You cannot achieve anything without faith.

You have faith that your car will start when you turn the key. You have faith that the grocery store will have food in it. You have faith that when you go to sleep, you’ll wake up the next day.

Because if you didn’t, you’d never turn the key. You’d never go to the grocery store. You’d never go to sleep.

“I’ve done it before.”

And people will say, “Well duh. I’ve gone to the grocery store and they have food. I can see that they have food. I’ve done it before.”

And that’s the key right there. “I’ve done it before.” But when you were first born, you never did it before. You never turned the key of a car. You never went to a grocery store. You didn’t know these things to be true. Which means, you had to have faith in it, that it was true, to believe that it would work and do it the first time.

And how did you get faith in it? Someone told you that grocery stores have food in them. Someone told you that turning the key would start the car. Someone told you that planting a seed would grow a plant and give fruit.

So when someone tells you about Jesus Christ, they’re giving you the opportunity to have faith in Jesus Christ. And you really only need it once, because after the first time, you’ll see it. You’ll see the hand of God move in your life and see the difference He makes. You’ll watch as He transforms your life in ways you never could have imagined. You’ll see miracles happen in your life that people won’t believe, because they lack faith.

You only need faith once

Similar to how you only need to believe there is food in a grocery store once, you only need to believe in Jesus Christ once. You need to believe food is in a grocery store, just to get you to go to the grocery store for food. But once you have that faith and get to the grocery store, your faith will be established when you find food in the grocery store… when you find it to be true.

The same occurs for Jesus Christ. You only need to have faith in Jesus Christ once, and after He will establish your faith in Him. You only need faith once to walk with and open your heart to Jesus Christ and accept Him. And when you do, you will find He is true.

Once you have faith, you must protect it.

Once you have faith, you will be able to walk in it. And all that is left is to defend your faith. Because the devil seeks to rid it from you.

Imagine someone constantly telling you, everyday, in persuasive ways, whispering in your ear, saying, “Grocery stores don’t have food.” Even if you’ve walked in the store before and it has been proven, if they tell you that enough times, you’ll start to be convinced. Doubt will creep into your mind. And doubt is the killer of faith, because it is the very lack of faith.

So what do you do when that happens? You go back to the grocery store and you’re faith will be reestablished.

When you start to doubt and lose faith in Jesus Christ, you return back to Jesus Christ. And He will establish your faith in Him. And you do this over and over, and as many times as you need. This is the war that you will fight.

What you don’t do is, accept the doubt and have faith in it. What we’ve learned is everyone has faith and faith always exists. The only difference is where it’s placed. So what doubt does is uproot your faith. It doesn’t eliminate your faith entirely. It moves it somewhere else. It, in a way, “kills” and “eliminates” your faith by taking your faith away from where it was and bringing it somewhere else.

That is why Jesus Christ says not to doubt.

²¹ And Jesus answered and said to them, “Truly I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ it will happen.

Matthew 21:21 NASB

And why the apostles say we must have faith that is steadfast and unshakeable. If it is steadfast, it cannot be moved. Doubt has no power because doubt’s power is in it’s ability to move your faith somewhere else.

⁶ But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind.

James 1:6 NASB

⁵⁸ Therefore, my beloved brothers and sisters, be firm, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.

1 Corinthians 15:58 NASB

³¹ Yet those who ^[a]wait for the Lord
Will gain new strength;
They will ^[b]mount up with wings like eagles,
They will run and not get tired,
They will walk and not become weary.

Isaiah 40:31 NASB