Faith That Will Work Part 3 by Ed Pruitt

Luke 17:3-6

Faith That Will Work
Part Three
Pastor Ed Pruitt
Amarillo Church of God

Sunday December 9, 2001

Luke 17:3-6
3 Take heed to yourselves: If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him.

4 And if he trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying, I repent; thou shalt forgive him.

5 And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith.

6 And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you.

We need to forgive to have the faith that we need.

People are always saying that they have a hard time trying to forgive someone that has trespassed against them.

But we need to look at what the bible says about that.

And if he trespass against thee seven times a day and seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying I repent thou shalt forgive him.

That seems to be a hard thing for people today to do.

They have a lot of trouble forgiving others but then they want God to forgive them for all that they do and don’t think a thing about it.

If you are having trouble forgiving others you will have to draw from your faith.

When Jesus told the apostles to draw from their faith they were asking Jesus for more faith because they told Him that it takes faith to forgive!

That’s why some people never forgive.

They haven’t realized that they have to draw from their faith to do it.

You have to do some things by faith.

The just shall live by faith (Romans 1:17) is what the scripture tells us.

Forgiving is a decision that we must all make on our own.

You may ask, how could I forgive by faith when I don’t feel like forgiving?

Or maybe I don’t want to forgive them at all!

Well I say here is one way that you can do it.

Start saying, I make a decision to forgive them in the name of the Lord Jesus.

Because God has forgiven me , I will forgive them.

I am saying in the name of Jesus.

I don’t hold grudges I am saying it I forgive them in Jesus name I am doing it supernaturally I am doing it by faith.
If you keep speaking those words, faith will come and you will forgive them!

The apostles realized that it took faith to forgive that is why they were always asking for more.

You will too find that it takes more faith to forgive and also to do a lot of other things.

So you too will find that you will need to constantly replenish your faith as you go through life and the only way to do that is to build more faith.

How do we do that?

By reading and hearing God’s Word, (Romans 10:17) Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.

Besides reading and hearing we need to confess God’s Word all of the time.

It’s like your bank account.

If you keep drawing out of it without depositing anything into it after a while you will show a deficit.

Forgiving requires faith.

God says, in, Matthew 5:48
48 Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.

You can do it by faith.
You can’t be perfect by natural means but you can by the supernatural.

Faith is the seed.

When the apostles said, Lord increase our faith, the Lord said, If you had faith as a seed... forget about the word mustard.

We have become so involved with the word mustard that we have missed the whole point.

I have heard people say that if they could just figure out what size the mustard seed is!!

Well they have all missed the point.

If Jesus had been in Amarillo Texas He might have used the Corn seed.

We know something about the corn seed here but we don’t know anything about the mustard seed.

See people over the years have missed the whole point.

Jesus was not talking about the size of the seed He said, If, you had faith as a seed!

He is telling you that faith works like a seed.

The reason that people can’t forgive is because they have never sown that seed.

You sow it by saying, I do forgive them in the name of Jesus.
The more that continues to come out of your mouth the sooner it will get into your heart and you will change the way that you feel about that person or persons!

The apostles said Lord, increase our faith!

Look at the answer that Jesus gave them in Luke 17:6

6 And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you.

When you study in the Greek you will find that it says, and it would
obey you.

You might say, well what’s the sycamine tree got to do with it?

Not a thing in the world!

I believe that they were walking down the road and there was a tree in the path.

Jesus said, Now fellows, you don’t need more faith, but you do need to plant what faith you have.

If you had faith as a seed, you would say to this obstacle that is in your path, Be, plucked up by the roots and be planted in the sea and it would obey you!

What would the tree obey?

Your faith filled words!

Jesus tells us some great faith filled secrets if we will just listen to Him.

First, faith works as a seed.

Faith as a seed means faith that you are willing to plant and that suggests action on your part!

There are a lot of people that faith but they are not willing to plant their faith to allow it to grow or multiply.

If you had one grain of corn what would you do with it?

You couldn’t make corn bread with it!

You couldn’t have corn on the cob!

So the best use of that one seed would be to plant it!

So if you are smart enough to put action with your seed and plant the later on in the year you will have much more corn!

Faith as a seed has the ability to multiply, but it must be planted by your speaking it!

If you had faith as a seed you would say what is Jesus talking about?

Forgiveness!

He was talking about forgiving seven times a day.

Unforgiveness is an obstacle to many people.

The obstacle could be any number of things.
Such as financial matters or anything that is in your life that could keep you from becoming perfect even as your Father in heaven is perfect!

So don’t just zero in on one particular thing.

Understand the principle that is involved in removing the obstacle that is in your life and then apply the action that is needed!

We must realize that Unforgiveness is a thief of faith!

We must talk to Unforgiveness.

Tell Unforgiveness that it must leave.

Tell it that it must be plucked up and planted some where else a far off from you.

Jesus said that it must obey you so you must believe and tell it in the name of Jesus to depart form you!

I hear people say all the time that they can’t forgive they want to but they just can’t.

I hear excuses like you just can’t believe what that fellow did to me.

Or how they treated me and so on and so on.

All I can say or do is to tell them no I don’t know what they did to you but I can tell you what Unforgiveness will do to you.

It will steal your faith and possibly your life, if you don’t talk to it and tell it where to go.
Don’t be overcome with evil, but overcome evil with good (Romans 12:21)

The Gospel according to Jesus says, if you have faith as a seed, you wouldn’t need more faith!

All you need to do is plant the faith that you do have and it will produce.

You plant it by saying it.

Any good farmer knows that you plant the seed for what you need or
desire.

That seed, is the substance of what you desire.

If you want a crop of corn, then you plant corn seed not wheat seed.

So the same way for anything else.

If you have a need for financial help then that is the seed that you plant, Philippians 4:19
19 But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

Paul is telling us that My God shall supply all of your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

Now when you plant that seed change up one word, because you are now speaking it and not Paul.

19 But my God shall supply all (MY) instead of, your, need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.
The seed is the substance of what you desire.

Faith as a seed causes you to speak.

Whatever you desire, you speak, based on the authority of God’s Word.

Jesus said that it would obey you.

In Matthew 17:20 Jesus is explaining to His disciples why they couldn’t cast the demon out of a boy Matthew 17:20
20 And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.

Again He is saying that if you have faith as a seed, you shall say:

It would be foolish for a farmer to buy seed, store it in a barn, pray for the harvest, and then at harvest time say, I don’t understand!

I had faith, I had the seed, but I didn’t get a harvest!

Any farmer knows that seed only produces if it is planted!

It doesn’t take great faith to produce a harvest!

It doesn’t take an acorn as big as a house to grow a huge oak tree: it only takes a small seed!

The substance of that tree is in the acorn!!

The substance of what you desire is in faith!
And where again does faith come from?

Let’s read it again in Romans 10:17
17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

But faith is like a seed: if you don’t plant it, it won’t produce.

It only develops to it’s full potential when planted.

Matthew 17:20 tells you how to plant the seed.

If you have faith as a seed, you shall say unto the mountain, now we all know that Jesus is talking about the mountain of adversity that is in our lives.

Let me give you a way to express your faith!

If you have faith as a seed you say to the mountain of adversity that is in your live, You are not going to hinder me, I take authority over you and I cast you out of my life!!!!!!!!!!

Financial lack!

I am talking to you!

Leave my house, You can’t stay!!

The first time that you make a statement like that you may say to yourself, Dear Lord what am I saying?

I must be losing my mind.

You need to know that your carnal mind will try to come against your new expression of faith.

Don’t let it!

Speak the word of God the way that you know that you should!

Stand up against satan, plant that seed and believe that it is going to grow!

If the Word of God is in you, you have faith. Romans 12:3
3 For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.

You know that the word is true, but if you haven’t been voicing it, you haven’t been planting it!

Results always come after the Word has been planted.

Having faith in the faith you already have is like a farmer who has faith in the seed he plants.

The word says faith comes by hearing:

You can hear me speaking the Word of God, and it will produce some faith in you.

You can even have faith for someone else, but faith or confidence in your faith is developed by speaking God’s Word yourself!

You won’t have faith in your faith by just hearing me tell you stories of how my faith worked for me!

That’s not enough!

You must be fully persuaded in your own spirit.

Faith is the substance!

When you have faith in your faith you have faith in the substance of things.

You are not only planting a seed of faith, you are having faith in the seed that you planted.

You will always have people telling you that it is crazy to go around talking that way, by that way I mean talking in a positive manner.

Watch how people talk, listen to them and you will see what I mean, let me paraphrase,

“Well I heard on TV last night that the plant where you are working is planning a big layoff.

You had better not buy that new car that you were talking about the other day because you will properly be the first one laid off.

Just watch and see.”

Now what are they doing?

Planting a seed of fear!

Has it happened? No!

Do they believe that it is going to happen? Yes!

They’re saying it.

They believe it, therefore, they speak it!

But look at what they are doing!

They are planting seeds but they are negative seeds!

This is one of the laws of faith!

Let’s read it in, 2 Corinthians 4:13
13 We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak;

This is spiritual law, what you believe you speak.

Some say, “I already see that we will not be able to pay the note on the house that is due this fall, so we will lose our house.”

Where did they see that?

As an image on the inside of them!

Good or bad seed when planted grows!

Mark it down, what you are sowing surely is growing that what you plant shall be as the seed!

When people say such things they are planting seed.

They will plant seed day after day

When they are planting bad seeds they get bad things, when they plant good seed they get good things!

When they plant their fears what are they doing?

Calling something into existence.

They are actually calling things that are not as though they were, but they are doing it on the negative side.

The thing that they fear will come upon them!

They talk to the mountain all of the time and tell it how big it is and how fast that it is growing!

They talk to their car and tell it what a no good wreck that it is.

The more highly developed you get either to your fear or your faith, the quicker the manifestation will come.

Someone might say, “How long do I have to work on developing my faith?”

Just until Jesus comes.

Faith comes easier for some than others.

It depends on how you have been taught.

If you have been taught a lot of religious unbelief, you will have to unlearn some things.

Sometimes it’s harder to unlearn than it is to learn, especially if you’ve been taught wrong.

Jesus said, “If you have faith as a seed, you shall say... “ Not maybe, You shall say.

So just check up on yourself and see if you have faith as a seed.

Faith as a seed means faith that you are willing to plant.

Even though you have faith as a seed, that doesn’t mean you are going to have a harvest tomorrow.

It takes time for things to develop, so don’t plant it today and plow it up tomorrow saying it didn’t work!

Someone might say, I have already said it twelve times.

It’s been eight days.

It hasn’t happened.

It doesn’t work for me.

When people do that sort of thing all they are doing is working a formula.

They don’t have any faith in their faith.

But if they keep saying what the Word of God said, it will produce faith in their seed.

Then when it looks like it isn’t working, they will dig around it, fertilize it, and continue in faith that the seed will produce.

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen!

You see that scripture has the word hope in it.

So I feel that hope has to be a partner to faith!
Hope, we find is the goal setter.

Faith is the substance of things hoped for.

What things?

The things that you hope for!

Don’t try to use faith where hope should be and don’t try to use hope where faith should be!

Hope has no substance!

Faith is the substance of things hoped for!

So there must be faith and hope.

They are partners.

They go together.

Faith is the divine energy of God.

It comes by hearing God’s Word.

It is the substance of things desired.

We must learn to sow the seed of God’s Word.

Word’s are seeds.

We speak the word of god the promise of god into our hearts and it springs forth and grows up.

Mark 4:28
28 For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear.
 

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