Lecture

You’re still here after last week, the last session on “The Triggers of Unbelief.” I’m sure that was challenging for you. I know it was challenging for me, as I scoured through the Scriptures to find out, what happens in our lives to cause us to have an offense, to react negatively and have doubt about the goodness of God and be tempted to act in unbelief.

Well, we’re now done with sessions 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and we’re on the last two starting right now. The first two are the elementary levels of the initiation process into this mystery of God. Session 3 and 4 are the intermediate. Session 5 and 6 are the advanced. And 7 and 8 build on everything and climax in this master level.

This is going to be lighter than the other ones. We’re going to open your eyes to things that perhaps you’ve never thought of before, never seen in Scripture before, and put some things together that people whose lives are remarkable, lives who other people write about as the Christian heroes of the faith, what they knew and how they lived. This is going to be about something that if you grab it, if you grab it really, you hear it, you understand it, but then you go a step further and you use it, and you use it, it changes everything in your life at the master level.

Everybody that I’ve read and oh, maybe the hundred great, great heroes of the faith for the last two thousand years, they all use what I’m going to teach you here. But the majority of people don’t use it. That’s why they never get to that level. They never got to that master level that Jesus Christ wants them to get to.

So it’s something that you add to your life that changes it, just like that, that’s what a catalyst is. A catalyst is a substance, it’s a substance, that when you add it over here, it either accelerates it faster or bigger, or it changes a reaction, that this is changed by a little catalyst, something that’s added and it changes. So this is going to be a remarkable session. This is the catalyst of your life. And it prepares you for session 8 when finally we get to that Bible verse, the one place in all the Bible where it uses that word to describe the initiation into the mysteries.

So let’s get back up here and go through some Scriptures as we prepare you for the catalyst of life.

So when you think about this issue of a catalyst, I saw it many years ago in our daughter’s life. When she was young, she was going to make her first special cake. And she’s so excited that it’s going to be her first real cake. And she put it in the oven, she couldn’t wait. And when it was finally done, she opened the door and she said, Oh no, what happened to my cake? It’s a hole in the middle. What happened? And she pulled it out and her mom said, “Sweetheart, we forgot to put in the yeast.” Ah, that’s a catalyst, a little bit of yeast affected the whole cake.

A catalyst has an amazing, it’s just a little thing, has an amazing, a big change in what it touches. We were trying to find a way to picture this. And I said to the creative team here at Teach Every Nation, which is, don’t you love this set? And all these banners, and your workbook, and your super book, and all these graphics? That’s from the Teach Every Nation creative team. And I said to them one day, we need to demonstrate this principle of a little catalyst makes a huge difference. And the team came up with an amazing illustration. And I asked Carol, our Director of Curriculum, if she wouldn’t get this together and show you in person what a little catalyst can do to a big area. So let’s watch her and enjoy what takes place.

u002du002d-

Carol: Thank you, Dr. Bruce. The creative team accepts your challenge, and we’ve come up with a great way to show how a little catalyst can make a huge difference and a huge change. So the creative team came together and right to my right, I’ve got David who you’ve already met in session 4, Dancing Dave, remember? And then meet Tim, Tim is our Senior Graphics Designer, and he does all the wonderful, beautiful things you’ve seen on stage. And we have part of our TEN [Teach Every Nation] family here. We’ve got David’s beautiful wife, Jennifer, and my husband, Johnny. And so we’re going to show you our catalyst in a plain bowl of milk. You just want a little bit of milk and a flat bowl. Keep it still, you don’t want it hot or cold, just room temperature. And then we’re going to use just regular food coloring. And so everybody’s picking their colors. We want to put our dots of food coloring, just a couple of drops, don’t squirt it, turn it upside down, straight in. And you want to put it near the center, but not touching, so just really close to each other, kind of like a four-leaf clover, put your colors. . . . Ooh, that’s pretty.

- See mine.

- I like yours, David. Okay, everybody color ready? And our catalyst is going to be dishwashing soap. So milk, food coloring, dishwashing soap. Take a Q-tip, and we use Dawn, it just seemed to work better for us, but you can use anything you want, and you just really get a good dip. And what you want to do is get it close to your food coloring, and we’re going to put it right in the center. Woo, look at that guys.

- Nice.

- And you see how the catalyst of the dishwashing soap affects the food coloring in your bowl.

- Once you’ve kind of gone to the center, you can move it around. It’ll make swirls.

- I love it.

- So that’s how a little catalyst can make a huge difference.

- Nice.

u002du002d-

Bruce: Wasn’t that just amazing? That little bit made a big difference. Let’s give Carol and the rest of the creative team, a great big hand, it was wonderful, wasn’t it?

Now you know, now what on earth could be a catalyst that if you add it to your life, just a little, just a little bit, you don’t need a whole lot of this, you just need a little bit of it and you add it to your life, it makes a massive difference. But if you don’t, then the cake of your life, it never accomplishes what you want it to do. That’s what this session’s all about. And why am I teaching this? To prepare you for session 8, “The Secrets of Overcomers.” Overcomers know everything I’m going to teach you right here and they use it. They use this catalyst a lot, not just one time, but many times in their life and it changes everything.

So let’s take a look in your workbook. And I want to start back to this basic chart that we’ve used over and over again of the response, the reality, the responsibility, the result, and reward. Up till now, up till now in the course, I’ve been dealing with this part of it, but now I’m going to deal, in seven and eight, with this side.

This is really the climax. The whole reason for all of this, is this. We’ve been kind of focused on this, as if this is the end. It’s not, it’s the means to this end. It’s the method that God uses to reach this part in our life. This is why the course exists. The course doesn’t exist for this. This exists to make this possible in your life. And we talk about the tests of faith as a primary way of God to develop us into people that can live like this. But if you don’t have the catalyst, and if you don’t know the secrets of the overcomers, you’ll be kind of, you know, an automobile going to race against some other hot rod, and you rev your car and you rev your car and you rev your car, but you never put it in gear. It’s just (revs), the point isn’t that it’s got a powerful engine and it’s revved up, the point of it is, but let it go. That’s the point of seven and eight.

So let’s get into our introduction, “The Power of the Faith Catalyst.” Remember what Jesus said. If you have faith as a mustard seed—back in the time of Christ, that was the littlest seed they had. Everybody thinks, I need a great deal of faith, and Christ’s point is, No, no, no, you’re thinking about this backwards. Faith is a catalyst. You need a little bit, a little bit of faith changes everything in your life.

So let’s take a look at how Christ described this Himself. People read these verses and they think to themselves, they don’t actually think this, but they really believe this. They believe Christ was exaggerating. Yeah, this can’t possibly be true. You’re overstating something. Look at what He said. “Jesus said to him, ‘If . . .’” That’s a Greek word, ei, and it means “expresses a real and factual condition,” this is a real condition. “‘If you can believe . . .’” if you can believe, if you can believe . . . Is He exaggerating? Look what He says, “‘. . . all things are possible to him who believes’” (Mark 9:23 NKJV).

Is Christ taking something that’s true this far and is He over-exaggerating it? That’s not really true, He’s using a figure of speech. Or is He really giving you this secret of, if you have faith of a mustard seed, wow. You’ve got to buy into this. You have to understand exactly what Christ is saying. “If you can believe.” Notice He doesn’t say, “if you can think,” wow, “if you can feel,” wow, “if you can choose,” no. It’s all on the same big idea. And we are all so out of it on this idea. We think that faith is just something you feel, oh no, or He’d have used the concept of emotion or feel. We think, we feel, we choose. And there is another thing called faith and it’s over here and it’s different than those. You can think, you can feel, you can choose, but can you believe? “If you can believe”—it’s up to you to believe. This is a very interesting word, dunamai, present, middle, active. It’s not that I do the verb out here. Middle means you do the verb to yourself. I humble myself. I do the verb to me.

If you can get believing, look at those three letters, come on, face them. Stop, stop allowing unbelief to rise up and say that’s not really true. Is Christ lying to us or is Christ trying to initiate us into a massive secret that really is in plain sight? It’s not a secret unless you don’t put it together. Is that really true? Well, is it, or is He lying, or is He exaggerating, or is it a figure of speech, or is it something that we’re missing, we’re missing? If you can believe, all things are possible.

Take a look at the next verse. “Jesus looked at them and said, ‘With men this is impossible.’” That is the situation right then with normal people, without the catalyst, “‘With men this is impossible.’” You are not able to do it no matter what you do. It’s impossible, it’s not going to happen, period. “‘But with God . . .’” there it is again, “‘. . . all things are possible’” (Matthew 19:26).

You’ve got to put these two passages together. What’s the thing that connects them so that all things are possible and all things are possible? With God, with believing. It’s when you have belief in God. It’s not you believe in yourself. No. How do I know it’s not believing in myself? Because it says, “with men this is impossible.” No matter how much you believe in yourself, it’s still impossible. It takes power beyond you, above you, super you, supernatural power. But how does that get released? It gets released by believing in God, not yourself.

Now I want to give you an illustration of what it looks like if you have the catalyst of faith in your life and you’re in a very, very challenging predicament. Remember David’s best friend, Jonathan, the son of King Saul? There’s a battle going on between the Israelites and the Philistines, and Jonathan isn’t with the army. And he’s with his armor bearer, his assistant. And he kind of goes down and finds out this happens. “Then Jonathan said to the young man who bore his armor, ‘Come, let us go over to the garrison’”—the army in a sense—“‘of these uncircumcised,’”—the enemy. Then look at his terms next. “‘It may be . . .’” Wow! “‘It may be that the Lord will work for us.’” Then he states a fact. “‘For nothing restrains the Lord,’” notice where his attention goes, from the enemy to the Lord, “‘For nothing restrains [or holds back] the Lord from saving by many or by few’” (1 Samuel 14:6). It makes no difference in Jonathan’s mindset. If I have a huge army with me, or if I have the two of us. Whoa, what’s he got in his life? He’s got the catalyst of faith right then, with the Lord, with the Lord, it makes no difference if I have many or if I have the two of us, that’s it. It’s with the Lord. And he believes in the Lord.

And then he says, “‘If they say thus to us . . .’”— the enemy on the top of this mountain. Do you realize, I didn’t give all the verses for you, but he doesn’t even know, get this now, how many of the enemy are on top of this mountain. He’s at the bottom, he doesn’t know. And you know what? When you’ve got the catalyst of faith in your own heart, you don’t need to know. It’s not the size of the challenge, it’s the size of God and your belief in connecting it to Him. “‘If they [the enemy] say thus to us, “Wait until we come to you,” then we will stand still in our place and not go up [climb up the mountain] to them. But if they say thus, “Come up to us,” then we will go up.’” Now, where is his catalyst? “‘For the Lord has delivered them into our hand, and this will be a sign’” (1 Samuel 14:9–10) whether we go up or whether we wait. My goodness.

Now what’s the anti-catalyst? What, what, what’s the anti-catalyst? “Jesus said to them, ‘Because of your unbelief [unfaith],’” that this didn’t happen. “‘For assuredly . . .’” Why’d He say “assuredly”? Because He wants to say, For surely I’m telling you the truth, I always tell you the truth, but I want to underscore this, put it in bold, put it in italics, put it in red letters and make it blink like this. Don’t miss this fact, “‘I say to you, if you have faith . . .’” (Matthew 17:20). Why didn’t He say, “faith, you will say to this mountain”? No, He’s trying to say a shocking truth. “If you have faith . . .” just a little bit of faith in a very big God, if you have a little bit of faith in a very big God, if you have a tiny bit of faith in a very almighty God, all-powerful, all-knowing, all-present, with you at all times, as a mustard seed. Notice what He doesn’t say: “You can say to this mountain,” whoa. What’s the significance of Him not saying that? He’s saying a fact, hold on to this, because this is profound. If you have a little bit of faith in a great big God, you will use it. It’s not something that you just have. You put yeast in with the mixture of making a cake, it will rise. If you have a mustard seed, you will say, you will use the catalyst. That’s why I said to you earlier the heroes of Christianity, of the faith, of the Christian faith are people who did impossible things, impossible things. Why? They had the catalyst and a big God, and they acted upon it.

Wait’ll you get in session 8 when we talk about the secrets of those people who do live that way. What do they know and what do they do that many of us have no idea about. “‘If you have faith as a mustard seed,’”—assuredly, assuredly, I’m underscoring this— “‘You will say to this mountain,’”—this is a command in the Greek language— “‘You will say . . . “Move [move] from here to there,” and it [the mountain] will move.’” And then He says that sentence again. What’s He trying to do? “‘And nothing, [nothing, nothing] will be impossible for you’” (Matthew 17:20). Why is it you? It’s your faith that connects to God that makes this happen. You don’t have the power to move the mountain. He has the power to move the mountain. And He reacts to this thing, not what you think, not what you feel, not what you choose, this thing called faith is something different, is something different. We think faith is all three of those things. No, it is not. It’s a different, hmm, it’s a different catalyst.

Are you tracking with me? We’re just in our introduction. What am I hammering away at here? Unbelief, stronghold. This isn’t true, yes it is true. So let’s move on to part 1, the purposeful, “The Purposeful Use of the Faith Catalyst.” Using it, not just knowing about it, using it. And what I decided to do is I decided to show you a little bit of Greek, just so you understand what is faith, what is belief, what is a believer, what is an unbeliever? Just to show you this, it’s very, very interesting.

The basic Greek word, noun, faith, believer, belief is p-i-s-t-i-s. It’s a conviction of the truth. It’s a belief, it’s being persuaded, moral conviction, it’s reliance upon. If you then put that noun into an adjective, you change the last two letters. It means “faithful, believing, believer.” If you put it as the same word, same word, and you put it as a verb, it means “to believe, to commit, to trust, to be believing,” same word. If you leave the word, pistis, pistia, and you put a letter a- in front of it, in a Greek word it means, “not, not this.” So this Greek word is a noun, and it means “unbelief,” it means “faithless,” it means “unfaithful.” And when Christ called you “little faith,” He has the word pistos, and He put the Greek word little in front of it. Adjective, “you of little faith.”

So don’t make any of this more complicated than it is. There’s one big idea. If you have pistis, if you have pistos, is if you have pisteuō, if you’ve got that, nothing’s impossible for you as long as the Lord agrees that He wants this done. You know you cannot make God do something He does not want to do. Or if He knows this may be good in your mind, but down the road this will create problems for you or others, what’s He going to do? You have to understand this. He can say no. It’s still faith can achieve everything, except if God in heaven decides no. We’ll get into this in a minute.

Now I want to get into faith just a little bit before we get into the catalyst idea further. Important, important, the most important sentence about faith in the Bible in Hebrews 11. “Now faith is . . .” something. It is something, it is “a substance” (v. 1). It’s a substance. It’s not think, feel, or will. It’s another substance. There’s many people I know that have the right thoughts, have good emotions, make good choices, and they don’t have hardly any faith. You must separate faith because sometimes the people who don’t know much about the Bible, but they really know and they love God, and they trust in the power of God, they have this massive faith, and they have this little background here. They’re not the same. “If you can believe all things are possible.” It’s up to you to believe.

Never again let yourself think, my faith is out of my control. I wish I could believe. No, no. Jesus says I command you, believe in God. To Thomas, stop being unbelieving, stop. Why? You can. And be believing. When? Right now. Why? Faith is under your control. For instance, I don’t want you to picture a green elephant. Don’t picture a big green elephant. You did, didn’t you? Is that faith? No. It’s different than your thoughts. It’s related to your heart. It’s related to your spirit, but I’m trying to make a point. You can believe, but how much are we using this catalyst?

So let me ask you the question, come on, get into it right now. When’s the last time you consciously, consciously used your faith in God to do something that was impossible without God’s intervention? I’ve asked many Christians this. The average Christian cannot think of an illustration. Why? Because the catalyst sits over here in a hidden place in their heart, and they don’t use it. And they wonder why their life is nothing what God says it’s supposed to be. It’s because they don’t use it, because they think they can’t. I wish I could believe more. You can. So this whole issue then, that it’s your option, and we leave the catalyst like the yeast in the shelf, close the closet door, and forget it, and then wonder why won’t our cakes rise. It’s the connector between us and God and what we are choosing or wanting to do. God in that passage did not say, “I want you to command the mountain to move.” We elected that. We said, “I want the mountain to move.” It’s up to us to decide where you want to use your faith. And nothing is impossible at that point. It’s “the substance of things hoped for, [it’s] the evidence of things not seen.” Now, the next three words are critical. “For by it . . .” By faith, for by using faith, “. . . the elders obtained a good testimony” (Hebrews 11:1–2). They didn’t get a good testimony without using faith. They used faith. Now what happens is we don’t really put this together. That faith is to use, to achieve things. It’s not of value if it’s not being used. In fact, it’s dead. It’s dead faith, meaning there’s no benefit coming from it.

Now let me show you the passage that teaches this. “For by it the elders obtained a good testimony” (v. 2) The point isn’t, did you have faith? The point is, what did you do with the faith? What did you do with the catalyst God gave you? What did you do with it? Not, did you have it? I have great faith, show me what results of your faith. It’s the result, let me prove it to you. “By faith Abel offered to God” (v. 4). “By faith Noah . . . prepared” (v. 7). They’re all person’s name, action. “By faith Abraham obeyed” (v. 8). “By faith Sarah herself . . . received strength” (v. 11). “Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac” (v. 17). “By faith Moses . . . forsook Egypt” (vv. 24, 27). The point is faith is a power that achieves things. But if you’re not trying to achieve something for God, that needs God’s intervention, you’ve got it in your closet.

All right, let’s move on and get this developed for you. James 2, “Faith without works is dead” (v. 20). It has no life in it. The point of faith is that it works. If you’re not putting it to work, you’re not going to use your faith. “Faith was working together with his works.” Faith was working together with his works? Yes, “and by works faith was made perfect” (v. 22). And there’s our famous word, that you may be perfect. Teleios, verb form [teleioō]. Faith was made perfect by using it to achieve something. “For as the body without the spirit is dead,” it’s dead, “so faith without works is dead also” (v. 26). It’s useless. Your faith doesn’t die, it’s just neglected and in a passive state.

No matter what you think, no matter what you feel, no matter what you do, you could have powerful faith when you’re frightened to death. Of course you can. You could have powerful faith when everything in your mind says this is never going to work, but I believe God wants to do this and I believe God is going to come through just like Jonathan did with the Philistines. And he went up and he conquered the entire little army at the top by himself, by himself with his armor bearer helping him at the end. Why? He had faith as a mustard seed and he used it in battle, in battle.

Did Christ exaggerate? Can you jump over your unbelief to believe? That’s exactly what Christ teaches. “The just [the redeemed] shall live by [means of] faith” (Romans 1:17). Here’s how we interpret that. I am saved by faith. No, you’re supposed to live by means of your faith because faith works. So what actually happens to most people, is they talk all about their faith, and it’s always in the past, it’s what did God do back there when I came to know Christ as my Savior, I believed in Him. What did you do with your faith from that point till today? People who changed the world for Christ use this catalyst all the time; in fact, they live that way. Galatians 2:20, well-known passage, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the son of God.” I live by faith in Him this way.

So the closing verse, “Jesus said to him, ‘If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes’” (Mark 9:23). Is that true? And since it is the gospel truth, do you want a life that is supernatural as the normal way you live? Do you want that?

Last night, last night I taught you session 6, and Darlene and I left the studio here and we went back to the hotel where we were staying. This is last night, this isn’t even twenty-four hours ago. And I went down to the courtyard at the hotel, it was all empty and there was some soft sofas, and I was sitting there relaxing, having a cup of coffee. And I thanked the Lord for the honor of teaching this truth to people who will watch this, and their lives will be changed forever in this Testing of Your Faith course, because it’s all God’s truth. And I was thanking Him, and I said to Him, If you would like me to do anything for you, I’m here, and I have some time. And I just sat there for a little bit. I used some of my faith. Did I know what that meant? No. Did I know if He would bring some need to me? No, but I exercised my faith. I wanted to thank Him any way that would be meaningful to Him. He’s my friend. God is my friend, and I’m His friend. And if you know Him, you can be His friend too.

So this young guy, maybe thirtyish, long hair, is coming along on a skateboard with a frozen pizza under his arm. And I thought he bought this to stay in the hotel and put it in the microwave and save some money. And he comes over and he doesn’t say anything. And I call out to him and I said, “How you doing?”

“I’m doing fine.”

“You want to sit down and rest for a minute?”

“Yeah, I do.” So he comes and sits down, and we have this conversation. He’s homeless. And later on in the conversation, when we got to become friends, at least initially, he said, “You know where I got the pizza?”

“No.”

“I hadn’t eaten for a long time, and I went into the Target store, grocery store nearby, and I stole the pizza.”

I said, “Okay, I understand.” We’re talking, he told that to me a second time. And then he told me about the fact that he was sleeping outside, and somebody came along and stole his backpack and his guitar. He was a musician.

And he said, “This has happened to me before.” He didn’t ask for a thing. We were just enjoying talking.

And I said, “You know, God loves you.”

“Uh huh.”

“A lot. And He cares for you. And I wonder if you had a chance to ask God for anything, what would you ask God for?” Man, what am I doing? Your turn. God’s turn, not my turn.

I handed off the baton to God and he said, “I would have $300, but I’m not talking to you about the money.”

He just asked me this question, I said, “I know. Why do you need the $300?”

“I need this to buy another guitar. That’s how I make a living and to not sleep in the forest.”

“Okay. I wonder if God’s going to give that to you.”

So we continue talking, and his hand is all deformed. He was born this way, and I said, “Are you in pain?”

“Yes.” And he took off his socks and he says, “They had to operate on my feet two times and broke all my toes twice. I was born this way. It hurts me to walk.”

And I said, “Okay.” I said, “I think that God would like you to have your money. And I don’t know how much money I have, but I carry my money in this pocket right here.” And I reached in, and I gave him everything I had, everything. And I said, “I don’t know how much money is here, but I think God would like you to have some money, here.”

“I can’t ever pay you back.”

“This isn’t my money, this is God’s money, and He’d like you to have it.” I said, “Why don’t you count it and see what God did for you?”

“You mean count it right now?”

“Yes.” So he pulls it all apart, because it was kind of in wrinkles and puts all the amounts in the right order and counts it. (And forgive this story, forgive this story.)

And he said, “It’s $285.”

“Oh.” He gets a little emotional.

And I said, “You know, God doesn’t do things partially.” And I’m praying like crazy, praying like crazy. And you know what, he reminded me, God is able to do exceedingly above. And I said to the Lord, You want me to go exceedingly above for you?

Mmhmm.

So I took out my wallet, Darlene knows all about this, this principle of ours, and in a hidden place in my wallet, and she does in her purse, I put a bunch of money, and I say to God, This is your money, you can do anything you want with it, just let me know. And I forget it because it’s up to Him to nudge me. And I took out the money and I said, “Sir, I don’t know how much money this is, but God really cares for you.” And I reached in, took out where I hide it, and I sat it on the table.

So he was sitting right there on the lounge chair. He said, “More money?”

I said, “Yes, but this isn’t my money. This is something I gave to the Lord a long time ago. And He kind of let me know He’d like you to have it now.” So I gave it to him, and he starts shaking his head. I said, “I want to know if we’re going to go over $300.” I didn’t know how much was in there because I hadn’t thought about it for a long time, hadn’t needed it. He takes the money. (Forgive the personal illustration. Just forgive it, just accept what happened.) And I said to him, “Let’s find out what God did.” And there were hundred dollars bills there. I didn’t know that. $100, $200, $300, $400, $500, $600. He got $800 and how much was it, $75, I think it was? [$885 total.]

He starts sobbing. “Oh God really does care for me. He’s . . . this has never happened to me.” He gets up and he comes over. He’s sobbing, he’s sobbing. And he hugs me and tears down my neck.

What was that? That was a miracle. A miracle isn’t when the laws of nature are changed. It’s when the person who receives it knows, that was a miracle for me.

I said, “How do you feel about God?”

“Oh, I’ve never felt that He loved me like this ever before. I had no place to go again.”

And I said, “Now, do you want to thank Him?”

“Yeah, what do I do?”

Just say,” Dear God, that was terrific, thank you.”

I can do that. “Dear God, thank you, that was terrific.”

“Yeah, you know, I wonder if God has a little task He would love you to do for Him. Would you be willing to do it for God?”

“Yeah, what does He want?”

“I think He’d probably love it if you went back over to that store and you go up to the cash register and say, ‘I think that this wasn’t paid for, and I’d like to pay for it.’”

“You mean go back to the store and give them the money?”

“Yeah,” I said, “What would God feel about you if you did that because He wants you to be, you know, now that you’ve got the money, can you go back and fix it?”

“Yeah, I’m going to do that.” And then he got his stuff together and we talked a little bit longer. He got back on his skateboard and headed down to the Target store around the corner in the parking lot.

What did it take from me? Belief. Thank you for last night. I’m here for you. Anything you send, the answer is yes. Let me do something for you. Guess what? God loves that. Because everywhere we go, there are people in need. There are, everywhere you go. Use your faith.

Let’s go on to the next point. Part 2, “The Five Applications of the Faith Catalyst.” Catalyst 1, this is a picture of heaven. How can you picture heaven? I’ve never been there yet. This is heaven in the clouds. Faith is the only catalyst that determines our what? Faith is the only catalyst that determines something. Here are the words of Jesus, very famous passage, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever . . .” Oh, there it is. Feels? No. Thinks? No. Chooses? No. This other thing, believes. “That whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” The only, the only catalyst that determines something. “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God” (John 3:16–18). “He who believes . . .”—active verb. You do the believing. “He who believes in the Son has . . .”—right now in the present, “everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him” (v. 36).

Can you begin to grasp the profound value God puts on my faith in Him? We have faith as this little thing. It’s massive. This entire course is the tests of our faith. And for God, of all the possible things He could require of a person to be forgiven and to get eternal life, He has only one catalyst. You add this and it changes everything. Forgiveness, salvation, being born again, getting the Holy Spirit living inside of you, all your sins forgiven, being transferred from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light, being adopted into His family. All because of one little action called—I believe that Christ died for me and paid for my sins, and I can’t do it myself. Do you therefore understand the incredible importance? Faith is the only catalyst that determines our eternity.

Next verse, “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me has everlasting life” (John 6:47). Ephesians 2, “For by grace you have been saved through [means of] faith” (v. 8). John 1, “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (vv. 12–13). It’s belief. The one thing God wants, to give you eternal life with Him, to forgive your sins, is believe that Christ died and paid for them. And then He gives you a gift of eternal life.

So does a person have the ability at any time to believe in Christ as the only way for salvation? Look at this next verse in Acts 16. “He brought them out and said, [to them, to the disciples], ‘Sirs, what must I do to be saved?’ So they said, ‘Believe . . .’” Now look at this word, believe, there’s your, pisteuō, “believe, I command you,” imperative. I command you right now, “‘believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved [when you believe], you and your household’” (vv. 30–31). Do you realize what that’s revealing? You commanded another person to believe? Yes, why? Because they can believe. If you are able to believe, and by the way, you are able to believe anytime you want to.

So the question I’m going to ask to you right now, maybe you’ve never really been sure that when you die, you’re going to go to heaven and be with God forever. And you’re worried about your sins and how God feels about what you’ve done to other people, to yourself. And you’re wondering, How can I fix it? You answer, You can’t fix it. He fixed it. He sent His Son to die and pay the penalty for your sins, by dying for them, paid. And then He offers you a gift and says, Will you believe that My gift is available to you, and it will be given to you the moment you believe in Me and only believe in Me and believe in Me with your whole heart, and you’ll be saved, I’ll save you right then. If you’ve not believed, can I quote the Bible to you? “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,” right now, put your faith in Him, and God will save you.

Catalyst 2, Titus 3, “But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us,” through our faith in Him. “Through the washing . . .” Now these are some big words, but it’s important to understand them. “Through the washing of regeneration . . .” When He saved us, there was washing of regeneration. That’s a big Greek word from this Greek word palin, which means “again,” and the word genesis, like the book of Genesis, palingenesia, which means, “again birth” or the “new birth.” Who did that? It’s interesting. “. . . and renewing of the Holy Spirit . . .” (vv. 4–5). The Holy Spirit made me born again? Yes. Did God the Father? No. Did God the Son, Jesus, do this? No. He did it in the person of the Holy Spirit. Wow. And He “poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior” (v. 6). Faith is the empowering catalyst for what? For our spirituality, with the dove coming down with Christ.

Let me see if I can’t show this to you a little bit more deeply. Okay, what are we talking about? Catalyst, something little you add that makes a big change. There’s five of them. We spent some extra time in the first part. When you add faith, you get eternity. Second part is your faith in the person and the work of the Holy Spirit. When you believe the Holy Spirit is dispatched from the Father and the Son and is placed inside of you—you have a roommate named the Holy Spirit—and He regenerates you. And He is kind of the person of the Trinity who’s responsible for your life on the earth. He’s the operating officer for you. “Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ,” if you don’t have the Spirit, “[you’re] not His” (Romans 8:9). Why? Because the Holy Spirit comes to everybody when you’re becoming a believer. The Holy Spirit, now watch this, “bears witness with our spirit . . .” (v. 16). Does the Bible teach that the Holy Spirit communicates to a believer? “The Spirit Himself bears witness . . .” present, ongoing, present active. He’s the one who’s bearing witness to us with another to testify or communicate together. The Holy Spirit communicates to us with our spirit that “we are children of God” (v. 16).

But if you don’t believe that He does or He will, and you don’t put that catalyst of believing what the Bible says about the person of the Spirit inside of you communicating with you, that’s what happened to me last night for Pete’s sake, right? That’s what happened. Did He make it clear? Give him the rest in your wallet? Yes. What is that? Communicating. Why? I know that He communicates. I believe that He communicates. I wasn’t trying to believe. Why? I’ve been using this catalyst for many, many years, had saw so many interventions by God that I know nothing is impossible with God if you believe.

Look at this, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ,” the grace of Christ, “and the love of God [the Father, and,] and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all” (2 Corinthians 13:14). What does it mean, the communion of the Holy Spirit? That’s the same Greek word koinōnia. When the people in the early chapters of the book of Acts became believers, it changed their life and they began to have fellowship in their houses and they would eat together, and they’d talk, and they’d study the Bible, and they’d worship, and they’d pray, and they’d sing, and they’d . . . that’s called koinonia, fellowship.

Guess what this verse is saying, black and white? “And the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” Are you to have communion with Him? Not if you don’t believe it’s possible, you won’t. Or you think it’s weird, it’s not weird. It’s fellowship with another person. Can you have fellowship with God the Father? Yes. Can you have fellowship with Christ? Yes. But the majority of it is fellowship with the Spirit. Can you have fellowship with the Godhead? Yes. That’s why Jesus says, “If you want to pray, pray, ‘Our Father.’” Whoa, you’re not praying to Jesus, you’re praying to the Father. The communion of the Spirit.

Look at the next verse, “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons [or children] of God” (Romans 8:14). Led by the Spirit, what do you mean? It’s present passive. Passive means this: I’m not doing the verb of leading myself, He is leading me. If you’re born again, the Holy Spirit is leading you unless you stop Him by not following His lead. Did that happen last night? Of course it did. Did He lead me? Yes. Was He clear? Yes. If you are a child of God, He leads you. The only thing that’s going to happen is if you get in the habit of not following His lead; not following His lead, you quench Him, and He kind of backs away a little bit. You don’t want Me to . . . okay, gotcha, all right. Really? I’m as close as you can get. I live with you every second of every day. We can have exhilarating fellowship. Do I ever laugh with the Spirit? Yes. He’s got a great sense of humor. Does He ever convict me? Yes.

What happened in this series? This took a long time of hard work to boil all this down. This didn’t come from the books or courses, it came from immersing myself in this book we call the Bible. And the second half of that, it came from this passage right here. First Corinthians 2, “Even so no one [no one, no one] knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.” “No one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.” That’s what the text says. That’s the fact. “Now we have received . . .” except the Spirit of God, whoa. But, “Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God.” Whoa, what does that mean then? We can get that truth from the Spirit. Why did we get the Spirit? That, here’s the purpose, you are given the Spirit, “that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.” The truth. You mean the Holy Spirit was given to me so that I may know the truth about God that I couldn’t possibly know without Him? That’s right. “These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches” (1 Corinthians 2:11–13). Does the Holy Spirit teach? Yes. Man, does He ever.

What’s it like to have the Holy Spirit teach? You’re reading in the Bible and you say to Him, Lord, help me understand this. Yeah. Does He always come through at the very moment? No, He may not, but He’s the teacher. And when He’s teaching you, you know you’re being taught, “. . . comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural [person],” the un-born again person, look at these words, the unsaved person “does not receive the things of the Spirit of God.” Why don’t they? Because “they are foolishness to him,” and the next part of this verse is black and white, “nor can [the natural unconverted person], can he know them,” he can’t know them. What do you mean he can’t know the things of God, why not? “Because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Corinthians 2:13–14). What does that mean? It comes from these two words [pneumatikōs anakrinetai], and it means by the illuminating work of the Spirit are they understood. The non-Christian cannot know really. They can know the facts, but not the life of it. Why not? Because the Spirit is the only one who knows the things of God, not me, but the Spirit dwelling inside of me. And you can only know the things of God when the Spirit of God teaches you and gives them to you. It’s supernatural. It’s supernatural.

I remember I was working on session 3, about complaining, remember that, the situation, the source, and the sovereign, and about complaining as a lead domino? So I was praying to the Spirit at that particular time saying, Lord, confirm all this. I know it’s biblically true, but confirm it. That afternoon, the same afternoon I wrote it in my journal. I called a friend I’ve been helping for a while on the phone out of the blue. And he says, “Bruce, I prayed this morning that you would call me today and that you would give me some help.”

“Okay, what are you wrestling with?”

He said, Bruce, “I’m a closet complainer.” He doesn’t know I’m studying this. He doesn’t know about this course. What did the Spirit of God make him do? Tell me his problem.

I said to him, “Would you like the answer about this?”

And you know, I taught it through him, and he says, “Oh, this is exactly what I needed.” He flew Monday of this week, weeks later, over to Europe. And we talked before he flew out. He said, Bruce, “I am no longer a closet complainer. Man, I am not pushing that lead domino, it has changed my life, thank you.”

What is all this? It’s the fellowship of the Spirit of God and a person just like you. I am no different than you. We’re all the same. And we have the same Spirit who longs for a relationship with you. And if you don’t use the catalyst of your faith to believe what’s true, you are to have the communion with the Spirit and He is to teach you and He leads you. And if you don’t believe it’s true, you’ve ripped out the catalyst, and your cake is going to fall.

What does the Spirit do inside of you? “The fruit of the Spirit,” not the fruit of my self-discipline, “is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.” “If we live in the Spirit . . .” and we do live in the Spirit—if you’re born again, the Spirit’s inside of you—he then says, “let us also walk in the Spirit” (Galatians 5:22–23, 25). That’s not the same. One is, I’m in the Spirit because I’m born again. If you don’t have the Spirit, you’re not His. But the point of it is, I have to choose to walk in the Spirit.

Acts 1:8, “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.” You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit shows up “and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem . . . Judea and Samaria . . .” in the outermost parts. Where does power come from? The New Testament says Jesus did His miracles by the power of the Spirit. You want to live a supernatural, spiritual life? It’s a supernatural, Spirit-ual life. It’s your relationship with God the Spirit.

I think it’s important at this moment just to take a break and let me make a couple important comments to you. Three comments. Comment number one, why am I taking such a long time to teach these sessions? Why didn’t I just summarize and tell you the big ideas and move on? Do you know why? Because we don’t exist, according to the Scriptures, the preachers, the teachers, evangelists, just to tell you information, but to equip you and to edify in your life so that you are different. And difference, change, is not easy for any of us. It takes a new way to think, to be transformed in your mind. By the renewing of your mind, you’re transformed. And it takes a longer period of time to deal with the truth sufficiently so that you see right from the Bible, word for word, it does say communion with the Holy Spirit. Whoa. It does say he does bear witness in the present active tense, not once, not the aorist tense, but it’s ongoing. He bears witness with us. So you’ve got to spend time investing in it, and you may not be ready for all this. This is the advanced master level. I appreciate you hanging with the process all the way to this point. But in session 8, you’ll know why I’m giving you the master level.

Second point, which denomination is Teach Every Nation? No, we’re not a denomination. We don’t teach church theology. It’s okay in your home church for that to take place. But we have a rigid, unbreakable pattern or value. That value is just teach exactly what the text says. Don’t add to it. Don’t take it away. Don’t bring your own opinion into it. Just read what it says and teach what it says. So don’t try to put the ministry into any kind of box. We’re not in a box. We’re in this Bible together. And you know, I hope, I hope, this is my lifelong goal in all this, that at no time will you say to yourself as I’m teaching through this or the other teachers are teaching at Teach Every Nation, Well, where’d they get that, that didn’t come from this verse. Man, let us know if that’s true. We’ll edit it out if we did that. The point is my opinion is no better than anybody else’s opinion. The Bible, however, is Truth, capital T, universal truth. And that’s what sets us free.

Third and last comment, before we go on to catalyst 3, actually there’s one catalyst, belief, used in five different places. Isn’t it something, when you think about this, that the only thing that God asked of us for eternity is to believe and to believe in the work of the Holy Spirit in your life enough, watch this, enough to make your faith alive and work in partnership with the Spirit? I’ve mentored many men through the years, many. And one of the major breakthroughs I try to bring men who want to grow into is they’ll say something like this, “Wow, you mean the Holy Spirit wants to partner with me in ministry?” Yes. That’s a major breakthrough moment. He loves partnership. He loves it.

Building a relationship with another person doesn’t happen all at once, does it? You get to know the other person. You get to see them acting in different ways and what interests them and what doesn’t, and your relationship with another person called the Holy Spirit takes time. Don’t have unrealistic expectations. If this hasn’t been something you’ve used your faith, now I believe that this is mine, it can be mine, but I’ve had unbelief or whatever, or you’ve gone beyond what the Bible teaches about the Spirit. Don’t do that either. You can’t make the Spirit do anything, but you can eventually know His ways in your life and walk on that path with Him.

So give yourself some time. I’ve been with the Spirit a long time. He’s been in me since I was a kid. But I didn’t really put my faith in what the Bible says and how the Holy Spirit worked with the early church, not just the apostles, but all the early church and what they did. And as I began to build that friendship and relationship and eventually submission and honoring and partnering and asking Him sometimes, Give me a challenging task for you that gives you an opportunity to show off your power to another person. It’s terrific. So give yourself some time. Don’t try something and then if it doesn’t happen, okay, maybe the Spirit’s saying, Do you really want this partnership with me? And don’t make it crazy. It’s another person. He feels, He thinks, He acts, He wishes, He desires, He plans, He gets quiet, He communicates, He surprises you. Leave room, you’re in this for the long term. The point isn’t if this works for you this week or next week, the point is in five years what will you be like because of the Spirit’s presence in your life?

If you heard my prayers since early this morning, the conversation with me to the Spirit, Fill me today, teach in a way that is just so winsome for people that they don’t put up walls around their heart or their mind, but they let what the text says hit them directly. And that they would come along and that You would teach through me. And You have freedom to change anything You want me to teach today, the answer is yes, You are the teacher, I’m the lips, that’s all. It’s Your truth, not my truth. Was I planning on sharing what happened last night with you? Of course not. That’s very personal and I don’t want to offend anybody. But did He make it clear, tell them the story? Yeah. And as I started telling it, I realized that’s why that happened to me at that night so that I could share it with you when I talk about the Spirit the next morning.

So relax, don’t get uptight. Don’t push the Spirit. Don’t become impatient with Him. Don’t become angry with Him. Build a friendship with Him and give it time, it’s worth it. But you’ve got to put your catalyst of faith. The Spirit wants a relationship with me, not with Dr. Wilkinson. Not with Dr. Bruce, not with Bruce, the Spirit wants relationship with me. See, the Spirit’s inside of me, and He wants my relationship, but the same Spirit, because He’s everywhere, He is inside of you as a person, and He wants the relationship with you. He does, you don’t have to convince Him. He loves you. He likes you. And He is there for you. His power is inside of you. His teaching is inside of you. He leads you. He’s inside of you. Stop putting Him in a box.

And if people teach things about the Spirit that you can’t find in the Bible . . . I saw some people doing things that just, whoa, and they claimed it was the Spirit. And I said, whoa. They sat down and I came behind them and sat down and I said, “How’d you feel about what just happened?”

“Oh great.”

I said, “Can I ask you a question?”

“Yeah.”

“Would Jesus do what you just did?”

“No.”

“Would the apostle Paul do what you just did?”

“No, I don’t think so.”

“Did any of the disciples or apostles ever say to do something like this?”

“I never thought about that. Did they?”

“No.”

“Then are you sure this is something you want to do?”

What do I always do? Go back to the text. What does the verse say? Can the Spirit lead you to do something unusual from time to time? Yeah, but this wasn’t unusual. This was a lot unusual. Go back to the text. If it’s in the Bible, and if you could see Jesus doing it, the apostles doing it, you’re in safe territory. If not, be careful.

All right, let’s go on to the third way you can use catalysts in your life. Point 3, let me read the text for you here. You know this, but perhaps you missed a big idea. “For by grace you have been saved,” there it is again, “through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works . . .” Not of works, it’s what you believe, not what you do, that’s how you’re saved. “Lest anyone should boast.” Then here is the next major point, “For we are His workmanship . . .” What does that mean? He is involved in shaping us and reshaping us. We are His workmanship. It’s His fingers all over us. “Created in Christ Jesus . . .” Okay, what am I created in Christ Jesus, right, by being born again . . . what am I created in Christ Jesus for? Why? “. . . for good works . . .” (Ephesians 2:8–10). What? Yeah, I’ve been born again, put this together, I’ve been born again for the purpose of doing good works. Work means you do something that God evaluates as good. Heaven says, All right, that’s good, good works. You mean I’ve been saved to work? Yes. You’re not saved to know. You’re not saved to feel. You’re not saved to choose. You’re saved to work, to achieve things. Faith without works is dead. You put it to sleep, you put it out.

Now, what about these works? “Which God [Himself] prepared beforehand.” What do you mean He prepared the good works beforehand? He arranged for you to go do those good works, “which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10). So God, oh man, created beforehand. He prepared them beforehand, before what? Before you were created. He has this universal eternal plan and in this part of the plan, when you and I are alive right now, He needs certain things done. Like He needed that action from me last night for that man’s life and well-being and to demonstrate that God loved him no matter how much self-hatred he had at the moment. And God burst that man’s heart. He did, it just exploded. He could not contain himself. And coming over, he’s sobbing on my shoulder, embracing me, and I’m embracing him and I’m teary eyed. What did God do? He did it.

Guess what? That was one of those works that God prepared. Not for you, not for you. For me. And there’s all kinds of other, I’m doing another work right now for Him that He prepared, meaning I don’t have to invent a purpose of my life. He created me so I could do the good works He prepared before I was created. Just think of that. That’s purpose. You mean, God preordained me to do this work? Yep. And this work? Yep. And this work? Yes. And with this person? Yes. And with this? Yes, my goodness. I’ve been created in Christ Jesus for the purpose of doing those works. Obviously I’m going to heaven, obviously that’s eternity with God, obviously worship, obviously giving God glory and all those other things. But stick with the text, you’ve been created in Christ Jesus to do good works that God Himself, God Himself prepared before you were here so that you should walk in them.

What do we call that? What do we call that? We call that our destiny. Catalyst 3, faith is the unlocking . . . you have to believe this. Most people don’t. Most people don’t have any faith about this. When I was a younger man, I used to speak at a major Christian university every year for a week. And I would give myself away from early morning usually it’s till 10 or 11 at night, helping students for a solid week. I’d leave, I’d go home exhausted. I did it at Multnomah. I did it at Moody. I did it at Wheaton. I did it at Biola. I did it at all these colleges. And then I got to the point in which the Lord made it clear, that season is finished now, you have a different focus.

But the last place I went, I was becoming perturbed or maybe not, wrong word perturbed, I was becoming concerned that the young people in the colleges, the Christian colleges, the cream of the crop from the Christian point of view, had lost sight of this idea, and I wanted to test it. So I began talking to the kids at lunch, at supper, and personal counseling with them. “Hi, what’s your major, what are you majoring in?” And they’d name the major. “Why did you choose it?”

“That’s where the money is.”

“Why’d you choose it?”

“That’s where the jobs are.”

I talked to over twenty students, hoping that someone along the line would say, “Because the Lord is leading me to do that to serve Him.” It was absent. They didn’t have this in their mind. I’ve been saved to do certain good works that God wants me to do. I’m not even thinking about this. That’s where the money is. As if God doesn’t supply that if you serve Him.

That’s so freeing. What’s freeing? That God picked out works that He wants. It’s almost like God came down and took out His pen and said, Let me write your name on this good work and this good work and this good work. That’s how it works, it’s called destiny. You invent your destiny. You uncover the good works as you pursue them and you seek for them. What do You want me to do today? How freeing is that?

Now look at these passages. Since that’s true, right, that God foreordains you to do certain good works, is it easy to finish them all? Does He just do one, two, or three good works or does He do a lot of them that He wants you to do? And how focused do I need to be on finding out what the works that He wants me to do and getting them done? Not being anxious about them, He leads you. If you want to do what God wants you to do, just tell Him, I did it this morning. When I was putting on the breast plate of righteousness, I said to Christ, I bow before you, I am your servant, I am your son, and I am here to do whatever you want me to do. Lead me today. Boom! What am I saying? Whatever good works you have in mind for me today, I want to do them, whatever it is, with whomever it is.

But this point, though, is how hard is it to finish all the good works? Is it a slow walk? Is it easy to do them all? How intensely do I need to go after them? Let’s answer that from the Bible’s point of view. Hebrews 12:1, “Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us,” uh huh, “let us lay aside every weight,” every hindrance and let us lay aside “the sin which so easily ensnares us.” Okay, I’m getting rid of this and I’m getting rid of this and what do you want me to do? “And let us run,” oh boy, “run with endurance the race that is set before us” (Hebrews 12:1). It’s a race? Yes. It’s the most significant thing that you’ve got to do is run the race of doing the works that God Himself hand-tailored with your name on it, it’s embroidered on every single one of the works He wants you to do. Nobody else has that good work to do, but you do. And you have to run, let us run the race. That’s intense. That’s determination. That’s staying at it.

And here’s how the apostle Paul thought about this. “Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on,” you press on in your race, Paul, right. Why? So helpful, “that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me” (Philippians 3:12). What? I press on, I press on, I press on, I stay at it. Why? “That I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus [has also] laid hold of me.” What does that mean? Christ laid hold of the apostle Paul, who used to be Saul, the hater of Christians. Christ laid hold of him, whoa, to do a job for God, which were the good works God wanted Paul to do for Him.

What is Paul saying? Brethren, “I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but [for this] one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13–14).

Does the Holy Spirit lead us to these good works? Yes. “As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit,” what’s the next word? Said. “The Holy Spirit said . . .”? Yes, of course He said. He said, look at these words, the Holy Spirit said this sentence? Yes, He does communicate in full sentences. “‘Now separate,’” watch this, “‘to Me Barnabas and Saul.’” Why? “‘For the work to which I have called them [to do]’” (Acts 13:2). You mean the Spirit of God calls us to do these works? Yes. “‘Separate to Me Barnabas and Saul.’” Did those two men know at that moment that they were going to go do what He told them to do in Acts 13, they were going to leave and go on a missionary journey? They didn’t know that. Why? God wanted to surprise them. And He made it so clear, separate them to the work I have called them to do.

The Spirit will call you, what did I say to Him yesterday? I’ve got some free time, if You want me to do something for You to help somebody, let me know, I’m here. What is that? That’s me giving a volunteer. I teach that in the TEN [Teach Every Nation] course You Were Born for This! of how to do this, how to live this way. So there’s destiny out there and I am called to achieve this.

This is a passage which is a classic illustration that God has the good works prepared for you before you were created. Get this in your mind. We think, Now that I’m here, I’m responsible to figure out everything I’m supposed to do because I have to invent my destiny. Oh God says, No, you are created in Christ Jesus to do the works that I prepared for you to do before you were born. Let me prove that. “Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying: ‘Before,’” God speaking, the word of the Lord said, “‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you. Before you were born I set you apart [sanctified you].’” And I, not you, not you, “‘I ordained you.’” I prepared ahead of time. “‘I ordained you a prophet to the nations.’” What was the reaction to this destiny? No faith, no catalyst of faith in Jeremiah’s life. “Then I said, ‘Ah, Lord God! Behold, I cannot speak, for I am a youth’” (Jeremiah 1:4–6). You made a mistake, God, you made a mistake. Where’s the faith? There’s no faith. If God calls you, He’ll empower you, wait, He’ll empower you. There’s no room for running away.

How challenging is this? “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith” (2 Timothy 4:7). This is the book he wrote right before he was killed. He ran the race. So this destiny for you, you have a divine destiny. Do you believe that, that you’re no different than any of us? God preordained works for you to do, created you to do it, and then sent you onto the earth. You became a believer. He put His Spirit inside of you to empower you, lead you, guide you, teach you, help you, comfort you, so you could get after it and run the race and finish it. My goodness.

Are there surprises along the way? Oh man. This is the life that you don’t have the word boring in it. Why? God’s not boring. And He loves to surprise you and sometimes overwhelm you and challenge you. Can I share with you one of these from me? Why do I tell these personal stories? So you could realize what it perhaps looks like.

After we moved back from Africa to the United States, I got a call from a friend one night who wanted me to speak at a fundraising banquet to raise funds for what’s called a crisis pregnancy center. It’s a center that exists, it’s a ministry that exists to help women who are pregnant who are thinking about aborting their baby to change their mind and keep their baby and raise it. And I said to him, “I don’t speak at banquets. And I never have, I’m not a banquet speaker.”

And he said, “No, you need to do this for us, I think God wants you to.”

I said, “No, I don’t think so.”

And he says, “Aren’t you my friend?”

And I said, “Are you playing that card?”

“Yes.”

“All right, we are friends, I’ll do this.”

So I went to this place with not a particularly good attitude, and God showed up. He did, He shocked everybody, me the most. And the people gave a massive amount of money. And I went home and said to Darlene, I don’t want to do that again. A couple weeks go by and somebody else called who said, “My friend who had the banquet told me what happened, you need to come to our banquet,” and I told him, “No.” And he went through this whole thing and I kind of felt pushed into it and went and God showed up again. And I was complaining, complaining. This is years ago. To Darlene, I don’t want to do this. And I got a call from a third center, this one just north of where we lived in a city called Greenville, South Carolina, great big center. And Darlene said to me, “I’ve never seen you so double-minded about this. Why do you keep doing these?”

“I don’t know, I feel like I’m pushed to do them, and I don’t want to do them.”

So we’re driving, I asked her to come with me, we’re driving on way up there, and this doesn’t fit my idea of who I am or the gifts God’s given to me. It’s way over here. And on the way up there, she grabs my arm in the car and she says, “Sweetheart, I have an idea. How about if I pray and ask God, ‘If, God, you want my husband to do these for you, would you do something so amazing tonight that he’ll never doubt it? And if you don’t do something amazing that he will be free to say no to everybody.’”

I said to her, “I love that prayer, go ahead, let’s do that.”

So she prayed that and I’m in the middle of this big convention center, high stage, 580-some people out there around tables. And I’m speaking behind a whole speaker’s area and after about two minutes, right in the middle of my head, this was highly unusual for me, in a loud voice God said, “There’s somebody here that’s supposed to give a million dollars tonight, please ask them for it.” And I thought to myself, That must be Satan. There’s no way at a banquet where people give you a gift of $25, $50, $100, maybe $1,000, there’s nobody going to give a million dollars at a banquet. I said, “No.”

And I continued to speak, and the voice came again and said this, “If you don’t ask them, they’ll never give it.” And this time I knew this was the Lord, highly unusual. And I got my courage up and the podium was right here, but I was filled with fear and frustration. And I walked over to the edge, and I walked right to the edge of this platform, and I simply said, “If you came tonight and God was inclining your heart to give a million dollars, please give it tonight.” And everybody stopped breathing, I mean, that’s a shocking thing to say.

And I went back and I finished my speech and we then collected the people’s pledge forms and their gifts. And I, while they were doing that, I went all the way back there and kind of stood between the folds of the black curtain and said to God, I don’t want to ever do this again. I don’t want to ever do this again. And then the executive director came up with a piece of paper, which had the total amount pledged was 560 and I think it was 3,000 dollars [$563,000], which is a massive amount of money. And then she got quiet, looks at me and says, “And somebody gave a check for a million dollars.”

I was so upset. We’re driving home. I’m in turmoil, I’m not saying anything. And Darlene said, “How do you feel about tonight?”

“I don’t know how I feel about tonight.”

And she said, “Do you remember what I prayed on the way up here?” I had forgotten about our prayer.

“What?”

“I prayed that if God wanted you to do this, that He would do something so amazing you would not be uncertain again.” Then she grabbed my arm, I have such a special wife, and she says to me,” “Sweetheart, is a million dollars big enough?” And at that moment, at that moment, I broke through.

What am I talking about? Destiny. Did I know this was part of my destiny? No. Did I, at that point, want to do that? No. So I got together with some of my friends, Jill and Troy and Steven and Gordon and myself, and I said, “Would you come help me for an overnight?” We went to the Hilton Garden Inn Hotel near us, and I told them about this story, and I said, “I have no idea how much God wants us to raise or what to do or anything, let’s talk and pray about it.”

So we’re talking and praying and dreaming, and I believe you should have a goal of what you think God wants you to do. And I said to them, “I don’t know how much God wants us to raise before it’s all said and done, do any of you?” Because God can speak to any, through any of us. We don’t . . . a big road to heaven, we’re all the same.

“No.”

“So tell you what, why don’t you go to this corner, Jill and Troy and Gordon and Steven, and I’ll sit at the table. I want you to pray quietly and ask God how much He wants us to raise for Him, and then come back.”

And Jill says, “You want to ask God for a number?”

“Yes.”

So they did that. Then they came back and I had a flip chart right there and I put down their names and I said, “Okay, Jill, what’s the number?”

She says, “I don’t want to tell you. I don’t want to tell you the number.”

“Why?”

“It’s a crazy number.”

I said, “Is it your number?”

“No, it’s not my number.”

“It’s not a crazy number then, what’s the number?”

“Oh, it’s a hundred million dollars. That’s impossible.”

I said, “Sure is.”

I wrote a hundred million. Then I went to Troy. He showed me the paper, a hundred million. Steven, pastor, a hundred million. Gordon, a hundred million. Showed him my pad, a hundred million. What’s God doing? He’s saying, I’m making it clear. This feels impossible, but it isn’t. With God, all things are possible. Don’t ever say it’s impossible. With God, Christ says, all things are possible.

Before we left that weekend, we embraced that vision. And in the next few years, along with some other people I trained and some other things we did, and other ways, we changed their ministry around the country, more than a hundred million dollars came in. And then it ended. It’s that period of time, boom. Was I supposed to run that race? Yes. Did I want to? No. Did I expect it? No. Did it make sense to me? No. Was God in it? Yes. That’s the adventure of life, isn’t it? It’s when God breaks through and shows you before you were born, I needed somebody to do this, and I prepared you and I created you in such a way that you’ll be able to do this with my help.

You and I are the same. Where’s your faith in this, and how much do you want to do for God, and with God, that requires God to come through and do it for you?

All right, let’s move on to the next one. Number 4. Look at this passage in Isaiah 43, “Everyone who is called by My name,” a believer in this case, “whom I have created for My glory.” He created me for His glory. “I have formed him [or her], yes, I have made him” (v. 7). Wow. He made me for His glory.

What’s glory? If you watch the Olympics, when somebody does an amazing race, or jumps a high jump, or whatever, a pole vault or whatever is going on, and they beat the record, everybody screams and applauds. And when they get their gold medal, we are giving them glory. What is glory in this context? It is when we give someone else credit for a significant work that they did. When we give God glory, we’re giving Him praise, worship, adoration, applause for something that He did. God created us to get Him glory, to give Him glory.

Now look how Christ describes this in John 17, talking to the Father, Christ says this, “I have glorified You on the earth.” How? “I have finished the work which You have given Me to do” (v. 4). If ever you wanted a passage which nails this down, you give God glory by finishing the work which God gave to you to do. How do you give God glory? By the work you do. You’ve been created in Christ Jesus for the work, that’s your destiny. But the work is to give God glory. Therefore, catalyst 4 is, “Faith is the redirecting catalyst for giving God glory.”

How many times did you generate glory for God, consciously, I mean on purpose? What did I do last night with that young man? Man, was he ever thanking God. He didn’t thank me for the money. I wouldn’t let him think that way. Why? I didn’t want the credit. I exist for the glory of God. Therefore promote, consciously promote the glory of God to other people and generate it yourself where you glorify God. You’ve got to add this belief: I’ve been made to glorify God. And I’m made to glorify God to other people I influence, and they glorify God.

Look at this picture. Here’s a person with their flashlight putting the attention on Christ or on God. Matthew 5 is practiced by the secular business world and not practiced by the church. The secular world has taken this idea to their great advantage, and the church hardly ever practices it. Christ is talking in the famous Sermon on the Mount, He says this sentence, “You are,” not “you should be,” “you are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house.” Now here’s where He applies that right here. Since that’s true, “Let your light so shine . . .” Whoa, that’s an imperative. I command you to make sure your life so shines “before men,” before men, “that they may see your good works,” yep, “and glorify your Father,” ah, there it is. “And glorify your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:14–16). Why? Because of the work that you did.

Wait, wait, wait. I’m supposed to do, I’m supposed to . . . that they may see my good works and your good works and glorify your Father in heaven? Right. I thought I’m supposed to not bring attention to what I give of my left hand or my right hand. Yeah, but that’s your motive. It’s your motive. This is a major breakthrough. I’ve been created in Christ Jesus for good works, and those works are meant to bring glory to God actively. I am to formulate it in other people and then send it up to Him. That’s what happened with that young man, when he got all the extra money, he could not contain himself: “Oh God!”

I was spending hours and hours with our son one time. And we were having his great conversation together. And we were asking the Lord some questions about this question here. And He said, “We have something in heaven called glory balls,” glory balls. And then He reminded us of a catapult, where you build this great big old war machine before there were cannons, and they had this great big wooden thing, maybe you saw it in one of the movies in Lord of the Rings. That they got something on fire, they put it in here and the fire went, and the Spirit was letting us know, That’s what you’re supposed to do. You’re supposed to prepare other people besides yourself so that when God’s going to get glory from them, that the most glory that God can get comes from the work you did and the people’s heart and mouth.

And the point was, how many glory balls are you sending up to the heavens? How many of them are big that you’re sending up to heaven? How many of them are you sending? And do you ever spend a bunch of time with a group of people, right, so that when it’s time to glorify God, right, it spreads, bursts up like that, it’s a massive explosion of glory to God. I created you for glory to Me, send it up to Me.

How does this work? Well that would be a whole other course. But there’s different ways you do this. You can do this yourself, you just perceive glory. Something God did this morning, as the sun came up, the sky was bright red. It wasn’t orange, it was red. It was absolutely stunning. What did I do? I said to God, You’re showing off. That is terrific. Look at the colors, that’s beautiful, thank you. What am I doing? I’m giving Him credit for a work He did. You’ve got to perceive it, you’ve got to see it. Then you’ve got to praise Him, that’s giving Him glory. You know, most people don’t do this. They do it in church if somebody moves them with a song, but they don’t live this way: You’re created for My glory. How much glory am I getting for all the works that I’ve done? My goodness. And then the next level, first you perceive it, then you praise Him, then you proclaim it to somebody else what God did and help them say it.

The fourth thing about the glory of God is you protect God’s reputation. You don’t let somebody else damage His glory. What did I do in session 6, “The Triggers of Unbelief”? I protected His name with fourteen separate areas that most people criticize God over because they don’t understand. And I protected His name and protected His name, and protected His motive, protected His love, protected His methods, remind people that you don’t know the whole story.

I spent the whole session protecting the glory of God with you, but the highest level is the fifth level where you promote, on purpose, the glory of God. You are God’s promoter on earth. Christ’s comment, I command you, let your good works be seen so that they will give God glory for what you did. So what do people do? How does the secular market do this? They don’t give God glory, they want glory.

I saw it on TV not too long ago, some big company was giving $10,000 to an emergency that happened in a huge storm. They made a great big picture of their check and the people were applauding, $10,000. The church, that we were going to, at the time, this Sunday that this happened, our church gave them $350,000, and a bunch of our congregation went down to help. But did they do it in any way that God got glory for what the people did? No. No, do you realize most people don’t think that Christians do much when they do more than everybody else put together if you knew the truth. But you got to think about this, what good work would make another person say something like this, “Thank God for you guys.” That’s what it sounds like, “Thank God for you guys.”

Darlene and I used to lead a Sunday school class years ago and once a quarter we took a Saturday and all of the Sunday school class got together and we went to the poor part of town and we found the wheels ahead of time and we would mow their lawn, we fixed the people’s roof in one case, we painted a house. What did those people say to us? “Thank God for that church, nobody else cares. Thank the Lord for you guys.” Even non-Christians, they say that, “Thank the Lord for this.” Because they know you’re getting nothing out of it. You’re getting nothing out of it. It’s just a bunch of hard work and it was hard work.

So what are you doing that’s getting a “thank the Lord” from somebody else? You got a command from Christ. Do this, do this. Let people see it in front of others. And it says it in the Greek, in front of others, so they see it, that they give God glory. What good works do that?

“Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do,” whatever you do, “do” here is the imperative, I command you to “do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31). Get Him glory, give it to Him yourself or generate it through other people. Revelation 4, “You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power.” Why? Because of all the work you did, “for You created all things, and by your will they exist and were created” (Revelation 4:11). You did everything I love in nature, You made it. Our house is on a lake, I love sitting on our back porch, looking at our lake. Guess who made the idea of lake, and fish, and bass, and brim, and catfish? And yes, thank Him for that. Give Him some credit for that.

So as I finish up this fourth point, my question to you is, where are you on those five levels? Have you ever protected the glory of God? Have you ever consciously promoted the glory of God? You ever consciously sent up glory balls that God received because of what you did and how you did it? Do you live for the glory balls? I’ve created you for my glory. Bring me some.

And last, and “you,” talking to Christians, “you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood” (1 Peter 2:9). You’re royal. You’re kingly, you’re royal. I am royal? Yes, because you’re a child of God, who is the highest royalty there is. Catalyst 5, I’m going to have a whole Bible School on Wheels 4 on this topic because people do not understand. Catalyst 5 is, “Faith is the motivating catalyst of rewards for royalty.” Rewards for royalty, for believers. Rewards for believers? Yes.

Let me show you a couple of them and then we’ll wrap up. “Do not,” present imperative, I command you, don’t “lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but,” I command you, but I command you “lay up,” look at these words by Christ, “lay up for yourselves . . .” Lay up for yourselves, what? “Treasures in heaven.” Are there treasures in heaven? No, Christ is lying. No He’s not. Man, He is revealing a shocking revelation. You have to do something on earth to get treasures that are yours for yourselves in heaven, “where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal” (Matthew 6:19–20). How do we do that? We give away to someone or something that God wants done and that money loses, we no longer have control over it, and it’s given to another person and that gets transferred into our account. Lay up, lay up in the present active. Give away.

Did Darlene and I give away a lot of money last night? Yes we did. Did I have this in mind? No I didn’t. Is this going to happen? Yes. Are you laying up much? Bible School on Wheels 4 will talk all about this. Matthew 19, “And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands,” look at this, “left houses or lands,” assets, assets besides people, “for My Name’s sake,” you did this for me, “shall receive,” and that means to take for one’s self, it’s yours, take it with you, to lay hold of, to claim for oneself, “a hundredfold,” that’s, a hundred fold is 10,000 percent. Christ’s going to pay you back “and inherit eternal life” (Matthew 19:29). That’s not to get salvation, because salvation is by believing. This is all hard works. You inherit something else.

“They shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads.” Talking about eternity, “There shall be no night there: They need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light. And they shall reign forever and ever” (Revelation 22:4–5). Whoa. And in your workbook you can take a look at the next passage, but I want to move on.

Part 3, “The Catalyst for Life.” What are the uses of my faith? First of all, it gets me eternity, if I believe. Second, the degree to which I believe in the work and the presence and the power of the Spirit, and I believe in Him, I don’t doubt Him, I have spirituality. And the degree in which I believe that God created me for the purpose of good works that He prepared beforehand and those are difficult to finish, they’re difficult to finish, I have to run my race, that’s the destiny God has before me. And that I’ve been created by Him for His glory, I am to shine people’s attention and make them say, “Wow. Yeah, that was terrific.” Standing ovation. Yes, that’s what it’s like. I’m the promoter of God, a PR agent. Everywhere you go, you sprinkle people saying, “Man, God’s terrific.” That’s glory, “God’s terrific.” That’s glory. And third is, royalty, that there are rewards you can earn if you achieve them before God calls you home.

Now, before I give you the conclusion, I want you to be asking yourself the question, how much are you using this catalyst, this little belief, and using it in your life? The average believer, believer, just us, average believer uses their faith for salvation. And then they put it in the pantry, and they live the rest of their life rarely ever taking it out and using it as a catalyst for their behavior and for their good works.

Now, what I want to do is talk about the rewards from the faith-catalystic life. “But without faith,” without faith, but without faith, “it is impossible,” whoa, “it is impossible to please Him,” God. Wait, I have to have faith, or I can’t please God? That’s right, it is a requirement. God views faith at the top of the list. Faith, love, hope, but in this context it’s the using of your faith, “for he who comes to God must believe that He is,” or else you can’t please Him. Now this is a shocker. And that you must believe “that He is a rewarder,” “a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him” (Hebrews 11:6). That’s in Hebrews, the whole chapter is by faith they did this and by faith they did this and they . . . it’s what you do with your faith.

What does it mean, it’s impossible to please God, that I have to believe He is a rewarder? What does the rewarder mean? This comes from three Greek words, misthos: apo, and didōmi in Greek [misthapododēs]. Misthos is the “wages” you get paid on Friday at work. Apo means “back” and didōmi means “to give.” So I have to believe that God is the person, the paymaster, the one who pays back wages for work. I have to believe He’s going to pay me back for my service. If you want to please God, it’s impossible to please God unless you believe He’s going to reward you for your work for Him.

When? “For the Son of Man will come,” the coming of Christ, “in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then,” And then? “And then He will reward each according to his,” created in Christ Jesus for good “works” (Matthew 16:27). Wait a minute. This verse says Christ is coming back again. And then and not now? What’s the text say? And then He, Jesus, will reward each person in proportion to his works. This is rewards from the faith-catalystic life. How much glory are you giving to God? How many of the good works you’re getting done? Are you running your race with endurance?

Look at this passage, “And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward,” there’s the misthos, the wages, the payment for work, “is with Me, to give to every one according to,” in proportion to, “his work” (Revelation 22:12). That’s a very famous passage, isn’t it? The passage that teaches that He is coming quickly. And what does He say? My reward for you is with Me. You don’t have My reward yet. You have a little bit of My gratitude, but My reward is still with Me. Jesus, where are You? I’m at the right hand of the Father. Where are all the rewards? With Me in heaven. Have You given them? Read My words, I didn’t give them yet.

Therefore you’re misinterpreting so much of life. The big reward doesn’t take place until the Son of Man comes in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward you. That’s a part of royalty. That makes all this even shockingly more exciting. But we’ve been talking a lot about the power, right, of a little substance called faith and putting it with something else that makes a big, huge difference.