Tears Do Not Move God: Faith Is the Only Voice He Respects

Sermon outline

Uncommon miracles require uncommon faith, so recognise the moment when God stirs your faith, stand on His word without a back-up option, and speak it.

1. Uncommon miracles require uncommon faith

   Anything that tries to separate you from faith is trying to separate you from the Word. God's obsession is to be believed: it gives Him no pleasure when His people fail to believe Him, and He withholds from those who doubt His word. People with clean lives still struggle when they are not expressing faith, because faith is the one thing that pleases God. Obedience to His word brings more than enough, for you and for the needs of those around you.

   “And God's obsession is He wants to be believed.”

   • Hebrews 11:6
   • Isaiah 1:19

2. He will always reward those that believe His Word

   You may make mistakes, doubt Him or take a wrong road, but if you come back to believing His word under pressure, God will reward you. He reads the blessings of Deuteronomy 28 and says that because of our religious backgrounds many believers are more curse-minded than blessing-minded. If you are an object of blessing, no man can curse you. God has given you a land, a sphere of influence, so keep working it until it yields a harvest. He gets glory from seeing you flourish.

   Illustration: Curses are like homing pigeons: they go back to the nest they left. Whatever you are going through is a temporary setback and a temporary station.

   “God is a blesser, not a curser.”

   • Deuteronomy 28:1-14
   • Galatians 6:9
   • Psalm 34:8

3. Faith is the only voice God respects

   He gives the reasons people in the kingdom do not receive their financial harvest: they think tears, desperation, manipulation or education can move God. You cannot cut a deal with Him. He looks at the heart and responds to faith, which is magnetic and draws Him. The enemy uses fear, doubt and the reasoning mind to separate you from your faith, your prayers and your giving, because reasoning is where he thrives. God is true, He watches over His word, and He wants you to agree with what He has said and not with the news, your family or your enemies.

   Illustration: Smith Wigglesworth said that God will move over a million people just to reach one man or one woman of faith.

   “Faith is the only voice God respects.”

   • 1 Samuel 16:7
   • Romans 3:4
   • Numbers 23:19
   • Jeremiah 1:12
   • Malachi 3:13
   • Isaiah 1:18
   • Amos 3:3

4. Point number three: faith comes when you hear God talk

   Faith comes into your heart when God gives you a word. You cannot explain it, but you know you must respond, and that something good will happen when you obey. Abraham believed against all the odds and told Isaac that God would provide. Gather your family around a family altar and remind them, 'but God'. Faith comes by hearing, which is why you must be in church on Sunday: not to please the pastor, socialise or bring an offering, but to hear the voice of God that will steer you through the other voices you hear from Monday to Saturday.

   Illustration: In Eden, while Adam and Eve heard the voice of God, the glory covered them. When they listened to another voice they lost it, knew they were naked and hid. 'Where art thou?' was not a question about geography but about where Adam stood in relationship with God.

   “You come to church to hear the voice of God.”

   • Genesis 22:7-8
   • Romans 10:17
   • Genesis 3:8-10
   • Matthew 4:4

5. Faith is a weapon God provides to produce your miracles

   It is the Word that saved you, kept you and gave you miracle after miracle, and it is the Word that will keep your children and your future. A life of believing, praising and serving God is itself a seed, and the blessing of the Lord comes on it, sometimes through your children. It does not matter what colour you are or who is against you: if God is in your camp, you will make it. But nothing good happens until you use faith, because without faith it is impossible to please God.

   Illustration: On the Friday he had coffee with a preacher from Johannesburg who had served God for more than forty years and was not doing well financially. The man's son-in-law had sold everything, against his advice, to start a business making a special cream from imported products. The European supplier flew out to see what he was doing and bought him out in euros, for so much that the money took three months to be released. He told the preacher the answer was the blessing of the Lord on the seed of his own life.

   “Faith is really not a weapon until you use it.”

   • Hebrews 11:6

6. Faith shuts down when an option is being considered

   When God gives you a word, stand on that word alone. Those close to him think he contradicts himself, because he says one thing from experience and then does another when God speaks; like the servants at Cana, whatever He says, he does. Some people play it too safe for God to move in their lives. Abraham let Lot choose because he knew that whatever he planted would grow, while Lot calculated. A double-minded man receives nothing. A move to another city or country will shape your whole life, so go because God sent you and not for money alone. Success is a good marriage, a family that loves Jesus and the peace of God.

   Illustration: Some believers do not have one life jacket, they have nine: one on the head, one in each hand and one on each foot. He adds that you can leave South Africa because of crime and still die in a car accident in the safest country in the world.

   “Faith shuts down when an option is being considered.”

   • John 2:5
   • Hebrews 11:8-10
   • Genesis 13:8-9
   • James 1:7-8

7. Recognise the moment: God assigns someone to unlock your faith

   Faith is activated by needs and desires, and when God loves you He assigns someone to stir it. A message that sends you home saying 'we can do it' is a moment of uncommon faith, and you must recognise it, because your faith decides the flow of miracles towards you. Speak faith at home, tell your children how God provided, and teach them to pray and sow for what they want. A principle that worked once will work again, so duplicate it. Prayer in the name of Jesus can be short and simple.

   Illustration: A child wants a bicycle that costs 2,000 rand. Pray with him, then have him break the bank and sow his 20 rand into the church as a seed. When the bicycle comes, he will do the same thing later in life for far bigger things. Engineers do not scratch their heads wondering whether a plane will fly: engage the right laws and you are flying.

   “Recognition of a moment of uncommon faith could create a lifetime of blessings for you.”

   • Ecclesiastes 10:19
   • John 14:13
   • Mark 16:18