Participants: Jason Bradley (Host), Nadine Joseph-Collins PhD
Series Code: TMP
Program Code: TMP000007A
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00:34 Hello and welcome to The Missing Peace.
00:36 My name is Jason Bradley and our primary host is 00:39 Dr. Nadine Joseph-Collins 00:40 a powerful advocate for effective fervent prayer. 00:44 Dr. Nadine is committed to equipping others 00:46 with the tools necessary to make your prayer life go, "Wow!" 00:50 Before we begin, let's have a word of prayer 00:53 and invite the Lord to join us. 00:55 Dear Heavenly Father, 00:56 as we discuss how to best communicate with you, 01:00 we ask that you would please be with us 01:02 that you would lead, guide and direct us 01:04 and that you would fill us with your Holy Spirit. 01:06 In Jesus' name we pray, amen. " 01:08 What is the topic today? 01:11 Jason, you look very excited. 01:13 I am excited. 01:15 Today we're going to be talking about: Praying in Faith. 01:17 Okay. 01:18 The whole premise is, for us to see 01:21 how faith can impact our prayer lives 01:24 or how our prayer lives can be affected by faith. 01:26 Hmmm... hmmm... 01:28 And what is the key text or what is the text 01:30 that usually comes to your mind when you hear the word "Faith"? 01:32 Hebrews chapter 11 verse 1. 01:34 Right, we all know that text very well, right? 01:36 "Faith is the substance of things hoped for... 01:39 the evidence of things not seen... " 01:41 and usually, when I would conduct Week of Prayers... 01:44 that's one of the questions I would ask 01:46 when I do this presentation, "What is faith?" 01:48 Hmmm... hmmm... 01:49 And guess what the answers I usually get? 01:51 What? 01:53 Belief... it is belief... it is believe in something 01:56 or people would usually point to the head and say, 01:58 "You know, you have to have faith. " 02:01 It's usually something that we refer to 02:03 or conceptualize as something happening up in our minds 02:06 or in our head... 02:07 some people would say it's about belief... belief... 02:09 and of course we always end up with Hebrews 11 verse 1, 02:12 dictionary definitions of faith 02:15 does refer to faith in some extent as belief 02:19 or confidence or trust in a person or a thing 02:23 for example, they would say, 02:24 "You have faith in someone's ability" 02:26 and so on... 02:28 and sometimes it is belief that is not based on proof... 02:31 that's what people would say faith is. 02:34 Now, one of... the Bible here says that 02:37 faith is... this version... it's the Rainbow Study Bible 02:42 the Rainbow Study Bible says, "What is faith?" 02:44 "It is the confident assurance that something we want 02:47 is going to happen... 02:49 it is the certainty that we have 02:52 that what we hope for is waiting for us... 02:55 even though we cannot see it up ahead... " 02:58 So, whichever translation we use... 03:02 it is saying that there is some belief 03:05 that it is based on proof that we do not have as yet 03:08 so it's belief in anything 03:11 because we can have faith in principles, in beliefs, 03:14 in institutions and so on 03:16 and the thing is, if we have faith in anything 03:18 most times it works for us 03:19 and some people actually say to me, "I don't have faith" 03:22 you believe some people don't have faith? 03:24 Jason: Oh yes. Nadine: You think so? 03:26 Jason: Yes, some people don't have faith 03:28 it seems like some people doubt everything... 03:30 like negative... unbelieving... 03:33 just-don't-trust-anything- anybody type of thing. 03:37 Nadine: But these same people go to doctors, 03:38 some of them may actually travel. 03:41 Hmmm... 03:42 Every time you do something like that, 03:45 you are exhibiting faith or belief 03:46 that the person you are going to 03:48 is going to do what you're going to them for. 03:51 So, when we go to a doctor, we are expecting 03:54 that that doctor would be able to attend to whatever problem 03:56 that we have and "hopefully" give us 03:58 the healing recipe, right? 04:00 Hmmm... hmmm... hmmm... hmmm. 04:02 When we fly... we never go to the peer and say, 04:06 "Hey, can I see the pilot?" 04:07 "Can you show me your credentials?" 04:10 Or what was... you know, 04:12 "How did you place in your class?" 04:13 We don't do that kind of stuff, 04:15 we actually believe that we get on that plane... 04:17 some of us say a little prayer 04:19 but we believe that we're actually going to get 04:21 to our destination safely. 04:23 Hmmm... hmmm... 04:24 Because I'm sure that the folks who went on that 04:27 Germanwings flight... the 9525 in April 2015 04:30 thought that they were going to arrive home safely. 04:33 They probably had made plans already to go to dinner 04:35 with family or friends and maybe had other appointments. 04:38 Hmmm... hmmm... 04:39 But they had faith that when they got on that plane 04:41 that they were going to arrive home safely 04:42 so, to a degree, everyone has a measure of faith 04:46 because we exercise it every day. 04:48 Hmmm... hmmm... 04:50 We go to get our hair cut and all of that stuff, 04:52 we believe in, "Hey, this person can do 04:54 what I need them to do. " 04:55 So, we speak about it as well 04:58 sometimes as doing things blindly 05:01 because we do not know what it is 05:03 so we are saying, "Faith is a belief... 05:05 it is something that we are hoping for 05:07 that we have not yet seen" 05:09 so, sometimes we associate it with that blind belief. 05:12 Now, if we really examine Hebrews 11:1 05:15 and just break down these two lines, 05:17 actually it's one long line or two short lines... 05:21 "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, 05:24 the evidence of things not seen. " 05:26 We may discover that faith has much more 05:30 than just that belief... 05:32 that blind faith or that trust and so on... 05:34 and that's where we want to go today. 05:36 Okay... 05:38 Because when we examine faith of the Bible, 05:40 we will see how it becomes practical 05:42 in that habit of praying every day... 05:44 that hope that we want to develop 05:46 so we can make our prayer lives go, "Wow!" 05:48 Hmmm... hmmm... 05:49 Substance... when we are in Elementary School 05:52 and we learn about substance, 05:54 we learn about something that is tangible... 05:57 from an English perspective, it's something real... 06:00 something physical... 06:02 something that we call, "Matter" 06:03 you can feel it 06:04 so, it consists of tangible solid presence... it's substance 06:08 when we look from the Hebrew perspective, 06:11 substance also denotes something you can see, 06:15 you can hear, you can taste, you can feel, you can touch... 06:18 again, it all refers to things that we could actually... 06:22 that could actually materialize. 06:23 Hmmm... hmmm... hmmm... hmmm. 06:25 And the Bible is saying, "Faith is the substance... " 06:26 Okay. 06:28 So, let's keep in mind "Substance" 06:29 in these two contexts which is really the same 06:32 that we are looking at something tangible... 06:34 something physical... something real... 06:36 faith is the substance... 06:38 Hmmm... hmmm... hmmm... hmmm. 06:40 Then when we talk about things hoped for... 06:42 when we are hoping for something it is not abstract... 06:46 so, yes, I am hoping, for example, 06:49 to let's say... have a nice sandwich. 06:52 The reason why I can hope for that sandwich 06:55 is because I probably had it before already, 06:57 and I can associate that taste in my mind and in my mouth 07:01 so, when I'm hoping for it, it is something that I know 07:05 that I could actually get. 07:07 Hmmm... hmmm... 07:08 It's just that I don't have it yet 07:10 but we can picture it in our minds... 07:11 some foods that we like... 07:13 we salivate when we think about them 07:15 because we could hope for it, 07:17 because we already know what it's like. 07:18 Tastes like... yeah we know what we're missing, yeah. 07:20 Exactly, so if I'm hoping to see the Eiffel Tower, for example, 07:24 Is it something that is tangible or intangible? 07:27 Jason: It's tangible. 07:29 Nadine: Because what I would have to do 07:30 is to buy a plane ticket 07:32 I need to check, of course, if I need a visa to get to Paris 07:35 then, I will have to look at getting a ticket 07:37 to go up the Eiffel Tower, 07:39 or I could just stay down and I could admire it 07:42 but the thing is, what I'm hoping for 07:44 is something that could actually happen 07:46 but it has not happened yet. 07:47 Yeah, hmmm... hmmm... 07:49 And so, we are talking about things hoped for 07:51 and then when we look, for example, 07:54 at the evidence of things not seen, 07:56 but before I go there, I want to say something, 07:58 you know the Bible tells us, 08:00 you know that there is the tree of life... 08:01 Hmmm... hmmm... 08:02 It's something that we are hoping to see, right? 08:04 Hmmm... hmmm... 08:05 We are hoping to see the sea of glass, 08:07 we are hoping to walk on the streets of gold, right, 08:10 but we are able to conceptualize these things in our minds 08:15 because these things... 08:17 God has given us physical representations in our life 08:20 so we know what a tree looks like 08:23 so now we can visualize a tree in heaven 08:26 so the tree on earth is just a physical representation 08:30 of the Tree of Life that we have not yet seen 08:32 but now we can make an association. 08:34 We know what gold is, we know what streets look like 08:38 so we can only imagine now gold on the streets 08:42 so instead of having what we use now, 08:45 we use gold instead 08:46 and we can imagine people playing at that gold 08:50 and the tractors pass on... 08:52 just like when we see a road being laid out 08:53 so now we can visualize 08:55 so that the streets of gold 08:57 is a representation of something we have not yet seen 09:00 but now we can visualize it 09:02 and the same thing with the Sea of Glass or anything else, 09:05 so these are the thing that we are hoping to see 09:08 but God has given us physical representation 09:11 so we can get a taste of what is to come 09:14 and then we have the evidence of things not seen. 09:18 So, if I had never seen the Eiffel Tower, right, 09:21 I was watching a movie and this is actually real 09:24 so I was watching a movie and I said, "Hey, I want to go there" 09:27 so I went ahead and made plans 09:29 so I could actually go to see what Paris looks like 09:33 really and truly the Eiffel Tower 09:35 I wanted to visit, 09:36 so what happened is, I got there, 09:38 when I got to the bottom of it 09:40 there were so many people, the line was so long, 09:42 I'm like, "I'm not taking this line to go us this thing" 09:45 so I stayed, I walked underneath it, 09:47 I looked up, I took pictures, 09:49 then I did other sites in Paris 09:51 and from different distances, 09:53 of course, you can see the Eiffel tower in the background, 09:55 so I took pictures, 09:56 so, now I have evidence 09:57 of the thing 09:59 that before I had not yet seen 10:01 now, I have the evidence with the pictures 10:04 and they say "Pictures don't lie" 10:06 but in this day and age people do a lot of photo shopping. 10:08 That's very true... that's very true. 10:11 But the point is, I walked around there 10:13 and I was able to take the pictures 10:15 so now, faith is the substance of things hoped for 10:19 evidence of things not seen. 10:21 Now, as we unpack it like that, we can see 10:24 that faith really is not an abstract thought. 10:27 It is not something in our head, 10:29 because in all of these instances, 10:32 first, you have substance, 10:34 you can touch, you can feel and so on... 10:35 the things hoped for... 10:37 you could actually get them later... 10:40 you could actually see them later, 10:42 you could experience them later, 10:44 and you can also collect evidence 10:45 as in the example of having the photos of the Eiffel Tower 10:48 so, in legal terms, for example, 10:50 evidence is that which tends to prove a fact 10:53 but not the fact itself, 10:56 so, it says, any matter of fact, 10:58 a legal definition is: 11:00 Any matter of fact that a party or lawsuit offers 11:02 to prove or disprove a case. 11:04 So that's what evidence is, 11:06 and so, it's a System of rules and so on 11:09 so, if we have an accident, 11:10 generally when you have an accident 11:12 you never hear the two people saying the same story, 11:15 there's always disputed facts, 11:17 one person will say it happened like this 11:19 and another person will say it happened like that 11:21 because everybody wants to be in the right 11:24 so, evidence now, will take into account 11:27 these testimonies that these two people are giving 11:32 but more so, the police officer would come in 11:35 and they would collect a bunch of information, 11:37 they would look for eye witnesses, 11:39 they would look at distances, they would look at the weather, 11:41 they would look at a bunch of stuff 11:43 as they try to weigh 11:45 on what really are the facts of this case, 11:47 Hmmm... hmmm... hmmm... hmmm. 11:49 Okay, so, evidence now is 11:50 what would be accepted into the equation 11:53 to say, "Hey, this will help us to know actually what is factual 11:57 so, faith cannot be abstract 11:59 because if you collect all that evidence, 12:01 if you go get eye witness testimonies, 12:04 you look at the weather reports 12:05 you look at all of the different things in the car and everything 12:09 you are collecting things that you can actually see... 12:11 that you can actually write and so on, 12:12 so you're collecting evidence, 12:14 so, faith... it goes beyond abstract, 12:16 when we look at the Bible, it's filled with promises. 12:19 Hmmm... hmmm... 12:20 These promises are actually facts, 12:22 these are the facts that God has laid out 12:25 in the Bible for us, 12:27 now, as we go through our experiences, 12:29 as we develop our prayer life, 12:31 part of our prayer life should be... 12:33 really claiming those facts 12:35 and the evidence would be our testimonies... 12:40 how these promises, these facts in the Word of God 12:44 are actually true, 12:45 because now we have the evidence to prove 12:47 the Word of God, 12:49 we have the evidence to prove 12:50 the facts in the Word of God to be true. 12:52 Jason: Yeah, and if God says it, 12:54 you know... I mean... well, you should know 12:56 that it is... that it is true. 12:58 Nadine: Yeah, exactly and so that's why Law... has given us 13:02 Law... I'm talking about like the legal aspect of things... 13:05 I love Law, by-the-way 13:06 but Law has given us a clear path 13:08 from reading to understand Hebrews 11:1 more, 13:11 and as we work on developing our prayer life 13:14 because you see the thing is, eye witness testimonies... 13:18 or first-hand testimonies are the only testimonies 13:20 that are actually accepted in the Court of Law. 13:23 Hmmm... 13:24 So, hearsay evidence is not accepted... 13:26 so I cannot tell you how good a sandwich tastes 13:30 until I have tasted it myself. 13:31 I cannot tell you how nice a perfume smells 13:34 until I have smelt it myself. 13:36 Hmmm... hmmm... 13:37 You see, I cannot tell you how good God is 13:39 and how true He is to His word 13:41 until I have experienced Him for myself. 13:44 Yeah. 13:45 So, you cannot take my story, 13:47 or you cannot take stories in the Bible 13:49 which is what we usually do... which is fine 13:51 we can use the stories in the Bible 13:54 when we want to talk about God 13:55 but if we meet somebody who doesn't believe in God, 13:58 how are you going to convince them that your God is true? 14:01 that will come from your personal testimony. 14:03 From the evidence that you have collected 14:06 that your God actually works 14:07 and nobody can contend with eye-witness testimonies. 14:10 Yeah, yeah. 14:11 Nobody can contend with the fact that, 14:13 "Hey, God did this in my life" 14:15 and we are living in a world where people are open, 14:17 they call it the Post-Modern World 14:18 and thing... but one good thing about the Post-Modern Era, 14:22 is that people are open to other people's stories 14:26 so now, our stories as Christians 14:27 make more sense 14:29 because people are open to your personal testimony 14:31 so, while they might disregard the Bible, 14:34 and give us all types of excuses 14:36 why they do not want to have anything to do with the Book, 14:38 when it is... you are able to say 14:40 how God is real in your experience 14:43 because God answered these prayers, 14:45 because God did this or God did that 14:47 they cannot contend with that. 14:48 Yeah... 14:50 I want to share this Bible verse with you, 14:52 it comes from Hebrews chapter 11 verse 6, 14:54 and it reads, "But without faith 14:57 it is impossible to please Him: 14:59 for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, 15:02 and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. " 15:06 As we're sitting here and we're talking about faith and prayer 15:09 and faith and prayer, 15:10 this Bible verse right here shows the importance of faith, 15:17 how important it is to have faith, 15:19 without it, we... it's impossible to please God. 15:22 Yes, that's the thing, you see, 15:24 and that's why your own faith story... 15:27 your own personal journey... 15:29 you're own story cannot be argued with 15:32 because it's not a second-hand report. 15:35 Hmmm... hmmm... 15:36 It's your evidence of faith. 15:38 The Apostle John actually said in 1st John 1 verse 1 he said, 15:42 We proclaim to you the One who existed from the beginning, 15:47 whom we have heard and seen. 15:49 We saw Him with our own eyes 15:52 and touched Him with our own hands. 15:54 He is the Word of life. " 15:55 So, here they were talking about God 15:57 from their own personal experience, 15:59 remember we spoke about substance and things hoped for 16:02 so they were able to see Him, they were able to touch Him, 16:05 they experienced Him, they felt Him, 16:08 He was real, they were eye-witnesses 16:11 and these are the only types of testimonies 16:13 that are actually admitted in the Court. 16:16 We're talking about, now, evidence as well, 16:18 so they had the evidence to prove. 16:21 One guy by the name of Hodge said, 16:23 "Faith must have adequate evidence 16:25 or else it is mere superstition. " 16:27 Hmmm... 16:28 So if your faith is just a talking faith 16:30 or faith in your head 16:32 but you have no evidence to prove that faith, 16:35 then it's mere superstition 16:37 and that's why the Bible filled with over 3,000 promises 16:41 gives us ample opportunities to continue to collect evidence 16:45 to prove that the Word of God is true, 16:48 to prove that God actually answers our prayers, 16:51 to prove that we actually have something... 16:53 evidence to back up what we are saying about our faith. 16:57 So, our prayer lives or our faith 17:01 is activated by our prayer lives, 17:03 that is why they are connected. 17:05 How else can we claim 17:07 the promises or the facts outlined in the Word of God 17:11 unless we spend time with God. 17:13 Hmmm... hmmm... 17:14 How else can we collect that evidence? 17:16 How will we know that God is actually answering our prayers 17:19 when we take the Word of God... we claim these promises 17:22 then we get the evidence to prove it 17:24 but we must spend time with God doing that. 17:26 So faith is not an abstract 17:29 when it is actually an intelligent holy response 17:32 to God and His Word. 17:35 Hmmm... hmmm... 17:36 So, faith goes beyond that blind belief, 17:38 it goes beyond just the things that we think happening up here 17:43 to us searching for ways to get evidence 17:47 to prove that God actually exists, 17:49 so, it's in a deeper sense... faith is an action word 17:53 because we are digging 17:54 and that's the direction we are taking now, 17:56 Faith as an action word. 17:58 Yes. 18:00 Right, so when we examine the Hall of Faith, 18:02 Hebrews 11 that we've been looking at, 18:04 every time one of these heroes were mentioned, 18:07 we see an action following... 18:10 So if we look at, for example, the Bible says, 18:14 "By faith Abraham... " 18:15 then an activity follows, "he obeyed... " 18:17 Hmmm... hmmm... 18:19 "and he was tested... " and so on, 18:21 so, every time we see the name of the hero 18:24 and they are saying, "by faith... " 18:26 we see the action happening, 18:28 Sarah... in Hebrews 11:11 18:30 "by faith... " an activity followed, 18:32 the Bible says, "she received strength and bore a child. " 18:36 Hmmm... hmmm... 18:37 Then we have Isaac, 18:39 when it says, "By faith Isaac... " 18:40 an activity followed, he blessed Jacob and Esau 18:43 so, he did something... so there's an activity. 18:45 Hmmm... hmmm... 18:47 We look at Moses, the Bible says, 18:48 "By faith Moses... " an activity followed, 18:51 look, his mother hid him... 18:53 she took... she did some action, 18:56 she took him and she hid him there... 18:57 and we know his story, so an activity happened 18:59 then in his adult life, we see him mentioned again, 19:02 "By faith Moses... " an activity followed, 19:05 he stood up, 19:06 "he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. " 19:08 Hmmm... hmmm... 19:10 so he had that activity 19:11 then we saw him later on when he struck the rock 19:14 because he wanted water to come out, 19:16 then we saw again, when he stood by the Red Sea, 19:20 he didn't just stand there 19:21 waiting for God to open it and stuff 19:24 and say, "I have faith, God led me in this direction 19:26 and He's going to open the Red Sea" 19:28 he didn't just stand there waiting, 19:29 he actually began to walk 19:32 and as he began to go toward the Red Sea, 19:35 the Red Sea parted and all of that, again, is action 19:38 we see every time... by faith action is happening 19:41 an activity is following. 19:42 We look at Abel, "By faith Abel... " 19:44 an activity followed, 19:46 what did he do? He offered a sacrifice, 19:48 so, an activity happens. 19:50 I think about when Peter stepped out of the boat onto the water 19:52 and started walking towards Jesus 19:55 but as soon as he took his eyes off Christ, 19:57 he started to sink. 19:59 Yes, yes, because faith is really about believing in Him... 20:02 following Him, 20:03 so, when he began to look at self, 20:05 then he began to sink. 20:06 And another thing 20:08 faith without action is mere profession, 20:11 so just like Christianity, 20:13 if you are a Christian in name only, 20:15 there's nothing different about your lifestyle 20:17 than that of a non-believer. 20:19 And that's why Paul says, "If we have faith, 20:21 without the actual evidence, it's superstition 20:25 so we look at, for example, people like Noah 20:29 the Bible says, "By faith Noah... " 20:31 he prepared the ark... so he did an activity, 20:35 he built this huge boat, so he did something. 20:38 We look at Joshua, "By faith... " the Bible says, 20:42 "he led the children around the city seven times" 20:46 that's a lot of action 20:48 and then all those walls came crumbling down. 20:51 So, we look at Gideon, 20:53 you remember when Gideon wanted to go to war, 20:55 the Bible says, "By faith... " 20:56 of course an activity follows, 20:58 "he trusted God for the small army" 21:01 so, you remember, he had 135,000 men 21:03 and God told him, "No, you cannot take all these men" 21:06 he gave them reasons... he gave them... 21:07 he told them, "You could go home" 21:09 and so on until he went down to 300 21:11 and they were able to defeat the armies, 21:13 then we look at Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego 21:15 the Bible says, "By faith... " an activity followed 21:18 they chose not to bow, 21:19 so they made a decision not to bow 21:22 and we saw what happened with them, 21:24 even when they were thrown in to the fiery furnace 21:27 that became an evidence of God being... 21:29 of God really being true to them 21:31 and God really existing 21:33 because Nebuchadnezzar himself was able to see and identify, 21:36 "Hey, I just threw three men in there 21:38 but the Son of God is also there with them... 21:39 there's a fourth one. " Jason: Yeah. 21:41 So, you see, activity happens every time, 21:43 then we have Esther, 21:45 the Bible says, "By faith Esther... " 21:46 she was rewarded for her bravery 21:48 remember she went before the King. 21:50 Hmmm... hmmm... 21:51 So, she didn't just stay there fasting and praying 21:53 and was in the palace, 21:54 but she asked permission to see the king, 21:57 she took some steps, she did an activity, 22:00 so that the children or the Jews... her people 22:03 could have been saved 22:04 and there are some more stories, like, unpopular stories, 22:07 when we look at, for example, 22:09 the un-named leper of Matthew 8:2 and 3, 22:12 he went and began to worship God and ask God to make Him clean 22:17 so, he didn't stay wherever he was, 22:19 he went in search of Jesus and he was healed. 22:22 Then we have the Roman Officer, he went to God and said, 22:26 "I'm not worthy for you to even come to my home... 22:28 but I want you to heal my servant... " 22:30 so he had so much faith, he went looking for God... 22:33 that's activity 22:35 but he's also saying, "You do not need to come to my home, 22:37 I believe you so much, 22:38 I know that you can heal him right here, right now, 22:42 even though he's not in your presence" 22:44 so we have these unpopular stories, 22:46 so the Centurion's faith... this Roman soldier 22:49 impressed God so much, He said, I never even saw so much faith" 22:52 because here was this guy not just coming after God 22:55 or after Jesus, rather, but he is saying, "I believe you 22:59 I've heard what you have done and I would like you 23:02 to just touch and heal my servant right now at home" 23:05 you know, and then, we have the woman with the issue of blood. 23:09 Oh yes. 23:11 She didn't just sit by the road waiting for Him to come, 23:13 she didn't just believe that somebody would carry her to Him, 23:18 she pushed and pushed through the crowd... 23:21 she crawled, she did whatever she had to do 23:23 because in her mind, "I know, if I just touch any part of Him" 23:28 and in this case she was able to touch just the hem... 23:30 Jason: Of His garment. 23:31 Nadine: And she was healed because she had faith, 23:35 so, you see, but the faith is followed by action 23:37 for that woman to have put herself through that 23:40 it means she believed even before she touched Jesus 23:43 that He was going to heal her. 23:44 Hmmm... hmmm... 23:45 But she knew that she needed to act on her faith... 23:48 Hmmm... hmmm... 23:49 And so, she moved 23:50 until she touched just the hem of His garment 23:52 and she was healed and that's why He said, "Virtue left me" 23:56 because He knew that the person that touched Him 23:59 had such strong beliefs 24:01 and so, she could have just said, 24:04 "Hey, I believe God can heal me" and that's it... no, no, no, no 24:06 she acted toward her healing. 24:08 We had the two blind men as well in Matthew 9, 24:12 they came to Jesus asking for healing 24:14 from wherever they came, they came to Him asking for healing 24:17 so, activity happened every time faith is mentioned in the Bible, 24:22 in terms of people acting toward their faith 24:25 and one of my favorite stories is the story of Rahab, 24:28 because you see, when Rahab was considered 24:31 and called the harlot of her community in Jericho, 24:34 so, no one would have thought that when these Bible Workers 24:38 were coming to her home, 24:40 or when these men came to her home 24:41 that they were Bible Workers, 24:43 they would have thought otherwise 24:45 but Rahab had heard about Jesus, 24:48 she had heard about what He had done already 24:50 the testimonies of Joshua and Moses and all of these guys 24:54 were in her mind 24:55 and that is why she was able to receive these guys, 24:58 that's why the Bible has her, 24:59 imagine, we call her a prostitute 25:01 but she was in the Hall of Faith 25:03 because she did an action too "By faith... " the Bible says, 25:07 "she welcomed the spies into her home. " 25:10 So, not only did she welcome them there 25:13 but she actually made a negotiation... 25:16 actually she negotiated with them for her salvation 25:18 and the salvation of her family 25:20 and for the salvation of all of us 25:22 because through her experience, we know for sure 25:25 that God's blood... that red scarlet thread 25:27 that she was supposed to hang 25:29 is deliverance for every one of us. 25:30 Hmmm... 25:31 And I believe that she's a reformed... 25:34 we need to call her by a different name 25:36 because her story actually gives hope to all of our stories 25:40 that God can do anything, so, faith is an act 25:44 it is not... 25:45 it is not an abstract thought, it is an action word 25:48 it is a behavior... it's not an invisible thing in our head. 25:51 It's doing and more than doing, 25:54 it's more than speaking 25:57 because faith without action is dead, 26:01 you know, we say, "Faith without works is dead. " 26:02 Yeah. 26:04 Faith without action is dead because they are the same thing, 26:05 you show me your faith and I'll show you your works. 26:09 Yeah. 26:10 So, the take-away points that we can have 26:11 is that a person full of faith 26:14 is a person that is full of action. 26:16 Hmmm... 26:17 So, if you say you have faith, show me your actions, 26:19 I need to see the evidence of that, 26:21 I need to the action behind that faith that you say you have. 26:24 The Bible says, "By their fruits you shall know them. " 26:26 Exactly, so we must always have evidence 26:29 to prove the faith that we are talking about. 26:32 The Bible is not concerned about the quality 26:34 or really, the quantity of faith... the how much we have 26:38 because the Bible says, 26:39 "If you have faith of a mustard seed, 26:41 you can move a mountain, 26:43 so He's more concerned about us demonstrating 26:45 whatever little faith that we believe that we have, 26:48 right, and everyone, of course, has a measure of faith 26:51 because the Bible says in Romans 12:13, 26:55 according to the measure of faith, 26:57 God has given you 26:59 which means, everyone has a measure of faith 27:02 and He gave it to us in Galatians 5:22, 27:05 He talks about the spirit of love, joy, peace, longsuffering, 27:09 gentleness, goodness and faith. " 27:11 So we know for sure that faith is an action word 27:14 and there is more I can say about faith 27:16 and so many testimonies that I can share about faith 27:19 but because we had such a good time... we didn't get to that 27:22 so we're going to say a quick prayer, 27:24 "Father, we thank you for the examples in your Word 27:28 that show us that faith is an action word 27:30 and if we say that we are people of faith, 27:32 then we need to have the evidence 27:34 that would prove that our faith is real, it's alive 27:38 and it's moving. 27:39 Give us, Dear Lord, the spirit to continue to seek you 27:42 that our faith can become real 27:44 and our stories and our evidence would declare 27:47 that your Word is true, 27:49 we thank you, in the name of Jesus, amen. " 27:51 "Amen. " 27:52 Thank you so much, faith is a powerful thing 27:56 and remember that without faith, it is impossible to please God. 28:00 Join us next time 28:02 when Dr. Nadine brings the missing peace. |
Revised 2018-04-12