6 Ways To Build Your Faith

Today I want to talk about 6 ways to build your faith.

Your faith is so important, in the Bible Jesus says “for assuredly, I say to you if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you. However, this kind does not go out except through prayer and fasting” (Matthew 17:20-21)

He didn't say that the mountain might move, he said IT WILL MOVE. Many of you might be thinking if we only need faith the size of a mustard seed then why do so many people not see miracles happen. In James 1:6-8 it says “But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.” Faith and doubt can not be in the same place when faith comes doubt has to leave. So the reason people who say they have faith don't receive, is because they have fake faith. It doesn't necessarily mean that they don't believe in God, it means that they let doubt get into their mind. Doubt is from the enemy.

You're not a bad person for letting doubt get into your mind but when you start to let doubt get into your mind you need to go back at it by building your faith.

The first way to build your faith is to fast. This is the first one because it is spoken very clearly right in the scripture that we went over in the beginning. Matthew 17:21” However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.” Jesus speaks in the previous chapter Matthew 16:24 “If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me.” When we fast we deny our flesh (take up our cross). When we put aside our physical needs and replace them with prayer and spending time with God our faith gets built. Nobody chooses to just not eat for a long period of time, but when we fast and don’t feed our flesh, but feed our spirit things change. When we fast we become fully dependent on Jesus, and the holy spirit. Our faith is built through relying on just the holy spirit and not physical things. When Jesus talks about fasting he never says if you fast, he says when you fast. (Matthew 6:16-18) We as christians are required to fast. Fasting is not an option, if we want to see revival and we want to change we need to be fasting.

The second way for you to be building your faith is to press into God's word every day. We can't get more faith if we don’t get more God. So many people look for a sign from God, or they want him to speak to them. The truth is God has already spoken to you. The Bible is the inspired word of God. We can't expect God to give us a sign if we are not even reading our Bible. God’s not gonna give you this supernatural word from him that only you hear, if you're not digging into the word. God doesn't need to give signs, he doesn't need to speak to anyone, he already gave signs and spoke through the word of God. In Matthew 16 Jesus says that “A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.” When we are reading the word the Lord will reveal things to us, sometimes he reveals something to you that doesn't have anything to do with the exact passage that you are reading. When we press in and read the word of God, God reveals what he wants you to do.

The third thing to help build your faith is to praise. The Bible says that God inhabits the praise of his people. When we praise, he makes his home in our praise, he rests in our praise. When Jesus tells us how to pray the first thing that he says is “hallowed be thy name.” This phrase means God’s name is holy and special. Praise is when you tell God how good he is and thank him for all he has done. In Psalm 100:4 it says, “Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise. Be thankful to him, and bless His name.” When we praise things change. If we want God to come we need to start praising because he inhabits our praise, once he is there, fear, sickness, and all infirmities have to leave because they can't live in the presence of God. Praise is the opening door to your breakthrough. Which will build your faith.

The fourth way for you to build your faith is to listen to spirit filled preaching and teaching. The Bible says in Romans 10:17 that, “ Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of the Lord.” When we listen to anointed, spirit filled, biblical based preaching, we hear the word of God. When we hear the word of God, faith comes. One of the wonderful things about living in the time that we live in is that we have access to thousands of hours of preaching, literally at our fingertips. All we have to do is turn our phones on and go to youtube. Some of my favorite spirit filled preachers are, Ted Shuttleswoth jr, Jonathon Shuttlesworth, Adalis Shuttlesworth, Carolyn Shuttlesworth, Rodney Howard-Browne, Adonica Howard-Browne, Lester Summerall, Kenneth Hagin, Alex Iaquinto, Lilia Petty, and my Pastor Matthew Ward (Charleston Church). So pretty much anyone with the last name Shuttlesworth is amazing. You can find all of these people by just typing in their name and preaching. To find Pastor Matthew Ward search cchurch11a on youtube, and to find Lilia Petty if you find her on instagram @liliapetty and from there you can find her podcast. Just with these few people that I mentioned you can find thousands of hours of preaching. My favorite thing to do is to listen to these people while I'm doing everyday things. With today's technology we can just put our airpods in and listen to these people and constantly be building our faith while doing chores, working out, or just when we have nothing going on.

Find friends that build you up in faith. In proverbs it says that As iron sharpens iron so a man sharpens the countenance of his friend. When we get around spirit filled people who are on fire for the Lord, they are going to bring us to higher levels. There is no neutral in the kingdom of God, you're either going up, or you’re going down. Our spiritual being cant be in park, if you think that you are in park you're backsliding. Our friends have more of an impact on us than we realize. I've often heard it said that you will be the average of the 5 people that you surround yourself with. If the people that you are currently hanging around are not as on fire for the Lord as you, and don't practice saying things that speak life, then you probably don't want to be around them. I’ve recently been learning this as well. I've come to the understanding that it is better for someone to not have any friends than for them to have bad friends. When we get to the point where the only voice that we are hearing speaking into your life is God then you will see who is a good friend and who is not. When we get around good friends that are speaking life and not death over our situations our faith gets built. If you don't have faith filled friends then just pray about it, God knows the influence and the people that we need in our life and he will line it up. The biggest thing that we need to understand when making friends is that just because they go to church and youth group doesn't mean that they are on fire for God. God will bring godly faith building friends into your life.

The very last key to building your faith is to sit under anointed men and women of God. This goes along with key four and five. When you are sitting under anointed men and women preaching, you are hearing the word, which is building your faith. When we listen to YouTube and podcasts we hear it but when we sit in the same room, we sit in the presence of God. When we are sitting under the anointing we can get that same faith that the preacher has built up in us. So the most important thing that you can do besides digging into the word every, is to find a spirit filled anointed church. Find a church that is going to speak life into your situations and is completely biblically based.

When we do these things we are building our faith. Once your faith has been built you will start seeing victory in every area of your life.