March 4, 2024

Hello and Happy Day! This is Dr. MaryAnn Diorio, Novelist and Life Coach, welcoming you to another episode of Winning with the Word. Today is Monday, March 4, 2024, and this is Episode #3 in Season 2024. This episode is titled, “The Power of Faith – Part 3.”

During our previous two podcasts, we discussed what faith is, what it is not, and the two kinds of faith. If you did not listen to those podcasts, you may wish to go back to do so before listening to this one.

Today, we are going to explore how we obtain faith in the first place and then, after we’ve obtained it, how we develop it or strengthen it.

To start off, if you are born again, you already have the faith of God residing within you. This is one of the perks of accepting Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord. In Romans 12: 3, the Bible says this: “God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.” (Emphasis mine). The measure of faith the Bible describes here is supernatural faith.

If you are not born again, you do not have this special kind of supernatural faith. You have only natural faith, which won’t get you very far in receiving from God. So, if you want supernatural faith, get born again. I will tell you how at the end of this podcast.

Now, let’s get back to the measure of supernatural faith that God gives to those who receive Jesus as Savior. Notice that the Bible says that God gives THE measure of faith, not A measure of faith. What is the difference?

THE measure of faith means that God gives the same amount of faith to everyone who gets born again. He does not give more faith to one person than to another. Just as God gives every human being the same number of muscles, so He gives to every born-again believer the same amount of faith.

So, now that we’ve established that each of us who is born again receives the same amount of faith, the next question is how do we develop that faith? How do we make it stronger?

Again, back to our analogy of the body’s muscles. How do we make our muscles stronger? By exercising them, right? Well, that is precisely how we make our faith stronger. By exercising it.

And how do we exercise our faith? Through trials and temptations.

God allows trials and temptations into our lives to give us the opportunity to exercise our faith and, thereby, to strengthen it. Why do we need to strengthen our faith? Because the Bible tells us in Hebrews 11: 6 that without faith, it is impossible to please God.

WOW! That’s a pretty strong statement. Without faith, it is impossible to please God. So, if we do not have faith, we cannot please God. That’s quite a sobering thought, isn’t it?

Well, why should we want to please God?

First of all, because we love Him. When we love someone, we want to please that person, don’t we?

Second, we need faith to receive from God what we need from Him. In Mark 11: 24, we read this: “Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.”

Third, we need to receive from God not only in order to have what we need, but also to bless others.

The Lord told Abraham back in Genesis 22: 17-18 that He would bless Abraham so that Abraham and his descendants would bless the earth. We are the spiritual descendants of Abraham, and God wants to us us to bless the world.

But how can we bless the world with God’s blessings if we ourselves have not received God’s blessings?

The answer is, we need to have faith to receive God’s blessings so that we can then bless others.

This takes us back to HOW DO WE GET FAITH?

We get faith by hearing. Romans 10: 17 tells us this: “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.” Faith comes through hearing, specifically hearing God’s Word.

But, interestingly, faith in anything comes by hearing it. If we hear something over and over again, we will eventually believe what we hear, even if what we hear is a lie. That is exactly what’s happening in our world today. People are hearing lies repeated again and again, and they have begun to believe those lies.

What lies you may ask?

Lies like there are more than two genders. Lies like a man can become a woman and a woman can become a man. Lies like homosexuality and lesbianism are permitted by God. Lies like there are many ways to get to Heaven. And on and on and on the list goes.

Now, let’s go back to our muscle analogy for a moment. How are strong muscles developed? Through resistance. We lift weights–a form of resistance–to strengthen our muscles. The weights push back against our muscles and strengthen them.

It’s the same with faith. Our faith develops through resistance. This resistance comes in the form of trials, tribulation, and temptation. When we resist trials, tribulation, and temptation by drawing on God’s grace to help us through them, we develop and strengthen our faith.

This is the reason that Jesus commands us to rejoice in the midst of trials. What He is saying is that when we resist evil during times of trial and temptation, we are actually making our faith stronger. And that is cause for rejoicing.

So the next time you are faced with a trial or temptation, rejoice and remember that your faith is growing stronger.

Next time, we will talk about how our faith is released to receive from God. Meanwhile, if you have not received Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord, I urge you to do so now. Pray this simple prayer with me:

Lord Jesus, I acknowledge that I am a sinner in need of Your mercy and grace. I believe that You are the Son of God, that You died for me, and that You rose from the dead. I choose now to turn away from my sin and to receive You as my Savior and Lord. I invite you into my life. Thank You for saving me. Make of me what You created me to be. Amen.

If you sincerely prayed this prayer, please write to me at drmaryann@maryanndiorio.com. I would like to send you a little booklet titled After You’re Born Again. I encourage you to begin reading your Bible every day. Pray every day. Prayer is simply talking with God as you would to your best friend. Ask the Lord to lead you to the church of His choice for you where you can grow in your walk with Jesus and fellowship with other believers who can encourage you.

Before you leave, check out my featured book for this week. It’s titled The Iron Saint: Preparing the Church for Persecution. Please get a copy for your pastor and other church leaders, and please spread the word to fellow believers. The Church in America is experiencing increasing persecution, but we are not prepared. The Iron Saint will show you how to prepare for the difficult days ahead.

THE IRON SAINT PURCHASE LINK

Finally, please tell others about the Winning with the Word podcast. You can subscribe on your favorite podcast venue or by clicking on the link in the show notes below:

SUBSCRIBE TO WINNING WITH THE WORD.

Until next time, remember that God loves you just as you are and just where you are, and that He will help you to keep on Winning with the Word!

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Copyright 2000-2024 by MaryAnn Diorio, PhD. All Rights Reserved.