You’re watching KC MIT if you’re hungry for the power and presence of god, get ready for the Freshfire Conference presented by pastor’s Kent and Candy Christmas, April 11 through 14 with special guest, Jensen Franklin, Samuel Rodriguez.
Tony Suarez, Doctor Hans Hess, and pastor Kent Christmas.
For more information, go to www.regenerationnashville.org.
I wanna talk to you today about one of my favorite subjects.
In fact, the Bible says it’s how you and I live, and I wanna talk to you about faith.
And, uh, I thought we could start with Hebrews chapter 4.
And, uh, verse 9, it says they’re re they’re remaining there for a rest to the people of god.
You know, if if you’re at rest, it means you’re not doing anything.
For he that has entered into his rest or Christ rest, you also cease from your own works as god did from his.
Verse 11, let us labor therefore to enter into that rest lest any men fall after same example of unbelief.
And he’s talking about the Israelites who did not go into their inheritance because of unbelief.
Uh, verse 11, he said, let us therefore labor, uh, to enter into the rest.
And, uh, you know, people I’ve had people ask me, and I’m, you know, I’ve worked on myself praying and seeking the lord lord.
How do I have faith? And, uh, it is a labor.
It’s a labor to enter into the realm of faith.
It means that it requires something from you that once you get into the faith realm, See, faith is where god lives.
Faith is it’s the spirit realm. It’s where god creates. It’s where he performs his word.
But it requires an effort on your and my part.
Uh, for example, TIVING uh, you know, for all of us, um, you know, you can there there is a place that you can get to where when you tithe, it’s it does not hurt you financially.
You still have enough money to pay your bills, but I can also tell you this that there is a season where tidying requires labor on our part.
Because when you add it up on paper, it says if I tithe then I won’t have enough money to pay my bills.
But if you enter if you labor to enter into faith, and you say, I’m gonna do this anyway.
So it’s in work. It’s a it’s a work. It’s an act on your part.
God then takes that seed and he implies it, and he pulls it over to the realm of faith.
And so faith just doesn’t happen.
Uh, to every man who’s given the measure faith, but I can tell you this, it takes labor to activate it.
And so I wanna talk to you about Three realms of faith.
I wanna talk to you about no faith little faith and great faith or strong faith.
So I thought that we could start, um, in the book of John, um, this is chapter 20.
And, This is where the lord is talking to Thomas and Jesus has been resurrected, and the word is out.
He’s alive. And, the disciples have told Thomas in the 20th chapter, um, that Jesus is alive.
And Thomas said in verse 25, he said they said we’ve seen the lord, but he said to them, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails and put my finger into the print of the nails.
And thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe.
And 8 days later, uh, again, the Bible says his disciples are with in, and Thomas is with them, and then came Jesus.
And the door’s being shut, and he stood in the mist and said, peace be unto you.
He literally came through the wall. And, um, he said, peace.
And and he am it’s very interesting here because all the disciples are in this room And when Jesus shows up supernaturally into this room, the first thing he does, he goes to Thomas.
And he says, take your finger and behold my hands and reach hither thy hand and put it in my side.
And he said, be not faithless, which means get out of the realm that you don’t have faith, but he said you need to believe.
Um, you know, I would hate to have this this, um, name or label attached to me, but how many times when somebody has said something.
You know, I don’t believe it or whatever. He will say, well, you’re down Thomas.
Uh, faith will really Uh, it will keep you from places.
Yeah. Not having faith kept The Israelites out of their inheritance.
And, uh, the lord looks at Thomas, and he said, you don’t have any faith.
Now Jesus was he still wanted Jesus’ disciples, but I don’t know if you thought about this, but There is no book in the new testament that is written by Thomas.
And really outside of this particular story. I can’t think of.
I haven’t I haven’t went back and and really searched it, but I don’t think that there’s any other incident that is recorded in the new testament dealing with Thomas.
Why? Because god can’t use people that don’t have faith.
And with Thomas, um, he said, I’ll believe after I see, well, that’s not faith.
Faith is believing that even when it’s not happened, that it’s going to happen.
You know, the Bible talks about says believing that you have received those things, then you shall have them.
And so, uh, there’s a lot of Christians today that love the lord, but they have zero faith.
And I will tell you this, being a Christian and having no faith is a miserable existence.
Then as a young man, you know, I wasn’t raised around I wasn’t raised around the faith movement, we were raised more around, uh, a works movement.
And, um, I never was really taught faith as a young man and all my our existence and, um, was just very meager you know, we could speak in tongues and shout with the best of them, but when it came to faith, we didn’t have any.
And, So our our our re our resort to that was was, you know, uh, we we just live sacrificially.
Well, that’s just another means of saying I don’t have any faith because god wants you to be blessed.
Uh, the second part of this that that I wanna deal with is this is in Matthew, uh, chapter 8.
And, Jesus, this is when, um, he’s in the ship.
With his disciples. And Bumble says a storm has a rose, and, um, his disciples came to him and and awoke him saying, lord, save us.
We perish. And he said unto them, Why are you fearful?
Oh, ye of little faith, and he arose and rebuked the wind in the sea, and there was a great comp.
When people don’t have faith, if you don’t have faith, then you will live in fear.
And especially in the environment that we’re in in this nation and in the earth with all of the things that are happening and And this is why I don’t listen to the news is because listening to secular news will create fear in your heart.
Because they are perpetrating the agenda of hell. And, uh, whose report do you believe?
We will re believe the the lord. So here you have the disciples.
This is very interesting because the disciples are in a storm but they’ve got Jesus in it.
And with Jesus in the boat, there they had such little faith Now you gotta remember that they have seen Jesus already do some incredible things.
They’ve seen him feed. Uh, twenty thousand people with five loaves and 2 fishes, and they’ve seen him, uh, heal sick people and cast out demons.
And it’s interesting to me how many Christians have seen god do something so supernatural And then the next time they encounter a situation that’s beyond their means, they fall.
One of the ways to maintain your faith is to continue to remember what god has already done.
And a lot of times when I encounter something that I really need god step in and do something supernatural.
I will go back and I will begin to remember what god has done in the past for me that should not have happened, but my faith, hallelujah, caused him to do it.
And, uh, Jesus He O’WALT. The Bible said he rebuked the storm.
I think one scripture says this that the disciples had little faith because their hearts were hearted.
I never wanna get to a place to where god is just routine to me.
And that I get used to him.
Um, I don’t wanna ever get used to the presence of the lord.
I I’m gonna take a rapid trail here for a moment and go back to the old testament.
And, uh, when the arc of the covenant is David’s bringing into into the city of David.
And Yousa is, uh, driving that car with the auction and cart begins to shift, and the Bible said that user put his hand on the ARC to steady it.
And when he did, god killed him, Well, part of it was because the arch should have never been on a cart.
Moses’s law said is to be carried on the shoulders of men.
And he said, well, why would god kill you? And here’s here’s why I think.
It’s because the arc had been in the house of, um, a Benedad for about 20 years, and he was a priest.
So user was raised in the house where the arc of the covenant was.
And because Saul did not put value on the arc.
I think that the arc, you know, it it wasn’t consulted. It wasn’t used.
It just became a piece of furniture.
And I think that user got used to it, and it wasn’t reverent to him.
And then when it’s come in, anything odd, just hold it on there.
God killed him because he did not have the respect and the honor for the presence of the lord.
Never allow yourself to get in place.
To where god is just somebody that that you know, but he’s the king of kings, and he’s the lord of lords.
And, with with the disciples, the lord said this, he said, oh, ye, a little faith.
You can be a Thomas and have no faith and never be used, or you can have little faith and really not comprehend what god wants to do.
Or else you can have, um, in verse.
This is in Romans chapter 4 And this is one of my favorite passages of scripture.
Um, and you said, pastor, why do you talk about faith so much?
Because We are coming into an hour. The only way you’re gonna survive is if you have great faith.
Not not no faith, not little faith, but you’re gonna have to have prong faith or great faith.
Then this is, uh, Romans, and this is dealing, uh, with Abraham, who’s the father of faith And verse 17, the lord speaking to him, and he said, I have made dear father at many nations.
And the lord said that he said he spoken in past tense.
He’s speaking something that has not yet happened to Ibrahim in past tense like it already has.
And, uh, he tells him he says, I have made the father of many nations And, um, he said, even god who quickened at things that are dead.
And the lord is, um, he was speaking because he’s gonna deal with something that’s dead.
And he said, I call things that be not as though they were. Alright.
He says, I’m gonna make the Father of Many nations. And yet Abraham doesn’t even have a son.
And then god says the writers talks about that god brings back to life, things that are dead.
What what did that pertain to? It pertained to Adam’s loin or to Abraham’s loins.
Because the Bible said he considered not his own loins now dead.
So god is telling him before him that I’m gonna do this through something that’s already died.
But if you have faith, hallelujah resurrection is gonna hit something that died and we’ll make it come back to life.
And then he said, I’m gonna speak things that are not as though they were.
He said, I’m declaring you already have a son, even though you’ve never had any children.
Verse 18, uh, he against hope.
In other words, there was nothing to hope for in the natural He believed that he would become the father that he might become.
God’s already said in verse 17, you already are by faith now, it says he’s believing that what god has declared already is shall happen.
And Verse 19. This is a real key verse.
It says this he is not weak in faith.
Verse 20, it says he is strong in faith.
And so Abraham is in a dimension to where his faith is not weak it’s not OE of little faith or faithless like Thomas, but it is strong faith or faith that is not weak.
So he’s not he’s got strong faith.
And the first thing that happens with strong faith is the Bible says He considered not his own body.
Now that Here’s what kills faith is when you start considering the circumstances that you’re in that are created that unbelief says are not gonna change.
When god says something to you that he’s going to do and it there’s nothing in the natural that looks like it’s gonna make happen.
How did Abraham become the father of many nations?
Because the Bible said that See, the enemy came in and said, okay.
God says you’re gonna have a son. You’re gonna be a father of many nations.
But unbelief says you’re a hundred years old, and your loins are dead.
And Sarah’s 90, and nobody’s ever had a baby at her age, not in your time.
That ain’t gonna happen. So what? You know what? Abraham says? I can’t hear you.
He said I can’t hear you devil because the word of god is already roaring in my ears has been spoke in hallelujah.
That god faith was speaking so loud in Abraham’s ears from what god had already said that he couldn’t hear the lies of unbelief that were being spoken by the devil.
And so the devil’s trying to go, hey, Abraham.
You need to consider the fact your loins are dead and and and Sarah’s Womstead.
And you may have said, I ain’t considering that.
Because god already said he makes things come back to life that are dead.
I wanna encourage you There are some things in some of your lives that I’m talking to right now that have died that you were hoping would produce life.
And god is saying faith, hallelujah, if you will take the act of of effort and step over to the realm of faith.
God said I will life. I’m prophesied to somebody.
I’m gonna bring resurrection life to what the enemy caused to die or time caused to die or the natural transition of life caused to die, and god said I’ll make it come back to life.
When the lord was, uh, speaking to, uh, and and we’ll end on this.
This is in Matthew 5th 15 um, you remember when, um, the lord, uh, the the Cyrofrenetian woman, the woman of Canaan comes to Jesus, And, um, she, uh, comes to the lord.
She says, I need you to cash the devil out of my daughter for she’s grievously vexed.
And the lord said, no. You’re not a Jew.
You have to and I’m not I’m not we don’t give, uh, the children’s bread to the dogs.
Boy, that had been enough right there and most people weigh men. He called her a dog.
And she said, that’s true, lord.
But she said, even the dogs get to eat the crumbs that fall from the master’s table.
And in Matthew chapter 15, verse 28, the lord said this. Oh, woman. Hallelujah.
Great. Is thy faith.
It will be unto thee even as you desire.
And her daughter was made whole from that very hour.
We, we get to choose what kind of faith we have.
No faith will keep you out of your inheritance.
Little faith We’ll keep you out of your inheritance.
People that don’t have faith are dependent just on the mercy of god in their life.
And in the spirit realm, I’ve never seen anybody that doesn’t have any faith prosper. No.
In the natural realm centers, um, they prosper, but it’s short lived. It’s temporary.
But in the in the kingdom of god, blessing and inheritance only comes out of faith.
And we choose. I had to choose. I and and it was a process.
As a young man, I didn’t have any faith. I was faithless. I love the lord.
But when it came to believing god for the supernatural, I couldn’t do it.
And then god, the holy spirit, began to prod me, and I began to make the effort to step over until I had a little faith.
At least at least the disciples knew who to call on when they got in trouble.
And the lord told me he said, oh, you have little faith.
But then there’s that dimension, hallelujah, where god wants to bring us all, where he says, oh, my.
You got strong faith. You got great faith. And, see, it’s faith, hallelujah.
It’s just simply believing what god has said.
And all the promises of god are yay and Amen, and his word will not return it to him void.
So I hope this has helped you today and encouraged you. Um, ask god.
God help me have great faith, and he will. I love you. I’ll see you next week.
For more information about Kent Christmas Ministries International or regeneration Nashville, go to Kent Christmas.org, or regeneration nashville.org.