“Getting wisdom is the wisest thing you can do! And whatever else you do, develop good judgment.”
Proverbs 4:7 NLT
A lifestyle of faith is what God has called every believer in the name of Jesus into. The moment you received Christ into your life, and got filled with the Holy Spirit, you’ve got to start developing your faith in God; otherwise you may be setting yourself up for failure in your Christian life. By developing your faith through the meditation on God’s word day and night, you are equipping yourself with the tools that you will need to do anything in God’s Kingdom. And God will use you to do great things, if you are truly committed to Him in doing this.
Your faith then becomes the key to getting the anointing of God over your life, to begin to function and be maximized. You will then begin to use your faith, just as you use your key to enter into your house. If you do believe that you are using the correct key to your house, you do know that the door will always open for you. That’s exactly how you can use your faith to unlock every door of blessing from God into your life. It works all the time, because faith never fails just as love never fails also (1 Corinthians 13:8 and Galatians 5:6). And to be able to lay hold onto the correct key, you’ve got to be meditating on God’s word day and night.
Jesus once told Peter:
“I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”
Matthew 16:19 NIV
And all the keys into God’s Kingdom are in His word. Your ability to be able to use your faith effectively, is important to being able to apply the word in getting the expected results. You can’t “bind and loose” without being able to walk by faith before God always. Can you imagine someone with the key into his house, but who doesn’t know how to use it? That’s exactly what it is like. Your faith is there for you to be used always, in getting and receiving everything that you need from God.
Therefore without your ability to live by faith in God, the anointing of God can’t even flow through you to bind and loose here on earth. That’s how important your faith in God is. God’s anointing may be over your life; but your faith will set it loose in doing what it’s there to do in the Kingdom of God. And you won’t even be able to discover much more, until your faith sets that anointing loose.
Adam was able to use his faith in naming the creatures that God brought before him in this manner. He was at that point in time using his position of authority and power over all creations. Adam had the keys into God’s Kingdom; but God’s Spirit had to move over his heart, as he was focused on God. That was how he received guidance into calling each creature by name. His faith was working for him, because Adam could hear the voice of God through the presence of the Holy Spirit in the garden of Eden. But when sin came Adam lost the word of God, to help him in developing his faith. God’s voice is God’s word to you, as you listen by releasing your faith to do what He tells you to do. And when Adam lost God’s voice, he lost everything.
In the same manner as Adam lost everything, some have neglected the lifestyle of faith, by doing the work of the Kingdom of God, with the mentality of the world’s system. They are trying to use the keys which are opposing to God’s Kingdom, in gaining access into the blessings of the Kingdom. But there is no way you can ever be effective in achieving anything in the Kingdom of God, while following after the wisdom of this world. You will need to cultivate and have the Kingdom of God’s mentality, to be able to operate effectively in His Kingdom.
You are an eagle, not a chicken
Many Churches and Ministries today have failed because they have neglected the voice of God in leading them. They have become too comfortable in relying on the wisdom of the world, to get things done in God’s Kingdom. They don’t use their faith anymore, but they are using whatever they see working in the world’s system for God’s Kingdom. And that’s the reason why our world and communities are so full of problems today. Problems in the communities has skyrocketed because the Christians, who had been called of God to solve the problems, are trying to solve them with the tools and wisdom of the world.
The Church needs to stand up and take charge, in exercising dominion and authority by faith in our communities and nations. Everything in this world has been given by God to us, as His children to enjoy. But we cannot enjoy the good of the earth, with a “chicken out mentality” away from the lifestyle of faith.
There is this story about an eagle, that was trying to live like a chicken in the world of chickens; because that’s the only world it had ever known. That baby eagle was hatched and grew up in the world of chickens. God’s people are like the eagle. And just like the eagle we have been created to rule and dominate from the skies, or from the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Many believers do often forget that, the moment that they got born again; they do not belong to the world anymore. The chickens are used to living off, all that is attainable to them in their own surroundings and world. Chickens can’t see the other world that the eagles can see, when they do fly and soar in the skies.
But if we as Christians are ever going to rule and dominate the earth, we’ve got to start developing our faith so as to start seeing ourselves from our high places in Christ Jesus; just as the eagle can see its spoils and food from the highest skies.
The Bible says:
“And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.”
Ephesians 2:6-7 NIV
You are an eagle. You belong to the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus. That’s the position of authority and power from where you operate here on earth. Even though you now do live in the world, but your real dwelling place is in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus. God has positioned you on earth for now, with a special assignment to help others around you, in being able to use their faith to see what you are seeing now by faith. You are in their lives right now, to help them in getting to where you are living now in Christ Jesus. Your lifestyle of faith is an example for them to follow. They will learn from you as long as they see you following Christ by faith.
As another example, you can’t train or groom a child if you are still living like a child. A lifestyle of faith is for those who do want to grow up in Christ Jesus. You can’t pretend to be a child when in fact you do know that you are an adult. We need to be very careful, because the world always has its eyes wide open on the body of Christ. They are watching the person of faith, who is pretending to be like them.
Apostle Paul once gave an example of this type of lifestyle, while referring to the way Peter was living in Antioch among the unbelieving Jews; that was before a group from Jerusalem visited him. He said:
“But when I saw that they were not maintaining a steady, straight course according to the Message, I spoke up to Peter in front of them all: “If you, a Jew, live like a non-Jew when you’re not being observed by the watchdogs from Jerusalem, what right do you have to require non-Jews to conform to Jewish customs just to make a favorable impression on your old Jerusalem cronies?” We Jews know that we have no advantage of birth over “non-Jewish sinners.” We know very well that we are not set right with God by rule-keeping but only through personal faith in Jesus Christ. How do we know? We tried it—and we had the best system of rules the world has ever seen! Convinced that no human being can please God by self-improvement, we believed in Jesus as the Messiah so that we might be set right before God by trusting in the Messiah, not by trying to be good.”
Galatians 2:14-16 MSG
We can’t pretend to be who we are not. A lifestyle of faith is essential for us not to fail in the Christian walk. This lifestyle of faith is the path that God has chosen for us all. We need to recognize that it is the same faith, that we had when we believed and confessed Christ as Lord; which works for us to give us all the good things of life. Your mustard seed faith will always work for you. Why not start using it, instead of trying to abandon it in the presence of the unbelievers? They do know that you are a believer in Christ. So why are you trying to be someone else like them?
As Paul said again:
“Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.”
I Corinthians 10:12 NKJV
Our position of authority and dominion on the earth is from the heavenly realms, where we are seated in Christ Jesus. Faith is the only thing that you need to obey God, in order for you to be able to get “the riches of God’s grace”; that has been made available for you in Christ Jesus. And as long as you’re living on earth, you will always have to use your faith in getting everything that you need from God.
Why is Faith so important?
Why do Christians have to use their faith all the time? This is because even though you are born of God’s Spirit, your flesh and your mind never experienced the new birth. You are still living in the same physical body, that you had before you became a believer in Christ. And your mind still struggles continually with this new experience. Faith is therefore the bridge between your born again spirit man, in connecting your spirit man with your body and mind. You need faith to bypass and defeat the desires of your flesh and mind, so that you can be able to know and do the things which you had been created for by God. It is so important to your destiny in God.
That’s why you can’t afford to be “chickened out” every time the devil attacks you. You can always use your faith in God to defeat the enemy. Many people have failed because they had yielded to the desires of their flesh, and what their unrenewed mind is telling them to do in the midst of troubles. No, you were not created for failure. You are like an eagle! And you reign on earth now from your position of dominion and authority in Christ Jesus. You must start believing that God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him (Hebrews 11:6). And He will start rewarding you, if you will let your faith start growing as you exercise it.
Don’t abandon Faith
Some in the body of Christ has moved away from the basics of God’s Kingdom. They will often say that faith in God doesn’t work for them. But in reality they were the ones who failed faith, because faith in God doesn’t ever fail anyone. God can never fail you, if you are truly using the faith, that you received when you got born again.
These people think that because they failed in their faith walk, then it doesn’t work at all. So they’ve settled down for what is working in their secular world. But they are in fact allowing the unsaved world, to tell them how to do the works of God. Whereas God has always expected us to develop our faith in getting things done in His Kingdom. Whether it be salvation, healings, debt cancellations or deliverances; your faith is the key to your ability in laying hold of all these.
And it is really ugly out there in the world, because the moment that the body of Christ moves away from living by faith, the culture of the Church begins to change. Instead of being Christ inside minded, the culture changes to being world centered minded. That’s why some Churches and Ministries are increasingly getting more concerned, about what the unsaved world thinks about them, instead of how God sees them. Others have allowed the cultural traditions of their unsaved world, to move them away from the culture of the Kingdom of God – which is the culture of FAITH IN GOD.
The world has removed the Church away from her place of dominion and authority on earth. That’s why it seems like the Church can’t influence the world, because of those who are thinking, talking and living like the world among the Christians. But we are different from them, even though we are still in this world. We are bound for Heaven, and we can’t avoid to be living with the loser’s mentality; when in fact we were created in the image of Christ to be like Him in this world.
That’s why many Churches and Ministries are trying to compete with the world’s system, by following the world’s way of doing things, as a pattern for the Kingdom of God. And it can never work. God’s Kingdom does not need the tools of the world to rule and dominate on earth. Trying to do this is the easiest way to fail; because we can never be effective in the things of God, by following the ways of the world.
You are in a spiritual warfare, so start fighting the good fight of faith
Lastly, you must realize that you are involved in a spiritual warfare (Ephesians 6:12). And if you are going to win you’ll need spiritual power to win, and not the wisdom of this world. Faith is the most important weapon for you to use in ruling and dominating the earth:
“for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.”
1 John 5:4-5 NIV
Fighting the good fight of faith (1 Timothy 6:12) does not means that you have to fight like the world. We can’t overcome the world by fighting like them. You are up against the spiritual forces of darkness of this world. It is only from your position of authority and power in Christ Jesus that you can defeat them. And they won’t give up easily against you without a fight. That’s why the good fight of faith is important, because faith always wins. Faith never fails. So keep up the good fight of faith, because if you don’t give up you will eventually overcome. You are a winner because of your faith.
