HINDRANCES & INGREDIENTS OF FAITH
Sermon of TBOLF By Br. Philip Eto
Text: Mk 9:17-23, 11:22-24.
Preamble: In verse 23 of the first text above Jesus said unto the father of the child who was possesed by an evil spirit, "If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth". The scripture says that all things are possible to him who believes. The reality of most people as far as that scripture is concerned is "some" things are possible to "some" people. The question then is why are we so far from realising this word of the Lord? Is God a liar? God cannot be a liar because all his promises in Christ are yea and amen in Him. There must be something wrong with us who are the operators —
collectively and individually. There, obviously, are some hindrances that prevent us from "believing" and thereby realising the full purpose of God in our lives. Let us take a look at some of these hindrances. We shall also look at a few ingredients of faith.
A. HINDRANCES
a. Trusting in our ability: Lk 9:1, II Cor 3:5. There is no man who of his own ability can do the things required of him in scriptures. When the Lord says we should cast out demons, it was not with our own ability. The ability derives from the authority that He has given to us. The power is His. When we plan our lives based on the things that we can provide by our own strength we are indirectly shutting God from our lives — we are self-sufficient. There are examples in scripture for us to follow of great men of God who did not depend on their own ability but they wrought mighty things. Joshua and the wall of Jericho (Josh 6:1-20), David vs. Goliath, Jehoshaphat against the Moabites & Ammonites (II Chr 20:1-24) are sufficient beacons to encourage to look up.
b. Walking by sight: When we walk by sight we loose sight of God. Our faith then begins to fail — and all things are no longer possible to us. When Peter obeyed the Lord and was walking towards Him on water, everything went on well until he took his eyes off the Master and looked at the storm. He began to sink (Matt 14:28-30). The disciples were with the Lord in the boat and were rather affected by the waves they saw instead of the presence of the Lord (Mk 4:3 8). When we walk not by our physical eyes but by the eyes of faith as Elisha did when he was confronted by the Syrian army, we would see that we are surrounded by the host of the Lord’s army on chariots of fire (II Kgs 6:13-17). We walk not by sight but by faith.
c. Dependence on circumstances: The officer on whose hand the king of Israel leaned at the time Elisha prophesied abundance did not believe because the circumstances around did not encourage him to believe the word of God provided (II Kgs 6:24-25, 7: 1-2, 16-20). He died in his unbelief while the people enjoyed the plenty that the Lord had. We should not let our circumstances rule us — we should be masters of our circumstances. Sarai was not commended for not believing God for a child as a result of her age. She was looking at the circumstances around her (Gen 18:10-14).
d. Ignorance of the word of God: If we do not know what God has prepared for us to enjoy, the enemy takes us on an "ignorance trip" and makes us miserable. The story is told of a factory that had a problem with one of its machines. All the technicians had made all attempts to fix it but failed. Eventually, an expert was invited who just tapped a part of the machine and it was revived. His bill of $1000 was challenged. It actually consisted of, he explained, $1 for tapping the machine and $999 for knowing where to tap. The knowledge of where to tap was more important than the physical tapping. In the same way Christians should take time to have knowledge of the Master’s word; that is the only way of walking in faith and succeeding. It is more important than physically exerting ourselves in worthless things.
e. Not discerning the will of God: Luke 22:41-51. The Lord left us an example to follow in His steps. During His prayer on the mount, He sought the will of the Father, not His. That was faith, faith to let go of His own desires and be in line with the will of the Father. Such faith is honoured by the Father all the time.
f. Feeling of hopelessness. In John 5:2-9 we see the hopelessness in which the man with infirmity for 38yrs subjected himself to. But the Lord did not look at the circumstances. Hopelessness is a potent weapon the enemy uses against us to weaken our faith. Do not let him succeed in this.
B. INGREDIENTS OF FAITH
a. Hoping against hope:
In Mk 5:25-29 we read the interesting story of the woman with the issue of blood for 12 years. She hoped against all odds that the Lord would heal her and her faith made her whole. Abraham believed God for a child from his loins when he was almost one hundred years old. He hoped against hope. He did not stagger at God’s promise (Ro 4:18-2 1).b. Confessing faith:
We overcome the enemy by the confession of faith that we make. The word of our testimony is powerful in destroying the enemy’s atsenal (Rev 12:11 And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony...).C. CONDITIONS OF RECEIVING:
a. Yieldedness: The Lord honours the faith of His child who is yielded to his will
b. Prayer & Fasting: Sometimes we need to apply the double barrel attack of prayer and fasting. Some things defy only prayers. Mk 11: 25-26.
c. Forgiving heart: If we must receive of the Lord we must cultivate the attitude and spirit of forgiveness, irrespective of the degree of hurt or wrong done against us.
d. Right relationship with the Lord: We cannot hope to get anything of the Lord or wallc victonously over the devil if we are not at peace with God. God longs to have sweet fellowship with us. Let us not do anything to hinder it.
D. CONCLUSION:
The Lord wants us to live in the fullness of His power and glory. We only need to tap in, hook onto
Him — the inexhaustible supplier. Let us rise above our limitations knowing that the ability to do
anything is of the Lord not man.