Leading The Way

Guest (Male): Get your very own copy of the Daily Way as a thank you for your gift of any amount to Leading The Way. When you visit LTW.org or call us. Speak with a ministry representative to process your gift at 866-626-4356. In the Gospels, we read details about miracle after miracle as Jesus traveled with his disciples.

Now, we tend to focus on the amazing wonders of healing and God's power, but sometimes we gloss over the truth that lives were touched, lives were changed when they encountered the personal touch of God's grace. On this episode of Leading The Way Audio, Dr. Michael Youssef takes you into one of these encounters. He steps beyond the prayers of a father seeking the healing of his child right to the heart of the story.

You'll see how this situation and the miracle that occurred points to everyday faith. In fact, it reveals faith steps that will help you and me exercise living faith as we walk through 2026. So join me now in listening to Dr. Michael Youssef on this episode of Leading The Way Audio.

Dr. Michael Youssef: We have been looking at the importance of transferring the whole truth, the whole counsel of God as the old Biblical translation says, the whole counsel of God to the next generation. And that is probably the most important thing that you can do and the one thing that everyone can do. And that is interceding on behalf of the next generation.

I'm not talking about a quick prayer here and there or even praying when there is a crisis and there is a need and there is something urgent and you need to go. I'm talking about tenaciously, persistently, intentionally interceding until God answers. You say, Michael, how can you be confident that God will answer that prayer? Simply because the promises of God. I'm going to come back to that passage again, but let me tell you First Corinthians chapter seven makes it very clear that whenever there's one believing parent, one, I keep repeating, one believing parent, therefore the next generation of that one believing parent is sanctified in that one believing parent.

Translation: God has a plan for the lives of the children of even one believing parent. One of the examples that impacted me greatly is a man in the Scripture who would not give up interceding for his next generation. And he, God blessed out of his sandals because he not only got the answer to his prayer, they experienced salvation. So I want you to turn with me please to Scripture, John's Gospel, chapter four, beginning at verse 46 all the way to 53. It is a story of a man who comes to Jesus interceding on behalf of his son.

You know what I love about this man? That he would not be dissuaded, he would not be deterred even when his own expectations were not met. This is a father, most likely had very little Biblical knowledge. This is a father, most likely did not know, had no clue of all the theological debates that were going on at the time. This is a father, perhaps did not know a great deal about Jesus, that He is God of very God in human flesh.

And yet, what he expressed here was an unwavering faith in the promise of Jesus, in the words of Jesus. He expressed an immovable faith in the trustworthiness of the words of Jesus. He exercised confident faith in the promise of Jesus. He totally believed Jesus on behalf of his next generation. And that is what I will be focusing on today. This man in John chapter four comes to Jesus like so many of us out of crisis faith.

I think not all of us, I know that, but some of us, when we came to Christ, was a crisis in our life or some issues or something going on and we in desperation turned to Christ. And you know, nothing wrong with that, nothing wrong with that. The Lord will honor that crisis faith. But the problem is we dishonor God when our faith stays in that crisis mode or only come to God whenever there's a crisis. That's dishonoring to God.

Beloved, listen to me, there can be no doubt that God does not look down or despise or reject crisis faith. But it is dishonoring to God when we stay in a crisis faith, that every time we get into a crisis, we develop that faith. God often answers crisis faith prayer in order that may encourage us to go from strength to strength, to go to higher levels of faith, to move on, graduate to the next step of faith.

To go from crisis faith to contagious faith and that is why I want to show you five steps that have taken place in the life of this man and that they ought to take place in our lives. Because when you go from crisis faith to contagious faith, there are three other steps in between. And so I want to share them with you very quickly. It began, his faith began with a crisis. It's a crisis faith.

But secondly, it went to continuing faith. And then thirdly, we see it blossoming into confident faith. And fourthly, it leads to confirmed faith. And finally, we see it here, this father's faith becomes contagious. As I said, most of us, when we become serious intercessors on behalf of the next generation, we come with a sense of urgency. And that's fine, nothing wrong with that. God uses these circumstances to draw us to Himself. God responds to this, old King James Bible says, importunities.

God graciously uses these baby steps of faith to take us to the next step of faith, to the next level of faith, to the next stage of faith. Look at verse 46. A nobleman, that is somebody from the royal household, he's in the King's palace. A nobleman come in desperation. This man is a member of the King's courtier. This man no doubt, given his position, he had lots of money, lots of prestige, and lots of influence. But his money, prestige, and power could not help him.

He needed a supernatural intervention. He recognized that nothing he's got can help him in his crisis. Thankfully, this crisis situation led him to a budding faith in Jesus. The most amazing thing about our Lord is that He welcomes this type of beginner's faith. He welcomes it. This man implored Jesus. This man besought Jesus. This man urged Jesus. You see it in his voice. This man persisted in intercession with Jesus.

Even when on the surface it appears, and you'll see it very clearly in the Scripture, if on the surface it appears that he's being rebuffed by Jesus. But I want you to remember this rebuff is not intentional, focusing on this man. Now there is a large crowd of people if you read it in the context. A large crowd of people, and when they see somebody like this, recognized by his clothes, people were making way, making way for him to come to Jesus. So he comes to Jesus.

There is a large crowd and Jesus was speaking to the crowd, not necessarily to this man specifically, even though he was included. Verse 48, unless you people, unless you people see miracles and signs and wonders, you'll never believe. Here's a Biblical fact. Listen to me, I know many of you testify to this as I do. If we are to grow in faith, we must be willing to accept the test of faith. There are many people who want faith without being tested in their faith.

But it's like a school. You cannot make it to college unless you graduate from high school. And the same thing in the spiritual school. You have to pass the test of faith. There is always a test, always a test. There can be no testimony without a test. And the test of faith is designed by God to reveal to us, He already knows, is to reveal to us the level of our faith. It is designed to reveal to us the seriousness of our faith or lack thereof.

It shows us if our crisis faith willing to grow into a higher level and a higher level and a higher level of faith. Or do we just want the crisis to be over? Get me out of this, God. And when He does, we say, hey, what did You do for me lately? It is designed to test if we have a fleeting faith or a continuing faith. Do we just have a temporary faith or a permanent faith? Beloved, please listen to my heart. Listen to me.

Believing God for the next generation, trusting God to do great things with the next generation, totally believing God to use the next generation, He must move us from crisis faith to continuing faith. You see it clearly in this nobleman. He went from crisis faith to continuing faith. You say how? Look at verse 48 again. Jesus puts him off as it were, but he was not going to be deterred. He's not taking no for an answer. He's not going to give up.

He's not going to just say, okay. How does he respond to that rebuttal? How does he do that? Verse 49. You people, unless you see. He said, sir, just come with me. I'm not listening to anything else. I'm just come with me. Verse 49. What is he saying? He's saying my faith is in who You are. My faith is not only for what You can do but of who You are. And that is why his faith goes from crisis faith to continuing faith to confident faith.

Look at verse 50. Jesus said, you go, your son lives. I want to tell you, here's a Youssef imagination. Had this man's faith stayed in a crisis faith mode, had this man's faith was merely a shallow faith, just trying to get what he wants to get, he would have said, now wait a minute, wait a minute, Jesus. Aren't You going to come with me and see the boy? Aren't You going to come and lay hands on him and heal him?

How can I be sure that this is the case? How do I know that this is really the case? My boy is long, long away from here, Capernaum. Right there on the lake, and we're here in Nazareth country. It's a long way away. But he didn't, he didn't, he didn't. And the reason he did not is because his crisis faith moved forward to being continuing faith. Now it is confident faith. It's confident. Not arrogance, there's a world of difference between confidence and arrogance.

Beloved, confident faith takes God at His word. Confident faith takes God at His word. Confident faith fully trusts in the promises of God. Confident faith believe without evidence. Confident faith does not doubt in the dark what God has revealed in the daylight. Now I testify to you, and I told you this before, that I hung and I continue to hang everything in my life on the promises of God. And so can you hang on the promises of God regardless of where your next generation actually are right now.

Wherever they are spiritually. Because you know and I know that doubt is the enemy of faith. Right? Doubt is the enemy of faith. And doubt tempts all of us, including your pastor. Doubt tempts all of us. But doubt needs to continuously being uprooted like a noxious weeds. How? By trusting in the word of God. By taking hold of the promises of God. By dropping anchor on the promises of God.

Many years ago someone said to me faith is like a toothbrush. Everyone should have their own and use it regularly. My friend, I can tell you on the authority of the word of God, if you are a God-fearing, if you're walking daily with God, if you are faithful with God, then you can exercise faith on behalf of the next generation. But here comes something that is of utmost importance. Interceding for the next generation, but we must also model faith to the next generation.

We must model that faith. Because if we model faith, sooner or later they will develop their own faith. When they see us go from crisis faith to continuing faith to confident faith, sooner or later they will experience confirmed faith. This member of King Herod's inner circle believed God for the next generation. He trusted God's word without visible evidence. He couldn't see it. He took Jesus' word for it. He trusted in Jesus' promise.

So much so that he did not rush home that day. Earlier I told you about God's promise in First Corinthians seven, 14, 15, and 16, that non-believing children of the one who's a believing parent are sanctified or set aside for God to do work in their life. This means that as you intercede, your next generation, as you pray for the next generation, you can rest at peace. You're not anxious, you're not worried, you're interceding, you're not giving up, but you're at peace.

Somehow, somewhere, sometime, God is going to keep His word. God is going to keep His promises. So you rest in peace. Question: You know why this is really important? Do you know why it's important? Listen to me. Because it has nothing to do of who I am or who you are or who anybody else is. It has nothing to do with who we are, important as we are to the heart of God. It has nothing to do with us.

It has everything to do with the character of God. And you see it throughout the Scripture. God accepted Abraham's intercession on behalf of Lot and his family. God blessed Pharaoh because of Joseph. God accepted Moses' intercession on behalf of the stiff-necked rebellious people. And God blessed Solomon because of the prayers of David. God answered Hannah's prayer and blessed her with Samuel. And I can go on and on and on and on. I wrote a book on these prayer of people of old.

Look at the text with me, please. When the nobleman went home the next day. It's the next day. You know how I know that? Going to see it. The servant met him, probably gate of the city. They probably stayed at that gate all night long waiting for the boss to come home. They were probably saying to each other, the boss man is not going to believe what happened. The boss man is not going to believe the good news that we got for him.

The boss man will probably want to see for himself. Oh, wait till he gets home and he sees for himself what happened. The servants probably could not sleep that night. But the nobleman did. So when he came home, he only asked one question. Just one question. One question. No, no, it was not let me see for myself. Where is the boy? No. You know what the question was? What time did this happen? What time did this happen?

What time was the boy healed? Listen, I'm using sanctified imagination here, okay? Boss, what difference does it make? Oh, it makes all the difference in the world. Because this is not a coincidence. This is not a happenstance. This is not an accident. This is not luck. It happened the very second the promise was uttered from the lips of Jesus. Crisis faith gave way to continuing faith which developed into confident faith. Now it becomes confirmed faith.

And my beloved friends, confirmed faith must lead to contagious faith. If you seek God and God answers you and you keep your mouth shut and you don't testify. Think about it. Verse 53. They told him of course yesterday, that's how I know it was the day after that he didn't come home right away. When the nobleman confirmed the moment of the miracle, the Bible said, so he and his entire household, they all got converted.

His testimony and his witness to his household, that including all the servants and the slaves and the children, the grandchildren, everybody's in the household, became believers. That's the word of testimony. The Samaritan woman, she came and she said, come and see a man who told me everything about my life. Testimony. They all came out. Testimony. Testimony. They won the victory with the word of God and the word of their testimony.

If I learned anything about the word of God is I know this. God is a covenant-making and covenant-keeping God. God loves to work with multiple generations. God loves to bless whole households to be used and blessed by God. And that is why believing on behalf of the next generation is not an option. It's not an option. And you see it throughout the New Testament. Not just the Old Testament, but you see it in the New Testament.

In Acts chapter 10, the very first Gentile, it was a captain in the Italian army. He was Italian, he was not Jew. This is the first Gentile ever to believe and be redeemed by the Lord Jesus Christ. Cornelius. The Bible said in Acts 10, Cornelius and his whole household believed and were baptized. You go again, Acts chapter 16, when Paul and Silas were singing in the prison and there was an earthquake and the jailer thought oh, the people going to escape and then the government's going to kill me, so he was about to take his own life.

And Paul said, stop, we're all here. And then he said, what must I do to be saved? And the Apostle Paul shares with him. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Bible said, Acts 16, the Philippian jailer and his whole household. Can you say whole household? Whole household believed. You go again, Acts 16, Lydia, businesswoman. When she came to the Lord, her whole household. God loves to work with multiple generations. The question is, will you covenant to at least intercede for the next generation?

Guest (Male): Thank you for making time in your day for Dr. Michael Youssef and Leading The Way. Did today's message trigger some faith questions? We hope so. Leading The Way pastors and counselors are ready to have a conversation with you, ready to guide you toward Biblical answers. So connect today at LTW.org/Jesus.

Guest (Female): I just wanted to thank Dr. Youssef for his walk with the Lord and for his testimony and for his daily devotional that he sends out. And almost every day, it speaks to my heart, something that I'm going through personally or something that I see some of my friends going through. It always draws me closer to the Lord and to praise the Lord more. And I just want to thank him so much and I really appreciate his walk with the Lord. I just want to tell you thank you.

Guest (Male): Have you been touched by Dr. Youssef and Leading The Way? Well, if so, we want to hear from you. In fact, we've set up a special voicemail box so that we can gather audio testimonials, possibly even sharing them on future broadcast. So if you'd like to participate in this, give us a call: 877-941-7934. You'll be given an opportunity to share your heart with us and with Dr. Youssef. This program is furnished by Leading The Way with Dr. Michael Youssef, passionately proclaiming uncompromised truth.