9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 [upbeat music] 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 In touch with Dr. Charles Stanley 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Reaching the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 through sound biblical teaching 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Next on In Touch, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Levels of Faith in the Life of the believer 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 When you face difficulties and trials 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and hardships in life, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 how do you respond? Do you respond 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 with doubt and fear and anxiety and fretting 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 or do you respond by faith? 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And if you respond by faith, what level of faith? 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 You say what do you mean by "What level of faith?" 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 That's right, what level of faith? 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 You say, "Well, how do you know what these levels are?" 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Well we're going to talk about it. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 How do you distinguish one from the other? 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 What does it mean in my life? 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 How does it affect my life? 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Speaking of levels of faith, well we all operate 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 on one of three levels of faith. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And the longer you live, certainly the more faith you and I ought to have, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and the higher up in these levels we ought to go in our faith. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 But some people will stay all of their lives on the lowest level because 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Number one, maybe they don't even know that there are levels of faith. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Secondly, too afraid to launch out. Too 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 fearful to trust God. And so what happens is 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 you go through life and you miss His best 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 because you never grow in your faith. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And that's what I am going to talk [br]about in this message, and that is the 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 levels of faith in the life [br]of the believer. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And it is very evident in scripture [br]that faith is very, very important 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 in the eyes of God, and that He sees 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 faith as very important in our life. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And so, what we want to talk [br]about in this message 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 is this: How to raise your faith level. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 How to get in a position, where you and [br]your relationship to God, or 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the way you trust Him will position you, listen,[br]to be blessed to the maximum 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 of your potential because 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the way you trust Him determines [br]the way the blessings come. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 You don't trust Him? You [br]don't get blessed. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 You trust Him? You get blessed. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And the more you trust Him, and [br]the way that you are able 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 walk in these levels of faith, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the greater the blessings that [br]come in your way. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Think about how absolutely [br]essential and important faith is. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And let's think about it in this light: 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 If you look at the life of Jesus, [br]look at His ministry, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 here is what you discover. You discover 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 that the theme of faith permeated [br]the whole ministry 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 of Jesus. No matter what. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And I want to give you a few [br]verses of scripture ... 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Now, I won't have you turn to all[br]of these because 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I have enough of them for you to turn to. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 But I want you to think about some [br]of these verses for example, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 you find in the scriptures concerning 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 His healing ministry. Listen to what 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 He is continually saying, when He's [br]confronting people, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 whether they are paralyzed, whether they are blind, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 or whatever the situation may be. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Listen, for example, in Matthew 9 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 He says to this lady, "Daughter, your [br]faith has made you well." 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Then in Matthew 15, "O woman, your [br]faith is great; 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 be it done unto you as you wish." 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And in the second chapter of Mark. When [br]these fellas are 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 tearing up the roof of this man's house and letting 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 their friend down by ropes, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 so he could finally get to Jesus [br]and be healed, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Jesus said to them seeing their faith, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 "Son, your sins are forgiven. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Then he says in Mark 10 to the blind beggar, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 "Go your way, your faith has made you whole." 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And again He says, "Your faith has saved you. Receive 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 your sight. Your faith has made you well." 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 "Be it done unto you according to your faith." 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 All through the gospels, Matthew, Mark, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and Luke especially, what you find 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 is Jesus- the theme of his relationship 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 to this people, this needy people, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 who have a health problem,[br]whatever it might be 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 it's always, listen, based on their faith. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Remember he said on one occasion? 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 He couldn't do any miracles in a particular place because of their unbelief. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 They didn't have any faith. They wouldn't trust Him. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And often times, you and I miss out on God's best blessings 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 because we won't trust Him. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 We don't believe that He loves us. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 We don't believe that he will provide our needs. We don't 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 believe that He will heal us. We don't believe 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 that He cares that much for us. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 But if you look at His ministry, what [br]was he continually saying? 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 It was, listen, it was trust Him. Faith, faith, faith, faith, faith. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So if that's true in His ministry in His day, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 if it was so important that he magnified the subject of faith, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 nothing's changed. Because, you see, in our lifestyle 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 in our life times, in the culture in which we live, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 It makes no difference in what generation or what culture 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Faith permeates every aspect of our life.