Creflo Dollar - Faith of God vs. Faith in God - Part 1
If you have your Bibles, go with me to the book of Romans chapter 8 and verse 32. I’m going to read it out of The Amplified. Romans 8, verse 32. I’m going to read it out of The Amplified and The Mirror Translation. Today we’re going to do part two of the one and only faith, the one true and only faith. I mean, it’s something that… it’s really come to my mind. Last night I was looking over this teaching and I had to get up and just walk away from it 'cause I had a lot of questions coming in my mind based on things that I’ve already understood.
So I want you to listen to this very carefully here this morning. Let’s set up how we’re going to tackle this today because basically I’m going to deal with having the faith of God versus having faith in God. Somebody said, «Why the big deal there»? 'Cause having faith in God has always been assumed to the fact that if I have faith in God, I’ve got to do that in order to receive what God says I’m supposed to have; versus having the faith of God, it’s like a gift. God has gifted me with this. So these Scriptures are going to set the foundation to kind of help you out. Hopefully, today is going to deliver you from this attitude of what I have to do in order to get what God wants me to have freely, what I have to do in order to receive a gift that you’re not supposed to do anything to receive a gift.
I mean, if you had to do something to get a gift, then it just wouldn’t be a gift, would it, because you had to do something to earn it? I mean, you listen to it, most of the body of Christ has been trained in, «This is what we have to do to get the gift». Huh? It’s not a gift. And if this is what we have to do to earn that privilege, then it wouldn’t be a gift; and the Bible says we have undeserved privilege. So we have privilege, but it’s not because we deserve it. We have privilege that’s undeserved. So let’s get into this, and this is going to be amazing and I pray that the pores of your understanding will open up and you can see this and you can be free to accept the gift. Amen.
All right, verse 32 Romans 8. I’m reading out of The Amplified. He says, «He who did not withhold or spare [even] His own Son but gave Him up for us all,» he gave Jesus up for us all, «will He not also along with Him,» along with… so he gave up Jesus for us all. So he gave up Jesus for the whole world. Now, the whole world, it’d be cool if everybody just accepted him, if everybody accepted the gift, all right? So he gave up Jesus for the whole world, and this is the part that got me: «Will He not also with giving up Jesus freely and graciously give us all other things»?
That’s strong. He says, «I gave you Jesus, and because I gave you Jesus I am going to freely and graciously give you all [other] things. I gave you Jesus, so I’m going to freely…» Which means he is saying, «I gave you Jesus, big gift. I’m going to give you more gifts. Along with Jesus, more gifts. Along with Jesus, more things that you’re going to receive not because you deserve it. You didn’t deserve Jesus. I gave you the most expensive thing heaven had to offer. I gave you Jesus, and don’t you understand that if I’ll give you Jesus I will also freely and graciously give you all other things»?
Oh, I can just go home right now. I’m trying to talk to you about all of the other things. Somehow or another we’ve accepted Jesus, and then when we accepted Jesus we put a lot of rules around it and said, «Now that you’re saved, now you got to do this if you want God to do that. You know what? If you’re going to be forgiven, you got to forgive others. 'Cause if you don’t forgive, then God won’t forgive you». That says that in the New Testament. In the Gospels of Luke and John it says that, but that was before Jesus was accepted. Now that Jesus has been accepted, God says, «You know what? I’m going to give you forgiveness for free».
Now, it’s good to forgive other people because when you don’t forgive other people then you’re walking around with a poisoned heart. It’s good to forgive other people, but it’s not forgiving other people that puts you in a position to earn forgiveness from God, huh-uh, and that’s where we’ve missed it. We’ve taken Scripture out of context. We didn’t put it in the right place. We took it out and we preached it, and this is how people feel. I preach a message, «All right. If you don’t forgive your brother, then God ain’t going to forgive you». And then you walk away and you think, «Gosh, this guy, this guy did so much to me, and I’m working on it and I’m trying».
And now you’re beating yourself up because you forgave him, you thought you forgave him, you do, and now you’re working and sweating and try to do this. And you go to the Thanksgiving and he’s there and you tried and you looked at him and said, «I love you» blankety-blank blank and you just kind of… and it’s like, «Oh, God’s not going to forgive me. God’s not going to forgive me». And then they’ll go on to say now if you die with that unforgiveness, you’re going to hell. That’s just not the truth because the whole point is, «I’ve given you the gift of Jesus, and when you accept Jesus don’t you know I’m going to freely and graciously give you everything else»?
That freaks you out 'cause most of us have heard what I said. If you don’t forgive somebody else, then God won’t forgive you. Is it good to forgive other people? Yes. But do you have to do that in order to earn God’s forgiveness? No. God, when he gave you Jesus, decided, «I’m going to gift you everything that you couldn’t do». You having to forgive in order to get forgiveness was an Old Testament law-based situation, but now that you’re under this New Testament and Jesus has been given unto you, glory to God, he will freely and graciously give us all other things. And then he’s not only forgiving you, he forgave you before you did what was necessary to get forgiveness. Forgiveness is finished. Forgiveness is completed. Forgiveness is done. It cannot be undone, and you can’t get no more forgiven than you already are.
«Well…» Read that in The Mirror. He says in Mirror Translation, «The gift of his Son is the irrefutable evidence of God’s heart towards us. He held nothing in reserve; but freely and undeservedly gave everything we could ever wish to have; this is what our joint sonship is all about». Everything that we wish to have, already done, already given. Now, let’s look at this next Scripture. Galatians chapter 2, verse 20 in the King James. Galatians chapter 2, verse 20 in the King James. All right. «I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless», this is Paul talking, «I’m crucified with Christ». So when Christ was crucified, Paul said, «I was crucified». «Nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth,» where? Say out loud, «Christ lives in me».
All right. So he presented himself to the whole world, and if you’ve accepted him he lives in you, all right? «And the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God». So I live by his faith. I live by the faith of the Son of God. So you can never say «My faith» without knowing that your faith is his faith. You can’t go around talking about, «Well, my faith this and my faith that,» because my faith or your faith, our faith is his faith. It ain’t no Jesus got his faith and then all of us got our faith, because, you see, the problem with that, when you understand that you live by his faith, his faith is complete, done, perfect, awesome. And so he gave you his faith so our faith, let me show you how it really goes. He took his faith and embodied it in Jesus, then he gave us Jesus. Glory to God.
And so now Jesus now, he says we live by the faith of the Son of God. So now we take the Son of God’s faith and now my faith is just a reflection of Jesus’s faith just like Jesus’s faith is a reflection of God’s faith, and God’s faith is flawless and perfect and done and completed. So he took his flawless and perfect and done faith, embodied it in a body called Jesus, then Jesus, if we accepted him, gave his faith to us. And now my faith is not my faith different from the one faith, but my faith is just his faith, which is God’s faith, which God got to me through Jesus and now the faith I have is flawless, perfect, complete, done, finished. Woo, glory to God. So this stuff about, «Well, this didn’t happen 'cause my faith wasn’t strong enough,» that’s why it ain’t your faith 'cause the faith you got is strong enough.
The faith you got can move mountains. The faith you got, you don’t have no flawless, messed-up faith. «Well, the Bible said that Jesus looked at the disciples and he said, 'Why is it you have no faith? '» That’s 'cause you don’t know what the Greek word for «have» is. It means echo. He says, «In the midst of a storm, why we don’t hear you echoing faith»? Did you understand what’s going to happen with your life when you never ever question the strength of the faith you have? You will never again question the faith you have. You won’t say, «Well, my faith wasn’t big enough». I don’t know why the sickness came on you, but it wasn’t because your faith wasn’t big enough. I don’t know why you lost the car, but it wasn’t because your faith wasn’t big enough. It was probably because you didn’t realize how big it was, you didn’t realize how powerful it was.
Now, Galatians chapter 2 in the 20. I just want to read this. Y’all got to listen to this, man. He says, «So here I am dead and alive at the same time. I’m dead to the old me I was trying to be and now I’m alive to the real me which is Christ in me». «I’m alive to Christ within me. I come to the realization of the Christ in me». «I’m co-crucified. Now I’m co-alive». What a glorious entanglement. «I was in him in his death; now I discover that he is infused in me, in my life. For the first time, I’m free to be me in my skin, immersed in his faith in our joint-sonship. He loves me and believes in me. He is God’s gift to me». Say it. «Jesus is God’s gift to me, and with Jesus he will freely and graciously give me everything».
That’s just like you having a phone and you still taking notes 'cause you don’t realize that your phone will do it for you. You have all this on the inside and there are some things you need to come to realize; and then once you realize it, then you can receive it; and then once you receive it, then you can rest in it. Galatians chapter 3 and verse 24 through 28. «So I live by the faith of the Son of God». Can you see that clearly? I mean, Paul is saying that very clearly. We live by the faith of the Son of God, and we keep going back to, you know, we have faith in Jesus and if we have faith in Jesus, then we can be righteous. If we have faith in Jesus, then we can be healed.
If we have faith in Jesus, and you keep looking at something to be earned; versus having the faith of Jesus, gift. Faith of Jesus freely and graciously given. You follow what I’m saying? Faith in Jesus. So if it doesn’t happen, you’re like, «Oh, I don’t know if I had enough faith in Jesus». But you shift at and understand that the translation from the Greek is «of,» «the faith of Jesus». So I have this based on the faith of Jesus. It’s all him. He is the origin and the source of that righteousness. He’s the origin and the source of that justification.
So to take it and turn around and having faith in Jesus, now you’re tempted to make yourself and your faith in that the origin and source and you are not. You are not. I am just amazed at how this has existed in the earth for at least 100 years and it’s because nobody, well, not nobody. I’m sure somebody has. Go find out what the original word was. Go find out what the original phrase was. We translated it over into English and there was no words that were there, or we added words to complete the sentence and gave a whole new idea in the psyche of Christians and that idea was work to do, work to do, work to do and so we never received the gift, received the gift, received the gift. Does everybody understand what I’m saying?
So it’s important to, every now and then, go back and see what the original language said instead of just your Western idea and your religious idea of what you’ve always heard. Is that what it really said? See, when you spend time with the Holy Spirit, you’ll read a Scripture, I do. I can just talk about me. When I spend time with the Spirit of God, I’ll read a Scripture and I can tell it’s translated wrong because that’s not going along with my relationship with God. I’m like, «Huh? God ain’t no killer. What does that really mean»? Or I get a conviction when it says, «Go into all the world and preach the gospel and get people saved,» and stuff like that. That’s the Great Commission, and I’m thinking, «Wow, but you know, how do I…»
And then I go and I look at the translation and realize that is a participle, which me, he said, «In your goings, in your everyday life, in your living, in your going to work, in your going to school, in your going to your tea parties and all of that let your life be the epistle to turn people into disciples». Do you follow what I’m saying? So I’m over this trusting what the commentary wrote 'cause he might have had his own personal interpretation put into that, and I ain’t doing that no more. I ain’t doing none of that no more. I’m going to go find out for myself, me and the Holy Ghost, and then I’m going to bring it to you so I can attack your mindset and you look at me like I’m missing it because your hero preacher always said it like this. And I’m telling you what it say, but it’s hard for you to step away from what you’ve always known.
And then just look at your life. You have questions. «Why that ain’t happening? Why this ain’t happening? What’s going on here? But I tried and I tried. And I cried and I cried, and I prayed and I prayed, and I tried all night long, and I cried all night long, and I prayed all night long until I found the Lord». But you ain’t telling the truth. Didn’t nothing happen. Didn’t nothing happen. Ain’t nothing happened. You ain’t received a gift in a long time. You accepted Jesus and that was it. You don’t know how to access nothing else, and it’s simple. Just come to the point where you realize that it’s a gift and it’s yours.
And when trouble comes and it seems to stop that, that’s when you start echoing what’s already yours. You sick and you, «Devil, I don’t believe you got the memo. You know healing is finished, don’t you? You don’t understand. Healing is finished. Healing is finished». I got a brother of mine, he had cancer. His PSA was like in the 300s and something, and he was in military and he got some stuff that happened to him and basically, you know, the doctors are like…you know. And he was so calm and cool. «No, I’m good. Everything all right».
Everybody thinking like, «What’s going on»? «I’m good. Everything all right». And they did a procedure, well, they didn’t do a procedure. He took something that they said, «Well, we don’t even know if it’s going to work. It worked for so many percentage». And he literally expelled the cancer out of his body. Watch this. And I got news just this past week that he is 100% cancer-free.
So don’t come telling me about what you’ve been knowing all your life and who said it 'cause you’re free not to hear nothing I say and I’m free to keep going on and teaching whoever believes that I might win some. We have entered into the realm of the finished. We’re not going back to the past. We are in the finished. We are in the completed. We are in the done. We are in the finished. We are in the can’t be undone. I ain’t moving from that place.
Every time something come to my mind, I remind myself, «It’s done. My victory is done. All the battles that I’ll ever fight, the victory of it is done». I ain’t scared of no battles 'cause whatever come I just keep myself standing in the finished, and the victory is already there. So, listen, I go to stand. I ain’t going to be scared. I ain’t going to be afraid. Just stand. Don’t move nowhere. Stay in that realm. Stay in the dimension where God abides. You got to understand: The last word Jesus said was, «It is finished».