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Date Posted: 08:00:43 02/10/17 Fri
Author: c
Subject: intouch.org radio 1

intouch.org radio 1 (edited portions of messages)

9/3/14


Levels of Faith In the Life of the believer - Part 2

2:33
Does this mean, watch this carefully, does this mean God will never answer your prayers unless you reach the third level of faith? No it doesn’t mean that. It means that your lifestyle is going to change. It means that your relationship – it means that your requests – it means that your fretting and your anxiety and your questions and your doubts are going to disappear and God’s going to do something absolutely fantastic in your life. Why? Because He wants the best for you. He doesn’t want us living on this particular level. But this is level 1. Now the truth is that if you stay there, then don’t expect God’s best. That’s not where He wants you. He wants you moving up.
7:58

Where are you? Are you on level 1? “O my goodness, I hope so.” Are you on level 2? “Thank God, I’ve ceased to look at my circumstances and am focused on Him.” Glued and focused on the living God. You will not be focused on God if you’re not focused on His Word. You get dust on your Bible, you’re going to stay on level #1. Your Bible ought to be opened every day, reading God’s Word – and you know what you’re doing: programming your mind to think how God thinks……Level 2 does not focus on circumstances….


9:16

What’s level #3? Level #3 is perfect faith. Level 3 is resting faith. Not struggling and laboring. Not reaching – resting faith….No more fretting. No more anxiety. No more worry. No manipulation. No more trying to work it out - figure it out…..

10:35

Does that mean you’ll have no problems? No. Everything that God allows in our life that stretches us, everything He allows in our lives that tests us, that moves our faith forward from level #1 to level #3 is a blessing from God. It’s reaching the place in your relationship to Him and your prayers to Him that, listen, the struggle and the laboring cease – no more anxiety. And you’re beginning now to move to level #2….

16:48

You move to level 2. And then as you grow in your faith, you know what happens? You’ll be living on level 3 most of the time. You know why? Because here’s the reason: because you have accepted that He is Who He says He is. He is as wise as He says He is. He is as powerful as He says He is. He loves you unconditionally like He says He does. And therefore you have no reason to doubt Him.

18:22

Now here’s what you can look for: satan will attack you with everything he’s got. If you’re not careful, here’s what he’ll do: he’ll throw some circumstances in front of you – and that’s what he wants you to focus on: “well here’s what you believe but look at all the things that happened - how could you possibly believe that? “
“Because my Father has your circumstances, satan, under His control. That’s why I can believe it. I don’t have to yield to your circumstances – doesn’t make any difference.”


-------


1/13/12

If we get our focus off of God, it doesn’t take much to sink us. And when you’re going through a very difficult time, the key is your focus. Am I looking at Him? Who is the Creator of everything. Who has absolute supernatural power to do anything and all things.

But whenever you start doubting, and you find yourself struggling in your faith, you ask yourself the question: “Where is my focus? What am I thinking about? Am I thinking about how tough this is or am I about the God Who promised meet all of my needs, no matter what”?

7:25

Perfect faith says: “I see it, that’s what God has said, and it’s done”. Now watch what I mean by that. You may go through a time of struggle – whatever the situation may be, and there are some very difficult situations in life I do understand that. And you may struggle for a little while about it. And then, you come to a place: “I know God’s going to do something, I’m trusting Him for it, I’m reading the Scriptures, here are the promises of God, yes I do believe He’s going to”.

And then when you reach perfect faith, here’s what happens, you come to the place, that you no longer ask Him because you have such perfect faith, you can say in your heart and spirit: “It’s done.” When it’s done, here’s what happens. You don’t ask Him anymore. You thank Him. And you praise Him for what He’s going to do. Now if you’re one of the persons who don’t have any patience, it’s not going to work.

Because sometimes He’s going to say: “it’s done” – and you know, I can tell you that, afresh and anew, because this week, I’ve had God tell me that about something I’ve prayed for a long time. “It’s done” - don’t have to pray about it anymore. There’s a perfect peace and a perfect joy and a perfect absolute assurance when God’s says “It’s done”.

Now you can’t just conjure that up and say: “well, I’m going home this afternoon and get on my knees and tell God: ‘It’s done’”. No you’re not. You don’t do the talking – He does the talking – It’s done. And from that moment on it’s praise and thankgiving, and expectation, and anticipation and looking for Him to do what: just keep His word – that’s what He’s doing, keeping His word.

Now watch this, most of the time, your feeling, your emotion that it is done is not going to come when you’re just praying about it. Suddenly, you just know it’s done. And nobody else can explain it to you. Nobody else can explain it for you, and you can’t explain it to anybody else – it’s something you have to experience.

Perfect faith is the position in your life at that time when you are so absolutely completely confident and assured – no matter what happens, it’s a done deal. God has placed that assurance in your heart that nobody else can place there.


--------


intouch.org radio 4/29/15


21:51

If I should ask you: “do you have faith?” “oh, yes.” “Have faith to trust Jesus my Savior?” “Yes.” “Faith that God answers prayer?” “Yes.” And, often times, when difficulty and hardship and pain comes our way – maybe some tragedy or something that we had planned that God just absolutely razes the whole idea – when it comes all of the sudden what happens to our faith? Well I want you to remember this: what tries our faith reveals to us the degree of our faith and reveals to us how strong our faith is. And if it’s untried, we’re going to have a problem.

Now listen carefully - once in a while you’ll hear somebody say: “this is what happened in my life and it just devastated me.” If I believe that God is in absolute control of all things and I trust Him as a God Who is in control, then how can I be devastated by something if I believe my Heavenly Father Who loves me unconditionally has allowed something to destroy me because He would not. If I allow something to destroy me, it’s my response. Because God is not going to allow anything to absolutely devastate you if your attitude towards Him is right – He’s not going to allow it to happen.

What builds your faith? Difficulty, hardship, pain which you walk through and God sees you through it. And you walk through it and God sustains you. And you have those needs and He provides. Then in the next step of life what happens? You look back and you see: “well, God provided that.” “God helped me through that and I didn’t think I’d ever get through with that.”


-----------------------------------=


November 24 2012


When you’re rejected by your friends or by your husband or your wife or your children or your parents – when you’re rejected, then you get the sweetest glimpse, you get the biggest dose, the greatest refreshing drink of intimacy in your life when everybody else has said: “you know what - forget it” , and Jesus is still there.

We become far more capable of being comforters to other people when we have been through adversity and have been comforted ourselves.

22:17

Until you learn the ways of God, what you’ll do, you’ll find yourself fretting with Him over things and find yourself a little confused sometimes and find yourself a little bit in conflict with God. It’s not that you don’t love Him and that you don’t care, it’s just very difficult sometimes when you face these --- if you don’t understand His ways.

One of His ways is that He uses suffering, adversity, difficulty, hardship, pain to grow us up, to equip us – He uses these things to do what – drive us unto Himself. He makes His greatest servants out of pain and suffering and hardship.

What we want to do is we want to live a life of ease, comfort and pleasure and just talk about how sweet Jesus is and how wonderful He is and "how He blesses me and everything I have, I’m willing to give Him credit for all the joy of my life and all the health and all the things" - what about the adversity?

How many of us have learned anything out of pleasure, and sweetness, and joy, wonderful weather and having all your possessions – what have you learned? Not one thing. You say: “I’ve learned how good God is.” Have you really? You learn how good God is, listen, when the bottom drops out and there’s no place to turn and He shows up. That’s when you learn how good God is.


----------


11/15/12


Sometimes even God sends us rough times. Is it not true that you and I grow the strongest and the deepest and often times the more rapidly when we’re going through those difficult times, those rough times when we don’t see a way clear? Don’t blame God for the rough times.

But remember this, that every single time God allows it, whether it is something we’ve done or something God chooses to send in our life, God is always there to take advantage of those rough difficulties in your life in order to teach you something that you would not learn any other way.

Have you ever felt as if your problems were overwhelming you? Well, God allows and orchestrates our current circumstances for our future good and His glory. Dr. Stanley shows how the Lord uses adversity as a tool to grow a believer’s faith.

21:47

Well what happens is, it drives us to Him. What is it that drives us to God? It’s difficulty, hardship, pain and suffering. So, whatever drives me to God, puts me in a position where I can listen to Him, I will observe what He does, I am extremely interested in how He responds to things, because if it’s a situation where I don’t see an answer to this, there’s nothing I can do - and one of the best places we can be which none of us likes is helpless.

When I’m helpless before God, I am open to whatever He wants to say, I’m open to whatever He wants to do in my life because at this point I don’t have a choice. Now I don’t like that but, when you are hopeless in the hands of unconditional love, when you’re hopeless and helpless in the hands of an omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent, Almighty God - safest place to be. Do I like it? No.

But what’s happening all during that time? I’m growing in my relationship. I’m beginning to understand things about Him. And you know, if I wanted somebody to pray for me that’s going through a difficult time, I want to find somebody who’s been there, who’s been tried, who’s felt hurt and pain and suffering and loneliness and all the rest – that’s the kind of person I want to pray for me because they know how to talk to God, they know what I’m feeling, they know what’s happening inside of me. And that kind of person knows how to pray.

So, you know, all these difficulties and hardships we go through – look at the Apostle Paul. What made him who he is? Pain and suffering, jail sentences, stoned to death, all of this. And so, what happens is: you’re constantly aware of Him. It’s not: going to pray in the morning, going to pray in the evening – but it’s a constant awareness of Him.

And, I’m sure you’re like myself, you know, I’m talking to Him all the time. I may be talking to somebody else and I’m thinking: “God, now show me exactly what to say next”, or “Lord, I see this coming, show me exactly how...” In other words: It’s a constant reliance and awareness of, think about this, upon omnipotence and love – you can’t beat that.


--------------=


7/11/2015


1:37

The greatest riches God has to give He has already deposited to our account as we saw in chapter 1 (Ephesians 1:3,4): "blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ Who has (aorist tense) once and for all blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world" - they were deposited to our account before the foundation of the world and every single believer is incredibly rich.

Listen to this promise: (Ephesians 3:20): "now unto Him Who is able to do exceedingly abundantly" - super-abundantly - "above all that" - listen - not only more than you ask but more than your mind can conceive God can do - "unto Him Who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that you ask or think" - if that one verse is true, that makes you incredibly rich. But you see, if you don't know that you're rich, and you think that all that you have is what your checkbook shows, then friends you are going to live on a scale - on a poverty scale - and miss out on the greatest riches in life.


3:12

So what he includes in this prayer, God has deposited to our account in eternity past. It is ours for the asking, for the believing, for the receiving, for the experiencing.


4:24

And so this is what he makes as a request. He says: "I'm praying that you may be strengthened" and that word means "to become mighty." He says my prayer for you is that you might become mighty with power (dunamis) through the Holy Spirit in the inner man."

Now think about that for a moment. Because that is God's gift to you and me. That is by the power of the Holy Spirit God says that you and I - listen - when we are willing to accept what is ours, when we're willing for the Holy Spirit to work in our life the way He chooses to work, that you and I become mighty in spirit because something is happening to the inner man.


5:29

So you'll say: "well, how much time (should) we spend on the inner man?" You count the time you spend reading the Bible, listening to the Word of God, searching the Scriptures, talking to God - the time you build in strengthening the innermost man - that's the real you deep down inside. That's the part of you - that's the part where the Holy Spirit works.


6:35

Now listen to what he says because at first this may appear to be a little contradiction to everything else he said. Now what is Paul's key phrase in the book of Ephesians - what is it? "in Christ" - that's his key phrase in his whole theology: "in Christ Jesus."

Now look at this (Ephesians 3:17): "so that Christ may dwell in you hearts through faith." Now, would not these Ephesians already have believed that Christ dwells in their hearts? They certainly would. So I believe what Paul is really saying here is - in his prayer is - that they may become exceedingly intensely aware that Christ is dwelling in their hearts. And how do you become aware of that? By faith.


7:27

And I wonder how many of you could say tonight: "Jesus Christ is living within me and I want to tell you Jesus feels perfectly at home in my heart."...Let me ask you: does Jesus feel comfortable in your life? It depends on what you're doing with this body. And Paul says: "I"m praying that you become mighty in your spirit so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith" that is so that you may become - that you may be aware that Jesus Christ is living within you.


8:02

Listen, when you are aware that Jesus Christ is living and dwelling in you, that you have the very Light of God within you - the Spirit of God - dwelling in you through the Holy Spirit, for us to step down and to sin against God is to step on a level that is beneath who we are. sin doesn't match who we are in Christ Jesus, nor does it match the One Who is living within us.


9:13

If you don't know how to love, or if you're not a loving person, or if you just don't love, there'll be a great, vast host of God's truth that you will never understand - you'll never be able to understand. Because there's a whole segment of God's great truth that can never be understood until you learn to love....."Rooted and grounded in love" (Ephesians 3:17) that is my motivation for my actions is love, my emotions are governed by love, my spirit is governed by love, my character is motivated by love, my conversation, my conduct - it's all salted - not just sprinkled but permeated and saturated by love. The love of God flowing through my heart and flowing through my life. The love of God abounding and gushing forth like a fountain. Loving and loving and loving because God within me is loving.


15:37

We're in Him! (Colossians 2:9,10) We're tapped into an inexhaustible, immeasurable eternal resource that knows no end. We are incredibly rich! And the key that unlocks those riches is very simple: it is called F-A-I-T-H - believing God. And what is mine moves from an intellectual understanding to a spiritual experience when by faith I begin to act out the truth.

The truth is God is dwelling in you - act it out.

The truth is you are incredibly, spiritually rich - act it out

The truth is the wisdom of God is within you - act it out

The truth is you have the mind of Christ - act it out.

You're incredibly rich!


18:49

It is satan's deceptions that we think: "poor me." The next time you get to having a pity party read Ephesians 3:14 - 21. You either won't believe the Bible or you'll have to get out of that pity party and start shouting and praising the Lord and jumping up and down - Hallelujah! Look who I am in Christ, look what I have: the riches of His glory, the riches of His grace, rooted and grounded in love, comprehending with my mind - experiencing in my spirit - he says: "unto Him Who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think" - that's the God to Whom we are praying - that's what Paul is saying. And since that's the God to Whom we are praying and that's the character of our God, he says: "glory and honor and praise be to Him forever and ever and ever!" Hallelujah! Amen! Incredibly rich!

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