Ever felt like your dreams are stolen, joy depleted, and opportunities squandered? We’re exposing the thief in your life – that unseen force that appears to rob you of your potential. In an enlightening discussion, we unlock the power of faith derived from the word of God as the ultimate shield against this thief. We dissect the disappointments and detours that often leave us feeling stuck, reminding you of Jesus’ promise – a life to the fullest measure. Embrace the power of faith, reclaim your joy, and step into the life God has intended for you. Don’t let negative thoughts take the driver’s seat. It’s time to believe in the life-giving power of Jesus and put your faith at the forefront. We delve into the transformative power of prayer and the potency of positive affirmations in Jesus’ name. Learn to rise above negative influences and the relentless thief that targets joy and fulfillment. Remember, the Holy Spirit moves with us as a reliable source of strength. Serving Jesus isn’t merely a spiritual practice – it’s a practical tool to overcome challenges and infuse your life with purpose and strength. So, join us as we navigate this journey of faith together.
Key Takeaways:
- Faith comes from hearing the Word of God.
- There is a thief in one’s life that can steal joy and opportunities.
- Jesus came to give believers life to the fullest measure.
- By putting faith in Jesus, listeners can overcome the influence of the thief and experience a higher level of life.
Where To Dive In:
0:00:01 Introduction to the topic of faith and the thief in your life
0:00:22 Faith comes by hearing the Word of God
0:01:16 The thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy
0:02:36 Life can be a disappointment due to the thief
0:04:46 Jesus came to give life to the fullest measure
0:07:53 Many people misunderstand the true meaning of the Gospel
0:09:35 Turn to Jesus to stop the thief and live fully
0:10:36 Believers have power over evil and negative emotions
0:11:41 Practicality of serving Jesus and relying on His power
0:12:36 Put faith in Jesus to overcome past struggles and live above
0:13:03 Put a stop to the thief by rejecting fear and negativity.
0:14:16 Rise above fear and live life to the fullest through Jesus.
0:15:57 Humanity alone is not strong enough to overcome the thief.
0:16:59 Recognize the thief’s impact on your life and relationships.
0:18:10 Operate in the kingdom of God and rise above negativity.
0:19:04 Embrace faith in Jesus for a more fulfilling life.
0:19:59 The thief has been defeated and life can be abundant.
0:20:32 Download the e-book “If You Only Knew” for more insights.
About the host:
Steve Gray is the founding and senior pastor of Revive Church KC. He has been in the full time ministry for over 40 years and was launched into national and international recognition in the late 1990’s as the leader of the historic Smithton Outpouring, and again in 2009 when he lead the Kansas City Revival which was televised nationally on the Daystar television network. Steve is also a veteran musician, songwriter, recording artist and published author. His books include When The Kingdom Comes, Follow The Fire, and My Absurd Religion.
FREE Listener Community
- Weekly spiritual encouragement
- Edification from like-minded, bold Christians
- Community with young leaders who want MORE from life and their relationship with God
Transcript:
0:00:01
Welcome to another More Faith, more Life podcast. Did you know there’s a thief in your life who may have been robbing you your whole life? I’m going to tell you how to put a stop to it. Hello, everyone. Welcome again to another More Faith, More Life podcast. In fact, that’s what we’re going to talk about today. More faith, more life. Do you know how to get faith? And then after we talk about how you get faith, I want to talk to you how you get more life.
0:00:22
And you could have a thief in your life, someone that steals from you, takes from you all the great things that you want to have happen. So we’re going to talk about that too. But let’s start with faith. How does faith come? Did you know faith grows, comes to you by hearing the Word of God? That’s right. So you’ve got a Bible somewhere, right? You may go to a church where they actually do preach the word of God.
0:00:46
You might go to a church that they don’t. It’s more like a Ted Talk thing, or you may not go to church at all. But if you want to have faith, which produces more life, then you need to start hearing the Word of God. So we’re going to test you on that a little bit. I’m going to tell you what the Word of God says from a scripture, of course, and you decide whether you believe it or not. And if you believe it, you can start acting on it and produce more life. Okay?
0:01:16
All right, so let’s have at it here. All right. In John, chapter ten, verse ten, it says the thief comes to steal, to kill, and to destroy. All right? So those are the words of Jesus. There’s a thief in his teaching. There’s a thief out there. Now, we probably would just summarize the thief. If you narrow it down, the thief’s going to be the devil, right? The evil, Satan, all those things. But people can be a thief, too, operating by him or just humanity, just humans have that edge to them because from the fall of Adam, we had it unless we get some big changes. And so people can be thieves, a thief in your life and steal from you, too.
0:02:05
But it all goes back to the fall. It all goes back to demonic things, evil things, sin, all those kinds of things. And they cause people to be thieves in your life. But the main thief that we know behind it all is Satan himself. And so there’s a thief out there. And what does that thief do? We’ll just start with the first one comes to steal, okay? Also says kill and destroy. But let’s narrow it down just to steal, because that means you could have been robbed from your whole life.
0:02:36
Imagine that. You might have tried your hardest. You may have the best attitude. You may have studied hard at school. You may have tried to be a good person. You may have tried to be a good Christian. You may have tried to be a good husband, a good wife, a good kid, whatever you put the effort in. But it didn’t work out. Life did not work out. Your hopes, your dreams. Life is a disappointment to you. You just invest yourself into something and it doesn’t come.
0:03:05
You planned on something, but it didn’t happen. And now life is a disappointment, and that’s a bad place to be. Now you can be in a relationship that you had such hope for, and then now that relationship is a disappointment to you or a job you were going to get. Now that job is a disappointment to you, and you don’t know what to do. Okay, think about this. It could be that you have left room in your life for that thief, whether it be the devil himself, Satan himself, a demonic demon, or just a person that seems to be influenced in bad ways, just bad influences.
0:03:43
They’re just bad to be around. And they rob from you, they steal from you. They steal your time, they steal your joy, they steal emotions, whatever it is, there’s a thief, okay? Now I want you to believe in the thief first. I don’t want you to have faith in the thief, but I want you to believe that when Jesus says there’s a thief and he steals from you, believe it, okay? Don’t shrug your shoulders and say, oh, no, there’s nothing influencing my life. I’m in complete control.
0:04:18
There’s no other power affecting anything I do. Don’t shrug your shoulders at the truth now because I want to build your faith. And faith comes by hearing the word of God. And I just told you that’s what the word of God says, there’s a thief. Okay? So it’s possible that your life during your lifetime, you’re not where you want to be. And it’s a disappointment in many areas, maybe because you’ve been robbed. All right, there is a thief, and he steals all kinds of things.
0:04:46
Opportunities, steals opportunities. Somebody else gets the job when you probably should have gotten it, you know what I’m saying? And just go through the list of your life ever since you were a child maybe, and you realize, man, I didn’t realize how many detours I’ve had to take because that didn’t work out, and that didn’t work out, and that didn’t work out, and that didn’t work out, and now here you are.
0:05:08
And so now we want to turn that around. Okay? So we’re talking about more faith. So get faith in what I say, all right? The thief comes to steal. We know kill and destroy too, but the thief comes to steal. But Jesus said, get this, but I came that you might have life or more life. Life. And then he says, to the fullest measure, to the fullest of full the full life, okay? Now, a lot of people believe in Jesus, but they’ve never got that kind of life. Now, religious people, they just automatically think he means life, means that eternal life or you die and go to heaven life, okay? But that makes no sense because he says, I came that you might have life to the fullest measure, okay? To the fullest.
0:06:00
So to the highest amount, we can even say that the highest amount of life that you can have. Jesus came to help you get that, all right? Now, you can go to church your whole life. You can believe in Jesus your whole life and never understand what I just told you, never get what I just told you, never understand there is a life that is higher in this life while you’re alive. And I like to say it this way. Jesus came that we might have life or to be human to the fullest measure, the fullest measure of being human.
0:06:40
The best humanity, the best humanity has to offer, Jesus is offering that to you, okay? So Jesus comes along and he develops your life so you can have life to the fullest, highest measure that a life can have. And as I said, you may have never heard that before. You may have never been told that before, but that’s the truth. I like to say it this way. Jesus came to make us fully human to the fullest measure of life, fully human.
0:07:12
And most of us don’t know what that is because we’re dealing with so many other things in our lives all the time that many people don’t ever get a break. Like this phrase, give me a break. We should to be fully human. Imagine that there’s a side to this life that makes us so full that we’re almost beyond the normal person who’s dealing with so much and so upset and so angry. And so I want that for you. That would be by believing what I’m saying, because I’m telling you the word of God, you’re hearing it, and faith comes by hearing, then you’re going to get more faith, all right?
0:07:53
Now believe this by faith what I’m saying today, and it’s going to produce what? More life? Because that’s what Jesus does. And it’s a shame, isn’t it, that we have so much gospel around us, on TV, radio, everywhere, and churches. But life to them means all they offer you is a place to go when you die. And what do we do if we wake up tomorrow and we’re still alive? What do we do? And not realizing we’ve been so cheated or robbed, stolen from, and life has been stolen from because we don’t know this.
0:08:30
We don’t know what to expect. And we think we’ve heard the gospel. I’ve told people this before. Jesus went about preaching the gospel of the kingdom, not just the gospel as we hear today. So you ask people what the Gospel is. And they would say, well, the Gospel is Jesus died for our sins. He forgives us our sins. And then when you die, if you were to die today, then you get to go to heaven and spend eternity in heaven, which is not true, by the way. Read your Bible.
0:09:01
You go to heaven if you die. But Jesus comes back and establishes his kingdom here. Heaven and earth come together, so we’re going to end up right back here. But anyway, we need to understand that you could have been stolen from in a lot of different ways, and you can put a stop to that by turning, really turning to Jesus and starting to believe in Him as the life giver now that you can live life to the fullest measure.
0:09:35
And what is that fullest? You know, the Bible talks about the things of the Spirit love and joy and peace and kindness and patience. And all those things start happening in you. And when those happen in you, you’re happier, you’re more satisfied, you’re better to other people, and other people will be better to you. So to the fullest measure. And you have to ask yourself then, am I living life to the fullest measure, or do I face depression?
0:10:06
Maybe not clinical depression, but just you’re just down. You get depressed, you’re upset, you’re disappointed. As we said already, life has just let you down. Okay? Maybe you’ve been robbed. All right, so we want to put a stop to the thief first, and we read our Bible. Then again, and we find out that Jesus teaches that he is above principalities and powers and wickedness and in high places and darkness.
0:10:36
He’s above all those powers, whether they be the devil himself or demons or whatever, just evil itself. He is above all that. And he says all those things are under Him, under his feet. And so then we hear the phrase that he’s the head. And what are we as believers? We’re the body, okay? And so we’re the body of Christ, and he’s the head. All right, well, if all those evil powers are under his feet, and if we’re the body, then they must be under our feet too.
0:11:11
We just got to believe it, act upon it, and start talking it. Start believing it. Let it come out of your mouth. The faith filled words that “this is under my feet,” these feelings I’m having, these depressed ideas, these feelings of being a loser or being stupid or nothing ever works out for me or I married the wrong person, just all kinds of things. If this had been different, if that had been different put those under your feet.
0:11:41
Don’t put them in your mind and don’t let them come out of your mouth, all right? Put them under your feet and put them down, and you be higher than that. You be up. Sometimes it’s just good to tell yourself, I’m above that. I’m above those kind of emotions. I’m above being critical. I’m above being angry. I’m above being judgmental. I’m none of those things. I’m above that. And start living above, right?
0:12:07
Living above. And the one thing you got to remember, though, you’re not going to be able to do that by yourself. It’s beyond our power. We need more power. We need the power of the Holy Spirit through Jesus Christ to help us live above. And sometimes we forget or we’ve never been told how practical serving Jesus really is. It’s practical. You get strength, you get help, you get steadiness. You get to where you’re reliable.
0:12:36
And all the attributes that make for heroes and make for people you admire, they’re all in there, because that’s who Jesus is. He’s all those things. And so all that he is is where you need to be, where you need to be, and you need to put your faith now. You don’t have to have all those feelings, all those emotions, all the past eating you up, all the things that ever happened in your life. You want to turn this around now?
0:13:03
All right, so let’s talk this through again. So there is a thief that steals from you. You got to put a stop to it. How do you do it? You, first of all, stop in your own self, letting those things happen in you, letting those thoughts come. In other words, put them under your feet, right? You’re above that. Remember that. But also, then the thief is not in you. The thief is around you. And so then you start praying positive things, and you come against the thief or the devil or whatever in Jesus name, and you start speaking those things away from you.
0:13:43
That’s not going to happen in this household, right? We’re going to stay healthy. We’re not going to live in fear of all the viruses and everything going around, all the flu things. We’re not going to live in fear. No fear in my house. We’re not going to be a fearful family. I’m not going to be a fearful person. Now, some fear is good to have. It protects you, right? It protects you from things. You got to have fear of stepping out in front of a car. Yeah, that’s good. Kind of fear. Don’t do that, right? But that’s not what we’re talking about. We’re talking about the fear that controls your life.
0:14:16
So you’re so fearful or you’re so worried or you’re so anxious all the time that you can’t enjoy life. You can’t make good decisions because you’re too afraid to. You always back away from everything. You’re intimidated by life. You’re intimidated by other people. So everything that we talk about, those are all the things that keep you down, remember? But you’re not down. You’re above. Through Jesus, you live above.
0:14:45
And how do we know that? The word of God says, Jesus said, I have come to give you. I’m talking about you—to give you life, to be fully human and have life to the fullest measure that a human can have. And we are such a downtrodden society. I don’t even know if we know what that is. Like, we don’t even know how high it is. We don’t know what fully human really is. But we can start improving now by faith. Just get this word in you.
0:15:24
And every time you start letting yourself go down, remind yourself through Jesus. So put your faith in him that Jesus is not down. Jesus is not depressed. Jesus is not angry. Right? Jesus is not disappointed. All the things that could rule you throughout the day, that go through your head, all those kinds of things, Jesus isn’t there, so you don’t have to be there. You do not have to be there, and you do not have to do this under your own power.
0:15:57
If we all do it under our own power, we’re all going to be robbed. We’re going to be stolen from, because humanity in itself is not strong enough for this thief. This thief has been operating since the Garden of Eden, and the devil is an expert, and he’s smarter than we are. He knows what he’s doing, and he’s got lots of tricks. But Jesus defeated him and took his rule away from him. For those who want to live life to the fullest, that’s the opportunity you have right now.
0:16:30
Okay? If I was going to be religious, we’d pray a prayer and bow our heads and all that, but I’m just telling you, number one, you decide right now, because you know what makes a Christian a believer? There’s no special words. You believe in Jesus and believe who he is and believe everything he said. All right? Believe in him right now. Believe what I’m telling you. There is a thief. That thief may have ruined a lot of things in your life, might have ruined your marriage.
0:16:59
If you hadn’t had the thief operating in your life, you might still be married and happy and the whole family together, but you got robbed and you didn’t know you were being robbed. It was just this is what happens. I got disappointed or he disappointed me. She whatever happened, happened, and you just don’t know until you begin to operate against the thief. Put him under your feet. Put all the signs that a thief is stealing from you, whether it be emotionally, physically, financially, relationship wise, there’s symptoms, right?
0:17:35
Put it down. Say no more now. No more. I am ready to take a step of life, the life Jesus promised, and he said, I’ve come to give you that kind of life. Now you have to take it. You have to take it by faith. And you have to also recognize there’s a thief, because there’s two sides to this. You have to be above the thief, and you have to be above where in fact, the Bible says, put our thoughts above.
0:18:10
We should have thoughts above, right? Where Jesus is heavenly thoughts in his kingdom. I’m preaching the kingdom to you. Now, see, I’m not just preaching heaven as a home after you die. I’m preaching the kingdom, okay? So he preached the gospel of the kingdom, and he said, the kingdom is here. So since the kingdom has come through Jesus and is still here, he didn’t take it away when he went. He deposited it here.
0:18:36
And through the Holy Spirit, you can now operate in the kingdom of God, and the kingdom of God is what it is. Above all the trash, all the garbage that may I don’t want to say has may have affected you all your life or a lot of your life, and you just don’t need to fall forward anymore, do you? No. Come on. Put faith in what I’m saying today and put some faith in Jesus, and you’re going to have more life.
0:19:04
You’re not going to become more religious. Religious people just do religious things to look, I guess, religious, right? They try to look that way, and they do religious things. I’m talking practical here. I’m talking about if you don’t like your job, that could change. If you could get life to the fullest measure through Jesus, you might start liking your job. You might get a better job. You might get a raise, you might get a promotion.
0:19:31
See, everything could change because we’re going to change the level of life, and either it changes on the outside or it changes on the inside, and your level of life goes up. Now, you’re enjoying life. Now you enjoy going to work. Now you enjoy being with your family, right? So take my word. Today we want more faith, more life. There is a thief, but there is one greater than the thief that defeated him, and he has come to give you life to the fullest measure.
0:19:59
You can be fully human, but you need to start today. Will you do that? I want to remind you of the e-book—Five chapters called If You Only Knew: A Guide to the Clueless Generation. It’s still free. Go to https://morefaithmorelife.com and download it now. It’s free. It may not be free forever, and there’s some hard copies coming. We may have to sell those, but you can get it right now, today.
0:20:32
And that’s going to help you understand other things, because other things that are happening in our country, and you’ll recognize that that’s a thief stealing from us as citizens of America. So if you only knew, download it today. Till next time. Bye.
