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Fight
the Good Fight of Faith
It’s a Good Fight Because It’s a Fixed Fight!
by Pastor John Hamel
"FIGHT
THE GOOD FIGHT OF FAITH, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also
called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses."
(1Timothy 6:12)
I encourage you to read
our study entitled, “Righteousness. Simple Enough for a
Child to Understand.” It is not possible to "fight the good
fight of faith" unless we understand that we are indeed righteous
because of our acceptance of Jesus.
In
this lesson we will briefly cover some other enemies to the good fight
of faith. Once we get these areas straightened out in our thinking,
we will begin to experience the supernatural results in
prayer that we all desire.
FIRST:
Know that you are a "New Creation"
if you're Born Again.
"Now
we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets
a fresh start, IS CREATED NEW. The old life is gone; a new life burgeons!
Look at it!" (2Corinthians 5:17
Message Bible)
Jesus
does more than forgive our sins when we are saved. He makes us brand
new on the inside, in our spirits.
Had He not done this, we would simply be the forgiven children of Satan and
still on our way to Hell. However, God has both
forgiven our past lives and made us brand new children of God and joint-heirs with Jesus. (Romans
8:17) The Bible says we are now sons of God. (John 1:12)
Our past lives no longer exist and God actually forgets our sins.
(Jeremiah 31:34)
SECOND:
Because we are now "sons" of God (a generic term for "children" that includes both men and women, or "womb-men"), we have the absolute right to use Jesus' Name
and expect results.
"...
Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my
name, he will give it you. Hitherto have ye asked
nothing in my name: ask and ye shall receive that your joy may be full."
(John 16:23-24)
Once
the Born-Again, righteous, newly created son/daughter of God fully realizes
all the power made available to them through Jesus' Name, victory is at
hand. Satan fears that Name above all else.
Jesus
said, "...these signs shall follow them that believe... IN MY NAME
shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues ... they
shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover." (Mark
16:15-20)
These
signs did not follow the Early
Church
only. These signs follow those who believe. Do you
believe? You wouldn't be reading this if you didn't. Therefore,
these signs should be following you today. Evil spirits, sickness,
poverty, hopelessness, etc. must bow the knee when you use Jesus' Name in the same way the
Early
Church
did as recorded in the Bible. The Bible is simply a blueprint for how Believers should be
operating today.
The
Bible says that Jesus is the same today that He was yesterday,
therefore, the results of using His Name are the same today as they were
yesterday. (Hebrews 13:8)
Someone once said to me, "But, Pastor
John, what if I use His Name and it doesn't work?" I
replied, "But what if you use His Name and it does work?"
Use His Name. It will work!
THIRD:
You must TALK exactly the same way you pray.
"For
verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain
(A mountain is symbolic of human obstacles. See Zechariah 4:7 in the
Amplified Bible.), Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and
shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which
he saith shall come to pass; he shall have
whatsoever he saith." (Mark 11:23)
"For
with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth
confession is made unto salvation."
(Romans 10:10) (The word "salvation" in Greek is "soteria" meaning "deliverance for your
spirit, soul, body, circumstances, etc.")
Many
Believers ask the Lord for something such as physical healing or
material prosperity only to walk away from their prayer and talk as if His
Word were no good.
For example, they might pray, "Father, in
Jesus' Name, I claim a manifestation of physical healing for my body.
I thank You for it right now according to First Peter 2:24."
Later when asked how they are feeling, they say, "Oh, not so
good. I think I'm getting worse. It is flu season you
know." Without even realizing it, THEY JUST CANCELLED THEIR
PRAYER. They asked the Lord for a manifestation of healing only to
turn around and speak as if He would not bother to keep His word to
them.
Usually, the individual does not mean to imply that God's Word
is untrue but that is exactly what they are doing.
Sound
like you? If so, simply ask for forgiveness and continue to
stand for your healing. The Father will be faithful and just to
forgive you and to help you to stay on track. (1John 1:9) The Lord
Himself once told a Minister who is a mentor to us and a
great blessing, "My people can have what they say (as long as it's
promised in the Bible). But the problem is My people keep saying what
they have."
If
my prayers were going unanswered, the first place I would look would be in
the area of unforgiveness.
Have I forgiven everyone for everything?
Then I would check to make
sure I was strongly grounded in the revelation of righteousness.
After that I would
start listening to the way I was talking about the things for
which I had prayed. After all, according to Jesus, the best way
to tell whether you're in faith or not is to listen to the way you are talking.
FOURTH:
Believers must ACT like they believe.
"Isn't
it obvious that God-TALK without God-ACTS is outrageous nonsense?" (James 2:17,
The Message Bible)
"The
very moment you separate body and spirit, you end up with a corpse.
Separate faith (words) and works (acts) and you get the same
thing: a corpse." (James 2:26
Message Bible)
Believers who do not act
out what they believe end up needing their faith resurrected from the dead. In
the same way that we act like the promise of salvation is true, we must act like the Gospel of healing,
prosperity, etc. is true. WE MUST ACT LIKE EVERY
PROMISE OF GOD IS TRUE.
For
example, if I were sick in my body, the first thing I would not do
would be to lay my bed out and get ready to be down for a few weeks.
I would take 1 Peter 2:24 and begin to quote it to myself, to the
Lord, to the angels and to Satan himself, "Who
His own self bore my sins in His body on the cross, that I being dead to
sin might live unto righteousness and by His stripes I receive healing
right now, in Jesus' Name."
I
would then purposely remind the devil that sickness has no place in my
body, commanding the curse of sickness to be reversed and removed according
to John 14:13, in Jesus' Name. I would remind him that I am not the
sick trying to get healed. Rather, I am the healed and he's trying to make me sick and I'm not going to tolerate
it.
Then I would ask the Holy Spirit to show me what else I could be doing to more
accurately ACT upon the precious Holy written Word of God.
(Proverbs 4:7)
This is when the supernatural begins to occur.
Now,
if this is a brand-new revelation to you and you feel you should see a
doctor or use medication that is perfectly fine. Doctors and medication are not of the devil, they
are of God.
However, as a child of God you must still
apply these faith principles in order to grow in faith to where you are no
longer completely dependent upon doctors and medication.
I
am also assuming that you realize "Preachers" who say,
"Sickness comes from God to teach you something and healing is a
manifestation of Satan" are wrong. If sickness comes from God
and healing comes from Satan that means Satan is more merciful than
God. Yikes!
Certainly
no one in his or her right mind really believes that way. GOD IS LOVE. (1John 4:8) Love
heals. Wouldn't you heal your sick child if you had the power to do so? Of course you would!
So,
if you want to "Fight the Good Fight of Faith" effectively
…
FIRST,
you must realize that you are a brand new spirit being who never existed
before.
SECOND,
you must realize that you have an absolute right to use the Name of Jesus
and expect results.
THIRD,
always remember that you simply cannot pray one way and talk another.
Contradicting your prayers cancels your prayers.
FOURTH,
it is absolutely crucial that your actions correspond with what you are believing. Simply act like what God has
promised you is true. Ask the Holy Spirit to show you how to do
this. It takes faith to do so and without faith it's impossible
to please God. (Hebrews 11:6)
You
may be a baby Christian when it comes to fighting the good fight of
faith. Not to worry. It's not you doing the slugging.
It's Jesus in you.
"Greater
is He who is in you than he who is in the world."
(1 John 4:4)
Take these
four steps and apply them by faith and you'll drop Satan to the
mat, crying like the big baby he is. You'll be fighting the good
fight of faith.
It's
called a good fight because it's a fixed fight. It's fixed in that
God guarantees you'll win if you'll faithfully apply His Word to your
situation. Put some pressure on His Word in your life. The
Word can take it. Satan can’t.
Fight
the good fight of faith. Come out swinging with the Word of God
coming out of your mouth. Satan will be seeing stars and you'll be
seeing your victory.
You'll
end up shouting, "I DID IT. I ACTUALLY DID IT! I
FOUGHT THE GOOD FIGHT AND I WON! THANK YOU, JESUS!"
Be Blessed ... John & Barbara Hamel
How
to Be Born Again (Receive Christ as Your Savior)
How
to Receive The Holy Spirit & Power
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