The Vision Of Faith

So let's pick our Bibles up and lift them up and wave them around and make Jesus glad, the devil mad.

Let's say this together Say Heavenly Father, I'm so grateful for the Word of God.

This Word was spoken so it could be written.

And then it was written so that it could be spoken and I speak the Word of God with my mouth and I believe it in my heart.

I speak the word of God with my mouth and I believe it in my heart, and what I say comes to pass in Jesus' name, amen.

All right, let's look at 2 Corinthians, the fourth chapter, and also, while you're finding that, find Hebrews 11, and we will start with 2 Corinthians 4, verse 17, first.

2 Corinthians 4:17

And Paul is writing to the church at Corinth and he says For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we look not on the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen.

For the things which are seen are temporal, are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

And then we'll flip over to Hebrews 11, chapter 1.

And it says Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen, for by it the elders obtained a good report.

Through faith, we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so the things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.

And so tonight I wanted to share a message entitled the Vision of Faith.

The Vision of Faith.

You know, recently I just finished a couple of messages on consider Jesus, consider Jesus, consider the Word, consider the Spirit of God, consider not.

There's some things you have to consider not.

Don't consider the dumpster fire.

You know, abraham and Sarah considered not.

They considered the promise and the promise keeper.

And so the word consider means to fix your mind and your eyes on.

And so here tonight we have the Apostle Paul writing to the Corinthian church that you know, we have a light affliction.

See, he called affliction, that he was going through light.

See, he saw things differently than most people.

He had a vision of faith.

He saw the affliction.

He didn't ignore the affliction, but he called it light and he said it's very momentary, it's just for a moment, but it's working.

A far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory on my behalf, while we look not at the things which are seen, which are temporary, but we look at the things which are not seen, which are eternal.

You know, faith, people look at things differently.

You know, faith and vision.

Faith and vision, you can't have one without the other.

In fact, you know I like Proverbs 29, 18.

It says without a vision, the people perish or the people are made naked.

You know you have to have a vision.

You know, as a home builder, I had to have a vision of the house that I was building.

I'm a home builder, I had to have a vision of it.

You know, another scripture says you know, write the vision, make it plain.

So we wrote the vision in the form of a set of house plans that had dimensions.

It had you know all the room sizes.

It had dimensional.

You know all the measurements outside and the outside slab, the inside walls, you know everything was very well defined.

So the vision of the house was translated into a piece of paper that we followed in order to construct what we saw.

And so, faith and vision, you've got to be able to see what it is you're believing for, you've got to look at things differently than the average person.

Again, here we have Paul saying you know this light affliction when you think about what he went through, with all the beatings and all of the stone and being stoned and being shipwrecked and so forth and so on.

He was a lot, of, a lot of tough things that he went through and he said this light affliction.

What was he lying?

No, he, he was speaking.

What he saw, he saw victory.

He saw when there were challenges.

You know, faith always is challenged.

No matter what you see or do, when you start to go by faith, the devil will always try to stop you.

He'll always challenge your faith.

You know people say well, what type of person are you?

A half empty person, half empty cup person or a half full person?

Well, you know, I'm an overflowing cup person.

I see that no matter what the cup looks like, I see it overflowing.

And so here in hebrews it says faith is the substance of things.

Uh, hope for the evidence of things not seen with the human eyes.

You know, I was listening to uh sports radio the other day.

They were complaining about the, the football game the texans played last sunday, last saturday, last Saturday.

They played in the NRG Stadium and Hurricane Barrel had damaged the stadium and knocked out a couple of the panels of the roof.

That closes, and so two panels of the roof had holes in them and so the sunlight in the middle of the day it was 12 noon and the sun was shining down on the field and had a strip of real bright sunlight across the field.

And they were complaining because every time the players got in that sunlight the cameras washed out and you couldn't really see clearly what was being played on the field.

You know, you just couldn't see it.

And they made the remarks.

As you know, we've got these wonderful cameras and they didn't give God the credit for the cameras that we have.

We've got these eyeballs that God made, that are and man has not been able to make a camera as intricate and as detailed and as excellent as our eyes.

You know, our eyes take in a lot of things.

And though they were just talking about it and I was laughing, I said, man, that'll preach.

I think I'm going to use that as an example, because they were talking about how they couldn't see the football.

They couldn't see the plays properly because it was washed out by the sunlight.

Listen, I mean, your natural eyes will let you see all the trouble, but what you've got to focus on is what you believe in your heart and what God's word says Amen.

So by this faith or by this different way of seeing the elders, obtained a good report.

So you're going to have to change what you focus on.

You have to change what you're looking at.

It's not that you deny the trouble, it's just that you don't focus on it.

And so the elders and you go back in the chapter before, in hebrews, chapter 11.

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

It talks about the elders of our faith, all of them in old testament, saints, and you go one by one.

If you go back, you see every one of them saw things differently than the average person.

Enoch, you know, he saw life and not death.

Enoch walked with god and was not for god took him.

He saw life and not death.

He never knew death.

With God and was not for God took him.

He saw life and not death.

He never knew death, he never saw it.

He just wasn't focused on it.

He was focused on God.

And God said why don't you come up here and spend your time up here with me?

And he's still up there.

You know, noah saw a flood and not the status quo.

The status quo was the world was watered by water vapor.

There was no such thing as rain, there was no such thing as storms, thunderstorms, there was no such thing as floods.

But God told him a flood was coming, rain was coming, and he saw that he didn't see the status quo.

Abraham saw a future land.

Abraham saw a city not made with hands.

Abraham saw a resurrected son.

I was watching a movie one time and it pictured, you know, when he took Isaac out to sacrifice him to the Lord, and how he was, you know, so burdened down with grief, and how he was weeping and crying.

Well, that's not the Word of God.

The Word of God says that he gladly did it, because he received him as already raised from the dead.

He knew that what God had promised him, if it required him to kill that only son, that he was going to raise him from the dead because that's his inheritance, that's his whole promise.

He wasn't sad.

So they saw things differently.

Sarah saw a healthy woman, not a dead one.

Amen, all the way through.

We see our kingdom supply coming in over in overabundance.

We're not moved by by inflation, we're not moved by the difficulties of this Bidenomics and all of the confusion that we see out here with our eyes, our natural eyes.

We're seeing with the eyes of faith, we have a vision of faith, of our prosperity, and it's increasing, hallelujah.

So let's look at 1 Samuel 30.

I'm in this chapter right now, which is one reason why I'm preaching this.

I just like to preach to you what I read every day, what I get every day.

I don't you know.

I've preached this before.

I'll preach it again because it's one of those messages that you need to hear.

1 Samuel, chapter 30, though in verse 1, is talking about David.

1 Samuel 30 · chapter mention

And it came to pass when David and his men were come to Ziklag on the third day that the Amalekites had invaded the south and Ziklag and smitten Ziklag and burned it with fire.

See, ziklag is his home base, that's where his family is, all their families and all their stuff.

And they'd taken the women captive that were therein and they slew not any, neither great or small, but they carried them away and went on their way.

And so David and his men came to the city and, behold, it was burned with fire and their wives and their sons and their daughters were taken captives.

Then David and the people that were with him lifted up their voice and they wept until they had no more power to weep and David's two wives were taken captives, ahinoam, the Jezreelitess, and Abigail, the wife of Nabal the Carmelite.

And David was greatly distressed, for the people spake of stoning him because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters.

But David encouraged himself in the Lord, his God.

And David said to Abiathar, the priest, ahimelech's son, I pray thee, bring me hither the ephod.

And Abiathar brought hither the ephod to David.

And David inquired at the Lord, saying Shall I pursue after this troop?

Shall I overtake them?

After this troop, shall I overtake them?

And he, god, answered him Pursue, for thou shalt surely overtake them and, without fail, recover all.

So when I read this account, I see how David.

At first, you know, he was as emotional as everybody else.

He cried till there was no more power to cry.

He just had a pity party.

But then he began to see with the eyes of faith.

He had the vision of faith.

And so we want to look through here about this testimony.

You know it comes here.

It comes to light that he's just 72 hours away from sitting on the throne of Israel when the Amalekites burned Ziklag, just three days later.

He's going to be king.

He's going to be king 72 hours later.

See, whenever God is about to open doors for you, whenever there's promotion, whenever there's blessing, whenever there's breakthrough, the devil will try to steal your thunder.

He'll try to get you distracted.

He'll try to get you focused on all of his drama that he tries to create.

You know, paul said it best, I think, in 1 Corinthians 16, 9,.

He said a great door and effect shall open unto me, and there are many adversaries.

I mean, the greater the door, the greater the devils.

And that's exactly what was going on with David right here.

So he recovered quickly from his initial shock.

It's not how you start out, it's whether you quickly recover and get you down to business, and that's what I want to talk about.

I've got one, two, three, four, five things that we need to do.

I call it keys to seeing clearly.

See, when you don't have a vision of faith, you're not seeing accurately, you're not seeing the way God sees things, you're not getting God's perspective on the situation that's facing you.

If all you look at is what the devil did, if all you look at is what is going on in the natural, you're not going to see clearly and accurately God's perspective.

So these keys are what you need to follow.

Number one, the biggest one here, in verse 4, chapter 30 of 1 Samuel control your emotions.

Don't let your emotions run away with you.

Now David did for a little while.

He gave himself a little while to have a pity party.

But every minute that goes by while you're feeling sorry for yourself is a wasted moment.

I mean it doesn't do one bit of good.

He didn't get any help, it didn't.

I mean you know it might make you feel a little better to weep, but I mean when you get through weeping you still feel like it.

You know we've gone through some things with Gladys, most of you know, and it's not easy to see her, you know, struggle and walking and struggle with her body and have to go through pain.

And she's getting better, she's improving.

But you know, as her husband that loved her and been with her 56 years.

It's not easy to see that.

So I have to set my emotions aside.

There's been a few times when I got home and I have to leave her in the hospital or leave her in the rehab facility and go home and go to bed and she's not there.

And the first night particularly, I mean I had to really practice this.

I had to get my emotions under control.

I had to get my emotions under control.

I had to get my emotions under control.

Stop focusing on what the devil brings See fear, grief, anger, bitterness.

Whatever those emotions are, you've got to listen.

You know they're going to cloud your vision, so just take authority over them.

And then the second thing I see that David did.

He encouraged himself in the Lord, his God, verse 6, he encouraged himself After he got a control of his emotions.

He encouraged himself.

That helped him get control of his emotions.

As a matter of fact, when I started feeling that sadness and that concern, even fear, try to grip me, that first night I was home without Gladys.

I just started praying in other tongues.

I started speaking the Word of God.

I started speaking what I believe.

I started speaking health and healing over her.

I started thanking God for that.

I started thanking God for mine.

I started thanking God for mine Say.

I encouraged myself.

I prayed in other tongues Jude 20, build yourself up on your most holy faith.

Pray it in the Holy Ghost.

You know, let's go back.

Hold your place there at 1 Samuel.

I'm talking about five things and we're in number two Encourage yourself in the Lord, your God.

You know it's not somebody else's job, somebody else can do it, but you have to do it.

2 Corinthians 4,.

Let's go back there and I want you to see verse 13.

2 Corinthians 4, 13,.

Just a few verses above, where we read earlier, we having the same spirit of faith according as it is written.

I believe.

Therefore, have I spoken?

We also believe and therefore speak.

The problem with a pity party is you start speaking.

The problem you start crying about.

The problem you start displaying to the devil that his plan is working.

No, that's not what you want to do.

You should never let the devil see you sweat.

You should never let the devil see you cry.

I mean for no other reason.

Don't give him the benefit of seeing you have any kind of impact.

Instead, you have this spirit of faith.

You have it Not going to have.

You have it.

It's down on the inside.

So stir it up.

That's what I did.

I stirred it up and I've had to stir it up more than once.

I had to stir it up today.

I mean every time I go to the hospital or go to and she's in the rehab hospital now but I mean I have to stir myself up.

I mean she's out there walking and doing the physical exercises and therapy that they have her going through and she's struggling Something I can do just blindfolded.

And here she's having to make effort.

You know what?

I just stir myself up.

I pray in the Holy Ghost, I encourage myself in the Lord, my God.

And then what does that do?

It brings forth a clear vision.

I'm not looking at that bright sunlight.

You know, like they were at NRG Stadium, they couldn't really see what was going on because the cameras couldn't adjust for the lighting conditions.

You know your cameras, your spiritual cameras.

You know when you start looking too much at the circumstances, they're not going to give you a clear vision.

And the next thing is right after this see in verse 4.

Verse 3, he encouraged himself in the Lord, his God.

In verse 6, he inquired of the Lord.

He inquired of the Lord.

Let's go back to 1 Samuel 30 now.

Let's go back to 1 Samuel 30 now he said.

Verse 8, david inquired at the Lord, asking him what's your plan?

What do I do about what the devil did?

Do I pursue, will I overtake him?

He had to have prayer.

Philippians 4, 6,.

Don't worry, I like one version Philippians 4, 6,.

Don't worry, I like one version Philippians 4, 6.

Don't worry about anything.

Pray about everything.

Don't spend time wringing your hands.

Don't spend time with a pity party.

Don't spend time worried.

Don't spend time letting fear grab a hold of you.

Pray, pray.

Find out what God's plan of response You're going to respond to this situation and you're going to overcome it.

See inquire of the Lord.

James 1, 5,.

If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, which giveth liberally to all men and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him, but let him ask in faith, nothing doubting.

See, if you doubt, then you're not going to receive the wisdom.

You need to answer this attack, see.

If you don't answer it, who will?

Well, I'm going to call for people to help me.

Well, why don't you do it yourself first?

I mean, it's not wrong to get people to agree with you, but if you're going to always be the type of person that has everybody else praying for you before you pray, you're out of order.

I mean, you're just showing the devil he's hit the right target.

He's taking advantage of somebody that's weak and has to depend on everybody else.

No, you've got a prayer life, you've got the Holy Ghost living on the inside of you, and so you inquire of the Lord.

You begin to ask in faith, believe in.

You, receive when you ask Amen.

And then the next one that I like, in verse seven again, is go to church.

Where is that in there?

Well, when he called for Abiathar, the priest that kind of represents see, everything in the Old Testament is a type and shadow of the new, and so it's like going to church.

He didn't have a church out there, but he had a priest.

He had a priest that was going to, had carried the umam and the thuman, he had the ephod.

And that's how you consulted.

They didn't have the Holy Spirit living on the inside of them like we do, and so he asked the priest to bring the ephod.

Who was the priest?

Well, he's the priest that carried the ephod.

David is the king.

He can't be the priest.

He's the king.

So who had the ephod?

Well, the priest did.

And so in your case, you know, when you're facing difficulty, don't stay away from church.

Come to church and expect God to meet you in church and expect God to give you further information on how you could answer this attack.

I see people all the time.

They get under attack and then, for whatever reason, they get too ashamed to come to church.

They think that church is some kind of a place, you know, a hall of fame, where everybody's here that never has a problem.

No, it's a hospital.

Everybody here has needs.

Everybody here has conflict.

Everybody here is going through something.

They either just got out of something, they're in the middle of something, or have to go into something.

You know so you're, you're no different.

I mean, come in and you know I like this verse in Psalm 73, 17.

When I came into the sanctuary of God then I understood I can't count the times when we've faced what looks like really tough situations.

I think back in the days when I was going to Lakewood Church and I was going through all kind of things and I'd use that verse and I'd say Lord, I just know when I get to church that somewhere in that service there's going to be something there for me during the praise and worship, during the message, what Brother Osteen preaches, something about, that service is going to minister to me and give me the answers I need.

And I can't count the times that God did it that way.

Now he'll do it different ways.

Sometimes he could just give you a word down in your spirit without coming to church, but you ought to always come to church when you're going through something.

I like to tell people give me a year of your life.

You know where I got that?

Brother Osteen gave it way back when I started going there.

He said give me a year of your life.

Well, I gave him 15.

And why?

Why do we say that?

Well, because it takes about a year for me to preach the whole counsel of the word, where you can get enough out of it to navigate this wonderful Christian life which is designed for you to walk by faith and not by sight.

The just shall live by their faith.

I won't live by what it seems like, and so it takes that long for me to share truth with you.

That will make a difference.

And really it takes longer.

That's if you come.

Every service and most people don't.

So it really takes more than a year.

But at least give me a year and then that way you're doing what you should do and you will be the better for it, not because of me, but because of the word and because of the ministry that's here.

So five things real quick.

First of all, control your emotions and then encourage yourself in the Lord Inquire of the Lord, go to church.

And the last one is found in verse 24.

First, samuel, 30, 24.

This is real important.

It says here For who will hearken unto you in this matter, for it.

But as his part is that goeth down to the, to the battle, so shall his part be that tarrieth by the stuff.

They shall part alike.

Ok, what in the world does that mean?

It means to fellowship with your own company.

You know members of this church.

If you're a member of this church, you ought to fellowship with them.

You ought to have fellowship here.

Well, that's not a church Pastor.

I don't understand what part alike.

What does that mean?

Well, it means that you go back to the first part of the story, when David heard from God to go pursue his enemy.

He had 600 men with him, but only 400 went with him to go pursue and get the women and children and stuff back.

200 of them were so weak they could not go.

They had to stay by the stuff.

I want you to picture this 200 warriors I mean, these are men that were warriors and they were too weak to go fight anymore.

They'd been fighting and you know what they did?

They stayed in a burnt-out city.

They stayed in the burnt-out remains of what had been their home.

I mean it's really strange when you think about it.

Why would somebody be that weak?

I mean, here you're a warrior, you've seen battle.

You mean you're so weak you can't go get your wife.

You can't go.

I mean it's hard to relate to people that weak, but I mean they didn't go.

And so when they came back victorious and they had everybody.

And so when they came back victorious and they had everybody, they had all the wives of the 400 plus the wives and kids of the 200 that didn't go.

And they had all the stuff of the 400 and they had all the stuff of the 200 that didn't go.

And so the 400 said we're going to keep all the stuff and we'll just give them back their wife and kids.

And David said no, I ain't the way it works around here.

Buddies, we all part alike.

We're all in one fellowship.

See, listen, no matter what you're going through, no matter what you're going through, you've got a family and maybe nobody's going through what you're going through, but let me tell you.

You can part alike.

Their success can be your success, your trouble can.

They can kind of take some of the load off of you with your trouble.

They can agree with you when you come up here to pray.

People can stretch their hands out.

They might not even know specifically what you're up here for, but they join in faith, believing that you're going to get your breakthrough.

See, let's fellowship with people of like precious faith.

Quit hanging out with unbelievers.

Quit hanging out and telling strangers all your troubles.

I mean, I've had people tell me all kinds of things.

You know, in a car repair shop they start sharing their troubles with me, you know, and I just kind of chuckle and I have to ask the Lord is this somebody you want me to minister to, or they just want to hear themselves talk?

You know I've had both kinds.

I've had people that I wound up just sharing a little bit with and praying with, and I've had other people that I just listened and you know, I don't know, they just didn't seem receptive to what I was saying.

So I don't go any further.

But in any case, let's fellowship with people of like precious faith.

Let's fellowship with the people here at Glorious Way Church because we part alike in all our victories.

Hebrews 10, 25 says neglect, not the assembling of yourselves together, and one margin says as puzzle pieces See when we're missing.

Where the puzzle is incomplete, the picture is incomplete.

You ever work one of these big puzzles and you're missing a piece or two or three.

I mean it's interrupted.

You just, you look everywhere to find the pieces to fill it in.

It's just frustrating if you've got a thousand pieces and only 996 of them are installed.

The other four are missing.

You're going to look all over the house to find the four.

It's happened at our house.

And so let's assemble ourselves together, let's be part of the answer.

You know, viktor Frankl, who was a Holocaust survivor, said it years ago.

He said the last of all human freedoms is the ability to choose one's own attitude in any set of circumstances.

We can't always choose our circumstances, but we can choose to have an attitude, and that attitude for us should be the spirit of faith that will produce the corresponding vision of faith.

You have that spirit of faith.

You have that can-do, you have that idea that with God all things are possible, and all things are possible to me because I'm a believer.

Then the vision of faith will become crystal clear and you'll live in victory.

Come on, lift your hands and receive the vision of faith.

Hallelujah, glory to God.

I hope this blessed you tonight and you know we're living it.

Praise God and I, and I know it will help you and it will bless you.