Bible Teaching

Calvary Temple Teaching Library

Pleasing God Pt.5

Let's turn to Hebrews 11 and just continue to look at the great promises of God, as our whole life's endeavor is to please Him. Without faith, the Scripture says, it's impossible to please God. In every one of us there's the appetite to please our Father, and in every one there's the sufficient grace to enable us to do that. So the question, really, tonight is, Are we taking the grace that's been afforded us and letting Him work in us to will and to do of His good pleasure? God is working in us to will and to do His good pleasure. What is it that pleases Him? Say it: "...without faith it is impossible to please him..." (verse 6). He works in us to will and to do His good pleasure (that which is pleasing to Him). God is working the faith in you because that's what pleases Him. Amen?

So He's at work. God is working in you. Everything that's happening in your life is God building faith in you because it's faith that pleases Him. "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen" (Hebrews 11:1). So He's looking for a people that walk by faith and not by sight, praise God--a people that will come out from among the world's system and not be moved by our natural senses, that will not trust in our own understanding. In fact, the 11^th chapter of Hebrews, verse 13, says that whole generation, that whole honor roll of faith that we're studying about, died in faith. Every person that we read of in this chapter "...died in faith, not having received the [manifestation of] the promises, but having seen them afar off, [say it with me] and were persuaded of them..." Abraham was fully persuaded that what God had promised, He was able to perform. God wants you to be persuaded against everything that your intellect is telling you. God wants you to be absolutely persuaded that His Word is true, and all the symptoms are a lie; all of the emotions are a lie; all of the visible, tangible evidence is a lie, because everything that's temporal (natural) is going to pass away and everything that is spiritual (eternal--His promises) are going to remain. Amen?

So what's your hope in tonight? What are we resting in; what are we rejoicing in? So many of us, by faith, want temporal, temporary fixes. We think that somehow faith failed if we don't see the natural manifestation. Beloved, our hope is in the eternal realm--Amen?--and even though you don't see it here (you may not appropriate it here), we're a people that are fully persuaded that what God has promised--we may die in faith not having received it, but we are persuaded, having seen afar off the glory of God! And our confession--and, beloved, you're never going to be able to walk in true pleasing faith until this next phrase becomes a reality to you: "and [they] confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth." Are you an earth-dweller or is your treasure in heaven? Is it the things here in the temporal realm that satisfy you? Is it where your hope is? Is it what we're laboring for? We're going to go on and study a little more in the life of Abraham, and it's very interesting to see that everything that was temporal, all that led up to the promises and the birth (the miraculous fulfillment of God's promises in the birth of Isaac) were still not the final testing of Abraham's life.

In fact, the Scripture says it this way--turn back to Genesis with me. In Genesis, chapter 22, we read this phrase, and it's important for us as we learn to walk by faith and not by sight. You see, many of us have gone through a number of trials in our life, and testing, and there isn't going to be any proving of the faith that's working in us until the faith is tested. Faith has to be tested to find out what its source is. Faith has to be tried to work in us the virtue called patience, or consistency or endurance, because faith that is temporary isn't biblical faith. Faith that is in the natural realm is not biblical faith. Only the faith that endures into eternity is what pleases God. So everything that's natural here has to be shaken and tested to prove the reality of the source of our faith, the eternal realm. Listen to this phrase in chapter 22 of Genesis, verse 1: "And it came to pass after these things..." What things? All that had led up to this time in Abraham's life--the oppositions, the successes, what he had learned in Egypt, what he had learned in the fiasco of Hagar. "And it came to pass after these things, [read the next phrase with me, the next four words; say it with me] God did tempt Abraham..." How many of you would rather not have that in your life? Put your name in there: "And God did tempt ______."

What is this temptation? We know it's not a temptation to evil--"...God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man..." (James 1:13), so this temptation isn't a temptation to sin or to evil. The word "temptation" here literally means to put to the test. Your faith is going to be tested to prove what source is behind it, because you see, there's natural faith and there's weak faith and there's faith that fails, and then there's strong faith and there's perfect faith. We're going to talk about those things.

You know, one of the phrases that's always interesting to me with poor ol' Peter--Peter takes a lot of flack, but you remember when Peter was just beginning to sink and he said, "Lord, help!" and the Lord reached out and took him by the hand and He said, "Oh ye of little faith, why did you doubt?" I think walking on water is a pretty good expression of faith, wouldn't you say? Any of you done it lately? Some of you can't even swim much less walk on water. So we have this guy who's stepping out of the boat, who's experiencing the miraculous, who's walking on water, but, you see, faith isn't strong if it doesn't endure. It's not how violent it is at the moment. We're talking about faith--the power, the expression of God's intervention, of casting out devils, healing the sick, raising the dead, walking on water, calling fire out of heaven--all great, spectacular encounters with God, but we learn something from Peter's life. He looked at the circumstances. What you're going to have to deal with, what I have to deal with, on a continual basis is what we were dealing with in our last session--"He [Abraham] staggered not at the promises, being fully persuaded that what God had promised, He was able to [What?] perform, perfect, complete" (Romans 4:20-21).

In every one of our lives we're going to have the temptation to get our eyes off the promise and onto the circumstances again. You see, his eyes were on the circumstances. He was looking at the storm; he was looking at the adversity--[likewise, we start] looking at the trial, looking at the pain, looking at the bills, looking at the condition of our children, our spouse (their rebellion, their apostasy). Then all of a sudden God speaks and faith comes through the infusion of the rhema (the spoken, specific promise of God), and faith begins to rise and you begin to have hope. You begin to hope for the healing, you begin to hope for the deliverance of your loved one, you begin to hope for God's provision to get us out of the momentary trials in our finances, or whatever it might be. And the moment that faith begins to arise, another principle begins to manifest--"And Satan comes immediately for the Word's sake" (Mark 4:15). Amen? Count on this one thing: When faith begins to manifest in your heart, circumstances are going to get worse. It's a test; it's a trial. It's going to happen every time. There's going to be the adversity, the fear, the anxiety, the lack of assurance and confidence, and then faith is going to come and you're going to say, "Praise God, our God is able!"

You're going to turn to people around you and say, "I want you to know something, bless God! The Word has become alive! It's exploded in my spirit! Is anything too hard for the Lord? I believe that what things soever I desire, when I pray, if I believe that I receive them, I shall have them!" Have you ever known that to go off in your spirit? Isn't that an exciting place to be? Then all of a sudden, what is it that follows every time? An opportunity to doubt and to fear. "Oh ye of little faith." I don't know about you, man, but I wish I had enough faith to jump out of the boat and walk on water. I've experienced some pretty cool stuff over the years, and as God's grace has allowed me to step out in whatever it might have been that I saw the miraculous, I've experienced at times the doubting and the sinking and the crying out for the mercy and deliverance of God, "Lord, help!" And you know what? He's always there to gather you up and to take you to the other side, praise God, but the fact that you make it to the other side doesn't bring glory to God if you didn't walk there. So we're going to have to go through it again, because it's all about God's Word and His presence working in our lives so that men could see and glorify our Father which is in heaven.

What we're going to study in the life of Abraham tonight is this: The biggest tests come following the greatest gains in our faith. So many times we lose in the counterattack, and we want to encourage ourselves tonight to endure to the end, because he that endures to the end shall be saved. Amen? I want to talk about that a little bit. A lot of different trials, a lot of different things--"And it came to pass [verse 1 of chapter 22, Genesis] after these things, that God did tempt Abraham..." God did tempt Abraham. So we're going to talk about those trials for just a moment, and as we look at this we want you to see that in the midst of this temptation, there's a powerful phrase in verse 8 that I want you to get into your notes. "And God did tempt Abraham" verse 1 says, but look at verse 8. Get it in your notes, highlight it, underline it--these words, verse 8--"...God will provide himself..." Write those words down. It's God working in us to will and to do His good pleasure. Amen? "...God will provide himself." Talking about pleasing God tonight--without faith it's impossible to please God. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God (Romans 10:17). We want to learn, beloved, to walk in and embrace that rest, to cease from our own labors. In the next couple of sessions we're going to talk about that ability to cease from our own labors, to get out of the works syndrome of faith and know that faith does work by love. Amen?

As Richard [Pastor Miller], I believe, was teaching along these lines--I haven't heard the tape yet; someone had told me what the topic was--and to be able to come into that part of the rest of God, in the integrity of God, because the fact of the matter is, God will provide Himself. God cannot deny Himself. We deny Him, the Scripture says, but He can't deny Himself. His Word is sure to a thousand generations. Heaven and earth is going to pass; God's Word will not pass away! So let me ask you something tonight. Do you have God's Word on the circumstance that you're in, or not? Have you spent time in fellowship with Him to where, as you're leaning on the bosom of God, you'll hear Him speak to you, "By My stripes you're healed"? Have you heard these words: "My grace is sufficient for you"? Maybe you'll hear something like this: "You have not because you ask not." You're being too passive. You need to begin to set out against the enemy and resist the devil, and he'll flee from you. But check your motives; don't ask amiss desiring to consume it upon your own lusts. Don't ask God to heal you so you can go out and play. Ask Him to heal you so He can be glorified. Don't ask God to deliver you from your debts so you can go charge something else. Believe God to deliver you so that you can begin to develop some character and discipline your flesh and be a good steward of what God's entrusted into your hands. What's the motive behind the pursuit of the miracle?

So as we go into this session--and that'll give us a little bit of an idea of where we're going to go in the next couple of sessions--let's go back to Hebrews, chapter 11. We'll pick up and in these next couple of sessions, we'll get into the great persuasion of Who God is, because those that come to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those that diligently seek Him. You see, that's the second part of that verse, "But without faith it is impossible to please [God]." Now, faith originates in the heart of God. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Faith is not a force separate from God; faith is an expression of the purpose of God. The Word spoken is what God purposes. True biblical faith is exactly the same as its source (God); it's immutable (it can't change). True biblical faith is the expression of the attributes of God; it is omnipotent. Faith works! Amen? Then we see the expression of the apostle: faith works by love, but faith works. Faith can't fail because faith works by love and love--say it--never fails. Faith is an expression of love. There's no true expression of faith that doesn't originate out of true divine love, the heart of God.

Now, we're putting together a lot of thoughts tonight, but I want you to come to this place--what I want you to see is, we can't just go to the Bible and grab a couple of promises and think we're going to go do something for God with these things. It starts in the heart of God! If you want faith, you have to have God. If you want faith, you have to empty yourself of all of your own agenda and find out, "What does God want to do in this situation?" Then let Him begin to work in you to will and to do His good pleasure. "Those that come to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those that diligently seek Him." "Must believe that God is"--God is what? God is God, and as we studied His attributes, God is holy. He's totally unique; there's not another being like Him. He is the cause of all things. He is the Uncaused Cause.

So we find this loving Heavenly Father Who so many times we take for granted. We read the Scriptures and we forget how awesome our God is! We're so focused on temporal needs and wants, and we lose scope of the eternal perspective of what God is trying to do in the establishing of His Kingdom. If we're ever going to represent the Kingdom properly, we're going to have to represent it like our Lord and Savior, Jesus, and say, "I didn't come to do my will, but the will of He that sent me. I'm not coming to speak my words, but the words of He that sent me: that God is." "God is what?" "God is love; God is truth; God is light." "What's that have to do with these circumstances?" "Listen to me. These circumstances are there to reveal to you who God is; they're driving you to God, to find Him, to know Him. The circumstances, the trials, the opposition are the very vehicles that are used to turn you to God and see His goodness and His mercy, His faithfulness, His grace." So those that come to God must believe that He is and that He's a rewarder of those that diligently seek Him.

The opposition--and I don't want to spend a lot of time on this because we've talked about it. It's a theme that we've spoken toward so much in these last couple of months and actually year, but in the study of faith we're going to have to look at it again. We're contrasting two kingdoms. In the natural kingdom, everything that you and I are being asked to do here is foolishness. To call things that are not as though they were is foolishness to the natural mind. To make statements of the presence of an invisible being is foolishness to the natural mind, because they don't believe anything that they can't put into a test tube. So they're so limited in their scope and their understanding; they're so narrow-minded that they can't know the mercies of God and the majesty of your Father.

So in the life of Abraham, God wants to reveal Himself to this man, and there's only one way to do it; it's to keep putting Himself (God, the Invisible One) up against the natural circumstances and then defeating all that would oppose His creature (man) and showing Himself mighty and ever present to deliver. Every trial that each one of us is involved in here tonight is just a way for God to be able to reveal His majesty, the establishing of His promises in our midst, to bring us to the place of absolute trust to where we lean not to our own understanding but in all of our ways we acknowledge God. He then orders our course and directs our path. We begin to rest in the promises of the Lord. Now, listen to what that says, "...and lean not unto [your limited] understanding." It says "own" but I just wanted you to realize that your own is limited. Amen?

So in that 3^rd chapter of Proverbs, look at that 5^th verse: you lean not to your own understanding. Faith, biblical faith, will not resort, lean to, rest upon, its own understanding. Now, keep your fingers there in the 3^rd chapter of Proverbs and go back to Romans 4 where we were in our last session. In the 4^th chapter of Romans, these words are what we want to become first nature in every one of our lives. We were admonished in the 4^th chapter of Romans to hope against hope, to constantly have a favorable expectation when all natural hope is lost. You see, there's a natural hope and there's a biblical hope. Natural hope desires the best. Biblical hope expects the best. There's a big difference! A desiring (a longing for, an appetite for) is different than expectation based upon assurance, promise, covenant, character of God. Natural hope is nebulous; it doesn't have anything to hang its hat on. It's just, "It would be nice if this would happen." Biblical hope is specific, because God is the source of what I'm hoping for. I'm not just desiring a favorable response; I'm expecting the delivery of this promise, because faithful is He Who promised Who will do it.

So the question we have to ask tonight is--and every one of us is at a different place in our spiritual growth: What kind of hope are you moving in? "Boy, it would sure be nice if that happened." Yeah, and it would be nice if liver tasted like ice cream! But let's return to reality. What are you hoping for? Where's our hope tonight, in each one of our lives? We talked about the woman, you remember, with the issue of blood who pressed through the crowd and totally extended herself and was willing to be not only mocked, not only persecuted, but even to the place where she was possibly going to be put under judgment and could have been put to death. Why? Because she hoped. "If I can just touch His garment, I'm going to be healed." She expected the moment she touched His garment for the Son of Righteousness to release that virtue into her body. "Boy, it would be nice to be healed"--or "I will, when I touch Him, be whole!"

What kind of hope do you have tonight? What's your hope in? Are you hoping for favorable results, or are you hoping for an encounter with God? Don't look for healing; look for an encounter with God. Don't look for peace of mind and for the pressures to go away and to be able to sleep tonight; look for an encounter with God! Because those that come to Him must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those that diligently seek Him. Hoping against hope. When all natural hope--that nebulous expectation--is finally realized to be futile, we still have hope, praise God! Whenever man--whether it be the physician, the physicist, the engineer, structural, genetic, it makes no difference--says it can't be done, we have to ask ourselves a question: Is anything too hard for the Lord? Amen? Where are you tonight in your expectation? Have you limited what God is able to do in your life? What's too hard for the Lord in your life? You see, most of us would answer generally. "Is anything too hard for the Lord?"--we would answer, "No! Nothing's too hard for the Lord!" What's too hard for the Lord in your life? Is God able to deliver you from that besetting sin? Is God able to deliver you from that habit? Is God able to deliver you from that bad attitude? Is God able to deliver you from that fear? Is God able to deliver you from doubt?

You see, what we're hoping for is not biblical hope if it doesn't originate in God. Hope and faith are always character related. Hope and faith are always character related! God doesn't just do miracles and answer promises for you to have a good day. He's investing His presence, His visitation, in your spiritual character for eternal consequences. So all of the things that we're facing is God working in us to will and to do His good pleasure. See, we'd like God to work in us through revelation. "Lord, just give me a dream, a vision; just speak and cause an illumination to come in my heart. Then once I'm aware of this thing, just infuse me with faith, and with that faith I'll believe You to divide the Red Sea. I'm going to walk through life with a rod in this hand and a mantle in this hand, and I can take care of the Red Sea and I can take care of the Jordan River. I'm never going to get dirty and hurt, and your angels will go before me, praise God!" Every one of those miracles that you read about in the Scriptures was for an eternal purpose and consequence, and every one of them was working character in the vessel that He was expressing Himself through. Now, we're taking the long way around just to say this: Let's get our eyes off ourselves and realize that God is investing His visitation in us for the purpose of His eternal kingdom, for the edifying of His universal body (the church), and as a testimony of His love for fallen man through redemption in Jesus. When we can step back and realize that this is the motivation, then we have an eternal purpose in our hope. We realize, "I can hope in God because this is bigger than me just getting well. This is bigger than me just having peace of mind. I'm able to believe God now for something that's motivated by love and not selfness."

So Abraham then, hoping against hope the Scripture says, was not weak in faith, chapter 4 of Romans, verse 19, considering his own body now dead. He was not weak in faith considering his own body now dead. Now what does the Proverbs passage say? That we're not to lean to our own understanding, but in all of our ways, what? Acknowledge God--the moment that anything gets out of your realm of understanding, and I'm not talking about just the understanding as to how this is going to work. How do we walk on water, really? Have you ever thought about that? How did that miracle work? Was there a fine, invisible film of faith over the water that became a congealing source and he was able to walk on that? That would be cool. I can handle that. Maybe there were angels lying down there and he was just kind of walking over these guys. How about the rearranging--because you know we're almost totally space. You know we're not solid? [Pastor claps his hands a few times.] We're not solid [our bodies], and yet all of these molecules line up in this realm [the realm of the world we live in] and they kind of just meet. It would be interesting if God just kind of rearranged and made all of these little molecules line up so that now water and this other source of matter and H₂O--you know, we're primarily water--so God matched the water molecules. I don't know how He did it. If He told me, I wouldn't understand it, but I can hope against hope.

I can remember times when that faith was just so real in the presence of God, not knowing how He was going to deliver but knowing He was going to deliver. I've shared some of the testimonies with you that we've experienced and the time that we were in Canada when we were lost out there on the lake. I just fully expected God to deliver us; I didn't know how He was going to do it. I didn't know if He was going to preserve us through the night out there in the midst of this storm. I didn't know if we were going to get to walk on water. My mind was telling me what all the natural circumstances around me were saying. My mind told me, "You have two little children (four years old, I think it was, and two years old--or six and four, but they were somewhere in that area) and in this water here in Canada, at night, we know very clearly how soon they're going to die in that water." I think there was one life vest. I had a boat with one oar and it was an outboard. I can't remember what size it was, but I think it was probably a 12- or 14-foot boat. It had an outboard motor; it was an oversized motor that was actually larger than the boat needed--which is cool for going fast. As we were out there the motor stopped and it wouldn't start, and the sun was going down. In this particular lake in Canada the storms could get bad, and they could get huge whitecaps and swells. In fact, a storm was coming up, and the water was beginning to rise. I had that oar, and all I could do with the oar was at least keep the bow turned into the waves. I had my two children and my wife, and we were out there a long way from shore. I said, "Father, what are You going to do?"

I was absolutely convinced that God was not through with us! It never entered my mind that we were going to die out there! The only thing that entered my mind was, "God, how are You going to get us out of this, that in my stupidity I got us into?" I believed God could sustain us in the water against hypothermia. I was seriously considering walking back; it entered my mind! I thought, "Bless God, we'll just walk back. How are You going to deliver us?" The spiritual mind, when that faith is there, begins to hope against hope, and you say, "That's not logical." Yes, it is when you're moving in faith. Amen? How many of you would have thought about walking back? Would you? You would if you were in faith. You would when that grace is sufficient. You would when you begin to hope against hope and all of these different things.

Some of you know the story--I haven't shared this for years and years--of how God sent to us that boat to deliver us. A man had realized that we were gone way too long, and they had been running up and down this lake--a huge lake. I don't remember how big it was, but it was a big lake--I'm talking miles and miles and miles. Steve, how big was that lake? Was it about eighteen miles long and six or seven across? Bigger than that? Big lake! As we were out there, this guy was running around, and the sun was beginning to set. The waves were coming up, and the sun was setting back on the shore where I couldn't see anything. I was just praying, "Well, Lord, we don't have a whole lot longer here before it gets dark." Right behind us--actually the sun was setting--I could see this boat coming, and it was coming dead for us. I was going, "Well, praise God! They saw us!" So I was trying to get their attention. This boat was coming dead at us; it was just a speck out there, and it was coming dead at us. Finally he's coming, coming, coming, coming and he gets real close! He said he was within moments of turning back; he never saw us because he was looking straight into the sun. He said he was just at the point of turning back, and he actually turned the boat to head back into shore. When he turned and the sun got directly out of his eyes, he saw us in his peripheral vision and came over and towed us back in. That's not as exciting as walking back is it? That's a big lake for somebody to just drive right to you and can't see you. Don't lean to your own understanding. Don't expect God and then limit God in how He's going to deliver you. Don't let the enemy rob you by the fact that somebody in a boat shows up and think that it wasn't God.

How many of you have been delivered over the years and you've lost sight that it was God that delivered you? You thought it was natural man; you thought it was circumstances. It's not circumstances! It's our steps being ordered by God! So I want to encourage you some tonight as we continue on in this study. Don't consider the natural circumstances. Don't consider the limitations of your own ability. Don't consider the wisdom of man's methodology. Do not, verse 20, stagger at the promises of God through unbelief, but be strong in faith. Now remember, we said that word "stagger" meant to judge between two opinions. Fully persuaded is the man who isn't staggering, who is giving no thought to the natural opinions. Stagger means to consider both sources. He staggered not; he did not become double-minded. He'd already done that, and God is now working in him.

Beloved, God is in the process of taking you beyond Hagar. God is in the process of coming into this fellowship and taking us beyond our own strength, and in many of our lives we've been emptied out. I could go through and share some testimonies with you right now. We have people in here who a few years ago were making some megabucks, and they're not making them anymore. We've got people in here who are fighting physical battles to where their lives are on the line--who were apparently in great health not long ago. We've got marriages here that are just about to be blown apart in this fellowship, and we've had children defect and apostatize in our midst in recent months. We could go on and talk about all the different things that we're facing, and as a fellowship and as individuals it's all about God taking you beyond yourself to where we will return to an absolute trust and reliance and assurance--that's what faith is--in the love of our Father, in the integrity of His word.

We've become a people who, because of our prosperity, have become complacent, and a people who have trusted our government to keep us safe from anarchy and our doctors to keep us well. We've trusted our methodology of trying to keep our children from the world and keep our children in a place that's safe and controlled, but we can never--and I'm not saying what we're doing is wrong; it's right--but you're not going to shelter your children from the sin that's in their members. Because of that we're going to be confronted with all of these trials in our lives, and then we're going to have to ask ourselves, "Now, how am I going to approach this situation? What is God's methodology of bringing deliverance?" because we must approach every trial saying, "My God will deliver me!" Amen?

Some people have asked me, "Has your doctrine on healing changed? Over the years you've brought us so many other perspectives and different aspects in healing and the operation of faith. Has your doctrine in healing changed?" My doctrine in healing hasn't changed a bit. My emphasis on why God heals has, but not the doctrine of healing. I believe that it's God's will to heal every one of us; always have, always will. Now, some that have asked this question, the reason they've asked this is because of the confusion that comes in to where, to them, the end is the healing. As we mature, we see the end is not the healing; the emphasis is not the manifestation. The emphasis is believing for the manifestation, but if it doesn't manifest, if you don't receive it (Hebrews 11) in this life, you die in faith. Amen? If your mind says to die is failure, then you don't have biblical faith, because the Bible says exactly the opposite in Hebrews 11, and your faith is now in your faith. Your faith is in the circumstances. Your God fails somehow if He doesn't answer to your senses, and you don't have biblical faith. We're taking all this time to try to deliver you from that, beloved, to where there's no fear that God's going to fail. If failure in your eyes is God not answering to your senses, or to anybody else's, then you don't have biblical faith.

Now, biblical faith approaches every circumstance like this: My God shall deliver me, but if He doesn't [What?], I'm not serving your gods! I'm not staggering in unbelief; I'm not being double-minded. I'm not considering the world's methodology, the world's philosophy, the world's understanding, the world's wisdom! What I'm saying is, God's ways are beyond my ways, and when things don't happen the way I expect them and I don't understand, God didn't fail. "No, He didn't. We did." No, we didn't fail either! God expressed Himself beyond your understanding. Now how does that work? What's behind all of that? It's not about you; it's about His kingdom! Everything has an eternal purpose. God cannot deny Himself. God is God, and He will always express Himself in the same way at all times. He's immutable.

Now, let's go on and finish up this part of it, for tonight anyway. "He staggered not..."--didn't judge between the two; he was not double-minded. Now, look what he was hoping in and look at the source of his faith. He staggered not--why? Because he had a promise. If you don't have a promise, you're going to stagger, you're going to be double-minded, you're going to start looking for natural answers, methods. "[And he] was strong in faith, giving glory to God [when he didn't have a clue what was going on]."

Let's end with this for tonight. You want to prime your faith? Just start praising God! Just start giving glory to God. Say, "Lord, I don't understand, but I know this: You're great! Lord, I don't understand, but I know this: You're loving! I don't understand, but I know this: You are merciful! I don't understand, but I know this: You cannot be defeated; You cannot be thwarted in Your purposes! I know this: that all things work together for good to those that love God and are called according to His promises, praise God! That's what I know, and I just want to give glory to You, Father. I just want to praise You, that in the midst of these trials, Your name is going to be glorified! In the midst of these circumstances, I'm going to be purified, and I just want to praise You. I want to thank You for letting me be a source through which Your glory can flow! I want to give glory to God; I want to be able to worship You in spirit and in truth!" But you see, you can't give glory to God until verse 21 becomes reality: "And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform."

We shared with you this "fully persuaded," the tense of that in the Greek, speaks toward, emphasizes, a once-for-all. Can I ask you this as we close tonight? "And even if He doesn't, I won't serve your gods"--once-for-all. Is that where you are tonight, or are you dabbling in faith? Are you hoping and if it doesn't manifest, then "I'm going to find another god. I'm going to find another means. I'm going to find somebody smarter than me to answer this. I'm going to find somebody who can come up with a natural solution." "Being fully persuaded that what God had promised, He's able to perform."

Father, we thank You for Your Word tonight, and we just ask that as we rest in Your presence that Your Word would become a reality in our hearts. Father, don't let us seek a word from You through the concordance; don't let us find a promise in the concordance. Let us receive the rhema, the promise, in the communion as we lean on Your bosom, as we just come to You and say, "Father, I believe my steps are ordered of You, and I find myself in dire need. I just want to thank You for loving me. I want to thank You for having enough confidence in our relationship that You would allow me to experience this trial in my life, for You will not allow me to be tried past that that I'm able to stand, and with every trial You make the way of escape. Thank You for Your confidence in me! Help me now to glorify You! Put praise in my heart and in my mouth, and let me boast before principalities and powers of the greatness of my God, the faithfulness of my God, the promises of my God."

You never speak the Word, beloved, with greater fervency than you do in your greatest trials! God is never glorified more purely than from a broken heart. His praise is purer in trial than in victory, and so I encourage you to begin to glorify God. Just begin to worship Him tonight and begin to boast in His Word and thank Him for His faithfulness and thank Him for His assurance in your faithfulness that He would allow you to step into this arena, knowing that you will not be tempted past that that you're able to stand!

Hallelujah! Let's just stand and worship Him tonight and just begin to boast in His goodness. Just begin to boast in His bigness tonight in your life, whatever it might be. You might be saying, "I'm not fighting cancer, and I'm not fighting the loss of a job." I want to tell you something. You may be in a more dangerous trial. You may be in the trial, right now, of apathy, and I'd encourage you to fight against that apathy right now. You ought to fear that apathy more than you do cancer or lust.

Lord, You're able to deliver me from this apathy. If nothing else, come against this apathy by putting a burden on me to pray for those that are my brothers and sisters that are suffering right now. Help me to become an agent, Lord, to pray the prayer of faith for those that are in our midst that are warring. As we look at that prayer list, Lord, don't let it just be another night of vocalizing names, but to see every name as an opportunity for the glory of God, for You to be made big in our midst, for each person whose name is on that list to be made more like You. Our God will deliver us! That's a statement made in biblical hope. I don't see anything in the natural, but I am fully persuaded that what my God has promised, He is able to perform. I don't understand it, but I call things that are not as though they were. Make it real, Father, we ask in Jesus' name.

As we prepare to sing this, just lift your hearts now and worship Him. He is a holy God. Let's sing it together. "Holy One..." Yes, Lord! Oh, thank You, Jesus! Hallelujah, Father! Your ways are the ways of faith, the unseen, the unknown to the natural mind--not unknown, but unknown to the natural mind. And because we can't know Your ways, we must know You, and we know You are good and You are just and You are merciful. We just say, "Thank You, Lord, for working in us to will and to do Your good pleasure, in Jesus' name." Amen.

Before you go, turn to somebody next to you and say, "I'm fully persuaded." Amen. Go in peace; God's love go with you.

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