The Importance of Faith

Hey, what's up? This is Tim Pratt Jr. I want to thank you for taking the time to listen to this content today. I hope you hear something that has value to your life, shaping your perspective, faith, and hope, as well as the application to see it through on this thing that we call life. Enjoy. What's up everybody? So this is episode 4 and we're dealing with the importance of faith. So a few years ago I wrote this status dealing with trust and, uh, trust and faith is the currency to the kingdom of God. And I was going in a different direction with it, you know, basically showing how like I believed in my actions, but the whole time it was actually God. But I seen it through like a Facebook, you know, when Facebook basically shows you something from the past. And I read it and I was like, man, you know, so over 2 years, of course, I mean, you know, we're growing in our perspective. I feel like our core stays the same, but you know, we're going to see things in a different light or a different way as we keep living. And so over those last 2 years, of course, up until today, uh, my faith has been tested like never before. And, uh, it's still being tested, and I know it's going to be things that continue to test it. Uh, so that's why I was led to basically do this episode on the importance of faith, um, because honestly, if we really be honest with each other, uh, it's one of the most underrated aspects of our life. But however, many of us don't attend to it ourselves, and that's why I feel like God allows opposition to happen. And just like, you know, anything, like if you work out or anything in life, uh, those guys, they're basically resistance, you know, they're putting pressure on muscles or their body, and that's how they develop and get more stronger. Uh, I mean, you know, I'm semi in the gym, uh, but I more so work out cardio. That's another subject for another day., but you get the point. Um, but as I'm pulling up James 1:6-8, it actually proves that, uh, nothing works without faith. And I— so I'm gonna take some time to read that real King James Version. But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea blown and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all that they do. So in other words, what that verse is— those verses are basically saying is that it's an insult to God when we go to him and ask, but we don't have the required faith. And so basically what the Lord is saying is that I'm not— you're basically saying to me that I'm not who I say I am, or I can't do what I say I do. And even if you look at the three Hebrew boys and study their story, is that they had a what-if-God-doesn't-do-it type of faith. In other words, it's like even if he didn't do it, we know that God is able and stuff. And so that's, like I said, it's easier said than done. But again, that's why I feel like God allows us to go through opposition in order for it to develop, especially if you read Romans chapter 5 and look at the perspective that Paul has on it, uh, or even if you read 1 Peter and stuff. And so, uh, kind of moving along One of the most quoted verses out there is Hebrews 11:1, and basically it tells us that faith is the substance of things hoped for, and it's evidence of things not seen. It's not this abstract belief or us just basically, you know, making, saying to God, you know, basically just making provisional statements. Faith is concrete. And if you look at, I believe it's 2 Kings chapter 3, is basically dealing with the ditches, you know, digging ditches. And basically Elijah had instructed the people to dig ditches because God was going to send the rain and stuff. And so in other words, like, faith without works are dead. But I think I've seen a post recently said, well, that lets me know that faith with works are alive and stuff. And so you have to basically look at it in the standpoint of this, using— looking at this through the lens of 2 Kings chapter 3. Is that Elijah, when he, when he instructed them to do that, a lot of times we're not digging a ditch and God is sending the rain, so we have nothing to hold, nothing to hold what God has done. So we can't really see evidence of it. But if we dig the ditches, and whatever that is, you know, it might be your business, it might be going to school, it might be whatever God is telling you to have the, the required level of faith for when he sends the rain, it's evidence. Because like I said in the latest episode, Consistency, rain is the Lord's specialty. All we can do is work the ground and stuff. And so I think that we really have to take some time, you know, and spend some time with that. Basically, can you move knowing that I'm gonna move? Can you trust me and have the faith that I'm God, that I'm gonna do what I said I was gonna do? And stuff. And so then as I kind of, you know, keep going and we make another transition, uh, and I'll get into that in another episode because I actually plan on speaking about this, uh, one Sunday, uh, dealing with a topic, It Was Necessary. But it's kind of two passages in the Bible that I want to use to kind of show you, uh, how God works. So, uh, we're all familiar with, I think, for the most part, Peter walking on water and what led to that, and Jesus basically calming the storm. And you know, one of the key terms is, "Oh, ye of little faith." But another story out there— so basically that proves that Jesus can, he can calm, stop, you know, cease, whatever words you want to use, the storm. But when you look at Paul in Acts, I believe it's Acts chapter 27, when he deals with Malta, basically it's An angel had visited Paul and basically said, you know, I'm gonna protect you, you're gonna go to Rome, this, this, and that. But they have this shipwreck in this storm that they didn't have to go through. But like I say, Paul— angel had visited Paul, and he basically chose to trust and take God for his word. And so as the ship wrecked, uh, all life was basically saved. And so everybody was okay, you know, as the passage goes on and on. And I feel like you can go in a lot of different directions as God give it to you. But what the Lord taught me, one of the main things that he taught me in that story is that I'm also a sustainer. And so Paul had that level of faith to basically lay hold into God's word and trust him at it. And I feel like that's why, you know, he writes these things in Romans where he talks about it brings endurance and it leads to hope and things like that when it comes to basically our suffering sometimes and what we go through. It's not just to suffer to to be suffering. You know, I hear people say never question God, and it says, oh, wisdom. But I honestly feel like, uh, it's times in my life I know for sure that I've questioned him, and I might not like the answer that he gives me, uh, at that time. But his sovereignty, I have to believe that it's all for a purpose. Because just really going strictly tangent with you, um, with me, I know it's a calling on my life. And I don't mean that in a cocky way. I know it's because of God, and I'm going to walk in it because of him. And it's times, you know, like I'll talk to my wife, friends, you know, family and things like that, and it's like I'll let the enemy get in my ear and get inside of my head, and I take a step back. And so I feel like the reason why God allows us to go through these things is to basically like I say, develop because we're not going to tend to it ourselves. And so it's like making the point I'm getting to, it's like the calling that I have on my life and that you may have on your life, it's going to require a level of faith that we just don't magically have, for lack of better terms, and stuff. And so we have to, because when people are going through things and stuff like that I don't want to speak to them just from some theoretical— like, I want to speak to them from a place of knowing that, like, look, I understand I might can't relate to exactly what you're going through, but in some shape, form, and fashion, I have been tested and tried as well and stuff. And like I say, I'm going to get into that in the message that, you know, by the grace of God, called It Was Necessary, uh, one of these Sundays. So bringing all of this to a close, uh, I want to basically take some time to use Peter Peter, for example. And when we look at Peter, you know, one of the things that the passage I want to use is basically when it came to Jesus, we noticed that he used— he made a lot of statements in the parameters of safety, or declaration, or whatever you want to call it. But when you look at and notice that when Jesus started to go through the process of things not looking as they always look, when it basically looked like their safety, those parameters of safety was dropping, we noticed that Peter, his fire basically started to kind of die down or die out, and you know, it led to the denial and all of that type of stuff. But when I was studying Acts one day and I was going back and studying that passage, I was like, you know, this is God, he's the beginning and the end, Alpha and Omega, and he knew everything. He knew that Peter was gonna have that moment at Pentecost, you know, this same Peter was a hothead and stuff like that, and and basically be filled and empowered by the Holy Spirit where people will be saved. So this was the same, but you go back and, you know, retro, and this is the same Peter that denied and stuff. So I started to see like, man, you know, once again, like, this is a development of faith. It's a test, and it's, you know, rightly dividing the scriptures. I feel like sometimes that we need the Holy Spirit in order for us to do that, and that's how I feel like we get a divine revelation versus having— you have a perspective, I have a perspective. Uh, now I'm not saying, you know, the word can't speak to you and you go in different directions, but I I do feel like it all should tie into one divine perspective and stuff like that. So, um, but kind of bring it all home is basically what I'm saying is that what it really taught me, like the moral of this, this, this last, you know, 2 minutes I've been talking, is that basically our faith, it has to go through the manifestation. And the only way that that's possible if it's met with opposition, you know, kind of like we were talking about with working out. In other words, you can't have faith without opposition. We accept the fact that faith has substance, but we don't accept the fact that it is substance of things that's not currently here, not in the present. Basically, it's absent and stuff. And so faith is very essential. I mean, if you don't take nothing else from me, it is a currency. That's what moves God. And yes, I wholeheartedly believe that salvation is basically given to us freely. We were bought with a price. We can't do anything to earn it. I mean, he found us. And he demonstrated his love. I mean, it's, it's no other way around it. But on that same note, I would also say this, uh, salvation is freely given. It has been deposited in everybody's account, but our faith is basically the withdrawal slip. Hey, what's up? So once again, I want to thank you for taking the time to listen to the content today. Also encourage you to subscribe to the podcast as well as share with family, friends, and on your social media platforms. Also check out www.timothyprattjr.org for more information about this thing that we call life. Be blessed.