The Stages of Faith - Part 1

Dr. Charles Stanley: Great faith is entrenched in the word of God. Great faith meditates upon the word of God. Great faith is trusting in the promises of God. Great faith is trusting in the nature of God. Great faith is trusting in the character of God. Great faith is God focused, father focused. Great faith desires to understand the ways of God. Great faith doesn't just ask with doubts and frustrations and anxieties. Great faith will endure no matter what.
Guest (Male): What are you most afraid of? Fear affects how believers relate to God, pulling us away from him toward anxiety and doubt. Today on In Touch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley, we'll hear that it really is possible to trust God in spite of our fears as we continue our lifelong journey of walking by faith. Let's listen in to Dr. Stanley's message.
Dr. Charles Stanley: It is very clear from scripture that God always honors faith in himself. I didn't say that God always honors faith. I said that God always honors faith in himself. All the way through the scripture, God emphasizes the fact that you're not a place out trust in him to believe who he is and to believe that he will do exactly what he promises to do. Now, the truth is the blessings that I receive from God, the blessing that you receive from him will always be in proportion to listen, in proportion to our faith in him. That does not mean that God will not do some things oftentimes that you not didn't expect, that we did not ask for because he will. That's his grace, his goodness and love and mercy. But so most of the time, I think you and I could say that our blessings to be able to enjoy and to experience the best of God's blessings are going to be in proportion to my faith in him, my trust in him, my expectations of him, my looking to him and believing and longing for and expecting God to do what he promises to do. Therefore, what I certainly want to do is I want to increase in my faith because if the blessings increase in proportion to my faith, I certainly don't want a little bit of faith out here trying to live in this crazy world we have to live in with all the struggles and difficulties and hardships we face. We need faith that makes us strong to be able to face anything and everything and to come out looking as we ought and that is obedient to God and one who has received the best of God's blessings. Well, what I want to talk about in this message is this. I want to give you three stages of faith. All of us, no matter what we ask of God, no matter how big the request is or how small, no matter sometimes how impossible it looks or how free it looks, we are all going to go through these three stages. Now, I want to repeat this. This does not mean that every time you have a request, you say, oh my goodness, I've got to go through three stages of faith. No, that's not true. But sometimes you will start out on stage number one, sometimes stage number two. Once in a while, you'll you'll begin on stage number three. So, I want to begin with this first stage and the first stage of our faith is little faith. Now, I'm going to ask you to give it back to me in a moment. Little faith and I think in terms of little faith as being restless faith. That is there's something going on here. So, I want to describe what little faith is about. And then we'll give illustrations of each one of these. Little faith says I know he can, but I'm not sure he's going to. Little faith is struggling faith. Little faith is focused on the object. Little faith is focused on the obstacle. Little faith is focused on the reasons this may not happen or cannot happen or will not happen. Faith that is little is usually greatly influenced by what it feels, what it sees, what it hears, a past guilt, false guilt. It's understanding of God. It's lack of understanding. That is little faith is greatly influenced, highly influenced by many things that will keep it small and little because the focus is not proper. So, let's give some illustrations now of what little faith is all about and you will notice here that Jesus identifies this as, for example, as little faith. Let's begin with Matthew chapter 8. Matthew chapter 8 is a familiar passage of something that is going on here with the disciples, beginning in verse 23. So, when he got into the boat, his disciples followed him and behold, there arose a great storm in the sea so that the boat listen to this was covered with the waves, but he himself was asleep. What happens? When they came to him, they awoke him and saying, save us, Lord. Not we may perish, but what? We are sinking. We are going down. We are perishing. We're about to lose our life. This is present tense stuff. This is a critical moment and you are asleep. Listen to what he said. He said them, why you timid or fearful, you men of little faith? Then he arose and rebuked the winds and the sea and it became perfectly calm. And the men marveled saying, what kind of a man is this that even the winds and the sea obey him? What was the major problem? What was their biggest obstacle in their faith? What was it? It was what they what? What they saw. What they saw was this ship is about to sink. Now, I mean, human reasoning says if this keeps up, we going down. What they said was true, what they felt was legitimate, uh what they heard was legitimate and more than likely you see, if you're on board a ship and everybody else is saying we going to sink after a while, you join in and you're thinking we going to sink. I mean, even if one or two of those disciples had little faith and said well Jesus on the back, they said no, this thing is about to sink. The waves are covering this boat and their focus was on the storm and the waves, not Jesus. All right, now I want us to look another passage here because here's another example of the same kind of thing that's going on and we hear Jesus again saying again. We hear him saying little faith. Go back to Matthew chapter 6 for a moment. This is the Sermon on the Mount and Jesus is talking here to the people and encouraging them. He knows that they are discouraged and and likewise they're struggling in their faith. And I want you to notice what he says in this passage. Remember he's talking here about why are they being anxious? He says in verse 25, for this reason I said to you, don't be anxious for your life, what you shall eat, what you shall drink, now for your body, what you shall put on. Is not your life more than food and the body than clothing? And then he says, now look at the birds of the air. Your heavenly father feeds them. They're worth he says, you're worth much more than they are. He says then look at the lilies of the field. If God so raised the field and like this and makes it so beautiful, he says , aren't you much more valuable than they? Then he says in verse 30, look. But if God so raised the grass of the field which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown to the furnace, will he not much more do so for you, old men of little faith? Now, where was their focus? Their focus was on what they didn't have. Their focus was on their needs, clothing, food, a shelter, all the rest. He said, why are you anxious about these things? He's look at the birds. The father takes care of them. Look at the lilies. The father's the one who arrayed the field with beauty. If he can do that for them, why can't he do the same thing for you? He can. And so their focus is in the wrong direction. They had fear, fear of not having enough. And so he says, why are you so fearful? You have little faith. Then if you'll turn to the ninth chapter of Mark, and I want us to look at the passage here in verse 24 and notice here what's happening. 24th, the ninth chapter. And you recall that this father had brought his son possessed with a demon, a spirit, to his disciples and he said he's foaming at his mouth and all the rest and he says your disciples try to cast them out and they couldn't do it. Now, this man's desperate. Here's his son demon possessed. And so he says in verse 19, he answered them and said, oh unbelieving generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with this? Bring him to me. Jesus is casting reflection on their unbelief. And so they brought the boy to him in verse 20. And when he saw him, immediately the spirit threw him into a convulsion right in front of everybody. And falling to the ground, he began rolling about and foaming at the mouth. And he asked his father, how long has this been happening to him? And he said from childhood. And it has often thrown him into the fire, into the water to destroy him. But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us. Here's a desperate father who sees his son almost at the point of death and wallowing in the mire here right in front of everybody, foaming at his mouth, demon possessed. And Jesus said to him, if you can Jesus said to him, if you can, all things are possible to him who believes. Immediately the boy's father cried out and began saying, I do believe, help my unbelief. Here's a perfect example now of restless, struggling faith. What does he say? He has his focus, his eyes on his son. This has been going on since he was a young boy, struggling, foaming at the mouth, wallowing, cannot control himself, acting like an animal. And so he says now if you can believe that I can heal this boy, I will heal him. So, what's the biggest obstacle this father has to face? What's the biggest obstacle to his faith at this moment? What is it? His biggest obstacle number one is what he sees. What's another one of his obstacles? The past. Exactly right. The past. He has got all these remembrances. This has been going on for years and years and years and everything looks hopeless. Little faith struggles. Little faith is wrenched. Little faith is thrown off base. You see, little faith is restless faith. With doubt is a a continuous barrage of doubt, Satan will say. Now, look. Look back in the past. Satan will always throw you into the past. Satan will keep your mind off of God. And so when he comes to Jesus, here is a perfect example of genuine honesty. He says, I do believe, help my unbelief. He says on the one hand, I'm trusting you. On the other hand, I 'm having difficulty because this is my son. This is the way he's been all of these years. And so little faith, he says, I want to believe. I'm having difficulty believing. I do believe. I don't believe. I do believe. I don't believe. Help me believe. Now, Jesus then said to that father, well I'll tell you what. When you trust me, I'll heal him. No, which underlines what I said twice already. Listen, struggling faith is not a sin. Struggling faith, listen, is part of the education. It's part of the process that when we struggle with our faith and we see God work, then what happens? As we move on from this stage of faith of struggling, restless faith, we move into the second level and something begins to happen in our life. The first stage of our faith is what? Little faith. The first stage of faith is little faith and that's what kind of faith? Restless faith. Restless faith, struggling faith. All right, which brings us to the second stage of faith and that is great faith. Now, listen. Little faith said, I know he can, but I'm not sure he will. I I I know it may happen, but I'm not certainly he will. Great faith says I know he can and I know he will. Great faith says I know he can and I know he will. Great faith is focused on the father, not on the object. Great faith is entrenched in the word of God. Great faith meditates upon the word of God. Great faith is trusting in the promises of God. Great faith is trusting in the nature of God. Great faith is trusting in the character of God. Great faith is God focused, father focused. Great faith desires to understand the ways of God. Great faith doesn't just ask with doubts and frustrations and anxieties. Great faith will endure no matter what. Great faith is not thrown off balance by questions and doubts and fears and the negatives of other people. Great faith says I'm going to hold on. Great faith says I'm reaching out. Great faith reaches out to God believing because of who he is and what he's promised he will do what he says. Great faith has learned to endure all the obstacles. Great faith is be is able to see beyond the visible to the invisible. Great faith is be is able to hear beyond human voices to hear the voice of God. Great faith is able to sense in his or her spirit what God is saying even without anything audibly coming forth. Great faith is not focused on the past, but on the forgiveness of God. Great faith is focused, listen, on the ways of God, on the very character of God. And so therefore, great faith can face difficulty, hardship and trial and no matter what. Here's what faith says. Faith says, I know what you're saying. Faith says, I hear what you're saying. Faith says, I know what feelings are there. Faith says, I know what it looks like, but I 'm trusting him. I'm going to believe him no matter what. Why? Because this is who he is. This is what he said and I'm going to believe him no matter what. Oftentimes we come to big obstacles in our life, big challenges to our faith. And here's what happens. Because our feelings and our sight and because of what we hear are so overwhelming, we stop at the lowest level of little faith and we get defeated. I am fully persuaded that many of God people could have more, could experience more, could understand more about the father, would have a greater sense of peace and joy and contentment and happiness in their life if they moved God off of that lower level of struggling faith, little faith, restless faith, doubting faith and began to move to the second level. And that is the level, the stage of great faith. So, when we look at great faith and we would all like to live there all the time just saying, you know, here's what God says. I believe it. We are moving on. And I can tell you this, that you can reach that stage in your life about many things and most things. Now, the truth is listen, the longer you and I live, the greater our faith should be. And we talk about great faith and oftentimes we don't even think about what that is, but great faith is just what I described. It's the kind of faith that holds on. It's the kind of faith that is rightly focused. It's the kind of faith that is wrapped up in the person of Jesus Christ. It's the kind of faith. Listen, the life which revolves around the person of God, that's the person who's going to have great faith. You can't live in sin, disobey God and have great faith because it's going to short circuit your faith. It requires living obediently before him. Doesn't mean you'll never sin, but it certainly means that your heart is bent toward him. That's where you lean to. That's what you desire to do. We all have our weaknesses, our frailties and our failures, but that's where our heart is and God honors the heart that is bent toward him. Now, what about this great faith? Well, let's look at let's look at some examples of that. Look if you will first of all in Matthew chapter 8 again and I want you to look in the beginning in verse 5. Matthew chapter 8 and verse 5. Now again, don't put yourself in some position here where you say, well now, yeah, but this not the same incident. It doesn't make a difference what kind of situation you and I come to, the principle is the same. It works. Look what happens. Verse 5. And when he, that is Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him entreating him and saying, Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home suffering great pain. And he said to him, I'll come and heal him. Listen to that. Your servant is suffering. I'll come and heal him. Look at this. But the centurion answered and said, Lord, I'm not worthy of you to come into my roof. Just say the word and my servant will be healed. Now, why did he say that? Look at this. This was not speaking to some strange itinerant preacher. He said, for I too am a man under authority with soldiers under me. And I say to this one go and he goes and to another come and he comes. And to my slave do this and he does it. Now, when Jesus heard this, he marveled and said to those who are following, truly I say to you, I've not found such great faith with one anyone in Israel. Now, what's going on here? This man, listen, he has seen, he has observed, he has heard. He said, I too am a man under authority which says he saw Jesus Christ for who he was, the son of God under the authority of the father. He says, I too am a man under authority and I say to this servant you go and I say to this soldier here you go. They do exactly what I tell you. He said, now all I want you to do is just say the word. You I love you to come home with me. You don't even have to come home. All you have to do is say the word. Now, let me ask you a question. What was that man's focus on? What was he focused on? His paralyzed servant? Is that what he was focused on? What was he focused on? He was focused on Christ. He because he says, I too am a man of of authority. That is he saw Jesus Christ for who he was. He was the son of God. He was a man with awesome authority who could speak and something happened. He'd heard, he had seen, he had watched things happen. He said, all I want you to do you just say the word and my servant will be healed. That is great faith. Because what happens? He's over the struggle. Speak the word. I believe if you'll say it. Listen, if he'd had little faith, he'd have said, yes, please come home. Let's hurry and get home to my servant. No, he said you don't even have to go. Now, how's that for great faith? You don't even have to go. All you have to do is say it. Now, listen. When you and I can reach the stage in our faith in any given circumstance in which we are faced and we are struggling and God lays upon our heart a passage of scripture that relates directly or indirectly, the principle is there to whatever that need is. And God says, here's what I'll do. You and I can thank him for his promise, claim that and have what? And have great faith. The father has made this promise and if he's made the promise, I'm going to trust him. May not be exactly like I want it. I'm trusting him. May not be when I want it. I'm trusting him. May not be exactly what I was exactly the way I expected. I 'm trusting him. Great faith says if he says it, he will do it.
Guest (Male): Dr. Stanley's message urged us to study the scriptures and meditate on the character of God. Becoming familiar with our heavenly father in his ways allows believers to embrace the evidence for our faith and become confident to move forward with firm trust in him. To listen again, look for the link to Today on Radio at intouch.org. And if you'd like a copy of Dr. Stanley's complete message today, The Stages of Faith, drop by our store page to place your order or order his teaching set Learning to Walk by Faith. Our web address again is intouch.org or you can call or text us at the number 1 800 in touch. And you can also write to us at In Touch, Post Office Box 7900 Atlanta, Georgia 30357 or call or text 1 800 In Touch. If the Holy Spirit has prompted us to do one thing, but we've decided to do something else, well we're headed in the wrong direction. Today 's moment with Charles Stanley is coming up.
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Guest (Male): You're listening to In Touch. You can never justify disobedience to God. With a reminder for believers, here's a moment with Charles Stanley.
Dr. Charles Stanley: Do you remember the last time you ran from God? So, I've never run from God. Yes, you have. You know, how do you know? You don't even know me. How do you know I've run from God? Because all of us have. Well, how do you run from God? Well, it's real simple. When God tells us to do something and we choose not to do it and we head in the other direction, we're running from God. Now, you may be walking in the process, but you're running from God. We've all done it. We've all paid the price, but oftentimes we forget that. And some people are running from God who do not even realize exactly what's happening in their life. People run to all kind of things. You don't run from God to nothing. You run from God to something or to somebody, whatever it might be. And so whatever the issues in a person's life, remember this that whatever our issue is, we can never justify disobeying God. A person says, well I know what God says and then they add that three letter word, but everything on the other side of but is a waste of time. When God tells us to do something, remember this. He has a purpose behind it. Number two, it is a good purpose. Number three, it's for our good and more than likely for the good of someone else also at the same time. So, when God says to you, here's what I want you to do and you say, well God has never said it to me that way. Well, what you need to do is to ask God, Lord, speak to me in such a way that I understand. He doesn't speak to everybody the same way, but one thing for sure, he does speak. He speaks through his word. He speaks through our conscience. He speaks through the Holy Spirit. The problem is most people never take time to listen. They're so busy, busy, busy doing this and this and that watching the other. They don't take time to listen to see if God has something to say. God doesn't just speak to pastors. He doesn't just speak to missionaries and musicians or people who are on church staffs. He speaks to everyone who's willing to listen to him. He wants to give you direction and guidance. And the safest place to be in life, listen, is in the center of the will of God. And the worst place you can be is outside the will of God. And people get outside the will of God because they are on their way somewhere else running to something other than God.
Guest (Male): Our resources at intouch.org can help you learn how to discern God's direction for your life. And if you found encouragement to live for Jesus through this program, please tell us your story. Looking ahead on In Touch, we'll hear more of Dr. Stanley's explanation of the Stages of Faith. So, be back with us next time for In Touch, The Teaching Ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley. This program is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia and it remains on the station through the grace of God and your faithful prayers and gifts.