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.
We’re gonna continue on this because, you see, what we did in the other service, we started on the subject of calling things that are not. We got into some nitty gritty things and shared with you some basic things that will help you get an idea of why we should call things that are not. It’s because we do it every day in all the everyday things of life.
We call for things that are not where we are. Well, that’s the way we do the promise of God. When the promises of God are not manifest in our life, then we just simply call for them.
And when you do it, someone is going to accuse you of trying to act like God, well, you just think you’re going to make these things happen by saying all these things. No, we’re just simply calling for them. See, just ask yourself, if your son was in the other room, you wanted to talk to him, but you never did call him.
Do you think that he had come out and stand there and say, oh, I understand you want to talk with me? No, you would have to call him, wouldn’t you? See, we do that in everything of life.
And we talked about it last night, the thermostat on the wall. When you walk up and turn a thermostat, if it’s hot outside and you come inside, you want to turn the thermostat to 70 degrees and it’s 90 outside, you’re calling for 70 degree temperature when it’s not there. It’s not there.
But if you are smart enough to call it by turning that thermostat there and leave it set there in an hour or so, it’ll be 70 degrees in there. But see, we do that in everything else in life. But when it comes to the promises of God, sometimes we just bomb out, and we say, well, you got to say it like it is.
Well, that’s like going in your house and looking at the thermometer and said, well, it’s 94. I guess I’ll have to set the thermostat on 94 degrees. Well, you’re going to get exactly nothing.
That’s what a lot of people have done. They have called the thing that is, and when you call the thing that is by saying it like it is, when you have what you say and you say what you have, you’ll have what you have. That’s very basic and simple, but it’s to the point, isn’t it?
I think we can all understand that. Well, we’re going to go a little further with it. See, we drove the nail through the board last night, and we’re going to clench it on the other side tonight.
Can you say amen? Now, let’s read the foundation scriptures. Let’s go to Romans, the fourth chapter.
I want to give you the Biblical, scriptural basis for what we’re talking about. Then we’re going to carry you through the New Testament, and maybe even into the Old Testament. We’ll quote some things from the Old Testament and point out to you that Jesus used this principle of calling things that are not throughout all of his ministry in the New Testament.
The apostle Paul in Romans, the fourth chapter, in verse 17 says, as it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations. Now he’s quoting from the Old Testament in Genesis, the 17th chapter. 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 we went into great detail in the other session to share with you that this is a principle of calling for things that are not manifest. If they’re not manifest, you call for them. If you have lack in your finances, then what you need is abundance in your finances.
So you go to the scripture, you find out what God said about it, and you call for it. The word said, give and it shall be given unto you. It says, if you sow bountifully, you will reap bountifully.
And it says, if you give cheerfully, that God will make all grace abound toward you. That you having all sufficiency of all things may abound to every good work. Well now, that’s God’s word concerning the matter.
What are you gonna say about it? You see, the problem is that we have kind of drifted over into the negative stream of life. Do you realize that this world is in a negative stream?
The world is definitely in a negative stream. You know, you hear somebody tell you and we all do it. You say, well now, go down to the third red light.
Well, why did you say red light? It’s green as much as it is red. Why didn’t you say the third green light?
We’re all programmed negative, you see. Well, laughed till thought had died. Why didn’t you say laughed till I thought I’d live forever?
That’s scriptural. But laughed till you died is not scriptural. See, laughter doeth good like a medicine.
How many of you taking medicine to die? That’s what I thought, none of you. If you went down to the doctor and he gave you a bottle of pills or gave you a prescription, and you went to the pharmacy and they filled it and put a label on it, said, take three of these a day until they kill you.
Now, what would you do with it? You would throw it just as far as you could. Then, you see, why is it that we’d go around saying, well, I’m just dying to go going to die if I don’t?
Just dying to tell this, just dying to hear about something. No, you’re living to hear about it. And if laughter doeth good like a medicine, then thank God that tickled me to life.
Didn’t tickle me to death. Now, you see how negative the world has become, and we just kind of followed right in their footsteps. I was at a little cafe there in Coy, Arkansas.
It’s not a very big city. It’s population 240. They got five bar stools at this little hamburger stand.
And I was sitting in there eating a hamburger one day, and this lady said, yeah, I said, you know, how’s so-and-so doing? Well, I said, she’s had her foot operated on, and you know, she’s just tickled to death. And I’m sitting there thinking, hmm.
And a little bit, she said, yeah, I said, she had her foot operated on, and she said, she just don’t have any pain at all. She’s just tickled to death. And I thought, well, most dead people don’t have any pain.
Now, you know, if I had have spoke up and said, well, isn’t that a shame? She got healed and now she’s dead. Well, they’d have said, what in the world are you talking about?
See, they don’t even know how negative they are. But you see, we’re in a negative stream. The world is, and if you’re not careful, you catch yourself in that negative stream.
Now, that negative stream will carry you downstream. You know, any old dead fish can float downstream. It takes a live one to go upstream.
And if we’re gonna call things that are not, we’re gonna be different from other folks because most people wanna call things that are as though they are. See now, in all the other things of life, see in the natural realm, in the business world, they don’t do that. They call for the thing that they desire.
But when you come to the promises of God, most of the world and most religious people call things that are. If they’re having problems, they talk about their problems. They call the problem.
They talk about it. They speak about it. And they say, well, you know, this is the way it is.
And well, you know, every time I do this, while this happens, and you know, every time I eat that, it makes me sick. Isn’t that amazing? How long you been saying that?
49 years. Been working good, hadn’t it?
Well, maybe it did make them sick one time. But you see, God’s method is to call things that are not. He said right here, the Apostle Paul said, before him whom he believed, talking about God, who called the things that are not as though they were.
You gotta call for the thing that’s not manifest. And this is what God did, and this is what Abraham did, and this is what God expects us to do. But you see, unless we make a conscious effort to break out of the negative stream of life, we’re just gonna fall right into the same stream.
And to tell the truth, most of us have already been there for years. We have to get out of it, and you won’t get out of it overnight. I’ll be the first to tell you, you’re gonna have to develop some discipline, to discipline your tongue, and to speak things different.
Because if we’re gonna be scriptural about our talk, and if we’re gonna call for the things that God has promised that we don’t have, we’re gonna have to quit saying all the negative things. We’re gonna have to start calling for the things that God promised. That doesn’t mean that you deny what exists, you just don’t put the accent on it.
You call for the thing that’s not manifest. So if we would do what the Apostle Paul says, be imitators of God as dear children, then we would have to call things that are not as though they were. We call for what God promised until the promise comes.
And you see, faith cometh by what? Hearing. Hearing yourself speak in quote what God says will cause faith to come for the very thing that God said about you.
God’s method is to call the thing that is not manifest. Now Hebrews chapter 11 verse one says, now faith is a substance of things hoped for, it is the evidence of things not seen. Now if you’re having financial problems, then the thing that is not seen is the abundance, isn’t that right?
So then faith is the substance of the thing desired or hoped for. If you hope for something, that means you desire it, right? So then faith is the substance of that thing.
Thank you so much for joining us for the Concepts of Faith broadcast today. I want to remind you all this week, we have offer number 7856, Calling Things That Are Not, a 60-minute DVD for $20 plus $4 postage and handling, total of $24. Calling Things That Are Not.
Did you realize that this is a biblically sound principle in the Bible? In Romans the fourth chapter, the Apostle Paul talks about God teaching Abraham to call things that are not. Verse 17, 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, God taught Abraham to call things that were not as though they were. Now, you know, Abram never was fully persuaded, but the scripture says of Abraham that he was fully persuaded that what God had promised, he was able to perform. God could not get Abram to say what God said about him.
Now, he believed in the Lord, but Abraham believed God. The scripture says Abraham believed God. Now, there’s a lot of people that believe in the Lord, but they don’t believe what God said about him.
And when it comes to calling things that are not, you have to call for what is not manifest. And the scripture says, Who against hope, referring to Abraham, who against hope, believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations. In other words, when there was no natural hope, no hope naturally, Abraham took what God said and began to say what God said about him.
It produced hope. God’s word produces hope. Now, that’s the problem with some of you.
You’ve lost hope. You have no hope. And, you know, the Bible says, faith is the substance of things hoped for.
One translation says, giving substance to things hoped for. Well, if you have no hope, then there’s nothing for faith to give substance to. So it’s important to give voice to God’s word because it creates hope.
When you say what God said about you, that may be the only audible voice of God you will hear. And you know, that’s what God said. And you give voice to God’s word, and it does something to the human spirit that nothing else does.
Someone else can say what God says, but it does not produce inside you what happens when you say what God said, and you hear your voice with your own ears saying what God said. This is DVD offer number 7856, Calling Things That Are Not. A 60-minute DVD for $20 plus $4 postage and handling, a total of $24.
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Until tomorrow, this Charles Capps reminding you, the enemy is defeated, God is exalted, and Jesus is coming soon.
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