Bill Winston - The Force of Faith
Faith is a force, a spiritual force. If you know anything about spiritual things, you know that physical things are controlled by the more powerful world of the spirit. Physical things are controlled by the more powerful world of the spirit. Now, all through the gospels, Jesus talks about faith and believing. And even Paul, as he writes the epistles, the same thing. As a matter of fact, he says that the just shall live by faith. That's in the Old Testament and the New Testament. And so if you're going to live by something, you certainly need to know how it works.
Faith moves the hand of God. Faith is a force that can do the impossible anytime. Faith can even cause time to speed up and slow down. That's how powerful faith is. And so Jesus kept asking many times, well, where is your faith? They, so the enemy is not after us. What is he after? He's after our faith, because he knows faith will defeat him every time. Faith has to be exercised. And if you don't, you'll lose faith dexterity. See, how many of you have been fishing before? Okay. Okay. And you throw that thing out there. Now, what are you waiting on? Yeah. Okay. You waiting on something to bite, but what indication do you have that something is on there? Okay, you got a bob out there. All right.
Now how many of you know a good experienced fishermen can feel when something's on that hook? Come on now. But if you stay away from fishing for years and go back out there, you, you, you, you thought you felt I'm pulling up. The worms gone. Everything's gone. The ate everything you had, and you feel it. You following what I'm saying? You lose your dexterity. But see, because I operate in faith every day, trying to whatever I do and messages that I bring to you like tonight, I had to get it by faith. I had to say, Father, I thank you this morning. This is one of the finest Wednesday night messages I've ever preached.
See, I said that, not even knowing what he wanted me to say, but see, I'm rolling away the stone. You got what I'm saying? See, faith has got to be acted on. You got to speak it. You got to say it. David had to say something to Goliath. He said, Goliath, this day shall the Lord deliver you into my hand. He was releasing faith. Faith causes the hand of God to move. To move when? This day! You got to fight the good fight of faith. See you got to stay in faith. If you made that confession, you got to stay there. Say amen to that, because you can't go by how you feel or what's coming against you. You can't go by how it looks or what somebody said. You got to go by one thing, the Word of God. If God said it, that's what you believe. And if that's what you believe, that's what you speak. That's what you say. That's what you act on. That's what you do.
Claim into that. If God says wealth and riches are in your house. You start saying what God says and pretty soon somethings gonna have to start happening cause faith will dominate in this earth. Praise God in heaven. Now, where are we now? Where do I have somewhere? Okay. All right. And let's go to Luke chapter 21, verse 25. And there shall be signs in the sun and in the moon and in the stars, talking about the last days, and upon the earth distress of nations with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring, men's hearts failing them for what? Fear. Because they gonna be looking at them things that are going to be coming on the earth. Men's hearts failing them for fear. Men's hearts failing them for fear.
Now I know we have natural hearts, and you will find when somebody gets frightened, now watch it. Watch, watch me. When somebody gets frightened, here's what they usually do. Am I right about it? See, they grab their heart. You see. It's interesting how they, how they do that. But I believe it's not the physical heart first that he's talking about. I believe it's your spirit. It will fail to produce, that in these last days fear will take over the hearts and mankind is not going to be able to produce things that he'd like to produce and fear will control his or her life.
Now look at second Timothy in chapter one. Look at verse seven. For God has not given us the spirit of fear. Keep going. But of power, come on, and of love and of a sound mind. So God hasn't given us a spirit of fear. So if you have fear, did it come from God? Nope. Didn't come from God. And somebody says, well, pastor, you know, now you gotta watch it now because you know, a little fear is kind of healthy for you. A little fear is healthy. Okay, well, let's look and see what the scripture says about that. Let's go to revelation chapter 21. Look at verse seven. He that overcometh shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be my son. But the who? Fearful and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and whoremongers and sorcerers and adultery and all liars shall have their part in the lake.
Now you're not talking about Lake Michigan. He's talking about the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone. Now my point to you is, is no fear. No fear. I just would like you one day to meditate no fear. And I would like to see how it changes your conversation. I'd like to see how it changes your behavior when you have no fear, no fear, no fear of what people think about you. No fear of what people say about you. No fear of if this does not work. No fear. I wonder how you would act if you had no fear, zero. I mean absolute zero fear. I'm talking about a time where you have no fear in you at all. No fear. No fear. No fear.
See the fear in a little bit is designed to contaminate your faith. But suppose you had no fear. No fear of getting cancer. No fear. Come on now. Help me now, because Jesus had no fear. No fear. I would like to see how you would act with no fear. Guaranteed your actions would be different, cause we've been trained with fear. No fear. Jesus had no fear of the devil. No fear of disease. No fear of running out. No fear of not pleasing the Father. No fear. Didn't care what you thought. Now he could hear God perfectly, because there's no fear. No fear.
And I believe when David moved up to that front line, that's what he moved up in. He moved up in an attitude of no fear. He had been back out with them sheep, keeping them sheep on the side of that mountain and killed a bear, the Bible says with his bare hands. Killed a, killed the lion with his bare hands. 17 year old boy bout my size. Come on. I had to put that in there. Come on. Me and David, you know. You know why he could do that? Because the power of God could flow through him in uninterrupted by fear. Fear interrupts the power of God in your life. You watch it. The bolder you get the clearer you can hear. Try it. The bolder you get in God, you can hear it so clear until I'm telling you you can hear it on a level that you've never heard before in your life.
The fearful, the whoremongers, well that's in the classes, you know, the sorcerers all going to be thrown in the lake. Well, a little fear is healthy. A little fear gets you in the lake. Now you go back in there. You go, and watch how the enemy tries to induce fear in your life. First of all, he'll have you turn on the TV and watch the news. Come on, and watch what's going on. And then while that, he'll play it back in your mind three or four times. You can say well, you know, they're going to break in your car too. You know, you're going to get broken. You know, one day you're going to be like that. And I told people the enemy will try to use a flip chart. He said, well now do you believe you're going to have this right here in 10 more years? He said no, no. I'm not going to have that. Ain't no way. Okay. Okay. All right.
Now, you're going to have this right here. In 10 more years, you, you going to be crippled and you're going to fall and can't get up and so forth and so on. Yeah. Now he, the Word says you're going to go out of here long, live long and have to be strong. That's what the Word says. Then he'll flip it again. Pretty soon he says okay now your aunt had this. And here's what you do. This is what your mind might say. I believe hat's what I got. Okay. Right. Okay. Now fear has cousins, and some of the cousins, one of them is doubt. Turn with me over to Matthew's gospel. Chapter 14 please. Are y'all with me?
We got the knock the devil in the head. We got the hit fear in the head. Folks, I'm telling you the reason why people don't sow what God tell them to sow or listen to God or act on what God tells them to do or witness to what God's saying to do, or have the house that God wants them to have or whatever have you. I can guarantee you fear got a hand in there somewhere. But from this day forward, I command the spirit of fear to leave your life and leave your life now in Jesus' name! I mean, I want you to be so bold. Boy, I'm telling you, amen to that. Don't be scared. I mean, and now that thing will try to come back in on you, but cap that thing back off. No, no, no, no, no, no. I ain't fear nothing. Nah, I'm not fearing. I'm not going to get there on time. I'll be on time. I command this traffic to move right now. I'm going to dominate the traffic right now. I command. Are you follow what I'm saying?
I'm not fearing when I see it. And fear will make you run up your credit card. I ain't gonna say much more about that. Okay. So what happened here? Verse 22 and straightway Jesus constrained his disciples to get into a ship and go before him to the other side. And he sent them all to the way. And when he had sent them them out to the way he went up into a mountain apart to pray. And when the evening was come, he said, he's there alone. And the ship was now in the sea, was tossed with waves for the wind was contrary. The enemy doesn't want you to get to your destiny. And in the fourth watch of the night, that's between three and six in the morning, Jesus went to them, walking on the sea. And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled saying it is a spirit. And they cried out for what? Fear.
But straightway, Jesus spake unto them saying be of good what? Be a of good what? Be of good what? It is who? I. Be not what? Afraid. And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be, you bid me to come to you on the water. And Jesus had what? Calm. Praise God. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. I bet you Peter got rid of fear. All of it left for a minute. And when fear leaves, you can do the impossible. You'll be able to do things. Walk on water, speak to mountains, command diseases.
I'm telling you, tell money to come. I'm telling you what's been contaminating our faith had been fear. And this is your days of struggling with fear are over tonight. You, I decree will never be resisted by the spirit of fear again in your life! Verse 30. And when he saw the wind boisterous, he was what? Afraid. And beginning to what? Sink. And he cried saying what? Lord, save me. And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand and, and brought and caught him and said to him, oh, thou of, come on, little faith, keep going. Wherefore did you doubt?
I used to think that was little faith meaning that like you can have a lot of money or you can have a little money. That is not that translation. That translation means why did you have such a short burst of faith? See, he had enough faith to walk, but he started looking at his human and natural circumstances and begin to think more about them than he did about the Word of God. God has not given you the spirit of fear, but come on, power, keep going. And what else? Of sound mind.
That is a mind that is fixed on the Word of God. It is a mind that will not take his eyes off the Word of God. It's a mind that stays filled with the Word of God. Your faith needs to be filled every day. You can't feed on CNN and feed on stuff, reruns or whatever have you and think you can get up and have strong faith. I'm saying it's all right to see those things, but make sure you feed your faith. Make sure you give your faith something to eat in the morning. You get, that's why my broadcast is on in the morning. I'm giving people some breakfast. I'm giving their spirits some food to eat so that they can grip the devil all day long. Praise God.
Another cousin of fear is anxiety. Anxiety. It says be anxious for what? Nothing. Philippians chapter two uh four and verses six and seven. Be anxious for nothing, but in all things by what? Prayer and what? Supplication with what? Thanksgiving. Let your requests be made known unto God and the peace of God shall guard your heart and mind through Christ Jesus.
Another cousin of fear is stress. Stress. That's disguised fear. The enemy tries to get you stressed out. Your days of being stressed out are over. Say amen that.
Another cousin of fear is worry. Aren't you worried? That boy hadn't been home by this time of night. Aren't you worried? No, no. Jesus said cast all your care over on him, and he'll go find that boy and bring him home. Say amen to that. So here's the rule for you. Don't try to deal with fear naturally. Natural things cannot change spiritual things. You have to go the other way around. Same amen to that. So when you're dealing with fear, make sure you dealing with it with the Word of God. Now, faith will bring you the healing, the blessing. The joy and fear will go out.
Romans 10:17. Now faith cometh faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. The enemy wants to starve your faith and feed your flesh. But I'm here to tell you right now, you going to feed your faith and starve your doubts to death from this day forward. He told Joshua, Joshua, this away you go take that land. Thou shall meditate in my Word day and night. That thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written there in. For then thou shall make thy way prosperous. And then thou shall have good success. You see I'm telling him when faith rises up inside of you, the enemy knows that he is defeated. So, if you don't have enough faith, yourself, be like the man that was laid with palsy on that mat. Get your four crazy friends, and tell them to use their faith and help you get up from where you are.
David said in Psalm 34 and verse four, I sought the Lord and he heard me and delivered me from all my sin. You see, you can be delivered from every fear that you have of growing old. Fear of being diseased. Fear of failing in school. Fear of not having enough. I'm telling you, God can deliver you from all your fears. He said this, ye though I walk through the Valley of death, shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou are with me. Thou rod and thy staff they comfort me. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. You can be free from all your fears. So now from this day forward, when God says something to you in his Word, you take his Word and you choose to believe, and once you do you start moving out on his Word and you will reach your promise land.