What is Faith?

Welcome to the channel. I'm so excited that you're here. I've got an amazing message that we're going to be talking about: what is faith and how can you walk out life with faith? And if you're new to this channel, I want you to subscribe right now. And if you are already a subscriber, thank you. Share this message with at least three people because I know will be a huge blessing to them that you're able to spread the word of God. through your personal connections with those that you love and allow them to walk out this wonderful life full of faith, full of hope, and full of love. So let's go ahead and get started because you're going to want to watch this entire video because it truly will unlock every single thing that you need in this season in order to operate in faith and understanding what faith really is. So one of the things that I want to start with and really set the tone with truly understanding what is faith. And what I mean by that is not just even answering the question, but actually giving you a true definition to put you in the frame of mind of what it is you're about to embark upon so that you can actually walk it out. Because a lot of people truly don't know what faith is. And I want to start with the fundamentals. Basically, you know, in football we call that blocking and tackling. You'll see that in different sports like basketball and soccer. It's dribbling and passing and even shooting. But what I want to start with is truly giving you a definition and foundational aspect of what is faith. What's the definition? Well, faith by definition is being thoroughly convinced that God will actually do what he said he will do. So I want to see and start to unpack that because that still is a little bit broad. So let's start to narrow that in, because what it means is, is that you understand that by the promises of God in the Bible— because foundationally this is the word of God, the Logos word of God, which is the written word— that what he says in the Bible is going to come true, and that those things That are there are what belong to you, and that it doesn't matter what you're seeing in this natural world, because at the end of the day, what's in the Bible will come to pass, and what you see may not be a representation of the final state. So what is faith? Is truly seeing is that you are believing and hoping for, for things that you may not understand or perceive. But clinging to the word of God—it's Allah Hebrews 11:1—and sticking with it so that you know that whatever is said in the Bible will ultimately come to pass. Now, one of the things that you have to understand is that as a part of this faith journey, there are going to be things that you will not experience in this lifetime because it says that in the Bible that many people. died in faith. Now, on this side of your life, the one that you're currently living, there are aspects that you're going to see come to pass today, tomorrow, and in the near future. But you also have to understand that when we talk about this concept, it's so broad that there are aspects that you will not see come to pass in your lifetime. In fact, there's a good chance that even your children may not see some of the promises that are truly here because they are generational promises. And that's okay, because as you walk this out, you'll start to see the things that truly do come to pass because you're walking with the right frame of mind. And so I want to set this expectation up front that faith is something that you are fully and thoroughly convinced will happen regardless of what's going on in your life. That's foundational. That's what faith is. That's what faith in Jesus Christ is. That's believing that he actually came in the flesh. That's believing that he is the Son of God. That's believing that he died. That's believing that the tomb, the grave, and death couldn't hold him, and 3 days later he rose himself from the grave, and that 40 days later he was ascended to heaven and now sits at the right hand of God for all of eternity. That's faith. It's believing something that you currently can't see or possibly will never see, and yet sticking to the word of God and saying, I believe what's in the word, and I believe that what's there belongs to me. That's what faith is. Now, how does that then relate to the question, what is faith? Because what we're doing is we're truly answering the foundational question within that, which is— What is faith? What is faith? But that doesn't necessarily correlate to your situation directly because you— how are you going to operate in faith? Like, how do you apply faith? How do you live it out? How do you recognize that this situation I have to apply my faith, and this is the situation where I actually have to apply my works? Because remember, without faith, works is dead. And guess what? Without works, faith is also dead. And so there's a correlation. And so is there some aspects where you have to just stand purely in faith and let God win the battle? Are there situations where you have to walk out and use your confession or your declaration? And we're going to walk through all of that to truly answer the question, what's faith? Because you need to understand all these building blocks in order to complete the puzzle which is a complete house in which you can live in day in and day out in order to walk out life in true victory. Because all these situations that are coming towards you and potentially storms and tribulations, there may be different actions or inactions that you must do in order to be successful. And so we're going to talk about as many of those as we can, and I pray that you stick around for this entire video because it's going to be incredible. So let's talk about that definition again. So faith fundamentally is truly having a hope that what God said will come to pass, and applying that faith in action allows those things to walk out. So let's, let's give some very tangible, you know, words and examples and situations that can apply to you in your life. So let's talk about sickness as a perfect example, because I'm sure there are many of you who are watching this have wrestled with some form of sickness, whether it's an illness that comes and goes, maybe it's an infirmity, maybe it's a mental thing where you have been diagnosed with ADHD or OCD, maybe you're on some form of medication, maybe it's something you're in a cycle of life that you just can't seem to get out of, some form of torment. So the Bible talks about all of these aspects over and over again. But when you're walking life out in faith, what it means is, is that the thing that you're currently experiencing— the illness, the infirmity, even the maybe mental issues, anxiety, depression, fear— they're temporary. Now, that's what the Bible says, is that they're all temporary, no different than a physical Thunderstorm is able to build up energy, release the rain, release the lightning, and then it has to dissipate because it loses all of its energy as a part of it. No different than charging your cell phone. You can charge your cell phone for a day or a month, but once you unplug it, it's going to start to discharge, and whatever juice it has and how quickly you use it, it will diminish to zero, and that's it, and you'll have to plug it in again. That's the same thing. The storms that you're experiencing in life, whether they're big or small, are like your cell phone battery. They have charged up and may seem pretty powerful once they get started. You may be in a situation where you may have caught an illness recently because there's— the flu is floating around, all different kinds of other illnesses and bugs that I probably mentioned on this channel probably would get this video banned. But There are things that are floating around that may get you sick and potentially put you in the hospital and get you in a place where you don't want to be, maybe have you spend money or lose time that you don't want to. But you know that the story says that by Jesus's stripes you're healed, and that though you may not have the healing miraculously at the moment, but you do have the healing that you will then be able to walk and receive. You know that no weapon formed against you can ever prosper. It's impossible. And so you can walk things out through this aspect of your life where you may be experiencing some form of illness, but you know that at the end of this road, you're gonna be better. Because the reality is, is that you're here watching the video. Think about the number of illnesses, colds and flus, uh, potentially even diseases that you may have caught. That you have overcome. Think about that from your childhood. You know, maybe you had sniffles, maybe you had your tonsils removed, maybe you had ear infections, maybe you've had, um, you know, maybe you had digestive issues, maybe you had vertigo, maybe you've had heart issues, cancer, maybe you had different kinds of digestive issues, maybe you had issues with your circulatory system, you know, maybe water retention. There's so many things that a human body can endure. And yet you probably have overcome all of them. If every— if anyone or everyone that's on this watching this video is healthy, more than likely you have overcome, by the grace of God, all the illnesses that you have had. Maybe you didn't even realize you're sick because the symptoms didn't bubble up enough for you to recognize that you were sick, but your body was fighting an infection or a virus and you're now healed. That's the essence of what faith is. Faith is knowing definitively that though my current situation is trying to make me come into agreement with it, that ultimately at the end I'm victorious. And this is the thing that you hear people talk about this, that you'll hear people saying, well, well, I have the flu. Well, the reality is no, you don't technically have the flu because the flu doesn't have you. What the reality is is your body is wrestling and feeding the flu. It's just a matter of time before it happens. And that word switch is the difference between faith and not faith. Believe it or not, it's so subtle that when you start to understand is you don't have infirmity, you don't have illness, you don't have the things that people want to attach to you. It's a perfect example. You'll see this with parents do it all the time. They're saying, well, my kid is autistic, or my kid has some form of learning disability, or my My kid has dyslexia, or my kid has this or that. No, your kid is wrestling with those things. Although some of those things may potentially stretch over long periods of their life, the reality is, is they are not those things, and those things don't have them. You— it's— it is truly contrasting the difference between you and it. When you have something that is it and you want to try to couple that to you, that's when you're in trouble, because that's where faith can't operate, because now you've already conceded the defeat to the thing that you're attaching yourself to. But when you say, I'm wrestling with it, it entails by definition that no one can wrestle with something for their entire life. Eventually you will overcome it because you're overcomers. And so when you start to understand that concept, that's where faith steps in. That's where you can start to operate in a posture of faith, knowing that you have the victory. That's the essence. So again, we're starting to build foundational blocks. So we have this aspect where we know we're convinced definitively that the word of God is true, and it doesn't matter what the world's happening, saying, or experiencing, or what I'm living. I know that I have these things. They're also the aspect where you start to separate out the things that try to attach itself to you and then convert your identity to what the world wants you to do, but rather keeping your identity aligned and focused with God across the spectrum. So even if you're experiencing something, you know those things are temporary. That's faith. So foundationally, what we're trying to explain in detail is, is that these are the cornerstones in which you start to build your house upon. You start to understand that, oh, what is faith is defined by truly recognizing and accepting that though I may be caught up in a situation today, that that situation will ultimately become a testimony for me in the future. It will become A foundational point that we will be able to share with other people to show God's goodness, to show God's faithfulness, to show God's patience, to show God's capability to long suffer for those things. Because that's the aspect of faith. Faith is something that you put into action and exercise. It's like a muscle. And generally, to be fair, there's always going to be some level of discomfort because the flesh Does not like operating in faith because the flesh wants the things that are happening to come to a close. Faith pushes the flesh aside and allows you to exercise the currency of heaven so that you can move forward knowing that God has the victory in your life, that God will be able to walk you through the steps You have to take in order to be able to reach the destination. And then when you've reached the destination— oh, this is so powerful— that when you're there, that destination becomes a testimony of God's faithfulness on your life, and that you get to lean back upon it whenever another storm comes into your life, or a storm that another person's experiencing. You can share that with them and encourage them in a way that's powerful. powerful and edifying and just excellent. And that's the essence of faith. So let's build upon these core concepts and start to put things into practical nature. Because when you start to operate in the realm of faith, there's an aspect that people miss as a part of this, because they want to know, in this situation that I'm currently in, what should I be doing? Should I be Standing in prayer? Should I be operating in some form of obedience? Should I be declaring things? Or should I just be in a posture of rest, a posture of peace, letting God work things out? So let's talk about how faith guides you into these 4 places so that you can be very, very effective in walking this thing out. And so I want to give you an example here. That I think will really resonate with people. So one of the things that happened in the past for me is I had a situation where I ended up being unemployed for an extended period of time. Not something that happened very often in my life, but it happened. And it got to a point where it was like, wow, I am literally running out of money. And when I mean running out of money, I mean literally running out of every single aspect of buying power. I had my investments drained to a certain point where they started getting too critical, like the red. There was just no cash in any bank account. There was no credit line I could pull from. There was nothing. Not that, you know, we talk about this on the channel all the time, you want to be the lender, not the borrower. But there are going to be situations in life where you're going to be challenged by your faith to kind of cross that line or not. And you obviously want to stand on the word of God in those aspects. You're gonna want to be able to stand in faith that you are the lender and not the borrower. But this situation for me was really rough because the period of unemployment was very, very long and it was way longer to the point where it exhausted unemployment resources. Uh, there was just any support we were getting from others in the church and everything. You, we started kind of getting to the end and it got to a point where it was like, wow, if we don't have something turn around where I either get another job Or something miraculous from an income perspective just comes into play, we're going to lose everything. We're going to get to a point where there is, there's just nothing there. And what happened was, is there was, even in that time period, there was a little bit of side work that I was able to do and to kind of help supplement some of the expenses that we were experiencing. But what happened was, as a part of that journey, the individuals that were involved, they couldn't even pay me anymore. And so what we had was, is we were, we were at the end of the line and they got stuck and they were stuck. They couldn't, they were running outta money themselves and they were caught in a situation where they just couldn't give me anymore for a certain period of time. And so all of that culminated at the same time where I had no buying power invest. There was, there was just a little bit of investments left, but like even that was really there. As emergency because it could have gotten to a point where we would have had the choice where we would have said, okay, let's go the worldly route and file for bankruptcy, or do we decide to concede our faith and just basically put our, our house up for sale and start selling things and then move into another place where we can afford something given this, the current income, which at that time was very, very low. So there really was at a point where we were We had received— when I say we, my family— we had gotten to a Red Sea moment. And when you study the Red Sea and you understand that moment geographically, it was an impossible situation for the Israelites. So let me dive into that real quick because this is functionally where we were at. So when you start to understand is the Red Sea is the great sea that was buttressing the Israelites to the right. And what happened was is there's this mountain pass that they went through And they were caught in between this mountain pass, the sea, and there was really no path for them to go. And when you think about it from the perspective, as vast majority of the people that were there were women and children, and they weren't an army, they didn't have a military machine, and they had the most powerful army on the planet, literally on the other side of the burning, the burning tower of fire that was separating them from being completely destroyed. And that's the Red Sea moment, is they had been guided by God to a posture and place in which they had no chance of survival without God. And that's the situation I was in financially. I was at a point where I had to exercise my faith and definitively believe beyond a shadow of a doubt that no matter what was happening in the natural— think about this— that God was going to deliver me through this situation. Think about this from that perspective. Think about that there was no cash available, no income available, and even the income that was coming in was stopped temporarily. And you had this situation where, you know, there was just no opportunity for anything to come into being, or there was no other support. Yet I stood totally in faith and actually at peace inside. And this is a hard thing to grasp because this is what God showed me in the season. That I was definitively convinced, definitively convinced, that not only were we going to get through the situation, we were going to thrive. And to top it off even further, think about this, okay? Here we are in a situation where we can't spend money. You know, we could very much, you know, in the natural, see, oh, we're going to lose everything. God's like, no, you need to be going out and planning your vacation. You need to be going out and renting cars for that vacation. You need to be going out there. and doing things now because I want to set you up and bless you. So not only was God saying— not only was saying, I'm going to take care of you, but he's going to say, I want you to operate from a mindset that you're blessed, you have this abundance, and continue to operate even though in the natural it was impossible to justify those decisions. In the natural, people would be like, look, you either need to file for bankruptcy or you need to sell your house now, get it on the market. Get as much money as you can out of it, you know, wipe out your debts and start over. Maybe you'll have a little stockpile that you can operate from and then go forward. That's what would— the world would have said. Those were the 2 options the world said outside of potentially, you know, begging people for money or, you know, going back to banks or, or some other financial institutions to try to get some more loans to get me through this season. God operated from a different perspective. He said, operate from victory, operate from that not only will these things happen, but I want to position you now to keep going forward. That's what faith did for us. And what happened was, is in that moment where the flesh was just so stressed, there was so much effort in prayer, in my prayer life, Just constantly putting that on the sacrificial altar, constantly laying that at the feet of Jesus saying, I believe you. I don't care what my bank account says. I don't care what the other people are saying. I don't care what my circumstances. I believe that this is a temporary thing, that it will pass and things will happen. And not only will they happen, I will then never see this again. And this is what God was telling me in my prayer closet. He's saying those things and I'm saying them back. And so one of the things that happened in that season is God talked about was, I'm going to bless you through an opportunity in order to get a job that you would not otherwise normally get. And then in addition to that, that will be the foundational springboard from a financial perspective, not the job, but the financial perspective that will come through the job that will springboard you into the future. And so that's what he did, that through that season, what happened was is that a new opportunity came. And through that, and in and of itself, that's a testimony that I could probably talk about a few hours on, but that opportunity came functionally on a silver platter. The, the interview process was extensive and very long and not necessarily difficult, But it was trying. I had to put some effort forth, you know, to do that. I had to work through it. But then what happened was, is that even as that came to be, all of that income was still even delayed a little bit further. And so, so here I am walking this journey out knowing that these things are going to come to pass, but then all of a sudden God's like, no, keep spending, keep moving forward, you have income. And he started showing me different ways to manage money and to budget and to pay bills and to maneuver things. And he opened my eyes to things I hadn't seen. And then what he did is he moved powerfully. And then that season came to an abrupt end because all of the things that he needed me to walk out were already received, and I was able to move forward in victory because what he had done is he had taken me to the Red Sea. What he had done is he has shown me that even in the greatest desperation of moment of your life, where you would have thought it's impossible for me to find the finances to move forward, not only did he do that, but then he opened my eyes up further. And then in that, what I would consider darkness and depth of despair, which was in the context of flesh, but in the, in the spirit, was all exercising my faith muscles. What it did was, is he showed me that this season was the greatest season yet. And then when he opened my eyes further to the finances and other areas that started opening up, what ended up happening was, is that while the economy was clearly in the gutter at the time, God said, this is going to be your greatest year ever. And it became the greatest year ever. And what happened was, is then it became a foundational year that then allowed me to springboard into all these other things that now become bigger foundational blocks that then we're continuing to build upon and become successful at all the things we did. But the lesson learned was to show that when we can concede our faith in the area of finance, which is an area that a lot of people struggle with, and I know it's hard, but when you're able to walk out a season of true what in the natural looks like pure despair, that it just makes no sense. You're like, I can't get through this season on my own. And the reality is, is you can't. But God will guide you through that season, shedding the junk that's attaching itself to you so that you can operate with confidence. And that's where it was at the end of that season. I was so convinced and so confident that no matter what I saw, that we kept going, that we planned that vacation and we did those things And that what happened was, is even though we thought it was impossible by our means, and very much it was, to make that happen, God made it happen. And so what he did was, is all of those things, it's kind of like a basically a breadcrumb trail, and we were just picking up the breadcrumbs. And what happened was, is before we realized it, we were able to thrive in the valley. We were able to thrive in what would consider True financial darkness. We were able to thrive in the areas of those spaces because those things have no control over our destiny. We operate from a place of blessing. We operate from a place of abundance. And because of that, we can move forward in faith knowing that it didn't matter what was going on in our finances. It didn't matter how gloom and doom it looked in our future. They're like, Why would you be planning a vacation in a few weeks to go somewhere when, when the reality is like you can't even put food on the table? You don't even have income in the bank. And yet all of those things aligned up. Income started coming in. The job came in at the exact time it needed to. It came in at the right level. And all of a sudden it just started, boom, spiraling up forward. And what it did is it became a catapult because now all the things that we had planned in faith to do, we were now in a position financially and mentally and spiritually to operate in peace and go forward in acceleration. And that's what faith does for you. That's the story that I have for you, is what happens is, is that in the natural, when you look at things, when you're asking the question, what is faith? What it is, is it's seeing that what God has for you is something greater than what you're seeing today. That even though God could prophetically reveal your destiny to you— and I've given prophecies on next level to people, I have given them like mini books about their future detailing their graces and all the things that they can walk into— but yet they're still going to have to walk in faith that those things not only will come to pass, but that they'll participate as that part of that process. And so you have to understand that when you walk in faith, faith means that you are believing definitively that the things that God says are going to happen in your life through the Bible or through the Rhema Word of God, which is something that you'll get in your prayer closet. And if you haven't, if you're not familiar with that, go check out the, um, the one video we have on this channel called Hearing the Voice of God. It'll explain all of that for you. This is the very thing that God wants you to walk it out, because faith is where you participate in this journey, allowing God the space to work in your life. That's the key part, because as humans, as physical beings that we operate— because remember, we are truly a spiritual being that's— that has a soul that has a body. We look at it— a lot of people, I don't— a lot of people look at it the opposite, that we have a physical body that has a soul that then has a spirit. But that's not how it works. It's a spirit that has a soul that has a body. The spirit controls the soul and the soul controls the body. That's how it's supposed to work. So when you operate in the realm of faith, okay, when you operate like that, what you're doing is, is you're saying that the physical is affected by my soul and the soul is powered by the spirit. And guess what? I'm one with the Holy Spirit. And so now I operate from a place of impossibilities on earth, but everything's possible from heaven. That's the essence of faith. So now let's talk about this. This is an example that I wanted to walk you through, and I hope that that encourages you because that was a really tough situation for us, uh, for a long time. It was an extended period of time, and it was just something that I just couldn't get out of on my own. But God catapulted us forward. So now let me talk about a couple examples of in your faith walk how you can operate in faith purely, just in faith by belief, when you need to declare things, which, as you know, a lot of people know that is a form of confession, when you have to go into prayer and intercession, and when you have to walk it out, or, or some combination of that, because there is no formula What I need to do is impart to you the aspects that you need to lean upon as a part of what is faith so that you can apply those principles in your life as they come up. Because guess what happens? Every day is different. And, and the reality is, is the 4th one we talked about earlier is, is when I really just need to go into a place of rest and just not even really, you know, concern myself with it. Because faith is, you know, you're— there's an engagement aspect to faith. Faith, but a rest aspect, which is like, look, I'm just moving on to something else, and I'm just going to go relax with my friends, my family, and I'm just going to go chill, and I'm not worried about those things. I'm gonna let God do his thing. And so where do you fall into that situation? How do you know to operate in faith and definitively and say, I'm going to stand on faith and I'm going to just believe in it in my heart definitively that this is right and that is wrong. So where I can start with is where— and I feel it in my spirit very strongly— is, is when you start to recognize either mentally or emotionally or even physically that you're being pulled away from the promises of God. And what I mean by that is, is that you are getting into a situation where you know that you believe that the words of God that are written in the Bible are true, and that the devil wants to steal that from you. Because remember, the devil comes to steal, kill, and destroy, but Jesus came to give you life and life abundantly. That's John 10:10. So when you need to exercise your faith in a place where you feel, oh wow, I need to be able to stand on the word of God, it's generally when you're starting to feel the tug or you're being— trying to be pushed aside. Now remember, the devil can't touch the believer. So he can't truly move you. Now, if you're a non-believer and you're listening to this message, yes, he can push you. He can actually push you around, and in many ways you may not have the capability unless by the grace of God to stop it. So that's the nuance between Christians and non-Christians. But have faith, because if you believe in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you can cross over. And guess what? You can operate from this principle faith. And what happens is, is that what the devil will do— and generally what you'll see here is there's some form of pressure, uh, whether it's torment, whether it's people talking to you, uh, you'll see it's, you know, you get loud before the breakthrough. That's kind of the kind of common scenarios that you can be stepping into. That's the area where faith— you need to just stand on the faith where you just have to just say Look, as difficult as this situation is, and as much as my flesh wants to control it and just embrace and take over, I need to pull back and just believe on the promises of God. That's the situation whenever you're experiencing to being pulled away where you have to put your faith into action. And there's a lot of situations where they'll come up throughout the day. Believe it or not, this is probably something that could happen on a day-to-day basis. Quite consistently, and where God wants you to operate in faith so that he can continue to move you forward, because then he has the space to then operate in your life. Because the moment you concede those areas to God, that's when he can move. The moment you put the sacrifice on the altar, where you crucify your flesh, where you crucify your will, resurrecting Jesus in its place, that's where God can move. That's where he can do the things that he can do that no one else can do. That's where faith comes in. That's what he is talking about. In those situations where you feel that the flesh is controlling the soul and the spirit is not, that's where you have to put your faith into action and allow the Bible's promises to come into being. And the reality is, is you may not understand where The promises apply to your life, but that's a simple Google search away. If your situation is finance, you can look up plenty of finances. You can look at Malachi 3:10, say, I'm a tither, I have given my pre-tax dollars to God, 10%, and I've been faithful. Guess what? That means you're on the kingdom economy. That means that you have quite literally unlimited financial resources. Go read that Bible verse. It says that you will be blessed so powerfully and so mightily that you won't be able to store it. It's an overflow. It's unlimited. That's what it means. When you start to study those words, you start to recognize that it is a powerful place to be. It's tapping into a stream that never runs dry. So that's what you need to do, is you need to be able to go get Bible verses and just read them and pour them into your spirit and stand on it and Believe it. Okay, now let's talk about the situations where you have to declare or decree or confess. Now, in that situation, it really can be an extension of that, and God's saying speak those Bible verses in order for them to come to pass. That's a very easy transition into that, into that example. But you may be caught in a situation where you're like, hmm, I don't see the path forward. In fact, I don't have a clue how God's going to make that happen. I, I'm standing in faith and I'm believing these beautiful promises of God. I'm believing the parts that are going to come to pass, okay? Because it all starts with belief. It all starts with being thoroughly convinced. If you're in a position where God says you need to start to speak things as if they are even though they're not, what he's doing is in those situations What he's saying is he wants to partner with you in order for those things of the promises of God can come into being in your life. They manifest and come into being. And I know manifest is a bad word and attached to the New Age, but the reality is that the New Age counterfeited what God does in the context of manifestation. And it's not in the way that you think. It's allowing God to do his part based upon your spoken word. That's what it means to manifest. So because you are a king and queen seated in Christ, the highest decree of a king and a queen is their spoken word. And then when their spoken word goes out, it can't return void because their servants go out and accomplish those things. That's what God's saying, is God says, when I speak, it could never come back to me without accomplishing what it's originally set out for. That's what it means. So when I— when we talk about biblical manifestation or biblical ability to create, which a lot of people will talk about, it's not necessarily creating things out of nothing. What it means is, is that you're setting the stage for something to happen because you're basically saying it will happen. And so in your faith walk, what you're starting to see is, is that if you're operating from the place where you have to confess those things or declare them You know, declaration is, I think, is a better description of what this situation is, is that what it means is that God wants you to say the things that you want to happen in your life that are aligned with his will on your life at that time. And so that he can move and release the angelic guard, the angelic hosts to go operate on your behalf. The Holy Spirit can move in power. Jesus Christ can move in power. Because you have to understand something very clearly in this frame of mind, because what is faith understands that you have to believe in your heart and in your mind that you are royalty on this earth, that God has delegated the things of heaven to you so that you can bring them into being on earth by pulling them down. And if you don't operate from that posture of faith What happens then is when you declare, nothing happens because you don't believe it will happen. That's what God is saying. So God, in many, many instances— not all of them, because his will still overrides ours when it absolutely has to— you have to understand that you are the authoritative figure here on earth. You are. That's what God did, is he delegated that to you. Think about it from the perspective of like governments, of think of, think of God as like the president of your country or your prime minister. And in that you're a governor or even like a mayor of a region. And what he's saying is, is that I've delegated you a power and authority and dominion for this space. And in order for those things to happen, your faith has to be in action through your belief and being convinced. But now you got to speak the things that are going to come into being because they have— they're not going to come into place until you say it. So it's an example. Think about this from the perspective of saying, if you're, let's say, you know, using the example with the one I just talked about my earlier about my testimony, I kept declaring the very promises of God over my life because I knew I had prophecies and it didn't make sense at the time. But it makes perfect sense today that I needed to have a job before I could springboard into being an entrepreneur. And so while the entrepreneurship at that season started to kind of come into being, what it was, it wasn't enough to do all the things God wanted to do in my life. And so he had to attach this other aspect, this other income stream to springboard me forward. So that what I did is I then declared that I would get the job. I declared that those things, that it didn't matter who was moving in the interview process, it didn't matter who was a part of the interview process, whether from the company or other candidates. I knew I was saying, I'm going to start this job on this date, I'm going to get my first paycheck on this date. I was declaring the very things that I I wanted to happen, but I knew by declaration that they were going to happen. It attached my faith to my action, which is words. And so what it did was, is it then started to align and saying, okay, guess what? God's like, okay, he just declared that the job is his. Okay, now align all the resources to start to make that happen. Now again, this is— you have to understand the permissible will of God, the perfect will of God, in your will. This is an aspect when you're declaring you want to be aligned with the perfect will of God in your life. And I know that can be a difficult transition if you're operating in your will or you're even operating in the permissible will of God, because that leap can potentially be for you very, very uncomfortable. It's a great leap to go through and reach the end, but it can be very, very challenging for you as you're going through it. And so As you're declaring, you need to make sure that you're talking to God in your prayer closet, that you're journaling the things that he wants you to do and speaking the things he wants you to speak. Because then what it does is that moves him through faith, through your declaration, through the authority that he's invested in you, and boom, it happens and it moves. Because what you're doing is you are saying something that you have no control over ultimately. I had no control over whether or not that employer and those candidates were not— they were not going to choose those candidates and that they were going to pick me. I had just no capability. But yet when I spoke it, that was all the authority that I needed and aligned. Boom, it happened and it was done. And so it became a smooth process. It was work, but it was still very smooth. And God did the part because I spoke it. into being. And so that's an aspect of where you can attach your faith through your declarations, because God needs you to say the things in order for them to come into pass. That's very, very important. And you see this because you see this, how Jesus did all of his healings. Jesus never prayed for healing, never once. Go look it up in the Bible. Go find— go reread the Gospels. Won't take you that long. You'll never find an instance where Jesus went to the Father on his knees in any way, shape, or form and asked for healing. He never did that. He always spoke the situation. So Jesus was always operating in faith, and then he spoke the intended result of what he wanted to happen, but it aligned with the will of the Father already, which is healing. And in fact, you'll be— I'll be fair, I'll be telling you the truth, I would be very shocked that God doesn't want healing, miraculous healing, instant Instantly for everyone at any point in time. Now, there may be some aspects where he might want you to walk it out because there's things that he wants you to learn along the way or to grow your faith. But ultimately, that destination is always the same, which is healing. He wants healing for everyone. He doesn't want anyone to be sick. In fact, he never brings sickness into your body or into your life. That sickness either came through sin that the devil took advantage of, or that was just the devil. So the devil is the source of those problems. God's never the source of those problems. He's always the solution. But he wants you to speak the solution for him to move because of the authority that he's invested in you. Because he doesn't want you to become an invalid leader. He wants you to operate from a position of royalty, to know that you can speak those things, and as long as they're aligned with his will, they'll come to pass. And in fact, the reality is, is that when they're not aligned his will, they can still come to pass, à la the 12 spies that went into Israel and came back. 10 gave a bad report, 2 gave a good report. God wanted them to go into the Promised Land because remember, this was 2 years after coming out of Egypt. The 10 spoke something, and guess what happened? 40 years— well, 38 years later of the wilderness, guess what happened? Those 10 died, and the other 2, you know, Joshua and Caleb, made it. So Your words are very powerful, so God will give you what you want, even if it's something that he doesn't want for you. So be very conscious of the things that you ask for, because you will literally get them. So you have to be prepared for that. So now that we have this, so you have your faith in action, you're believing, thoroughly convinced that the things of God are going to come to pass, and that now you have the situation where God's saying, speak, speak, speak into being. Now let's move into prayer, because this is a really powerful aspect. Because prayer is more than just surrendering to God the things that you want to have to come to pass, but it's an opportunity of sacrifice to him. Because prayer in the Old Testament was attached to incense, very similar, where incense was this fragrant offering that went up to God that was a pleasing aroma to him as an offering to him. And that's the essence of prayer is. Prayer is a form of worship. Prayer is the very way you communicate with God, because that's why when you look at prayer from a non-Christian perspective and you start to operate in prayer to other things, whether it's to false gods, whether it's to the saints, whether it's the dead relatives, that's a form of sin. That's a form of idolatry, because prayer is worship. And so God Loves prayer because what it is, it's a form of worship to him. And if you don't understand that concept, it's in Revelation, and it's in— was David talks about, I think it's in Psalms. So prayer is an aspect where God wants you to ask him to get involved. In its simplest form, there's a lot of aspects, it's very layered beyond that, but in its simplest form, when you boil it down It's when you're saying, I need your help, please come and help me. I need you to intervene, please intervene. I'm coming in a place of intercession because you put this burden on my heart. Please do the thing that only you can do, because that's the essence. And even Jesus prayed for the disciples and even for us in that great, uh, set of chapters at the near the end of John where he was Pray, you know, praising God and pouring out his Spirit to pray for both the disciples as well as for us. It was beautiful. It's beautiful when you read it. And what that does is in those situations of faith, what God is saying to you is as you're exercising your faith and you're thinking, well, how do I pray into those situations? I would, I would be— my suggestion to you is to simplify it and pray about your situation. Pray about all the pain you're experiencing. Pray about your storms. Pray about the things. Get guidance, because that's the place where you can ask God questions and he can reveal your next steps. He can reveal the things that you need to place on the altar. He can reveal the things that you're carrying that you shouldn't be carrying, the sin you need to be repenting for, even if it's a generational sin that's carried down for you that you didn't even commit, that he wants you to put on that altar. So he can burn it up, that the blood of Christ can do its mighty work. That's the essence. God will want you to pray and intercede and put yourself in a position where you are operating again. Remember, there's a kingly aspect of you and there's a priestly aspect of you. And so the prayer is the highest form of the, the priest. But you have to understand something, that even in your quiet time of prayer, you want God doing most of the talking. You want God being— telling you what to pray for and the things you should be saying, because now you can give up and yield. This is again where you have almost the inverse of what's happening from the royalty and the priest. God is giving you authority as a, as a king or a queen, royalty, the ability to declare. So he's saying, I need you to speak it so it can come to pass. But in this instance with the priest, it's inverse. He's saying, I need you to tell me And pray it back so that I can do my part. And so it's actually the inverse. And so you have these roles that are contrasting but yet just as powerful. And so what God is saying is, give me the fragrant offering of your lips and of your words, or even your thoughts, okay? Because you can pray in your mind. That's proof. If you're familiar— if you're not familiar with that, just go look up 1 Samuel when Hannah is pouring herself out. Uh, Eli thinks she's drunk, but she's praying in her mind to God. It's biblical. And God answered her prayer by, you know, opening up her womb, and Samuel came and then ushered in the era of kings. And so what you're seeing here is, is that God will put prayers on you. He'll put burdens on you. He'll put these things that— he'll put his heart, his emotion in and on you, and you'll experience it, and you'll partner with him to give it back up in prayer. to pray. And you can pray the Psalms, you can pray any scriptures. You can say, Father, in your word you say these things, please let it come to pass. You can pray the prayer that Jesus prayed over the disciples. There's so many prayers packed in the Bible. Even the Lord's Prayer is a perfect prayer because it actually covers the situations of life at, you know, at the level that God wants it to. You can put yourself in this place of intercession In this place of prayer, in this place where you can exercise your faith in prayer so that you can operate in victory, because you're yielding up to the one who can move in ways that no one else can move. That's the essence of prayer. That's the essence of the power of prayer. It also gives you the opportunity to shed the junk. You get the peace that passes understanding. You get the joy of the Lord because you're in his presence. You You get more mercies and grace because you've come boldly before the throne of grace. These are all the things that you get in his presence in prayer that you don't get anywhere else. And so when you really start to understand the prayer room, the prayer closet, whether it's public or even private, you really start to understand that you receive far greater, okay, than God receives in this process. God receives glory. God receives worship. He receives thanksgiving. giving. He receives prayers, praise, all these beautiful things. But the reality is, is he's given you way more. And so this is your opportunity to receive. And when you're faithfully expecting that, hey, in this situation, by prayer, I'm going to come out of this place different than I walked in, you're now operating from a place of faith that God wants you through prayer. So let's cover the last one, and that's rest. And so this is a really important one because I believe This society, and obviously a lot of societies that come before us, has truly, truly did its best to ruin this for people. Now I want to start to understand and explain to you the biblical concept of rest, because believe it or not, this dates back to creation when God on the 7th day rested from his works and spent time with the family he created, including the animals and the land. Mm-hmm. And so at the very dawn of time, about 6,000 years ago, God instituted rest. He instituted a time of fellowship, a time to spend with him. And so what he is saying in that very, very true testimony is that rest is very, very important. And in fact, it was so important that he established it as a part of the Mosaic Law for the years of rest as well as the year Jubilee. Many people understand that they're the year of their Jubilee and then the 50th year of rest. So God wanted people to rest every 7th day. He wanted them to rest fully for an entire year. So on the 7th year, you would not have to work. So the 6th year would be a year of double abundance as a 2x anointing, where then the 7th year you didn't have to work. But then the— after the 7th, 7th year, which was 49 years, that the— there would be another year of rest, the year of Jubilee. So here's God establishing that you have every Sabbath, every 7th day. In the Old Testament, it was on Saturday. And so, uh, you had every 7 days there was rest, there was no work. Every 7 years you were completely off, you didn't have to work at all. And then after the 7th, 7th years, the 49th year, the 50th year, you were off again. So rest is a big deal to God. In fact, when you study the Bible, you understand that the reason Judah got carried off to Babylon was because he didn't— they did not honor the year of Sabbaths. And that's what God said, is that I'm going to give the land rest for the wickedness of the fact that you kept tilling the land. For the 70 years that you were supposed to, to do it. So instead of those 7, uh, those basically the all those instances of those years of rest that they were supposed to give the land, God extracted the people, which is incredible that he would even do that. But that's how important it is for rest for it is for, for us and how important it is for God that he extracted the people for 70 years to give the land the rest that it that he had spoken it, it was supposed to have. And so when you're in the context of faith, you're answering the question, what is faith? And you're saying, okay, what is my action or inaction? Rest is really important because you have to know when you just need not to worry about things, when in fact not even worry about things, not even think about them, and that you have already done your part and you're now giving that up to God. At least in the context of either that day or that hour or that season he wants you to operate in, whether that's a short season or a long season. It doesn't matter if it's a week or a couple months or even longer. What God is saying is he always wants you operating from a posture of rest. This is so important for a lot of people because a lot of people want to operate from a place of works and putting things into action and to then do these things. And it's so important to understand. Now, there is works involved, and we talked about those things, and there are other, other aspects of works that will exercise your faith. Because you're— again, we talked about this with the, you know, with my vacation and being able to say, even though that I was operating from a posture of, you know, lack of money, which was no lack of money, to be fair. In the natural, it looked like a lack, but in the supernatural, the spiritual, It was abundance. So God is saying, put your faith into action and do and move. In this instance, God's saying with the rest is just rest. Just don't even worry about it. Don't concern yourself. Don't give it any thought. Uh, we're not supposed to worry about it, worry about anything anyway, but just move on and just rest and just give yourself a day off. Separate yourself from your family and, and give yourself opportunity to have some quiet time. and to experience some really awesome things, because that's what rest is. And where you can operate, where you can ask the question, well, how do I know I need rest? This is really simple, is, is that you don't have peace. You don't have peace in your body. You don't have peace in your mind. You don't have peace in your emotions. You feel like you're overworked. Maybe you are overworked. Maybe you're irritable. Maybe you can't have a conversation without being snippy. Maybe you're in a situation where you're not receiving the love that you need to receive. Because again, there's an aspect of, you know, many people talk about love tanks, and, and that's a way to express the, the desire to receive love. But you know, that in a human sense, that's a really real thing, is, is that you need to receive a certain amount of love in order to operate, whether that love is coming from God that you're receiving and accepting from him or from others. And so you need to be able to operate from a posture of rest where God can pour that love into you. They could pour that rest into your body. You can get that peace. You can restore that joy that's lost. That hope can return so that you can operate from a position of faith. Because if you're not operating from peace and you've gone ahead of peace, I can tell you that whatever you have done to accelerate that process, it's not worth your peace. In fact, there's nothing That's worth your peace on this earth. And in fact, when you operate in God's peace, you will always operate from a place of abundance, a place of blessing, because you'll understand that at the end of the day, your part in this whole thing is quite small. Your part and your actions at the end of the day, no matter how much time and effort you spend on this earth, no matter how much time and effort you do things for God or for others or for yourself, That percentage is actually really, really small. It really is, because God does so much more, so much more than we see or even possibly can understand. So rest is so important because it restores your peace. It gives you an opportunity through— and when I say that restores your peace, it gives you the opportunity to go to your prayer closet where God will give you your peace. And that's the essence. It gives you the opportunity to be tranquil. And this is the thing where a lot of people Truly get caught up in some things because they believe rest is a direct correlation to peace. And this is where they say, well, wow, you know, you hear the term, I need a vacation from my vacation, or you hear the term that my kids exhaust me. I can never get a break. I can never find time for myself. I don't have time for hobbies. I don't have time to learn, and I don't have time for God. You'll hear these terms all the time, but that's the situation they're in. is where they need to get into a posture of rest. And rest truly means getting in the presence of God. It doesn't necessarily mean praying or worshiping. It doesn't even necessarily mean journaling. But what it does is it's allowing you to commune with God at a place where he can just pour into you nonstop the way he wants to without you stopping it, and that there's no interruptions. interfering with what this is going on and trying to restore you back to the place God wants you to, either mentally, emotionally, physically, spiritually. That's the essence of what God talks about. So your faith to trust God in those situations of potentially storms of life and saying, look, I'm going to not even acknowledge the storm— remember, Jesus slept in the storm, and so he was in a posture of rest, even at a point where professional fishermen were like, we're going to die. And Jesus is like, what are you talking about? Don't you have any faith? And he just quiets the storm and moves on, and that's it. And so that's what God wants from you, is he always wants you operating from a posture of faith and a posture of rest. And they go together. Now, faith— in exercising your faith may not feel like you're at rest, but that's more the flesh than anything. But remember, when your spirit controls your soul, it doesn't matter what the flesh wants. It can get shoved aside, pushed down, because remember, you can't exercise you out of you. Your flesh is going to be with you the whole time. But what you can do is exercise rest to restore you, to then operate and move forward in abundance and in blessing and in confidence and in hope and in faith that the things that you're thoroughly convinced will happen will come to happen. And the key part that rest does, in addition to, you know, obviously further establishing your relationship with Jesus Christ, which is the most important thing on this side of eternity, is it allows you to operate from a place of clarity where you no longer feel rushed to do something. Because that's what the devil wants to do. Is he either wants to slow you down so far that you become a sloth and you miss the opportunities, or you birth them early. That's what he wants. He wants one of those two things. So if you feel like your rest is becoming too restful, that may be moving into the place of you being in a place where you— hey, you need to start moving again. Or if you feel like you're rushed, that's when you need to pull back and say, okay, God, am I trying to do something? That is aligned with your will but not with the timing. And that's where rest comes in. That's where the power of rest comes in. And that's where you can exercise your faith, believing in God definitively that the very things that are moving and happening and operating and coming into place are the things he wants at the time he wants. And that's what faith is. That's how you can exercise your faith. That's how you can believe. In all these situations, this framework will apply to every situation in your life. It'll apply when God wants you to do something because there'll be an aspect of obedience. Because remember, you get to be judged on 2 core things in your life. You get to be judged on your actions and your inactions. Because remember, God's going to be telling you to do things, and if you're disobedient, you get judged for those things. And so you want to be in a position where God is— you're aligned with the footsteps what he wants you to do, when you want to do them. But that comes with faith. It comes with the posture of exercising your faith, just believing that— definitively believing that these are going to come to pass. It comes into a position where you declare the things that you can operate into. You want the things to come to pass. You pray for intercession. There is an aspect of you doing the things in conjunction with God, as well as the fact that you can then attach the rest piece to it. And so when you couple all those things together, because if you're in your prayer closet, you're going to get the things you need that God wants you to do, and you just operate out in faith that, hey, these are the things I should be doing even though they may not make sense. That's how you exercise your faith. That's how you move forward. That's how you accomplish things. And it's functionally like a muscle where your faith gets stronger and stronger because you put these things into action. You see these things come to pass. And you start to definitively believe over and over again that the things that are happening in my life are correct, that I feel aligned because I have the peace of God. Everything's moving forward. I can glorify him, and people are coming to Jesus Christ. My family is thriving. I'm thriving. Sickness can't hold its grip on us. You know, all these things that want to try to drag us down back into poverty, you know, mental illnesses, you know, all kinds of form of strongholds, emotional aspects, they're all broken off and Stay broken off. That's how you know you're on the right path and you're operating faith. You're drawing from the well that doesn't dry, and you're giving God the glory for the things that He deserves. But guess what? It's all the things that's going on in your life. And so I pray that this message truly blessed you and allow you to operate in a posture of faith that you can receive greatness after greatness, and you know your part in that. Walk. And remember, again, sometimes the action is inaction. You're just standing in faith, or you're just believing and just resting and just moving things forward. Again, sometimes God's going to make you do some things and put you in a position where you have to do some things. Sometimes it's prayer, sometimes it's intercession, and sometimes it's just good old work. But God will put you in a position