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Subject 18 : GENESIS
[Chapter 13-4] Faith Is the Substance Of Things Hoped for (Genesis 13:14-18)
(Genesis 13:14-18)
“And the LORD said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him: ‘Lift your eyes now and look from the place where you are—northward, southward, eastward, and westward; for all the land which you see I give to you and your descendants forever. And I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth; so that if a man could number the dust of the earth, then your descendants also could be numbered. Arise, walk in the land through its length and its width, for I give it to you.’ Then Abram moved his tent, and went and dwelt by the terebinth trees of Mamre, which are in Hebron, and built an altar there to the LORD.”
Let’s Think about Faith That Trusts in God
As we read today’s Scripture passage let us think about what genuine faith is all about. Each one of us will also make a pledge to plant God’s Church in Busan. You may put your monetary offer on the pledge card, but you need not write your name. You should promise to do this before God. I believe some of you have never made such a pledge since you received the remission of your sins. Some of you may not realize that today is the day we have set aside to do this. Others may feel confused about whether or not we should do this. So it does not matter if you think you should participate in this at a later date. Our Church is nevertheless making this pledge for the first time this year. The two-year lease for this church building has been recently renewed. But today we will make this pledge for planting a Church in Busan.
Sister Hong had a baby not so long ago. When I visited her yesterday she looked quite slim. It was hard to believe that she was using the stairs carrying so much weight. I truly thank God for her easy delivery and quick recovery.
Let’s Learn True Faith While We Are Making This Pledge
When we make this pledge without true faith we will no doubt feel a huge burden in our hearts. You might then think, “Nonsense! How could I make such a pledge for the purpose of planting a Church far away in the port City of Busan? If I don’t have enough money for myself why should I support those people in Busan? We should really take care of ourselves first.” It is understandable to think in this way since we have to keep our personal running expenditure down and to give offerings within our limited income. But there is one thing we all should realize. We can learn all about faith by making such a pledge.
Let me tell you a story from my past. I used to carry a very heavy lunch box. I used to fill it up with cooked rice. Those days many of my hungry classmates were unable to bring lunch to school. And so, my lunch was not even enough for myself. I became irritated when I was told to share my lunch with my classmates. Whenever my teacher said, “Please share your lunch with your classmates,” I then thought, “You don’t say that! How I waited in eager anticipation for this lunch break! And in the end there was not enough for myself!” Sharing my lunch box with others and having an empty lunch box was like emptying out my heart. Everyone was so hungry during that time.
My lunch box did not contain pure boiled rice. Other than some rice, there were some boiled barley and one fist-size potato. Since a sizeable potato took up more than half of the lunch box, how much boiled rice could really go in? When my friends took the potato out of my lunch box it looked so empty. Whenever I had to share my lunch box with my classmates, I felt very unsatisfied, and my only wish then was too turn ten years old so that I could eat boiled rice to my heart’s content. It sounds funny now, but in those days people were all poor. I grew up under these circumstances.
Life Is Unsatisfying
I could compare our life to this lunch box. Even after I ate all my boiled rice, side dishes and that single potato which was in my lunch box, I still felt hungry and unsatisfied. But God is now telling us to share the little we have with the people in Busan. It is not strange to think, “This doesn’t make any sense at all. How can I share my food with others when I am about to suffer from malnutrition?”
However, by making this pledge and by planting the Church of God there, we get to understand the truth of God. We get to realize how God works and what God is telling us. In other words, we come to learn what faith is all about as we give our offerings to God. So let’s go into the world by faith, which leads us to an abundant life even after giving away what we have to others.
Brothers and sisters, are you worried about the timing of making this pledge? Are you thinking, “Doesn’t the pastor know that we are currently going through an economic slowdown?” I have already told you everything as I talked about my lunch box story. I understand you may still have worries and doubts. You might have another concern about how much to write when you make this pledge.
Let’s Look Up to God and Exercise Faith
Whether we serve the gospel of the water and the Spirit, or whether we live in this world, we need to exercise our faith in God. It is written, “Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1). This passage summarizes in one sentence all the verses of the Bible regarding faith. We need to reconsider this definition of faith before we go any further with our life of faith.
It tells us faith is the substance of things hoped for. To understand what this means, we are going to look at the story of Abraham and Lot in today’s Scripture reading. Abraham and Lot were living together, but conflicts arose between them when their possessions increased. So Abraham said to Lot, “Go your way. If you take the left, I will take the right; if you take the right, I will take the left. You came along with me initially and became rich, but now you want to be separated from me. Then because of this problem which cannot be reconciled let’s do so. Since we are not getting along well with each other, let’s live apart from now on.” Lot did not have any hesitation but journeyed straight towards the land he chose for himself.
As Lot disappeared away in the distance, the Lord God appeared before Abraham. And He then said to him, “Lift your eyes now and look from the place where you are—northward, southward, eastward, and westward; for all the land which you see I give to you and your descendants forever” (Genesis 13:14-15). Abraham then looked in all directions and the very land he saw in the distance is where Israel is located now. God also promised Abraham that He would give his descendants the land where the Palestinians are now living. God basically said, “I will give you as much as you can envision.” God fulfilled His promise to the letter. That is the reason why Israel and Palestine are still fighting each other.
God is also telling us to look in all directions. This is why we need to hold onto the Word of God once again. We should not fix our eyes on what we have accrued up to now.
We Are Saving Souls from Their Sins
We are planting Churches of God in other cities to save the souls living there. We build the house of God in the wilderness and then we send God’s servants to preach the gospel there. Therefore, we need to have a desire to participate in this mission. Giving offerings is part of preaching the gospel and saving souls so that people can be saved through the money we have given.
Not long ago we held a revival meeting in Daejeon. Due to the Churches’ situation, none of God’s servants except for one couple could attend this revival meeting to preach the gospel; but to our surprise many people came along. The revival meeting was closed successfully in a good way. We are going to have another revival meeting without inviting any preachers in April. God delivers the gospel and saves souls through us when we invite people to our Church by faith.
During the last revival meeting four souls heard the gospel. Amongst these few was the director of the hospital where Sister Chung works. He said, “I have been to several churches, but their teachings have always been unclear. This time I can understand the gospel clearly. I have now found the Truth.” So he decided to study the Bible with us. Several other people also came along to this revival meeting and heard the gospel and received the remission of their sins.
How precious is this work of God? We previously made a similar pledge when we made a plan to plant one of our branch Churches in Daejeon. Now we are going to plant another one in Busan. Actually, the truth is we don’t have enough money. But we are doing this because it is the right thing to do.
When we are about to carry out this mission, we should not just look at the amount of money we have now. We should rather look at it with anticipation and with faith that God will meet our needs in any way. We should be filled substantially by anticipating it. We need to plant Churches, save souls and serve the Lord by faith, and God will always fill our needs. Let me say this again. Do not look at what you have now. We also need to make a pledge for the planting of Busan Church with faith. God will lead us in every aspect of our lives and bless us.
Serving the Righteousness of God Brings Us the Fullness of Life
Brothers and sisters, what we have is like a small lunch box. Think of Jesus Christ who performed the miracle of five loaves and the two fish. We have what we can call the boy’s lunch box, which was the beginning of the miracle of five loaves and two fish. The amount was very insignificant even for Jesus. But the boy nevertheless offered his tiny lunch box to the Lord. And when the Lord blessed that small lunch box, five thousand people could eat and they had twelve baskets full of leftovers.
Dear fellow believers, we should anticipate such blessings from God. This is genuine faith. We should look at things by faith. That is why the Lord said that faith is the substance of things hoped for. So we need to see things by faith. We should expect God to bless us. And we should trust in Him. We need to live by faith. In other words, we should not look at our current situation or our abilities, but we should anticipate things by faith that God will bless us and fill us. Only then will these anticipations come true. God promised to show us the substance of things we trust and hope for.
I have ministered for more than ten years now. I mean just pure ministering. From my experience of serving God I can tell you this with great confidence: “Serve God no matter how hard and difficult the situation you find yourself in.” You might think to yourself, “That pastor does not understand anything.” When you hear me say, “Serve God and you will be successful,” my words are trustworthy. Of course I understand your situations very well, but I am telling you to serve the Lord for your own benefit. You cannot change anything to improve your situation by fretting and fuming. However, God will bless us as much as we expect from Him when we hope and believe in His blessings in our small dedications. Therefore, we need to hope for the Lord’s help. Our abilities are limited. But when we anticipate the Omnipotent God by faith and challenge its limits, God will work through us and help us to overcome any limits.
Faith is just like a mold that is made out of iron. When you pour heated plastic into the iron mold, you can make a plastic doll from it. Faith is just like this mold. God turns our hopes and trusts into reality when we truly believe in His blessings from our heart. Therefore, whether you run your own business or work for someone else, you should always anticipate God’s blessings. Think about it: What can you anticipate from your work? Promotion might be the only thing you can anticipate. But when we expect God to fill us with abundance as we run our own businesses, God really fills us abundantly. This is a clear distinction between putting our hope in this world and putting our hopes in God by faith.
We certainly should be participating in righteous work as we live in this world. Do you lack money when you try to participate? Do not just look at your poor circumstances. Just trust God’s blessings and participate in what is right. Whatever you do, begin by faith that God will meet your needs. When you pray to God with such desires in your heart, God will always answer your prayers. God meets our good expectations. ‘When we believe that God will meet our expectations when we take the well-intended desires of our hearts to the Lord and keep trusting in Him, our desires will turn into reality. This is what true faith is all about.
So making a pledge for the planting of Busan Church is really not a burden. It is instead a blessing. The Bible defines “to give offerings to the Lord” as “grace” (2 Corinthians 8:6-7). So you must know that to participate in making this pledge as a donation for the gospel is to participate in God’s grace. I am not saying this to persuade you to give more offerings. I want you to learn genuine faith through making this pledge. My intention through this pledge is that I wish your hearts will be truly blessed by expecting and trusting God’s fulfillment of your desires and dreams. I am telling you this with my earnest hope that you will live a blessed life. I also hope you will understand this genuine faith and learn to live by such faith. Our ability means nothing. We can live a wholesome life only with God’s full blessings. Do you believe that God will bless us when we hope for something by trusting in Him from our heart? We must do so. We need to learn from experience that God will meet our needs when we ask and seek it by faith. Faith grows every time we experience it.
We Are the Righteous Who Believe in the Gospel of the Water and the Spirit
No matter how insufficient we may be, we still are the righteous. “Dear God, I want to live a life serving You with a good job.” Harbor such desires in your heart. And keep nurturing these desires. Then trust in God. Believe that God will fulfill your desires. If your situations do not allow you to serve the gospel, then offer a prayer in your heart like this: “Dear God, grant me a life sufficient enough to serve the gospel. I believe You will answer this prayer.” Then it will come true. You will start to experience things of which you had hoped and prayed for. It is said that faith is the substance of things hoped for. When we hope and trust in our hearts without any doubting, we will see our faith turning into reality. We will surely taste God’s blessings.
We need to learn this kind of faith. Genuine faith is to have a strong trust in that which God will fulfill for us in all our virtuous desires. “Dear God, I have such and such desires. I want You to give me much money to serve You with. I believe You will respond to such a pure desire.” As long as the desire is for the Lord, trust in God and ask for it. Expect it from God. Then He will give it to you. You and I can experience such a powerful and transforming faith. We all need to learn what genuine faith is like. No matter what your positions are—whether you are students, young adults, or older people, married women or God’s servants—we all need to learn this kind of faith. We need to learn to live by faith. Dear fellow believers, please keep this in your minds: We the righteous will live under God’s blessings forever when we learn this faith through our experiences. We will still live an affluent life even after sharing ‘our everything’ with others without sparing.
When We Run Out of Strength
If we don’t have faith in God even after we received the remission of our sins by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, we will be no different from a beggar. When you don’t have faith, you will be at the end of your resources. The reality of having more expenses than your income worries you about how to survive. Do you know what concerns us the most after we receive our salvation? It is these endless expenses.
When we received salvation for the first time, our hearts became more generous and merciful because it was liberated from the shackle of sins. Up until we were born again we used to live a selfish life just like a leech in the creek, always asking for more blood as it is written, “The leech has two daughters—Give and Give!” (Proverbs 30:15). We used to live a life like this always on the receiving end but never giving. But when people are truly born again, they feel like giving away everything they have. Naturally this desire to give and to serve the Lord arises out from such a heart. The born-again like to give away their money to other souls, for the gospel and for people’s salvation. The heart is always trying to give. But what is the problem with this? The problem is that the heart is always willing to give but there is not much in reality to give.
Then what are we supposed to do when we run out of resources? We should harbor a holy desire before God. Hanker after a desire like this: “Since God has made me righteous, I want to live the rest of my life serving God.” And possess faith like this: “Dear God, I believe You will bless me to serve You for my entire life.” Then keep praying like this: “Dear God, grant me money, faith and blessings. Make me rich in faith as well as in possessions.”
To see if God really answers these kinds of prayers, you should try this and wait. Your life will surely change. Your circumstances will change. This is how God works. Why would that be? It is because we are the righteous before God. It is a blatant lie for the non-born-again sinner to say, “God gives everything we ask for when we pray.” They are like cheating idiots. Is it not a lie to say that you will get two houses if you offer one to God? But the righteous are different, as it is written, “The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much” (James 5:16). Whenever the righteous come before God with their heart’s desires asking Him by faith and trusting in Him, God will never fail to answer such prayers.
I have always wanted to serve God for my entire life. I had nothing. As you know I used to manage a prayer house with my foster mother. At that time I was very legalistic, so I did not take any illegitimate money from the safe of that prayer house, not even a penny. My wife was even more careful than I was. Whenever I asked her for expenses while I was studying at a seminary in Busan, she only gave me the exact amount for lunches and boarding expenses and for transportation and not a penny more. If she had illegitimate money in her pocket she would have been more generous.
Dear fellow believes, what were we like before we were born again? We only had an entrance for money but did not have an exit. In other words, we kept collecting things but did not let go of anything. But what was the result of this? They certainly did not make us rich. According to worldly logic we were prone to become bankrupt. So, keep this in mind. Life without faith is just like this.
God Will Do Things for Us When We Hanker after Our Dreams and Challenges by Praying and Trusting by Faith
Brothers and sisters, we have become the righteous. God said, “Whatever things you ask for when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them” (Mark 11:24). And He also said, “Ask, it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you” (Mathew 7:7). This is possible because we are the righteous. Just because we are the righteous, God’s Word will come true for us. In other words, God’s Word is applicable to our real life. This cannot become possible unless we have become the righteous. The Word of God will come true whenever we pray, for we are the righteous.
I wanted to serve the Lord all my life. I wanted to live for the Lord. I truly hoped that I could preach the gospel to all over the world. As soon as I met the Lord in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, I prayed to Him that I would preach this gospel all over the world. “Dear God, I want to preach the gospel all over the world. Please give me Your grace, Your Word, Your power, Your blessings and strength. Please help me stay clear of all family problems. Because I cannot take care of my family well while serving the gospel, please will You take care of all my family problems?” I took all my burdens to the Lord like this. And I anticipated and believed that God would do this for me. Even though my situation was not looking so promising, I nevertheless trusted in the Lord.
When I harbored such desires, entrusted God with my desires by prayer, God answered all of them faithfully. Of course, I experienced many challenges and troubles, and people called me a loser, but the end result was quite different. The Lord surely guided my life. There were times when I was in great misery. Sometimes I was in a complete opposite situation of what I had prayed for and believed. But I never gave up. “I trusted wholeheartedly in the Lord. I believed in this Word. It will surely come true I said.” Once I started living by faith, God granted me the privilege of serving Him like this for the rest of my life.
Now I look at those who are serving this Church. I look at those who serve the Church physically or in other ways. I look at those who run businesses for the gospel work. I can give my sincerest admonition to all of them with confidence: “God never fails to accomplish your dreams and prayers when you by faith carry on with your hopes and dreams, trusting God, praying and challenging.” I believe that you will experience such work of God. I do believe that God works in every individual’s life.
Because of this very reason, I recommend people to start their own businesses rather than to become salaried workers. Self-employment may be very meager in the beginning, but it can be expanded to a very large scale in the end. Then you can still live an affluent life after you give away generously. When we do the good work of the Lord, we can also lead a rich life as we serve others. Living by faith will transform our meager life into a great life in the end.
Dear fellow believers, we always need to look up to God. We should always hanker after holy desires. We always need to anticipate God to do great things for us. And we should always believe in God’s blessings. We need to believe that God will indeed bless us. Besides, we need to believe that God will accomplish our heart’s desires. Everybody who received the remission of their sins needs such faith. We, whose sins were remitted, are supposed to live a life of faith just as Abraham did. God said to Abraham, “Lift your eyes now and look from the place where you are—northward, southward, eastward, and westward; for all the land which you see I give to you and your descendants forever” (Genesis 13:14-15), and He kept His promise.
Dear fellow believers, harbor holy dreams in your hearts that please God. And trust that God will help you realize your dreams as you had wished for. You can certainly do this. These dreams will surely come true for you and me, and then our entire life will become affluent. You will then be in a position to lend people money rather than borrowing money from others. You will be in a position to rather help others than always be receiving help. Living by faith is such a blessed life. After you receive the remission of your sins, do not just boast about becoming righteous. Faith is a learning process and should be practiced continuously. When we exercise our faith, our life will be rich, abounding in health in both body and spirit.
Do you think you don’t have anything to share with others? This is because you are fretting and fuming over just what you possess right now. Nobody on this earth feels that they have enough. From now on please exercise your faith. And have holy desires by faith like, “I want to serve the Lord with money.” If this is what you want, then pray to be rich. Then believe. Believe that God will do that for you. Then pray to God. Pray to Him, “Please bless me.” Then it will come true. But you can’t do so when you just look at your current situation. Despite everything I trusted in God. I do not look at my situation anymore, but I believe that there are souls who are waiting to be saved, and they will be saved through me. Then I get to work by faith. Whenever I work by faith, there are people who receive the remission of their sins. Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. Our God is He who accomplishes our heart’s desires.
The Righteous Live by Faith in God
The righteous live by faith only. By faith we can preach the gospel; we can become rich; we can serve the Lord; we can do the work of God. Only by faith can we become prosperous. Do you believe this? Your physical illness can be healed by faith. “Dear God, I wish to be healthy again. I trust in You. I believe that You will heal me. Give me health. I believe in You, Amen.” Prayers of faith like this will be heard by God and will be answered sincerely. Therefore, we need to have faith. Because we are the righteous, God will listen to our prayers when we appeal to Him with our heart’s desires.
Here is one thing always to remember. The righteous should have holy desires. We should not just pray for our own health and work, but rather pray for the gospel. Only then will God answer our prayers. God said, “Whether you eat or drink, or what ever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1Corithians 10:31), and He also said, “Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. And all these things shall be added to you” (Mathew 6:33). Let us through this learn genuine faith. True genuine faith is to hanker after holy desires and trust that God will accomplish them all for us. Harbor such holy desires. And pray. Then you will experience this genuine faith. You will certainly receive God’s response to your holy desires that you have harbored. As time passes after we have prayed for certain things, we will start to realize that God does in fact answer our prayers. Even as we walk on the road, we should pray with holy desires. That is how God follows us around, answering our prayers constantly.
You don’t need to feel despair when your prayers are not answered right away. A minister who just planted a Church did not have any money. When his son whined for a toy he said, “God will give you one if you pray.” Then the boy said a quick prayer right away, “Jesus, give me a toy. I prayed in Jesus’ name,” but when he opened his eyes there were no toys. What do you think the boy said? He started crying, “He didn’t give me one. Why did you lie to me?” But a few hours later, the boy received a huge toy. I am afraid this little boy represents all of us.
Dear fellow believers trust in God. Some day, God will surely grant what you have desired. Children are too impatient to wait, but you and I who are older can wait. All the righteous people including you and me can wait patiently. We can strongly believe that God will accomplish our heart’s desires while we are waiting. Therefore, harbor your desires in your hearts and trust that God will surely answer all your prayers. This is none other than genuine faith.
How Do You Want to Live Your Life?
What kind of life do we the born-again wish to live for? We desire to live by faith in the Lord. Looking at your own conditions is not from faith. Harboring holy desires and trusting in God, is genuine faith. It is written in the Bible that faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. In faith, the invisible things turn out to be the visible things. Trusting that things will come true by God and anticipating them is genuine faith. Those who are not born again can never talk about such faith. If anybody talks about faith without being born-again first, they are thieves and liars.
Let me share with you what happened some time back in our country. A pastor told a church member to give a false testimony that she was resurrected from the dead, and this made all Korean churches rumble. But later she confessed, “I wasn’t dead actually, but I was told to pretend to be dead and to get up when he prayed.” What do you think that pastor did? He advertised all over the place that his prayer had immense power to bring back the dead so people should come to him to be prayed for. He asked for a lot of money each time he put his hand on someone as he prayed.
Meanwhile, an elder of some big church was dying of cancer, but he believed that he would live if that pastor laid his hands on him and prayed for him. Can you guess what that pastor said to him? “As the token of agreement on giving me half of your possessions, sign your name here. If you do this, only then I will pray for you.” Then the elder said, “No, I can’t do that. Do you know how much wealth I have? How can I give you a half of all my possessions? I can’t and I won’t even if I die.” “Then go ahead and die,” the pastor replied. But when the elder went home, he had a second thought. He thought that it would be better for him to live than to lose half of all his possessions, so he signed the contract. What do you think happened to him? He died soon after he signed the contract and received prayer.
When the elder died, the pastor went to his house and asked for his money. The result was that he was almost sued at that point. This perplexing incident happened in some church which belonged to some big famous denomination here in Korea. It was splashed all over the newspapers as well. As you all know, this pastor is a complete liar. Who was he to say that he could raise the dead with his prayer? That didn’t make any sense at all. Did he think that he was God the Father? To be frank, he was a swindler and a sinner and did not have God in him.
Dear fellow believers, God only answers the prayers of those whose hearts are pure. When you hear your own baby’s cry, it sounds like music to your ears, but when someone else’s baby cries, it becomes an irritating noise. Only those who are born again through the gospel of the water and the Spirit are the real children of God. God is the Father and the Master only to those who are born again through the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Therefore, God accomplishes the desires of the born again who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
Wouldn’t you commend your children and do things for them by saying, “Okay, I will do it for you” if they have good desires? Therefore, God’s children should pray to their heavenly Father. God does not do things for us when we don’t pray. Why do you think that is so? If God gives something to us when we have not been specifically asking for it, we would think that we earned it with our own abilities. When we pray with all our hearts, God grants us what we prayed for by telling us, “Now you will know this is not from you, but from Me.” So when we pray, we need to make up our minds first. Instead of having two thoughts on whether or not God will answer our prayers, we should pray and trust with strong conviction that God will certainly give what we have asked for.
We can be blessed and live a happy life when we start learning about such genuine faith by exercising it. This is the reason that we must learn such faith after receiving our salvation. Didn’t God tell us that the righteous should live by faith? This is not just written in the Word. It is for real. The Apostle Paul lived by it, and so did many prophets in the Bible. God left these records so that you and I can lead the same kind of successful life.
Dear fellow believers, we may not have great faith but we all have faith as small as a mustard seed. What kind of faith is this? This faith is the belief that we are God’s children no matter how insufficient we may be. This is faith as big as a mustard seed. When we plant this mustard seed in our hearts, the bud will be very thin and weak in the beginning. But as we water it well, it will grow and soon it will have a stalk with leaves on branches. As time passes, it will become as big as a tree. It will eventually become a mustard tree where birds and small animals can take refuge from the sun and rain.
Dear fellow believers, we the saved should have faith that God is our Father. As we harbor holy desires in our hearts, ask, trust and anticipate based on this life-giving faith, then we will become great people of faith. Then all people will be saved, be helped and blessed through us. Even though we are insufficient and meager at the moment, we can become such blessed people.
Learn and Exercise Faith
Dear fellow believers, practice your faith. Live by faith. Be united with God’s church and live by faith. We should learn faith through making a pledge for the planting of Busan Church. “Dear God, I don’t have anything to offer. I do believe that You will meet all my needs. Fill me. I trust in You fully.” We can make this pledge by faith in such a way. We can of course live without giving any offerings to the Lord. But nothing will get better. Try giving by faith. Then learn faith through this experience.
Trust that God will accomplish all things for you and start praying. Let’s all learn faith this time around. Learn faith as you give to the Lord. Once you experience by exercising your faith, you will be able to exercise even greater faith next time. You will gain even more through the faith you have learned. The Jews do not just give fish to their children but teach their children how to catch fish. The same is true for us too. If we learn this faith, we will be blessed and be able to solve all our problems that arise in our lives. Therefore, we need to learn this faith. By making this pledge we will learn faith. Do you follow me? Do you believe in this? Do you think you know what faith is?
Genuine faith is not believing in just what you can see with your eyes. Faith is the base that makes us pray as follows: “Even though I don’t see anything tangible, but I believe God will give it to me. I do not have anything right now, but I believe that God will meet all my needs.” This also applies to me. When I pray, “My voice is too soft during the sermon for people to hear. Please give me a new microphone for the congregation to hear the sermon without any problems. I want a good sound system. I believe You will give one to me,” then I receive the correct kind of new microphone.
God said, “Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen.” Faith is to believe that God will do what you asked Him to do, when you harbor holy desires, pray and wait. Dear fellow believers, live by faith. Do you understand? If you are not healthy, pray for your health and hanker after these desires to serve the Lord with your healthy body. Believe that God will make you healthy. Trusting and praying as you carry on, you will soon come to realize that you have become healthy. This is the world of faith.
Teenagers, do you understand? Brothers and sisters, live by faith. Hanker after holy desires for God. It will come true just as you had hoped and anticipated. I want you, young men and women to have holy desires. And learn faith. When you do things by faith, God will accomplish things for you. All you married ladies, have holy desires. God will accomplish your desires. All married men should have holy desires as well. God will accomplish them for you. Brothers and sisters harbor righteous desires and try trusting in Him. And exercise your faith. It will benefit your whole life.
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