Faith is the evidence of things we cannot see, and by faith we understand that everything we see was created by the unseen.
Hebrews 11:1 says faith shows the reality of what we hope for. It is the evidence of things we cannot see. Through their faith, the people in days of old earned a good reputation (Hebrews 11:1).
Faith shows the reality of what we hope for; it is the evidence of things we cannot see. Through their faith, the people in days of old earned a good reputation. — Hebrews 11:1, NLT
That reputation wasn't about being a people pleaser. It was by being a person of faith. Noah earned a good reputation that wasn't people-based, it was God-based.
Verse three is the one I want to camp out on. By faith we understand that the entire universe was formed at God's command, that what we now see did not come from anything that can be seen (Hebrews 11:3).
By faith we understand that the entire universe was formed at God's command, that what we now see did not come from anything that can be seen. — Hebrews 11:3, NLT
I love that God gives us an ongoing example of this. Babies are formed in the womb, in utter seclusion, and we don't see them until they're born. Things that we see are formed by the unseen.
We need to get this through our heads because we're so obsessed with what we can see. But what we need to recognize is that everything we see was created by the unseen. The unseen is superior to the seen.
The invisible God spoke invisible words, and everything you see around you came from those words, which means what we see doesn't get to dictate the final outcome.
Look around at what you see. Here it is. All of it was created from the unseen. And when you dig into it more, everything was created by spoken words.
This is hard for us to get right. We're so consumed with what we see that we'll pray, we'll believe, and when we don't see anything change, we give up because we don't recognize that the unseen is superior to the seen.
If we understood this, when we pray, we wouldn't be bothered by what we see, no matter how long it takes for what we prayed to come into the scene. Because we know that what we spoke is being formed and worked on, because our words that we sent out are superior to this world that we live in.
Our words are superior to our circumstances.
Even the world itself was originally created by words, and then God gave us dominion. So everything that's been created since has come through our words. These chairs were put in place by words, because our facilities manager told the team the rows needed to be straight.
If words were never issued, we wouldn't be in this room today. It's by the words that things come into place.
We fix our gaze on the things that cannot be seen instead of looking at the troubles we can see, because what we see now will soon be gone but what we cannot see will last forever.
We continue to preach because we have the same kind of faith the psalmist had when he said, "I believed God, so I spoke." So we don't look at the troubles we can see. Instead, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen, because the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever (2 Corinthians 4:13-18).
But we continue to preach because we have the same kind of faith the psalmist had when he said, "I believed God, so I spoke." We know that God, who raised the Lord Jesus, will also raise us with Jesus and present us to himself together with you. All of this is for your benefit. And as God's grace reaches more and more people, there will be great thanksgiving, and God will receive more and more glory.
That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. For our present troubles are small and won't last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever!
So we don't look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever. — 2 Corinthians 4:13-18, NLT
What's superior, the seen or the unseen? The unseen. You might see or feel pain in your body, but that'll soon be gone.
You might see zero in your bank account. What are you going to fix your gaze on?
You might see a family member straying, fumbling, acting a fool. That's what you see. But what you see will soon be gone, because you've spoken words that will not return void, because your words are in alignment with God's words.
What does it mean to look at the unseen? It means what's going on in your thoughts. When you're thinking about your trouble instead of the unseen, you're actually being disobedient to God, and you should recognize that and switch over.
You take that thought captive, throw it out, and think on the good things. You think about how your trouble is small, how it's not going to last very long, how God is for you and not against you, and how you're the head and not the tail.
Our present troubles are small and won't last very long, and if we don't make them a big deal, the enemy loses his power over us.
For our present troubles are small. They won't last very long. And they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever (2 Corinthians 4:17).
When you make your present troubles a big deal, I'm always going to help you make them small. That's not because I don't have compassion for you. It's hard to go through the challenges, but we're here for each other.
The enemy would lose his power over us if this was our mindset and our response to troubles. Anytime a trouble comes, that's small, it won't last very long.
Instead of puffing our troubles up so we can impress people with how big they are, our troubles are small and they won't last very long. And they're going to produce glory for us.
So when a trouble comes, you say, "Hallelujah, we get more glory." We don't fix our gaze on the troubles. We tell the trouble, you're little, you're not going to last for long.
Sometimes your trouble is a person. When somebody's being crazy, I've trained myself to respond, "They'll grow, this won't last for long," and then I don't even give it attention anymore. You don't turn your back on the person, you just turn your back on the trouble.
Rebuking a spirit isn't the same as rebuking the words it spoke, and the words have to be answered directly or they'll keep spinning in your head.
I shared a story I heard from Nancy Drain's book called Answer It. She got home one time and could feel an evil presence in the room, and then began to have the thought that a project of hers was going to fail horribly and be a stain on her life and ministry.
She recognized it as a spirit of fear and commanded the spirit to leave. It moved away but she could tell it was still in the room, hiding in the corner. She went to sleep, but she kept waking up with the same fearful thoughts and rebuking the spirit again and again through the night.
The next morning, the Lord told her why she was troubled all night. She resisted the spirit, but she did not resist the words the spirit spoke. So the words kept spinning around in her head because she hadn't dealt with the words that were spoken.
The spirit was waiting to see if she would come into agreement with the words. As soon as the Lord taught her that, she said, "I rebuke the words that were spoken over me," and she answered it directly, speaking the opposite of what was spoken. As soon as she answered those words, the words left and the spirit left.
I've experienced this myself. Once, my chest got tight while I was out hiking and I was having a hard time breathing. I asked the Lord what it was, and he said, "People are speaking curses over you." I said, "I rebuke every curse that's been spoken over me," and it left just like that.
Another time I was praying outside and a dark cloud came over me, and I went from fine to depressed. I asked the Lord what it was and he told me the same thing, that people were speaking curses over me. I rebuked every curse spoken over me and the darkness lifted immediately.
Too many Christians are living in turmoil or hindered from what God wants them to do simply because they haven't said, "I rebuke the curses that were spoken over my life."
We're not fighting the devil, we're standing against him, because the battle has already been won and we've been translated to the victory line.
Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on all of God's armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil. For we're not fighting against flesh and blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places (Ephesians 6:10-12).
What did he tell us to do as our fight? Stand. Put on every piece of God's armor so that you will be able to resist the enemy at the time of evil, and after the battle, you will still be standing (Ephesians 6:13).
A final word: Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on all of God's armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil. For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.
Therefore, put on every piece of God's armor so you will be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil. Then after the battle you will still be standing firm. — Ephesians 6:10-13, NLT
We're not fighting our way to a victory line like there's opposition pushing us back. When you get born again, you are translated to the victory line. Now what are you doing there? Standing.
The enemy is going to throw things at you and tell you that you should be fighting. But why should you be fighting when you're already at the victory line?
If we don't understand this correctly, we translate this into always fighting the devil, always fighting the devil. We're not fighting the devil, we're standing against him.
How do you know you understand you've got the victory? Because you're happy about the fight, happy about the devil's opposition. You're just saying, "Bring it on, buddy, because I got the victory."
The joy of the Lord is your strength, and it's okay to put joy on by faith even when it doesn't feel natural yet, because before long it becomes genuine.
People who are fighting the devil instead of standing at the victory line, they don't have joy. They want you to fight with them, putting on sad music and getting real serious in prayer.
But the joy of the Lord is your strength. If you don't have joy, you don't have strength. People become weak when they don't have joy.
Some of you say that if you choose to be joyful when you're not feeling it, it's fake, it's a put on. But everything God gives us, we have to put it on. You put on righteousness, you put on salvation, you put it on.
It's okay for it to be a put on for a little while. You're going to be much better off doing a little put on than sitting down in your sorrow. Before you know it, it's going to be genuine, coming right up out of your spirit because your spirit agrees with that joy.
Your flesh is the one that's in opposition to it. Your flesh wants to feel sad. So you tell your flesh what to do, you tell your mind what to do, and you agree with the spirit.
We have received God's spirit, not the world's spirit, so we can know the wonderful things God has freely given us, because we have the mind of Christ.
No one can know a person's thoughts except that person's own spirit, and no one can know God's thoughts except God's own spirit. But we have received God's spirit, not the world's spirit, so we can know the wonderful things that God has freely given us (1 Corinthians 2:10-12).
When we tell you these things, we do not use words that come from human wisdom. Instead, we speak words given to us by the spirit, using the spirit's words to explain spiritual truths. For who can know the Lord's thoughts, who knows enough to teach him? But we understand these things, for we have the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:13-16).
But it was to us that God revealed these things by his Spirit. For his Spirit searches out everything and shows us God's deep secrets. No one can know a person's thoughts except that person's own spirit, and no one can know God's thoughts except God's own Spirit. And we have received God's Spirit, not the world's spirit, so we can know the wonderful things God has freely given us.
When we tell you these things, we do not use words that come from human wisdom. Instead, we speak words given to us by the Spirit, using the Spirit's words to explain spiritual truths. But people who aren't spiritual can't receive these truths from God's Spirit. It all sounds foolish to them and they can't understand it, for only those who are spiritual can understand what the Spirit means.
Those who are spiritual can evaluate all things, but they themselves cannot be evaluated by others. For, "Who can know the Lord's thoughts? Who knows enough to teach him?" But we understand these things, for we have the mind of Christ. — 1 Corinthians 2:10-16, NLT
I love how that addresses how we're supposed to know what God wants. Because I have the mind of Christ, and because God's spirit lives inside of me, I have access to what he wants.
There's never a time where we have to sit and wonder what God thinks about something. I've received his spirit, and all I have to do is be quiet and listen.
Jesus said if you love him, obey his commandments, and he'll ask the Father to give you another advocate who will never leave you, the Holy Spirit, who leads you into all truth (John 14:15).
If you love me, obey my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you. He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth. The world cannot receive him, because it isn't looking for him and doesn't recognize him. But you know him, because he lives with you now and later will be in you. — John 14:15-17, NLT
The Father sends the advocate as Jesus's representative, the Holy Spirit, and he will teach you everything and remind you of everything Jesus said (John 14:26). The Holy Spirit has an assignment in your life to remind you.
But when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative, that is, the Holy Spirit, he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you. — John 14:26, NLT
In every situation, if you'll take time to not look at what you're seeing, close your eyes, disconnect from what you see so you can hear from the unseen, the Holy Spirit always has an answer for you. Some of you think the Holy Spirit doesn't want to give you an answer, but he always wants to lead you into all truth.
Anytime you come against a challenge, relax first, because as soon as you get worried, you're throwing up static, like you can't hear the Holy Spirit's signal anymore. Just shut the worry down, tell it to hush.
You have authority. Jesus has given you authority over all the power of the devil.
What does Hebrews 11:1 mean by faith being the evidence of things not seen? Pastor Kade explained that faith shows the reality of what we hope for and is the evidence of things we cannot see. Through their faith, people in days of old earned a good reputation, and that reputation was God-based rather than people-based.
What does it mean that the universe was formed at God's command? Hebrews 11:3 says the entire universe was formed at God's command, and what we now see did not come from anything that can be seen. Pastor Kade used the example of a baby being formed in the womb, unseen, before it's born, as an ongoing picture of this truth.
Why don't I see change when I pray? Pastor Kade taught that we get discouraged and give up on prayer because we don't recognize that the unseen is superior to the seen. He said if we understood this, we wouldn't be bothered by what we see, no matter how long it takes, because our spoken words are being formed and worked on.
What's the difference between resisting a spirit and rebuking words spoken over you? Using the story from Nancy Drain's book Answer It, Pastor Kade explained that resisting a spirit alone isn't enough. The words that spirit spoke have to be directly rebuked and answered, or they'll keep spinning in your mind even after the spirit itself has been resisted.
Are Christians supposed to be fighting the devil? No. Pastor Kade taught from Ephesians 6 that once you're born again, you're translated to the victory line, and your stance from there is to stand firm, not to fight your way toward victory. The fight has already been won.
Why does joy matter so much in the Christian life? Pastor Kade said the joy of the Lord is your strength, and that people who are weak often lack joy. He taught that it's okay for joy to feel like a "put on" by faith at first, because it will become genuine over time as your spirit agrees with it.
How can I know what God wants for a specific situation? Pastor Kade taught from 1 Corinthians 2 that because we've received God's spirit, we have the mind of Christ and access to God's thoughts. He said this doesn't require memorizing large portions of scripture first, since the Holy Spirit reminds us of what Jesus said as we walk through life.
What should I do when worry or fear shows up? Pastor Kade said to relax and shut worry down immediately, because worry creates static that makes it harder to hear the Holy Spirit. He referenced Jesus telling a demon to be quiet as an example of the authority believers have to silence fear and worry the same way.
