Latest / The Woman at the Well Ministries Podcast / 475 | Throwback - The Power of Faith
Transcript
- 0:00Music.
- 0:07Hello, friends, and welcome back to another podcast of Woman at the Well Ministries,
- 0:11where we believe that all of us have to come to Jesus like the woman at the well in John chapter 4.
- 0:18Our highest priority is making God real in your life.
- 0:22Whether you are listening in our app, in your favorite podcasting app,
- 0:25or on our website at watwm.org, we invite you to sit down with us as we look
- 0:31to the scriptures to learn more about God and to strengthen your daily walk with Jesus Christ.
- 0:38Living a life for Christ. She's a happy girl.
- 0:38Music.
- 0:48She's a happy girl.
- 1:02Think of the joy and encouragement you receive when you hear about the faith
- 1:07of saints of God, powerful youth, and godly Christians everywhere.
- 1:11When you see the truths of the Bible unfold in others' lives,
- 1:16your life will be changed.
- 1:18It stirs your faith and strengthens your belief in Jesus.
- 1:22Faithful Christians are powerful influences on the lives of others because those
- 1:26watching can see major mountains crumble at the feet of the faithful because
- 1:30of the power of Christ in them.
- 1:33Join us in this broadcast, The Power of Faith, as Kim Miller of Women at the
- 1:38Well Ministries takes us through Ephesians 1, 15-16, which say,
- 1:43Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and love unto all the saints,
- 1:49Cease not to give thanks for you and make mention of you in my prayers Hello
- 1:55and welcome to this broadcast of Woman at the Well Ministries And when you read
- 1:59that verse that Erica read in our hearing It says,
- 2:04because of your faith that he heard about.
- 2:07He ceases not to give thanks to you, and he makes mention of you in his prayers.
- 2:13I believe the most precious gift that anyone on earth can give is to share their
- 2:20time around the throne of God with you.
- 2:24And when they mention you in prayer, when they diligently and fervently lift
- 2:30up your needs and your burdens and you yourself to God, they are spending their time with him.
- 2:37Sharing it with you. That's an amazing thing. And as I read this verse, I'm always humbled.
- 2:46And then I begin to think, has the reputation I have built about who I am shown people whose I am?
- 2:59Have people heard that my faith is strong in the Lord Jesus?
- 3:05Does my daily walk match my talk?
- 3:10Do the things that I say, the places I go, the topics that I am concerned about.
- 3:18The themes of my life, do they show others there's a reality in serving Jesus?
- 3:27Faith is an extremely powerful weapon against Satan.
- 3:31It's also an extremely powerful tool to lead others to Christ.
- 3:39When people see you going through something and they watch you go through it,
- 3:46praising the Lord and giving glory to God,
- 3:49it begins to make them wonder, what is it that you have that gives you that
- 3:55peace that passes understanding and that joy unspeakable even when everything
- 4:00around you seems to be falling apart?
- 4:04They notice that you have a compass in the midst of the storm that keeps you
- 4:09right, even the biggest and greatest of waves around you.
- 4:13And they want to know where you receive that direction, how you get that kind
- 4:19of guidance, and how you can stay so stable when most people would crumble.
- 4:25That is faith in action. You see, it's not about thinking God could do it.
- 4:32That's a certain amount of faith good
- 4:36faith is when you say god will do
- 4:39it but great faith is when you're praising god because you know he's already
- 4:45done it and you're just waiting for the delivery that's an amazing amount of
- 4:50faith have you ever thought that the life you lead The attitude you have,
- 4:57the conversations that you have,
- 5:00the behaviors that you exhibit, they may be the only Bible that some people ever read.
- 5:09My parents were very clear to me. Make sure that your life reads out like the
- 5:16scriptures, so that your behaviors in your life are not contradictory to what the Word of God says.
- 5:24Because people will watch you, and people will see you, and people will learn of him through you.
- 5:31Make sure you're giving them the right message.
- 5:35You see, we don't live our lives unto ourselves.
- 5:40Everybody that we come in contact with, we have some sort of impact on.
- 5:45We either move them towards Jesus, or we move them away from Jesus,
- 5:52or we don't even make them think about Jesus, which in turn moves them away.
- 5:59You've really only got two options.
- 6:02And the Lord said that we are the light of the world.
- 6:06And in this scripture, what you hear is that he says, I heard of your faith.
- 6:12There's an amazing bond of love and friendship that springs from learning from a godly example.
- 6:21I am a woman most blessed because I was the daughter of Leon Miller and Doris Jean Miller.
- 6:28And I saw them pray their way through adversity.
- 6:32I saw them pray their way in times of jubilation.
- 6:36I saw them pray their way in sickness, pray their way in health.
- 6:40I saw them live a life that showed the closeness of their relationship with God.
- 6:48They loved him so much and were so joyous about him that I wanted what they had.
- 6:55It would have been difficult to not have understood who God was and been brought up in my home.
- 7:01We still had to make the decision to follow Christ and allow him to lead us.
- 7:07But we saw a living example of Christ in their life.
- 7:12And I wanted what they had.
- 7:14My parents went on to be with the Lord, but Jesus didn't leave me without examples.
- 7:21He allowed me to have amazing friendships that would keep me accountable,
- 7:26that would pray with me, that would study with me, that would do God sightings
- 7:31with me and could see the hand of God in action.
- 7:34He allowed me to have people in my life, in my church, who I believed knew God well, who prayed for me,
- 7:45who showed me who God was, who allowed me to see God in action.
- 7:53Jesus loves me, this I know, and I see it through the hands of many who take the time to tell me so.
- 8:01You see in the work of the Lord you can get tired.
- 8:07But God has always put someone there to encourage. I want God to keep me as
- 8:13a person who is an encourager to others in the faith.
- 8:17It doesn't require long sermons or big stories.
- 8:21Sometimes it's a simple, I'm praying for you, and then you really do it.
- 8:26Sometimes it's a hug around the neck, a firm handshake.
- 8:32Or maybe sometimes you need to meet their need and God has provided that for you.
- 8:38But a powerful faith is something you never forget when you see it in action.
- 8:44I saw my dad empty all the money he had.
- 8:49At a concert, we went to see a woman sing for a need that she expressed.
- 8:56And I thought to myself, how are you doing this? and I was old enough to know
- 9:00how difficult that would be, knowing you had a family to take care of.
- 9:05But he said, I know God will provide.
- 9:08This is what he's asked me to do.
- 9:11Not only did God provide, he continued to provide.
- 9:14That's a living faith. The Bible says in a parable that if you have faith that
- 9:21of a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, be ye moved,
- 9:24and the mountain would be moved.
- 9:27I've never seen an earthly mountain move that way,
- 9:30but I've seen many mountains in my life moved at the call upon Jesus and the
- 9:38great faith of knowing he had already done it and I was just waiting for it to be delivered.
- 9:44I've seen mountains moved in people's lives that I stopped and I prayed for
- 9:50because the Lord impressed upon my heart.
- 9:52Don't ever ignore the call of the Lord on your heart to make the phone call
- 9:59for a friend, to send the card, or to say the prayer.
- 10:05That's your opportunity to move a mountain in their life through faith in Jesus.
- 10:12That's your opportunity to say a prayer to an almighty God that someone can
- 10:18hear. and they can hear of your faith and your love in Jesus.
- 10:23I know for so many of us, it's hard to pray out loud.
- 10:27That time that we have with Jesus is so personal and so precious.
- 10:32And I'm not saying that you have to pray out loud, but I want to tell you something
- 10:36and I want you to ponder it.
- 10:39Some of the greatest memories I have of my entire life are the memories of hearing
- 10:45my mother and my dad pray.
- 10:47It's walking in when they didn't know that I was around and hearing them pray.
- 10:53It was laying in a bed when I'd been hurt and couldn't get out of bed,
- 10:57and they held hands across my leg, and they prayed for God to heal their baby.
- 11:03They could have prayed those prayers silently, and God would have heard.
- 11:08But I heard them. And at 17, it made a huge impression on my life,
- 11:16because they were going through the same pain and heartache and trouble that I was.
- 11:20And I was feeling uncertain, unloved, and certainly punished.
- 11:26But because of their prayers, I could see another side.
- 11:31I could see that God was watching over me.
- 11:34I could hear them pray for God to reveal to me his will for my life.
- 11:39I could hear them pray, take this mess and make it something beautiful,
- 11:44because that's what you do, Jesus.
- 11:47Help us to live in your will. Help us to walk in your way. Keep her from being
- 11:52bitter, Lord. Use her, I pray.
- 11:55I remember that like it was yesterday. day.
- 11:59I can hear those prayers in my mind as if they're speaking them now,
- 12:05because time and time again,
- 12:07they called upon the power of God when no logic would have said, be okay with this.
- 12:16I heard them praise him for taking care of me.
- 12:20I learned that he had, and otherwise I couldn't have seen it.
- 12:25There's power in faith, my friend.
- 12:27Show yours every day.
- 12:38Thank you for joining us in today's podcast. You can visit the show notes for
- 12:42quotes from today's podcast and scripture references.
- 12:45We pray today has been a blessing and we encourage you to reach out to us through
- 12:49our app, our website, or our Facebook page.
- 12:52You can find our app by search www.wattwm We're on Facebook at facebook.com slash W-A-T-W-M.
- 13:05If you visit our website, you'll be able to subscribe to Bible Bits,
- 13:08a daily devotion written by Kim and delivered Monday through Friday by text message.
- 13:13Women of the Well Ministries is a nonprofit organization,
- 13:24To learn how to partner with Woman at the Well Ministries, please visit our website.
- 13:28Thank you to the Gospel Group Fudge Creek for letting us use their hit song, Happy Girl.
- 13:33We greatly appreciate your prayers. We are praying daily for our listeners.
- 13:38Remember that God loves you. You are loved.
- 13:43Music.