David Diga Hernandez - The Act of Faith

You are one act of faith away from a miracle. You are one act of faith away from your deliverance. You are one act of faith away from a breakthrough. I believe that one act of faith can completely transform your circumstances. You can go from where you are now—frustrated, maybe living in lack, confusion, depression, anxiety, or powerlessness—to a place of abundance, peace, joy, and the fullness of all that God wants you to experience. You can do all that God wants you to do. You are one act of faith away.

Hello, I’m David Deer Hernandez, and you’re watching Spirit Church here on Encounter TV. As you can tell, we are not on our set right now, so we’ve improvised while traveling. Next week, I’ll be back in the studio to teach from there. But today, I want to talk to you about the act of faith, and I’m going to share just a couple of Bible stories with you. It’s going to be a very simple but very encouraging message today. It’s not really a teaching; it’s more of a message that I want to share with you. Steven Montazuma has recorded some worship for this edition of Spirit Church, so you’re going to worship with Steven right now, and then we’re going to come right back and get into this message on the act of faith.

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Now, before I get into this message about breakthrough or the Act of Faith, I want to emphasize something here. Too often, the message of breakthrough, the message of miracles, and the message of blessing is abused and taught in a way that incites greed and self-absorption. People become too self-absorbed, so I want to emphasize something here: the Gospel is, and always will be, about Jesus. The Gospel is about Him; it is about God’s will. The Gospel is about sacrifice, picking up your cross, denying yourself, and following Him.

Having said that, I do believe there is a time and a place to believe God for the miraculous and for your own breakthrough. It’s important to keep the right perspective here. We believe for blessing. We believe for miracles. We believe for breakthrough. We believe that God is going to accomplish the calling He has placed on our lives, and it’s wonderful when He does those things. It’s wonderful when He blesses us. It’s wonderful when He gives us a miracle or a breakthrough.

But it is important to remember that God does those things for us—not just for ourselves, not just so we can, as James describes, consume it upon our own lust, but so that we can become God’s ministry, God’s influence, God’s will in action on the earth. God wants to bless you so that you can expand the Kingdom. God wants to give you a breakthrough and a miracle so that you can expand the Kingdom. It’s all about the spreading of the Gospel. So, even your personal breakthrough, even your personal miracle, even your personal blessing, in God’s master global plan, is not about you; it’s about the Gospel. It’s about Jesus. It’s about Jesus reaping the reward of His suffering.

You know, I preach the Gospel. My number one priority in preaching the Gospel is not the winning of the lost. Now, I know you have heard me say many times on Spirit Church, on Encounter TV, and our other programs that my «why» for the ministry is souls, and that is true; it is souls in the practical sense. We’re winning souls; that is our mandate. But in a much deeper sense, it is primarily about my love for Jesus. It is primarily about our love for the Lord. I win souls firstly because I love Jesus and secondly because I love souls. I love Jesus so much that I want Him to reap the reward of His suffering. I want Him to have His way. His heart is for souls; His heart is for people, and He wants to receive those souls because He loves them. Secondly, I don’t want to see anybody, not one, perish. That’s God’s will—that none should perish, not even one. God is willing that none should perish.

I want to see not even one soul enter into eternity without hearing the Gospel. That’s something that burns within me, and it’s the driver of this ministry. It’s the driver of why we do what we do. But remember, it’s all about Jesus. So as I talk today and share this short and simple message with you on the Act of Faith and receiving your miracle, receiving your breakthrough, and receiving your blessing, I ask you to keep that proper perspective in mind. I plead with you not to make the Gospel solely about receiving, about blessing, and about prosperity. Those things come with the blessings of God, yes, but that cannot be the focus.

We must remain in the pursuit of God’s heart and never in pursuit of God’s hand. When you pursue His heart, you get it all; if you pursue His hand, then you get into trouble. So, I want to go now to Matthew 12. I want to begin reading at verse number 9. The scripture says, «Then Jesus went over to their synagogue, where He noticed a man with a deformed hand.» The Pharisees asked Jesus, «Does the law permit a person to work by healing on the Sabbath?» They were hoping He would say yes, so they could bring charges against Him. He answered, «If you had a sheep that fell into a well on the Sabbath, wouldn’t you work to pull it out? Of course you would! And how much more valuable is a person than a sheep? Yes, the law permits a person to do good on the Sabbath.»

Then He said to the man, «Hold out your hand.» So the man held out his hand, and it was restored just like the other one. Then the Pharisees called a meeting to plot how to kill Jesus. There was a man in the synagogue who had a withered hand, and Jesus took notice of him. Now, I personally believe that the Pharisees had placed this man in the synagogue to try to trap Jesus, but they weren’t aware that they were actually setting up this man for his miracle. So, there he is in the synagogue; he walks in with a withered hand, unable to stretch it out or use it for normal activity. He was handicapped; he was crippled.

Jesus takes notice of him, and the Pharisees question what’s going to happen. They ask the Lord, «Is it lawful for you to heal on the Sabbath?» because the scripture, to them, had declared that one should not work on the Sabbath. Jesus tells this story about a sheep and compares that to the situation, emphasizing that this man is much more important than just a sheep. So, Jesus turns to the man and tells him, «Stretch out your hand; hold out your hand.» Now, I thought this was interesting because…