- Victory is your birth right in God if you are born again,
“For whoever is born of God overcomes the world:” - What brings about and guarantees your continuous victory is faith.
- Without your faith in place, victory would be mere wishes and slogan.
- Faith is the cause of victory, the means, the instrument, the spiritual armor by which we overcome.
- It is one thing to talk about faith, it’s quite another to act on faith.
- Since faith is needed and an essential ingredient for our victory, we will do well to consider the subject of faith this morning.
- I want to help you discover what faith is according to the book of Hebrews 11, and how it can help you live a continuous victorious life and be everything you can be in and for Christ.
1. FAITH IS HAVING AN ASSURANCE WHEN I DON’T SEE IT (Heb. 11:1)
- The bible teaches that faith is visualizing the future in the present.
- It is being sure of what you don’t see now. It is seeing it in advance.
- You see it in advance and believe it before it comes to limelight.
- Everything that has happened in life was an impossibility before it became a reality and somebody had to believe it.
- What do you see in your future? Genesis 13:14, 15
- What you see will determine whether you are going to be victorious or not.
- Faith is giving when I don’t have it to give.
- Giving and faith goes together.
- You can give by fear when you say, “How much can I afford to give”; or give by faith when you say, “How much does God wants me to give”
2 Corinthians 8:1-3 - it is one thing to give when you have excess or spare, it is another to give when you don’t know where it’s going to come from.
-That is a test of faith.
3. FAITH IS OBEYING WHEN I DON’T UNDERSTAND IT (Heb. 11:8)
- At age 75, Abraham started out on the greatest journey of his life.
- Inside the journey lies Abraham’s turn around and achievement.
- If he had queried God’s leading and instructions, he would have missed it all together.
4. FAITH IS PERSISTING WHEN I DON’T FEEL LIKE (Heb. 11:27)
- Moses did not base his life on feelings but on commitment.
- When you allow how you feel to control your life and decisions, you ended up being manipulated by moods.
- Someone does not become a master musician by practicing only when he feels like. He goes on with the practice when he does not feel like.
- What kept Abraham moving was the fact that he saw the “invisible”
- We can only accomplish the impossible when we keep our eyes on the invisible God
- If you focus your eyes on God, He will give you power to persevere and move on against all odds.
- With your faith in place your victory is sure as the rising of the sun.
- Here are people who have been slaves for 400 year. They’re not trained army. They have no weapons
- With those deficit God said they should march round the walls of Jericho seven times.
- When they were marching round it, they believed that God is already doing something and that is faith. Mark 11:24
6. FAITH IS TRUSTING GOD IF I DON’T GET IT (Heb. 11:39-40)
- God hears and answers prayers
- However, God does not answer the way we want Him to.
- Sometimes God’s answer is, ‘No’ or ‘Not yet’ or ‘Later’ or ‘Wait a while’
- God will only give you what is best and for your benefit.
- This chapter of Hebrew is talking about heroes of faith – he said these people had promises and dreams and they didn’t come true and are still heroes of faith. Because they trusted even when they did not get it.
Anybody can trust God when the going is good and things are great. However, real faith develops in the valleys of life when the dream is delayed.
- Martin Luther had a dream for racial equality.
- He didn’t see it happen in his lifetime.
Your victory rests on the application of your faith.
- Until you activate your faith, your victory looks like a mirage!