How To Grow Your Faith

[0:00] Thank you for choosing to listen to today's message by Reverend Dr. David Entry. We know you will be blessed as you seek and serve God. We believe that this message will stir up a desire for more of God even as you listen.

[0:13] Be blessed. Today, I want to continue from last two weeks where I stopped. Because this is our month. It's our month of faith. And next year is our year of faith.

[0:26] So today, I want to teach on how to grow your faith. Your faith must grow. Your faith must grow.

[0:39] You must, listen. Faith that is not developed will diminish. So you must always be developing your faith, else it will be diminishing.

[0:56] The just shall live by faith. The just shall live by faith. Developing your faith.

[1:08] Can you imagine if Jesus said in Matthew chapter, Jesus said in Matthew chapter 9 verse 29, That means that if you have great faith, you will have great destiny.

[1:31] If you have great faith, you will have great results. Because if what heaven does in your life is a function of your faith, then that means that the greater your faith, the more heavenly results that your life will generate.

[1:51] Somebody say amen. Amen. In 2 Thessalonians chapter 1 verse 3. Thank you, Lord Jesus.

[2:06] 2 Thessalonians chapter 1 verse 3 says that, We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is meet, because that your faith grows exceedingly, and the charity of every one of you towards each other abounded.

[2:24] Faith growing exceedingly. So we are bound to give thanks to God. Give me the new key, James. We are bound to give thanks to God, because your faith grows exceedingly.

[2:36] So faith can grow. Hello? 2 Corinthians chapter 10 verse 15. Faith can grow and faith must grow.

[2:52] Not boasting of things beyond our measure. That is in other man's labor. But having hope that your faith is increased.

[3:04] Say, my faith will increase. My faith will increase. Say it again, please. My faith will increase. The scriptures put it this way. Say that Hebrews chapter 11 verse 6.

[3:16] But without faith, it is impossible to please God. It is not what you do that pleases God, but if it is the faith you have that pleases God.

[3:27] What you do can't get heaven's attention, but the faith with which you do what you do is what gets heaven's attention.

[3:39] The Bible puts it this way. In Galatians chapter 2 verse 20, I have crucified in Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yet not I, but Christ who lives in me.

[3:51] And the life I now live, I live by faith. How can you be a Christian and not living by faith? If you're a Christian and you don't live by faith, you deny yourself of the privileges of a Christian.

[4:13] Because the privileges can manifest. It can manifest. The privileges can manifest. When you are born again, you have the privileges of heaven.

[4:26] But until you start using your faith passports, faith passports, you miss out on opportunities. You can't miss. So you suffer like everybody suffers.

[4:40] You are subject, you become subject to what any ordinary person is subject to. So they don't see any difference. So, well, they think, oh, you go to church, I also go to church. They say, oh, don't go to church, but it's no difference.

[4:50] They don't even envy you. There's nothing exceptional about your results. It's about time you produce results that unbelievers are baffled about.

[5:05] You produce results that people who don't work by faith are forced to admit that there's something behind your life. You don't need magic.

[5:16] You don't need to consult OBR doctors. You don't need to consult voodoo masters. They are lower than the RM.

[5:28] They are lower. If you can put yourself in the... You don't even need some special prayers from pastors. If you can put yourself and develop your faith and work by faith, you are in the class of God.

[5:45] You begin to operate in the class of God. Jesus, when he was on earth, he operated by faith. So when they were in a storm, they were on the boat, and Satan wanted to get rid of him.

[5:59] So a storm arose. Mark chapter, let me look at the Mark 4 version. The Bible says that they awoke him because the boat was filling with water. So these experienced fishermen knew that we are about to die.

[6:15] They knew it because the storm was bad. They couldn't control. Now the boat was... The Bible says the boat was filling, where 37 says that, and the boats were... And the waves beat upon the...

[6:27] And it was filling. It was... They saw it coming, but they knew it would be okay. But it got to a level, they realized that now that thing is out of control. So they went and woke him up.

[6:37] Master, carest not thou that we perish. And he woke out of his sleep. And Jesus Christ rebuked the wind and the sea and said, Peace be still.

[6:53] Go to verse 38. Verse 38. Yeah. So he was sleeping, and they said, Teacher, don't you care that we perish? So he came, and he rebuked the existing. And then verse 40.

[7:04] Rebuked the existing. And he said, He said to them, Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith? Because this faith sorts this thing out.

[7:17] Oh, you didn't get what I said. My darling, that problem is not someone prayer that will change it for you. Faith can take care of it for you. Stop running around looking for prayers.

[7:32] It never solves problems. I can tell you. Listen, I've been a Christian for long. And my kind of Christian is not like the backseat Christian. It's full-front Christian. That's one. And number two, my kind of Christian is God-loving, fire-loving.

[7:45] So I've been in fire ministries and fire activities and fire conferences a lot. The regular customers of fire conferences, their lives don't change. Oh, wow. Wow. Wow. Wow.

[7:55] Wow. Wow. You, many years, they tend to be as a saint. Because what changes your life is stability in the church and faithfulness to God and working by faith.

[8:11] Wow. That is what changes your story. It's not how many hands that are laid on you. It's not who is praying for you. It's not who is praying for you. Because we have, this generation have gathered a lot of lazy Christians.

[8:25] who don't want to take responsibility for the development of their faith. They abdicate that responsibility for the pastor to do it for them. How can a pastor eat for you? How can your husband take medication on your behalf?

[8:43] How can you ask your husband to go to the gym for you? How can you ask your husband? How can you ask your husband to go to the gym for you? How can you ask your husband So, I get you what I'm saying. In the same way, faith is an exercise.

[8:56] I can't develop my faith for your faith to grow. So, development of faith is a personal responsibility which God will never do for anybody.

[9:08] because as soon as watch this, my pastor, I don't even have faith. No, if you are born again, you do because you can't be born again without faith. You can't be a Christian without faith.

[9:21] So, as once you become born again, Bible says in Ephesians chapter 2 verse 8, it is by grace through faith. It said, for by grace have you been saved through faith.

[9:33] So, our salvation is an act of God's grace but it can never actualize until faith is put on the table.

[9:43] So, God will bring grace, you bring faith to eat it. So, grace will serve the table by your spoon to eat your cartillary is faith.

[9:55] Faith is what, Bible says that it is by faith so that it, Romans chapter 4, Romans chapter 4, I think verse 16, yeah, Romans 4, 16, it said, for therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace.

[10:12] If you want to enjoy the grace of God, there must be faith in place. There must be faith. It's of faith that it might be according to grace. Some of us are so worried about what is going on around you, you have allowed what is going on around you to enter you.

[10:30] So, it has, what is going on, why are you allowing the external temperature to become your internal temperature? It's not good for your health. Even if you can't control the weather conditions, you must control the conditions in your room or in your car.

[10:48] You must control the climate or the temperature in your room other than that your children will die. Don't allow what is happening outside of you become what is happening inside you.

[11:00] grow your faith. Tell somebody grow your faith. Grow your faith. Jesus said, be it unto you according to not my faith, your faith.

[11:17] Your faith. Yesterday, when I was going to preach, the Lord laid a word on my heart. But another word that I was, I was teaching on faithfulness and service.

[11:29] So I was dealing with some strong things in the church. But God laid on my heart to preach a certain message and so I injected it. But I don't think it was a, it was a, it's a prophetic word in John chapter 4.

[11:42] And I want to, as I'm teaching on faith, this morning it came on my heart again. And I want you to look at it. John chapter 4. I think it will be a blessing because I have a word for somebody's next year, 2020.

[11:54] The whole story is about a noble man. My book calls him a noble man. He came to Jesus Christ because, he came to Jesus Christ because his son was dying.

[12:06] He wasn't yet dead. His son was dying. And he came to Jesus Christ and said, Master, please come home. My son is dying. He asked Jesus, please come.

[12:20] My son is dying. And then, Jesus says a few things. Okay, I said she believed in all that. But look at verse 46 of John chapter 4.

[12:33] So Jesus came again to Canaan of Galilee where he had made one. And there came a certain noble man whose son was sick at Carpino. Look at verse 37.

[12:45] When he heard that Jesus was in town, he went unto him and besought him that he would come down and heal his son for he was at the point of death. Did you see that? The guy is dying. So he came and said, Jesus, please come home.

[12:59] He's a big man, important man. Jesus, come home. My son is dying. Look at verse 50. Jesus, verse 50, then Jesus said to him, go thy way, thy son liveth.

[13:12] That is the word God gave me for you. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Go on. Don't change your plans.

[13:23] Go on. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Don't change anything. All the threats you are seeing, don't change anything. Go according to the way you plan.

[13:35] Just go on. Your son liveth. The future, 2020, will be fine. Amen. God gave me the word to tell somebody, go thy way, thy son liveth.

[13:49] Go your way, your future is saved. Go your way, your future is at peace. Go your way, God is with you.

[14:05] Go thy way, thy son liveth. In other words, the worst you have feared will not happen. What you are afraid of, if you have encountered Jesus, it has, watch this, it has the opportunity not to happen on one condition.

[14:32] Look at what the man did, he did something very stupid. The man did something very stupid. He said, go thy way, thy son liveth. And what did the man do? He believed what?

[14:47] They didn't give him medication. They said, take this. There's a word though. Are you foolish? Has he even seen the boy? Does he know the condition you are dealing with? He just tells you go, and you also believe.

[15:02] Okay, but they say I should go, so I'm going. Please, you are a noble man. You are too smart for this kind of behavior. Yeah. When you dare believe, people will assault you and accuse you of little mindedness.

[15:19] When you dare believe and try to walk by faith, people will accuse you of being stupid and being dumb and being unintelligent. Allow them to leave them alone until your results prove them wrong.

[15:33] A resultless faith is not worth pursuing. If you keep believing and you are not seeing results, something is wrong.

[15:50] Because if you are believing right, you will produce right results. Jesus said, go your way.

[16:01] I came to see you. I heard you are here. I came to tell you. Now you only tell me go. Go. What should I do? At least even tell me that when you go, do it in some of you.

[16:14] But some of us, instead of developing your faith, developing your faith and working with God and seeing God produce results in your life, you are giving the responsibility of developing your faith to others.

[16:26] And for them to do it for you, it never happens like that. No one can take medication for you. No one can go to the gym for you to do this with. No one can do surgery on your behalf. You have to do it yourself.

[16:38] Jesus told the guy, I don't have anything to give you. Just a word. Go your way. Listen, you came to church this morning. I have a word for you. It's not any complete.

[16:49] After church, don't come and see me. Pastor, do you have a word for me? I don't have a word. I just finished preaching. Go your way.

[17:01] Your son, leave it. Be not. Another person, you just told the person this way. In Mark chapter 6. Sorry, Mark chapter 5, verse 36. He said, fear not.

[17:13] Only believe. After him, they told him, your son is dead. Jesus said, fear not. Only believe. And let's go. The one Jesus told, fear not.

[17:24] Go your way. Your son liveth. Do you know what happened? He believed and went. By the time he arrived, he didn't even arrive. On his way going. They came and told him.

[17:37] Verse 51. They came and told him. And as he was going, his servants met him and told him. What did he tell him? My son liveth. What did Jesus say? My son will.

[17:47] Go your way. My son liveth. Watch this. Jesus said, go your way. Your son liveth. And he also went his way. And he also told your son liveth. The son started living when he went away.

[18:00] Watch this. Watch this. But he wouldn't have. Let me use this. Okay. It's not a nice English. But he wouldn't have went his way.

[18:12] Okay. Okay. Okay. If he hadn't believed. So went in his way was an evidence of his belief. You can't tell me you believe and you don't have any works to prove you believe.

[18:31] So Jesus didn't say just believe. He told him, go your way. Your son liveth. Every blessing of God comes with an instruction. You want a healing?

[18:44] He said, go your way. You want a testimony? He said, go your way. Go your way. Your son liveth. Every believer can say, I can't believe.

[18:58] Because what makes you a believer is your ability to believe in Christ. That's what makes you a Christian. Christians are believers first.

[19:09] Before even Christians. Prefer the word or the term believer. The Bible uses this over 200 times. Christian about twice.

[19:21] Prefer the word being, the term believer. Describing yourself as a believer. More than a Christian. Sometimes when you are feeling informed, they ask you what's your reason. They say, I'm a believer. When you meet people, what about you?

[19:35] I'm a believer. That's why it comes from Christianity. That's why religion is called faith. Because the whole thing is an act of belief. It's faith in God.

[19:48] And actually, it's faith in God or faith in Christ that is the son of God. But Satan has created several counterfeits. So it is also called faith. But it's the Christian walk that is a walk of faith.

[20:05] All other religious activities or practices are not a walk of faith. The Christian walk is a walk of faith. 2 Corinthians chapter 7 verse 5.

[20:15] Sorry. Yeah. 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 7. It said, for we walk by faith and not by sight. Christians, we walk by faith.

[20:27] We walk by faith. Why are you allowing the suffering to diminish your faith? All right. So quickly. If faith can increase, what should I do to increase my faith?

[20:41] Because if your faith increases, how many of us agree with me that your advantages in life will increase? Yeah. Yeah. If you can increase your faith, you will not be a cheap victim in life.

[20:55] Oh, all these things, you know. You can't just say, you know. It's because you have not tested the walk of faith. That's why you talk like that. I've tested the walk of faith. I've walked by faith.

[21:05] I'm walking by faith. And I have better results than you. No one who is not walking by faith can have better results than the one who is walking by faith. Look at Shadrach, Bezhak, and Abednego.

[21:16] Look at Dalia. Look at these heroes of faith. Look at David. Bible talks about how the Red Sea in Exodus chapter 14 verse 21.

[21:27] The Red Sea. Moses stretched forth his hand. And the Red Sea. And Moses stretched forth his hand over the sea. And did not cause the sea to go back. But do you realize Moses had to do something first?

[21:42] For fire to fall from heaven, Elijah had to build an altar and call on the name of God first. First Kings chapter 18 verse 37 and 38. Elijah had to call. It doesn't just happen because someone needs it.

[21:56] It doesn't just happen because someone is wishing it might. It happens because someone is taking responsibility to make it happen. Some people have been mis- or dis-educated.

[22:11] They expect that for something powerful of God to happen, somebody must lay hands on them. Or they must give them water, special water to drink.

[22:24] They always want something tangible. They want science and talking. Something. Show me something. That's why I'm holding the Bible like this. For information, I don't like preaching without a Bible.

[22:38] I'm a preacher. I'm not a speaker. That's right. Thank you. Right. So, when, watch this, some of us are so given to science.

[22:53] It's so important for us to understand. You don't always need a man of God to lay hands on you before you get something. Listen to this.

[23:05] The power that the man of God operates in is in his word. The word of God in his mouth. That is where a man of God's power is.

[23:18] It's not his hands. You can shake his hands and it will do you nothing. But if he speaks the word and you receive the word, you will receive the testimony.

[23:29] That's how it works. Am I saying that laying of hands is not as important? It has its place. By faith, they walk through the Red Sea. As we're walking on dragger.

[23:41] By faith. By faith. By faith. Hebrews 11, 29. By faith, they walk through. Bible says, verse 30. By faith, the walls of.

[23:55] By faith, the walls of Jericho fade. It wasn't by technology. No, no, no. Anything that is fighting your faith is fighting your life.

[24:10] Hi. Wow. When your faith fails, your life is failing. Strong faith, strong life.

[24:25] Weak faith, weak testimonies. And they are different faiths, different types. Some faiths. Bible says that Abraham was not weak in faith.

[24:35] Romans chapter 4, verse 19. Being not weak. So you can have faith, but you are weak in faith. Verse 20.

[24:50] In Nostalga, the 21 believe, but was strong. So you can either be weak in faith or strong in faith. Jesus said, how is it that you have no faith?

[25:03] So there is the weak faith. There is the strong faith. There is the no faith. There is the ever increasing faith. There is the shipwrecked faith.

[25:16] Yeah. 1 Timothy chapter 1, verse 18 and 19. Shipwrecked. Holding faith and good caution. We shall have him have made shipwrecked.

[25:28] Concerning faith has made shipwrecked. I see your faith growing. Amen. I believe that the coming year, people will begin to say, we now understand.

[25:46] Amen. We, you know, it's nice for people to come to you and say, we didn't agree with you, but now we know we are wrong. Amen. You know something, there's one thing people are admitting that, I think you got it right.

[25:58] It's another thing when they come to you and they tell you, I think, I now admit I was very wrong. And they tell you how they thought about you, which you never even knew. They come and confess to you that me, listen, me, I was against this thing.

[26:15] But now please help me. You don't need the agreement of people in order to work by faith. You don't need that.

[26:29] You don't need the consent of man. You don't need it. You don't need the consent of man. Not your wife.

[26:40] Not your husband. Not your bosses. If you know your pastor. You don't need the consent of man to work by faith. But you know, you see it in God's word.

[26:52] And it's true. That's how, that's what the word says. Hook your future to it. And that's working by it. The man went his way.

[27:04] And he was told, your son leaves. And he asked, what time did my son leave? They said, yesterday at this time. And then he knew it was at the same hour Jesus said.

[27:16] It's the same hour. Bible says that, and this is the victory that overcomes the world. Wow. 1 John chapter 5 verse 4.

[27:29] Whatsoever is born of God overcome. And this is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith. We have the overcoming faith. You want to overcome?

[27:41] Your faith is crucial. Listen. Listen. Then where will tell you that you are being brainwashed? I think you should tell them that it will help them if they actually get what you are getting.

[27:59] But the problem is that people are blind. They don't even know what you are receiving. What God is doing. They don't know. And they begin to pass judgment and you agree with them.

[28:10] Judgment in ignorance. One day if they find out what you are getting, you will see they will even do it more than what you are doing. Are there people here who used to, maybe you had a brother, a sister, a friend who used to go to church and you used to talk against it.

[28:28] And now you are even doing it more than what they used to do. Yeah. You are now going to church more than the way they used to go and you even didn't see the point. Because you hadn't noticed, you didn't know how good it was.

[28:45] I see your faith growing. Well, I'll give you only two points and then I'll end. How do you develop your faith? Number one. Engage in active studies of God's word.

[29:02] Engage in active studies of God's word. Steady God's word. No word, no faith. You.

[29:16] Can I challenge somebody here? You say you want to work by faith and you are not reading your Bible. It's not faith, it's fake.

[29:27] You are not taking faith steps. You are taking fake steps.

[29:41] That's why it's like a mirage. It's never real. So what most people call faith is not faith, it's presumption. It's not faith until it's birthed by God's word in your heart.

[30:00] You see how crucial it is for pastors to preach God's word? Because Bible says that in Romans chapter 10, verse 7, it said, the word of faith which we preach.

[30:13] Okay. So the word which we preach. But what does it say? The word of faith which we preach.

[30:24] So as we are preaching the word, faith is being generated. It's the word that must be preached. Right. So engage in active study of God's word.

[30:35] Romans chapter 10, verse 17 says that faith comes by hearing and hearing of God's word. Somebody say amen. Amen. Number two. Commit to meditation.

[30:48] Meditation. I know what somebody is thinking. You see, when the Bible says meditation, it's not what those people are doing. They have just hijacked the word. It's not transcendental meditation. Meditation is focused thinking on God's word.

[31:02] Pondering over it. Thinking over God's word. So you finish reading it by your mind and you are thinking. You are pondering. You are pondering. You are pondering over God's word. So for instance, I spoke a word just this afternoon.

[31:15] That go your way. Your son liveth. I spoke from the word. He began to ponder. He said, actually, go your way. Okay. And the guy, go. All right. Go your way. Go your way. So what's my way?

[31:27] All right. I'm supposed to do this. I'm afraid to do it because I'm afraid that it won't work again. Go your way. Okay. So, see, meditate. Meditate. Meditate. Because the word you meditate on is the word that stays in your system.

[31:41] And the word that is in your system is the word that is usable. If it's not in your system, it's not part of you. How can you use what is not part of you?

[31:55] Are you getting what I'm saying? Yeah. Meditation. God told Joshua. This book, Joshua 1.8. This book of the Lord shall not depart out of your mouth. But what?

[32:06] Thou shall meditate in it day and night. Regularly. Open the Bible. The Bible has also got nice storylines. Yeah.

[32:19] Some of you, African movies. Wow. Iroko TV. Back to back. Iroko TV. Iroko TV. Iroko TV.

[32:31] Iroko TV, eh? And you watched Iroko TV all night. And then the next morning you said, I have to go and see the doctor.

[32:43] I feel like, you couldn't even have faith. That's more pain. If you had been reading the Bible, you could have gotten it and said, it's a pain. But I can't be sick. I'm fine. But there's no word content in your system.

[32:55] So you don't have the audacity to confront the enemy. So it's not religious ideology that don't watch it. No. Expose your Lord something good in your system so you can be able to be equipped.

[33:11] You can build capacity to face challenges ahead. You've had enough entertainment. Now develop your faith. Because we need to see some serious results.

[33:23] And you shall see amazing results. Amen. So meditate on God's word. Somebody shout hallelujah.

[33:39] Hallelujah. We will develop our faith. Amen. We will develop our faith. Amen. And we will walk with God. Amen.

[33:51] We are going to pray a simple prayer. All of us will be rising up to pray. I don't know. Somebody puts it this way. I don't know what the future holds. But I know who holds the future.

[34:03] Don't be afraid. If you can trust God, don't be afraid. Trust God. Don't try him. Trust him. Just trust God. Trust God.

[34:15] Trust God. You will have one of the finest testimonies. Amen. And you will know that very day, it was the very day I started trusting God.

[34:26] That is what changed my story. The future will always remain uncertain. But for those of us who have faith in God, the outcome of our story is already written and predetermined.

[34:40] It is not going to be a negative outcome. It is not going to be a sorrowful outcome. It is not going to be a shameful outcome. It is going to be a glorious outcome.

[34:52] Because we have been called. Those he predestined, he called. Those he called, he justified. Those he justified, he glorified.

[35:03] We have been called to glory. All creation is waiting to be introduced into the glory. Romans chapter 8, verse 21. Creation is waiting to be introduced.

[35:17] Because creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberties. Of glorious liberty that is glorious.

[35:28] It's full of glory. Creation will one day even be delivered into the kind of glorious liberty you are. So we have it. We have it. Don't be afraid. You are a person who is aimed or whose end is supposed to be that of glory, not that of shame and grace.

[35:46] You are too afraid. We thank God for using his servant, Reverend Dr. David Entry, to share this awesome word. If this message is blessed to you in any way, please spread the word by sharing it and send us an email to amen at caris.org.

[36:01] Remember to stay connected with us on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter for regular updates on what God is doing here at Caris Finish With. Stay blessed. Stay blessed.