UNTIL YOUR FAITH FAILS, satan CAN’T HAVE HIS WAY.
GOD CAN DO ALL THINGS BUT IT TAKES OUR FAITH TO MAKE IT HAPPEN.
OUR EXPERIENCE IN LIFE IS ACCORDING TO OUR FAITH.
FAITH GROWS ESSENTIALLY BY THE WORD AND NOT BY PRAYERS PER SE.
MANY PRAYER WARRIORS ARE WEARY BECAUSE PRAYER ON ITS OWN CANNOT GROW FAITH.
ONLY LOVERS OF THE WORD SUCCEED IN GROWING THEIR FAITH.
ONE CAN BE A BELIEVER AND STILL BE CARNAL – HE CANNOT UNDERSTAND THE THINGS OF THE SPIRIT.
FAITH IS A PERSONAL SPIRITUAL ASSET BUT YOU HAVE TO KEEP DEVELOPING IT TO STAY ON TOP OF SITUATIONS.
IF satan CAN GET YOUR FAITH, HE’S GOTTEN YOU DOWN. WHERE YOUR FAITH STOPS IS WHERE YOUR VICTORY STOPS.
MEDITATION BOOSTS SPIRITUAL UNDERSTANDING AND THE DEEPER OUR UNDERSTANDING, THE STRONGER OUR FAITH.
A FRIEND OF MINE ONCE SAID ‘I MUST BE MAD’ BECAUSE HE WAS IN AWE OF WHAT HE SAW WHEN HE VISITED FAITH TABERNACLE DURING THE CONSTRUCTION.
I LAID THE TENDENCY FOR BORROWING TO ETERNAL REST AFTER AN ENCOUNTER WITH LIGHT.
WE NEED THE HOLY SPIRIT TO GRANT US ACCESS TO THE DEEP THINGS OF GOD.
EVERY GIANT OF FAITH IS A TIRELESS LEARNER.
IT TAKES MEEKNESS TO ACCESS SPIRITUAL UNDERSTANDING.
WE ARE LIMITED WITHOUT ENGAGING OUR SPIRIT MAN IN ACCESSING THE DEEP THINGS OF GOD.
– Bishop David Oyedepo on UNDERSTANDING THE DEMANDS OF BUILDING YOUR FAITH 1 at February 2024 Week of Spiritual Emphasis Day One || LFC Worldwide ||
Lord Jesus all our eyes are on you. we have come to you not a man, Lord appear to each one of us as we have prayed. Church Gist. Let no one return without an encounter with you. Let each one’s word come through tonight and thank you for it in Jesus name.
Remember the prophetic focus for the month is WHATEVER GOD CAN DO FAITH CAN MAKE HAPPEN. Matthew 9:27-29. I can do all things but it takes your faith to make it happen. God can do all things but it takes our faith to make it happen. Our experience in life is according to our faith. After we are born again Satan is not the issue, our faith is what requires attention. Church Gist. If you take the shield of faith, you quench all the fiery darts of the devil. A cry can’t stop a fiery dart, a groaning can’t. Only faith can render the fiery darts of the devil of no effect. Ephesians 6:16. Luke 22:32. Until your faith fails, Satan can’t have his way.
Our teaching series for our Midweek services this month which covers this Week of Spiritual Emphasis is UNDERSTANDING THE DEMANDS OF BUILDING YOUR FAITH. What does it take to build my faith? What does it take for my faith to keep going from strength to strength? Matthew 8:24. Little faith can’t stand the storms of life. If you faint in the day of trouble, then your strength is small. Church Gist. The strength of the believer lies in his faith. The stronger our faith, the higher our level of command of life’s situations and circumstances. Abraham was strong in faith, giving glory to God and you saw the outcome of his life – generational impact.
First, let’s recognize that faith has unlimited capacity for growth. 2 Thessalonians 1:3. John 14:12. Faith has the capacity to bring us to the realm of Christ in commanding dominion over all of life’s situations and circumstances. Unlimited capacity for growth. Matthew 11:11. Church Gist. He that is least in the Kingdom is potentially greater than those of the Old Testament and those were men of fiery faith as listed in Hebrews 11. Our faith can outgrow the faith of all the heroes of faith listed in that chapter. Faith has an unlimited capacity for growth.
Faith grows essentially by the Word and not by prayers per se. The only relevance of prayer in the school of faith is praying for spiritual understanding of the Word. Praying for access to the Word is the only essence of prayer and fasting in the school of faith. Many prayer warriors are weary because prayer on its own cannot grow faith. Psalm 119:18. Church Gist. Jeremiah 33:3. That is the place of prayer. Isaiah 58:8. Jude 1:20. Praying for access into the Word or for accurate call back for the Word you have learnt when you are confronted. John 14:26.
You can’t grow your faith behind the Word. It is only by access to the Word that faith grows. That is why only lovers of the Word succeed in growing their faith. Faith doesn’t grow by prophecy. Faith grows by the Word. That is why it takes genuine labour in the Word for one’s faith to grow. Hebrews 4:11-12. Let’s labour in the Word to grow our faith into the realm of rest in the midst of the storms. Church Gist. 1 Timothy 5:17. Labour! Not reading for pleasure! Labour! You read newspapers for pleasure. After completing three of them you can’t even remember the first headline. You are reading for pleasure, you are not reading for learning. Let’s labour. You have your notes, you have your parchments. You are learning at the feet of Jesus, you are receiving His Word to grow your faith.
By grace, for the first three months that I got saved, I read Matthew, Mark, Luke and John like a ravenous wolf. I grew to heal myself of tuberculosis. One night I woke up and all the boys had withdrawn their beds from my side, because of terrible cough. So I got up in the night and felt much like a leper. I went outside the dormitory and I stood on a particular rock and said Jesus, if it is true that you did all they said you did in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John… Church Gist. Do you know why I could say that? I read it. You can be in Church till eternity, your faith demands the Word to grow. A child can’t survive without food. So your faith and my faith cannot survive without the meat of the Spirit – the word of God. Anyone you see who tosses his Bible aside is killing his faith and growing his doubt.
What are we doing as we labour in the Word? We are labouring in the Word to the point of understanding. Romans 10:17. That simply interprets that faith comes by hearing and understanding. That is demonstrated literally in the story of the Ethiopian Eunuch, he was reading and lacked understanding of what he was reading. Acts 8:26-35. You can’t understand a thing and still doubt it. It is our inadequate understanding that creates doubt. When understanding dawns, faith comes alive. Church Gist. Understanding is being able to see what God is saying. Like you are in a discussion with a friend and he has been hearing and hearing and at a point, he says “I see. I see.” It is when he sees it that understanding dawns on him.
So spiritual understanding is being able to see what God is saying in his word to you and to me – being able to see. Church Gist. So faith comes by hearing and understanding. It comes by hearing to the point of understanding the Word of God.
I read Kenneth Copeland’s book about 4 times, I got all the information, I was even helping to preach it but I haven’t seen it. I said, Jesus show me o, I’ve not seen this thing, I read it, I’ve not seen it. You know why students read and read to the point of understanding? So they won’t be counting the ceilings in the exam. You never find a first class student who lives only to the notes that he gets in class. He searches to go deeper so he can go ahead of others. You find a believer who only sit down on one hour lecture a week in the Word? Church Gist. You know how many times each of us have eaten between Sunday and now? I mean food. Can you imagine every week, a fast that you break on Sunday morning and fast again till the following (Sunday)? You become a point of study and research on how you survive. That’s what happens when you feed on the Word once per season – it’s starvation if not controlled can lead to death.
But faith is a personal spiritual asset. We have to keep developing it, it’s more like a waste asset, you have to keep developing it to stay on top of situations. Habakkuk 2:4. Can I tell you this? Even when you pray over someone, it requires his faith to receive it. Mark 6:6. Their faith did not allow a thorough fear for the creative words of the Creator to have an effect on their lives. Church Gist. So we need the receiver’s faith; the proclaimer’s faith is one, the receiver’s faith is another. The Priest proclaims the blessings by their faith, we need our faith to receive the blessing. Oto ni ka gbadura fun eniyan; Oto ni ki eniyan f’ori gba (It’s one thing to pray for you, it’s another for you to receive). They pray for you, it takes your faith to receive it.
That’s why the enemy is against our faith. Satan desires to have you and his target is your faith. If he can get your faith, he’s gotten you down. Church Gist. Where your faith stops is where your victory stops. 1 John 5:4; Hebrews 10:38. This is why every believer must take responsibility in building his/her faith.
How to build my faith:
1. Recognise that faith grows by hearing and understanding the Word
2. Faith grows by meditating on the Word: meditation boosts spiritual understanding. Psalm 119:97-100. Meditation gets us wiser than situations confronting us. Church Gist. Thinking through the Word for the way out when you are confronted with any situation. 1 Timothy 4:13-15. Meditation boosts spiritual understanding and the deeper our understanding, the stronger our faith.
But to build our faith,
1. One must be born again and remain so: Mark 4:11. You have to become a member of the family of God to gain access to the deep things of God. Mysteries are nothing but the deep things of God – they are only accessible to the members of his household. Church Gist. You come within, you’re born again to understand it. John 3:3; Romans 6:23. So when one is not born again, he is under the death sentence of the Adamic nature so he cannot see.
2. One must be spiritual and remain so: 1 Corinthians 2:14. One can be a believer and still be carnal – 1 Corinthians 3:3 – in that state he can’t comprehend, he can’t understand the things of the Spirit because he is carnal, he’s not on key, he’s not aligned. Church Gist. Psalm 25:14. So it’s not enough to be born again, one must remain spiritual to gain access to the deep things of God which is the secret of strong faith. The deeper one’s insight, the stronger his faith.
3. One must crave for revelation in his/her areas of concern: Isaiah 55:1, 11. So we go hunting for the Word in the areas of our concern, interest, we keep hunting for the Word.
I saw the film of the valley of dry bones in Ezekiel 37 and I was thrilled. So I went to the mountain on a 3-day expedition to go through the book of Ezekiel so I can access what is behind this drama. Church Gist. I was reading and searching and praying and then on the third day, as I concluded the waiting and I was on my way down from the mountain, the Lord said, “Behold I’ve touched your tongue with a coal of fire and from henceforth, as you say it, you see it.” He knows what you’re looking for. That was my package from the drench of the rain, the drying up of the Sun in 3 days – it’s still producing today.
Go hunting for revelation in your areas of interest. I saw the proofs of prosperity in the Copeland’s ministry and it’s very strange in our part of the world – we didn’t know it. In fact, you think that poverty equals righteousness and holiness. In our own time, to buy a car that is air conditioned is carnality – what for? “You see them, they’re going to hell” – that was the perspective. Church Gist. When you’re sick in those early days in the faith, they believe that God wants to teach you a lesson. They even pray, “God, the lesson you want to teach Brother Joshua, teach him properly.” We were wallowing in ignorance. When I saw the testimonies of this man I decided to go after what he found. “Lord show me what you showed him,” and I have found it.
Go on a hunt for revelations in your areas of concern. There are too many resources today around the World. Too many! Too many! Church Gist. Christian teachers all over the place and also online, opportunities unlimited to find anything of interest to you. Daniel 9:2.
Anointed books or (books) from proven authors, they help to enlarge our understanding thereby growing our faith exceedingly. They grow our faith beyond our natural access. Church Gist. They have found it, they have proved it, so it becomes more real to you and more real to me. Paul said “bring my books, bring my notes.” 2 Timothy 4:13.
Every giant of faith is a tireless learner, always digging deeper. Romans 11:33. There is no end to revelation. There is no research effort that can finish finding out the deep things of God in the Bible. Church Gist. There is no such. It is deeper than the efforts of man to find. We only make progress but you can tell what area of interest or concern that you have. So it’s wisdom to go investing in your search to find it.
The truth is this “the effect of prayer is a function of our depth of the will of God” because if you pray according to His will, He hears you and His will is in His Word. So the more understanding we have in His Word, the more effectual our prayer life becomes. 1 Corinthians 13:11. Church Gist. You know what prayer is? “Put Him in remembrance – what did I say on this matter?” Isaiah 43:26…That’s prayer! So prayer helps our access to the will of God which empowers our prayers for fervency and effectuality. So it all works together.
2 Peter 1:3, Matthew 7:7. So all things get across to us through the knowledge of Him. When that knowledge graduates into understanding, it boosts your faith to connect with what belongs to you.
4. Engage the Holy Spirit for spiritual understanding. Ephesians 1:17-19. So there is the Spirit of wisdom and revelation that comes to boost our spiritual understanding. The Spirit which is the Holy Spirit! John 14:26. Church Gist. So we need Him, that is why we pray in the Holy Ghost. We need Him to show us the way to go. We need Him. To grant us access to the deep things of God, we need Him. When you are confronted (boom), He shows up. All things! John 16:12-14…that is His ministry.
1 Corinthians 2:13. When He comes, He networks Scriptures to provoke our spiritual understanding. I said to the Lord on that mountain, I said…He said “the Lord your God blesses you as He had promised you, you shall lend to many nations but thou shall not borrow – Deuteronomy 15:6…and I said, but why Lord? He said “a borrower is a servant to the lender.” Proverbs 22:7. Network! Church Gist. Why Lord? – “You cannot serve two masters, you have to choose one and despise the other” – Matthew 6:24. Sir, I laid the tendency for borrowing to eternal rest. I have never been put to a corner where the next thing to think is where to borrow from. The next thing to think, is to trust God. I went through all the seasons without any tendency to borrow, without begging and yet without lack. Light is sweet. That’s the job of the Holy Ghost. He networks things, networks Scriptures to boost our understanding.
Sir, outside the spiritual understanding of the truth faith can’t grow. Outside the spiritual understanding of the truth, no one’s faith can grow. So let’s seek understanding. Church Gist. Proverbs 4:7-9…that’s the worth of spiritual understanding because it is a booster of faith that connects with all things that make for life and godliness. Can I hear your Amen?
Luke 11:13. “Holy Spirit help my understanding…and to find out what to do in this circumstance” and He guides you either to a book to read, He guides you either to a part of Scripture to study, He guides you on the way to go…and He teaches you what no man can when you register in His class. Church Gist. All you need here is meekness. “I am meek and lowly in heart”, He said. “No proud person can survive in my class.” So it takes meekness to access spiritual understanding.
You are defining faith, somebody is saying “I already know that.” What do you know? Church Gist. Even the man teaching you is still learning it and then you can tell what he has seen since he wrote that thing to the point where you are listening to live teachings. Praise God!
5. Engage your spirit man in the searching of Scriptures. Engage your spirit man. You know this thing is spiritual. There will be no connectivity, no network without engaging your spirit man in the search. Isaiah 26:9. When your light breaks forth, everybody will know that God is real. Church Gist. Proverbs 20:27…searching the secrets of life – the candle of the Lord. Luke 15:8…he first lights a candle, engages his spirit and begins to sweep in the search – sweeping through Scriptures, through anointed books that boost people’s understanding of the truth till he finds it. You can’t find and not know that you have found it. You can’t find what is missing and not know that you have found it. That’s what is missing today. People are just engaging their intellects – it’s too shallow to catch what God is saying. That man had a great intellect but had a dead spirit. “Even if God opens the windows of Heaven, shall this thing be?” That’s the limit of the intellect. It’s so limited but when you switch over to the spirit realm, you engage your spirit and I engage my spirit in the research, you will find it so quickly. Praise God. That does not make you a dullard. It makes you outstanding sound. They may not see your soundness but they can’t doubt the proof as they begin to show up. They may not see your soundness, your points may not carry any weight in a debate but your proofs cannot be denied.
One of my friends, out of awe when he came here during the construction of the Faith Tabernacle, he said “David must be mad.” He wasn’t saying that as an insult. “My God, who will come to this place? How will they get here?” He said it out of awe. It wasn’t an insult and he was the one who told me what he said. Church Gist. He said when I got there, I said “David must be mad.” I just smiled. Because the intellect cannot comprehend that. Everybody doubted it but I believed it because I heard from God.
Can I tell you this? Your next level rise will require faith to make it happen because what He will tell you is beyond you and beyond all that teaches you. Church Gist. But you will know He is the One who told you from His Word. Can I hear your Amen? And as you mature, He tells you directly what it is to do.
– Something is breaking forth in your life in the name of Jesus!
So our take away tonight is “look, you are responsible for how your faith grows, I am responsible.” Church Gist. Prayer does not grow faith on its own, prayer helps our access to the Word that grows our faith. You require access to proven authors on the subject of faith to grow your faith. From what they have proven, your understanding is enlightened to lay hold on what belongs to you. We are limited without engaging our spirit man in accessing the deep things of God. What a great night!
—ALTAR CALL—-
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