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FAITH THAT WILL NOT CHANGE
FOUNDATION STATEMENT: As believers we have to be steadfast and immovable in our faith. To live by faith you have to get "quit" out of your vocabulary, set your jaw, establish your heart and make the decision that you're going to live by faith until the victory shows up.
FOUNDATION SCRIPTURE: Psalm 112:7-8
I. As a believer you have to fix your heart trusting in the Lord (Psalm 112:7-8)
A. You have to go to the book and say, "What this Word says about me is true and it is so and I'm not coming off of it."
1. Settle It
a. You have to get bull-dog stubborn and make the decision that you're not changing your mind and that you're not giving up
b. Don't develop a mindset that it's going to take a long time for the promise to manifest, just make the decision that you're going to stand on the Word until the promise shows up
2. Faith should have some stubbornness with it. Faith should have an attitude about it that says, "I'm not compromising, I'm not changing, and I'm not quitting. This thing is coming to pass."
a. Faith has to be unrelenting, Faith has to be stubborn, Faith has to be aggressive, Faith has to be determined, and faith has to be possessed by victory to see victory manifest itself.
3. You stand on the Word of God and fix your heart until the victory shows up (Psalm 112:8)
a. You don't play nine innings, you play until you win
b. The game isn't over until you win; you don't quit until you win
B. If you don't settle it and fix your heart you will turn back in the day of battle (Psalm 78:8-10)
1. They didn't fix their heart and in the day of battle they had everything that they needed to win, but they turned back because they didn't fix their hearts
2. If you don't fix your heart, you'll be equipped with everything that you could possible need to win in the day of battle, but you'll end up turning back and settling for less than God's best
C. It's going to take more than just faith to get the promise to show up; you've got to have faith and patience to inherit the promise (Hebrews 6:11-12)
1. Patient - Consistent, constant, never changing regardless of circumstances
a. The circumstances may be changing, but nothing about me is changing, I started on the Word, I'm going to be on the Word, and I'll finish on the Word
2. Endurance - To continue in the same state without changing
3. Inspiration without commitment won't produce results (Mark 4:14-17)
D. People of faith are fixed and rooted in the Word of God (Jeremiah 17:7)
1. The man of faith is rooted in the Word of God like that tree was rooted in the ground
a. You're going to find that tree in the same place today as it was yesterday; it's not moving
II. People who are double-minded and wavering where the Word of God is concerned will not receive from God (James 1:2-8)
A. The trying of faith works or employs patience --- When your faith is tried you put patience to work, you put consistency to work and constancy to work
1. When trials come that's my cue to be consistent, constant, and never changing.
a. Often times when trials come we change our stance, but the Bible is telling us that when trials come that is the exact time that you should be putting your patience to work.
b. When the tests and trials come that's not the time to waver or change your stance
c. What you do in a time of pressure will determine whether or not you will breakthrough or breakdown
2. The next time something comes to try your faith you just count it all joy knowing that the trying of your faith puts patience to work and when patience is finished you'll lack nothing.
a. The beginning of lacking nothing is the trying of your faith.
B. The person that is wavering, the person that is inconsistent, and the person that is not constant will not receive anything from God.
1. The wave of the sea is moved out of its position by the wind/circumstances around it. Wherever the wind goes the wave goes. You can't be driven by your circumstances the way the waves are driven by the wind; you've got to stay with the Word if you want to receive God's promise.
a. You can't be moved off of the Word by what's going on around you and expect to receive the manifestation of God's promise
C. Abraham staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong of faith giving glory to God (Romans 4:20)
1. In the middle of negative circumstances Abraham kept his joy and gave praise to God
a. Nehemiah 8:10 - That joy became his strength and with that strength he didn't waver or stagger at the promise of God.
2. Hebrews 11:27 - Moses endured by seeing something that he couldn't see
a. For you to endure in a time of pressure and not change you're going to have see it as already done, and give glory and praise to God for it
D. If you don't quit you can't lose (Galatians 6:9)
1. You'll quit when you get tired, and you'll get tired when you lose your joy because of circumstances
III. Satan is coming to get the seed of that Word out of your mouth because if he can keep the Word of God out of your mouth, then he can keep the Word of God out of your heart and if he can keep the Word of God out of your heart, he can keep the Word of God from being spoke out of your mouth and producing in your life.
A. The enemy is after the seed of God's Word (Mark 4:15,17, Luke 8:12.13)
1. In every attack you need to have a working consciousness that says, "This only came to get the Word, so I'm not letting go."
B. The people that hold fast to the Word and possess it, and retain it, and seize it, and stay on it will bring forth fruit (Luke 8:15)
1. You bring forth fruit with patience, consistency, constancy, never changing regardless of the circumstances
a. Patience is I'm not changing and I'm not saying anything else
b. In a time of pressure you keep the Word of God in your heart and coming out of your
mouth and hold fast to the confession of your faith without wavering, without flinching
(Hebrews 10:22, 4:14)
c. Don't let the devil see you down, don't let the devil see you depressed; what a hit it is to the kingdom of darkness when he fires his best shot at you and you just keep standing on the Word of God
d. Standing ankle deep in the blood of Jesus, holding fast to the confession of my faith, I overcome (Revelation 13:11)
C. Hebrews 10:35-36, 38
1. Faith has a recompense of reward and it is the victory
a. When you throw away your confidence/faith you throw away the recompense of reward that it carries
2. (AMP) Patience allows you to receive and enjoy to the full what is promised.
a. Do not, therefore, fling away your fearless confidence, for it carries a great and glorious compensation of reward. For you have need of steadfast patience and endurance, so that you may perform and fully accomplish the will of God, and thus receive and carry away [and enjoy to the full] what is promised.
b. If you want to receive and enjoy to the full what has been promised to you then patience is a must
3. God gets no pleasure when you draw back because when you draw back and quit you can't win and when you're not winning that doesn't please God (Hebrews 10:38)
a. When Satan comes to get you off of that Word you don't draw back, you bust him over the head with that two-edged sword
D. Ephesians 6:14 - Having whooped them all you stand right there on that Word
1. James 4:7, 1 Peter 5:9 - You resist and stand steadfast in faith swinging that sword of the spirit; let your only confession be the Word of God out of your mouth
a. Resist - not tolerate or put up with
2. Acts 20:24 - Nothing on this planet moves me off of the Word of God
3. 1 Corinthians 16:13 - Be on guard, stand firm, and act courageously; enough with the crying and whining, be bold and have the attitude of a winner
a. DON'T YOU DARE QUIT!
IV. When the pressure is the greatest that's no time to quit, because on the other side of pressure is where you find breakthrough
A. Peter quit when he was one step away from the result he desired (Matthew 14:24)
1. He couldn't see how close he was because he was blinded by the circumstances
a. He was so consumed with doubt and unbelief that it blinded him from seeing the obvious
2. Don't ever judge the effectiveness of your faith by what you see because the circumstances may be terrible, but you might be 1 hour away from your manifestation
B. Joseph got thrown in that prison and he was two years away from being the prime minister in Egypt and didn't even know it
1. If you're thinking about quitting all the time, you'll quit, so get quit out of your mind (Hebrews 11:15 AMP)
C. People who are committed to the Word of God can bear the fruit of His Word in the middle of the worst circumstances (Jeremiah 17:7)
1. Daniel 3 - If you don't bow you won't burn
2. Hebrews 3:14 - People who are steadfast in faith will hook up to the anointing of God
D. You've got to be willing to stare death in the face and say to it "you don't stand a chance" (Revelation 2:10)
1. Your unwillingness to compromise in the middle of pressure is a clear sign to all of hell of their impending destruction (Philippians 1:28 AMP)
2. Don't flinch
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