We are teaching the series “Faith is the key” and today I will give the fifth and last message of this series. Last week we talked about how to have “An Unshakable Faith”. Jesus said that you can go through difficult times, yes we all will go through it, but we need to have an unshakable faith!
You can lose everything in life, but you can never lose your faith!
“Without faith it is impossible to please God” Hebrews 11:6
Faith is to believe in the impossible, Faith is to believe in the supernatural, Faith is the assurance of the things hoped for!
Faith pleases God. Jesus praised people with great faith, but also rebuked his own disciples for having little faith.
How is your faith? How is your expectation?
I am full of expectation, because I know that God has many things to accomplish among us and through us here in this Town. Great things are to come, but if we are not connected with the Holy Spirit and full of God’s Word we will miss out on what God has prepared for us!
We all have promises from God but miracles are the result of a heart full of Faith.
I taught months ago that God does not answer needs, God answers Faith!
The world is full of needs, but God only answers those who have faith.
We often think that if we really need something – God will do it because we are in need, but this is not true. God does not answer needs, He answers Faith!
Apostle Paul said
“So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.” Romans 10:17
In other words, God’s Word is filled with faith and in order to grow in faith you must listen to it and really take it in!
If you let the devil steal the Word out from your heart, you will be a weak and defeated christian. That’s why the devil will do everything for you not to come to the Church Services, he will do everything for you not to go to the cell Meetings, he will do everything for you not to come to the Bible School. Because he knows that Faith comes by hearing and he doesn’t you to hear and grow your faith.
If he keeps you away from church you will never be a strong Christian, who is full of faith and who will experience supernatural things.
The Word builds us up. It brings us into our inheritance in Christ. It’s our light in a dark place. It’s food for our spirit.
“For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope.”
Romans 15:4 NIV
Everything that was written in the Bible is there to teach how we have to live a better life and to strengthen your faith. So let’s learn some important principles about faith from the Old Testament which also show that Jesus is a way maker!
“Is this not the word that we told you in Egypt, saying, ‘Let us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than that we should die in the wilderness.” And Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will accomplish for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall see again no more forever. The Lord will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace.””
Exodus 14:12-14 NKJV
Israel came out of Egypt. They had just experienced a great miracle from God. The ten plagues had come down on Egypt and the Israelis came out rejoicing full of happiness. Their dream had finally come true.
The only problem is their happiness did not last very long. Three days later, pharaoh woke up and realised he had lost a bunch of slaves. He called his army and went after them to bring them back to Egypt.
When Israel saw that, they felt scared and started to complain about their circumstance.
What do you feel when you go through trouble? Do you complain like the people of Israel?
Sometimes after a great miracle or after a great victory, we might go through a great fight!
What do you do when the battles come your way?
Moses, their leaders, was a man of faith and challenged them to use their faith!
“Moses answered the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.””
Exodus 14:13-14 NIV
Do not be afraid. Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will accomplish for you today. Only stand still and God will fight for you!
I want you to write this down: If God brought me so far, He intents for me to get through to the other side.
God did not bring them to the Red Sea to drown them. God didn’t do all those miracles for them to all die a few weeks later.
I believe that sometimes things happen in our lives so that we can experience certain works of God. We experience salvation, we experience miracles, we experience answered prayers. Sometimes we come to places where the future looks dark and the past looks bright.
We come to a point where we see the future so obscure and scary while the past looks as if it was so easy and attractive.
The future looks impossible and it seems like there is no way I will ever be able to get through this.
Then we think: this is the end, there is no future for me.
If God intended to end my life here, why did He get you through the ten plagues?
I want you to use a little bit of “common sense” and to see that God is not planning to drown us at the Red Sea.
If God brought you so far, He intents to get you through it!
I’m here to say: Don’t be afraid of “your Red Sea”! Maybe you don’t have a way through it, maybe you don’t have a boat, maybe you don’t have swimming skills to cross it, but God has a way to get you over to the other side!
But you have to know how to use the key! Because Faith is the Key!
Example: I have a vision of a building that can hold hundreds and thousands of people, but we are a small church and we have no finances, but if God gave us this dream He will fulfil it.
If God brought me to this impossible situation He will get me through it.
On 12 of March 2008, fifteenth years ago, Fabiana, my two daughters and I arrived in this country with no English but our goal was to have an English-speaking church and I felt like there was one “Big Red Sea” in front of me;
We need to understand: When God give you a promise, He will present you with a problem to test your faith. Because He wants to purity your faith.
The Red Sea is important because there are things that the Red Sea will kill within you.
Israel thought they would all die in the Sea but God was actually planning to cleanse them through the Red Sea and drown pharaoh in it.
That’s why I thank God for every Red Sea in my life. Because when I thought I would die in the Red Sea, in reality it was my pride that died and my unbelief that was drowned. My laziness, self-dependence, fear, sickness, failures all die in the Red Sea.
The Red Sea is important to us. Because it’s the only place the enemy can not follow you through!
Sometimes some furnaces are necessary in our lives because it brings cleansing and purity and holiness.
Sometimes we have pride in our lives and after the furnace we leave with broken hearts, humility and purified faith.
Sometimes you faced with the Red Sea not because the Lord wants to drown you, but because He wants to clean you from your unbelief, He wants to clean you from emotional drama, to free you from your emotional roller coaster, because we live by our emotions and soul and not by the spirit.
After the Red Sea you will say things like Job once said:
“For I know that my Redeemer lives!
Job 19:25 NKJV
“For I know whom I have believed”
II Timothy 1:12 NKJV
Do I see God? No. Do I fell Him? No ! But I know He is alive and He is in control of my life.
If God sent the 10 plagues to free me once, and opened all the doors for you to get where you are right now, He will find a way to get you through the Red Sea.
When there seems to be no way, the Bible tells me Jesus is the Way !
Listen me : God did not bring you so far just to let you drown.
If I have to go through the water, it’s because God wants to turn me into a better person.
I will make it through this water, Pharaoh will not ! Sickness will not, failure will not, pharaoh will die, my old man will die, your unbelief will die.
I’m here to say to you the same words Moses said to the people : “Do not be afraid. Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, God is working”
If God brought you to this place, to this church, this town , this country and to this Red Sea that you’re facing, He will make a way !
Now it is time to use the key , to use your faith, to choose not to fear and declare the Word of God.
“I would see the goodness of the Lord In the land of the living. Wait on the Lord; Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the Lord!”
Psalms 27:13-14 NKJV
“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.”
Jeremiah 29:11 NKJV
“He shall be like a tree Planted by the rivers of water, That brings forth its fruit in its season, Whose leaf also shall not wither; And whatever he does shall prosper.”
Psalms 1:3 NKJV
As you stand there and declare it you will see God moving.
When you’re in front a Red Sea you’re in front of a miracle! I do not know how it will happen, but I know one thing: God’s promise to me will be true. The promise that He gave to my family will be true. The promise He gave to my child will be true. The promise God gave to my pastor, to me, to you about Shalom in Ireland will be fulfilled.
God is going to make a way for us giving us new facilities. Maybe you believe your parents will come to know Christ, or you believing you’ll have your own house , or a spouse , or your children to turn to Christ, or for papers.
I want to encourage you: If He brought you this far, He will bring you through it. God did not bring you here to drown you but to drown the enemy. You will get through it, God will purify you.
Never get out of the Red Sea with the same baggage that you came into it. Never come out the other side carrying the same thing. Let the waters of the Red Sea purify your faith, purity your passion, your commitment to the church, so you come out the other side as pure as gold.
When you go through your sea, God can provide you with a boat ! He did that with his disciples, when they were in the storm.
He provided Jonah with a big fish when he thought that he was going to die out in the sea.
God guided Jesus to walk over the water.
But for Israel, God split the waters . He made a way where there was no way. For some people He will make them walk on the water. Others He will give them a boat. For some of us He will give us the strength to swim through.
But there are people, for whom God will not send a whale, He will not send a boat, Jesus will make a way where there is no way.
He will make a way when doctors say that it’s impossible. He will make a way when you say I have no money. He will make a way.
It does not matter what we go through, it does not matter our losses, it does not matter the past, because God is the God of the impossible and we will always believe, always preach the word of Faith, because Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever.
Let’s pray bold prayer and not comfortable prayers. Let’s believe in the impossible. You can pray for a boat but I believe God can make a way where there is no way!
Jesus said: I’m the Way, The Truth and the Life and I can make a way where there is no way.
Jesus is a way maker ! Jesus is the miracle maker! He creates a way where there is no way! He is the way and His name is Jesus!
Let’s believe and use this key of faith!
God bless you and help you to have an unshakeable faith!