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Mark 11:22-26 NKJV
22 So Jesus answered and said to them, “Have faith in God.
23 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.
24 Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.
25 “And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses.
26 But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses.”
Pastor Lorna preached last week and spoke about how to grow your faith.
Today I’m continuing on that.
Growing Your Faith
The measure of faith God gave you can grow and increase?
Paul wrote to the Christians in Thessalonica.
2 Thessalonians 1:3 NKJV
We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is fitting, because your faith grows exceedingly, and the love of every one of you all abounds toward each other.
Your faith can grow exceedingly and your love can abound.
Say, “My faith is growing exceedingly and my love is abounding towards others.”
How Do You Grow Your Faith?
- You Grow Your Faith Through Hearing the Word
Romans 10:17 NKJV
So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
It is so easy to believe if people will just hear the Word of God. So many people are trying to believe without hearing the Word.
Faith comes in response to the promises of God.
Faith comes by hearing the Word. How much Word you put in your heart determines how much faith you’ll have.
It’s up to you. No one else can make that deposit for you. But then, no one can keep you from making that deposit either.
If you can get a Bible, you can make a deposit every day. In fact, you’d better make a deposit every day because chances are you’ll need to make a withdrawal sometime during the day. And withdrawals without deposits can leave you stranded without sufficient spiritual resources to get the job done.
And trials don’t make your faith strong. In fact, some people were worse off after a trial not stronger.
It’s how you respond with your faith in a trial that determines how you come out.
Faith does not stop trials and trouble from coming but it does stop it from overcoming you.
Proverbs 4:20-24 NKJV
20 My son, give attention to my words;
Incline your ear to my sayings.
21 Do not let them depart from your eyes; Keep them in the midst of your heart;
22 For they are life to those who find them, And health to all their flesh.
23 Keep your heart with all diligence,
For out of it spring the issues of life.
24 Put away from you a deceitful mouth,
And put perverse lips far from you.
- You Grow Your Faith Through Believing The Word
It’s one thing to hear the Word…it’s another to believe it.
You became a Christian from hearing and believing God’s Word.
Now, you can apply that same principle to every other part of your Christian life.
Romans 10:8-10 NKJV
8 But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith which we preach):
It’s called the Word of faith because God’s Word causes faith to come when you hear it.
If people do not have faith, it’s one of two things…
- The preacher is not preaching faith. He is preaching his opinion, experience or theories.
- The people are not hearing. It’s going in one ear and out the other. They are not paying attention when the Word is being preached.
9 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.
10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confessionis made unto salvation.
We believe with our heart, our spirit man, not with our head.
We are not referring to the physical organ of your heart. We are referring to your spirit.
Faith can work in your heart even with doubt in your head.
The most amazing miracles and breakthroughs took place in my life when I was believing in my heart but my head was raging with doubt and unbelief.
The enemy would say, “It’s not going to happen, why is not happening and yet it had already happened and the manifestation was on its way”.
There are many Christians who believe with their head. They are called mental assenters. They mentally agree that the Word is true but they don’t believe it in their hearts.
Because if they truly believed it in their hearts, they would act on it.
Let’s look at Thomas’ faith. He was one of the twelve disciples.
Thomas’ Faith – Head faith
John 20:24-30 NKJV
Now Thomas, called the Twin, one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 The other disciples therefore said to him, “We have seen the Lord.”
So he said to them, “Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.”
Notice, he made a decision, “I will not believe.” His will was involved.
You can’t force people to believe.
Faith grows by believing the Word.
26 And after eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, “Peace to you!”
27 Then He said to Thomas, “Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing.”
28 And Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!”
29 Jesus said to him, “Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
Those who believe God’s Word without first seeing evidence are blessed.
The world’s way is seeing is believing but for us, we believe first and then see.
Hebrews 11:1-3 NKJV
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
2 For by it the elders obtained a good testimony.
3 By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.
Everything you could ever need is waiting for you in the realm of the spirit with your name on it. All you need to do is get it from there to here.
How do you do that? With faith.
Faith is the “currency” you use to transfer God’s provision from the unseen realm of the spirit to this natural, earthly realm.
Abraham had to have faith to get Isaac. Moses had to have faith to get the Israelites to the Promised Land. Joshua had to have faith to get the walls of Jericho to come down. Rahab had to have faith to keep her part of the wall around Jericho from falling down.
And if Abraham, Moses, Joshua and Rahab had to have faith, then you’re going to have to have it too. That’s just the way it is.
We grow our faith through believing.
Those who believe have entered into rest.
Hebrews 4-1-4 NKJV
Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it. 2 For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, [a]not being mixed with faith in those who heard it. 3 For we who have believed do enter that rest, as He has said:
“So I swore in My wrath,
‘They shall not enter My rest,’ ”
although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. 4 For He has spoken in a certain place of the seventh day in this way: “And God rested on the seventh day from all His works”;
Faith rests.
Mary believed when God spoke and it was fulfilled.
Luke 1:45 NKJV
Blessed is she who believed, for there will be a fulfillment of those things which were told her from the Lord.
Mark 9:23 NKJV
Jesus said to him, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.”
You have to see it first with the eye of faith. (3rd eye).
You don’t see with your eyes. You see with your mind. Your eyes are the windows through which your mind sees.
If God’s Word says it, the matter is settled. It’s time to believe it.
Romans 4:17 MSG
When everything looked hopeless, Abraham believed anyway.
It takes the same amount of time to be in faith as it does to be in unbelief, so you might as well spend it believing God’s Word.
Your job is to believe that God can do His job. (Mark Hankins)
- You Grow Your Faith Through Taking God’s Word
Once you’ve heard God’s Word and made the decision to believe it, you need to make the decision to take it. Take hold of the truth and never let go.
You must be like a bull-dog. You grab down on that bone and don’t let go.
It’s called bull-dog faith.
I’m grabbing my healing. I’m not letting go, and you are not talking me out of it.
I’m grabbing my prosperity, my freedom from debt and I’m not letting go. And you are not talking me out of it devil.
I’m taking it.
“Grace is God saying, “Here is all the good stuff I have to give you.” Faith is you saying, “Thank You. I’ll take it.”
Grace sets the table. Faith eats.
Taking it means putting God’s Word before your eyes and keeping it before your eyes.
Many people like to use the phrase, “Let go and let God”. But you only use that when it comes to casting your cares upon the Lord.
Every other time you lay hold of the promise of God. You bite down and you don’t let go.
Write down your scriptures and confessions in a journal. Keep it before your eyes. It helps to remember what God said.
It helps you not to doubt in the dark what God told you in the light.
Every day, speak that truth. When you want to receive your healing, search through God’s Word and find scriptures of how God has promised to heal you.
In fact, healing is no longer a promise now. It’s a fact.
Highlight those verses.
Print them out.
Tape them on your mirror.
Add them as the home screen on your smartphone.
Speak them every day.
When you take God’s Word, the world may be playing tug of war with you, but you won’t let go of that truth! Read it, believe it, take it and never let go no matter what comes your way!
The six I’s of Faith
I believe
I will
I take it
I have it
I thank You
I forgive
- You Grow Your Faith Through Acting on God’s Word
It’s one thing to read, believe and take hold of something. It’s another to act as though you believe it.
If you believe it then you will do it. Act on it. Obey God.
James 2:17; 21-22 NKJV
17 Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
Faith is completely dead when you don’t add accompanying works to it.
21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar?
22 Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect?
James 2:22 NLT
You see, his faith and his actions worked together. His actions made his faith complete.
Abrahams Faith – Heart Faith
You can’t get Abraham’s blessings with Thomas’ faith. You get Abraham’s blessings with Abrahams faith.
You believe God’s Word in your heart and say it with your mouth. You act on it before you see any answer on the outside and you are fully convinced that God is able to perform what He promised.
Romans 4:16-24 NKJV
16 Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all
17 (as it is written, “I have made you a father of many nations”) in the presence of Him whom he believed—God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did;
That’s where most people miss it. They don’t want to say they healed unless they first see it. They don’t want to say I’m prosperous unless they first see it.
You must speak as if it’s already done. You must speak as if you already have the job.
Charles Capps says, “Don’t call the dog if you want the cat.” Talk the Word of God. Start calling yourself blessed and prosperous.
18 who, contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that he became the father of many nations, according to what was spoken, “So shall your descendants be.”
19 And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body, already dead (since he was about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah’s womb.
He didn’t consider his body and her body. He considered the promise.
Don’t consider the contradiction, consider the covenant.
20 He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God,
21 and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform.
22 And therefore “it was accounted to him for righteousness.”
23 Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, 24 but also for us. It shall be imputed to us who believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead,
Abraham’s Faith, which is the faith of God, the God-kind of faith. You and I have it.
We must now grow it.
We must act on our faith and we will get results.
I remember a letter Ken and I (Gloria Copeland) received from a family whose child drowned in their swimming pool. When they came out and found that baby in the pool, he had stopped breathing and already turned blue.
But because they had made deposits of the Word of God before that time, the moment it happened they were ready. Nobody said, “Go get the Bible and look up a scripture.” (Sometimes you don’t have time to get your Bible. That’s why you’d better get the Word in your heart. It will save your life.)
Immediately that family began to pray and rebuke death and command the spirit of that baby to come back. As a result, that child is alive and well today.
Let me ask you this: How much faith do you have in your heart account right now? Is it enough to handle a situation like that? Is it enough to produce victory every day of your life? If not, start making some big deposits.
Start speaking the Word day and night. Not just when you’re praying or being spiritual, but all the time—at the office, at the dinner table, over your coffee break, even in your bedroom at night. Every word you say goes into your spiritual bank account, either on the debit side or the credit side.
As you act upon His Word, you are allowing it to grow in you, settle in you, become active and strong in your life.