Today we continue our series “God is faithful!” The Lord led me to 2 Corinthians 4. In this passage, we are looking at what it looks like to believe God is faithful. Because of God’s faithfulness towards us, we can withstand and overcome anything!
For days we have been looking at verse 13. We will go back to it again today.
(2 Corinthians 4:1, 7-13, 16-18 TPT)
1 Now, it’s because of God’s mercy that we have been entrusted with the privilege of this new covenant ministry. And we will not quit or faint with weariness.
7 We are like common clay jars that carry this glorious treasure within, so that this immeasurable power will be seen as God’s, not ours.
8 Though we experience every kind of pressure, we’re not crushed. At times we don’t know what to do, but quitting is not an option.
9 We are persecuted by others, but God has not forsaken us. We may be knocked down, but not out.
10 We continually share in the death of Jesus in our own bodies so that the resurrection life of Jesus will be revealed through our humanity.
11 We consider living to mean that we are constantly being handed over to death for Jesus’ sake so that the life of Jesus will be revealed through our humanity.
12 So, then, death is at work in us but it releases life in you.
13 We have the same Spirit of faith that is described in the Scriptures when it says, “First I believed, then I spoke in faith.” So we also first believe then speak in faith.
16 So no wonder we don’t give up. For even though our outer person gradually wears out, our inner being is renewed every single day.
17 We view our slight, short-lived troubles in the light of eternity. We see our difficulties as the substance that produces for us an eternal, weighty glory far beyond all comparison,
18 because we don’t focus our attention on what is seen but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but the unseen realm is eternal.
We are also going back to Mark 11 today.
??(Mark? ?11:22-24? ?New King James Version)
So Jesus answered and said to them, “Have faith in God. For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.
So what does this mean for you today? A few things.
1. Jesus redeemed us to a direct relationship with the Father, which means “NO LIMITS” for us!
— Adam and Eve were created in the very image and likeness of God. They were God’s representatives on this planet. In order for them to properly RE-Present God in this world, God deposited Himself inside of them. When God breathed into Adam, He placed His own Spirit inside of Adam. The Holy Spirit was Adam and Eve’s direct connection to the Father. God, who is a Spirit, communicated with Adam and Eve, Spirit-to-Spirit. Adam and Eve were so spiritual that they were not even humanly cognizant of the fact that they were physically naked. They were naked and unashamed (Gen 2:25).
— Before sin, Adam and Eve received downloads from heaven directly. They did not go to school. However, without an education, they were still totally equipped to operate like God in this world. They received divine insight, instant knowledge, supernatural wisdom, and Holy-Spirit-enabled understanding all day, every day. There was nothing they could not do. God was ON them, IN them, WITH them, and FOR them! This was all interrupted when they sinned. As soon as Adam ate, they died (Spiritually), the Holy Spirit was removed, the eyes of both of them were opened, they realized they were naked. After this, they had to live the remainder of their days as MERE HUMANS.
— Under the Old Covenant, the Lord established a system that looked nothing like what Adam and Eve had in the Garden. This system was a temporary solution until Jesus came. Jesus came to redeem us back to the supernatural life that was intended for us… a life we had before the introduction of sin and the fall of man. While Jesus walked the earth, He operated in the supernatural. He was operating like Adam operated before the fall. However, the religious people of the time were so caught up in the rites, rituals, and routines of the Old Covenant, that they could not open their hearts to what God was doing. Instead of seeing God IN Jesus and believing to live like Him in this world, they criticized and fought against what they could not understand. It’s sad, but many religious people do the same today. They are so focused on their system of religion that when someone preaches the impossible or even performs miracles (by God’s grace), they criticize what they do not understand.
— I grew up in a very religious environment. I never saw the supernatural in action, nor did I ever expect it. Thankfully, for me, those days are over. I now know that Jesus redeemed us ALL THE WAY back to Adam, in the Garden, prior to the fall. The supernatural is natural to us. There is an UNSEEN realm that is waiting to be tapped into. By faith, we can SEE it, BELIEVE it, and EXPERIENCE it. And since faith is VOICE ACTIVATED, I am talking about SAYING what God reveals until you SEE what He SAID! This does not make sense to religious people. This seems crazy. But it is how Jesus lived, and it is how we are supposed to live. Once you are in Christ, there are NO LIMITS. There is nothing you can’t do because there is nothing God can’t do, and He lives in you!
2. There is a world WITHOUT LIMITS waiting for us to believe!
— Jesus did not see limits. He said (by faith) whatever the Father told Him to say. He did (by faith) whatever the Father revealed to Him in the Spirit. He did this without any regard for human limits or what religious people would say. He did this at the risk of looking foolish. Jesus was led by the Holy Spirit, without regard for the input His body was giving Him (through His five physical senses) or what other people would say or think. We should learn from Jesus!
— We are living in two realms at the same time. If you are Born-Again, you are living in the earth, but you are also living in God’s realm (the eternal realm, the supernatural realm) at the same time. This means that you get to look at things in this world from a human point of view with your natural eyes. At the same time, with the Holy Spirit, who lives inside of you, you get to look at the same things from God’s point of view. Your soul then has to decide which one you are going to believe and act upon.
— In Mark 11, Jesus looked at a fig tree and saw two realities. His physical body was seeing a tree that was strong and full of leaves. The Holy Spirit inside of Him was showing Him a tree that was dead and dried up from the roots. Jesus then had a decision to make. When there is a conflict between your body and your Spirit, the decision is made in your soul. In His soul, Jesus had to decide which one He was going to believe and act upon. Obviously, Jesus always chose His Spirit over His body. He chose the supernatural over the natural 100% of the time. This should be our goal.
— Jesus looked at the tree, and He said, OUT LOUD, what He believed. He did not SAY what He saw with his natural eyes. He said what He saw in the Spirit. 24 hours later, the tree was dead.
— The next day, as the disciples saw the tree dead, Jesus took this opportunity to teach them (and us, by proxy) about faith. Jesus said that if we say what God is leading us to say, and we do so from a believing heart, without any doubt at all, we will have what we say! I think that what keeps many believers today from living this way is that we don’t truly believe in a life without limits. Jesus did not care about limits, which is why He was able to be used by the Father to multiply fish, heal the sick, raise the dead, and walk on water. Jesus was able to convince His disciples to participate in the supernatural a few times. The fishes and loaves multiples in the disciple’s hands as they handed it out. Several disciples were used by God to heal the sick. Peter even got to the point where His shadow healed people (Acts 5). Peter walked on water with Jesus one time. Although it was short-lived, He did it. My point is that the supernatural is available to us, but we must believe it and attempt it. If you can’t see a life with NO LIMITS, then you will never experience the fullness of the life Jesus died to provide you.
3. Don’t allow the devil to keep you from the IMPOSSIBLE!
The devil has stolen from us a life of unlimited possibilities. Jesus was able to see into the UNSEEN realm and speak what He saw by faith. This is how we are supposed to live. When you can see into the UNSEEN realm and truly believe what you SEE, you will realize that there is nothing you cannot do. The impossible is possible for Him who believes (Mark 9:23).
Jesus killed a tree by speaking WORDS of faith from a BELIEVING heart. Let that sink in. Now, you may say, “Wait a minute, Rick! That was Jesus. We are not Jesus. We can’t do that.” If that were true, then why did Jesus tell His disciples to SPEAK TO A MOUNTAIN? Jesus made it clear that we can do what He did. But we cannot doubt in our hearts.
If you speak what God is speaking to you, and you do not doubt in your heart, you will have what you say! Nothing is impossible! But this requires you to:
(1) See what God is revealing to you. Through the Holy Spirit, you get to peer into the realm of the unseen.
(2) Believe what you see. You will never exercise faith if you don’t believe what God is revealing to you.
(3) Cross over from belief to faith. There are people who believe lots of things that they never attempt. Faith is you attempting what God convinced you of. Faith is something you SAY or DO based on what you believe God revealed. Jesus believed what He saw in the Spirit, but He then crossed over from belief to faith when He SAID IT OUT LOUD!
How many things do you claim to believe that you have not received yet, because you have not crossed over from belief to faith?
There is a realm without limits waiting for you to PEER INTO IT, BELIEVE IT, DECLARE IT, and ATTEMPT IT! This is the life of faith, and this is how we are supposed to live!
I will close with a few quick questions:
— Are you a believer or a doubter?
— Do you truly believe God?
— Are you convinced that you are Born-Again and that God Himself, in the person of the Holy Spirit, lives INSIDE of you?
— Do you believe you are carrying God around?
— Do you believe God can reveal TO YOU the things He prepared FOR YOU but were concealed FROM YOU?
— When God does reveal something to you, are you quick to BELIEVE IT, no matter how impossible it seems? Or are you the type of person that inserts reason, logic, and common sense, to the point where you convince yourself OUT OF what God revealed?
That’s enough for today.
Declaration of Faith:
Father, this is a season of LEVELING UP for me. I LEVEL UP by speaking words of faith from a believing heart. You created mankind in Your image and after Your likeness. You placed us in this world to be Your representatives on this planet. This means we are literally supposed to RE-PRESENT You in this world. Adam was living this way before the fall. He saw the invisible and performed the impossible. When Adam fell, mankind was resigned to living as MERE HUMANS. Thankfully, Jesus came to REDEEM us. Through Jesus, the Holy Spirit was restored to man. I am Born-Again. Your Spirit lives IN me. There is nothing You can’t do. Therefore, there is nothing I cannot do. The impossible is possible for me. When You reveal something to me, no matter how impossible it seems, I believe it, I openly DECLARE it, and I attempt it, by faith. GREATER IS COMING FOR ME! I declare this by faith. In Jesus’ name, Amen!
This is Today’s Word! Apply it and Prosper.
