The 3 Essentials: All You Need for Success in Life Read Online Free PDF Page A

confident in our ability to walk through it. During the times when our confidence waned, we had plenty of people around us who would lift us up by their strong muscles of faith!
    You can have the same kind of faith—exceeding faith. Make a decision to work out your faith muscles every day. Pick an area in which your faith is weak, and start there. Find scriptures that pertain to it, write them down, and begin to speak them over your life. Trust in God’s Word and its power, and you will begin to see amazing results in your life. As you continue reading, I’ll share many other practical truths about how to grow your faith. Use a highlighter, mark up the pages. Use this book as a resource for your growth in your walk with God.

Hearing and Hearing
    The only way faith can grow is by hearing and embracing the Word of God. “So then, faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17) . Many people have bought into the idea that faith is produced when a person goes through tests and trials. But this is not the case. Faith does not grow simply by going through problems or negative circumstances. In fact, I have seen many Christians go through tough situations, and instead of responding with faith, they get bitter and shake their fists at God. I have seen some people get completely wiped out because they had no idea how to walk through the issue by faith, and through the strength and power of God. Problems can definitely become an opportunity to operate in faith and to increase in faith, but this only happens if the person makes a decision to do so and if the person understands how to do so.
    In the last chapter, I wrote that in order to live by faith, we need to believe in our heart and confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord. Romans 10:17 explains what we need to believe and confess: the Word of God. As we study the Bible and go to church, we learn about God’s promises and God’s ways, and our faith begins to grow. Then, when we use His Word to guide us through the situations we face from day to day, we are exercising our faith muscles and becoming stronger and stronger in our faith. Notice I did not say we become stronger just by learning about God’s Word. We also need to use that Word in our lives—believe it in our hearts and confess it out of our mouths—in order for us to see any results.
    Romans 1:16-17 says, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, ‘The just shall live by faith.’ ” The gospel of Christ is the power of God, available for any person who will believe it—not the power for everyone, just the ones who will believe it.
    The gospel of Christ is the power of God, available for any person who will believe it—not the power for everyone, just the ones who will believe it.

    Wendy and I have seen many people throughout the years who have come to church but have never locked in to faith in God. They sat through services but never really believed, went through the religious motions and nodded their heads but never trusted God. Instead, they were trusting in their insurance policy, the stock market, their doctors, and their bank accounts. They never decided to live by faith. Then as the years went by, we would see it show up in their kids, and in their health, and how they would respond when things went wrong in their lives. And every time this happens, we think, Darn! If only they would have believed God and His Word, and had used all this time to grow their faith. They would have seen such a greater blessing on their lives, such a stronger ability to rise above the storms of life. Again, the gospel is not the power of God for everybody; it’s the power of God for the one who believes. Let’s be the ones who believe. Let’s operate in the power of God by believing what His Word