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Strong Faith
How You Can Obtain
By Tom Brown
 An old woman in her eighties gave birth to a
child as a result of the prayers and faith of her husband. Her
name: Sarah. Her husband was Abraham. Their incredible story is
told in the Bible.
The reason God performed this amazing miracle
was because Abraham had "strong faith" (see
Romans 4:20). God will do almost anything for the person who has
strong faith.
All you ever need in life is in heaven. Heaven
is the treasure chest that contains all the blessings you need
for successful living. And faith is the key that unlocks the
storehouse of heaven. Jesus often mentioned "little
faith" and "great faith." When He saw great faith
in people's lives, then He would help them. If you want God to
help you, Jesus must see great faith in your life.
If you will possess strong faith, God will heal
you, prosper you and bless you in every way. You may admire
certain saints and wish that you could have the strong faith that
they had. Isn't it time you quit wishing and started to do what
these strong, faith-filled Christians did to get their strong
faith?
A diamond is the strongest mineral in the
earth. It is strong because it is nearly pure carbon. Yet graphite is also
carbon, but why is the diamond strong while graphite is soft and rubbery. It's
because in a diamond the carbon atoms form and bond differently than in
graphite. Same substance, but strong or weak forces between the carbons cause
either the carbon to be diamonds or graphite. The same is with our faith,
if we allow certain truths (carbon) to bond strongly in our lives, our faith
will become strong. Other wise if we hear the truths of the Word but do not
allow the truths to bond into our spirits, then our faith will become soft and
weak. God wants your faith to be pure and strong like a
diamond, not weak like graphite. Pure faith is strong faith!
Strong faith comes by combining several
spiritual ingredients. These ingredients come in the form of
spiritual realities that you must know are absolutely true.
Getting a revelation of these truths will make your faith strong.
THE REALITY OF GOD'S WORD
The most important ingredient for obtaining
strong faith is this: You must know the reality of God's Word.
You must be convinced that the Bible is God speaking to you
today.
2 Timothy 3:16 says, "All Scripture is
God-breathed..." Not just some Scripture...all
Scripture. One of Satan's favorite tactics in order to destroy
the believer's faith in God's Word is to convince him that
certain promises that God made are not for him.
Religionists often say, "We know that God
promised this, but that promise is not for us." I've heard
many well-known preachers try to talk Christians out of believing
that healing is in the atonement, even though Matthew 8:17 says,
"[Jesus] took up our infirmities and carried our
diseases."
They deceptively teach, "The only
infirmities that Jesus took away were for the people in Jesus'
day, not for our day. Jesus did take up their infirmities, but
not our infirmities." Yet the Bible says that He took up OUR
infirmities and diseases. Not just THEIRS. "Ours"
includes "us" as well. Jesus is the same yesterday,
today and forever!
Whenever the devil tells you that a certain
promise that God has made is not meant for you, remember this
Bible verse: "For no matter how many promises God has made,
they are "Yes" in Christ..." (II Corinthians
1:20). Notice this. No matter how many promises God has made,
they belong to you. You are not excluded from any of God's
promises!
SPIRITUALIZING THE BIBLE
Satan has a backup plan, just in case he can't
convince you that a promise is not meant for you. His other
tactic is to spiritualize the promises of God. He will come to
you and say, "Yes, God did promise that to you, but He
really did not mean exactly what He said. You are
misunderstanding God by taking Him literally. You need to learn
to interpret God's promises spiritually, not literally."
Let me show you how Satan does this. The Bible
says in II Corinthians 8:9, "For you know the grace of our
Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he
became poor, so that you through his poverty might become
rich." This scripture explains the reason why Jesus became
poor. He became poor so that we might become rich. But the
devil will come--sometimes through preachers!--and say,
"Yes, Jesus became poor so that you might become rich
SPIRITUALLY, not materially." You see how we often
mistakenly spiritualize God's promises.
I find it interesting that people will use this
verse to prove that Jesus was poor materially. Yet when they try
to explain why He became poor, they say it was so that we can
become spiritually rich. This doesn't make sense! Since the word
"poor" means "materially and financially
poor", the word "rich" should mean the same
thing-- "materially and financially rich."
This scripture promises the believers material
and financial riches!
Someone may argue and say, "You're taking
the Bible out of context!" No, I'm not. The context of this
verse is concerns money and giving. Read it yourself. It is true
that some verses of the Bible must be taken spiritually, rather
than literally, such as the beast with ten heads in Revelation.
But where the context is dealing with practical matters, we
should interpret the scripture in a strict sense. This is true
concerning II Corinthians 8:9.
TRADITION VERSES GOD'S WORD
The other tactic the devil uses to destroy your
faith in God's Word is to use tradition to contradict God's Word.
Tradition is probably Satan's most powerful tool.
Jesus said to the religious leaders of His
time, "You nullify the word of God by your
tradition..." (Mark 7:13). It is amazing that people would
rather believe in their traditions rather than believe in God's
Word. Yet they do!
Tradition is Satan's most powerful tool because
tradition does not need any facts. This makes it hard to fight
against. It doesn't matter how many verses of scripture you show
some people, they are not going to believe the Bible as long as
tradition says something else. They don't care about facts.
They will argue, "I don't care what the
Bible says! This is what I have been taught!" They never
consider that the teachings may have been wrong.
Most people are like the newlywed bride who was
proud to cook her first pot roast for her husband. She took out
the defrosted roast and cut off the two ends before placing it in
the oven. Her husband asked, "Honey, why do you cut off the
two ends?"
She answered, "That's how my mother did
it."
"But, why?"
She scratched her head, "Well, I don't
know why. She must have had a good reason."
Out of curiosity, they called the mother and
asked her why she cut the ends of the roast. The mother answered,
"That's the way my mother cooks it."
So they called the grandmother and asked why
she cut off the ends of the roast.
She answered, "Because my cooking pan is
too small."
Are you like this new bride, believing and
doing things just because that is the way others believed and
acted?
The only way you can win over the traditional
ideas you may have is to be teachable. You must be willing to
reject tradition when you see that God's Word says something
different. This takes humility!
Accept God's Word as speaking to you today, and
your faith will become stronger.
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