Dharius Daniels - Fertilizing Your Faith

I love that Mark 11:22 says, «Have faith in God.» I want to talk on this subject during our time together: fertilizing your faith. We’ll discuss fertilizing your faith. There is a scriptural adage that I’d like to explore in this introduction. This adage I’m referring to is found in a few places in Scripture, and it goes something like this: «The just shall live by faith.» I believe the profundity of that proclamation is revealed not only in what is said but also in what isn’t said. The just shall live by faith. It is as if the writer is subliminally, or perhaps even unintentionally, asserting that faith should not just be used as a response to crisis; faith should be used as a way of life. I’m going to say that one more time—if you’re feeling me already, put «teach» in the chat. Here it is: faith should not just be used as a response to crisis. This means that when my world falls apart, when my foundation is fragile, when my emotions are unreliable, I’m not saying we should not reach for faith during those seasons; we should. What I am saying is that this adage, this scripture I just referenced, suggests that those should not be the only times we reach for faith—faith should not just be used as a response to crisis; faith should be used as a way of life. The Apostle Paul put it this way in 2 Corinthians 5:7. One translation says, «For we walk by faith, not by sight.» Another says, «For we live by faith.» We walk by faith; we live by faith—walking systematic and sequential patterns of movement that get you from one place to the next. Thus, the way we get from one place to the next in life should be by faith. The manner in which a relationship progresses from one level to the next is by faith. The way my mind advances from one level to the next is by faith. The way my career evolves from one level to the next is by faith. Therefore, faith shouldn’t just be used to get me out of burdens; faith should be used to get me into blessings. The just shall live by—walk by—faith. I want you to catch this now. Maybe this is one of the reasons Jesus talks about this so much—maybe Jesus understands something he’s trying to convey to us, and that is this: I can’t get life right if I’m getting faith wrong. It’s as if Jesus is saying you cannot afford to underemphasize this area of your spiritual life, because everything else I’m teaching you will not be something you’re able to walk into independent of faith. I said, «I’ll give you rest.» You don’t receive that unless you believe rest exists. I said, «Come on.» He said, «I said I’ll give you peace, not like the world gives.» So, you don’t receive that kind of peace unless you believe there’s a peace that exists outside your possessions. Did you hear what I just said? He said, «I’ll give you joy unspeakable and full of glory.» He said, «You don’t receive that unless you believe it exists.» Maybe this is the essence of what he’s articulating here in this passage in Mark. Notice what Jesus says to the disciples and apprentices of his who have just witnessed him do the extraordinary. He has just used words to speak to a tree, and within 24 hours, the tree withers at the root. What they saw—the disciples, his mentees, his apprentices—they saw the tree before Jesus spoke to it, and then they come back 24 hours later to see the tree after Jesus speaks to it. They’re impressed; they’re in awe of it. Jesus says, «Don’t just look at me; learn from me.» Come on, I’ve taught you this! I didn’t do what I did with the tree just to show you what I can do; I did what I did to show you what you can do if you use the tools I’m using. He says, «Let me show you how I did that. Let me give you the key. Let me give you the plug. Let me give you the secret sauce. If you want to know how I did that, let me show you.» Because I’m God, and I came in human form not to show you how to be God; I came in human form to show you how to be optimally human. I came as a human to model for you what’s possible if you’ll use what I’m using. Listen, he says to the disciples, «All right, so if you, in principle—not necessarily in practice—but if you, in principle, want to do in your life what I did with this tree, if you want something big to happen fast, if you want accelerated advancement, if you want something to look completely different in a 24-hour period than it did 24 hours earlier, this is what he says: 'Have faith in God.'» Now, when we explored this last week, we examined the first part of the proclamation, which was «have faith,» and we discussed the different types of faith. But that’s not what Jesus said. He said something that seems so insignificant but is uniquely and incredibly important: he said, «Have faith not in faith.» So, you have to be careful now, because unconsciously, it’s possible to have faith in faith—no, no.