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When we hear a message, we need to look at ourselves to know if it is speaking to us. In Luke 22, Jesus reveals that someone was going to betray Him. Judas was the weak link who Satan used to try to get to Jesus. Betrayal is one of the tools Satan uses to dissolve relationships. 

In verses 31-32, Jesus informed Peter that Satan had plans for him as well. "And the Lord said, "Simon, Simon! Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail..." 

We learn from this that the devil is after one thing in our lives and that's OUR FAITH. If he can get our faith, he can destabilize our life. We have been looking at Divine Connections. Today we will learn about "Growing our Faith."

The responsibility of growing our faith rests on
 our capability to engage in its development.

God has given us the measure of faith and He intends for us to grow that measure from little faith to great faith. Colossians 2:6-7 (NLT) tells us to continue to follow Jesus just as we accepted Him. We received Him by faith and we must continue to walk by faith in Him. Verse 7 tells us to let our roots grow down into him. The deeper our roots, the stronger our life is going to be. Our faith will grow strong in the truth we were taught and we will "...overflow with thankfulness." When we grow deep roots and when we build our lives on Him, our faith will grow strong.

Being rooted and grounded in the word of God 
is absolutely necessary to maintain and grow our faith.

We need to understand the importance of the role of the word of God in the development and growth of our faith. Today we will discover that the word of God is the seed that produces great faith, if we provide the right environment for that word to grow in our lives.

Your pastor and life coach,
 
Randy Morrison

    
Remember:  Spiritual Success begins on Sunday Morning!   


In Mark 4:14-20, Jesus teaches about the importance of the word of God to grow our faith. We provide the soil, or the environment, for the word of God to grow. Mark 4 discusses 4 different environments.

 

1. WAYSIDE- These are people who HEAR THE WORD but don't comprehend it. Satan comes immediately to take the word because of the unresponsive attitude of those who hear the word, but do not apply God's word to their lives.

 

2. STONY GROUND- These are people who HEAR THE WORD and immediately receive it with gladness. They are emotional hearers. They allow their emotions to be the prevalent voice in their lives, but they have no roots. Emotionalism does not give you any roots, because your emotions are based on what is happening at the moment. They endure only for a time. When tribulation and persecution arise FOR THE WORD'S SAKE, they stumble.

 

3. THORNY GROUND- These are people who HEAR THE WORD, but the cares of this world choke the word. They don't respond to life by doing the word, so their lives do not change.

 

4. GOOD GROUND- These are those who HEAR THE WORD and that word produces in their lives.

 
WHAT IS THE X-FACTOR?
They all heard the word, but only one of them did the word. If we are not bearing fruit in life we need to look at our response to the word. Those with good ground accept the word, believe the word, and act on the word. The word we hear is good, but the environment we provide for that word may be hindering its growth.


 
THE 4 LEVELS OF FAITH
  • Little faith
  • Growing faith
  • Strong faith
  • Great faith

LITTLE FAITH has to do with humanly reacting to circumstances instead of intentionally responding to circumstances. In Matthew 8:23-27, the disciples responded to the circumstances with LITTLE FAITH. They were in a boat with Jesus on the way to the other side. When a storm arose, they revealed their "little faith" by posing a question to Jesus. "Don't you care that we are perishing?"

 
Every one of the challenges we face in life reveals our faith, or our fears.
 
Jesus spoke to the disciples about the influence and the level of their faith. Then, He spoke to the storm to show them what they should have done. LITTLE FAITH DOES NOTHING EXCEPT REACT TO CIRCUMSTANCES. Our faith will not grow if we only react in fear to problems instead of intentionally responding in faith.
 
GROWING FAITH is characterized by endurance and "stickability."
 
We can only evaluate the growth of our faith 
by the things that we are able to endure.
 
ENDURANCE is the strength to withstand mental and physical hardship or distress.
 


We all experience different kinds of trouble in life. James 1:2-4 tells us that we will face complicated situations in life that we need to endure. We can "count it all joy" when we consider our times of trouble as growing times. When we are going through something our faith is being tested. We can benefit from these times of testing, because our endurance can grow. It's not what happens to us in life, it is how we respond to what happens that counts. If we want to get to the top, we have to go through the process of growing our faith.

Don't run away from your problems in life. 
Use them as a challenge and your opportunity to grow.


 

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