Pastor Kent Christmas | Activating Your Faith | July 3, 2024

Pastor Kent Christmas Podcast www.regenerationnashville.org

You’re watching KCMI TV.
I wanna talk to you about my favorite subject, and that’s faith.
And, uh, you know, it’s something that all of us as believers wanna have, but it’s for so many believers and for years, myself included, it’s it was almost like it was an elusive goal.
And, uh, but it is possible. Uh, in Mark chapter 11 verse 24.
It says, therefore, I say unto you, what things soever you desire when you pray? What things?
Whatsoever things you desire when you pray. This this scripture does not come with a qualification.
It doesn’t qualify and say, but there are a few things that are off the table.
What things so ever you desire when you pray?
Then it says this, you gotta believe that you’ve received them, and then you shall have them.
And, of course, we quote this verse a lot, but I I wanna I feel like God’s dropped some things in my spirit that might help you today because the just can only live by faith.
There’s no other it doesn’t say we live by prayer. It doesn’t say we live by fasting.
It doesn’t say we live by sacrificial giving of our finances. It says we live by faith.
And the Bible says this about every believer.
To every believer, there has been given the measure of faith.
In fact, it literally says to every man has been given a measure of faith.
And so we know God is is not cheap, and so he’s gonna give you the amount of faith that you need to accomplish the purpose for which he created you.
So, you know, I hear lots of people say, well, you know, they just don’t have the faith for it, or I don’t have the faith for it.
That’s not right. Everybody has faith.
The the problem is we don’t know how to activate it.
And so faith lies dormant in most people because they don’t know how to activate faith.
And so I I wanna give you 4 or 5 things that I think can help you activate your faith.
And, um, the first 1 is this.
The Bible says that in Jude, it says praying in the Holy Ghost, building up ourselves on our most holy faith.
And so uh, faith doesn’t need to be prayed for because we already have it.
And faith doesn’t have to be strengthened because it comes from God.
So it comes in full force and full power.
But the Bible says this that when you pray in the holy ghost, you build yourselves up.
And so the very first thing that I think that has to happen, it is impossible to have faith if you don’t have a prayer life.
And most so many believers today, if you ask them, are you a Christian?
They’ll say yes. Do you love God? Yes. Do you go to church? Yes. Do you pay your tithes? Yes.
Do you read the Bible? Well, you know, I’m trying.
But if you ask them about their prayer life, they go, well, you know, you know, I I read the Bible and listen to Christian music, or, uh, you know, I just drive them down the road.
I tell the Lord I love him. That’s not the kind of prayer I’m talking about.
You cannot have faith if you don’t have prayer.
Because the Bible says that when you pray in the holy ghost, you begin to build yourselves up on your foundation of faith.
And this is where I think so many problems with with believers is their faith is not weak.
It’s their weak trying to stand on their faith.
And so, uh, when you begin to pray in the Holy Ghost, Jesus said this.
He said, I’m going away, but the comforter, the holy ghost, is going to come in my name.
And he said he’s gonna teach you the things that I have taught.
And so 1 of the things and I experience this all the time.
I get it a lot of it in where I get my preaching thoughts.
When you pray, all of a sudden, the holy spirit will begin to quicken to your spirit.
The things that Jesus wants you to know, the things that he wants done.
And so this this brings me to the next point, uh, on how to activate your faith is you have to articulate and you have to make, uh, your your goals clear.
You just can’t say, well, lord, just bless me.
God said, well, there’s 8, 000 blessings in the bible. Which 1 do you want?
Or you just say, God, I I just need a car. Give me a car.
Well, God’s saying there’s thousands of cars and thousands of makes. What do you want?
You have to define it.
I remember years ago, uh, there was a a car that I really, really wanted.
It was out of my scope.
It was, um, just didn’t seem to be possible, but, you know, I thought, yeah, I’m a believe God for that.
And I went out my garage, and and I marked out a spot.
And I would go out there, and I would, uh, look at that spot, and I would and I would see that car.
Uh, what I did was I define my goal.
And the day came when I could open a garage door and I could look in there, and there wasn’t an empty space.
That car was sitting there. Why? Because I had a goal.
So this is 1 of the things that you need to do, Uh, if you’re gonna believe God for something, you need to write it down.
You need to put it on paper.
You need to say exactly, uh, how you want it to be.
Um, I remember, um, a pastor talking about it.
He was telling the lord, you know, god, uh, if you would just give me 300 people, uh, to pastor, then I would be happy.
That way and god gave him 300.
But he said, when I begin to pray, he said, I wasn’t seeing 300, I was seeing 3, 000.
And he said, the Holy Ghost began to prompt me to declare 3, 000 people.
And he said, in in a couple years, we had 3, 000 people.
And I know it it sounds the Bible says the things of the spirit are foolishness to the carnal man.
You say, well, you know, me writing that down, it can take no. It does.
You are activating your faith when you put on paper.
This is why in Habakkuk, it says this, write the vision and make it plain.
So 1 of the first things that you have to do is you have to write down your goals.
Sit down with a pen and paper and write down what you want.
Uh if it’s a house, tell god where it is. How many bedrooms it has?
God, this is what it looks like.
If it’s an automobile or if it’s a job, um you know, we were preaching a while back and I touched on this and had a man in my church that was out of work and was struggling and he went home that night with his wife and he needed a job and he wrote down what he wanted.
He was very specific. Within 2 days, he was fully employed with the job that he wanted. Why?
Because he wrote it down. Everything that you need already exists.
And in Romans chapter 4 and verse 17, it talks about this.
It says that Abraham believed in God who spoke things into existence in the natural realm, that didn’t exist in the natural realm.
This is what God does and so, this is why in Genesis it talks about that on the 7th day God rested from his works.
Everything that Adam would ever need, God created before he was born.
If you go to Psalms, I think it’s uh chapter 139 and verse 16. I I love this.
He said, Lord, thine eyes did see my substance while it was yet unformed.
Do you see this? God saw something that didn’t exist in the natural.
He says, and all my members were written.
God’s not asking you to do something that he doesn’t do.
Says all my members were written and they were in continuance.
They were fashioned when as yet there was none of them.
1 part says that God has has ordered our days before we were formed.
And so before you ever existed in the natural realm, god had already written down who you were.
And this is he. He is a God who calleth things that are not as though they are.
And and because very few people ever get into this dimension. They don’t walk in it.
They don’t understand it. But listen, this is possible for you. You cannot allow where you are.
Listen, if you’re praying for finance, it’s because probably you’re you’re broke or you don’t have the money or you’re praying for a house.
It’s because you’re not happy where you live.
So, your environment is going to declare the opposite of what god wants you to declare.
Don’t allow your you’ve got to have visions and dreams on you’ve you’ve got to have visions and dreams on this.
You’ve got to begin to see it. You gotta begin to declare it.
Listen, we’re we’re in the middle of a building program and it’s not finished and, uh, but when I go over there and when I drive by, I don’t see an unfinished building.
I see glass in the front. I see us burning the mortgage on it.
I see us having church in there. I am visualizing. What am I doing? I am activating my faith.
Faith lies dormant. It is a seed and you have to plant it in visions and dreams.
You have to begin to see it by the Holy Ghost.
When I walk out on the platform, I I and and a lot of times, the balcony, it it’s it’s not that full but I see it full by the Holy Ghost.
When we pastored a very small church, I told the lord, I said, god, I’m believing for 500 people and we went for years where we had maybe a 100 people, a 150 people but you know what?
I pastor a lot more than 500 people now. Why?
Because I could see it by the spirit and when you begin to visualize, hallelujah, begin to have dreams, you begin to declare it, you begin to talk like it’s already done.
You begin to thank god for it by the spirit of the Lord.
Don’t allow the spirit of unbelief to stop you.
The 3rd, 4th thing that that will activate your faith is you have to choose to believe.
You have to choose to believe, it is a choice. Faith is not an emotion.
It is a choice. Uh, whatever your need is, find a verse in the Bible that addresses is that need.
Let’s say for example, if you need to be healed and the doctors say, well, you know, it’s incurable or there’s no hope or there’s no medicine, there’s no cure.
Find the scripture, second Peter, by his stripes, we are healed.
And choose to believe that verse. That’s the foundation of your faith.
That’s what you’re standing on. Doesn’t matter what the doctor said.
Doesn’t matter how long you that you choose to believe, but you have to make a choice to believe.
That means that you’re not 1 day you’re going, oh god, I just it’s faith and work.
I’m not gonna make it. The next day, well, lord, I I believe. No.
A double minded man is unstable in all of his ways, James said and let not that man think he shall receive anything of the lord.
Once you declare it, you have to choose to believe.
That’s why in Mark 1124, it says, whatsoever things that you have need of that when you pray, believe.
Believing is a choice.
See, so many people are waiting for some kind of emotion to come on them or some surge of great assurance that says, okay, now I got no.
It’s it has nothing to do whether you feel it or not.
You choose to believe the word of the lord.
The last 1 that I that I wanna give you is this.
You have to speak the vision. You can’t just write it down.
You know, the Bible says this, um, says where there is no vision, the people perish.
And, boy, that is so true. Uh, let me tell you this about faith.
Faith doesn’t dwell in the past, testimonies do. Faith doesn’t dwell in the future.
And see, this is this is where a lot of people confuse what they think they have, that they they have faith, but in reality they don’t.
And you say, well, you know, is God gonna do this?
Well, I believe, you know, uh, someday that something’s gonna happen and and God’s just gonna come through and do it.
You know what that does? That says, I’m not gonna believe today because I don’t believe it’s gonna happen today.
So you shove faith up into the future. Faith doesn’t dwell in the future. Faith is present tense.
And so you have to speak the vision. You have to declare it.
You have to stand in front of people.
You know, this is this is why, uh, when God was going to make Abraham a father of many nations, he said, I gotta change your name because your name doesn’t mean father of many nations.
And when people would say, meet him and say, what’s your name? He’d go, my name’s Abraham.
You know what he was doing? He was speaking the vision.
They’re probably looking at him and go, well, that means father of many nations.
You know, you’re you’re crazy. You’re old. You don’t have any children. He said, I’m speaking to vision.
Hallelujah. I wanna challenge you. You gotta start speaking the vision.
Get up in the house that you don’t like and say, God, I thank you that I am in my dream home.
When you get in that car today that has a rattle in it and it’s old, but you’re a tither and you’re believing God, you wanna say, God, I thank you that I’m sitting in the car that I believe for.
And, lord, not only is it my dream car, it’s paid for.
When you get up this morning and the physical side of you says you got aches and pains or that not still there or that pain still there.
You wanna say, lord, I thank you that I’ve got up today and that I don’t have any sickness in my body.
What are you doing? You are speaking the vision. You are activating your faith.
God gives us faith, but it’s up to us to activate it.
So I hope this has helped you today because I promise you this works. This will change your life.
It’ll get that unbelief out of your heart.
And and here’s the thing, the more that you speak the vision, the more realistic it will become to you, more powerful it become to you and the more you will believe it in your heart And when you believe it, then the Bible says you’ll receive it.
So God bless you today. I’ll see you next week. Stay strong in the Lord and activate your faith.
For more information about Kent Christmas Ministries International or Regeneration Nashville, go to kentchristmas.orgor regenerationnashville.org.