We live by faith.
We view the world through the frame of faith, for good or for bad.
What you believe will determine your experience.
All of these statements are true and challenging.
Scripture speaks in Hebrews 11 about how the worlds were framed by faith. God saw and then spoke into existence all that we see and touch today.
That same nature and spiritual dynamic is at work in our lives. This is why the devil works overtime to harness the power of your imagination and paint it black. He wants your frame of reference to be hopeless and helpless, rather than being defined by the absolute victory and authority of Christ.
The principles of faith taught in the Scriptures have been hijacked by the new age. There are spiritual principles as real as gravity that work regardless of who exercises them. Utilised and applied they will work for anyone.
The world wants to coin the process with terms such as “positive thinking”, “law of attraction” or “manifestation”. The devil would love for you to believe that an impersonal “universe” is at work to shower you with all you want and desire.
“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.”
James 1:17 KJV
It is said that sunlight delivers Vitamin D to your body. Here, from the light of revelation found in the Word of God, is the spiritual equivalent.
Here’s your daily dose of spiritual Vitamin D, the ingredients of a faith-filled life.
Number 1, we have already mentioned.
The process and light of faith begins with Divinity.
Divinity
God is the Source. He is the seed-sower. Faith begins with connection with the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
It is in the sanctuary of prayer that Godly plans are born:
“There I will meet with you and, from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim that are upon the ark of the Testimony, I will speak intimately with you of all which I will give you in commandment to the Israelites.”
Exodus 25:22 AMPLIFIED
The first seeds of God’s purpose being planted and growing in your life are found in hearing Him speak intimately, personally, and specifically.
As Paul so simply stated:
“faith comes by hearing”
Romans 10:17 NKJV
Out of this intimacy desire is born.
Desire
“Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.”
Mark 11:24 KJV
The journey of faith for anything begins with desire. Desire for your stated outcome must fill your spirit, and become so passionately vital that your inner man refuses to accept anything less than that which the Father has promised.
Faith comes by hearing God speak to our spirit. This I believe is what the Bible talks about when it teaches that God gives us the desires of our heart when we delight ourselves in Him.
To delight in God we must give Him the best of who we are. Our deepest emotions, and the imaginations of our heart must be relinquished to the pursuit of the only One who can bring true fulfilment to our lives.
When we do this, He plants within us the overwhelming desires that He has previously planned for our lives to manifest and enjoy.
“Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.”
Psalm 37:4 KJV
Working this way, from the inside out rather than from the outside in, there will be the necessary determination and patience required. The God-given desire comes with all that necessary to see it through to the end.
Outside-in desire often is little more than lusts of the eye, flesh and pride of life spoken of by Jon in his first short letter (1 John 2:16). The devil would love for you to expend your inner resources chasing the wind and the passing pleasures of this world, panting after its delights.
“Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.”
Psalm 16:11 KJV
“Let them shout for joy, and be glad, that favour my righteous cause: yea, let them say continually, Let the LORD be magnified, which hath pleasure in the prosperity of his servant.”
Psalm 35:27 KJV
“They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house; and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures.”
Psalm 36:8 KJV
Define
“Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.”
Hebrews 11:3 KJV
Once the desire it planted it must be defined. With the eye of the spirit the thing promised must be visualised and seen with the inner eye with such clarity that its reality is just as real to your spirit as if it were already held in your hand.
The apostle teaches us that faith gives substance to the things we hope for (Hebrews 11:1). The definition and framing of our deepest desires in God become all the evidence we need to believe we have right now what has not yet been manifest in the natural.
There is often a gestation period, much like the hidden growth of a baby in a mother’s womb, where the seed of God’s spoken word planted in the heart begins to take shape with us. The promise is no longer a future hope, it rows to become a present and powerful expectation that marks our words and actions.
We speak and act as if the thing were already delivered.
“Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.”
Mark 11:24 KJV
When you pray, believe. Not when the answer arrives in the natural.
Declare
Words are God’s chosen substance to shape reality. He spoke, and it became.
The Scriptures teach:
“We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak;”
2 Corinthians 4:13 KJV
What is real in the heart will always find its way to the mouth. And what the mouth declares in a consistent basis will manifest in the natural.
Words bring forth and become things.
“…out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things.”
Matthew 12:34–35 KJV
For this reason, we must be careful what we invite. We must be attentive to the sounds that proceed from our inner man, because they inform us what abundantly fills our heart. If the words are not in line with the desired outcome, it’s time to go back to delighting in the Lord and leaning our ear to hear Him speak and seed a new future.
Go the Distance
Would that the planting of the seed and the reaping of the harvest were instant, the prices would be easy. Ask any farmer how the world works however and he’ll inform you that the mystery and miracle of manifesting fruit requires patience.
It is “through faith and patience (that we) inherit the promises.” (Hebrews 6:12 KJV)
Don’t be dismayed that you face resistance in your faith project. Don’t be surprised that the devil throws ever false and fearful lie your way to throw you off course.
How fast to your confession! Stay strong to your conviction!
“Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;)”
Hebrews 10:23 KJV
Delivery
The reception of the promise. The delivery of the delight. The manifestation of the desire. The actual physical counterpart of the the real spiritual reality!
You, like the father waiting for his prodigal, have been waiting expectantly for your child to arrive. Like Abraham you have been looking at the stars in the sky and the dust on the ground. Like Jacob you have filled and fuelled your faith with the specking rods. Like Joseph you have lived a waking dream, waiting your moment even against all odds.
The object of your desire has been possessed long before it is held in your hand, but little can be more joyful than the agreement of the world below with the reality of the world above. What was born in your spirit is now held in your hand!
The only appropriate action and response here is to give glory to God!
Delight
It is the delight of the Father to delight in His children. What genuine Father does not?
Take time together with Him, and ask often, think big, imagine abundantly!
“Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.”
Ephesians 3:20–21 KJV
