LIVN By Faith Part 1- Look Where You're Going - Staying Focused and Fighting the Good Fight

Our sixteen year old daughter is learning how to drive and like her brother before her, one of the things I find myself saying a lot is, “Look where you’re going.” If you have driven a car, ridden a bike, or even a horse you find out quickly that where you are focused you will go, intentionally or not. If you are looking at an accident off the side of the road, a heard of mustangs running along the river or whatever catches your gaze you will begin to veer in that direction. The longer you look, the further off course you get and the more in danger you become. The enemy is the master of distraction. He will throw whatever he can into your gaze to get your attention off of where the Holy Spirit is leading you. In Peter’s case it was the wind and waves.

28 And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water. 29 And he said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus. 30 But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me. 31 And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?

This storm was already there when Peter got out of the boat. Looking at Jesus, Peter took another, then another step of faith. The winds blew louder, the waves grew larger and crashed harder, as if screaming, “Look at me!!” Peter looked away from where he was going and looked at the waves. Now the enemy has Peter’s attention and he says, “Hey, the waves have gotten bigger! I mean sure you could walk on the water when the waves were 10 feet high, but now look there are 20 feet high! You can’t walk on the water when the waves are this big! You’re going to drown and die!” Right then Peter made a choice and stopped yielding to faith in Jesus’ command to come and yielded to fear and began to sink. How many times have you gone into prayer, setting aside time to spend with the Lord and before you know it your thinking, “Look at how dirty this carpet is. I need to get this cleaned. I think I’ll call…..” Or, you are believing for your healing. You’ve been in the word, the Lord has quickened the anointed word to you for your healing, you begin to meditate on it when suddenly a pain rushes through your body, fear comes up inside you and you… what? Here is where battles are won or lost. Where are you going to look? Where will you turn your focus? What so many believers don’t realize, is that it is not our job to fight the symptoms, to heal ourselves or to create the funds to pay for the project. Our job is to fight doubt and rebuke the fear. To give the enemy NO place! We are to take very thought captive and bring it into subjection to the word of God.

2 Corinthians 10:4-5 CJB 4 because the weapons we use to wage war are not worldly. On the contrary, they have God’s power for demolishing strongholds. We demolish arguments 5 and every arrogance that raises itself up against the knowledge of God; we take every thought captive and make it obey the Messiah.

What does that mean? Let’s continue with the example of your healing. A physical problem has attacked your body, for example a digestive problem. You’ve sought the Lord and He has quickened a specific word to you for this time. This step is very important! Faith is about relationship; you can’t just pull a scripture out of your memory and expect it to be full of power. The only way to have faith is by hearing the anointed Word from God, for you for that moment. Like Peter heard Jesus say, “COME!” Now you take that word, for Example, Proverbs 5:20-23, Proverbs 3:8, Ephesians 6:10

20 My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings. 21 Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart. 22 For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh. 8 It shall be health (medicine) to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones. 10 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.

You begin meditating on this word and saying, “I pay attention to the Word. I keep it in front of me day and night. I am thinking on these healing words continually because they are life and health to all my flesh! Doing this brings Medicine to my Navel and strengthens my bones. I am yielding to Him and I have life, health, and medicine coming into my whole body! My navel and my bones are strong! They are strong in the Lord and in the power of His might!” You may not feel anything the first few times you say it but you keep it up. Soon you begin to notice power coming out of your mouth when you say them! You feel strength coming back into your body! Then suddenly you feel sick, a pain rushes through you and you run to the bathroom and vomit. What do you do now? Do you cry and say “I thought I was in faith! But I got sick again! I guess it isn’t working!” Do you fight the symptoms? “I have no pain, I have no nausea, I have no pain, I have no pain, Pain, go away! Nausea, be gone!” What is coming out of your mouth? Pain, Nausea, Pain, Nausea, You’ve got pain on the brain! Or do you wipe off your mouth and say. “I trust in the Lord with all my heart! The word of God is in my eyes, in my heart and I have medicine, life and health flowing through me now! My digestive system is healed! I am strong in the Lord and the power of HIS might! I AM HEALED!” Regardless of how many times you have to do that, you NEVER let fear and doubt in, you only say what you heard the Father say to you! Celebrate each milestone, no matter how small. If you are making a road trip across the country. You dont expect to make it 3,000 miles on one tank of gas, do you? No! You say we will stop every 350 miles to refuel, stretch our legs get a snack etc. Much like a long road trip, you make faith refill stops along the way. Making and celebrating small goals getting you to the destination. “I only threw up once today! I slept all night without pain! We are $100.00 closer to paying off our house!” with each one you have a, 'slept all night' party! This is how you persevere, increase in faith, and win! Again, we are headed towards the destination and celebrating each mile marker along the way! This works with anything, this is how you fight the good fight of faith. If it’s bills coming at you, you don’t say, “I have no bills.” No! We call things that are not, as though they were. Not things that are, as though they are not. You say, “My God shall supply all my needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus! Bills I call you paid!” When the thoughts and feelings come, “What are you gonna do now?” As your heart begins to race, you say, “I refuse to Fear! My God SHALL supply all my needs, my bills are paid! Jesus I Praise you I give you glory! I walk by faith not by sight. NONE OF THESE THINGS MOVE ME!” Then you walk around praising God! You don’t deny the bills are due, but you refuse to live in fear of them. You put your faith to work. You keep your eyes on Jesus! Not on the symptoms, not on the waves! Looking unto Jesus! Do you remember in Numbers 21 when the people of Israel had once again spoken against God? Complaining and whining saying things like, “You should have left us in Egypt! We had better bread there!” etc. when suddenly fiery, poisonous serpents are everywhere. The people were bitten and began dying in great numbers. They asked God for help..

8 And the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live. 9 And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.

Do you think this was easy for their flesh? Imagine the scene, people running and screaming, knocking tents down, animals scattering, snakes pouring out from everywhere. Then your bitten, the pain runs up your leg, you break out into a sweat, you fall down, and you can’t breathe! If you want to live, you have to put all these distractions and symptoms aside and look up at the serpent on the pole, holding your gaze, refusing to be distracted, then suddenly healing comes. Peace fills your body, the pain is gone, and you can breathe! Then joy fills your heart! You get up you begin to sing and dance! That serpent on the pole was a type and shadow of Jesus on the cross. We are to look unto Jesus the author and the finisher of our faith, regardless of what is going on around us! We hold on to the quickened Word from God, casting down any thought or emotion that is not in line with that Word, refusing to let go or be distracted! If we will do this, the enemy will no longer have you in the arena of reasoning, fear, and doubt. You will hold the enemy in the arena of faith, and if you stay there, you will win every time!

#faith #healing #help #perserverance #stepoffaith #LIVNByFaith