For any parent who has a child who is lost, confused, in trouble or suffering, we know you must be experiencing unbelievable grief. That is why we want to pray with you. Joyce shares a prayer specifically for parents just like you from the Love Life Women’s Conference in 2010. Pray and believe that God is going to provide a special breakthrough in the life of your child.
Faith is a powerful force that changes things.
and if we can ever understand how
valuable faith isn’t that faith creates
things and it changes things that it
moves mountains and it solves problems
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the Bible teaches us in Romans 12 that
unto every man is given the measure of
God’s faith and actually if you go ahead
and study that it’s that God gives the
measure of his faith for each one of us
to do what he’s asked us to do in life
because Jesus didn’t die so we could all
struggle he didn’t die so we could just
have this hard hard hard life and just
struggle and be frustrated all the time
and he specially doesn’t want us to
struggle trying to make the Christian
life work amen
so he gives us faith faith is a word
that we throw around a lot as Christians
and and I know that you know even maybe
sometimes we’ve heard so much about
faith that you know even tonight when I
said I got to teach on faith this
weekend I didn’t get the reaction that I
would have got if I would have said I’m
gonna teach on how to control your
emotions everybody won and but I just
don’t think that we understand or maybe
we just need to keep relearning and keep
understanding how important just that
little simple childlike faith is to this
whole walk with God and and how
important it is to peace to
righteousness
to joy it’s amazing the problems that
are solved the moment that you decide to
trust God in everything unto every man
is given the measure of faith so don’t
even try to say well I wish I had faith
you have faith if you wouldn’t had faith
you wouldn’t come here tonight because
you had faith that if you came I’d be R
you had faith when you parked your car
in the parking lot that when you leave
tonight and go out there it’ll still be
there you had faith that you would get a
seat have a place to sit you had faith
that you would enjoy this and get
something out of it it’s amazing how
much faith we use every single solitary
day and why we have such a hard time
putting faith in God
is very interesting every time you sit
in the chair you have faith that’s going
to hold you up I say I’m not sitting
there going oh my gosh I hope this thing
doesn’t cave in oh no it’s like I just
sat down the chair
I didn’t even check it out first it’s a
chair chairs you sit in so I just sat
down in the chair I came in tonight and
I had the faith that if I put all my
stuff on this podium that it would hold
it up you operate in faith all the time
every time you got in traffic in your
car you better be in faith every time
you send one of your teenagers off to
school you better be in faith so we do
have faith I’ve been doing quite a bit
of study on faith again in the last few
months and I think really there’s
certain foundational subjects that we
have to study and refresh ourselves in
all the time Paul told the people that
he never got tired of telling them the
same things over and over because it it
rekindled their faith and stirred them
up in faith in those areas so if you
walked in here if I were to come up here
tonight so how many of you are confused
there would have been hundreds of hands
go up if not thousands and so I can just
say to you that if you’re confused
you’re not operating in faith at least
not about that thing you’re confused
about because the moment you trust God
confusion goes because when you trust
God you don’t have to try to figure
anything out anymore and the moment you
stop trying to figure things out
you don’t get confused
if I would have said how many of you are
worried oh we would have lots of hands
go up but if we’re worried then
obviously we’re not in feet no that
doesn’t mean that we don’t have faith in
God but I want to talk to you about
something different this weekend I want
to talk to you about not just having
faith every person has faith but I want
to talk to you about releasing your
faith about releasing your faith because
faith is a powerful force that changes
things
it does things faith is the only thing
that can cause you to enter the rest of
God which is the absolute most glorious
place to be because you don’t have to
try to figure stuff out you don’t have
to try to change things that you’ve
already tried a million times to change
and the more you try to change the more
frustrated it makes you because you can
just finally say well God I’m trusting
you with this and if you can’t change it
then I guess they don’t need to be
changed how many years was I frustrated
trying to change my husband and changing
my kids and changed my neighbors and
change me and change changin
oh what a relief it was to me to find
out that only God could change people
and then I didn’t need to be working on
everybody else I had enough issues of my
own to work on amen
how do we come to this point of having
this kind of faith that will let us
enter the rest of God well I’m not going
to give you some fancy super spiritual
answer I’m just going to tell you what I
think the truth is I think that the only
way you can learn to stop worrying and
stop trying to figure things out stop
being jealous of what other people have
and all the crazy things that we do and
I’m going to talk to you more about some
of those things later
I just honestly think that in addition
to studying the word I think that we
just have to try it our way long enough
to find they just get worn out enough
they just say okay god I surrender come
on we got to talk about surrender this
weekend I surrender I finally just said
you know what God you knew what you were
getting when you got me because you know
that beginning you know the end and
everything in between you know every
flaw that I have every fault that I have
you know every weakness that I have as
well as my strengths and I just decided
I was gonna stop apologizing for myself
25 times a day and just tell God I’m
willing I’m willing to let you do any
work in me that you want to do but I am
NOT gonna spend every day of my life
trying to change myself now that doesn’t
mean that I don’t operate in any kind of
discipline or self-control but really to
tell you the truth it’s the Word of God
that changes us and you’d be much better
instead of trying to change yourself to
just study the word more and trust God
to do what he says that only he can do I
finally decided decisions are so
important I think a lot of people come
to stuff like this and they just listen
and never make a decision I want you to
make decisions this weekend I want you
to decide to do things God’s Way and
then I want you to leave here knowing
that you can’t do it unless he helps you
and I want you to leave leaning leaning
leaning relying leaning trusting leaning
and relying on him to do what only he
can do you see when I sit in this chair
I’m leaning on it
glory to God so wonderful hoof
I might even preach from here a little
bit tonight you never know well I mean
this is a pathetic example but it gives
kind of a little example of what it’s
like to lean on God you know as you as
you lean on him then you take the
pressure off of yourself and I might add
until we do learn to lean on God we’re
not going to have any victory in our
life let’s go to mark 11:22 so you’re
ready for a little journey now about
faith right how many of you see what I
mean you know we can talk oh yes I’m a
faith person yes yes I go to a faith
church I booked some faith yes yes well
why do you worry why are you confused
why are you jealous why are you upset
because you see we can have something
never put it to good use God actually
dealt with me about I guess it was
December sometime in December about even
our giving and he said you’ve gotten in
a habit of giving that’s what God put in
my heart you’ve gotten in a habit of
giving which how many of you know giving
is a good habit but listen to what he
put my heart you’ve gotten in a habit of
giving but you don’t release your faith
with your giving anymore just do it and
of course you know when you give you
will you will be blessed but there’s a
there’s another whole level you can come
into if every time you give you release
your faith my god I’m giving in
obedience to your word and this is what
I’m trusting you to do you’re gonna see
in just a minute that the three ways you
release your faith at least the three
we’re going to talk about tonight so
simple if you get this they can be
life-changing through praying through
saying and through doing what you
believe God wants you to do you release
your faith when you really pray when you
pray sincerely in faith hope you release
your faith how many of you understand
your faith can’t work unless you release
it
just having it doesn’t do any good you
can have money in the bank and still
starve to death
you can have food in the refrigerator
and go hungry you can have a coat in
your closet and still go out and fries
so having something is no guarantee that
you’re going to use it and one thing’s
for sure if you don’t know you have it
and that’s the sad thing about a lot of
Christians is nobody’s telling them what
they have and so one of the things I
want to do is tell you a lot tonight
about what your inheritance includes and
it’s not something you have to keep
trying to get you have it you don’t have
to keep trying to be right with God
you are right with God through the blood
of Jesus Christ and if you believe that
then out of that position you have by
faith in God you will begin to behave
more rightly because you’re not you
can’t you can’t give away something you
don’t have that’s why it’s so important
to receive the love of God into your own
life because how can you love yourself
and love other people if you don’t have
the love of God you can’t give away what
you don’t have mercy is another good
example if you don’t receive God’s mercy
but if you’re real harsh and hard on
yourself and legalistic and and every
time you do something wrong you’re
punishing yourself for your mistake and
we we do have ways to punish ourselves
for our mistakes we give up a lot of joy
because we don’t think we deserve it
when you learn to receive the mercy of
God it softens your heart and you begin
to be more tender-hearted toward other
people because you realize that God has
been merciful to you so it’s very
important that we know what’s ours and I
just want to teach you a little little
higher level of what we talked about in
faith because the Apostle Paul said it’s
no longer I that live but Christ that
lives in me and the life that I now live
I live by faith