Got faith? Sounds like the “got milk” commercials and print ads don’t it? It should because it’s taking from that familiar vein. If I were to ask you, a saved person or Christian, your response will be quick and swift – of course I have faith. If I were to ask a person not familiar with the term or who is not saved or has never been to church and was not a Christian – I would get a response like – faith in what?  That’s because most people realize that we have faith in many things and that faith is not only used the religious circles.

So, where am I going with this? I’m asking if you’ve “got faith” from a spiritual perspective. I want to know if you have faith in God and how He does what He does. When presented with the question “got faith?” a few things come to mind. But let’s see what God has to say about it. The Bible says in Hebrews 11:1(Now faith is the assurance (title deed, confirmation) of things hoped for (divinely guaranteed), and the evidence of things not seen [the conviction of their reality—faith comprehends as fact what cannot be experienced by the physical senses]).  All of that sounds really nice, but how does it appear in your everyday life?

The worlds definition of faith is  – reliance, loyalty or complete trust in God or someone or something else.  If you’re a Christian, you should have already heard and learned that we need faith in God to get God working and moving in our lives. So let’s assume you’re rocking and rolling with God, things are moving along and as you grow via God’s help and guidance, things in your life start to improve. Your prayers are being answered and life is good!  You and God are cooking with gas!

Then all of a sudden you come across situations and circumstances that do not go the way you planned them to go. Do you still “got faith”? You’re still praying, believing in God.  You’re still doing the right things and living right, but then there is a bill that you can’t seem to get the money to pay. What about this one – someone you’ve been agreeing in prayer with to be healed then dies?  What about this one – you are fired from your job or laid off from your job and there is not another one insight but the bills keep coming in. Do you still “got faith”?  What do you do when your faith takes a sharp kick in the gut? What do you do when your faith is tested hard? What do you do when negative emotions (demons) are trying to take you over and you feel extremely overwhelmed and you feel like you’re going under?

I’m going to answer that question like this. One of the hardest and most challenging lessons of life to learn and accept in this earthly life is this – there would definitely be times and situations that will not go the way you want them to no matter what you do. How you respond and handle yourself in these situations will determine whether the situation will be a loss for you or not. Sounds a little crazy right? If the situation doesn’t go the way you wanted it to go, isn’t it a loss for you? Actually it doesn’t have to be a loss at all! Trusting God because He knows and sees more than you brings God in to cover many more bases than you could ever cover by yourself. So while your plan covers your current situation (only in part at best) as you see it, God’s way out for you not only covers your current situation, but also covers what’s coming tomorrow too!  And what about the lessons we learn when we think we have failed?

Therefore, when asked “got faith?” – The answer is yes!  I’ve got faith in God’s plan for me over all my plans for me. I can’t go by what I see.  The bible directs us to move in faith not by what we see – 2 Corinthians 5:7  for we walk by faith, not by sight [living our lives in a manner consistent with our confident belief in God’s promises].  “Got Faith” – Yes, I still have faith in God when things look dark, bleak, and when it seems things aren’t working in my favor. Great faith is faith in the dark.

It’s easy to believe or at least say you do believe when everything is going well for you, but faith is only developed under pressure! Sorry, to build muscles and strength you need resistance.  I can’t even begin to tell you how much this week I wish that wasn’t true, but as my faith is tested I stand strong in it because I take no losses in God, no matter what it looks like because just like the guys in Daniel 3:16 – 18 (amp ¹⁶ Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego answered the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to answer you on this point. ¹⁷ If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to rescue us from the furnace of blazing fire, and He will rescue us from your hand, O king. ¹⁸ But even if He does not, let it be known to you, O king, that we are not going to serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up!”)  I chose to stand and believe in God.  As you can see, the guys in the book of Daniel were willing to die before going against God. There is nothing that I am facing that is that detrimental or life-threatening.  So I’ve decided that if those guys can stand against the king when faced with a fiery death, I can stand with God against the things that I face in my life every day.

I thank God that no matter how negative the situations in my life has been (and there has been some doozies), He has showed up and showed out simply because I turned to Him, asked for His help and believed in Him no matter how “hot” the fire. Are you doing the same thing? If not, you can start right now, click here for more info, so with someone asks you the question “got faith?” your answer is always  YES!

Today, as I sit in the official visiting room in one of the many prisons where I visit and minister, I look out among the inmates wearing orange jumpsuits as they wait for visits and I think to myself, how did they get here?  I know they must have asked themselves the same thing often enough. How did I get here? Now if you were an incarcerated person you could understand asking yourself that question, but even if you’re not incarcerated in a physical jail isn’t that a question you have asked yourself at one time or another?  I think so, I know have asked myself that question many times over the years.  Even though we may not be in a physical jail there are many things that imprison us, hold us back, and keep us from moving forward in our lives.

Now, do me a favor and think back to your childhood. Remember when people, especially adults asked you; what do you want to be when you grow up? As a child, how could you realistically even begin to answer that question?  Do you remember how many different things you wanted to be?  What was on your list – a firemen, a nurse, a doctor?  In order to answer the question you had to imagine yourself doing the job itself from whatever knowledge you had about it. If you liked the image that you saw and it made you happy, then that’s the thing you wanted to be and the thing you wanted to do.  As you grow older and your interest changed so did the images of what you can see yourself doing or being. Am I correct?

How about if no one ever asked you; what do you want to be when you grow up? Where would you get the images of your future? You could probably get them from your environment, those around you, and if you have access to media outlets like television, radio & social media, you could even get images that way too!  But no matter where you got the images of whom and what you wanted to be, how you perceive those images and how you felt about them impacted your life choices.

So, I’ll ask you to ask yourself; how did I get? Are you living the life you always dreamed of? Have all your dreams come true?  If you’re like most of us, some of your dreams and goals may have been met and come true but others have not. Why is that? There are many of us that because of many life factors stopped dreaming long ago. Many people were taught never to even try.

So, how did you get here? Are you happy and satisfied with your current life and all of its working parts? Most of us would say we are happy with some parts and not happy with others. Some are not happy with any of the parts. Well, I have great news for you.  God’s plan for your life is that you and all the parts of your life be happy and satisfied! Not the fairytale kind of happy, but better than that, real-life happy!

As you already know, there are a lot of working parts to being a spiritual being, and living this earth suit assignment, but God has already laid out a blueprint for you to follow. It may look like Satan has been doing a great job (sometimes with your help) at stealing your dreams, but God has told me to tell you that if you want it, that stops today!   Check out Isaiah 54:17, “No weapon that is formed against you will succeed…  All you have to do is ask God for his help, guidance and direction. Then ask for the courage to do what He instructs you to do, no matter what it looks like or feels like;  for we walk by faith, not by sight [living our lives in a manner consistent with our confident belief in God’s promises] – 2 Corinthians 5:7amp.  Now if you’re not confident in believing what God has said, just try this for yourself in order to test it to see if this God thing really works.  That’s all God wants anyway, a chance to prove who He is to you!  You won’t be disappointed!

God sent you to earth on purpose, for His purpose and as crazy as it sounds, he placed you exactly where he wanted you to be because He has put in you everything you need according to your suit assignment. The process of you finding out what that assignment is and lining yourself up with it will bring your dreams to life, especially if your dreams seem dead or you never even had any!

So, cheer up and stand strong! No matter where you currently are in your life and no matter what condition your life is in, as long as you are breathing, it’s not too late to change the direction of your life and make it an amazing dream come true experience that will impact the world!

So, in answering the question; how did I get here? You should first go to God to have a conversation that will uncover the facts, both carnal & spiritual, of how you came to be where you currently are so that you and God can then develop strategies that can be put into place to avoid recurrences and can help you avoid traps Satan has designed to stop you.

So now that you know how you got here, I’m asking you another question; where are you going from here?