Core Values of the Believer - Part 17 - Pastor Philip Steele - August 30th, 2026

I never touched out to you.

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Producing life makes that world.

Go to 2 Corinthians 5.

I mean he's ready for the word.

Now the Holy Spirit's been doing some wonderful things.

You're not gonna dock me, right?

Gonna take some time away from me.

It's about almost 11.

If you're taking medicine.

2 Corinthians 5 and 7.

We've all heard over the years, and we're we're dealing with the core values of the believer again, and specifically with the walk of faith.

Let me say this before I get into our scriptures because I heard a person one time, I heard a minister one time, they were ministering, and they said, Well, you know, faith is just trust.

But it's not.

Faith is not trust.

Trust is involved in faith.

Then I've heard other people say, Well, believing and faith are the same thing.

No, they're not.

You believe because you have faith.

Faith, and we'll get into this, faith is being convinced.

Right?

The Greek word for faith in Hebrews 11:1, now faith is, and right here in 2 Corinthians 5.7, faith is the Greek word pistis, P-I-S-T-I-S.

Hebrews 11:1

And it means to be convinced or the conviction that something is true.

So faith then is being convinced that the word is true.

Now, why do I trust then?

Because I'm convinced.

Why do I believe?

Because I'm convinced.

So trust is not faith.

Faith is not trust, it's involved.

But trust is built on conviction.

You know, if you're in here and you're married and you trust your spouse, I'll tell you why you trust them.

Because they have convinced you over however long you've been married that they can trust you.

Right?

And what does that mean?

Why is that important?

You've been faithful.

They have faith in you.

Right?

So when the Bible says we walk by faith, let's read it.

2 Corinthians 5, 7, it says, for we walk by faith, not by sight.

Say that out loud.

I walk by faith, not by sight.

Amen.

The amplified Bible says we regulate our lives.

We conduct ourselves by our conviction or belief.

And at the end it says, so then we walk not by sight or appearance.

Not by sight or appearance.

So we regulate our lives by faith.

That's how we regulate our lives.

And when you talk about regulating something, it means to control or to maintain the rate of speed so that it operates properly.

So if we don't regulate our lives by faith, it's impossible to not walk by what is seen.

See, just not just not looking at what is seen is part of faith, but it's not all of faith.

That can be denial.

Hallelujah.

I don't walk, I don't regulate my life by what is seen.

It doesn't say I don't see what is seen.

I just don't regulate my life by it.

Hallelujah.

So you walk by what the word says, you regulate your life by what the word says, regardless of what you're seeing.

Amen.

So you might see this deficit here, but you're not regulating your life by that.

You're regulating your life by what the word said.

Maybe you're believing for a loved one, believing for someone to be saved in your life.

And when they come around, it looks like they're doing anything but serving God.

Well, you don't regulate your opinion about that situation by what you see.

He said, I'll save you and your household.

Is that right?

So you're regulating your life based on what he said, not on what you see.

You don't deny what is seen, but you don't regulate your life by it.

Hallelujah.

We walk by faith.

We conduct our lives by faith, not by what is seen.

One translation says, through faith, we're ordering our manner of life, not by something seen.

We walk by faith.

Preposition by.

It denotes the channel, it denotes the avenue, the source of how we do a thing.

So faith is the channel through which we order our lives.

Faith is how we live.

By that conviction.

Right?

How do I know that God's gonna bring you out?

I'm convinced.

How do you know that God's gonna do something?

You're convinced.

Whenever you complicate something, you lose the power of it.

Are you following me?

You complicate faith and you lose the power of it.

The basis of faith is conviction.

Why do you confess the word?

You're convinced it's true.

Why do you speak to the mountain?

You're convinced it's true.

I don't have all the answers, but I know I believe this.

I'm convinced about this.

Is that right?

Amen.

I'm convinced.

You simplify it.

That's faith at its common core.

I'm convinced.

And so what do you have to do?

You have to spend time being convinced.

Once you're convinced, the other aspects of faith are far easier.

But I got to spend time getting convinced.

That what?

What God said is true.

That's why all those years ago, decades ago now, when I when I was when we were just getting a hold of the word, I was I was reading John chapter 17, verse 17.

John 17:17

And it just like it stood up to me.

And he said, Sanctify them through your word.

Your word is truth.

And I put my hand on the Bible and raised my right hand to the Lord, and I said, I choose to believe from this day forward that every word in this book is absolute truth.

What happened?

I became convinced that this was truth.

Well, Pastor, everybody knows the word's true.

No, they don't.

There are people that you know that will say this is true, but then they'll say, But well, you know, if it's God's will.

Wait a minute, hang on.

If it's true, then what you find in it is God's will.

And there's no place to ask, well, if it's God's will.

If it's true, we quoted the scripture today: God will supply all of your need according to his riches and glory.

Now, if you look at that and say, Well, I believe that if it's his will, it's not gonna work.

It's taken at face value.

Hallelujah.

So the first step is I believe that this is true.

And then faith is the channel that begins to operate.

Notice in Romans 1 and verse 17.

It says, For therein, in the word, in the gospel, is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, the just shall live by faith.

Hallelujah.

So we see in the word, what he's saying is that we see in the word a righteousness which comes from God and is being revealed.

And what's it say?

The just, the righteous, shall live by faith.

So living by faith is conducting your life as if you are all God says you are.

And you have all God says you have.

You are and you have now.

Hallelujah.

Do you see this?

Say it out loud.

I am all God says I am.

I have all God says I have.

Now, amen.

And where's that found?

He said, He said that is found in the Word.

It's revealed in the Word.

What God wants you to have is revealed in the Word.

That's why you can't look to other things.

And while that may seem elementary, you keep going back to what the revealed Word of God says.

Hebrews 11:1.

Hebrews 11:1

It says, notice.

Now faith, that being convinced, is the substance, the certainty, the title deed of things hoped for, things expected, the evidence, the proof of things not seen, and we say, yet.

Things not seen yet.

Notice these things exist, you just don't see them yet.

If God's going to supply all of your need according to his riches, do his riches exist?

I may not see it yet.

Right?

What's the substance of that?

Faith.

What's the title deed to that?

Faith.

Other translation says the Weast Bible says, faith is the title deed of things hoped for, the proof of things which are not being seen.

The Phillips translation says, now faith means that we have full confidence in the things we hope for.

It means being certain of the things we cannot see.

So notice those phrases.

Title deed.

Full confidence, being certain.

When you have the title deed to something, you respond and you react to that thing differently.

Because you own it.

Is that right?

I don't call anybody and ask them, can I paint the walls in my house?

It's my house.

I own it.

I don't have to ask.

Right?

But I've been in situations before, and I know you have too.

I had to make sure it was okay with the owner.

Right?

I didn't have full confidence, did I?

Because I didn't have the title D.

Do I have to ask God to heal me or just receive the healing he's already made available?

Receive the healing he's made available.

Why?

He said in what?

He said in Psalm 107, what did he say?

I sent my word and healed them.

When he sent his word, what happened?

What happened?

When he sent the word, what happened?

So what do I have to do?

I have to receive the healing that came when he sent his word.

Is that right?

If somebody says, look, I went by your house and I left something in your mailbox, which it's not smart, but you understand for the purpose of illustration.

I left this in your mailbox.

You know, I knew I knew you had this need, wanted to bless you, left it in your mailbox.

Go pick it up.

Right?

What do I have to do to receive that?

Sounds simple, but what do I have to do to go receive that?

What are you going to your mailbox based on?

What I said.

Is that right?

And when you hung up the phone, if you are convinced that what I say is true, where are you going?

And what are you going to receive?

What you needed.

Is that right?

So all through the word of God, he said, I sent my word and I healed them.

He said, by the stripes of Jesus, you were healed.

You were.

There's a flesh and bone man at the right hand of the Father today that has scars on his back that prove your healing has been paid for, and all you have to do is go pick it up.

When someone asks, please, God, heal me, they're not confident that the price is already paid.

I receive your healing.

I receive what belongs to me.

Hallelujah.

You'll have a hard time reading through the New Testament and finding anybody, pray that prayer.

Oh God, please heal.

Oh God, please.

Amen.

In the book of Acts, it says Peter went into the city, and there was a man named Aeneas that had kept his bed for a number of years, couldn't walk.

And Peter went up, and here was his, if you want to call it his prayer, it says Peter went up and he went over to that bed and he said, Aeneas, Jesus Christ of Nazareth makes you whole.

Get up and walk.

What's it say?

And Aeneas got up, took his bed up, and walked.

Is that right?

What did he have to do?

Receive it.

Acts chapter 14.

Acts 14 · chapter mention

It says that Paul and Silas were in uh the city and they were ministering the word of God.

And it says there was a man there that had been paralyzed in his feet from his mother's womb and had never walked.

It said the same heard Paul preach, and Paul perceiving that he had faith to be healed.

What'd he say?

Oh Lord, please heal him.

God do it.

No.

He said, Stand upright on your feet and walk.

Is that what it says?

And what did he do?

Leaped and walked.

Did he have faith?

He did.

He became convinced when?

During that sermon.

And what happened?

He leaped and walked.

What do you have to do then?

You have to receive it and move on it, act on it.

Is that right?

So if we could say it this way, God doesn't have to heal anybody in the sense that men think, well, you know, God's going to heal me.

I believe God's going to heal me tonight.

No, the healing has already been made available.

I might walk into it tonight, but it's already there.

God doesn't have to heal me, He already paid the price.

In the mind and the heart of God, I'm healed because the price has been paid.

If we go back to the analogy I used, if I sent you the money to take care of every bill you have, in my mind, every bill you have is paid off because I sent you the money.

Now, if you don't receive it, or you say, well, if it's your will, it's not going to help you.

Amen.

All of these ideas are contained in faith.

Faith is being convinced that something's true.

When I have the title deed to an item, it regulates the way I interact with that thing.

If I have the title deed, I'm fully confident, completely certain.

See, religion has taught us over the years to talk that way, if it be your will.

Well, how do we know?

Now I know you're taught well, so it's like, well, we go to the word.

But if you're in that situation, how do we know what the will of God is?

What do you base the will of God on?

Experience.

If you don't know the word, you base it on experience.

Well, Sister Mary Joe, you know she got sick, and and you know, I know she was believing, but God didn't heal her.

And you know, Brother Billy Bob, he went through this and that and the other, and Lord, he liked to not made it.

He barely, he barely lived, and you know, uh uh, and I know he had faith.

No, you don't.

You're basing what you believe on somebody's experience, and that's not faith.

Faith is personal to you and what you believe about the Word of God.

Amen.

Well, Pastor, that's kind of straight.

I know, but we don't have a lot of time.

We we we don't have we don't have a lot of that there are people in the sound of my voice.

You need God to be acting today.

You need things to be changing this month.

I need things to be different soon.

This is how you get there.

Amen.

What you find in the word is God's will.

Right?

When you find it in the word of God, the Holy Spirit will quicken you that that belongs to you.

That's faith.

Just take it and run with it.

I believe, I have it, it's mine, I receive it.

When you're fully confident, you begin to expect.

Amen.

Say it out loud.

I'm fully confident, and I expect this to change.

Oh, hallelujah.

That's why I was telling Destiny today, the more you do it, the more you can do it.

Amen.

So, what's she expecting tomorrow when she gets out of bed?

Be fully mobile.

Amen.

More mobile than today.

Amen.

Are you with me?

I'm gonna be able to raise that arm farther tomorrow.

Amen.

And one day I'm just gonna get up and say, Well, what happened to that problem I was having?

You think that's the way it happened?

I don't think.

I know.

Amen.

Am I helping you?

In the book of John, the Bible says that a nobleman came to Jesus.

And he said to him, He said, Sir, I need you to come to my house because my son's at the point of death.

He's dying.

And Jesus said, You won't believe unless you see signs and wonders.

And the man said, Please come to my house.

My son's dying.

And Jesus said, Go your way, your son lives.

Said at one o'clock in the afternoon.

That man had traveled a day and a night to get there.

He had to travel a day and a night back.

Right?

What did Jesus say?

Go your way, what?

Your son lives.

You know what the Bible says is so important.

Don't miss it.

It's just one little line.

It said, and the man believed what Jesus said.

What did he do?

He believed what Jesus said.

And he went home a day and a night.

He got home and it said his servants met him and said, Hey, hey, hey, your son has started getting better.

Right?

Your son lives.

And the man said, When did he start getting better?

Yesterday at one o'clock.

And it said, the man remembered that it was at one o'clock that Jesus said, Go your way, your son, your son lives.

He started getting better.

What does that mean?

The moment you get in faith, the moment you start believing God, things start getting better.

I don't see them getting better.

Oh, but are you in faith?

Yes, then they're getting better.

Your body's responding to the word, your finances are responding to the word.

Because any word from God that you believe and receive is your own and act on in faith immediately begins to work.

Immediately.

Amen.

I'm picking on Jeremy and his family a lot today.

That's good.

Amen.

When they called me and told me that they had been in that accident, of course I went into prayer, but I immediately took it to the prayer team and had them praying.

And what began to be a common thread was this it will be quick, the recovery will be quicker than anybody thinks.

Amen.

The trauma will not linger.

Right?

Amen.

How do I know that's gonna happen?

Because the Lord said it.

That's how it's gonna end up.

When did it start working?

The moment you believed it.

The man believed the word.

What was proof that he believed?

He went back home.

See, it does you no good to say, I believe that God's fixing my finances and sit up all night worrying about them.

What's the proper action?

Go to sleep.

Yeah, but nothing's changed.

Okay, you don't believe yet.

You got to get in the word and believe God.

The fact that you believe and have faith is you're gonna go to sleep, not worry about it.

Let me ask you a question.

Am I helping you today?

If you could have fixed it, wouldn't you have already fixed it?

Right?

If you could have paid your bills off, wouldn't you have already done it?

So it's evident you can't do it.

So you sitting up all night going over the numbers is doing what?

Zero, nothing.

You're just losing sleep.

And you're gonna wake up in the morning, your wife can't stand you because you're grungy.

Grumpy.

Grunchy's grumpy and grouchy together.

Made up a new word, grungy.

Tell him no more.

You're grungy.

Anyway, no, don't.

That might cause a problem.

Right?

This is important.

I say this is important.

Because when did it start working?

The moment you believed it.

So what's your act of faith?

Go to bed.

Go to sleep.

I've had people tell me if you were going through what I'm going through, you wouldn't be able to sleep either.

Number one, you can't say that.

And number two, even if I couldn't, it wouldn't change what the word says.

Hallelujah.

There are people in the sound of my voice, you were raised with first-class warriors.

World-class warriors.

And you were taught to worry.

Listen, what you have God's word on and what you act on puts an end to that.

Hallelujah.

Do you see this?

How do I know God's gonna supply everything that you need?

Because His Word says he will.

Amen.

Hey, but we got this, we got that, and how are we gonna do this?

You're gonna take the word, you're gonna take the word, and you're gonna change it.

That's how you're gonna do it.

Let me say it again.

You're gonna take the word and you're gonna change it.

You're gonna take the word and receive everything you need.

You're gonna take the word and run everything out of your body by the word.

Amen.

Say it out loud.

I'm gonna take the word and receive everything God has for me.

Hallelujah.

So when faith is the substance of what we hope for, what we expect, so in order to be fully confident and completely certain, I have to be fully confident and completely certain of something.

I have to be expecting.

I have to be, see, what are you expecting?

What are you painting a picture of?

What are you believing God for?

That's where many miss it.

They try to walk by faith without developing the image of what they're walking by faith for.

That's why that's why we tell people if you're believing for a new house, you can't just sit in your living room and pray for a new house.

You got to go look for a house.

Well, God knows what I need.

He does, and he told you to ask him.

Hallelujah.

You do you know how many people are going without what God wants them to have because their mindset is, well, God knows.

And if it's his will, he'll bring it to me.

That's not how it works.

That's not how faith works.

Faith, by definition, is an act.

It's an act.

Hallelujah.

What you receive is what you acted on.

Hallelujah.

Faith has to have an expectation.

That's why God tells us over and over in His Word who we are, what we are.

John 3.16 says you're loved by God.

Right?

Now that sounds elementary again, but that's how you build your faith about it.

No, the Bible says God loves me.

It says he loved me so much that he sent Jesus to die for me.

Right?

What are you doing?

You're exercising.

Listen, every time somebody wonders if God will do something for them, it goes back to they don't feel completely loved by God.

Every time.

If you have an unwavering faith that God loves you, then you're convinced that there's nothing he won't do for you.

Why would you think God wouldn't do something for you?

I'll tell you, because of your past, because of your failures, because of your imperfections.

Did God look at any of that to determine his love for you?

No, the Bible says rather in the book of Romans that God didn't wait for us to get our act together, but he loved us while we were still of no earthly good to him whatsoever.

When you were living your life for the devil and living your life for yourself, God loved you and sent Jesus to die for you.

I'm fully loved by the Father.

I'm completely loved by the Father.

I'm eternally loved by the Father.

He is my eternally faithful heavenly Father that loves me with an everlasting love.

And you cannot convince me that any failure, any mistake, anything that I've ever done in my life will stop him from blessing me.

Cannot.

Because God loves me.

Hallelujah.

And that's the image you have to have of yourself.

One that is loved by God.

1 John 3, 2 says, We're the sons of God.

We're the children of God.

I got to build that expectation.

Now when you talk to a lot of Christians, they'll say, Well, yeah, I'm a child of God.

But then the way they think God will deal with them, my Lord, if that's how God deals with his children, I was better off serving the devil.

Amen.

I am a child of God.

Say it out loud.

I'm a child of God.

How would a child of God look?

What would a child of God act like?

If I'm God's child and Jesus said that if earthly fathers knew how to bless their earthly children, how much more does your heavenly father know how to give good gifts to you?

What does that leave me with the impression?

I am his child, and he's wanting to give me really good things.

How do I do that?

I keep this expectation up.

I'm a child of God.

Amen.

I don't know about you, but I I go to the, I've gone to the Lord before and said, now, Lord, I need this to change because there are people that don't even serve you, and they have it better than me.

And I'm your child.

So the problem's not on your end.

You want to, right?

He said in 2 Peter, what'd he say?

That according as he has given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness.

Is that right?

So I should be having it better than them.

Because they're not even serving you.

I'm your child.

I'm your son.

I'm your daughter.

What does it mean to be a child of God?

What does it mean to be a son or a daughter of God?

How does that impact my ability to receive?

How does that impact my ability to believe?

Amen.

Every child in here loves me.

Most of them have been raised in this church.

I've known most of them since they were babies.

But here's the thing: they all love me.

They all have faith in me and belief in me, but not like they have in their dad.

Because they live with dad and they see dad every day and they see the blessings that dad brings to their life every day.

They have complete faith in dad.

Why?

I'm his daughter.

I'm his son.

Is that right?

Say it out loud.

I'm God's child.

1 Corinthians 1.30 says, we are of God.

1 Corinthians 1.30 says, but of him are you in Christ.

Of him, of the Father are you in Christ.

Of, meaning parentage.

Of meaning where you came from.

When you were born again, your parent became God.

In your spirit, your DNA is God positive.

And it says, of him are we in Christ.

In Christ Jesus, I am of God, who has made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.

Right?

What did Jesus say twice in John chapter 17?

John 17 · chapter mention

He said, I pray that they would understand that they are not of this world, even as I am not of this world.

Hallelujah.

I am of God.

That's my parentage.

That's my DNA.

God's not an absentee father.

2 Corinthians 5.17 says, we are new creations.

Say it out loud.

I am a new creation.

Amen.

I am right now, currently, presently.

I got to see myself that way.

I'm a new creation, new species of being that never existed before.

In Christ, I'm a new creature.

Old things are passed away.

All things, how many things?

How many things?

All things have become new.

Do you see yourself that way?

That's what I got to expect.

So when you talk to people and they talk about the flesh fighting and the carnal nature, and you're gonna struggle and you're gonna this and you're gonna that, listen, the Bible never says to struggle with your carnal nature.

It says put to death the deeds of the flesh.

Once and for all.

I've been given the power to do that.

Yeah, but my past and my this and that.

Listen, I'm not debating whether you've been through a lot and hurts and things in the past.

That's not the point.

That's not what I'm debating.

I'm saying that the way to keep that from overwhelming you and stopping you from receiving is by faith you say, I'm a new creature.

Old things are passed away, and all things have become new.

Amen.

2 Corinthians 5.21 says, We are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.

We are.

We are.

I am in right standing with God.

When?

Currently, presently, right now, I'm in right standing with God.

But, Pastor, you don't know what I've done.

That doesn't change your standing.

Now, understand, we can't just go live a life of sin and carnality.

But I need you to understand when you make a mistake and you fail, that doesn't change your standing.

Righteousness is standing, not conduct.

Amen.

All of us have had to lean on the fact that we're the righteousness of God by faith.

Right?

All of us, me included, you included.

You say you're not, you're lying.

That means you really need to take it by faith.

All of us have got up in the morning and felt less than righteous.

Let me come over here this side.

They are telling the truth.

Right?

We all have done that.

And we've all had that question.

If I'm the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, how come I did that?

You got to take it by faith.

I got to receive it by faith.

The only thing that begins to work in your life is what you receive by faith.

If you don't receive it by faith, it's not going to work in your life.

Because faith is the catalyst, faith is the energized, faith is the force that causes that thing to become a reality in my life.

All of these things that we've talked about is a picture of who and what we are.

For what purpose?

So we can live that way by faith.

I live as a child of God by faith.

I live as though I'm loved by God by faith.

Amen.

I live as the righteousness of God by faith.

Living by faith is seeing what God said and believing that picture more than you believe the one you can see.

Hallelujah.

Taking what God said, seeing what God said, and believing that picture more than you believe what you can see.

Look at Romans 4, 18.

Romans chapter 4.

Romans 4 · chapter mention

And verse 18 it says, concerning Abraham, it said, Who against hope believed in hope that he might become the father of many nations, according to which that which was spoken, so shall your seed be.

Human reason for hope being gone.

Now remember, God first appeared to Abraham in Roman in uh Genesis chapter 12 and told him he wanted to be his friend.

Genesis 12 · chapter mention

Then around Romans chapter 5 or Genesis chapter 15, God said, I'm gonna make a nation of you.

Romans 5 · chapter mention Genesis 15 · chapter mention

And you're gonna have a son.

Right?

And you remember Abraham said, What could you possibly give me, seeing I'm childless?

And my heir is this Eliezer, this steward in my house.

Human reason for hope being gone.

Why is the human reason for hope, the picture, why is it gone?

He's a hundred years old.

Right?

The Bible says, Romans 4, his body now dead.

Is that right?

Is that what it says?

And then it says the deadness of Sarah's womb.

It had been, Sarah was in her 90s at that time, and her womb had been barren from the time they got married.

So she's never been able to have children.

You cannot come up with a more impossible situation.

But notice what it said.

Human reason for hope being gone.

Notice what he did.

Hoped in faith.

So that he should become the father of many nations as he had been promised, so numberless shall your descendants be.

So what did he do?

He had no real human reason for hope.

So he turned to his faith.

Is that right?

Now take that and put it up against your impossible situation.

And you got to walk out those steps.

He had to go to the word and get some hope that he didn't have.

What does the word say?

I say, what does the word say?

Well, you know, I got this diagnosis from the doctor, and they said, you know, they said there's no hope.

Well, but you better go to the word.

What's the word say?

I will not, I, I, I will not die, but I will live.

And declare the works of the Lord.

What did he say in the book of Deuteronomy about our healing?

That the number of my days I will fulfill.

Is that right?

Amen.

But they said there's no hope.

Oh, there's always hope where your faith is concerned.

What changes the circumstance?

The word changes the circumstance.

What gets the word into my circumstance?

My faith.

Am I helping you?

So he had no reason for human hope.

But what did he have?

A picture based on what God had said.

What did God say to you?

This is what God said.

That's what I'm building the picture on.

Amen.

We quoted it today in the first part of the service.

What did Paul base his faith on in that ship?

I believe God.

I believe what God said.

And all of them made it.

And here's the thing I want you to see.

None of them, none of them would have had to get to the island on a broken piece of board or whatever else it was if they, first of all, would have just listened to what God said.

The ship would have never broken up.

When you're listening to what God said and acting on what God said, you got to work your faith a lot less harder.

Because you're doing what God said.

Right?

Abraham had no reason for a human hope.

But what did he do?

He had a picture based on what God said.

And he owned that picture.

How do you see yourself?

What do you see yourself doing?

Amen.

There's a statement that says, Your environment will look like your goals.

Right?

If you say you want a certain thing, then your environment will begin to look that way.

If a person says, I want to be physically fit, I want to exercise, I want to do these things, then in the morning their environment's going to look like their goals.

There's going to be things laid out, there's going to be running shoes, exercise equipment, exercise clothes, whatever it may be, right?

Because my environment is looking like my goals.

If we come into a person's house, does their environment look like their goals?

What do we see on the refrigerator?

Where's the verses at?

Are their confessions on their mirror?

Are they in their car?

Are they dispersed throughout their home?

If so, they got something they're believing for.

They got something they're building an image of.

Amen.

Because their environment is looking like their goals.

And that may seem elementary, but what did God tell Joshua?

And what did he say in Psalm chapter 1?

Psalms 1 · chapter mention

He said, The man that's going to receive from God keeps the word in their eyes and coming out of their mouth night and day.

And what did he say would happen?

In Joshua's case, he said, I'll give you the city.

In the case with David, he said, And whatever you do will prosper.

Amen.

Do you see this?

If you walk around our house, you'll see it everywhere.

Philip, Michelle, and Liliana Steele will only love life and see good days.

We will only love life and see good days.

We're not going to have bad days.

We're only going to love life and see good days.

The end result of everything will be good days.

Amen.

Jeremy, the end result will be good days.

The end result will be good days.

We've walked through some hard days, but we're going to, the end result's gonna be good days.

And everybody can be saying what they want.

Your family members can be saying what they want.

The end result is everything goes my way, and I only see good days.

Hallelujah.

I feel like I'm fire hosing you, but there's a lot here.

Abraham did not see his body as a reason God would not do what he said.

Over and over again, the scripture asks us this question.

Is God's hand shortened?

Is his arm shortened?

Is his power not able to fix what you have going on?

Hallelujah.

I know a lady that's believing for healing.

And here's what she does.

And she's believing for the manifestation.

Here's what she does.

She puts healing school on every day on her TV.

Now she's home these days.

She puts it on and just leaves it playing all day.

We have enough healing school episodes on YouTube that you could let it play for three years and never hear the same one.

If you're believing for healing, if you're believing to walk that out, that's what you've got going in your life.

The word on healing.

This is what I'm believing God for.

This is the image I'm looking for.

Amen.

Had Abraham not had a picture, there would have been nothing for him to attach his faith to.

But he already had a picture.

What was the picture?

Father of a multitude.

And remember, he asked God, he said, Oh, the Ishmael would live before you.

And God said, Oh, I'll make him a great nation, but it's going to be through Isaac.

That's who it's coming through.

It's going to come through your son, out of your body and out of Sarah's body.

And that's how it happened.

That was the picture he had.

See, people hear these things and they think mind over matter.

They think, listen, this is as far as mind over matter as we are from Mars.

Why would you want to put a picture of what you're desiring up in your home?

So you can see what you're believing God for.

Is that right?

Well, what are you believing God for?

You know, I I've had people say, you know, my blood pressure is high.

What would be the perfect blood pressure?

Now I'm not a medical man, but you know, they tell me that 120 over 80 is pretty good blood pressure.

So why would you not put that all over your house?

My blood pressure is 120 over 80.

My blood pressure is perfect.

And every time you see it, you say it out of your mouth.

You're building a picture.

I say you're building a picture.

You know, I have this heart issue, and I have this, and I and I know several people that are dealing with things we're believing for their favor, but they're healing.

But why wouldn't you say, My heartbeat beats perfectly?

It's not too fast, it's not too slow.

It's the perfect beats per minute every day.

That's what you want.

Get the picture out there.

Hallelujah.

Why how what what house are you believing for?

See, it's not just about things, it's about exercising your faith.

If you can't believe for what you need, how in the world are you ever going to believe for what somebody else needs?

If I can't believe God to bless me with a decent car, how can I believe to help somebody else?

Your faith starts working for you and grows to be used for somebody else?

So it's not materialism, it's not a house, a car, uh a suit of clothes.

It's God doing for you what he said he would do.

Glory to God.

Amen.

Think about it.

How much more comfortable would your family be in the house that God wants you to have?

More comfortable, right?

So I need to put a picture of what I'm believing for.

Yeah, but I don't know if we can afford that.

See, there we go again.

It's it's when you have faith, you have access to all of God's resources.

Amen.

See, what you receive will always fall to the level of your faith.

Always.

Always.

Whatever you receive, if you received it by faith, you received what you received because that was the level of your faith.

Now, faith can grow.

Right?

1 Thessalonians says, What?

Your faith grows exceedingly.

Try that out.

Say, my faith grows exceedingly.

My faith grows exceedingly.

Amen.

Folks, listen, this is something we've walked out.

When God told us to start the church in Little Rock, he said to me, We we had a place in the country, in uh a little place called Perryville, Arkansas.

We loved it there.

It was quiet, it was wonderful, but it was it was it was an hour out of town.

Well, you know, you can't pastor effectively being an hour away from your congregation.

And so I needed to be in town, and I knew we needed to be in town.

So we started praying about it.

The Lord gave us a process.

He said, I want you, he said, first of all, go here.

You'll get an apartment, and and and then I got a house for you, right?

And so we got, we went and we we rented the apartment and had it for a number of years.

And April of 2020, y'all remember 2020?

In April of 2020, the Lord said, It's time to start looking for your house.

And and we were looking, but here's the thing I want you to see.

I'd been praying about what kind of house to get.

What do we want?

And I was looking through a uh like an architectural magazine one day.

And I and I flipped the page and there was a house.

And the Lord said, That's what I want you to believe for.

Well, I cut it out and put it on our on my wall in my office.

And uh I actually have I actually have the uh scriptures that I still go over where our house is concerned.

I have church confessions and uh these different things, but I want to get over to this house.

I want to help you.

Am I helping you?

And the the last one on this list, there's much more than this.

But I said, I call our beautiful brick home to us in Jesus' name.

This house fits our needs and desires and will be a blessing to us.

I call you to us now in Jesus' name, based on Romans chapter 4, verse 17.

Romans 4:17

Call in those things that be not as though they were.

We were looking in a certain area, and the Lord said, I want you to expand your your searching to this other area in in Ma Mel, Arkansas.

Ma Mel is eight miles from Little Rock, just across the river.

And so uh we started looking there.

Now, understand.

We said we told our realtor we want to search Maw Mel.

He came back with two listings.

We went there and we went to this one area, we went in the house, now this is not our house.

Number one, we didn't like it, and number two, it didn't witness with us.

He said, Well, I got one more.

I said, Okay, so we went up and went to the other part of the city and uh we we pulled in there and went to the top of the hill and turned around the cul-de-sac.

I'll never forget, I pulled down in front of that house, and I was sitting over here, my wife was on the passenger side.

I looked over at the house, I said, There's our house.

She said, Yes, it is.

That's our house.

It looked just like the picture I had.

Just like the picture I had.

I mean, the differences were so minor, you wouldn't have been able to tell.

We walked, we walked in that house and it was ours.

We never questioned if this is our house.

Yeah, but but you know that pre-qualification, we weren't thinking about pre-qualification.

We weren't thinking about the money.

We were thinking about the Holy Spirit said this is our house.

When the Holy Spirit says it's yours, there's no risk.

It's yours.

And isn't it funny that the people that, and there are other people that wanted to make an offer on that house, but the people that were in there were two grandparents, grandma and granddad, that had had to adopt their five-year-old grandson, and they heard that we were grandparents that had adopted our five-year-old granddaughter, and they said, We want to help you get in this house.

Right?

There's a saying that says, Where God leads, he provides.

Do you believe that?

If you believe that, then you're saying what God said.

This is not about just confession.

This is about I put on paper what I was expecting.

And then what did Jesus say?

That what do you do?

You take what you're believing, and what do you do?

You say it.

And what did he say would happen?

You'll have what?

Amen.

Let me just ask you straight up, how many bedrooms you need?

How many?

You know, that's not that big of a house.

Five bedrooms isn't that big.

What'd you say, Sarah?

Correct him.

Huh?

Sarah said what?

Six.

That's even better.

Amen.

Now, are there six bedroom houses out there and available?

Are there?

Do they build six-bedroom houses?

Then that means it's possible to get one.

If it's possible to get one, and he said all things were possible to who?

The one that believes.

So not only are they out there, it's possible for you to have one.

Right?

So, so so what do you do?

You don't go over Zillow and look at the price first.

You look at the house first.

And you ask, is that mine?

Right?

Well, what if I hear yes?

Go get it.

I'll tell you this story again for a reason.

When Pastor Calwell, when the Lord told him, my pastor in Little Rock, when the Lord told him he was he was looking at property in the Little Rock area to build the church, they could not find a building.

And the Lord said, I want you to go up, and he went up on that property up on Napa Valley Road that was not a main artery in Little Rock then, it is now.

And he said, I sat on the stump and I overlooked that 12 acres that was for sale.

And he said, The Lord said, I want you to go and I want you to offer them this amount of money for this property.

And he went and he offered them the amount of money for the property, and they said, No, we're not gonna sell it for that.

They said, number one, that's not enough money.

They said, number two, we don't even really want to sell it.

We don't have to sell it.

So, no, that's not enough money.

He went now, watch.

He didn't say, Oh, well, I did my best.

He went back to the same stump.

He sat down, he said, Okay, now I did what you said, and they said, No, now what?

He said, wait three weeks and go offering ten thousand dollars less.

And so he waited three weeks and went and offered them, and they said, Okay.

And not only will we sell it to you, we'll we'll handle all the financing so that you don't have to mess with the bank.

Because the Lord told them to build that building debt free.

Well, why did he tell them to build it debt free?

Because nobody knew the interest rates were going to be about 16 percent, 13 percent.

So did God line them up perfectly?

And they built that building debt free.

What's your job?

When you know God said it's yours, what do you do?

You go after it.

Yeah, but what if they're not willing?

You leave that, you leave that up to God.

You be willing to do what God said.

Other people's unwillingness does not change what I have to do, doesn't change that.

Hallelujah.

I say hallelujah.

Say this out loud.

God has everything I need.

Everything that I need.

Houses, finances, healing, victory.

He has it all.

And it all belongs to me.

And it all belongs to me.

And you might have to build your faith for it.

But you know, I pull out those things like that list to show you.

We don't just teach you this.

This is how we live.

Everything we get is by faith.

I'm not smarter than you.

There are people sitting in here.

Your education and your wisdom makes me, it makes mine look like a thimbleful.

But I know this, I know how to believe God.

I learned if I can believe God, there's nothing out of my reach.

Nothing.

Absolutely nothing.

This is important.

And you've been coming here and you've been taught how to believe God.

You just have to receive it.

I say you just have to receive it.

You know, many will say, well, well, can, well, well, God can.

Can what?

What can God do?

Amen.

And others say, well, I just believe God will.

Will what?

What will God do?

I believe that God will give you what you need.

Make a way for you.

Think about all the all the things that God has done for you.

How many times has he showed up and had somebody come help you that you didn't know was going to help you?

Amen.

And I can only use myself as an example.

We we had a couple one time that needed a lot of stuff in their home.

I mean, they they needed everything.

And I was having coffee with him one day.

And and the Lord said to me, The Lord said, the Lord said to me, He said, I want you to buy this and this and this and this and this for them.

Ask them if they could use those new things.

And I asked him, and he said, Yes.

And I got on the phone with my wife.

I said, The Lord told me to do this.

I just want to be in agreement.

She said, I'm in agreement.

I said, uh, let's find out how much those are.

They found out how much they are.

We wrote them a check.

They weren't expecting a check when they came to meet with me, and I wasn't expecting to write one.

But they had a need, and God brought them to somebody that could help them.

Amen.

Had a single mother in our church, and the engine blew up in her car.

I mean, just blew up, went out.

We said, Well, how much is it going to be?

It's going to be well over$1,800 to fix everything that needs to be fixed.

I don't have the money.

There's no way.

And right here, the Lord said, You can do that.

And I looked at her and said, Sister, we'll take care of that.

What's the name of the place?

We wrote her the check.

God brought her to somebody that could meet the need.

You see what I'm saying?

When you get your expectation up and you get your faith operating, God will take you to people that can do what you need to do.

Amen.

I'll close with this.

I had a couple that uh I know in Arkansas, older couple.

They're in their 80s, and they lived in the neighborhood that we live in.

They've recently moved.

And uh they they wanted they wanted to move into a uh like a uh retirement community because the house was getting to be so much and all these different things, and and so they wanted to move.

Well, here's here's the point.

Is so they didn't want to go through a realtor.

Evidently they'd paid for their home.

They didn't want to go through a realtor, they just wanted to sell it, right?

Cash money.

And uh here's the point.

There was a minister, there was a pastor on staff at their church that was also a contractor and a builder, right?

That bought houses and then, you know, turned them around and resold them.

And he said, How much you want for your house?

They said, Well, we'd like to get this.

He said, Done.

Wrote them a check.

You think God can do that for you?

When you sit down and you're always saying, Well, how am I gonna do this and how am I gonna do that?

Settle it with this.

I'm this is how I'm gonna do it.

I'm gonna believe God.

Now I'm gonna leave the particulars up to him.

Amen.

And he's gonna do it because he said in in uh uh 1 Corinthians, Jesus became poor so that you through his poverty could be made rich.

And there are scars on Jesus' body that proves your prosperity's been paid for.

Don't don't shortchange what Jesus did.

Receive all of it.

Amen.

Hallelujah.

Father, we thank you today.

We magnify you, we lift your holy name up.

We thank you, Father, that as you have said in your word is exactly what you will do.

And we can expect it to be that way in the name of Jesus.

With your head bowed, your eyes closed today.

We never want to end it.