September 9, 2007

Historical background:

    Christianity began after the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ 2000 years ago. After the apostles of that time, a traditional Christianity developed. For many years people began to disregard the idea of salvation through grace and faith and began teaching salvation through works. Around the sixteenth century, a person named Martin Luther, whom the light was shed upon, realized that salvation through works is not biblical so he began what’s called the Reformation movement, also known as the Protestant Reformation. Around early 1900s there was a Pentecostal revival in Asuza Street in Los Angeles, California. Following that revival, great people of God such as Maria Woodworth-Etter, John G. lake and Smith Wigglesworth arose until about 1960s. Then a movement known as the Charismatic Movement arose followed by the Word/Faith Movement. This movement was ignited by Kenneth Hagen who emphasized the importance of the Word of God, not just healing or the Holy Ghost movement, as the previous movements did. He also emphasized the importance of faith in a person’s salvation and everyday life.

The message of faith is vital for everyone. It is not denominational, nor is it just a movement. It is what everyone needs to have. Salvation comes through faith, but not only are you saved through faith but you have to live by it also. The Bible tells us that God values faith more than anything.

 Why exactly do we need faith?

 1) In order to please God

            Hebrews 11:6- “It is impossible to please God without faith.”

Faith and fear are completely opposite from one another. The devil is like a lion. He’s not even a real lion, but he acts as though he is a real lion so you could fear him because that’s the only way he could be influential in your life. By having fear you are pleasing the devil. Knowing that you can’t please two sides at once, you either please God with your faith or please the devil with your fear. If you have faith, you can’t possibly have fear because the Bible tells us not to fear. Therefore, it is impossible to please God without faith, but just as it is so, it is also impossible to please the devil without fear, so when you have faith you please God and when you have fear you please the devil. Do you want to please God? The answer is have faith!

2) Because our existence depends on our faith.

            Romans 1:17- “The just (righteous) shall live by faith”

Faith is a necessity for our existence. Just as a fish can’t live without water, we’re unable to live without faith.

3) Have God kind of faith.

            Mark 11:22-23- “So Jesus answered and said to them, ‘Have faith in God. For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says.’”

When it says have faith, the Greek translates as “have God kind of faith.” When God created the heavens and the earth, He spoke and it happened. Therefore, our faith should be first believing and then speaking. We are able to rearrange or make many things happen on earth just by our words. The Bible tells us in Proverbs, “Life and death are in the power of the tongue.” Our tongue has power and therefore everything that comes out of our mouths have power. All it takes is first believing and then speaking what we believe. This is the way we received our salvation in the first place and it is also the way we must live.  If there is anything you don’t like in your life and you want to change it, speak against it. The change will occur by you speaking it.

Faith isn’t just believing, it is also speaking what you believe. What exactly do we believe? Well, we believe God’s Word. God has already given us power to change our situation, and all that power is found in His Word. Unless we know His Word, we won’t possibly know all the power we have been given. Therefore we will not know that we are able to change our situation by speaking against it, so rather, we  just wait around for God to change it. When nothing happens, we blame it on God, while the whole time, God is telling us that He has already enabled us to do what we want Him to do.

Kenneth Hagen built his life on Mark 11:23. He was extremely sick, to the point of death, but after reading this particular verse, he was able to call health upon his situation and he was  healed. The Bible tells us “Let the weak say I’m strong, and let the poor say I’m rich.” Hence, when our situation tells us that we’re poor, we speak wealth upon it and when our body tells us we’re sick we call health upon it. We would confess, “I’m healed,” based on the Word of God. Our confession must be according to the Word of God, not just empty words. Empty words won’t do anything for us, and Ephesians 4 tells us not to speak any empty words.  So we need to make sure that we know the Word of God as thoroughly as possible so we would have correct confessions in every situation we face.

It might take some time for you to see the changes, but keep confessing the Word of life upon your situation and you will in time. Faith is not denying the reality. What appears as the reality is there but you don’t base your belief on it. Instead, you base it on the Word of God. That’s what faith is!

 September 16, 2007

  4) We are justified by faith:

            Romans 3:28- “Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law.”

            Romans 5:1- “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,”

            Galatians 2:16- “knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified.”

            Galatians 3:11- “But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for  ‘the just shall live by faith.’”

The word “justify” defines as, just as if you haven’t sinned. When you are justified, God sees you as pure, without any blemishes, just as if you haven’t sinned. When you are justified, you are pardoned from the law. Not that God just decided you don’t have to live by law anymore, but He sent His son to pay the price of the law so that it could be fulfilled fully. Not that the law is relaxed, set aside, or diluted, but it was declared to be fulfilled just as it was by paying the price of all the law requires. Because of that we are justified by faith, we become like perfect obedient people to the law.

Jesus paid it all. Romans 8:3 tells us that God condemned sin in Jesus. What the law required was death, “the wages of sin is death.” So God sent His Son to pay in full satisfaction of what the law requires. Jesus fulfilled 100% of the requirements so we won’t have to live by it.

Now our responsibility is not to observe the law and follow it but just to believe. Once we believe, we’ll be justified, just as we’ve never sinned.

We don’t have to live to be accepted. However, we’re already accepted so we live as though we are accepted. Similarly, we don’t have to live to be saved. We’re already saved so we need to live as saved people.

5)  We’ve been made righteous by faith:

            Romans 9:30- “What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness of faith;”

Righteousness means right standing with God without fear, inferiority or guiltiness. We have been given the right to stand before God without any condemnation.  Romans 8:1 says, “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.” Once we are in Christ Jesus, we are free from condemnation and are made righteous. Romans also tells us that we’ve been made the righteousness of God so now as Hebrews 4:16 says we can approach the throne of God boldly, without fear, inferiority, or any sort of guilt.

There is a difference between righteousness and holiness. People have hard times to live a life or holiness because they don’t know the meaning of holiness. The problem is that they are told to live the life without being informed of the meaning.

Righteousness means right standing whereas holiness means being set apart.

Righteous is being whereas holiness is doing, the conduct of living.

For example, because a dog is a dog it will bark; not because it is told to do so, but because that’s who it is. Likewise, we have been told to be holy, without being informed of the fact that we are already righteous. If we know we are righteous, we will start doing its actions. The byproduct of righteousness is holiness so we won’t try to be holy but we will live a holy life because we are righteous. Just as the dog barks because that’s who it is, we will live a life of holiness because that’s who we are.

When it is said that we are righteous, it means that we already have a clean white suit on. Since you’re suit is clean, new, and expensive you wouldn’t just go and mess around with anyone and ruin it. Now, in God’s sight you are clean, meaning you’ve been made righteous. When you know that you are already clean and you’re with your white suit you would do anything in order to protect it from getting any spot on it. Yes, the Bible tells us that we’ve been made righteous so we have to believe it in order to be justified. The Bible says that Abraham believed and it was credited it to him as righteousness. So, in the same way, we have to believe.

 6) Whatever we do, if it’s not in faith, God looks at it as sin:

            Romans 14:23- “for whatever is not from faith is sin.”

The Bible says that the righteous live by faith and also it is impossible to please God without faith. Therefore, it we’re not in faith, then we’re definitely not pleasing Him, and if it’s not pleasing God then it must be a sin.

 7) We are saved by grace through faith:

            Ephesians 2:8-9- “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of                                                      yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.”

Your faith is required for salvation and not only for salvation but also for living because the righteous shall live by faith.

8) By faith you overcome the world:

            1 John 5:4- “For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.”

What overcomes the world/the enemy is our faith. The more faith you have the more you are able to overcome the world and all the things of the world. In order to raise your faith level, you must raise your Word level. Your faith is measured by how much Word you have in you. No word no faith! So what ever your situation is if you need to overcome it start developing yourself by the Word. For example, if your problem is fear, go develop yourself with the Word that is contrary to fear such as 2 Timothy 1:7 or 1 John 4:18. The only way the devil comes against you is by lies, because he operates in lies since he is the father of all lies. So in order to fight him off, you need to fill yourself with the Truth; overcome lies with the Truth.

 September 23, 2007

9) To receive all that God has for us:

            2 Peter 1:2-4- “Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”

By life it means everything we need physically and by godliness h it means everything that we need spiritually. So this scripture is telling us that whatever we need, whether it is physical or spiritual, it has already been given to us. If they have already been given to us then what is the problem? The problem is that we lack knowledge. The only way we receive all that we have been already given is by knowing exactly what we have  been given.

We are partakers of God’s divine nature, which means that everything about Him and who He is can be manifested through us. So when people say that they don’t believe that God exists, we must get to the point that we reflect God enough to tell them to look at us and see that God really does exist.

Genesis 2 tells us that God created us to be in charge of the earth. It says, “Let Us(the Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost) create man in Our image and let them have dominion over the earth.” God wants to have dominion over the earth through us, He wants to rule through us. This is why the Bible tells us that we are ambassadors and that we are citizens of heaven. When an ambassador goes to a different country, he/she goes to represent his/her own country. The embassy itself is like a part of the country it is representing. In the same way, while we are on earth we are a representations of our real home, heaven.

We have become personal properties of God. We do not belong to one another, we don’t even belong to ourselves, according to 2 Corinthians 6. We belong solely to God. He has given us everything so He can manifest through us. Because of that we must always realize that we are not like everyone else. We are children of a King, royal and peculiar (unique) people.

Don’t be scared to be unique because your uniqueness draws people to you. Don’t be like everyone else, stand out because God called us to be unique. He told us and gave us all the ability and power to be like Him. He said, “Be holy, as I’m holy,” but He didn’t just tell us to be holy, He also gave us the power and ability to do it.

 10) By faith we speak as God does:

            Romans 4:17- “…God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did;”

By faith we too can call on things that are not as though they were as God does. He gave us the ability to do so. In Mark 11, Jesus dried up the fig tree just by His Word. We too, with faith, can do as Jesus did. When Jesus said we could move a mountain with faith as small as a mustard seed, He wasn’t only talking about spiritual mountains, He was also talking about physical things. It might not be a mountain literally, but it could be things as a parking space, according to your faith level.

September 30, 2007

 1) All the people exemplified in Hebrews 11died in faith!

            Hebrews: 11:13- “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.

Basically Hebrews 11 tells us that we need faith to be saved and then we begin to walk with God by faith, as illustrated in Enoch’s life. We need faith to continue to walk and we need faith to continue our work.

 What exactly is faith?

            Hebrews 11:1- “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see” (NIV).     

                                    “Faith means being sure of the things we hope for and knowing that something is real even if we do not see it” (NCV).

                                    “The fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in God, this faith, is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living. It's our handle on what we can't see” (The Message).

                                    “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (NKJV).

What is substance?

            Substance is something that’s settled under a firm foundation (confidence)

What is hope?

            Hope is something that is anticipated                        

In the Greek, faith means 1) firm persuasion, 2) conviction, and 3) belief

Now putting all that together faith could be defined as: our firm persuasion and conviction is a solid foundation for those things that we expect with great anticipation. (combined from different translations).

 Faith is believing that God loves you enough to fulfill His promises to you and also believing that God meant what He said when He said it.

How does faith come?

            The source of your faith is the Word of God. “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17).

            By hearing it means spiritual hearing, being receptive to the Word of God. It doesn’t only mean hearing with the outside ear.

Faith doesn’t begin by just listening to people and building your foundation on what you thought others said. When you base your faith on what you thought others said, you’ll begin to walk in assumption. Therefore instead of walking in assumption, read and study the Word of God yourself, and verify if what you think you heard is right.

 Faith begins where the will of God is known. If you don’t have the Word of God in you then you will lack faith because the will of God is in the Word of God.

Faith isn’t optional. It is essential in every Christian’s life.

Once faith comes in, it must be used, it must be released. For example, once the woman with the issue of blood heard that Jesus was coming, she said, “if I touch the hem of His garment then I’ll be healed.” Then she went and touched Him and power was released out of Him. This woman first believed that Jesus could heal her, she spoke and said she will be healed if she touched Him, and finally she took action. In the same way, we first have to believe that Jesus could do what ever it is that we want Him to do, speak it and then take action. We can’t stop at, “I believe He can do it.” We have to take the action that corresponds to our faith. For example, if you have a test tomorrow, it is good to believe and say that God will help you, but you also have to take the proper action by actually studying.

Therefore, when you believe, you speak it, then you release(take action that corresponds to what you are believing) and then power will be released.

Preached by: Pastor Teddy
Written by: Rebka  Tekeste