The 21 Proofs of Faith: How to Live a Victorious Christian Life

Contents

Preface

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Chapter 1: Creating Things out of Nothing

Chapter 2: Giving an Excellent Offering

Chapter 3: Being Taken Away by the Things of God

Chapter 4: Moving Without Knowing the Destination

Chapter 5: Obeying God’s Commandments

Chapter 6: Dwelling in the Land of Promise

Chapter 7: Conceiving When Past Child-Bearing Age

Chapter 8: Offering the Very Best to God

Chapter 9: Bestowing Blessings upon Your Children

Chapter 10: Prophesying of Things to Come

Chapter 11: Hiding from the Enemy

Chapter 12: Refusing to Be Called by Your Origin

Chapter 13: Forsaking the World to Gain Christ

Chapter 14: Trusting in the Power of the Blood

Chapter 15: Passing through the Impassable

Chapter 16: Bringing Down the Enemy’s Strongholds

Chapter 17: Escaping from Calamities

Chapter 18: Rising Up When You Fall Down

Chapter 19: Walking through the Fire

Chapter 20: Facing the Giants Head-On

Chapter 21: Life Is a Race: Are You Fit for It?

Upcoming Books By Joseph Kimanzi

The 21 Pillars of Divine Wisdom

The 21 Secrets of Divine Wealth

The 21 Weapons of Spiritual Warfare

This book is sincerely dedicated to heroes and heroines of faith, past and present, who have persistently stood in the gap for others and sacrificed more than anyone could ever repay. To such awesome men and women of God, I salute you all.

Preface

Sunday, November 20, 2005, will forever remain imprinted on my heart as the day my life was transformed, in particular my understanding of faith.

On that day, I was studying the all-time faith chapter, Hebrews 11. As I read the scriptures, the Holy Spirit began to reveal to me that there were more than twenty-one proofs of faith in the chapter. The Spirit of God led me to discover these truths, which give proof of living in action-based faith. On that day, I wrote down all the revealed proofs of faith and began to prepare the material as the Holy Spirit revealed even more. The result of these revelations is this book.

This book is intended to set you in motion so that you can begin to operate and continue operating in a life of dynamic faith. My hope is that it will be a roadmap to your spiritual journey. As you read, digest, and apply the truths revealed in the book, I believe your life will undergo a tremendous transformation and you shall begin living life victoriously for yourself and for the benefit of the kingdom of God.

Acknowledgements

My heartfelt thanksgiving and gratitude goes to our heavenly Father, for his love and saving grace. He alone is worthy of praise, honor, glory, and majesty. Without the help and guidance of the Holy Spirit, I wouldn’t have accomplished this much in life. Even this book was inspired and directed by the Holy Spirit.

I wish to thank my family for their faith in me and their understanding and patience during the preparation of the manuscript. It took many moments of seclusion to write the book, which would have been a difficult undertaking if not for the understanding of those close to me.

My wife, Irene, has been a great source of support, encouragement, and faith. She has been God's greatest gift to me, a gem prepared by heaven. My love and appreciation goes out to her for her support during my many hours of study and research.

To Shallom, Shekinah and Baraka. Your lives give me joy and strength for living. I thank God for you every day of my life.

To Bishop Michael Kimani. You have been a good friend for years and source of encouragement inspiration on matters of faith.

To David Bernardi of iUniverse. Thank you for your excellent and professional editorial work. May God remember you.

Introduction

What Is Faith?

There are countless useful volumes written on the topic of faith. This book is not meant to define or explain faith. It is meant to show how faith works and to give proof of faith by action.

Although this book’s primary purpose is to explore faith in action, it is helpful to briefly define what faith is, according to scripture. What is faith? According to Hebrews 11:1a, faith is the substance or physical evidence of things hoped for. A substance is something that takes you higher up, to a different level of operation. Faith is not normal; in fact, it is abnormal and uncommon. When you take in the substance of faith, you operate at a level others only dream of.

In Heb 11:1b we learn that faith is also the evidence of things not seen. Faith is the proof of your claim to things that belong to you from the invisible realm. Man lives in two different worlds. There is the physical world we see with our eyes and there is also the spiritual world which is invisible to our eyes.

Quite simply, faith is knowing exactly what God knows and doing exactly what God would do under the same circumstances. Faith is recognizing and believing that God means what he says and does what he says.

Therefore, if God has said it, then that settles it. There shouldn’t be any other point of reference or boardroom meetings to discuss the if or the how. God’s word comes with the divine power for the accomplishment of whatever the word desires. God’s word is forever settled in heaven and none of his words are devoid of power. The word of God is sent to accomplish a purpose and achieve the desired objective (Isaiah 55:11).

Someone said that faith is allowing our souls to go beyond what our eyes can see. This is true, because faith sees beyond the natural into the supernatural. In 2 Corinthians 5:7, it says, "For we walk by faith not by sight." The proof of faith is believing what we do not see and the reward of faith is seeing what we belief.

Faith is trusting that the invisible God can perform impossible acts. Faith is a fact but faith is an act. Faith without action is dead. It is faith plus action that gets the supernatural power to act on your behalf and turn impossibilities into possibilities and failures into opportunities.

The greatest enemies of faith are reason (or logic), fear, and doubt. These are faith destroyers and must be avoided at all costs.

What Is the Measure of Faith?

Why do believers experience different levels of faith? Is it because of what they believe, what they possess, or what they do? This book shall answer these and other similar questions.

Faith comes by hearing, but the proof of faith lies in our actions. Without taking a step of action, faith is dead, and dead things don’t produce results. Faith means action, and without action, there is no faith. It takes work for faith to work. It is not enough to know that you know. You must show by your actions that you know. The world needs people who can take action and put faith into work, because until faith works, nothing works.

Where Does Faith Come From?

Romans 10:17 So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

Faith is among the most important of the gifts administered by the Holy Spirit and comes by continuously listening to the word of God. Faith comes by continuously hearing, speaking, and meditating on the word of God.

How to Develop Faith That Produces Results

This book calls believers into action. Someone once said, The power to do something comes with doing it. And just as practice makes perfect, faith is developed, nurtured, and perfected by action.

You can become who you were created to become. You can have what you want to have. This book shows you the underlying principles and truths required to achieve this.

What can one do to attain the level of faith experienced by the heroes and heroines of faith? The answer is simple, but not so simple: believe, speak, and act according to the word. For whatever you think about, talk about, and act about is what you bring about.

This book is for believers in Christ. If you have not yet received and accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and savior, say this prayer aloud:

Lord Jesus, I am a sinner. I know that you came into the world, shed your blood, died on the cross, and rose again on the third day. I ask you to forgive me of all my sins and cleanse me with your precious blood. I renounce Satan and the works of darkness and invite you into my heart. Thank you for your forgiveness. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.

Once you have said this prayer, you are now ready to begin the journey to a victorious destiny in your life. The next important thing is for you to join a Bible-believing church, where the power of the Holy Spirit operates unhindered. May God abundantly bless you as you join me on this spiritual journey.

Chapter 1: Creating Things out of Nothing

Hebrews 11:3 By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.

All things begin as an expression of thought

Everything that you see in the physical world today began as an abstract idea or an expression of a thought. All the big cities with their skyscrapers, marine vessels, aircraft carriers, spaceships, industrial complexes, and technological innovations existed first as ideas in someone’s mind. The Bible teaches that "the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible." This is such a powerful statement of truth that it is worth reading a second and a third time. Once you have read it, stop for a moment and meditate upon it. Let the powerful truth of the statement sink deep into your soul, because the truth that lies within that statement is going to transform your life forever.

To paraphrase the statement: things that can be seen with the naked eye were not made of things that take any visible or physical form. This means all physical things have their origin in things that are non-physical and invisible. It should be quite clear by now that all things begin as an expression of a thought. Therefore, for anything to materialize in any visible or material form, the constituent parts of the thing must already exist somewhere on earth or in the universe, albeit in a non-physical and invisible form.

The Origin of All Things

All things were created by the word of God. Without the word of God, there is nothing that could have been created. In their purest forms, all things were created by Jesus Christ, the incarnate word of God, and they were created for him and for his glory. Apart from him, not a single thing that exists today could have been created. All things, visible and invisible, were created by God out of nothing (i.e., possessing no physical attributes), because the source of all things is the invisible and infinite word of God. The word create does not necessarily describe the creation of something out of nothing per se, but it presupposes the existence of the thing in a non-physical and invisible form.

Lack, poverty, cold and darkness are not forces, they are only absences

Creation, therefore, describes the fashioning of things or the reforming afresh of things from their non-physical form into their physical form. Only the word has the power to bring about the physical manifestation of things from the invisible realm. This is how, when God said, Let there be light, there was light! By speaking the word, God called light into existence. Without speaking the word, nothing could have been created. For whatever you say is what you are going to see. All things were made through the word. The Bible teaches,

John 1:1–3 In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God … All things were made through him, and without him nothing was made that was made.

Jesus Christ existed before the beginning of time. He was not only with God before the beginning of time and creation, but he is God and was active in the process of creation. He is the revelation and manifestation of the invisible God to mankind. He is the deity who not only created the universe but also holds and sustains the universe together, maintaining it in harmonious unity and order (Colossians 1:17).

The Genesis Account of Creation

The Genesis account of creation describes the earth as without shape, empty, and filled with darkness. The physical manifestation of anything begins in a similar fashion: formlessness, darkness and void. This is a graphic description of the three major absences that afflict mankind on earth namely, poverty, darkness, and cold. It is worth noting that none of these is a force by itself, only an absence of the real thing.

Therefore, in order to overcome these absences, and any other limitation, you have to create the absolute reality that is the opposite of that deficiency. To overcome darkness, you need to create light and darkness will disappear; to overcome cold, you need heat; and to overcome poverty and lack, you need to create wealth so that poverty will have no place to settle. In the absence of something, God speaks the absolute reality of it, and it comes forth and manifests in the physical realm. Therefore, speak the word, believe the word, and act in expectation that it will manifest in due time.

Speak to any of the absences just as God speaks to them; for where there is darkness, God says, Let there be light, and there will be light; and where there is nothing or emptiness, God says, "Let there be…" and there shall be. The old adage that what you say is what you get is rightly applicable here. This is how the Bible describes creation:

Psalm 33:9 For he spoke and it was done; he commanded and it stood firm.

Colossians 1:16 For by him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through him and for him.

The Bible teaches that all things were created not only by him but also for him. All things, visible and invisible, belong to Jesus Christ, the son of the living God, and were created through him (the word) and for him.

The Word Becomes Flesh

Words when repeatedly spoken become flesh

The Bible teaches us that faith comes by listening to the word of God. It is in the word that faith is imparted in us. The words we speak out of our mouths, when repeatedly spoken and believed, have the potential to manifest in the physical world. Words have the power to manifest in life. Jesus taught that words are spirit and they are life.

John 6:63 It is the spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.

Words have a life of their own and as every living thing produces after its kind, the words that we speak are spiritual and have power to bring about life or death (Proverbs 18:21). There are no neutral words. We shall all give an account for every word that we have ever spoken. In other words, our words are always alive and active. The power of the words of the tongue is covered in a later chapter. For now, know that words have the power to manifest in their physical form. The Bible says it this way:

John 1:14 And the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth.

The word, which had been spoken of for many centuries by the many different prophets, finally became flesh. The word (or "logos"), being fully God, became transformed and dwelt among us in the person of Jesus Christ.

In a manner almost similar to the one described above, words that are spoken repeatedly may be transformed into their physical forms in ways that are far beyond human understanding. Therefore, the words you speak about yourself or anyone else, have the potential to manifest in the physical world. Therefore, the words you speak to your congregation, spouse, children, or staff are very powerful and can manifest as physical reality. Therefore do not let idle words come out of your mouth.

The Story of a Naughty Boy

The story is told of one naughty boy, who in old times used to tease his fellow students on their way home after leaving school. As they walked along the road, they would reach a certain spot, and he would call to his friends, There is a buffalo in the thicket. Run, there is a buffalo in the bushes. All his friends would take off, screaming for help, while he would be left behind laughing his heart out.

He did this for a long time and each time the other boys would run fast ahead while he would be left laughing. One day, after leaving school for home, they reached the particular spot on the road. As was his usual habit the boy shouted, There is a buffalo in the bushes, run! The other children took off as usual, and the naughty boy was left screaming in laughter. But lo and alas! There was movement in the bushes, and when he looked, he beheld a real buffalo coming towards him with greater ferocity than that of a bull disturbed by a matador. He tried to run for his life, but it was in vain. The raging beast gored him to death in a matter of minutes.

Words, although they are spirit, when repeated spoken become flesh! The words of thought, invisible in nature, are transformed and manifest in the physical world, as the naughty boy once found out. Words are not only spirit and life producing, but the converse is also