How Faith Works – Summary of Sermon (22-Mar-15) – Part 1/3

(Part 1/3 – A summary of the Sunday morning teaching on 22-Mar-15, in AFT Church, English service. From the series The Law of Faith)

¹² Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. ¹³ I urge you in the sight of God who gives life to all things, and before Christ Jesus who witnessed the good confession before Pontius Pilate, ¹⁴ that you keep this commandment without spot, blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ’s appearing 1Timothy 6:12-14

Last week, we learnt about the importance of confession of our faith. Hebrews 3:1 says ‘Let’s consider the High Priest of our confession’. We confess what we are in and through His redemptive work on the Cross.

We must avoid negative confession – that we are nothing and can do nothing. Instead we must engage in positive confession. Positive confession refers to confessing who we are in Christ Jesus and what He does in and through us.

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE LAW OF FAITH

1. It dominates the law of sin and death. It is another law like the law of sin and gravity. When we confess God’s Word, we set in motion the law of faith that overcomes the realities of the law of sin and death.
2. We can exercise authority over spirits because words have authority over spirits.
3. It activates angels.
4. It enables possession. What we confess, we possess in life.
5. When we confess, we are agreeing with God and thereby we set in motion the law of agreement.
6. It enables the law of binding and losing. What we bind on earth will be bound in Heaven and what is loosened on earth will be loosened in Heaven.
7. It activates the law of seedtime and harvest. Words are like seeds. When we speak God’s word, the results will be plenty. When we constantly speak health, well-being, success and possibilities, we will reap a harvest of good things.
8. Faith without works is dead, and many a time, the only work that can accompany our faith is our confession of God’s Word. Whether it is our financial or health need, we should open our mouth and say ‘the Lord is my Shepherd. I shall not want. He supplies all my needs’.
9. It reflects our position. We can hear a man talk and determine how far he will go and who rules over his life.
10. Through confession, we fight the fight of faith in this life.

FAITH FIGHT

Paul describes the Christian life as a fight of faith. In 1 Timothy 6:12, he writes about fighting the good fight of faith. In 2 Timothy 4, when he is at the fag end of his life, Paul proclaims, ‘I have fought the good fight’. He reviews his whole life, his calling and mission and concludes that it was a good fight.

The Christian life is like a fight in a boxing ring. Heavy weight boxing has 15 rounds. Mohammed Ali was a good boxer. He would prepare himself for taking a good beating. He would run around the ring, letting the opponent chase him. He’d hold out his hands and take the beating. He knew that the opponent’s stamina would run out. After about six rounds, he’d pack a powerful punch such that the opponent wouldn’t be able to get up.

Life is like a 15 rounds fight. We might appear to be taking a lot of beating. But we don’t need to be perturbed by it. Christian life is about the tremendous stamina that we have in faith. We have the ability to withstand the evil days in our life and all that the devil brings against us. We can last till the end and be victorious.

WHO IS OUR ENEMY?

The devil is our enemy. He has already been defeated. He has been paralyzed and rendered powerless. However, he uses other kinds of cunning craftiness. He is upset with the believer whom he couldn’t stop from accepting Jesus as his Saviour. So, he now uses three ways to derail and defeat the believer.

1. Satan fights through the mind. He brings wrong ideas and thoughts to wage a war in the battlefield of our minds. 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 says that, ‘for though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. ⁴ For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds,⁵ casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ,’. The devil brings doubt and depression. Great men of God talk about the warfare that raged in their minds. They battled in their mind with doubt and discouragement in order to be successful. Billy Graham was plagued by doubts about the Word of God when he was a young upcoming preacher. It overwhelmed him and mentally crippled him. So, he sought out a powerful preacher to mentor him and help him through it. Finally, he came out of the struggle convinced that the Word of God is true. That’s why every time he preaches, he backs it with the line ‘The Bible says’.
2. Satan fights through experiences. Many people start out right, become Christians and remain strong for a short time. Then they get distracted by some other new idea. They seek fancy experiences. One person told me that he could bring an experience of the ‘baptism of fire’. Another told me that he could bring an experience of the original tongue that was spoken in Acts 2.
3. Satan brings temptations. He wants our conduct to be affected and our lives to go to waste.

Paul says that we must flee from the devil’s lusts. When discouragements come, a lot of people don’t realize that the devil has a hand in it. And they start doubting. But we must renew our minds with the Word. Instead of doubting, we should allow the Word to work in our life. The weapons of our battle are not carnal, but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds. Paul is referring to the stronghold of thoughts that rises up against our faith in God.

…to be continued…