The Way of Faith Bishop Keith Butler

The Way of Faith Bishop Keith Butler Romans 10:17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Pistis: persuasion, trust, confidence, reliance, assurance Faith comes by a continuance of hearing the Word of God Just like there s faith in God, there s faith in other things. There are things you believe that have nothing to do with spiritual things. You have trust, confidence, belief in certain things because you ve heard them repetitively. Faith comes in a number of ways: By preaching and teaching, Romans 10:14. The more we hear the Word taught, trust/confidence/belief comes along with it. Meditating the word: Joshua 1:8 o Meditate: mutter, say repetitively o Revelation, understanding, success comes with meditating the Word Praying because you re supposed to pray the Word of God. You always pray the answer, not the problem. God s looking for you to declare that you may be justified. Find what the Scripture says, pray that to God. Reading the Word out loud. The Scripture was never meant to be read silently. Singing the Word: I Corinthians 14:4-5, 14-15 He that speaketh in an unknown tongue edifieth himself; but he that prophesieth edifieth the church. I would that ye all spake with tongues but rather that ye prophesied: for greater is he that prophesieth than he that speaketh with tongues, except he interpret, that the church may receive edifying. For if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful. What is it then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also: I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also. Faith comes from the Word trust, confidence, belief, reliance, assurance Mark 11:23 For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith. Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them. People read things that the Lord Jesus said, and look at things that the Lord Jesus did, and they do it out of context. There is a context for every thing Jesus spoke. There is a context for every action He took. If you don t employ the context of everything He says and everything He does, you can come out with the wrong impression. And then you ll be the one to say, This faith stuff doesn t work. 1

John 8:26-29 I have many things to say and to judge of you: but he that sent me is true; and I speak to the world those things which I have heard of him. They understood not that he spake to them of the Father. Then said Jesus unto them, When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things. And he that sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him. The Scripture tells us that Jesus never sinned. A lot of times when you think about sin, people think about common things adultery, fornication, stealing but sin is actually just missing the mark. There s God s level of everything, God s standard of everything and to miss that standard is sin. John 14:10 Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. There s no difference between Jesus and the Father because Jesus only says exactly what the Father says to say and only does exactly what the Father says to do. He doesn t do anything of His own accord. The methodology: Jesus hears the word from the Father. He then says only what the Father says. Then Jesus does only what the Father said to do. Jesus was a practitioner of Proverbs 3:5 (Trust in the Lord with all thine heart. Lean not to your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths.) Jesus perfectly executed Proverbs 3:5. He never missed it, so He never sinned. Jesus only spoke what the Father told Him to speak because Jesus was slow to speak. (James 1:19: be swift to hear and slow to speak.) But that s not the way we were raised. We think we have to have an immediate response. Mark 11:11-24 And Jesus entered into Jerusalem, and into the temple: and when he had looked round about upon all things, and now the eventide was come, he went out unto Bethany with the twelve. And on the morrow, when they were come from Bethany, he was hungry: And seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves, he came, if haply he might find any thing thereon: and when he came to it, he found nothing but leaves; for the time of figs was not yet. And Jesus answered and said unto it, No man eat fruit of thee hereafter for ever. And his disciples heard it. And they come to Jerusalem: and Jesus went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves; And would not suffer that any man should carry any vessel through the temple. And he taught, saying unto them, Is it not written, My house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer? but ye have made it a den of thieves. And the scribes and chief priests heard it, and sought how they might destroy him: for they feared him, because all the people was astonished at his doctrine. And when even was come, he went out of the city. And in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots. And Peter calling to remembrance saith unto him, Master, behold, the fig tree which thou cursedst is withered away. And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God. For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith. Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them. 2

Jesus didn t do anything of His own volition. So if He s going to speak to this tree and tell it to die, it s because the Father told Him to do it. Jesus was in the temple the day before (verse 11). 24 hours ago they were selling those doves, those tables were there, the people were doing the same thing Jesus didn t do anything. So why the next day? Maybe it s because Jesus sought the Father every morning early and even though He didn t like what He saw the day before, He would not move without instructions. Jesus didn t speak unless He got orders so He was very slow to speak, and quick to spend the time before the Father to get instructions. He trusted the Father with all His heart. He didn t lean to His own what He thought about it. In all His ways, everything He did, He acknowledged the Father first and the Father directed the path. Go in there and handle the situation this way. Verse 21: The Master wasn t looking at the tree. As far as Jesus was concerned, He heard from the Father to speak to this tree and when He said the Father s words to that tree, the only thing that could happen to that tree was die. He didn t need to look at it. Jesus understood that one word from God the Father is not void of power, that it produces wherever it is put IF IT IS FROM GOD. Remember, faith comes by hearing the Word. Verse 22: Have faith in God not just in God in general, but in God and His Word. What instructions did He give you? Verse 23: He s not talking about You just go to church on Sunday morning and you decide that you re going to speak to this mountain today and the mountain s supposed to move. No, because you certainly couldn t do it without doubt. (Doubt = to differ, to withdraw). Faith comes when the Father has said to you, You speak to this mountain. You tell it to move. We are God s mouthpiece in the earth. You speak to the mountain, tell it to be removed and be cast in the sea and it will, as long as you don t doubt what I told you. You ll have whatsoever you say. Why? Because what you say is what He says. There s no power in your words; the power s all in His words. His Word is full of majesty, full of deliverance. Your word, by itself, is nothing, but His Word is everything. When the Lord told you to do something or to say something, and you got it from Him, now you could stand in front of a literal mountain and tell it to be removed, and it will be removed IF you don t differ from what He said. Doubt= to differ, separate thoroughly, withdraw from, hesitate, stagger, waver Hebrews 10:23 Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;) Homologia: profession, confession, agreement, acknowledgement Hold fast: wrap your arms around something so it won t get away from you When you hold fast, it s because someone is attempting to take away something that you have in your possession. What do you have in your possession? The Word of God from the Father, because you seek Him daily. I John 1:9 if we acknowledge our sin, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That means: if you and God agree on your sin, God is faithful and trustworthy to forgive you of it and cleanse you of it. If the world says this is not sin, but God said this is sin and you made a choice to agree with God about it and are willing to repent (turn and go the other way), He is faithful and just to forgive you. 3

You only get the power of God manifested in situations when you and God agree. Living by faith means I live according to the agreement of God s standards. When you and God agree on a matter, the stage is set. In I John 1:9, your sins are not only forgiven but another action takes place you get to go through the washing machine and get cleansed, regardless of how terrible it was. You get the power of the Father operating in you when you and He are in agreement. Waver: wobble Hebrews 2:1 Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip. o Let slip: let something leak out o You can have been taught the Word, and over time, that Word and its power leak out. It s not faith comes by having heard. It comes by the consistency of hearing. The Lord will make you wait. You want a word from God about this matter, and the pressure s on your mind, on your body you have the urge to say something from your soul and from your mind, maybe even from church. But you may need a rhema, a direct word from God. Mark 4: satan comes to steal the Word o Affliction: pressure brought about by circumstances o Persecution: pressure brought through people o Cares of this world: distractions o Deceitfulness of riches: thinking if I just had enough money I wouldn t have any problems o Lust of other things: catch-all for not spending enough time with God to find out what He wanted to say and do o Chokes it out and immediately they are scandalizo (offended, back up, fall into sin) o Those on good ground bring forth fruit o The Word is the issue. Romans 1:16 the Word of God is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth Hebrews 10:35-36 Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward. For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. Confidence: boldness, frankness Don t throw away your confidence or boldness of speech. Not just any speech. You have taken the time to hear from God. Sometimes you might seek the Lord for days to find out, What do you want me to announce to this situation? When you get what He said to say about it, now faith comes with that, the power of God comes with that, and now that you have done the will of God, if you will be patient, you will receive the promise. The farmer sows the seed, goes to bed, wakes up, and praises God. Some things may take weeks or months, but that thing didn t start growing when you saw something growing in the dirt. It was growing the whole time unless you interrupted the process. 4

You might say, I don t see anything happening. That doesn t matter. He didn t say faith comes by seeing. Every morning you get up and say, Father I want to thank You I got a word from You because I took the time to trust You in all my ways. I decided to let You direct my path. I decided to acknowledge You. And I ve now heard from You, I got a word from You, so I m just praising You every day. It is already done. That s called faith and patience. Hebrews 6 says that those who operate in faith and patience receive the promise. Recompense: the act of compensating for the loss o Great: megas, huge, mighty o You can be in a situation and it may have done some damage, but God can turn back time. God can make something that was bad right again, and better than it was before. If you don t turn back on that word from God and you remain confident on there, God will go back and fix that problem, God will go back and bring back that money. o God is not confined to your calendar or to the clock on the wall. He is God Almighty and He can reverse it if it has to be done. I Timothy 6:12 Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses. Good (kalos): beautiful, valuable Faith: persuasion, trust, confidence, belief, reliance, assurance Fight that beautiful, valuable fight of faith Lay hold on eternal life: lay hold (grab); put spiritual things ahead of natural things; put spiritual processes ahead of natural processes Once you ve got a word from God, you can tell people what s going to happen before it happens. Anybody can confess it after it s happened. There s no glory in that. When you have faith and confidence in God, you don t have to wait until you see it before you start talking. You brag on God before you see anything. If you know what He s going to do, you can make that profession before many witnesses. And because you know He protects you, you can do the very next verse I Timothy 6:13 I give thee charge in the sight of God, who quickeneth all things, and before Christ Jesus, who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession; o This is an example of Jesus using beautiful, valuable confession. He refused to back up and let the state of fear govern Him. o A beautiful, valuable confession is that under no circumstances will I ever back up one inch on my stand of faith in God. The just (those that have been declared righteous) shall live by faith. Faith is a lifestyle. It s a way in which we live, everything we do; it s the air we breathe. We ve made a decision to agree with God with our life, with everything. We acknowledge Him with everything. Lots of Christians say, Jesus is Lord, but do you know what the word lord really means? The greek word for Lord is kurios. Kurios means He is controller, not just master. He controls your life. He s the One that guides your every step, gives you what to say, gives you what to do. I m a doulos, a slave. I m a son, yes, but I m also a slave in that a slave doesn t have any rights. When you re a slave to God, who is good, you do what He says to do. You bow down to Him. Jesus is Lord. He s the Supreme Authority. 5