May The Month of Faith
Faith
Sunday – 30th April 2023
Overview
1. Introduction
2. Revelation Knowledge of Christ
3. Three Aspects of Faith
4. Eyes of Faith
5. Mouth of Faith
6. Heart of Faith
7. Importance of having Spiritual friends
8. Conclusion
Introduction
May is the month of Faith. And this entire month we will be hearing about Faith and will grow in deeper intimacy, and a deeper love for the Lord Jesus Christ, which will take us to the revelation knowledge of Jesus Christ.
God has given me the grace to speak a warning about pride. I would ask each of you to be emptied of self-promotion and not create a false image of your importance. Instead, honestly assess your worth by using your God-given faith as the standard of measurement, and then you will see your true value with appropriate self-esteem.
Romans 12:3 (TPT)
People can act like having faith, but the Christian life is not an act of faith, It is a revelation of our own faith. So, Paul says, everyone has a measure. According to the measure, we have worth. When we consider some products, they have worth, but some do not. They might look very appealing on the outside, but inside they may not have any value. Our Faith should not be like that, but when God views our lives, He should see measures of faith, deep dug within our hearts.
Revelation Knowledge of Christ
And we have the Holy Spirit to reveal the Revelation Knowledge of Lord Jesus Christ so that our faith will keep growing stronger and stronger. Faith takes us to a reality where we understand who Jesus is.
If anyone thinks of himself as a know-it-all, he still has a lot to learn. But if a person passionately loves God, he will possess the knowledge of God.
1 Corinthians 8:2-3 (TPT)
The condition for a deeper knowledge of God is to passionately love God. Jesus said “Love your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength. The disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ were with Jesus for three and a half years. Towards the end of Lord Jesus Christ's ministry, there was a conversation between Peter and Jesus. Jesus did not ask Peter, will you be holy? Jesus did not say, Peter, will you remember me? Jesus asked him only one question, Peter, do you really love me? Passionate love for Jesus only will take us to faith because passionate love leads us to the revelation knowledge of God. The moment passionate love stops in our hearts, the revelation knowledge of God will stop.
As May is a month of faith, the deeper intimacy, and deeper love for Lord Jesus Christ will take us to the revelation knowledge of Jesus Christ.
A man of deep understanding will give good advice, drawing it out from the well within.
Proverbs 20:5 (TPT)
The Bible says, our voice, understanding, knowledge, wisdom, and everything comes from the depth of what we have in our hearts. This month we are going to dig wells of Faith deep inside our hearts.
Three Aspects of Faith
We shall discuss three aspects of Faith:
(A) Eyes of Faith
My eyes of faith won’t focus anymore, for sorrow fills my heart. There are so many enemies who come against me!
Psalms 6:7 (TPT)
The Bible uses the term called as the Eyes of Faith. All of us have two kinds of eyes, the eyes of faith and the eyes of unbelief. The Bible says, ‘my righteous lives by faith’. They see everything through the eyes of faith. But when there is no faith, we see everything through unbelieving eyes. Whenever anything happens, if the first conclusion of our thought is a negative thing, then we are seeing through an eye of unbelief. Our hearts have deep wells of faith in us, but when we speak anything which is not in alignment with the Word of God, instead of deep wells of faith, sorrow will fill our hearts and the problem with it is that with the heart of sorrow, our focus of faith will go. But when we are having the wells of faith, we are seeing the resurrected, glorified King of Glory, along with the angels.
I have seen his ways, and will heal him; I will also lead him, and restore comfort to him. And to his mourners. “I create the fruit of the lips: Peace, peace to him who is far off and to him who is near,” Says the Lord, “And I will heal him.”
Isaiah 57:18-19 (NKJV)
The Passion Translation of this verse says that God will first heal our hearts, and only then we can have a deep well of faith. With a sorrowful heart, we will not be able to carry deep wells of faith. We can know our hearts are healed when three fruits of the Holy Spirit will operate, Love, joy, and peace.
(B) Mouth of Faith
When we grow in a church, especially when we are growing stronger and deeper, we need to be always covered by friends who speak faith, and who speak words of hope. The people who had faith never asked questions to God when they faced any difficult situations, but instead, they strengthened themselves in the Lord. When we are going through a situation, we can strengthen ourselves in the Lord.
Then Jonathan, Saul’s son, arose and went to David in the woods and strengthened his hand in God. And he said to him, “Do not fear, for the hand of Saul my father shall not find you. You shall be king over Israel, and I shall be next to you. Even my father Saul knows that.”
1 Samuel 23:16-17 (NKJV)
Here, we read a conversation between David and Jonathan. For digging deeper into Faith, we need to be covered with people who will prophesy our destiny. David was in a big problem. He killed Goliath and defeated the Philistines. And all the people began to praise David which made King Saul jealous and King Saul sought after David to kill him. David is on the run now. If David desires, he can kill Saul, because Saul’s own son is David’s friend, but David did not do that. We should understand that faith is not depending on our own strength to come out of our problems but Faith is depending on God. And when David is depending on God, the Bible says, Jonathan came and strengthened him in God.
(C) Heart of Faith
So, search your hearts every day, my brothers and sisters, and make sure that none of you has evil or unbelief hiding within you.
Hebrews 3:12 (TPT)
There are two things that hide inside our hearts and cover our deep wells of Faith– evil, and unbelief. We have to get rid of this both because the Word of God says that it has the ability to lead us astray and make us unresponsive to the living God. Instead, our hearts should be believing hearts. When we wake up with a believing heart, it will be visible in our lives - number one, we will speak Words of Faith, and number two, we will be confident, joyful, and at peace and rest.
Importance of Spiritual Friends in our lives
Then Jonathan, Saul’s son, arose and went to David in the woods and strengthened his hand in God. And he said to him, “Do not fear, for the hand of Saul my father shall not find you. You shall be king over Israel, and I shall be next to you. Even my father Saul knows that.”
1 Samuel 23:16-17 (NKJV)
David had a spiritual friend who spoke his destiny and encouraged him when David was all alone and was running to save his life. We all need spiritual friends in our lives. Spiritual friends :
A) They encourage, help, and pray over us
Spiritual friends can encourage and help and pray over us. We need spiritual friends. We should never be alone in the church. We need spiritual friends and families. Pastors are our spiritual friends. Jesus called His disciples, friends.
B) They speak Faith over us
Spiritual friends cover us because they speak faith over our lives. Sometimes, people can push our limits, and we get angry or stressed and in doubt, and many times, our past experiences discourage us. That is where we need people around us, who will help us from falling down. Spiritual friends are spirit-filled friends. Friends who will speak faith, friends who will pray for us, friends who will correct us, friends who will stand with us, friends who will pull us out from sin and not push us into sin.
C) They give Spiritual Counselling
Whatever problem the other person is in, Spirit-filled friends give spiritual counseling that is in accordance with the Word of God. They face problems together.
D) They can restore us back to God’s righteousness.
When we have a spiritual friend with us, there will be no opportunity to sin and go astray. Even if anything happens by mistake, our friends can lead us and restore us back to righteousness. If it is not a spiritual friend, you might continue in sin. It is always a blessing to have spiritual friends who bring us out of sin.
E) We can share our issues with our Spiritual Friends
The benefit of having a spiritual friend is that we can share our issues with them if they are strong enough. Spiritual friends should be strong. David is having a strong issue now. It is a very problematic issue. But Jonathan comes to David and strengthens him and says my father will not kill you. You will not die. You will be the next king. When you can stand strong with the person going and restoring back, that is a powerful ministry.
Conclusion
Lord Jesus, we pray that give us eyes of faith, mouth of faith, and heart of faith, which will help us to resist unbelief and evil talks far from us. We believe that unbelief will not live in us, burdens will not live in us, traumas or sorrow will not live in our hearts, but passionate love for Jesus Christ will live inside our hearts.
In Jesus’ Name
Amen.