A How-To Guide For Faith

Of all the teachings I have presented to the world, this might be the one which could help you the most, the one which could help every area of your life, the one that could most help you take the land. I truly believe this teaching is a gift from God to us all, and I rejoice in sharing it with you.

I’ve also recorded this as a podcast episode, and here is the link – https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a-how-to-guide-for-faith/id1063011890?i=1000553707532

Today I want to teach you how to receive from God by faith. I’m going to put all the pieces together and give you a formula you can operate to see all of God’s promises manifest in your life. God’s grace and faith system was designed for you. It was designed to make sure you received all of God’s promises, to make sure that nothing could stand between you and God’s promises.

Don’t get religious on me and say something like “God is not a program or a formula.” That statement has some truth, but look at the world around you. God is a God of systems and order and arrangements. The Bible is full of God’s teachings that, if followed, will produce certain results. Faith is a program, a mechanism, a tool, a force that can be used, and should be used, to see God’s promises manifest in your life.

This teaching is a simple how to guide. I have been pursuing my relationship with God for around 18 years. It’s both exciting and sad that after all this time I feel that I finally have a very good handle on faith and receiving God’s promises in our lives.

Another reasonable title for this teaching could be “God’s grace and faith system to receive His promises.” Romans 4:16 says “Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace, to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed.” That is how all of God’s promises work, by grace through faith so that the promise is sure or guaranteed to the seed. We are the seed, God’s children.

Let us briefly discuss the grace component. You can’t earn these promises. They are God’s gift to you. You could never earn your salvation, you could never earn any of God’s promises. God doesn’t even want you to try. It’s not about that. It’s about receiving what God has done for you by His grace, by His undeserved love for you, by His unmerited favor for you. Everything God has done for you and everything God will ever do for you is fundamentally a manifestation of His grace for you. Once you recognize that you will stop trying to earn anything from God, and that alone will set you free.

Most of today’s discussion will focus on the faith part of the grace and faith system. The grace part is fairly easy to understand. But the faith part has been misunderstood. Or, in my humble opinion, those teachers who have taught the faith part haven’t done a great job of putting all the pieces together to give a comprehensive overview and system. That is my endeavor here.

For almost all of my time as a devoted Christian I have considered myself a follower of the Word of Faith doctrine. We don’t need to get into that in detail, but basically that doctrine teaches we can use our words and our faith to see God’s will come to pass in our lives, including God’s promises. Yes, some adherents have fallen into error and excess, and there have been some bad examples. But from a Biblical reading, I wholly agree with the doctrine. Unfortunately, I find that many people believing the Word of Faith doctrine aren’t seeing it work correctly in their lives. Or maybe it’s working in some areas, but it’s not working in every area or it’s not working to its full potential.

One problem is that while many teachers in the Word of Faith movement talk about faith a lot, they are always talking about individual issues associated with the faith process. I’ve probably heard a dozen sermons on each of the individual points I make below. However, I have never heard a top to bottom explanation of how to use your faith and the key associated issues. I believe that I’m presenting this to you today.

My friends, there is not the slightest doubt in my mind, and there is the full conviction in my heart, that you can use this method below to see all of God’s promises begin manifesting in your life. In my own heart, and I’m just being honest with you, I am more excited about my spiritual life right now than ever before. I know that the big dreams God has given me are available to me. I know that I can fulfill my potential, that I can do everything God wants me to do, that I can live out His plan for my life. I know that this teaching today is the master key to all of that for my life, and it can be for yours as well.

You can begin dominating your life as God intends (Genesis 1:26). You can use your faith to rise to the high places of the earth (Isaiah 58:14), and to overcome the world (1 John 5:4). This is also how we should incorporate our faith into binding and loosing things in the earth, to see God’s will established here (Matthew 16:17-19).

God is not in heaven deciding who will get His promises and who won’t. They are already released and given to all Christians as an act of God’s grace. The inheritance has been distributed to God’s children. But we must learn the way to obtain them. In real life, you may be an heir entitled to millions of dollars from a relative’s estate, but you must take certain steps to obtain your inheritance. This is also true with God. You must learn the system and do what’s necessary to obtain your inheritance. Perhaps the greatest aspect of your inheritance is an empowerment to use your faith to bring God’s will to manifestation in every area of your life, to receive all of God’s promises.

So this is a simple explanation of how to use your faith. This will work for every Christian. To those of you who have spent years confessing the Word and waiting for manifestation, I believe this message is a special gift to you. This will help you fill in the gaps. This will help you finally see the manifestation of your faith in every area.

So let’s get going. This process can start different ways, but in general it starts when you want to receive something from God. Maybe it’s help in a certain area, maybe it’s one of His promises, or maybe it’s something else. But there is something you want God’s supernatural assistance with, so you are going to pray about it or make declarations of faith in Jesus Name. 

We’ve all been there. So what do we do? How do we do this correctly?

It all starts with God’s Word. If you have a problem, read the verses about that. If you see a promise that you want, study that verse and find more about the same subject. Read some relevant verses covering the matter where you want to receive from God.

Choose one or several verses over this situation that seem to be grabbing your heart, the verses that really speak to you. There are various words in the Bible’s original Greek that are translated “word”. The word “logos” means written word. The word “rhema” means a spoken or living word. These are very important concepts.

Understand that the promises that are really grabbing your heart, that are really jumping out to you, have been “quickened” (that means “made alive”) to you by God. The idea of a verse being “quickened” to you is not something I came up with. That’s what you are looking for, God to cause a verse to really jump out to you. That is like God saying, “Hello child, I have this for you, pay attention here, I am speaking that verse directly to you right now.” 

 Maybe you read a promise for healing and you want that in your life and it’s grabbing your heart, for example. That Bible promise started as a logos word, but now that God has “quickened” it to you by His Spirit, it has become a rhema word for you. Read the verses until you get this rhema word. You will feel it in your heart. Some verses are just calling to you. Those are your rhemas.

Don’t get worried if you don’t feel any of those verses really jumping out to you or becoming a rhema word. Just stick with your Bible study until one grabs your heart. And don’t worry about it too much. All of God’s promises are yours. So just do your best here. If you don’t “feel” any such feelings inside yourself about a particular verse, just pick one or two that sound best to you. God will honor that and you can pick your rhema that way, so to speak. I’m not going to belabor the points here, but the verses you like the most or you feel the best about, those are your rhemas. Sometimes they jump off the page and you even get emotional when you read them. Other times they just sound pretty good. Either way, know that the Holy Spirit is working with your mind and heart to cause you to like them. Those are your rhemas, and you are on your way.

Just as a side note, it may be that God spoke to you through the Holy Spirit or a dream or some other Biblical communication method. That is also a rhema word and you can stand on that as well, but I would encourage you to find some Biblical promises to go along with that direct promise from God.

Now take your rhema words and start meditating them and confessing them. Study those verses and get them ingrained in your heart and your mind.

Start speaking those rhema words boldly and aggressively over yourself and your personal situation. This is an application of the verse where Jesus said “the Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.” (Mark 11:12) You are taking your inheritance. Your inheritance isn’t necessarily with God now. It’s sitting in the unseen realm waiting for you to take it by faith. God has put it there for you. It’s time for you to take it. Remember, this whole system I am discussing today was designed by God to make sure nothing can stand between you and the promise.

“GREAT IS THE PEACE OF MY CHILDREN. BY JESUS’ STRIPES I WAS HEALED. GOD SUPPLIES ALL MY NEEDS ACCORDING TO HIS RICHES IN GLORY BY CHRIST JESUS.” Those are examples of me boldly and aggressively declaring God’s Word to me. Yes, they are Bible verses, but God has quickened them to me and they are rhema words to me now.

So you keep speaking, confessing, meditating, praying those rhema words over your personal situation. The reason for this is that faith comes by hearing the rhema word of God (Romans 10:17). This is a spiritual and supernatural process. As you hear the rhema word of God both with your natural ears and your spiritual ears, faith will rise in your heart. Your situation may look hopeless, your natural reality may look like the opposite of God’s promise, but as you boldly confess this word, your mind will move away from the natural circumstances and towards the rhema word of God. That’s just what happens. Your mind will begin to believe God’s rhema word more than it believes in the physical circumstances.

You must get to that place, to the place where you believe the rhema word of God more than the physical circumstances. Even while you still feel sick you confess, “By Jesus’ stripes I was healed.” (1 Peter 2:24). Faith begins rising in you. Your mind begins moving into line with your faith. You begin focusing more on the promise than your natural circumstance.

Also mix in a little praying in the spirit and worship to help move your mind during this process. Again, you are moving your mind and your believing system towards the rhema word of God and away from your natural circumstances.

As your faith rises, you get to the place where you know you’ve got it. This is the key. You press in with your confessing the rhema until you get here, where you know you’ve got it regardless of any natural circumstances. I still feel sick, but I know that by Jesus’ stripes I was healed (for example). This is not a natural situation, to deny physical reality and embrace a spiritual promise. This makes no sense to the natural mind, but you will know when you are there.

It may be that you find it difficult to get to the place where you know you have God’s promise despite the natural circumstances. This is the force of unbelief operating. Unbelief in God’s promises can come from different sources, but the result is the same. Unbelief fights against your faith and prevents manifestation. In the Greek, faith is “pistis” and unbelief is “apistia” which literally means “without pistis” or “without faith”. So you can see how they would fight against each other. As you are confessing God’s rhema Word and your faith is rising, simultaneously unbelief is being driven out of your mind. Sometimes unbelief can be difficult to deal with (like when you have a terrible medical situation that you constantly feel) so in those situations Jesus told us that prayer and fasting help drive out the unbelief. Jesus’ wasn’t telling the disciples in Matthew 17:20 that prayer and fasting make demons flee, but that prayer and fasting get rid of unbelief so that our faith works to make demons flee.

Be calm and patient with yourself. Trust the process. Faith, or pistis, comes by hearing the Word of God. As pistis comes, apistia goes. Fast and pray. Stand strong on your rhema words and hear them over and over and over. You will get there. Visualization also helps. Hope is a positive imagination. See yourself in possession of the promise. 

You will know that you have moved into the place of faith a few different ways. First of all you will feel inside yourself that you’ve got it. It’s like inside yourself you can see that you have it. You know that you still see the physical issues, but on the inside you can see that you have this promise from God. It’s like suddenly you think to yourself, “I’ve got it.” Furthermore, fear and anxiety over the situation start leaving. You start to feel peace. You start to feel joy. Some people refer to this as “praying it through”. That’s a fine thing to say, and I think that’s a helpful thing to remember.

Hebrews 4:3 says they which have believed do enter rest. The Greek word believe is “pisteuo” which literally means “has pistis” or “has faith.” For they which have true, Biblical faith do enter rest. You know that you are in faith when you have entered the rest, when you feel peace about the situation, when you no longer fear the sickness or the problem, when you feel joy over God’s promise and know it’s done. 

Now you are in faith. God’s promise is bigger on the inside than the situation on the outside (that’s another way to think about it). The true place of Biblical faith is when you know you have something from God regardless of any contrary evidence in the natural realm. You know you are healed even though it still hurts. You know God is providing for you even though you don’t see the cash in your bank account. You know God has restored your relationship with your child even while they are still acting crazy. This is faith! We walk by faith not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7). Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1). 

Again, faith is when you know you have something even when there is no physical manifestation yet. The rest, the peace, the feeling of release and joy, those things come with faith, and they help you know when you are in faith. When you know you’ve got something, you don’t feel the worry or fear anymore that you won’t get it or that it won’t work. You know you’ve got it. 

Maybe you have never gotten to true Biblical faith like this before, that’s ok. You will know it when you feel it. Pick a situation in your life, study the verses, get a rhema Word from God on it, and go after this. Maybe start with a smaller situation to begin operating this way. You’ll know it when you get there, when you get to faith. You will love the feeling. It’s a true peace from the Holy Spirit over your situation. Yes, I know Christians aren’t supposed to rely on feelings and it’s not that I’m trying to get weird about all this. But the Bible promises “rest” when we get into “faith” and that is a spiritual promise and a reality. 

Humans are spirit, soul and body. Sometimes when spiritual things happen there is an impact on our minds and even our flesh. Entering into the rest or peace of God by faith is such a thing. This peace, this rest, brings a calmness, a peace, a joy to your mind. Again, you’ll know it when you get there. If you still feel the fear, the anxiety, the doubt, that’s unbelief present and warring against you getting the promise. Fast and pray. Keep confessing the rhema to keep your faith rising. Don’t fear or worry about this. Just keep pressing in. Keep “fighting the good fight of faith.” 

When you are in the place of faith is when the power of God is flowing for your manifestation. You are at rest in your faith for what you want from God, and you know that God’s power is flowing from the spiritual realm into the natural realm now. By faith and patience we inherit the promises (Hebrews 6:12). True Biblical patience in this sense is just staying in the place of faith over a long period of time. You get yourself to the place of faith and then you remain in faith. You remain in faith, you wait patiently, as long as it takes. 

During this entire process, you must listen for anything God tells you to do. One of the great secrets of the Bible, which is staring us right in the face, is that when we are seeking something from God, God often gives us a direction that makes no sense to our natural minds. He may tell you to forgive, repent, change something in your life, roll away the stone from the dead man’s tomb, go wash in the river Jordan, let down your net again no matter how pointless it sounds, spit in mud and rub it on your eyes, give a financial gift, leave a place or a situation, call someone to agree with you in prayer, or do any number of other things (and some of them may sound crazy). 

This is a Biblical model. God often gives us something to do in the natural realm to cooperate with our faith. Some people call this “faith’s corresponding action.” This action is a seed we must sow to receive our supernatural harvest. God may not give you such a direction every time, but we must always be listening.

A big part of this, and something to be remembered, is “resist the devil and he will flee.” (James 4:7) God may tell you to do something that goes directly against your problem in the natural realm. Your kid is acting crazy, but you give her a big hug and a big kiss and love on her anyway (I have two daughters and I’ve been through this!). Your ankle hurts big time, but you get up and clean the house anyway (I went through this a few months ago.) Your bank account says you’re broke, but you give a gift to your church in faith anyway (I did this one time and ended up having my best month ever.). We resist, we fight, we war in the natural and spiritual realms. We do whatever we need to do. The violent take it by force. 

Unfortunately, while these promises are our inheritance, sometimes we must enter into spiritual warfare to get the manifestation. God is with you, and your faith will overcome anything that stands against you. Similarly, we must recognize if there is a Biblical system, or a Kingdom of God system, that we must operate. 

I want to be clear that we are not “earning” things from God. We can’t earn anything from God. Everything from God is a free gift from His grace. However, there is a Kingdom of God process to receive some of God’s promises. 

To put it another way, the promise is the system itself. For example, if you are really in a financial bind you can use one of God’s promises to receive a financial miracle. But that is different from operating in the Divine Provision system that the Bible promises. To operate in that system, you must sow and reap, you must operate in seedtime and harvest. Similarly, if you are sick you can receive a miraculous healing. But to operate in true Divine Health, you will need to treat your body correctly according to the Bible’s teachings (you can’t eat fast food every meal and expect to live in perfect health). 

So let me try to put this simply. Sometimes when you are believing God for a supernatural manifestation of one of His promises, God may tell you to do something specific. You must do that, it is the key to your manifestation. However, if you are believing God for something more systematic or something you want to see constantly in your life (like better relationships with your children, better finances or perfect health), He may point you to His Word for His parenting guidance, or His financial guidance, or His physical body guidance, as examples.

When you find yourself believing God for a systemic blessing (like living in Divine Prosperity or Divine Health) then you must operate the system, by faith. You truly enter into a lifestyle of faith for those promises, and you get a few verses / rhema words to do so. For example, I have a few verses that I confess every day over my health, my family, and my finances. I live by faith in these areas. I am constantly in faith in these areas. But I am also always looking to operate the systems, to do my part. I try to treat my family, my body and my finances according to God’s Biblical instructions. I’m in faith for these areas of my life constantly. There is a difference between a one time miracle in an area of your life and receiving a constant, lifelong manifestation of God’s promises in an area of your life. But they both work by faith in God’s promises.

So regardless of whether you need a single miracle or a single manifestation of a Biblical promise, or you want to see God’s promises manifest for your entire life, you get yourself into faith over the relevant promises, and you do whatever God tells you to do. I think that’s a good way to put it, stand in faith for God’s promise and do whatever He tells you to do. You stand in faith for the manifestation of the promise the entire time. If you feel fear, doubt, unbelief, anxiety, then get yourself into the place of faith over the promises, as we have discussed.

As you are in the place of faith, begin expecting the promise. Confident expectation is the true definition of the Biblical word for “hope”. It’s not that it might show up. It’s not that you hope it will show up. You know it will show up. If your close friend said they are coming to your house in 15 minutes, you know that barring some crazy, unforeseen circumstance your friend will be there in around 15 minutes. You confidently expect it. There is no doubt. Your friend is on his way. How much more should we do so with God’s promises, especially as there are no unforeseen circumstances that might derail God’s promises manifesting in your life.

Just as a short example on this, each month I bill my clients. I am so close with my clients that I don’t have the slightest doubt about my payments. I have worked for them for years, and they have paid me every single time. There is no doubt or fear about this. One time God helped me realize that and then He said something like, “why don’t you trust Me and my promises like you trust them.” I felt pretty bad about that, but it was a good point. I trust God more than anyone else. God’s promises are sure to me. The manifestation is on the way.

You stand in faith and confidently expect the manifestation to show up. As you do this, spend time in worship and in your prayer language (praying in tongues). These activities keep your mind in the place of faith. These activities also have effects in the spiritual realm to fight against unclean spirits that might hinder your manifestation.

A deep dive into the spirit realm’s activity while you are believing for manifestation is beyond the scope of this teaching, but don’t worry about it too much. While you are in faith, God may tell you to worship. God may tell you to pray in your prayer language. God may tell you to bind unclean spirits coming against your manifestation. As long as you are tuned in, God will tell you what to do through one of His Biblical communication methods.

So you stand in faith, praying, worshipping, and confidently expecting your manifestation. If you feel fear or anxiety, just get back into faith. You do whatever God tells you to do. Your manifestation will come, every single time. Let me say that again, using this faith and grace system to receive God’s promises will work every single time. Your manifestation will come every single time.

What about Ferraris? Can you use this system to get a Ferrari from God. Let’s not waste our time today. Today we are focused on God’s plan for your life and the specific promises from God manifesting in your life. We are also talking about the faith and grace system so we can use it to fight against the kingdom of darkness and on behalf of the kingdom of God. I am the first person to say that God wants us to have the best of the land. But we are not talking about this grace and faith system to just get random material things. Set your affection on the House of God, and let Him guide you into everything He has for your life.

OK, so you have used the faith and grace system to receive and it has manifested. You are healed, the relationship is restored, the financial situation has stabilized, whatever it is. Praise the Lord! After manifestation (especially in the area of healing) the devil, unclean spirits, or something in the natural realm may try to steal what you have received. Remember, the devil tries to steal the word as soon as it is sown into your heart (Mark 4:15). The devil may try to steal your rhema word as soon as you have received it, and he may also try to steal your manifestation.

If something comes against you, be it a symptom or some other thing in the physical realm that says you didn’t actually receive God’s promise, then rebuke that thing in Jesus’ Name. Take authority over it and command it to go in Jesus’ Name. Command any unclean spirits attempting to work against you to stop in Jesus’ Name. Go right back to that place of faith. Remember, the true place of faith is knowing that you have something without seeing any evidence yet in the natural realm. So even if there is a symptom or something trying to fight against you, you already dealt with that once. Just go back and make sure you are standing in faith. You already received your manifestation once, this thing is just trying to steal what you already have. This is actually another sign that you already received. So stand in faith, command that thing to go, and it will go. Your complete and perfect manifestation will be restored.

My friends, some of the most important revelations that I have received are (1) all of God’s promises have been completely released to the Body of Christ now, (2) all of God’s promises are available on demand at all times to Christians, and (3) the entire grace and faith system was designed by God so that nothing will prevent the manifestation of God’s promises in our lives.

What I have presented to you today is a comprehensive overview of how the system works. I’m not suggesting that it will always look the same in two similar situations. God may give you very different specific directions for two very similar situations. That’s part of the excitement of your relationship with God. We must always stay tuned into God to truly live by faith this way. Build your faith on the rhema word of God, and do whatever He tells you to do.

Please understand that God wants us to have His promises more than we do. Imagine your relative in Heaven, who left you great riches, but you hadn’t gone to the court house and filled out the paperwork to take control of the bank accounts or the properties. These blessings of your inheritance are just sitting there, languishing in the control of the court system. Someone else might be eating the fruit from those properties or collecting the interest from that money. But this inheritance would radically bless your life. How sad would your relative be? How do you think God feels about the unimaginably awesome inheritance He has left us, that we have yet to obtain.

It’s time to take the land. It’s time to inherit the promises. I’m going to take my land, and I am with you to help you take yours.