Increased Through Pressure

Firstly, faith improves when it is tested. It is like gold. You put it in the fire and it comes out better, not worse.

Hope is something different. Hope sometimes collapses under the pressure but faith doesn't. Peter says in 1 Peter 1:6 and 7: In which you greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if necessary, you are in heaviness through many temptations [peirazo]:

That the trial [dokimazo] of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perishes, though it be tried [dokimazo] with fire, might be found to praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:

You say, "I'd like to develop my faith. I'd like it to be stronger, and I would like to have greater authority and power. I would like to have the kind of faith to do the sort of things that you did.

Lord you said, Greater works than these shall you do. I want to do it, Lord. Please develop my faith!"

And so the Lord puts you in the fire! You say, "What did you do that for?"

The Lord says, "I thought you said you wanted to increase your faith?"

"Yes I did Lord, but couldn't you have just sent a thunderbolt? Or maybe you could have sent a special anointing that I could just feel come all over me like fire and power - and suddenly I would have more faith."

Well you received the fire all right - just not the kind you expected. You got the kind that hurts. It burns and it is hot. It is painful and you don't like it.

You say, "Lord, I want to increase my faith." The Lord says, "Okay, here are some more problems."

"I didn't ask for problems Lord. I asked you to increase my faith."

You know if you want to develop your muscles, you need to pick up a heavier weight. If you want to increase your faith it will be tried with fire, because that is how your faith is going to increase.

If not, it is going to stay the same. If you do the same amount of exercise every day you will never get physically fit.

I remember in our early days in South Africa, my wife Daphne used to walk to the shops every day. She really used to do a lot of walking.

We figured she must be really fit from doing all that walking. But when it came to doing a long, strenuous walk she couldn't cope. She began to realize that walking every day didn't increase her physical capabilities.

You have to apply more pressure to the walking. You have to make it more strenuous like carrying a heavier weight while you're walking.

Anybody who does exercise knows this. It is not the number of miles that you run every day that makes you fit. It is whether you are running uphill or downhill and whether you are carrying a heavy backpack while you are running.

It is not the number of times that you lift the weight that will develop the muscle. It is the fact that you keep increasing the weight more and more as the muscle gets stronger. You begin to put more and more pressure on it. That is how you develop it.

If you want your faith to increase then more pressure is going to be put on your faith. It is going to be tested, and you will have to trust against your circumstances. You will have to face circumstances that your faith cannot handle in order for it to grow to that level.

Maybe you have been trusting God and have been applying the principles and the result hasn't come yet. If so it could be the Lord saying to you,

"What you have asked me for is going to require a far greater level of faith than what you have right now. Therefore I have put a slightly heavier load on you in order that you can flex your muscles, push them and increase your faith.

It will cause your faith to grow and become purer, in order that you can obtain the things that you have asked me for."

Prayer Power

Of course faith is improved with prayer. Jude 1:20 says: But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit.

You are to 'build yourself up in your most holy faith.' How do you build your faith? You do it by praying in the Spirit, or praying in the Holy Ghost.

How many hours a day are you spending praying in tongues? Okay, how many minutes or seconds? Did you even pray in tongues today at all? Be honest with yourself.

I like to pray in tongues all the time. Even when I sneeze I pray in tongues. Why not? Instead of losing your temper and letting out a few expletives when you stub your toe and get mad, why not try speaking in tongues?

If you stub your toe instead of saying, "*&^%^&*!," why not pray in tongues? Turn it into something spiritual. Build your faith every time. That is not an easy one I know, but you need to pray in the Holy Ghost.

Jesus said, This kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting. Prayer and fasting will add an extra power to your faith and help it to grow. They are like adding water to your seed. It will cause it to sprout and grow.

Faith in Everything

In conclusion I want to look at Paul's statement to the church at Rome. In Romans 1:16 and 17 he says: For I am not ashamed of the gospel: for it is the [dynamic] power of God for salvation to every one that continues to believe; (to everyone who has faith); to the Jew first, but also to the Greek.

For in it the righteousness of God is being revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith. Paul says, 'From faith to faith…'

It starts with faith and it ends with faith. It comes out of faith and it heads towards faith. Faith is the goal and is in between. It is the past, the future, and it is in the middle. You have to have faith all the way through.

He says, 'The just shall live by faith.'

Every single thing that you do must be done by faith. Now I want you to think about some of the things that you do every day and every night. Do you do them by faith?

You might say, "But there are areas of my life that are private. I mean I give the Lord a certain amount of time in my life, but there are private things that I do too. I have to have time for fun, for play and pleasure."

Are you doing it by faith? You say, "How can you have fun by faith?"

I don't know, you will have to work that one out, but it is from faith to faith. And if faith is in between, and if the just shall live by faith, then the just shall also play by faith and have fun by faith.

Whatever the just do must be done by faith. When you sit down at the dinner table to eat, do you eat by faith? Well I suppose it depends whether you have faith in your wife's cooking. That is why we say grace.

We say, "Father, bless this food. It could have been poisoned."

Think about it. Faith should be part of everything you do. It should be part of the air you breathe. It should be with you when you get up in the morning and go out, and when you come back.

Faith should permeate every part of your life. That is what it means for the just to live by faith.

When you can live like that, do you know what is going to happen? You are going to work better. You are going to sleep better, have fun better and play sports better.

You are going to do your recreation better, and whatever you touch will be blessed. You will even minister better.

Whatever you do will be better, because you will be entering into the fullness of power that God has given us. You will enter into the powerful force of faith in your spirit which causes the power of God to be released. 


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