Join us as we explore the dynamics of faith with Charles Stanley. From assurance and anticipation to awareness and access, learn how these aspects of faith provide us with a deeper connection to God. The episode also highlights the significance of authority and action as expressions of our trust in divine promise. With compelling stories and spiritual truths, this conversation offers a roadmap for living a faith-filled life that’s aligned with God’s will.
Welcome to the InTouch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Tuesday, January 7th. The Bible describes the Christian life as a walk. The question is, are you advancing in the right direction? Or has inactivity stalled your movement? Join us as we move forward by faith.
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Faith is neither secular nor spiritual. It is both natural and it is neutral. Everybody has faith. The only distinction is who is the object of my faith. That is the key issue about the whole idea of faith. Now, the question we want to deal with is this whole matter of how do we get our life moving forward by faith? The primary problem is our understanding of it. Once we begin to understand the real, true nature of faith, what is it really all about? What’s really involved in believing God? Faith involves several things. I want to give you seven single words. It’s really that simple. And yet it’s complex to some degree when it comes to living it out. But I want you to jot these down. And if you really want to see God make a reverse in your life, you’ll be wise enough not just to sit and listen, but you will jot them down. When we think about faith, the first word I want to share with you is the word assurance. Because you see, faith, that is believing God, is expressing assurance. That is, there is no question in my mind that God will keep his word. Assurance says, I have confidence that what I have asked God to do, which I know is his will, he is going to bring about in my life. Assurance doesn’t look around for a lot of evidence. Assurance says, God, if you said it, that settles it, period. That’s what faith is all about. Faith is assurance that God is going to keep His Word. Not hope He will, not maybe He will, not intense desire, but strong, blessed confidence. The first word is assurance. The second word is anticipation. Anticipation, that is, if I really and truly believe that God is going to do what I ask, then I am going to anticipate it. That is, I’m going to prepare for it. I’m going to make plans. If you go to God and you ask Him for something and you make no preparation to answer, listen, more than likely you don’t really and truly anticipate God answering your request. You may hope He will. You may be crying out to God that you do it, but are you making any plans? Anticipation is a vital part of our faith. We’re looking forward to it. Listen, we’re living it ahead of time. You see, what faith does, it gives me the privilege to reach out in the future, bring it into the present, and enjoy it even now. Listen, it’s hard to be down in the mouth and be negative. And listen, it’s very difficult to be walking backwards when you’re planning on God doing something. If you’re planning on God doing something, what are you doing? You’re moving toward the goal because you have trusted God. You’re not just hoping so. You’re making preparations and plans for God to do something very vital in your life. Assurance is a part of that faith. Anticipation is a very, very vital part of that life. The third word I want you to jot down is awareness. When you are believing God, you become aware of the presence of God. You begin to be sensitive. The Holy Spirit begins to enable you to see oftentimes little itsy-bitsy evidences that God is already up to something, that He’s already working in this circumstance, in this situation about which you’re concerned. He’s already concerned. Now listen. The awareness of the presence of God, listen to me carefully, gives you the spiritual capacity to see what the human naked eye cannot see, but the spiritual eye can see vividly as an accomplished, finished deal. And if you cannot, more than likely you need to turn your focus toward the Lord God and begin to become more and more aware of Him. Well, there’s a fourth word I want you to notice, and that word is access. You see, faith involves access. And what I mean by that is simply this, that everything you, listen, all of our access to Almighty God comes by faith. In fact, faith is the key that unlocks the treasure house of every single one of God’s blessings. How did you come to God in the first place? You said, well, I came by grace. You sure did. And that was the gift of God. The Bible says the gift of God through what? Through faith. And that is, you responded to the offer of forgiveness by expressing faith in God who made the offer that He was offering something that had validity to it. That is, if He made the offer, He would fulfill His promise. All of our access to everything that we have is by faith. We’re to live by faith. Listen, faith isn’t some fuzzy feeling you have on Sunday sitting in a worship service. Faith is what we live by. It is believing God. It is placing our trust in God. It is an assurance. It is an awareness. It is an anticipation. It is access to the Father’s throne. That’s why he says don’t be anxious about anything. Why? Because you hold in your hand the key to everything you and I need. Does that mean God’s going to give me everything I want? Certainly not, and I certainly hope he doesn’t. Because all of us have wanted things we had no business having. He certainly has given us the key to open the treasure house of God’s blessings for every single thing that fits his will in his timing. And that means it’s absolutely perfect. Faith involves access. Think about this. Because you and I have placed a trust in Jesus Christ as our personal Savior, the very throne room of holy God, where God in all of His glory and His matchless, indescribable glory sits upon His throne, we have access there. Not that we would walk in, but you and I can kneel on our knees in our bedroom or in our den or our living room or wherever, or sit in the automobile or stand on your job and talk to Almighty God. And listen, by faith in the throne room, you stand before Him and the Lord Jesus Christ is there as your mediator, as your advocate. which means that you have access to God the Father simply because the Lord Jesus Christ, who is your blood mediator, whose death at Calvary opened the door of heaven for you. It is access. But there’s another word I want you to jot down, and that is authority. And let me distinguish between what I mean by authority and arrogance and pride. I don’t mean you can come to God and say, God, I demand that you do so and so. Can you imagine a gnat demanding of an elephant to move aside? That’s about what it would be like. We have no right to demand anything of God. This is not arrogance and pride. Here’s what I want you to see. Our authority, listen to this, our authority is the Word of God. By the authority… of the Word of God. You and I have authority to come to God. The authority has been given to us through His promises. He says, ask and it shall be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock and it shall be opened to you. Heavenly Father, I come to you in Jesus’ name. I come to you by faith. I’m trusting you. I come to you not begging. I come to you not pleading. I come to you as a servant, but I come to you with the authority given to me by the person of Jesus Christ, who is my life. You have drawn back the veil. You are living on the inside of me. I have access to you, and I come based on the promises that you have given to me, and I have blessed assurance that what I’m asking for, somehow, in some way, according to your will, it will be done. We come not as beggars, but as children who have authority with their parents. When you look at the 11th chapter of the book of Hebrews, these men and these women came, verse 33, who by faith, he just listed some there whom you know, conquered kingdoms, performed acts of righteousness, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, from weakness were made strong, became mighty in war, put fallen armies to flight.” Women received back their dead by resurrection. Others were tortured, not accepting their release in order that they might obtain a better resurrection. Then he goes on to talk about scourgings and mockings and chains and imprisonment and stoning and being put to death in swords and sheepskin, goatskin, destitute, afflicted, ill-treated, and all the rest. You say, well, it looks like their faith didn’t work. Yes, it did. Their faith did work. You mean to tell me That you believe that those saints of God who trusted God and whose head was severed from their body in faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, they didn’t conquer. They conquered the trials and the temptations of denying the living God and in a brief moment of time were catapulted in their spirit toward heaven in the presence of Almighty God. They conquered the fear of death and they conquered temptation and they conquered Satan So I don’t want to say to you that, and some people tell you, you just believe God and everything’s going to turn out right. Everything is going to turn out according to the will of God. It may not always turn out the way I want it. And it’s interesting and I’m grateful that he didn’t just stop before he talked about all of these things that came to pass. But what does he say? He says, all of them had the approval of God. Why? Because they placed their trust in him. We have authority with him. But do you come as a scraping, begging child, hoping with intense desire, or do you come with the authority of the Word of God? This is why I said to you over and over and over again, this book needs to be a part of your daily diet. You see, listen, if I know what the promise of God is, and I know what the will of God is, I can come to Him and say, I just want to thank you, Lord Jesus, for what you’re going to do. I accept it as a done deal. I don’t have to feel anything. You know why most folks don’t trust God? They can’t feel it. Friend, I’ve had to trust Him and my feelings were 10,000 miles away and I felt absolutely nothing. All you have is the promise of God. That’s all the authority you need. The Bible doesn’t say that just you live by feelings. We should walk by feelings. He said we’re not even to walk by sight. We’re to walk by faith, trusting Him, believing, assurance, confidence, anticipating, access to Him, aware of His presence, the authority of God in our life. And that authority is authority that comes as a result of believing God. You see, part of the problem is there’s a whole lot more of self in us than we realize. Well, now, Lord, I’m going to trust you, and I’m going to do this, and I’m going to do that, and I’m going to do the other. You know what the Christian life’s all about? The Christian life is all about trusting Him to be in me and to do through me and to provide for me everything His perfect will chooses. When those people came to Jesus and they said, What are the works we shall do? He said, there’s only one work for you to do. Believe. That’s the work. Trust Him. It isn’t our efforts. It is the work of God. That’s the authority we have. Another word I want you to jot down is the word action. For example, Noah believed God and therefore built a what? He built an ark. Now, suppose Noah said, yes, God, I believe it’s going to rain. You’re going to wipe out everything. God said, build an ark. Do you believe it? Well, God, I really believe what you’re saying. And God says, Noah, if you work 24 hours a day, starting today, it’s going to take that to build this ark. God, I’m believing you. If you said it, God, I believe it. Now, I want you to listen real carefully because I want this one to get so deep down inside of you, you cannot pull it out. The acid test of your faith is your obedience, right? Don’t tell me you are believing God when you will not obey Him. Obedience is the acid test of my faith. It doesn’t make any difference what I tell God. It doesn’t make any difference how much I pray, how intense my desire is. If I do not obey the thing that God tells me to do, that is not faith. I am deceived. And let me say one other thing. I want you to think about something. Do you realize that when you don’t believe God, that you’re insulting God? That you’re grieving His Spirit to tell a sovereign, omnipotent God who has the power to do everything? Yeah, I’m asking you. I hope so. My friend, the basic problem, every sin that you and I commit and every failure in our life is the result of Of insulting God. We don’t believe him. If I believe God’s going to meet my needs, I’m going to stop trying to meet him myself. The acid test of your faith is obedience. Now listen carefully. Don’t come to God praying about 15 other things over here, disobeying him in an area that you know is an act of disobedience. Because listen, you can say, well, I’m believing God for these things, but somehow I can’t believe Him for that. Forget it. Acid test of my faith is my obedience to God. I serve. I love. These are action words. Now, I hope that just grinds real good inside of you. And you may not like it, but that’s okay. I want to ask you again. Does your life declare that you believe in God? then what you have to ask is, am I living obediently before God? Last word, approval. Listen to this. In the second verse of the 11th chapter, he says, for by it, that is by faith, men of old gained what? Approval. Do you realize that when you genuinely trust God for anything, that God is, put it in human terms, is happy. That is, God is delighted. You realize that when you trust God, He just wants to do more. You know what really frustrates me as a pastor? When I see God wanting to bless people and you won’t let Him. He’s trying and you won’t let Him. Because you won’t obey Him in something simple. Obey Him and let Him bless you with the best. Now, All of that’s been rather self-centered to some degree, but it’s all the truth. And we’re talking about us and our faith and what we want. But let me just step one step beyond that and listen very carefully. There’s something more important than God just answering my prayer and honoring my faith for my sake. In the 40th Psalm, I want you to listen to this. I waited patiently for God to help me. He listened and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the pit of despair, out from the bog and the mire, and set my feet on a hard, firm path, and steadied me as I walked along. Now many will hear of the glorious things God has done for me, and they will stand in awe before the Lord.” and they will put their trust in Him. Listen to that. Do you know the ultimate primary reason that God is going to honor your faith? Because you see, when you and I believe God, and God does these things in our life, what happens? Other people see God working in your life, and they stand, listen to this, they stand in awe, not of you, but of God. And the Bible says, then they too learn to put their trust in Him. That’s what the walk’s all about. It is by faith that we move forward in our life. And the question is, which direction are you moving? If you’ve never trusted Him as your personal Savior, I can tell you which direction you’re moving in, in reverse, backwards. And things are not going to ever get any better for you. Oh, you may make more money and get a promotion here and there, but on the inside, there’ll never be peace, never be assurance, never be the confidence that you’re looking for. And you’ll never be satisfied in life until Christ Jesus becomes your Savior. And He becomes your Savior how? By placing your trust in Him that His death at Calvary paid your sin debt in full and that you’re willing to believe Him and receive Him as your Savior and accept His forgiveness for your sin. Then you’re in a position because God hands you the key and if you’re willing to trust Him, God’s treasure house is open to you.
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Thank you for listening to part two of Which Direction. For more inspirational messages like this one, visit our online 24-7 station. And if you’d like to know more about Charles Stanley or InTouch Ministries, stop by InTouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of InTouch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.
