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[00:00:00] This is the Get Radical Faith podcast. And I’m Beatty Carmichael. This podcast is all about stepping out by faith and trusting the Lord in your life. Get more resources on our Web site.
[00:00:11] Get radical faith dot com. And now here’s the next episode of our podcast.
[00:00:18] Today, I’m excited that we’re going to be talking about another topic, a radical thing. Beatty, would you like to give our listener here a little disclaimer? Well, what’s is going to be about?
[00:00:29] Yes, I would. And also one little disclaimer for those who’ve been listening. These you’ll notice that Penny is not Caroline. So we’re excited to have you on these calls moving forward. As far as today’s topic. So most of our guests, Ella, is calling you topics, as you know, is all about getting sellers calling you. Today’s topic is not today is all about Jesus. OK. So if that offends you, feel free to turn off this particular podcast and listen to the next session. When we talk about business, but otherwise, we’re going to talk about a personal relationship with the Lord and how to live by radical faith. How’s that for a good disclaimer?
[00:01:08] I think that’s awesome.
[00:01:10] I love it, too. OK, so let’s see where we’ve been going.
[00:01:14] So the last topic I was talking about, the topic of kind of getting out of the boat and the source stepping out in a radical fashion with faith. And today, I want to talk a little bit about what it means to believe in faith a little bit different. But there is this conflict between the natural and the spiritual. And there’s there’s always this conflict. And I guess the kind of focus, the kind of message on this is actually going to be sort of a short topic. But living a life of radical faith is a constant conflict between choosing to focus on God’s promises and trying to ignore what we see in the natural does.
[00:02:02] Does that make sense? Penny?
[00:02:06] Well, any and I’m catching you off guard, but any personal experience come to mind that might kind of clarify that in your life or maybe how you have battled the same issue in your life?
[00:02:19] Oh, for sure. I think, first of all, this is where my feel like there may maybe just the old dry cell phone in Italy. So based on what I can see in the natural because the natural is in my day every day, it’s best that I see the bills that keep coming. Well, you know, the finances might not be there that lines or something. You know, things like that that are just easy to take my focus off of what I should be looking at. It’s easier to look at the natural and be distracted by what’s going on in the natural and really to lose sight of the fact that I’m working even though I caught you with my eye.
[00:03:04] So true. In fact, for you mentioning that there are two stories that came to mind.
[00:03:08] One is actually at your church and one is a friend of mine who used to work for me years back. So the lady at your church, her name is Yvonne, and she went on a missions trip with a group called Global Awakening. I think it is. And just had a great time over in Kenya. And so they’re taking another trip down to Brazil. And he really wants to go. But three thousand dollars and she doesn’t have the money. So she’s been praying for it. And she was sharing with me this past Saturday that a friend at work called her up at work and said, hey, Yvonne, can you meet me downstairs? And she said, yes. So she went downstairs and met him.
[00:03:46] And he said, you know, he’s just an average worker, not no super special, super high income. We see my wife and I’ve been praying about your trip to Brazil and we’d like to help you out with. And he gave her an envelope and she said, oh, thank you so much. Thinking is it gonna be, you know, maybe 100 couple hundred dollars? Now, the trip to Brazil is like three months from now, two or three months from now. So plenty of time to try to raise money. She gets back a fair and open set and there’s three thousand dollars in cash.
[00:04:15] The entire trip totally paid for. And just thinking, you know, how we look in the natural and you go, how in the world can I afford this? And yet God has already made her way in that kind of go, oh, that’s so good.
[00:04:29] He saw that movie before he even really started to panic about the.
[00:04:33] Yes. And I won’t tell you another story.
[00:04:36] So my programmer years back, he’s since gone off and start his own business. But he he and his wife moved into this house and it was a rental house initially. And then they wanted to buy it, but they needed thirty five hundred dollars for a downpayment. And they did not have thirty five hundred. So in the natural, there is no way we can buy this house. And then they go to church one day. And this is the most amazing thing. A couple walks up to him. No one knew about this house and said the Lord put it on our heart that he wants us to give you this money. And it was a check for thirty five hundred dollars. Exactly what is needed further down now?
[00:05:20] Yeah. And this is what’s so cool about the Lord is we can’t keep our eyes focused on the natural because the natural is ruled by the supernatural. What happens in the natural is real by God’s truth of who he is. And all the goodness that he has and all the promises that he makes are not going to be seen in the natural until he chooses to manifest it. And so when we look in the natural and say, this must be my reality, that’s not true, because God’s truth trumps reality all the time. And if we want to walk by faith and live by faith, we have to believe in faith, which is to believe his word first before we believe our eyes.
[00:06:01] And there’s a passage. Second Corinthians 5 7 says we walk by faith, not by sight. And I think this is really kind of what it means is we can’t live our lives based on what we see and believe that to be truth. What we see is true because it’s our reality, but it’s not fixed. Truth is fixed. Jesus says I think, what is it? I think we call it the high priestly prayer. John, 17, Jesus is praying to the father on behalf of the apostles. And I guess all of disciples of his. And he says to the Lord, you know, your word is truth and truth is fixed.
[00:06:42] And that’s why we can step out by faith. You know, if we go back to Hebrews, see love in one. Okay. We’re gonna test your Bible knowledge real quick. Any other way for those listening to us? This is pennies, if you’ve figured out first. Radical faith call and speed. She doesn’t know quite how much I push back on her. So do you recall he briefly loving one by chance, is talking about faith?
[00:07:09] I believe that that talks about faith being the reality of what we hope for is the thing that we cannot see.
[00:07:18] Bingo. It is the reality of what we hope for now. In the biblical terms, hope is different than what we express as hope. You and I, in the natural, we say I hope it doesn’t rain. Okay. And what that means is our desire is that it doesn’t rain, but we really don’t know what’s going to happen. Does that make sense?
[00:07:41] Whoa, whoa.
[00:07:43] In the biblical term analogy, hope is when God is given a promise. And now we look forward expectantly toward it as a truth yet to be manifest. So if God said it’s not going to rain today, then we say, you know, my hope is that it does not rain. But it’s not going to rain because that’s a biblical. How does that make sense, manmade kind of can confuse that a little bit warmer than that. OK, so so faith is the reality of what we hope for. It is the reality of what’s actually going to happen. And as the evidence of things that we have not seen. And so this whole idea of faith is, is we root our root our eyes in God’s word, which is truth. And it overcomes everything going on that is conflict with what we see. Now, I want to give you just a couple examples scripturally on this. Do you by chance have your Bible handy? I do.
[00:08:46] Great. Let’s look up Exodus 34 21. Just a short verse as you bring this up. I’ll give people kind of background so access. This passage in Exodus is part of the what we’ll call the Mosaic Law. And. And in this particular section is another law called God’s Ten Commandments. OK, now we’re no longer under law, but under grace. But that doesn’t mean that the Ten Commandments are not the law we’re under. OK. Those are spiritual laws that always rule. And and this is one of the laws. And I want to talk about it just a little bit. So Exodus 34 21.
[00:09:30] And read it when you’re ready.
[00:09:33] I think, though, it will for your ordinary work, but then you must stop working even during the season of the plowing and harvest.
[00:09:42] All right. So let’s talk about the significance of this. So plowing harvest, when you start to plow, there’s only a limited time available in between range and between a few things. We can get all of your plowing done. This is your entire livelihood. You have a small window of time before rains start coming again and you can no longer plow. Harvest time is the same thing. There’s only a short period of time when you can harvest, when all the fruit is ripe to be harvested and you have to harvest quickly before the rains come again and cause it to mildew in moulding and cause it to right. So harvest time in plowing time or the two times that everything is put aside. This is the time you do your work. Does that make sense?
[00:10:34] Yeah. So here is the problem. God’s word says you work six days. And you rest the seventh even during plowing time and harvest time. So in the natural. It makes no sense. This is the time I’ve got this. In today’s world, I’ve got this huge sales presentation due on Monday morning and I’ve got to prepare for it on Sunday. Right. Because I’ve got to make this thing happen. Is that what God’s word says? Seeing the natural reality says, I’ve got to prepare for it because the God’s truth says, honor me first. And this is where I’m talking about there’s always this conflict between sight and faith.
[00:11:24] There’s always this conflict between what God’s word says that we should do and what our logic tells us that we should be doing as well. Want to share another example is actually a personal example from years back. So back in I think is about I think it was November 2001. Set the stage for you real quickly. Or just before November, we’re moving through a period of time. It was a tough time in our business and I’m going without a paycheck. During this time, we brought on an account or trying to bring on an account is consuming a lot of resources to get set up.
[00:12:05] We we empty all of our bank accounts to keep things going. We start drawing on our lines of credit and we drawn everything on our line of credit. We actually we are now at a point of crying wolf, not crying wolf, but crying help because we have no more resources and I’ve got no paycheck. I have three months left, OK, in savings. And at that point, there is just absolutely nothing more to live on. And the business is consuming every bit of cash and more than we have.
[00:12:38] And I’m not. I’m preparing on a Wednesday night to give my stewardship testimony at church the next Sunday, and I’m going to talk about how, you know, you live by faith, how you give. I say, thank God, always meet your needs. Okay, so here’s the scenario. I have three months left where we’re maxed out on all of our lines of credit. And I’m about to tell people that you cannot out give guys ability to take care of you. And and in this slow process, I’m working on some kind of roleplaying, what I might say on Sunday morning and part of process is sometimes, you know, I always say some will come up to me, say, hey, Beatty, I just lost my job, my car broke down and my water heater busted. What do I do? My standard response at that time was always, well, increase your giving because God’s word says we’ll talk about this in the next couple of sessions. God’s word says you cannot out give guys ability to take care of you. And so when I was going through this role play, Penny, the Lord spoke to my heart and said, do you really believe what you’re about to tell these people?
[00:13:48] And have you ever had these conversations with the ward where he talks and you talk him back and forth? Have you read it?
[00:13:54] Yeah. OK.
[00:13:56] So I’m doing that and say, well, yeah, I really do.
[00:13:58] And then Laura said, Well, then why don’t you increase your giving then? I said, well, hold on. Because at that time we’re giving a lot of money. I won’t say the amount, but it’s like someone’s paycheck each month and we’re giving a lot of money because we have these commitments out there and I’ve got three months of savings remaining for our family expense wise.
[00:14:21] As a bit lower, I’m are giving all that I got and more. What do you want? He said, do you really believe what you’re about to tell those people? I said, Yes, I do. So well, then why don’t you increase your giving? I said, OK. Make sure it’s you talking and not me. Right. We’re gonna do a little test. I said, Here’s what I’ll do, Lord. No one has asked me for any money in months. Normally they’re calling me all the time because they know I give a lot. And I know once they ask me for any money in months. So here’s what I’m willing to do. I’ve got three months of savings left tomorrow. If you want me to give, then you have someone or multiple people call me and I’ll give. I’ll give. I’ll meet their need. Entirely up to everything I have in savings.
[00:15:11] And and so I kind of got excited, I’m thinking I’m going to go into work tomorrow on Thursday and someone’s going to ask me for a lot of money and I’m going to empty out my savings account and trust entirely on the Lord. Does that sound exciting?
[00:15:26] Mm hmm. So, um. So I got to work. And there was a voicemail.
[00:15:33] A guy named gushed. The name totally slips in.
[00:15:38] But he’s a guy at our church who manages relationships and things of that sort with different organizations. Chuck Morgan. And. And now I got this voicemail. Lady, this is Chuck over the church. I’ve got an organizer and this is how he started. Sorry, hymns and haws. There is an organization that’s looking for some money. Need some help? I don’t know if you can help a little bit or lot or just whatever the law may put on your heart. I’m going. OK, Chuck. Okay. How much do you need? I’m ready. How much do you need? And he said and they need three hundred and seventy five dollars. I laughed. I picked up the phone. I called and said, Chuck, you got your three seventy five. What do you want me to send it? I stroke a check for three hundred seventy five dollars then. And then I I was excited all day. OK, Lord, send me the next one. Finally. The next one. And guess what happened?
[00:16:28] Nothing came.
[00:16:30] Nothing. Exactly. So then I went home. I’m thinking, OK, they’re gonna call me at home. And guess what happened at home? Nobody called. Nobody called at ten or ten thirty at night. I’m going back before the launch. I thought of what happened. I was ready to give it all. Why did you make it so easy on me?
[00:16:49] Does that sound like a fun way to be?
[00:16:52] Hmm. And then the first vision I’ve ever had, I get this low vision, just a fleeting moment of a ram’s horn caught in a second. And as a laudable frequently do with the vision, as I’m kind of learning, is he gives you the entire meaning of that vision all instantly at the same time.
[00:17:10] And the meaning was, I made it easy on Abraham to talk about the sacrifice of Isaac. And and that’s.
[00:17:21] And that taught me a lot. Okay. But this is what I’m talking about. It’s it’s been willing to step out firmly on God’s word, even when it makes no sense. And this is what that passage in Exodus talking about. You know, during plowing time, in harvest time, the most important critical time for you to labor and labor from crack of dawn until dark.
[00:17:45] All day long, because this is your entire family’s livelihood. God says. You shall rest on the seventh day. It makes no sense in the natural, but in the supernatural, in the spiritual. It doesn’t have to make sense because God’s truth trumps everything. Was this kind of making sense?
[00:18:07] Yeah.
[00:18:09] So then we we ask the question, why is there is this conflict? Why is there always a conflict between what we see by sight in the natural? And what we see they face. In the spiritual. But our eyes are telling us what is true versus what God’s word is telling us what is true. Why is there always this conflict? The simple answer is because that’s what faith is. Is the conviction of things not seen? We got to walk by faith, not by sight. And and it gives us an opportunity to truly prove whether we trust the Lord’s word over.
[00:18:57] What our eyes tell us is true. So do we trust man? Or do we trust God? Do we trust fight or do we trust God’s word? Which one is unsure, unshakable, immovable? And which one is nothing but sand and stubble? So on, so kind of the bottom line with all this is if you’re scared. But God’s word tells you to do, and it doesn’t make sense. And it seems like you’re going to fall apart. You’re going to be clobbered. You’re going to lose it all. Whatever the issue. Then that’s OK, because that’s the way it is.
[00:19:36] That’s the conflict between faith. And the natural. Any thoughts on that?
[00:19:45] Actually, yes. I mean, this is just all so good. I’m enjoying this a lot. And I was actually reminded so much of this story in the book of the first came after 17. And that’s where Alija is going to the woman and telling her about the flower and the oil. And she says, well, basically, I don’t have enough left. And he he gives her command from the Lord. And he says, if you will do this, if you’ll just make this one little make a meal for myself and you and your son, then the Lord will always make sure that you have enough flour and oil left. You’ll never run out. So she obeyed that word. And because she did, there was always enough flour and oil left in her containers. And so I’m just reminded of the fact that in the natural it didn’t make sense. It didn’t make sense for her to use all that she had left to prepare for somebody else and for herself and her son.
[00:20:44] But when she obeyed, when she stepped out in faith and said, OK, I’m going to do it, then God came through on his promises. And I just think so much of what you said, Beatty, about seeing things in the natural. If we if we see things in the natural, then that’s really putting the focus on ourselves and our own effort. It’s easy to see with our own eyes, but it takes faith to trust the Lord for the things that we can’t see.
[00:21:12] It does. We’re going to talk on another session about faith and belief and kind of the mechanics and mechanics may be the wrong thing, but to really get a clearer, more accurate picture on that. But let me share one other thing that also comes out with that story. So just to give people the background check for those who may not be as familiar, there’s a king of Israel named Ahab. He’s at the time the most wicked king Israel has ever had. Alija is his nemesis because Elijah is God coming to the wicked man. Tell him he’s always wrong. And so Alija calls for a drought. It says the righteous, the prayer of a righteous man accomplishes much. And Elijah called for a drought. There was a drought for three and a half years in Israel. And during this drought, God sent him to Zehra fast to this widow that you’re talking about. And so he goes his airfare. And. And the Lord sustains him and the widow during the drought with that jar of oil and a little flower, low jar flower as well. What’s interesting with this is we see a very similar dynamic as we see in this passage in Exodus. We talked about you shall work six days and on the Psalms, you shall rest. The reason we rest is because it’s an honor to the Lord, because the Lord works six days and rested on the seventh.
[00:22:41] So he’s called us to honor him. That’s what he did. And where to do it? The same throughout all the scripture, Old and New Testament. There is also the overall theme that you give to the Lord first, that you serve the Lord. First, that you give him the first fruits. In fact, even the first born the first born male that opens the window is dedicated and belongs to the Lord. I mean, all of these things. And so when you have a life, you’re talking to the widow. Elijah says, give to me the man of God, i.e. give to the Lord to make a bread cake. For me first and then you can have what’s left over. We’re gonna talk about this. God first and then we keep what’s left over in the next session when we start to talk about financial stewardship. It’s really, really amazing. But every time we see the Lord wants us to honor him first, to put him first, to trust him first. And this is where this concept of living by faith, serving him first, giving in the first of what we do. Giving him the best of what we have. It’s all one and the same in essence, because it’s all focused in the same direction. Does that kind of make sense or did I’m confused?
[00:24:02] No. That made perfect sense. Absolutely. Yeah.
[00:24:06] So it’s really neat. So what I want to do right now is there’s some questions that have been asked over the years as I’ve taught this, and they’re good questions. And because we have some time because as I mentioned, this is a short lesson. So this is where we’re going to do some frequently asked questions. I want to give them questions and then give some thought to those questions, because I think this will help probably clarify a lot of what we’re talking about and maybe answer some questions that have been out there as well. So one of the questions that was asked is apply radical faith to illness or sickness. Sometimes all the faith in the world won’t prevent death.
[00:24:49] Does that question or statement make any sense to you, Penny, and any thoughts about that before I go into kind of my thoughts on it?
[00:24:59] It does make sense to me, and I, too, have been asked that question so many times. Why does God heal some and not heal others? And the best answer that my husband and I have ever come up with. And honestly, we’ve heard that the great Bill Johnson and several others sort of in the same way is that I don’t know.
[00:25:20] I don’t have it. But my my job is just to pray.
[00:25:24] My job is to believe that that’s the nature and character of my good father, is that he is a healer. Yeah, that’s my thought on that.
[00:25:34] Yeah, I think that’s a great answer for me. I won’t give up. I kind of give a high level answer.
[00:25:42] That’s at the big picture of what’s going on. And then I won’t give more of a prepared answer. I prepared for this person who would ask this question. So at the very highest level. Why does not. Why does God not heal? Some people. I had my pastor asked me this question when I first started to pray for people and start to see God heal a lot of them. He asked me because he’s a he is what I would call a secessionist. That gives a feeling those type of things have ceased. He doesn’t he doesn’t believe that God doesn’t heal anymore or miraculously can heal. He just believes that a gift of healing. So and it may be more semantics, but in this conversation I’m talking about, you know, at this very beginning, one third people fully heal, one third partially healed and one third nothing at the time. And he was saying, well, why do you think not everyone was healed? And based on how the conversation was going, I know what he was driving at. And I wasn’t going give him that pleasure. So I. So I simply gave the most accurate answer. I said, because I’m not Jesus. Think about it.
[00:26:54] Oh. Right. Because if Jesus had prayed for those people, they didn’t get him. Do you think they would be healed?
[00:27:02] What are you saying? Yes or no? And here is the question. OK.
[00:27:07] You have the people that I prayed for that were not healed. If Jesus had prayed for those same people, would they have been healed? Absolutely.
[00:27:18] Ok. So what we see real clearly is that the heart of the father is to heal. Jesus never turn anyone away. They came to him for healing. So the question is, when I pray, why are they not healed? We can say, well, must not be God’s will, but yet God’s will was clearly seen in Jesus. So there’s got to be a different answer. And here’s the best answer that I’ve come up with, and this is borne out of some things the Lord has shown me that will again talk about on another session a little bit more deeply, but ultimately speaking. Jesus is God on Earth. Jesus only did what he saw the father doing, which means every miracle that Jesus did, every healing and raising some from the dead.
[00:28:04] They’d already been healed and raised from the dead in the heavenly places. And Jesus merely manifested that well in the earthly places. Does that make sense so far? Okay. So then the question is, what’s different between Jesus and me? Well, yeah. Jesus, this guy. But but Jesus was on earth as a man as well. So he was fully man, fully God. So is it simply because he’s fully God? Yes. That definitely has a lot to do with it. But I think it goes a little bit deeper from an intrinsic understanding. Jesus there is because Jesus was fully surrendered and yielded to the Lord. Then the Lord could do completely, 100 percent the Lord’s will through him, so everything he did, it was as if, you know, Paul talks about.
[00:28:58] I think it’s in Romans that we are a branch, the gentiles are a wild olive branch grafted into the tree. And what he and then is the tree that produces the fruit, not the branch. But what happens is the tree produces the fruit by sending the fruit in and a non fruit form through the branch. And when it comes out the other side, it buds in the fruit. So it’s like that branch is simply a conduit between the tree and where the fruit is going to manifest. Are you following me so far? Well, okay. So, Jesus. Is the exact representation of God has no resistance to God’s will because Jesus, his entire will is God’s will and therefore God is able to bring supernatural from the heavenly realm. Through Jesus, into the earthly realm and completely passed his will through Jesus. In fact, it says that so Jacob’s ladder. There’s something I read in my quiet town this morning that finally made sense. Jacob’s ladder there’s a ladder connecting heaven and earth angels going up and down on it. And John, first, first. John won it. Jesus is telling his disciples that, you know, you will see angels going up and, you know, up and down, ascending and descending on the son of man. What does that mean? I think what it probably means. Okay. Just my opinion right now is that Jesus is connecting the heavenly room with the earthly realm, bringing God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. Right. And so God’s will is for them to be healed. And for them to be raised from the dead. But we. Resist God’s will. And therefore swore like that that if you if we talk about that branch on the tree and if we want to make a very simplistic, not totally theologically accurate, it’s but close enough for for understanding purpose. If we were to take Jesus the man. As a branch grafted onto the tree, then it would be a hollow branch.
[00:31:14] Absolutely no resistance. So that the tree could then produce and push all the fruit out. When we get grafted on, we got a lot of junk in our life that impedes that fruit. That fat from going from the tree all the way through us and more were yielded to the Lord. The more we surrender turned, the more we get the flesh out of the way so that we live by the spirit, then the less resistance we have. Allowing God’s will to flow through us is just kind of making sense.
[00:31:42] It probably does get poorly paid to what you were talking about earlier, which is that the whole faith being in our faith has such a huge part in healing.
[00:31:56] It does.
[00:31:57] So let me kind of not to bring light to me by any means, but as I’ve pursued this further and trying to understand it and as my heart has pursued the heart of the father a lot more, there is a deeper intimacy. What I’ve seen is really interesting. When I first started to pray for healing, we’ll probably have a whole session sex session on Mondays. As you know, I prayed for healing, but one third would get fully healed, meaning all the symptoms that they experience, pain or sickness or tightness would be completely really. That’s my definition of healing. OK. For this very simplistic purpose. One third for one third partial. One third nothing. Today when I go out, it’s like 80 percent or 90 percent full and only the remaining percent partial. What happened?
[00:32:49] Ok, it can’t be that God’s will has changed because he’s the same yesterday, today and forever. So it’s gotta be something within me and within me is have I matured more in faith, renew my mind, more of the Lord renewing my mind? Have I gotten more my flesh out of the way? You know, there’s a lot these things going on. So anyway, that’s kind of the big picture. Now, let me tie it back into some scriptural stuff, because I think this is pretty interesting. Back to the original question. Apply radical faith to illness or sickness. Sometimes all the faith in the world won’t prevent death. My answer, the prepared answer is wrong. All it takes is a little faith to prevent death. But this is what we’re talking about. Faith. You got it. You’ve got to be there, okay? You’ve got to allow God’s will to flow through you because faith is not an action. It’s a being. Faith is a substance, it’s not. It’s not your thinking. This is where we’re going to talk on a little bit late on another session. But I want to show you some passages with Paul and just kind of show you great men of faith.
[00:34:03] And what happened with Paul, so let’s pull your Bible out real quickly and Act 20.
[00:34:10] Versus nine through 12 x 20 versus nine through twelve. Can you read those for us?
[00:34:16] Mm hmm. 1912. OK. As Paul spoke on and on.
[00:34:22] A young man named I Can’t Even Pronounce You is sitting on the windowsill, became very drowsy. Finally, he fell sound asleep and dropped the rape story to death below.
[00:34:39] Paul went down, bent over him, took him into his arms. Don’t worry, he said. He’s alive. Then they all went back upstairs, shared in the Lord’s Supper and eat together. Paul continued talking to them until dawn, and then he left. Meanwhile, the young man was taken home, alive and well, and everyone was greatly relieved.
[00:35:03] So. Wow. Yeah.
[00:35:05] Well, simple statement, Paul. By faith. Raise the debt. Would you agree with that? Absolutely. All right. Now, let’s look a little bit later. Act 28 versus 89.
[00:35:19] X 28 versus 89.
[00:35:33] And that rain. As it happened. Probably his father was ill with fever and dysentery, all went in and prayed for him and laying his hands on him. She healed him. Then all the other sick people on the island came and were healed as well.
[00:35:55] So Paul by faith heals all of the sick that came. Would you agree with that?
[00:36:02] Well, okay. Now let’s turn to Philippians. This is Philippians 2.
[00:36:10] Versus 25 through 27.
[00:36:19] All right. Three twenty five and twenty seven, meanwhile, I thought I should send you a for dieters. Back to you. He is a true brother, co-worker and a fellow soldier, and he was your messenger to help me in my time of need. I’m sending him because he has been longing to see you. And he was very distressed that you heard he was ill through 27 boxes. And he certainly was ill. In fact, he almost died. But God have mercy on him. And also on me so that I would not have one sorrow after another.
[00:36:57] All right, Paul had no faith to heal his friend. Would you agree with that statement? Well, for now, we start to see a question. Why could Paul raise the dead, heal all the sick on this island, but he couldn’t even heal his own friend, whom he loved dearly. Something’s going on here. Let’s look at one other second, Timothy for 20, second Timothy 4, verse 20.
[00:37:33] Ok. Rested, stayed at Corinth and I left Trofimov sick at militant.
[00:37:41] Yeah. Why do you think Paul would leave his friend sick? If it could heal people.
[00:37:49] The first word that came to my spirit was distraction. So perhaps he was distracted on another goal. He was sidetracked. He was thinking about something else and he he had not. Being with a father did not spend that time with the father. Like he said, had the first thing that popped in my mind, and that might actually be it.
[00:38:11] My answer is a little bit simpler. I don’t know.
[00:38:17] I don’t know.
[00:38:19] What I do know is if Jesus was there, Jesus would have healed him. Paul, being purely a man born of sin with a seed of sin as opposed to see that is sin less as Jesus was born then.
[00:38:33] There’s something there that prevents God’s will. From always occurring. And so anyway, I don’t know the answer to it. All I know is. I’m not Jesus. And that’s why not everyone is always healed.
[00:38:52] That’s a good answer. Yeah.
[00:38:54] So another question that was asked, how do you draw the line between faith and presumption?
[00:39:01] And that’s a good question.
[00:39:06] So. And you weren’t here on the previous topics on this, but we’re talking about Ramus and God’s kind of spoken word to. So faith is acting on God’s clearly defined will as he has directed you. Okay. That’s the bottom line presumption is acting on what you hope God’s will is not hope in the biblical sense, but hope in the natural sense. So real simple story. Kind of a tragic ending. There were some teenagers this is over in South Korea and at the church they go to. They talked a lot about faith and stepping out and walking by faith. And these teenagers were going to a rural area to share the gospel. And they came to this raging river and they’re like three, 3, four girls and two, three, four guys, and the girls were saying, look, this is God’s will. And we have faith. We have faith that we can walk across this raging river. Just as the Israelites walked across the raging Jordan during flood season when they came across to Jericho to conquer the promised land. And so we’re going to step out by faith. And go into the river and God’s going to protect us. And guess what happened?
[00:40:34] They got hurt.
[00:40:35] They found the bodies three days later downstream. Wow.
[00:40:40] Yeah. And so that’s presumption. Had God told them, specifically made it really clear. I want you to step out into this river and I will stop it. Then that stepping out by faith but simply trying to connect dots and acting in the natural. That’s presumption. And so that kind of leads me into the next question that was asked. You say guy told me. Sometimes you get different answers. Have you ever had that happen with you any more?
[00:41:12] Yeah. Yeah.
[00:41:15] Okay. So here’s a here’s what I like to suggest.
[00:41:17] You never have gotten different answers from God.
[00:41:22] You’ve only gotten different answers that you heard, but God’s answer is always gonna be the same because we know that God is never changing. His will is always the same. His truth is always. Fixed his will for you is always fixed in any situation. And the key is that we’re listening to the right voice. And so. So back to this.
[00:41:49] You say, God told me sometimes you get different answers. You only get the different answers when your self gets in the way. And I remember reading a book about George Mueller. Does that name ring a bell? Do you know who George Mueller is?
[00:42:03] Sounds familiar.
[00:42:05] Ok. So he is a real old godly man. Eighteen hundreds to nineteen hundreds. Right. In that timeframe, he was over in Bristol, England. And the Lord led him to start an orphanage at the peak of what he did. They were printing, printing and getting out millions of pamphlets a year. This is like in the late 1980s, 90s, millions of pamphlets a year supporting a couple of hundred missionaries and had an orphanage that housed 20000 children. And he never once asked anyone for any money to support the cause. Everyone was all amazed and and he would also he would have a prayer book and he would write down the prayers that he had and almost every single one of his prayers were answered. And so he became just one of those people, you know, across the Western world. How do you do it? And people would seek him out and he had a very simple formula.
[00:43:18] And how do you know God’s will? In other words, how do you know what God is telling you to do versus not? And the first step, he said. Well, you got to get your will out of the way. You have to get to that point in your heart where you have no will of your own. For example, he had this ministry, 20000 children in the orphanage. And doing a great work. And he felt maybe the Lord was telling him to shut it down. Think about that. You have a ministry. You’re providing the livelihood of 20 thousand children who have no parents. And the Lord telling you to shut it down. That’s a pretty hefty thing. You’ve invested your life for the last 10 or 20 or 30 years in that orphanage. So you just like your Beatty that you’ve grown up and now into a mature adulthood. And the Lord is saying shut it down so you can imagine a lot of emotional tension tied into that decision. Could you would you agree?
[00:44:23] Oh, absolutely. I cannot imagine the weight of that kind of decision. You know, feeling I should say, feeling the weight.
[00:44:31] That’s it. I can’t either. But yet he said, you’ve got to get to that place in your heart where you have no will of your own.
[00:44:40] Kind of what we’re talking about with Jesus totally surrendered, totally yielded no will of his own. He was only doing his father’s will. And so the first step in hearing God is you had to have no will of your own in the matter. And this is the hardest part for most of us, because apart the things that we want to hear the Lord in the most are those things that are most important to us. And as long as they’re most important, we can never be absolutely certain that we are hearing God’s word, God’s will, God speak to us because our will is so wrapped up in it. So I’d say that’s really the kind of the first step, the second step in hearing God’s word and being able to discern his word over someone else’s has to do with the natural. So much of what happens in the natural mirrors, what happens in the spiritual and penny that you guys have children.
[00:45:37] We do. Yeah. We have a 60 or 70 year old and a 13 year old.
[00:45:42] Ok, I want you to go back to the time just before you had any children back then. If you’re in a room full of young moms and they had all their little babies there, you’ve had no babies have your own. Could you easily discern one Beatty’s voice from another or do they all sound the same?
[00:46:02] Prior to my children, they all sounded pretty similar.
[00:46:07] Yeah. So now advanced a year or two. Now you have a Beatty of your own and you’re in a room with all these other children, all the other moms. And then your Beatty cries out. Can you discern your Beatty’s voice clearly among all the other babies?
[00:46:23] Oh, my God. Yeah.
[00:46:25] So what different what’s different, how could you discern your Beatty’s voice so clearly when just previously you can discern one Beatty’s voice against another?
[00:46:35] Because I was with my Beatty all the time, I always spent time. Lived in the same house. I mean, you know, just in the same room together, just always spending time. So is like constant hearing them.
[00:46:53] So that’s how you can this know that you’re hearing God’s voice. When you are intimate, so intimate with the father because you spend so much time. Pursuing him. Involved with him, not just your law. I got my 30 minute day, you know, quiet time in. I read the Bible some I’d prayed a little prayer and I’m off flitting around doing my own sector in the day. I’m telling you about pursuing intimacy in long gated extended periods of time with a father.
[00:47:25] When you become as intimate with the father as you were with yours, with your child. Then at that point, you can easily discern your father’s voice from all the other voices. Does that make sense?
[00:47:37] Well, absolutely. I totally agree.
[00:47:41] So then the simple question and this just be a real short answer as we move on, because I’ve got a couple other questions before time runs out is how do you become intimate with the father? I think, you know, there’s probably four things that. I don’t wanna say these are the first steps to becoming intimate because intimacy is all about the heart, but there are four things that are involved in that process. Number one is you study is word a lot. You just eat it up. You want to know everything he has to say about everything. So you get to know him. Second is you praise, spend time and praise and worship all the time with him in your quiet time, because that’s. What he wants you to do and as you praise and worship is like his spirit comes on and comes home more richly involved in your life. You spend time in prayer. Prayer is not just petitioning him, please do this, please do this. You know, it’s not a checklist. It’s talking to him spending time and then it’s fasting. By the way, I have to tell you this one story two weeks ago, we go out. I’m taking a man that I led to Christ and we’re going on praying for people.
[00:48:55] And I saw more healings and more dramatic healings on that outing in a short period time than I’ve ever seen. As I’m out there praying for people. And I’ve seen broken bones healed. I mean, you know, names are just torn apart because of it. You know, ligaments torn, totally healed. You know, big old dude, 300 pounds almost doing deep knee bends after he walks in with crutches in excruciating pain, all kinds of things. Now it’s asking the Lord why. And just prior to that. Um, about a week prior, I’d spent six days consecutive days in fasting, preparing for a very special event, and the Lord spoke to me and said, is the fasting? I don’t know what it does. All I know is there’s something spiritual about it. Okay. So, uh, those things studying his word, praise and worship, prayer, fasting, are those things that create a real intimacy with the Lord. And you can start to hear his voice much, much clearer. So last couple of questions. I think I’ve got three left on this. How long must I have faith before my trials end? What do you think is the answer to that one? How long will I have faith before my trials in?
[00:50:11] I’m going to answer that question with a statement. The statement is there is no time in the spiritual realm, though, right?
[00:50:22] Oh, I’ll give a little bit more natural answer. Sorry if you’re living a life of faith. Trials will never end because that’s the whole thing about faith is.
[00:50:35] It’s always a trial because it’s always a battle between your flesh versus your spirit, between your eyes naturalize versus your spiritual eyes, between what reality says is true and what God’s word says is truth.
[00:50:51] Trials will never end as you live by faith. Does that make sense?
[00:50:55] Yeah. Jesus even said that, you know, you’re going to face trials of many time.
[00:51:01] Yeah. So last two questions, one is, why is my face so weak? How do I learn to live now by faith? How can I better apply faith in my everyday life? How can I increase my faith? And, uh, my simple answer on this is faith is a muscle. It’s like a muscle. If you don’t exercise it, it doesn’t grow. If you want to increase your faith, you better start stepping out and doing something really bold. By guys clearly defined word and use and boldness, it for me is to find that utter destruction unless God actually shows up and does what he says he’s going to do. You can’t grow your faith living in the comfort zone. You got to be in the battle zone and and be willing to step out like that. So this session we just did last time that you were on when Caroline was here. We talked about Peter getting out of the boat. You know, takes a lot of faith, too. You got raging waters.
[00:52:06] Two and three foot swells. The wind blowing hard. Peter says, Lord, if that’s you, command me to come walk. Jesus, come on, man. And so Peter steps out of the boat.
[00:52:19] That takes some boldness. You can’t do that in the comfort zone. So the only way you’re gonna increase your faith, know strengthen your faith, so to speak. You just gotta get out and do it. And the last thing that question is, how do I determine the balance between faith and planning? And I want to rephrase this question because I think it’s wrong. This question is saying how do I balance obeying God versus obeying my own wisdom? And that’s why this is a wrong question. How do I determine the balance between faith and planning? The better question is how do I balance? Planning and faith, and the simple answer is. You plan on your wisdom. But when God tells you to do something different, you follow God. Okay. Even if it goes against your planning. And I’m doing that right now in our business for some things. I’m going. Are you sure? God. Because it makes no sense and goes up because it makes no sense. But trust me. Okay, God. And that’s it. So that was the lesson for today. Was it a good lesson?
[00:53:32] Oh, great. I really enjoyed that. Let’s get reminders. So much of that, you know, changing your mindset and really focusing your attention on the Lord.
[00:53:48] Yes. Yes, it is.
[00:53:50] So long time to wrap up, so hopefully if you’re enjoying this, please be sure to subscribe. Sorry for the airplane out there and tell others about it. Hope you’re getting a lot out of this and hope you go play it. You’ll have a blessed day. Thanks.
[00:54:10] If you’ve enjoyed this podcast, please tell others about it. And don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. Get more content to help you walk by faith at our Web site and get radical faith dot.com.
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