By Ken Fletcher
“An important ingredient in faith is believing what you say. People who skirt the truth or conveniently tell little untruths about things are deceived. They may tell a little white lie to make them look better. For their own benefit. This is not good for anybody. The Bible says the first person who formulated a lie is Satan. He is a deceiver. And, he is the father of lies and deception. There is no truth in him.
When we speak a lie, whether a little one or a big one–meant to deceive the real truth, we are doing what Satan does. You and I are capable of this! What happens when we lie? Well, a lot of bad things, but one of the worse things about it is what I’m dealing with tonight. That is: We end up deceiving ourselves! We don’t believe ourselves!
Why? Because, we have not whole-heartedly clung to the truth. The truth is where every believer must stand. No lies. Not even a little sliver, or a so called, white lie! Just true through and through. If you or I can’t tell the truth–then we should say nothing at all.
Standing in the truth is an important ingredient of faith. We know that faith only works by love. We can’t love and speak lies at the same time–so, our faith fails when we lie. Because, we’re not loving the people we’re trying to deceive! So, we cannot be in faith at the same time!
Jesus instructed us in Mark 11:23 to speak, doubt not in our heart, and believe what we say will come to pass. Then, we’ll have what we say! We believe what WE say WILL happen! That confidence and faith in our words comes from a pure heart based upon what God has said. Based upon the truth!
When we falsify things–even just a little, it affects our own faith in OUR words! Many believers are caught in a trap because they are compromised within themselves. This is the place that the enemy wants us to be. Our faith is impacted and ineffective.
Faith is of the heart. Our heart must be clear. Our heart must be settled on the truth. Abiding in God’s will. No deceptions. Listen friend, this is a trap for us all. We all have to watch our heart. Stay in the truth. We must stay clear from deception in our soul if we want to live by faith!
We must stay out of condemnation! It is a sad thing to see in a person who has lied so much for so long that they don’t even realize they are lying. It is because they have lied to themselves for so long. Thinking it’s okay. No real harm, they think. But, they’re compromised inside!
As we all know, we make mistakes and sin. We get it wrong sometimes. But, to self correct before Jesus is the way to a clear heart. Let Him examine our hearts. Let Him point out what we need to adjust. Honestly before our Lord is paramount. We can get it right. We can make the necessary adjustments and get into faith–which will change our circumstances!
We saw in Mark 11 and Matthew 21 that Jesus believed what He said would come to pass when He spoke to the fig tree. Then, the next day, He used the dead tree to break down and explain how faith works to us all. At the core of faith is believing what we say with no doubt in our heart.
We can be assured that our faith will work when we have based it all upon God’s Word. But, do we believe what we say will come to pass? Well, if we have been compromised with untruth, we will not believe what we say will come to pass according to Jesus. The doubt in our heart will short-circuit our faith every time!
So, either we get rid of the doubt and the untruth or we don’t get to live by faith. Many Christians are there tonight. And, many have resigned themselves to just living in the natural the best they can. They are settling for something less than God’s best. Compromised. And, many times, living defeated lives.
What is at the core of it? It’s the condition of our heart that matters! We cannot afford to be compromised! We must give it all to Jesus! Past, present, and future! We must believe what we say will come to pass! With faith in our heart and with NO doubt, we can believe what we say because our heart is true! And, if we do, Jesus said, we shall have what we say!” KF KenFletcher.org
