For he that has entered into his rest, has also ceased from his own works, as God [did] from his.

We are looking at principles that are involved in walking in and entering into the blessing of God.

I have been showing you a whole structure of things that we can apply, understand and put into our lives, to make sure that we walk in the blessing of the Lord and in everything that God has made available to us in Christ.

As we apply those principles they will always work because they are God's principles and are based on His Word. God always works by principles. He works according to His Words.

He will never work contrary to His Word, and has revealed Himself to us in His Word and through His Spirit.

He has shown us how He works. He works in accordance with what He has taught in His Word and with what He has revealed by His Spirit.

Wrong thinking

Unfortunately, a lot of people have the idea that because God is sovereign He can do as He pleases when He pleases.

They think that He can change His mind when He pleases; that today He may want to go in a certain direction, but tomorrow He may decide to do things a little bit differently.

So we become like little children who think that today it is okay to do this. But tomorrow Mommy gets mad at me, because tomorrow she does not feel like letting me do this.

Today it is right for me to do it and I should do it this way. But tomorrow when I do it this way it is not right anymore, so I get into trouble.

And so I get into a situation where I do not really know what I am supposed to be doing or what I am allowed to do. I don't know how my mother and father are going to think, and I really don't know where I am at.

That type of situation does not work too well in a natural relationship between parents and children. How much less is it going to work with our Heavenly Father?

God is Consistent

Our Heavenly Father is not fickle like us human beings. He does not get up on the wrong side of bed in the morning in a bad mood.

He doesn't get up not feeling like doing something today. He is consistent. He is always the same and He never changes. He says, I am the Lord; I change not.

Yesterday, today and tomorrow, Jesus is always the same. He always works the same. But people have this wrong idea and they say, "Well you can never really tell how God's going to work."

And we come with this famous quotation that is not the Word. It says, "God works in mysterious ways."

His ways are so mysterious that sometimes He doesn't even know about it Himself. And certainly if we can't know it, how are we going to know how God works?

Whoever formulated this was obviously married to the type of woman who changes and tries to keep her husband in a position where he never knows what is going on.

If you are a guy I am sure you have heard the old saying that goes, "You never can tell what a woman is thinking? She changes from day to day. No man can understand a woman. She's too deep."

They are God's wonderful creation. Men you are wrong. God understands a woman. He made her. But you see God is not a woman. He is not a man either, thank goodness.

God is consistent. He does not change according to the weather or according to the way He feels. He doesn't change on purpose, just to confuse us and to throw us into a situation where we do not know what to do next.

God is consistent, and when He says He is going to do something, He will always do it. And when He says He is going to do something in a particular way, He will always do it.

Yes there are different ways to do things, and we cannot predict what method God is going to use to answer our faith. But one thing is for sure, He will respond to our faith, our hope and our love.

And when we speak His authority and His Word and power into the earth, that authority and power will go out and it will accomplish that for which it is sent.

We cannot tell how the answer will come. God has many means available to Him that we do not have.

Misconceptions about Faith

In this section I want to get into the kind of mistakes that we make in applying these principles, because the principles always work.

If they are not working, it is not God who has decided that today He is not going to work that way anymore. It is you who have failed to understand God's ways.

It is you who have failed to correctly apply the clear principles that God has revealed in His Word. It is you who have tried to squeeze God into a mold that He never was.

You are trying to make God do something that He never promised to do in His Word. You need to understand clearly how God works, and how the forces of the recreated spirit operate.

We saw that there were three main forces in the Spirit - faith, love and hope. We looked at them briefly in the last section on spiritual forces, and I covered faith, hope and love each in a fair amount of detail, but not in that much detail.

So in this section I am going to look at it in a lot more detail, and I am going to start with the first foundational and most powerful of them all, which is the force of faith.

I want to look at faith and try and understand a little better what exactly faith is and how it works. I also want to look at what faith is not and how it doesn't work.

Then you will begin to understand a bit more clearly exactly how God does work, and how you should function and flow in and with the Spirit of God.

You will also have some clearer understanding as to why, if you have begun to apply these principles, they may not have worked.

Misconception No. 1 - Faith is an Effort

Firstly, in the Scripture we looked at in the beginning, it quite clearly says that God has a rest for us. So I want to look at the first misconception of faith, and that is that faith involves an effort; that it is hard work.

You say, "It's easy for you to talk about believing, but it is so difficult to believe. It is so difficult to have faith.

When I get up in the morning, I don't feel like having faith. I have to force myself to have faith. I have to grit my teeth and pluck up all that I have and believe."

That is not faith. Faith is a rest. How do I know? Let's look at the Master of faith. In Matthew 8:24 the Scripture says: A great storm arose in the sea so that the ship was covered with waves. But Jesus was asleep …

Wasn't He afraid that they were going to drown? Didn't He stand up there and make sure that His faith was in gear so as to keep that ship afloat?

No, He went to sleep. It was very careless of Him wasn't it? Then the disciples came and woke Him and said, "Save us, Lord. We're drowning."

He turned to them and said, "Why are you afraid, oh you of little faith?"

You say, "Well, if you had to face the problems that I had you would also be afraid."

I am sure I would. But you see if you are afraid then faith is not there, because faith has a rest. Faith has a confidence. It can go to sleep in the middle of the storm.

You say, "What if the boat sinks and we drown?" "Then we go to Heaven."

"What if I don't get well? What if my sickness gets worse and I die?" "Then you go to Heaven."

"What if the money doesn't come in and we cannot pay our debts?" "Then they don't get paid."

"There's no food in the house." "Then you fast. You'll probably get more spiritual."

That is not really the kind of answer you were expecting was it?

You say, "But if I believe, surely those things won't happen? Surely if I am believing I won't get sick and die? Surely if I'm believing the finance is going to come in."

Well you said it. That little two letter word, 'if' is relevant. You are quite right. If you are believing the provision will come and the healing will come. If it doesn't come, then you were not believing.

You say, "Well I must get in and start believing."

We will look shortly at how you can increase your faith and come to the place of believing. But I want to tell you that if you don't have the faith, tossing and turning and worrying all night is not going to produce it.

Wringing your hands in despair, or gritting your teeth and trying to fight through is not going to produce it.

You cannot create faith with effort. Faith is a rest. You must grasp that and get it firmly in your spirit right from the word go.

If there is no peace in you; if you can't go to sleep at night without worrying about your circumstances, then you are not in faith.

That is a hard one isn't it? You are not in faith, because faith knows, that it knows, that it knows. And if I know what am I worried about? What am I afraid of? Faith is not there if you have that problem.

Misconception No. 2 - Based on Obedience

Here is the next mistake that we make. This is the idea that faith is based on our obedience.

I am sure you have heard people say this sort of thing, "Well God led me to do that. God led me to give up my job and go into ministry and wait on Him. Therefore I am in the will of the Lord.

And if I have done what God has asked me to do, surely He is going to provide? Surely God will not let me go down?"

Right now you are probably thinking, "But that is right. That isn't wrong."

Look at this Scripture. In Matthew 14 Jesus came to the disciples and He was walking on the water. They looked out and they were afraid until they realized that it was Jesus walking on the water.

Verse 28 to 31 says: And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it is you, tell me to come to you on the water.
And he said, Come. And when Peter had come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus.

But when he saw [that] the wind [was] strong, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried [out], saying, Lord, save me.
And immediately Jesus stretched forth [his] hand, and caught him, and said to him, O you of little faith, why did you doubt?

I want you to see something. Peter had his theology quite right, very in order and just the way we think. Peter thought to himself, "I would like to walk on the water the way Jesus is. But I cannot do that unless it is His will."

After all, how can you do something that is out of the will of God? Surely you need to know His will first. So Peter tried to find out the will of the Lord.

He said, "Lord, if that's you, you tell me to come out to you and then I'll walk on the water with you."

Jesus said, "Yes Peter it is my will. Come on Peter, walk on the water."

I can see Peter getting out the boat and saying, "Well the Lord has told me to come and walk with Him on the water. If He can do it, so can I. Here we go; let's walk."

Was he in the will of the Lord? Was he obedient? Yes absolutely. Did he walk on the water? Absolutely not. He looked at the winds and the waves, and he was filled with fear and doubt.

He was in the will of God. He was obedient and he was doing exactly what the Lord had told him to do. But he was not doing it in faith.

And he would have drowned if Jesus was not there to save him when he cried out and said, "Lord, help! Save me." Peter would have drowned in obedience.

Don't ever think that because you have done what God told you to do, that now it is all up to Him. It does not really matter whether you believe or not.

Unfortunately a lot of people have this idea that God is sovereign and He will do what He wants to do.

As long as you have obeyed His will, you are in His will. As long as you have done that He will take care of everything else and you do not need to worry.

You say, "If you are afraid that is fine, as long as you are obedient."

But that is not true because God works through faith, and faith and obedience are not the same thing. Yes obedience is absolutely necessary. But faith is absolutely essential.

Misconception No. 3 - Not Affected By Sin

Faith is not based on our commitment or our faithfulness. You begin to trust God and look to the Lord for His provision, for a miracle of healing or for a provision of any kind and maybe it doesn't come.

What is the first thing you begin to do? You begin to wonder whether you have failed.

You think that perhaps you have failed the Lord. And because you have failed Him and have not lived up to the standard that He has set, your faith isn't working.

You have failed to trust the Lord fully by not obeying Him, living the right life or doing the right things. Or you have failed by doing wrong things and you come under condemnation.

You think, "That's why it isn't working. I have failed the Lord. I've done wrong. I shouldn't have sinned and gone there. I should not have done that."

Or you think, "I should have done this, and I should have done that."

Then you come to the Lord and you begin to confess your failure and your sin.

You say, "Lord, please forgive me for not doing that."

However things don't change. Things still don't happen and you begin to think,

"The Lord is real mad at me. He's forgiven me, but He is still mad at me because I shouldn't have done that, and I shouldn't have done that."

You see it is easy enough when you have committed a sin to come and say, "Lord, please forgive me."

But what if your sin is failure to do what He told you to do? What if your sin has been something else that you were not supposed to do that you did do? How do I know that these things do not affect our faith?

In Luke 22:31 to 34, the Lord was speaking to His favorite disciple, Simon Peter.

And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has desired [to have] you, that he may sift [you] as wheat: But I have prayed for you, that your faith does not fail: and when you are converted, strengthen your brothers.

And he said to him, Lord, I am ready to go with you, both into prison, and to death. And he said, I tell you, Peter, the cock shall not crow this day, before you shall three times deny that you know me.

You know the story of how Peter denied that he knew Jesus three times. Three times he refused to acknowledge that he was part of Jesus or related to Him in any way.

He failed miserably - about as miserably as a person can fail in sin. But Jesus said, "Peter I have prayed for you that your faith will not fail."

He was saying, "Peter, the devil is going to sift you as wheat, but I want to tell you something. Your faith is not going to fail. You are going to fail Peter. You will fail miserably tonight. But Peter your faith is not going to fail.

And because your faith is not going to fail, when you come back into the flow again, take that faith that you will have and strengthen your brethren. Take the leadership and pour into them what I have given you."

Misconception No. 4 - Not Based on Righteousness

Faith is not based on our commitment, on our faithfulness, and on how sinless or righteous we are. Faith is never based on our personal righteousness or holiness.

This is one of the biggest stumbling blocks that Satan will throw at you when your prayers are not answered or when your faith is not answered.

It is the biggest weapon that he uses to steal from you. As the Scripture says, Beloved if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence towards God and we receive the things that we ask of Him.

This means that if our heart does condemn us, we do not have confidence towards God and we cannot come to Him and receive anything from Him.

The enemy will rob you of your faith by condemning you and bringing you under condemnation. I want to tell you though that even when you have failed and even when you have sinned, you can still have faith.

It is your faith that will keep you going through. It is your faith that got you saved in the first place, and it is your faith that will keep you saved.

It is your faith that will take you through to the end, because you are going to fail miserably along the way, maybe even every day. You will keep tripping and falling, but your faith will hold on and persevere. You just hang onto it.

Even when you have failed and the enemy comes with his accusation, you just hit him with the Word and say, "So what Devil? I haven't failed as badly as Peter did. But his faith didn't fail and neither will mine, so don't think you are going to come and steal it from me."

My faith will not fail. I will fail. I fail all the time. I admit it freely, I'm a useless miserable failure. I have messed up everything I've put my hands to. I can't do anything right.

I open my mouth and put my foot in it. I upset people and rub them up the wrong way. And I don't have the courage to stand for the Lord at times when the pressure is on.

But I believe Him. I believe His Word and I trust Him, and my faith will remain strong throughout.

Misconception No. 5 - Your Faith Cannot Grow

Another misconception that people have is that faith is of one measure only. You will even find this amongst those who claim to be faith teachers.

They will take the passage in Romans 12 where Paul says, … according as God has given to us the measure of faith.

They say that God has given us a measure of faith. They say that there is only one measure of faith; that if you are a believer you have that measure of faith, and your faith doesn't grow but it is constant. You just need to learn how to use it and release it.

Well I am afraid the Scripture doesn't say that. And the measure of faith that Paul is speaking about there is the measure of faith or the amount of faith that is required for you to fulfill the ministry that God has given you.

If you read the context of what he was speaking about, he was speaking about how God has given to each person a different ministry.

He is saying, "Whether you teach or exhort or encourage, whatever you do, do it according to the measure of faith that has been given to you.

Don't try and exercise a ministry that you haven't been given enough faith to do. When God moves you into a new ministry He'll give you the faith to do that new ministry."

In 2 Corinthians 10:15 Paul says: Not boasting of things beyond [our] measure, [that is], of other men's labors; but having hope, when your faith is increased, that we shall be enlarged by you according to our rule abundantly.

Paul told the Corinthians that their faith could be increased. It was not a fixed measure. He told the Thessalonians the same thing.

In 2 Thessalonians 1:3 he says: We are bound to thank God always for you, brothers, as it is fitting, because your faith is growing exceedingly, and the [agape] love of every one of you all toward each other is abounding;

He said, "Your faith is growing."

Don't ever think that your faith will stagnate and reach the point of growth that it cannot develop any further.

I want to tell you something. You don't have to make it that big. A little grain of mustard seed could blow the nearest mountain into the sea. You don't need a lot of it and you do not need a lot of growth.

Of course the other aspect of the mustard seed is that if you want it, it grows automatically. So just take your grain of mustard seed and get working on it.

Plant it in your heart and let it begin to grow, expand and increase. We have looked at this in many of our teachings and seen that that our faith will grow to a level according to the thing that we are trusting for.

Don't ever stop growing in your faith. Don't ever think that your faith has reached a level that is good enough. Because as soon as you have reached a level of faith, God will lead you into a situation that will require more faith than what you were using before.

Faith for Finances

I remember when the Lord first did this to me. I had trusted Him and He had provided a huge amount of money; enough for me to pay off all my debts.

I had now packed up my job and I was waiting on Him and trusting Him, and my faith had grown because I had learned more.

I had been in the Word and in the Spirit. My faith was greater than it was at the beginning, but I couldn't even get enough money to put food on the table for the next week.

I said, "Lord, what is going on here? You gave me that large amount before when my faith was small. Now my faith is much bigger and I can't even get my basic needs provided."

The Lord said, "It is because your faith isn't big enough." I said, "What do you mean Lord?"

He said, "You are right, you have more than enough faith. You have a lot more faith than you had before, and you have more than enough faith to get what you need. But what I have called you to do is going to require a lot more faith than that."

He said, "I've brought you into a situation now where you will have to make your faith grow before the release will come.

So instead of sitting and waiting, you must make your faith grow. When your faith reaches the level that it should be it will be like the scales. The balance will swing and your provision will come."

You must make your faith grow. Faith is never stagnant.

Misconception No. 6 - Based on God's Will

People also believe this other misconception that faith is based on God's arbitrary will, and that as I said at the beginning, God will change His mind.

Paul uses an interesting little phrase in Romans 3. He says in verse 27: Where [is] boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? No: but by the law of faith.

Faith is a law just like the law of gravity. It is like Newton's laws of motion and all the other scientific laws and formulas that you learned when you did physics at School. It always works the same way.

We looked at this in Section 02 on the Laws of the Spirit. Faith is a law of the Spirit. It will always work the same way every time. God will not change His mind.

You need to try and grasp these misconceptions. And if you have been failing to apply these principles, then you need to look at yourself and your own heart and see what thoughts have been going through your mind.

I guarantee that one or more of these misconceptions has been there. They have been trying to steal your faith and to get you out of what God has for you; to steal from you the provision that He has for you.

Post A Review For This Book