John 8:58:''Truly I tell you: before Abraham was, I Am.''
Jesus made a stunning statement to the Pharisees! He called himself: 'I Am'.
'I Am' means 'Self-Existent One'. It means Yahweh. Jesus is saying: 'I am Yahweh'.
If anyone ever says to you: 'Where in the Bible does Jesus claim to be God?' - this is a very clear example.
Jesus was fully God and fully man. There are several occasions where Jesus received worship. If Jesus was only a prophet, he would have said: 'Stop worshipping me', as Paul and Silas did one time when they'd done a miracle and the pagan priests tried to worship them.
The nation of Israel came out of Abraham, so Jesus is also saying: 'Before Israel, I Am'.
Matthew 8:5: 'Now when Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to Him, pleading with Him and said: 'Lord, my servant is lying at home, paralysed, dreadfully tormented' and Jesus said to him: 'I will come and heal him'. The centurion answered and said: 'Lord, I am not worthy that you should come under my roof, but only speak a word and my servant will be healed. For I also am a man under authority having soldiers under me, and I say to this one: 'Go' and he goes and to another one: 'Come' and he comes and to my servant: 'Do this' and he does it'. When Jesus heard this, he marvelled and said to those who followed:' Assuredly I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel and I say to you that many will come from East and West and sit down with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of heaven'.
The centurion was a military man who was used to a chain of command. He was used to receiving orders and giving orders. When an order is given it is obeyed.
Jesus said that this man had: 'great faith' and that He'd never seen such great faith even in Israel! This man was a gentile, he was not part of God's covenant people.
Throughout the whole gospels, there are only two people whom Jesus commended for having 'great faith': the centurion and the Syro-Phoenician woman who came to Jesus because her daughter was demonized and asked Him to heal her.
If we want to have great faith then we need to learn some principles from these two people.
Jesus was blown away by this man's faith:
When Jesus said He's not seen such great faith in all Israel – does he mean the Israel of the time that he lived in for only 33 years? Or could it be that He meant that He has never found such great faith ever in Israel, because Jesus said 'before Abraham was, I Am?' This is God speaking, saying that this man is exercising a greater faith than all the prophets of the Old Testament, greater than Moses, greater than Elijah! Wow! Jesus marveled!
Why are we teaching on faith? We need it for the times we're in. Jesus said: 'When the Son of Man returns will He find faith on the earth?'
Where does faith come from? Faith has a source – it comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Faith does not come from netflix, youtube or tiktok! These things will diminish your faith. God's Word is totally satisfying. God's Word is completely fulfilling. And the more you start to feed on God's Word, the more you will hunger for it and desire it. You will desire JESUS!
Spiritual appetite Vs natural appetite
Spiritual appetite is different to natural appetite. Natural appetite is: if you don't eat you're hungry, spiritual appetite is: if you don't eat you lose appetite, but if you do eat, your appetite increases. So we've got to watch that we don't lose our appetite for the Word and our thirst for the Holy Spirit.
Jesus said: 'To those who have, more will be given and to those who don't have, even what they have will be taken from them.' What does that mean? To those who are serious about God's Word, who treat it like the very Word of God and seek revelation from it, He says: 'I'll give you more!' But for those who are casual about God's Word, who treat it lightly, He says: 'Even the little revelation you have will be taken from you'.
'Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God' (Rom 10:17) The word 'hearing' means to reflect on and think on and think on.
The word here for 'Word' is 'rhema' .
There are two words for the Greek word 'Word': 'Logos' (meaning written word) and 'rhema'. The Bible is the 'logos' of God but it needs to become 'rhema' on the inside of God as it is quickened to you. Rhema is the 'now Word' of God to you personally. A real prophetic word is always rhema. And because we should be hearing God for ourselves, when someone prophesies over us it should be confirmation of what God has already been saying.
Jesus is looking for great faith like this centurion, this military man had. He was one who simply believed in the Word. In the military, they tell you what to do and you obey commands without question. You follow orders no matter what. That is the mindset. And God's Word is God's Word! It is not complicated. You don't need to be a superbrain to move in faith! You just need to get the garbage out of your head and much of our education and learning that is useless to our faith.
This man had an understanding of giving and receiving commands and what was said was done every time. He didn't have to overthink it, he just believed it! In our culture we overthink! We are too sophisticated and educated, too clever. This man believed in and understood the operation of authority. He was under it and he himself moved in it.
When the disciples asked Jesus to increase their faith, He basically ignored their request and spoke the truth: 'If you have faith as small as a mustard seed you will say to this mulberry tree: be uprooted and planted in the sea and it will.... '
Does it say the mulberry tree may be uprooted - it said IT WILL. Faith causes circumstances and challenges to submit and obey!
Do you say to the mulberry tree: 'Please if you could be pulled up by the roots? I've got a PHD in theology, please could you be pulled up just a little bit? I'm not sure I believe you will be planted in the sea because that's supernatural and a bit hard to believe but please
….' and the tree will go: 'No thank you I don't want to'. What does it say? 'If you have faith …..you will say'! And then what? It will obey you! You will have what you say!
Faith carries a command, it carries authority.
The Word of God is a seed, it becomes living on the inside of you. Faith is substance, you have substance living on the inside of you. When you get rhema growing on the inside and you begin to speak rhema: things happen! If you have faith, you will be one who speaks, it just comes out of you! Under pressure, instead of fear coming out, the Word of God will be coming out and things in your life that have been long-standing issues, that have been around for generations, will be pulled up by the roots!
If a commanding officer says to his troops: 'Halt!' or 'Stand to attention!' or even: 'Run towards the enemy' do they say: 'Maybe'? 'I'll think about it'? What do they do? They obey the command of a senior officer automatically, even if it means running towards death. They are programmed. We need programming in the word of God!
Jesus said this is how faith works! You don't need lots of faith but it must not be contaminated by mixture. Be selective about even the Christian content you listen to and take in. The best and only pure content is the Word of God. Tithe your time to the Word of God. Spend quality time in God's word – both audio and reading it. Get washed by the word.
Jesus said: 'Which of you having a servant plowing or tending sheep will say to him when he's come on from the field: 'Sit down at once and eat'? But will he not rather say: 'Prepare my supper and then after you've served me then you can take care of yourself.' Does he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I think not.'
This is the same principle as the military man. The servant does as he's commanded and you don't even thank him. This is how faith works.
We need to go to the Word of God alone to find out what it says about any situation we are facing.
We can't mix it with anything else or our faith will not work. The wisdom of this age empties the cross of its power. If you get Greek wisdom in you it disconnects you from the power of God. It disconnects you from everything Jesus did for you on the cross. Modern secular psychology is 100% founded in Greek philosophy and it has infiltrated the Church.
Is the Word of God not enough? We don't need to use anything in addition to it.
What it comes down to is whether the Word of God has full authority in our life? When it does and we stop mixing it with other things, then mulberry tress are going to get rooted out of our lives! Are we going to be shamelessly biblical? If we put God's Word first in our life then we are going to have authority and our faith is going to work! And Jesus is saying just like you would say to a servant 'Do this, this, and this' and he does it– that is exactly how faith will work for you!
And then he said: 'And likewise when you have done all the things that you are commanded....' So God commands you! You don't pat yourself on the back and think you're a superstar for casting a demon out – No! You just obeyed the Word of God and did what you're supposed to. We cannot operate in faith until we are submitted to the authority of God's Word and obeying it, doing it and walking in it. God is getting a people ready in this generation who are seeing through the nonsense of the world and are drawn to the Lord.
The number one reason why people struggle to get their faith working is because they're not teachable! If people will just be teachable and, as James says: 'receive the ingrafted word which can save your soul' . The word 'save' is the word 'sozo' it means to deliver and restore you. If you can just receive the implanted word of God and not fight it, not reason against it, not try and mix in all your education but like Paul can say: 'I count all things loss' and accept the authority of the Word in your life: it will work for you.
Psalm 81:14 says: 'If my people would listen to Me and walk in My ways I would soon subdue their enemies. I would turn my hand against your adversaries' v15: 'the haters of the Lord pretend submission to Him' –
God defines His haters as those who pretend submission to Him: it's those who just won't listen to Him! If people will just take His word as the very word of God and build it into their life,
God says: 'I would feed you with the finest of wheat, with honey from the rock' – that means God's going to really take care of you and satisfy your needs! It doesn't matter how messed up a person has been by this world, how horrific their life has been, what abuse they've had, if they can sit and listen to the Word of God and not fight it, they'll get transformed! No doubt about it! The anointed word of God will do its job. God is not moved by sentiment or need. He's moved by faith. God has already done everything He's gonna do – sent His Son, made Him sin for us, raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand. Now the Word needs to be preached and believed on.
Faith is obedience. It's deciding that whatever happens, however, I feel, the Word of God is right, it is the truth. And if we will just submit to it, God will feed us with the finest of wheat!
There's a fight. The devil comes immediately to try to steal the Word of faith sown in your heart. You have to decide whose word is going to win: the word of man / the devil or the Word of God? There's a fight over your faith. The devil wants our faith so we are to 'fight the good fight of faith and lay hold of eternal life'. Eternal life does not only mean after you die. It's God perpetual life that always has and always will be and you have to take hold of it now and keep holding on to it! The word 'fight' means 'to agonise'. There's a struggle. The Greek word for it actually means 'a contest before an assembly'. Every believer has an inheritance – but to enter it they have to go through this struggle, this agony of faith, this contest and it's seen in the spiritual realm. Get in the fight!
God says you can't draw back! The just live by faith. We've got to learn how to fight using the Word! The church needs to put the armour of God on!
If we look at just two parts of it: the helmet of salvation and sword of spirit: What part does the helmet cover? Your head! Do you have battles in your thoughts? Put on the mind of Christ! Then get the sword of the spirit – it's not in your hand but in your mouth! Is it operational or are we murmuring and complaining? There's no power in hell can defeat you when you understand how to use your armour. Every war has a theatre of war: a location and rules of engagement. This war is over faith. The rules of engagement are: which Word is gonna have authority in you?
WATCH THE MESSAGE BELOW AND HAVE YOUR FAITH LIFTED UP!
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