Overcoming Faith

1 John 5: 4

For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world – our faith.

We are born of God. That makes us world overcomers, does it not? Well, according to the Apostle John it does. The victory which overcomes the world is our faith. Surely John knew what he was writing about. This guy walked with Jesus daily. Additionally, he received great revelations from Jesus after Jesus ascended to heaven. So, if what he says is right, why am I not experiencing this overcoming faith in my life? And as I look around I see that other Christians are struggling with their world overcoming faith too.

Recently I determined to learn more about this overcoming power. I turned to an inspired book, clearly one of the best books I have ever read on faith. The subtitle of the book reads: The key to putting your faith to work for a successful life. That is what we all want isn’t it? We hear so much about faith and living by faith but sometimes preachers might as well be speaking in a foreign tongue for all the good it is doing me. I want to live by faith. I have determined to walk by faith but what do I do when my faith isn’t working.

The title of this life-altering book is The Fourth Dimension by David Yonggi Cho. The first time I heard of it I was handed it by my pastor. I stayed up all night reading it. The very next day things began to break my way. Cho built the largest Christian church in the world and he did it in Korea where Christianity was not widely accepted. None the less, he learned that if he would apply the laws of faith that all things were possible to him. I strongly recommend this book. 

Cho explained that there is a fourth dimension and that this dimension is the realm of the spirit. This is the realm of creative power. Cho teaches how we can operate in this realm. The first chapter of the book is dedicated to teaching us the foundations of faith. There are four cornerstones. First, you must have a clear cut objective. Second, you must have a burning desire for the attainment of that objective. Third, you pray about that objective until you have the full assurance in your heart that it is God’s will for you. It may take some time to gain the full assurance so we must be persistent and patient in prayer. Last, we must learn to speak the word according to that burning desire which is within us and which we have the full assurance of. Once God has assured us that He is in agreement with us then we speak to the mountain and call those things which are not as though they are (Romans 4: 17) until they manifest in the physical realm. God has already given us everything but it is in the spiritual realm (Ephesians 1: 3). So, we only need to appropriate it and bring it into this physical sphere. To do that we use our faith. It doesn’t take a lot of faith, only as much as a mustard seed (Matthew 17: 20). The key is knowing how to apply that faith to our needs or to situations in our lives.

Have a burning desire for a clear cut objective. Pray until you have the full assurance of it in your heart, until you know that you know that it is yours, and then start talking to it. Like speaking to the rock to get water you must speak your desired end as well. Start calling forth water and the rock will have to yield. That is the way faith works.

And buy and read The Fourth Dimension by David Cho.

Talking to Rocks

Numbers 20: 8, 11

Take the rod; and you and your brother Aaron assemble the congregation and speak to the rock before their eyes, that it may yield its water. You shall thus bring forth water for them out of the rock and let the congregation and their beasts drink. Then Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod; and water came for abundantly and the congregation and their beasts drank.

This is undoubtedly one of the hardest lessons for us to learn. Moses sure learned it the hard way. God told him to speak to the rock and the rock would then yield its water. Moses, instead, struck the rock with his rod. It was an act of pure defiance and it cost Moses dearly. Because he disobeyed God, striking the rock instead of speaking to it, Moses was not allowed to go into the land of promise.

I don’t believe Moses was kept out of the Promised Land as some form of punishment. I think God couldn’t use Moses to take the people into the Promised Land. God was teaching His people that you must speak to your mountains if you want them to move. When they finally did enter into the Promised Land behind Joshua they took Jericho with obedience and a shout. God knew what lay ahead and He had a plan to turn over the land to the Israelites. In order to receive their new land the Israelites need to learn obedience, when to speak and when not to speak. There is a deep message here and it has a great deal to do with the words of our mouth. 

Our words are containers for God’s power. However, if we cannot marshal our tongues then He cannot give us His power. When God instructed the people to march around Jericho He also gave them explicit directions about when to keep silent and when to speak. When the appropriate time came they were instructed to shout. Then the walls of Jericho fell at their feet and all they did was march, obey and speak.

Jesus told us to speak to our mountains in the same way that the Israelites spoke to those walls. (Matthew 17: 20, Matthew 21: 21, Mark 11: 23). He learned from his father that the way to get water from a rock or to get a problem to desist was to speak to it. This is the lesson we must learn if we would live the life of success and grace that Jesus meant for us. Jesus did not say that if we would pray to the Father the mountain would get up and jump in the sea. Now I believe most earnestly in prayer but I am also fervent about doing what Jesus said. That means that I must eventually embrace this notion of speaking to the rock and commanding it to give me water, and talking to that mountain and ordering it into the sea.

I do not expect this teaching to be comfortable. It isn’t to me but I understand that this is where a great number of us are missing it with God. He has told us to speak to the rock and we’re running around hitting it with a stick. There is a time to pray. There is a time to seek. There is also, though, a time to speak to that mountain and this we must learn. Whatever that mountain is that is blocking your way, start speaking to it in the name of Jesus. Tell it what the Word says and tell it to move out of the way. It has to obey.