Our Light Affliction
Foundation Statement: One of the biggest characteristics of the spirit of faith is
that it despises, looks down upon, and thinks little of the trouble, no matter
how great the trouble may be in the natural
I.
When a person has the
spirit of faith there is minimizing of the trouble rather than a magnifying of
it-2 Corinthians 4:17
A. 2 Corinthians 4:8-18-He’s
minimizing this pressure not glorifying it
1.
A
person with the spirit of faith has this attitude towards pressure that says
this, ain’t nothing
2.
When
you magnify something you see it bigger; you don’t make it bigger you see it
bigger
a. Too many believers are seeing their “problems” too big
b. Your flesh has been trained by the world to magnify the
problem
B. He calls this affliction (pressure, trouble,
distress) light (light in weight,
easy) and you can see that affliction in 2 Corinthians 4:8-12
1.
Pressed, afflicted, and
distressed on every side; Don’t know where to go, what to do, and don’t have any
resources; Chased after, harassed; Thrown to the ground; Always bearing about
in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus; Always delivered unto death for Jesus’
sake --- He calls that light affliction
2.
He’s not just talking
here; this is the spirit of faith in action; He’s not just saying it is light
(easy), he believes it is-2 Corinthians 4:13
a. He’s saying, “This ain’t nothing.” – That’s how the spirit faith talks; Why
is he saying that? Because he believes it
b. Matthew 11:30-He’s
agreeing with Jesus
3.
In these verses (8-18)
there’s just a refusal to glorify and magnify the trouble; He just won’t do it
a. Every time he talked
about what they were going through, he would follow it up by making light of it
b. Troubled on every side, but distressed; Perplexed, but not in
despair; Persecuted, but not forsaken; Cast down, but not destroyed; Always
bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus so that the life of Jesus
might be made manifest in our body; We which are always delivered unto death
for Jesus sake so that the life of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal
flesh; So death works in us, but life in you; Though our outward man perish our
inward man is renewed every day
C. A person with the spirit
of faith NEVER talks about
how hard something is, how insurmountable something is; A person with the
spirit of faith never magnifies the problem, the circumstances, the negative
report
1.
The
temptation and the norm is to talk about how hard it is, how it’s such a trying
time, how our country is in such a mess, how our the economy looks so bleak and
how it’s so dark in the world and all of that is magnifying the problem
a. People magnify the problem and you can hear it in the
undertones of their conversation (This is so sad, that’s so bad, and their head
drops and their face gets long) and in doing so they are acting like it’s too
great to overcome they do this without thinking because they have not developed
the spirit of faith-2 Corinthians 4:13
2.
Ask
yourself this question; Did what I said magnify God or
did it magnify the problem? it magnifies the problem
it is unbelief, If it magnifies God it is the spirit of faith
a. A person with the spirit of faith is not going to jump in
with you and magnify and glorify the problem
II.
*It is a tactic of the
enemy to try to get you to magnify the problem because the bigger you see it,
the weaker your faith gets and the harder it is for you to overcome
A. If you sit around and
talk about the problem you’re going to see it bigger and your faith is going to
get weaker and it’s hard to overcome with weak faith
1.
It’s
amazing how if you get the word regarding your situation and start talking the
word you’re going to see God bigger and your faith is going to get stronger and
your eyes the problem is going to get smaller and it’s going to be easier to
overcome
2.
When
yielding to the enemy and magnifying the problem usually it’s subtle
B. Numbers 13:27-29-They are
magnifying the trouble (STRONG people, GREAT walls/cities, STRONGER than we,
EATS UP the inhabitants, men of GREAT stature)
1.
Exodus
33:1-3-God already said that he’s going to send an Angel in the midst of them
to drive these people out of their land
a. So how big of a deal are
these giants to God? Not much – Are they bigger than God, greater than
God? NO
2.
This
generation was famous for magnifying the problem (The Red Sea, When they needed
water, When they need bread); What was also true about them is they walked in a
lot of unbelief; magnifying the problem
feeds unbelief
a. What’s that tell you about people with the Spirit of faith?
They don’t magnify the problem, they despise it
b. Magnifying God feeds your faith and if you’ll magnify God
you’re faith will get stronger and it will be easy for you to overcome stuff
that would be very hard for others
3.
33-Not
only did they magnify their enemy, they despised themselves and saw themselves
as not able; Christians are doing this all the time, they are despising
themselves and calling it humility
a. Should you magnify yourself and see yourself big? Caleb said WE
are well able to overcome it; Or should you ignore
verses and talk about how you’re nothing and how your weak and how you’re so
small? – Philippians 4:13, 1 John 4:4
b. You’re not going to be overcome if you see yourself small
C. Numbers 13:30,14:9-Joshua
and Caleb magnify God; We are WELL ABLE, They are BREAD for us
1.
Caleb
is saying it’s not too big, it’s not too great, it’s not too hard --- In fact
it’s not that much at all, we are WELL ABLE, we’ll eat them for breakfast, the
Lord is with us
a. They are looking at the
same thing as the other ten, but they are seeing it small and the others are
seeing it big
b. They’re not trying to think of a good faith confession;
they’re not even trying to talk in faith; they just believe and therefore they
speak
2.
The
spirit of faith and the spirit of unbelief are like oil and water, they don’t
mix and they got mad a Joshua and Caleb
a. EX: I’ve had that happen
to me, people get mad at you because you preach faith
3.
Joshua
14:6-13-You can hear the spirit of faith in Caleb’s talk 40 years later
a. He picks the mountain where they big giants are-V12, Numbers
13:28 – THE SPIRIT OF FAITH
III.
Despising the problem,
the negative circumstance empowers you to hold fast to your faith under
pressure
A. Jesus despised the shame
and that enabled him to endure the cross-Hebrews 12:2
1.
There
was no pressure in the history of mankind greater than what Jesus experienced,
there was no trouble bigger than what Jesus experienced and nobody had
developed the spirit of faith to a greater place than he had and the strategy
he used to overcome was that he despised the shame (Despise-To think little or nothing of)
a. He was able to endure the cross because he didn’t think much
of the shame (disgrace, disfigure)
b. How are you able to endure, remain, to not recede or flee, to
hold fast to your faith under pressure and trials? You don’t do that my
magnifying the trouble, you are only able to do that when you despise the
trouble
c. You can’t endure the pressure while you magnify it at the
same time; to endure the pressure you have to despise the pressure
2.
This
despising the shame isn’t you lying to yourself acting like something isn’t
nothing to have mind over matter or something; This despising the shame is
flowing out of heart of faith that believes and says, “This is nothing for the
Lord. Nothing is too hard for the
Lord. All things are possible with
God to him who believes and GREATER is he that’s in me than he that’s in the
world.”
a. It’s not a phony act where you’re trying to talk yourself
into something
b. Hebrews 4:13
(Amplified)-All things are exposed, naked, and defenseless to the eyes of Him
with who we have to do
1)
Genesis 18:14-Not only is
it not too hard for him, it’s not even hard for him
3.
People can magnify the
problem to the place that in their eyes it’s bigger than God and when that
happens the lose faith and don’t endure and don’t remain, but flee
B. Luke 1:28-57,Psalm
34:3-If we’ll magnify the Lord it will cultivate the faith necessary to see the
performance what he promised
1.
28-37-We
know the enemy well enough to know he comes immediately to take away the Word
and he was probably trying to do a number on her from the moment the Lord said
this to her, until the moment she stepped into Elizabeth’s house
2.
Mary
gets this promise which must have been impossible to her head, and the key
thing she does is magnify the Lord
a. Mary doesn’t need to be
thinking about how hard this is or how impossible this is or how big this is,
she needs to be thinking about how big God is and she needs to be magnifying
him and seeing him bigger
b. This word did not come to
pass independent of her faith, it came to pass because of her faith
IV.
A person with the spirit
of faith doesn’t try to see trouble small, they just see it small-1 Samuel 17 (David’s
not trying to see Goliath small and despise him, this is just what people with
the spirit of faith do; this is just who David is)
A. 25-The men of Israel
esteem Goliath, they are impressed with him and David must not have been and in
turn didn’t respond the way they responded
1.
26-Who
is this uncircumcised philistine? – This is David despising him
a. 26,30-David couldn’t
believe that you got all this great stuff for doing this one thing that was
very simple and easy in his eyes
b. 31-David’s making light
of Goliath and they were amused and amazed
c. 32-Is David esteeming
Goliath or despising him? “Let no man’s heart fail him, I’ll go” – This
is no big deal to him
2.
33-Saul
magnifies the circumstance
a. 34,35-I’m going to
explain to you why this is no big deal
b. 36-In David’s eyes there
is nothing special about Goliath
3.
45-David
is despising Goliath’s weapons; you got a sword and a spear, HA! I got the name
of the Lord of hosts
a. A sword and a spear is
like bring a knife to a gun fight when I get to use the name of the Lord
4.
48-You
only run like this at stuff that ain’t nothing to you
a. David’s not trying to
make confessions and thinking about what he needs to do and say to stay in
faith, he’s functioning by the spirit of faith; this is just who he is
B. The reason David can go
down there and say who is this uncircumcised philistine is because he’s been
practicing
1.
Everybody
wants to perform, but few want to practice
2.
Developing
in the spirit of faith enables you to respond in faith all of the time without
having to think about it