Dr Charles Stanley - Which Direction - Part 1

0:00The one who's moving forward, most of those folks, if you'll check their life out, it's those people that they're genuinely moving forward in their spiritual life, their relationship to God and the other areas of their life, no matter how many difficulties they face, how many times they stumble and fall, how often they have to get up and keep on walking, those people are feasting on the Word of God. They are moving forward, sometimes slowly and sometimes they're taking great leaps forward. And here you are, you're saying, God, Qua Am I not getting ahead in life? What's going on? Would you describe your faith as active? If you'd have to say no, today's message on In Touch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley, can stir you out of complacency, and spur you on to greater trust in God. Be honest with yourself about where you are and where you need to be as you listen to Part 1 of our series, Forward by Faith.

1:01The Bible portrays the Christian life as a walk. It speaks of walking in the spirit, walking in the flesh, walking in light, walking in love, walking in truth, all through the scriptures we find the Christian life being portrayed as a walk. Not something that is stagnant, but something that is moving. Well this is the beginning of a series in title, Forward by Faith. And the title of this message is Forward by Faith, which direction? Everybody is not moving in the right direction, and the question is how do we change gears? Well in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, there is a passage that deals primarily here with the matter of our body here in this life and what's going to happen through it in the life hereafter. And in the midst of some wonderful promises about our life hereafter, the Apostle Paul makes one statement. And I want you to notice that he makes this between two verses that speak of courage.

2:02And if you'll notice here, he's talking about our body, disintegrating one of these days, we're going to be clothed with the new body. And he says beginning in verse 6, therefore, being always of good courage and knowing that while we are at home in the body, we're absent from the Lord. Look at this. But we walk by faith, not by sight. We are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home of the Lord. His whole concept of the condition of this body and that it is going to be better to be absent from this body and present with the Lord is a matter of trusting God. Therefore he says in verse 6, therefore, being always of good courage, knowing that while we are at home in the body, we're absent from the Lord. But we're walking by faith, not by sight. Therefore, we have good courage, preferring to be absent from the body and present with the Lord because we know where we're going to be. The Apostle Paul is saying, our understanding that it is better to be absent from the body

3:06and present with the Lord is a matter of trust, of faith in God and not going by our feelings or our sight. We've not seen what's on the other side, but we're trusting that what he says is true. Now there are many people whose life is moving in reverse. They don't understand that the Christian life, we said, is a walk, the Christian life is just that. It is a life of faith. Listen to what the Bible says. He says, we're saved by faith, we live by faith, we walk by faith, we conquer by faith, we resist the devil by faith. The Bible says that we are of the household of faith so that the entire Christian life is a matter of trusting God. Everything that you have is a result of that and you can't separate the two. But many people's lives are lived in reverse. For example, things just don't seem to work out for them. Instead of getting ahead, they're getting further and further behind. Their life is in reverse and no matter what they seem to try to do, it just doesn't seem

4:08to work out for them. They look at their life, it seems to be negative, it seems to be in a reverse mode and I don't know whether you've thought about it or not, but you know, it's real, real easy to walk forward. In fact, you can walk forward and never think about it. But try walking backwards. You have to think about walking backwards. Oftentimes, we don't realize that somewhere out there we change gears and for some reason, instead of getting ahead, things don't seem to be doing too well and we look around us and we see other people who seemingly have less abilities and less talents and less opportunities and less privilege and yet somehow in spite of all the things that they're going through, difficulty, hardship, trial, suffering, they keep seemingly, are able to walk ahead sometime. It's a little, it's a bit to step here and a little step there. And yet, you look at yourself and you think, how is it that I keep going backwards and they keep going forward? Maybe somewhere out there, you need to change gears and maybe somewhere out there, you

5:09really think that you've got your life in forward gear and yet somehow it's not there because you see, listen, God cannot listen by His nature. He cannot ignore genuine true faith. And if you are believing God, God must respond to your faith. So if you find yourself in reverse mode and for some reason, in spite of your attempts and your desires to be moving forward in your life, in every area of your life, your spiritual life, your relationships, whatever it might be, that somewhere along the way you've thrown that thing in reverse and you're going backwards instead of forward, how do you get your life in the forward position? One of the primary reasons that many people are walking in the wrong direction is because they do not understand the true nature of faith. The Bible says, we're at the live by faith, we walk by faith, our whole life is a life of faith. If you should ask them, they'll say, well, I am trusting God, I am believing God, my

6:11life is a life of faith. Well, genuinely they believe that their life is a life of faith, but it is not because you see, some people confuse strong desires, some people confuse prayers, some people confuse hope with faith, strong desire and hope and praying is not faith. All of those are important, but they don't add up to faith. Well, what I hope to help you to see today is that you're not waiting on God. God is waiting on you to get your life in forward motion so that you can move forward and become the person God wants you to be and achieve the things God wants you to achieve and accomplish those goals out there and light that you want to accomplish. One of the primary reasons is our confusion about faith. We think we're believing God when we are not and you see, secondly, those people oftentimes have a very, very barren diet and their diet is composed of many things, one of which

7:14they leave out is the Word of God. The one who's moving forward, most of those folks, if you'll check their life out, it's those people that they're genuinely moving forward in their spiritual life, their relationship to God and the other areas of their life, no matter how many difficulties they face, how many times they stumble and fall, how often they have to get up and keep on walking, those people are feasting on the Word of God. Another part of their confusion is the fact. Their idea is that faith is a gift that God gives to certain people and certain people don't have it and so their excuse is, well, you know, he has the gift of faith and she has the gift of faith. God didn't give it to me so I guess I'm just going to sort of have to plot along in life and do the best to can. First of all, faith is indeed a gift but remember this, that faith is neither secular nor spiritual. Faith is neither secular nor spiritual. It is both natural and it is neutral. It isn't making any difference for the man who's lost his save and he gets up in the morning and he walks into the bathroom and turns on the faucet, he turns it on, not

8:15standing there thinking, I wonder if any water is going to come out of there. I certainly hope it does. I'm really going to try to get it out. No, he walks over and he turns the faucet in absolute confidence that when he does water's coming out. God has given to every single one of us the gift of faith and I mean by that that every single person who's alive has faith. Your whole life is a life of faith and so we're the ones who've separated secular faith and spiritual faith, there's no such thing. The only distinction is who is the object of my faith. What is the object of my faith? That is the key issue about the whole idea of faith. Now, the question we want to deal with is this whole matter of how do we get our life moving forward by faith. What I want to ask you to do is to ask yourself this question, Lord, let me be honest now and listen carefully and be honest about what I hear and evaluate my prayers. It's real easy to say, especially when you're having a tough time, well I am believing God.

9:16I am trusting God. Listen carefully. Many people who think that they're believing God are dominated by fear, dominated by delts, dominated by anxiety, overwhelmed in their life by many things. If you ask them, do they believe God? They say, yes I do. If you ask them, are you praying in faith? Yes I am. And yet things aren't working out. And what we want to do oftentimes is blame it on someone else or something else. Now listen to a reminder of something. Remember that there are those folks over here who are facing almost, it seems insurmountable barriers in life. Difficulties, hardships, they live with them, they face them day by day. And what happens? They're moving forward. They're slowly and sometimes they're taking great leaps forward. And here you are and you're believing you say and you're trusting and they're moving by, life's passing, you're by years are going on and you're saying, God, why am I not getting ahead in life? What's going on? What I want to ask you to do is lay down your guard, drop your barriers and be willing

10:20to listen carefully and ask the Holy Spirit. Spirit of God, speak to my heart. No matter what I'm thinking, if I am hearing the truth, witness to my heart. And if you will, God is about to do something in your life that throw your life in forward motion. Which direction is your life moving in? Faith is the disposition of the mind that moves you forward in life. Faith is the disposition of the mind that moves you forward in life. It is the way I think. It is the way I think. It isn't a question of mind over matter. It isn't a matter of a positive mental attitude. Faith in itself is a positive expression of the mind toward a very specific object and that is God. And so as we examine what genuine true faith is, listen carefully. And I want to say this again now. It's not going to work unless you are honest enough to evaluate your own praying, your

11:24own request, your own relationship and your own conversations with God and the words you use are your primary words, I hope so. I'm really hoping that things are going to change. I want to tell you that hope and faith are not synonymous and no matter how strongly you desire something, how intensely the need, how overwhelming this thing may appear in your life. That is not faith. Faith involves several things. I want to give you seven single words. It's really that simple and yet it's complex to some degree when it comes to living it out. But I want you to jot these down. And if you really want to see God make a reverse in your life, you'll be wise enough not just to sit and listen, but you will jot them down. When we think about faith, the first word I want to share with you is the word assurance. As you see, faith that is believing God is expressing assurance.

12:26That is, there is no question in my mind that God will keep his word. And assurance says this. Assurance says I have confidence that what I have asked God to do, which I know is his will, he is going to bring about in my life. You see, confidence is not hope so. Confidence is a sure thing. This is why the apostle Paul said, listen to this. He said, don't be anxious about anything. You say, yeah, I know that's what he said. Well, why did he say it? Because Paul understood the nature of faith. Faith says I can rest now that I have made my petition to God. If I have genuine faith in him and I have the promises of God and listen, assurance faith must be based on the promise of God, the promise of God which is the will of the Father. And if I am willing to trust him, then I have confidence that he's going to bring it to pass. I don't have to keep begging him for something. I don't have to be word and fretting and anxious about it.

13:29Listen to what Paul said. He said, don't be anxious about anything. But what? In everything by prayer and supplication, make your request known to God. That is, we're to make it known to him in faith, we're to believe him. And if I make my request known to him and I believe him, then I can expect God to do something. This is what faith does. Faith quietens my spirit. You see, what happens is when I cease to believe and begin to put my emphasis on my works and what I'm going to do and my schedule and my thing, something begins to happen. I lose my sense of contentment and joy. Faith involves assurance. I have assurance that whatever God said he's going to do, he's going to do it. This doesn't look around for a lot of evidence. Assurance says, God, if you said it, that settles it period. That's what faith is all about. Faith is assurance that God is going to keep his word.

14:29Not hope he will, not maybe he will, not intense desire, but strong, blessed confidence. And I think what you will discover in your own prayer life and your own thinking is this. You'll find yourself beginning to thank God for more, ask him for less. You see, as long as I'm pleading and crying out to God for something, either I don't know it's his will, either I don't have the assurance or either the something in my life is short circuiting my confidence. Listen, sin in any form will short circuit your assurance, your confidence, your faith in God. But you see, when you can begin to thank him for it, you say, well, and somebody says, what are you in thanking him for? I don't see an evidence for it. Well, listen, you don't have to have an evidence. The word of God is better than anything you see. Because you and I can be deceived about a lot of things that we can see with our naked eye. God never deceives anyone. The first word is assurance.

15:29The second word is anticipation. Anticipation, that is, if I really truly believe that God is going to do what I asked, then I am going to anticipate it. It is I'm going to prepare for it. I'm going to make plans. Now sometimes we think that we are really believing God and anticipating what He's going to do. And yet, if we examined it, we wouldn't really believe that's what's happening. For example, if you said to me, well, going to Europe tomorrow for a three-week vacation, wonderful. I want to ask you some questions. Do you really believe that? Why sure, I believe that. Have you packed your clothes? No. Well, have you bought your plane ticket? No. Made a reservation? No. Have you got your money together? No. Have you told anybody who's going? No. I'm here to tell you, my friend, you're not going. You may think you're going, but you're not going. If you don't have a ticket, you don't have any money, and you don't have a reservation, you're not packed, you're not going. Now, here's what I want you to see. There are a lot of people who come to God and make requests.

16:33They really believe that they're believing God, but they're making no preparation. You see, if I believe that God's going to do something, I'm getting ready. If you go to God and you ask Him for something and you make no preparation to answer, listen, more than likely, you don't really and truly anticipate God answering your request. You may hope He will. You may be crying out to God that He do it, but He making it plans. The reason is a vital part of our faith. We're looking forward to it. Listen, we're living it ahead of time. You see, what faith does? It gives me the privilege to reach out on the future, bring it into the present, and enjoy it even now. Listen, it's hard to be down in the mouth and be negative, and listen, it's very difficult to be walking backwards when you're planning on God doing something. If you're planning on God doing something, what are you doing? You're moving toward the goal because you have trusted God. You're not just hoping so. You're making preparations and plans for God to do something very vital in your life.

17:38Assurances are part of that faith, and anticipation is a very, very vital part of that life. The third word I want you to jot down is awareness. When you are believing God, you become aware of the presence of God. You begin to be sensitive. The Holy Spirit begins to enable you to see oftentimes little, it's a bit of evidences that God is already up to something that he's already working in this circumstance, in this situation about which you concern. He's already concerned. You see, when you are aware of God, here's what happens. Faith, genuine faith, lives in the ever-present awareness of God. Sometimes I will share with people and talk to folks who are going through this, that other kind of problem, and they'll talk about, this is what I'm doing, and this is what I've done, and this is what I want to do, and this is what I think I want to do, and this is what I've asked God about. And for the most part, it's a-a-a-a-a-a. Little about God.

18:39Little about trusting Him. You see, genuine faith lives in the ever-present of the living God. He is the object of our faith. And so many times when we think we are expressing faith in God, we are really expressing faith in circumstances that we hope will change, people that will be able to do so and so, and this person who will become involved over here, and what I'm going to be able to do, that's not faith in God. That's faith in myself, my plans, and what I want to achieve. Faith in God. My faith is directed toward Him. I am aware of Him. I am aware of His involvement. I am aware of His promise to be involved in every facet of my life. Do you approach God with assurance, anticipation, and awareness? Those are just three of the characteristics of faith you heard about in Dr. Stanley's message. We'll hear about the remaining components of strong faith in God tomorrow.

19:42In the meantime, you can keep learning about trusting God with a visit to our website Intouch.org and review what you just heard by clicking the link to today on radio. You can order a copy of Dr. Stanley's complete message from our online store, the title is Which Direction or order His Forward by Faith Teaching Set. Our web address again is Intouch.org or call or text 1-800-Intouch. If you prefer, you can write to us at Intouch, post office box 7900, Atlanta, Georgia 30357. Are you confident when you pray? You'll hear about the foundation of strong prayers just ahead in today's moment with Charles Stanley. Trusting God each day can be a challenge, but working to grow that trust brings greater joy and peace than we could ever find on our own. Contrasting God with today, the 365 day devotional from the teachings of Dr. Charles Stanley, we

20:45are encouraged to believe in God's love and rest in His purpose for us. Available now at Intouch.org slash today. Dr. Stanley devoted his entire life to helping us. Get closer to Jesus as we all want to do and also discover all that He has for us. Help us to be fully prepared for God's purpose in our lives. So are you ready for the next step in your journey? It begins at the New Charles Stanley Institute. Bible-based, Christ-centered, Holy Spirit-filled instruction so you can know God. You can learn how at charstallininstitute.org. You're listening to Intouch. The believer who prays from the right foundation prays with confidence. Here's a moment with Charles Stanley. It's one thing to know a promise of the Scripture. It's something else to experience it. So when we talk about the promises of God, the Bible is full of them.

21:48He's an awesome loving God who desires to give us promises by which we live. And if you'll think about it for a moment, many people wonder why God doesn't answer their prayer. One of the primary reasons is the fact they ask for things that are not the will of God. And secondly, they doubt. And one of the primary reasons people doubt God answering their petition is because they don't have any foundation for it. That is, they ask and it's a matter of feeling and hoping and wishing, but no foundation. If you're asking God to give you guidance in some area, or if it's something that you need in your life, you need, listen, to put a foundation to that, so that you can get anchored in that. You need to have a promise from God's Word, and them any promises in God's Word. And there's a promise for every single solitaire thing that you and I need is here. If you ask God for something, that's the will of God, and you know he makes it clear in his Word that it's his will,

22:49we can have confidence he will do it. It is his will for me to seek his will. And if I know that's his will, then he's going to answer that prayer. He's going to answer that petition. The foundation for your request is the promises found in the Word of God. All of these promises. Why do you know that you're saved because he promised? If you confess Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, believing in the resurrection of Christ, thou shall be saved. And what Paul said to the Philippians, he had a belief on the Lord Jesus Christ, thou shall be saved. All the promises about salvation, but answered prayer, and all of these, of promises God gave, listen, not just to read, but to read, to believe, and to do what. He wants us to activate the promise. That's the promise from God, I need to believe it. Then my prayer has some strength to it. Otherwise, it may be just something that I'm thinking about. Learn more about the hope you can have through faith in Jesus Christ at ntouch.org.

23:55And if you have a story about how God's grace has touched you through this program, we'd love to hear it. Tomorrow on ntouch, we'll hear more about developing a life that's moving forward by faith. I hope you'll join us Tuesday for ntouch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley. This program is a presentation of ntouch ministries at Lanta, Georgia and remains on this station through the grace of God and your faithful prayers and gifts.