Sunday Message – Today Jesus 106 05/11/06

<Luke 17:5-10>
HOW TO INCREASE FAITH?
• We require faith to accomplish a lot of activities
• It is by faith that we have hope and expectation on God. People who do not
know God will not understand this
• We will receive conviction when we are willing to let go of ourselves and
problems and to go to the Lord. This can only be done by faith. People who do
not know God will not understand this
• The result of faith enables us to see the examples left behind by Jesus, our
sadness can be transformed into strength
• The result of faith enables us to see that God has prepared everything for us
even though we have nothing now
• Everyone who stands before the Lord must believe that:
1) God is alive;
2) He will reward me when I place my hope on Him alone
• We often have to suffer because our concerns are easily put on the carnal
things
• We cannot sustain our lives if we do not have faith in God
• Only people who have faith are able to console and bless others. Otherwise,
the more we try to console others, the sooner we will lose our love for others
and become sad or burdened
• We can overcome all problems and receive answered prayers only when we
have faith
• On the other hand, those without faith will often cause others to sin

Read <Luke 17:5-10>

1. The power of faith

1) How enormous and infinite is faith
• The Lord tells us to have faith like a mustard seed. It means we only
need to have a very small faith
• It does not matter how small our faith is; as long as our faith is from
God, He will fulfil infinite things
• A mulberry tree is able to live up to a few hundreds years. Its roots are
strong and deep. The Lord uses the mulberry tree to represents the
roots of sins, the roots of illnesses, our vicious roots, etc. As long as we
have small faith, it is enough to uproot all the vicious roots in our lives,
no matter how deep they are
• <Matthew 17> also tells us that we are able to move a mountain
even if we have faith as small as a mustard seed. The mountain
represents any gigantic problems or obstacles in front of us
• Therefore, all our problems can be resolved as long as we have faith
• E.g. When Abraham had faith, he can give birth to Isaac even when he
had reached an age where he can no longer bear any children
 • E.g. The Israelites were able to escape from the hands of the Pharaoh
and the Egyptians only when there was one (i.e. Moses) with faith
amongst them. And they could only cross the Red Sea (i.e. problems)
when they had faith
• Are we often indecisive when required to make some decisions? E.g.
choosing a partner, changing a job, further our studies, etc
• We should not be indecisive or worried when making decision, as long
as we are willing to take whatever path God has prepared for us
• We need not compete with others or groan if we can follow the Lord
with faith. The question to ask ourselves is whether we have faith to
follow the Lord
2) Surpassing the constraints of man → Spiritual world
• Man has many constraints. They are constrained by space, time,
physical, etc. E.g. when virus enters our body, we will fall ill
• Most people know that they have many constraints. They will never
know what will happen tomorrow. Thus, they always look for fortune
tellers to help them predict the future.
• However, a person with faith is able to overcome his
constraints/limitations. He is able to see the spiritual world
• A person who does not know about the spiritual world will only fix his
eyes on the physical one. Thus, as parents, they will want to teach their
children everything they know. However, they will not teach anything
that requires faith
• Of course, a person who does not know about faith can be successful
too. However, no matter how successful he is, his success will not
connect him to God
• Likewise, no matter how successful we are in our career or how much
our bosses like us, our success will not attach us to God if we do not
have faith
3) Faith is practical and it will affect the physical world
• For example, a person who has faith will not deny the fact that he has
cancerous cells in him
• A person who really has faith knows that the cancerous cells in him are
there to fulfil God’s purpose
• Faith does not hide us from reality
• Faith enables us to see God in reality, know God will open up a path for
us and know God has a great plan for us to discover
• This does not mean that a person with faith cannot go to doctors, have
savings or buy insurance. In fact, we can do anything
• However, Paul told us that things not done in faith are sinful
• Thus, we can do all things, but we need to do them with faith.
Otherwise, everything we do will not do us any good
4) Only a beloved person (a person who knows about salvation) can enjoy
<1Cor 2>
• In fact, the faith (or life) of a mustard seed is given by God. In other
words, we are already loved by God and has received true life
 • God has already prepared everything for us and is always with us. We
are already complete
• Why do we always ask God for this or that if we are already complete?
• We always ask God for more things because our perspective on
salvation is incorrect. We fail to see that God has already prepared the
best conditions, relationships, career, etc for us
• Thus, when we do not have faith, we actually belittle the salvation that
God had given us. That was why we are always asking God to increase
our faith
• We always use our conditions to judge whether God has really blessed
us because we do not have assurance of salvation

2. The foundation of faith

1) God had established a covenant with you
• Faith has a foundation. We do not believe blindly, mystically or with our
own motives
• Faith cannot be trained
• Our faith comes from believing God’s promises for us
• E.g. somebody left us a note, telling us to go to Woodlands Checkpoint
on an appointed date and time. If we do not believe in that note, we
will try all sorts of methods trying to trace the person down. However,
we will not meet the person unless we go to the venue on the
appointed date and time.
• Faith has a foundation. We need not use a lot of strength to have faith
• From the previous example, the important thing we need to have is the
ability to read and understand that note. After we had understood the
content, we just need to proceed to the appointed venue on the
appointed date and time, with ease. This is the foundation of our faith
• Children of Light should not be asking for the same thing as the
children of Destruction
• Thus, we must first restore God’s covenant for us
2) Listen to the instruction of the master to the slave (listen to God’s word)
• Have we really heard God’s instructions for us?
• The foundation of our faith comes from listening to God’s word
• <Romans 10, Ephesians 2>
3) Believing in God’s covenant (believing God’s word)
• God’s covenant is the purpose, fulfilment, teaching and prophesising of
Jesus Christ. All these shall become my purpose, victory, wisdom and
perfect will
4) Format
• We can only know God’s perfect will in all things after we had
formatted our lives. Or else, we will be like “a man who looks at his
face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and
immediately forgets what he looks like”
 • A person can know how to use God’s word to diagnose his life only
after he had formatted his life
• He will then know how to apply God’s word to his life and thus has the
wisdom to handle any situations

3. How can faith be increased?

• The power of faith comes from salvation
• The foundation of faith comes from God’s Word
• Our eyes should be fixed on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.
He is the first to walk the path of faith
1) Our foundation should be the confirmation of the blessings of salvation
• Only those who had confirmed God’s covenant will have a foundation
• When we use the covenant of God to view all our conditions, we will
realize that God can use all our conditions
• Only those who see this truth will have their faith increased. Otherwise,
he will only complain if he sees others having better conditions than
him
• Only those who have confirmed can see that God is alive and God’s
purpose and concern are all on them
• Even when he meets something bad, he will know that it is the
discipline from God and his problem will bring him closer to God
2) Increase faith through serving
• We will not receive more if we do not serve. Just like the ‘paradox of the
talents’ that Jesus Christ had told us
• The smallest serving we can do is to go for meetings/service
• Our faith will be decreased if we do not have faith even to bless and
protect those around us
•God will increase our faith when we are willing to lead and pray for a
small group
3) When our problems become real
• Our faith will not be realistic if we do not have any problems
• Problems will develop perseverance in us
• The more blessed a person is, the more problems he will face. E.g.
Joseph, David, Daniel
• We will never become real football players if all we do is to learn the
theory of playing football but never touch a football before
• How are we able to give others an answer to their problems if we have
never face any problems ourselves? All we can do is to ask him to
believe in God without any foundation
4) Sustain our faith through prayers
• Faith is acquired through prayers. And the most important prayer is
fixed time prayer
• If we want to believe, we really ought to see what the Almighty is
doing, how He loves us and is leading us now
 • No matter how spiritual a person may appear to be, he can never have
a faith with solid foundation if he never prays
5）Sustain through congregation living
• If we fail in our daily living, we will never have faith in God
• We cannot live in the Word and love of God if we do not live with the
congregation. If that’s the case, we are likely to be affected or fall
because of information received from people or newspaper

Sharing and Prayer Topic

1. The Lord says “if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can
say to this mulberry tree, ‘be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and
it will obey you.” (the power of faith): Confirm: When and where have I
really experienced “the power that comes from faith” since the day I’d
received faith? Ponder: How can I resolve my current problems using the
power of faith? What answers has the Lord given me?

2. A servant did what he was told… when he had done, he should say
“We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty” (faith with
foundation). Confirm: does the hope and expectation I had, for the future
and for the things unseen, have a foundation? Only the servants of Jesus
Christ are able to hear His commands and serve Him. Right now, I am able to
receive the faith from God and do things in accordance to this faith. This
proves that “I am God’s servant”. If so, how about the future?

3. The apostles said to the Lord “Increase our faith!” (how to increase
faith?) Confirm: Is my faith increasing daily or is it fluctuating everyday?
Ponder: What are the reasons for our faith to get strengthened daily and what
are the reasons for it to be fluctuating? If our faith fluctuates, how can our
faith be increased daily?