Defrost Your Faith

Lift your bibles up, wave them around, make Jesus glad, the devil mad.

Let's say this together say, heavenly Father, I do desire more of you, more of your spirit, but also I need more of your word.

I'm a word of God person.

I believe what the word says.

The word says it.

I believe it.

That settles it and, father, we thank you for it In Jesus' name, amen.

Let's look at Matthew, chapter 14 today.

Matthew 14 · chapter mention

Praise God.

We'll start reading with verse 22.

And straightway, jesus constrained his disciples to get into a ship and to go before him under the other side while he sent the multitudes away.

That's right after the miracle of the five loaves and fishes.

And when he had sent the multitudes away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray.

And when the evening was come, he was there alone.

But the ship was now in the midst of the sea, tossed with waves, for the wind was contrary.

And in the fourth watch of the night, that's between the hours of three and six am, in the fourth watch of the night, jesus went under them walking on the sea.

And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying it's a spirit, and they cried out for fear.

But straightway.

Jesus spake unto them and saying be of good cheer to thy, be not afraid.

And Peter answered him and said Lord, if it be, thou bid me come under thee on the water.

On the water, and he said come.

And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water to go to Jesus.

Everybody say Peter walked on the water.

Yeah, sometimes we forget that part.

Everybody say Peter walked on the water.

But when he saw the wind boisterous now, how many of you know he can't see wind he saw what the wind was doing.

So the waves were beaten up against him rough out there.

He saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid and beginning to sink, he cried, saying Lord, save me.

How many have ever cried that Lord save me?

It's a short but powerful prayer.

And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand and caught him and said unto him O thou of little faith, wherefore dits thou doubt.

And when they were come into the ship, the wind ceased and they that were in the ship came and worshiped him, saying of a truth thou art the Son of God.

So today I wanna just teach you a simple kind of a Thanksgiving message Defrost your faith, defrost your faith.

How is your faith?

Is your faith hot and ready to seize upon the opportunity, or is it just frozen and immovable?

Kind of reminds me of the young bride who was cooking her first Thanksgiving meal and the in-laws have been invited over and of course she's feeling the pressure she's gonna have to.

You know she's got to please her mother-in-law and her mother-in-law's a really good cook and she's kind of a newbie and you know she's followed all the directions and the joy of cooking cookbook, the one that's about that thick, and but you know the turkey's just not defrosted.

I mean it takes days to defrost one of those things.

You know it's 36 pound turkey and therefore that whole group you know cost her $250 this year and inflation has hit the turkey world.

And so she just threw it in the oven.

She said it's all gonna work out, I'm gonna cook it, I'll watch it real close.

And then a couple of three hours into it she starts smelling something and you know she forgot to pull the plastic bag out with the gizzards.

You know that's a kind of a bad way to start things off with your in-laws.

But anyway, I mean, how about your faith?

Is it frozen and immovable, or is it ready to seize the opportunity in front of you.

Amen.

We need to have our faith hot and ready.

Here in Matthew we see that Jesus, right after the loaves and fishes in another gospel that says let us pass over to the other side.

He made it very clear.

He didn't say let us go out in the middle of the lake and sink, go out there and struggle.

He gave them authority to get across the lake and they had given him, he had given them authority to feed the multitude.

You know there's 5,000 men there and women and children besides.

That's 20,000.

I think it's 20,000 people.

You can argue with me.

I believe it's at least 20,000 people that were there to eat.

Lord, what are we gonna do?

What are we gonna?

We don't have enough food.

Give you them to eat.

So he gave them authority.

He had given them in Matthew, chapter 10, authority over demons and disease.

Matthew 10 · chapter mention

And they went out by two and two and they had no problem.

They cast out devils, they healed the sick.

They came back and said Lord, even the demons are subject unto us in nine days.

That wasn't temporary.

I said now I'm gonna give you this authority, but it's gonna expire on the 31st.

No, he didn't give them an expiration date.

They had authority.

And they had authority again to feed the 5,000.

They didn't do it.

They made him do it and he showed them how to do it.

And then he gets out there.

They have authority to get to the other side of the lake and they're out there, struggling and messing around, rolling into the wind, not making any progress.

Three o'clock in the morning, let's just think about how long it had been.

It doesn't say when he sent them out there, but it was still daylight.

So let's just say it was five o'clock in the afternoon and three o'clock to six o'clock in the morning.

They're still out there, man.

They hadn't made any progress at all.

I've been there.

It's not a very big lake, not that big.

You'd be shocked.

You think about a big sea, the sea of God.

This little thing, man, I think Lake Conrad was bigger than that.

Are y'all with me now?

I hadn't made any progress.

And so how they're struggling, contrary wind, and you see, I want you to see this now.

God told me years ago teach what you take for granted.

You've heard this before.

We'll hear it again.

We all need to be stirred up in our faith.

God delivered me from the fear of repetition.

I don't mind preaching something more than once, but God gave me this unique take on this testimony.

Years ago I preached it over and over again.

I get blessed every time I hear myself preach it.

So if you're not thrilled, I'm thrilled.

Praise God.

So it says.

You know the boat is a type of the status quo.

Think about the boat.

Now they're in the boat, they're afraid.

These are.

Most of them are fishermen.

At least five or six of them are fishermen.

I mean, this ain't their first rodeo.

They've been out there on that lake.

They know what it's like when the wind kicks up and the waves kick up.

I mean it's big enough to have some pretty big waves, and so they're afraid.

And then they're afraid of Jesus.

They didn't even recognize Jesus, they just blew their mind.

Here he comes, walking on the water.

He said, eh, they had more faith in ghosts than they did.

Jesus.

Get that spirit, eh.

So they're locked up in that boat and the boat is the status quo.

The boat is safer than it is out there in the water.

It's the status.

Everybody say the status quo.

You know they're locked in that boat and as long as they're in the boat they're semi-safe.

I mean at least they're not sinking yet and everything out there is fearsome, you know.

But here in the boat, the comfort zone I want you to see that Everybody say comfort zone, I mean the wind and the water is the type of the unknown, the danger of impossibility.

What can we do?

We've been toiling all night long.

We hadn't made any progress.

What are we gonna do?

We're just gonna have to wait it out until the storm passes, until the wind kicks in, and then maybe we can make.

But we're just gonna stick here in the boat.

We're just, we'll just.

You know.

I know he said to get over there before him, but he's not gonna get there and eat quicker.

Boy, he made a fool out of them because he's walking it.

He's walking faster than they're rowing and they're even frightened of Jesus.

You see the fear there, you see the atmosphere.

But then, peter, you know, peter gets a bum wrap.

You know, oh ye, of little faith.

Well, you know what?

Little faith walked on the water.

He gets a bum wrap, I think.

I mean he's one out of 12.

I mean 12 of them are in the same situation, but one of them, peter, looks out there and says wait a minute.

Now that might be Jesus.

Jesus, if it be thou.

Jesus said it's me.

He said if it be thou.

It's so funny.

Jesus said it was him.

I mean, who else would say that?

He or Jesus?

And walking on the water?

Anyway, he said Jesus, if it be thou, bid me come to thee on the water.

You see Peter, instead of being intimidated, he was thrilled.

He was thrilled with Jesus walking on the water.

He was thrilled with the Word.

You get that now.

He was thrilled with the Word.

You know what, when you get thrilled with the Word, it'll work for you.

When you get thrilled in him and impressed with what the Word says, above what's going on around you, the contrary you got some contrary wins that you're fighting.

Listen, I'm telling you right now when you get thrilled with the Word, it starts working.

All 12 of these now are spiritually dead men.

They're not filled with the Holy Ghost.

They do not have the Holy Spirit on the inside of them.

They've received an anointing to heal the sick.

They've been given some authority, but it's all Old Testament.

They're not like you and I.

They've not been born again because Jesus hadn't been in the cross yet.

So they don't have the Spirit of God inside of them informing them.

But here, all 12 of them, only one of them was thrilled with the Word and Jesus, when Jesus said come, he didn't say Peter come, he just said come Now.

They could have all had an attitude adjustment.

Suddenly there when they figured out now that's Jesus out there and he's walking, but only one went over the side.

They call 12 could have gone over the side.

I said they all 12 could have gone over the side.

What if there was anybody else that heard Him on the lake, maybe down the way there, maybe His voice carried or something they could have walked on?

Come meant to everybody, anybody who heard that word.

It meant that they could come to Him on the water.

Are y'all with me now?

So he had one of them that opened the door and, with a, unlocked the door and everybody else could have come and followed Him out there and none of them did.

They just sat there like a bunch of frozen turkeys.

He's the only one with any faith that's been defrosted.

He's the only one that's thrilled with the Word.

Are y'all getting this now?

I'm talking about defrost your faith.

I mean, look, we need to make sure where our faith is defrosted and let's pull the plastic bag with the gizzards out of there and then the other kind of junk that might be in there.

Amen, I don't even cut the neck up, I throw the neck away.

I'm sorry I do that.

My grandmother probably twirls around in her grave, when she never wasted anything.

She ate all of it.

So only Peter.

See, peter did not agonize, rationalize, analyze, he just went right over the.

He's kind of a plunger, peter the plunger.

I'm kind of like that, not a toilet plunger, but you know I tend to just jump before I really Look at everything.

That's really faith.

Faith is like that.

Faith is a jump, faith is a leap.

Sometimes we spend too much time thinking, we spend too much time cogitating and figuring out reasons why we shouldn't do something, when the Holy Ghost in us is saying go, jump over the side, get out there on the water.

Hallelujah, you get anything out of this today.

Yeah.

So as soon as he went over the side, I mean his faith empowered him to violate all the rules of physics.

You know naval engineering.

They calculate what it takes for something to float.

These big old ships, battle ships or aircraft carriers.

I mean it's designed to displace a certain tonnage of water and if it doesn't displace more water than the weight of the ship, that happens to the ship.

Well, it blub, blub, blub, it goes under.

So they got to make sure.

So they calculate the volume of that ship and how far, how much it weighs and how far it's gonna go down into the water, and they calculate how much the weight of the water that it takes up.

And that is what the force is that holds it up.

It's a real complicated deal.

And how can a man walk on the water?

Well, you can.

You're gonna sink.

You're at least gonna sink down to your neck and then possibly all the way down.

I mean, some people don't even ever come up.

They dive in and never come up, some people don't.

But he kept on the surface of the water and walked on it.

How was that happened?

His faith gave him the power to do what Jesus was doing and Jesus' Word gave him the permission.

All we need is a word from God.

I said, all we need is one word from God.

And then we believe that word in our heart.

Hallelujah, come on, lift your hands right now.

What a bargain we have as believers.

Hallelujah, the Word is the answer to your struggle.

Your faith is the remedy to your contrary winds, which is why I preach a lot on faith, because we all are going through contrary circumstances.

I said we all go through contrary circumstances.

I used to think if I could get enough faith I could avoid the struggle.

I was just, you know, dumb and just starting out in this and I thought you know, I'm gonna get my faith, I won't have any trouble.

That's the opposite.

The devil will always contest you, he will always oppose faith.

Paul said there's a great door, in effect, shall open unto me, but there are many adversaries, you know.

He found out.

Jesus told him in a nice, you know, and he said go, lay your hands on Peter and recover his sight.

And he said I'm gonna tell him what great things he must suffer from.

I name's sake, you're not gonna go through this life unscathed.

You're not gonna go through this life without any trouble.

Jesus said in the world you shall have Tribulation, anguish, trouble, resistance, but be of good courage.

I've overcome the world and the implication is you can too.

So your faith is not about avoiding the trouble, it's about overcoming it, it's about going through things and not staying there.

Hallelujah, so defrost your faith.

I got three things here to remind you of, in case you've let them slip.

And it's you know it's fresh, even though I've preached it before, but it's fresh for you.

It's thanksgiving.

You need a banquet ahead of the banquet?

All right.

Number one defrost your prayer life.

Notice Jesus went to pray.

I mean he prayed.

He didn't just do all these things all the time and all these miracles raise the dead, heal the leper, open blind.

He prayed.

He took the opportunity out after a long day of teaching, preaching and healing and then feeding.

I mean he did all man.

He worked all day long till almost dark and he sent them away so he could go away and send the rest of them away.

And then he went up and prayed and now he's walking on the water.

I mean he put in a lot of time.

He defrost your prayer life.

Prayer's not a monologue, it's a dialogue Prayer and pray much in other tongues.

We just had an altar call recently.

Number of you came up and got filled with a holy ghost.

Some of you had some beginning words, baby words, and you had really grown in your language.

Some of you came up and got free, got your tongue freed up where you can pray.

Well, pray much in other tongues.

I mean, the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 14 that when you pray in tongues, your spirit prayeth.

Your spirit is engaged with God.

You may not understand everything, but what I'm telling you when you pray.

It also says in verse four that you edify yourself.

It's similar to charging a battery.

You can tell, even though that Peter was an Old Testament man, his battery was charged man.

I mean, when he had the opportunity he asked for the opportunity and when he was given that opportunity he walked on the water.

What are we doing with our opportunities?

What are we doing with our prayer life?

What are we doing with the instructions that we've received?

Well, you know Pastor Ben praying a long time.

I've never had him talk to me.

Well, you know, he just gives you.

He gives you impressions.

He can communicate a lot of ways.

You know he used to talk to me when I was a baby Christian.

I hear his voice all the time.

But that quit.

I stopped.

Why?

Because he expects me to walk by faith.

He's already spoken to me right here.

I've got enough information If I do everything that's in here.

I mean he doesn't really have to do a lot of talking, but in periods of time.

He did speak to me one day.

He said regional center.

He spoke to me about this church.

It's a regional center.

He spoke to me another time.

He said I want you to wake up the church.

And man, did I not understand that?

It's becoming more and more clear every day.

You've got some of the churches asleep and some of the churches really just dead.

The Holy Ghost already left.

There's no point in messing with them.

They're too late.

I don't know how to tell the difference.

So I have the same message to both.

You know, maybe we can strengthen the things that remain.

Maybe not every member of a dead church is dead.

Maybe some of them are hanging on and God has mercy.

I'll tell you, god's not looking to hurt people.

He's doing everything he can to fulfill his covenant.

Are you with me now?

Defrost your prayer life.

Look to the inside for answers.

Look to your spirit.

Faith is a spirit, spiritual force.

It's in the spirit.

It's where you can't see.

You know, if you can see it with your eyes, you don't need faith.

That's right.

Faith is what accesses everything that's invisible but is revealed in the Word.

Are you with me now?

Be still and know that I'm God.

He says Sometimes you just you get a lot out of prayer by just being still and waiting before him.

We've kind of lost that.

There have been times none recently that I can remember, but there have been times we'd have a big crowd and a holy hush would fall.

And I mean you've got babies, you've got children, you've got all these adults, and in a crowd this big, it's bound to be somebody that coughs, bound to be somebody that sniffles.

I mean it was complete silence.

I call it a holy hush and you know, out of those it's just so powerful he's.

You know, if you've ever had a dog and your hand is just kind of hanging off of your edge of your chair and your dog comes up, starts licking your fingers, do you ignore?

No, you reach down and you pet him.

You love on that dog because he's licking.

Well, that's what worship is.

Worship is.

When we lick the hand of God, you know what he's gonna pet us.

He's gonna love us back.

That holy hush is just.

He just envelops you supernaturally with his love.

Are you with me there?

Oh, you've got to supercharge and defrost your prayer life and spend a little time with him, besides just driving down the road and praying.

I mean that's good to do that, but I mean we need to do something besides that.

Amen, you know, stir yourself up to hear God say come or go, or do this or do that.

Stir yourself up to hear, you know.

If you don't hear anything, say Lord, I don't know what it is you want me to do, but just send me, I'm ready to go, I'm, my faith is ready to go, it's defrosted.

I'm ready to say you just jump and I won't even ask you how high Are y'all with me now?

Number two defrost your attitude.

Defrost your attitude.

Now I think I go back to the 11, look at their attitude.

Their attitude was I'm gonna stay in the comfort zone, I'm gonna stay in the boat.

There's Peter, let's watch this.

This ought to be really good.

This ought to be good.

See attitude of just being on sidelines, being an observer, being in grandstands, being a Monday morning quarterback.

That's, the church has no shortage of Monday morning pastors.

They think they could pastor better, think they could preach better, think they could teach better.

They have this attitude that they know it all.

Boy, if the people are just listening to me, you know what.

You need to adjust your attitude.

You need to defrost it.

Now, what was the boat?

Again, status quo.

Some of you were listening, some of you went to sleep.

The boat is what?

The status quo.

So hate the status quo.

You've got to hate the status quo Peter did.

Peter did not go with the 11.

He jumped out of the boat.

Why?

Because he was thrilled with the word.

He wanted to do what the word was doing.

Are you with me?

He wanted to be involved, didn't want to just, monday morning, quarterback it.

Amen, defrost your attitude.

I like what Smith Wigglesworth said.

He said if I can make a person righteously in a sick person, if I can make a sick person righteously indignant, I can help them.

So long about Tuesday I started getting righteously indignant on something that was coming on my body and I started breaking out with this stuff.

And then Wednesday it got worse.

We had staff pictures, christmas pictures that we came to, and I wasn't feeling that great.

And Thursday it was a lot worse.

But Friday I had to go to the doctor but I was righteously indignant.

How dare you devil try to put shingles on me?

I'm not accepting you.

Well, do you have them?

Well, you know they say I have them, but I don't accept it.

I'm righteously indignant.

He doesn't have the right to put that on me.

How dare you Now?

Yesterday I just had to go around the house without a shirt on.

I mean, that was pretty ridiculous.

I've never done that.

I don't do that.

You know, I don't go around without a shirt on, you know, but anything on me just hurt, it just hurt.

You can't get comfortable, you can't.

You know.

But praise God, it's on the run now why?

Because I was indignant and I didn't accept it.

I demanded.

I demanded it go.

See, you can't be neutral about sickness, you can't just act like it's.

You know, jesus, he, they told him about Peter's mother-in-law and in Luke 4, 39, you can look it up for yourself but told him that Peter's mother-in-law had a fever and the Bible says that Jesus rebuked the fever and it left.

The word rebuked means to chastise, it means to straighten and sternly charge.

So in other words, it's like he's talking to an entity and not very kindly.

He's not begging, he's not asking, he's demanding you foul fever from hell, get out of her.

See, that's kind of the way I was speaking to whatever this was.

They said it was shingles.

I'm just saying whatever it was.

I have some medication anti-viral chicken pie, chicken pox when I was a kid.

So if you've got chicken pox, you've got that virus.

It stays in your body.

I don't like that, but that's what the medical science says.

And then sometimes it can pop out on your nerves and travel around half your body and all that.

So evidently it must have done that, but I didn't let it and I didn't keep up.

I mean, I didn't permit it.

I demanded it leave and it's leaving.

Now I got a shirt in the town.

I'm preaching.

I feel just great, amen.

I was laughing with the worship team before the service.

I said well, this kind of adds it all up.

I've preached with the mumps.

I've preached with shingles.

I've preached with angina.

I've preached with heart failure.

I've preached with it's about everything you can think of.

It doesn't keep me down.

If it's time to preach, it's ready for me to jump out of the boat.

My faith is hot and ready to be used.

Yes, glory to God.

Defrost your attitude.

You gotta hate pain.

You gotta hate disease.

You gotta hate poverty and lack.

You gotta hate listen.

Good is the enemy of best.

Well, you know, I can live with this little pain.

It's pain is no big deal I can live.

No, don't live with it.

Stop living with little things, stop living with just barely able to get your bills paid.

Stop living with it.

Don't allow it.

Don't let the attitude be in you that just lets what Jesus' blood purchased not be claimed in full.

Are you with me now?

Good is the enemy of best.

What did John?

What did John?

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Jesus said you know, I come to give you life, and life more abundantly, super abundant in quantity, superior in quality.

That's my gauge.

If something's not those two things, then I'm not satisfied.

Does that mean I'm not content, that I'm mad?

No, it means that I'm not gonna settle.

I'm not gonna settle.

I'm not gonna sit in the boat and be an observer to others who are enjoying the fullness of their covenant.

Are you with me now and wishing I was them?

Praise God, I'm just doing what I'm supposed to do.

So defrost your prayer life, defrost your attitude.

And the last one is defrost your inaction, because James 2.20 says faith without corresponding action is dead.

You know, faith isn't just a thought, it's not just thinking, it's not just reading in the Bible and being happy oh, this is wonderful.

You've gotta act like it's true.

It requires an action and of course the initial action is speaking it.

But beyond speaking it, it does require us to act.

It requires us.

I mean, you know, think about that woman that her pastor came to her every day.

She was bed fast and been there for two or three years and he would go by her house and read her scriptures and pray for her and she'd feel a little better.

And then, as soon as he'd leave, she'd felt worse, felt worse.

And he was talking to Brother Hagin about it and the Holy Ghost said she doesn't have any faith.

She had any faith she'd get up.

She never gets up.

So he said I don't really know what to tell her.

And the Holy Ghost had told Brother Hagin.

He says tell her the next time after you go through all of that.

And she says I believe that.

Tell her.

No, you don't Cause, if you believed it you'd get up and get dressed and cook dinner for your husband.

So I mean, three years have been bed fast, same old thing, every day, every day, every day I haven't had to eat the pastor's time.

I mean how much time has he spent on one person?

Thought that she's not worth it?

But come on Over and over.

I mean that's insanity to keep doing the same thing over and over and not get any results.

The Word brings results if it's believed and acted on what was missing in this woman acting.

She agreed mentally, that's all it was and that won't get you healed.

That will not bring you healing.

So the next time he went through and read the scriptures, prayed far, she said I believe I'm healed.

He said no, you don't.

What?

No, you don't.

If you believed you were healed, you'd get up out of bed and get dressed and cook dinner for your husband.

Well, I'll show you.

And she got mad.

See, she got righteously indignant.

Sometimes you gotta ruffle a few, gotta break a few eggs.

You gotta ruffle a few feathers to get people to get what's belongs to them.

Amen, and I mean to tell you.

She got up, she got dressed, she cooked dinner and that night was Wednesday night, church.

She showed up and testified in the church that night oh, come on, let's lift our hands right now.

She defrosted her inaction.

I'll tell you, peter jumped overboard because his faith was fully defrosted.

So keep on acting on the word.

Keep acting like the Bible is true until it is.

You know, refuse to be a frozen turkey.

Defrost your faith.

Come on, lift your hands and receive today Hallelujah.

Everybody say I'm defrosting my faith.

It's hot and ready to be used, hallelujah.

Well, come on, let's praise him this morning.

Glory to God, hallelujah, oh.

Thank you Jesus.