Blind Faith, Walking by Sight

Ruth hood hood wink wink feel free to come up sorry Matt made you get up

Ruth was away on another vacation was it Australia this time or it was Down Under

Ruth didn't know I would be calling her up so she's going to stumble through this

you might have to hold it closer to testify that the Lord brought me through

quite a trial this past month and I just want to thank him I just want to thank and praise God

for all he brought me through this past week and I mean month and I had a good report from the doctor

I've had a procedure at the hospital and I just want to give him praise honor and glory for bringing

me through this what what what happened to you well had what they call bowel cancer and I've got a

good report and I don't have to go back to the doctor for every four months for a blood test now

so I'm thankful and praise God and when they checked your lymph nodes there was nothing

do you have to go back for chemotherapy no no praise God and I've been free of pain since yesterday

and it all happened in about three weeks ago less than three weeks ago

thank you Ruth see that wasn't half as bad would you like to come up every week okay we were talking

about when am I good to go okay we were talking about Josiah and the culture of kings but somehow

I felt we need to visit something else that perhaps is not as culture ish but something relatively

simple that we've gone over before but I'd like to go over again and so today we're going to talk

about this thing called blind faith but blind faith is really not blind blind faith is actually

the same as walking by sight it just depends on what kind of sight we are talking about that's

why I gave it that title blind faith is equal to walking by sight and though it sounds contrary

to what scripture says we'll find out that seeing is so vital in exerting faith so I put the

scripture on top of your page so that we can look at it and see how God in that scripture brings

out certain things about faith that we need to take notice of and so this is from Hebrews 11 13

to 16 and here's what it says it says all these people were still living by faith when they died

it's talking about the heroes of faith in Hebrews 11 they did not receive the things promised they

only and look at the words that have been highlighted saw them and welcomed them from a

distance and they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth people who say such things

show that they're looking for a country of their own if they had been thinking of that country they

had left they would have had the opportunity to return instead they were longing for a better

country a heavenly one therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God for he has prepared a city

for them and so I want us to notice it's not that much fun then yeah it's not living on the

edge yeah so folks one of the things we need to understand about faith is that faith requires us

to be people who see and seeing is vital if we want to walk in the kind of faith that God wants

us to and that the people in Hebrews chapter 11 did and so we're going to examine some of those

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

things I've highlighted on that page and one of the things we will see there is that it all begins

this way and we spoke about this long ago seeing has to precede believing has to precede confessing

or saying has to precede action or doing seeing has to precede believing has to precede confessing

has to precede doing has to anything less than that if any of these steps are missed then you

miss out on what would really be faith if if we begin at confession then really it's a hollow echo

if we begin at believing whatever believing on because if you don't see accurately a belief is

based on falsehoods and any action that is not based on these is presumptuous and presumption is

not faith presumption is dangerous that which we see is equal to that which we believe which will

then produce that which we confess which then leads to that which we do and please understand

that breakthrough in any area in your life does not come through chance but through change break

through in my life in any area whatever you're struggling with be it failure be it provisions

be it healing be it just an inability to break out of a cycle that you seem to re-enter be it

hopelessness whatever it be breakthrough does not come by chance breakthrough does not come by chance

but only through change only through change and change does not happen till in the areas that I'm

with I go through these four phases I go through these four phases and I'm saying to you that if

you follow through on these steps in whatever area it is that you want to you'll find that over a

period of time it will be impossible impossible to restrict you or short-chain you from obtaining

what God has planned for you it will be impossible I'm using the word impossible it will be impossible

to restrict you or short-chain you from obtaining that which God has for you guys remember we've

said this year before we do not operate by rules we do not operate by policies we only operate by

principles and principles have the ability to do two things principles have the ability to change

our mindset and principles have the ability to destroy principalities let me say that again

principles have the ability to destroy both mindsets and principalities rules will not do

it policies will not do it wishy-washy compromises won't do it the only thing that takes down both

mindsets and principalities which are the only two enemies that Christians have to struggle against

here on earth can both be taken down by principles and one of the unchanging principles of faith is

that I have to see accurately based on what I see accurately I have to now stake my belief based

on what I've staked my belief on I now need to speak it declare my intent and once I have declared

my intent it is required of me now to put into action that which I've seen believed and spoken

and once this principle is established it is impossible to restrict me or short-chain me from

obtaining everything on earth that God has appointed me everything on earth everything on

earth that is appointed to me by God go ahead she's she's she's eating a banana and asking me to

repeat no go ahead yeah it goes well with a bit of calcium there yeah I was surprised that I

didn't pause for a breath let me start again then I want to say to us that the two enemies we have

here on earth are our mindsets and principalities that oppose what God wants for us the one thing

that can destroy both mindsets and principalities are principles principles destroy both mindsets

and principalities we've said before we don't operate by rules because rules don't work we

don't operate by policies or compromised values that takes a little from the world takes a little

from Christianity mixes it and takes a little from the supernatural takes a little from common

sense and mixes it takes a little from reason takes a little from things that have of God mixes

it we don't operate by that we only operate by principles that are extracted from the word and

these principles then have the ability to destroy both mindsets and principalities and one of the

principles that is unchanging when it comes to faith is this principle of seeing accurately what

God has said in his word or what God is showing and then having seen it accurately to stake my

belief on what I've seen and having staked my belief on what I've seen I now begin to embrace

it and very easily declare my intent with words and once I declare my intent it is required of

me now to begin to do or put into action that which I have seen believed and have declared and

when I do this what happens is there is nothing that is restricted from me there's nothing I can

be short-changed off from obtaining in terms of all the things that God has for me here on earth

I'd like to say to you that Jesus lived this way our standards when it comes to faith will

be the same standards as the Son of Man Jesus Christ it will not be less it will not be less

so as we talk about this today if at times it chaffs you that perhaps you operated by a standard

that is lower then feel free to apply some talcum powder but we are not going to lower our standards

we're going to just just operate at that level however the Son of Man operated and how he approached

everything is how we will approach things in terms of being taught. Questions?

A mindset is my way of thinking a principality is opposing spirit force that tries to come

against what I need to do and both can be destroyed with principles because it is written is the most

effective weapon because it's the sword of the spirit. We'll go into that there's just the intro

any other questions? Okay let's move on to seeing then seeing Jeremiah 1 11 you see God talking to

Jeremiah and he says to Jeremiah Jeremiah what do you see and Jeremiah says I see an almond tree and

then God says good I will watch over my word to perform it then he goes a little further and he

says Jeremiah what do you see and he says I see a boiling pot from the north and so on. Folks we need

to understand that sight and sound are used powerfully in the spiritual realm sight and sound are used

powerfully in the spiritual realm by both God and the enemy by the way because the enemy always tries

to counterfeit that which is God and it's a poor counterfeit but it's still a counterfeit sight and

sound are used powerfully in the spiritual realm Israel saw Goliath David saw an uncircumcised

Philistine Peter saw the waves Peter also saw a man at the beautiful gate and seeing him he knew

that the man had faith Elisha saw the chariots of fire around the trees and knew that he was safe

Elijah saw Jezebel even though Jezebel sent a messenger the Bible says Elijah saw sight and

sound are used powerfully in the spiritual realm and God uses sight and sound to show us things

but the enemy uses sight and sound to intimidate us works both ways Elijah this powerful prophet

comes down from Carmel and the Bible says Jezebel sent a messenger to him to say to him that he would

be dead by the evening of the next day and the Bible says Elijah saw Elijah saw and yet Elisha

was able to see chariots of fire around when no one else could see it sight and sound are used

powerfully so guard the affections of your heart in terms of what you let into your life through

the eye gate and the ear gates because all intimidation all fear has to come through sight

and sound they use powerfully and the enemy knows this which is why there is absolutely no room when

it comes to seeing to allow sights and sounds that are meant to put fear in me I have to give it no

room it's like an immediate shut down and it happens quite a few times in a day sometimes to

people where suddenly this sight you see this thing happening or you there's an image that comes to

your mind and you begin to go down that road or you hear something that someone says or you hear

something on TV and immediately your mind starts stirring you've got to train yourself discipline

yourself it is your personal responsibility to train yourself a discipline yourself to shut it

down to shut it down the gates are yours to close our eyes the gates are yours to you got to shut

down sights and sounds that are not from God from entering your soul for instance there is it is

you know you know it's so strange but every medicine every insurance coverage every car

is sold simply on the basis sometimes of sight and sound in terms of fear or attractiveness I

mean they'll tell you this medicine can take away this pain and 80% of Canada is dying off it so

you better get this medicine and then once you're hooked they'll tell you how if you take that

medicine it'll cause you dizziness vomiting slow death pain in the nose and hair loss and that

they say quickly so that you don't realize but they've already got you hooked because they told

you that 80% of Canada dies of it sight and sound are vital the enemy knows that Babylon knows that

Babylon works on it guys works on it shut it down oh this is something you have to take personal

responsibility for there's no other way around it I do not want in my life anything that does

not come from God and I shut it down and I say father I do not want to deal with that and if I

see that there is fear in my heart when I hear this then I go and say to the Lord father I did

not go down that track but did you see that I had fear when it was spoken about so now can you and

I talk about it so that we can deal with this fear because I will not operate by fear either

anything that stirs fear anything that is out of control in terms of sight and sound anything

that brings up emotions that are not a negative anything that sends me down a track track that

is unscriptural or is a deviation of scripture or is not godly anything that is recurring over

and over again anything that comes even with a hint of condemnation anything that accuses or

condemns others anything of this sort is not from God this is why it is vital to know the nature of

God because once I know the nature of God it is easier to identify that which is of God and that

which is not we live in a completely different time Matt completely different time they had to

do that because they had to set the standards of holiness and unholy and then Christ comes and

pays the standard of unholy it was that condemnation that was heaped on Israel that the sun paid Israel

was called the son now son the son who is Christ comes and pays for that condemnation therefore

there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ that's how it works I have to move on but

we'll come back to questions again Matt folks all faith is preceded by accurate sight or revelation

all faith is preceded by accurate sight or revelation all faith all matters of faith have

to be preceded by accurate sight and revelation so there's when we talk about blind faith it's

just a way of saying it I think Tino is there any chance you can turn the air conditioning off for

a little while and then perhaps I'll send you again to turn it on thanks man so accurate faith

is always preceded by sight accurate sight and revelation for instance if you go to Romans 1 17

it says in Romans 1 17 we often talk about it as righteous will live by faith is what Romans 1

17 says but look at the beginning of the scripture for in the gospel a righteousness from God is

revealed a righteousness that is by faith from first to last just as it is written first it has

to righteousness from God has to be revealed before one can begin to walk by faith and not

by sight but always sight proceeds or revelation proceeds faith take another scripture 2nd Corinthians

5 7 2nd Corinthians 5 7

again it talks about living by faith and not by sight it says that we live by faith and not by

sight but now go to revelations 5 verse 5 now it is God who has made us for this very purpose and

Revelation 5:5

has given us the Spirit as a deposit guaranteeing what is to come it is preceded by sight therefore

why therefore therefore because the Spirit of God has been given to us and he shows us what is to

come therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we're

away from the Lord we live by faith and not by sight it is always preceded by revelation or sight

second Corinthians 5 7 5 5 just going to the preceding verses 5 7 says we live by faith and

not by sight but you see why we live by faith because we have been given the Holy Spirit who

brings us that guarantee of things to come based on that knowing of the things that are to come

that is brought to us by the Holy Spirit now we don't have to worry about living in the body

and living in the heavenlies we just operate by faith because we have something to stand on faith

always is preceded by revelation folks you will teach you will live you will believe what you see

you will teach you will live you will believe what you see let me say that again you will teach

you will live and you will believe what you see I'm not talking about just plain natural sight

I'm talking about see as in what you see and base your faith or belief on why do you think there

are pastors who will tell you that I mean I remember going to this church once and spending

almost 45 minutes talking about the mighty deeds of God and how God has done this and that and

people in the church were very convinced in that meeting of what I was saying and they were agreeing

and then after I was done one of the pastors came up and he stood in front and he said to the church

after I was done thank you Jacob that was very good but we need to understand that these things

don't have to happen and these things don't happen nowadays it may happen occasionally to

one or two people and so don't go in the expectation that this is how life is supposed to work life is

full of difficulties and things go up and down and I'm listening to him and I'm saying to myself

that was 45 minutes destroyed in less than a minute but why is it that a pastor said that the

reason the pastor said that is because that is what he sees he does not see things being

provided he does not see things being healed he does not see scriptures as they need to be

interpreted he does not he has not lived it he has not seen it therefore how can he teach

anything else he has to teach what he has seen so on one hand I cannot blame him on the other hand

I wanted to blame him a lot so I went up after him and I said I know I'm in your church I disagree

with what he was saying but these things I believe can happen to everybody and I went and sat down

because yeah that I didn't want people in the church to think that I agreed with everything he

said I had to say that I disagree and then I went and spoke to some of the elders in the church and

I said I'm sorry I said that I disagreed but I hope it was okay with you and if you want to

say something to me feel free and we left it at that but the point is you teach live and believe

what you see and the battle is to perceive accurately the battle is always that will we

perceive what we need to perceive accurately the sad thing is often we don't we are supposed to

will we perceive what we are supposed to perceive accurately that is the battle that is where the

battle is because if my sight can be jaundiced then the enemy does not have to do anything else

because if sight is jaundiced then he knows that believing will be jaundiced your confessions will

be twisted and your action will be limited simple if my sight is jaundiced my beliefs will be half

baked my confessions will be twisted and my actions will be limited and so faith will not

produce the results it's supposed to produce so how is our sight jaundiced our sight is jaundiced

and this is common knowledge I believe in this church site is jaundiced by our experience our

sight is jaundiced by what we have been taught our sight is jaundiced by feelings our sight is

jaundiced by facts that have not gone over time meaning when facts don't change over time we

begin to believe the facts instead of the truth our sight is jaundiced by human role models that

we have who are themselves jaundiced it's like a blind man leading a blind man our facts are

jaundiced by inaccurate inaccurate teaching these are the things that jaundice our sight

our experience especially when our experiences over a sustained period of time and we have not

seen a change then now that becomes a default in those areas so it could be that in your life

there are people who are sick or there is a sickness in your body that has not gone over time

so then our seeing begins to change and we begin to think that this is the way it is sometimes it

is because of plain inaccurate teaching now in some churches when they listen to this message

they'll say that I am inaccurate in my teaching because I say that it is God's will for everyone

to be healed but I stand my ground and say no that's the right teaching if you are taught

for 40 years that God sometimes yields and God usually does not and he has a greater purpose

that's what you will believe there are human role models we have sometimes it's our husbands our

fathers our mothers our wives who seem to be our spiritual role model and so whatever they did we

now hold on to and will not budge from it human examples are poor examples at the end of the day

remember what we said Jesus Christ the Son of Man is the ultimate standard in faith nothing less

our feelings we know we know what this means sometimes guys biblical concessions can also

John this our site what I mean by that is we will pick on Paul we'll pick on Job and we'll pick on

a few kings from the Old Testament and base our entire theology on what did not happen for them

I'm not going to argue that even right now but those are biblical concessions like like when Jesus

said to the guy who said is it okay to divorce and Jesus said to them Moses gave you that concession

because you were hard-hearted but it is not remember he makes that statement at one point

it's that kind of a thing except for when there's sexual immorality or when there's violence I can

understand and Jesus makes that exception but the point is this that we cannot take biblical

concessions to build a theology around it another favorite theology that comes this oh the Lord does

not want to supply our wants he only wants to supply our needs don't know where that came from

he only wants to supply our needs not our wants and then you'll have to now begin to redefine wants

and needs and try to keep it both clear which father wants to supply only his child's bare needs

this is not that balloon the bear necessities no it's not that thing yeah God will supply all our

needs was never meant to say that God will not supply wants the word needs there is everything

required for living now what is the need and a want suddenly I'm sure hockey will be a want

so just understand that our site is jaundiced by these things and I want to say this important

that you don't pass on your beliefs based on what you inaccurately what you see inaccurately to

others let me say that again please make sure that your beliefs are rock-solid otherwise do

not pass on what you see inaccurately to others just as much as you cannot force one to walk in

your faith don't make someone walk in your lack of faith either calling that faith let me say that

again just as much as I cannot force anybody here to walk in the faith that I may have in a situation

I should not force you to walk in the lack of faith either now I may not have faith for healing

let's assume if I do not have faith for healing and you come to me and say you have a sickness I

should not now say it you know you're right sometimes God does stuff like this he senses

sickness so that we may live a greater lesson you know what you just go and get whatever needs to

be done done and forget the stuff about healing I may not have the faith for it but please do not

pass it on just because you have a lack of because I don't have a lack because I have a lack of faith

make sure that I don't pass it on to somebody else make sure that whatever you pass on to somebody

is rock-solid there are areas in my life where I'll tell people I'm sorry I cannot talk to you

because I have not sorted that out in my life and I'm sorry I cannot advise you on that I

have to fix it in my life first if someone came to me five or six years ago and asked me to pray

for provision in their life I sometimes feel like a hypocrite because I knew the situations with my

provision and my lack of faith when it came to provision and I'd be praying for provision for

someone else and I feel like man you know how to say these lines but you don't know how to back it

up in your own life don't want to do that just take them to someone else who may be able to pray

for them but do not pass on that which is incomplete or a lack in your life either by

pretending as a hypocrite or telling them something that is not true please don't questions comments

I would suggest that you check with someone you think is perhaps in that area walking in your view

a life that is just totally circumspect in what in terms of what the word says and go and check

go and check your understanding with that person or go and check your life with that person's life

learning initially is a process of second-guessing guys I spent many years learning by watching others

in certain areas and I did second guess myself because I did not know how to navigate and it's

time well spent it's time well spent and I would sit and listen while these men would talk about

stuff and I think to myself when am I going to get here it was not beating myself down but it was

always saying here is a man I know who can walk a certain way and I'd like to see how he does it

there's a guy called Vic who was brilliant at constructing churches all throughout the world and

I remember sitting and watching him and thinking to myself man this must be what it is to walk in

the shoes of an apostle and I didn't know anything about the apostolic then but I knew that much and

I watched him and that's the way you learn make sure that your human examples are examples that

actually have learned how to both talk the talk and walk the walk because one of the things Paul

says which I want to say in different areas of my life to the church at acts 29 is imitate me as I

imitate Christ and there are areas in my life which I say without any modesty right now that

you can imitate in my life because I imitate Christ not all but there are many areas in my

life where you can do that I said that with relative ease as I can your life in case you

didn't know and at the end of the day how did Christ walk that should be my ultimate comparison

how did Christ walk when it came to provisions how did Christ operate when it came to healing I

know why he was not sick one because he was not born with original sin two because he walked

perfectly before God but how did he deal with healing in other people's lives there's only one

plumb line for us in all these areas guys how did how did he deal with things of life how did he

walk across the waters how did he listen what did he see that becomes our standard that becomes

our standard faith that is blind is usually faith based on inaccurate site or natural site so the

whole idea of blind faith really is not just trusting God and leaping off a cliff blind faith

is when I'm either operating by natural site or I'm operating by inaccurate scene that's when I'm

really blind otherwise faith always operates on the basis of knowing revealed site always

in a sense yes because by my definition which is not necessarily biblical is just a perhaps

a way of putting it but I'm saying that blind faith is faith that is based on natural site

or an inaccurate scene but it's not a theological statement it's just something I just wanted to

say and the only way blind faith and of the inaccurate site can be corrected is by accurate

teaching or accurate modeling which is again a form of teaching because teachers model what they

are supposed to teach Jesus said that he said look at these Pharisees don't do what they do

sure listen to them but don't you do what they do but that's not a good teacher the other thing

that I need to understand about seeing and we touched on this also before but I was so sure

that this had to be repeated this week the other thing that we need to understand about seeing is

that folks many of us in many different situations in our life think that God is neutral when it

comes to dealing with us God is neutral we understand that God is not against us but not

all of us are constantly aware that God is for us I go through these times when I'm shocked that

I think God is not for me neither is he against me I just sometimes I'm shocked and I go and tell

him you know Lord after 20 years I just when I was talking to you right now I was struggling

because I wasn't sure whether you were for me I know you're not against me but I suddenly felt

that you weren't necessarily for me God is never neutral when it comes to you but you can think he

is neutral if you do not recognize who he wants to be in your life I want you to remind I want to

remind you of Joshua 5 verse 13 to 15 in Joshua 5 13 to 15 here's what happened happens Joshua knows

Joshua 5:13–15

that soon he's got to go and take Jericho and he goes for a walk and when he goes for a walk he

suddenly sees a man with a sword drawn out and he goes up to the man and he asks the man a question

he says to him are you for us or are you for our enemies and the man has a strange reply and this

man is a pre-incarnate Christ just so you know the man says neither and it's always fascinated me

that the pre-incarnate Christ appears to Joshua and Joshua asks are you for us or are you for the

enemy and he says neither that's neutrality and then after saying neither he says I am the Lord

of the armies of heaven and immediately Joshua falls down to the ground as soon as Joshua recognizes

who he is and his title immediately God begins to reveal to him everything else that needs to be

revealed and I want to say to you that God will only be neutral to you if you do not recognize

his awesomeness and what his title is to you in a particular season at a particular junction in a

particular event that is when you leave thinking he's neutral but if you and I have in every

situation an ability to go up to God and say what are you being to me what is your title right now

in my life I recognize your awesomeness I know you are Lord but tell me your title in my life

right now and I'm saying to you that if you practice this you'll be surprised and how your

heart will leap like a calf that is prancing because suddenly you realize in junctions of

your life in situations in events he tells you who he is for that particular season and you

suddenly are filled with such boldness that on one hand you will bow before him on the other hand

you leap to your feet and prance around because your heart is full of this revelation of who he

is I know who he is this month in July as I travel I'm sometimes surprised at who he doesn't tell me

he is what I mean is I expect him to be mighty miracle worker and when I ask him so father I'm

going on this trip and you know all the things that go with the trip what do you want me to what

do you want to be to me during this time I mean he tells me sometimes it doesn't fit what I want

him to be but it doesn't matter so let's assume he says to me that I want to be a teacher for the

next month during the trip then you know what I'll do I'll go take the Bible and I'll take every

scripture on what a teacher does and I'll take every scripture on how a pupil responds it's very

easy to do that go to esord or any such now I have exactly what the Bible says a teacher will be

like as Christ is and I also know how a pupil should respond now I'm armed for the next 21 to

26 days I'll be walking around knowing who he is when Joshua went up to him and he said neither

and then he reveals his title he didn't tell Joshua I am Yahweh he didn't say to Joshua I'm

Yahweh Jaira your provider he didn't say to Joshua I'm Yahweh Rapha your healer he didn't say I'm

Yahweh Shama I'm Yahweh Nisi he said I am Yahweh Sabaoth why because he knew that the next morning

Joshua has to go and take Jericho he knows this event the situation the juncture you are at and

he will reveal what he needs to be and suddenly it's like a banner waving over your head which

goes with you wherever you're traveling because the king is in residence there and the king has

a title that applies to your situation for now so you don't have to worry about miracle working

and all that stuff because he had just told you he's going to be a teacher and you know immediately

that he will watch over you and instruct you and teach you his paths and his ways and you will hear

a voice in your ear saying do not turn to the left or to not turn to the right but walk in the ancient

paths and I will prosper you in what you do so suddenly you respond like a pupil and you go with

such confidence and your eyes and ears and heart is continuously caught because you want to hear

the rabbi speak to you and tell you what he is about and you realize that even though you are

going on a trip you're going to learn and come back far more learned for I have been taught by

the tongue of my teacher and my ears have been listening to him you see how everything changes

this is something we need to do in terms of sight when we begin to see who God is in a

particular season then it is easy now to base my beliefs on the sight of his name

when you acknowledge it God begins to reveal more as he did with Joshua have to see his title what

is he want to be at seasons events in my life at the end of the day I always remember this

God is not neutral with you you're a son and God said this about Jesus he said I love my son dearly

and because I love my son dearly I will show him all things and this he says in John 520 put your

name in there I love my Jacob dearly and I will show him all the things that he needs to see because

I love my Jacob dearly can you imagine my Jacob this nuts man sight must lead to believing sight

believing it is possible for sight not to lead to believing it's fascinating how like I said I

was sharing testimonies in that church and at the end of testimonies and they knew I was telling

the truth at the end of all those testimonies there was no believing sight you would think

would lead to belief you know in Matthew 27 verse 28 I think Jesus has just risen from the dead

Matthew 27:28

and he appears to disciples and it says many believe but some doubted they saw a man they saw

him risen in an immortal body and many believe but some doubted sight should lead to belief and

please understand that beliefs are more than preferences belief is more than consensus beliefs

are non-negotiable convictions yeah please this is important okay we all say we believe but a

belief is a non-negotiable conviction it's non-negotiable and what's it based on it's

based on this grasp you have of God's non-negotiable faithfulness and truth it's

non-negotiable that's what a belief is guys a belief is not a preference a belief is not

a consensus opinion because most people seem to be getting it right when they think along

those lines a belief is a non-negotiable conviction because you have suddenly grasped the fact that

God has some non-negotiable truths and his faithfulness is non-negotiable so now you

can stake your life on it and your reputation and lose both if he doesn't turn up but guess

what it pleases him because there are people who did trust him and the Bible says they did not get

what they were looking for here on earth but they knew something else was waiting for them always

remember the the objective of faith is not to obtain results the objective of faith is to please

God the results are a byproduct it is a big leap for me I always used to think the objective of

faith was getting results convictions are non-negotiable a conviction is a belief you

won't change a conviction is a belief you won't change to violate a conviction would be a sin

a conviction is a belief you won't change you can add to a conviction once you know it's

accurate God may cause more truth to explode onto your site and you add to it but a conviction is

not something that changes I don't know if I told you this I may have told you some of you this

situation I was this happened some five or six years five years ago 2004 May or something or

doesn't matter five or six years ago I was flying from Vancouver to London and with somebody else

on a mission trip and this person was much more learned and perhaps one of the people who's

invested the most in my life and as I'm going on this mission trip halfway through the flight

I break out in a cold sweat and I feel dizzy and I completely just go dead and I found out later

that the person took my pulse and found out that there was no pulse and I had gone cold and so when

I came around I found that they had put an oxygen mask on my face cleared the chair the seat next

to me and had fed me coke because they thought that I needed my sugar levels were low stuff like

that and I felt a little embarrassed at all this that had happened so finally once people have gone

back I took off the mask and the person next to me told me that you had completely gone dead and

he had started praying in tongues and because he did not feel a pulse and the body had gone cold

and we went after the after that the trip went fine I was away for two weeks works really hard

like I'd normally do on trips and came back and when I came back the person said to me that you

need to now go to a doctor and you need to check out the condition your physical condition because

what happened on that aircraft was really something else and you need to go and check yourself out and

I believe that this is something God wants you to do and I would recommend that you do it because

you have to be responsible he didn't say God wants you to do I want you to do it because you have to

be responsible to keep yourself well before God and stuff like that and because it was this man

who had such such an impress such an influence on my life I was suddenly caught in this dilemma

because all my life since I've become a Christian which was in 1988 I have never had ever to touch

a medicine never which is I'm not saying that that is the standard that I want to apply to

everybody but I'm saying in my life that is how it has worked I've never had to touch a medicine

and here is this man of God who I respect and honor and look up to who's telling me that I need

to go and I'm caught in this dilemma because I know what how God has operated with me and I know

what this man is telling me now that night that man has a dream and in that dream this is funny

in that but it but I interpreted it wasn't in the dream he sees me getting married to somebody and

so I'm standing in front of the altar and there's this person in a bridal gown with a with the face

covered with a veil and he is the one who's marrying us and he pronounces us husband and wife

and then I lift the veil and it's a guy and now it's a guy and he says to me Jacob it's too late

I have already pronounced you man and wife and you're married and there's nothing you can do and

as he's talking to me the Lord is beginning to speak to me I was driving down the Oak Street

Bridge and taking that ramp off to come to my place and I just remember this part and the Lord

is saying do you see do you see do you see and as he's talking I said I have an interview he said

I do not understand what it means you have to be careful I said I understand it and began to tell

him I said if I marry right now into the system that you are telling me to go into the Lord has

taught me to be this way all my life he has always taken care of my health and he has always kept me

safe without the need for medicines and he's always healed me now if you have asked me to go

and marry into a system that God has taught me to stay out of and I do it I'll never be able to

come out of it and this man had the humility to say you know you're right do not listen to anything

I said before the reason I'm telling you this is sometimes if you have a conviction about something

and you have to make sure you have an accurate site and conviction then you have to stand your

ground regardless at the cost of your reputation even sometimes at the cost of your life but that's

what convictions are about if you go and check any law situation in the US the if you go to a

court in the US the US courts define what is a belief and what is a conviction did you know that

a belief is something that can change and they ask you is it a belief that you have or is it a

conviction because if it's a conviction they know that you will not change it at any cost even if

you get a jail term but if it is a belief the court can ask you to perhaps change your belief

because beliefs are defined as changeable you can go check it I checked it this morning to make sure

the reason for telling you that story is you've got to know what your convictions are and you've

got to base your convictions on accurate site and then if it's a conviction you can stand

because to violate a conviction would be sin to violate a belief would be a sin and the Bible

says in Romans 14 23 anything that I do not do in faith is sin make sure your convictions are

solid that's important that's why site is so important conviction always will speak guys it'll

always speak because convictions are on the inside and it will always show up on the outside

in your lifestyle if you have a conviction about anything it will speak in Daniel chapter

Daniel 3:23

3 verse 23 or thereabouts they had verse 17 and 18 sorry they had convictions they had convictions

and they their conviction within them spoke and they said oh king we believe that our God is going

to rescue us but perchance that God does not rescue us we want you to know that we will not

you it's it's at cost it's at cost any questions before we move on to confession and then action

we should be done by 115 any questions you see why it is very important that I know my site and

my convictions before I teach or try to influence somebody else and why you need to do the same

before you teach or influence somebody because just as dangerous as it is to influence somebody

else to walk in your faith it is as dangerous to encourage someone to walk in your lack of faith

or my lack of faith so there are many times when people will come and ask me for prayer and I

realize that I don't have faith to pray for it so instead of praying help I back off and I first

go and negotiate with God saying I do not have faith to pray for this you know something I did

not have faith to pray for the child's muscle and then the day after I heard it I was talking to

Heidi and saying Heidi so this is what is happening and very casually she said if the child has a

muscle the things will work out and I don't see why God cannot create a muscle and I heard that

and so I went back and I started saying to God it's that easy father I want we want muscles and

then we prayed together that evening but till then I had not even gone to that area of muscles I was

thinking of other options of a tube being inserted father maybe because my father's the dad has

if you put in a tube a seven centimeter tube things will work out so I was going for that option

till I heard about the muscle see sometimes when you do not have faith for something no instead

of going for the usual health prayer which is okay but we have to move to places of maturity

step back and say okay father I want to come to the place where I can have faith for this and

work on it it is your personal responsibility to work on it this is discipline guys these are the

disciplines of Christian life these are the disciplines of Christian life convictions lead

to confession we're talking about the next page now convictions lead to confession and just so

we understand what confession means to confess is to acknowledge agree and then declare confessions

are an acknowledgement an agreement and then a declaration so confessions are not mantras

because they are a declaration of intent they are a declaration of intent and confessions have

limited power if you haven't seen accurately if you haven't believed it to a point of being

absolutely persuaded confessions are just limited in power they don't do much because the Bible

says the name is 3-3 one of my favorite scriptures can two walk together in agreement unless can

two walk together except they are in agreement so it's pointless confessing stuff it's a hollow

echo if I already haven't come into agreement with what God can do and with what God is saying

because I've seen it and now I'm persuaded to a point of being convicted of it in my heart only

then is it natural for the abundance of the heart to be spoken with the mouth that's how it works

and if you begin to actually confess because you have seen and because you are persuaded in

your heart it will show in your in pattern changes in your life guys confession is always

matched with consistent changes of patterns in your life once I begin to confess a certain

thing you and it comes out of a deep conviction you'll see that in an area where I used to react

differently there's a change in pattern now because now my words are not talk-to-talk it's

words that come out of my walk there's a difference suddenly that's perhaps where charismatic Christians

such as some of us missed out when confession became the endgame instead of it being a declaration

of intent that was based on rock-solid conviction with him and here's another important point which

you need to note that that reason will always try to silence confession reason will always try to

silence and intimidate confession reason reason will try to silence confession or intimidate it

will try to silence confession the voice of reason silences dilutes our convictions and our

confession let me see that again the voice of reason will always try to silence or dilute our

convictions and our confession like Roland Tan used to say cut off that cabbage that's I mean cut

off your head and stick a cabbage there you'll do better the voice of reason will always silence

your convictions and confession or it'll dilute it you know I'm just saying this again this is where

you can look really foolish but I need to say like I know that there is a particular vehicle that God

is going to give me in future and I'm even asking him now okay father so what do I do with my present

vehicle and it looks like I'll have to give it away to somebody so I don't know who but now every

morning when I wake up I see this vehicle going past my house and I do not know why he wants to

give it to me because it's not like I'm unhappy with the vehicle I have but I know it so every

morning I say oh father there it goes first thing I get up in the morning there you see it again and

now I'm beginning to examine the vehicle beginning to check it out to see well not bad not bad and

now my question is okay father so who do I give the present vehicle I have to you got to tell me

that too because what would I would do with two vehicles as far as I know I'm not getting married

so don't need two vehicles my dad will give one away and when I was writing this I thought no no

I should speak it out here in church because I'm quite sure this is gonna happen so my dad will

tell you right? My dad will do a raffle in the church or something no just kidding but the point

is I just needed to throw that in for my own sake folks it's a Toyota but it's an SUV the voice

of reason silences or dilutes our belief and folks the voice of reason will also cause you

to sometimes not act in faith for small things here's here's an example it's only a small headache

forget praying just grab the Advil it's only a small headache so why go through the whole

labor of prayer just grab the aspirin or the Advil it's much easier oh it's only a small muscle

pull that will go away in four days I can't understand that yeah that's the voice of reason

but this is this is common to us all I am surprised that sometimes if the pain is not

bad enough it'll go away in three four days we live in a different economy

I guarantee you if Jesus was with twelve of you and you had an it Jesus boo-boo

after three and a half years your language wouldn't change but the point is this guys we

bear it because the voice of reason says now you're going to pray for that and what if the

headache doesn't go to deal with the hassle of why the headache didn't go and just take the

see this is how we fall out of practice guys we have to be faithful in little things that is what

makes a crisis become a small thing later on a crisis is big because we never practiced it with

little things when you practice with little things a crisis loses its size and magnitude

I refuse now to bear up if if there is a thing father it is hurting and I really don't like pain

and you know that I don't know why you gave me such a low threshold of pain but I'm glad you did

but please in the name of Jesus Christ be healed same applies to provision same applies to failure

same applies to doors opening same applies to shutting doors same applies to not allowing

things same applies to allowing things it's all the same man we learn in small things

let's go to action and finish confession has to be followed by action see folks if our response

is the same difference as the world know what good are we if we just bookend our prayers with

some faith jargon what good is it if it's the same difference as the world we got to be distinctly

different when it comes to faith man there's always a shedding away of a garment when you

walk on what you see or what you believe and what you speak remember blind Bartimaeus what did he do

he shed off the garment he didn't shed off the gum and fold it neatly and keep it safely so that

later on he can pull it out and wear it again he's fed it off and he walked an action that follows

this kind of site this kind of believing this kind of declaring of intent is always a burning

of bridges man a burning of bridges because there'll be absolutely no going back you risk

your reputation and your life risk your reputation and there will be times when you risk your

reputation and your reputation is in ruins