Holy Spirit Brings Unshakeable Faith (322)

0:01 Welcome to the Quality Christian Living Podcast. Once again, I am your host, David Friend. We're in a series dealing with the Holy Spirit and today's topic is The Holy Spirit Brings Unshakeable Faith. We're going to talk about how the Holy Spirit can strengthen our faith today and discover how to walk in faith greater than what we've currently experienced. We will understand the difference between faith and unshakeable faith and where does the Bible show us how to receive and maintain greater faith. Well, there's a lot to cover but we're just going to ask the Holy Spirit now to come in and help us and guide us. Heavenly Father, I come to you once again and ask for your touch, that you would anoint this podcast, that you would bless it, and I ask the Holy Spirit to take charge, to take control as I yield to him. All that I've put together and everything that we've come up with, Lord, it will be of no value unless the Holy Spirit anoints it and touches it. And I also lift up those who are listening in today that you would bless them, that they would receive what they're looking for, greater strength in their prayer life and greater faith than they've ever known before and understand how the Holy Spirit will bring unshakable faith, faith that is absolutely not impacted by circumstances. So Lord, I believe this is going to be a wonderful podcast that will help a lot of people provided I yield and submit to you. I pray now you would bless those who are listening in, and I'll be careful to give you the praise and the glory and the honor for what you're about to do and how you're going to touch and bless lives, and I'll thank you for it now. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Well, today we're going to look at a lot of different areas of the Holy Spirit, bringing us powerful, greater faith than what we have ever imagined

1:33 or even thought possible, and we're going to look at how many of us want to have unshakable faith. Now, some people think, well, that's impossible. No, it's not impossible because the Bible tells us that we can be anxious for nothing, that we don't have to worry about anything, that we can bring everything to God. And so if we allow ourselves to be led by the Spirit of God, I believe we will experience unshakable faith. So the question was, how many of us want to have that? Well, we've got to decide in our own heart and mind that that's what we desire in our prayer life and our walk with God. You see, I defined unshakable faith as never being anxious or worrying about anything. Paul was one of the greatest examples of unshakable faith that we read about in the Word of God. The example of that would be all the powerful scriptures that he wrote under incredible pressure when he was in prison. He was beaten and bruised and they were trying to kill him, starve him to death and yet he had incredible unshakable faith and I believe he could only do that through the power and the anointing of the Holy Spirit and it's the same way for us today. We all know that sometimes we need a boost in our faith. Now if you don't feel that way, well then maybe we ought to humble ourselves a little bit more and say that all of us have wished that we'd have more faith and I certainly believe there were times in my life that I wish I had more faith and those things pop up when you never expect them. The Bible shows us that there are many different levels of faith. I've talked a lot of this about this in prayer podcasts on having faith for miracles and having faith to believe for things that are not as though that they are and these are all part of this series that we're talking about on Holy Spirit

3:05 led prayers and on Holy Spirit brings unshakable faith and the Holy Spirit leads us and guides us into greater faith. You see, the Bible talks about little faith. It talks about great faith. It talks about mountain -moving faith. We all go through times of a lack of faith. The secret to having great faith consistently is to surrender to the leading of the Holy Spirit. God's Word shows us the best source of unshakable faith. that lives inside of us. It's the Holy Spirit. As Christians, we have that unshakable faith living and dwelling in us because it's the person of the Holy Spirit who lives and resides in each one of us. So if that powerful faith is in us, why can't we receive it? Why can't it come out in our heart, in our mind, in what we speak and what we say and what we pray and what we have faith for? Because I believe it can. It is obvious that I'm referring through this whole podcast to the Holy Spirit. He has the power to take us to great faith, to greater faith, to unbelievable faith, unwavering faith. We must never forget though that God's promise to his followers is that he wants to bless us. He's given us hundreds and hundreds of examples of promises that he has for us, and those promises come and are fulfilled when we operate and submit ourselves under the leading and the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

4:25 We see scriptures all over the place talking about the power of the Holy Spirit. Let me pull this one out that I found. very interesting the other day, found in Zechariah chapter 4 and verse 6. It's not by might nor by power, that's referring to man's power, but by my spirit says the Lord Almighty. So we can't force ourselves to do things. You know, it reminds me of years ago when I was first diagnosed with incurable cancer. I've had that several times, fought some amazing battles and God's brought me through every single time. But a lot of people, when they win the battle over cancer, they try to take credit for it. They say, well, I'm not gonna let that do that to me, I beat it, I beat it, and people say, you beat it, and I would never ever acknowledge that any cancer that's been defeated in my body that I beat it. It's the power of the Holy Spirit inside of me that gave me the ability to go through it, through the circumstances, and it's the healing power of Jesus that took that cancer from my body. So we must never take credit for things that we accomplish in our life. It's only by the Spirit that really great things are done.

5:25 So read Zachariah once again, four and six. not by might nor by power, that's man's power, but by my spirit, says the Lord. That really means that only the Holy Spirit has what we need when we need it and how to have unshakable, unwavering faith. Now, to have greater faith, we must ask the Holy Spirit for help. We can pray for strength, for stronger faith, for unmovable faith, provided we surrender our strength to Him. and his strength and his power and we must never forget that powerful unmovable faith is a promise from God. He desires that his followers will be led by the Holy Spirit and he desires for his followers to have great faith, unshakable faith. I hope that you're enjoying this as much as I'm enjoying speaking because I really feel the presence of the Holy Spirit just all over this podcast today and so I believe he's lifting hearts, he's helping people, he's encouraging them, he's blessing them, he's telling them that they have hope and a future and a plan for their life has been designed by Him and I pray the Holy Spirit will reveal that to those who are listening and in Heavenly Father I just want to lift up those listening right now Father that you would open their hearts and let them to receive Father the understanding of how the The power of the Holy Spirit that dwells inside of them is greater than anything that they'll ever face in their life. And that power is far greater than cancer, far greater than sickness or illness or financial issues or marriage issues or kids going astray, whatever it might be. And that they have that power and that strength that

6:56 they can draw upon to have greater faith, to have greater strength in their prayer life and have unwavering and unshakable faith, Father, like the Word of God tells us that we can have. And I pray you'll bless them with that. Jesus name. And for those who are listening in who don't know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, I would be making a big mistake if I don't take just a moment right now to tell them that this is the time to surrender their life to the Lord Jesus Christ. So if you're not sure, if you're not positive where you're going to spend eternity, if you're not positive that heaven is in your future, that when we pass from this life to the next, that you don't know where you're going to go, we can settle that right now. So those of you who've never given your life to Christ, just repeat this prayer with me. I'll take just a moment to do this, but I really feel that of the Holy Spirit that this is the time. Say, Heavenly Father, I need you. The Bible tells me that I need a Savior. I need to make Jesus Lord of my life. But I've sinned and I've fallen short of his glory. So this day I repent of my sins and I ask Jesus to forgive me and cleanse me from all unrighteousness. And I receive Jesus as my Lord and Savior. And I believe that he was born of the Virgin Mary. He suffered. He died through that horrendous crucifixion. But He rose from the dead so that we could have eternal life with Him and He sits by the Father now. So I receive and I claim Jesus Christ as my Lord and my Savior and I promise to serve Him all the days of my life. In Jesus name I pray. Amen. If you prayed that prayer, I'm telling you it's been settled.

8:23 Your relationship has changed and now you're a follower of Jesus Christ. You need to find a good church, get into the Word of God, get a good Bible and start reading the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and read the book of Romans. These are powerful. scriptures that will help you in your walk with God, but you've got to get around fellow Christians and fellow believers. Okay, we're going to move on, but it wouldn't have been right for me to go past that moment and not give people an opportunity. We never know how many people are listening in just because they're curious about the Holy Spirit, they're curious about what the word faith means, and they're listening in, but they've never surrendered their life to Christ. And those of you who are listening in today, if you have friends who don't know Jesus, or you're not sure what the relationship with the Lord is, make sure that you do. Make sure that you ask them if they've given given their life to Christ, if they know that they're going to spend eternity in heaven, and if they don't, then you can lead them in that prayer, a prayer that just tells them to confess their sins and accept Jesus as Lord and Savior, and then help them to be discipled and get into a church and get the Word of God into them. So I guess the Holy Spirit wanted us to have a little session here on that right now, so I feel perfectly comfortable now to move on. I believe the Spirit of God is pleased with that. All right, now in the Bible, let's get back to our topic today on how the Holy Spirit brings us unshakable faith.

9:34 In the Bible, in Romans chapter 10 and verse 17, the New Living Translation, it says a few words that are so powerful. It simply says this, faith comes from hearing, that is hearing the good news about Christ. So what that means is we receive Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. We have the faith to receive Him because by faith we come to Him and it's by grace that we're saved. So our faith and God's grace comes together and we're born into the kingdom of God. We're born again and we receive Jesus as Lord and Savior. Now once we receive our faith, in Jesus Christ, then we receive the infilling of the Holy Spirit and we then get into the Word of God and where it starts to become... taught and inspired by the Word of God. Listen to this scripture here that talks about what the Word of God has to do to help us. In 2 Timothy chapter 3, verses 16 and 17 in the New International Version, it says this. I'm going to read it slowly because I think it's so important we just salivate on each word. All scripture is God breathed. Wow, you could stop right there and realize that's the Holy Spirit who breathed those words into Paul, into James, into John, into Matthew, and Mark. Moses and all these people thought the Word of God, they were inspired by the Holy Spirit to bring words that were put into the Word of God, both Old Testament and New Testament. It says, all scripture is God -breathed and is useful for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, and training in righteousness. And verse 17 says, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. makes some of you

11:07 think that we're kind of moving away from the teaching here on the Holy Spirit and having unshakable faith. But if we don't get into the Word of God, if we don't start reading the Word of God, the Holy Spirit inspired Word of God, we're going to miss out on understanding how we can have unshakable faith through our relationship with the Holy Spirit. Because the Holy Spirit brought all those words to us to help us, to instruct us, and to teach us. It says, and to rebuke us, and correct us, and train us in righteousness. So that's the Word of God. It's powerful. walk with unshakable faith unless we get the Word of God in us. I believe every time that we are faced with a challenge, we need to find a scripture that helps us beat that challenge or come up to that challenge or at least confront that challenge or defeat that challenge. And the reason I say that is that because the Holy Spirit inspired that word and then we need to get that word inside of us so that we can then rely upon that word.

11:58 Otherwise, we'll not have greater faith. We will be tossed around by every wind of doctrine. We'll be tossed here and there. We'll run to this church and that church and this teacher and that teacher and we won't get solid and have a relationship with the Word of God and a relationship with Jesus, a relationship with other believers, and build that Christian walk that we want so that we can have greater faith than we have today. All right, let's move on. Now this scripture, and these scriptures that I've been reading today, quite frankly, point us to the Holy Spirit, that he teaches us, and I love it that he rebukes us. You ever get that little voice that says, you need to go back and apologize to that person? Or you get that little thought in your mind that says, I need to call my mom or dad or I need to do this or I need to do that. I believe as a follower of Jesus Christ, that's the Holy Spirit telling us there's something we need to do. It might be a slight rebuke. It might be a major rebuke. It might be that you had a discussion with someone and after the discussion, you just don't feel right about it. That's the Holy Spirit helping you. So then we need to correct that and make it right and go back to that person and just say, I'm sorry. feel you did anything wrong just say I feel like I'm supposed to apologize to you so therefore I do I want to please accept my apology and move on with our life that's the Holy Spirit rebuking us and helping us with our walk with God he teaches us he helps us in and trains us in what we should do how we should do it when we should do it and who we should do those things with and to now All of this prepares us to be equipped in everything we do our desire

13:28 to do. I want to repeat that because I think that's so important. Let me just write that down so that I can get that, stress that to you a little bit. That all of these things that I'm giving you, they prepare us and they equip us for everything that we do or desire to do in our entire life. Because of the Word of God, their Spirit led and the Holy Spirit who dwells inside of us will help us to do the things that we should do. Therefore, if we desire greater faith, we must go to the Holy Spirit, who is the source. of our faith. He helps us in our faith. He encourages us in our faith. He helps us to walk in faith. He helps us to step out in faith, to take the challenges only faith can give us. Now, let me give an example of that.

14:11 Many years ago, when I had a real estate development company, my wife and I were happy. Things were well. I was doing very well financially. We were being blessed. We were attending our church. We had a wonderful Sunday school class. Things were just going really great. We had a huge Sunday school class, had like 600 people on the roster, and we'd have well over 300 people every week in attendance in this Bible class at church. It was between the church services. And it was just wonderful. And I thought, well, this is it. This is what we're going to do the rest of our life, make good money, give a bunch to the Lord, and bless other people, and teach this class, and help people, and pray for people. And I thought, this was it. We're done. And then one day. Out of nowhere, I read a book on the life of Smith Wigglesworth, a great evangelist, and how he went from becoming a plumber at the age of 48 to becoming a full -time preacher and evangelist. He was an incredible evangelist.

14:57 He lived to the age of 88, and he died in 1946. And when I read that, I was so touched because, now some of you are going to be shocked when I give you this next statement, I was born in 1946. I know that'll shock some of you. Some of you think that I couldn't be more than 30 or 40 years old, and some of you know I'm pushing 80. I can tell you the experiences that I've had since I became a... follower of Jesus Christ are greater than any experiences I had before that. And so I read that book, this incredible man who went into full -time ministry, and I was 48 years of age at the time. And I felt the Holy Spirit tell me, if you'll go into full ministry and stay involved in full ministry, I'm going to bless you, and you'll be involved in ministry and active ministry until you're going to be at least 88 years of age, which is the year that how old Smith Wigglesworth was when he died.

15:43 So the Holy Spirit was really dealing with me and teaching me to make a change. And we were comfortable in what we were doing. I mean, we had things going right. We were serving the Lord. Our marriage was just phenomenal. And at the time, we'd been married for 28 years. And I remember after reading that book, going to dinner that night with my wife, we were on the beach over in California. And I remember telling my wife, you know, honey, I felt the Holy Spirit speak to me today. And I think we're supposed to close our company down, shut it down, and go to work for the church for free. And she started crying in her tears and her eyes. And I thought, oh, it's OK. It's OK. We don't need to do it right now, because I thought maybe I would shock her a little too. And she said, no, no, no, I'm just, I'm crying because I'm happy. She said, when I was a little girl, I believe the Lord told me that I'd be married to a pastor or preacher someday. And when she said that, I was touched because we'd been married for 28 years. I'd never heard that. And think about it. Why would she tell me that when I was a banker for a number of years, then a real estate developer for a number of years? Things were very successful.

16:39 We were in church. Everything was wonderful. Why would she share that with me and condemn me or put me through difficult times? So I thought she was very loving to hold that back and hold onto that promise. Well, when we did that, we went into full -time ministry. And when they made that transition, I said, Lord, I'm going to need something to carry me through this. And the Holy Spirit spoke to me and said, get to the book of Proverbs and read Proverbs chapter 3 and verse 5, trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge Him and He'll direct your path. That scripture absolutely led us through the huge transition from our business going to work for the church, get rid of our expensive home because I couldn't afford a big house like that anymore and our cars had to be changed and our travel plans all stopped. Everything changed in our life and we were so thrilled about it and so happy about it because the Spirit of God says, I've got something better for you. And since that time the Lord's blessed us with a wonderful church. The Lord allowed us to build a beautiful church in North Scottsdale. At one time the attendance of that church was running over 2 ,000. and people, we had three locations.

17:39 And what a blessing it was because the Holy Spirit spoke to me in the midst of when I think everything was gonna go great, but then He didn't just speak to me, He gave me a source of strength. He gave me the scripture that would carry me through. And some of you may have needed that. I don't know why I went in that direction. I had no intentions of talking about this story, but I believe the Holy Spirit gave me that. So some of you out there are thinking about making a change. You're wondering about whether you should change jobs or switch things or move to a different city or buy a new house or not buy a new house or whatever it might be, you want to make decisions, I'm just going to tell you, pray about it, seek God, get the word of God out, find scriptures that speak to you, and allow the Holy Spirit to guide your steps, and you'll never regret that. I guess there's an old saying that says time flies when you're having fun. Well, I'm finding this fun. I'm finding this encouraging.

18:26 I hope that you're being blessed. I hope you're receiving this and I'm speaking from my heart and I believe the Holy Spirit is leading and guiding us in this particular podcast especially. So in closing, unshakeable faith is not impossible. Remember what Paul said in Philippians chapter 4 and verse 13. All things are possible through Christ, he said. Christ the one who strengthens us. Unshakeable faith is when we learn to live above what we are going through and look at what we will go to. Now let me stop for a second. to have unshakable faith, when you go to a challenge, they're tough, they're difficult. I've faced some incredible challenges in my life. I've had death sentences given to me by the doctors that you're only going to live so long. I've had that happen two, maybe, I guess three times if I throw in the loss of the kidney. And when I think about that, that I could have been lost in that and lost all that God had planned for me and not being able to do things. I would have never started podcasting. I would have never stopped writing if I would accept what they were saying, but just had to believe in what God had to do with me and that He had a plan for me. And we've all got to believe that. We've all got to receive the power of the Holy Spirit working and operating us and believe that He's able and willing and desires and wants to do that for us and in us.

19:43 Only the Holy Spirit is able to bring greater unshakable faith. to each and every one of it. He is the only one that can do it. So if you want to read a book where just do this and do this or have this diet or exercise a certain way and you'll have greater faith, don't buy that. It's only by the Spirit of God. It's not by might or by by. by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord. And that's how we will have unshakable faith. So I'm going to pray for you now, and I'm going to believe that God's going to give you unshakable faith. Maybe not instantly. It might take months, weeks, years. I don't know. But if that's what you desire, just listen. I was going to say close your eyes and bow your heads, but you might be riding a bike or you might be walking, so you can't do that. But those of you who are listening in right now, just receive this prayer now. Heavenly Father. The people that have listened in today, Lord, you know they desire greater faith. They desire a closer walk with the Holy Spirit. They want to understand that the Holy Spirit that dwells in them has greater strength than they can imagine or even think. So Father, I pray now that you would bless them now. That you would let them be blessed in every area of their life. Father, that they would walk in strength and power and trust in your word. That they would understand, Father, that greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world. And they would understand that the word says that Nothing is impossible with God. So Father, I just pray in the name of Jesus for an outpouring, an outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the lives of people listening in, that they'll receive unshakable faith. They'll read the Word of God where Paul says to be anxious

21:13 for nothing and don't worry about anything he's saying, that they'll receive that and the anxiety will go away and their trust and their confidence will be in you and not in others and not other situations. But Lord, I believe that's going to happen in their lives so I believe for that and I claim it in the name of Jesus. I call forth those things in their life that are not, that they've been looking for, that they need to have happen in their life. I call them forth as though that they are. That's just a quote from the Word of God from the Apostle Paul. And Father, I believe that for their life and I pray they'll receive an anointing. Father, and a powerful anointing of the Holy Spirit would guide and direct them and lead their steps and help them, Father, to be more than overcomers, more than conquerors, Father, and live a great life filled with faith, unshakable, unwavering faith. And I believe for that in them, and I pray that that will start even at this moment right now, for we ask it in Jesus' name, I pray. Amen. Well, once again, I hope that was a blessing to you. I can't imagine enjoying doing a podcast more than I did this one, and I pray that you would just continue to be with us and stay with us as we continue this series. Our next podcast is going to be entitled, Holy Spirit, Faith and Power. Now it's kind of a little choppy in that title, but just stay with me because we're going to get into something. We're going to talk about how the Holy Spirit brings greater power than we can even think about. In the next podcast, we're gonna see how the Holy Spirit brings faith and power together, and that we'll learn that from the life of Stephen, as we read about him in the book of Acts chapter 7, and we'll better

22:44 understand how faith and power bring great results, and how can we be full of the Spirit like Stephen was. Boy, what a... powerful comment that is. We're going to get into that in our next podcast. Well, I encourage you to invite your family and friends to join us for this upcoming podcast. If you'd like to know more about Quality Christian Living, I would encourage you to go to my webpage at davidcfriendauthor .com and when you go there, the very front page, it talks about Quality Christian Living and the front page has a link to all my podcasts and this is podcast number 322 and so I really believe that you can tell that there's been a lot of podcasts we've covered and there's There's topics there dealing with how to get out of debt, how to walk in the Spirit, how to experience miracles in your life, and how to have faith for miracles. There's issues there dealing with how to find your purpose in life.

23:33 There are just a number of topics that we've covered over the last nearly four years now we've been doing these podcasts. So I would encourage you to do that. And if you would like to, after you look at that link that's on there to those podcasts, just scroll down one page and you'll see a list of books that I've written. I hope that'll be a blessing to you. I've got some books there, a couple of them on for because I'm a Vietnam veteran, so there's books there to help veterans with PTSD and problems with exposure to Agent Orange and things that will help them. In addition to that, there's about it, I have a book there entitled Generosity, What's in it for Me, because that's on the premise that give and it should be given into you. There's a book on faith entitled Receive Everything from What We Call Nothing, and so it's really the premise of calling forth those things that are not as though they are, so I hope that'll bless you.

24:15 In addition to that, if you'd like to subscribe to my podcast, you can do that by going to cp .com. Well, once again, I hope this has been a blessing to you and before I close this podcast, I'd like to give you a little blessing. Now may the Lord bless you and keep you. May his face shine upon you. May he be gracious to you and give you peace. May you prosper and be in good health even as your soul prospers. So until next time, may God richly bless you. May you walk in unshakable faith. May you receive the power of God in your life. have greater faith and greater trust in God and walk filled with the Holy Spirit. As we continue these series, I know the Lord has something very special intended as we've got a lot of topics yet to cover. So I pray that you'll be richly blessed. Once again, I want to thank you for listening to Quality Christian Living. This has been podcast number 322, The Holy Spirit Brings Unshakable Faith. Thank you once again for listening.