Living By Faith

GOD’S DAREDEVILS

The people who know their God shall be strong, and carry out great exploits. (Daniel 11:32 NKJV)

 

“Exploits” are defined as, “Deeds marked by daring and excellence.”

 

When I was about 10 years old, we played neighborhood football in my backyard. Usually as the game progressed and the smaller boys were losing, the bigger boys would announce loudly, “We’re going to run right up the middle.” And they did! Sometimes they ran over me!

Their challenge reminds me of David, who announced to Goliath, “This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand…that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel.” (I Samuel 17:46) No devil, no man, and no circumstances can stop God’s divine plan for this generation. As God has declared it, we must prophesy and proclaim His power in the Earth.

He is Almighty God! He is a Mighty Warrior! As we hear and know His voice, new confidence and strength comes to us. We will arise with new boldness and declare His dare. It is time for a new generation of men and women to rise up and do great exploits!

 

Confession: I am rising with new confidence, boldness, and strength. With God all things are possible! All things are possible to him that believeth! (Matthew 19:26 and Mark 9:23)

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SEE YOU AT THE TOP

This is Jacob, the generation of those who seek Him, who seek  Your face. (Psalm 24:6 NKJV)

 

“There are some blessings you cannot receive from God at sea level!” – Mark Hankins

 

I watched a documentary about Mount Everest and those who have climbed it. Climbing a mountain is a gradual process that takes climbers from lower camps to higher camps as they make the ascent. During this process, their red blood cells actually double in number in order to carry enough oxygen to keep them alive. This kind of mountain climbing must be in your blood in order for you to survive!

In Psalm 24, God gives a challenge to those who want to move up higher in their fellowship with Him. After He gives the condition of clean hands and a pure heart, God promises that they will “receiving the blessing from the Lord.”

Climbing the Mountain of the Lord is a much higher calling than climbing Mount Everest. It is a place where satisfaction, fulfillment, and blessings flow. It is time for us to move up higher in the glory of God!

 

Confession: I am a part of the generation that seeks the face of God. I am climbing the Mountain of the Lord where there is satisfaction, fulfillment, and blessing!

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A POKE THROUGH JELL-O

The Lord will give strength unto his people. (Psalm 29:11)

 

“The spirit of faith will make a tadpole slap a whale!” – Mark Hankins

 

On October 14, 1947, Chuck Yeager was the first man to fly 700 miles an hour and break the sound barrier. It was difficult to find a man willing to risk the unknown of supersonic flight. Chuck Yeager was a pioneer and became an American hero — He broke the sound barrier that everyone else had been afraid of.

Yeager said, “The real barrier wasn’t in the sky, but in our knowledge and experience of supersonic flight.” He described the supersonic flight as “sipping lemonade on the front porch” and “a poke through Jell-O.”

What barriers do you face as a Christian doing the will of God? What kind of adjustments must be made to break those barriers?  Your own thinking, attitudes, and discipline must be changed in order to break the barriers. The Lord gives strength to His people. The power of God makes the greatest challenges “a poke through Jell-O.” When the barriers are broken, you will experience victory in every area of life!

 

Confession: The Lord has given me strength to break through any barriers I might face. I am strong in the Lord and in the power of His might! (Ephesians 6:10)

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BREAKING BARRIERS

For You will light my lamp; The Lord my God will enlighten my darkness. For by You I can run against a troop, By my God I can leap over a wall. (Psalm 18:28-29 NKJV)

 

“The spirit of faith will make you swing out over hell on a cornstalk and spit in the devil’s eye!” – Mark Hankins

 

You will need to break some barriers when you go from glory to glory and from faith to faith. You will experience many breakthroughs as you overcome the enemy and fulfill the will of God, but in order to do so you will have be sure that your candle is lit.

I have been to the First Flat-Faced Church. That is where people have tried to leap over the wall but didn’t make it. They hit the wall. They got their flat faces because they tried to leap over the wall before they got their candles lit.

David knew what it was like to face challenges, but he was always confident that the Lord was with him. He wrote in Psalm 23:4: Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me; thy rod

and thy staff they comfort me. David allowed God to light his candle, and that is key to making it through life’s darkest valleys.

 

Confession: The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? (Psalm 27:1)

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GOING WHERE YOU HAVE NEVER BEEN

And they commanded the people, saying, When ye see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, and the priests the Levites bearing it, then ye shall remove from your place, and go after it. Yet there shall be a space between you and it, about two thousand cubits by measure: come not near unto it, that ye may know the way by which ye must go: for ye have not passed this way heretofore. (Joshua 3:3-4)

 

“If God told us everything, we would not have to walk by faith.” – Mark Hankins

 

Joshua needed to have a spirit of faith to lead the nation of Israel out of the wilderness into the Promised Land of Canaan. The people were commanded to move from their place, keep their eyes on the ark, and follow it at a certain distance. They were going into new territory. They had never passed that way before.

It seems that God led them in increments of 2,000 cubits (or about 3/5 of a mile). God often gives us only one or two steps at a time. He tells us enough so that we can obey by faith. He doesn’t always tell us everything, but He tells us enough so that we can obey and walk by faith!

 

Confession:  The Lord orders my steps. The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and He delighteth in his way. (Psalm 37:23) A man’s heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps. (Proverbs 16:9 NKJV)

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