Five foundational truths about Christian faith: it operates in the spirit realm, anyone can exercise it, it comes by hearing God's Word, it's voice-activated like Genesis 1 creation, and it requires action. Faith can be used positively or negatively, and speaking it aloud matters.
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Welcome to episode 332. In this episode, I'm going to talk about how to use faith in your life and the 5 truths that we need to know about faith to get started. But before we get started, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, this is going to be a little different episode. I'm going to talk to you as if maybe you aren't even saved, and I know that sounds a little counterintuitive. But I want you to understand that faith works for anybody. And I believe I can point to scriptures— I don't know that I'm going to do that in this episode, but we've talked about it numerous times— how Jesus said not everybody who uses his name is going to make heaven. And I'm not going to go back to those scriptures, that's found in Matthew, I believe it's 7. But I want to point out 5 truths about faith that we've got to understand And the first truth is that faith is used in the spirit realm. And this is spiritual truths. These are spirit— this is spiritual faith. We're not talking about natural faith. We're not talking about being able to see something with your eyes like a chair that has 3 legs and know, hey, if I sit in that chair, things aren't going to go well for me. That's natural faith. That's being able to look at something and seeing, no, that's not real good. And if I sit down in a three-legged chair, you don't need faith to understand that if you sit lean where that leg, that fourth leg is supposed to be, you're going to fall. So the kind of faith I'm talking about happens in the spirit realm, and we need to understand that everybody says a spirit, soul, and body. Now, not everybody's spirit has come alive and we're in Christ. I understand that, but we still function in this world because God gave man dominion. When he set Adam and Eve in this world in the Garden of Eden, he gave them dominion. Man, I don't believe ever lost their dominion over this world, but they lost their authority to exercise that dominion. And I know I might be splitting hairs, but when Jesus came, all authority had been given to him, and then he gives it to his church. Truth number 1 is that this faith that we're talking about happens in the spirit realm. The second truth, we've already touched on this, is anybody can use faith. And that's why I think when good church people think that they're the only people that can pray or they're the only people that can talk to God, I've said this multiple times and I used to say it every episode just about, is that if you are listening to this episode, you are God's favorite. If God had a refrigerator in heaven, your picture would be all over it. So God naturally has given you the ability to use faith. That's how he wants you to get things done down here. It is impossible to please him without faith. So Father God wants you to use faith. He wants you to exercise your faith while you're here. You do not have to be saved in order to do that, and I need you to understand that. And now, if you are saved, all the better, but that is not a requirement to walk in faith. The third truth is faith comes by hearing. And hearing by the word of God. Now, not all faith has to come by the hearing of the word of God. I believe part of the reason why everybody was against the Harry Potter movies from way back in the beginning when I first was going to church— in fact, my daughter got all wrapped around the axle when I said, hey, you don't need to be reading those books. She took it to the next level on that deal. And we had a stance at our church is that we really didn't need to be involved in the Harry Potter thing. They had Advanced Reading, or AR. I'm not even sure— Accelerated Reading, I think, is what AR stood for here in our schools. And Harry Potter was a huge deal back then because you could read all those books and they were very entertaining. But the problem is it had witchcraft at its center, and it was about incantations and being able to call these spirits. And why most people, if they don't believe in God and they don't believe in the devil, they're thinking that's a bunch of crap anyway. But the truth is, demons will react to some of those incantations. And if you say it in faith, using faith— there's that word again— if you say it using faith and don't doubt, then that stuff happens. That's why God tells us not to mess with that stuff. Faith works either positively or negatively, and we've got to understand that when we're talking about faith. It's not always just the godly bringing heaven down to earth faith that we're talking about. Sometimes we can use faith in the negative, and it hurts just as much as it helps. The fourth truth that I want to talk about is faith is voice activated. In Genesis 1, we see God created the heavens and the earth. If you read the whole chapter of Genesis, you will see that God created the heavens and the earth by speaking it into existence. And so faith is voice-activated. God spoke it out and then he saw it. If we're going to create things by faith, we have to speak it out. You can't, you can't pray it out like this. No, you've got to say it and believe it, and then you receive it. The last truth is faith is action-based. In the next episode, we're going to look at the lady with the issue of blood And we're going to see how these lined up with these different areas where she actually said with her mouth, and then she took action. She went and got after it. And I think that's what we've got to do when we start walking in faith. If you're going to use faith in your life, you have to understand that: 1, it's in the spirit realm; 2, anybody can use it; 3, faith comes by hearing. In order to believe it, you've got to first hear it. And you've got to take it in. Then 4, it's voice activated. You have got to speak it out for it to work. And the 5th point, or the 5th truth, is that you have to take action. You've got to put action to your faith. Faith without works is dead. You cannot just say it and then wait for it to happen. I really wanted this to be a quick episode, get you thinking about faith. Faith is such a big topic, but I wanted to set the stage because not everybody that uses faith is saved. And we are going to get into that in these next lessons. Faith is for everyone. God poured out his grace and faith for all his creation. If you and I are walking around this earth, we can use faith and we can use the grace of God. And my prayer is that you would use it for salvation, that you would declare with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised Christ from the dead. That's how you're saved, because with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. I believe you've got to say it, and you've got to believe it and receive it. So I'm not— I feel myself rambling again. I really just wanted to touch base, get you started with these 5 truths, because there is a lot going on with faith, but we need to be honest about it. You don't have to be saved to walk by faith. We're going to look at the woman with the issue of blood, but before we do that, let's pray real quick. God, thank you so much for your word. God, I thank you for setting this up that we can by faith please you. God, help us to be more like you. Help us to be more like your Son. Holy Spirit, lead us, guide us, and direct us into all truth. God, we thank you, we love you, we ask it all in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, thank you for being a part of this, and I look forward to visiting with you in the next episode. Thanks for listening to the No Doubt, No Fear, Only Believe podcast at www.nodoubtonlybelieve.com.
