[x_custom_headline type=”left” level=”h4″ looks_like=”h4″]Have you ever felt like a pinball inside of a pinball game? Once you think you are finally rolling towards the end of the game, a set of flippers smacks you yet again, and you are bouncing one way and then the next, with no notion as to when you will ever stop rolling and being tossed all around. And I believe this describes the life experiences of most humans.[/x_custom_headline]
I say this because most of the people I have known in my lifetime have absolutely no idea why things happen in their lives the way they do. And so they simply deal with things as they come, with no thought whatsoever that they could be prepared to overcome them. Whether those things be money problems, sickness, relationship issues, addictions, and a list of other situations that arise in people’s lives, these things become the controlling factor of their lives. And as I said, they have no idea what to do about any of these problems, other than try to survive them. And sometimes they succeed at it, but most of the time, they do not.
And this explains why there are so many people with fractured families, financial failures, and a trail of misery in their rearview mirror.
[highlight]And the truth is, most of the Christians I have known are no better.[/highlight] They too, have learned to just try to survive the storms they face in life, instead of taking charge, and developing a lifestyle of faith to conquer their troubles.
Because with faith, that spiritual substance that comes to believers when they hear the promises of God, you can overcome the world (see 1 John 5:4). But without faith, your life will resemble the pinball in the pinball game more times than not.
And this is why you need faith right now.
Having spent my entire adult life in the ministry, I can tell you that most people wait until after they are attacked in their body, or after their marriage is unraveling, or after their finances take a whiplash causing turn south, before they decide that they should grow their faith. But that is like having a category five hurricane blowing into your town before you decide to build a storm shelter. No, you need faith now. And to be even clearer, you need to develop really strong faith right now.
Something you need to understand is that faith is the lifestyle of all true believers.
[x_blockquote cite=”Hebrews 10:38 KJV” type=”left”]“Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.”[/x_blockquote]
This verse above, along with many others, tells us that having a lifestyle of faith is not an option for Christians. Yet some people wrongly believe that simply using one’s faith to receive Jesus as Lord and Savior is what it means to have a life of faith. Of course, that is where it all begins. But the truth is, if you can believe Jesus to forgive all of your sins, bring you into the new birth, and translate you into the Kingdom of God, then you can believe Him to do everything else He promised in His Word He would do.
From hearing some people talk, a life of faith is something that belonged to those who were following after a particular fad a few decades ago. They belittle faith and those who teach it, as if faith were a fairy tale. But this foolish talk not only holds them back from receiving what God has for them in life, it cripples those who hear this unbiblical idea as well.
I, too, have been criticized by people, and sometimes my own friends, for what they refer to as my misguided theology and my teachings on faith in God’s Word. These same people will then bemoan their own condition, while pointing to mine as though I have been “lucky” or something. But the truth is, everything I am, and everything I have, came from using my faith in God’s promises. Instead of criticizing, they should be asking me questions about how to have a lifestyle of faith of their own. Because what they are doing isn’t working!
[highlight]I’m telling you, that living in these last days, you will have to know how to get faith, grow in faith, and become extremely proficient in using it.[/highlight]
And I’d like to add at this point, that this is why I personally avoid like the plague, anyone teaching where they make fun of faith and people of faith, and I would not personally attend a church that did not make this teaching available to me continually. Because without faith, you can’t please God, let alone receive anything He promised you in His Word (see Hebrews 11:6).
We limit God by our lack of faith. God wants us to have everything that He has promised us in His Word, but He is limited by our failure or refusal to become strong in faith. It’s according to your faith that you receive from God (Matthew 8:13, 9:29; Mark 5:34, 10:52 are just a few places that tell us this).
[x_blockquote cite=”2 Thessalonians 1:3 KJV” type=”left”]“We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is meet, because that your faith groweth exceedingly, and the charity of every one of you all toward each other aboundeth;”[/x_blockquote]
Since it is according to your faith that you receive from God, you will have to grow in faith to receive what it is you need to receive from Him. But if you neglect to do this, you will simply do without everything God promised in His Word that you could have.
Living by faith is a higher way to live because it takes you from always being tossed around by circumstances, to the place where your circumstances no longer move you. Instead your faith bring you to the place where you can receive from God and do the impossible. [highlight]And this is why I’m telling you today that you need faith NOW![/highlight]
