The Same Spirit Of Faith

If you will just lift up your Bible.

This is our covenant.

You know, we talked about the covenant of Abraham just now.

When God made a covenant with Abraham when anybody made covenants, they had a document.

They would say what they were agreeing about.

Have you ever made an agreement but not really had a clear idea of what you're agreeing to do?

Have you all ever done that?

This is a mistake.

I have done this.

But when you make an agreement, you should have a clear communication about what are the both parties agreeing to do and then and then all the best to write it down, have it in writing.

Have y'all learned this the hard way?

I have learned this the hard way.

And then, when you have it in writing, actually you should read it, because when you don't read it, you can put your Bible down for a minute and it won't lift it up again.

I just want you to know when you're lifting up your Bible, you're lifting up that covenant that God made with you and if anybody, if you had a covenant and it was a blood covenant in Bible times you had a blood covenant and you went back on your covenant and did not do what you said you would do in that agreement and everybody in this tribe knew what the covenant said and everybody in that tribe over there knew what the covenant said.

But then y'all didn't.

Somebody in the tribe did not obey that, they were disowned or they were killed.

They could not be in that tribe anymore because they were a covenant breaker.

And God is serious about that.

He is a covenant keeping God to every generation.

He keeps his covenant, he is faithful and he cannot lie.

And so when you hold up this Bible, it's true, it's your covenant, hallelujah.

So hold up your covenant right now and say you can stand up one more time.

Come on, stand up, you got it.

We're supposed to stand up when we do it, hallelujah, stand up, say this is my Bible, it is my covenant with God, it is his testament to me of his faithfulness.

I will receive it tonight.

I will do the word, I will let it sink deep in me and I will let it produce a harvest in my life.

In Jesus' name, amen.

Okay, now you can be seated and I will not make you get up again unless I make you hug 10 people and I might do that, amen.

Well, I am just so full tonight.

I know our entire, you know, my family got to all go to a pastor's conference in Alexandria, louisiana, this week and we got to hear from Brother Mark and Miss Trinna Hankins and we got to hear from Brother Kenneth Copeland and I'm telling you I have just been so filled.

I was so encouraged because when I come into the house of God here at church I see all of your faces and I have.

We got faith people here.

We got people who are crazy with their faith, who will pray and believe God and actually have the have the guts to believe that this word is true and act like it.

That's awesome.

But when I walked into there, I had that.

They had the same spirit of faith.

That is my message tonight, titled tonight the same spirit of faith.

I felt the same spirit of faith, but it was even increased because there's a room full of pastors who are believing this and acting on it and teaching does it mean they never have any problems?

No, no, but faith people have a way about them that you can tell that they've been with Almighty God, you can tell they're trusting in God and I want that more.

I want it, I want you to have it more, I want me to have it more.

And so turn with me to 2nd Corinthians 4.

Tonight We'll start here.

And it says apostle Paul's talking to the Corinthian church.

He says and since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written in the covenant, I believed and therefore I spoke.

If you believe something, you're going to say it right.

We also believe in their forespeak, knowing that he who raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us up with Jesus and will present us with you.

Everybody say with you.

So Paul was saying I'm going to be presented before God with all of you people.

We have a relationship together and we share together the same spirit of faith.

If you read the passage leading up to that which we won't do tonight.

But Paul is just saying look, I've been persecuted, but I'm not cast down.

He's just being truthful about.

He's been through all of these trials and tribulations, but he's not destroyed, he's not cast down, he's not abandoned, he's not forsaken.

God's still with him and he's still God's still on the throne.

And look, I got through it and so will you.

This is what it implies, and there is no such thing as untested faith.

If y'all think about the word testimony, what does it start with Test tests.

I got a smart.

I got some smart kids.

I'm going to brag on them.

Just they're smart.

Praise God.

God helped us.

He put smart people in their lives.

They're smart beyond what I am, probably not beyond what James is he's descended from geniuses.

But they're smart.

But they have to take a test and they have to prove it If they're going to get a good grade.

You got to take a test and it's hard.

If it's an easy test and everybody makes an A, then there's no glory.

And when you get your A, everybody got that, hallelujah.

But if you can do calculus too, and you can get a hundred on your calculus too, test, that's good.

I'm glad, I'm proud of that.

Some of you feel like you're in calculus right now.

Devil has put some calculus on you.

But everybody say I shall pass Romans 117, for in it the righteousness of God is revealed.

From faith to faith.

As it is written, the just shall live by faith.

Talking about the spirit of faith tonight, faith has a spirit and that spirit of faith is something we should live by every day.

God did not call us to just barely exist, but he wants us to go from faith to faith.

There's another scripture that talks about going from glory to glory To glory.

There's another level.

There is another level.

These seats will be filled.

We will reach another level of attendance in this church.

We will reach another level of financial prosperity.

All of you will reach another level of success and peace in your family, hallelujah.

You will reach another level of influence with the people around you Amen, but it will be tested.

But the spirit of faith is exciting, is attractive.

It makes other people want to come to you and be close to you because you have a spirit of faith.

And faith.

People are different, they are just different.

You know, you can go to some churches and you can hear a lot of theology and charts, you can see graphs and you can see outlines, and that's brainy and that's great.

But there is a spirit of faith that is spiritually received.

The things of the spirit that's another topic, but I'm just gonna say this real quick Brother Mark was teaching on the things of the spirit, the numah, the Greek word for spirit and he talked about going into another room.

So he was talking, he was having his microphone and he went into another room and you couldn't see him anymore and that's a too far a walk.

So I'm not gonna do that.

But he went to another room and you can still hear him and he said you know what?

I'm in another room now and I can't see any of your faces and none of y'all can influence me.

I'm in another room and the things of the spirit are like that.

It's like you're in another room.

It's like the things of this world.

They're still there.

They're still here waiting on you when you get back.

But you gotta live your life from that other room, from the room of the spirit, where, god's blessings, it's so real, it's just as real as the room of the natural, but it's the room of the spirit and we can operate out of that room with the blessings of God.

So that's what a faith person does.

So I just got a message tonight, hopefully out of Hebrews 11,.

We're gonna go back to Hebrews.

How can you preach on faith without Hebrews 11?

But I know James just preached on it.

I'm gonna skip the part he did, I'm gonna go to a different part.

But five marks of a faith person, and number one faith offers a perfect sacrifice.

Faith costs you something and it is something that we sacrifice for.

Did I tell you it'd be tested Our faith.

What I'm talking about?

Faith?

What I'm talking about.

I'm talking about trusting that this is true right here, and letting God lead you.

And if we can believe God that Jesus has been raised from the dead, you're not Christian without that right.

That is what made you a Christian or a believer, because you could believe that one big big thing.

And if you can believe that one crazy big thing that you didn't personally see with your eyes, that's the weirdest, craziest thing, somebody what they rose from the dead, so you can believe that, so that's great.

Now you're in the kingdom of God.

But many people just stop there and they never, never, never use that tool of faith to do anything else in their lives.

And we're supposed to take that is our entry point.

We're supposed to take that faith that we have that Jesus rose from the dead and grow it.

That's like our mustard seed, but we're supposed to be growing it and using our faith every day and living by that faith like a tool, like a muscle that grows.

When Ben was born, he was fat, he was the fattest baby, and then he had.

And then, when he was about one year old, he was already wearing like two year old clothes and then he was just, I mean, I'm sure there were muscles under there but nobody could see him and then for the longest time he was just kind of a short kid.

He went through that phase and he and now all the other kids grew and he kind of looked up at him and people thought he was a lot younger than he was.

But finally he grew and he exercises muscles.

He's got big old muscles, gaben, but he had to use them, he had to work, he had to put them to use.

And that's what we have to do with our faith to grow it, amen.

So, number one, faith costs us something.

We have to work for it, but we offer a perfect sacrifice, and that sacrifice always includes just obeying God, and so, by faith.

Now we know that it's the subsets of things hoped for and the evidence of things not saved by faith.

Abel, verse six, offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained a witness that he was righteous, god testifying of his gifts that, though he being dead, still speaks.

So, abel, what is that talking about?

That's talking about Cain and Abel.

The very first, I mean right after Adam and Eve, you had the two brothers, cain and Abel.

And Cain was a farmer and he brought an offering.

And Abel was a shepherd and he brought an offering.

But God did not honor the offering of Cain.

Because it did not.

What was wrong with it?

How many of y'all know?

Some of y'all know the answer to this question what did come on?

Shout it out.

What was wrong with Cain's offering?

There was no blood.

And God, just like I said recently, you know, if I'm gonna be around my dog, my dog stinks, so I have to have, like you know, perfume, I have to squirt deodorant on him or whatever.

I wanna be sure he's clean, because he's gonna.

If his breath is there, I gotta turn away and I don't know.

But we're a like.

God loves us, he wants to be with us, but he but sin stinks and he's gotta do something for that sin.

And what?

What remitted the sin back in the old covenant, was blood.

And you know what?

Cain didn't have the right heart.

He brought an offering, but Abel brought the one, the offering that God wanted.

He was obedient.

Cain could have bought a sheep from Abel with his corn, but he didn't.

He didn't have the right heart.

So so when we, when we come to God.

Bring God what he wants, beat, just obey him, do it, do things according to his protocol and not your protocol.

Some people wanna do their protocol and they see what God said.

But yeah, but God will understand if I just do it my way over here, but God, I just can't do it like those other faith people do over there.

It's too hard and I'm just gonna do this thing.

That's lower and we don't wanna just do the thing that we want.

We wanna yay, we wanna do the thing that God wants and also, on that, talk about a perfect sacrifice.

If you go to verse 17, by faith, abraham, the patriarch, the man of promise, when he was what Tested Thank you, gwen.

Gwen shouted out test it.

When he was tested, he offered up Isaac, and he also, who had received okay, and he, who had received the promises, offered up his only begotten son.

Does that sound familiar?

Abraham offered up Isaac, his only begotten son, the one of whom God said in Isaac, your seed shall be called, concluding that God was able to raise him up even from the dead, from which he also received him in figurative sense.

In other words, isaac was willing to offer, abraham was willing to offer Isaac on an altar to literally kill him.

God never, he never, condoned human sacrifice.

All the other gods and religions around them, that was a non-Jew thing.

Everybody else did have child sacrifice, human sacrifice, but not the Jews.

So Abraham must have known this is not, this is my father would not.

He's gonna raise him from the dead.

Then there's a miracle here, there.

I see a miracle here.

And he was willing and he brought we know the story.

He brought Isaac up onto the mountain and Isaac said where's the lamb?

We're gonna make a sacrifice to God.

Well, where's the lamb?

And Isaac said I will provide myself a lamb.

And because Abraham offered his only begotten son, god, by that covenant we talked about earlier, was legally obligated to offer his only son.

And James pointed out to me that while God stayed the hand of Abraham, he had his knife up and he was gonna plunge it right down and the angel of God came and just stopped.

I said no, harm, not the lad.

I see there's a ram in the thicket over there.

I've provided already a sacrifice, stayed his hand, but there was no one strong enough to stay God's hand when he offered his only son For you and for me.

And that blood still cleanses us today and that blood provides everything we need.

It's a wonderful covenant we have with God.

All right, so we.

It's a perfect sacrifice.

Jesus was that perfect sacrifice.

He was, you know, in the Passover lamb.

The Passover lamb was was I had.

There was a law that it had to be on display in the gates of the temple so everybody could pass by that.

That lamb that was going to be sacrificed at Passover, once a year, that lamb was going to stand for all of the sins of Israel and be and be and be.

Its blood was going to be sprinkled on the altar to make atonement, to cover the sin, so that God could, could still relate to his people again and once a year.

This was done and that lamb had to be on display for three days in a cage so that everybody could come by and pinch it and poke it and look at it and make sure it did not have any defect, make sure it was perfect in every way.

Everybody got to test that lamb and make sure it was perfect and Jesus was that perfect lamb killed at nine o'clock in the morning, at the same moment that the Passover lamb was killed.

The last Passover lamb that ever mattered in Israel, was killed at the same day as Jesus and he is our Passover lamb.

His blood was shed and he is the perfect sacrifice.

So, praise God.

Even though our faith costs us something, we can just lean back on what God already did.

We just lean back on Jesus.

It's easy.

Amen, all right.

Number two faith sees from afar.

Faith sees from afar.

Faith sees the future.

It sees in a different way.

You can do a whole message on the eye of faith, but just let's just go through really quick.

In Hebrews, 11 called the hall of fame of faith.

Look at these wonderful patriarchs and what they see.

Moses in verse 26.

Moses said by faith, moses, verse 24,.

And when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter.

You know, even though he was raised by Pharaoh's daughter, he knew that's not who I am, that's not my name, that is not my identity.

He chose to rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, the slaves of Israel, than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin.

Why?

Because he esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt.

And he looked.

Everybody say he looked.

He looked to the reward.

Does that remind you of somebody else.

Jesus on the cross looked to the reward, looked, looked and saw you.

He looked for the joy that was set before him.

He endured the cross, despising the shame.

He looked, god looked.

I mean, are we looking for the reward today, faith, people see the reward.

We do not see the sacrifice.

We do not see the trouble.

We do not see it.

It's in another room.

We can see the reward and the reward is so real to us that we are willing to endure any, anything that the devil throws at us, knowing that if God raised Jesus from the dead, he's gonna bring us through it.

Amen, we have crazy faith.

Moses saw the reward, noah.

Noah saw the rain.

Look at verse seven.

By faith, noah being divinely warned of things not yet seen, divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with fear.

So he'd never seen rain before, nobody had ever seen rain until the time of Noah.

The water just came up from the earth and watered the ground from below.

No rain had ever fallen from above before and Noah didn't know what rain was.

But God said it's common, there's gonna be this giant flood and I gotta build this ark.

And he saw and it motivated him to actually work.

You know, faith.

People aren't lazy, we just obey God, though we were.

When we work, it's because God, it's because God ordained it, it's not because we just like to stay busy.

Amen, all right.

Abraham.

Verse nine Abraham saw a city, even though by faith.

Let's read it, verse nine by faith, he dwelt in the land of promises.

This is Abraham with his kids, his sons Isaac and his grandson Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise.

For he waited for the city which has foundations whose builder and maker is God.

He lived in a tent, but he saw a city.

He lived a nomadic life.

Just wherever God moved him, he went there, but he saw a city.

In verse 16, it talks about that city again.

Now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country.

Therefore, god is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

Has God prepared a city for you?

Can you see that city?

It's in the other room.

You will not find that city in the room of the flesh.

You will have to pray yourself into that realm of the spirit, and we can really only do that by stirring up the gift that's in his praying and other times, praying to see things, praying to know what that city looks like, so that we can visualize, so that we can encourage ourselves, so that we can not be stuck in the room of the flesh doing flesh stuff.

That's so hard.

The room of the spirit is easy.

Amen, all right, in faith.

So they offer perfect sacrifice.

They see something different.

They see it far off.

They're faithful over their kids.

When I read this as a mom, I see by faith.

No, we just read this.

He by faith, no of verse seven, move of godly fear prepared an ark.

Why did he prepare the ark?

For the saving of his household.

Being a dad is a high and holy calling and it is awesome responsibility and God will help you save your family.

He will empower you to build an ark for your family and it will motivate you.

You know there is a cultural shift in this country where it's like I think 40% of women will be childless, women of under 44 or something Like there is, and this is by 2030, I think I need to get my facts straight before I start spewing from the pulpit these stats.

But it's alarming, though you do see it in the culture, that there is a shift away from that childbearing that families are good.

The left will tell you families are bad, kids are bad, they're breathing too much air, they're taking up too much space on the earth and they're destroying the planet.

And you breeder people who are having too many kids y'all are the problem over there.

Stop it.

We need to institute abortion.

We need to sterilize all these kids who might think they're the wrong gender too early in life, and let's go ahead and sterilize them.

That'll take, that'll quit that problem.

Right there you can see the spirit of the age coming against families.

Now there's a family of God and it's special.

We're all part of that.

But our families that God gave us, those are units that God uses to build the kingdom that he can use.

And it motivated Abraham to do what he did.

It was out of motivation and love for his family.

Love for your family will build the kingdom of God.

Verse 23 through 27,.

Listen to this by faith.

Moses.

When he was born so here's baby Moses.

He was hidden three months by his parents, amram and Joshua.

I think I'm saying that right.

But his parents hid him three months because they saw he was a beautiful child and they were not afraid of the king's command.

What was the king's command?

The king had commanded that all the male sons of Israel be thrown into the Nile River and drowned.

No, they cannot be allowed to live.

But Moses was a special child.

I mean a family.

A mom will see something special about her child and she will save him.

God will help her.

She was not afraid of the king's command.

Are there wicked commands that earthly rulers will have over us in the last days?

They might have some wicked commands, but we have the guts to disobey them.

Amen, we have the guts.

And then look at the blessing of the kids In verse 20, isaac.

By faith, isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come.

I'm telling you, dads, moms, god will show you some things to come.

Bless your kids, speak over them words of blessing, words of life.

By faith, jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, that was, ephraim and Manasseh.

He took those twin boys and he laid his hands on them and he spoke words of blessing and he worshiped.

He showed them worship leaning on the top of his staff.

He was old, he could barely move, but he was still modeling worship for his kids.

So that that would I mean the whole reason God chose Abraham.

To begin with he said I know you'll command your children after you.

That's why I'm making I chose you Abraham.

I chose you.

You're the one I'm making a covenant with because you're going to be faithful to command your children after you.

So let's be faithful over our families.

If you're an adult and you have adult kids, you're, you still can influence your kids.

And if you don't have any natural influence because the relationship has soured and there's no, they don't listen to you anymore or whatever that happens, that's the devil.

But you have a, you have a promise, because that's a curse, to have no relationship with your.

That's a curse that's listed in Deuteronomy 28 as the curse of people who disobey the law, and we've been redeemed from that.

Jesus obeyed all the law for us and gave us his blood to cover us from any mistake we ever made, even if we were the worst parent in the world.

The blood of Jesus has wiped it away and we have a right and a privilege to have a wonderful relationship with our kids and we will not let the devil steal it.

That is the curse.

So we're going to be faithful over our house and prayer, first, to plead the blood of Jesus over their minds, over their hearts and we have something that we have promises of God to stand on to see that fixed.

Amen, all right.

Faith people, all right.

Finally, number four, I got four and five all to go fast.

Faith people apply the blood of Jesus.

Look at the Passover in verse 28.

We're still talking about Moses again and it says, okay, by faith, he forsook Egypt verse 27, not fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured as, seeing him who is invisible, there's this eye of faith again.

Moses didn't look at the king that was breathing down his neck, he looked at God.

He saw the invisible.

He saw himself escaping from the wicked Pharaoh.

And he did escape.

And he wasn't alone when he escaped.

He brought all the three million Jews out with him.

They came out with silver and gold and there were none feeble among their tribe.

All right, but he also kept the Passover when the sprinkling of blood, lest he who destroyed the firstborn should touch them.

Y'all remember the story of the Passover in Exodus, how God told the people of Israel this is the very first feast I'm going to institute, this new feast.

You've never done this before.

I want you to roast a lamb.

I want you to kill a perfect lamb that you have in your family.

First, that lamb is going to live in the family and all the kids are going to love it.

For three days it's going to stay in the house with you and you're going to love this little lamb.

And it's going to cost you something and you're going to have to kill that lamb and you're going to roast it and everybody's going to eat it and then you better make some unleavened bread, because you don't have time to wait for that bread to rise.

You have got to get out of dodge.

You got to have your lamb taco, as my dad would say.

But when you kill that lamb, you're going to take some of the blood of that lamb and you're going to put it over the doorpost of your house.

You're going to put it on the top and you're going to put it on each side.

And you know what, if you put it on the top, you have your Hissop branch that you had that.

You dipped the blood, you dipped it in the blood and then you waved it up here on the top of your doorpost and it would drip down a little bit.

And then you had the blood on the sides of the door and it made a cross and so the blood of Jesus was shed.

And if they had so, then the judgment came upon the people of Egypt for having enslaved Israel unjustly.

And the judgment passed over and there was a death angel that came to every household in the land and it came at night.

And it came in and it took the breath away from every firstborn, not only of man, but also of cattle and sheep and every living thing.

If it was a firstborn son, it died that night, unless there was Passover blood.

The Passover blood made the death angel pass over, and the death angel has to pass over your life, has to pass over the doorposts of your heart, has to pass over when the blood is applied.

Moses applied the blood of Jesus Rahab.

Let's talk about Rahab for a minute.

By faith, rahab.

Right after that 30, by faith, the walls of Jericho fell down and they were encircled for seven days.

After they were encircled for seven days by faith, the harlot Rahab did not perish with those who did not believe when she had received the spies with peace.

Y'all remember that story.

Rahab is a resident of a town that has been marked for judgment.

She happens to live in Jericho and she happens to be a harlot, which at that time could have been like a religious, you know, because the religions were so dark and they celebrated all the wrong things.

She might have been a really popular person in her culture, but she chose to leave that behind, to betray all of her people, by inviting the Israeli spies in and said hey, I will give you cover.

Just promise me that when the walls fall, when God destroys this city, just promise me that you'll save me and my kids and my stuff and all of my household.

Just promise me that.

And so the Israeli spies said yes, we will do that.

She said give me a sign.

And they said I'm going to give you a scarlet cord.

You just hang this scarlet, this red ribbon, in your window.

Hang that there.

And then, when God judges the city, right before he judges the city, we'll make sure you're safe.

We won't kill you.

We got to kill everybody else, but we won't kill you.

It's just like the Passover.

The destroyer came into that city.

It was marked for judgment already, but not only Rahab herself, but all her family, oh, her.

God wants to save all your family.

He does not want to save you alone, he wants to save you and all your family, two thousand generations.

But we have to choose it.

We have to choose it.

Every person has to choose, but this is what's available.

So, anyway, she put that cord in her window and then they passed over her house, they brought her out and then Jericho was supernaturally fallen to the ground because people followed, the people of God, followed the protocol that God gave them, they obeyed God and so, anyway, we apply the blood of Jesus, amen.

And number five finally, god faith.

People take territory for God's kingdom.

Faith.

People are always looking for another thing, that they're not afraid for God to give them new instructions, they're not afraid of change.

It is so wonderful, just coming back from that meeting.

I mean there were pastors there and you know, pastors sometimes can be very weighed down with the care of people in their congregation, with the care of things of the church, financial care.

I saw pastors there that had been.

One church was 14 years old.

God had been in four different buildings and even right then they had just signed on a new, they had just purchased a new building and they were remodeling it to have their first service.

I think this today, and that pastor, you think, oh, he is so tired, oh, he's so, but he just had the brightest smile on his face.

He was the most exuberant.

I mean exuberant, confident, confident in ourselves, but confident that what God said he will do.

And so I will trust him to the uttermost.

And so I can take the territory.

I can take Jericho.

Jericho had the highest walls of any city that the Israelites had ever seen, and the walls were so thick it looked impossible.

And they had.

No, they were not people of war, they were just coming out of Egypt as slaves.

They had no weapons.

They had nothing to defeat the people of Jericho.

The people of Jericho had chariots.

They had.

They were so outnumbered.

Do you sometimes look at our culture and say, well, you know, the left has the media and the universities and, I guess, the healthcare system.

Now, and you know, you start looking around and you think it's impossible.

How are God's people going to thrive in the last days?

And yet Jericho fell down, didn't it?

Because God's people followed a protocol and did something God told them to do, and it didn't make any sense, did it?

Marching around and blowing some trumpets and stuff?

What did?

What sense?

Did that make no sense at all.

What sense does it make that we're going to go into the Capitol, state Capitol buildings and have prayer meetings and church services and worship in the Capitol.

What will that even accomplish?

That doesn't make any sense.

That doesn't make CNN give us good coverage.

That doesn't help any.

The Rhino legislator do that.

What good is that going to do?

Because God told us to do it and the walls of Jericho are falling down.

The walls of this leftist Jericho system in our culture are falling down.

They are bred for us.

Let us go in at once and take the city.

Amen, we're in territory for God's kingdom.

And so I'm just going to finish with this.

If you're not encouraged after you read this, look these people that we talked about.

They are our brothers.

We are in the family with them.

So if you are being tested right now, I want you know you're in really good company and you can overcome that and you're going to have a story to tell Moses and Noah and Sarah and Abraham, and you're going to be able to sit at the table with them in heaven and have some stories to tell and not be ashamed in the last day of your stand, but you're going to be proud of what God and you were able to accomplish together because you're in partnership with him.

By faith, the walls of Jericho fell down, verse 30.

After they were in circles seven days.

By faith, the Harlot Rahab, verse 32.

And one more shall I say for the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephtha, and of David.

And can you think about David and Goliath?

David who knew his covenant, prayed and killed Goliath, impossible, samuel and the prophets, and who threw faith.

Listen up to the things they did.

And this is what God wants us to do.

We're faith people.

We're going to subdue kingdoms.

Work righteousness, obtain promises.

Stop the mouths of lions.

How often do I pray that?

Stop their mouths, lord Quench.

The violence of fire, escape the edge of the sword.

Out of weakness were made strong.

Everybody say I am strong.

They came valiant in battle, became valiant in battle.

For Gideon didn't start out valiant in battle.

He was a hider, he was a scared of the Midianites and he became valiant in battle with just 300 men.

Turn to flight the armies of the invaders, the aliens.

Women received their dead raised to life again.

I claimed that one time for Rick Chavez's mother and her husband.

I mean, god just snatched him out of the hospital.

But he should have died a million times and God saved women because their prayers, women, your prayers, you can receive your dead raised to life again.

You can receive dead relationships raised to life again.

You can receive.

Here's your promise.

Others were tortured.

This is not the fun part, man.

Faith is supposed to mean that I'm supposed to win all the time.

They did win.

They were tortured, not accepting deliverance because why they didn't sell out Faith.

People do not sell out that they might obtain a better resurrection.

Still others had a trial of mockings and scourgings Yay, chains and imprisonment.

They were stoned and they were sawn in two and they were tempted and slain with a sword.

They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins and being destitute, afflicted, dormanted that sounds not fun at all Of whom the world was not worthy.

But they were able to endure that because they saw something different than you and I see, and we're going to see it in the other room.

They wandered in deserts and mountains, dens and caves of the earth, all of these having obtained a good testimony Everybody say test Testimony, and this has always been puzzling to me, but I'm going to show you what, tell you what I, but God encourages me with.

They did not receive the promise.

You know there's other places in the Bible said faith receives the promise, then God is a rewarder.

He said in verse 6 that God is a rewarder.

In fact, faith you have to believe.

To even have faith, you have to believe.

God is a rewarder.

If I look at those people and I say, wow, where's the reward?

But God having provided something better for us.

In other words, those people suffered all of that and now we have something better than they had.

Because of what they did, because of what Jesus did, will we leave it on the table unclaimed?

Will we disregard it, set it aside?

Will we count ourselves unworthy that they should not be made perfect, apart from us?

In other words, we and them together.

When every time you win, they win.

Every time we obtain a promise, we're obtained, they're obtaining their promise.

Praise God.

It's not about just us, me, mine, you and yours.

It's not so much bigger than that.

There's an eternal story woven here and God's still writing the book of Acts.

Amen, we don't see it here.

I will not read your book of Acts if you add on to it, I will not.

But in the next life I believe, god's still chronicling things, mysteries, and we have these people looking down on us.

If you keep reading the Hebrews, they're the cloud of witnesses looking down on us.

And how can we do this?

How can we do the call of God on our lives?

How can we live in the other room when this room is so loud and ugly and always knocking on our door?

Zechariah 4-6 come to mind.

Not by might nor by power, but my spirit, says the Lord.

Not by might nor by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord.

Some of us are trying so hard.

We are trying, oh, we're trying.

We keep trying this way and trying that way and we're doing our thing.

We have had this idea and we're gonna try that.

We've tried everything else and that didn't work and maybe we gave up.

But God said it wouldn't ever buy how much we try.

It was always by His Spirit, the Spirit of faith.

It was always in the other room waiting for us to just get over there and do it His way.

It was always that and it will be now.

We don't need to try harder.

We need to believe more and pray for the plan of God.

We don't need to pray.

Pray more that God blesses our plan.

We'll pray that we do His plan and it's already blessed, hallelujah.

This is my message on Wednesday.

His yoke is easy.

His burden is light.

His yoke is easy.

His burden is light.

Our yoke is hard and heavy and ugly.

His yoke is easy.

Come and learn of me.

The Lord said Come and learn of me, take my yoke upon me, for I'm gentle, you'll find rest for your souls.

Jesus said it's not by my power, but by my Spirit.

He says the Lord, everybody, just lift your hand over sea.

Hallelujah.