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[00:00:00] This is session five of walking in radical faith. And as just sort of a recap of where we’ve been and where we’re going. Let me also just real quick shout out for my audio podcast listeners. Just a reminder, if you like these, please hit the share button and share it with some other folks so they can plug in to the podcast and be sure to subscribe as well if you’re not already subscribed to us. So we’ve been talking about walking in radical faith and we started a few few sessions back. We were talking about what is faith and just laying the groundwork. That faith is essentially believing God and faith is stepping out. To do God’s clearly defined will typically at great risk. And where failure is certain, unless God intervenes. We then talked about getting out of the boat where we kind of pursued that a little bit further. And we find that faith is always man acts before he can, but he acts on God’s clearly defined word and then as the Lord that produces. Okay, so we see this pattern throughout Scripture. Then our third session, we’re talking about the tests of faith. And what we find is that the trials that we go through in life are trials that are testing our faith. They’re testing what we believe. And if we act by what God’s Word says, then God will always deliver on his promise of taking care of us.

 

[00:01:39] We also found that when we were talking about test of faith, that the test will continue every single time. If we fail the test, they will continue again until we pass it. Okay. Just like going through grade school, if you fail third grade, you’re going to go back and repeat it again. So the key is to pass the test the first time. The other thing we find about tests of faith is that God says to count it all joy and to greatly rejoice even as we go through grievous trials, because it’s the testing of our faith that is doing it will prove our faith genuine. And the Lord says that at His coming he will glorify, honor and reward us and praise us when our faith has been proven. He also says that when the son of man returns, will he find faith on Earth? So we see all this pattern. Last session we talked about it was called Faith is rooted in Love. And what we started to see kind of a real eye opening experience, that faith is a little bit different than what we expected it to be. Okay. What we started to see is that our faith is in God, number one. It’s not in ourselves. It’s not in our ability to believe. Faith is in in our belief in God to do something for us.

 

[00:03:12] This is where Jesus says, after cursing the fig tree and the disciples say, Look, master, the tree that you cursed has withered. And he says, Have faith in God. Okay, that was the beginning. Our faith is in God who can do all things. Our faith is in God, that he will do it. And one of the things we talked about last time. So if you remember the woman, the Canaanite woman, right, she comes to Jesus and she says, Lord, help me, my daughter is suffering with a terrible demon. Please cast the demon out of my daughter. Initially, Jesus refuses, ignores her, but she keeps persisting. And then he says, Great is your faith. May it be done for you as you desire. And what we find with that example is that her faith moved Jesus, who then authorized the healing to occur. Okay, so we start to see this pattern. We were asking what was the object of our faith? And the object of our faith was not that her daughter would be healed, but it was that Jesus would cause her daughter to be healed. Okay? And so we found that faith moves the Lord, and then the Lord authorizes that for which we’ve asked. And then the Holy Spirit comes in and actually does the work. This is what we saw with Acts 1038. That the Holy Spirit does it. And then as we started to do this, we realized that faith is not something we do, but it is something that God does.

 

[00:05:02] Okay. The action of our faith is not something that we do. It’s something that God does. In other words, it’s the Lord who is actually performing the work that our faith is in. It’s no longer the faith of if you just believe enough, it will happen, that it’s our faith, our belief that is so powerful. If I have faith that this marker is going to levitate off the ground, then it is my faith that’s doing that. No. The faith is. That God’s going to move the marker and only and all I have to do is have faith in the Lord. So faith is that God is going to do the work for us and not that our faith itself is doing that. The other thing that we found from last time is first Corinthians 1313. It says that faith, hope and love abide. You remember this? Faith, hope and love abide. And what we started to find is that the foundation of faith is love. Love creates promises. Hope is the assurance of those promises. And faith is the confident assurance of those things. Hope for okay. And that the foundation and the root of faith is love. And with this we come we came up with the final thing we talked about is what I call the simplicity of faith.

 

[00:06:37] Okay. And that simplicity of faith is very simple. Number one, faith is not in our ability. Okay. It’s not in our ability to believe. Our ability to believe means that it rests on us and our and the strength of our belief. So I’m going to concentrate. It’s not on our ability to believe, but it’s on God’s willingness to do. This is the key. It’s God’s willingness that he will do it. And why will he do it? Because he loves us. And because he loves us, if we ask him to do it and we believe that he will do it, then he’s the one that does it. And that’s all faith is. The more we walk and understand God’s love for us individually, how much he loves us, how much he wants to to give us good things. Then when we ask, knowing that he will do it because he’s willing to, that’s actually when he does it. And the other thing we talked about last time and then we’ll move in, is that faith is always God’s will. Because faith comes from God. And anything that comes from God is always his will and therefore it is impossible to have faith in something that is not God’s will. We ran into this in our sessions a while back called Faith Like Jesus that all things are possible with faith. And the big conundrum, the big argument we started to have that period of that is, well, it’s got to be God’s will.

 

[00:08:29] You can’t just believe and it’ll happen. It’s got to be God’s will. And yes, but by definition, faith is God’s will. Because faith comes from God. Faith is rooted in love. Faith, hope and love. So that catches us up to where we left off. And what we’re going to talk about today is believing God will do it. Okay. So if you think of the the pattern of where we’re going, we have faith is rooted in love. The next step is believing God will do. It kind of overlaps. The faith is rooted in love, but it takes it a step beyond. Okay. And then on our next and final session is going to be talking about how faith is a choice that we can choose to have faith and we can choose to increase our faith. So we’ll talk about that next time. But let’s talk now on our main passage. We’re going to turn to Matthew 21. 18 through 22. Matthew 21 verses 18 through 22. This just kind of tees up where we’re going to go and what we’re going to talk about. So I’ll begin in Matthew 21, verse 18 in the morning, as he was returning to the city, he became hungry and seeing a fig tree by the wayside. He went to it and found nothing on it, but only leaves.

 

[00:10:02] And he said to it, may no fruit ever come from you again? And the fig tree withered at once. Just so real quick commentary. So you have this passage about the fig tree in Matthew and in Mark. We’ve been in Mark in the last time. We’re going to come back to Mark in just a moment. But in Matthew, Matthew takes all the parables and kind of bunches them all together, miracles and bunches, them all together, not in sequence, but Matthew talks about sort of categories of stuff. Mark takes it a little bit more in sequence. And so you’ll see in Mark, Jesus curses the fig tree and then when they come back the next morning, the fig tree has withered. Here in Matthew, we see that it says he curses the fig tree and it withers at once. It’s the same concept. It’s just taking out all element of time right now. So that’s what you’ll see the difference with Matthew. So it says, May no fruit ever come from you again. And the fig tree withered at once. When the disciples saw it, they marveled saying, How did the fig tree wither at once? And Jesus answered them. Truly. I say to you, If you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, be taken up and thrown into the sea, it will happen and watch this.

 

[00:11:28] And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive. If you have faith. So faith doesn’t have power. But if we were to just kind of ascribe faith having power, what we find is that Faith’s power is so tremendous, it can do anything. It can not only cause the fig tree to wither. It can cause a mountain to move. And that’s pretty amazing, right? And what we find is this The disciples were amazed and they were amazed at what Jesus did. So then Jesus catapulted from what he did and said What I did. You can do too. You can wither a tree. You can even say to this mountain, be taken up and cast in the sea. And whatever you ask in faith, you will receive. Very emphatic. And this is the point I want to make as we move into tonight’s session. Jesus puts no restraint. And no limitation on what you can ask for in faith that you will receive. In other words, 100% of anything you ask for, you will receive 100%. They all agree with that. Do you agree that anything you ask for? Absolutely. Anything you ask for in faith, you will receive. Is that preposterous or is that true? I see Sarah pondering. She’s not sure she’s wanting to reject it.

 

[00:13:17] I know that’s true.

 

[00:13:18] She’s wanting to. Sarah wants to resist. Yeah. All right. So let me ask you, what does Jesus say? Look at the last verse. Verse 22. Even if you say to this mountain be taken up and thrown into the sea, it will happen. And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive. If you have faith, is there any limitation that Jesus puts on that statement? Is there any limitation that we should put on that statement? Expecting God misquoted what he meant to say? No. We have to interpret at face value. Unless there’s clear, specific reason in Scripture why it should not be.

 

[00:14:14] Yeah, I was saying because he does say in prayer. Your prayer should be based on what God said. Right?

 

[00:14:21] So but here’s where I go back to. Okay, watch this. This is when we pray in faith, right? Where does faith come from?

 

[00:14:34] Hearing the word come.

 

[00:14:35] Hearing the word of God. Okay. That’s Romans 1017. Right? Faith comes from hearing and hearing by the Word of Christ. But ultimately, what is the source of faith?

 

[00:14:49] Heaven. I mean, God. God.

 

[00:14:51] Right. God. Faith comes from God. It’s a part of God. We talked about this last time. Faith. Hope and love. Right? Faith. Hope and love. All three. Paul tells us that faith, hope and love abide. That means they are eternal outside of time. And the only thing that’s outside of time is God himself. Does this make sense? So we have God outside of time. Faith, hope and love are all a part and attributes of God and therefore anything that we have faith in. Has to be God’s will because faith is part of God. Where we start to mess up and get this kind of screwed up is that we think if we simply believe hard enough, it’s faith. But faith takes no effort to believe. Because faith is not our ability to do. But in knowing God’s willingness to do it for us. Does that make? Is this making kind of some sense? So back to the statement. Is 100% of anything we ask for by faith. Possible. If we ask that this House be lifted up and moved to another city and we have faith. Will it happen?

 

[00:16:34] Yeah. Yeah. Vibe has been.

 

[00:16:36] God, That’s right. There.

 

[00:16:38] There, there.

 

[00:16:39] That’s what it. That’s the key. It’s the faith. And the only.

 

[00:16:44] Way I can have faith.

 

[00:16:45] Is if it is God’s will. Okay. If it’s not God’s will.

 

[00:16:49] There’s no way I can have faith. If it is God’s will and I ask him to do it, will He always do His will when we ask in faith? Yes.

 

[00:17:02] That is where we.

 

[00:17:04] Keep having this conundrum, because in our mind, we always we keep twisting faith to be something that we personally believe strongly about. But that’s not faith. That’s merely intellectual belief. I mentioned this I think the last time, but I’ll mention it again because this happens a lot. Right. You have a mom. Her daughter is pregnant and it’s headed toward miscarriage. And so she’s praying, the mother’s praying fervently praying. God save the baby. Save the marriage. And the daughter miscarries. So now the mother is going. But I prayed in faith. No, you didn’t. Because the evidence of praying in faith. Is there be no miscarriage? That would be the evidence of praying and faith, because whatever you ask for. By faith you will receive. So therefore, if you ask and you do not receive, it cannot be that you asked in faith. And the other thing, this is a real indication of whether you have faith or not, if you are pleading or intense in your prayer. You do not have faith. Watch this. Let me give you an example. Let’s say that we have a great big 200 pound weight on the floor. Okay. I can’t lift it. Pa can’t lift it. And I bet probably no one here can really lift it. But it needs to be moved. It is impossible for us to move it. So in comes a friend of mine. Great big old burly, 350 pound, all muscle type of guy. We have a friend like that. His name is Kenneth. And I say, Hey, Kenneth, can you please move this weight and take it down to the kitchen? Yes. How much effort did it take me to ask? None. How much effort does it take me to believe that he’ll do it? None.

 

[00:19:12] Why?

 

[00:19:13] Because it’s not my faith that does it. It’s his muscle that does it. All I’m doing is asking. And based on our relationship, I know that he loves and respects me and that he will love to do that because he can. Therefore, if I ask him to do it, I know that he’ll do it. It’s a relationship. And because of that relationship, I know that he’ll do it. But what faith is, is simply believing. I ask in faith. I believe he’ll do have faith in God. Believe and do not doubt we’re going to see that in just a minute.

 

[00:19:55] Really a gift, isn’t it? Faith of God. If you ask that, God gives.

 

[00:20:00] Well, kind of.

 

[00:20:01] But it says in Romans 12 three that he gives everyone a measure of faith. So it’s not really a gift, but I mean, it is a gift because he gives it. But our ability it originates. But our ability to believe is our choice. He does not give us greater faith. He does not give us greater ability to believe. Necessarily. I mean, you may have like gifts of healing. Gifts of those things may be supernatural gifts of faith for that. But generally speaking, the faith that we have to ask in prayer and receive. Is faith because we simply believe the one who promised. And just like my friend Kenneth, I know that he would move that wait for me because we have the relationship that he would do it for me. So my faith has nothing to do with strenuous effort. I’m not going. Please, Kenneth, please, please, please. Move this way. Please. I beg you. I believe that you’re going to do it.

 

[00:21:05] I claim that you’re going to do it.

 

[00:21:07] All of that is a mental belief in the head. Not a faith in the heart. Any time you find yourself pleading, struggling, or intensifying in your prayer, it is never by faith. There may be an element of faith and an element of your your own desires and fear coming in. But faith takes no effort because there’s nothing that you do. It’s all being done by God. And what it takes is your belief. So let’s move into that. So let’s talk about believing that God will do it. I mean, clear off the board.

 

[00:21:57] So we’re now going to be talking about believing God.

 

[00:22:08] We’ll do it right.

 

[00:22:12] Okay. So there are.

 

[00:22:14] Three aspects of faith that I want to talk about.

 

[00:22:23] The first one.

 

[00:22:26] Is real simple. All of these are real simple, and that is believing God.

 

[00:22:38] All right.

 

[00:22:40] Let’s turn to the companion passage of that one in Matthew. And we’re going to turn back to Mark 11. And we’ll read verses 20 through 24. Mark 1120 through 24. Say faith is believing that God will do. What you believe he will do. That’s really faith is believing. God will do what you believe he will do.

 

[00:23:09] Did you have to know what he will do?

 

[00:23:11] Right. So in our session.

 

[00:23:13] Two times back getting out of the boat, right before Test of Faith, we talked about David and Goliath. And one of the things we learned about David and Goliath is you have to know God’s will. If you do not know God’s will in the matter, you cannot ask by faith, because faith by definition, is asking him to do what is his will.

 

[00:23:38] So you have to know as well.

 

[00:23:41] So let’s begin in Mark 11, verse 20. As they pass by. In the morning, they saw the fig tree withered away to its roots. And Peter remembered and said to him, Rabbi, look, the fig tree that you cursed has withered. And Jesus answered them, Have faith in God. So here we have this, where we talked about last time Have faith in God. Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain be taken up and thrown into the sea and watch this and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. Therefore, I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it and it will be yours. So we see the element of belief three times in this.

 

[00:24:32] Does not doubt in his heart.

 

[00:24:34] Doubt is the opposite of belief. So basically he’s talking about belief. Then he says does not doubt in his heart. Believes of what he says will come to pass. Believe that you have received it. So we have faith mentioned one time, but now we have belief mentioned three times.

 

[00:24:54] This is what I was talking.

 

[00:24:56] About earlier one time where.

 

[00:24:59] I was sharing that.

 

[00:25:00] Faith. We have the heavenly truth, right? Heavenly truth. And then we have earthly reality.

 

[00:25:12] And what connects it is faith.

 

[00:25:17] So faith is the conduit.

 

[00:25:21] That connects these together. The size of our faith, which is belief.

 

[00:25:30] Determines how much stuff comes from the heavenly truths into our earthly reality. Faith is what connects the heavenly truths to our earthly reality, but it’s our level of belief that determines how much we get. This is why you see faith and belief always talking together. The word for belief is actually actually comes from the root word for faith. The root of belief is in the word faith. But it’s different. It’s not the same. And so what you have is faith. As I mentioned earlier, it’s either true or false. You either have it or you’re not. You’re either pregnant or you’re not. You know, you’re either a little baby pregnant or a great big belly pregnant. You either your faith or you’re not, but you’re either a little belief or a big belief. And that’s what we start to see here. What we find in this passage.

 

[00:26:32] That the object.

 

[00:26:34] Of our faith.

 

[00:26:36] And the object of our belief. And the object of our not doubting.

 

[00:26:45] Is one thing and that one thing is God. Okay. The first thing that we find.

 

[00:26:53] Is that faith is rooted.

 

[00:26:55] In God.

 

[00:26:56] This is what we talked about last time.

 

[00:26:58] Have faith in God. And our entire focus of.

 

[00:27:03] Faith is.

 

[00:27:04] Focused on the person of God. Great faith has unwavering belief that does not doubt. To move a mountain. You must not doubt in your heart, but believe it will happen. That is. Great faith is simply unwavering belief. We talked about the faith being a conduit between God and man.

 

[00:27:32] And you can even have.

 

[00:27:34] A conduit the size of a garden hose or maybe a conduit that’s three feet wide. Right. The bigger the conduit, that’s your faith. That’s the more unwavering it is. The other thing that we find here, it says, do not doubt, right.

 

[00:27:55] This is the key.

 

[00:27:58] It’s not doubting.

 

[00:28:00] And doubt.

 

[00:28:01] Comes from a Greek word.

 

[00:28:04] That means to stagger.

 

[00:28:08] Hesitate or waver.

 

[00:28:17] So if you’re going to.

 

[00:28:18] Stagger, hesitate or waver, that is doubt. I remember reading there’s a book called Heaven Awaits the Bride by Anna Rountree, and it’s basically her diary of going into heavenly Realm and being with Jesus a lot. And there’s one one saying that she talks about where Jesus is asking her to do something great, something that’s perilous. And I don’t remember the exact message it was, but he asked her.

 

[00:28:50] And she hesitated to respond.

 

[00:28:53] She, you know, have you ever had someone where you ask them something and they. They just kind of you see them processing it in their mind right before they respond. And she said and I hesitated and Jesus disappeared.

 

[00:29:10] Because she doubted.

 

[00:29:12] She did not believe. And then later, Jesus. They talk about that and Jesus rebukes her for her lack of faith.

 

[00:29:20] And that’s what Dowd is.

 

[00:29:22] It’s a hesitation.

 

[00:29:25] It’s a hesitation.

 

[00:29:26] God says to do something in you. You’re not sure you’re going to put that foot forward to do it. You start to count the cost. This is where Abraham was so great in faith.

 

[00:29:37] Anything God told Abraham.

 

[00:29:39] To do it said he did it immediately. Right. Be circumcised. Immediately. He did it. Wow. Know? Ouch.

 

[00:29:47] He says go sacrifice Isaac. They early the next morning, he.

 

[00:29:52] Gets up and goes. I mean, immediate obedience. No hesitation. Why? Because there’s no doubt.

 

[00:30:00] And so what we see then as we.

 

[00:30:04] Continue this path down, what we find out that there’s kind of two parts of faith that gets results. Okay. If we just kind of break it down this way, this is still kind of a subset of belief in God.

 

[00:30:18] The first one is that we have.

 

[00:30:20] Faith in God, right? Faith in God. That’s the first part.

 

[00:30:26] And then the second part is that we do not doubt.

 

[00:30:32] But we believe.

 

[00:30:37] And this is again, what I was talking about earlier.

 

[00:30:40] Faith and belief are different.

 

[00:30:44] We have faith in God.

 

[00:30:46] And then we do not doubt. That’s what we’re saying here. Faith is what connects us to God. Belief is how much of the stuff God has promised gets transferred to us. Okay. So if we want the mountain to be moved in our life, whatever that thing is, that great big thing in our life that we’re praying for.

 

[00:31:10] We have faith in God.

 

[00:31:13] To make it happen.

 

[00:31:15] And then we have belief.

 

[00:31:17] That he will do it. Does that make sense? We have faith in God.

 

[00:31:22] That he can do.

 

[00:31:23] It.

 

[00:31:24] And we have.

 

[00:31:25] Belief that he will do it.

 

[00:31:27] That’s kind of what we ended up with at the end of.

 

[00:31:30] Our last session. Have faith in God. Believe it will come to pass, then it will be done for you. So we see these all over again.

 

[00:31:41] It’s have faith in God.

 

[00:31:43] Believe it will be. It will come to pass and.

 

[00:31:48] Then it will be done for you.

 

[00:31:51] And that’s what we see throughout this entire understanding of faith. Let me kick this dead horse one more time, but just kind of articulate it this way. Our faith is in God who acts.

 

[00:32:12] And it.

 

[00:32:13] Is. This is our faith and belief.

 

[00:32:20] Is that.

 

[00:32:21] He will act. Okay.

 

[00:32:25] So our first faith is in God.

 

[00:32:30] And belief is that he will. That’s really the simplicity of what all these passages are talking about. Our faith is in God who acts. He has the power to do it, and our belief.

 

[00:32:46] Is that.

 

[00:32:47] He will act.

 

[00:32:48] That he is willing.

 

[00:32:50] To do it.

 

[00:32:51] And it’s that two.

 

[00:32:53] Parts of how all this works. If we look real quickly, we’ll see this in Scripture as well in multiple areas. But this is one of the things that stood out for me as Hebrews. 1111. You don’t have to turn there. I’ll just read it for you. But Hebrews 1111, this is talking about Sarah. This is in the Hall of Faith. Right? It says by faith. Sarah herself watched this received power to conceive.

 

[00:33:20] By faith.

 

[00:33:21] She received power to conceive even when she was past the age. And why did she receive power to conceive?

 

[00:33:30] Because she considered.

 

[00:33:32] God faithful who had promised. In this case, faithful means to follow through on what he promised. Okay, so her faith was in God who can act as a power to do. And her belief was in the fact that he would act.

 

[00:33:56] And so we come back.

 

[00:33:57] To Faith is knowing. It’s knowing God has the power and belief is expecting expecting that he will use that power and do what we’ve asked. Have faith in God, believe that he will do it. And that’s what.

 

[00:34:15] We’re talking about here, is believing God.

 

[00:34:17] Believing that he will act. According to what he has told us in his word.

 

[00:34:25] So that’s the first aspect of faith is believing God.

 

[00:34:31] The second aspect is. With God. All things are possible.

 

[00:34:47] Okay.

 

[00:34:48] With God, all things are possible. Is that only some things or all things? All things. You all recognize this as it comes straight from scripture. Let’s look there. This is Matthew 1926. Matthew 1926. The backstory on this passage a rich young ruler comes up to.

 

[00:35:09] Jesus says, What must I do.

 

[00:35:10] To have eternal life? And Jesus goes through a few things. Of the Ten Commandments said, I’ve done all of these from my youth. Then Jesus looks at him with compassion and says, Well, there’s one more thing you need to do.

 

[00:35:22] Go sell all.

 

[00:35:23] Your possessions and give to the poor and then come follow me. And he said that the young man went away. Discouraged because he wasn’t willing to do that. And Jesus said at that point that it was easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to get in heaven. And that astounded his disciples. And they said, then who can get into heaven? So now this is Matthew 1926, and it says that Jesus looked at them and said, With man, this is impossible, but with God, all things are possible.

 

[00:36:07] So here’s a question. Is there anything.

 

[00:36:11] Not possible with God? You can’t have it can’t lie. Right.

 

[00:36:21] But we can take this at face value. By the way, do you know what the Greek word that’s being translated.

 

[00:36:27] Into the English.

 

[00:36:28] All. Do you know what that Greek word means? All means all.

 

[00:36:34] It doesn’t mean some or most.

 

[00:36:38] It literally means all. So what we find is that with God.

 

[00:36:43] All things are possible.

 

[00:36:45] This starts to expand on why our.

 

[00:36:47] Faith is in God.

 

[00:36:50] Because with man.

 

[00:36:51] Nothing supernatural is possible. Everything Jesus taught were spiritual truths.

 

[00:37:00] Which means that they.

 

[00:37:01] Are.

 

[00:37:02] In the.

 

[00:37:03] Supernatural realm, not the natural realm. They are supernatural. Okay.

 

[00:37:10] And anything.

 

[00:37:11] Of supernatural. Cannot be done by man. With Supernatural.

 

[00:37:19] All things are impossible for man.

 

[00:37:22] But all things are possible for God. Okay. And that’s what we start to get here from this. And the illustration on this, just to kind of picture this is we use this last time, but I want to go back into it a little bit. I have a key to my car. Back in the old days when you actually have a metal key, not an electronic key fob. So I have a key to the car, let’s say, to my son’s Ford F 350, great big old.

 

[00:37:50] Pickup truck duly on the back and it can pull a.

 

[00:37:54] Huge heavy load.

 

[00:37:56] Great big old piece of equipment down the highway.

 

[00:37:59] 70 miles an hour. Lots of power. I can’t do it. I’m a wimp. And that little piece of metal, that key can’t do it either.

 

[00:38:07] But that key, no pun intended, is the key to ignite the engine. And it gets the engine going.

 

[00:38:16] And the engine can do the work.

 

[00:38:18] But without the key.

 

[00:38:20] The engine does nothing.

 

[00:38:22] And so with God.

 

[00:38:23] All things are possible.

 

[00:38:24] And what we find is that’s what faith is.

 

[00:38:27] Faith is the key that ignites the engine that does all of the work. But we.

 

[00:38:34] Have to believe.

 

[00:38:36] That with God, all things are possible. Once we say, Well, God can’t do that. Do you realize how bad the situation is? Even God himself couldn’t do it.

 

[00:38:47] Now we know. I know we don’t really say that.

 

[00:38:49] But what happens is this. We look at the situation and we doubt.

 

[00:38:57] That it could even be resolved.

 

[00:39:00] Think about relationships that are just totally distraught, ripped apart. No way. They’ve just been for years and years getting worse and worse.

 

[00:39:09] And we go. There’s no way it can.

 

[00:39:12] Ever be resolved. What we’re saying.

 

[00:39:15] Is I really don’t believe that with God, all things.

 

[00:39:18] Are possible. Yes, I kind of have an intellectual assent that God could probably do it.

 

[00:39:24] But in my heart, I don’t really.

 

[00:39:26] Believe that he could because my eyes have overcome my heart. Because I look at the situation and I go, This is impossible. We see this with Peter. As soon as.

 

[00:39:40] He took his eyes.

 

[00:39:41] Off of.

 

[00:39:41] The Lord and put.

 

[00:39:43] Them on the wind and the waves while walking on the water, he lost his ability to believe.

 

[00:39:50] His castle walls in a sense because of the laws that we see that govern the earth. That’s right. That’s why we can’t we’re so used to we’re used to it being under the law.

 

[00:40:03] That’s our grid. Our grid is the natural.

 

[00:40:06] Not the supernatural.

 

[00:40:08] But all of our problems.

 

[00:40:10] In the natural are originate in the supernatural.

 

[00:40:15] I remember years back we were.

 

[00:40:16] Going through some tough times of some sort, and my son Beatty Junior made the comment. He said the battle is won in the spiritual before it’s won in the natural. And that is so true.

 

[00:40:29] And with God, all things are possible.

 

[00:40:31] God operates in the supernatural, and it’s the supernatural that governs the natural. It’s the heavenly realm that governs the earthly realm.

 

[00:40:42] So that’s why he says we got to renew our mind.

 

[00:40:45] Yes, we have to renew our mind.

 

[00:40:47] Really, We just don’t need to use it.

 

[00:40:51] Well, to a degree.

 

[00:40:52] We have to use that other mind that we get that we need.

 

[00:40:56] So the the third aspect of faith. All right. Let’s go through these again real quick. The first aspect of faith is believing God. What are we believing? God? We’re believing God’s word. Do you have faith in God? Do not doubt. Believe. Believe it will be done for you. We have to believe that another part of believing God’s Word is that believing with God. All things are.

 

[00:41:22] Possible. All things, not just some.

 

[00:41:26] Those things that we believe are impossible. Sort of like you remember when the.

 

[00:41:32] The synagogue official Jairus comes to Jesus.

 

[00:41:37] And says.

 

[00:41:38] My 12.

 

[00:41:38] Year old daughter is.

 

[00:41:39] Sickly ill, please come now.

 

[00:41:42] So he goes and on the way people come from his house and says, Don’t bother the teacher anymore.

 

[00:41:49] Your daughter is dead.

 

[00:41:52] It was over. It was too late.

 

[00:41:55] What did Jesus say?

 

[00:41:57] Don’t believe that.

 

[00:41:59] Do not fear. Only believe. Or how about.

 

[00:42:03] Lazarus?

 

[00:42:04] He was in the grave for four days. It’s way past the.

 

[00:42:08] Time that anything could happen. It is impossible.

 

[00:42:14] And yet God.

 

[00:42:15] Does the impossible. Why? Because with God, all things are possible. So we.

 

[00:42:20] Have to not only believe.

 

[00:42:21] God.

 

[00:42:23] Believe God’s word, but within that word is also that all things are possible for God. And the third aspect.

 

[00:42:31] Is that all things are possible.

 

[00:42:38] All things are possible. For one who believes.

 

[00:42:47] This is the key. For one who believes.

 

[00:42:54] So watch this. Connecting the dots. We have to believe God. With God.

 

[00:43:03] All things are possible.

 

[00:43:05] And those all things that are possible are now transferred to us. For one who believes. All things are possible.

 

[00:43:16] For one who believes. Let’s look at this. It’s Mark 923. The backstory on Mark 923 is man comes brings his epileptic son to the disciples. They couldn’t cast out the demon.

 

[00:43:33] Jesus comes down the Mount of.

 

[00:43:34] Transfiguration and he.

 

[00:43:37] Says.

 

[00:43:38] Help us if you can.

 

[00:43:41] And now Jesus.

 

[00:43:42] Responds and Jesus says to.

 

[00:43:44] Him.

 

[00:43:44] Mark. 923 If you can.

 

[00:43:47] All things are.

 

[00:43:48] Possible for one who believes.

 

[00:43:52] And what we find is that we must believe. We must and this is the key word believe. And what must we believe? We must believe that God will do it. Okay. Not only that, all things are possible.

 

[00:44:18] With God.

 

[00:44:19] But our belief is that He will do it. Our faith is knowing.

 

[00:44:26] God has the power.

 

[00:44:28] Our belief is expecting that he will use that power.

 

[00:44:34] On our behalf. Do you see the connection?

 

[00:44:39] We first have to know God has the power to do it. Then we believe.

 

[00:44:47] That He will actually do it for us. That’s kind of what we ended up.

 

[00:44:51] With.

 

[00:44:51] Last time.

 

[00:44:53] But now we’re just taking a deeper dive into all this. Once we understand the object of our faith is in God who can do all things. Then all things are possible. For one who believes that God will do it for him. And this is the key. We have to believe that God will do it.

 

[00:45:23] My poodle doesn’t believe.

 

[00:45:27] And this is a key with faith.

 

[00:45:28] This makes faith so much easier.

 

[00:45:32] You remember the woman who was pleading with the.

 

[00:45:35] Lord, thinking she’s praying by faith. To save the baby.

 

[00:45:42] When you understand what faith.

 

[00:45:44] Truly is and how it works. It makes it super easy to a degree, right? It’s a lot easier because if you think that.

 

[00:45:55] You have to have so.

 

[00:45:56] Much faith.

 

[00:45:57] That it’s.

 

[00:45:58] Your faith that’s going to cause.

 

[00:46:01] That thing to happen for which.

 

[00:46:02] You’re praying. Be healed.

 

[00:46:05] Lord, I claim this healing in Jesus name. It’s your promises and you do this and this and this, and I pray it down from heaven and I pray it. Pray life into this baby.

 

[00:46:18] That’s not faith.

 

[00:46:21] That is emotion.

 

[00:46:22] You can’t do it.

 

[00:46:23] You can’t do it.

 

[00:46:24] You can’t do.

 

[00:46:25] It. That’s right. This is the.

 

[00:46:26] Key. It’s impossible.

 

[00:46:27] You can’t do it. And that’s why understanding.

 

[00:46:31] This makes it so much easier.

 

[00:46:33] Because you realize. You can’t do it. But God can. And all I have to do is believe.

 

[00:46:40] That he will. Like my friend Kenneth.

 

[00:46:44] Kenneth, will you pick up this 200 pound weight and carry it to the kitchen?

 

[00:46:49] I believe he will. He likes me.

 

[00:46:52] Because like you said, and he’s got the ability because you know he loves you.

 

[00:46:56] That’s right.

 

[00:46:57] You know.

 

[00:46:58] Faith is rooted in love, right? Last session, faith is rooted in love because of the relationship.

 

[00:47:07] I know he will do it. Because he has the ability to do it and.

 

[00:47:13] There’s no reason why he would withhold.

 

[00:47:16] My request.

 

[00:47:19] That’s the key. I keep trying, but we have to believe he will do it. If I were to say, Kenneth, would you please move this way and take it down there? And then I whisper behind his back, but.

 

[00:47:32] He overhears me. He’s not going to do it. He’s such a jerk. He I mean.

 

[00:47:36] He never does anything. I ask, What do you think’s going to happen?

 

[00:47:39] You think he’s going to be.

 

[00:47:40] Real interested about doing that? No, because he knows I don’t believe I offended him.

 

[00:47:48] Because I don’t believe.

 

[00:47:52] Of course I’ll do it. You don’t believe I will? You don’t? You doubt my love for you? And if you doubt my.

 

[00:48:01] Love for you.

 

[00:48:01] Then.

 

[00:48:03] Your word will become a self-fulfilling prophecy. I won’t do it. You remember? I think it was our first session. Did I invite you.

 

[00:48:12] Sarah, to a party over here in your honor? So you came over at 7:00 and no one was here. And I ran to the door, opened up my eyes bugged out when you got here, and I said, oh, my gosh, I didn’t think you would do it. So I never invited anyone that hurt.

 

[00:48:34] You have any faith in me?

 

[00:48:36] I didn’t have any faith in you. And it hurts you. And because I.

 

[00:48:41] Hurt you, what happens is.

 

[00:48:43] You turn away.

 

[00:48:44] And you leave with that promised blessing that you had promised to give me. Because I did not believe that you would actually make it.

 

[00:48:54] That’s what happens.

 

[00:48:56] When we pray in doubt. We do not believe I talked about this last time. That’s also why you cannot pray in faith.

 

[00:49:06] And end with if it be your will.

 

[00:49:10] Because that means you doubt. You doubt God’s will in this matter.

 

[00:49:15] Lord, please pick this house up and move it into the next city if it be your will. It didn’t move. It must not.

 

[00:49:22] Have been God’s will.

 

[00:49:24] That takes the responsibility.

 

[00:49:26] It takes all the responsibility.

 

[00:49:27] Right? And so now people can think that their. I’m a great man of faith. I’m a mature Christian, and I’m going to pray righteously.

 

[00:49:36] Lord, do.

 

[00:49:36] This if it be your will.

 

[00:49:38] I wonder why you know, gosh, I’m so sorry. You’re sick and you’re sick all these years. God must be trying to teach you a lesson because we.

 

[00:49:45] Prayed if it’s his will, that he would remove the sickness. But he hasn’t. It must not be his will. Which means it must be his will.

 

[00:49:53] That you remain sick.

 

[00:49:56] Totally screw up our theology because we misunderstand.

 

[00:50:01] So what we find is that faith.

 

[00:50:06] Is believing God. In fact.

 

[00:50:13] Paul says this both in.

 

[00:50:14] Romans and in Galatians. Abraham believed God and it was.

 

[00:50:20] Reckoned to him as righteousness.

 

[00:50:24] It was counted to him. That was his faith.

 

[00:50:29] And because he believed God. If we believe.

 

[00:50:32] God is.

 

[00:50:32] Reckoned to us as righteousness as well.

 

[00:50:35] It all comes back to that faith. And watch this.

 

[00:50:40] Because faith engages the Lord.

 

[00:50:45] Faith.

 

[00:50:47] Engages absolute power.

 

[00:50:53] Because faith engages the Lord. This is what we saw with the Canaanite woman, right?

 

[00:51:00] Then faith.

 

[00:51:01] Engages.

 

[00:51:03] Absolute power.

 

[00:51:04] And our.

 

[00:51:05] Belief.

 

[00:51:06] Is what transfers that power into our situation. So it’s like, think about this. I take the key to the Ford F 350. Faith cranks up the engine, but the accelerator is what gives it the.

 

[00:51:27] Application for what I’m looking for.

 

[00:51:30] So I’ve got the key that starts the engine and I’ve got the accelerator, which is belief. And the.

 

[00:51:37] More I.

 

[00:51:38] Push that accelerator down, the more of every bit of that power I need in my situation gets applied and moves the.

 

[00:51:45] Mountain down the hill. That’s what we’re looking at.

 

[00:51:50] And that’s why nothing is impossible.

 

[00:51:54] With faith.

 

[00:51:56] Imagine for a moment.

 

[00:51:59] Someone who had never seen a pickup truck or a.

 

[00:52:02] Car, and we got this great big pile of logs sitting on a sled.

 

[00:52:09] 15ft high.

 

[00:52:10] And ten feet wide. And I tell.

 

[00:52:13] Them, Oh, I can take that down the road at 30.

 

[00:52:16] Miles an hour.

 

[00:52:18] No way.

 

[00:52:20] Yeah, absolutely. You can’t do that. Sure I can. So I pull out my little key and I stick it in the ignition, and I’ve chained up the sled.

 

[00:52:30] To the pickup truck. I cranked the.

 

[00:52:33] Engine. That’s faith. And then I pushed down the accelerator. That’s belief.

 

[00:52:40] And now this heavy load that is.

 

[00:52:42] Impossible for man to move is moved by the act of man.

 

[00:52:49] But through the transmission.

 

[00:52:52] Of the pickup truck, the faith in the accelerator.

 

[00:52:55] So that’s what we’re doing. The key in the accelerator is doing it.

 

[00:52:58] That’s what we’re seeing with faith.

 

[00:53:00] It’s believing God, believing that with God, all things are possible. And believing that all things are possible.

 

[00:53:08] For one who believes.

 

[00:53:11] Let me wrap up with a couple.

 

[00:53:13] Last things as we move towards. So I want to give you kind of a picture.

 

[00:53:18] Of saw how I.

 

[00:53:20] Say this in my mind’s eye.

 

[00:53:22] A computer game.

 

[00:53:23] We’ve all played computer games.

 

[00:53:25] And in most.

 

[00:53:26] Computer games you have little backdoors that the programmer programs. So he can always win, right? He can get in.

 

[00:53:32] There kind of cheap. Well, imagine.

 

[00:53:35] For a moment.

 

[00:53:37] That everything we.

 

[00:53:38] See in our life is.

 

[00:53:39] The equivalent of a computer.

 

[00:53:41] Game. God created the.

 

[00:53:44] Confines of our natural world. God created the rules that everyone operates within the natural world and everyone operates within those rules. And those rules are the only things they understand. Sort of like what you were saying, Sarah. It’s our grid. We have no grid outside of the confines of our life.

 

[00:54:05] Within that computer game. And then all of a sudden.

 

[00:54:10] And Pops another character. His name is Jesus. He looks just like all the other characters, but he claims to be something different.

 

[00:54:18] And most people don’t believe him.

 

[00:54:20] And in this character, one of the.

 

[00:54:24] Characters is a guy named Lazarus, and.

 

[00:54:27] He dies four.

 

[00:54:27] Days ago.

 

[00:54:30] All the other characters in this world that we live in, they.

 

[00:54:34] Go, Well, it’s impossible. He’s dead. He’s already gone. But think about this. Jesus is God. God’s the programmer.

 

[00:54:43] And he can just type on the.

 

[00:54:44] Keyboard. Click, click, click, click, click, click and change the code.

 

[00:54:48] So he changes the code. Lazarus comes back to life.

 

[00:54:51] Click, click, click, click.

 

[00:54:52] And now Jesus says.

 

[00:54:53] Lazarus, come forth and Lazarus pops right back out of the grave. It’s totally impossible. For the people within the game.

 

[00:55:02] But the programmer of the game can override.

 

[00:55:05] Anything he.

 

[00:55:06] Wants because he controls it.

 

[00:55:08] That’s what we’re looking at with faith. With God, all things are possible because he.

 

[00:55:14] Controls all of the code, all of the laws, all of the things that happen within our life. All we have to do is have faith in him, to have the power to do it.

 

[00:55:25] And know his love for us.

 

[00:55:29] That he will do it because.

 

[00:55:31] We’ve asked him to.

 

[00:55:33] He can act.

 

[00:55:35] And he’s willing to.

 

[00:55:36] Act. And all we have to do is pray and ask him.

 

[00:55:39] To and believe.

 

[00:55:42] So how did this impact us as believers?

 

[00:55:44] This just.

 

[00:55:45] Know that God is willing to change his.

 

[00:55:47] Code for us. Last thing, this is real interesting. I want to talk about greater faith. Okay. Greater faith.

 

[00:56:03] I want to throw out one thing we talked about before and one thing. That. It’s really.

 

[00:56:12] Totally unique. Greater faith.

 

[00:56:22] So there’s greater faith. First thing, let’s look at Mark 1124 and 25. So this is the.

 

[00:56:30] Tail end of this passage we’ve been going through.

 

[00:56:34] First thing we’re going to talk about is forgiveness. What in the world does forgiveness have to do with faith?

 

[00:56:42] What do you all think?

 

[00:56:44] We’ve watched the sheep come down. Yeah.

 

[00:56:48] It blocks the chute coming down. It. It crimps It crimps the belief in that faith.

 

[00:56:54] Right.

 

[00:56:55] It’s like a beaver building a dam, you know, inside that cylinder. Yes.

 

[00:57:01] So let’s read this mark.

 

[00:57:02] 1124 and 25. This is Jesus talking. Therefore, I tell you.

 

[00:57:07] Whatever you ask in prayer.

 

[00:57:09] Believe that you have.

 

[00:57:10] Received it. And it will be yours.

 

[00:57:13] And then he doesn’t stop there. But he continues. And whenever you stand praying, forgive if you have anything against anyone so that your father also who is in.

 

[00:57:28] Heaven.

 

[00:57:29] May forgive your trespasses. So Jesus has this statement of forgiving.

 

[00:57:35] Immediately.

 

[00:57:36] After, but connected to the statement of praying by faith. It’s one of those things that just it seems like it’s it doesn’t even fit there.

 

[00:57:46] It’s like a totally different subject. But yet Jesus connects the dots and says, there’s something here. So here’s kind of the sequence we’re looking at with this. We have faith in God, right?

 

[00:58:00] Faith in God.

 

[00:58:03] And then from that faith we do not doubt.

 

[00:58:12] And then from there we pray believing.

 

[00:58:23] And then we have forgive. Forgive. So that you may be forgiven as well.

 

[00:58:34] Why did Jesus include forgiveness? In the passage about faith. The only logical answer.

 

[00:58:44] Is that unforgiveness can block your faith.

 

[00:58:48] Right?

 

[00:58:49] This can block your faith.

 

[00:58:52] As Sarah said.

 

[00:58:54] It will crimp.

 

[00:58:56] That conduit of faith.

 

[00:58:59] Unforgiveness can block your faith and forgiveness can unblock it. You will have constipated faith.

 

[00:59:09] If you do not forgive. Nothing will come through. Sorry for the imagery on that. But what this also means, and this is the implication to have a fully grown and mature faith, the faith to move a.

 

[00:59:26] Mountain or receive anything that you.

 

[00:59:29] Ask. Requires forgiveness.

 

[00:59:35] For every one.

 

[00:59:37] Who has hurt you.

 

[00:59:40] And the greater.

 

[00:59:42] The image of Christ that we walk in, the greater the faith that we have. That’s what this is telling us. Forgiveness is an image of Christ.

 

[00:59:54] And so the greater the image of Christ that we walk.

 

[00:59:56] In, the greater.

 

[00:59:56] The faith that we.

 

[00:59:57] Have.

 

[00:59:58] But there’s one other thing here, too.

 

[01:00:01] On greater faith.

 

[01:00:03] So one is forgiveness.

 

[01:00:06] And the other.

 

[01:00:09] Is bearing fruit.

 

[01:00:10] Watch this. Bearing fruit.

 

[01:00:15] These are the two things. In Scripture that I find that talk about.

 

[01:00:24] Having your prayers answered and also having your prayers answered more consistently. So turn to John. 1516. This is the call. Jesus is in the olive grove the night before. He’s the night he’s been betrayed. This is right after the Last Supper. John 1516 says you did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you.

 

[01:00:57] That you.

 

[01:00:57] Might go and bear fruit. Fruit that will last so that whatever you ask in my name, the father will give you. In that Interesting.

 

[01:01:11] Go and bear fruit that lasts.

 

[01:01:14] Why?

 

[01:01:15] So that whatever.

 

[01:01:16] You ask in my name, the father will give you.

 

[01:01:20] So Jesus reveals an interesting qualification. If you bear fruit that last.

 

[01:01:26] Then you can ask the Father for anything you want and he’ll give it to you. The secret to receiving what you ask is to bear fruit. And that. Interesting. And let me show you a little bit more. Let’s go backwards just a little bit to John. 15 verses five through eight.

 

[01:01:47] I want to show you another part of this.

 

[01:01:50] John. 15 five through eight.

 

[01:01:56] Jesus says the same thing, but he goes a little bit deeper.

 

[01:01:59] I’m the vine. You are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit.

 

[01:02:09] For apart from me, you can do nothing.

 

[01:02:13] Dot, dot, dot.

 

[01:02:14] If you abide in.

 

[01:02:15] Me and.

 

[01:02:16] My words abide in, you watch.

 

[01:02:18] This. Ask whatever you wish.

 

[01:02:21] And it will be done.

 

[01:02:22] For you. By this is my father glorified that you bear much fruit.

 

[01:02:28] And so prove.

 

[01:02:30] To be my disciples. The more fruit you bear, the more you’ll receive what you ask for. What does this mean? Very simply. The more fruit.

 

[01:02:43] That you bear is.

 

[01:02:45] Evidence of a deeper walk in Christ. Well, we find the same with.

 

[01:02:50] Forgiveness.

 

[01:02:51] And the same with.

 

[01:02:52] Bearing fruit, that the more you walk.

 

[01:02:54] In a greater.

 

[01:02:55] Image and conformity.

 

[01:02:57] To Christ, the more your father grants your request.

 

[01:03:03] So you can have faith. And believe without doubting at a level. Even before you conform much to the image of Christ. But to believe for those greater things, the.

 

[01:03:18] Cursing of a fig tree.

 

[01:03:19] The moving of a mountain. You have to be conformed more to the image of Christ.

 

[01:03:25] You have to be pursuing.

 

[01:03:29] The Lord at a greater level and the pursuit of the Lord at a greater level will grant you.

 

[01:03:37] That greater faith. That’s what Jesus is saying. Do you all see that?

 

[01:03:44] So wrapping up, how do you get this type faith?

 

[01:03:46] I want to talk about several things. Let’s go to.

 

[01:03:51] Matthew 17. Verses 19 through 20. So how do we do it? Right? So now this is greater faith. How do we do it?

 

[01:04:08] The backstory on this.

 

[01:04:11] This is casting out that demon of epilepsy.

 

[01:04:14] Then the disciples asked, Why could we not.

 

[01:04:16] Cast it out?

 

[01:04:18] And that’s where we’re going to pick up Matthew 17, verse 19. Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said.

 

[01:04:26] Why could we not cast it out? Jesus said to them.

 

[01:04:31] Because of your little faith.

 

[01:04:34] So right here.

 

[01:04:35] Jesus says the.

 

[01:04:35] Reason they could not cast out that demon was because of little.

 

[01:04:40] Faith.

 

[01:04:41] But watch what he says.

 

[01:04:44] In the companion passage in Mark 929 So let’s go over to Mark. 929. This is.

 

[01:04:52] The same. Situation.

 

[01:04:56] Recounted. In Mark’s gospel.

 

[01:05:02] They said, why could we not cast it out?

 

[01:05:05] Mark. 929 So.

 

[01:05:07] He said to them, this kind cannot come out by.

 

[01:05:11] Anything but prayer and fasting. You’ll see a little notation in most of your Bibles that says prayer. And then they say, some manuscripts add and fasting. My experience is and fasting is very, very key.

 

[01:05:26] So what we find is.

 

[01:05:27] That faith increases through prayer and fasting. Real simply.

 

[01:05:34] I think you could say that there are actually three things.

 

[01:05:37] Going on here.

 

[01:05:39] Okay. Back to what I’ve been teaching all along, but just to re summarize it, how.

 

[01:05:46] Do you grow in greater faith? Number one is.

 

[01:05:50] Prayer.

 

[01:05:51] Prayer is time spent with God. That’s the simple. It’s not it’s not simply praying. Lord, please do this. Please do.

 

[01:06:01] This. I have this. Please help these people. Bah bah bah bah bah bah.

 

[01:06:05] And Julie needs this and Tom needs this. That is petition. But prayer is simply time with God. Think about.

 

[01:06:15] This.

 

[01:06:16] I’m dating my dating PR.

 

[01:06:18] Before we get.

 

[01:06:19] Married, I want to spend time with her. I love her. I hunger to spend time with her and I’m going to.

 

[01:06:26] Spend all the.

 

[01:06:27] Time that I can every.

 

[01:06:28] Moment. If I’m not with her, I’ll pick up the phone.

 

[01:06:30] And we’ll be talking for hours on end to the late evening. Right. Why is that?

 

[01:06:36] Because I’ve got a.

 

[01:06:37] Relationship and I’m pursuing the relationship and it’s a hunger from within.

 

[01:06:41] It’s a relationship of intimacy.

 

[01:06:43] Not a relationship of discipline. I want to do it. I don’t force myself to do it. It’s a pleasure to do it. It’s not a burden. That is prayer. In its simplest analysis, prayer.

 

[01:06:56] Is simply communication with God. When I’m with PR, it’s simply communication.

 

[01:07:03] We’re just being.

 

[01:07:03] Together.

 

[01:07:04] We’re communicating sometimes verbally, sometimes non-verbally. But it’s all communication.

 

[01:07:11] So prayer. Is time with the Lord that we spend with the Lord. Then you have fasting. And the key with fasting is do not cheat. Is it okay if I. Now. Okay. So I’m going to fast social media and desserts. No, that’s not fasting. You can fast that, but that’s not the fasting.

 

[01:07:45] That grows your faith.

 

[01:07:46] The fasting that grows.

 

[01:07:48] Your faith is.

 

[01:07:50] Total cessation of food. Do not cheat. Don’t convert your food to a liquid and drink. Your food. Because what fasting.

 

[01:07:59] Is.

 

[01:07:59] We talked about this.

 

[01:08:00] So imagine. So the Bible.

 

[01:08:03] Says that we are body.

 

[01:08:05] Soul and.

 

[01:08:05] Spirit.

 

[01:08:06] Right now I’m the soul.

 

[01:08:09] This is who I am.

 

[01:08:11] On my left side is my body.

 

[01:08:13] On my right side is my spirit. And I’m the.

 

[01:08:16] Flag in the middle in a tug of.

 

[01:08:18] War game. Right. And they’re.

 

[01:08:20] Pulling.

 

[01:08:20] Me and Romans Paul says in Romans eight that the mind set on the flesh, which is the body is sin and death. And the mind set on the spirit.

 

[01:08:30] Is life and peace. The mind set on the flesh is worldly. The mind set on the spirit is supernatural.

 

[01:08:40] So when I fast without food, I weaken my body, which weakens my flesh. And when I weaken my flesh, what happens.

 

[01:08:50] Is the spirit pulls me a little bit to the right.

 

[01:08:54] And the longer.

 

[01:08:55] I stay weakened.

 

[01:08:56] In my body, the more I.

 

[01:08:57] Move to the right.

 

[01:08:58] Moving me from the fleshly realm to the spirit realm. And it’s cumulative over time. So if I fast one.

 

[01:09:09] Day a week.

 

[01:09:10] Then in, let’s say in 15.

 

[01:09:13] Weeks I’m going.

 

[01:09:14] To be 15 units into the spirit. But if I were to fast three.

 

[01:09:19] Days a week.

 

[01:09:21] I’ll be 15 units into the spirit in.

 

[01:09:24] Only five weeks instead of 15.

 

[01:09:25] So I can move into the spirit faster. And as I move into the Spirit, then my time in prayer with the Lord becomes even more robust.

 

[01:09:35] And more intimate. Because now I’m.

 

[01:09:39] Not hindered by the.

 

[01:09:40] Flesh.

 

[01:09:41] This is what Jesus was talking. This type cannot come out by anything but prayer and fasting.

 

[01:09:46] Because prayer and fasting gives you greater.

 

[01:09:50] Authority.

 

[01:09:52] To ask and receive.

 

[01:09:55] Its greater authority and faith. And that’s essentially what asking and receiving is. And then the third thing that I talk about.

 

[01:10:05] Is face time.

 

[01:10:10] Right face timing the Lord. And this is simply being.

 

[01:10:13] Still.

 

[01:10:15] Before the Lord while Jesus doesn’t talk about face time. You see throughout.

 

[01:10:22] Scripture, be.

 

[01:10:22] Still and wait on the Lord.

 

[01:10:24] And that’s basically what FaceTime is. On your knees, face down.

 

[01:10:29] Say 30 minutes in, at least 30 minute increments. And what you’re doing, especially as you integrate prayer and fasting, what FaceTime is, it’s a supercharger. It takes that engine of 100 horsepower and boosts it up to 500 or 800 horsepower.

 

[01:10:47] It’s really, truly it’s a super charger.

 

[01:10:51] Supernatural charger into your walk in the Lord, and that’s how you do it. So faith is believing God. Last time, Faith. Is rooted in love. And when you know how much he loves you, then you believe he’ll actually do what he says he’ll do. And the way that you increase it.

 

[01:11:19] Prayer, fasting and face time.

 

[01:11:21] And that’s the summation of.

 

[01:11:24] This lesson. Any comments? Hi.

 

[01:11:31] Yes, this is James.

 

[01:11:33] I would like to give a comment and. Some additional how to. Increase faith. Okay.

 

[01:11:45] Um. Reception has been amazing, and I’ve enjoyed it right from the beginning up to the end. Thank you very much. And, uh, what sort of like to add faith.

 

[01:12:01] How to add greater faith is through seeking opportunities of spiritual growth. Like, for example, taking such classes that we are having. Uh, Bible study classes through joining such classes can help us to. Increase our faith. Yeah, that’s what I had thought of also. Thank you.

 

[01:12:29] That is good. And with that, there is one other thing.

 

[01:12:32] Because what the.

 

[01:12:32] Classes do is they reveal God’s word and open it up. And so I think I would be remiss without putting one more thing.

 

[01:12:42] Thank you for that.

 

[01:12:43] You have to study the word. Because if you don’t know God’s word, you do not know his will. And by definition.

 

[01:12:55] Faith.

 

[01:12:57] Inferred. And faith is knowing God’s will on something. All right. Knowing that he can do it, knowing that he is willing to do it, that’s his will.

 

[01:13:07] So thank you for that, James.

 

[01:13:11] Any other questions or.

 

[01:13:12] Comments before we wrap up?

 

[01:13:17] I’m still a bit unclear about the family that had the child that died. Yes. And the parent the parents were praying for healing. And it would be God’s will to heal the baby. But the baby didn’t get healed. So how does that match the family? Not having faith?

 

[01:13:41] That’s a really great question.

 

[01:13:43] So we have to go into defining what faith is.

 

[01:13:51] Okay.

 

[01:13:51] Faith is the.

 

[01:13:53] Assurance of things hoped.

 

[01:13:54] For.

 

[01:13:56] Is the conviction of things not seen.

 

[01:13:59] And Jesus says.

 

[01:14:01] If you have faith, the mountain will move. Whatever you pray for. And you have faith will occur. So because of that statement. If you pray.

 

[01:14:16] And it doesn’t.

 

[01:14:17] Occur. Then you cannot claim that you had faith.

 

[01:14:23] Because the absolute truth of faith is what you ask for in faith.

 

[01:14:29] Will occur if you have faith as a straightforward, blanket, black and white statement that Jesus made. So while that.

 

[01:14:39] Couple. Understood God’s will, and I believe it is God’s will that that.

 

[01:14:45] Baby would have been saved.

 

[01:14:47] And not miscarried.

 

[01:14:51] We cannot claim that they had faith.

 

[01:14:54] Because that for which they prayed for did not occur.

 

[01:15:01] And knowing.

 

[01:15:03] Having spoken with her.

 

[01:15:04] Having hearing her recount.

 

[01:15:08] There is a lot of intensity.

 

[01:15:10] In how she prayed hard and prayed constantly.

 

[01:15:14] And was claiming.

 

[01:15:17] Okay, once you start having intensity, that’s from your emotion, not from your spiritual heart.

 

[01:15:23] And if you actually believe God was absolutely going to do.

 

[01:15:28] It, then you wouldn’t be.

 

[01:15:29] Pleading.

 

[01:15:30] And so, for example, let me throw this out.

 

[01:15:34] Assume for a moment that Jesus arrived in the flesh.

 

[01:15:39] In her room, the mother’s.

 

[01:15:41] Room, and says, Fear not.

 

[01:15:44] I am going to heal that pregnancy and that baby and your daughter will not miscarry. If that were to occur, then the mother would not have worried at all. She would have simply said, Thank you, Lord, and she would be at complete peace. Because she would know with confident assurance. The baby is safe. But she did not have that level of confidence.

 

[01:16:13] And that’s why she pled.

 

[01:16:16] And pled and why she prayed in.

 

[01:16:19] Fervency.

 

[01:16:21] And she misconstrued that fervency to be faith. This then gets into the bigger question.

 

[01:16:29] That I don’t fully understand how all this works, but I do from a conceptual concept.

 

[01:16:36] Why would God allow the baby to die if it was his will?

 

[01:16:40] That the baby would live. And. We have to look at that in a bigger context.

 

[01:16:48] Why would God allow.

 

[01:16:49] Things.

 

[01:16:50] To occur on Earth?

 

[01:16:53] That’s not his will.

 

[01:16:56] But yet when we look at it in that context, when Jesus.

 

[01:16:59] Taught his disciples to pray, he.

 

[01:17:02] Was very clear. Pray like this. And may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Why do we have to pray that God’s will.

 

[01:17:14] Be done on earth.

 

[01:17:16] As it is in heaven?

 

[01:17:17] Because it’s not going to happen.

 

[01:17:19] His will unless we actually pray.

 

[01:17:22] For it to happen. He’s training us. All of this is a training ground. We’re going to talk about eternal rewards later.

 

[01:17:30] And you’re going to see that everything we go through in life, in this life in our 70 to 80 years on Earth, is a training ground to prepare us for our next big phase of life, which is ruling the kingdom.

 

[01:17:44] And this is.

 

[01:17:46] A beginner’s.

 

[01:17:47] Session. Earth is more like, I’ll call it like a nursery for the Sons of God to grow up, prove.

 

[01:17:54] Themselves, and then get positioned.

 

[01:17:57] Through eternal rewards.

 

[01:17:59] You have the parable of the talents.

 

[01:18:01] And the parable of the mind.

 

[01:18:02] Is that based on how the servants performed in the master’s absence, they determine the level of authority they received in the new kingdom. And so we start to see that everything that happens is training us.

 

[01:18:18] To grow up into Sons of God.

 

[01:18:20] Because that’s our destiny as children, to become sons of God at the resurrection or before by.

 

[01:18:27] Faith. And so Jesus teaches that we.

 

[01:18:30] Must pray for God’s will.

 

[01:18:32] To be done.

 

[01:18:34] On earth as it is in heaven. If we don’t pray.

 

[01:18:38] By faith.

 

[01:18:40] Then that will isn’t going to.

 

[01:18:42] Always be done except by the manifold grace of God.

 

[01:18:47] And that’s what I apply into this situation with the mother and the pregnancy.

 

[01:18:52] She prayed.

 

[01:18:54] Fervently.

 

[01:18:55] But not by faith. Faith takes no effort.

 

[01:19:00] And we know it wasn’t praying by.

 

[01:19:03] Faith.

 

[01:19:03] Because that for which.

 

[01:19:05] He prayed for did.

 

[01:19:06] Not occur. I’m not being.

 

[01:19:09] Mean. I’m not being critical. I’m not judging. I’m simply saying the truck ran out of gas. How do you know? Because you cranked it and nothing happened. And everything else works.

 

[01:19:22] You can’t say, Well, no, I’ve got gas because I prayed that there would be gas there.

 

[01:19:26] Well, there is no gas. It just doesn’t work. It’s not going to run without gas.

 

[01:19:31] It’s objective. It’s not being judgmental. And that’s kind of the thing with that. Mom.

 

[01:19:35] Does that make sense? Eric?

 

[01:19:39] Yeah.

 

[01:19:40] So it kind of sounds like you’re saying that they had doubt in their heart. Yes. And that’s why they were being so fervent in their prayers. Yes.

 

[01:19:51] You summarize it much shorter than I did. Thank you.

 

[01:19:55] And that’s why I’ve got you writing the manuscripts.

 

[01:19:57] Because sometimes. Yeah.

 

[01:20:01] But that’s it.

 

[01:20:04] They had doubt in their heart and that’s.

 

[01:20:06] Why they were fervent.

 

[01:20:08] That’s a really good observation. When you are fervent is because you have doubt. And you then try to overcome that doubt with fervency and it doesn’t work.

 

[01:20:20] And you see the focus. I prayed so hard.

 

[01:20:23] That’s it. I prayed so hard. Right?

 

[01:20:26] I mean, the focus wasn’t on God.

 

[01:20:29] That’s right.

 

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