people have been going and climbing Mount Everest continuously since then. Because somebody beat it before, from that time they have been beating it consistently. Church Gist. Anywhere you hear a testimony that has happened, it is a pointer that it can happen again. God’s servant went to the campus of Oral Roberts University and he looked around and said “this can only be God but it can happen anywhere”. Look at Landmark University, look at Covenant University, it is born from a testimony that has happened before that could be done again. No matter what you are confronted with, somebody else has successfully conquered it before, all you need to do is look for the testimony of the past. There is no special case, there are only special cases of ignorance. All you need to do is settle down with the testimonies and let it settle into your spirit man.
- Keeping Hope Alive
Hebrews 11:1
Without hope, faith is impotent. Hope is a vital necessity for potency in our faith. No matter what condition you find yourself in, if you are in Christ, there is hope. 1 Peter 1:3. If you are born again, there is hope no matter the case. There is no such thing as a hopeless believer. Job 14:7-9. You and I are trees of righteousness, no matter what has cut you down, there is hope. Ecclesiastes 9:4. No matter what you are confronted with, there is hope. What looks like an end is not the end, it is a bend. If you go towards it, you will see there is still a way in front. There is hope for you no matter the situation, no matter the circumstances. To capture this hope we must be addicts of the word of God. Romans 15:4. Every time we approach the word of God, we are fueling our hope. Church Gist. The word of God is the picture of the future and no man sees the future and remains hopeless. Genesis 13:14-15. If you search through the scriptures, you will see a future before you. If you see that future, your hope is fueled up and that keeps your faith charged. When a man sees the future, no man can discourage him. If you are going around winning souls and people are mocking you, it will not bother you. I say it all the time that foundations go down before buildings come up. That people look around you and it looks like a mess and they can’t see beauty yet is a matter of time. If you can see the future, it will not bother you. The foundation can be mocked but the completion cannot be ignored. Very shortly what you saw in the word, people will see in the world.
#PastorDavidOyedepoJnr
#LFCWorldwide
#MorethanAConqueror
#MidWeekService16Feb2022
#ChurchGist
