FAITH IS NO CHEAP TALK, FAITH IS HARD WORK.
IF WE DON’T PAY ATTENTION TO READINGS, EXHORTATIONS AND TEACHINGS OUR FAITH CAN’T COME ALIVE.
PAUL, THE ONE WHO WROTE ABOUT HALF OF THE NEW TESTAMENT HAD NOTES.
EVERY FAITH BUILDER HAS A NOTE. HE TAKES NOTE OF HIS FINDINGS SO HE CAN GIVE HIMSELF FULLY TO THEM.
CONSCIOUSLY MAINTAIN THE FEAR OF GOD AS A LIFESTYLE.
ACCESS TO THE SECRETS OF GOD REQUIRES THE FEAR OF GOD AS A LIFESTYLE.
WE MUST REMAIN IN LOVE TO ACCESS THE DEEP THINGS OF GOD
WHERE NOTHING IS DONE TO BUILD YOUR FAITH, YOU KILL IT, SO IT BECOMES NO FAITH.
WHEN DEATH CAME TO ATTEMPT THE LIFE OF OUR LAST DAUGHTER, I PRAYED IN THE SPIRIT AND THERE WAS A RECALL OF LIGHT.
WE PRAY IN THE SPIRIT TO ENFORCE A RECALL OF LIGHT REQUIRED TO DEAL WITH A SITUATION.
FAITH GROWS BY PRAYING IN THE HOLY GHOST FOR ACCESS TO LIGHT.
INVEST IN BUILDING YOUR FAITH BECAUSE FAITH WILL BE UNDER THE WORST ATTACK BEFORE CHRIST COMES.
FAITH DOESN’T GROW BY JUST ACCUMULATING KNOWLEDGE BUT BY APPLYING KNOWLEDGE.
WHAT YOU DO WITH WHAT YOU HAVE FOUND IS WHAT BUILDS YOUR CAPACITY TO ACCESS MORE.
VALUE FAITH MATERIALS BECAUSE THEY HELP TO BOOST YOUR SPIRITUAL UNDERSTANDING.
– Bishop David Oyedepo on UNDERSTANDING THE DEMANDS OF BUILDING YOUR FAITH 3 at February 2024 Week of Spiritual Emphasis Day Three || LFC Worldwide ||
Faith comes from hearing from God. God has spoken, the written Word is here. Now He turns it into a Word for you, then faith comes alive. Church Gist. You are going to come out of here tonight with an experience of a lifetime.
How do we get that? “If you walk in the Spirit, let us therefore live in the Spirit.” “I was in the Spirit and I heard.” You can’t hear from God without being in the Spirit. Tonight, put yourself together because something will drop for you. Church Gist. Something will drop for someone here that will become a lifetime asset for someone here.
Father, over to you, we are all at your feet to receive from Jesus your son. Let no one go without a takeaway. A sumptuous takeaway. Church Gist. An enviable takeaway, a life-transforming takeaway. So shall it be in the name of Jesus.
UNDERSTANDING THE DEMANDS OF BUILDING YOUR FAITH 3. Or the demands of building our faith. I am also in class. You can’t wait to build your muscles. You take responsibility for building it. You can’t wake up in the morning and your muscles just develop. Your muscle and my muscle will lie dormant until we do something to build it. You have to do something to build it. I watched a regimen of one of these world champion swimmers and I saw the way the machine was turning her like a rope. Church Gist. If you want to swim like a fish you have to really treat your muscles properly. When she enters the water she is just swimming naturally. If you put somebody from here there, he will be gasping for the lifeguards to pick him up. You can’t build your faith muscles wishing. You can’t build your faith muscle waiting. You can’t build your faith muscles talking about it. You build it by doing what you should do about it. That is why we said in one of those packages – faith is no cheap talk, faith is hard work. What kind of hard work? Hebrews 4:11. We labour our way out of unbelief. We labour in the Word to get our faith to come alive and build the muscles of our faith. Let us labour in the Word. It carries quickening power, it quickens our faith alive.
Faith is no cheap talk, faith is hard work. We know how much you have worked on your faith in the day of trouble. If you faint in God’s Word, little faith can’t stand the storms of this hour. You need to build strength and be at rest on a pillow while the billow is raging. Matthew 8:26. When we come to discover that faith is what defines the quality of a believer’s life. Church Gist. It is to every one according to the quality of his faith. Matthew 9:29. Every believer’s ultimate value is determined by his or her faith. The just shall live by faith. Habakkuk 2:4. The quality of his or her life is determined by his or her faith.
In further clarification of that fact, 2 Timothy 4:13, 15. Squeeze the juice out of the things that you read and give yourself wholly to your findings that your profiting may appear to all. It is work. If we don’t pay attention to readings, to exhortations, to teachings, our faith can’t come alive. 1 Timothy 5:17. We used to have this volume they called Concordance in those days, if you are studying you put your Concordance in front. There were no devices in those days. You are studying and checking it for what are the latest scriptures in there. People wait a lot. Church Gist. There are folks today in our Church who have never invested any time for any time in building their faith. They think that the one month of teaching that we do is enough. It is time to invest time in building your faith.
The sportsman builds his muscle against the tournament, your tournament has no schedule, no announcement. They just invite you to come to the ring now and begin to fight. We can’t get ready, we have to live ready. Church Gist. There may not be time to get ready, we have to live ready. Please don’t wait to see your faith grow, invest in building your faith. Don’t wish to see your faith grow, invest in building your faith.
So we saw this great man of faith who will come and say “I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me”, we saw him exercise dominion over death like toying with children’s toys. He was in charge. What was his secret? 2 Timothy 4:13. He said “Bring me my books, particularly my notes.” Apostle Paul said my notes. Church Gist. There are many disciples without a note. The one who wrote about half of the New Testament had notes. Every faith builder has a note. He takes note of his findings so he can give himself fully to them. Faith never grows by chance. Faith is no cheap talk, faith is hard work.
How do I build my faith?
Keep walking in the fear of God. The secret of the Lord that builds faith requires the fear of God for access. Psalm 25:14. Church Gist. Consciously maintain the fear of God as a lifestyle. It provides access into the secrets of God that build faith.
1 Thessalonians 2:10. Ephesians 3:8-11. Nothing of value is free. Access to the secrets of God requires the fear of God as a lifestyle. Church Gist. Paul commanded dominion on a strange frequency. Lost in the sea overnight, got up to his next assignment. Stoned and left for dead, he rose by himself. Church Gist. His writings are full of the need to please God to secure a place with God. No shortcut, no shortcut.
2. We must remain in love to access the deep things of God. 1 Corinthians 2:9-10. Access to the deep things for God demands genuine love for God which is made manifest in our love for the interest of the Kingdom. John 15:15. Church Gist. When we become His friend indeed, we gain access to the deep things of life. Romans 8:35,37. Philippians 1:21. He (Paul) was lost in his love for Christ. God was his focus for living, he was dying in love for God. He had unusual insight, which is the secret of his strong faith. Church Gist. Access to the deep things will engender strong faith, nothing deters it.
3. We must continue to fellowship with the saints. Psalm 73:17. Spirit of understanding blossoms in fellowship. Hebrews 12:24. His presence infuses light into our spirit man. Psalm 73:17. “Understanding came alive as I entered into the Sanctuary of God”. Church Gist. What’s in that Sanctuary? Hebrews 12:22-24. So, we come into fellowship to meet with God the Father, God the Son and God is light, in Him, there’s no darkness at all. Jesus is the light of the world. Church Gist. You come into Church, light breaks forth. When your heart is open, when you’re in the spirit, you can catch what God is saying.
– Has someone caught something tonight?
Wherever you see great faith, behind it is great labour in the Word. Wherever you see strong faith, behind it is strong labour in the Word. Wherever you see little faith, little is done to build that faith. Church Gist. Wherever you see no faith, nothing is done to build it. “How’s it that you have no faith?” So, it’s a state of no faith. Where nothing is done to build your faith, you kill it, so it becomes no faith. Mark 4:40. You just hear some people, you’ll know there’s nothing in them about faith. Church Gist. Everyday, “(hissing), the road is bad, vehicles are bad, look at, all the vehicles are old vehicles”. Go and change them. There’s nothing said in Church, there’s nothing he reads in the Bible that makes meaning. He hasn’t done anything to build his faith.
Faith does not grow by just saying what grows it but by engaging with what grows it so it can generate proofs in your life. Church Gist. Somebody asked me many years ago, he said, “please, can you tell me the secret of prosperity of this Church?” I said, ” if I tell you, you won’t like it”. He said, “no, I’m a man nah, how will I not?” I said, “I’m warning you, if I tell you, you won’t like it”. When I told him, he froze. Strong meat belongs to those who by reason of use. You keep using the light you have to build strength to your life. Matthew 7:24-25. But you’re just hearing and writing notes, you’re not doing anything about it, you’re not building. Church Gist. Can you imagine just buying blocks and you’re not putting them together, will it ever become a house? So, the light you’re writing now without engaging with it is just like buying blocks, you can’t live inside the block. Church Gist. You engage with the light to engender proof which builds your faith.
Before God will say, “now, come and build this Church within one year”, He has told me once to build one within two weeks. It’s small, yes, but we did it. Church Gist. We did one before within one week. Yes, it’s grass but we did it. So, you’re building, you’re building. Now, He told you and you’re saying, “within one week, how? How will it come to pass?” Praise God. So, we are building up. An heir when he’s a child is not different from a servant, he’s under governors and tutors till the time he ascends the throne of the father. Church Gist. So, we have to grow to access certain things though they belong to us. So, it’s time to invest in building one’s faith.
My wife and I were on a trip and we saw one man, he was a wrestler. My God. When he entered the plane, I told my wife, I said, “that’s Kiliwi (Nwachukwu”. His hands could not rest on his body, nobody could dare him. Church Gist. The man has spent time in building his muscles, he wasn’t born like that. Nobody is born with faith oh, you build your faith, everybody has to build his faith. Praise God! All the ones I knew, all the ones that are ahead of me, all the ones who taught me, they were Word addicts. Church Gist. They read, they write, they do everything. It’s what I saw not that somebody told me. It is time to invest in building our faith. Some things belong to us but we have not been equipped to access them and we are to build our faith to access them.
Jeremiah 3:15-16. So, you find these feeding agents of the Kingdom in Church that help our understanding to grow and blossom so our faith can grow to deliver.
So, He said in conclusion. Hebrews 10:25. Tough days, tough times. Luke 18:8. Times that will drain your faith if it’s not properly founded. Church Gist. Faith will be under the worst attack before Christ comes. So, the earlier you invest in building your faith to weather the storms, the better.
4: We must continue to engage the blood of Jesus against all blindfolding forces of hell. The blood secures our access to the things behind the veil. The blood. It secures our access to the tables of the Covenant which is behind the veil. Church Gist. The blood. The high Priest enters in there once in a year but not without blood. Zechariah 9:11,12. When the thing looks blank, the blood of Jesus. ‘I secure access by the blood of Jesus’. It is the blood of the everlasting covenant, it speaks forevermore. ‘I secure access to the light on this subject by the blood of Jesus. Church Gist. I enter into the things behind the veil. I gain access to the tables of the Covenant regarding this subject by the blood of Jesus’. Revelation 12:11. Who is ‘him’? 2 Corinthians 4:4. He (satan, the god of this World) blocks our access to light, but by the blood, he has to give up.
You better carry all your arsenals along. There is no level that you get into that he won’t try to block your access. So, you engage the forces available to you to break through. Among these forgotten forces is the blood. Church Gist. If you read from Hebrews 9:1-4, you see the power of the blood and you go to Hebrews 13:20, you see the blood of the everlasting covenant, the blood of Jesus. The blood, once and for all. We don’t have to have bulls and goats and rams. The blood of the everlasting Covenant. ‘I gain access’. There is a way out of here. ‘I secure my access to the way out’. Church Gist. There is always a way out. ‘Jesus, I secure access to the way out by the blood of the everlasting covenant, the blood of Jesus’ and then, you are on your way going.
– Can I hear your Amen?
– No one shall be in blackout anymore.
– You shall not suffer spiritual blackout anymore.
Finally, faith grows by praying in the Holy Ghost for access to light. Not ‘Pra, pra, pra’ What are you praying about? Access to light. The core ministry of the Holy Spirit. John 14:26. John 15:12,13. So, you pray in the Spirit to gain access to light in the Word of God.
– Praise God!
1 Corinthians 2:10. You are praying to God. ‘I need access to the light required to deal with this matter’ and then you switch over. You just switch on. If you are a student of the Bible, you find light coming in because among His job is to bring to our remembrance what we have heard of the Father. Church Gist. He brings to our remembrance. He recalls those things. As you pray in the Holy Ghost, we’re listening to what He is recalling.
– Can I hear your Amen?
Otherwise, you can pray in tongues from now till tomorrow morning, it won’t make a difference. Church Gist. What are you praying for? Praying for access to light that stirs your faith to overcome that circumstance.
– Can I hear your Amen?
When death came to attempt the life of our last daughter, I said ‘Jesus, there must be a way out’. (speaking in tongues). Then, there comes in recalls of light. The first hit – Hebrews 2:14,15. Then came Revelation 1:18 and then came Isaiah 49:24-26. Church Gist. We pray in the Spirit to enforce a recall of the light required to deal with a situation. So, if you have not been a student of the Bible, there’s nothing to recall, nothing. Nothing to recall because there is nothing there. But if you are, the Holy Ghost steps in, who taught you that thing in the first instance, to recall them so you can engage that in battle.
– Can I hear your Amen?
– Somebody’s story is changing.
Do you understand now that faith is no cheap talk? Faith is hard work. That you call your name Faith is not equal to faith. Church Gist. You call your name Victory does not equal overcoming circumstances. It’s work and we have been engraced to work the work. We only need to make a choice to do it.
– Praise God!
– The good news tonight is, the enemy has lost status in your life.
Now, bad news for the devil. When your faith comes alive, it renders the devil helpless. It renders the enemy helpless. Church Gist. Ephesians 6:16. So, he’s aiming at cutting short your faith so he can survive. Praise God! But as your faith comes alive, you have paralyzed him.
As I conclude, the strength of darkness is in the absence of light. The prominence of the wicked is in the absence of faith. Strong faith will silence the worst devil in hell. Church Gist. Strong faith will silence the most wicked devil in hell. Strong faith will paralyze the most wicked devil in hell, including death.
– No one here shall die young.
– You shall not die young.
When the face of covering is removed, death is swallowed up in victory. Revelation 5:5. Church Gist. He stops weeping.
– There shall be no weeping in your family.
Don’t joke with your faith, that’s your life wire. Don’t toy with your faith, that’s the security of your destiny. Don’t play around with your faith, that’s your security of eternity. Church Gist. Everything about you and me is faith determined. So, wake up and do the right thing in building your faith. Stop wishing to see it grow, stop waiting to see it grow. Get to work to get it done. Faith is no cheap talk, faith is hard work.
– Lift up your right hand to Heaven and give God thanks.
—Prayers and Altar Call—
Daniel was one of the most endowed humans on the earth. “And I Daniel understood by books.” Paul was given unusual wisdom – “but bring my books, bring my notes.” Church Gist. There is no gifting that is a substitute to labouring in the Word to build your faith. There is no gifting under the sun that will be a substitute to labouring in the Word to build your faith. You can work in a Faith Center like this for life without your faith having an impact on your own life.
Not all preachers of faith have proof for what they preach. It is in the doing that faith grows. Church Gist. What you do with what you have found is what builds your capacity to access more.
– Therefore in the name of the Lord Jesus, no one will watch his life go down the drain!
“If you can believe, all things are possible to them that believeth.” All things! How many things? All things. Church Gist. So there is a point in your life where everything begins to answer to you on their own accord. We are all going there.
No one has graduated, we are all in school. We are all growing. It is important to make progress. You shouldn’t be roaming about 100 level when you should have finished your PhD. Church Gist. It is important to make progress. You can’t be in primary school forever. They will ask you to go after some time.
So, it’s time to make conscious progress in building our faith. Please value faith materials. They help to boost your spiritual understanding. Church Gist. They are things that people have proved, they make it simpler for you to catch. I did that. I’m still doing it and I will forever be doing it.
If I am still studying to build my faith, sir, you better wake up. I have seen a few things o but I have not seen many things. You better wake up. Church Gist. If your story is not changing, you are nott building your faith. No! You better tell yourself the truth. But it’s a new day!
– As we receive this Communion tonight, everyone’s understanding will open wider!
– Taking covenant responsibility will become a delight!
– Working towards building one’s faith will become delightsome!
– The things of God will not be burdensome to you anymore!
So prove your faith this time by looking “how many souls am I bringing to Christ in this harvest season?” Church Gist. Now tie your faith to it and take steps to prove that you believe. It’s the way to do it.
When I said “Jesus give me a thousand souls this month”, I went out. Not that you stay and say give me a thousand souls – He won’t give you a thousand souls inside your room. Church Gist. You go out and then I got greedy one time, I said “give me a thousand souls this week.” He did it. I said “okay, every week we will be doing it.”
Faith doesn’t grow by just accumulating knowledge but by applying knowledge. Church Gist. Faith grows by walking in the light, not just having the light.
– I pray that this night will mark a difference in your life!
– There shall be no evil report in your area!
– Satan will have no more enroll in your environment!
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