Walk In Faith

You can be a walking demonstration of the fact that Jesus is real in the quality of faith in your life.


Scripture: 1 Timothy 4:12, 1 Corinthians 2:12, John 4, Romans 10:17, 1 Samuel 14:6, Daniel 3:17, Romans 8:28
Topics: Faith, Spirit, Defence

Transcript

Alright, thank you very much. And hello again, radio friends. How in the world are you? Doing all right today? Oh, I trust everything’s going all right at your house. Me? I’m fine, thank you and nice of you to ask. I feel great and I’m so grateful for the privilege of speaking with you from God’s Word, day by day. I look forward to these times on the radio, really, I do. It’s like a vacation with pay when I can sit down with the Word of God and with you and share these precious things from God’s Word.

Now, the last time we got together, we were in the middle of 1 Timothy 4:12. “You can be a walking demonstration that Jesus is real by the spirit of your life.” And we talked then about the spirit of a person, the envelope of influence that surrounds every human life. And he said, “Receive not the spirit of the world but the Spirit of which is of God that we might know the things which are freely given to us, the things that are freely given to us of God.” He said, “You can be walking demonstration of the fact that Jesus is real.”

And we got at that from two angles. First of all, the spirit of man. “Which man knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of man which is in him?” There is that human spirit which projects outward your thoughts and feelings without your saying a word. You can tell when somebody likes you, or dislikes you, or just tolerates you, or is angry with you, or is happy with you. You can tell that by the sense of the spirit of the person before a word is ever spoken. You know that to be true, don’t you?

Now, God wants to take charge of that and so He says, “We’ve received the Spirit of God.” The Holy Spirit of God comes to dwell in the believer’s life at salvation and it is a command to be filled with the Spirit-that is to open by faith. This is your job and mine, to open by faith every room in your heart-house to the indwelling Holy Spirit that He might fill and control our lives.

So he says, “We’ve received not the spirit of the world.” The world’s spirit is, “Me first, get there anyway, nice guys finish last, you can get along without God and just make your way and enjoy yourself because you only go around once.” That’s the spirit of the world. That’s the devil’s big lie. He says, “We’ve received not the spirit of the world but the Spirit which is of God. In order that we might know the things that are freely given to us by God.” And that word “know” means find out, really find out.

“If thou knewest the gift of God and Who it is that saith to thee, ‘Give Me to drink.’ Thou wouldest have asked of Him and He would have given thee living water, Jesus said to the lady at the well of Sychar.” John 4 is the story, you remember it? “If thou knewest, thou wouldest.” God wants you to find out what He has in store for you. Paul prayed for the people at Colossae- he said, “I pray that you might be filled with the knowledge of His will, and all wisdom, and spiritual understanding.” God wants you to find out what He has in mind for you and then go do it.

Spirit. “You’d be an example of the believer in the spirit of your life and the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit who is in charge of your mind, your motives, and your decisions.” Spirit. You think about that in connection with your own life. What do people sense, beloved? Now, it’s not my business, it’s just yours and God’s. But what do people sense when they meet you and me? Do they feel anything of God’s Presence or do they sense something of our own, just our own human spirit? Our hang-ups and our resentments, our hurts and our disappointments, our fears and our doubts, our sense of pride or greed or whatever. What is it that people sense about you, beloved, and about me when they meet us? It’s a good question to ask and it’s pretty good basis for getting down and seeking God in prayer.

“We’ve received,” says Paul, “Not the spirit of the world but the Spirit which is of God that we may know, find out the things that are given to us by God.” Do you know anything new about what God has for you? Have you discovered as you waited before Him? Have you discovered any new possibilities with God? This is part of the value of daily meetings with your Lord in the quiet time of devotion. He whispers to you. See, the secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him and He will show them His covenant. God wants to tell you His secrets if you’ll spend some time with Him. You think about that, maybe act on it.

Now, the next word he said, “You be an example of the believers in faith.” Faith, of course, I have my over-simplistic Cook definition of faith: faith is the willingness to risk any given situation on God. Paul the Apostle stood on the deck of a heaving vessel that was soon to be broken up on the rocks, he said, “God told me there stood by me this night, the angel of God whose I am and whom I serve, and He told me that none of the ships, passengers or crew are going to be lost and so He said, “Wherefore I pray you take some meat, for this is for your health, for there shall not a hair fall from the head of any of you. I believe God,” he said. I believe God. See there you have it. Faith is the willingness to risk a situation on God.

Now what about this, you want to think about that for a while with me? It is such a big subject, you know we’re not going to exhaust it in the few minutes on the radio. But just to give you a little background on this matter of faith, “Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. If you want your faith to be begun and to be strengthened, you go to God’s Word. You don’t go to your feelings or to somebody else’s ideas, you go to the Word of God. Faith cometh by the Word of God.” Romans 10:17.

The way to tell whether you’re right or wrong is whether or not you can exercise faith based on the Word of God about it. Whatsoever is not of faith is sin. Faith makes you work, it makes you do something. “In Jesus Christ, neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love.” Faith can see the results before they arrive. “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” And so, if you have faith, you’re going to prosper, “Believe in the Lord your God, so shall ye be established; believe, so shall ye prosper.”

Faith is a defense. “Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.” If you want to please God, you have to have faith. Without faith, it is impossible to please Him, “For he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.”

If you want answers to prayer, you have to have faith. “Let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. Let not that man, that means the wavering person, think that he shall receive anything of the Lord.”Faith.

Now, you can be a walking demonstration of the fact that Jesus is real in the quality of faith in your life. And as we said, as we began this a moment ago, if you want to start somewhere, start with the Word of God. Faith cometh by the Word of God. Romans 10:17 says that, “If you want to start somewhere to strengthen your faith, start with the Word of God.” Start reading the Word, start memorizing it, start meditating upon it, and start obeying it, and you’ll find that your faith is strengthened. The blessed by-product of being in the Word is that you learn how to believe God for things.

I was looking at a listing of the different people who exemplified victorious faith. Abraham walking up the mountain side with Isaac, the servants and the beasts of burden had been left at the base of the mountain and now just the two of them, Abraham and Isaac were on there way up the mountain side and Isaac asks, “Behold, my father, the wood and the fire but where is the lamb for the offering?” And Abraham said, “My son, God will provide Himself a lamb for a burnt offering.” So they went on together.

Caleb, 84-years-old says, “Give me this mountain, whereof the Lord spake in that day; if so be the Lord will be with me, I shall be able to drive out the giants, as the Lord said.” Jonathan said to his armor bearer, “Let’s go over to the garrison of the Philistines, it may be the Lord will work for us, for there is no restraint to the Lord to save by many or by few.” That’s a great promise, 1 Samuel 14:6.

Young David speaking to King Saul after having heard the profane rantings of Goliath. He said, “The Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, He will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine.” Saul said to David, “Go and the Lord be with thee.” David believed God and he said to the giant as they came together in a confrontation on the field of battle. He said, “You come to me with a sword and a spear, but I come to you in the name of the Lord God of Israel.”

There’s the difference, faith dares to face the impossible in trusting in God and in God’s name. Faith concerning the hereafter. Job said, “I know that my Redeemer liveth and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth. And though after my flesh worms destroy this body, yet for myself shall I see God whom I shall see for myself and not another.” Faith concerning the hereafter.

Faith concerning the what-if elements in life. What if God doesn’t answer my prayer? Then what? The three Hebrews saying, “If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us out from thy hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, we will not bow down or serve the image which thou hast set up.” The faith takes care of the what if factor. That’s a big one in our lives, you pray about the weather, what if it rains? Anyway, you pray about getting a need supplied, a financial need supplied and the what if, what if the money doesn’t come in? You pray about a family situation and the what-if factor comes. What if they don’t get together and don’t get reconciled? You pray about a job situation and the what-if factor comes in. What if the boss doesn’t accept my proposal and fires me instead? See, what if?

Well faith says, “Look I’m trusting God anyway, hallelujah anyway. God is still on the throne and I can trust him. The real meaning of Romans 8:28 is not that when you do your best, everything works out alright. The real meaning of Romans 8:28 and we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to purpose. The real meaning of that promise is that God takes things when they’re all fouled up and everything is going wrong and He makes it turn out for His glory, Hallelujah, anyway. You believe that? Faith.

Now, you can be a walking demonstration of that kind of faith where people see that you really trust God, that you haven’t got some little convenient side exit somewhere out of which you can get, if things don’t go well. You know? “Lord, we ask you to do this but if not, oh, at least help us to accept whatever it is.” A little convenient side exit is not God’s way. Complete trust in Almighty God no matter what is God’s way. When I think about that, you can be living proof that Jesus is real in the matter of really trusting God as you do it day by day.

Now, Lord, guide us today and help us to prove by our lives that Jesus is real, Amen.

Till I meet you once again by way of radio, walk with the King today and be a blessing!



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