Power Walk Ministries

Guest (Male): Thanks for joining us for this broadcast of Power Walk. We're excited to have you join us today as Reverend Paul Cannings, our founder and president, brings us part eight in the series, "Don't Run Aimlessly." We refer to life as a journey, and we face uncertainties at many levels. But how can we experience God every moment of every day so that our focus and the entire journey is all about him? Let's listen to this message titled, "The Journey."

Dr. Paul Cannings: We tend to look at the things that people have accomplished in the scriptures: Daniel in the lions' den, David and Goliath, Joseph and forgiveness and being near to Pharaoh in Egypt. I'm not so much into what they've accomplished; I'm into how they accomplished it. I like the story.

What was it like to be taken by your relatives and placed on a slave market, standing there most likely in your underwear, having people inspect you like you're an animal? What was that like? What was it like to be betrayed? What was it like to be in jail for 12 years for something you didn't do? What is that like?

I don't like to look so much on what has taken place, but looking at the journey that they've taken. We read verses like Paul, "I'm more than a conqueror through Jesus Christ. I can do all things through Christ." We like those verses. But what is the journey when he writes, "Be anxious for nothing" and he's in house arrest? People are seeking to kill him. His enemies are speaking loud.

What is it like? No family fighting for you, no lawyers fighting for you. What was it like to just be there? There's no fire coming from heaven, no clouds, no earth-shaking. You're just there, locked up, and you're writing, "Be anxious for nothing." What's the mindset there? That's what I like to focus on because that's the journey that helps us to understand what it's like in our relationship with God.

This is one of the things that we see in Romans chapter 4, verse 19, as we continue our way through this particular passage of scripture and learn from it what it takes to live totally surrendered to God's ability when everything says he isn't doing anything. And that's why David experienced God in his motions of life. Paul experienced God in his motions of life. And it's not that they eliminated the issues they faced; they looked it dead in the eye.

That's when God became so dear to them that they no longer lived. It was Christ that lived in them. In verse 19 of Romans chapter 4, he says, "And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body dead." "Being not weak in faith"—"being" here means he's existing in a situation where he has no desire to ever stop existing with this mindset and this focus and this plan for his life.

You can come to this at some time and say, "Abraham, hey, wait a minute now. Abraham, he laughed one time. Abraham went to Hagar." There's times when you see Abraham do these things. So how are you going to say he did not become weak, meaning he no longer had any strength at all to continue in the path that God had given him? That's not what you see in Abraham's life.

It doesn't mean that because he laughed, he got up and went home. So he wasn't weak. It doesn't mean that when he went into Egypt and lied about his wife and God protected her and led them out, that Abraham didn't change his course of life. When you look at his whole motions, he's back to God. It didn't mean that. When he got out of there, he didn't go back to Haran in the security of his family and all the different things that took place with his family. That didn't happen.

So when you look at Abraham, he's still in Canaan. He's still moving around doing what God is telling him to do. He is still focused on managing his tribe. He's still focused on looking for the day. The word "hope" here means he's expecting. In verse 18, it means he's expecting. He's coming out of his tent, looking around, waiting for this nation to happen because God said it's going to happen, whether the life experiences say it's going nowhere where he said.

You don't see it anywhere. That's not how he's thinking. Even though there's ups and downs in their lives, they're still in the path that God has called them to. Abraham is still moving around, still looking out of his tent expecting to see a nation come from nowhere. He's not dressing it up, he's not spiritualizing it. He's saying, "This is the way it is." When we are in that journey, it has to be real. But we stay in the journey because it didn't weaken us.

It didn't get on the inside of us and make us go home, give up on church, or close our Bibles. What's the point of doing devotions? What's the point of believing in God is going to do this? I've been praying, I've been fasting, I've called out to God. Nothing is changing around me. When we become that way, we become weak in our faith because we're not staying the course.

We're not saying, "God, whether you change anything or not, it is making me better. My prayer life is better. My commitment to serve you is better. At least my character is becoming stronger." So the times that they're going through these situations, because they stayed in the journey, that maturity took place. A lot of times when we come to these journeys and the situation continues to persist—this is 25 years for Abraham—we look at it smack-dab in the face.

We don't push it to the side. We don't say this is not something that is worth dealing with or say, "You know what, I heard I can do all things through Christ, but right now I'm not feeling it. I'm just closing these blinds and going to sleep and hope the world goes away." We didn't stay in the journey. We didn't continue to walk around looking at the fact. We didn't continue to look at that and still believe God and still keep looking forward for God doing what he said he's going to do.

He never picked up his tent and everything else and headed back home. Never did. That's weakening. That's saying, "I'm out. I'm done. It's a waste of my time. I should not have given 25 years of my life doing all this junk all over this place fighting for Lot and all of this. I've wasted my time. What is the point?" No, he never did that. There's no turning around.

There's times we come in, we're saved, we're fired up. We're in church. We're having a great time. We want to serve God. And then God doesn't produce what we expected him to produce in the timetable that we expected and we fade away. We become weak. What does he say? He did not become weak in faith. In faith. Watch the transition here. The transition goes from "believe" in verse 18 to "faith" in verse 19.

It's the same Greek word. But the context determines which word you use, whether you use "believe" or you'll use "faith." When we come to this text, "believe" is when, like he told Thomas, "You see, so you believe." You see it, so you believe it. You have the evidence that this has taken place, and that's why you believe it. That's why you find "believe" with "hope."

"Faith is the substance of things hoped for, is the evidence of things not seen." So the substance is what he has, and the evidence is what leads to this believe concept that leads to hope. That's why he's talking about hope first when he talks about believe, because there's evidence. But when he comes to verse 19, there's no evidence. There's no babies coming from Sarah. There's no nation.

In other words, when you look at the nation of Israel in Egypt, the babies were coming so fast the midwives couldn't keep up. You don't have that same situation with Abraham. There's no baby coming at all. So Abraham had no evidence, none, that God is going to bring a child because there's no child coming. When life does not produce what we expected it to produce because God said it's going to—he's saying that these things will take place, and we're reading it in the Bible.

But there's no activity that is taking place that says we should put our lives and focus to the verses that we're looking at. The Bible says the minute we start living like that, we have moved to faith. Faith is the substance of what we hope for. That's why verse 18 starts with hope. But it's the evidence of what we can't see. The hope produces this evidence because I'm living... he's staying out there in Canaan.

So he's seeing evidence that God is with him—the Lot situation, evidence that God is with him. The Sarah situation in Egypt, he's seeing evidence that God is with him. His flock is constantly going forward and growing and growing, so they have to split up he and Lot. He's seeing the evidence. That keeps his hope alive and it causes him to want to believe that God is able to do exceedingly abundantly all he could ever ask or think.

So I'm going to stay out here even though I can't see a baby coming from a 75-year-old woman. I'm going to stay right here. That's faith. Faith is something that does these three things: a person that is in faith is always steadfast. You can't move them from what they're committed God is going to do. You can't move them. "I'm supposed to go to the Gentiles," you tell Paul. Paul says, "I'm going to the Gentiles."

"Paul, they're going to beat you." "Going to the Gentiles." "You're going to be shipwrecked." "Going to the Gentiles." "They're going to lock you in jail a bunch of times." "Going to the Gentiles." "The sufferings of this present time don't compare to the glory to be revealed." "Paul, you were a well-to-do man. You're just about making tents and surviving." "I count it all loss so I can gain Christ." They're steadfast.

Here's a second thing about the person that is walking by faith: they're surrendered. You could put them in any situation and they're going, "Okay, well God has got this. I've got to do what I'm supposed to do." They're surrendered. They so believe that God has gotten what is taking place that they don't find the need to go killing themselves trying to fix the circumstances.

Their job is to just surrender their will to his will and they're completely committed to get that done. So they are totally surrendered to what is taking place as a result of that. They're living not by sight. They're living, as faith would say, when they can't see it in human logic. That's why it's against hope in verse 18. They can't see it, but they still believe it. They still have faith in it and they keep pressing.

There is one other thing you find with these folks: not just that they're steadfast, not just that they're surrendered, but they place their complete conviction in the scriptures. And they are totally confident that it's going to work. That's it. You sometimes see people fixing a car together, and they're like, "Man, I don't know how this stuff is going to work." It's going to work, just keep doing what I said.

Jump out of the plane. "Man, the parachute..." Trust me, I've done this parachute several times, I fixed it myself. It's going to work, jump. It leads to actions. It leads to constant movement. It moves to surrender because the person is bold and they're confident. This is going to work. In time you will see it. But you must stay the course to see it.

And that's why you have the Hall of Faith in Hebrews chapter 11. People who just stayed the course, and they never saw it but they saw it. Moses kept going through verse 24 through 28 because he's believing in the Messiah to come. When did he meet Messiah? On the Mount of Transfiguration. It's going to happen. It may take years, but God in that journey teaches us we're more than conquerors.

God in that journey will teach us: "I never lie. My word is true. I've made you stronger. You have a better character. You have a better focus. You are a better member of a church, and you are a great servant for God." He teaches us that you no longer live; it is now Christ that lives in you. It's not just what; it's who we're going to experience when we trust in God. Stay focused.

Guest (Male): Thank you, Dr. Cannings. It's true: God is not there just to give us all that we ask of him, but rather he wants to mold us to be more like him. And friends, if you should have any questions about spiritual matters and would like to speak to somebody about what it means to have a personal relationship with God, then give us a call at 281-260-7402. That's 281-260-7402. Please also visit us online for all of our ministry resources. Our web address is powerwalkministries.org.

Dr. Paul Cannings: Power Walk Ministries is excited to have the partnership with Central Baptist Church and Mars Hill Network for a conference we are doing on September the 19th, at 8:30 in the morning to 3:30 in the afternoon. The conference cost is minimal; it's $25 that includes lunch. We would love for you to be there and be a part of what God is going to do through this partnership with Central Baptist Church and Mars Hill Network and Power Walk Ministries.

It will take place at Central Baptist Church. We would love for you to be there. We need for you to go to the Central Baptist Church website in their Syracuse area, or you could go to the Power Walk Ministries website or Mars Hill's website, and there will be a link over for you to learn more about the classes that are being offered. We look forward to seeing you. It's going to be an exciting one-day conference where we all learn together for God's glory. Join us September the 19th at Central Baptist Church. See you then.

Guest (Male): That's powerwalkministries.org. Thanks for joining us today. And remember: our journey is not all about us, but all about God—his purpose, his plans, and him molding us for his glory.