For the next two weeks, we’re going to be discussing the last of the Keys to Power, and they are the most powerful, potentially miraculous (and I mean supernatural). If you use these Keys, you might just begin to see God make exceptions to His own rules.
Key # 13: Praise and Worship. Seems basic. That’s something we should do every week at church and actually every day. Right? Right. As often as we pray and meditate, we should be praising and worshiping. In fact, praise and worship should be a part of our prayers. We should sandwich our prayers with praise and worship, thanking and praising God before we ask Him for stuff, and thanking and praising God after we ask for stuff. Doing this makes prayer even more effective.
But I’m not talking just any Praise and Worship. There is casual praise and worship and then there is focused praise and worship. Casual praise and worship is as described above. You listen to Kirk Franklin or Tamela Mann or Fred Hammond while working or driving in your car, and you sing along; that’s casual praise and worship. Engaging fully while Pastor Kevin is leading worship on Sunday morning, casting all other distractions from your mind and not caring two bits about what anyone else thinks of you, that’s an example of focused praise and worship. Both are good, but focused praise and worship moves God. Again, moving God can lead to more power and authority in your life and even miracles.
Now let’s take praise and worship to the highest level. When you praise and worship in the midst of your hardships - this is the kind of praise and worship that you do when your desperate prayer isn’t answered - that is the highest praise. Listen. You need to praise Him and love Him all the more when you’re going through something bad, telling Him that even if you are never healed, even if you never receive that miracle, you are still going to love Him - and mean it! This is one of the hardest things that you could ever do, but that is what makes it SO powerful. There is very little that you can do to move God more than to tell Him that you love Him in spite of your pain. I’m not sure if there is anything that touches God’s heart more than to hear His children say, “Even if the worst case occurs… yet will I love you!”
Some say that the highest praise is “Hallelujah!”, but I don’t think this is true. The highest praise is whatever praise you give to God in spite of the fact that He hasn’t answered your need yet. When you say, “Though you slay me, yet will I praise you,” THAT is the highest praise I can think of. Through gritted teeth, you worship Him in spite of the pain.
When you praise the Lord in spite of your circumstances, you move God. You influence Him. You touch His heart and you actually make Him WANT to change your circumstances all the more and in the fastest way possible. He may still not do it, because He has it all worked out in His plan and timing, but you will make God happier by praising Him in the midst of your trials. And I assure you, even if you don’t get the thing you are praying for when you want it, by praising and worshiping Him in the midst of those hardships, He WILL bless you in SO many ways - and it will earn you more power and authority in your life in the future.
And here’s another thing that it takes a truly mature Christian to fully accept. This is why this is such an Advanced Key to Power. A truly mature Christian accepts that their true blessings are yet to be received AFTER death. No matter what Hell you go through here on Earth, and no matter what hardship you face, you WILL see ETERNAL rewards for EVERYthing you endure while still praising and worshiping and honoring Christ. This is why the Early Church rejoiced when they suffered. It was because they looked forward, beyond this life, to the eternal rewards they were going to receive. The more we look to that eternal future, the stronger we will be to endure whatever hardships come our way in this life.
But again, this takes a lot of maturity. I myself can’t say that I am able to do this very often. I know it’s an Advanced Key to Power, but I’m one of the first people to start griping and complaining when things go wrong instead of just looking to those eternal rewards and praising God for the boundless joys I WILL have when this life is over.
Now here’s another thing to keep in mind with Praise and Worship. It’s an offensive weapon. There’s nothing that makes your enemy, the Devil, more mad than when you praise God in spite of your pain. When you do as Job did, and you worship Him in spite of what is going on, it’s like you’re getting revenge on Satan. You’re taking the battle into his territory. He may come at you all the more, like he did Job - and again that takes serious maturity to know that you might tick the Devil off and get him to attack you more - but just like Job, you will definitely please God more than you could possibly ever know. And what happened with Job? He was blessed way more in the end than he was prior to his hardships.
And, you know what? You just might see a supernatural miracle when you Praise and Worship. Example: Paul and Silas. Acts 16:16. We don’t have time to read it, but basically these two men were locked up in prison. They committed no crimes, and they could have been totally upset, frightened, and miserable. Instead, they worshiped the Lord and an earthquake happened. Do not underestimate the power of Praise and Worship, especially during those difficult times.
Now, on to Key # 14: Faith. We hear so much about faith, but how is it an Advanced Key to Power? Shouldn’t it be basic? It’s because faith is not meant to be a noun. It’s meant to be a verb. Faith is just a dream until you put it into action. In other words, faith doesn’t exist unless you DO something.
Let’s go to 1 Kings 17:8. It is the beginning of the story of Elijah and the Widow. It reads, “And the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, ‘Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which belongeth to Zidon, and dwell there: behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee.’ So he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, behold the widow woman was there gathering sticks: and he called to her, and said, ‘Fetch me, I pray thee, a little water in a vessel, that I may drink.’”
Notice here that God told Elijah to go to Zarephath and that He commanded a widow woman to sustain Elijah. So right away we see that God had commanded the widow to take care of Elijah. We also see that Elijah trusted God that if he went to Zarephath that this widow would have the means to take care of him. Faith IS action. There was no faith in the situation UNTIL Elijah went to Zarephath.
Let’s continue reading in verse 11. “And as she was going to fetch it, he called to her, and said, ‘Bring me, I pray thee, a morsel of bread in thine hand.’ And she said, ‘As the Lord thy God liveth, I have not a cake, but an handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse: and, behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it, and die.’”
So let me paint the picture here. Here’s this strange man that shows up on this widow woman’s doorstep. She didn’t really know Elijah. But God had told her that she was supposed to take care of him. However, she’s only got a little food in a barrel and a little oil to make maybe a small loaf of bread with and somehow she’s supposed to feed this other grown man whom she doesn’t even really know as well as herself and her growing son. Then, on top of that, she has to give him water, which is scarce here because there is a drought in the land.
Elijah hears the woman’s story and his response is, if you think about it, quite appalling. In verse 13 he says, “Fear not; go and do as thou hast said: but make me thereof a little cake first, and bring it unto me, and after make for thee and for thy son.”
Can you imagine?! Put yourself in this poor woman’s shoes for a moment. There you are with next to no food and this strange man has the audacity to tell you to make food for him first? Why did he do this? How could he expect her to comply?
Elijah wasn’t really testing her. He was teaching her, much as Jesus would later teach the disciples. He was teaching her that faith is absolutely crucial if you want to see a miracle. Elijah knew that God had told them both that she was going to take care of Elijah, so they both had to SHOW that they had faith; to DO something to prove they trusted that God was going to use what little she had to accomplish it.
Therefore, we find that faith - putting belief into action - is absolutely required for a supernatural miracle. Faith greatly influences God. He is deeply moved by it. This is why Jesus would say, “Your faith has healed you.” Jesus would often say, after a miracle or just before one, that faith was the catalyst that brought the miracle about. Elijah also understood this, and that was why he told the widow woman to first bake the bread and then give it away to someone else - him. It is because faith is only a belief until it is put into action.
I mean, in a sense, Elijah WAS sort of recreating a formula for supernatural miracles. It was, in a sense, almost like a supernatural vending machine. He was like, “I’ve already exercised faith by coming here - obeying God. I know that if the widow exercises her faith here, it’s going to influence God greatly and move Him to perform a miracle. I can’t just take the bread after she’s eaten it. She has to do something to show she trusts that God is going to provide, and the only way she can do that is if she gives me the bread first.”
So, Faith - belief in action - is the first ingredient to a supernatural move of God. He knew this, and he was trying to teach it to her.
For my finances, I had to put faith into action by forcing myself to stop stressing over it and knit-picking every little thing. I had to stop fretting constantly and learn to just trust that things were going to work out in the end. This was exceptionally hard for me, but I finally did get to the place where God helped me to learn to let go. Then, suddenly, I started telling Debbie, “I have no idea how, but somehow we’re giving more tithe and offering this month. We’re paying our bills and still giving a little more than before.” I had to let go and REALLY trust God first.
But, let’s go back to the text. Now notice that faith is not necessarily destroyed by doubt as some might believe. This is a common misconception. The woman here was obviously doubting God’s words because she told Elijah her story. If she hadn’t doubted at all then Elijah would have asked her for food and water and she would have simply given it to him without making any comments.
However, because she told Elijah her story, she was obviously looking for him to give her an out. So she doubted that she could accomplish God’s will in spite of God’s command. She was having a moment where she was probably wondering something like, “How is God going to supply MY needs plus THIS MAN’S needs as well? Surely, if I keep this bread for myself and my son, at least we might live a bit longer so that God could bring something else along to save us. However, if I give it to this man then my son and I could die before more food comes along.”
You see, this woman was literally starving to death. This was not a case of a woman who had simply skipped a meal or two. There was drought and famine in the land. Food was scarce and she was a widow with a growing boy to feed. She was dying and so was her son. To them, that last bit of bread could be their last meal and they might starve to death in a day or so, if not sooner.
Yet Elijah was asking her to give up this last possible hope for survival, and he was asking to give it to HIM first! So naturally she tried to explain her position. She was also probably thinking that God had told her to, in a sense, sacrifice herself and her son for Elijah. I imagine she was desperately hoping for Elijah, and God, to have mercy on her.
But Elijah did not let her get away with her doubt. And there’s the key. He trusted God would keep His word. Therefore, he expressed to her that she should go and make bread and let HIM have some first. In this way, she would put her belief into action as well. Elijah understood what James 2:19-20 says, “You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble! 20 But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead?” What this means is, if you never put your faith into action, you don’t actually have faith. Faith REQUIRES action or it is dead. It is not faith. So, Elijah was reminding her of what God had commanded her. If she trusted in God and obeyed His command, God would take care of her in return. Living faith - faith in action.
God still performed a miracle here in spite of her doubt. Why? Because faith isn’t just believing. Faith is acting upon your trust in God in spite of your fears. It requires some risk. Faith of the supernatural kind is taking an action where if God doesn’t come through for you then you will lose something very important to you. It’s taking that blind leap into the dark hoping that God WILL be beneath you to catch you.
Now, if she had not acted on Elijah’s words then she would have not received her miracle. However, because she acted in spite of her doubt - in spite of the fact that in her mind she was thinking it was crazy and insane - because she trusted the man of God and trusted God’s word enough to simply do as she was told - God brought them the miracle they needed.
And here’s a number 1 attack of the enemy when it comes to faith. If he can get you to think too much, he can get you to talk yourself out of faith. This, again, is why Elijah responded as he did. He was basically saying to her, “Go do as God told you. Don’t think too much about it. God told you to take care of me, so do it. Don’t sit there and try to figure out the logistics of it. Go and do because God said so. Stop thinking too hard about it.”
You see, if the devil can get you to think about your circumstances too much, he can destroy your faith completely. This is why Peter began to sink when he was walking on water towards Jesus. He asked Jesus if he could step out of a boat and walk on water to Him, and Jesus said, “Sure. Come on and walk to me.” So he did! Peter got out of the boat and started literally walking on water towards Jesus. He acted without thinking about the raging storm that was all around them or how deep the water was.
But then, what happened to Peter? He looked away from Jesus, and he started looking down at the water and at the raging storm. THAT was when he started to sink. He started thinking about the logistics of the situation; how deep the water really was and how threatening the storm was. Suddenly, he started to drown, and he had to call out to Jesus to save him. Only when he focused on Jesus again and stopped fretting about his circumstances did he rise above his storm.
So faith isn’t just making yourself believe that something is going to happen. Faith is acting in spite of how much you may be doubting God or how crazy you think His way might be. This is true courage. Courage isn’t the absence of fear but the ability to act in spite of your fear. Courage, therefore, IS faith. Faith is acting in victory in spite of fear. This is what moves mountains. It is pushing past the fear and responding in spite of what it looks like.
This seems like it therefore requires us to have a lot of faith, but once again let’s shift our perception. It is a common mistake a lot of people make, myself included, and it was the mistake the disciples made too - that you have to have a TON of faith in order to activate miracles.
In Luke 17:3-6, we see a perfect example of the disciples thinking that they needed Jesus to increase their faith. Jesus said, “If your brother or sister sins against you, rebuke them; and if they repent, forgive them. 4 Even if they sin against you seven times in a day and seven times come back to you saying ‘I repent,’ you must forgive them.” 5 The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” 6 He replied, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you.”
What Jesus was trying to teach them is that in truth there is no such thing as “increasing faith”. You either have faith or you don’t. WE are the ones who view faith as being a substance that you can have more and more of. But faith isn’t actually a quantifiable, measurable substance. Faith is all about perception. Here’s what I mean:
When you get into your car and drive somewhere, are you scared for your life? Do you even think about or worry about your car getting you to your destination? So, you have faith that your car will get you to where you need to go. If you do worry, but you still drive, you have the same faith. You don’t have any more or less faith. It’s the same exact thing. You still got in the car and drove it even though you now had some doubts it would get you to your destination. You either have faith in your car or you don’t. If you have faith, you get in and drive. If you don’t, you go nowhere.
Think about it. Every time you get in your car, you are putting your life at a greater risk. People weaving in and out of traffic, animals potentially jumping in front of you, your car possibly breaking down and causing you to lose control… Yet you don’t worry. You trust that everyone’s going to drive safe enough to avoid accidents, animals aren’t going to hit you, and your car isn’t going to break down and lose control. Yet the possibilities are all there, and the more traffic there is, the higher the probability that you might get into an accident.
It isn’t how much faith, then, that is the problem. It’s what you are willing to have faith in that’s the issue.
The centurion in the Bible was praised by Jesus because he understood faith in this same way. He said to Jesus in Luke 7:8, “For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” 9 When Jesus heard this, he was amazed at him, and turning to the crowd following him, he said, “I tell you, I have not found such great faith even in Israel.” 10 Then the men who had been sent returned to the house and found the servant well.
See? The centurion didn’t have some great measure of faith. He simply understood what faith is. He simply accepted that Jesus was a Man with supernatural authority and that all He had to do was give the command and it would be done, just as he, the centurion, could command and it would be done. Just as we might simply trust that our vehicle is going to get us safely from A to B - thus placing your faith in your vehicle and the roads - so the centurion simply trusted that Jesus is what He is; just as the Widow in Elijah’s story finally decided to simply trust that Elijah and God would not abandon her to die.
We practice faith every single day. The problem is that we fail to perceive - to truly accept and believe - that God can and will take care of our situations and answer our prayers. I heard it said once that if we TRULY believed that God answers prayer, our rugs would be worn out from us kneeling on them so much. This same “measure of faith” that is required to trust all kinds of things we trust everyday is the same measure of faith we need to unlock power and even supernatural miracles in our lives.
But Satan and his devils know this, so they try to get us to doubt and then convince ourselves that it is like some sort of vending machine where we need a certain amount of faith to activate a miracle. We need to somehow summon up enough faith within ourselves to make the miracle happen - almost like a super power. If we fail to summon our miracle through faith, we then perceive that it was because we needed more faith. We perceive that it must require us to have no doubts. We perceive that we have to somehow talk ourselves into believing or we have to say the exact right prayers or do just the right ritual. This is a trick of the Devil to mess us up for the future.
Let’s combat this thinking. What kind of faith did it take for you to be saved? Think about that for a moment. Why do we find it so easy to believe that with such simple “amounts” of faith we can be saved? Our eternal souls can be saved simply by saying, in faith, “Jesus, I’m sorry. Please forgive me. Be my God and Savior.” The salvation of our souls is FAR more difficult than God taking care of our mortal issues. And yet, we perceive that for some reason it is easier for God to save our souls from Hell than it is for Him to protect us, provide for us, heal us…
But Jesus exercised the exact same faith when He went to the cross. Jesus is a human being just like us. The only difference between Him and us is that He has the very same likes and dislikes and personality as God the Father, and he was morally perfect. And yet, Jesus got on the cross, was abused, bled and died for us. Do you think He didn’t have things running through His head like, “Is the Father REALLY going to resurrect Me? What if He leaves my soul in Hell? Is all this REALLY worth it? Do I REALLY love these people THAT much?” You think Satan wasn’t messing with His mind as He suffered and died?
Yet He exercised the same exact faith. No more. No less. He determined in His mind that He was going to act according to what He knew was the Father’s Will, no matter the pain and no matter the cost.
I had developed this slogan once upon a time that I’d presented to the Men’s ministry at a different church, but it never went anywhere. I still try to live by it, though; to remind myself of it. “Real men do what is right - No matter the pain; No matter the cost.” I was going to suggest we provide the same slogan for women too. “Real women do what is right - No matter the pain; No matter the cost.” Add an image of Jesus suffering on the cross, and bam!
That’s all the faith it takes, though. Determining that you will do what you know you should do even if it’s tough and painful. This is why I wanted to talk about Praise and Worship first. Because when you Praise and Worship even though things are tough and painful, you are exercising your faith and saying, “I am going to do what is right - No matter the pain; No matter the cost.”
And I believe God revealed this to me too, because I did this all the time. If you are trying to talk yourself into having faith, you don’t have faith. If you are praying and praying and praying and begging and pleading and constantly trying to work up your faith within you, that means you actually don’t have faith. You CAN’T work up faith within you. You can’t build it up and increase it and manufacture it. Again, you either have faith or you don’t.
I had to realize this when it came to my finances. I focused on them and I prayed and prayed and focused and prayed and I kept saying to myself, “God will take care of them. God is going to do it. I believe God has it all under control.” Over and over again, I kept trying to talk myself into it. God finally revealed to me with my finances that the more I dwelled on it and prayed about it, the more I stressed and worried. Instead, I needed to learn to let it go. Pray about it, manage it (I mean, don’t neglect it), and then walk away. That is belief in action - faith. I showed I had faith when I stopped focusing on it. Do what you’re supposed to, and trust God has the rest taken care of. Now, I had to remind myself again and again to let it go, but that’s not the same thing. I was no longer dwelling on it in my prayers and thoughts and trying to build up my faith - to work myself up as if that, somehow, gave me faith.
So the BEST thing you can do, the BEST way to show Faith, is to pray, meditate on your issue for a set period of time so you can provide opportunities for God to guide you in what ways you need to be guided, and then walk away and do something else. The key is to set a specific time to dwell on it and then immediately walk away and do something else to get your mind off of it. And whenever it pops back in your mind, consciously say, “No. I’m not going to think about it.” Then go do something else. You have to make a conscious effort to battle things like this; to capture your thoughts.
Now, let’s be clear. Before we conclude on Faith, I want to be sure to give some warning. It is considered advanced because it can be dangerous. A person who is not wise with faith could potentially destroy their lives instead of receiving the miracle they were hoping for. Misplaced Faith can literally kill. It’s that powerful.
Here’s a real life example. A woman I knew at a previous church had many health issues for a long time. She started listening to preachers who were encouraging people to start acting upon their faith in extreme ways. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but again, if you misunderstand how to wisely use faith, you could endanger yourself and others. She decided to stop taking her much needed medications which regulated many aspects of her mind, emotions and body. Long story short, she almost died. If the pastor and his wife hadn’t taken her to the hospital for treatment immediately, she would have.
So how do we wisely use Faith?
Remember the widow? She didn’t just act on a feeling. She was acting upon a direct command God specifically gave to her. The scripture says that God told her in advance that Elijah was coming and she was to provide for him. Then, just to be sure, she asked the prophet to confirm. This is called “Corporate Guidance”, the 15th Key to Power.
So how do you wisely use Faith? You do what is right no matter what the circumstances look like. What is right? Doing what you KNOW God would want you to do according to the Bible. Don’t just act upon feelings or whims. 1 John 4 says, “Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.”
Not every impulse and idea you have is from God. God speaks in a still, small voice. If the voice in your head - the impulse - is screaming, “Do it! Do it now! Quick! Before it’s too late! Do it before someone stops you!” Chances are, that’s not from God. He typically speaks in a voice that is more soft and reassuring. Another way to know it’s God is that God will never contradict Himself. He CANNOT lie. So, if anything you think or feel contradicts the Bible or something else God told you to do, it’s definitely not from Him. Always ask yourself, “Is this the right thing to do? Is it REALLY the right thing? Would God approve? Does it line up with scripture?”
And finally, God gave us others in our lives partially so that we can discuss our decisions with them. Again, this is Corporate Guidance. If there is any doubt in your head, contact someone you trust who you know will pray for you. If they pray about it and also feel that He wants you to do that thing, you can have far greater confidence that it actually is from God.
Here’s another clue that it’s not from God: Are you hiding it from others? If it’s from God, you will feel bold and confident about it. You won’t need to hide it. The woman who almost died at my previous church was told by the pastor and his wife that she shouldn’t stop taking her medicines, but she did it anyway and hid it from them, not trusting their advice and counsel.
And again, the Widow presented her fears to Elijah, testing to see how the Man of God would respond. She was testing the spirits. She trusted that Elijah would not lead her astray. This same principle is what we need to do more in the church with one another. If we feel God is telling us to do some really risky things, we should “test the spirits”.
Here are several things to think about when activating Faith:
If God told you to do it today, He’ll still be telling you to do it a day or two from now, or a week or a month.
If God told you to do it, He will tell others who are listening to Him the same thing.
If God told you to do it then it won’t contradict the Bible.
Finally, if God told you to do something, you won’t feel ashamed and like you need to hide it from others.
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