Standing in Faith

Standing in faith What kind of life does one live in faith? What does it mean to stand in faith? How do we know that we are standing in faith? Standing in means to get up and be in a position to walk. In my case, I am unable to walk. I am unable to stand. The world describes me as having a sickness. They would call me a cripple. When I go out I am seen as a cripple because I am unable to walk. In your spiritual life, you may think that you are standing and walking around, but your spirits are crippled. You may think that you are well and doing the things of God, but I want us to really take a look within ourselves to see if we are really allowing the will of God to manifest in our lives. Examine yourselves. Are you crippled like I am or are you standing? Raise your hand if you think you are standing in faith? Are you really standing in faith? You may see someone and call them cripple because of their body, but have you looked within yourself to see that you are crippled, lame, and foolish in your spirits? You do not. There are many Christians but many of them are crippled. Yet they are so proud. They memorize scripture. They speak well, and explain the Word to others. But are they really living the life, standing in faith, so that others will see and take notice and believe? Does anyone see you and want to be a believer? No they don’t, but yet we are so proud. We take what little we know and boast about being a Christian to the people around us, but behind our backs we are being ridiculed. “That person is a believer? I will never believe in Jesus because of them.” We don’t think that we are these people, but instead we shout loudly to them that they will go to hell if they don’t believe in Jesus, but the real problem is that we am in danger of going to hell. You have been reminded of this time and again but you do not wrestle with it nor are you upset by it. A true Christian is one who is standing in faith, one who is free to walk, and shares the fragrance of Christ, to give glory to God. His life is one that others will see and believe that there is a God. This is the life of a Christian. Is this happening in your life? Just because you have learned a little bit, that you have changed a little bit, you look at others and hate the sight of them. Do you think that Jesus loved the sight of you that He died for you? Why are you so proud? What makes you so proud? The Bible teaches us to beware that we may fall when we think that we are on the right path. We are to truly stand in faith, but when the Bible teaches us to beware it is speaking of our pride. Rather than stand firm, we use this teaching as a excuse so that we won’t fail. We prefer to be crippled. We would rather crawl than walk. We prefer to lie down. You have misunderstood the scripture. We must stand completely in faith. To walk boldly in our faith means that our flesh must be killed. We must be crucified on the cross and become humble. We try to stand but fall. Are you truly standing and walking in faith? When we stand in faith and know the will of God we are humbled, become servants, and love our neighbors. But we have a hard time loving our own families. When something displeases us we get angry. We hate. How many murders do we commit each day? Forget everyone else, within your own families how many murders are you committing? If you husband upsets you, you hate him. When you are unhappy with your wife or children and you hate them. You are murdering them. But still we say that we are Christians. We cover ourselves up and make ourselves presentable to the world. Where is the fragrance of Christ? We don’t even need to talk about your neighbors. Am I living my life to give God glory and to lift Him up? We must think deeply about this matter. We are told over and again that the end is near. God is patiently waiting that one more soul will be saved. I am supposed to be a witness to others and bring them into the arms of our Father, and to do so I must die to myself, be humble, and live to glorify God. I must do this by surrendering my pride, greed, stubbornness and my way of thinking. Are you surrendering to God? We know that we are to be satisfied in Jesus Christ alone. But there is no personal connection with us. We think pastors are to be. The elders of the church are to be. You say that you are just a member of the church. You do not get into heaven by the position you hold in church. This is just what they do. Faith of a church member, elder or pastor is all the same. I must keep the faith and do so properly. As a pastor, if I cause you to stumble, then I will be punished for doing so. If you judge, you too will be punished. If I am wrong, I can tell you to not do what I do and do what you know is right because you will be punished for your own actions. Will you live the right life? We must all do our very best to make sure that no one stumbles because of us and receive punishment for our behaviors. We look at pastors and say this, but we fail to see and apply this in our own lives as we cause others around us to stumble and cause them to go to hell. How are you behaving in your own lives? Are there more people who are stumbling because of me or going to heaven because of me? Am I saving the souls of people or am I sending them to hell? What do you think? If I am a Christian, if I am a believer, then I am to be an example to them. If they do not believe, and if they do wrong, I must show them right. If they do not know God then I must show them the way to God. If they do evil, then I must show them good and bring them to God. What about our youth? They take pleasure in the evil and go and participate with them. They are so consumed by the music of this world that they go crazy so that they may listen to it. They are willing to spend day and night learning the new dances. How much time have you put into praising God and getting to know Him? Do you spend time in prayer and tears trying to bring your friend who is a nonbeliever to Christ? How much time do you spend in prayer for the souls of those that you meet at work so that they may be saved? Do you pray for the souls of the people that you work with it, or do you despise the ones you hate and treat the ones that you like more favorably? What kind of faith are you living with in your life? What kind of faith gives glory to God? God has turned our church and now we are being led to a different path. You think that because we have done a church fast, that God will now bless us. Blessing? How many of you have prayed for blessings and received it? From the world view you are going to fail. You will truly fail. You must get rid of everything and that is the path of failure. When you pray for blessings you start off by receiving training so that God dwells with you. I saw a missionary give a testimony about the blessings of God. She says to be one with God means that you surrender all that you have to Him. She says that too many people give testimonies about the blessings of God and only focus on that part, but that is only a small part. They are not mentioning that part where they have surrendered everything and then speak only the part of the restoration which is the blessing. They are not speaking about how they had to humble themselves, in prayer and repentance and all the difficulties that they had endured. This is why many people are still focused on the prosperity gospel. You will first fail. But we refuse to let go of the things that we are holding onto. We can’t let go of our children. We can’t let go of our wife. We think God will take her away. Is it because we don’t know? We know. We refuse to let go of our husbands. We think that God will take them and throw them away. Do not be mistaken, but know that they will be taken away from you. They will be taken away from you, you must surrender them. Then will God’s blessing be upon you. We do not see this. You seem to be standing but you are not. I am disabled and cannot move without this wheelchair, but I tell my husband how grateful I am for this because without it I would be confined to my bed and unable to go anywhere. All of you may seem to walk around and be well, but when you look at your spirit you are crippled, fallen and dead. But you think that you are such great believers. You think you know everything. If you really knew God you could not live this way. You cannot keep living this way. You cannot be this stubborn until the end. You cannot be proud. God is not trying to steal from us. When we give up what we are holding onto, He is wanting to put there something better. But we are foolish and unable to receive any of the blessings that God has for us. The greater problem is that you are not aware that this is how you are I think of myself as having discomfort. Being unable to move. . Thinking that you are healthy is a problem. When I pray for people, and tell them that they have a physical problem somewhere they say that they do not. They do not know. Then they will call later and blame me for the pain they have now become aware of. They live without even knowing that their physical bodies are sick. The are mistaken and believe that they are healthy. They will only know that they are sick when they collapse and are taken to the hospital. They are foolish. When I meet these people I tell them that even though I may seem like someone who is sick, they are the ones who are truly sick. My body has discomfort and disability, but they are sick in spirit. It is difficult. But when I think that my spirit is awake I feel alive and well. If I were to be physically healthy and spiritually healthy then that would be great. But if your spirit is in my physical condition then you have a serious problem. Physically I am disabled and sit here, but if I go to heaven I will have a new body where I will fly. If my spirit were disabled and unable to get into heaven there would be nothing more pitiful. If I were physically disabled and spiritually disabled that would be truly pitiful. The best is to be physically and spiritually well. The second best would be to be spiritually well even though you are not physically well. What about those who are physically and spiritually not well? What path do you wish to choose? Do you want to follow the world? Your friends? The world you desire is nothing new. When God told me to listen and see the things of the world, I noticed that it was all the same. The lyrics are all the same, the dances are all the same, they may have changed some things but it was all the same. When God moves you to dance it a a beautiful dance and when God moves you to sing the songs are truly beautiful. You are unaware of this joy and that is why you seek after the things of this world. That is the path of destruction. When I first listened to the music of this world my head hurt and I could not sleep. But why do the youth enjoy it so much? Because they are seeking to be satisfied. They have no idea what they are singing or what the lyrics mean, but because they feel good they get lost in it. That music is being used by the devil to kill your soul. Much of the music today contain lyrics that clearly praise the devil. Much of Korea’s music for the youth today clearly state that they worship and serve the devil. I ask my husband if they really understand the words that they are singing? If they really understood what they were saying could they sing those songs? Are we living the life of faith? We come to church on Sundays and may do so here but what about during the week where you spend most of your time? Are you living in God? Where does you stand in your faith? We think we have faith but we do not. We think we are standing firm. We think we are going so well in our faith. We are living in a lie. Parents have no idea what their children are thinking. You think that being good to your children is giving them an allowance, or telling them that they are good, even when they are wrong you tell them they are doing good. You have no idea how to correct the wrong that the children are doing. You treat your children according to how you feel. If you are feeling bad you scold your children. If you are feeling good and if your children are misbehaving you have no idea how to discipline them. You have no idea if how your children are behaving well or not. Parents have no clue about the thoughts that their children are having. But children tell their parents to trust them. We have to trust them. But there are things that we can trust them with and things that we cannot. Parents at times do not know, or may have to act as if they do not know what their children do. But this does not show the child how to live the right life of faith. This is just living without proper faith. To live in Jesus, if the parent really believes in Jesus, they must communicate with their children to be one. We lack this communication. Parents refuse to listen to their children when they are tired. They snap at them. We tell them to go figure it out on their own. We think by giving them an allowance that we are doing good to them. Or when we try and talk to them all we really do is speak what we want to say. What does your life have anything to do with your children? If you are teaching the same mistakes in your life to them then you are wrong. You should be teaching them the mistakes you have made and teaching them not to do it. But we tell them that because we suffered we tell them to suffer the same. Are you blessing your children? You are not. If you really want to advise them and guide them, we must do so with the Word. Do it with faith. In prayer. We are to communicate with our children in God. But when we speak amongst ourselves in the family is God present in our speech? Is He there? It may seem as though God is there in the beginning but soon when your emotions get involved, you dislike something, you get angry and then God is no longer present in the things you say. Then it is simply speaking to each other without God. If you are angry who is there with you? The devil is there and that is why you get angrier and your emotions get more hurt and then later you are no longer with God. You are with the devil. Do not be deceived. The devil cannot give you eternal life. The devil cannot give you joy. He cannot give you peace. He can give you nothing. God alone can give you everything. Do not forget this. The things of this world can be given to you by the devil. But not for eternity. He will give you the things to manipulate you for a time being and then take it away. When God gives you something He will not steal it from you. You are deceived in thinking that God will steal from you while the devil will give you everything you desire. Do not sit in the seat of fools. If you are truly standing in faith then you must not be food for the devil. You must walk with God. The life of being one with our Lord Jesus. To be one with God my Father, and with Jesus my groom. I must listen to and be led by the Spirit who has allowed me to know God and guided me to this day. Then will I be able to stand in faith. You must decide which path you will take. God has given us free will to choose. You ask then why won’t He just make me do it? If God did then the Word of God would be a lie. God will never force us to do what He desires. The choice must be made by you. No one can do it for you, you must do it. If your neighbor goes down the wrong path you must go down the right path. Spouses are to be one but rather than go the right path you end up going down the wrong path. You think it is easier. Because doing what you want is easier. But when you stand firm in the faith, then you can lead your spouse into that life of faith. When you concede to your spouse thinking that will get them to follow you, it will not be so. You will continue to concede until you are completely fallen to the devil. You will get to the point where you will give up. When there is a disagreement in the home, use the Word to find the solution and correct the problem. The one who is right must lead the way and the one who does not know must follow. You do not lead because you are the husband or because you are the wife. It is not so in the faith. But the Bible is clear. The husband in the leader of the home. Do not be the husband who misuses this scripture to do as they please. You will only end up killing yourself, your spouse and your children. If the husband is not standing in the faith and your wife is, then follow your wife. This is how you help each other. Then the wife, the women, must stand right in the faith. Then you can lead the family in the right way. If the wife does not stand in faith, nor the husband stand in faith then the children will be broken. Then how will we be embraced by the arms of the Father? Do you think that God will welcome you? You will not. You will not get to the heaven you desire. You must really practice the things of heaven within your family. You must practice heaven to go to heaven. If you practice hell you will go to hell. How will you get to heaven when your family argues and fights all the time? If you are joyful in the Lord and dwell in Him then you will get into heaven. Do not think it too difficult to get into heaven. This is all a trap by the devil. If you live by the Word you will go to heaven. You may be worried that you will live by the Word and not go, but if you live by the Word you will go to heaven. The Bible is clear that if you obey the Word and live by it, then you will eat and drink with Him for eternity. The path is easy, but I must first repent. Today, stand in your faith and give God glory. Be one with Him and worship and praise Him. This is our end. Do not forget this. Sermon by Pastor Joy Lee Translation by Miguel Park