Charles Stanley - Advancing in Faith

The title of this message is Advancing in Faith. Faith is a confident conviction, not a feeling, a confident conviction that God will do what He promised. Now, most people want to go by their feelings. A confident conviction that Jesus Christ will do what He promises to do. That's what faith's all about.

So God knows exactly how to strengthen our faith and help us to advance in it because He's going to use us in proportion to our faith. He's going to bless us in proportion to our faith. Everything He does in our life relates to our faith. And therefore, if you want greater faith, first of all, recognize that there will be tests, trials, maybe hardships, may not be much of any of that. But He's going to test you in some way, because, listen, He's got to get you off dead center. Something has got to challenge you to say yes to Him when it looks difficult and looks like you can't do it. If it's something that's just a pushover, well, that's not going to build your faith. Building faith brings a test. Then, of course, understanding the very nature of God. Until a person begins to understand who God is, the faith's not going to grow.