Join Charles Capps in a transformative discussion about the powerful biblical principle of calling things that are not as though they were. Using the example of Abraham’s faith, he illustrates how this principle can bring a positive change in our lives, even when natural hope seems nonexistent. Discover how Abraham’s unwavering belief in God’s promises led to the fulfillment of the seemingly impossible, offering a model for faith in our everyday lives.
00:12:32 Application of Seeing Beyond Current Reality
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We are glad you could join us today for the Concepts of Faith broadcast. This program is dedicated to teach you how to put the Word of God to work so that it will make a positive difference in the everyday circumstances of your life. And now, here’s Charles Capps.
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Now what I want to share with you in this session, now I may do this just a little different in this meeting than I’ve done in times past. Usually I take just a certain subject and we just go on it till we get through. But the Lord’s kind of dealt with me in a little different way. I’m going to deal with several different things in this meeting. But I want to share with you in this service the thing that I believe is very important to the body of Christ. And that is the Bible principle of calling things that are not. Now, I know that many of you have heard it, but you need to hear it again. I mean, I’ve heard it so many times, but I want to preach it again just so I can hear it myself. Because I tell you what, you’ll forget some things. Now, let me say this. There is nothing new under the sun. I think we make a mistake if we always try to dig for some great, deep revelation. Sometimes, you know, you find people that do that and they get out beyond the Bible. But there is new illumination on old revelation. And that’s what we want to do, is just simply share what the Word says, the Bible says, pull it together. You know, I think one of the real problems in the church world, in the body of Christ, is that we’ve tended to separate totally the spiritual from the natural. And just put one over here and one over there. You know, Jesus never did do that. We live in a natural world. We walk in a natural world. We have to deal with natural things. Jesus always reached out here and grabbed one with one hand and the other with the other hand, and he said, now I’m going to show you by natural things how spiritual things work. So he pulled them in there and he started talking about seed, talking about something they understood. If you had faith as a seed, you would say to the sycamine tree, be plucked up by the root, be planted in the sea, and it would obey you. It would obey you. But somewhere down through the years, we kind of drifted away from that, the church did, and we got so heavenly minded that we got no earthly good. Oh, we could teach people they’re going to get a lot of stuff when they get to heaven, all right. And it’s going to be wonderful then. Well, certainly it will be. But what are you going to do with the here and now? I mean, we’re going to have to deal with the here and now, right? So open your Bibles with me to Romans, the fourth chapter. Let’s read from verse 17. Now this is an Old Testament scripture that the Apostle Paul is just simply bringing to our remembrance. He says, As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were. Now notice that God calls things that are not as though they were. Abraham called things that were not as though they were. Now he did that because God did that. God taught Abraham to do that. Now this is God’s method. God’s method is to call things that are not as though they were until they are. And then when they are, they displace what was. Now that’s God’s method. And I’m going to endeavor in the next few minutes to get this over to you in the simple form of where you can understand it. Because when I saw this, it made a tremendous difference in the way that I thought, the way that I acted, because I learned that this was a principle that not only worked in Abraham’s day, but it’ll work today for us if we will be obedient to what the Word says. Now notice that he says he called things that were not as though they were, And then verse 18 says, Who against hope believed in hope that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, so shall thy seed be. And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about a hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah’s womb. He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, being fully persuaded that what he had promised he was also able to perform. You know what it means to be fully persuaded? Fully persuaded. And you know, that’s been the problem sometimes. We haven’t been fully persuaded about some things. You know how Abraham got fully persuaded about this situation? When there was no natural hope, Abraham made a decision to believe in hope. Now somebody might say, well, how in the world can you believe in something when there’s not any? How could you believe in hope if there’s not any hope? Well, it meant there was no natural hope. So Abraham went to the word of God and got him some supernatural hope. Now there may be some of you, some of you, the doctors may have told you there is no hope medically for you. There’s nothing that medicine can do for you. You know, you may have something that they say is incurable. It may be something that they call terminal. But when there is no natural hope, always go back to the Word of God and get you some supernatural hope. Now, notice Abraham decided to believe in hope when there was none. Naturally speaking, when there was none, he made a decision to believe in hope. Now, believing God is not something that you just wake up some morning just feeling like believing God. You realize that, don’t you? You don’t always want to believe God. There are some days you just wish you didn’t have to believe God. It’d just be a lot easier, it seemed like, to be sick than to believe God. Or just to walk in lack than to believe God. But we have to make a decision to deal with the situation at hand. So when Abraham couldn’t find any natural hope, he found supernatural hope in the Word of God. Now, I don’t want to dwell on that too long because I want to get on to some other things here. I’ve got a lot of things I want to share with you. But he says he called things that were not as though they were. Now the first thing that God did when he spoke to Abraham about this, he changed his name. His name was Abram at the time, and he changed his to Abraham, which meant father of nations or father of a multitude. So every time that Abraham went to meet with anybody or anybody ever called him, they said Abraham, and he heard Abraham. Father of nations. He heard what God said. He didn’t hear Abraham. He heard father of nations, father of nations, father of nations. Now, he’s 75 years old when God first started talking to him about this. But before the child came, he was 100 years old, the promised child. Now, there was room to doubt in there, wasn’t there? He could have been on a cane, for all I know, when God renamed him. But he kept saying, I’m the father of nations. I’m the father of nations. See, in those days, when they named someone, it really meant something. Now, today, they just kind of put them in a hat and just draw one out. It doesn’t matter what the name is, you know. But in those days, it meant something. So when Abraham said to someone, I am Abraham, he said, I am the father of nations. Now, they wanted to laugh about it, but they didn’t dare do it because all the people in the county worked for him. God made him rich. Now, faith cometh by what? Hearing the word of God. Now, wasn’t that what God said about him? God named him Abraham. So that was God’s word to him. So he took that and got him some supernatural hope. This is how he became fully persuaded, was by saying what God said. Now, when God first said it, Abraham really didn’t believe it. The Bible said he laughed. Sarah laughed. But he kept saying it and he kept saying it and he kept saying it and he kept saying it and he kept saying it and he got to believe in it. He called the manifestation of it. Now God told him to do that. This is the way the Bible tells us that we can enter into the provisions that God has made and the promises of God. Now see, this was a promise God made to Abraham and his seed. He said, Sarah will conceive and have a child, that your seed will be as the sand of the sea and as the stars of the heaven, multitude. In fact, God took him out under the stars of the sky and said, look up, can you number the stars? What’s he doing? He’s giving him a vision or an image of what is to be. Now, it sure didn’t look like it was that way. It sure didn’t seem like it was that way. And to Abraham at that time, it didn’t look like it would ever be that way. But if he can conceive it and believe it, then God can perform it. Now see, we have to understand something. That God gives us supernatural word and supernatural wisdom to draw from. Now how many of you know God’s word is full of faith? God’s word is filled with faith. Now, if it wasn’t filled with faith, you couldn’t get any faith from hearing the word of God. But his word is filled with faith. Therefore, when you hear it, faith cometh. Say it with me. Faith cometh. Faith cometh by hearing. And that’s exactly the way it comes. And that’s the way Abraham received it, by hearing the word of God. Now go with me over to 1 Corinthians, the first chapter. Let’s notice that the Apostle Paul tapped into this principle of the Bible. We’re talking about calling things that are not as though they were. Now let’s read from verse 27 and 28. Paul is saying, But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise. God has chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty. And base things of the world and things which are despised hath God chosen. Now notice, God chosen. Yea, and things which are not to bring to naught things that are. Amen. Amen. Amen. That’s what God called calling things that are not as though they were. In the fourth chapter of Romans, the Apostle Paul says that God taught Abraham to call things that were not as though they were. And if you don’t understand that principle, you’re probably going around calling things that are as though they are exactly like they are, and they are. And they will always be that way if you continue to do that. But if you will call the things that are not, they’ll come. See, so many people get wrapped up in calling it like it is. And you hear people saying, well, you know, you just have to say it like it is. No, you don’t. The Scripture doesn’t teach us to call it like it is. The Scripture teaches us to call things that are not things. as though they were until they are. Now that’s the scriptural basis for it. You don’t get but two verses into Genesis chapter 1 until you find God calling things that are not as though they were. He looked out and saw darkness. And he said, Light be, and light was. He called light out of darkness. Now, how can you call something when it’s not out there? He called for what was not there. If you just walk in an elevator, and you’re going to call it like it is, and you’re on the first floor, and you punch the first floor, guess what? You’re going to stay right there on the first floor. The doors are going to open again. You say, yeah, but I wanted to go to floor five. Well, you punched the wrong button. And a lot of you are punching the wrong button and wondering why you didn’t go somewhere or something didn’t change. That’s offer number 7215, entitled Calling Things That Are Not. It’s two CDs for $15 plus $4 postage and handling, a total of $19. We have a toll-free order line, 1-877-396-9400. Until tomorrow, this Charles Capps reminding you that the enemy is defeated, God is exalted, and Jesus is coming soon.
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To order the product offered today, call 1-877-396-9400 or write Charles Capps, P.O. Box 69, England, Arkansas 72046. A complete list of CDs, books, and DVDs are available online at charlescapps.com. Through the website, you can listen to this radio program again and subscribe to our podcast. This broadcast is sponsored by Charles Capps Ministries and our listeners in this area.
