Faith and Grace to Receive:

Let’s take a look at faith. When we received Jesus as Lord and Savior, we received salvation for our spirit, soul and body. 

Faith (Greek pistis) means “trust” or “firm persuasion”. Means “to believe” To have faith is to relinquish trust in oneself and to put that trust in another. It is simply believing God and His Word with your heart. 

Psalm 57:7 “Fixed is my heart, O God, fixed is my heart.”
Message Bible says, “I’m ready, God, so ready, ready from head to toe, Ready to sing, ready to raise a tune: Wake up, soul!”

Psalm 112:7-8 Moffatt “He has no fear of evil tidings, he trusts the Eternal with a steady heart; his heart is firm and fearless, certain that he will see hi foes collapse.”

The exact opposite of a heart that is fixed, is found in James 1:6-8. “He that doubts is like a wave of the sea, sin driven and storm-tossed – for let not that man think that he shall receive anything from the Lord.”  A two-souled man is unstable in all his ways.”

Double-minded, one who is divided in himself, trying to mind two different realms, the flesh, and the Spirit. Such a man cannot receive from God, for faith cannot take root and develop to maturity with this constant change of mind. You cannot serve God and mammon.

As we allow God to work in our lives we become fixed, established in our trust in God. We allow God to be in control, and He will work all things together into good, and we keep our heart quiet and confident. 

It is essential that we end all double-mindedness, indecision, and become solidified in God’s will and way. Our heart must become fixed in the way of His holiness, in the leading of His spirit, and we no longer consider any other alternative. When we determine that it is God all the way, we set our will to become one in His will, with His life to be our life. 

Let’s say with Paul, Acts 20:24 with our thoughts fixed in God, our steps fixed in His Word, our life fixed in His righteousness, we shall abide in peace.

It is nothing new. It is time we started acting like we believe the word. Two Scriptures I am believing on are: Matt. 11:12 & Matt. 16:19

Who can teach the anointing? Those who are anointed, not outward appearances, but what God has planted in your heart. 

By faith, the seed of life which we have received from Him shall progressively grow in us until “old things have passed away, and all things become new.” Out of every experience and working of God we have gained a foretaste of that glory which shall be ours in fullest measure as He perfects that which concerns us. 

We have tasted of hope, and enjoyed a measure of peace, we have felt surges of His love, and known rare moments of the power of the age to come, and have been blessed wit h His rest  - yet it has all been so “in part.” 

Nevertheless, we find that as we are “poured from vessel to vessel,” from circumstance to circumstance, there is a constant change taking place, and a new growth. In every blessing received, in every new portion we possess, lies the promise that there is more to come, until we receive His fullness. 

What if we are not poured from vessel to vessel? Jeremiah 48:11 

Wine was poured gently from the storage jar to serving jars, so as not to disturb the dregs or impurities, which had settled to the bottom. God had treated Moab gently. But now the nation’s experience will be like that of jars violently shaken and smashed. 

Moabites were descendants of drunken Lot and one of his daughters after they left Sodom and Gomorrah. They had refused to let the Israelites pass through their land after they had left Egypt. God does not forget. What ever we reap is what we have sown. 

 “So she acts as she did, and her aroma is unchanged.” They were not a sweet smelling savor unto God. They smelled of complacency, indifference, and were not moved by prophetic warnings. They were like thick, syrupy wine. Are we listening to the prophets and teachers today? 

Faith is believing you have your petition before you receive it. You have to believe it first, and then you have it. 

Simply defined, faith is belief and trust. It is believing God and trusting God. Both elements must be present to make faith. It is taking God at His Word. 

You already have faith. You were given a measure of faith when you believed. It was a seed, and seeds need care and attention to grow. Now it is up to you how much it grows. How does faith come? God gives faith, but it comes by the Word. 

Because the Word is like a seed, it is alive and full of power-making it active, operative, energizing and effective…” It actually carries within it the power to fulfill itself. 

Faith is a law Roms. 3:27. Where then is boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By one of works? No, on the contrary, by a law of faith. A law of faith is something that works every time. Roms. 10:17 “faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.” Faith comes by hearing and hearing. Most of the time, real and lasting faith doesn’t spring up the first or second time you hear what the Bible says about a certain subject. It grows as you continue to hear it. (Like learning the Multiplication Tables.)

It is not up to God whether you get faith or not, it is up to you. It is your choice. But it isn’t easy to keep your attention centered on the Word like that. It takes real effort and commitment. It may require getting up a little earlier in the morning or turning off the television at night. But to take God’s medicine is required of you.

You keep meditating on the Word until it comes alive in your heart. Jesus called the word that alive in you the ABIDING Word. He said, “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.” When God’s Word is abiding in your heart about something, you can ask for it and get it, because you have the faith to receive. 

Roms. 4:16 Come boldly to the throne of grace. Salvation is only through grace.

Eph. 6 tells us to put on the whole armor of God because “…we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. 

I want to look at one piece of armor called the shield of faith. This shield that Paul spoke of was the door-like shield, measuring 4’ by 2’ curved to the shape of the body and carried by the Greek and Roman soldiers. 

When joined together, these large shields formed a wall behind which a body of troops could hide themselves from the rain of the enemy’s missiles. It was made of wood, covered with thick leather – which deadened the shock of the missile, but protected from the fiery missiles. It defended from within and without. 

The shield of faith is able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. This shield cannot be pierced or destroyed by the fiercest fires of hatred or malice. The arrows of the evil one, though flaming with cruelty, are stopped by the shield and extinguished. 

Gen. 18:14 is any thing too hard for the Lord?

One of the best ways to increase our capacity to receive from God is to study the accounts the Bible gives of people who were good receivers because of their faith. 
The woman with the issue of blood
The synagogue ruler - Jairus
The Roman centurion
Blind Bartimaeus

Mark 5. These two miracles demonstrate Jesus’ power over disease and death. It also proves that He does not show favoritism. Jesus not only demonstrated great power; He also showed tremendous compassion. 

Jesus’ power over nature, evil spirits, and death was motivated by compassion-for a demon-possessed man who lived among tombs, for a diseased woman, and for the wealthy family of a dead girl.

The woman was facing some very bad circumstances. She was sick and had spent all her money on doctors. She could have stayed in her room and had a pity party. She could have blamed God. “Why did you let this happen to me?” 

Something happened when she heard about Jesus healing people. She believed it in her heart, and acted on it. The first thing she did was to confess what she believed. We do not just confess what we see or hear, but what we believe in our heart. She did not say it only once, she kept saying it. 

It was against Jewish law for her to be in public with an issue of blood. But by faith she 
left her home. It was her faith that motivated her. She had to fight and push her way through the crowd that was surrounding Jesus. She reached out to touch the hem of His robe. 

She was instantly healed. Other people were touching Jesus, but He felt virtue go out of Him to one person. Virtue is inherent, dunamos power. She was the one who believed, speaking and acting on the Word. Jesus said it was her faith that made her whole. Faith alone does not heal. It makes a difference when that faith is placed in Jesus. He alone heals. Jesus took time to talk to and listen to this woman, who had been an outcast because of her affliction. She had been an outcast and needed compassion and restoration. That is a need for healing too.

The woman had put her trust in physicians, but to no avail. Now she put all her trust in Jesus, believing He could cure her. Jesus said her faith had made her whole. It was her faith and the healing anointing that healed her. It was also acting on her faith. The moment you begin to act on the faith that you do have, your faith will work and you will be healed.

Grace is a relationship of favor that gives you access to someone else’s power; a capacity to tolerate, accommodate, or forgive people; a gift of God to humankind. It is the infinite love, mercy, favor, and goodwill shown to humankind by God to add elegance, beauty, or charm to something. 

Grace is God’s willingness to enter into blood covenant with you and give you everything He has in exchange for everything you have. He took your sickness to give you His health.  

Grace: 
1. God’s free and unmerited favor toward sinful humanity.
2. Power to desire and to do the will of God.
3. Divine favor.
4. Unearned, unmerited blessing. It is a gift.
5. Divine influence upon our heart.
6. God doing for us what we could not do for ourselves.
7. God’s help, ability, and resources given to us because of His love.
8. Acronym for grace – God’s riches at Christ’s expense. 

Hebrews 11:1 one translation reads: “Now faith means that we are confident of what we hope for, convinced of what we do not see.” Bible faith is laying hold of the unseen realm of hope and bringing it into the realm of reality. 

Bible faith grows out of the Word of God. The Word of God is the food that builds the spirit of man. The Word of God is the food that makes our spirits strong and that gives us quiet assurance and confidence as we meditate on it.  
Jairus had obviously also heard of Jesus’ compassion and love. He was a ruler of the synagogue. When he is told his daughter is dead it meant that her condition was irreversible. Vs. 36 the importance of faith in the midst of crisis is underscored. 

The next time you feel hopeless and afraid, look at your problem from Jesus’ point of view. He is the source of all hope and promise. And in vs. 42 “that the girl arose” indicates that her life had been restored.

Luke 5:12 Jesus’ answer to the leper forever settles the fact that He desires everyone to be healed. His simple response, “I am willing.” Says it all regarding God’s response to everyone who feels unclean and unacceptable. This leper had only a little faith and yet Jesus responded. 

 (Matthew 8:2, 3 KJV); 
“I will it. Be cleansed.” Some different translations:
Jerusalem Bible “a leper came up and bowed low in front of Him, “Sir, if you want to, you can cure me.” Jesus stretched out His hand, touched him, and said, “Of course I want to! Be cured!” and his leprosy was cured at once. 
“I have the will, be cleansed.”
Sir, if you really wanted to, you could heal me…”I do want to. Be healed. 
“If you want to, you can make me clean…Of course I want to! Be clean!
Lord, if it is your pleasure, you have the power to make me clean. And He put His hand on him, saying, It is my pleasure, be clean!
“I am desiring it from all my heart. Be cleansed at once.”

Caroline – Mark – Althea – Couple with child that Child Protective service held in hospital. 
Mark’s foot