THE BENEFITS OF SUPERNATURAL FAITH!

Every relationship with God is by faith. All that Christ died to give us are accessible by faith only. 

All the promises of God from Genesis to Revelation can become yours by faith only. But many Christians today are not able to receive the benefits of “Supernatural Faith” because they are ignorant of this truth. So today we want to look at “THE BENEFITS OF SUPERNATURAL FAITH!”

What is benefit? Benefit is the advantage of something. 1 Timothy 4:8 says, “Physical training is good, but training for godliness is much better, promising benefits in this life and in the life to come.”

Supernatural faith has a number of benefits and such benefits include:

1. YOU ARE SAVED BY FAITH [saving faith]. Entrance into the Kingdom of God is by faith only. When you believe in what Jesus Christ has done for mankind on the Cross of Calvary you are saved.

Galatians 3:26 says, “For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.”

In Ephesians 2:8-9 the Bible says, “For by grace you have been saved THROUGH FAITH, and that not of yourselves; it [the grace] is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast.”

Titus 2:11-14 says, “For the GRACE of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men…”

2. YOU ARE JUSTIFIED BY FAITH. To be justified means to be declared not guilty by the court of Heaven. It means to be declared discharged and acquitted by the court of Heaven. You are declared not guilty because Jesus has paid for all your sins in full. That means that all your sin nature and your sin acts have been fully paid for.

God the Father is the One that justifies us. Romans 8:29-30 says, “…and whom He called, them He also justified: and whom He justified, them He also glorified.”

How does God the Father justify us? By faith in the finished work of Christ. In Romans 5:1 the Bible says, “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Your past is forgiven and your future is guaranteed.

3. YOU ARE SANCTIFIED BY FAITH. To be sanctified means to be made holy, or purified. It is the process by which, we are made partakers of His holiness; it is a progressive work; it is begun in regeneration; and it is carried on in the hearts of believers by the presence and power of the Holy Spirit.  

This is accomplished by the appointed means – (1) especially the Word of God, (2) self-examination, (3) self-denial, (4) watchfulness, and (5) prayer.

How does God sanctify His people? God’s people are sanctified only by faith in the finished work of Christ Jesus.

In Acts 26:17-18 Jesus said, “And I will protect you from both your own people and the Gentiles. Yes, I am going to send you to the Gentiles, ¹⁸to open their eyes so they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God. Then they will receive forgiveness for their sins and be given a place among God’s people, who are sanctified [set apart] by faith in Me.”

4. YOU ARE KEPT IN FAITH BY FAITH IN THE FINISHED WORK OF JESUS CHRIST. We are kept in faith by the power of God through faith. That you are able to hold on as a Christian in this perverse world is possible by faith only.

In 1 Peter 1:5 the Bible says, “Who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”

1 Corinthians 10:12 says, “Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.”

Matthew 10:22 says, “...but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.”

In other words, God in His mighty power will protect you until you receive this salvation, because you trust Him. It will be revealed on the last day for all to see. So be truly glad! There is wonderful joy ahead, even though it is necessary for you to endure many trials for a while.

5. YOU HAVE ACCESS INTO HIS GRACE BY FAITH. Faith gives you access into His unmerited favour.

In Romans 5: 2 the Bible says, “Through Whom also we have access by faith into this grace (unmerited favour) in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”

Psalms 30:5 says, “…in His favour is life: weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.”

Psalms 89:17 says, “…in thy favour our horn shall be exalted.”

One way of obtaining this favour is by finding a wife. Proverbs 18:22 says, “Whoso findeth a wife findeth a good thing, and obtaineth favour of the Lord.”

Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of highest privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God’s glory.

6. Your faith will cause God to be pleased with you. In Hebrews 11:6 the Bible says, “But without faith it is impossible to please God, for he who comes to Him must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.”

The extent to which God is pleased with you is directly proportional to your level of faith in Him. In Hebrews 11:5 the Bible says that Enoch had this testimony, that he pleased God. Before he was taken up, Enoch was approved as pleasing to God.

Shedrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego pleased God and God protected them from the fiery furnace (Dan. 3). Daniel pleased God and God protected him from the hungry lions (Dan. 6).

Abraham pleased God and God credited it to him for righteousness (Rom. 4:17-21).

And righteousness will always establish you (Isa. 7:9; 54:14). Righteousness will always exalt you (Prov. 14:34).

7. FAITH WILL MAKE YOU TO HAVE A GOOD REPORT [TESTIMONY]. Faith will make God to give His approval concerning you. The Bible says that God gave His approval to people in the days of old because of their faith. 

Hebrews 11:2 says, “For by it [faith] or because of their faith the elders obtained a good testimony.”

And in Hebrews 11:4-40 the Bible gives us examples of such elders.

8. FAITH BRINGS YOU TO A PLACE OF REST, WHICH GOD HAS PREPARED FOR HIS PEOPLE. Supernatural faith brings rest to your soul.

Grace and peace are multiplied unto you through the knowledge of His Word! In 2 Peter 1:2 the Bible says, “Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord.”

In Isaiah 26:3 God said, “I will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed [focused, fixed] on Me [the Word], for he trusteth in Me.”

In Hebrews 4:1-11 the Bible says, “God’s promise of entering His place of rest still stands, so we ought to tremble with fear that some of you might fail to get there. ²For this Good News—that God has prepared a place of rest—…”

From Hebrews 4:11b we see that anyone who does not believe what God has said in His Word concerning his situation will never enter into His rest. You enter into the rest of God when you truly believe the promise of God concerning your situation. And when you believe in this manner you will see the manifestation of the expected results.

For instance, when Jesus cursed the fig tree, He believed that what He said was going to happen. And the very next day, they saw the manifestation (Mk. 11:12-14, 19-23).

Hebrews 4:6 says, “Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of UNBELIEF.”

Some did not enter the resting place of God because of unbelief. When you don’t believe God for what He has said in His Word concerning your situation, fear, worry and anxiety will take over and bring complete unrest to your soul.

For instance, you say you are trusting God for your healing and yet your trust is truly in the tablets the medical doctor prescribed for you and not in His Word which says, “Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the Name of the Lord. 15 And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. 16 Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much” (Jam. 5:14-16).

1 Peter 2:24 says, “Who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live unto righteousness--by whose stripes you were healed.”

In other words you believe that that physical tablet is more powerful than the Almighty God who is Omnipotent.

You say you are trusting God for your finances and yet you are worrying about how you are going to pay your bills.

You say you are trusting God for protection when you go to bed at night, but in reality you can’t sleep because you believe that the thieves must attack you in the night.

One minute you confess that the Word of God is immutable, that He watches over His Word to perform it (Jer. 1:12), and the next moment you are cancelling all that you have confessed, through your actions. Your actions will perfect your faith (Jam. 1:5-8).

In Matthew 21:22 the Bible says, “And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive."

Listen friend: rest for your soul is a promise from God (Matt. 11:28-30; Isa. 26:3; Ps. 20:7).

They that put their trust in the Lord shall never be confounded; they shall never be disgraced; they shall never be disappointed; they shall never be put to shame; but they shall be like mount Zion that shall never be moved  forever (Ps. 125:1-2).

Therefore, if you want to enjoy the benefits of faith, you must choose to obey God by taking God at His Word and acting on whatever He has said. Increase your faith by attending to God’s Word with all diligence.

9. YOU TAP THE WONDER-WORKING POWER OF GOD TO YOUR SITUATION BY FAITH. It is your faith that makes you whole. Jesus has already released all the power you need to handle any situation in life. But you are the one that will draw the required power to yourself. It is your faith that places a demand on and draws the power of God to your situation. And that power is more than enough to destroy the yoke of bondage in your life.

Examples include the case of the woman with the issue of blood. In Mark 5:25-34 Jesus said to the woman, “Daughter, your faith has made you whole. Go in peace, and be healed of your affliction."

Another example is the case of blind Bartimaeus. In Mark 10:46-52 Jesus said to him, "Go your way; your faith has made you whole." And immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus on the road.”

His faith made him whole!

Another example is Abraham. Abraham was childless. He tapped the wonder-working power of God into his situation and the yoke of childlessness was destroyed. Abraham linked up with the invisible hand of the Omnipotent God through faith and virtue was instantly released into his situation. Isaac came forth (Rom. 4:17-25).

10. WHAT IS NOT YOURS BY RIGHT CAN BECOME YOURS BY FAITH (Matt. 15:21-28). This woman was an alien to the commonwealth of Israel. Her faith caused God to pick her out from among the crowd. Your faith will cause God to pick you out from among the multitude. What is even yours by right [your promotion, divine healing/health, prosperity etc.] can be denied you through unbelief. As a child of God, all that Christ came and died to give us is yours by right. But you can possess them only by faith.

It is also possible to obtain results on other grounds apart from faith. For instance, you may obtain your healing on the platform of mercy without faith, but it may take you about 38 years to receive it (Jn. 5:1-9).

Be-thes-da means the House of Mercy. Only one healing per season is obtained there. It was not his faith that healed him. It was the mercy of God.

In Nehemiah 9:19 the Bible says, “Yet in Your manifold mercies You did not forsake them in the wilderness. The pillar of the cloud did not depart from them by day, to lead them on the road; nor the pillar of fire by night, to show them light, and the way they should go.”

Those unbelievers that are healed even outside the crusade ground, during crusades, are healed by the mercy of God, not by their faith. They are healed from the crumbs that fell from the master’s table.

11. FAITH PUTS AN IMMEDIATE END TO YOUR SUFFERINGS AND TURNS YOUR SORROW INTO JOY. Faith rings an alarm in God’s throne room thereby attracting an immediate response from God to your aching situation.

Example is the case of the woman that was bowed down for 18 years (Lk. 13:10-17), and the woman with the issue of blood (Mk. 5:25-34).

12. FAITH TRANSFORMS YOUR RIDICULE INTO MIRACLE (Gen. 17:15-20; Rom. 4:17-25). People ridiculed Abraham and Sarai because they had no children. But suddenly their ridicule was turned into a miracle because they gave birth to Isaac in their old age (Gen. 21:1-6).

Also, people laughed at Jairus whose daughter was dead. But soon after, the ridicule turned into miracle when Jesus raised the little girl from the dead (Mk. 5).

13. FAITH BRINGS YOUR FUTURE EXPECTATION TO NOW. As a supernatural catalyst, faith brings you fastest to your destination. Faith brings your tomorrow to now (Rom. 4:17).

Abraham believed in the God Who brings the dead back to life and Who brings into existence what didn’t exist before. Examples include the case of the woman with the issue of blood (Mk. 5:25-34), and the case of the ten lepers (Lk. 17:12-19).

In Proverbs 25:2 the Bible says, “It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, but the glory of kings is to search out a matter.”

That is to say, it is God’s privilege to conceal things and the king’s privilege to discover them. You have the right to discover the things that God concealed in His Word through a diligent study of the Scriptures. The knowledge you acquire will fuel your confidence in Him. And this knowledge will lead to faith in Him.

In 2 Timothy 1:12 Paul said, “I know Whom I have believed and I am persuaded [convinced] that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day.”

The more of His Word you know, the more confidence you can have in God because the Word of God reveals God to us, His character and His principles. The more you know God the more you can trust Him.

In Ephesians 1:13 it is written, “In Whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the Word of truth, the Gospel of your salvation: in Whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise.”

No wonder the Bible says in Daniel 11:32, “But the people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits.”

In 2 Peter 1:19 the Bible says, “We have also a more sure Word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts.”

Child of God, you can get whatever you want now or after some 38 years. By faith you’ll get it now. Faith shortens your very long journey. However, by God’s manifold mercy, you can get it, but after some 38 years. You must wait for so long! The choice is yours!

Therefore, if you want to enjoy the benefits of supernatural faith, you must choose to obey God by taking God at His Word and acting on whatever He has said. Increase your faith by attending to God’s Word with all diligence.

Watch out for the next edition of Good news from the Pulpit!

• Your friend: I. I. MADUBUNYI (Senior Pastor)