Walking By Faith - 1 - Faith is the Victory

What does it really mean to walk by faith?

If we look at the Word of God, we can find a definition.

And today on the Faith Builders Broadcast, we're going to take the time to find out what it really means to walk by faith.

I'm so glad you joined me for this edition of the Faith Builders Broadcast.

I believe that the Lord and the Spirit of God is going to say some things today that are going to help you understand the walk of faith even on a deeper level.

In 2 Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 7, this is a familiar passage of Scripture.

2 Corinthians 5 · chapter mention

And it's really a small portion of this chapter, but the Apostle Paul makes the statement in 2 Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 7: for we walk by faith and not by sight.

2 Corinthians 5 · chapter mention

For we walk by faith and not by sight.

So we see an answer here because very often what happens is that, you know, someone will say, Well, I'm, you know, I'm walking by faith.

And what they mean is, you know, they're just hanging in there, they're just waiting, they're uh hoping that God's going to do something.

But because of what the Amplified Bible says, it says we regulate our lives and conduct ourselves by our conviction.

All right.

Faith, the Greek word for faith, is the word pistis, and it the base meaning of that word is conviction or to be convinced.

And so the Apostle Paul, by the Holy Spirit, says that we regulate our life by faith, by our conviction.

We walk by faith.

To walk means to regulate one's life, to conduct one's life, to pass one's life.

And so he's saying we regulate, we conduct our life by faith.

The word by is a preposition that gives us the understanding that it means through or the channel by which something comes into your life, uh, the means of.

So we regulate our lives by the means of faith.

All right.

Faith is the way that we regulate our life.

This covers every area of our lives.

We're to walk by faith in every area of our lives.

Now, many believe that walking by faith is simply not walking by sight.

And that is true, that's part of faith, that's an element of it.

It's part of the faith walk, but it's not all of it.

Because that can lend itself to denial.

All right.

I'm just not going to admit what I see because I'm walking by faith.

But what that ends up being is mental assent.

That ends up being denial.

All right.

A person can uh get a bad report from the doctor and just disregard it and make this statement.

Well, I'm not walking by what I see, I'm walking by faith.

But here's the reality of it is faith would never deny a report.

Faith would go to work on the report.

Okay?

So I don't regulate my life by that report.

I don't conduct my life by that report.

If I go to the doctor and I get a bad report, I don't begin to conduct my life according to that report and start making my funeral arrangements and start making plans to leave this earth.

I conduct my life by faith, by my conviction about what God has said in his word.

All right.

So that is part of walking by faith, but not all of it.

Faith being the conviction or being convinced that something is true, all right, is how I regulate my life.

What are you convinced that is true?

When you go through the word of God, for instance, and you find a verse that applies to your situation, are you convinced that's true?

Because that's how you regulate your life.

You take the word of God, you take what God said, and you regulate your life according to what he said.

Many try to overcome what they see when they're not convinced.

I have to take time to be convinced.

All right.

Brother Kenneth Hagin would make this statement.

He would say, when you know by his stripes you are healed, like you know two plus two equals four, you'll walk in hell.

Because you're convinced that two plus two equals four.

All right, you're convinced of that.

No one can convince you otherwise.

No one can come along and say two plus two equals six.

No, it doesn't.

Two plus two equals four.

All right, you have faith, you have conviction, you're convinced about that.

Hallelujah.

We become convinced by feeding on the word of God.

We become convinced by not just reading the word, but by feeding on it.

Romans chapter 10 and verse 17 says, so then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

Romans 10 · chapter mention

One translation, the Weast translation says, so then faith is out of the source of that which is heard.

And that which is heard, the message is through the agency of the word concerning Christ.

This never changes.

The source of faith is the word.

The source of faith is the word.

Now, I realize that that word there, that in the Greek, uh in the English that is translated word.

I understand that it is in the Greek rhema or the spoken word.

And I've heard individuals say that, so that's really how faith comes is by hearing yourself speak the word, the spoken word.

Well, that is partly the truth, but it's also faith comes by hearing anyone speak the word, all right?

When you're sitting in a church service and your pastor's preaching the word of God, faith is coming to you, all right?

The spoken word is coming to you.

Now, obviously, as you meditate the word and you speak it out of your mouth, faith comes even more quickly.

It comes even more readily because you're speaking the word of God.

I heard one minister say, because you'll believe what you say before you believe what anybody else will say.

But the point is, the source of faith is the word.

All right?

The source of faith for the things of God comes from the word of God.

All right.

You don't get it any other way.

If you want faith for anything that God's promised, you have to go to the promise God made because that's the source of faith.

Hallelujah.

In John 17, 17, Jesus said, praying for his disciples and us, he said, sanctify them through your word.

Your word is truth.

All right?

The word of God is truth.

That's the dividing line.

All right, I remember 30 years ago now, when we were getting a hold of these things from the word of God, and I found John 17, 17, where it says, the word is truth.

And I made a decision right there, and I told the Lord, from this moment forward, I choose to believe that every word is true.

Every word that I see in the Word of God is absolute truth.

That's the dividing line.

All right.

The word and what the word says is truth.

All right, truth is the, one man said, the highest form of reality that exists.

This word truth in John 17, 17 in the Greek is truth concerning any matter under consideration.

The word of God is truth.

So when you become convinced that the word is truth, you'll no longer walk by what you see.

When you become convinced that the word is truth.

See, what happens so often is what is seen for some is more true than what the word says.

They are convinced that what they see is true.

They're not convinced that what the word says is true.

When what the word says is more true to you than what you see, that's when you fail to walk by what you see.

Because you have something that is more true.

For any Bible thing to be a reality in my life, I have to feed on the word concerning that thing.

I have to feed on the word, not just know it's in the Bible, not just know it's God's will.

Feed on the word concerning that thing, whatever it may be.

The main issue that my wife Michelle and I had when we got a hold of the Word of God, the main thing that we needed to change, Lord help us, was our finances that needed to change.

Because, listen, if the wolf had come to our house, he'd had to bring a picnic lunch, all right?

Because there was not a lot going on in our lives financially.

We were working, we were doing everything that we knew to do, but the bottom line reality of it is that we were broke.

And we begin to get a hold of the word of God and begin to see that God desired us to have a better life financially than we were experiencing.

And the only thing that we knew to do was take the word of God and just focus on it solely concerning our finances.

And so we turned everything else off.

We turned the TV off about anything else.

We didn't even listen to any ministry or preachers uh minister on anything else than what the word of God had to say about prosperity.

All right?

Why?

Because we had to feed on the word concerning that.

We had a level of revelation, we had a level of knowledge that we we knew from hearing the word that God wanted us to be blessed, that God wanted our lives to be prosperous.

But here's the reality: faith had not come.

That stack of bills was still talking louder than the word.

It still held a higher level of conviction at that time than the word did.

And so what we had to do was we had to take our focus and put it on the word of God.

That stack of bills never went anywhere.

It was still there.

But what we were learning is that through the word of God, we can take the word, put it in our mouth, and speak to those bills, and those bills will obey us.

We could call the finances, we could begin to believe that when we gave, we would receive a harvest.

Right?

And so what began to happen was we begin to feed on the word of God concerning our finances and not just merely know it was there.

That's why God told Joshua in Joshua chapter 1, verse 8, he said, This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth, but you shall meditate therein day and night.

Joshua 1:8

And he said the result of that was you would make your way prosperous and you would have good success.

Right?

The word meditate is to mutter, to speak to oneself.

All right.

It also means to imagine.

So he tells Joshua, here's what you do.

You take what I told Moses and you put it in your eyes and you get it in your mouth and you speak it out.

In other words, Joshua, when you're faced with situations, here's your answer, right?

Here's how you answer it.

Here's what you say.

Amen.

This is what you declare.

God said, I'm bringing you into a land of milk and honey, a land that flows with rivers, a land of gold, a land of good things, a land where you have houses you didn't build and wells you didn't dig.

And so what you never see in Joshua is you never see his faith faltering concerning what God said.

He just took the word of God and meditated on it, and he was the one that led the people over into the promised land.

In Psalm chapter 1 and verse 2, it's talking about the man that is blessed.

Psalms 1 · chapter mention

And it says, his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law or in his law, he meditates day and night.

That denotes a feeding on the word of God.

The Amplified Bible says, on his law, his precepts, the instructions, the teachings of God, he habitually meditates, ponders, and studies by day and by night.

Habitually, day and night.

That's how you become convinced.

That's how you become convinced.

Is by taking the word of God and habitually putting it in your eyes and getting it out of your mouth.

Habitually, you're constantly putting your eyes on the word.

Why?

Faith is out of the source of the word.

That's the source of faith, is the word of God.

All right.

If I'm going to walk by faith, if I'm going to regulate my life by faith, I have to habitually look at what the word has to say and feed on what the word says.

1 John 5, 4 says, Whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world, and this is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith.

The Philips translation says, in fact, this faith of ours is the only way the world can be conquered.

It's the only way the world can be conquered.

Anything attached to the curse is the world.

Anything attached to the curse is the world.

And as we build our faith, what are we doing?

We're ensuring victory.

No faith, no victory.

As I build my faith, I'm ensuring victory.

See, before I can walk by faith, regulate my life by faith, I have to be convinced.

And what happens very often, and this is where people make a mistake, is they step out and they try to not walk by what they see without being convinced, without meditating on the word of God.

Now you need to go to those scriptures that deal with specifically what you're dealing with and build your faith in that area.

Why?

This is not just reading the word.

This is feeding on the word concerning what you're dealing with.

It's not just reading the word, right?

Because why?

There are things in the Bible that have nothing to do with your situation, and they're not going to help you build your faith concerning your situation.

They're good, they're right, they're appropriate in their place, but they're not going to help you build your faith concerning what you're dealing with.

Right?

If I need to know where God wants me to go, what He wants me to do, I need to be feeding on verses that tell me how to walk in the will of God, how to see God's will, not just any verse.

Hallelujah.

One man said this: He said, if you need healing in your body, you don't want to be focused on financial scriptures.

Those are right in their place, but they're not bringing you any faith where your healing is concerned.

And so you are better off to find one verse that speaks to you, that hits you in your spirit and stay with it.

And stay with it.

Some number of years ago, when the Lord healed me from a challenge that I was going through, at the end of that challenge, he brought me out, he healed me, he delivered me.

And he said, Nahum chapter 1 and verse 9 is your verse concerning this from now on.

Nahum 1 · chapter mention

Nahum 1 9 says, This affliction will not arise again the second time.

Hallelujah.

Every time those symptoms would try to creep back, I would answer with that verse.

No, that affliction will not arise again the second time.

What had happened?

Nahem 1 9, I was more convinced that it was true than the physical symptoms that I could feel, than the physical symptoms that were trying to attack my body.

Hallelujah.

It did not take long for those symptoms to be alleviated and done away with.

Why?

Faith, being convinced, is the victory that overcomes the world.

How is it possible to walk in constant victory?

You walk in constant faith.

You walk in constant conviction that what God's word said was true.

Hallelujah.

In Hebrews 11, 6, it says concerning faith.

I'll try to get into this.

We may have to pick up on our next broadcast.

But it says, without faith it is impossible to please him, for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of those that diligently seek him.

Faith pleases God.

Why?

Because walking in victory pleases God.

Faith pleases God because walking in victory pleases God.

I have to believe that number one, God is, that God exists.

If God is, then of necessity, God must be who he said he is.

What did he say he was?

A rewarder of those that diligently seek him.

A rewarder of those that diligently seek him.

So what happens as you diligently seek him?

He rewards you.

What happens as you diligently seek him concerning your situation?

He rewards you with an answer.

He rewards you with a solution.

He rewards you with the victory.

Amen.

That's faith.

I'm convinced that God is.

If God is, then he has to be what he said he is.

Hallelujah.

If he is, he has to be what he said he is.

And the reward comes from what I believe that God is.

I must believe that God is, and that he is a rewarder of those that diligently seek him.

Hallelujah.

God rewards faith.

God rewards the walk of faith.

God rewards a life of obedient faith.

God gives us his word and says, I'm asking you to believe this.

And I take the word of God and I say, Father, I choose to believe this over every circumstance, every situation, everything that I can face.

I choose to believe the word of God.

Now Ephesians 6.16 says, above all, taking the shield of faith, and it says, with which you'll be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.

Some translations say flaming missiles.

Alright?

But here's something the Lord helped me with some years ago.

No matter what the arrow that the enemy shoots is on fire with, faith will put it out.

No matter what it's on fire with.

Alright?

That fiery arrow denotes he's sending something your way.

No matter what it is, faith will put it out.

The walk of faith.

Will put it out.

The enemy really has no answer for a man or woman that'll walk by faith.

Because what he throws at them in the sense realm doesn't work.

It doesn't affect them.

They're convinced that the word of God is true.

They don't deny it, but they take the word and they deal with it.

Hallelujah.

All the plans of the enemy are extinguished by faith.

All the plans of the enemy are extinguished by faith.

They just won't work.

No matter what he does, it won't work.

Because you're not moved by what you see.

And we we've heard that for years.

My fathers in the faith have said it over and over and over again.

I've heard it countless times.

I'm not moved by what I see.

I'm not moved by what I feel.

I'm only moved by what I believe, and I believe God's word.

I'm convinced that God's word is absolute truth.

And so then my conviction, what I believe to be true, is what I'm walking by.

How I'm conducting my life, how I'm regulating my life, not by something seen.

And so whatever you're dealing with, whatever the circumstance may be, whatever you need to move into, things might be fairly good in your life, and you just feel like you need to move into something more.

Alright?

That's going to require faith.

It's going to require faith for more.

It's going to require faith to move into what God would have you to walk into.

That comes by being convinced.

I have a wonderful resource.

My book, Every Day is a Faith Day.

I just believe this is a handbook on how to walk by faith, how to make faith such an integral part of your life that you walk by it every day and you get up every day and you ask yourself, what is my faith working on today?

And you receive it because faith is how we receive from God and from the Word of God.

I want to pray for you right now in the name of Jesus.

Father, I just pray for every person watching this broadcast.

I pray, Father, that the Word of God would begin to spring up big in their spirit, and that they would begin to see these things from the Word of God, and that they would become convinced more than ever that what you have said in your word is absolute truth concerning their situation, and that they can see victory in every area of their life as they determine to walk by faith and not by sight in the name of Jesus.

God is so good to us, and I believe that God wants to minister to you and cause these things to come to pass in your life.

I'm so excited about our conference that we have coming up on October 7th, 8th, and 9th.

We're calling it the Clothing, the Next Generation Conference, because God has great things in store for the generation that we're living in.

Our guests are Pastor Happy Calwell, Prophet Leonard Ford, and myself, and we will be ministering the Word of God the 7th, 8th, and 9th of October, right here at 11620 Rainwood Road in the city of Little Rock, Arkansas.

You can go to BuildFaith or you can go to lifeoffaith.net for more information.

I'm so glad you joined me today.

I'm looking forward to seeing you the next time right here on the Faith Builders Broadcast.

Until then, please remember to build your faith and frame your world by the Word of God.

God bless you.

Statistics say that those in that age group are more hungry for the move of God and the power of the Spirit of God now than at any other time in church history.

God has taken this time to give Life of Faith Church a commission to clothe the next generation.

Our conference is going to be October 7th, 8th, and 9th.

Our speakers are Pastor Happy Calwell, Prophet Leonard Ford, and myself.

And we're believing God that the anointing and the wisdom from our fathers will be passed to this generation.

It is crucial.

It is a mandate from God.

It is a time that God has reserved to clothe the next generation.

Go to lifeoffaith.net for more information.

You are invited to Life of Faith Church in Little Rock, where we are building people's faith, producing life, city, state, nation, and world.

Our address is 116-20 Rainwood Road, just one block off Rodney Parham, near Green Mountain Drive.

Our Sunday service begins at 10 a.m.

and offers classes for children and youth, in addition to the adult service in the main sanctuary.

On Wednesdays, we have an hour of power as we dive into Bible study.

We have a place reserved for you and your family at Life of Faith Church.

For more information, visit lifeoffaith.net