Full of Faith and full of the Holy Spirit

Welcome Beloved, I pray that these teachings on “walking by faith” will be a blessing to you. I feel it is very important to bring forth this teaching at this time. We have had a lot of teaching on faith in the 1980’s and it was relevant for that day, but the Lord is taking us deeper into the life of faith then ever before. It is going to be critical for us in these last of days to be able to “walk by faith and not by sight.”

We are going to see things in the future worse than 9/11. The times we are in are called “perilous” times in 2nd Timothy chapter 3. Perilous meaning hard to deal with and hard to bare. So how are we going to walk in times of terrorism, economic decline? How are we going to walk when you can’t understand why things are happening in nature like Katrina, earthquakes and a like? Should I fly today or go to an airport? Are there terrorist on these planes or in the airport? Can I go to NY City and be safe or go to a mall or the grocery store?

Children are being taken, people being killed in their own homes and worse is happening all around the world. Can we eat the food or play with toys made in China? There are so many questions and concerns that we have today as no other time in history. Fear is on the rampant in the world, and wars and rumors of war are all around us. What are we going to do?

It is to these questions that God wants to answer us. How are we going to survive in these perilous times? The faith teachings of the 80’s on how to get stuff is not going to make it for us in these end-times. Faith is not about God meeting my needs. He has already promised to do that. True Godly faith is the ability for God to speak to your spirit and impart His word to you. It is to give you the power, ability and understanding on how and where to walk each moment of your life.

Faith is the ability of God to lead you “through the valley of the shadow of death.” It is the power that will keep you safe in the Secret Place of the Most High God when all the terror comes by night as found in Psalm 91. Faith is the power to live Psalm 27. One thing I desire of the Lord, that will seek after, to dwell in his house all the days of my life, until my head is lifted up above my enemies.

This is the true faith we need to use in the days ahead. That is why the bible tells us that, “we walk by faith and not by sight.“ (2nd Cor. 5:7) We are called to live by faith, “the just shall live by faith.” (Hab. 2:4) These teachings are for “TODAY”, the “NOW” of God so we can truly be men and woman of faith. The true God-Kind of faith is so important for us to be led by the Spirit of God. We can’t be led by someone who we don’t trust in the manner He wants us to trust Him.
The God-kind of faith exercised by a man and woman was one of the conditions set forth just to be a deacon in the church. Being full of faith was a requirement for Steven to be selected just to distribute food to the widows. If it was important enough of a requirement to distribute natural food, how much more is it to the true Spiritual food, Jesus Christ? In Acts chapter 6, let us read these requirements.

Act 6:1-5, “Now in those days, when the number of the disciples was increasing, protests were made by the Greek Jews against the Hebrews, because their widows were not taken care of in the distribution of food every day. And the Apostles sent for all the disciples and said, It is not right for us to give up preaching the word of God in order to make distribution of food. Take then from among you seven men of good name, full of the Spirit of wisdom, to whom we may give control of this business. Then we will give all our time to prayer and the teaching of the word. And this saying was pleasing to all of them: and they made selection of Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip and Prochorus and Nicanor and Timon and Parmenas and Nicolas of Antioch, who had become a Jew:"

Please notice the being full of the Spirit of Wisdom requires us to FULL OF FAITH! This is the God-kind of faith fully in operation in our lives. This is why this teaching on faith is coming forth. We must be able to live the “true life of faith." Not a faith that gets new cars, new houses, new ministries, but the FAITH that must guide and control us every day of our live. The faith that brings divine protection, direction and revelation into the heart and purposes of God.

What we call faith today is our ability to build something or do something for God. We need “faith” to do our ministry we are taught. This is not true, Faith is our ministry and it is a gift of God to BE a minister or ambassador of the Lord. Oswald Chambers writes, “ a child of God never has to ask to do the will of God," A child of God IS THE WILL OF GOD! Steven is a prime example of this. He was chosen for his nature, full of faith and full of the Holy Spirit!

Only a deep abiding relationship in and with the Holy Spirit can bring this about. Why is this kind of faith so important? Because the bible tell us FAITH WORKS BY LOVE! The Holy Spirit comes to work this love deep in our hearts. Romans chapter 8:5 says, “the Holy Spirit sheds the love of God abroad in our heart!” Every drop of that love is filled with the “faith of God!” That love has a voice, “ I am with you, even to the end of this age.” This love says, “nothing in all creation can separate you from the Love of God which is in Christ Jesus."

So this “love” God himself, literally fills us with faith as He loves us and as we open our hearts to this love. The faith of God that he created us with rises up and mixes with that love and we become full of faith. Jesus always said, “ I do these things because the Father LOVES Me!” It was His Father’s love that empowered him to walk by faith and not by sight. Only walking and living in this love ourselves and really knowing it activates the “faith of God” in us to do great exploits in His name.

Steven was such a man that being full of Faith and the Holy Spirit caused him not only to give out food, but to be “led by the Spirit of God.” His faith allowed him to be led, for the steps of the righteous are ordered of the Lord. His active faith caused him to see the great needs of the people and God used him to work great miracles, signs and wonders. His faith was so active, that when he was brought before the Jewish leaders, he spoke as one who was like an angel. His faith was so alive, that when they stoned him, he was able to look up to heaven and see Jesus standing next to the throne of His Father.

This is true, active and living faith. A faith worked by the love of God shed abroad in His heart. This faith did not get him a Escalade, or a new million dollar house. His faith made him become a martyr for Christ. His faith impacted a man named Saul of Tarsus to prepare him to meet the Lord Himself.

Beloved, we are going to face things we never dreamed of, but we will overcome all of them by learning how to “walk by faith and not by sight.” We will overcome as the “just shall live by faith.” Faith is not something we need to get things. Faith is God’s very life in us, filling us, sustaining us and guiding us in His path. We do not have to be afraid to travel, or do something because of the terror all around us. We have the Spirit of the living God in us who will speak a sure word to us, give us direction, instruction and protect us as the Lord allows. So we never have to be afraid of the terror by night, or the pestilence that comes by day.

Psalm 91 tells us of the fruit of those who really live the life of faith in God. It speaks of those who will put the entire leaning of their person in the Lord Himself. He will protect, provide and care for us in the worst storms ever to come, but we must be people who live and walk in the active faith found in the life of the Holy Spirit. He has given us power to cast mountains into the see. Praise God forevermore.

If you have not understood what true faith is that works by love, ask Him now to reveal this love in you. Ask Him to teach the life of love that produces real and living faith. Allow Him to take control of your entire life and put your trust in the God who has given you a measure of faith. Talk to Him, tell him where you are and ask for His help to walk by faith and not by sight. Then you will begin the wonderful fullness of life God has planned for you.