Positive Faith

The way we explain our lack of power and our lack of clarity as servants of God and his kingdom is to tell ourselves that one day our lives will really catch fire. One day our faith is going to move mountains. True, we're not where we ought to be at the moment, but pretty soon, one day soon, it's going to happen.

I'm going to get much, much, much more done in the kingdom of God than I'm doing now. The way we justify this lack of clarity and lack of power is to tell ourselves that a new wave of revival will soon be coming, sweeping this part of the earth, a marvelous move of God, and we're going to jump in and we're going to do things we've never been able to do before. We're going to conquer those besetting sins.

We're going to speak with boldness. We're going to throw our fears away and we're going to turn this city. No doubt, there is a wave of revival on its way, but our problem is not that we have to wait until it gets here.

In fact, if we don't make some changes in our lives, we won't even see it when it comes. All that we need to be able to move mountains and bring down fire from heaven to the earth right now is here. Everything we need.

If we will respond to the light we have already been given, the word that has already been spoken to us with positive faith, faith which is more than mental assent, faith from Genesis chapter 9. After these things, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision. Fear not, Abram. I am your shield and your exceedingly great reward.

But Abram said, O Lord God, instead of being satisfied that God is his shield and exceedingly great reward, he says, O our God, what wilt thou give me? For I continue childless. Behold, thou hast given me no offspring, and a slave born in my house will be my heir. Behold, the word of the Lord came to him.

This man shall not be your heir. Your own son shall be your heir. And he brought him outside and said, Look toward heaven and remember the stars.

Then he said to him, So shall your descendants be. And he believed the Lord, and it was reckoned to him that this aging man, with an aging wife, who has never had a child, is told that he, through her, with her, is going to become the father of multitudes. Now for this vision, this promise, to become real in this man's life, something has to come from his side, too.

For instance, if Abram says, We'll see. Or if Abram says, Praise the Lord! Hallelujah! But never does one thing to indicate we are told that Abram believed God and it was reckoned to him as right. Which means, Abram took hold of this promise which was given to him with his will and turned it into substance by faith.

Now we know, he stumbled, he messed up, but he kept coming back. Remained faithful. And ultimately the son is born and Abram becomes, indeed, the father.

What we're looking at here is positive faith. Faith that is open to receiving a word from God. Faith that recognizes that word as from God when it gets here and faith that takes hold of that word and turns it into substance from John chapter 1, verse 40.

One of the two who heard John said, So, you are Simon the son of Abraham. You shall be called... Now remember, Peter, by nature, was very, very volatile and unstable. Everybody knew that Peter was unstable, including Peter.

And so this word, this new name that is given to him is a word right from God. People say you're unstable. I say you're a rock.

But for this unstable man to take on the nature of this name that he's given and become what he's declared to be, he has to seize this thing. If he doesn't take hold, everybody calls him rock and laughs. But John, he's still unstable, he's still volatile, he still has... Matthew chapter 9, Jesus went about all... When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them.

Fast harvest, people ready... And over here, a little handful of laborers, nothing able... And the message Jesus gives is, if we're going to have laborers enough to make it, to harvest... You're going to have to pray the Lord of the harvest. Whether we have those laborers or whether we pray, you know, but then there's prayer, and there's prayer. You know, thoughts that sliver through... And no urgency, but then there is prayer.

Get you no rest. From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view. Behold, the new has come.

Again, we have here a vision of what it really means to be in Jesus, in Him. If we're in union with Him, if we're crucified with Him, really new creatures. We're not what we were before.

The old is gone. People take this vision sometimes and chew on it like bubble gum. Or, they take this vision and they turn it into substance.

I'm in you, Lord. And I know their struggles. And I look upon them now no longer as fumbling, fumbling idiots, like myself, maybe even worse.

But I see them royalty, holy, holy blood covers their... Seeing this, and it begins to happen. It actually happens. And for me, one of the things that really... Man on his retreat.

Changes that are absolutely frightening. Awesome words. And to these very men, He's expecting of us things far greater than ever before.

Now, every... every word that God speaks to us, and every vision He gives us, in order for this word, in order for this vision to become reality in our lives, requires from... that turns it into substance. Otherwise, it's nothing but words. And the response has to be faith, which is more than mental ascent.

And say all the right things, give all the right answers, spout the correct doctrine. That's not what we're talking about. That's faith that responds to a fire and meets fire with fire and sets our lives on fire by grabbing it, living it, acting it, moving in it.

We don't have to wait for a new wave of revival. All the revival we need is already here. The Lord who spoke to Abraham, the Lord who spoke to Peter, the Lord who spoke to the apostles speaks to us.

All that's required. Positive faith as opposed to mental ascent, intellectual ascent, whatever you want to call it, believing with the mind but doing nothing about it, immediately acts it. Positive faith, first of all, is faith that is open to a word from God, willing to hear something from God.

In our nature, we don't want that. We'd rather have somebody tell us. It may come out of a book.

Fear not, Abraham. I'm your shield and your reward. But Abraham said, Oh, behold, thou hast given me no offspring, and a slave born in my house will be my heir.

Behold, the word of the Lord came to him. This man shall not be your heir. Your own son shall be your heir.

And he brought him outside and said, Look toward the heavens. Number the stars if you're able. Then he said to him, So shall your descendants be.

And Abraham believed the Lord and he reckoned it to him. Abraham was open to a word from God, willing to be spoken to. Now the same God who spoke to Abraham and spoke to the apostles.

Personally, I believe that in the last couple of months, a very clear word, a word of promise and a word of command. What a clear word. And the question is, Am I open to a word from God? The Lord has been speaking to us.

Am I willing to hear him speak? Am I prepared to act for what he's showing me to do? No matter what it is, am I really open to this? Positive faith is faith. One of the two who heard John speak, I'm giving you a new name. And with that name, a new nature, a new heredity, a new work to do, and a new life.

Peter received that new name as a word from God. Peter says, Okay, you say I'm a rock, so that's what I am. That's how I'm going to live.

The Lord who spoke to Peter and he's calling in many of our lives, in all of our lives, for some form of repentance. And he's calling in all of our lives for us to wake up and see what he's showing us and do what he's calling us to do. Do we receive it as a word from God? Or do we say, Oh, that lady's crazy.

You know, or that guy's just a little emotional and we dismiss it. Or I've heard that since I was a kid and we dismiss it. And so we allow a word that is coming to us from God and acknowledge this word that is coming personally to me, to each of us and say, That's from God.

And immediately, bow down, positive faith, takes hold of the word that is given to us and turns it into substance. When he saw the crowd, he had compassion for them. Then he said to his disciples, The harvest is plentiful.

Pray therefore, the Lord of the harvest, pray therefore, the Lord of the harvest, to send out labors into his harvest. Pray the Lord of the harvest to send out labors into his harvest. Do we hear it? So now we pray.

But how do we pray? Do we exercise ourselves again in futility? Or do we take that thing and work with it and do something with it? Even if I don't feel like praying. Even if I don't feel I have any faith. That's your command.

That's what I do. Lord, raise up labors for this harvest. We have five people in here who will forever go on and not obey, will be filled by labors for the harvest.

From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view. Even though we once regarded Christ from a human point of view, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he, she, is a new creation.

The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come. Now, are we going to read this passage for another ten years and be frustrated by it? Or are we going to turn it into self-regard myself? No longer from a human point of view, but as a new creature in Christ.

And I choose to look upon my sister and my brother looking at them all the time and seeing where they're wrong and what's weak about them. The old has passed away. It's under the blood.

The new has come. The spirit is alive to those around us. We don't need a new wave of revival.

Praise God for every wave of revival. But all revival we need is already here. The Lord is here.

The spirit is here. His resurrection life is here. The power to overcome evil is here.

If we will respond to the Lord, who stands in our midst today, speaks to us, gives us His flesh to eat and His blood to drink, faith that is open to hearing Him, faith that acknowledges it when it's a word from Him, faith that takes that word and turns it into substance and allows the Spirit of the Lord to speak to us and whatever He has to say, to make it clear, and if He's calling us to make some...