[SUB12] PREVALECENDO SOBRE AS CIRCUNSTÂNCIAS - Luciano Subirá

Hello everyone, I’m here in Laranjeiras do Sul, in Paraná, passing by to bring another word to your heart. We need to, in fact, comprehend how faith works. Ever since I was a kid, I used to hear inside the church that the just shall live by faith, that without faith it is impossible to please God.

What preachers did not teach me, for a long time, is how faith works, how we must operate in faith. Stay with me in the next few minutes and we will have a brief conversation about this powerful secret. In Isaiah chapter 43, verse 2, the word of God says: "When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; when you walk through fire, you shall not be burned and the flame shall not consume you.

Because I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. " When God uses the expression "Savior", He is not spealing of spiritual salvation like we apply today, in the new testament. He is speaking of a God that saves, a God that brings deliverance, of a God who solves problems or hard situations or even impossible ones.

Now, something we must be aware is that God didn’t say "if you pass through fire" or "if you walk throuhg the waters” as if it was a possibility. Actually, he speaks of it as a certainty, He says "when". Because you and I will go trough unpleasing circumstances, you and I will face adverse situations.

There is nothing in the Bible that guarantees a believer after converting won’t have any problems, on the contrary. Jesus says in John 16:33: "in the world you will have tribulation. " He said we’d go through this.

We can even say He promised that, although I never see a Christian waking up by the morning claiming the fulfillment of this promise, saying: "God, you promised me afflictions, I claim my quota of tribulation for today", however, this was promised. But this should not bring discouragement to our hearts, on the contrary, Jesus says: "But take heart, I have overcome the world. " And Jesus himself is saying "I have overcome the world" not only saying that as if it was exclusively for him and no one else.

the same apostle John that wrote that Jesus overcame the world, further along, in his first epistole, he says: "for everyone who ahs been born of God overcomes the world. this is the victory that overcomes the world: our faith. " We need to understand that faith does not only connect us to God, allowing us to live reconciliation, the benefits of salvation, but all we receive from God, starting with salvation, is experienced by faith.

The capability of overcoming the world, of overcoming opposition and adversities is also by faith. The capacity of having God as savior, that intervenes in our lives when we walk through the waters, when we walk through the fire, must also be lived by faith. But the question is: what is faith and how does it work?

We know, based on Hebrews 11, that faith is a conviction, it is the certainty of God’s action, of God’s intervetion based on what He said, but now we need to understand how faith operates. I want to bring you to a perspective. God is not saying that faith will distance us from the problem but He is saying that it can lead us to experience His intervention in the midst of the problem.

And how does that intervention work? Many times, what we expect is for faith to work like a magic wand, that if we hit our problems with it they’ll instantly disapear. I wish it was like that.

I wish I could say it was like that, but it is not true. The word of God says, in the book of Hebrews, that we must become imitators of those who by faith and patience inherited the promises. So, not only by faith but we also inherit God’s promises, with patience.

And, if the Bible is speaking of patience, is because the results are not always immediate, intervention isn’t always instant. There are moments where this is not going to happen as qiuck as we’d like, however, it doesn’t mean intervention is not on the way or that it can’t be experienced. So we need to understand.

I like to say that there are two stages of faith, we need to understand the operations. I like to distinguish these two stages like this: one of them is the stage is the faith that operates in our interior, the inside. the second is when it operates on the outside, such as circumstances.

Faith, normally, has first to operate on the inside before producing results on, the outside. What is faith operating on the inside? God declares in the book of Isaiah and we cite it "do not fear".

By the way, some scholars say that you can find this expression 365 times in the bible. Someone once said you can use one for every day of the year. We need to have the perception that if God speaks so much about not being afraid, it is probably because this is an important matter.

Not only because of the harm fear can bring, but because of our responsibility of getting out this sphere of fear to enter the dimension of faith. By the way, the Lord Jesus declares, the word of God says that Jairus asks Jesus to heal his daughter, then a messenger arrives saying: "hey, don’t bother the mester, your daughter is dead. " Jesus tells him: "do not fear, only believe.

" What Jesus was saying was that the environment in which faith works, is an environment that will not be divided with fear. We need to understand that the first stage of faith is interior, it will lead us to overcome fear, it will lead us to overcome the effect of that circumstance on the outside can have upon me, upon you, upon each one of us. What is God saying?

"When you walk trough the waters they will not overcome you. " Before God promises us to deliver us from the waters, he says: "I’m not gonna let the waters overcome you. " He says: "when you walk trough the fire, the fire won’t burn you.

" What is he saying? Before solving your problem, I want to put you in an environment, in a dimension where the circumstances don’t destroy you. This is the place where faith begins to operate.

The Word of God says in Hebrews 4:3 that we who believe, will rest. The word of God says in the book of Isaiah that in tranquility, in peace is our trust. There is a place of interior rest that faith can promote.

There is a place of certainty and conviction of God’s action that is installed first on the inside, that is when you and I stop fearing the circumstances. We don’t see, necessarily, the change, we don’t see the results, but since faith is an anticipated grasp of what is expected, we enter this place of conviction in God that brings rest. One of the first things we need to overcome is specially the fear of circumstances, that is entering a dimension in God where they don’t opress us.

I remember an occasion where I met a brother in the street. A brother that was going through a difficult situtation, a heavy circumstance and when I saw him I noticed he was all happy. I asked: "hey, my friend, how is it going?

" And he replied: "praise the Lord pastor, hallellujah! " Because of his excitment, I thought that situation was taken care of and said: "what about those issues, all good? " imagining it was the reason of his joy.

He looked to me and said: "not yet, but it is just a matter of time. God will move! " What did I see in that brother’s life?

Even though circumstances had not changed, faith was already operating on the inside. This declaration of going through the waters and not drowning, through the fire and not being harmed, can be seen in two episodes in the word of God. One of them, in the old testament, when Peter walks upon the water.

Actually, the disciples are in the middle of a storm and the word of God narrates in the gospel, that Jesus comes to them walking on water. We realize, in the storm’s scenario, a figure of an adverse circumstance, but when Peter sees Jesus moving upon that storm, is as if he said: "Lord, if that is you, if you move upon the circumstances, I also want to move this way. This is the moment where faith begins to work.

It is when it takes us above the circumstances, leads us to prevail upon the circumstances even before the situation’s solved. In that moment the Lord Jesus looks to him and says: "come. " And we know the story, Peter walked on water.

Many people like to highlight the moment he began to sink, not at once. But, at that time, he cries for help and Jesus intervenes and we can say that he walked upon the water twice, the round trip, because the two of them returned to the boat walking. Only when they got into the boat, the storm ceased.

I realize that first you and I need to learn how to walk on water, prevail upon the storm, before the circumstances that will cease later. In the same way, when we look to the word of God, in the book of Daniel and we read about Daniel’s friends, Sadrak, Mischak e Abedenego, that were casted into that furnace with burning fire, the bible says that later, by the order of the king, they got out, the fire could not harm them, but can also see there another truth, the bible says that by faith they extinguished the power of the flames. Faith doesn’t start extinguishing the fire, it extinguishes the power of the fire, it removes the effect that the furnace can produce in us to then later remove us from the furnace.

I don’t know what you’ve been through lately, but I don’t need to be a prophet to know that you already have, may be and surely will face difficulties and hardship. The attitude of faith is not only hope that everything will be ok in the end, the certainty that there is a God in command, a God that doesn’t leave you. When Job’s wife observed the circumstances around them and let that opress her, she turns to her husband and says: "curse your God and die.

" In that moment, Job says: "even if he kills me I’ll still worship Him. " He didn’t think necessarily that God wanted to kill him, but it’s basically what he is saying: "even if it seems that God wants to finish me I’ll praise Him. " You know what he is saying?

God is right, God is in control, God is right, God is beyond suspicion. So much that he declares after: "I know that my redeemer lives and that he will stand upon the earth. " We need to have this attitude, this perspective of not letting circumstances oppress us.

Entering a place of trust where we are above the circumstances until the moment that we’ll se the intervention of God in our circumstances. May the Grace of the Lord be upon you, may the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of faith, strenghthen your faith until the problem you’re facing is solved, let your heart be full of determination and faith so you can thrive. May God bless you, in the name of Jesus.