Unconquerable Faith

Taken from a minibook by Gloria Copeland

No matter how difficult a situation you may be facing today, God can turn it around!

The doctors may have told you there’s no hope. Your bank account may be empty and the creditors knocking on the door. There may be trouble in your family or on your job. Your problems may be stacked so high, you feel you can never overcome them. But don’t let the devil fool you. He has never devised a problem that faith in God can’t fix.

Nothing intimidates God. It’s just as easy for Him to heal cancer as it is for Him to heal a headache. It’s as easy for Him to buy you a new home as it is for Him to pay your rent.

Even in times like these when the whole world seems to be in trouble, God can bring you through in triumph. He can do for you what He did for the Israelites. Exodus 10:23 says when darkness covered the land of Egypt where the Israelites lived—a darkness so thick the Egyptians couldn’t see each other or move for three days—“all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings.”

Think about that! If you’ll dare to believe God’s Word, like the Israelites, you too can have light in the middle of a dark world. You can have protection in the midst of a dangerous world. You can live healed in a sick world. You can live prosperously in an impoverished world.You can live free in the middle of a captive world.

But you can’t do it by dragging around in an attitude of defeat. If you want to walk in constant victory, you must develop a spirit of faith and persevere in that spirit even when the devil is putting pressure on you.

People with the spirit of faith always receive the blessings of God. They may go through tests and trials but they come out supernaturally every time.

I like those odds, don’t you? I like to beat the devil every time. And, glory to God, you and I can do that if we’ll walk continually in the spirit of faith.

The Apostle Paul gives us powerful insight into how to cultivate that spirit in 2 Corinthians 4: “We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak…. While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal” (verses 13, 18).

Open the Window

The first and most fundamental fact these verses reveal about the spirit of faith is that it believes.

What does it believe? The Word of God. What’s more, faith believes God’s Word just because God said it—whether natural circumstances seem to agree or not.

That means if you want to maintain a spirit of faith in the area of healing, for example, you must start by getting your Bible and finding out what God has said about healing. Then you must choose to receive that Word as the truth. Don’t shut your heart to it by saying, “Well, that’s not the way my church teaches it,” or, “That’s not what my grandmother taught me.” Just say, “The Word says healing belongs to me and I believe it!”

Then keep putting the Word in your heart day after day until faith rises up within you and your body begins to line up with that Word.

“Well, Gloria, I tried that one time and it didn’t work for me. I guess I just don’t have as much faith as you do.”

Certainly you do! Romans 12:3 says, “…God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.” Since that scripture was written to born-again people, you can be sure that if you’ve made Jesus the Lord of your life, you have faith within you.

You may not be acting on it. You may not be speaking it. But it’s in there and the more you hear the Word of God, the more it will develop and grow, because “faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17).

Why is it so important to develop your faith? Because faith is what connects you to the blessings of God. It’s the force that gives those blessings substance in your life (see Hebrews 11:1). And besides all that, faith pleases God (Hebrews 11:6).

It’s faith that reaches into the realm of the spirit, grasps the promises of God and brings forth a tangible, physical fulfillment of those promises. It brings spiritual blessings. It brings the car you need, or healing for your body. Faith brings action in this earth.

Romans 5:2 says we have access by faith into the grace of God. Therefore, if you want grace for the new birth, you must receive it by faith. If you want God’s grace for healing, you must receive it by faith. If you want God’s grace in your finances or any other area of your life, you must get it by faith.

I like to think of it this way: When you believe the Word of God, you open the window of your life to give God the opportunity to move there.

Oddly enough, that bothers some people. They can’t understand why God needs an opportunity. After all, He is God. Can’t He do anything He wants to?

Yes, He can. And He wants to respond to our faith.

You see, He is not like the devil. He doesn’t force Himself on you. He waits for you to give Him an opening by believing His Word.

We Believe… Therefore We Speak

That’s what Abraham did. When God told him he and Sarah were going to have a baby, Abraham just took God at His Word. In light of the circumstances, that was quite a step of faith. After all, Abraham was 100 years old and Sarah was 90 and barren.

Most people would have been overwhelmed by those problems. But not Abraham. He “believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness”

(Romans 4:3). Even though in the natural realm it was impossible for what God said to come to pass, Abraham believed God anyway.

That’s what the spirit of faith does. It stands in the midst of the most impossible circumstances and believes God anyway! Then it begins to speak.

It doesn’t say just anything, either. It speaks the Word of God. When cancer attacks, faith doesn’t say, “I’m dying of cancer.” Faith says, “I’m healed by the stripes of Jesus. Therefore I’ll live and not die, and declare the works of the Lord.”

You might think, Well, I’m just not comfortable with that confession business. I just like to believe God quietly.

That may be what you like, but it’s not what the Bible teaches. Second Corinthians 4:13 says, “We…believe, and therefore speak.” If you want to change your circumstances, you must have faith in two places— in your heart and in your mouth.

That’s why God changed Abram’s name to Abraham. Abraham means “father of many nations.” So every time Abraham introduced himself after his name was changed, he was actually saying, “Hello. How are you? I’m the father of many nations.” To most people that probably sounded ridiculous because at the time, Abraham was still a childless old man married to a barren old woman. I’m sure they thought Abraham was a little crazy.

But he wasn’t. He was simply follow- ing the example of God Himself “who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were” (Romans 4:17). By speaking in faith, Abraham was doing exactly what God did when He created the earth.

Read Genesis 1 and you’ll see what I mean. It tells us that in the beginning “the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep” (verse 2). Yet God didn’t look at that darkness and say, “Oh my, the earth sure is a dark place!” Had He done that, the earth would have remained a dark place.

No, God changed the natural circumstance by calling things that be not as though they were. He looked at the dark- ness and said, “Light, be!” and light was. God spoke out by faith what He wanted to come to pass.

All the way through the first chapter of Genesis we see God creating by speaking His Word. Over and over again it says,God said…God saw…and it was good.

That’s how we operate too, when we’re living by the spirit of faith. We say God’s Word…we see the result…and it is good!

One thing you must understand. I’m not just talking about saying God’s Word once or twice. I’m talking about consistently speaking words of faith. If you get on your knees in prayer and say, “I believe I receive my financial needs met, in Jesus’ Name,” then go to dinner with your friends and say, “I’m going bankrupt. I can’t find a job. I’m about to lose my home. I don’t know what I’m going to do,” you won’t get anywhere.

It’s what you say continually that comes to pass in your life. So if you’re believing God for finances, make it a habit to say things like this: “According to Deuteronomy 28, lack is a curse of the law. And Galatians 3:13 says Jesus has redeemed me from that curse. Therefore, I’m redeemed from the curse of lack! My needs are met according to God’s riches in glory by Christ Jesus!”

Then, every time your bills come to mind, call them paid in the Name of Jesus. Call yourself prosperous. Call yourself debt free. Be like Abraham and by the spirit of faith call things that be not as though they were.

Keep Your Eyes on the Word

Right now you may be thinking, I really want to do that. I want to walk and talk by faith. The problem is, every time I look at the mess I’m in, I get discouraged.

Then stop looking at the mess! Instead, focus your attention on the promises of God. Keep His Word in front of your eyes and in your ears until you can see it coming to pass with the eyes of your spirit.

That’s what the spirit of faith does. It looks “not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:18).

Of course, I’m not saying you should ignore your problems or close your eyes to them as if they aren’t real. They are real. But according to the Word of God, they aretemporal, which means “subject to change.” And, you can be assured that if you keep looking at the Word, they will change!

Once again, we can look at Abraham’s life and see proof of that. Romans 4:18-21 says that he:

Against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be. And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah’s womb: He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; and being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform.

Abraham did not consider his body. He didn’t focus his attention on the fact that he was 100 years old. He wasn’t looking at his wrinkled, old self saying, “Come on, old man. You can do it!” No, he knew he couldn’t bring forth a child. He’d known that for some time.

He wasn’t looking at his own ability. He was looking at God. He kept his attention on the power and promise of God until he was fully persuaded that God could and would bring it to pass.

That’s What I Call Victory!

If you want to develop the spirit of faith, that’s what you’ll do too. You won’t consider the natural impossibilities of your situation—God certainly doesn’t. Ken and I have found that out by experience!

More than 42 years ago, when Ken was praying, down in a riverbed in Tulsa, Oklahoma, God began speaking to him about preaching to nations. God said back then that Ken would have a worldwide ministry.
It was clear God had not considered our bank account. We hardly had enough money to get across town—much less go to the nations! But God didn’t expectus to fulfill that call. He intended to do it Himself with our faith. He intended to provide the power, the resources, the ability—everything! All He expected us to do was believe.

That’s all He expects you to do too.

Only believe.

Isn’t that wonderfully simple?

If you’ll just believe, if you’ll just spend your time considering God’s Word instead of focusing on your own limitations, you’ll end up just like Abraham.

Exactly how did Abraham end up? Very well, I’d say.

He and Sarah not only had that baby God promised, they also lived long enough to raise him. Then, after Sarah died at 127 years old, Abraham (who was 137) remarried and had six more children. He became exactly what he and God said he was—the father of many nations.

Now that’s what I call victory! That’s what I call the spirit of faith!