How Strong is your "Receiving Muscle"?
February 2023
For a time, I would get a little discouraged in my faith walk. It was like I believed big things but actually seeing them come to pass was another question. I think this is something that a lot of believers also experience as they navigate their own walk of faith. The most important things in preparing for a successful faith walk; (one where we see the things we believe actually become reality), are 2 things we have already talked about! They are: 1.) getting immersed in the Word, allowing it to build our faith and open our eyes to the ways of God and 2.) preparing and keeping the soil of our hearts clean and fertile by guarding our hearts. We have studied and discussed these 2 keys a few times so far. This week let's talk about one more thing that will help us experience the reality of the things we believe.
When a believer gets born again the Bible says everyone is given a measure of faith. Let’s read in Romans 12:3, NKJV, “For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.” Each born again child of God has been instilled with a measure of faith as soon as they cross from spiritual death into spiritual life. However it is up to the believer what he or she does with that measure of faith. We can receive it and then just let it lay never growing in faith and not see much come from it. Or we can feed our measure of faith with healthy food and begin to learn how to exercise it to see the things of God come to pass in our lives.
We know how to feed our faith through the Word and give the seed of the Word a good place to grow. We also know that we have to use our faith and believe that what God says is true above all else. Remember we use our hand of faith to reach out and grab what Grace makes available to us. But I believe a key in actually experiencing the reality of the promises we believe from God is this- we must know where we are,in our faith walk and our faith level. Each of us is growing in our faith and trust in God. The Bible says we have been given a measure of faith, but the goal is never to stay where we began. The goal is to constantly grow and go higher and look more and more like Jesus. Faith is a marathon and not a sprint. A baby doesn’t go from not being able to walk to running on the same day. It takes time, learning, and practice. Now, with Jesus time is nothing to Him. Time does not look the same in the spirit realm. So it doesn’t have to take years and years for us to grow spiritually. Yet sometimes it does. This depends on how much we lean into the shaping of the Holy Spirit and cooperate with the growth He wants to foster in us. Ultimately, it doesn’t have to be a super long and drawn out thing. However, the principle of growing, learning, and practicing still exists. As growing Christians, we need to evaluate where our faith is right now. I would say that we can look inward and generally see where we are at. An even better way is to ask the Holy Spirit to show us.
What are you believing for right now? Is it a relationship? A car? Healing? A ministry opportunity? A raise? Whatever that thing is, go to the Holy Spirit and ask Him, “where am I at in my faith to believe to receive this?” He will reveal you where you are and the direction that you need to move your faith in. Let me give you a couple examples to explain what I am getting at. When my husband and I sowed our seed and were believing to receive a harvest of a home from that. We weren’t in the place in our faith to receive a $5 million home debt free. I know of people who God has done that for and I completely believe that before my life is over I will get to the place that He will do something of that size for me. However at that time in my faith walk that’s not where my faith was. I had not yet exercised my faith and strengthened it enough to lift that heavy. I had exercised and lifted enough to receive a $60,000 harvest towards a home. Believing and standing in faith to see that happen exercised my faith. Then seeing it actually come to pass strengthened my faith. That process then brought me up to the next level of faith. The Bible says this 2 Corinthians 3:18, AMPC, “And all of us, as with unveiled face, [because we] continued to behold [in the Word of God] as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are constantly being transfigured into His very own image in ever increasing splendor and from one degree of glory to another; [for this comes] from the Lord [Who is] the Spirit.” We go from glory to glory. We go higher and higher. We look more and more like Jesus. So the more we walk out and see the things of God happen then the more and more we will see. And the more we will see gets even bigger and mightier as we go! We serve a God who does miracles. He re-creates body parts and grows back limbs. He gives sight to the blind and hearing to the deaf. He plucks out tumors and renews youth to our bodies. He is the healer. If you are facing a situation where you need healing in your body, confer with the Holy Spirit and ask Him what direction to seek His healing. Ask Him to help you discern where you are in believing for your healing. He may tell you to stand and believe for a miracle. Or He will lead you to exactly the right medical professional. In both cases, we stand and believe in His healing power and declare His Word of healing. Either way, whatever you do, do it in faith. God comes through no matter what. He ministers His promises to us through different avenues and people. I’ve done it both ways. Sometimes with doctors and sometimes without. But I did it based on the leading of the Holy Spirit and through faith. And as you go each time your faith will be stronger and you’ll be able to receive bigger each time.
It’s like working out. When you workout you get stronger, more agile, more fit and ready for the fight. You start out by lifting light weights. Then as you keep working, you get stronger, and then you start lifting heavier and heavier weights. One day when you are a faith bodybuilder you will look back at the things you were believing for now and you’ll give glory to God for how far He has brought you in your faith journey.
No matter where you are in your faith and no matter what direction or level the Holy spirit directs you, the key is that WHATEVER you do, do it in faith by the leading of the Holy Spirit. When you are lead by the Holy Spirit and then you proceed in faith you will experience success in that thing. See Romans 14:23, AMPC, “For whatever does not originate and proceed from faith is sin [whatever is done without a conviction of its approval by God is sinful].” Jesus only did and said whatever the Father told Him to do (John 12:49). And He never missed a beat, never lost, and never failed. We should endeavor to follow that lead and only do and say what our Father tells us to do. We know He sees all the things we can’t. When we follow His plan, then we can’t miss it even when we don’t have all the information.
I love this faith walk because it doesn’t stay the same. It gets better and better as you go. So if you are having trouble seeing the things you believe come to pass, check in with the Holy Spirit and see where you are. You still believe the same principles from the Bible, but see where your “receiving muscle” is and see what avenue that God wants to bring you the victory and then proceed in faith standing on the Word of God! Then with each victory you walk out, your faith will grow and next time the faith mountain you climb will bring you even higher than before. We go from glory to glory, faith to faith, and higher to even higher!
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