After reading through this post, Quotes About Faith, you will understand:
- How exactly does a Christian receive healing
- How exactly does a spiritual giant bear fruits of the Holy Spirit while most Christians still struggle
- How exactly does one resists Satan, scripturally
- How the principles identified in this post can be applied on every area of your life such as finance, relationship, ministry, accomplishment, and anything that pertain to life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3)
Before you proceed onward with this post, you may want to know what faith can do and how to act upon whatever faith you have, and then you too, can start experiencing miracle in all areas of your life. Go to Parable Of The Mustard Seed: Scriptural Analysis of Faith if you want to do that.
Then, you can come back to this post, which contains several quote about faith (Actually, they are testimonies and excerpts, but I call them “quote about faith” so people can find this post by typing that phrase in the search engine)
Where does faith come from? How come some Christians experience God’s supernatural power but I don’t?
Faith comes by hearing (Romans 10:17). In the testimonies that I copied and pasted below you will find that all the testimonies involved hearing of God’s word. Upon hearing the Word of God, the believers accepted them with his whole heart and confess the Word with believing lips (Romans 10:10-11), and then God does what He said (Isaiah 5:11).
Every Christian receives revelation from the Holy Spirit. The job of the Holy Spirit is to guide us into all truth (John 16:13-15) He does it all day long. You can trust this fact. Satan and the circumstance will try to deceive you and make you think that the Holy Spirit isn’t interested in talking to you or the truth isn’t what it seems to mean, and thus steal the Word from your heart and mind (John 10:10).
However, we have the authority from God to resist the Devil (James 4:7) and rebuke our circumstances (Matthew 8:26). If we persevere, we will bear much fruits eventually (Luke 8:15).
Truth will set us free (John 8:32), but only truth that we understand and believe will set us free (Matthew 13:23; James 1:21). The entire Bible is useless to us if we don’t understand the words (2 Corinthians 3:6).
One of the best strategies to substantiate the truth into personal experience is to follow the prompting of the Holy Spirit like this: let Him reveals a verse or a passage to you one at a time, and jot them down on a piece of paper or card, verbally proclaiming it, mixing it with your own words if you want, for as long as and as frequent as you want until the truth manifests in reality. When you sense the Spirit impressing upon you another verse or passage, add them to your next card and do the same. Memorize them too.
Testimony #1 The Fruit of the Holy Spirit
Have you wondered how to bear the fruit of the Holy Spirit? The following excerpt is one of the clearest explanations I have read.
Excerpt from The Normal Christian Life, by Watchman Nee Pg 78
Some of you have no doubt had an experience something like the following. You have been asked to go and see a friend, and you knew the friend was not very friendly, but you trusted the Lord to see you through. You told Him before you set out that in yourself you could not but fail, and you asked Him for all that was needed. Then, to your surprise, you did not feel at all irritated, though your friend was far from gracious. On your return you thought over the experience and marveled that you kept so calm, and you wondered if you would be just as calm next time. You were amazed at yourself and sought an explanation. This is the explanation: the Holy Spirit carried you through.
Unfortunately we only have this kind of experience once in while, but it should be a constant experience. When the Holy Spirit takes things in hand there is no need for strain on our part. It is not a case of clenching our teeth and thinking that thus we have controlled ourselves beautifully and have had a glorious victory. No, where there is a real victory there is no fleshly effort. We are gloriously carried through by the Lord…
We have spoken of trying and trusting, and the difference between the two. Believe me, it is the difference between Heaven and hell. It is not something just to be talked over as a good thought; it is stark reality. `Lord, I cannot do it, therefore I will no longer try to do it.’ This is the point where most of us fail. `Lord, I cannot; therefore I will take my hands off; from now on I trust Thee for that.’ I refuse to act; I depend on Him to act and then I enter fully and joyfully into the action He initiates. It is not passivity; it is a most active life, trusting the Lord like that; drawing life from Him, taking Him to be my very life, letting Him out His life in
me.
A lot of Christians, including you and I, have also experienced something similar once in a while, but the experience never lasted. How come? What is the formula that will deliver all the time? The first step is to trust! We have to trust the Lord to see us through every situation in life. What come after trust? Let’s continue The Normal Christian Life Pg 79
God will not give me humility or patience or holiness or love as separate gifts of His grace. He is not a retailer dispensing grace to us in doses, measuring out some patience to the impatient, some love to the unloving, some meekness to the proud, in quantities that we take and work on as kind of capital. He has given only one gift to meet all our need — His Son Christ Jesus, and as I look to Him to live out His life in me, He will be humble and patient and loving and everything else I need — in my stead. Remember the word in the first Epistle of John: “God gave unto us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath the life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not the life” (1 John 5:11,12). The life of God is not given us as a separate item; the life of God is given us in the Son. It is “eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 6:23). Our relationship to the Son is our relationship to the life.
The key ingredient is “Christ my life”. If you have the life Christ, you have to let this life live out in you. Only trust can activate His life. You trust the Lord to see you through and He will live out His life in you when you trust Him. This is the general idea, but can it be more specific? Let’s get to the specific, read on: The Normal Christian Life Pg 80
That is why Paul speaks of “the fruit of the Spirit” as one (Gal. 5:22) and not of `fruits’ as separate items. God has given us His Holy Spirit, and
when love is needed the fruit of the Spirit is love; when joy is needed the fruit of the Spirit is joy. It is always true. It does not matter what your personal deficiency, or whether it is a hundred and one different things, God has one sufficient answer — His Son Jesus Christ, and He is the answer to every human need. How can we know more of Christ in this way? Only by way of an increasing awareness of need. Some are afraid to discover deficiency in themselves and so they never grow. Growth in grace is the only sense in which we can grow, and grace, we have said, is God doing something for us. We all have the same Christ dwelling within, but revelation of some new need will lead us spontaneously to trust Him to live out His life in us in that particular. Greater capacity means greater enjoyment of God’s supply. Another letting go, a fresh trusting in Christ, and another stretch of land is conquered. `Christ my life’ is the secret of enlargement.
As God reveals our deficiency and the need to grow, we are to stop right there. Don’t rush in to apply your willpower and common sense to try to improve yourself, because it will only prolong the struggle. When God gives us awareness of a need, we are to trust Him to live out His life in us in that particular!
As you read more excerpts and testimonies, you will find a similar pattern of how it works: The believer becomes aware of a need, such as financial need, spiritual need, or health need, and God speaks to him through His word, and the believer acts upon the revealed truth by boldly declaring the revealed truth, and believe the word from his heart.
Testimony #2 When you should stop praying and start declaring victory that was already won
God has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3).
Once His Spirit reveals to us a specific truth or promise, we don’t need to pray anymore. Instead, we should keep proclaiming that piece of truth or promise until it manifests – the Bible tells us to calls things that are not as though they were (Romans 4:17). The more we hear our own proclamation, the more our faith will increase (Romans 10:17).
What if we meet severe resistance before we see the fulfillment of God’s Word? We rebuke it!
The Normal Christian Life Pg 33-34
I once had an experience which illustrates this principle. Some years ago I was ill. For six nights I had high fever and could find no sleep. Then at length God gave me from the Scripture a personal word of healing, and because of this I expected all symptoms of sickness to vanish at once. Instead of that, not a wink of sleep could I get, and I was not only sleepless but more restless than ever. My temperature rose higher, my pulse beat faster and my head ached more severely than before. The enemy asked, `Where is God’s promise? Where is your faith? What about all your prayers?’ So I was tempted to thrash the whole
matter out in prayer again, but was rebuked, and this Scripture came to mind: “Thy word is truth” (John 17:17). If God’ Word is truth, I thought, then what are these symptoms? They must all be lies! So I declared to the enemy, `This sleeplessness is a lie, this headache is a lie, this fever is a lie, this high pulse is a lie. In view of what God has said to me, all these symptoms of sickness are just your lies, and God’s Word to me is truth.‘ In five minutes I was asleep, and I awoke the following morning perfectly well.
The circumstance is not going to change the second you choose to believe, rather it can be just as bad or even worst than ever. Satan will work very hard to deceive you so that you will never stick it out until God’s truth manifest.
A skillful liar lies not only in word but in gesture and deed; he can as easily pass a bad coin as tell an untruth. The Devil is a skillful liar, and we cannot expect him to stop at words in his lying. He will resort to lying signs and feelings and experiences in his attempts to shake us from our faith in God’s Word.
Satan is a thief. He comes to steal, kill, and destroy (John 10:10). Since Satan cannot do it in the open, he has to lie to achieve these purposes. As Christian, we have real authority over Satan and his army, but if we are deceived by him and fail to exercise our authorities in Christ, we will live like a poor kid who has inherited billions of dollars but live as though he is still poor.
The key is to call things that are not as though they were, until they are. No one can stop that formerly poor but presently rich kid to go to the bank and withdraw some cash from his bank account that has billions of dollars, but he has to go through some paper work and stand in the line the first time he goes to the bank. He has to show his identity to the teller and exercise his legal right as a billionaire.
Testimony #3 Rebuke Satan, temptation, and evil thought. Call it a lie!
Satan and his demons can manipulate your emotion and thinking. Sinful thoughts inside your head might actually originated from unclean spirits from within or without, and they can disguise their implanted thoughts as your own thoughts. If you doubt whether a Christian can be manipulated by demons like that, go here.
Here is an excerpt of a testimony from Grantley Morris’ website: Calling temptation, accusation, and evil thought a lie
I resisted the devil by not believing his lies. But I also hit him with the truth. That makes me feel real good. I only use short statements of truth. The devil wants me to have a debate with him but that would be giving him the upper hand. I’ve found it’s important not to get too involved with the Tempter. Jesus didn’t strike up a conversation or debate with the devil. He boldly and emphatically declared Bible verses and told him to get lost – nothing more! (Matthew 4:1-10) I’ve discovered that’s all any of us have to do. So I don’t bother arguing with the devil; I know the truth and I’m holding on to it, no matter what.
The devil might throw a bad feeling at me but I remember he’s hurting ten times worse. Every time Satan hears me saying, “That’s a lie!” it hurts him bad. The feelings he puts on me are just his desperate attempt to get me to stop because he’s scared. He knows he’s losing.
If demons want to put awful thoughts into my head, they are going to hate being near me because I’m committed to worshipping Jesus until the day I die. For the first time in my life I’m winning and I’m not going to let some thought or feeling rob me and drag me back to the black hole in which I used to live.
I used the same tactics when fighting urges to look at porn or women other than my wife. If the thought wasn’t good, I called it a lie. If the Bible doesn’t say it is true, I called it a lie. When I feel unforgiven, I call it a lie. It worked. The devil has little power over me now.
The demons can actually give you bad feelings! Likewise, they can make you feel like you have sinful desires while the fact is that the desires are coming from them.
What we can do is to expose the scheme of the enemy and call it a lie. A bad feeling can be a lie. An evil thought can be a lie. A physical pain can be a lie. We have to pay attention to the Holy Spirit and rely on Him to discern what’s going on behind the scene. Once we identify that something actually came from the enemy, we call it a lie and rebuke it with the truth!
Testimony #4 How to substantiate the promises of God that were already done deals in the spiritual realm
Most of the time the promise of God is considered done when the Lord had said it, and many other times, our prayers are answered the first time we prayed or even before that (Matthew 6:32)!
However, in the physical realm, God’s Word hasn’t manifested yet, but I am telling you, the answer to your prayer and the substance of your hopes already exist (Hebrews 11:1)! They are just warped presents sitting somewhere in the unseen realm, waiting for you to substantiate them with your faith, action, and patience.
The following testimony is one of the best examples on how to substantiate the truth that already existed.
Joel Osteen Your Best Life Now Pg 129
In 1981, my mother was diagnosed with cancer and given just a few weeks to live…
And my mother never gave up. She refused to speak words of defeat. She didn’t complain about how sick or weak she felt, or how awful her life was, or how hopeless her situation looked. She chose to put God’s words in her mind and in her mouth.
She started speaking faith-filled words. She started calling in health and calling in healing. All during the day, we’d hear her going through the house speaking aloud, “I will live and not die, and I will declare the works of the Lord.” She was like a walking Bible!
I’d say, “Mother, how are you doing?”
She’d say, “Joel, I’m strong in the Lord and the power of His might.” She pored over her Bible and found about thirty or forty favorite passages of Scripture concerning healing. She wrote them down, and every day, she’d read over them and boldly declare them aloud. We’d see her walking up and down the driveway, saying, “With long life, He satisfies me and shows me His salvation.”
Mother mixed her words with God’s Words, and something powerful began to happen. Her circumstances began to change. Not overnight, but little by little, she began to feel better. She got her appetite back and started gaining weight. Slowly but surely, her strength returned.
What was happening? God was watching over His Word to perform it. God was restoring health to her and healing her of her wounds. A few weeks went by and Mother got a little better. A few months went by, and she was even better. A few years went by, and she just kept on confessing God’s Word. Today, it has been more than twenty years since we received the report that Mother had just a few weeks to live, and as I write these words, Mother is totally free from that cancer, healed by the power of God’s Word!
And she is still confessing God’s Word. She gets up every morning and reviews those same Scriptures on the subject of healing. She still speaks those words of faith, victory, and health over her life. She won’t leave the house until she does it. Beyond that, she lives to remind “Mr Death” that he has no hold on her life.
The Bible contains a lot more promises than just those that talks about health! Ask the Lord to help you be more creative and ask for more things!
Testimony #5 Rebuke the lies and substantiate God’s truth!
What happened in this testimony is a very real and typical situation, and everybody will face something similar, sooner or later, if he or she is to live on earth (1 Peter 5:9). In the previous testimonies, we discussed the importance of trust, rebuking lies, and substantiating truth. This testimony is a typical case which demands all these skills.
Watchman Nee’s testimony of his terminal illness
When I first became aware of my illness in 1924, I was feeling feeble, there was pain in my chest, and I had a slight fever…
Dr. Wong told me that I was afflicted with tuberculosis and that my condition was so serious…
Day after day passed without my tuberculosis being cured. Though I exerted myself to write and to study the Bible, I found it exceedingly strenuous. I had a slight fever each afternoon, I could not sleep at night, and I frequently experienced night sweats…
After praying for over a month, I felt that I should write a book concerning what I had learned before God…
At that time my disease became so aggravated that I could not even lie down. While writing I sat on a chair with a high back and pressed my chest against the desk to alleviate the pain. Satan said to me, “Since you will soon be dying, why not die in comparative comfort rather than in pain?” I retorted, “The Lord wants me just like this; get out of here!” It took four months to complete the three volumes of The Spiritual Man. The writing of this book was a real labor of blood, sweat, and tears. I despaired of life, yet God’s grace brought me through. After completing each time of writing, I would say to myself, “This is my last testimony to the church.” [Sai Kit: Now, I highlighted this sentence because it is not biblical. Don't ever curse yourself like that. I believe Watchman Nee's generation had very little teaching on the power of the tongue so he didn't know better at the time. However, if he was born in this generation I am sure he won't speak any self-imposed curse like this. And I also believe that the reason why his illness was getting so serious and prolonged was because of his own negative words.]
…Following the publication of the book, I prayed, “Now let Your servant depart in peace.” At the same time my disease worsened. [See!? Self-imposed curse was working against him! The moment he prayed for death his disease got worst] I could not sleep peacefully at night, and when I awoke I turned incessantly from side to side. Physically, I was a bag of bones. I had night sweats, and my voice became hoarse. People had trouble hearing me speak, even when they placed their ear to my mouth. Several sisters took turns waiting upon me, one of whom was a veteran nurse. Whenever she saw me, she would weep. She testified, “I have seen many patients, but I have never seen one whose condition was as pitiful as his. I am afraid that he can live only three or four more days.” When someone told me of this, I said, “Let this be my end. I realize I am going to die soon.” [He did it again!] One brother telegraphed the churches in various places, telling them there was no more hope for me and that they need pray for me no more [Even Christians can bring curses upon you, if you receive their words that are speaking against you without rebuking these curses with the name of Christ and His blood you will live under these curses].
One day I asked God, “Why are You calling me away so soon?” I confessed my trespasses before God, fearing that I might have been unfaithful concerning some matter. At the same time I told God that I had no faith. On that same day I devoted myself to fasting and praying and presented myself to Him once more. I told Him that I would do nothing but what He assigned me. From morning until three o’clock in the afternoon I fasted. At the same time the co-workers earnestly prayed together for me in Sister Ruth Lee’s home. As I prayed to God to grant me faith, He spoke His words to me, words which I could never forget. [Please note, when he asked for more faith, the Lord gave him his words instead. Faith comes by hearing! (Romans 10:17)] The first sentence was, “The just shall live by faith” (Rom. 1:17). The second sentence was, “By faith you stand” (2 Cor. 1:24). The third sentence was, “We walk by faith” (2 Cor. 5:7). These words filled me with great joy, for the Bible says, “All things are possible to him who believes” (Mark 9:23). I immediately thanked and praised God because He had given me His words. I believed that God had cured me. [When the Lord has spoken, consider it done. Stop praying but start thanks giving and praising.]
The test came immediately. The Bible says, “By faith you stand,” but I was still lying in bed. A conflict arose in my mind: Should I get up and stand or remain lying down? We all know that human beings love themselves and consider it more comfortable to die in bed than to die standing. Then the word of God manifested its power, and ignoring all else, I put on my clothing, clothing which I had not worn for a hundred and seventy-six days. As I left the bed to stand, I perspired so profusely that it was as though I had been soaked through with rain. Satan said to me, “Are you trying to stand when you can’t even sit up?” I retorted, “God told me to stand,” and I rose to my feet. Being again in a cold sweat, I nearly fell down. I kept repeating, “Stand by faith, stand by faith!” [Our hero of faith started confessing God's Word!!] I then walked a few steps to get my trousers and socks. After putting on my trousers, I sat down. No sooner was I seated than the word of God came to me that I should not only stand by faith but also walk by faith. I felt that the ability to rise and walk a few steps to get my trousers and socks was already something marvelous. How could I expect to walk further? “Where do You want me to go?” I asked God. He answered, “Go downstairs to Sister Lee’s home at number 215.” A number of brothers and sisters had been fasting and praying for me there for two or three days.
Walking within the room might be all right, I thought, but how could I walk downstairs? I prayed to God, “Oh God, I can stand by faith, and by faith I am also able to walk downstairs!” Immediately, I went to the door leading to the staircase and opened it. I tell you honestly that when I stood at the top of the staircase it seemed to me to be the tallest staircase I had ever seen in my life. I said to God, “If You tell me to walk I will do so, even if I die as a result of the effort.” But I continued, “Lord, I cannot walk. I pray that You will support me with Your hand while I am walking.” With one hand holding onto the rail, I descended step by step. Again I was in a cold sweat. As I walked down the stairs, I continued to cry out, “Walk by faith, walk by faith!” With each step down, I prayed, “O Lord, it is You who enable me to walk.” While descending those twenty-five steps, it seemed I was walking hand in hand with the Lord in faith.
Upon reaching the bottom of the stairway, I felt very strong and went quickly to the rear door. I opened the door and headed straight for Sister Lee’s home. I said to the Lord, “From now on, I will live by faith and will no longer be an invalid.” I knocked at the door just as Peter did in Acts 12:12-17, but without Rhoda to open the door. When the door was opened and I entered the house, seven or eight brothers and sisters gazed at me. They were speechless and motionless. For about an hour everyone sat quietly as if God had appeared among men. I also sat there full of thanksgiving and praise.
The above testimony revealed the key principles of faith. I am going to summarize them in the conclusion of this post.
Conclusion
The key principle is: confession, proclamation, thanksgiving, and praise. (That’s why you see a similar pattern in the book of Psalms and the Old Testament all the time)
In each and every test and trial that we encounter daily, we have to do this one thing correctly– speak exactly what the Bible says about it. We have to “hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering” (Hebrews 10:23)
On our own, the Bible will always seem too thick to find a relevant verse to confess with, but with help from the Holy Spirit we will know what to say at the right time.
Anything that doesn’t fall in line with the truth– be it feeling, appearance, symptoms, evil thought, desire, or anything that people say– we are to call it a lie. Rebuke them the way Jesus did! (Matthew 4:1-10; Matthew 8:26; Matthew 16:23)
Lastly, I want to share with you the last quote of faith.
I am the sum total of what I have been confessing through the years. Joel Osteen
Same for me! 99.9% of the negative words that I have confessed in the last 10+years have manifested! And so were the positive confessions that were inspired by God.
The positive confessions were done naturally when I eagerly shared with my friends some of the most recent revelations I had received a the time. I did it because I thought it could help others, but little did I know that this action alone had turned out to be the key to manifesting those revelations.
Negative confessions came very easily. They came through while we participated in gossips, or simply trying to vent our frustration or confusion about certain things with others.
Praying about or analyzing the negatives in a situation also is a form of negative confession. We will get caught by our words (Proverbs 6:2) and see our self-fulfilling prophesies fulfilled (Numbers 14:28)! I was there and got the T-shirt! Don’t repeat my mistakes!
Let’s hold fast the confession of our hope with out wavering!!
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