(ThyBlackMan.com) In order for us to operate in faith, we must understand two primary things about faith: (1) Faith is spiritual and (2) Faith must be applied.
Faith is spiritual. Things are more real in the spirit realm than in this realm where we see, hear, smell, taste and touch. God is a Spirit. Everything God does, He does it by, through and with His Spirit and then it manifests in the natural. God moves by His Spirit. The Bible talks about three kinds of mankind: the natural man, the carnal man and the spiritual man. Faith comes by hearing. Prosperity, success and the fruit of the Word will come into your life through meditation, but faith comes by hearing. Read out loud because what you hear, you will get faith to believe. Faith comes from the same Greek word as metamorphosis, which means, “to be transformed.”
We go from glory to glory to glory. Glory is translated, “kabod,” which means, “heavily-weighted with substance.” God wants to load me down with some stuff, but it’s going to be appropriated and pulled in by faith. Many believers get frustrated with the things of God because they don’t see things working for them.
God wants this Word to be applicable for your daily living. He doesn’t want you to just go to church to feel good. He wants that Word to be imparted in you so that when you get outside, you begin to operate in faith and when you pray you start seeing results. That should motivate you to want to get more of God and get more in God’s face. What happens is not going to be
through my education (although education is good), my job skills, or my physical or mental strength. But when God begins to bless me, it’s going to be by His Spirit. I cannot afford to be a “natural” man. A natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God. The “carnal” man is someone who has confessed Christ, but they only want to go just so far. They go to church sometimes; they pray sometimes, they read their Bibles sometimes. To be carnal-minded is death.
Everything we do in the Kingdom of God is spiritual. You’ve got to make up in your mind to be spiritual. I’m not talking about where you’re so deep and so spiritual that you are goofy and you’re no earthly good and instead of drawing people, your spirituality repels them; they can’t even have a decent conversation with you. Whatever is not of faith is sin. So, when I get involved with God, I’ve got to make up my mind to be in faith and spiritual. You must maintain a spiritual attitude. If you get in the flesh, your flesh will talk you out of everything God has provided for you.
Faith must be applied. To say you have faith and not use your faith is nothing. People have categorized faith as a denomination or a religious position: Catholic, Baptist, Episcopalian, A.O.H. or Church of God in Christ. These are reflections of faith. You need an impartation and it is God’s desire to meet every need. He’s not going to provide for you just because you have a need. He will provide for you only if you’ve started developing your faith and operating in faith. Faith is not arrogance. People that live in and operate in faith are often misunderstood as their actions are misinterpreted because they’re confident. Faith is confidence in God’s ability to perform His Word. God has already given me my measure of faith. What I have to do in the confines of my measure is to start working out where I am.
We must learn how to operate in the Spirit. Your crying, belly-aching, and complaining will not make God move for you. When God moves for you, it’s going to be in response to your faith. We like to get someone around us who’s going to break out the violins with us. Shake yourself, and gird up your loins and let’s get ready to fight! Too many saints don’t want to fight. You just want to lie down and let someone else do your praising, your confessing and your praying. You tell everybody and their Grandmomma to pray for you and some of them don’t even know the Word of prayer.
God is a God of divine order. Some of the folks you’re asking to pray for you may be the ones helping you to mess up. They don’t even know how to pray. Don’t pray for me if you don’t know what the will of God is. The weapons of my warfare are not carnal. I have to even think “faith.” I don’t care what it looks like because I am in the Spirit. Faith works in the Spirit realm, but it manifests in the natural. I already have it. God has given me the measure of faith that I need to meet every need, every situation, every circumstance, every trick, every tactic, every scheme and every snare of the devil. I’m already equipped to overcome! This is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith!
Scriptures: Genesis 1:1-3; 1:27; John 4:24; Hebrews 1:11; I Corinthians 2:14; II Corinthians 3:1-8; 10:4, 5; Romans 14:23; Romans 12: 3; Psalm 23:4; I John 5:4; Matthew 7:22; John 1:1-3.
Staff Writer; Dr. Henry W. Roberts, II
This man of god is the pastor/teacher of Word of Life Community Church of Whistler and Chickasaw, AL. For teaching materials, please call (251) 456-2652.