A message transcribed from TB Joshua’s Sermon: “Trust – Move The Impossible”.
In Genesis 1:3, when God said, “Let there be light,” He trusted His Word and there was light. He was not speaking out of things that were already in existence but of things that were yet unseen - things that looked naturally impossible. His expression showed that whatever God ordered or decreed out of faith came into being. If you can exercise that absolute faith God had in His Word when creating you, you can say to your mountain, “Move!” With faith in your heart without doubt, you will move the impossible. Trust - move the impossible.
Everyone is endowed with something within that needs to be transferred to the outside. It is easy to say, “I am a faith man” and still continue to hope for years. As long as you hope, what you are hoping for will always be beyond you until you add substance to your hope and receive Christ by faith. Faith is the substance of things hoped for. Faith and hope go together. The problem with our faith is not far from the fact that we fail to add substance to our hope and receive Christ by faith. Faith is to be expressed in deeds.
James 2:26 says, "… faith without deeds is dead". It is your deeds that confirm that faith is alive and active in you. Therefore, faith is perfected by our acting on the Word of God. In Genesis 15, the Bible says that Abraham understood this principle. When God promised that he was going to father many nations in his old age, the Bible says he trusted that God would keep His Word. What God valued in Abraham was the trust that Abraham had in His ability to do the impossible. Abraham trusted that God would do the impossible and that was what God valued in him - trust.
Trusting in God does not consist of prayer alone. There are times that we pray in faith and there are times that we act in faith. There are things that we must do ourselves and others we expect from God. We have all sent our petitions, our requests, our heart’s desires to God. It is now time to sit back in faith to hear what God has to say about our situation. In this process, you need to add trust, patience, perseverance, and obedience as substance to your hope to activate your faith. Prayer for any special object must be followed by an absolute trust in the Father that He is working out the answer. Faith is not a legalistic formula created and accepted by man. God responds to faith and not formula. Faith is not an issue of ordering God around when we do not know God’s will for our lives and we continue pray, murmuring and complaining when the answer to those prayers seems to delay. We seek shortcuts and alternatives - beating the gun. Remember, God’s will means God’s promises for our lives. When God is executing His plan in your life, He also designs and arranges events which will continue to unfold until His purpose is revealed.
Take note - God designs, creates, and plans before fulfilling those promises in your life. Those events could be unpleasant situations. If God allows it as He did with Job and a host of others, so not think it strange and begin to doubt the Word of God, thereby questioning your faith. Some want to plan all by themselves because they can’t wait for God’s time. If possible, they even execute their own plans by themselves. When they leave God out of their plans, they cannot see beyond their immediate situation.
In Genesis 22, Abraham trusted and moved the impossible. God instructed him to sacrifice his only child, Isaac. Abraham knew that Isaac was a child of promise and realized that God would not delight in killing that promise. "‘The fire and word are here’, Isaac said, ‘but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?’ Abraham answered, ‘God Himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son’" (Genesis 22:7-8)
Immediately, the Holy Spirit affected his word and God’s Word became his victory. Obeying God at first seems hard until we come to see that all He asks is for our good and makes life full and free. It honours God to believe in Him even while every sense contradicts Him. Crossing the Red Sea was an impossible task in the natural. The Red Sea was against the free movement of the Isrealites into the Promised Land. It was against their success but Moses looked beyond it, trusted and moved the impossible. For those who want to see before they believe, remember **John 20:29, “… blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed”. Faith based on what is seen lacks the quality of being stable. “For we live by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7).
It is faith that sees the invisible, moves the impossible and receives the incredible. In Daniel 3:17-18, when Nebuchadnezzar threatened Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego with fire, they trusted God and moved the impossible. That was why they were bold enough to tell the king, “If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from your Majesty’s hand. But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you set up”. The Holy Spirit affected their words and the Word in their mouth rose against the law of nature, turning the fiery furnace ice-cold because it was spoken from their heart.
As a believer, the Word of God on your lips will rise against the law of nature and make that impossibility in your life possible. When you experience a situation or things contrary to God’s promise for your life, it is an opportunity to cultivate an attitude of Christ Jesus. Stay focused, be calm, don’t take a step back. There is always light at the end of the tunnel. The test that comes from Jesus always helps our character development. God oftentimes uses hard times to produce maturity, humility, and completeness in us so that we can share in His holiness and be equipped to enjoy the peace and righteousness in Christ Jesus.
The first step of our work of faith is to stop our own work, our own plan and rest on God’s love, power and wisdom. Tests and trials will come as long as we live. We need to be calm. Don’t be troubled - be focused, be steady, even when everything around you is unsteady.
