THE POSSIBILITIES OF FAITH, GREAT FAITH AND GROWING FAITH

Ephesians 2:8-10; Matthew 15:28; 2 Thessalonians 1:3-4

Faith, great faith and growing faith. When we have faith in God, and there is no ‘but’ in our language. It is not faith when you put a but in your faith in God. God is a Faithful God, a Mighty God, and His faithfulness reaches to the Heavens. What He has said in His word, He will do. You don’t pray for divine healing and say even if He does not heal you, He is still God. That is unbelief. “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:8-10). “Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour.” (Matthew 15:28). “We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is meet, because that your faith groweth exceedingly, and the charity of every one of you all toward each other aboundeth; So that we ourselves glory in you in the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure:” (2 Thessalonians 1:3-4). There is faith but go beyond that the great faith, and then to growing faith, and everything you need will be given to you.

1. PREVENTING HARDNESS OF HEART WITH FAITH AT THEFOUNDATIONJeremiah 32:17, 27, Genesis 18:14; Zechariah 7:12; Jeremiah 5:3; Ezekiel 3:7; Mark 10:5-12; Acts 7:51-52; Ezekiel 11:19; 36:25-26; Revelations 22:18-19.

When you build your Christian life at the foundation of faith, then the hardness of your heart will be removed and prevented in your life. The children of Israel because of the hardness of their hearts did not get to the Promised Land, it was only those who had faith in God that got there. “Ah Lord GOD! behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee: Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh: is there any thing too hard for me?” (Jeremiah 32:17,27). There is no hardness in any life, heart, brain, or personality that God cannot soften. “Is any thing too hard for the LORD? At the time appointed I will return unto thee, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son.” (Genesis 18:14). It is hardness of heart when we hear of judgement at the end of a sinful life, that we neglect this judgement.

But we need to understand that there is nothing too hard for our God.“Yea, they made their hearts as an adamant stone, lest they should hear the law, and the words which the LORD of hosts hath sent in his spirit by the former prophets: therefore came a great wrath from the LORD of hosts.” (Zechariah 7:12). God did not give us an adamant heart at the Creation, but we made ourselves of that hardness of hearts.

As a father will not want his son to be hardened against him, so God will not make us be hardened against Him, and still punish us for that, this will not be right with our God. “And Jesus answered and said unto them, For the hardness of your heart he wrote you this precept. But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife; And they twain shall be one flesh: so then they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. And in the house his disciples asked him again of the same matter.

And he saith unto them, Whosoever shall put away his wife, and marry another, committeth adultery against her. And if a woman shall put away her husband, and be married to another, she committeth adultery.” (Mark 10:5- 12). God, at the beginning, made them male and female. But as time went on, the people began to put away their wives and marry another wife.

And Moses because of the hardness of their hearts, gave them a new law on remarriage and divorce. This was why Christ came to take away our hardness of hearts. Many Churches and leaders have done like Moses, because of the hardness of the hearts of the people have permitted some things in modifying the word of God. The pastors modified the word of God for the hardness of their hearts and made the coming of Christ useless because there is no redemption, repentance, restitution and righteousness any more. Understand that those people with their hardness of hearts missed the Promised Land.

So we cannot do what Moses did for us to modify the word of God, the word of repentance, regeneration, restitution and righteousness, “For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.” (Revelations 22:18-19).

There are some people, who don’t openly modify the word of God, but in their preaching, they do not preach on the subjects of repentance, restitution and righteousness in their messages and sermons. What will it profit that your name is taken out of the Book of Life because the hardness of the heart will make you stop preaching the totality of God’s word? It is better to leave the work and ministry so that you can correct your life, and have the courage back to preach the totality of God’s word.

Pray that God will help you to come back, so that in the Church when you have the privilege to preach the word, don’t forget the foundation of our faith in repentance, redemption, one man, one wife, faith for living, bring that back. Let us give the totality of the word of God to the people of God, and prevent the hardness of hearts in our midst. When you preach the word of God, some people will come and test you as a preacher. But we just remain faithful in preaching and teaching the total truth of God’s word. “And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh:” (Ezekiel 11:19).

2. PRESERVING HOLINESS FOR HEAVEN THROUGH FAITH IN HISFAITHFULNESSActs 15:9; Psalm 24:3-4; Leviticus 20:7-8; 19:2; 1 Peter 1:15-16; Luke 1:74-75;Romans 6:18-22; 1 Thessalonians 3:12-13; Hebrews 12:10,14-17, 28

God is a Holy God, and His demands and grace to make us holy will never change. If all will enter into Heaven without holiness then Christ would not have come. But God sent His Only Begotten Son to die for us on the Cross to make us holy before God. God cannot change, His standards and demands have not changed, He still demands holiness to see Him in heaven.

So we need to preserve that holiness through faith in His faithfulness. He is a Faithful God, and we are talking about faith in a Trustworthy and Reliable God that will not change. God knows that holiness is the most important experience that we need in our lives more than healing and working miracles. Healing, signs and wonders, with the working of miracles, will not take anyone to heaven. It is holiness that will take us to heaven. So we need to preserve holiness in our lives and fellowship. We are to major on major things, and minor on minor things.

The experience of holiness will not die in your life, local church and denomination. We must have this holiness and preserve it because that is what will take us to heaven. “And put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith.” (Acts 15:9). It is God who does it, and He will do it for you. “Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD? or who shall stand in his holy place? He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.” (Psalms 24:3-4). When you commit pornography and steal with your hands, it will make your hands dirty before God. “Sanctify yourselves therefore, and be ye holy: for I am the LORD your God.

And ye shall keep my statutes, and do them: I am the LORD which sanctify you.” (Leviticus 20:7-8). God delights, specialises and prioritises the holiness of hearts and sanctification. “Speak unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say unto them, Ye shall be holy: for I the LORD your God am holy.” (Leviticus 19:2). There is no double standard, it is the same standard of holiness for every group of persons. The Lord will make us holy. “That he would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear, In holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life.” (Luke 1:74-75).

The person, or system that wants to put fear in you so that you will not stand for God, for holiness, righteousness and convictions. This is your greatest enemy. But God will deliver you from all enemies, and there will be no fear in you anymore, and you will serve God in holiness and righteousness. The Lord takes fear in all its forms out of your life and heart in Jesus Name. And you will serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness all the days of your life. “For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord: Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled; Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright.

For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears. Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:” (Hebrews 12:10,14-17,28).

The reason why God makes us sorrowful and sad through His corrections and rebukes is so that we will be partakers of His holiness. We are to follow the Prince of Peace, to be at peace with all men, and then in holiness so that we can see the Lord. The Lord will help you to come out of those secret sins, and then you will follow peace with all men and holiness to see the Lord in Jesus Name

.3. POSSESSING HUMILITY AND HONESTY IN THE FELLOWSHIP OF HISFAMILYJames 4:6-10; Proverbs 6:16-19; Micah 6:8; Isaiah 57:15; Matthew 23:12; Philippians 2:5-9; Romans 13:13-14; 1 Peter 2:11-12,21-23; 1 John 3:1-3,9

Pride, haughtiness and self-centredness will take us away from God, and will bring you down. “He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?” (Micah 6:8). Once this humility and honesty are not there in our lives, we waste our lives and efforts before God.

If we remain proud of our sinfulness and weakness, then we will be rejected before God. But it takes humility and honesty to remain in the fellowship of His family. When we come to the presence of the Lord, He gives us this greatest virtue of great value, and we possess this virtue and go out into the world, and allow our lives and lights to shine – humility and honesty. “But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.” (James 4:6-10). We need to humble ourselves before God, meek and lowly, for it is that which gives us more grace from the Lord. “He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?” (Micah 6:8). The word of God makes us sober, soft and thoughtful of our lives.

The Lord wants us to be deep in our Christian experiences and walk with Him, for deep waters run quietly. The Lord wants us to be thoughtful in our lives and walk with Him. “Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul; Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation. For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps: Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth: Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously:” (1 Peter 1:11-12,21-23). We are to walk honesty in our lives, dealings with others and conduct.

We must not be fraudulent in our practices and behaviours. Let there be humility in our hearts and honesty in everything that we do as Christians.The Lord be with you, bless you, take hardness of heart, haughtiness of heart, nature of Satan away from your heart. The Lord gives you holiness for heaven, that every day and whatever the Rapture takes place you will be holy in life, hearts, and nature. Humility will be at the centre of your life, and honesty in everything that you do in Jesus Name.