Biblical Concept of Faith (29)

[Background music and singing] [Speaker 1] Blessings and glory and glory, wisdom, thanksgiving, and honor and honor, power and might be unto the Lord forever and ever. Amen. Amen, amen, amen, amen, amen. [Speaker 2] Church is not religious, but must be more spiritual than the individuals or families that constitute them. But we desire godliness. These are words of restoration and instruction in righteousness from Family Tent Ministry. May you be blessed as you listen. [Speaker 1] Our Father, we thank you again for this evening. Our God, we give you praise. We give you worship. We appreciate you for your mercies. We thank you for your love. We thank you, Lord, for your goodness towards us. Lord, we gather again today to look into scriptures. Lord, we pray that as we gather, your spirit will work within us in the name of Jesus. Lord, we pray for our lives, our brethren who are joining us on Telegram, our brethren who are joining us on Mixlr, we who are yet physical. Lord, we commit ourselves into your hand. Lord, we pray as we look into scriptures again, Lord, we ask, meet with each and every one of us at that point, oh Lord, where we need you most, individually and collectively, in the name of Jesus Christ. Lord, teach us your ways. Lord, our prayer over and over again is that Lord, you will fill us with the knowledge of your will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, that we may walk worthy of you, in every way pleasing, fruitful in every good works, and increasing in your knowledge, in the name of Jesus Christ. Thank you, eternal Father. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. So we want to look at where we left the matter two weeks ago. Last week, it was our last Monday in the month of July. We took time to pray and our prayer focus was overnight—the overnight miracle. How the rod of Aaron was able to sprout, budded, and at the same time, it was able to bring forth ripe almond overnight because God wanted to prove a point that Aaron was the man that was chosen in the midst of the contention. And my prayer is that everywhere God need to use your life to prove a point, may the Lord work miraculously and wonderfully around your life, in your life, and through your life to prove that you are his own, in the name of Jesus Christ. Today, we want to move on from where we left the matter two weeks ago, which is Biblical Concept of Faith. Two weeks ago, you remember that our focus was on there are two aspects to faith: you being able to hear the Lord, and the other one is you being able to believe the testimony of those who have heard him. So sometimes faith may not come because you heard the Lord personally, but because you received the testimony of those who heard the Lord. So there are two ways to it. On one hand, you are having a personal walk, you are hearing something. God doesn't stop at only that. God also wants us to believe his testimony that others gave about him. So faith has the first leg of you hearing the Lord, the second one of the witnesses. And we saw how God brought several witnesses in the book of Hebrews. Let's go back to that scripture. Hebrews 12, where the Bible says, "Therefore, since we also are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses." So we saw that we have so many witnesses and their life spoke about several things. And so that was where we stopped in our last discussion. So let's move on from where we left the matter two weeks ago, which is Hebrews 11:1. Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. We have done that. It says, "For by it, the elders obtained a good report." So we saw several elders who were witnesses. Now the Bible now went on to say in the verse 3: "By faith we understand—it is very important for you to note that. By faith we understand—that the worlds were framed." Now I want you to note that it is the world, that is, the entire universe. "By faith we understand that the entire universe or the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen are not made of the things which appear." The Bible is underscoring a very, very strong point for the believer, and we need to take note of this very, very well. Having talked about that faith has eyes, you must be able to see, having been able to make you to also know that you must be able to receive the witness from people, what they testify about if you have not known, "Have you not heard?" Now the Bible now came to a very important thing. The Bible says, "By faith we under and stand. There was an 'under' that formed the standing." That is, there is a base. When you see something very, very high, you say, "Upon what is it standing?" "Okay, something is under it." Are you getting the point I'm trying to bring out? Under for a standing. There is this "under" that makes you to stand. Now people are seeing you standing, but if they keep looking at you standing, for them to be able to get why you are standing, they must go under. If they don't go under, they'll just be looking at you standing, they won't see anything until they go under. By faith we got an under for our standing. By faith we got an under, a foundation. We got a base for what we are standing on. Faith gave us a base. Faith gave us a foundation to stand. Now, what are we standing on? What are we standing on by faith? We are standing on that, look, everything you see, everything you see did not come from what you are seeing. Everything that you can see, faith gave us a base. And this time, I am looking at faith from the point of Romans 10. Please look at Romans 10. It's talking about "at God's command," "at God's command." By faith you understand that the universe came into existence by what God said. Please note that. That's why another translation use "God's command." When you look at before we go to Romans, let's look at Psalm 33. Psalm 33 please. I just want to point to something there in Psalm 33. Look at what the Bible says. I want to read from verse 6: "By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth. He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap; He lays up the deep in storehouses." As a result, what should the earth do? "Let all the earth—what should they do?—fear the Lord; let all the inhabitants of the world—do what?—stand in awe of him. Why? Why? For he spoke—he spoke—and it was done." I want you to see something about creation. Creation is not about a revelation. Creation is about a command. I'm going to talk about the other dimension to faith, which is the voice. I've spoken so much about revelation. Now I want to speak about what goes beyond revelation now. I want to speak about the voice of God. The voice of God. He said, "God spoke and it was done." "God said, 'Let there be light,' and there was light." "God said," the voice of God. The Bible says, "The voice of the Lord breaketh the cedar." The Bible says, "The voice of the Lord maketh the mountain to skip." There is something about voice. It said, "By faith we see the world come into existence by God's word. What we see created by what we don't see." By faith we understand—now do you notice that all the versions that we have read use the word understand, understand, understand? By faith we understand that the world during the successive ages were framed, fashioned, put in order, and equipped for their intended purpose by the word of God, so that what we see was not made out of things that are visible. So we are getting an idea of something. We are seeing something very seriously: that faith brings understanding. By faith we understand. I'm going to talk about the eyes of faith, that faith has eyes. And you must never settle down for a faith that does not have eyes. The Bible talked about that your eyes of faith must be open, that is, there must be something revealed. There must be something that God is revealing, that God is making you to see. And we have seen that this happen in several ways. We use the example of Mary Magdalene. Magdalene saw. She saw the angels, she saw Jesus. Magdalene saw. So we are talking about the eyes of faith. But now I'm bringing you to something else about faith. The word of faith, the word, the word, the command, the command, the word, the spoken word. It says, "For he spoke and it was done." He commanded and it stood fast. Now I want you to see something about creation. Creation is not about a revelation. Creation is about a command. Everything that you can see, faith gave us a base. Now I want you to relate this to that Romans 10 that I called earlier. Romans 10. Look at Romans 10. The Bible says in verse 6: "But the righteousness of faith speaks this way." The righteousness of faith speaks. Do you notice the word again? "Speak." He spoke and it was done. He commanded and he stood fast. You get it? Now the righteousness that is of faith, what does it do? It speaks in this way: "Do not say in your heart." So are you seeing that there is a voice? Something is speaking. Where is it speaking? It's speaking inside you. "Do not say in your heart, 'Who will ascend into the heavens?' (that is, to bring Christ down from above) or 'Who will descend into the abyss?' (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? 'The word is near you'—in your mouth, where is it?—'in your heart' (that is, the word of faith which we preach): that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture says, 'Whoever believes on him will not be put to shame.' For there is no distinction between Jew or Greek, for the same Lord is over all, and he's rich to all who call upon him. For whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved." So what are you seeing in this place? Please quickly jump to verse 16, 17. Look at what the Bible says. "But they did not obey the gospel. For Isaiah says, 'Lord, who has believed our report?'" So what does he now say in verse 17? It says, "So then faith comes by—what?—hearing, and hearing by the word of God." Now the Bible is trying to make us see something. Looking at where we are coming from in Psalm 33, where the Bible says our initial reading, "For he spoke and it was done. He commanded and everything stood fast." Now the Bible is letting us see that actually what brought the universe—what brought the entire universe—was what? The word of God's mouth. Now the Bible is letting us see that the righteousness which is by faith actually has a what? A voice. And before faith begin to speak, it says, "Where is faith? It's in your mouth, then it is where? It is in your heart." But how does it come to your heart and to your mouth? How does it come to your heart then to your mouth? It says the faith will come by hearing, and then the hearing by the word of God. So God gave a command. God gave a command. Are you getting it? When God gave that command, what happened to you? You heard that command. When you heard the command, it brought faith to where? To your heart. Because it came to your heart, where does it now come to? It comes to your mouth. You, you now declare what is in your heart. But what is in your heart could not come to your heart until you have heard the voice of faith. Now the Bible now says the faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of God. Now the Bible is saying that God speaks where? In his word. When God wants to create anything in your life, what does God do? God speaks. He spoke and it was done. He commanded and they stood fast. Are you getting something? That ability to hear that which God is commanding, that ability to hear that which God is counseling, that hearing, that hearing, hearing of what God is counseling, what God is commanding, what God is saying, and laying hold of it. Faith come by what? By hearing. Faith come by hearing. So there is a hearing that is in faith. God is commanding something. God want to bring something to pass in your life. God begin to bring it as a counsel. God begin to bring it as a command. It is coming as a speaking. "Let there be this. Do this. Go this way. Turn like this. Take this. Run like this. Move like this. Take that. Turn this way. Write your letter of application. Go and submit. Go to this school. Go to this place. Marry this person. Don't marry that person. Go this way." When God want to bring it to pass, what does God do? God speaks. So if it is in your life, what does he do? He speaks to you. It is the word which I speak unto you. There is the Rhema of God. The Logos is important, but cry to God for Rhema. It is the act of faith to hear the Lord. What the Lord told you, the Lord said, what did he tell you? "The Lord said." Be able to come to that point in your life where you can say, "The Lord spoke to me. The Lord said to me." And that brings me to this conclusion. I'm talking about concluding on this, "By faith we'll understand." You notice that when they came to John the Baptist in the book of John and they were asking him a very important question that, "Are you the Christ?" He told them something. He said, "I have told you before that I am not Christ, but I am what? I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness. Make a path straight for the Lord." Do you get that? Where was John speaking from? He was speaking from Isaiah 40. "The voice of one crying in the wilderness." I want to make you see something, the connection between the written word of God and the spoken word of God. There is a connection between the written word of God and the spoken word of God. How does this connect with our faith? There is a strong tie between these two things. If you don't give yourself to the scripture, that Bible in your hand, that you are calling the Bible, if you don't give yourself completely, deliberately to it, you may never ever develop the hearing that comes by faith. There is a hearing. Logos is important, but cry to God for Rhema. It is the act of faith to hear the Lord. "What the Lord told you?" "The Lord said." "What did he tell you?" "The Lord said." Be able to come to that point in your life where you can say, "The Lord spoke to me. The Lord said to me." And that brings about... the Lord spoke. Everything that you can see, the entire universe, it didn't say the things that are living. The entire universe, that is the things that are living and the things that are not living. For example, what did Jesus say about moving a mountain? "If you say to this mountain, 'Move and be cast into the sea,' what will happen to the mountain? The mountain will move." So which means mountain has ears. Jesus, Lazarus was dead. Jesus said, "Lazarus, come forth." What happened? Even who is the person that is dead have ears. So the Bible is not saying that the things that are living came into existence when God spoke, no. It's trying to make you see that the entire thing about your life, for it to come into existence, everything that God wants to do by faith in your life, there is a hearing. If there is no hearing, there will be no life. There will be no creation. Until we can hear, that is what we are calling faith. Faith comes by hearing. So there is a hearing that is in faith. It is that hearing, it is that hearing that is the under for your standing. By faith we under and stand. Until there is this under you cannot stand. There is a hearing and then there is a standing. By faith we understand. Faith give us a under for a standing. We now understand. And when people are asking you that, "What is your problem?" you will tell them the things that are seen, they will not be created from the things that will appear. Because faith has begun to do what? Hear. Faith is hearing the counsel of God. Faith is receiving the counsel of God. God is saying go this way, go like this, do this, move here, go here. What is wrong with this young man? What is wrong with this young woman? It is because they are hearing something different from them. The majority are not hearing it. Others will be wondering. They'll be wondering, what is this person's problem? And that is why somebody said, and I quote, "When a man begins to see the invisible and hear the inaudible, friends and neighbors start calling him or her mystical. 'Much learning has made you mad,' they will say. And sometimes sympathetically, they'll be thinking you have gone soft in the head, that is you are mad. But while they amuse themselves with derogations, hoping to belittle and to disparage, the truth must forever be confessed. Those who share the mysteries of God are mystics. You cannot always explain everything about their life. You cannot." That is what Paul was saying when he said, "Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind." You notice at a point in the life of Paul, he wanted to go to Rome. And then brethren began to come up with different prophecies. At one point, it was Agabus who took his effort—took his effort. He tied his hand, tied his leg. What did he say? He said that Agabus would tie the man, that's how they are going to tie Paul if he goes to Rome. And when people heard that thing, they tried to persuade Paul. "Please, please, please you don't need to go." And Paul said, "What is you people's problem? Why are you trying to discourage me and break my heart? Listen, I'm not only ready to go to Rome, I'm ready to go and die in Rome." At that point they say, "Let the will of God be done." They were not hearing what he was hearing. At some point in a man's life, you begin to see this kind of direction. And that's why sometimes you see some people you don't understand certain people. You don't know what they're doing, you don't know what they're doing. "But ah, is this thing not risky?" They say, "No." It's God and you begin to... look, there is a voice in faith. And I am telling you that look, when God want to begin to actualize his plan for your life, God actualizes his plans, God frustrate the counsel of the nation. What he's saying is that what other people will be saying—hey, anybody that does this course, they always become teachers. You better don't read that course, else you end up as a teacher. If that is what God wants you to go and do it. "Hey, you will not hear. You'll better go for this one." But the Lord may be telling you, "Go this way." Go this way. "Hey, the people that went there, they don't make it. This one that makes it." And God is saying go like this. And it looks like, what is this person's problem? But what they don't understand is that the more the person begins to take the voice of God and move with that voice, what they are thinking, what they are expecting, God will frustrate it. The plans and the counsel of God for that person's life is what will shine forth. That is the reality. It may be God is saying look, marry this person. And then some people are saying, "Ah, anybody who marry from that tribe, hmm, what they have noticed about them is that they end up divorcing. That's what they have realized about this particular tribe." And you begin to rub with that thing, and yet a man is saying, "The Lord is telling me." And then the expectations of the nation, the counsel of the nation is that "We will see. We will see, oh." Titi re, titi re, do stubbornness. But what I'm saying is that if it is the counsel of the Lord, and that is why I tell people you must be able to develop a what? You must develop the hearing that is of faith. There is a hearing. There is a hearing. What I'm saying is this, don't ever be ready to settle down, don't settle down, don't be contented with a Christianity, a righteousness that cannot hear. There is a hearing. There is a Rhema of God beyond the Logos, the written word, beyond the written word. There is a Rhema, there is a speaking. It is when the Logos become Rhema that you see men begin to stand because there is already an under for their word, for their standing. Their understanding that look, the things that will appear will not come from what is visible. They'll be telling you, "How are you sure? You don't have this, you don't have this, you don't have this, you don't have this." You tell them, "Don't worry." Because faith has begun to hear. Faith is hearing the counsel of God. Faith is receiving the counsel of God. God is saying go this way, go like this, do this, move here, go here. "What is wrong with this young man? What is wrong with this young woman?" And then they don't understand that the person... the more the person begin to hear the voice of God, the voice of faith, faith comes by hearing. So there is a hearing that is in faith. It is that hearing—please listen to me now—it is that hearing that is the under for your standing. By faith we under and stand. Until there is this under you cannot stand. Until there is that hearing, you cannot stand. Faith give us an under for a standing. We now understand. And when people are talking to you that "What is your problem?" you will tell them, "The things that are seen, they will not be created from the things that will appear." Because faith has begun to hear. Faith is hearing the counsel of God. Faith is receiving the counsel of God. God is saying go this way, go like this, do this, move here, go here. What is wrong with this young man? What is wrong with this young woman? And they don't understand that look, everything that God want to bring into being in your life, everything God want to do by faith in your life, there is a hearing. If there is no hearing, there will be no life. There will be no creation. Until we can hear, that is what we are calling faith. Faith come by hearing. So there is a hearing that is in faith. It is that hearing—please listen to me now—it is that hearing that is the under for your standing. By faith we under and stand. Until there is this under you cannot stand. Until there is that hearing, you cannot stand. Faith give us an under for a standing. We now understand. And when people are talking to you that "What is your problem?" you will tell them the things that are seen, they will not be created from the things that will appear. Hallelujah! Because faith has begun to hear. Faith is hearing the counsel of God. Faith is receiving the counsel of God. God is saying go this way, go like this, do this, move here, go here. What is wrong with this young man? What is wrong with this young woman? And they don't understand it is that the person... the more the person begin to take the voice of God and move with that voice, what they are thinking, what they are expecting, God will frustrate it. The plans and the counsel of God for that person's life is what will shine forth. That is the reality. It may be God is saying look, marry this person. And then some people are saying, "Ah, anybody who marry from that tribe, hmm, what they have noticed about them is that they end up divorcing. That's what they have realized about this particular tribe." And you begin to rub with that thing, and yet a man is saying, "The Lord is telling me." And then the expectations of the nation, the counsel of the nation is that "We will see. We will see, oh." Titi re, titi re, do stubbornness. But what I'm saying is that if it is the counsel of the Lord, and that is why I tell people you must be able to develop the hearing that is of faith. There is a hearing. There is a hearing. Don't ever be ready to settle down, don't settle down, don't be contented with a Christianity, a righteousness that cannot hear. There is a hearing. There is a Rhema of God beyond the Logos, the written word, beyond the written word. There is a Rhema, there is a speaking. It is when the Logos become Rhema that you see men begin to stand because there is already an under for their standing. They understand that look, the things that will appear will not come from what is visible. They'll be telling you, "How are you sure? You don't have this, you don't have this, you don't have this, you don't have this." You tell them, "Don't worry." Because faith has begun to do what? Hear. Faith is hearing the counsel of God. Faith is receiving the counsel of God. God is saying go this way, go like this, do this, move here, go here. "What is wrong with this young man? What is wrong with this young woman?" And they don't understand that look, God has a counsel for their life in every area of your life. And it is the hearing of faith that makes you to stand. There is something invisible about that, there is something invisible about you. There is something mystical about you. There is something mystical about you, that the righteousness of faith, that is the word of life. Don't settle for ordinary things, don't settle for general things. Desire to grow into the counsel where you will say, "The Lord said." So that the things that are seen, they are not created from the things that appear. So that the things that are seen, they are not created from the things that appear. But they are created because faith in your life, it came by hearing, and that hearing was by the word of God. I will leave the matter here today. We'll pick it from this point next week. Let's go ahead to pray. Can you talk to God Lord wherever you are? Please talk to the Lord. Talk to the Lord. What we are praying specifically to the Lord today is that Lord, let there be an under for my standing. The under for your standing. It is by faith we under and stand. We understand. Until there is this under you cannot stand. Talk to the Lord. There is a counsel of God. There is this under. There is a counsel of God for your life. There is something that God wants to speak. There is something that God wants to declare. That once you receive it, it becomes your own because he has come that you may have life and that you may have it abundantly. Until you receive it, you have not gotten your own. You are still talking generally. "Nigerians are going to US, maybe I will like to go." You are still speaking generally. You are not speaking counsel. There is still no under. There is a counsel of God. Ah, I'm going to show you more of these things when we come next week. I'm going to make it that look, many people today don't understand that God has a counsel for their life in every area of your life. And it is the hearing of faith that makes you to stand. There is something invisible about that, there is something invisible about you. There is something mystical about you. There is something mystical about you. That the righteousness of faith, that is the word of life. Don't settle for ordinary things. Don't settle for general things. Desire to grow into the counsel where you will say, "The Lord said." So that the things that are seen, they are not created from the things that appear. So that the things that are seen, they are not created from the things that appear. But they are created because faith—faith in your life, it came by hearing, and that hearing was by the word of God. Our Father, we thank you for this evening. Our God, we give you praise. We worship you. We bless your holy name, our God. Lord, we have considered Biblical Concept of Faith. We are trying to understand faith from your word. Lord, as we keep digging into this matter, Lord, we beg you: open our eyes to see, cause our ears to hear, Lord, grant us understanding. Give us insight. Fill us more and more every time we come with the knowledge of your will, in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, so that we can walk worthy of you continually. Thank you, eternal Father. Blessed be your holy name, our God. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Let's share the grace together: The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with us now and forever more. Amen. Surely, God's goodness and mercy shall follow us all the days of our lives, and we shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever and ever. Amen. [Speaker 2] This message is coming to you from Family Tent Ministry, a Christian ministry involved in enriching the lives of singles and married through preaching and teaching of God's word, discipleship, family life enrichment, social and community development, and mission heat. Our regular activities are discipleship class every Monday 5:00 p.m., adolescent and singles class every first Saturday of every month at 10 a.m., marriage forum second Saturday of every month at 10 a.m., family life seminars, regular school outreaches, and everyday counseling. For further counseling you can reach us at our location, Light Camp by the first bridge, Ilere community, opposite Rejoice filling station along Ijele road, Akure, Ondo state, Nigeria. You can also reach us through our social media handles, Familytent@yahoo.co.uk, Familytentministry01@gmail.com, www.familytentministry.com. Our phone numbers are 080-3386-1136, 070-3361-3848. God bless you all.