Pr Jerin T Mathew delivers a passionate call to stop praying safe prayers and start
activating the bold, miracle-working faith God desires for every believer.
Good morning, Bethel! Let me ask you, how many of you have a car? To keep that car
running, you have to do some basic maintenance, right? You change the oil, you check
the tires, you fill it with petrol. That’s maintenance. But the purpose of the car isn’t just
to be maintained in your driveway. The purpose of the car is to go somewhere.
I believe too many of us are treating our faith like a car we just keep in the driveway.
We do the basic maintenance we come to church, we try to be a good person,
maybe we read our Bible and say a quick prayer.
And that’s all good. But our faith was
never designed for maintenance mode! It was designed for miracle territory! It was
designed to take us places we could never go on our own.
Hebrews 11:1 says, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of
things not seen.” Faith is not wishful thinking. It’s not a vague hope. The Bible calls it
substance and evidence. It is a spiritual reality that has the power to change your
natural reality. But for faith to work, it has to be activated. It has to be put in gear.
Think about Peter in Matthew 14. He sees Jesus walking on the water in the middle of
a storm. The other disciples are terrified, but Peter is activated. He cries out, “Lord, if
it’s you, tell me to come to you on the water.” Jesus gives him one word: “Come.” And
Peter does the impossible. He gets out of the boat. As long as his eyes were on Jesus,
he was doing what no man had ever done—he was walking on water.
So many of us are stuck in the boat. The boat is safe. The boat is predictable. The
boat is maintenance mode. In the boat, all you can see is the wind and the waves.
You’re focused on the problem. God is calling you out of the boat! He’s calling you to
fix your eyes on Him and step into the realm of miracles. Your “boat” might be a
diagnosis from the doctor. It might be a mountain of debt. It might be a broken
relationship or an addiction you can’t seem to break.
Activating your faith means you stop praying prayers limited by your circumstances. A
maintenance prayer is, “God, please help me manage this sickness.” A miracle-faith
prayer is, “God, by the stripes of Jesus, I am healed, and I command this sickness to
leave my body!” A maintenance prayer is, “God, please help me pay the minimum on
this credit card.” A miracle-faith prayer is, “God, you are Jehovah Jireh, my provider. I
believe you for supernatural debt cancellation!” Do you see the difference? One is
passive, the other is active. One is focused on the storm, the other is focused on the
Storm-Stiller.
Your words have power. Your declarations of faith can shift atmospheres. When you
begin to speak what God says about your situation instead of what your feelings or
circumstances say, you are activating your faith. You are giving the substance to what
you are hoping for.
Today is a day of activation. I’m not here to give you a nice, comfortable message. I
am here, by the Spirit of God, to challenge you to get out of the boat. What is the one
area of your life where you have been stuck in maintenance mode? Where have you
accepted defeat? I want to tell you today that your God is a God of miracles. The same
power that parted the Red Sea, the same power that raised Jesus from the dead, lives
inside of you. It’s time to stop just maintaining your faith and start walking in the
miracles He has for you.