Romans 4 - How does faith work?

Let's go to Chapter 4 of the Epistle to the Romans, the letter to the Romans, Chapter 4. We continue our study of the Epistle to the Romans and we're going to do something a little different this morning. I am going to combine the reading of this passage with other passages that link us to the Christmas drama as well. And very interesting how the Lord spoke to me this morning about it and I'm going to share it later, but let's go first to Romans, Chapter 4, verses 1 to 5 and I'm going to be showing you, then verse 11, and tremendous, I think that we are going to be able to project the text here for the brothers who visit and who do not have their Bibles.

Chapter 4, Romans. Paul continues his elaboration of salvation as being by faith and not by works. It says here “...What then shall we say that Abraham, our father, found according to the flesh? Because if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God”

That is, if Abraham's salvation came because of something good that he did, because of his actions, his behavior, good then he could boast about it and God would have nothing to do with it. Because what does the Scripture say? In Genesis, Chapter 15, verse 6 says "... Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness." Where is that again? When God appeared to Abraham one of those times, and told him 'you are going to have a son, Abraham', and Abraham was already 80-odd, 90-odd years old, the first time he appeared to him he was 75, but later several times he told him 'you are going to have children' and finally he told him how he was going to have them, that he was going to give him a son in his old age through his wife who had been barren all her life, who was also a woman already very advanced in age. Abraham believed God, he says, and God was pleased with that and since he told him that as works of justice, it pleased the Lord.

When a person lives in faith and believes the Lord, that pleases God and God counts that as a blessing.

So "... Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness, but the salary is not counted as grace to the one who works"

In other words, if you work 40 hours a week and on Friday they give you a check for 250, or 500, or 750 dollars or whatever, they are not doing you a favor, you earned it, you worked and there is no grace, or anything, but simply you earned that money.

".... to the one who works, the salary is not counted as a grace, but as a debt, but to the one who does not work....", -that is, to the one who is given the money without having worked, who is given blessing and justice without having earned it by good behavior, but simply believes. Look at all the times these passages talk about believing, believing. That is the link, that is the instrument that God uses to spread his blessings in the life of the believer.

"... but to the one who does not act but believes in him who justifies the wicked, his faith is counted for righteousness."

Now let's go to verse 11 right there, it says speaking about Abraham ".... that Abraham received circumcision as a sign, as a seal of the righteousness of faith that he had while he was still uncircumcised so that he might be father of all uncircumcised believers so that their faith may also be counted as righteousness."

Remember that I am going to connect all this with the Christmas story. But what is Paul doing here in this Chapter 4? The first three Chapters you saw him prove that the entire human race had sinned. Neither Christians, nor pagans, nor Jews could save themselves, they all needed God's mercy and grace.

So in Paul's mind always, he's, remember, he's writing to people who live in the city of Rome, Roman Christians, but he also writes as a converted Pharisee who lived his whole life in Judaism and the Holy Spirit had also revealed to him that what he was saying had very serious implications for all those Jews through the centuries and in all parts of the world, who were going to wonder, but how is that? So what happened to all of Judaism? And what role does Judaism play in God's plans? God simply repented and threw it all away or what is the relationship between the Israelite people and Christianity now, this new dispensation in which God is dealing with humanity.

And Paul is always trying to answer any objections the Jews might have to what he was saying. So he chooses Abraham as the ultimate illustration that God works by faith and by works. Because some Jews said, Abraham, for example, our father there you have it, he was blessed through the law. And Paul says, 'ah, ah, it wasn't like that. Let's go back to history and see what happens.

When God appears to Abraham, Abraham is not yet under the law. There is no such thing as Judaism. There are not even Jews because he was the first man who through him was born a nation that was going to be called the Jewish nation. There was no sacrificial system, or anything. He was a Bedouin, a desert dweller that God chose him and called him, and told him: 'I am going to give you offspring that will bless the earth. And I am going to give you children that you are going to have that are going to continue your lineage.

And then, Abraham, without any justification, believed God what God told him. And then God told him that for justice and told him then about circumcision and everything else.

And Paul says, 'You see, God's covenant with Abraham was made before Judaism came into effect, so that proves one thing to us, and that is that God always through all history has always dealt with humanity in the same way: through grace, through faith, not by works.

Law came after faith. And Paul says, God did that so that Abraham could legally, judicially, be a father, not only to the Jews but also to the Gentiles who were not under the law. Because he entered into his dealings with God outside of the law and through grace as all of us have to enter into our dealings with God. He is emphasizing over and over salvation, justification is by grace. It is simply by believing God and nothing else.

So, in verse 17 he says “... as it is written I have made you a father of many nations, before God whom you have believed, who gives life to the dead and calls things that they are not as if they were. Abraham believed in hope against hope in order to become the father of many nations according to what had been said to him. So will your offspring be."

In other words, when God spoke to Abraham, Abraham was almost dead, he was already a man, an old man of an extremely advanced age and God at the moment says to him, 'look, I am going to give you a son'. She had been unable to have children when she was young and now God tells her so.

And why does he say that God calls things that are not as they are? Because God was telling Abraham something that was impossible, which was not, he was speaking to a dead man as if he were alive. I was telling him, your generations will be….in you all the nations of the earth will be blessed and that could not even be conceivable and yet God was declaring it.

And what did Abraham do? Avraham believed. Abraham looked around him, he looked at his body, he looked at the circumstances and he did not contradict God, but said, 'I believe what God is telling me.' And that pleased the heart of God. And God blessed him and had dealings with him.

And we can do the same, that's what Pablo is saying at the end of the account. God tells us today, my son, Jesus Christ, is the savior of humanity. You cannot be saved by works, you cannot be saved by your good behavior, you cannot be saved because you are evangelical and because you go to church on Sundays, and because you give money to the church coffers. None of that can save any man, only believing that Christ is the Son of God, the savior of humanity.

When you believe, that is, who are we believing? To two people: we are first believing God who says this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased, listen to him. We believe in God and we also believe in Christ as our Lord and savior. And it is that faith in Jesus that does the miracle.

And that belief is applicable to Abraham, it is applicable to the Hebrews who are under the law, it is applicable to all the Gentiles who were to come through Jesus Christ, it is applicable to us in the 21st century .

Brothers, God's dealings with man, with humanity are always a matter of faith, a matter of believing God.

And when I was there this morning, I was thinking. I got up early and as always I was looking for what God wanted me to share with you this morning, and I was in the dilemma of, well, this is Christmas time, we are already a week away from Christmas Eve, and as a pastor one wonders: Would it be better to preach a Christmas sermon on this Sunday? But I also wanted to continue with the exhibition of Romano. And he was there at a crossroads. And sometimes one kind of gets stuck and doesn't know where to go, and it occurred to me to pray.

Look what. What a miracle. It occurred to me to pray and ask the Lord what he wanted, and I asked him what you want me to preach this morning, how to solve this dilemma. And it occurred to me to ask the Lord, Father, would it be possible in any way to link the Christmas story with this passage from Roman? And if so, give me understanding how to do it.

And brothers, he told them, instantly, immediately as I was sitting there with a cup of coffee in my seat where I sit in the mornings, the story of Mary, Zacharias, the wise men came to mind. and the fact that these stories all say the same thing: you have to have faith in the Lord, you have to believe God's message. God's treatment with Mary, with Joseph, with the Magi, with Zacharias, was a treatment of faith. What makes God's miracles possible in our lives is when we have faith.

Faith is the currency, it is the material, it is the instrument that God uses to unleash his works in our lives. The Bible says that without faith it is impossible to please God, which means that with faith it is possible to please God.

The only way for us to see the miracles of God in our lives is by cultivating in the spirit of God the ability to believe God. And that's what Mary did, that's what Zacharias did, that's what the Christmas story is: people who believed in God.

My wife and I went to see the movie The Nativity recently and it was very interesting. In that film, Maria's dilemma is traced, like these young women who read, Maria was a young woman, she had not married and God tells her, 'You are going to have a son.' And she knew what that implied, public shame because who was going to believe that an angel had told her that this son was going to be by generation, God's begetting. With that came shame, came people pointing at her, came the danger that her fiancé would accuse her of betraying him. So many things.

This girl could not understand what was happening to her and yet God told her, 'I need your body to carry out my work.' Mary also had to put herself in hope against hope as Abraham did and decide, am I going to believe God or am I going to continue my life as I please, as is convenient for me? And in that dilemma was the substance of faith.

Let's go to the Gospel according to Saint Luke, Chapter 1, so that you can see clearly how this element of faith is developed and that when we believe God, then God can do his works. But I am going to show you through two characters, not only María, but first Zacarías. And how interesting that in the account of Zacharias and Mary, the birth of John the Baptist, in the birth of Jesus, there is a lot of resemblance to Isaac's origins as a son of Abraham. In all these cases it is always the same: a woman who biologically cannot conceive but whom God chooses her to be the bearer of a life that will bless humanity. An impossible that God poses to a person and that person always has the option of saying 'I don't believe' or saying 'yes', although I don't understand everything but I am going to believe God and I am going to join his purpose.

In the case of Zacharias here, Chapter 1, verse 11. Zacharias was a priest by profession, a member of the Levitical caste. He is in the temple officiating according to his turn on that day, and all the crowd, it says in verse 10, was outside praying at the time of the incense. Zacharias is inside the temple officiating the priestly rite “.....and an angel of the Lord appeared to him standing, to the right of the altar of incense and Zacharias was disturbed when he saw him and was overcome with fear. But the angel said to him, 'Zacharias, do not fear because your prayer has been heard and your wife Elizabeth will give birth to you a son and you will call his name John, and you will have joy and gladness and many will rejoice at his birth because he will be great in front of you. God. He will not drink wine or strong drink, and will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother's womb."

So, on the other hand, notice that this creature, even inside its mother's womb, could be filled with the Holy Spirit. Many say that a child in the mother's womb is the property of the mother, that she has the right to do what she wants with that child because it is just a piece of meat. Look, that piece of meat could be indwelt by the Holy Spirit. So there is something about the sacredness of life.

God's dealings are from the womb. It says, even before the creation of the world. It is something sacred, it is something very beautiful, very important. And that creature that was going to be born in the womb of Elizabeth and through Zacharias, God had a special purpose with that creature. And it was going to be born to people who couldn't give birth, they didn't have the capabilities. And it says that "..... he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord, their God, and he will go before him with the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and from the rebellious to the prudence of the just to prepare a well-disposed people for the Lord.”

It was a very high order that this boy was going to fulfill. John the Baptist was the one who was going to open the way for the savior of the world. He was going to be a prophet who was going to prepare the people with his message, with his teaching. And Zacharias was going to be the instrument used by God.

But what about? When Zacarías hears that, his mind fills with doubt. The angel intuits that he is not believing God and Zacharias tells the angel "...How will I know this?" In other words, what proof are you going to give me that what you tell me is true? There it failed.

Guess what? When God tells you many times, he will not give you any proof that it is he who is speaking to you. This morning as I was sitting there trying to figure out my dilemma, that thought came to me. No angel appeared to me and spoke to me in an audible voice, but I believed what God was saying to me: use these texts, put them together, and show my people that my dealings with my people through the centuries have always been through of faith. I decided to believe that that word came from the Lord and I had to act on it by faith. And here I am standing making those connections, showing what God has said to me. But there is nothing that assures me that it is so.

And we have to be very careful many times when God speaks to us, that we are not asking the Lord for conclusive evidence and God's dealings are by faith. Perhaps God has spoken to you at some point about something that he wants to do through your life, something that he wants to develop in your life, some gift that he wants to give you, some calling.

I know God is dealing with many of you and saying 'I want you to go to college. To some he is saying 'I want you to be a counselor for women'. To others he is saying 'I want you to be a mentor to a couple of kids and teach them. They don't have a father but I want you to be that father with them.' To others he says, 'I want you to learn English because I want to use you at work and in other places.

And we are going to hear that voice of God and we are going to have to ask ourselves like Zacharias, how will this be? Many of us say, I don't have a study, I've never been to school, I'm not easy with languages. But what God asks, simply obey, throw yourself in the name of the Lord. Believe God and God will open the way as you obey the voice of the Lord.

Zacarias did not believe. His question is very different from that of Mary, because Mary also asked the angel, how will this be since I have not known a man? But evidently in Maria's question, what was there was rather curiosity. How are you going to do this? While Zacarías, in Zacarías's question there is doubt. How are you going to prove to me that what you are telling me is true? Then the angel answers, "'I am Gabriel, who stands before God and I have been sent to speak to you and give you this good news."

In other words, he makes use of his authority, of being a messenger of God. What I am telling you, Zacharias, is true, it comes directly from God ".....and now you will be dumb and will not be able to speak until the day this is done because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled his time.”

Brothers, when we do not believe God there are negative consequences. When we believe God comes the blessing. There are many people to whom God has said, 'receive my Son, he is your savior. He is the only way you can get into heaven. And there are people who start at once to ask questions and to question God.

‘Well, why are there so many denominations? And why then are there the Catholics, and the Evangelicals? And what about the Jehovah's Witnesses and... all the questions and all the arguments that people offer when you preach the Gospel to them, right? And who married Cain to have children, if there was only Eve in the movie and there were no other women at the time.

And there are people who never progress in the Gospel, because they are always looking for the cat's 5 legs. You are always questioning something, aren't you? They are always watching the fights of the evangelicals, of the people who behave badly in the Gospel, the people who, despite going to church, do not do what they have to do at work, those who lie despite those who go to church, those who fall back into the world and allow themselves to be scandalized by all these things, and do not enter the ways of the Lord. And they are always wondering, well, what if Confucius, what if Buddha, what if Mohammed and all these things, what if science, what if evolution.

Brothers, salvation is believing God. Believing God even though your mind is screaming otherwise, even though there are arguments that suggest something different. Someone has said that believing in Christ is like jumping into the abyss, it is simply throwing yourself in the name of the Lord and there will always be voices that will invite you to question what you have done. There are going to be situations in your life, there are going to be traumas, there are going to be financial difficulties, illnesses are going to come and you are going to question whether what you did was truly from God or not.

And in those cases we have to do like Abraham. He looked around, he saw himself old, he saw his wife advanced in age, a hundred years old, they had never had children. But Abraham believed, strengthened his faith and said, 'Lord, I believe you.' And then that belief was counted to him for justice.

I tell you, brothers, the most important thing in the life of a Christian is to ask the Lord, 'Father, increase my faith every day. Help me to believe.’ It is not by sight, it is by believing God.

Peter, when he was in the boat and saw Jesus walking on the water, said to him 'Lord, -in a burst of faith- make me able to walk and come to you on the water'. His faith gave him to ask Jesus Christ to give him that opportunity. And the Lord told him 'come ahead, come'. Peter got out of the boat and began to walk on the water. But what happened? He began to see the storm waves, he began to hear the roaring wind, he began to see the spray of water and the thunder and lightning and he says that he “began to fear”.

And what happened? His mind began to betray him. He started saying 'how can I do that? I am a mere man and I am walking on water. Einstein said that you could not walk on the water, he began to sink because he questioned, he looked at the circumstance instead of looking at Jesus who told him, 'come to me'.

And as he was sinking he said to the Lord, 'Lord, save me,' and the Lord Jesus Christ reached out his hand, pulled him out of the water, put him in the boat and said, 'Why did you doubt man? of little faith?'

Brethren, never be carried away by the circumstances around you. Never get carried away by your past. Never be swayed by your lack of family pedigree. Never get carried away by the fact that you have done high theology or not. Never get carried away because you have not been the most dedicated person to the Lord and now God is calling you. God loves to take little people and turn them into giants for his glory. God loves to take the impossible and make it possible.

It is more for God the more impossible things seem, the more he delights in showing the opposite. So I encourage you not to doubt, not to question, not to look around at events and circumstances and question God, but in the name of the Lord, jump in, grab hold of the word of God.

That is why the Lord Jesus Christ said 'Man shall not live on bread alone, but on what? of every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

We have to learn to look at what the word of God says. That is why it is so important that we know that word, because in that word is the way to the heart of God, through that word you know how to open the door of blessing in heaven. By that word you know how God reasons, how God thinks, how God solves problems.

When you come and you know that word and you see the Bible accounts, that God has always worked through the channel of faith, and that faith can change any circumstance, any situation. There is nothing in this world that does not obey the word of faith, brothers.

That is why the Lord Jesus Christ said, 'if you have faith, like a mustard seed, faith is so powerful, you are going to say to a mountain 'get out of there and throw yourself to the bottom of the sea', and that mountain will obey him. It was hyperbole, perhaps an exaggeration, but what Christ was saying is, there is no situation that you cannot solve through faith in the God who has promised.

The problem is often that our faith is weak and we have not cultivated faith. How is faith cultivated? Faith is cultivated by becoming immersed in the word of God, reading the texts of the word continuously and seeing the way in which God has worked throughout history and that strengthens our mind. Faith is cultivated by being infected with the faith of others.

I believe that faith is contagious. If you hang out with people who have faith, your faith will grow. If you hang out with people who speak in faith and bold people in the Lord, and people who have experiences with the Lord, and who know God is real, your faith will increase.

Now, if you hang out with people who are thinking about birds in the air all the time, whose mind is secular, mundane, time and space, always with their heads on television and in things of men, your mind is going to be just as small, in terms of faith.

Join spiritual giants and your faith will grow too. And your faith increases by putting God to the test, even though there is fear in your heart. There are many times, brothers, that when God speaks to you, you are going to have to take a step of faith and you are going to be trembling while you do it, but go ahead in the name of the Lord. And even though your heart inside of you is telling you, 'You're going to hit the pavement. You're crazy'. And even if those around you also tell you the same thing, keep going in the name of the Lord. Keep insisting, keep trusting in the Lord and as you see the God of heaven open the way before you, your faith will increase.

What happened to blind Bartimaeus? Bartimaeus was a man of faith. He could not see but heard that Jesus Christ was passing near him. And what did Bartimaeus do? He began to shout at the top of his voice, 'Lord, son of David, Jesus, son of David, save me, heal me? And what did the people around him, including the disciples, do? Shut up, don't bother the Master. No? They were contradicting him.

You see, when you move in faith there are always going to be voices around you. Many times well-intentioned, well-intentioned that they will want to silence you, because those voices do not understand the wave in which you are operating at that moment. Many times they will be people who love him, many times they will be people who want to take care of him and defend him from committing a problem.

There are people who are going to say, 'Look, you're going to church too long, you're going crazy, you're going to be a fan. Life is not like that, you have to do this, you have to do that. Help yourself and I will help you, says the Bible, etc. etc, right? You have never done that, that has never been seen. Nobody has done that. And if one gets carried away, brothers, that kills your faith. And sometimes within your heart, you will say 'I can't do that. I have never done it. I don't have the preparation, I don't have the resources, I don't have experience in that.

But faith is not the absence of doubt. I have learned that. On the contrary, faith, I believe that it requires doubt at some level, because faith is what is replaced, what overcomes doubt. Faith is what listens to the voice of the flesh but says "I trust God more than in the flesh," and moves forward and moves forward and takes steps of will.

Bartimaeus, while telling him to 'shut up', they say that he yelled harder then. ‘Lord, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me.’ And the Bible says that the Lord stopped. Don't you think the Lord heard it the first time? I think so. But the Lord liked to test people and He liked to see if they would really stick with it or not.

Many times, we say a prayer in the name of Jesus, amen, we continue to eat the cereal and we believe that we have already done what we have to do. And God says, 'no, I'm not going to answer superficial prayers.' God answers prayers that come from the depths of the heart. God answers the prayer that has been cultivated in the dark, in sleepless nights, in hope, against hope, in doubt, in fear, in anxiety, persistence, and then that is what touches the heart. of God.

And when that cry of Bartimaeus reached its precise level, the Lord turned around and said 'bring it to me'. And how interesting that those who were telling Bartimaeus to 'shut up' now tell him 'look, the Lord is calling you. Come, come and get close to him.

Faith is contagious. The world needs people of faith to show unbelievers that faith is worth it, that faith opens doors, that faith moves mountains. And others then are encouraged by the faith of us.

The Lord approached him and said, 'What do you want me to do for you?', as if he couldn't see that the man was blind, right? Because faith also requires verbal expressions.

Sometimes, brothers, you have to talk about things. That is something else: if you want your faith to grow, you must not only read the word, rub shoulders with people of faith, walk despite doubts and fear, but faith is also cultivated by declaring the things that one expects from God. , As if they were. Some of them laughed with my mom when she... who asked her 'Toñita, how are you?' Well, even though she had different types of pain, neurological and there were other things in her life, but she said 'fine' . And it was frustrating sometimes because you wanted her to say, 'Look, it hurts here or I have this. No, it was always the same word, 'good'.

Because the believer, brothers, can use the voice to challenge the circumstances. God speaks and creates through his mouth. God said, 'Let there be light,' and there was light. 'Fish are born in the sea and birds in the skies,' and for a moment the sea and the air were populated with living beings. And he said 'Let there be the moon, and let there be the sun', and light arose at night and during the day. Because God creates through his mouth.

We are children of God, made in his image and likeness and we also create and operate on reality through our mouth and our confession. When we learn to verbalize what we want in God, that commits us, yes or no?

It is very easy to be there in your heart, where there is no risk, to be asking God for things, but there is doubt many times, there is a certainty that is saying, 'I don't want to commit myself, because if I I commit and then it is not given, then I am ridiculous'.

And that is why many times one has to, with discernment, declare the things that one expects. And I have learned in my life that many times when I verbalize certain things in faith, they happen much faster. It's like something is activated.

And that is why the Lord often asks people, 'what do you want me to do for you?', because there is something that unleashes the power of God when one verbalizes, when one presents their arguments before God, when one commits himself to others, before others and says 'I know that God is going to do this. I believe that God will bless me. I believe that God is going to bring my son to his knowledge, he is going to get him off the drug. I believe that my husband is going to convert to the Lord. I think my finances will improve this year. I believe that God is going to heal me, and what's more, God has healed me because God calls things that are not what they are.

If God does it, we can do it too. There is a confession of power that unleashes the move of God and Christ told him, 'what do you want me to do for you?' Lord, let him see, let him be healed. And the Lord reached out his hand and touched him, and Bartimaeus was immediately healed because there was faith in him.

And that is one of the things that one has to persist in the midst of the cry of your conscience, of your mind, of those around you that tells you 'Don't do it, you shouldn't'. One continues advancing in the name of the Lord and the sea opens from one's own. Risks must be taken if one wants our faith to be put into action.

In the Old Testament the Lord told the Hebrews when they were going to cross the Jordan River. It was spring and all the snow on the mountains had melted and the Jordan River, when spring came, all that snow that melted would run down and fill the river. It was impossible to cross it dry to enter the Promised Land. And God said to them, 'Set the priests before the people. Set the ark before the priests,' because the ark symbolized the presence of God's power.

Do you see? It is important, when you are going to undertake anything in your life, put the power of God before you first. No matter what is in your life, you need to visualize the power of God, fill yourself with the promises of the Lord. You have to be like an athlete who first begins to do calesthenics and exercise, you have to praise the Lord, you have to confess the word of God, you have to visualize what you want God to do in your life, you have to make gestures that help you see the presence of God in your problem. And when you take that engine to a certain level.

Have you seen a plane when it is about to take off at the airport? What does he do first? They start the engines and those engines begin to climb until they squeal, they begin to scramble and rotate until a moment when they are already at full power and then the pilot drops the gear, or whatever, I don't know how that happens, but The plane starts at the moment because it doesn't have much space and you have to move that huge mass that is that device in a short time. That is to say that the engine does not have time to start slowly inching, but never arrives. He has to be strong and then he takes off and starts running up the platform and he can get up in time.

We have to do the same. Many times we have to bring the ark of Jehovah in our mind to a certain level of specificity and clarity in our mind. We have to ask the Lord, 'fill me with confidence in you'. We have to remove, put aside all the distractions, all the doubts, visualize what we want God to do in our life. We have to do it sometimes several times for days and weeks, preparing the space in which God is going to be his miracle.

You know, brothers, many times people believe that faith is something that only God is the only player in the movie. He knows that man has a lot, a lot to do in God's miracles. There is a part that is up to us that God will never do.

And I believe that we have to understand that, that if we want God to move in power in our lives, there is a part that I have to do. There is a mechanics of faith that is important to know. Because many times we give God everything and say, oh, yes Lord, you are the only one. I think it is a mistake. Sometimes we want to be Catholics than the Pope, as they say over there. We want to remove ourselves from the picture and God says, 'no, I want to work in partnership with you'.

In other words, we have to learn what those rules are, what those mechanisms of faith are. And certainly there is a part of our preparation and participation where we have to bring our visualization, confess Bible verses and texts, take risks, cultivate trust in the Lord, remove all distractions and all fears, ask others to pray with us, fast.

If there are big problems in our life, those mountains will only come out, says the Bible, with fasting and prayer. There are small things that can be moved sometimes with a simpler prayer, but there are big things in our life that will only obey intensive and long-term treatment, where we will be there raising the ark of the Lord in our minds, preparing it, accumulating the strength of the spirit, confessing all these things. And when the conditions are in place, then now we are going to move in the name of the Lord and God does what he has to do.

When he said, 'put the ark of God in front, put the priests there to go with that ark, and then come the rest of the people behind them' and he said, 'the priests begin to walk . And when the soles of the feet of the priests tread the water, the river will open.'

Notice that it didn't do it before. He did not say, 'when the river opens, then come through'. He told them, no, walk like generals even if you see the water there to the maximum and you think that your shoes are going to get wet and that you are going to make a fool of yourself, keep walking forward, don't be afraid. And when they get to the point itself, at that moment....

I think that if we had a movie that we could see that, we would see that when the bottom of the shoes touched the water, at that moment the water opened and never got wet shoes.

There is a lesson there, brothers, many times God, because everything in life is God trying to eliminate man's pride, man's dependence on his reason, on himself, so that God can take the glory. And many times God's processes take so long because God is dealing with aspects of our life that first need to be worked on and treated before giving us the miracle that he is waiting for.

Many times God's miracle will not come when you want it to. It's going to take time. And look at how interesting that right here in the passage regarding Zacharias, in verse 20 of Chapter 1, he said "...because you did not believe my words which will come to pass in due time". When will they be fulfilled? At your time.

Part of the problem with faith is that we have to wait for God's time and not our time. God is a God who takes time to perform his miracles. He is a cook so you don't rush him and tell him, 'OK, I'm hungry, give it to me quickly'. He says, 'no, no, I'm going to take my time. I am going to prepare you a good meal but it is in my methods and in my time. And that sometimes makes us impatient and give up the fight early.

Moses waited 80 years before entering his ministry. Abraham, one hundred years, before having his son. The people of God have had to wait how long for the second coming of Christ, although Christ said long ago, 'I am coming soon'. imagine.

God has his time and so he has his time in our lives as well. God has told you things that he wants to do in your life and it has taken a long time and many of us have given up the fight and we already stop dreaming and we stop asking the Lord and we stop praying about what God has promised us. And maybe we did it prematurely. God takes time for the things he wants to do in our life.

I have told you, there are things that God has spoken to me in my heart and in my spirit that I have been waiting for all my life. And I have taken risks in my life believing in the promise of the Lord and I have not seen it yet, but like Abraham I am still waiting. And I keep telling the Lord, 'hey, you told me something, let's see when it will happen'. Because the things of the Lord are fulfilled in their time.

And that is why faith is linked to patience. If you want God's miracles to be done in your life, it requires patience. Don't quit too early, as the Mexicans say. Let the Lord complete his work in your life and in the Lord's time, then the miracle will come, the answer will come.

Faith requires time, it requires process. Faith is not something magical that you say a little magic word, 'open sesame', and things happen. Sometimes God has other purposes. God wants to take advantage of the process of waiting, breaking, searching, praying, crying out, and all of this results in glory for his name and a blessing for your life.

There are many miracles that if God had already given them to you, you would have wasted them. And first he is preparing your heart, your life, your mind so that when the miracle comes you can then take advantage of it and enjoy it and retain it and that is why, I tell you, the science of faith is something very, very deep.

When the Lord speaks to Mary, He tells her, 'You are going to have a son.' Mary tells her, 'Here I am, the servant of the Lord. Let it be done according to your will. Maria was a simple girl, probably ignorant, insignificant in her little village, in an insignificant region on earth. God told her, 'you are going to be the mother of an extraordinary, wonderful, miraculous being, he will be called the Son of God. He will continue the lineage of David and his kingdom will never end. He will be the savior of humanity.

It was something too inconceivable for this insignificant little girl. 'You will be blessed among all women', and Mary at the end said to him 'Lord, your will be done. Here is my body, use me however you want.

When the Lord speaks to your life, when the Lord puts a dream in your life, it will cost you many times, because the processes of faith are expensive. Faith always involves struggle, it involves opposition.

The Lord spoke to me this morning about the figure of Herod, I'm going to finish. Herod, in the Christmas story, symbolizes everything that rises against the promises of God. Wherever there is a great promise of faith there is a Herod.

Herod symbolizes the demonic, diabolical, earthly element that is always opposing God's plans. That Herod may be your mind, that Herod may be a well-intentioned relative who is telling you, 'don't live according to those fairy dreams.' That Herod may be someone who directly opposes you. That Herod can be a disease that rises, when you asked the Lord, 'heal me', something worse comes out in your body. That Herod could be that ........ praying that God heals him from drugs and now he becomes a criminal robbing banks.

That Herod is the pharaoh who tries to kill the firstborn Hebrews so that the people of God will not grow. That Herod is all those who opposed the Hebrew people when they were going to enter the Promised Land so that they would not receive their inheritance. That Herod is Joseph's brothers who sell him as a slave so that he does not reach his dream.

And yet what happens? When you believe Herod ends up working for you. God takes oppositions to form you, to work on you, to polish you, to break you, to increase your faith, if you stick to what God has told you. If you don't think, "Well, now the boy has gotten worse, then I'm going to stop praying to see if things get better." If you, when your car broke down, because you received the Lord Jesus Christ and you came to church on Sunday and at that moment, that car that never broke down, today it won't start, and you say, 'ah, if that's the case, well I'm not going to be a Christian'. But you persist, look for a taxi, you come to church, you continue to worship the Lord.

The Bible says, 'resist the devil, he will flee from you'. When one stands in faith in what God has declared and one persists in taking steps of faith, the sea opens before one. Herod has to flee sooner or later, Herod dies and you can return from Egypt so that the Lord's will be fulfilled in your life, like Mary and Joseph. For a while they had to go to Egypt, but then Herod dies and the Lord can continue his ministry.

Brothers, faith. Abraham, despite being the father of Judaism, gave a very great lesson and that is that God's dealings with humanity have always been by faith. And that is what Paul wanted to prove through the text of Romans, Chapter 4, that there is no such thing as a man who can be justified by his works or by his actions or his behavior. What God wants to do in our lives, the greatest miracle of all, which is the salvation of our soul, will happen when we proceed by faith. And from then on we have to walk by faith. All our dealings will have to be by faith.

What does the word of the Lord say? The just by faith what? will live All your battles, you have to fight them through faith. The currency that buys and sells in the Kingdom of God is faith. Any situation in your life, put your faith to work, present your cause to the Lord, work believing in God.

I ask the Lord, 'Father, give me the strength so that I can handle all the issues in my life with faith.' When I want something in my life and I have a dream, I come first. What I do is I begin to marinate it and soak it in faith, to soften it and sometimes I begin to pray years before the battle takes place, preparing the battle so that when the giant arrives it will already be there, that with just one breath it will fall.

Sometimes there are things that you have to start praying for from the moment the thought comes to mind, you have to start fertilizing them with prayer, with faith, with confession that God is powerful to do it.

That building out there on top of that parking lot, brethren, I've been praying for it for years. Still not seen there. not seen But years ago, I stood in room 208, up there, this building was still unfinished, and God spoke to me and said, 'that's where the new temple is going to be built. When this temple is full, that will be the place of the new temple.'

There had not been a single service here in this place. I tell you the truth, brothers, my faith did not allow me to think that there would be two services here filling up every Sunday. But God, I felt in my heart, that is going to be the place. And I have spent years fertilizing and, as I say, softening that large stone of that building in prayer, and visualizing it. In my office I have a maquette, a model of the new temple. And I continually pray, and my mind is always going around that building, and I always bring it to the Lord. And when I say this, do you know the public commitment that this means that it will happen? But I believe in a God who works miracles, the almighty God. I believe in a God who says, 'those who trust in him will not be put to shame'.

Brothers, I can tell you that all the battles that I have undertaken in the name of the Lord, in faith, God has given me victory in all of them. And I think this will be no different. So it can be in your life.

I am nothing exceptional, my faith often falters and many times I am trembling when I get into the trouble I get into, and I say. ‘Lord, how are you going to get me out of this?’ But God in his mercy always manages and blesses me.

And God can do the same in your life. There is nothing impossible. Young man, God can give you victory in your studies. God can take you out of ignorance. Old man, God can give you a new career, a new ministry in your old age. Woman, God can make you a spiritual giant and God can provide you with what you need. Do not worry. Look to the future, look to that promised land, and say, 'In the name of the Lord I am going to possess it. In the name of the Lord I am going to cross the Jordan. In the name of the Lord my feet are not going to sink in the water, I am going to get ahead. In the name of the Lord, I am going to conceive the life of God in my bowels and I am going to give birth to the blessing of God to the world.'

No matter how difficult it may seem, the promise is great, the promise is immense. What does God want to do in your life? believe. Life is lived by faith. The problems, the struggles of life, the challenges of life are overcome by faith. Not in you, in the almighty God, who is faithful to fulfill what he has promised.

A people like this is what God needs in this time to do the work that he wants to do in the city of Boston, in the United States, throughout the earth. And God can use a group of immigrants to set an example for inclusive humanity, why not?

God can do impossible things. He used a small, ignorant little woman in a Jewish village, oppressed by the Roman Empire and he blessed all humanity through thousands of years, why can't he use us in the 21st century to bless our city, bless our nation? God can do it.

We are in the same category or perhaps a little higher even than Maria herself. There is nothing impossible for God.

Stand up. Let's ask the Lord, increase my faith, Lord, on this day. Teach me the mysteries, teach me the science of faith. Teach me how to be a man, a woman of faith, how to fight my battles in faith, how to be an Abraham, how to be a Mary, how to be a wise man, who came from the distance of the Middle East walking, doubting if I would ever find what his mind had told him he could find and his faith. And when they arrived at the place, there was the Son of God and they were able to make their offering and present it to the Son of God.

We can win the battle. It doesn't matter how we feel, it doesn't matter what we see, it doesn't matter what we don't have. God blesses the man who believes. God is a rewarder of those who seek him. God is pleased and counts for justice when we believe him, that he is the rewarder of those who are faithful to him, those who love him, those who dare to take steps of faith and risk believing and getting their feet wet.

But, the Lord says, 'don't worry, you're going to enter your promised land. You are going to kill the giants and you are going to dwell in the abode that I have for you.'

We are going to ask the Lord to increase our faith this afternoon. Father, in the name of Jesus, perhaps when I say increase our faith, you laugh a little, because you would say, 'if you had faith like a mustard seed I would open the windows of heaven and perform magnificent miracles before you.'

But, Father, to the extent that you want, give us the gift of faith so that we can always keep our eyes on you alone. Have an ear to the words that come out of your mouth, Lord. Having our eyes fixed on this wonderful Scripture that teaches us your heart, your fidelity, your power, your continuity through history, your methods that never change, your miraculous instrument that is faith, believing in you, Lord, that it is what brings salvation and brings blessing to life.

We ask that this afternoon, Lord, through this word that has been preached twice, that you cause the germ of faith to be born in us, Lord. If there is someone on this day who is doubting, is confused, their circumstances belie your fidelity and your promise, Father, I ask that dawn and that the flame of faith be born in them, the gift of believing in you, Lord.

Father, may you revive dead dreams, Lord. that you fan the illusions that we leave behind because we abandoned the battle before time. Illuminate in us again the light of believing in something beautiful that is ahead, the hope that is born in us, Lord.

Father, we believe in you. We believe in you. We believe that you are the same yesterday, today and forever. We believe that the God who parted the Red Sea can remove difficulties in the 21st century. We believe that the God who said our young people would see visions, our old people would dream dreams, Lord, that you would send a great revival, we believe that you can do it, Lord, that you are doing it.

We believe that you can give us a great harvest of souls, Lord, that you can heal our diseases, that you can provide our finances, that you can bless our children, our lineage, Lord, that our church may it grow and fill this city and be a blessing to this city and restore the ancient ruins, Lord, and bless the cities that are fallen.

We embrace your dreams, Lord, we embrace your intention for this time. Help us to believe you, in the great and in the small, and to walk by faith, Father, as Abraham did and as all those heroes of faith that Hebrews points out, Chapter 11 have done.

Thank you, Lord. Thanks thanks. We receive your faith. I proclaim faith in this place. I declare faith, I prophesy faith. I prophesy signs, wonders, healings. I prophesy revival in Jesus name. I prophesy blessing. I prophesy a new dawn in the people of God. I prophesy thousands of souls coming to know Jesus in this city. I prophesy the fall of the giants who laugh at the church and insult the people of God. I prophesy winds that will carry away all that pollution, that darkness that has fallen on this city. I prophesy angelic hosts that come to defend the people of God and to cast out the demonic hosts that want to possess what God belongs to. I prophesy death against all Herods who rise up to kill our dreams and kill what you have put in our hearts, Father, in Jesus name.

Raise the spiritual temperature in your church, Father, and in this Boston community, Lord. And rise, O God, rise from your throne, Lord and strike the earth so that man knows that you are the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. Hallelujah! We believe, we believe, we believe in faith.

Brothers, I want to invite you to make a gesture... get out of your seat and everyone who can come forward here for a little while and we are going to believe what we have declared this afternoon, that God is going to put faith in our hearts.

Everyone who can and can't just move out of your seat a little bit as a sign that you want to be a part of this issue. Come well forward and let's declare God's blessing upon this city. Let's declare God's blessing on our families.

Let's get our spirit moving now, because that's part of what the work of faith is. It is one to believe, it is one to be uncomfortable, it is one to give a sign to the devil and to hell, to God and to the angels that I believe, and that I am willing to make myself uncomfortable and move from my comfort zone so that God can do his work. .

God is going to perform miracles, brothers, in the name of the Lord. this is a prophetic action. This is a prophetic action that we are doing this afternoon. Glorify the name of the Lord. glorify the name of the Lord. Thank my Lord. Thanks God. thank you.