The speaker introduced two songs on faith, inviting the congregation to learn them.
Faith takes a vision,
Turns a dream into a mission.
If He calls you, don’t refuse,
Because it’s faith and a vision He can use.
Jesus washed your sins away,
And He builds a firm foundation.
Now He’s leading you to pray for revelation.
Jesus wants to capture you
With a vision of His glory.
This will fit you for your service in the kingdom.
Wisdom comes to those who seek
And obey what they’ve been given,
Doing works prepared uniquely by their Master,
With a purpose in His mind.
Now the Father gives you vision;
He reveals His full intention to make you something.
The speaker introduced a song based on 2 Timothy 2:1-6.
Fight the good fight of faith,
Fight the good fight of faith,
Strengthened by His grace within you,
Fight the good fight of faith.
Paul was about to be martyred, and so he gave Timothy very practical exhortation. It all has to do with grace and faith.
Thou therefore, my child, be strengthened in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
And the things which thou hast heard from me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.
Suffer hardship with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.
No soldier on service entangleth himself in the affairs of this life; that he may please him who enrolled him as a soldier.
And if also a man contend in the games, he is not crowned, except he have contended lawfully.
The husbandman that laboreth must be the first to partake of the fruits.
Consider what I say; for the Lord shall give thee understanding in all things.— 2 Timothy 2:1-7
Verse 2 is actually an illustration of a marathon run, where somebody who has received the baton from behind runs ahead and passes it off to the person ahead of them. In the Greek, you can see it is athletic imagery.
Verses 3 and 4 concern a soldier. Then we get an athlete—a wrestler, actually, I think is the Greek word. The fourth image is the hardworking farmer. Those four pictures are the basis of the song.
Like a runner in a relay race,
Pass along the things you’ve learned by grace.
You’re a link between the saints behind you and before;
Don’t give up until you run your course.
Like a soldier fighting for his King,
Your allegiance comes before all things.
You’ll suffer for Him now, remembering His cross;
Jesus is worthy of the cause.
Like a boxer training for the prize,
Discipline and holy rules apply.
Character exemplifies the Spirit’s life within;
Fight the fight to keep your heart for Him.
Like a farmer tending to his field,
Diligence and perseverance yield
Fruit that honors Jesus Christ and also blesses you.
Trust the Lord to increase what you do.
Lord, we thank You that we have been called to fight the good fight of faith, that Your grace is abundant toward us in Christ Jesus in order to do that. Help us be good runners, good soldiers, good fighters, good farmers. Oh, give us that kind of fruitful life by Your grace, we pray.
And now, in this hour, as we discover more regarding faith and the testing of faith, lead us and help us understand by the Holy Spirit that the things You bring us through are for our glory and for Your glory. We give You this time and ask for the help of the Holy Spirit to keep us awake and attentive to Your will. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Well, I see by the increasing crowd some of you weren’t here yet today. Who’s here for the first time today? Ah, Lord, we pray for these backsliders. Thankfully, they came home.
Last time, we looked at how faith works, and we saw that you don’t need this big kind of machine. Yesterday, I showed and broke down how this “I’m-a-believin’, get-prayin’, hopin’” machine is the way some people treat faith. They’re pumping, they’re praying, they’re saying, “Please, please,” and they’re doing all this kind of stuff to get God to answer their prayers.
And in praying use not vain repetitions, as the Gentiles do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.
— Matthew 6:7
That’s not the way faith works: repeating, repeating, repeating. “Please, please, please, God, please. I promise I won’t kick my cat anymore. Please.” That’s not the way it works.
Faith works very simply. You see a mountain. You hear a rhema word. The word comes into the heart. The Lord says, “I want to do something.” Your heart believes and sends a conviction to your mouth. Then you have to speak the word by faith, confessing what you believe in your heart.
When you speak the word, the mountain falls into the sea. What could be simpler, ladies and gentlemen? This is not the big “I’m-a-believin’, get-prayin’, hopin’” machine. This is the heart. This is the mouth. This is the word. This is faith.
But, as we are going to see, much of the testing of our faith has to do with clearing up our lives so that we can hear the Lord speak and act in faith.
Today we are looking at From Faith to Faith, Part Three: “The Test of Faith.”
Turn to 1 Peter 1. This is a major section regarding testing and faith. If there is anybody who should teach us about faith, it is Peter. Peter not only learned much about faith, but he was a very faithful servant of God. Many signs and wonders were done by him, and he saw many miracles as a result of his preaching. He was a powerful, faithful brother, but he learned about faith.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy begat us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
unto an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you.— 1 Peter 1:3-4
That is where faith began: when you believed into Jesus and were born again. Faith at the beginning means that you are born again; faith at the end means that you obtain an inheritance. From faith to faith—from the beginning all the way to the end—Peter wants to talk about faith.
Who by the power of God are guarded through faith unto a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
— 1 Peter 1:5
We see faith at the beginning, when we are born again, and faith at the end, when we receive our inheritance. But here is faith that keeps us through the in-between. As we are walking from faith to faith, we are kept and protected by the power of God through faith. Faith is a very important ingredient in our simple Christian life.
That the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold that perisheth though it is proved by fire, may be found unto praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
— 1 Peter 1:7
For the last two days, I have had this phrase, “from faith to Faith.” The first faith has a small “f,” and the second Faith has a capital “F.” The reason is that when your faith becomes gold, I am calling it capital-F Faith.
Your faith goes through a process of being tested until it becomes pure gold. All of the alloys and other things are taken out, and now you have a precious faith—a precious, golden faith. This is why our faith is tested.
Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial among you, which cometh upon you to prove you, as though a strange thing happened unto you:
but insomuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings, rejoice; that at the revelation of His glory also ye may rejoice with exceeding joy.— 1 Peter 4:12-13
Brothers and sisters, don’t be surprised when you go through fiery ordeals. You are going to be tested in your faith. You are going to be tested by unbelievers and by all kinds of things. But do not be surprised, because the Lord is using that testing.
As you rejoice with Christ through your suffering, the Lord may continue to perfect your faith through all these things. Faith is that which can see into the invisible and understands that you are being tested in order to produce glory at the other end.
Sometimes testing is so hard in people’s lives that they cannot take it, except they remember, “You know what? This is going to work out for good to me, because the Lord is going to get something more of Himself at the end.”
Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.
— 1 Peter 1:9
The personal outcome of faith tested is the salvation of the soul. Did you notice that phrase: “the salvation of the soul”?
Did you know there is a difference between a soul saved and the salvation of the soul? Both of these phrases—“souls saved” and “the salvation of our soul”—are found in 1 Peter.
When the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water.
— 1 Peter 3:20
Eight souls were saved. What does “souls” mean? It means people. There were eight souls saved; it means eight people. The Old Testament had a word for people, and it is “soul.” A soul means the whole person.
But the salvation of the soul in 1 Peter 1:9 is not talking about initial salvation when we are first saved. It is talking about completed salvation in the end, when our soul has been completely transformed, renewed, made a new creation, and brought through death and resurrection.
After we are saved, the Spirit takes us through the transforming—the saving of our soul. This has a lot to do with our testing.
God loves us—body, soul, and spirit. But the key to our transformation is the soul.
Our soul is our total expressive personality, made up of three dimensions:
This is your personality. When I see you talking, I may say, “Hey, man, that person is strong-willed,” or, “Hey, man, that person is smart,” or, “Hey, man, that person is a wimp,” because your emotions, your mind, and your will express who you are.
The deal is this: our soul is totally used to its old independent ways. Now you are saved, right? Jesus loves you, and you have been saved, but your soul is still a renegade, basically. Your mind, your will, and your emotions are running away.
The Lord could take the easiest route and simply annihilate your soul. Then what would He end up with? Christian robots. “I love You, Lord Jesus.” He does not want robots. That would be the easiest thing: just zap our brains. But what good is that? That cannot work.
God loves our soul. He loves our mind, but our mind has to be renewed. It has to be captured and come to a place where it is focused on the life of the Lord. Until our mind is captured, it is all over the place.
God loves our emotions. We know that from David’s Psalms. David had all kinds of emotions. But as long as our emotions are me-centered and self-centered—“Oh, God, please hear me because I need help. I don’t have a girlfriend. Help!”—then the prayer is one hundred percent me. What has that got to do with God? Well, nothing much. “I just need a girlfriend.”
God has to rein in our emotions. God desires that we have a free will, but He wants us to have a free will after our will has been reined in and we have learned, “Not my will, but Thine, be done.”
The amazing thing is when the Lord takes a renewed mind, a captured emotion, and a will steadfast to do God’s will. That is what He wants from you. He does not want to blow you up and make you a non-person. He wants your free will to say, “I am absolutely free in my will to do whatever I want, and I want to serve Jesus.”
Because God loves our soul, He goes to Plan B rather than nuking us.
He waits patiently for the believer to completely paralyze and enclose their heart with soul confusion—psycho-Babylon.
Your heart of simple faith gets enclosed by the Babylon of your own confusion: your own mind out of control, your own will that wants its own way, your own emotions that have run away. Finally, you cover up your heart. You do not know what you want. You do not know what you are doing. You no longer know what faith is.
What started out in simple faith becomes increasingly complicated because the soul gets more complicated from eating all sixty-nine varieties of fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. That is what they give you at college.
You go to university, take a little fruit of philosophy, a little fruit of sociology, a little fruit of anthropology, a little fruit of psychology, a little fruit of the cafeteria, and put the whole thing together. You get to a place where you have so much knowledge that you do not even know if you are alive or dead. You do not know what is going on. You do not know what you believe anymore. You just have this mass of knowledge.
People have so much knowledge at their disposal that you are going to see knowledge leaking out of their ears—with a kind of waxy substance. But they will not be any smarter or any wiser.
Eventually, soul faith becomes that big machine again. A brand-new Christian just believes: “Oh, God, please help me,” and God helps. A Christian ten years later says, “Ah, wait a minute. Before God helps me, I have to do this and that. I have to be sure I read the Word and cleanse myself. Am I empty or am I full?” They have a whole procedure, like a steeplechase, before God will hear them.
Is that what faith is all about—a complicated system like that?
Soul faith is not faith, but self-confident boldness born of desires. Real faith has a life connection to God. Very simple:
But seek ye first His kingdom, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
— Matthew 6:33
Soul faith initiates actions out of self-interest and is therefore double-minded.
But let him ask in faith, nothing doubting. For he that doubteth is like the surge of the sea driven by the wind and tossed.
For let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord;
a doubleminded man, unstable in all his ways.— James 1:6-8
Literally, in the Greek, it says, “a double-souled man.” Uh-oh. Faith has to be centered in your heart. But a double-souled person is this way and that way: “Oh God, please heal me. Well, I mean, if it be Thy will. And, of course, I have not been so obedient.”
Next thing you know, you have talked yourself right out of it. You are double-minded and confused. You do not know what to do.
The Achilles’ heel of soul faith—that which we self-generate—is doubt. Most Christians start out in living faith, but after a couple of years they get into this big mugwump of doubt.
It does not usually take too many soul-faith disasters to bring our faith down like a house of cards. You start to doubt your salvation. You start to doubt Jesus. You start to doubt what you can do for the rest of your life. You start to doubt a lot of things.
Eventually paralysis of faith results. Have you ever been there? You do not know how to pray anymore. It used to be so simple. Now it is complicated.
The soul’s best reaction is to fill the mind with more questions, which plunges the mind deeper into confusion. “Who are you? Can you trust your feelings? What, are you crazy? Why can’t you just believe the Word?”
Faith opportunities are all around you as a Christian, but because you have gone into your belly button to try to figure things out, it does not work. If only your heart were open again, then you would know that He has you at just the right place for His service and His opportunities in life.
God has a ministry for everybody: big guys, small guys, fat guys, skinny guys, smart guys, dumb guys, shy people, extroverts. He has a ministry for everybody.
Your troubles are not because God is punishing you. When we are in the paralyzed zone, we always think God is punishing us somehow: “I do not know what I did, Lord. I know it must have been back when I was five years old, and I beat my brother to a pulp and covered his face with crayon.”
God is not trying to punish you. But when you are in the paralyzed zone, that is what you think. Your mind gives you the creeps.
When simple faith goes, we replace it with more knowledge, more religious things. We are not living in a real connection with the living God, but we sure are busy, and we sure do know a lot of religious stuff.
A gracious beginning is turned into a burdensome outward religious affair, minus the invisible reality of a living God and the voice that used to speak to us.
Who stole that open heart you once knew when you were a new Christian? Was it the devil? Was it the world? Was it your boyfriend? Was it money? Was it the Rastafarians?
Ah, you are the thief. It was you. It is your self-life that has stolen your faith—your mind, will, and emotions; just the flesh acting independently of God. You have blocked the open heart.
Behind the scenes was a team of soul doctors: Doctor Rhema Word and Doctor Sanctus Spirit.
For the word of God is living, and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and quick to discern the thoughts and intents of the heart.
— Hebrews 4:12
Doctor Word is going in there and doing surgery in the heart zone. The Word of God divides soul and spirit and exposes the heart’s thoughts and intentions.
One of the things you are going to learn, because the Word of God is so real as it comes into your life, is, “That was soul. Ooh, that is spirit. That was soul. Good, spirit.” It starts to expose the thoughts and intentions of the heart. What is really going on in your heart? What are your real thoughts and real intentions?
But I say, Walk by the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.
For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are contrary the one to the other.— Galatians 5:16-17
Doctor Sanctus Spirit has been leading you through circumstances that together are bringing you to the end of yourself. Our circumstances get roped in by the Holy Spirit as He brings us to the end of ourselves, where we have tried everything and failed. We do not know where to go or what to do.
For if ye live after the flesh, ye must die; but if by the Spirit ye put to death the doings of the body, ye shall live.
— Romans 8:13
The Spirit is mortifying the deeds of the body, bringing us to the end of ourselves. The fleshly soul comes to paralysis, collapse, and doubt. The best efforts of soul faith prove futile. A death is in order for the self-life.
But thank God, Jesus put to death the deeds of the flesh on the cross.
I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me: and that life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith which is in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself up for me.
— Galatians 2:20
This is talking about living by faith in the Son of God—not trusting in your mind, your emotions, and your will, but trusting His mind, His emotions, and His will.
You come onto resurrection ground because you realize you have been crucified with Christ. If you have not realized you have been crucified with Christ, then you are still trying with your own soul power to serve God. But once you come to this awareness, there is a whole other kind of living going on.
But having the same spirit of faith, according to that which is written, I believed, and therefore did I speak; we also believe, and therefore also we speak.
— 2 Corinthians 4:13
Paul is talking about death working in him, but life working in others—and a new kind of faith: the spirit of faith. “I believed, therefore I spoke.” He believes, and he also speaks.
There is a new center and source of faith coming out as he speaks. He considers himself dead, but there is a new believing and a new speaking going on in his life. This is faith exercised under the control of the Spirit of God as He controls the mind, the will, and the emotions.
Peter’s first stage of faith may be expressed this way: “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief.”
And when He had left speaking, He said unto Simon, Put out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught.
And Simon answered and said, Master, we toiled all night and took nothing: but at Thy word I will let down the nets.— Luke 5:4-5
Jesus got into Peter’s boat, and after speaking for a while from the boat, He said, “Come on, let’s go out to the deep and catch some fish.”
Peter’s mind was completely in control. As soon as Jesus said, “Let’s go out and catch something,” Peter said, “Wait a minute. I am a fisherman—the fisherman of the year. What does a carpenter know? We fished all night. We did not catch anything. I doubt this plan is going to work.”
But Peter said, “Nevertheless, at Thy word I will let down the net.” Peter doubted that it would work, but he obeyed the Lord by sheer faith in His word.
The result was a tremendous catch. Peter fell down in humility and said, basically, “Lord, I underestimated You. I did not believe You could do it. I did not think what You asked me was right.”
Right from the start, as a new Christian, you have to learn to obey the Lord even when you do not think it is going to work. Faith is obeying from the heart, not believing with the head.
The mind will doubt what it cannot see. That is what the mind does: it deals with things it can see, hear, and sense. The young believer must learn to trust the heart’s still, small voice and not be put off by the mind’s natural doubts.
There is a difference between doubt in the mind and unbelief in the heart. Doubt in the mind is part of your humanity. But it is a sin to doubt in your heart.
Stage two may be explained by the phrase, “The testing of your faith worketh patience,” from James 1:3. This is the story of Peter walking on the water.
Peter’s heart saw the unseen power in Jesus walking on the water. He saw Jesus and said, “That’s Jesus. That’s my Jesus.” Something connected with that.
Peter’s mouth said before he could stop it, “Lord, bid me come unto Thee upon the waters.” What a dumb thing to say. Why would you say, “I want to come on the water”? I would say, “Give me some skis.”
But Peter was reaching beyond his mind. In his heart, he saw that there was an invisible reality he could touch in Jesus, and he wanted to experience it himself.
Peter connected to the invisible power and started walking on the water. Man, this is cool. Peter was a man of faith. He was walking on the water—not on stones; it was actually water.
But Peter’s mind took over halfway through. Uh-oh.
Jesus called it little faith. Peter had faith, but it lacked endurance. He started out in faith, but his eyes did not remain on Jesus.
What starts with heart faith can end up in mind doubt. Peter started out with heart faith, walking on the water, and then he began thinking with his mind: “Oh boy, the waves are three feet high. We have swells. The wind must be going twenty-five knots. What on earth am I doing on the water?”
We need to keep looking at Jesus, or we get frightened away. We also learn that Jesus, in mercy, never allows a step of faith to drown.
If you step out by faith and get messed up along the way, He will pull you out, because He never mocks your faith. When you have real, living faith, He does not mock it.
Stage three is the tough stage, because Peter had to be undone. There was still that soul life—his mind, emotions, and will—that had not really gone to the cross. His flesh would be sifted to produce unfailing faith.
Simon, Simon, behold, Satan asked to have you, that he might sift you as wheat:
but I made supplication for thee, that thy faith fail not; and do thou, when once thou hast turned again, establish thy brethren.— Luke 22:31-32
Why was Peter sifted? Because Peter was overconfident. He said, “I will never deny You.” Jesus said, “Oh, yeah? By the morning, you will have denied Me three times.”
Peter did not know himself. That was a statement made in soul faith: “Oh no, I am dedicated to You, Lord. I would never forsake or deny You.”
Satan saw Peter’s soul out in the open where he could sift him. But Jesus prayed, “Father in heaven, keep his faith from being destroyed.”
The Lord kept Peter, and his faith did not fail. But his fleshly confidence was dealt a humiliating blow. After Peter denied the Lord three times, the Lord looked at him from a distance, and Peter wept and wept and wept.
Peter came to the end of fleshly confidence. He came to a cross, indeed, and the Lord restored him.
Our faith is tested by the work of the cross upon all that is soul-initiated rather than Spirit-controlled. Our faith will encounter setbacks and failures, but these will result in our holding more fast to the Lord as we decrease and He increases.
Testing from faith to Faith removes the self-centered aspects of our faith actions. The surprise is that our faith does not fail. When you are tested by fire and have a setback, your faith in the Lord does not fail. It is still there. You just realize how undependable your self-life is.
The last stage is expressed in 2 Corinthians 5:7:
For we walk by faith, not by sight.
— 2 Corinthians 5:7
This is the story of the lame man. Peter and John were walking to the temple one day at the hour of prayer. They saw the lame man there, and the lame man saw them and said, “Please, please, alms, alms, alms.”
Something in the lame man’s request was a rhema to Peter. Peter gazed at him. Perhaps Peter remembered the Lord Jesus in a similar circumstance. Perhaps there was just a little nudge of the Holy Spirit: “This man is here by My purpose, for My glory. Heal him.”
Whatever that rhema was in his heart, Peter heard it. He could look beyond the situation of the lame man. His mind realized the man was lame, and Peter knew he did not have the power to heal him. But Peter had the Name.
Peter spoke in the name of Jesus, spoke that word of faith, and the man was healed. That is stage four: we walk by faith, not by sight.
And when Peter saw it, he answered unto the people, Ye men of Israel, why marvel ye at this man? or why fasten ye your eyes on us, as though by our own power or godliness we had made him to walk?
— Acts 3:12
Peter was absolutely confident in the name of Jesus. The name of Jesus released the invisible presence of Jesus, who was right there but invisible. When Peter was impressed by the Spirit to use the Name, he acted.
Do you know the power of the name of Jesus? We talk about it, but do you know the power of the name of Jesus? You should never use the name of Jesus lightly or slightly. But when it is used at the right time, it has tremendous effect, because it means Jesus is standing by you, ready to move in the situation.
And by faith in His name hath His name made this man strong, whom ye behold and know: yea, the faith which is through Him hath given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all.
— Acts 3:16
Faith in the name of Jesus made this man whole. Peter gave all the credit and all the glory to the Lord. He knew it was not about himself, but he knew who he was in the Lord.
He had come to a gold faith that had been tested and purified through obedience and testing—and would go on being purified for the rest of his life, even until Peter was martyred.
In the same way, our faith will be tested because the Lord wants a purer faith—not with mixed motives, but with a desire for His name to be glorified.
The cross reduces all that is merely soul-initiated. We may step out in faith and then falter, but our Lord never allows our precious faith to fail. Whatever is really of faith in us will not fail, lessen, or decay.
Sometimes failures actually increase our faith in us as we realize how trustworthy He is.
There is a victory of heart over mind which is produced by the Spirit as He renews us—body, soul, and spirit. We have a mind, thank God for that, and emotions and will, thank God for that. But as these reign under the Holy Spirit, the Lord can use our minds, emotions, and wills, and they never stand in the way of the Spirit speaking and the Spirit’s will being done.
This is the goal of this walk of faith. We live our lives from faith to Faith. From the beginning, our faith connects to God. By the end, His faith inwardly connects to us.
For whatsoever is begotten of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that hath overcome the world, even our faith.
— 1 John 5:4
No matter how strong the world is and its temptations in your life, no matter how strong its claims are that none of this is real, there is a victory that overcomes the world, and it is your faith.
Your faith—that little mustard seed of faith—is able to grow in your life to the place where it overcomes even the onslaughts of doubt, questioning, and controversy in the world.
This resident Lord, who lives in you, is building that faith in your life to make you more than a conqueror. May the Lord help you.
Father, we acknowledge that there is much to the mystery of faith that we do not understand. We know that You would have us believe with our heart and speak with our mouth: Jesus is Lord.
We realize that You take us through the valley of doubt, the valley of dealings, as You take away those extraneous things that prevent our faith from being real, simple, open-hearted, and clear.
O Lord, remove from us those unnecessary worldly things that we have in our brains that paralyze us from the acts of faith that You demand in this day.
We want to know the obedience of faith, even when our mind doubts—to be able to reach beyond our minds to that which is deeper within and hear what the Spirit would have to say.
Lead us, Lord, from faith to Faith: from the beginning, as we are born again, to the end, where we receive our inheritance. We thank You for the richness of this faith, and we want to fight the good fight of faith. In Jesus’ precious name, amen.