Dive into a profound exploration of faith with me, JJ, as we tackle the age-old enigma: Is it possible to expand one's faith, or is it a static force within us? Our latest podcast takes you on a spiritual odyssey, challenging the notion that faith grows through preaching or hearing the Word. With upgraded studio equipment, a token of appreciation from our incredible supporters, we delve into Hebrews 11:1, where faith is described as the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things unseen. This episode promises a unique perspective, inviting you to reconsider the nature of faith and its immutable role in our lives.
Embark on a journey through history and scripture as we draw parallels between the steadfast faith of biblical heroes like Noah and Abraham, and the use of a shield in battle. We discuss how these figures' unyielding faith acted as their greatest defense and offense, without the need for immediate reward. Moreover, the episode sheds light on the legacy of faith inherited across generations and 1 Peter chapter 4's teachings on trials as opportunities to exercise our innate faith. Discover how to reinforce your own spiritual shield and embrace the tests we encounter. This heartening discussion is an open invitation to all—whether you're a newcomer or a devoted listener—to engage with the empowering constancy of faith that resides within each of us.
Dive into a profound exploration of faith with me, JJ, as we tackle the age-old enigma: Is it possible to expand one's faith, or is it a static force within us? Our latest podcast takes you on a spiritual odyssey, challenging the notion that faith grows through preaching or hearing the Word. With upgraded studio equipment, a token of appreciation from our incredible supporters, we delve into Hebrews 11:1, where faith is described as the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things unseen. This episode promises a unique perspective, inviting you to reconsider the nature of faith and its immutable role in our lives.
Embark on a journey through history and scripture as we draw parallels between the steadfast faith of biblical heroes like Noah and Abraham, and the use of a shield in battle. We discuss how these figures' unyielding faith acted as their greatest defense and offense, without the need for immediate reward. Moreover, the episode sheds light on the legacy of faith inherited across generations and 1 Peter chapter 4's teachings on trials as opportunities to exercise our innate faith. Discover how to reinforce your own spiritual shield and embrace the tests we encounter. This heartening discussion is an open invitation to all—whether you're a newcomer or a devoted listener—to engage with the empowering constancy of faith that resides within each of us.
Speaker 1:
Thank you everybody. Hello, hello, hello and welcome to today's episode of walk with me. I am your host, jj. I'm not sure if you can guys can tell as well as I can with this these new headphones but we've had some recent upgrades to the studio, some recent upgrades to the equipment, and I am very, very, very thankful for that. I'm thankful for each one of you who decided to spend a few minutes with us, a few moments with us, walking through our journey of the Bible, and this is a podcast of Christian topics.
Speaker 1:
A lot of times we think that the Bible is irrelevant because it's written quote-unquote so long to go. But this by this podcast is about Showing how relevant today's topics are with the Bible, and now relevant the Bible is, and I do thank you all. So much could be listening to any other podcast, but you have chosen to Listen to this podcast. To that I am eternally grateful. I thank God for each and every one of you. Thank God for your new listeners, thank God for you old other listeners I don't want to call you old, but I thank God for you other listeners who are sharing this podcast and telling everybody about it. Thank God for you know true bars and lyricists, who's helped me with these upgrades with the microphone and some of the setups, and also so exquisite creations with the Tumblers and spots, help spots in the program. Thank you so much. I really do appreciate it and again, I thank God for each and every one of you.
Speaker 1:
Now, if you've been listening to the podcast for any length of time, you know that we've kind of been on this sort of a High altitude sort of journey through the Bible. You know this happened and that happened, and then this book happened and then that book happened. But, as you all know, I like to interrupt the walk for questions and and most of the time the questions can be answered. You know, hey, with the one paragraph or something like that, but there are some questions that cannot be answered in one paragraph, where the answers to the questions would be so involved. It just makes sense to talk them out rather than trying to answer them in email. So if you have any questions about the Bible or anything like that, feel free to email me. Walk with me Bible study at gmailcom. Walk with me Bible study at gmailcom.
Speaker 1:
And I got a question. Actually, this one did not come through the email. It's actually was asked to me directly Through a gaming app that I like to play. That shall remain on name. Okay, yeah, okay, it's Laura's mobile. Okay, it's Basically a conquest game, not not getting paid for any sponsorship for this plug, as you would.
Speaker 1:
But he, the guy, came to me and and he asked me a question, and then we had such a discussion about it. I said, hey, can I use this Question for this week's podcast? And he said yes. So here is the question, and is actually not a Uncommon question.
Speaker 1:
It's a very common question that Christians of all quote-unquote ages Go through and by ages I mean I'm not talking about your spirit, your physical age, but your spiritual age how long you've been living for God, how long you've been Trying to do the right thing, or how long you've been on this journey to heaven. Whatever terminology you like to use, I prefer to use living for God. So the question is Get ready, because this is a pretty deep one. How do I grow my faith? Now, again, this is a very common question. A lot of seminars have been done about it, a lot of money spent on people trying to study how to do it, a Lot of preaching have been done about this subject, and Some of it you may have heard a different thing from what I'm about to tell you today, but everything I'm going to tell you is grounded in the word of God.
Speaker 1:
So here's the simple answer that we'll talk about, and then we'll go into why that simple answer is true. The simple answer is faith cannot be grown. Now I know I know some of you say what no, faith cannot be grown. Faith it doesn't.
Speaker 1:
The Bible does not talk about Faith being grown. It either talks about faith being there or faith is not being there. Now I know somebody says well, faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of God. Urgul, you hear more of the word of God, your faith will grow. No, the Bible doesn't say that the faith comes by the preaching and preaching by the word of God. But that's the initial Institution of the faith. There is no, you know, any kind of connotation where it says that the more preaching you hear, the more your faith will grow. And and I'm saying this as someone who I've been accused of, you know, being a pastor and training or or someone who Really loves talking about the word of God yes, it's not about it. You're not growing faith at this point. But the Bible more talks about faith being a static, sort of a static option, as it were. You know like, you get a car and the car has an option about electric windows. Well, the more you use the electric windows, the windows don't get any better. Matter of fact, they they don't. And this is the way the Bible sort of talks about faith, and and so let's talk about what faith really is.
Speaker 1:
He proves, chapter 11, verse 1. Now, if I normally I will tell you, if we talk about a scripture, be the verse above it, the verse above, below it, preferably the whole chapter. And the reason for that is Context is important, context is key. So what actually is Hebrews, chapter 11 verse say, verse 1 say Now, faith is the substance of Things hoped for. The evidence of things are not seen. In other words, faith is not something that that you can exercise like. You know like going to the gym and you know lifting weights, and all of a sudden you lift weights with the faith that your arms to get bigger, but you do that because you know that you've seen people do it. That's not exactly faith. You've seen people do it.
Speaker 1:
So faith is something that is done because you've not seen the evidence of this ever occurring Now, let's stop there. Well, jj, I've heard, I know people have gotten healed. So now do cannot not have faith that I will get healed. As you're into that, I have to ask as you're, healing occurred yet. No, now, are you believing God for your healing that hasn't occurred yet? Yes, then you having the faith of something, that you're having that faith for something the evidence of which you have not seen. So, therefore, you saying that God is going to heal you is your faith, and that is how that is, and you give a certain amount of faith.
Speaker 1:
And now, what do you do with this faith Now? For that we go back to Ephesians, chapter 6. Why are we going here now? This is a very familiar set of scripture for a lot of people who studied the Bible a lot. Here it talks about the whole armor of God. And what is the? The whole purpose of the armor of God, hebrews, I'm sorry. Ephesians 6 and 10. Finally, my brother, be strong in the Lord, in In the power of his might. How Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wilds of the devil? Why, boy, were so not against flesh and blood, with the Frasipalities, against powers, against ruses of the doctors of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Okay, so how? Okay, wherefore, take your, take unto you the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand in the evening day.
Speaker 1:
And, having done all To stand, now let's stop right there. You've done all you can do. Now let's talk about healing. You've done all you can do. Doctor said take this pill. You take the pill. Doctor said you got to get some exercises. You got to get. You go and you get the exercise. You, you've done. Okay, you've done stretching, you've done. You, you've done everything and up to now you have not been healed. That's where this is, that's where you are, that's where faith kicks in. You've done all that you can to stand. Now we start talking about what the armor of God really is. Stand there for having your learn. Don't always go to bath with truth. Having on the breast place of righteousness. Now this, let's jump down to verse 16, because we are talking about faith here Above all. Now we talk about the breast place of righteousness, the girdle of truth, your feet shop, the preparation of gospel of peace and, above all these things, the shield of faith. Why? Because you're gonna have some fiery darts coming at you talking about either a you're not Doing this right, oh God doesn't love you, or you're not gonna get healed, or whatever it is. It's going to shake your faith.
Speaker 1:
A Shield is not something that can be grown. I'm gonna say that again. A shield is not something that can be grown. The only thing you could really do with this shield is learn how to use it. I had a Sensei at one point his name is sensei beard and he's I really loved that man and he told me a very interesting concept about the martial arts that we studied and he said every attack is, it can be a block, and every block can be an attack. Once you learn that concept there and you can apply that to anything else, and so you watch, like Different movies where I don't know if the, even the producers, realize that they're doing this.
Speaker 1:
But sometimes people will take their shield and and push off and go forward with the with the shield and knock someone off balance. This is actually using the shield as an attacking, battering ram. Every attack can be a block and every block can be an attack. Therefore, if you know how to use your shield effectively and and let me just stop right here, because usually this will happen when the person's sword is Gone either they've been disarmed or something's happening and now they're using their shield as their primary weapon. The sword is gone. Now they are stuck with just their shield and they somehow overcome their enemy. They they knocked the opponent off balance and they use the shield to actually become victorious. Remember, the shield did not get any bigger, the shield did not get any heavier, the shield did not become more lethal than it was. At the stop started, the very, very beginning of the battle, the shield the shield of faith stayed the exact same size, stay the exact same way, but it was the person who was wielding it is what changed its purpose from defense to offense.
Speaker 1:
Therefore, if we take that concept and we apply it to these shield of faith and we we go with the Hebrews chapter 11, now we can fully understand what Hebrews chapter 11 is saying, because we have all of these scenarios where people use faith like unbelievable faith and even those, sometimes, some of the ones we're going to talk about misuse their faith. They exercise their faith in such marvelous ways that God honored their faith. Remember, faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. So let's talk about that. Because in verse 6 it says without faith is impossible to please God, for he that comes to God, what believe that he is. It does not say Without a huge amount of faith is impossible to please God. It doesn't even say without strong faith is impossible to please God. It just says without faith there's either faith that God exists or faith that God does. It Is. That's the thing is either faith that God exists or there's no faith and that God doesn't. So we talk about that.
Speaker 1:
Because now to start talking about Noah being warned of God, of things not having happened yet, noah had no reason to believe that God was going to destroy the planet with water, except the fact that God told him they had never seen rain, they had never. Where he built the ark was in a place was inaccessible by water, and he spent 120 years doing it, all Based on faith because God said it. I said do this. Noah said okay, um, I believe you God, I'm gonna go and do it. Abraham. Abraham was told to leave his comfort zone. He went out and he he kind of messed up his faith a little bit because he figured well, god told me what to do it, but he didn't tell me how to do it, so I'm gonna kind of do it my way and then God did it his way. But the main fact that Abraham went and stepped out and still waited 25 years, and Now we talked about Isaac and Jacob Also, who heirs with the same promise, the same faith that was given to Abraham was also given to Isaac and Jacob.
Speaker 1:
So, yes, folks, you are responsible for the kind of faith or teaching your kids how to use faith, because that's exactly what happened there. Abraham talked Isaac, isaac talked Jacob, and that faith was passed on. Now all of these Died in faith, not having received the promise, and we're talking about Abraham, isaac and Jacob. They had never received their promise that they, that they, were given, but they knew by faith, that promise was coming. So we can go on through Abraham's chapter 11, but for the sake of time, I I encourage you to read the entire chapter and you will see things kind of start to jump out here, where there's no mention of how to grow your faith. It's no mention on how to get faith. Either you have it or you don't.
Speaker 1:
Now I'm gonna tell you something. I Know that the devil would will kind of sneak in here or Wherever you listening to it, or maybe you have to, you turn off the podcast or so. Maybe you don't have faith. Oh, you have faith. You have faith. There was a part of you that believes. There's a part of you that accepts. There's a part of you that knows, just for, for, for. No Explain, explain it. No explainable reason, no, fat the poor reason that God exists and God is giving you a Promise and that that promise will come to pass.
Speaker 1:
There is a place, there is a place in your soul right now that knows this is happening, even though there is no possible way. There's no possible way that this thing could kind of come to pass. You're sitting there with a Spiritual problem in a spiritual problem. You're sitting there with a physical problem. You're sitting there with a financial problem. Now, I'm trying to kind of stay away from those, because some of our financial problems we brought upon ourselves, just like some of our physical problem we brought upon ourselves, and God may be allowing us to go through these things as a judgment, to kind of teach us a lesson About what we have done, what we haven't done.
Speaker 1:
Not talking about that, I'm talking about an actual promise, an actual trial that God is bringing you through. And let me also say this too there is a way, there is a situation to where we are our sort of we're having our faith exercise, not grown, but exercise, and that's when we have a trial. Okay, and this is talked about in 1st Peter, chapter 4, and that's in verse 12, verse 4 and 12. Remember now Verses to above, verse of two below beloved. Think it's not strange to turn the fiery trial which is to try you as Though some strange thing happened to you, but rejoice. That's where your faith is. The faith is in. The trial Is when you rejoice In so much as your particular by suffering that with his glory shall be revealed, you may be glad also with exceeding joy. That is your faith.
Speaker 1:
It's a lot of things that that are being used by faith, or you're using faith to do, and the more you use your faith, the stronger the faith gets notice. I did not say the bigger your faith gets, not to say the more prominent your faith gives you just get to use it and you get more experienced that when to use it or how to use it. Some of my travels I've seen people who, if I've seen people and I'm trying to figure out how to word this correctly I've seen people go up against weapons that were much bigger and much more formidable than their own and because they knew how to use the small weapon that they had, they were able to overcome the bigger weapon. You know, for example, someone going with somebody with a knife, a kitchen knife, fighting someone with a samurai sword, a katana, and because that person with the kitchen knife was so much more skilled at using that kitchen knife, they were able to overcome the person with the much longer blade in the katana. And our faith is like that. Our faith should be like that. The more you train with it, the more trials you go through, the more experience you have with how much faith you have makes you a lot more no, not deadly much more effective you are with your faith, and that's where we, that's where we are and that's where that's why the reason, the short answer, is no, you cannot grow your faith, but you can exercise your faith and become much more effective with it. It can become be able to be used the way you needed to be used, because that's what God intended. That's why God gave us all a measure of faith.
Speaker 1:
The Bible talks about that, that we all have a measure of faith, and that is going to be in Romans 12 and three. For I say, through the grace given up to me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, according as God has dealt to every man the measure of faith. Again, verse two above, verse two below, but preferably the whole chapter. But that verse right there tells us that, okay, because I'm sitting behind this microphone doesn't make me any more faithful than you. Because I get up and I stand behind the pulpit does not make me any more faithful than you. We have all been given a measure of faith, a little piece of faith. But Jesus said if you have the faith the size of a mustard seed, which you already had considerably more of, you can say to this mountain be tossing the seed. Now I'm not going, I'm not telling you guys to go out there and say to the seers tower get into the middle of Lake Michigan. I'm not saying that. I'm saying that for Jesus to say that.
Speaker 1:
Jesus speaking imperitable, imperable, I'm sorry, I'm all excited. Now Jesus is speaking imperitable, saying that thing that you think can't be moved. You could just speak it in faith that it be moved out of your way. That's what faith is. That's what exercising your faith is. Now, your faith must also line up with the word of God. So where your word of God, your faith, is with line with the word of God. In other words, don't sit there and say, you know, god is going to destroy my enemies, when you're the one that caused the enemy. Don't say God is going to help me get away from these cops when I'm the one that robbed the bank. That's not faith.
Speaker 1:
So we have to be very careful in that that you know you are doing everything that God is telling you to do. Remember, having done all you can do to stand. That's it. Just stand. And we have to be careful. Be very careful. I'm always using that I guess I'm that's a catch phrase. We have to be careful. We use that faith to make sure we're not misappropriating faith, because God is not marked. Whatever we sow, we will reap. Now, that is not to say that God can't give us mercy, and that too is faith. But remember, we have to be able to do the things that we're supposed to do so that we can stand.
Speaker 1:
All right, I hope this helped and if you have any other questions, even if you have questions based on what we talked about today, go ahead and email me. Walk with me Bible study at gmailcom. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you so much for being a part of this. I really do appreciate each and every one of you, and that's just. I'm sorry I know it may seem like a short podcast today. That's just touching the surface, but, yes, we, we all have faith. We all can make our faith stronger, but not exactly grow it. All right, love you all. God bless you. See you on the next one.