Destined To Reign – Part 15 – The Secret To Great Faith

Dear friends,



Have you ever felt like you needed more faith? Have you ever looked at yourself and told yourself that if you just had more faith, you would see financial breakthrough or healing? My friend, I have good news for you today: Faith is not a struggle! The hearing of faith and the works of the law are total opposites. And sine the law is about our self-efforts, there is no self effort in faith.



After many generations of faith teachings, there are people who have turned faith into a work. Have you heard people saying, “Oh, this thing happened to you because you don’t have enough faith,” or “Oh, you have to have great faith to see that breakthrough”? I don’t know how you feel when you hear things like that, but I always felt condemned for not having more faith.



The Ministry Of Disqualification



For years, my ministry was a ministry that disqualified people. I would preach, “The reason you are sick is that there is something wrong with you.” I would teach on “the seven reasons” why people were not getting healed, and the more I preached along those lines, the more I saw people not getting healed. I would tell the congregation, “There is nothing wrong with God, nothing wrong with His Word, so there must be something wrong with you!” I thought that this was good preaching because it was what I heard other preachers preaching as well, But one day I heard the Lord speaking to me on the inside, “Stop disqualifying My people! My blood has already qualified them!”



Now, I know that faith is the opposite of the law, and the more they become self-conscious, and the more they look at their self-efforts, the more faith is depleted from them. After the Lord opened my eyes, I changed what I was preaching entirely, and I began to declare to people, “There’s nothing wrong with God, nothing wrong with His Word, and guess what? Through the blood of Jesus, there is nothing wrong with you! Receive your miracle,” Hallelujah! Once I stopped pointing the people to what was wrong with them, and started pointing instead to what was right with them because of Jesus, faith was imparted and we began to experience an explosion of healing miracles like never before. Cancers were healed, tumors were supernaturally removed, and lives were being transformed. That is what happens when believers know that they have been made righteous by the blood of Jesus. They begin to understand that they have the “blood-bought” right to be healed, to experience financial breakthroughs, and to enjoy restoration in their marriages.



Faith no longer becomes a barrier to receiving God’s promises. People stop thinking that they are unable to receive breakthroughs because they do not have enough faith. No way! When believers catch the revelation that there is nothing wrong with God, nothing wrong with His Word, and by His grace, nothing wrong with them, guess what? Something happens to their faith. They begin to see more of Jesus. They begin to become more and more conscious of Jesus having been crucified on their behalf. And the more they see what Jesus has done for them, the more they see what Jesus has QUALIFIED for them, the more faith springs up within them and miracles break forth. Hallelujah!



Beloved, you don’t have to wish that you had more faith for whatever miracle you are asking God for right now. See Jesus on the cross for you, and the faith you need to face any situation or challenge will come into your life. Just look to Jesus! He is the author and finisher of faith (Hebrew 12: 2). Faith comes from hearing and hearing by the Word of Christ (Romans 10:17). The more of Jesus you hear, the more faith rises in your heart. Get more teachings that preach all about Jesus and His finished work at the cross. There is no power in human philosophy or the tradition of man, but there is power in the gospel of Jesus Christ! When people hear the gospel of Jesus Christ, faith is imparted and healing flows.



The Secret To Receiving Your Miracle



There are teachings telling us all kind of things we have to do to work the miracles of God. For instance, some tell us that we have to pray long prayers. Please don’t misunderstand me. I am not saying that I don’t believe in praying. I love to go to Abba in prayer. I encourage you to pray, especially praying in tongues. But, is the secret to having miracles take place in your life found in praying?



I have also heard people saying that the key to miracles is found in fasting 40 days and 40 nights. They would say, “I would have you know that Jesus fasted 40 days and 40 nights!” Well, that was Jesus. The question we should be asking is, “Did Jesus tell us to fast?” Now, I know that when Jesus’ disciples were unable to cast out a certain spirit from a boy, the NKJV (as well as the KJV) Bible does record that Jesus, in reference to the spirit, said, “This kind can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting. (Mark 9: 29)” So people have read this one verse and concluded that the secret to spiritual power is fasting. But do you know that in the original Greek text, the word “fasting” does not appear in that verse? It was added by the translator! And if you look at the NASB, NIV and ESV translations, you won’t find the word “fasting” in that verse.



In 1 Corinthians 7: 5, Apostle Paul said that husbands and wives should not deprive each other of sexual relations “except with consent for a time, that you may give yourselves to fasting and prayer.” Again, after reading this one verse from Paul, people have run off saying that the secret to spiritual power is to abstain from intimate relations with your spouse! Now, if you check the original Greek text (or the NASB, NIV and ESV translations), the word “fasting” does not appear here either. If you are curious about what Paul was really saying, then let me tell you what he was actually encouraging husbands and wives to have a healthy sex life and not to deprive each other or sexual pleasure. God wants you to enjoy your marriage, and when you do, the Word of God declares that the devil will have no room to tempt you. In the same verse (1 Corinthians 7: 5), Paul tells husbands and wives to “come together again so that Satan does not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.” Think of it this way: After a man has eaten at home, he wouldn’t be hungry anymore when he goes out with his friends.



Throughout the New Testament, Paul hardly spoke about fasting. Yet, the body of Christ has somehow managed to make man’s own work (like fasting) the main emphasis. Paul’s emphasis was the new covenant of grace, but instead of focusing on understanding the new covenant, people are obsessed with doing! They are saying, “forget about grace. Just tell me what to do.” Now, do I fast? Yes, I do, in the sense that many a time I am so preoccupied with the Lord in prayer or with studying His Word that I forget to eat. He opens my eyes to certain truth, one verse leads to another, and in my eagerness to read more of His Word, I unconsciously miss my regular meals, and I even find myself forgoing sleep to be in His presence. But, I do don’t consciously go on a fast, believing that fasting would get me my miracle.



Are You Twisting God’s Arm?



When you do not understand what it means to come under the law or to come under grace, you can end up trying to twist God’s arm with your efforts to convince God that you deserve a breakthrough or miracle from Him. Do you really think that because you have fasted 40 days and 40 nights, or prayed for 12 hours straight, that God has to answer your prayers? Are you trying to twist God’s arm with your works? Come on, the only reason that God answers our prayers today is the finished work of Jesus. Don’t be deceived any longer. God is a debtor to no man. Our efforts to pray long, hard prayers and our fasting do not impress Him. No man can deserve God’s blessing by his self-effort. It is not about our sacrifice. It is about His sacrifice! All God sees is the work of His Son on the cross; and by virtue of Jesus, all His blessings and His miracle-working power are already yours when you believe in His Son,



Look at all the people who received miracles from Jesus during His ministry on earth. Not a single one of them deserved it. They did nothing to earn their miracles. They simply received their miracles because of His grace. On the other hand, we don’t find any record of those who were trying to deserve blessings from God – The Pharisees – receiving anything from Jesus!



When You See Jesus In His Grace, He Sees You In Your Faith



The Lord said to Joseph Prince, “When My people see My grace, I see their faith”. Do you remember the woman with the issue of blood who had been bleeding for 12 years? She did not see Jesus only as being full of healing power, but she also saw Him as being full of grace. How do we know that? It is because she would have known full well that according to the Law of Moses, she was considered unclean because of her condition and was not supposed to touch anyone, let alone be found squeezing her way through a crowd. Yet, she believed that if she could just touch the hem of Jesus’ garment, she would be healed. Instead of expecting punishment for breaking the law of Moses, she was expecting to be healed. She did not see Jesus as hard and condemning, but as a gracious Saviour overflowing with mercy and compassion. The moment she touched the hem of His garment, she felt in her body that she was healed. Was she ever conscious of her faith? No, she was conscious only of Jesus and His grace. When she saw His grace, He turned around and saw her faith. With great tenderness, He said to her, ”Daughter, your faith has made you well. (Mark 5: 34)”

You do not have to try to conjure up faith for healing or finances. Faith for any breakthrough or miracle in your life springs forth when you see His grace.



The Secret To Great Faith



Do you know that there were only two people in the Bible who Jesus said had “great faith’? The first was the Roman centurion (Matthew 8: 5-13). Jesus said, “I have not found such great faith, no, not in Israel.” As I was reading these scriptures, the Lord asked me (Joseph Prince), “Why did that man have great faith?” I immediately replied that it was because he, being a Roman centurion, was a man of authority and thus understand the authority of Jesus Christ. I was very confident with my answer, having been taught that to have great faith, we need to understand the Lord’s authority and the authority that He has given to the believer. The Lord said to me, “Good! What about the other person who I said had great faith?” He was referring to the Syro-Phoenecian woman who had a demon-possessed daughter (Matthew 15: 21-28).” She had gone to Jesus and beseeched Him to cast the devil out of her daughter. But Jesus said, “It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs.” Jesus was saying that it was not for Him to cast the bread meant for the Jews to a Gentile. But the woman replied, “Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their master’s table.” And Jesus said, “O Woman, great is your faith! Let it be to you as you desire.” That very hour, her daughter was healed.



The Lord continued, “Well, if the centurion had great faith because he understood authority, what about this woman? Son, look for the common denominator between these two people and you will discover the secret to great faith.” After some time, not able to find the common denominator, the Lord said again, “Both were Gentiles. They were not Jews, one was a Roman, and the other a Canaanite. Both of them were not under the law of Moses and therefore did not disqualify themselves. They were not under condemnation and so they could have great faith to receive from Me.” Wow, what a revelation! The law is indeed the opposite of faith!



Do you know that there is a verse in Galatians that says that “the law is not of faith” (Galatians 3: 12). In Romans, it also says, “For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void and the promise is made of no effect. (Romans 4: 14”. So clearly, there is no way that we can give people the law and yet expect them to have faith. The law will disqualify them from receiving any blessing from the Lord. It is only faith in His grace that will qualify God’s people and cause them to have great faith to receive what they need from the Lord. This is the secret to having great faith for any situation in your life!



Amen!



Dedo Suwanda



Taken from "Destined To Reign" by Joseph Prince