Step Out in Faith

Matt. 14:28 - '...and Peter said to Him, Lord if it is You, bid me come...'

Many of the storms we face in life are orchestrated by God Himself. We often want to blame the devil when actually, Jesus is the Master of Storms...He does this because He's dealing with you and me cling to Him, trust and obey Him fully.

This requires faith and trust - something many of us sorely lack as we move upward in Christ. In that particular event with the Lord, Peter asked a very simple, but all too familiar question - "...Lord if it's You...," have you ever asked this of the Lord? I know many of us have, it's not a bad question, it's very honest - especially when we find ourselves in situations that are beyond our control or something we failed to anticipate.

If you notice, this wasn't the first storm these men have ever been in - the first time, Jesus was actually in the boat with them, but this time; He allowed them to fend for themselves...He does the exact same thing to you and to me. Rather than panic, complain, or backslide, we need to stop and ask..."Lord, if it is You, bid me come..."



It's time for you and I to step out in faith - for this is where the Lord is.

Keep On

Philippians 3:13-14

13 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

“After each failure, ask forgiveness, pick yourself up, and try again. Very often what God first helps us towards is not the virtue itself but just this power of always trying again.” – C. S. Lewis

No one is beyond the need of forgiveness. Having said that, we should not stop striving to please the Lord in everything we do and who we are. The beauty of serving Christ is, He is willing to go to the lowest depths of our souls to pick us up, because He knows that we are trying.

Who Hindered You

Galatians 3:1-4

3 O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified? 2 This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? 3 Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh? 4 Have you suffered so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain?

I don’t know what happens but, somewhere between getting saved and moving on in Christ…we get it in our heads that our salvation is TOTALLY up to us…remember, salvation is a MIRACLE…it will never be sustained by human effort alone…we need Jesus with us all the time. 

Too many are depending on their faith to make it…when we should really be depending on the mercy and favor of God. Always remembering that it was Jesus who saved us in the first place. You don’t become more holy by serving God harder! 

Luke 10:41-42

41 And Jesus answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. 42 But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.”

The closer you are to Jesus, the holier you become…depending on Him…so it would do you good to answer the first question: who bewitched you?

In other words, to be bewitched means, you simply gave yourself to a conversation that worked against the things of God – a spell was cast upon you, either by someone else, or by your own insecurities. 

Have you talked yourself into giving up on God? Who bewitched you?

Effort

Psalm 124

124 “If it had not been the Lord who was on our side,”

Let Israel now say—

2 “If it had not been the Lord who was on our side,

When men rose up against us,

3 Then they would have swallowed us alive,

When their wrath was kindled against us;

4 Then the waters would have overwhelmed us,

The stream would have gone over our soul;

5 Then the swollen waters

Would have gone over our soul.”

6 Blessed be the Lord,

Who has not given us as prey to their teeth.

7 Our soul has escaped as a bird from the snare of the fowlers;

The snare is broken, and we have escaped.

8 Our help is in the name of the Lord,

Who made heaven and earth.

Every step of the way, the Lord is right there with us, but that doesn’t exempt us from putting in effort! Ray Lewis, former defensive player and hall of famer said, ‘Effort is between you and you…no one can judge effort.’

Are you putting in effort to serve the Living God? God focuses on redemption by first helping us develop the desire to TRY.

John 5:5-9

5 Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity for 38 years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, “Do you want to be made well?”

7 The sick man answered Him, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; but while I am coming, another steps down before me.”

8 Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your bed and walk.” 9 And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed, and walked.

And that day was the Sabbath.

The key to this scripture is when the man said, ‘while I am coming…’ He was willing to put in an effort, even though the physical odds were stacked against him, it didn’t stop him from trying – you shouldn’t stop either.

Close:

James 4:6

6 But He gives more grace. Therefore He says:

“God resists the proud,

But gives grace to the humble.”

Humility does remind us of our limitations, but it also confirms the Lord’s limitlessness.

We should grow more dependent on God, not less. 

We fall down, but we get up – for a saint is just a sinner who fell down; and got up…

What Does 2018 Mean?

Luke 9:51- "Now it came to pass, when the time had come for Him to be received up, that He steadfastly set His face like flint to go to Jerusalem..."

Jesus was determined to follow through with His original plans of redemption for mankind. He was not deterred, He was not distracted, He simply kept going forward into His destiny. 

Destiny is nothing more than a short version of the word (DESTINATION). There is a place for you and for me, we must be able to hear God's voice, as He guides us to that destination. The Lord has prepared this place, and He wants you and I to do whatever it takes to get there, because He has our best interests in mind.

Are you brave enough to listen to the Lord's calling and follow Him to the letter? Will you go and do what the Lord has called you to do? Who will you be when you get there? This is critical if you and I are going to change the world we live in.

Acts 16:6-8, "Now when they had gone through Phrygia and the region of Galatia, they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the word in Asia. After they had come to Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit did not permit them. So passing by Mysia, they came down to Troas."

Now we all know that this scripture inevitably points us to the Macedonian call, but my focus isn't upon that for the moment. I want you to focus on the fact that Paul, Luke, Silas, and Timothy were determined to go ANYWHERE for the Lord! They moved with zeal and passion to preach the word of God, but they were also sensitive and mature enough to listen to God when He said yes, and when He said no.

 

I wonder how many of God's people are in the wrong place at the wrong time because while they are filled with zeal, they lack maturity and wisdom and can miss God. Ask yourself, what type of Christian would you be today, had you waited on entering ministry?

What type of Christian would you be today, had you entered into ministry rather than holding out on the Lord? Most of us want to do something for God, can one of the things we do for God be LISTENING?

2018 is a year with challenges, a year of prophetic dynamics, and a year to shore up things we were unable to finish in 2017...will you allow God to guide you and help you be the man / woman that you are supposed to be in His name?

1st Cor. 16:9 - "For a great and effective door is open to me, and there are many adversaries."

This year will be a year of great opportunities, but it's not going to be given to you and I, we're gonna have some enemies of our faith to fight in order to receive what the Lord has for us...are you ready to go?

LET'S GO!

Adversity

Somewhere in life, you're going to have to take a stand, and face all obstacles and difficulties. You cannot live a life where you're constantly running and hiding from your enemies...sooner or later, you're gonna have to face them.

Pastor Campbell said years ago, 'You cannot conquer what you refuse to confront.' This is very true in our walks with Christ, if we are to maintain victory and dominion in our lives. Everyone has a Goliath, a Sennacherib, a Chedorlaomer, etc...we're going to have face them in order to defeat them.

2nd Samuel 23: 11 - 12, "And after him was Shammah the son of Agee the Hararite. The Philistines had gathered together in a troop where there was a piece of ground full of lentils. So the people fled from the Philistines. But he stationed himself in the middle of the field, defended it, and killed the Philistines. So the Lord brought about a great victory."

Many of us live right here. That is, the enemy will come in numbers that are usually greater than our own; they bring with them the swagger and the intimidation necessary to cause people to flee and / or quit...just like the text said.

Now, a troop usually carries between 3 to 5 platoons; this is about 50 soldiers per platoon, meaning, Shammah went up against 250 soldiers, easily...However, Shammah, stationed himself. In other words, he said to himself, 'This is it!' I'm not running anymore - it's put up or shut up time now!!

God gets involved whenever we resolve to give Him everything we've got and stand for what's right. The text says that the Lord brought about a great victory, not Shammah - this means that God did all the work! We need to bring the faith of a mustard seed...glory!

Merge

                                                                          

Psalm 37:3-6

3 Trust in the Lord, and do good;
Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness.
4 Delight yourself also in the Lord,
And He shall give you the desires of your heart.

5 Commit your way to the Lord,
Trust also in Him,
And He shall bring it to pass.
6 He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light,
And your justice as the noonday.

To prepare for a merge long before you're actually ready to merge, identify a gap between cars on the freeway where you can merge. Then, continue increasing your speed until you reach the gap you selected. Instead of increasing speed, drivers have a tendency to actually slow down before merging which is a big mistake

To put it simply, to merge is to BRING THINGS TOGETHER…

I pray that our desires align with the will of God.

He can show you

1 Samuel 1:9-20

9 So Hannah arose after they had finished eating and drinking in Shiloh. Now Eli the priest was sitting on the seat by the doorpost of the tabernacle of the Lord. 10 And she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed to the Lord and wept in anguish. 11 Then she made a vow and said, “O Lord of hosts, if You will indeed look on the affliction of Your maidservant and remember me, and not forget Your maidservant, but will give Your maidservant a male child, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life, and no razor shall come upon his head.”

12 And it happened, as she continued praying before the Lord, that Eli watched her mouth. 13 Now Hannah spoke in her heart; only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard. Therefore Eli thought she was drunk. 14 So Eli said to her, “How long will you be drunk? Put your wine away from you!”

15 But Hannah answered and said, “No, my lord, I am a woman of sorrowful spirit. I have drunk neither wine nor intoxicating drink, but have poured out my soul before the Lord. 16 “Do not consider your maidservant a wicked woman, for out of the abundance of my complaint and grief I have spoken until now.”

17 Then Eli answered and said, “Go in peace, and the God of Israel grant your petition which you have asked of Him.”

18 And she said, “Let your maidservant find favor in your sight.” So the woman went her way and ate, and her face was no longer sad.

19 Then they rose early in the morning and worshiped before the Lord, and returned and came to their house at Ramah. And Elkanah knew Hannah his wife, and the Lord remembered her. 20 So it came to pass in the process of time that Hannah conceived and bore a son, and called his name Samuel, saying, “Because I have asked for him from the Lord.”

Hannah wanted a son, God wanted a prophet. Her desires intercepted God’s will. The rest is history.

Elizabeth & John the Baptist | Widow and the jar of oil | The little boy’s lunch

There are other examples in the Word, to show you and to show me, that God will grant us the desires of our heart, if we would but trust in Him to do it. However, the question remains…WHAT DESIRES?

James 4:1-4

4 Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? 2 You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures. 4 Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

Is God’s will your will, or is your will God’s? There is a difference. Too many do whatever they want, and call it the will of God…this is not Christian faith, this is carnal religion.

James 4:13-16

13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; 14 whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. 15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.” 16 But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.

Luke 11:27-28

27 And it happened, as He spoke these things, that a certain woman from the crowd raised her voice and said to Him, “Blessed is the womb that bore You, and the breasts which nursed You!”

28 But He said, “More than that, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it!”

Our desires must match God’s will if we are to see what we really want out of this Christian faith. When our carnality gets in the way – that’s when we get weird.

The wrong mix

Religion tries desperately to force carnality and holiness together…you can’t have both, one of them must die.

James 3:11-12

11 Does a spring send forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening? 12 Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Thus no spring yields both salt water and fresh.

We have an entire history of people who do this, and it never works out.

Ruth 1:1-5

1 Now it came to pass, in the days when the judges ruled, that there was a famine in the land. And a certain man of Bethlehem, Judah, went to dwell in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons. 2 The name of the man was Elimelech, the name of his wife was Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion—Ephrathites of Bethlehem, Judah. And they went to the country of Moab and remained there. 3 Then Elimelech, Naomi’s husband, died; and she was left, and her two sons. 4 Now they took wives of the women of Moab: the name of the one was Orpah, and the name of the other Ruth. And they dwelt there about ten years. 5 Then both Mahlon and Chilion also died; so the woman survived her two sons and her husband.

Daniel 3:1

3 Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold, whose height was sixty cubits and its width six cubits. He set it up in the plain of Dura, in the province of Babylon.

Why did Nebuchadnezzar do this?

Daniel 2: 38…when Daniel explains to the king that he was the head of gold in the dream he couldn’t remember…he took that dream, and made it an idol of worship to himself…people do this in church all the time. You get a Word from God, rather than glorify Him for it, you turn it into some type of worship for yourself!

Another example is the Old and Young prophet (2 Kngs. 13: 11-25)

So we see this unholy merger of sorts, when in reality, we should be seeking God’s will and desires to merge with our own.

Conclusion

When will your desires match the Lord’s? What do you want to accomplish in this life? Is it all about you, or about the One who made you?

2 Chronicles 7:14

14 if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

Notice how God separates the 2 dynamics in faith…

Pray & Seek My Face…two different things, both are important, but you must do both, not just one.

To seek His face is to seek His will and desires. Everyone, prepare to Merge.

No Weapon

Matthew 11: 12 - 'From the days of John the Baptist until now, the Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence and the violent take it by force...'

As children of the Most High God, we can not afford to have the mentality in which we are waiting for the enemy to do something; no, we must press the battle to the gates! We have to take the initiative because we are on the winning side. As Shadrach said, 'Our God is able to deliver us, and even if He doesn't...let it be known to you O king, we will not bow...' This is the true position of victory!!

Why are you afraid of the enemy? Why are you intimidated by him? He's defeated, and there is nothing he can do to stop you! The only threat to advancing the Kingdom is your own carnality and / or selfishness. The devil can't stop us, so how is it that we've come to a grinding hault? Well, the first place we must look is our own hearts.

Psalms 34: 17 - 19, 'The righteous cry out and the Lord hears, and He delivers them out of all their troubles. The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart, and saves such as have a contrite spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all.'

Give our Lord something to work with! We all know that God will not put up with or tolerate a prideful person who refuses to trust God. He gave us the answer in the Old Testament concerning victory in His name...


2 Chronicles 7:14 - 'If My people who are called by My name would pray, seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways - then I will hear from heaven, I will forgive their sin, and I will heal their land.'

First, it's important to make sure that we are His people! Secondly, a prayer life is vital to our walk in Christ. Third, if we are to call upon the name of Jesus, then we're gonna have to let go of what we were calling upon before!

Genesis 35: 2 - 'And Jacob said to his household and all who were with him, "Put away your foreign gods that are among you, purify yourselves, and change your garments."'

Once our hearts are lined up with His will, there is no stopping us! The answer is very simple...trust in the Lord, do His will, and you will NEVER lose.

New World Order

Matthew 19:27-29 (NKJV)

27 Then Peter answered and said to Him, “See, we have left all and followed You. Therefore, what shall we have?”

28 So Jesus said to them, “Assuredly I say to you, that in the regeneration, when the Son of Man sits on the throne of His glory, you who have followed Me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. 29 And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My name’s sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and inherit eternal life.

Who ordered a New World Anyways?

We have been wired to associate the term, 'New World Order,' with an evil One World Government in the last days.

From the origins of the USA, Masonic movement, even the words spelled out in Latin on the back of the dollar bill - we tend to attribute cult-like accolades to this New World Order.

Even in the Word of God, we tend to view the story of Noah, Sodom and Gomorrah, the False Prophet - the Whore of Babylon, etc...there has always been a negative out look when it come to that term.

In the past 6 years or so, we've seen our beloved country push things to their limits (morally), we've crossed unethical boundaries and so on. However, I'm here to declare that we have gotten it all wrong!

The New World Order is actually a divine decree from the Father to creation!

Get a powerful revelation... Origins of the concept of a NWO: Are other than we have considered. Amazingly: In its origins... NWO is Not Evil! NWO: Actually God’s plan since the fall...!

Vs 28: Uses word ‘Regeneration’ Profound...! Only other time used: 

Titus 3:5 - not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit,

Because of this: the text is often looked at in that light... ‘Those of you who have been Born Again...’ Not what Jesus is saying... Literally means = Spiritual Renovation / Messianic Restoration... 

Referring to a time... Jesus Himself will sit on His Throne... And rule on earth! Disciples with Him!

Isn’t that just like the Devil... To try and Hijack: The concept... A New Age / New World Order!

Truth: Both of those terms... Belong to Christ! Reality: In the NWO... Will be Christ who’ll rule the earth!

Rev 11:15 Then the seventh angel sounded, and there were loud voices in heaven saying, ‘The Kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever...’

New World Order? Ha! Rather than waiting on the Anti-Christ to appear, we should keep our eyes and ears open for Jesus Christ!