By Dr.James. A McBean D.Th., MCC
F aith must not be confused with good ambitions, or egoism. What some people call faith. Has nothing to do with faith, it is their ambitions at work. Christians get hurt because they failed to unravel the principles that faith work by. When faith is preach to some people, it is like giving a loaded gun to a baby, are given your children fire to play with when you are living in a house of straws.
Christians get hurt when we try to exercise a measure of faith that was not given to us by God, and we did not reach. We get hurt when we try to exercise faith out of our realm. Just as people get hurt when they tries to live above their means.
DO NOT EXERCISE FAITH OUT OF YOUR REALM.
Luke 14:28 (KJV) For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?
Faith is to count the cost. A pastor friend of mine only had about five of us in his church and he say he is asking us to sponsor a radio programmed for him. Some of us were illegal aliens, and have no good job and he is dumping his ambitions on us and calls it faith. Do not make any preacher told you that good giving hurts. What is he giving? Which one of the members has he ever help? Giving what you do not have is not faith giving. Do not give what you do not have and call it faith, it is stupidity. If you plan to buy a house, first think about your income. Can you income cover the monthly payment?
Faith is not to temp God, by sitting down and wait until things get bad then start to call upon God. Faith show you the hard times up ahead coming. Faith shows Noah what was going to happen to the completely ancient world. faith is "not naming it and claiming" Faith is not to tell yourself that you get healing when you are still sick.
Christians get hurt when we do not understand the doctrines of how a person gets save and keep save. Christians get hurt when they failed to know that all the instincts that tell the body how to act and react was not change at conversion and will never change until our lord return. But most of all we get hurt because we truly do not understand the doctrines of faith.
Many Christians do not understand what it means to exercise faith. They think faith is a make up mind, a mouth talk or just sit down waiting for something to happen. Some went on even further in using denial for faith. They are four realms of faith that we will be talking about later, and each realms of faith has different portion. Each realm of faith has its own dimension. Let me use different sets of words. Four realms of faith are like four cup. However, each cup has the ability to hold more water than the others do. You will find four people with the first realm of faith call the sense faith, but each has more than the other.
Isaiah 5:13 (KJV) Therefore my people are gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge: and their honorable men are famished, and their multitude dried up with thirst.
Hosea 4:6 (KJV) My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.
Jeremiah 5:26 (KJV) For among my people are found wicked men: they lay wait, as he that setteth snares; they set a trap, they catch men.
One of my women friends had cancer. Because she is a Christians, she prayed for healing. Then she begin to say she do not have cancer. "I do not have cancer."
YOU FEEL, SICK GO SEEK HELP.
Matthew 9:12 (KJV) But when Jesus heard that, he said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.
HOW HEALING FAITH WORK.
First, the sick person must call for the elders. The sick person must confess. Notice that it is two parts. When I heard that my woman friend got sick I went o one day of prayer and fasting and drive drove to the hospital where she was. When I begin to pray for her she cry out and say "I feel the healing" She got healed, because when the doctor cut her open and saw the cancer spread all over they close her up back and sent her home to die.
She was completely delivered. One day I drove to her house to see how she was doing, she begins to tell me that it was a drink name "Noni" that heal her. I say my God my friend is going to loose her healing. Confess ((also)) mean that you must give honor to the vessel that God uses. If it was one of that so-call big, TV evangelists come pray for her she would not stop talking about it. I prayed for an Indian man and he got healing, it was years before it leaks out how he got his healing. I prayed for my aunt and she got her healing it was years before it leaks out how she got her healing. No body wants to give honor to the person that God uses.
James 5:14-16 (KJV) Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: [15] And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.
HEALING WITHOUT CONFESSION WILL ONLY CAUSE THE SICKNESS TO RETURN.
James 5:16 (KJV) Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
HOW DID DAVID KNOW HE COULD KILL GOLIATH?
Hebrews 11:32-33 (KJV) And what shall I more say? for the time would fail me to tell of Gedeon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthae; of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets: [33] Who through faith-subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions,
1 Samuel 17:33-36 (KJV) And Saul said to David, Thou art not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him: for thou art but a youth, and he a man of war from his youth. [34] And David said unto Saul, Thy servant kept his father's sheep, and there came a lion, and a bear, and took a lamb out of the flock: [35] And I went out after him, and smote him, and delivered it out of his mouth: and when he arose against me, I caught him by his beard, and smote him, and slew him. [36] Thy servant slew both the lion and the bear: and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them, seeing he hath defied the armies of the living God.
FAITH IS TO REMEMBER AND APPLIED.
1 Samuel 17:37 (KJV) David said moreover, The Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine. And Saul said unto David, Go, and the Lord be with thee.
Faith is to remember what God has done for you in the past and applied it to your present situation and take courage from it.
Hebrews 13:2 (KJV) Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.
Years ago in Jamaica. One night my wife, children, and I eat our last meal. We had nothing left to keep us for the following days. However, the morning when I woke up I saw a basket of fruits and food put down on my steps. Since I did tailoring at home at the time, I would be there for the whole day. My wife and children keep marching by over and over again looking at the basket. Finally, I gave her command to take the basket of food in the kitchen, make breakfast, and lunch for the children and her self. Days later a man turn up and ask me if I did see the basket of fruits and food that he left for me on my steps. God know we had no food and sent food for us. Every time that I am in some bad way. I remember how God hath deliver me then I applied that memory to my present situation, and I am comforted and also delivered. That is how you exercise faith. God is going to give you a faith walk when you accept Jesus as your lord. You must only exercise faith accordingly to your faith walk experience. David knows he could kill the Giants because of the lion and the bear that he killed.
What kind of lion did David kill? A male. He caught him by the beard. What does a male lion doing by himself hunting? Male lion do not hunt it is the female that hunts. He was beaten up and driven away from the pride. His offspring kill and he is angry and hungry and has a grudge. This was not a sick lion that was easy to kill. David knows he was divinely helped.
FOUR REALMS OF FAITH.
Roman 12: 3 say that every man receives a measure of faith. 2 Thes 3:2 say all men do not have faith. Why is this contradiction? As you read you will get the answer.
Romans 12:3 (KJV) For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.
2 Thes. 3:2 (KJV) And that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men: for all men have not faith.
(1) SENSE FAITH. ALL MEN HAS SENSE FAITH.
Romans 12:3 (KJV) For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.
Romans 1:19 (KJV) Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.
Romans 1:20 (KJV) For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:
Psalm 19:1 (KJV) To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handiwork.
(2) FAITH THAT COMES BY HEARING.
Romans 10:17 (KJV) So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
Romans 10:14 (KJV) How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?
All men are capable of developing their faith by hearing and reading the word of God.
(3) FAITH AS A FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT.
Galatians 5:22 (KJV) But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
Only the saints have this realm of faith. Every believer in Christ has this realm of faith because it was planted in us by the Holy Spirit at the time of our conversion. However, there are different portion of this faith. Some have more than some.
(4) FAITH AS A GIFT OF THE SPIRIT.
This dimension of faith is different from the other three realms of faith. This is a supernatural kind of faith that all men do not have. This realm of faith is a gift that is given only to some believers by the Holy Spirit. All believers are not able to use like this. Your well have to completely run dry, you came to the point where other men would kill themselves. I walk off a job, recently. The manager beat upon me until I reach the point of where I feel like picking her up and throwing her through the window. I did not even know I was packing up my stuff to walk of. I was now depending on my part time job, which went down to one day the week after I quit the main job. The mortgage pay, and most of my bills are paid and I am still alive, and still glad that I quit.
This realm of faith is like an extra tank of gas, that you never know you had. It works like an automatic transmission. Road conditions cause you to shift into it. To get this realm of faith you will need to find somebody in your church and that has it, let them lay their hand, and transmitted it to you.
1 Cor. 12:8-9 (KJV) For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; [9] To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit;
1 Cor. 12:10 (KJV) To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to other divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues:
1 Cor. 12:30 (KJV) Have all the gifts of healing? do all speak with tongues? do all interpret?
2 Thes. 3:2 (KJV) And that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men: for all men have not faith.
Sometime Only Jesus Can Help Us
Acts 4:12 (KJV)Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.
Romans 5:6 (KJV) For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. Romans 5:7 (KJV) For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. Romans 5:8 (KJV) But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:9 (KJV) Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. Romans 5:10 (KJV) For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. Romans 5:11 (KJV) And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.
Matthew 6:33-AV But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
Isaiah 55:6-AV Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: Isaiah 55:7-AV Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
The Bearer's Of The "Mind Sword"
