The peace of the Lord be with you, with your house, and with yours. I give thanks to the Eternal God, to the Almighty, for one more day of life that He extends to us. We are standing today because it has pleased the Lord that we should be standing. Everything that man has, everything he possesses, comes from God. There is absolutely nothing that man has that does not come from God. And this is important for us, men and women of faith, to understand: to walk under the sovereignty of the Eternal God, to walk under the sovereignty of the Almighty.
When we read the book of Job in chapter 1, we see that Satan presents himself before the presence of the Lord. The word that God addresses to him is: “Have you not considered my servant Job, that there is none more perfect than he?” What does perfection consist of? Perfection consists precisely in understanding the sovereignty of God, in walking under the sovereignty of God. Let no one have a higher concept of himself than he ought to have.
Walking under the sovereignty of God makes us understand what God is doing in our surroundings and in our midst. We give thanks precisely because it has pleased Him that we should be standing today and, above all things, that we should have this opportunity to present ourselves before His Word so that His Word may illuminate us, direct us, guide us, but also so that His Word may correct us, instruct us, and strengthen us.
Faith Is Not Only Believing
We have been studying the theme of faith for several weeks, and something very important that we have learned from this series of teachings is that faith is not only believing. We have seen this from the first day we entered this series of teachings. We realized that faith is not only believing, although for the great majority of men and women of faith this is almost the definition par excellence: “believing,” “I believe,” “I believe.”
We have realized that faith is not only believing, but it has to do with:
- Understanding God
- Understanding the work of God
- Walking under the sovereignty of God
- Doing what the Lord wants us to do
Faith is not a tool only for asking, for demanding, or for having the assurance that we will receive something from God. Faith is the way that helps us attract and establish the Kingdom of God on earth. It is the spiritual virtue that God has given us through His Holy Spirit so that we may live on earth as one lives in heaven.
He Who Is Not With Me Is Against Me
Tonight we will continue with this teaching series. We are going to study very important precepts that help us understand faith, but above all things, that help us walk by faith. I want to begin here in the Gospel of Luke, chapter 11, verse 23. This word is establishing a guide for us to be able to understand what faith is.
Verse 23 says: “He who is not with me is against me; and he who does not gather with me scatters.” Words declared by Jesus the Christ when He was presenting teaching about spiritual warfare.
At first glance one could ask: what relationship does this verse have with faith? We are going to realize in tonight’s teaching that this verse basically redefines what faith is in the environments in which we have moved.
“He who is not with me is against me.” Two expressions that are establishing a boundary: “he who is not with me is against me” and “he who does not gather with me scatters.”
First Declaration: He Who Is Not With Me Is Against Me
What does this mean? What it means is that if we, men and women who confess ourselves as children of God, men and women who confess ourselves as believers, do not walk according to what the Lord has determined, this places us in contrariety, against God.
In fact, if we review chapter 14 of the apostle Paul’s epistle to the Romans, the last verse says: “Everything that is not of faith is sin.” And this establishes for us that if we do not walk according to what God has established for the man and woman of God to walk by, we constitute ourselves as contrary to God.
What does this mean then? This means that if we do not manage to walk by faith, with faith, and in faith, we would then be walking in opposition to what God has determined.
The Blindness of the Unbelievers
I want to go to the second epistle of the apostle Paul to the Corinthians, chapter 4, verse 4. It says: “If our gospel is still veiled, it is veiled among those who are perishing; in whom the god of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, so that the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should not shine on them.”
Verse 4 is establishing a truth for us that we must not ignore: the god of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelievers. And we have said practically in several of our teachings that:
- An unbeliever is not only the one who is outside a church
- An unbeliever is not only the sinner
- An unbeliever is not only the one who is in the world
- An unbeliever is not only the one who openly declares himself against God
An unbeliever is the one who does not follow what the Lord has established. An unbeliever is the one who is not willing to walk in the teaching that Jesus the Christ has established.
Remember Matthew chapter 7, the Sermon on the Mount, when Jesus the Christ is finalizing, concluding that teaching. He says: “I will compare the man who hears these things and does them to a wise man who built his house on the rock. Winds blew, rain came, rivers ran, and his house did not fall.” But immediately He establishes: “I will compare the one who hears these words and does not do them to a foolish man who built his house on the sand. The same scenarios: rain came, wind blew, rivers ran, and the house was destroyed because it was founded on sand.”
This is what is teaching us: if we are not willing to see what God sees, we cannot understand what God is doing in our surroundings, in our environments.
Two Elements of Unbelief
Note what verse 4 says: “In whom the god of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelievers.” There are two elements here that are being pointed out to us:
1. Satanic Intervention The god of this age has blinded the minds. There is a satanic intervention. Why? Because there are men and women who have not been able to develop in faith, because despite being in an environment of revelation, they have not been able to transcend because there is a satanic intervention.
Verse four says it: “The god of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelievers.” There is a satanic intervention that does not allow us to see beyond what our physical eyes, what our material eyes perceive.
The apostle writes in the epistle to the Galatians and says: “For we do not walk by sight, but by faith.” That means that faith has to do with spiritual things, but for that it is necessary to see them. Why don’t we see them? Because there is a satanic intervention in our surroundings, in our midst, in our dwellings, in our homes, that is not allowing us to see how God sees things.
2. The Unwillingness to Believe The second element: “In whom the god of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelievers.” It is a personal participation, it is an individual participation, it is a participation of each one. It is not only the satanic intervention, but there is also a participation, a lack of commitment, a lack of surrender to that which the Lord is calling us to or to which the Lord is delivering us.
We cannot only blame the enemy, but there is a participation of the person, of the man, of the woman, that does not allow them to transcend the limits of the material.
First Definition of Faith: Seeing as God Sees
That is why we said: an unbeliever is not only the one who is outside, the one who does not want to believe. If you go to the Gospel of John, chapter 3, the moment when Jesus the Christ meets with Nicodemus, when Jesus the Christ is speaking to him, giving him a teaching of revelation that we do not find in any other text, Nicodemus says to the Lord: “How can this be possible?”
And this is the situation in which many men and many women find themselves today who, despite confessing themselves as children of God, despite confessing themselves as children of an Almighty God, nevertheless, cannot see what God is seeing, what God is doing in their environment. How can this be possible? How is it possible that this happens? How is it possible that this occurs?
Here it is important for us to understand that faith transcends the plane of the material. That is why we said that faith is not only a tool that helps us to be able to receive what we are asking for. That is not faith, it is not only that.
When I am asking something of the Lord, I am asking with faith: “I believe,” “I believe the Lord can do it.” How many people say that or have said that at some point? It is not only about believing, it is about seeing what God is doing in our surroundings, what God is doing in our midst.
The Example of Sarah
I want to go to the book of Genesis, chapter 18. I am going to read from verse 12 to verse 14. Verse 12 says: “Therefore Sarah laughed within herself, saying: After I have grown old, shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also? Then the LORD said to Abraham: Why did Sarah laugh, saying: Shall I surely bear a child, since I am old? Verse 14: Is anything too hard for the LORD? At the appointed time I will return to you, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son.”
We have this example, a very clear example. At the age of 99, the Lord presents Himself before Abraham. This is known as a theophany. It is the Lord Himself who presents Himself, and the Lord is telling him: “At the time of life, at the end of a year, Sarah, your wife, shall have a son.”
You have already read what she said: Will this be possible? How will this come to pass?
Faith is the capacity to be able to see as God sees. To see how God sees things, not as man sees them, not as society tells us we should see things, not as laws tell us we should see things, not as the customs of peoples tell us we should see things. Faith is the capacity to be able to see as God sees, and that is the great impediment that many of us have when it comes to walking by faith.
How will this be possible? It is impossible, this cannot be done, this does not have the possibility of being able to happen. That is why, returning to Second Corinthians that we read a few minutes ago: “The god of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelievers so that the light of the gospel of Christ should not shine on them.”
We have to understand that the incapacity we have to be able to see the work of God is due to two elements:
- A satanic intervention that is present, active in our midst
- A disposition of the person not wanting to see
The Example of Thomas
Do you remember the night that Jesus the Christ presented Himself for the first time before the disciples? Thomas was not among them that night. And when the other disciples told Thomas that Jesus the Christ had appeared to them, Thomas said: “Unless I see His wound and put my finger into His side, I will not believe.”
This is the reaction of many men and many women. This is how many men and many women live in this time: “If I do not see, if I do not put my finger into His side, I will not believe.” We do not live by sight, we do not depend on circumstances, we do not depend on our environment, we depend on God.
That is why Luke chapter 11 is very important for us to be able to understand: “He who is not with me is against me.” Why can we not walk by faith many times? Because there is an open rebellion against what God is doing.
This rebellion is due to the fact that many times God is not acting among us as we expect Him to act. And this is bringing many conflicts to men and women. Why? Because we have forged an idea, because we have formed an idea as Naaman the Syrian formed it when he was going to the house of Elisha.
The Example of Naaman
He said: “Elisha will come out and will perform some ritual in my presence and will tell me: be healed at this moment.” But what happened when Naaman arrived at the house, at the door of the house? Elisha did not even come out to receive him; he sent the servant and the servant said to him: “Go to the Jordan River, dip yourself seven times, and you shall be healed.”
That answer made Naaman turn around and head back to his place of origin. By the intervention of a servant of Naaman, Naaman would have continued leprous for the rest of his life.
How many men of God, how many women of God have deprived ourselves of so much blessing and so much work of the Lord precisely because we are seeing things from our perspective? Because we are seeing it from our customs, because we are seeing it from our religious denomination, because we are seeing it from the economic perspective, because we are seeing it from the social perspective. But we have not seen how God is seeing things.
Is anything impossible for God? What is the problem? Because there are men who are unbelievers, because there are women who are unbelievers. Although many times we can say: “Yes, God can do it, of course God can part the sea in two.” But nevertheless, we do not believe in what God is doing in our environment.
It is important that we lay aside this attitude of unbelief and begin to see how God sees things.
The Example of Elijah and the Rain
There is another example that I want to present to you. First book of Kings, chapter 18. I am going to read from verse 41 to 45:
“Then Elijah said to Ahab: Go up, eat and drink, for there is the sound of abundance of rain.”
Pay close attention to this declaration: “Eat and drink, for there is the sound of abundance of rain.”
I will pause for a few seconds here to be able to understand what is happening. Elijah had declared three and a half years earlier that it was not going to rain except by his word. The prophet Elijah had been hidden by the Lord; they looked for him and did not find him because God hid him.
And after three and a half years, during which there were many droughts, where the crops were ruined, where many beasts perished, where the kingdom had practically been left in an economic crisis of all kinds, Elijah manifests himself again, and now to say: “Eat and drink, for there is the sound of abundance of rain.”
“So Ahab went up to eat and drink. And Elijah went up to the top of Carmel, and bowing down on the ground, he put his face between his knees. And he said to his servant: Go up now and look toward the sea. And he went up and said: There is nothing. And he said to him again: Go back seven times. The seventh time he said: I see a small cloud like a man’s palm rising from the sea. And he said: Go and tell Ahab: Prepare your chariot and go down, lest the rain stop you.”
To see as God sees, this is faith. It is not as we see, it is not as circumstances determine that we should see. Three and a half years during which there had been no rain, not even drizzle, nothing. Absolutely the sky completely closed, because it is thus established in the Law of Moses: completely closed. There were no clouds. In fact, there were no clouds.
Look how important: a small cloud like the palm of a hand. That was all that was seen, and Elijah did not even see it. Who saw it? It was the servant. Elijah was prostrate. It was the servant who saw it. But for Elijah it was enough to say: “A great rain is coming, a great rain is coming.” And he says it on two occasions: in verse 41 and he also says it in verse 44.
Great rain. To see things as God sees them, brother, this is faith.
Faith is being able to see how God sees things, and this is the great impediment that many men have despite being within a congregation, despite being part of a ministry. This is the great incapacity that many of us have: that we see only the external, that we see the exterior, that we see the circumstantial, but we have not developed the capacity to see as God sees things.
The Supernatural Work
In fact, if you observe the end of this chapter, a supernatural event occurs in the life of Elijah. See verse 46: “And the hand of the LORD was upon Elijah, and he girded up his loins and ran ahead of Ahab until he came to Jezreel.”
Both were in the same place, on Mount Carmel, both were at the same site. King Ahab was in a chariot, that is, a chariot drawn by horses. Even if it had been a single horse, to put it into perspective; even if it had been a single horse, it ran with a certain speed.
And what we are being told in verse 46 is that Elijah, without needing a horse, ran faster than Ahab. Read it. By a supernatural work of the Spirit of God.
What is the Lord telling us? What is the Lord presenting to us? That the supernatural work cannot come, will never be able to come, if we are not willing to see things as God sees them.
How many men and how many women of God are waiting for miracles from the Old Testament, miracles from the New Testament, when suddenly supernatural things happened? I have to tell you, brother: if we cannot see things as God sees them, supernatural things will never happen.
Why? Because God demands that we live by faith. If you review Hebrews chapter 11, verse 6, it says: “Without faith it is impossible to please God.” And in the epistle to the Ephesians it clearly says that grace is by faith, salvation, grace is by faith, not by works, by faith.
What are these passages saying then? These passages are saying, brothers, that the Kingdom of Heaven moves by faith. The Kingdom of Heaven is established and moves by faith.
None of us lives within the Kingdom of Heaven only because we declare it, only because we say it, only because we establish it. No. The Kingdom of Heaven is established, it moves by faith. And here we are seeing in this first teaching, brother: faith is the capacity to see things as God sees them.
That is why the enemy’s interest is in blinding the minds of the unbelievers so that the light of the gospel of Christ Jesus should not shine on them. The apostle says: “If our gospel is veiled, it is veiled among those who perish, those who perish because of unbelief.”
We have then, brothers, a demand from the Spirit of God. It is not only a teaching that we are presenting; it is a demand from the Spirit of God: the need to live by faith. Because otherwise, the supernatural work is not going to develop, the Kingdom of Heaven is not going to be established.
That we learn to walk by faith, to live by faith, that is, to see the things that God sees as He sees them.
Second Definition of Faith: Calling Things as God Calls Them
I want to move to a second teaching. I go to the apostle Paul’s epistle to the Romans, chapter 4, verse 17. It says: “As it is written: I have made you a father of many nations before God, whom he believed, who gives life to the dead”. And take note: “And calls those things which do not exist as though they did.”
Second teaching: Faith is calling things as God calls them. It is speaking things as God has spoken them.
It is not, again, as I visualize them, it is not as I believe them, as I understand them, it is as God calls them. Here, brother, again Luke chapter 11: “He who is not with me is against me.” We find ourselves establishing contrariety to God because God calls things one way and we call them another way.
The Example of Lazarus
I am going to present two examples. I want to go first to the Gospel of John, chapter 11, verse 4. It says: “When Jesus heard it, He said: This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”
“This sickness is not unto death.” To call things as God calls them.
“This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God.” And you have read the account because this event is well known by all the believing people: Lazarus died. But He had said that this sickness is not unto death.
When He arrives, the two sisters, Mary and Martha, reproach Jesus the Christ in the same way. Both said the same thing to Him: “If You had been here, my brother would not have died.”
Let us remember something: his sisters sent for Him when he was in the process of dying. Therefore, then, what his sisters are telling Him is: “If You had listened, if You had heeded our message, this would not be happening today.” The reproach of both.
In fact, Martha meets first with Jesus the Christ and then Mary, who had stayed at home, told Him the same thing.
How many men and how many women find ourselves resentful toward God because, again, “I thought You were going to do it this way,” “I thought You should do it this way”? Because those are the religious concepts that we have formed.
Faith is calling things as God calls them. “He gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did.” To call things as God calls them.
Faith is the capacity that the man of God, that the woman of God, can have to transcend circumstances and say: “This is not for destruction, this is not for death, this is not for deterioration. This is so that the glory of God may be established.”
This is very important for us to be able to understand because “he who is not with me is against me.” Many times we find ourselves resisting God, resisting what He is doing, precisely because we do not call things as He calls them, but we give them another name, we give or place another designation or another definition on them.
To call things as God calls them. And now in verse 12 it says: “Then His disciples said: Lord, if he sleeps he will get well. But Jesus spoke of his death, and they thought He was speaking about taking rest in sleep.”
Jesus the Christ knew what had already happened at that time. Communications were not as fast as they are today; in a matter of seconds we can find out what is happening on the other side of the world, but not then.
When the messengers that his sister had sent arrived, Lazarus had died, because she tells Him: “It has been four days.” That means that when they arrived to give Him the message, when they arrived, Lazarus was already dying. Jesus the Christ knew it, as He knows all the things that happen in our life. He knows it, He knows it.
But the important thing about the teaching He establishes for us is that we can transcend the material, that we can transcend the circumstantial and we can see and call things as God calls them.
When that happens, listen well, when that happens, again there comes the supernatural work. Because when you read the rest of the chapter, you realize that Jesus the Christ calls Lazarus and Lazarus rises from the dead.
This is teaching us that the supernatural work will not be able to develop in our lives nor will we ever be able to live in the supernatural if we are not willing to call things as God calls them.
Because it is impossible, it is impossible that we, going against God, can receive what God has purposed to give us. It is impossible. God cannot go above His own Word.
In this case, we see a supernatural work when what He had established from the beginning was established: “Did I not tell you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?”
“Yes, I believe that my brother will rise again in the resurrection of the dead.” And Jesus the Christ was telling her: “No, I am talking to you about this precise moment, about the supernatural in which man can live, about the supernatural in which woman can live. I am talking to you about this moment.”
When we learn to call things as God calls them, when we learn to speak in the way God speaks about the things that are happening around us.
The Example of Jairus’ Daughter
Another example we have in the Gospel of Mark, chapter 5, verses 38 and 39. It says: “And He came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and saw a tumult, those who wept and wailed greatly. And entering He says to them,” pay attention to this word: “Why do you make this commotion and weep? The child is not dead, but sleeping.”
“And they ridiculed Him, but He, having put them all outside, takes the father and the mother of the child, and those who were with Him, and enters where the child was. Verse 41: Then, taking the child’s hand, He said to her: Talitha cumi, which is, if you interpret it: Little girl, I say to you, arise.”
And we know the end of this story. The young girl, 12 years old, got up, and Jesus the Christ ordered that she be given food to eat as if nothing had happened.
They ridiculed Him. They ridiculed Him because “the girl is dead.” But He, verse 39: “The child is not dead. The child is only sleeping.”
To call things as God calls them. Faith is calling things as God calls them.
We want to live in the supernatural, we want to walk in the supernatural. It is necessary that we call things as God calls them.
How do we believe that, clinging as they said, “No, the girl is dead, that is why we are moaning, that is why we are lamenting, because a misfortune has fallen”? How many are seeing precisely this? How many of us?
The only thing we are seeing is scarcity. How many of us, the only thing we are seeing is sickness. How many, the only thing we are seeing is the misfortune that came to my house. How many? But we cannot see God working in our environment, we cannot see God working in our midst.
To call the things that are not as though they were. To call things as God calls them.
He Who Does Not Gather With Me, Scatters
This is an exercise, and now I want to return to the Gospel of Luke, chapter 11, verse 23: “He who is not with me is against me; and he who does not gather with me scatters.”
I told you I was going to concentrate on the first phrase; now we are going to go to the second phrase: “He who does not gather with me scatters.”
Do you know how many blessings we have scattered precisely by not seeing what God is doing in our midst, by not seeing how God sees? Do you know how many blessings we have scattered by not calling things as God calls them?
The Example of the Centurion
Have you read Matthew chapter 8? I am referring to the case of the Roman centurion. “My servant is sick, gravely sick.” Jesus the Christ proposes to him: “I will come and heal him.” And the centurion said to Him: “No, I am not worthy that You should come under my roof, but only speak a word, and my servant will be healed.”
And Jesus the Christ established something very important that helps us learn to live by faith. What did Jesus the Christ establish? “As you have believed, so let it be done to you.”
You know what? The misfortunes that we establish are the misfortunes that really happen in our midst. Yes, because Luke 11:23 says: “He who does not gather with me scatters.”
We are ruining the blessings that God has given us. We are ruining the promises that God has given us. Why? Because we do not want to believe, because we are unbelievers, because we need to see in order to believe.
It was precisely what Thomas established. Jesus the Christ said on that occasion: “Blessed are those who have believed without seeing.”
Supernatural work, brothers, will not be able to develop in our lives if we are not willing to see things as God sees them, if we are not willing to call things as God calls them.
It is not going to happen, it is not going to occur. Because how are you going to believe that God is going to give if we are scattering? That is what has happened with many men and with many women: we are scattering.
What Does It Mean to Scatter?
What does it mean to scatter? It means that there is a basket, a hamper, there is a storehouse full of provision, and we are taking from that provision and we are throwing it outside, we are throwing it to the ground, we are throwing it to the floor because of our unbelief.
I was telling you almost at the beginning of the teaching: an unbeliever is not the one who is outside a church. An unbeliever is the one who does not want to believe, the one who is not willing to believe. And we are going to find them also within a church, we are going to find them also forming part of a ministry. We are going to find them even being an active part of a ministry.
The supernatural work is not going to develop in our life.
How many people, how many people are asking for revival in the churches? If we do not learn to see how God sees, if we do not learn to call things as God calls them, brother, that is never going to happen. Now do you understand? Because “he who does not gather with me scatters.”
God does not give so that we may scatter. God does not give so that we may scatter, so that we may ruin it. For what? For what?
And that is very important for us to understand.
The Example of Gehazi
The life of faith is the capacity to see as God sees. It is not seeing the circumstantial, it is not seeing the adversity.
We have another example in the case of Gehazi, who was Elisha’s steward. One day Gehazi gets up surprised that around where they were praying there were thousands of Assyrian soldiers. Thousands of Assyrian soldiers, and they were not there to protect them; they were there to attack them.
Gehazi comes before Elisha and comments to him: “What is happening?” Elisha, without even seeing what Gehazi is presenting to him, without even seeing, makes a prayer and says: “Open his eyes, Lord, so that he may see that those who are with us are greater than those who are against us.”
To be able to see things as God sees them.
Personal Responsibility
How much misfortune has come to our homes not only because the enemy has sent it? How much misfortune has come because we have established it? Yes, we have established it with what we have said.
Because the word that Jesus the Christ said to the centurion, “as you have believed, so let it be done to you,” works both in the positive as it also works in the negative. If you established that this was a misfortune, well, it is a misfortune; you are establishing it.
That is why it is very important that men and women of God learn to refine our vision, learn to refine our way of speaking. Because faith is the capacity to be able to see things as God sees them, the capacity to call things as God calls them, so that then the supernatural can be established in our midst, in our environments.
“He who is not with me is against me.” Let us not find ourselves in contrariety with God, establishing things that God does not want us to establish.
“He who does not gather with me scatters.” Many blessings have been ruined because we ourselves have ruined them, because we ourselves have thrown them, thrown them to the ground.
God Does Not Give to Scatter
God is not going to give us, keep this in mind: God is not going to give us so that we may scatter. God is not going to give us so that we may scatter. God is going to give us so that we may cultivate, so that we may prosper, so that we may multiply it.
In the parable of the talents you can see: “You gave me five talents, here is what is yours: five plus five.” “You gave me two talents, here is what is yours: two talents plus two more that I produced.”
God gives us not to scatter, because this goes against the sovereignty of God.
A Time of Definition
We are approaching a time of definition. This type of definition is to be able to be men and women not nominal, to be able to be men and women of truth, of deed, of word.
“Let your speech be yes, yes; no, no. For whatever is more than these is from the evil one.”
So that in this work we do not find ourselves in contrariety with the Lord. Let us not find ourselves scattering because we are going against His will.
And God says: “The Word will not hold guiltless the one who takes His Name in vain.” This word has validity today.
Closing Prayer
Eternal God, our Father who art in heaven, I give You thanks for this word, O God, and for the exposition that You permit us before this Word. Eternal God, may the power of Your Holy Spirit now be able to make us understand the need to stop being unbelievers and to walk according to what Your Word establishes.
In the Name of Jesus the Christ, Lord. Amen, amen.
I bless you. The peace of the Lord be with you. Amen.
