Faith to Stretch

Faith to Stretch

Focus Word: Faith to Stretch
Focus Verse: 2 Corinthians 5:7 “For we live by faith, not by sight.”

Declaration: Faith stretches me beyond limitations today; I trust God for the impossible.
Faith moves beyond present limits.
Your limitations today might be in your background, qualification, finances, talents, connections, etc. But faith can stretch us beyond these limits because we live by faith, not by sight.

Sight looks at current limitations. Faith sees possibilities beyond what is visible. Many people stay confined to what they can measure or see. But faith stretches towards what God has promised.
Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is confidence in what we hope forand assurance about what we do not see.”

Mark 9:23 “‘If you can’?” said Jesus. “Everything is possible for one who believes.”
All things are possible with God, so even within our limitations, God can do the impossible.
Ephesians 3:20 “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.”
Even if we are unable, God is able to do!
Philippians 4:13 “I can do all this through him who gives me strength.”
It is Christ who strengthens you and stands behind you. Faith enlarges your invisible boundaries.
When we go to the beach we stay near the shore and enjoy the shallow waters. But an explorer would go deeper into the sea to find new places and new discoveries. An explorer sees the possibilities across the sea. Faith looks farther than sight. This is why Paul says that he lives by faith and not by sight.
Faith requires courageous stretching
Stretching is often uncomfortable. But this is where we get true flexibility to grow. God often calls his people into unfamiliar places to do big things, where we may even be ineligible!
God uses the foolish to shame the wise. He chose a stutterer, Moses, to lead his people out of Egypt!
To teach Peter this lesson, Jesus called him to walk on water.
Hebrews 11:8 “By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance,obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.”
Matthew 14:29 “Come,” he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus.

Joshua 3:13
“And as soon as the priests who carry the ark of the Lord—the Lord of all the earth—set foot in the Jordan, its waters flowing downstream will be cut off and stand up in a heap.”
Growth begins where comfort ends.
Faith speaks before it sees
Faith doesn’t wait for visible proof. It believes in The Word of God.
Romans 4:17 “As it is written: “I have made you a father of many nations.”[a] He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed—the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not.”

2 Corinthians 4:13 “It is written: “I believed; therefore I have spoken.”Since we have that same spirit of faith, we also believe and therefore speak”
Joshua 6:2 “Then the Lord said to Joshua, “See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and its fighting men.”
When the Israelites were standing outside the walls of Jericho, God says that He has delivered Jericho into their hands. God says this while the soldiers are still there and the wall still stands strong!

He spoke of their victory when they couldn’t even see the beginning of it.
Faith stretching leads to new capacity
You become able to carry more responsibility.
Isaiah 54:2 “Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back; lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes.”
Luke 5:4 “When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.”
Galatians 6:9 “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”
God stretches people not to break them, but to enlarge them. If new wine is poured into old wine skin, it will break. So God stretches us into new wine skins so that we can receive new wine and new expansion and new seasons.