DAY 2 OF 21 DAY FAST + PRAYER | "THE NATURE OF FAITH" | DR MIKE WOODS

Well, grace and peace be multiplied to you from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Welcome to day number 2 of 21 Days of Prayer plus Fasting with Rhoda Church. Man, we are on a roll, so I'm super excited about day 2. Uh, if you missed prayer this morning. We had some technical difficulties when we got started, so what we did was we went offline and actually recorded the prayer for this morning. So if you missed it, make sure you go on the timeline somewhere here and watch it. Listen, I'm not gonna belabor the time at all today. I'm gonna pray and jump right into the heart of this. I'm excited to teach this word. Listen, if you missed yesterday's teaching, make sure you go back and listen to the entirety of that word. I promise you, you're going to be glad you did if you do it. Amen. So let's pray. Father, in Jesus' name, we thank you for another opportunity to teach and to share with your people. And dear God, I ask today in the name of Jesus that you would do something unusual, something man cannot do. Saturate the airways, saturate this stream with your anointing and cause the word of the living God Hallelujah! To superimpose itself upon every person listening. I pray, God, that your people will be blessed by you and never, ever impressed by me. I decree and declare that as we lift you up, Lord Jesus, you will draw men unto you. I decree and declare, God, that even at the teaching of your word, someone will be saved. Someone will be born again. In Jesus' name. And I give you praise for it now, for you sent your word and it healed them. So I pray for healing, deliverance, and salvation, even through the teaching of your word today. In Jesus' name. Amen. And thanks be to God. Well, again, we're excited. Day 2, 21 days of prayer plus fasting. We're excited about what God is already doing on this fast. So let's get into this word. Yesterday we started again with 3 tiers, the overflow of faith, the overflow of finances, and the overflow of power. I believe that faith is going to undergird this entire teaching just the way I feel in my spirit. Glory to God. Throughout the whole fast, because you can't really have an overflow of finances without increasing your faith. You really can't have an overflow of spiritual power if you don't increase your faith. And I think people need lessons in faith. Faith so they can actually go from, hear me, faith to faith. So let's get into this. Yesterday we talked about, glory to God, the birth of Bulldog Faith. And so we're teaching on Bulldog Faith and this is part 2. But what I want to do today, I want to talk about the nature of faith. Okay. I just want to give you, because when you talk about the nature of something, you're talking about what, what makes it up. The nature of faith. Faith. Oh, glory to God. The nature of a man is his masculinity. The nature of a woman is her femininity. Glory to the name of God. The nature, glory to the name of God, of faith has some elements inside of it that if we cannot identify these elements when we start saying we're living by faith, I want you to hear me, then maybe it's really not faith because faith has a nature. Glory to the name of God. So let's start in John uh, chapter 1 John, I'm sorry, uh, chapter 5, glory to the name of God, and verse number 4. The Bible records this, it says, this is the victory, and this is the Amplified Version, that overcomes the world, or that conquers the world, even our faith. So if we're going to be victorious in the world, it is going to be incumbent upon us that we live move, hear me, and walk by faith, listen, and not by sight. If you want to conquer the cosmos, that's the Greek word for world, which means the cosmopolitan system or the structures of the world. The world has systematic ways of doing things. And many of us, watch this, before we were born again, and some of us still after being born again, have been cultivated and continue to be cultivated in the systematic way of living that the world has presented to us. We were born in sin, shapen in iniquity. We were shapen in that iniquous, lawless— because iniquity means lawless. We were shapen in that lawless system. And a lot of times, especially in our homes and in our churches, in our schools, We were given information. Watch this. That was against or— oh boy, here we go— secular to the realm of the spirit. To be secular means to be against God's system. So we were raised in secular ways. Watch this. Even in the church. And some people say, well, it's secular if it's secular music or rap. No, it can be secular if you are religious. Glory to God. Still looking for God, have no relationship with him for real. And you have no evidence through your faith that God is really on board in your life. You've been cultivated in something that is anti, that is against God. Oh boy, let's get through this, man. So if we're gonna conquer the system of the world, it has to be done by faith. So that tells me to conquer something, It takes forces. It takes a military regime. Glory to God. It takes armies to conquer things. So every believer— hear this— has an army. Listen to me. At your disposal. I need you to hear this. Called faith. And you got to learn how to use this army at your disposal, this spiritual force to conquer the world's way of doing business. Oh my God, the world's way of thinking and believing, the world's way of handling sickness, the world's way of handling financial issues, family issues. You got to use this force to restructure the paradigm in your world so you can actually conquer that system. God, I don't have a lot of time today. I'm gonna get through this though, I promise you. Glory to God. So faith, all right, It's a force. It comes from the Greek word, and I gave this just now, give it again here, 'cause we're talking about the nature of faith. Pistos, pistos, or P-I-S-T-O-S, pistos, is the Greek word for faith. It means to be absolutely persuaded, totally confident in, totally reliant upon a force, watch this, that you cannot see, an element, that you cannot see. It is a force that is directed and very aggressive. So if you're saying you're walking by faith and you're not direct and aggressive, put— by putting the faith on your sickness, putting the faith on your finances, putting faith on what you're dealing with, then, my friends, I need— I need you to be very clear something. It's not faith. Faith is a force. That bulldogs its way into the promises of God, taking over a system of being, a system of thinking that is secular against God. Faith is never passive. It never retreats backwards. It is always reaching, watch this, to obtain a certain goal. Oh. Sounds like faith without works is dead, right? That's the truth. Faith without works is dead. Being alone, faith without corresponding action. Faith is always deliberately going after its target, going after its goal. Are you hearing what I'm saying? Are you hearing what I'm saying to you today? You, you got to make up in your mind that you— oh, I believe God. No, you got to get past this. Oh, I believe God. I'm walking in faith. I'm blessed and highly favored. Okay, say that, but then you got to correspond with some action that lines up with the words that come out of your mouth. Faith is a spiritual power that is born— watch this— in the human spirit at the new birth. The moment you get born again, faith shows up. And says, I'm here to be your personal army to work with you. Here's the problem. Most people never apprehend this or ascertain this. Listen to me good, darlings. Listen to me good, because I want you to hear me. I, I want you to hear me today. Glory to God. Because listen, they never get it because they never taught it. And I said it yesterday, and I bring— I blame Oh my God, lazy, weak preachers and leaders who ascribe to what they were taught only and didn't spend enough time in prayer, enough time in the spirit to teach the people of God what it really means to live by faith and, and work with faith as a force to conquer— oh my God, the world system. I got to get out of here, man. It's a faith, it's a spiritual power that's born in the human spirit at new birth. It's the spiritual substance of all things. Glory to God. So, so watch this. Anything that's manifested out of the realm of the spirit into the natural realm, anything that you will handle tangibly, whether it's money, a car, a house, being debt-free, whether it's physical healing, whatever comes out of the realm of the spirit from God, Faith is the source that produced it. Ooh, God, let's go, man. It is activated by the mouth, and then it is followed with corresponding action. So I activate my faith by speaking what God says about the thing I'm trying to get manifested. So I find the promise in the word, I find a word of prophecy from God, and I begin to speak hear this— what God says, and then I correspond again. Oh, with action. Can I teach this like I feel? Can I teach it like I feel? Once you correspond with action, and as you're going— because sometimes it could be hard to move in action faith, right? Because your natural mind doesn't agree with the things natural faith is trying to produce, man. And so sometimes it's hard to follow after it. Let me calm down. Slow— I'm just really excited to teach this. But you got to keep feeding— watch this— your faith the word of God when that word is being acted upon. So while you're putting the word on your body for healing, while you putting the word on your debt for being debt-free, while you're putting the word on your finances for your business or your home, or you— while you putting the word on peace and longevity in your family, you got to keep, glory to God, feeding your faith the word of God. How? Watch, that's why again we're teaching it. We're teaching every day at noon for 21 days, and every time you get an opportunity, you need to get in the word and hear it. Faith come by hearing, and hearing the word of God. Listen, you got to act on the word. Watch this. As quickly— watch this— as you will act on instructions from a doctor or a lawyer. You go to the doctor and you're sick, and the doctor gives you a diagnosis and says, I'm going to prescribe you this medication for this ailment. You know how quick most people run out of that office? And go get that prescription filled? And guess what? We've all done it. I've done it. Glory to the name of God. Because we believe— watch this— the doctor to be an authority on the condition that we have. Well, we need to learn to act as quickly on the word when— oh boy— and put it in action as quickly as we would getting a prescription from the doctor field. Which means when we— and matter of fact, we should do it quicker. When we got an ailment in our body, when we got a financial dilemma, when we got issues we're facing, act it out in the word. Totally take domination over the situation with your mouth and your actions. Oftentimes in services when I'm praying for people who don't even realize I'm activating their faith, right, who are sick or who are crippled, I pray for people who literally could not walk, right? I pulled them up out of the chair after praying for them and said, "Walk with me." Glory to God. And I started walking around the service with them. Just a simple act of faith. They don't even realize it, but in the power of God, they're walking out their faith. They couldn't actually move and walk before the prayer. But the next step after I prayed, I can't just walk away. Now we need to activate this. Get up and let's walk around this building. Glory to God. Because we believe by faith it's done. And the moment they believe and trust the word of God, not me, and start walking, before long they're running and jumping and leaping, thanking God for their miracle. You gotta act on it. You gotta act on it. Are y'all hearing me today? Glory to God. Let's look at Hebrews 11:1-3, New King James Version. Watch this. Now faith, listen, is the substance of things hoped for. The evidence of things not seen. So faith, the hypostasis in Greek, is the substance, it's the stuff, it's the ingredients that things, again, is made of. It's the evidence of what you can't see with your natural eyes. So faith literally is leaving what I can see and trusting in what I cannot see. I do a lot of traveling, and whenever I travel, I always make a reservation in advance for my flight and for my hotel. Now, if I show up to the airport and they tell me, glory to God, you cannot get on this flight, Mr. Woods, you do not have a seat. Well, the first thing I'm going to do is pull out evidence. What is my evidence? I didn't see the flight when I booked it, right? I didn't, I didn't know any circumstances about the flight when I booked it, but what I do know, I paid for it and they gave me a confirmation number, which is my receipt. That receipt is evidence that I have a seat on that plane. I don't know what they got to do. They got to build a new seat. They got to put me up there with the pilot. They got to kick somebody else out their seat. But something has to happen because I have evidence. Hear me? That I have a seat on this plane. Somebody say, type it in the comments. I got evidence. I got evidence. Faith is your evidence. Of what you can't see. Evidence is a powerful word, man. Evidence convicts people of crimes. People go to jail when the evidence is right. Glory to God. Oh, uh, okay, okay, let me keep going. For by it, faith, the elders obtained a good testimony. So testimony, a monologue about the test. So the Bible says here, by faith the elders obtained a good monologue about their test. So when you're going through tests, you trust God by faith. So when you come through, like the elders, the presbyteros, those that lay hands, those that have oversight, you can have a great testimony of faith to what God has done. Oh boy, this is so good, this is so good. Watch this. By faith— we're still in Hebrews 11:1-3— we understand that the worlds were framed By the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of the things which are visible. Hear that? Faith. Oh my God. Then is the force, the parent force. This is basically what these verses are saying. Faith is the parent force of all things that exist. So nothing exists without faith. God framed the whole world with faith. He, he— because there was nothing, so he believed that his word was that powerful that when he spoke whatever he wanted, it will come into existence. What if I told you you have the same creatorial power as God, and you could speak as God speaks, and you can do as God does? Glory to— ah, you got to start framing the world you live in with your words by faith. You don't like where you live, you don't like the world you living in, you don't like how things that you're in your life exist. Change what you're saying. Start creating with the word of God. Glory be to God. Ah, you gotta start creating with the word, man. Ah, we frame our own worlds with faith, with words of faith, speaking what is not as though they were, claiming the evidence before you ever get it, owning it before you occupy it. Faith is a spiritual force, people. Let's look at Mark 11:22 and through 25. Glory to God. Yeah, glory to the name of Jesus. Y'all, y'all stay with me, please stay with me, please stay with me. Glory to Jesus, glory to God. Mark 11:22 simply says, have faith in God. Oh boy, have faith in God, not yourself. Have faith in God. Whoa. He said, Jesus answered them, saying, have faith in God. They wanted to know how in the world could Jesus curse a tree and it wither and then come back and speak to the same tree and cause it to bear fruit. Jesus' answer was simple: have faith in God. Verse 23: For verily I say unto you, or seriously I say unto you, that whosoever shall say unto this mountain, be thou removed and be cast into the sea, shall not, and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he said shall come to pass, he shall have whatsoever he saith. Therefore I say unto you, what things soever you desire when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you shall have them. Verse 25, and when you stand praying, listen to this, forgive if ye have any ought against any, that your Father also, which is in heaven, may forgive you your trespasses. Now, those few verses tells us, first of all, that faith— verse 23 showed us that faith removes. So if you speak to a mountain by faith, it says it will remove the mountain. So I don't care what the mountain is in your life, I don't care what you're up against right now. You— I said it yesterday, you got Gotta against all odds choose to trust God. Type it in the comments: faith removes. So faith will remove mountains, will remove obstacles, will remove problems. Many of you are still facing mountains that you need to move with your mouth and with your faith, man. Favorable. Verse 24 shows us that faith receives. So faith removes So you got to be aggressive. Glory to the name of God. You got to go after this thing with everything in you, and you got to declare that faith removes— that verse 24 told us that faith receives. Oh my God, oh my goodness. He said, when you— if you stand— when you stand praying, whatsoever you desire, when you pray, believe you receive it. So your ability to receive something is totally rooted in how you believe you can receive. You— the Bible said if you believe you can receive, the Bible say you shall have them. I didn't write it. I, I did not write Mark 11:24. And many of you have not received things you prayed for because you honestly don't believe. Your faith wavers too much. You speak too much negativity out of your mouth. Faith removes the mountains. So you got to start speaking to those mountains of doubt, those mountains of those mountains of sin. Start speaking to everything in your life, man, that's not like God, and declare, praise God, uracha shebeki. Let me get up close to you and declare that this mountain has to be removed, and declare, glory to God, that this doubt, this sin, oh my God, this unbelief, it has to be removed. Remove so I can get what I need from the Lord. Are y'all with me? Are y'all with me today? Oh God, let me get out of here, man. I gotta go, I gotta go. I, I'm sorry, I got to go. But faith removes, faith receives. So if you want to really receive, you got to do it in faith. You can't say it and then doubt whether you're gonna get it. Oh glory! Glory. You got to keep saying, I'll never be broke another day in my life, and, and keep believing that and keep feeding that to your faith until you never are broke again. You know what I said that— I started saying that probably 10 years ago, and I cannot tell you for real the last time I've been broke, the last time my account said zero. Glory to God, because faith works. I keep feeding my yourself faith. You need to say, I'll never be in pain another day in my life. You need to say it every day. Keep feeding it, keep saying out loud and receive it. Praise God. Oh, and verse 25 says faith is a force that releases. So 3 things we just saw: faith— this is part of the nature of faith. Faith is a force that removes. I'm out of time, y'all. Faith Hope is a force, glory to the name of God, that receives, and faith is a force that releases. See, watch this, faith is fed and maintained by the Word of God, period. Guess what that means? You gotta keep gas in the tank. If you drive a gasoline-operated automobile, you gotta keep gas in it for it to move. Listen, you got to keep the word in the tank so you can keep operating in faith that removes, faith that receives, and faith that releases. Let's pray. Father, in the name of Jesus, we thank you for this word today. Day 2. Glory to God. We're talking about the nature of faith. God, I pray in the name of Jesus that this word will superimpose itself upon every person that heard it. And I pray that as we continue to Our faith will overflow. Our faith will grow. And God, I pray that we will share this video with many, many people so that they can tap into an overflow of faith, so they can believe God for miracles in their body, miracles in their finances, miracles in their families. And we thank you now for the overflow in our lives. In Jesus' name. Amen. And thanks be to God. Listen, I love you. You so much. Thank you for joining us today. Listen, do me a kind favor, make sure you share this. Listen, if you're not fasting with us, please, by all means, it's not too late to join us. Just simply text RODDA CHURCH to 877-638-7285 if you have not done so already, and you will get a text back welcoming you to our group, and you'll get a copy— glory to the name of God— of the prayer and fasting Fasting Strategy. Glory to Jesus. And I promise you, you want to make sure that you download it, follow the instructions, read the scripture, pray with us every day at 5, meet us at noon for Bible study just like this every day for the next 21 days. Listen, this— we're on day 2. It's been powerful. I love you guys with the love of the Lord. Y'all be blessed. Heaven smile on you is my prayer. Peace.