Introduction

“Fight the good fight for the true faith. Hold tightly to the eternal life to which God has called you, which you have confessed so well before many witnesses.” NLT

Our greatest spiritual contest is for Faith, not against the devil; he is already defeated (Col. 2:15), not against sin; Jesus gave us victory by His blood ( Eph. 1:17), not against the world; He overcame the world for us (John 16:33). Faith is what we need to possess or enforce everything that Jesus did for us. Faith is the bridge between the natural and the supernatural life on earth. Heb.11:1-38.

 “For every child of God defeats this evil world, and we achieve this victory through our faith.”   1 John 5:4

This is the reason why there are enemies or hinderances to faith. We shall summarise the four hindrances that we  have studied and conclude with the last two of the six hindrances to faith.

1)      Lack of Understanding Regarding the New Creation: 2Corin.2:17

“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new”

2)      Lack of Understanding of Our Place in Christ: 1 John 5:1

“I have written this to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know you have eternal life”

3)      Lack of understanding of righteousness: 2Cor.5:21”

For he has made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”

4)      Lack of Understanding Regarding Our Right to Use the Name of Jesus: John 16:23,24

“And in that day you shall ask me nothing. Truly, truly, I say to you, Whatever you shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you. 24Till now have you asked nothing in my name: ask, and you shall receive, that your joy may be full.”

Now, for today’s stusy, we will go into the last two of the six hindrances. The first we shall consider is:

5)      Lack of Understanding About Acting on the Word: Mark 2:11,12

“I say to you, Arise, and take up your bed, and go your way into your house.12And immediately he arose, took up the bed, and went forth before them all; so that they were all amazed, and glorified God, saying, We never saw it on this fashion.

We should stop trying to make God's Word work and start acting on the Word. The Bible says, "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding" (Prov. 3:5).

All that is necessary for you to do in any situation is to ask, "What has God said?" or "What does God's Word have to say about this?" If we know that the Word is true and if we act as though it is true, it becomes a reality in our lives.

The Testimony of  Dr. Simpson who just acted like the Word is true, and he received his healing. He was dying of a heart condition and was given only about six months to live. He took his Bible and went on a private retreat to study about healing. This is his final decision based on his conviction from studying the word of God;

 "After searching the Word of God for two weeks, I am convinced the Bible teaches that divine healing is for us today. And I, this day, accept Jesus Christ as my Healer and declare that I am now healed from heart trouble and that I am well. And I promise God to use this new-found strength and life and energy entirely for His purpose and to further the gospel. I promise God I will share this truth of healing with others and will help them."

He was invited to speak in a luncheon and after the luncheon, he was invited to go mountain climbing by the men to whom he had spoken. The thought immediately came to him that he wouldn't be able to because of his heart condition. But then he remembered he had declared his healing, so he accepted the invitation and went. Up to this point, he had not really seen or felt his healing, but had just accepted it and had declared it by faith. All the way up the mountain, every time he got his mind off the Word of God, he would begin to feel the symptoms of his heart condition. But he overcame these feelings because as he claimed the Word again for his healing, all the symptoms would go away. He fought this battle all the way up the mountain. But when he got up the mountain, he walked about victorious without any symptoms!

When we act on the word of God, the enemy will want to counter attack as if the word is not true and will not come to pass. We must maintain our ground by focusing on the word . Remember Peter’s encounter with Jesus on the sea (Matt. 14:22-31).

6)      Lack of Understanding About Holding Fast to Our Confession of  Faith: Heb.10:23

“Let us hold fast the profession(confession) of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;)”

Our faith keeps pace with our confession. The fiercest battle for faith is at the point of our confession.

Rom. 10:10 “ For with the HEART man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth

CONFESSION is made unto salvation.”

MARK 11:23 “... That whosoever shall SAY unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be

thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his HEART, but shall believe that

those things which he SAITH shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he

SAITH.”

Faith is measured by our confession. Our usefulness in the Lord is measured by our confession. Sooner or later, we become what we confess. There is a confession of our hearts and a confession of our lips and when these two harmonise, we become mighty in our prayer life. The reason so many are defeated is that they have a negative confession. They talk of their weaknesses and failures and invariably they go down to the level of their confession. There is a scriptural law from the lips of Jesus in Mark 11:23: ".. . he shall have whatsoever he saith." The scriptural law is this: Our confessions rule us. In other words, you are what you say.

We see an example of a confession of faith which resulted in healing in Mark 5:28,34

28 For she SAID, If I may touch but his clothes, I SHALL BE WHOLE....

34 And he [Jesus] said unto her, "Daughter, THY FAITH hath made thee WHOLE;

go in peace, and be whole of thy plague.

Contributor: Alex Alajiki