Using Your Faith By: Dr. Pete Norris

Today on Power in the Word. Now you need to understand me. Here's what I'm saying. You can't go to, he's not talking about, you can go to God and demand something that ain't in the word. You can't go to the bank and demand a million dollars, you got $500 in there. But if you've got $10,000, you can go say, give me a check for $8,000, and they got to give you a check. So God said, if you'll make a demand on my word, or what my word says, if you'll make a demand on it, and reclaim it, when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them. You say, Pastor, why don't it happen? Because you don't believe it. Welcome to Power in the Word. Many believers overuse the phrase, have faith in God. Well, how do I do that? Well, today Dr. Norris shows us in the word, how to increase our faith in order to have victory in this life. This message will help you and encourage you. So you stay tuned. I'm going to talk about something today that I think is very, very important. I'm going to talk about how to use the faith that you have. So I want you to go to Psalms 119 verse 89. And here's what the Lord said, according to David. He said, Forever, O Lord, forever, O Lord, forever, your word is settled in heaven.

Isn't it amazing that Matthew chapter 6 verse 10 says, that everything that's going on in heaven ought to be going on in earth. Isn't it amazing that we were singing them songs today and it said that, you know, heaven was not complete until we were there. Isn't it amazing that that song said that he brought heaven down to earth and put it in a few people's hell. Isn't it amazing that we have the answers that people are praying every day about. There's people in this city praying for another meal. We have the answers. But you know, do we not care? Sure we care. But the bottom line is, do people know, are we approachable enough that we can meet their needs? I don't know where you were at when God got you. I don't know how low you were. I don't know what kind of struggles you'd been through. But he went probably to the lowest part of your life and he was right there waiting for you. And so many times we wonder, how does people get there? Boy, if I'd tell you my story, we would have an all-day event. Because the guy you're seeing is not the guy that he spoke to 28 years ago. Why? Because of his mercy and his grace. And so when I think about forever, oh Lord, your word is settled in heaven. I want you to go to 1 Peter 1 verse 25. How many of us believe that the word of God is settled in heaven? He said, I was hungry and you fed me. I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink. I was in prison and you visited me. I was sick and you come to see me.

He didn't say ask him a bunch of questions while they're that way. When you were down and out, did Jesus come and say, now look brother, you got in this mess, so get yourself out of this mess. He was right there to meet your cry. He was right there to meet my cry. I didn't even know how to cry. Before I knew how to cry, he'd already answered my cry. And so we see here in 1 Peter, but the word of God endures forever. Now this is the word which by the gospel was preached to you. Think about it a minute. How many of you believe the word of God is forever? It endures forever. So the word of God is settled in heaven. How many of you believe that God wants his very best for you on this earth? He don't want you struggling. He don't want you discouraged. He don't want you frustrated. He don't want you disappointed. But you know, God doesn't do it this way so quick so many times. And sometimes God is taking us through some seasons of our life that our experiences are going to rectify our purpose. Look at Psalms 89 verse 34. My covenant I will not break, nor alter the word that has gone out of my lips. What's God said about you? He said, I'll never leave you forsaken. So why do you pray he's gone somewhere? When you're going through difficult seasons in your life, why do you worry about if he's going to answer it or not? If he promised it, if he said it, he's got to do it. But as we walk through the seasons of our life, the struggles of our life,

if we don't know him well enough, we're not going to walk into that season knowing that everything's going to be okay. I got news for you today. Everything's going to be all right. What's going on in Ukraine and what's going on in Russia and what's going on around the world, it's going to be all right. Because I promise you, in this word, he's going to fulfill his word. His word is going to come to fruition in your life. But you may have to walk through some difficult and some struggles, but the result's going to be in his word. Go to Jeremiah 33 verse 23 to 24. Thus saith the Lord, if you can break my covenant with the day, if you can break my covenant with the day, with the day and my covenant with the night, so that there will not be day or night in their season. How many of you know there's no day and night in your season? You just see the darkness. How many of you know there's no such thing as darkness? Darkness does not exist. All darkness is is the absence of light. God didn't create darkness. He created light. Go to 21. Then my covenant may also be broken with David, my servant, so that he shall not have a son to reign on his throne. And with the Levites and the priests and my ministers, 22, and the host of heaven cannot be numbered, nor the sand of the sea measured, so will I multiply the sentence of David, my servant, and the Levites who minister to me.

What's God promised us, guys? How many of you know you're descendants of the royalty of the throne of David? We're kings and priests, Revelation 1 and 6, Revelation 5 and 10, and we're kings and priests, and we're not gonna reign when we get to heaven. We're gonna reign on earth. Turn to somebody and say, I'm a king and a priest. Turn to somebody, I'm a king and a priest. The kingship come from David, and the priestship come from Abraham. That's why we're the seeds of Abraham. That's why Galatians 3 and 13 said, he that hangeth upon a tree took the curse for us, that we are no longer under a curse, that we might walk in the blessings and the favor of Abraham. Turn to somebody and say, I'm blessed and highly favored and deeply loved. Listen, you can't stop it, guys. You can't stop it. The favor of God's on your life, you can't stop it. You can't stop the blessings and the favor of God. God blessed you before you ever knew you were blessed. He answered your prayer before you ever had to cry to say it. Listen, he had your breath before you ever breathed one. You need to read Psalms 139, one through 18 in the NLT, because I'm telling you, it'll light you up, man. I knew every tear ever fell. I got more thoughts for you than grains of sand.

I formed you in your mother's womb. I knew you when you were hidden inside. I knew you when you were nothing. I knew you, I knew you, I knew you, I knew you. Look at that Hebrew word. It means that I destined you, purposed you, pulled you out of me. Man, we're some kind of something. We are some kind of something. Turn to somebody and say, some kind of something. God cannot, God cannot break his covenant. He has to perform exactly what he said. Well, pastor, people can mess it up. You can't mess this covenant up. This covenant's gonna come to pass. Go to 1 Kings chapter eight, verse 56. Here's what he said about himself. 1 Kings 8, 56. Blessed be the Lord who has given rest to his people Israel according to all that he has promised. There has not failed one word of all his good promise which he promised to his servant Moses. In other words, under the old covenant, listen to this. Under the old covenant, not one word fell to the ground unfulfilled. So what in the world do you think is gonna happen under the new covenant? If the new covenant's better than the old covenant, then the new covenant's gotta have everything the old covenant adds up, plus some.

You got some extra benefits you ain't found about about. Turn to somebody and say, I'm some kind of something in him. I'm some kind of something. I'm not, listen, I'm not accident waiting to happen. I'm greatness waiting to show up. See, you've been destined to show up in people's problems to deliver them because you're greatness. Turn to somebody and say, the greatness is on the inside of me. God promised we'd be great. We're chosen, we're your priesthood, a chosen generation, called out of nothing, into something for such a time as this. Esther prepared to be with the king for a year. She found out what he liked. She found out what his smell was. She found out how he wanted to be dressed. And one night's all she needed with the king. All you need is one night with him and your life will be transformed. Are you ready for that one night? Are you ready for that purpose? Are you ready for that destiny? Are you ready for that solution? You're the answer to a lot of people's prayers. How many of you know that the spoken word of God programs your spirit? You're a spirit being, you possess a soul, which is made up of your mind, your will, and emotions, and you live in a body.

Your body's gonna cease to exist, but your spirit's gonna live forever. So when he got up, you got up. When he resurrected, you resurrected. And now you resurrected. You just don't know you're resurrected. Think about it a minute. So words are containers, God. It's powerful what comes out of our mouth. They carry faith or they carry fear. They produce after their own conscience. What are you saying? What's coming out of your mouth? What are you looking for? What are you expecting? What do you think's gonna happen in your life? Why are you here? You ever think about why you're here? But I tell you what, I know what you're here for. If you ever find out what you're here for, you'll walk into who you are. Listen, do what you have to do until you find out what you were born to do. Once you find out what you were born to do, what you are will manifest. The reason people are so miserable is because they're walking in who they are and not what they were destined to be. You were formed for greatness. You got a plan.

God's got a purpose. You're just walking through a valley to show up. See, it ain't your valley. It's their valley that you're gonna overcome. You're gonna meet somebody's answer. Turn to somebody and say, I'm your answer. The body of Christ has got to learn to live in the authority that they have in Christ. You gotta understand that. Why? Because in the authority of the word, for God's word. Is creative power you got to speak the word you can't look at this you can't focus on your problems your problems don't exist in him God's not up top wringing his hands about you know what we're gonna do about Teddy. I don't know what we're gonna do about daddy And the church is spending a whole lot of time praying unbelief Well God, I please do this please you don't have to beg God. He's already done it. He's waiting for you to receive it He ain't gonna do it God ain't gonna come down to heal nobody He's already healed everybody wants you to receive it because it's inside of you. It's not coming down. It's in us Greater is he that's in us than he does in the world no weapon formed against us can prosper Everything that rise up against us got to come down why because we're the righteousness of God as he is so are we in this World not when we get to heaven First John chapter 4 verse 17 we are greatness right waiting to happen turn to someone say greatness waiting to happen Man God's got a plan for our lives Charles Capps said this and I'm gonna give him credit for it this time The creative power is produced by the heart formed by the tongue and released out of the mouth in word form Think about that a minute now Creative power is produced by your heart Formed by your tongue was the Bible say about our tongue is the pen of a ready writer in the book of Psalms Think about it a minute. Is that you? Now go meet him mark chapter 11 verse 22 and 24 and everybody knows this one they don't don't understand it, but they know it

see sometimes We read stuff, and we've read it so much we miss stuff Now watch 22 and Jesus answered and said to them Now who's he talking to to your guy? He's talking to the Jews. He's not talking to the Gentiles Because the four Gospels is really not new covenant. It's really old covenant because you just hadn't died and resurrected yet So when Jesus is talking here in the four Gospels. He's talking and teaching the principles of a law He's not teaching the principles of grace So we see here that Jesus answered and said have faith in God one Translation had to have God kind of faith turn to someone say I got God kind of faith Well Romans 12 and 3 listen to me Romans 12 and 3 tells you you have the measure of faith So he gave you the measure of faith, so you're full of faith faith comes by and hearing comes by So if you're full of faith, so what is faith faith is subs of things hope for the evidence of things not seen you ain't seen It, but you know it exists. Why because your heart desires things that exist even though you don't know they exist Your heart desires things that exist even though you don't know they exist Because if they didn't exist your heart couldn't desire them That's why things are inside of you bigger than your shame to tell anybody about Because God put greatness in the side of you, and you want to stay in everybody else's level Don't hang around people ain't going nowhere Because if you do you ain't going nowhere If you're looking to make find somebody's going to encourage you not always agree with you But encourage you to be the best you can Amen if somebody if your spouse or your husband ain't pushing you it's probably not the one you need don't get a divorce now But don't marry anybody and think you're going to change them you knew how they were for you married I mean didn't you get married and you complain about them So let's let's go on here, so he said have God kind of faith look at 23 now Here's a here's the kicker that we don't read Now Jesus this is all in red, so he's telling you what to do for surely I God say to you he's telling you what to do He's I'm telling you. I'm saying to you whoever says to this mountain

So you got to say to that man you can't think about that man You can't wish that man would go away you got to talk to that mountain in your life And I'm not talking about Mount Everest I'm about a problem or circumstances or situations in your life. You got to speak to that thing You said pastor. I'm talking to stuff if you don't talk to stuff stuff. I'll talk to you Ask Jesus ask Jesus ask Jesus a minute He went by the fig tree and what happened Bible said he was hungry and the Bible said in Jesus answered So that fig tree must have been talking to it, and he said from now on you won't produce no fruit And he come by the next day. He didn't look at the tree, but Peter did so man that things withered from the root up You got to learn to talk to your situations don't talk with them talk to them Be removed to be cast into the sea and does not doubt in his heart But believes that those things that he says Will be done Listen to me it says that you got to believe that what you're saying is going to be done What you're saying not what God say it what you're saying He will have whatever he says Now look at 24 Therefore I say to you whatever things you ask ask means to make a demand Now you got to understand that word is in the actual Greek means to make a demand on you say well pastor We can't make a demand on God you can make a demand on his Word and you need to understand me. Here's what I'm saying. You can't go to he's not talking about you can go to God and demand Something that ain't in the word. You can't go to the bank demand a million dollars. You got $500 in there But if you've got 10,000 you can go say give me a check for 8,000 and they got to give you a check So God said if you'll make a demand on my word of what my word says if you'll make a demand on it and reclaim it When you pray believe that you receive them and you will have them use a pastor Because you don't believe it See we got a lot of parakeet people You know a parakeet just says what you say We don't she's not looking parakeet people. He's looking people that speak as him

Not like him Turn to someone say as him I Want you to see something here whoever shall say and shall not doubt in his heart but believes what he is saying if You're hearing yourself speak negatively and if you have been doing that for years then you're more likely developed in the negative things You ever notice negative things seem to happen a lot quicker than positive things because you're more you have a greater depth of revelation in The negative than you do the positive How many have you grew up in a negative environment? Yep Me too You don't have to live there But I tell you it ain't easy to get out of there But I tell you how to get out of there You go to that window in that mirror every morning. You tell yourself who you are I'm some kind of song. I'm Blessed and highly favored. I'm deeply loved. I'm God's chosen son Favor and blessings gonna follow me around. I'm telling they're following me to they follow me around turn So I say blessings in favor follow me around good things are coming in my direction They're following me around good things are following me around you say pastor Don't you have a little obstacles was what I have some obstacles, but the blessings that way the obstacles And I'm not gonna focus on the obstacles. I'm gonna focus on the blessings. I Could tell you a little story. I am I Had a little situation this past week and and we had a guy to come and look and we're gonna do some thing at the house there and The guy said it'd be $23,000 I Thought it's kind of high, bro Well none about carpentry work and don't want to If I want to be a I'm not a carpenter son Then get that gift don't want nothing to do with it. Don't even don't even Google it or nothing. Don't even pray about it. I

Want to stay in my lane? So I called this particular guy and I said look would you come by he said oh, yeah, I'll come over there So he comes over and he said I'll help you out so he comes over and he looks around in there and he comes back and he said uh I'll do it for a third of that. I said when you won't start He's in a couple of weeks now think about it, why do you do that? So then I called another guy and I said look on up I'm gonna put some air conditioning that they're out in that place He said okay So the guy said like $3,500. So I said, what's your pride? He said uh what you wanted to be? I said nothing. I Mean don't ask me what you want it to be if I He said you just buy the stuff and I'll put in for you What am I saying to you favor just favor It's just favor, but sometimes those blessings don't follow you the next day after you started giving It doesn't follow you two weeks later after you just mean sometimes you just got to be consistent And do the right thing now, I don't know how you feel about tiding. That's your business You don't have to tie to go to heaven. You ain't gonna be cursed if you don't Because the New Testament doesn't teach you to tie it. It gives you the opportunity to tie So I don't ask you to tie it around here. If you don't want to tie keep it But what I'm saying is if you want to be blessed learn how to give See, I know I'm never gonna be out with food Because we've given away probably 30 million pounds of food here in the last 20 years So what am I saying to you? I'm saying you got to understand that blessings is waiting to follow you around But you got to look for Some of us are so busy with our problems. We can't see the blessings we already got Let's go to Job chapter 3 verse 25 stay with me For the thing I greatly feared has come upon me and what I dreaded has happened to me now You know the story with Job look at 26 I'm not at ease nor am I quite I have no rest for trouble comes How many of you know that Job now I'm gonna shake you a little bit on this job deal

because Everybody wants to preach job as tribulations and trials and pressures and situations But if you read the text Job was giving Sacrifices even though he didn't know his children was doing anything. He was living in constant fear of Something coming on him Where's children doing something wrong? How many of you are living in fear of something breaking down? Something carrying up something going haywire your health going all to pieces listen that fear is going to eventually become a reality Because fear He didn't give us the spirit of fear, but a power and of love and of sound mind you've got to get rid of that fear Well, I fear how much children's gonna turn out this word will tell you how they're gonna turn out Bring them up in admonition the trust of the Lord they may drift away for a while, but God's got them I Don't believe they got to even drift away. I've never prayed for my kids to be born again You say why because I got a scripture in Proverbs 11 verse 31 the seed of a righteous shall be delivered So I had a word to stand on and at six years old He both got born again in our driveway. Why because God's at work. He is word works every time Now I could have been tore up and said well it there five years old anything happen. They're six years old anything happen It wasn't a matter of when it was gonna happen. He had already happened Because it hadn't happened I'd have been praying about it every day if you're praying about the same thing every day You really don't believe yesterday Seriously, that'd be like Casey coming to me today and saying dad. Are you my dad? Well, if you get around us in just a minute, you know, she's mine That one I can't deny But think about it. What if every day they came to you said are you my dad? Are you my dad we do that to the Lord all the time? Lord, did you hear me yesterday? Is that not fear and I think a lot of prayers are cried out in fear Instead of cried out in relationship And I'm not trying to I'm not trying to condemn anybody not trying to tear anybody down but you must resist fear Just as you resist the devil

Now go to 2nd Timothy 1 and 7. I just read I quoted you the scripture For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of what? Do you have power now? Look what order he said it here power love and a sound mind Power we ain't got to the sound mind yet Because most of us are double-minded We're good as long as we're in church around faith the people we home alone we think in a different thing You know powerful Bible said Romans 12 to be not conformed to this world be you transformed by the renewing of your mind Renew means you already had a perfect mind at one time When Adam fell in the garden, that's where you lost your mind Jesus gave you the Holy Spirit to restore back your mind because we knew if I renew a magazine description already had at one time All right, so he wants to renew my mind. That means I had a perfect mind at one time Listen God didn't give you the Holy Spirit so that you could walk around speaking tongues all the time He gave you the Holy Spirit to teach you all things to bring all things You remember said he said unto you that when you're in a situation, he'll teach you what to say Boy, that would be good for some of us Wouldn't it teach us what to say? Teach us what to say Only the only thing that can change a man or woman is the Holy Spirit You can't change by yourself. You can't stop drinking by yourself. You can't stop smoking. You can't stop doing you can't stop any of that It's the Holy Spirit that's gonna help you The Holy Spirit is the answer to Pentecostal people think they've got it all because they speak in tongues But they don't that ain't learn how to listen to the Holy Spirit on a daily basis. Listen, I know the Holy Spirit I'm telling you. I know the Holy Spirit and I know his voice and I know he speaks to me The Holy Spirit is a such a gentleman and we can know a whole lot more see God Listen when you start telling people things that they don't know that you know, and you shouldn't know because you don't know them You're gonna get their attention. I mean, why do you think God does that? He loves you so much. God doesn't do that to criticize your tear you down God does that because he loves you so much See, I believe we can know everything that God knows and we can be so aware that God listen God ain't coming down and doing nothing. He's taken us and he's spoken in our spirit and he's give us people's answers to their needs

We need to be that where of the Holy Spirit every day in our lives We need to be led by the Spirit of the Lord So that we know without a shadow of a doubt that the Holy Spirit is talking to us now. I want you to go with me to Deuteronomy 28 Now here's a scripture that everybody loves especially 1 through 15 Now they hate 16 through 63. It talks about the curses I mean, yeah, there's four times as many curses as your blessings, but boy, I bet you most of you can quote Deuteronomy 28 but you don't read after 16 because that's the curses you ain't gonna read them but the curses come under the Old Covenant because under the Old Covenant if you did bad you got bad if you did good you get good thank God God doesn't do that he's good what he did made you good so you don't get judged now on what you do you get judged on what he did on the cross isn't that an amazing grace why because grace is a gift and if it's a gift you ain't got nothing to do nothing to get it if you got to add anything to do to get it then it's not a gift it's works so let's go to Deuteronomy Deuteronomy 28 verse 1 now he came to pass now it shall come to pass if you don't see obey the voice of the Lord your God to observe carefully all the commandments which I command you today and the Lord your God will set you high above all nations of the earth now isn't that amazing he said if you do all that I'll set you up high above the earth what the Phaesians 2 and 6 said he seated us up in heavenly places in Christ Jesus so he did that for us but he said if you keep all the commandments what's the commandments the 10 commandments are not for us today guys the 613 commandments are not for us today they're old covenant because he gave us a new commandment John 1334 love one another's I've loved you and the Bible said in that's his law he said that's my commandment so he gave us a new command because if you love you're not gonna steal if you love you're not gonna covet if you love you're not gonna commit adultery so it's all about love are you full of love turn to somebody I'm full of love I don't know it but I am because it's the first food of the Spirit see that's how the Holy Spirit takes you into a deeper place of love because the

church ain't understood the Holy Spirit the Holy Spirit's for Pentecostal folks they think Pentecost don't even mean speaking in tongues Pentecost means 50 Lord help us we go by churches got Pentecost we the first thing we do is we think it means speaking in tongues let's go to Joshua 1 and 8 this book of the law shall not depart from out of your mouth but you shall meditate upon it day and night that you may observe to do according to all that's written in it and then what's going to happen you will make your way prosperous and then you will have good success God's not going to do it he's already done it if you'll meditate upon this word and meditate means to murmur say it over and over I'm the favor of God I'm blessings of God I have divine appointments God's setting up things for me I'm looking for them I'm expecting them I'm gonna I'm not gonna happen when you look for those things expect those things you'll make your way prosperous and you'll have good success but now watch this let's read I want you to go on you want to go on here he was telling them to get the word of God in their mouth speak it over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over faith comes by hearing and hearing and hearing and hearing and hearing and hearing and hearing it doesn't come because you heard comes with your hearing thank you for joining us today at power in the word all of us here at Harvest Fellowship Church want you to know that God is not mad with you but he loves you so very much and he has a plan for your life please feel free to contact us here at Harvest Fellowship Church at our website Harvest Fellowship Church net so until next week please remember there's power in the word