Principle of violent faith

Dr. D. K. Olukoya

We shall begin by looking at a popular passage in the book of Matthew.  A lot of people always wonder how they can have faith to do exploits while many worry about how to have faith at all cost.

   Matthew 11:12: “And from the days of John the Baptist  until now the kingdom of God suffereth violence and the violent take it by force.” We can break that verse into three parts and look at each separately:

a.  “And from the days of John the Baptist...”

What is special about John the Baptist? For 400 years after the Old Testament of the Bible, there was no prophet. God was not talking to anyone. Everybody did what he wanted - there was no voice from heaven. When God wanted to start speaking again, He spoke through this man called John the Baptist. John the Baptist came in the spirit and power of Elijah. You and I know who Elijah was. He was the no-nonsense prophet of fire. John the Baptist came, dressing strangely and preaching strangely but using a very direct format. As he baptized people, he told them: “I am baptizing you now with water but somebody is coming after me, the latchet of whose shoes I am not fit to untie. This person shall baptise you with the Holy Ghost and with fire.” This was the first time somebody began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand,” and that opened a new chapter.

b. “Right from that time, the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence…” You need to be violent to possess the kingdom and all the benefits therein.

c. “And the violent take it by force.” When you become violent, then you take it by force meaning that it is not something you take on a platter of gold but something you fight to get. The Bible says, “Fight the good fight of faith.” So, faith involves a battle. You need to fight to lay hold on eternal life or else it would slip from your fingers.

            If you read the Bible from the beginning to the end, you would be able to classify people into different sections according to their faith. For example, men like Abraham, Elijah and Elisha had violent faith. There were other men who though had faith but theirs could not be classified as violent. There were some too who had what you can describe as weak faith. I hope you do not belong to the class of the weak. I want to believe that you too want to experience the supernatural power of the Almighty. If that is the desire of your heart, then look at what 2 Kings 6:1-3: “And the sons of the prophets said unto Elisha, Behold now, the place where we dwell is too strait for us. (Revival was happening in the school of  prophets. More and more students were being admitted and it got to a stage when the classrooms became too small for them.) Let us go, we pray thee, unto Jordan, and take thence every man a beam, and let us make us a place there, where we may dwell.  And he answered, Go ye.  And one said, Be content, I pray thee, and go with thy servants. And he answered, I will go.”

            I want you to take notice of these short sentences - “Go ye,” “I will go.” Elisha like most men of faith was not a  talkative.  He went with them and when they came down to Jordan, they cut down trees. Verses 5 –7: “But as one was felling a beam, the axe head fell into the water: and he cried, and said, Alas master! for it was borrowed. And the man of God said, Where fell it? And he shewed him the place. And he cut down a stick, and cast it in thither; (into the river) and the iron did swim. Therefore said he, Take it up to thee. And he put out his hand, and took it.” This, logically does not appear reasonable for science would tell you that a heavier object would sink while a lighter one would float. The power of miracle is what we call violent faith.

            It would have been easier for them to say, “Well, let us look for money to buy another one because it will be impossible for us to bring out the iron from the river since nobody even knows where it is at the bottom of the river.” Nobody knew how to fetch it. It was not possible in the realm of the physical but now we are talking about the supernatural. When you talk about the supernatural, it means the physical laws are set aside.

            Beloved, if you do not release your faith to God, your situation will become worse. Doubt has never been known to help anybody. Anything that has to do with God is supernatural and requires your faith being released to make it happen. What you do may not make sense but then faith is like that. Elisha said, “Grab the axe head.” He was saying, “Don’t let your miracle pass you by. Grab it. Grab the axe-head!” 

            During prayer meetings, a word of knowledge may come for just one person and you find many people catching it. This is what we call violent faith.  Eventually, somebody whom it was not meant for initially would get blessed because there is an overflow. He catches what God wants him to catch. You need to do like that always. Don’t let your miracle pass you by. Grab it with both hands.

            There are so many things that God cannot do. If you look at the Bible very well, you will find out certain things that God cannot do. For example, God cannot tolerate evil. Also, we know that God cannot receive a sinner into heaven. He cannot occupy a second position in your life. God cannot share you with other things. God cannot lie. God cannot change, God cannot be defeated, God cannot bless a lie. God cannot do things contrary to the Scriptures and at the same time, God cannot be pleased without faith. The Bible says, “Without faith, it is impossible to please God.  He that cometh unto God must believe that He is and He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.” (Hebrews 11:6) So, one of the impossibilities of the Scriptures is that somebody will please God without faith. Anytime your mind begins to doubt the word of God which you had initially believed, then you are displeasing God. Essentially, what I am trying to make you understand is that the supernatural which is the ultimate comes by faith alone.

            There was a certain man of God who was a  pastor in a small church where there were many rich people. He mounted the pulpit one day with his mind on the message which he had already prepared. But the Lord changed it and commanded him to talk on Isaiah 35:8:“And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for those: the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein.”  He started off  that Sunday talking about holiness. His congregation did not like it at all and after the service, they warned him that if he still wanted to continue to feed, he had better drop that holiness topic by the following Sunday. He apologized to them and promised to change the topic. As he was about to start speaking the next Sunday, the Spirit of God said, “Your message today is to be based on Isaiah 35:8.” He started off again. Some of his audience walked out, while others stayed. After the service, they went to him and said: “We told you last week to change your topic and you still went ahead. We give you one last chance to make amends.” But he got to the church on the third Sunday and as he was about to deliver a message he felt his congregation would like to hear, the Holy Spirit came again and insisted that he should preach on the same topic he had talked about the previous two weeks.  That day, by the time he finished the sermon, the church committee handed him a letter indicating no further payment of salary as well as temporary suspension. The man remained like that and was no longer able to feed himself. Then one afternoon, one of these rich men decided to pay him a visit. He believed by that time, whatever was worrying the pastor would have left him and that hunger would have taught him a lesson. He intended going to mock him. Although the man of God was really hungry, when the rich man came and asked how he had been feeding, he replied that he had enough food in his pantry. At that time, he had no money nor food, but he had the faith that his God would not put him to shame in the presence of this mocker. Beloved, by the time the pantry was opened by this mocker, the Lord had filled the place up with all kinds of food. That is violent faith.

The level of faith that many of us operate will not get us as much victory as we want. When you limit your God, He would decide to stay limited. If you decide to enlarge Him, He will be great in your life. This is the area where many believers are half full or half empty. Some lose the faith they had because of one or two disappointments they have had in the past. Some suffer tragedy here and there and thus conclude that the Almighty must be deaf and dumb. They would say that if God could allow this or that to happen to them, they would not serve Him again. They do not understand that the enemy is trying to destroy the little faith which they have. The situation therefore is that while some are struggling to acquire this much needed faith, others are busy throwing away the little they have. But to move mountains, we need real violent faith.

            Faith is such a powerful force, that is why the Lord said that faith is able to move mountains. “If  you have faith as small as the mustard seed, you shall say to that mountain, remove from there and move into the sea, it shall be so and nothing shall be impossible unto thee.”                 Faith will laugh at impossibility. Some people pray in the spirit, pray aggressively, pray with great joy, pray with great laughter but inside, they are still afraid and therefore results elude them.

            It is like a sister who entered an aircraft and after some time they landed at an airport to take more passengers. They were served with food and just as she was about to start eating, the Holy Spirit said, “Don’t eat now, start praying because one eater of flesh and drinker of blood is just about to board this aircraft now.” So she looked up and saw some people moving in. She could not discern who the eater of flesh and drinker of blood was. Then satan ministered to her to pray after the food. So, she swallowed everything and then the plane moved up. Immediately, there was a problem. The pilot then  informed them of the danger ahead. Wind, storm, everything started going wrong with the plane. It would come up and go down. People began to shake. Even men wearing business suits began to cry like babies. Then the sister now started praying. She prayed madly. You know that when death is starring you in the face, you will become aggressive. She prayed with holy anger and because of that aggression, she prophesied and said nothing would happen to anybody in the plane and that it would land, in the name of Jesus. After the prophecy, she was still afraid so she continued praying. God had mercy on them and they were able to land safely.

            When you want to move beyond normal Christianity to the supernatural, the first thing you will work on is your faith. It is the foundation of everything. The Bible says that faith gives you the power to cross the barrier of what makes sense to the region of the unusual. That is faith. Faith is the ear which refuses to be troubled or harassed by questions or doubt. You can hear what other people are saying but one way or the other, you block your ears to it because that is not what you don’t want to hear. 

            The man of faith listens and is very attentive to the word of God and responds to it. Faith looks. The Bible says, “And they looked on Him and they were lightened and they were not ashamed.” The eye of faith turns away from impossible circumstances and looks at the possibilities. Faith would look only at the Saviour and His greatness. Faith would look at the stones that the Holy Spirit has placed in your hands instead of the height of Goliath. Faith would believe the promises of God, then the spiritual transaction would take place. Everything people are looking for is somewhere in the spirit. The trouble however, is crossing that physical line into the invisible realm and possessing your possession.

            A person may know that a bank is very sound but it is only when a transfer of funds has taken place that actual  transaction has begun. But if you don’t transfer money, you wouldn’t really know what they are talking about. The spirit world is like that. It remains there until a transaction takes place. The currency for that transaction is faith.

            Electricity cannot communicate its energy until contact is made. It is faith that will make contact with the spirit world. It is the switch that supplies the spiritual contact. But things like unbelief will tie God’s hands, enthrone self and encourage sin. The Bible makes it clear that there are only two people to whom all things are possible. These are namely: God and the believer.

            It says, “With God, all things are possible,” and "All things are possible to him who believes." It is possible to be holy and not have one iota of faith. Holy men and holy women of God abound with no faith. In fact, I will not be surprised if a search is conducted on the bags of  members on church days and drugs are found there. Yet they have come to meet the Healer. So, a person could be holy but have no faith. Holiness will get him into heaven no doubt but his little faith will not move him too far into that realm.

            The Bible makes us to understand that it is a sin to doubt. Romans 14:23: “And he that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith: for whatsoever is not of faith is sin.” So, to doubt is to commit sin. Unbelief is a hindrance to the mighty works of God as it is recorded in Matthew 13:58: “And he did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief.” It does not say nothing was done there. He did some but not many. Why? Because of their unbelief.

            The centurion was a classical example of a man of faith. His son got healed by his absolute belief in the word of the Lord Jesus Christ. He understood that he did not need the physical presence of Christ for the miracle to take place. He also understood that the power of God cannot be hindered by distance.

            The men that brought the paralytic man to Jesus through the roof exhibited great faith. The woman with the issue of blood got her healing via violent faith. The blind men that came to Jesus, the Zarephat woman, the blind Barthemeus and many others in the Scriptures exercised violent faith. So, a very crucial question to ask is, Of what degree is your own faith? Is it at zero level?  

            There are some people who cannot believe God for anything. These are the people whose faith is at zero level. Others have very little faith. You know the category you belong. One thing is clear, if Christ could tell His disciples that they did not have faith by calling them men of little faith, then, little faith is almost equivalent to no faith.

            Peter went as far as his faith could carry him. But the end result of the journey of Peter was as if he had no faith. The people who sat in the boat and made no effort to walk on the sea were even better; but he walked and sank and could have died. He cried for the mercy of God- a weak faith indeed.

            When there is no pressure it becomes almost difficult to tell those whose faith is violent.

            I was talking to a sister who was crying bitterly. Her problem was that she found a love letter written by another woman inside her husband’s bag. That was all. I then asked, “But you are a child of God, don’t you have faith?” She refused to agree with me that God can change things. This is just a clear example of the weak faith I am talking about.

            Using God as an alternative is a demonstration of unbelief. When you keep tablets in your pocket and you are at the same time praying for healing, you are deceiving yourself for deep down in your heart, you know that should the prayers fail, you will swallow the tablets immediately. Blind Bartimaeus was not ready to give Jesus an alternative. When he found that the people around were trying to persuade him to take an alternative by asking him to keep quiet, he got mad with them and was able to arrest Jesus’ attention.

            Faith without works is dead. But a living faith obeys, suffers and serves God in spite of all hardships. When you are told to lay your hands where there is problem, what you are doing is to apply work to your faith. The Bible says that faith without works is dead. So, when you move your diseased body, or do that which you were unable to do before, you are adding what is called works to your faith.

            All the heroes of faith in Hebrews 11 took some actions. They did not just remain stagnant. There is what we call vain faith. This means empty, worthless faith; one that is not result-oriented, faith that is not based on the Lord Jesus Christ. We need the type of faith mentioned in Luke 7:9: “When Jesus heard these things, he marvelled at him, and turned him about, and said unto the people that followed him, I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.”

            The faith of the Centurion gives us an idea of what violent faith means. Let us consider the following characteristics:

1. He could discern the authority of Christ: He told Jesus that following him home would amount to ceremony. He believed that Jesus had sufficient authority to speak to the wind and it would carry the message wherever He wanted. He did not have to go there. In the same manner, there is no sickness that God cannot heal and there is no problem that God cannot solve within a short time, no matter where you are if you believe. If you believe that somebody must have to pray for you over every issue, then something is lacking in your faith and you may not go far. He understood that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow.

2. He could discern the power of Christ.

3. He understood that the power of God does not regard distance and space is not a barrier.

4. He knew that you could exercise faith for someone who is not in a position to exercise faith.

5. He understood that distant deliverance is possible. Even as you are reading this now, if you have children in far away countries, you can stand in for them; and tell the word of God to cross over the sea to meet them and it shall be so.

6. He understood that you don’t have to be physically present in a place for God’s power to move. The Bible says that Jesus sent His word, healed them and delivered them from their afflictions. No wonder, Jesus said, “Great is thy faith, I have never seen such faith in Israel.”  (Matthew 8:10)

The principles of violent faith

            With all the Scriptures that we have looked at and what we have discussed so far, let us put these principles together:

a. If you want to exercise violent faith, fear must not rule or change your mind. If you want to exercise violent faith, you must hold on to whatever God has promised you without wavering at all. Don’t allow fear to rule or change your mind. When people are confessing failure, the man of faith is saying something else.

            When a situation confronts us the first thing that comes to many minds is fear. The mind goes to all the negative possibilities. Somebody came to see me and was shaking before me. I asked him to narrate his problems, but he was shaking and could not talk. I noticed that he had his hand in his pocket and the hand too was shaking. When he could not talk, I said somebody should put his hands in his pocket and  bring out whatever was there. When the person brought out the piece of paper inside his pocket it was a Quit Notice. Why was he shaking like that? He had thought of all the negative possibilities: “Ah, you mean they will throw my luggage on the street? So all the kids will be crying outside and some people who know me as a believer will now be laughing at me.” It was obvious that he had totally lost his faith and had succumbed to devil’s lectures on fear.

            Sometime ago, when the government announced that some civil servants would be retrenched, many of them started to pray and some who had never done dry fasting before, did it. All the early morning tea disappeared. Why? The enemy had shown them negative possibilities. Some believed they were finished. God cannot do anything with those who think they are finished. If you want to exercise violent faith, fear must not rule or change your mind. Once you pass that test you have passed a great test.

2. If you want to exercise violent faith, you must know that the Lord has the ability to meet your needs in a way that defies human logic. This must be clear in your spirit.

3. If you are going to exercise violent faith, you must stop working mathematics with your brain. It does not work that way. You must know that the Almighty can do something at anytime. He does not mind sacking the whole of the unbelievers in a place because He wants His children there. He does not mind sending somebody to jail if that is what will make his prayers to be answered.

            A certain sister was always beaten up by her husband, so she decided to pray that God should change the man. I told her that with this prayer, anything could happen and when it did she should not be sad because when God would decide to answer the prayer, He might start in a way she wouldn’t like. Behold, a week into the prayer, the husband was arrested for manslaughter and was thrown into prison. There in the prison, man saw the uselessness of all the charms he had been relying upon. He said, “Ah! If with all these charms and fresh incisions I received everyday, I could still land in this place, then something is wrong.” It was in that prison that he gave his life to Jesus. When he eventually came out, he became a better prayer warrior than his wife. Sometimes, when God starts answering prayers, it looks strange. The people of Israel prayed for deliverance in Egypt and God started to answer the prayers by showing Moses the burning bush. What is the relationship between a burning bush and people who were praying for deliverance? That is how the Almighty operates, always in a way that defies human logic.

4. If you want to exercise violent faith, when God says something, take Him by His word. When God says He will do something, you will ignore feeling and logic.

5. If you want to exercise violent faith, you will not give the Lord any alternatives. Your attitude must not be that of, “If He fails, I will switch over to this.”

            It is so easy to reach the Almighty if you come to Him with child-like faith. You don’t have to be super spiritual neither do you have to be a pastor before God can answer your prayers. You don’t even have to be a General Overseer or a superintendent. As you are reading this message, you can relate to the Almighty and remove mountains.

            Lay your hand on your chest and with all seriousness pray the following prayer points:

PRAYER POINTS

1.  Any power choking my faith, be uprooted by fire, in the name of Jesus.

     Focus on one thing, then pray this never-failing prayer:

2. O Lord, with the power that you used to dry the Red Sea, dry this problem, in Jesus’ name.

3. You that angel dispatched from the Lord to bring my breakthrough, locate me now, in the name of Jesus.

4. Any sickness programmed into my body, go back to your sender, in the name of Jesus.

5. I refuse to marry poverty, in the name of Jesus.

6. You evil power in charge of my place of birth, fall down and die, in the name of Jesus.

7.  Every evil power programmed into my dream, I bury you alive, in the name of Jesus.

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