Sample The Power of Faith

Copyright

CESAR CASTELLANOS D. © 2007 Published by G12 Editors / eISBN 1-932285-73-3 / All rights reserved. Total or partial reproduction of this book in any form—printed, electronic, audiovisual or otherwise—is prohibited without prior written permission from the publisher. Unless otherwise noted, scripture is from the New International Version. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Except: Part 1: Chapters 7 and 11; Part 3: Chapters, 4,5 and 6, New King James Version Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Editorial Director_Johanna Castellanos. General Editor_Perla Doris Mora / Cover & Book Design_Julian Gamba _Daniel Duran G12 Editores_Sur América - Calle 22C # 31-01 Bogotá, Colombia - (571) 269 34 20.

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Chapter 1: Entering into the dimension of faith Chapter 2: Faith to obtain revival Contents

Chapter 3: The father of faith Chapter 4: Faith to heal the soul Chapter 5: Deliverance: The Release of the spirit

Chapter 6: Victory over the adversary Chapter 7: Learning to depend on God

Chapter 8: The substance of faith Chapter 9: Principles for a dynamic faith Chapter 10: Faith to exert the right leadership Chapter 11: Faith for the conquest

Chapter 12: How to combat unbelief About the author

Introduction

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n his letter to the Romans, Paul explains how to become a Christian and how to live a new life in Christ. He writes, “…in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you” (Romans 12:3b). Paul teaches that God gives a measure of faith to each of His children. This faith is the key to conquer everything that would otherwise be impossible to attain in the natural world.

You may be thinking that you do not have faith, but you do have faith. It simply needs to be activated through the Word of God. As you read the Word, your faith will begin to grow in such a way that you will be surprised by all you will be able to do for God. The Lord Jesus said: “I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him” (Mark 11:23). The knowledge of His Word gives us the assurance to firmly confess the things we have believed for. This confession of faith becomes a decree in the spiritual world because the angels take hold of those words and begin to put them into action. The Lord taught us not to doubt in our hearts. Therefore, we should stand strong on what we have proclaimed.

Concerning this, Jesus said, “…I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from

here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you” (Matthew 17:20). The mustard seed is the smallest of all seeds. It can be compared to the size of the head of a pin. The Lord used the smallest possible size of faith to teach us how to conquer great things for Him. God doesn’t ask us to begin with a great measure of faith, but with a small measure so that as our faith grows, we will be able to achieve the impossible.

When we enter into the dimension of faith, we are entering into God’s heart and moving His hand so that the great blessing he has for us can become real in our lives. Faith is the result of daily spending time in God’s presence. In the midst of this intimacy, He gives us clarity about the Scriptures and direction for our future. Through this relationship, we discover what God wants from us because the desires of His heart become our own. However, it is essential that we establish concrete goals and that our prayers be very specific.

A few weeks after we started the International Charismatic Mission, we had 30 people attending our services. In prayer, I asked the Lord to give me the strategy to grow. As I have shared in another one of my books, the Lord asked me two questions: “What do you want?” and “When do you want it?” Through these questions I learned that faith should have a clear goal, a correct desire, and a specific time. After spending a day in prayer, the number 200 came to my mind. I understood that my first challenge would be to conquer 200 people in six months. I wrote the number 200 everywhere I would be able to see it, and I started to daily claim those 200 people in prayer. After that, I would thank the Lord for their lives because I believed that He had already given them to me. When I was preaching, I would visualize them in the meeting. I saw the people standing in line to get into the

service. I believed that God was bringing them to the church. Three months later, my goal had become a reality.

God desires for you to learn these precious principles that will lead you to conquer everything that seemed impossible in your life.

Cesar Castellanos D.

Chapter 1:

Entering into the dimension of faith “Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.”

Romans 10:17

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f you desire to have a successful ministry, you should always live in the dimension of faith. By living in this dimension, your relationship with God is strengthened and you will be able to conquer all your dreams. Faith is far above our senses and it is born in our heart through the Word of God. Faith is drawn to simple hearts. God creates

circumstances for His Word to reach the lives of those who hunger and thirst for justice, and the Lord satisfies them with His truth. People tend to wander through life by sight and not by faith. They try to take hold of what they can see, while forgetting that behind this visible world there is a spiritual kingdom that cannot be seen. But this kingdom exists, and it is real and eternal.

Faith connects us to the invisible and eternal world, because in order to enter it, we first need to be born again. Jesus told Nicodemus: “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again” (John 3:3). Nicodemus, however, tried to understand this through human logic. Jesus told him again: “I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit” (John 3:5). Just as a newborn baby opens his eyes and begins to discover the world around him, after experiencing the new birth, we begin to open our spiritual eyes and we are able to see how the Lord reigns over the spiritual world. As the baby grows up and becomes a child, the desire to have things develops. Once he becomes an adult, he can begin to pursue his dreams. When we are born into the life of the Spirit, something similar happens. First, we begin to discover the rich blessings from God’s kingdom. Then, as children do, we can see and touch these blessings. Once we have matured, we are able to pursue our dreams. First, we see. Then, we can posses.

Faith removes us from the natural world and transports us to the threshold of divine glory. In his letter to the Corinthians, the Apostle Paul wonderfully writes, “And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with everincreasing glory…” (2 Corinthians 3:18). What is this transformation like? It is similar to the metamorphosis experienced by the worm

before turning into a butterfly. When you look for intimacy with the Holy Spirit, you might feel unworthy. Perhaps this is a result of the many hindrances and struggles in your mind because of the impure thoughts and desires attacking you. When you try to reach intimacy with God and when you open yourself to the life of the Spirit, those things will make you uncomfortable. They will bother you, and they will try to obstruct your spiritual development. However, when you are able to rid yourself of your old nature, you will go through a metamorphosis, and you will inevitably feel a change. You will go from being a natural person to being a spiritual person. You will begin to cultivate your intimacy with Him and to move in the spiritual realm, which is God’s territory. Because your life has been transformed you will then be able to speak the language of His kingdom and to walk in the direction given by His Spirit.

Faith entails leaving our weaknesses at the foot of the Cross in order to clothe ourselves with the invincible strength that comes from God’s Spirit. Everyone has gone astray. Everyone has taken the wrong path.

The waves of the world had taken us to the brink of destruction. But God had mercy on us. He gave us the understanding to see our condition and to open our hearts to Jesus Christ so that He would come and live inside of us. We were able to understand that Jesus took our place, and was chastised for our transgressions. He took the written code that was against us and He canceled it at the Cross, breaking the spirit of curse that followed us and destroying it so that it would no longer be a hindrance to us. He took our sins, and He carried them to the Cross. He was the only one who could bear the chastisement that every person deserved.

When Paul understood the real meaning of the Cross of Calvary, he

was able to say: “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).

He understood that Jesus’ death represented his own death. All of his sins, weaknesses, and his entire past were crucified on that Cross.

Later on, he said: “May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (Galatians 6:14). The Cross of Calvary wasn’t a momentary experience for Paul. He went to that Cross everyday to crucify his flesh along with his passions and desires. He became victorious by the power of the Cross of Christ. This was not only a victory for Paul, but also a defeat and shame for the demons. “Having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross” (Colossians 2:14-15). Satan had a list, a written code. Those were the legal rights that he had against us. How did he get this code? The adversary took the sins of our parents as an argument and used it against us. The enemy also uses traumatic childhood experiences to bring guilt and condemnation into people’s lives.

Jesus took hold of those arguments, He took them from us, and He canceled them at the Cross. By doing that, He destroyed the written code forever. Because of this, Paul wrote: “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: ‘Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree’ “ (Galatians 3:13).

By faith we are able to leave a world of failure and defeat in order to walk the solid streets of success and prosperity. Faith allows us to

transform the absurd into something logical, and the despicable and underestimated into something useful and blessed.

The Lord Jesus said: “‘Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.’ By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive” (John 7:38-39a). The true believer has a permanent joy in his heart. He doesn’t pay attention to the circumstances because this joy lives and is active inside of him. You might know people who are like an elevator. One day they feel on the brink of glory and the next day they’re at the bottom of the abyss. One day they have a good attitude and believe they can conquer everything, but the next day they’re depressed and feel there’s no meaning to life and they’re miserable.

People of faith are able to stay firm by the promise given by God in His Word. They know that success doesn’t depend on the circumstances but on holding tight to what He spoke to their hearts through the Scriptures.

Abraham is a great example of this. God promised him that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore; the number was so big it couldn’t be counted. The years passed by, his body started to get old, and circumstances seemed to say something different than what God had declared. Abraham, however, wasn’t weakened in his faith. He remained firm, holding on to the promise He had received. In the end, God gave him the victory and he became a father of nations.

By believing God, we leave our failures behind and we become successful people because He gives us the ability to transform our circumstances.

Jesus revealed the Father to us What goes through your mind when you think about God? Jesus Christ was the only one who revealed to us the Father, the Almighty God who set all things in order. He is the beginning of life and He sustains everything that exists with the power of His Word. Everything began with Him and, therefore, everything will return to Him. He was the one who gave man the understanding along with the ability to choose between good and evil. Mankind chose to rebel against the word of God, preferring his own way and making himself worthy of eternal condemnation. God then prepared a plan of redemption through Jesus Christ.

The only thing that allows believers to live a victorious life and enjoy the divine blessings is their faith in Christ. This faith is released by sincerely approaching God through the systematic reading of the Word.

“Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see” (Hebrews 11:1). Faith allows us to see as real that which our physical senses have not yet perceived. Faith in the Lord Jesus is the only thing that gives life to our spirit. He said: “…no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit” (John 3:5). When we are born again the life of God enters our human spirit.

God is Spirit and, by His nature, he only relates to spiritual beings.

Paul said: “But he who unites himself with the Lord is one with him in spirit” (1 Corinthians 6:17).

By having intimacy with God, the spiritual world is opened to us and we can see His rich and abundant promises. Through faith, we not only see the promises in the spiritual realm, but with prayer and the

confession of the Word, we turn them into a reality. We are not afraid of talking about our miracle because, even though we can’t see it, for us it is already a reality. The New Living Translation reads: “Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see” (Hebrews 11:1).

Through the power of faith, we are able to conquer and attain everything that may seem impossible to us. Faith is so fundamental for every believer, that in the New Testament alone the word is mentioned 128 times. This word releases great things for those who leave their worldly ways behind in order to depend fully on Jesus Christ.

We must choose the way of faith Abraham chose only one way, the way of faith. This decision opened up all the doors of success to him. It gave him strength to overcome his obstacles, and it provided him with a bridge to cross the abyss between the possible and the impossible. Faith allowed him to drink from the spring of life which rejuvenated him and made him vigorous.

It caused him to fly, wrapped in the wings of the Spirit. It flew him around the heavenly city whose architect and builder is God. His faith allowed him to leave behind blessings for his offspring. The greatest of these blessings is Christ, through whom every person is able to join the faith by accepting Jesus and living according to His Word.

It is important to understand that the whole Bible was inspired through faith. Thanks to the faith of simple but holy people, we now have this precious book within our reach. Consecrated servants of God wrote the Bible believing that future generations would receive the

message. They did this by faith. The whole Bible, from the book of Genesis to Revelation, talks about supernatural miracles. If we removed the word “faith” from the Bible, the deeds would not have value. What makes the Bible different from any other book is the element of faith.

If we removed faith from the lives of the men of God mentioned in the Bible, their existence would be meaningless. Their faith made them different. If we removed faith from Moses’ life, there would have been no judgment over Egypt through the plagues, the Red Sea would not have divided, manna would not have rained down from Heaven, water would not have come out from the rock. It would have been impossible for the people to survive in the desert for forty years without faith. Without faith, how would the sun have stopped when Joshua spoke to it? Because of faith, this was the longest day in history, and it helped exterminate the enemies of Israel. All of this was possible through faith.

God didn’t use preexistent materials when He created the universe.

He created everything with His power. The author of Hebrews presents God’s characteristics and describes Him as the chief architect who designed all things, both big and small. Everything carries the purpose of providing a stable place for man. But the happiness of man had a requirement: it was dependant on the worship he would offer to God.

Faith always pushes us forward “‘But my righteous one will live by faith. And if he shrinks back, I will not be pleased with him.’ But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved” (Hebrews 10:38-39). The purpose of every Biblical lesson is to motivate the children of God to always advance until reaching the measure of fullness in Christ. The Lord encourages us in His Word not to look to our right or to our left, but to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:2).

Dr. Derek Prince used to say that maintaining the same level of faith is like keeping a vehicle moving forward. Allowing doubt to creep in is like switching to reverse when the vehicle is moving forward. This is what the Lord referred to when He said: “But my righteous one will live by faith. And if he shrinks back, I will not be pleased with him” (Hebrews 10:38). Many people think that they will please God simply by attending church, but they don’t care about living a life of faith.

They do not realize that as long as they have doubt in their heart, they will be moving backwards in their faith. Once they open their eyes to reality, they will find themselves very far away from their true goal.

Paul said: “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is — his good, pleasing and perfect will” (Romans 12:2). Three basic principles are presented here to help us advance in our life of faith.

Faith allows us to renew our minds Human beings tend to get comfortable with the circumstances and they feel content with what they have already achieved. This is easy to understand because with every new beginning we must leave behind what was conquered in order to explore the unknown. A life of faith, however, is about conquering without giving up. It implies adjusting our thoughts to His Word. The great advancements in technology were the result of nonconformity. Scientists understood that there was much more to explore and they believed that they could be key players in history.

The Lord Jesus Christ said: “And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins. And no one after drinking old wine wants the new, for he says, ‘The old is better’” (Luke 5:37-39). When people accept Jesus as their Savior, they receive a new spirit. Unfortunately, because they don’t renew their minds, many of them remain like old wineskins, and they never receive the blessings that God wants to give them. Because the old is not replaced by the new, they miss out on the blessing.

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