Road to Reality - the Principle of Faith Part One — K.P. Yohannan

As believers in Christ, we know it takes faith to get into the family of God, but did you realize that the Lord wants us to walk by faith, day by day, after we become saved? The principle of faith, next, on The Road to Reality.

Well, it's with great pleasure that I welcome you now to The Road to Reality, a ministry of Gospel for Asia. Our speaker is the founder and director of Gospel for Asia, Brother K .P. Yohannan. We'll join K .P. today in Mark 11 for some principles regarding faith.

We're told in Scripture to live by faith, not by sight, but what does that look like in our day-to-day lives? Well, let's talk about that, here now on The Road to Reality.

Faith and the Fig Tree in Mark 11

Let's turn our Bibles to the Gospel of Mark, chapter 11. We will begin with verse 20. In the morning, as they went along, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots. Peter remembered and said to Jesus, Rabbi, look, the fig tree you cursed has withered.

Have faith in God. Jesus answered, I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, go, throw yourself into the sea, and does not doubt in his heart, but believe that what he says will happen, it will be done for him.

Therefore, I tell you, whatever you ask for me in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him so that your Father in heaven may forgive your sins.

Prayer, Fasting, and False Prophetic Promises

Why after someone spent so much time in prayer with fasting, they get no answers? There are people who spend a week or two, even up to 40 days fasting and praying. They have certain prayer requests or burdens or concerns or needs.

They feel like there's no other way except having this time of prolonged season of prayer, because somehow this can do the magic. There are some people that, because their own immaturity and lack of understanding of God's ways, will seek the assistance and help of the so-called prophets, people that claim to have a word from God for others.

I do believe there are individuals called by God and anointed by God and gifted by God with certain gifts, but it seems there is an ever-increasing number of God's people seeking for answer to their dilemmas, their problems, by going to the so-called, I quote, the people that would give me a word from God for I do not know what to do, unquote, usually the statement you hear from people.

And several times I heard this, the prescription these prophets would give out to these hungry, lost, innocent lambs, you had to pray every Friday for next six months or three days of fasting and prayer.

Of course, the prophet will come and assist in prayer. You better be prepared to give him chicken curry and mutton curry and all other delicacies that goes with it, too. But it seems after all these also there is no breakthrough, and sometimes people simply give up.

And Jesus said this, you people go wrong because you do not know the ways of God. And one of the principle of God's word for us to experience the supernatural intervention of God, such as answers to prayer, there's no way on earth human beings or no one can meet that need or change the circumstances, and God comes and intervenes and changes circumstances.

Practical Faith Versus Mere Doctrine

And we know it's a miracle. And that principle throughout the scripture, it is a principle of faith. Of course, we read and hear lots about faith. I'm not talking about a doctrinal faith. I'm talking about the faith that bring us understanding of the scripture or understanding of God's word or the subject of faith itself.

I'm talking about a practical, working, living faith that God wants us to live by. Paul says, we live by faith and not by sight. So the question is this, after all these times of praying and fasting and crying out and going through all these gymnastics, how come we do not see answers to prayer very few times?

Just think about it. How many times during this last one month you are able to say, dear me, this is absolutely amazing. I prayed for this particular event and God answered my prayer so precisely, so particularly.

This is God doing it. Often our prayer life is like a vehicle just parked somewhere and the engine is running, but it is in the neutral. It's going nowhere. You give gas, it makes all the noise, but the vehicle goes nowhere.

It's the neutral. It's not in the gear. That which put us in touch with God, God's heart, breakthrough that you experience comes not just with prayer, but prayer of faith. Without faith, it is impossible to please God, says in Hebrews chapter 11 verse 6.

Now this is a principle that you read from the beginning of the Bible to the end of the Bible. While the church went through dark period of time, finally this man comes along named Martin Luther, discovers through reading God's word, salvation, forgiveness, escape from hell and have heaven forever, never comes to us through penance, hard work, none of these things, but simply believing one is justified.

The just shall live by faith. That became the beginning of the reformation of the church. No amount of Bible knowledge will help us to live a victorious life with perpetual excitement and joy no matter what we face knowing my God is with me and I can trust him.

No amount of Bible knowledge will help us. It must help you, but it's not going to be the thing that is going to be the answer in the midst of crises because the word should create faith in our hearts to believe my God is able and I believe, I trust, this is my confidence.

Faith in Christ's Teaching and the Storm

When you read through the four Gospels, you cannot miss it. Christ is seeking continually to train his disciples, not with knowledge and lots information, but how they must abandon themselves in total trust and believe in God.

John's Gospel chapter 11, you find that, raising Lazarus from the dead for them to see what he's doing, how they can also experience and live by the same principle. There in the lake, there's a storm, rough waters, scared to death.

Lord, we are going to die. We are going to perish. They cry out and Christ obviously is taking a nap and he wakes up and he speaks to the storm. Be quiet. Like a dog that, but the master says, come here, be quiet.

And the dog lays down, wagging his tail, closes his eyes and no more barking and no more causing any disturbance. The nature obeyed. And Jesus says to the disciples, where is your faith? In other words, you could have done the same thing.

You could have simply said the same thing I said. It would happen. Some years ago, with some of our brothers and sisters, we went to a meeting. If I'm not mistaken, we had maybe about 25 ,000 people or more.

Trusting God in Personal Trials

And as the meeting just began, we saw the dark clouds descending all around us. And I just didn't know what to do because we were going to get drained on. And I never claimed I'm a man of faith and I struggle a lot of times.

I pray for sick people all the time and lots of them get healed. But when I get a headache, I look for aspirin. I do pray also, of course. But I said to myself, you know, this is a test. The Lord brought us here for this meeting and it's my choice to believe.

And I thought about Elijah, man just like us with all the struggles and weakness and confusion. But by just believing, he was able to stop the rain. So I quietly said, Lord, I know Elijah and I wish I had some faith.

But I can trust you and ask you to give me some faith tonight. The little bit of faith like a mustard seed. Because I have seen enough of God's grace and intervention in answering prayer. That I said to my colleagues, let's pray and believe God for God to intervene and answer prayer.

So we prayed. Well, thank God the Lord answered prayer. And all of a sudden, all the clouds moved away and it's a clear sky just for us. But the strange thing, after the meeting was over, we discovered just about a couple of kilometers away from us, all around us, it was pouring rain.

And after the meeting was over, we gave the invitation, prayed for people. As we drove away just about a few seconds, it began to rain there on the ground also. God is pleased when we, even in our struggles and unbelief, come to him and say, Oh Lord, I believe you to answer prayer.

All the fasting and prayer and crying and weeping will do no good unless we engage faith with it. That's the key.

Without faith, it's impossible to please God. And today on The Road to Reality, we're learning how to live by faith. We'll return to Brother KP Yochanan here in just a moment. But first, I'd like to tell you about KP's latest book called No Longer a Slumdog.

I think you'll find this one hard to put down as KP shares how the suffering children of Asia are being clothed, fed, educated, and loved in the name of Jesus. But there are still many who are wandering the streets without hope.

And the opportunity is astounding. KP says never before have so many people in Asia been so open to the message of love found in the gospel. As followers of Christ, we must respond while we can. We'll gladly send you a free copy of No Longer a Slumdog if you'll stop by winasia .org today.

Again, go to winasia .org or call 866-WIN-ASIA. That's 866-WIN-ASIA. If you're in Canada, go to the gospelforasia .ca website. That's gospelforasia .ca or call 888 -946 -2742. Well, let's get back into the message now, shall we?

Once again, we're in Mark 11. Here's KP.

Faith Applied to Prayer

Now, the fig tree Jesus cursed, you know the story. He went to get something to eat from the fig tree. I like figs. And they are sweet. Amazingly sweet. And I have no question about Jesus ate a lot of figs.

And this time he was hungry and he went and looked for it. But there was no figs, only leaves. And he cursed the tree. Of course, there are all kinds of interpretations. But let it be, Jesus used this also as a means to teach his disciples about faith.

He said, have faith in God. If you can believe, you can say to the mountain, it will move. He can do the same thing I did. And then he explains to them how to practically handle faith. That is what you see in verse 24.

Therefore, I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, okay, here it is. Whatever we're going to spend some time in prayer. Subjects are many. But how sad it would be we go through all these prayer requests like a ritual.

We do the same thing we did last week. But how sad it is for us to go through this exercise and have no expectation and absolute rocky, strong, Milton conviction. I ask my God and he will answer. And there is excitement.

There is thrill. How sad it would be for us to go through another evening and not to have that. And Jesus said, when you pray for something, you ask, this is what you should do. Believe you have received it.

Past perfect tense. You ask for something, you believe you already got it. And then you will have it. Now, this is illogical. This makes no sense. Why? How can you say you got something that you don't have?

Think about it. I didn't say this. Jesus said it. You're praying for something. You're asking for something. And you start thanking God for receiving, getting, having received what you ask for, then you will have it.

How do you explain it? How do we understand it? Jesus is saying, this is how you walk in faith. How may I illustrate this? My journey of faith is brief. I don't have 10 million illustrations or fantastic events to report to you, but a few that I know that I in my own life experience is real.

Faith for Provision and Ministry

Some of you, you have seen and walked into our office building, which is a five-story building. And I think we had the building now 15 or 16 some years or more. I remember the time when my leaders, we felt as we are praying and thinking about the ministry, that it's important to have a place where we can have offices, but also to have some training done for brothers that want to go to the mission field.

But we didn't have the resources at that time. And we said we'll pray. And we did pray. But that was a time I was beginning to learn about living by faith and trusting God. You see, if you can do something by your own strength, your own resources, or you can do it by asking someone or getting through some other means, then you don't need faith.

You can do it on your own. But this was a situation at that time. And I simply couldn't see where on earth we would find the money to build a building like that. But as I was beginning to learn about faith, I said to myself, well, you know, I mean, it is impossible.

I just don't see on earth how we could do it. But my God is able and I can trust him to do the miracle. And it was during that particular week I saw this ad in the magazine saying they are discontinuing a certain brand name washing machine, a certain kind that was used for overseas, using the 220 watt electricity and all these different things.

Actually, they were making it for countries like India. And they were going to stop making it. And they had just a few left if anybody wanted it. At that time, there was no washing machines you can buy here.

So I said to myself, well, you know what? We are going to have this building and we need two washing machines so we can wash clothes for our brothers who live in that building. So I called the company and said I'd like to order two of those washing machines.

And they sure sent these two washing machines in this large cardboard case. And the truck came and delivered it. And I said, oh, no, what am I doing with it? It's two huge boxes. So I said, put it in our garage.

And so they put it there and it sat there. My wife asked me, what on earth have you done? I said, this is the washing machine that is going to sit in our building and wash clothes. She said, what building?

I said, it's my faith. Some of you may have heard this story, and I'd like to hear it again, so I'm saying it. So those large cardboard boxes sat there forever, it looked like. Once in a while, I would open the door and go and look at these washing machines still sitting unwrapped in these cardboard cases.

And I would say quietly, you washing machines are going to wash clothes in that building. And nobody heard me because I didn't want anybody to hear me. I couldn't see the building, and there's no way I can explain or give evidence or convince anyone this is going to do the job one day sitting in a building on the other side of the world.

It's not possible. But I want to learn that God is able to do it. Years goes by. The miracle takes place. The building is built. Those washing machines came, and it is still washing clothes.

God is amazing, isn't He? As we look to Him in faith and trust, we see incredible things like this happen. Today on The Road to Reality, we heard a portion of a message from K .P. Yohannan called The Principle of Faith.

And it's our prayer and desire that it brought encouragement your way to live by faith. The Road to Reality is the radio arm of Gospel for Asia where our desire is to share the good news of Jesus Christ to the millions of people in Asia who've never even heard the name Jesus.

Many of them are widows and abandoned children. Imagine being shunned from society and ignored even by your close relatives simply because you're a widow and your husband is no longer alive. Well, that's the reality for widows in South Asia.

Or imagine having to search for food in waste dumps and making your home with the trash and rubble that you search for food for. That's the reality for the abandoned children of Asia. Is there anything we can do to help?

Well, there sure is. And we can tell you how at winasia .org. That's winasia .org. Awarding candidate, go online to gospelforasia .ca. And you can also follow K .P. on Twitter. He's at K .P. Yohannan Live.

Next week on The Road to Reality, we'll hear more principles of faith from Brother K .P. Yohannan. We hope you'll return for that. And in the meantime, be sure to live by faith, trusting God.