GREAT FAITH part two

Hello my beloved saints, I wish you a great and prosperous month of October. I believe the Word of God is producing fruits in you as it does in the life of all who put their focus on it. Let’s continue from last months edition.

    Sometimes God will test your faith and act as though he is not hearing you. God will stretch your faith to see if you will give up. Matthew 15:22-28 says, “And, behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil. But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away; for she crieth after us. But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me. But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it to dogs. And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters' table. Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour.” Sometimes God will stretch you faith and you may begin to think or look for how you have wronged God. You have not wronged Him, He is just testing you. He is taking you from the realm of little faith to great faith. Great faith endures and never doubts until He gets the answer. Despite Jesus’s response, did the woman give up? No she persisted. Why do you give up? If you don’t give up, you will win. Little faith gives up easily, great faith never gives up. Anything you don’t give up on, you will eventually receive from God. What made the difference for the woman? She refused to give up. There people who stop attending services because they are passing through challenges. Don’t be one of those. Drag your body if you have to; don’t wallow in your situation.

Another example of great faith is in the book of Matthew 8:5-10, “And when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion, beseeching him, And saying, Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented. And Jesus saith unto him, I will come and heal him. The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof: but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed. For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me: and I say to this man, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it. When Jesus heard it, he marveled, and said to them that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.” What made the centurions faith great? Great faith relies on the word and not on the situation. Great faith depends solely on the word despite the challenge saying something contrary. It stands firm without giving up. That is how to fight the good fight of faith. The fight of faith is in your persistence in holding on to what the word of God says until your change comes. Every faith emanates from the word of God. Without the word, there is no faith. Any time you stand on the word, your problem must be solved but if you stand on neutrality or assumption your problem will persist because your problem is not obligated to submit to neutrality or assumption. Every challenge including the devil that brings the challenge only submit to the authority of God’s word. So, don’t you ever pray the prayer of faith until you have the word of God for it because your victory in faith only stems from the word of God.

  Now what do you do when you are facing a challenge? Mark 11:24 says, “Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.” This scripture is the secret to answered prayer for everything that you need. What is this scripture actually saying? This scripture is telling us is that whatever you desire and you have asked for in prayer you should believe that you have received them, no matter what the situation is telling you. Instead of doubting based on what you are feeling or seeing stand your ground believing that you have received your answer. And your answer will show up. This is where many Christians miss it, after they have prayed or been prayed for; they go back checking to see if they have received. If it is for healing they start checking to see if the pain has disappeared, if they observe the pain, they start complaining that they have not received their healing. You don’t check to see if you have received, the pain may still be there, the money that you asked for may have not come. Don’t look at it. Your landlord may be threatening, that sickness maybe threatening, stand you ground on the word of God. Mark 11:23 says, “For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.” That pain is a mountain, that financial difficulty is a mountain, now that you have prayed and you believe you have received. If you believed you have received, you are healed but the pain is still there; the next step is for you to address the pain. “Pain I command you leave my body, get out in the name of Jesus. You are healed, the pain is trying to interfere with your healing so you must address the mountain. While you give God thanks for what you’ve asked for, give address the mountain. That is how to do it and you will receive the solution to that challenge. Don’t go back complaining and talking about the problem instead keep giving thanks to God for what you have received. Matthew 21:21-22 says, “Jesus answered and said unto them, Verily I say unto you, If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done. And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.”

  Once you ask, you start believing that you have received, if you doubt you will lose it. James 1:5-8 says, “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. A double minded man is unstable in all his way.” When you start doubting that you have not received what you asked for, you have lost it. This is the reason many are running helter sketer seeking solutions everywhere. Learn to stand your ground in faith in the word of God.

God bless you. See you next month.