Aug 2, 20224 min read

On Faith: Grow Your Faith

Updated: Jan 18, 2023

But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name (John 1:12)

They heard the good news, they believed. Those who BELIEVED received the gift; they became the children of God. Faith is a force - which causes things which are not to become.

With FAITH, you can walk on a way-less way

With FAITH, you can do the impossible

With FAITH, you can create and command

With Faith, you can call those things which are not and they would become.

John the Baptist came as a witness from God; he testified and proclaimed, "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!" There were those who believed in what he said and something special happened to them; from being the children of the world and of the devil, they became the children of God. So faith is a creative force. It causes things to become. Those who did not believe what He said, they got deceived so that even when God came and dwelt among them, they rejected Him. God was in their midst, they could see and touch Him- yet they did not receive Him because of unbelief. With faith you gain, with unbelief people are robbed.

"When all the people and the tax collectors heard this, they acknowledged God’s justice, having been baptized with the baptism of John. 30But the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected God’s purpose for themselves, not having been baptized by John." Luke 7:29-30

So having faith is a way of life and it is a foundation pillar of a believer. For believers, TO HAVE FAITH simply means to FIRMLY BELIEVE in what God says and to only bank on it; holding tight to it without looking at the surrounding circumstances. There should be no room to doubt God because what He promises He always delivers... But wisdom is needed to remember that when God promises, He does not tell you when. So people may lose the battle if they focus on when rather than on standing firm on what He said; no human being on this earth will fully understand GOD'S TIMING, so let the timing remain in God's hand! Remember, it is written that it is not for us to know the times and epochs which Abba Papa has fixed by His own authority.

By faith, Peter walked on the water. Peter believed the word Jesus spoke that he could walk on the water. Jesus said to him, "Come", inviting Him to walk on the water. Peter believed in what Jesus said and acted upon it; thus Peter became a hero, a man who walked on the water.

Your faith comes from hearing and hearing by the word of Christ (Romans 10:17) . When you hear the word of God, you must believe it. Without Jesus speaking, Peter would not have walked on the water. The words we hear affect what we believe. To protect our faith, We must surround ourselves with the word of God and we must surround ourselves with men and women of faith. Have you wondered why at certain places, Jesus could only take with Him Peter, James and John? For example, on a mission to raise Jairus' daughter from the the dead, Jesus took only Peter, James and John.

"While He was still speaking, they came from the house of the synagogue official, saying, “Your daughter has died; why trouble the Teacher anymore?” But Jesus, overhearing what was being spoken, said to the synagogue official, “Do not be afraid any longer, only believe.” And He allowed no one to accompany Him, except Peter and James and John the brother of James (Mark 5:35).

So when you hear the word God speaks to you, you must believe. To not believe it is sin. God loves it when we believe Him at once. So faith is simply believing. Just believing and ONLY BELIEVING. To believe Him, you must know Him (People can barely believe a stranger). To know Him comes from spending time with Him and believing His word in the Bible and in other ways He might speak to us.

If you believe it, you can do it

No matter what it is, no matter how difficult, no matter how complicated... if you believe it you can do it. Now, I would like to share a personal story that happened this past weekend.

Skydiving with Jesus

In 2021, my nephew invited my sister and I to jump out of the airplane and to fly in the air. He also showed us the pictures and videos of himself jumping out of the plane, from several thousands feet from the air. We both said, "no thank you!" He would not give up but kept inviting us. Then in 2022 for our birthdays, while celebrating my sister's birthday (just 3 days before mine) our nephew asked again if we could come and skydive with him. This time when he said it, he explained clearly and the Lord let us know that it was a gift He was giving us for our birthdays. The Lord likes to take us on adventure especially each year on our birthdays and you cannot guess what He would do each year. Using our nephew, He explained clearly that it was Him, wanting us to have fun flying with Him. We knew it was His voice. By faith we said yes and immediately, the fear of skydiving was removed from both of us.

Herebelow are the videos of us skydiving. We jumped from an airplane from 14,000 ft high, holding on nothing but faith. I had 0 fear because God told me to do it. Jesus was with me. Through this, God taught me much about faith. I am sharing this personal experience, hoping that God will use it to inspire you and bring your faith to another level. Ready? Let's then go on this adventure with Jesus, "we can do all things through Christ who strengthen us."

Pastor Christine Skydiving