Faith is not accepting circumstances, because our God is not circumstances. Our God is the one who commands and overcomes circumstances. And he is the one who empowers us to command and overcome circumstances by our faith. Faith is accepting the word of God. Faith is in accepting God’s promise to answer our prayers. Faith is in accepting God’s guarantee to give us what we ask.
The word of God tells you what ought to happen. The word of God declares that you have the right to expect certain things. So faith insists on possessing what the word of God describes. Faith insists on living the kind of life that the word of God guarantees to us.
Faithless religious teachers portray faith as acceptance. They think that because God rules the circumstances, it means that whatever happens is a revelation of the will of God and you must accept it. This is deception. It implies that they worship their circumstances, and they do not in fact believe in the God of Scripture. The Faithless claim that they believe the Scripture, but they are liars. They believe that the will of God is revealed in the circumstances of man, but Christians believe that the will of God is revealed in the statements of Scripture.
God indeed rules the circumstances, and this means that we must insist on whatever he says about our relationship with the circumstances. If God says that we ought to be healed, then when there is sickness in our circumstances, we should know that God wants us to change the circumstances by faith and annihilate the sickness by his power. If God says that I should have an abundant life, then I insist on having an abundant life. If God says that Jesus carried my sicknesses, then I refuse to carry any sickness and insist on receiving healing. If anything happens in my circumstances that threatens this life of abundance, healing, and victory, I will refuse to accept it as the will of God, because God has said something different to me.
This is faith. I refuse to welcome every circumstance as the will of God. I will welcome only what is consistent with what God has said to me. By faith, you insist on getting what God promised. By faith, you insist on getting what you ask from God. By faith, you insist on asking and receiving, seeking and finding. By faith, you insist on knocking on the door and making it open for you. Even when a situation turned for the worse, Jesus did not say that they would accept that as the will of God, because God ruled over all circumstances. Rather, he defied the circumstances and said, “Fear not, only believe.”
A suffering faith reveals our goodness toward God, but a prospering faith reveals God’s goodness toward us. God is not glorified by a suffering religion, but by a prospering religion. Man is glorified by a suffering religion. Man is not glorified by a healing, prospering, and a miraculous and victorious religion that credits all things to the grace and power of God.
But doesn’t the Bible teach a suffering faith? It does not. It really does not. It teaches that those who walk in faith will suffer only in a very narrow sense. Specifically, it teaches that those who follow God’s religion will be persecuted by those who teach man’s religion.
Man’s religion is the religion that endorses the kind of suffering that results from unbelief and weakness. The Faithless praise the kind of suffering that people experience when they are without God, without faith, and without miracles. They think that those who suffer sickness, poverty, and depression are heroes, but the gospel tells us to overcome these things by faith. And when we have faith, we might suffer religious persecution, and this kind of persecution will come from those who teach the religion of man.
The Faithless teach a religion of suffering, and they are the ones who cause the suffering in other people. They are the ones who persecute those who have faith. But the kind of suffering that the Faithless encourage — sickness, poverty, defeat and depression — is the kind of suffering that the Bible rejects, the kind of suffering that Jesus has saved us from.
The kind of suffering that the Bible teaches is the kind that happens when we stand for the grace and power of God. He saves us, and he heals and prospers us. He favors us and protects us. He fills us with wisdom and courage. He enables us to heal the sick and cast out demons. He inspires us to prophesy, and to pray and sing in tongues. This blessed life incites jealousy and indignation in those who follow the religion of man. And so they attack those who have faith in God’s grace. This is where suffering comes from. But even then, we can overcome them, because greater is he who is in us, than he who is in the world. We always triumph in Jesus Christ.
Today, we see that those who preach the gospel of prosperity suffer from those who claim to be Christians, but who reject the prosperity that God teaches. They refuse to receive prosperity from God, but they seek prosperity by their own human effort and wisdom. They declare that this is a religion of humility, but it is a religion of humanism. These people acknowledge God with their lips, but they reject God’s grace, and instead they worship man’s ability and resolve. They worship themselves and their circumstances.
Christians who preach the gospel of healing are persecuted not mainly by the non-Christians, since most non-Christians do not know about it or care about it. Most of the persecution comes from those who claim to follow Jesus, who claim to be defenders and guardians of the faith, who claim to be historic and orthodox in their doctrines, but at the same time reject the direct and explicit words of Scripture about God’s healing power. They refuse to continue the healing ministry of Jesus. They are the ones who attack the faithful disciples who continue the ministry of Jesus and those who have faith to receive from him. When the Bible talks about suffering, it is talking about the suffering that comes from these wicked people who preach the gospel of suffering.
The Bible does not teach a suffering gospel, but a prospering gospel, not a losing message, but a winning message. It teaches a gospel of healing and prosperity. God has been a God of healing and prosperity since the beginning of Scripture to the end of Scripture. Healing has always been portrayed as a blessing, and sickness has been portrayed as a curse. And prosperity has always been portrayed as a reward to faith and holiness. The Bible says, “Humility and the fear of the LORD results in wealth, honor, and life.” Thus following God brings healing and prosperity, honor and other blessings. It has always been this way.
Pain, suffering, sickness, poverty, and defeat are never signs of piety. The suffering that Christians experience does not come from the gospel itself, but from enemies of the gospel who teach a religion of suffering. The suffering does not come from God, but from the Faithless, who worship Suffering as their idol, their false god.
The Bible teaches a prospering religion, but it admits that we might experience suffering in this world. This suffering will most often come from those who disagree that the Bible teaches a prospering religion. This suffering will most often come from those who, contrary to all evidence in the Bible, insist that the Bible teaches a suffering religion. The people who teach a suffering religion are the very ones who cause suffering in this world. And the people who teach a prospering religion are the ones who resist and overcome this suffering that is caused by Satan and the Faithless.
Faith is insistence, not acceptance. Faith insists on receiving God’s blessings. Faith insists on possessing our desires. Faith refuses to accept circumstances as the will of God. Faith refuses to accept circumstances as unavoidable and unchangeable. Have faith. Insist on getting God’s blessings. Insist on getting what you want in prayer. Refuse to accept circumstances. Renounce a faithless suffering religion. When you face a situation you do not like, never accept it. Never suffer what you do not have to suffer. Insist on healing. Insist on prosperity. Insist on blessings. Insist on miracles.