Faith Diagnostic

This is my Bible.

This is my Bible.

I am what it says.

I am how excellent it is to me.

Where's the man who mourned the God?

Make Jesus glad in the devil mad.

Amen.

Let's rejoice People of the Bible.

It's our custom is, wave them around, make Jesus glad in the devil mad, and say this together with me this confession.

I confess that the Word of God is everything to me.

When things happen in my life, the first question I have is what does the Word say about it?

And I always consult the Holy Ghost and between the Word and the Spirit I have the strategy of victory and I overcome every time by the blood of the Lamb and the Word of my testimony in Jesus' name, amen, amen.

I'm excited just about that confession.

All right, let's turn in our Bibles a couple of places Romans, chapter five, and also Hebrews, chapter 11, and we'll get into our foundation scriptures tonight.

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

Romans, chapter five, verse one.

Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

And then we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.

And then in Hebrews 11, verse one and two.

Now, faith is a substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen for.

By it, that is, by faith, the elders obtained a good report.

So tonight I wanted to share a message entitled faith diagnostics.

Faith diagnostics you know, faith is the switch that turns on the power of God.

And here in Romans five, two, when we turn the switch of faith on, god's grace shows up.

God's grace is defined as God's power and ability to do anything.

You know, the other day I had to take my truck in for service and Gladys was at home and she went out to the garage and she was going to start her car and meet me at the dealership and pick me up.

And finally she called me.

She was late getting there and she said my car won't start, it just says depress the brake pedal.

And suddenly I remembered that I had forgotten to change the battery in her key fob.

And see, these modern cars, you know you've got the key fob, has got to be fully charged.

So I said go in the house and get my key fob for your car and it'll work.

And certainly it did.

So I mean, if you ever turned something on and it didn't work, see, well, we've got to make sure the switch of faith is turned on, or otherwise things in our life will quit working.

Amen.

And when we tap into God's grace, god's ability to do anything, then man's extremity becomes God's opportunity, no matter what it is you're facing.

You know, sometimes we need some diagnostics.

I performed a diagnostic there, right on the telephone.

I didn't know at first what it was and the Holy Ghost reminded me.

Hey, you didn't change the battery.

I had a little text message from her car dealer and it said your battery is going out on your fob.

And I just didn't do anything about it.

So we need diagnostics, especially with automobiles.

You take your car to the shop.

They've got sophisticated equipment.

They've got a diagnostic port under the dash nowadays and if there's some trouble with your car they plug something into it and gives them a code and the code they look it up in a book and they find out whether it's your pollution control or whether it's your fuel system or whether it's your electric system.

Whatever it is.

It'll give them some indication on where to look for the trouble and then they have other ways to further get down to the problem.

Or if you've got a health issue, you go to the doctor.

They've got all kinds of diagnostic equipment you have to go through maybe a CT scan, maybe you've got to go through EKG or whatever to find out exactly what is the problem.

So when circumstances are not moving that you have been standing against.

It's time for the faith diagnostics to roll out.

Amen.

It's time to go down the checklist.

I'm going to give you a partial checklist tonight.

It reminds me of I had a business partner years ago.

We had a private plane and it was assessed in 206, a single engine plane.

It was known as a workhorse.

It carry a big heavy load, wasn't particularly fast, but it would get you there A lot faster than driving.

I can tell you that.

And what was impressive about him is a very detailed person and you had a number of things to check.

You had to check outside the plane and get inside the plane and you checked inside.

You know you check the ailerons and the rudder and all of that and then you started the engine.

Now you've got another checklist and it's a pretty extensive checklist.

You go through this checklist and sometimes I'd help him.

He'd ask me to read him off of a gauge what it said and then you'd get down to the runway if they're at a controlled airport and he'd pull up short at the runway and he'd have another checklist.

So it's all that.

It was a pre-flight checklist.

So you know, let's be people of detail.

Let's not go through life brain dead, amen.

Let's make sure that when we're having trouble we check our faith diagnostics to make sure that our faith is having access to God's grace.

So the first thing in our checklist is check your confession.

That's probably number one on the list.

Check your confession.

In other words, what are you saying out of your mouth?

You know Hebrews 10, 23 says hold fast the profession of your faith without wavering.

That word profession actually means confession.

How faithful are you to holding fast to a good confession about your situation, about your life, about your health, about your finances?

You know, sometimes we're real strong in church.

We can confess strongly in church service, or we can confess strongly when we're around other believers.

But somehow, when we're at work and somebody says well, how are you doing?

How are you doing Fred?

Well, I tell you, I'm just barely hanging on, I'm believing that I won't have to move out of my house.

So if you've been confessing that all your needs are met and then you say that, well, you're not holding fast.

You know Hebrews 13, five and six.

You know it says you know that he has promised that he will never leave you nor forsake you, so that we may boldly say the Lord is my helper.

I shall not fear what man will do unto me.

I always remember he's with you and he's for you.

And we're to boldly say, not barely say sometimes we just don't say it enough.

Sometimes we don't say the right things at the right time.

You know Mark 11, 23,.

It says that Jesus said that we can have whatever we say.

It uses the word believe one time and the word say, or the version of say, three times.

And so your results will never rise above the level of your confession.

So if your confession is faulty, if it's inconsistent inconsistency lies the power.

It's not what you say once, it's not what you say in church, it's not what you say around other Christians.

It's what you always say, private or public.

How are you doing, fred?

I tell you I'm blessed.

Thank you very much.

And you may not feel blessed.

I mean you may be late on your bills, you may be feeling terrible as far as physically.

It's not wrong to say you're blessed.

You're calling the things that be, not as though they were.

That's not lying.

That's Bible, amen.

Sometimes people have a habit.

They feel like they have to tell it like it is.

Don't tell it like the Bible says it is.

That's being consistent with your good confession.

So faith is calling the things that be, not as though they were.

It's the evidence of things not yet seen.

So you haven't seen it yet, but it's true anyway.

So say it's true, say it's that, say that you have it and it will show up, praise God.

So check you confession number one on the list.

Another thing to check on your Pre-flight pre-flight checklist, and do it every time you ask another thing about my partner Sometimes we would have to land For some purpose.

I remember one time we landed another airfield.

I don't remember what it was about.

Well, we weren't there but 15 minutes and we and we shut the motor off and we had to take back off.

We weren't there more than 15 minutes.

Well, guess what he did?

He walked all the way around the plane.

He checked the gasoline.

We didn't get any gas.

The gas is the same gas We've been using for an hour and a half of the flying time that we've been flying.

Nothing had changed.

But he went around as if we had not even been in the plane.

He checked everything outside.

He checked the gasoline make sure there's not water in the gas and each wing.

And then he got in and he checked the ailerons, he checked the rudder and then he, you know, started the engine and he did his pre-flight checklist big old, long list of stuff.

Then he taxed it out to where he's gonna take off and did another checklist and he did everything he had just done an hour and a half before.

So let's, let's not get bored with making sure that our lives are lining up the way that they should, according to our diagnostics.

So the second thing we need to check up on is our action.

What are have we?

Have we acted on the word?

You know, jesus said in Mark 11, 23,.

You know, whosoever shall believe, you know, whoever shall say unto this mountain, shall Be thou removed, be thou cast in sea, shall not doubt in his heart but shall Believe that those things which you say shall come to pass.

He shall have whatsoever he say it.

So the word believe, there is an action, action Verb.

It is not mental agreement, it is not just kind of agreeing in our mind.

Believing is nothing less than acting on the word, or we could say it this way acting like the Bible is true.

So what?

How have you been acting During this situation, this circumstance that hasn't moved.

I mean, you've been, you've been standing against it.

You may have been saying some things against it.

You've checked your confession.

Your confession is pretty solid.

And Now the next thing is what?

How you've been acting.

If you've been acting like the Bible is true, or you've been acting the opposite direction.

You know, james 2, 20 says faith without corresponding action is dead, and so sometimes we don't really know what to do to act our faith.

I've been in situations where I said, father, I just prayed this prayer.

Father, how do I act?

My faith?

How do I, how do I act on my faith?

And in one case it had nothing to do really with money that God told me to give an offering.

I Know when brother Hagan was a teenager, lying on bed of sickness 16 months, paralyzed, couldn't walk, and when he finally got a hold of the Word of Faith and he got a hold of healing, even though his denomination said that healing had passed away, he found it in the Bible and he said I believe I received my healing one morning.

And Then the Holy Ghost spoke to his heart, says well, if you believe you've received, then you ought to be walking.

I Mean, you can't believe you've received and lay in bed.

I Keep in mind he hadn't walked in 16 months.

So he got up, you know, let his legs dangle by the side of the bed and then he put weight on him.

He grabbed onto the bed post, got dizzy and had to fall back in bed.

He couldn't, but he didn't quit, he didn't give up.

Then he got back in a few minutes.

He got back up and stood up again and went back in the bed.

And then he stood up third time and walked a couple of paces and got back in bed and eventually that afternoon he walked across the room, put on his clothes, walked downstairs and they had lunch.

All because he acted on the Word that says by Jesus' stripes he was healed.

If you're healed, then you're going to act like you're healed Amen.

If you're blessed, you're going to act like you're blessed, amen.

You're not going to have a pity party.

You're not going to sob and cry and beg God and all of those kind of things.

That's not acting like the Bible's true, as a matter of fact.

That's acting like what God's Word that you can't depend on.

It's what it's.

You're sending the wrong signal with your actions.

So if you're sick again.

Get up.

Well, I tried that and I'm so weak.

Well, do it again.

I mean, fight it, resist sickness.

Let your faith impale you into action.

Or you broke.

Well, give something.

Well, I don't have any money.

So if you don't even have one cent, then give an article of clothing, give your shoes, or give something.

Get something going so that you can just spit in the devil's face and say, look, you're not going to stop me from giving.

I'm going to give because I'm a giver.

Amen.

I tell you.

We didn't have anything to give one time and a special offering, and I had a car sitting out in the driveway that someone had given to me, and so I had a family meeting, you know.

I said you know, we've got this extra car and nobody seems to drive it.

I said I'd like to be part of this mission's offering For those things, taking up a mission's offering, what do y'all think about selling that car and giving that money into the offering?

I said Gladys, what do you say?

She said yeah.

I said Claire, what about you?

She said yeah, jay, yeah, they all agreed.

I didn't want to just do it independently of them, because it could potentially affect everybody and we just were going to have one car.

Then Once I sold that car, we had one car and so, sure enough, I put an ad in the paper.

We sold it.

I think we sold it for $1,800.

And I mean, it felt so good to put $1,800 in an offering.

I hadn't given that kind of money in a long time.

Well, we had to sell something to give.

Praise God, do whatever it takes.

Resist, you know.

Lack.

Are you sad?

Start laughing, you know.

Resist depression, resist sadness, start laughing.

Well, I don't feel like laughing.

What do you, like brother Hagen used to do?

Ha ha, ha.

You know, pretty soon, if you laugh like that long enough, you'll start laughing at yourself.

At least you're laughing.

So you get the idea.

Your actions have to line up with your confession.

If you, if you, if you're believing God's word, then you have to act like God's word is true.

That's the definition of faith, you know.

Brother Hagen tells a story of a, of a blimp called the USS Akron, or a dirgeable, they called him back then, and it was.

It was stationed in San Diego, it was a Navy vessel and so it was coming in for a landing right there and it's on the Pacific Ocean and it had these ropes hanging from its nose that was dragging the ground.

And way down on the ground sailors were hanging onto that rope, pulling it down, trying to pull the nose down to the mooring.

The mooring was probably a hundred feet off the ground to anchor the dirgeable and lock it in so that it wouldn't float away.

And suddenly, before anybody could let go of the ropes, a heavy breeze hit that dirgeable and went out of control and went straight up several hundred feet.

And before those sailors could let go of the rope, some of them just kept hanging on and and numbers of them fell to their deaths.

Many of them were hurt and both were overcome.

But one sailor was up there dangling from a piece of rope for an hour and 45 minutes.

It took that long for the pilot to get control of that big vessel, get the helium all balanced and everything to where he could get thing down to the ground and get, get it moored Original, like they were trying to do.

And so the news media had gathered, everybody's looking up and they're just with horror, they're expecting this sailor to drop off.

They couldn't believe he lasted that long.

Surely he's gonna fall.

But he never fell, and so they came up to him's well, how in the world, all these other people?

Many of them were dead, many of them were hurt.

How did you hang on so long, he said.

Well, it went it.

When it went up, I realized that I had four foot of rope Excess, and so I just took that four foot of rope and wrapped it around my waist and tied it off and I just swung underneath the the blimp.

I swung free, enjoying the view.

So sometimes you just have to wrap yourself in the Word of God and, just and just, delight yourself in the Lord and delight yourself in the victory that you have, because he's got you back, he's got you.

Amen.

He's faithful to watch over his word, to perform it.

So watch your actions.

And then the third thing on your checklist check your obedience.

Check your obedience.

What was the last thing that God told you to do?

Well, you know, nothing's gonna move in your life.

I mean, when you disobey God, you open the door to Satan to kill, steal and destroy your.

You've opened the door now through disobedience.

And so you know, galatians 6, 7 and 8 says sowing to the flesh will reap what corruption.

But you know, sowing to the spirit, that is being obedient, no matter what it is God tells you to do.

Being obedient Then reaps life everlasting.

There's a big difference between corruption and life.

And so in Galatians 2 21, it says don't frustrate the grace of God.

You know, unbelievable disobedience frustrates the grace of God.

God wants to grant you his ability, he wants to give it to you, but disobedience stands in your way.

And you know there's two kinds of disobedience.

Number one there's refusing to obey the word.

For instance, the Bible says to forgive if you have ought against any.

Somebody said oh I trying to forgive.

Well, you don't try, you do it.

It's not about trying to do it.

You, you forgive by faith.

It's not a matter of your feelings.

It's not about a warm fuzzy feeling toward another person.

It's a decision that you make out of obedience to God's Word.

You realize you cannot be forgiven if you don't forgive others.

That's what Jesus said.

It's the royal law of love.

We're to love and we're not to hold grudges.

So that's.

You know, if I'm having trouble Moving a mountain, if I'm having trouble in my life, in a circumstance, I'm gonna check my walking.

Love, I'm gonna make sure I'm walking.

Look, you know, are you?

Are you hard to get along with her.

You touchy or you're fretful, are you, you know?

Are you smart, alec?

Are you sarcastic?

You know, sometimes you know we can walk in in such a way that's not pleasing to God, and it can, you know.

The Bible says, you know, husbands, treat your wives as joint heirs, your heirs together, of the grace of life.

Don't hinder your prayers.

Peter said that, and so you know, sometimes our prayers are hindered because we don't treat our loved ones correctly, we don't treat our children right.

Are you with me now?

So refusing to obey the word or refusing to act on the word, very similar to that refusing to act like the Bible, is true, you know, you know better, but you just don't measure up.

There's a gap between what you know and what you're doing.

That gap between what you know and what you do, that gap is all.

The devil needs to come in.

He'll move right into that gap and steal, kill and destroy in your life as much as you.

If you don't close that gap.

And who's going to close it?

But you?

You're the only one that can close the gap between what you know and what you're doing.

So obedience, you know.

I like what one preacher said one time.

He said, you cannot make up by the sacrifice of prayer what you lose through disobedience.

You can pray, pray, pray, oh God, oh God, I pray.

You give me this, I pray.

You do this for me.

And over here you've disobeyed.

You can't make it up.

No, just find out where it is that you need to obey God and then make that decision.

Oh, that's where I missed it.

I'm in disobedience.

Oh Lord, I'm sorry, forgive me.

And then get yourself in obedience and watch the situation change.

Praise God.

So what have we seen so far?

We're going to check our confession.

We're going to check our action.

Make sure we're acting like the Bible is true.

We're going to check our obedience.

And the last one is we're going to check our joy.

This is something I have to do all the time, because we're living in a very contentious age.

You know these are the end days.

The devil knows his time is short and he comes to wear out the saints.

And it just seems like every time you turn on the television, there's no news, there's just a narrative.

It's always the same old thing.

All they want to do is distort.

They want to give you a line, a narrative.

They don't want to give you the real news.

You don't get the real news at all anymore.

And but the MI 810 says the joy of the Lord is your strength.

You've got to spend time on purpose, praise in God and laughing and rejoicing.

You know, philippians 4, 4, rejoice in the Lord always and again.

I say rejoice, I mean we need to be rejoicing in God.

Romans 14, 17,.

The kingdom of God is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.

No, we don't have joy in the news.

No, we don't have joy in the world, but we have joy in the Holy Ghost.

We can rejoice because our name isn't written in heaven, husbands.

You can rejoice in the wife of your youth.

I mean, you listen, you can rejoice, you can praise God, you can give glory to God anytime, because he's worthy, no matter what's going on.

We don't praise God.

I like that little song we sing.

You know I'm going to lift a hallelujah You're going to.

I'm going to sing at the in the middle of the storm, louder and louder.

You're going to hear my praises roar Say.

I like that.

I like that little chorus of that song because it's true, this is what we need to do.

Instead of having a pity party, we need to shout the victory right in the middle of the storm.

Amen.

And of course, romans five too.

We've read that earlier, but you know we're going to rejoice.

You know it says we have access by faith in this grace, wherein we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

I mean rejoicing is is accompanies.

Faith, faith and praise always accompany one another.

Paul and Silas they were beaten with many stripes.

They were thrust into the inner prison.

They had their feet and ankles in stocks and the Bible says at midnight they prayed and sang praises and the other prisoners heard them.

They were loud about.

They were loud about, excuse me.

And so you know they had.

They took time to enjoy God right there in the prison.

You know, just take time to enjoy God every day, no matter what the circumstances are, what the circumstances are in your life, no matter what it looks like.

You know the judge shall live by their faith, not by what it looks like, what it feels like.

Amen.

I like what brother Hagan used to say.

He said I'm not moved.

In fact he was quoting Smith Wigglesworth.

So Ms Smith Wigglesworth said this I'm not moved by how I feel, I'm not moved by what I see, I'm only moved by what I believe and I believe the Bible and what is believe believe is an action verb we have to act, amen.

So I hope this checklist, this pre-flight mid-circumstance checklist maybe before the circumstance gets ahead of steam, you ought to go through this checklist and it would help you get out of it faster, amen.

But let's make adjustments according to your faith diagnostics and God's power will start flowing once again.

Faith diagnostics Forgive us.

You.