The spirit of faith is saying YES to what God is saying!

By Peter DeWitt


Many of us are trying to find good apart from God. "There's a way that seems right to a man, but in it's end, it's the way of death."

There are only two voices in all of the earth - God's voice and not God's voice.  The life of faith is saying yes to God's voice. "This is the work of God, that you would believe the One whom He sent." Who's the One whom He sent? The Word.

Okay, I just defined faith for you. Let me say it again. "Faith comes by hearing," Romans 10:17, and hearing by the word of God. Why is the word of God so integral to faith?

Because faith is saying yes to what God has said.

I had an encounter in December, and in this encounter, the Holy Spirit spoke to me and said something about the spirit of faith. He talked to me about the spirit of faith and then He corrected my thinking.

Faith is as simple as saying yes to what God is saying!

Matthew 5:37 says, "But let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No’ be ‘No.’" What's the next phrase? It's fascinating. "For whatever is more than these is from the evil one.”

There are two ecosystems, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the tree of life, which is Jesus, the Word of God. Remember, after Adam and Eve ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil they had to be kicked out of the garden so that they didn't eat from the tree of life - the word of God -  because had they, they would have lived forever. So how do we how do we live forever? We receive Jesus Christ, right? You see, the Tree of Life was Jesus in the garden in the midst of them, they chose to go against Jesus and instead chose the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which persisted. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil persists all the way until this day.

So anything more than yes being yes and no being no, is from the evil one. There's a lot of confusion in the world right now. You will do well to know this. 

The first source of words that weren't from God were from the serpent in the garden, who said, "Has God really said?"  

The first attack is to bring the Word of God into doubt. That is still going on. When things are a million shades of gray, you'll find out that actually anything beyond you simply being able to say yes to the Word of God or no to something that's not the Word of God is, in and of itself, from the evil one.

At the beginning of last year, Megan and I gave a word about being purveyors of hope. We said that it was going to be a year of great upheavals. Well turned out it was. I recently did a Facebook Live with Mark Crawford and Chris Bassett where we talked about Kingdom things. We let you into our own conversation, basically. We laughed ahead of time because I imagined myself standing in front of a group people and saying, "2021 is going to be the best year ever!” I laughed out loud when I saw myself doing that in my mind's eye because I don't think the circumstances of 2021 are going to be particularly good.  

Now you might say, "What sort of faith is that?" Well, it's the faith that says that if I believe in the Word of God, my leaf is never going to wither no matter the circumstances. Do you see what I'm saying? I'm good. I was great this last year. It was the best year my life. I have never grown that much in my life. I count it all joy. But here's what I would tell you. I think God was acclimatizing us last year.

I used to mountain climb, not big, big mountains, more so rock climbing, and sometimes mountain climb. One year I drove out west for the summer. And I stayed in Kansas, maybe the first night in my 1994 Honda Accord. I drove about 13,000 miles that summer, all around the west. I stayed in Kansas the first night which has an elevation of 400 feet above sea level. The next night I was in Salt Lake City with my friends Nate and Robin. Salt Lake's pretty high itself, but my friends Nate and Robin lived up in a ski lodge in the summer. That ski lodge is very famous - called Alta.

I kind of had an arrangement there with them that if I did some work around the ski lodge, I could room for free. So I was sleeping in these little bunks that they had way up on top floor of the lodge, where the ski instructors probably slept during the winter. That night, I thought I was going to die as I tried to sleep. Growing up as a kid I had asthma, and I thought “what is going on? Am I like having an asthma attack or something? I feel like I'm going to die.” Then all of a sudden, I realized what was going on, I was sleeping at 9,000 plus feet.

I was 9,000 feet above the sea level and the air is thin up there, and it's harder for your lungs to get oxygen. The next day we went and climbed a mountain together and I got even more gassed doing that. You know, you're doing strenuous physical activity.  
What was wrong? I hadn’t …

Acclimatized.  

If you ever watch a documentary of someone climbing Everest, it's like they have these base camps. And they'll stay there for multiple days to let their lungs acclimatize to the lack of oxygen. Once you're acclimatized you can do awesome stuff. Runners will even go to Mexico City or other high places, in order to train because for a few days after being in those high places, your lungs are amazingly strong. So if you get down into low elevations with those lungs that can so efficiently harness the available oxygen, your CO2 max goes way up.

What does that mean? I think 2020 was about hope for the Body of Christ. Megan and I gave that word. We need to be hope dealers in the context of upheavals that are going to be going on in 2020. That is what happened. And many of us have had a lot of opportunity to process with God what it looks like to see the light at the end of the tunnel in the midst of great difficulty.  

That's what hope is right? “For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees?” (Rom. 8:24) Being able to hope for something that you don't see right in front of you, that's hope, right? So last year in the context of difficulty, being able to see the light at the end of the tunnel, was hope, right?

I think God was acclimatizing the Body of Christ to hope in 2020. So that then we could operate in faith in 2021. Let me say it again. I think God was acclimatizing in the Body of Christ to hope in 2020. So that then we could operate in faith in 2021. This is what overcomes the world, our faith. “For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.” (1 Jn. 5:4)

Now, Hebrews 11:1-2 says “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good testimony.” The elders, speaking of the Hall of Faith, did not obtain a good testimony because circumstances were perfect. We do not read Hebrews 11 like this “So and so lived in a favorable time, therefore they had a good testimony.” No. The elders obtained a good testimony by one vehicle, which was faith and faith comes by hearing the Word of God because the work of God is as simple as saying yes to God's Word - to believing the One whom He sent, which is His Word.  

The spirit of faith is not a doctrine, it's a heart that says yes, to what God's saying. He's going to lead us into some places that are different than before. We acclimatized in 2020. 

I pray, Father, the simplicity of your word, versus things that are not your word, would become clearer to all of us, in Jesus's name. Father, I ask that you'd give us a grace to operate in the spirit of faith this year, with a heart that says yes to all that you're saying.  
Amen!