Jerry Falwell - Achieving Your Dreams. By Building Your Faith

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God has a great future for you. May youdiscover and build a dynamic faith that willhelp you achieve all your dreams.

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Achieving YourDreams

Jerry Falwell
with
Rod Dempsey

Copyright 2005 by Dr. Jerry Falwell

All rights reserved.
Published by World Publishing, Inc., Nashville, TN 37214 www.worldpublishing.com

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the New King James Version.
Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Printed in the United States of America
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Contents

What Kind of PersonDo You Want to Be?

H ow do you feel about your faith? Do you have a truly intimate relationship with God? Does your faith give you the spiritual strength to move the mountains that prevent you from achieving your dreams? I want you to have the great joy of experiencing the tremendous answers to prayer that God will provide for you as He has for me.

Thats the kind of powerful faith that most of us want, especially when we see it in other people. Those who truly have a strong, dynamic faith are optimistic and forward looking. They believe firmly in the work of God in their lives, and they not only believe in God but act on their faith. The strength of their faith translates into a positive outlook on life. Their innate friendliness is attractive and compelling, and you walk away from them feeling encouraged and uplifted. They are glass half full people.

Even more, they have the ability to look ahead and smile because they know who controls the future; they trust in Gods ability to work things out in the end. They have a faith that moves mountains. You know what I am telling you because Im sure you have met or heard about people like this.

Is this what you want for your life? Many of us, in our heart of hearts, would really like to be this type of person, even if we feel that we dont always measure up. Even if we believe in God, we may convince ourselves that those obstacles in our lives just cant be overcome. We voice more pessimism and complaints than praise and hope. Were too nervous to step out of our comfort zone, too afraid of taking risks. We worry about everything, which keeps us from moving forward in faith. Vance Havner, a famous preacher from North Carolina, once said, Worry, like a rocking chair, will give you something to do, but it wont get you anywhere. In addition, we may develop a dont rock the boat attitude and eventually find that were living lives of quiet desperation. When we face obstacles, we are quickly and easily discouraged. I have felt like this; we all have at one time or another.

People who have dynamic faith, however, face the same set of challenges and problems we all do, but they seem to go through the tough times in a straighter, more level line. Their faith holds them steady even in the most violent storms of life.

How can we all achieve that kind of rock-solid faith? In the Bible, faith is mentioned more than 370 times; it is a very important concept to God. The author of the Book of Hebrews puts it this way, in the faith chapter:

But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

Hebrews 11:6 , emphasis added

I have noticed the Scriptures say that, in order to please God, a person must exercise faith in Him. In my own life, I experienced a significant turning point in my spiritual growth when I finally came to the place where I could step out by faith.

Demonstrating faith is not something thats foreign to us. We do it every day. The dictionary defines faith in this manner: A confident belief in the truth, value, or trustworthiness of a person, idea, or thing. Thus, we exercise faith, unwittingly, every time we sit in a chair. We quickly examine the chair and, without much thought, we make a faith assessment about the chair, that it will hold our weight. We then put our faith into action and sit down. We have a confident belief in the trustworthiness of the chairs construction, and we act upon that belief.

We continue to practice faith all day long. When we are driving along, and realize we are going a little too fast... what do we do? We put our foot on the brake, and the car slows down. We have a confident assurance that the brakes will work, and we exercise faith every time we put our foot on the pedal.

God is a constantforce in theuniverse, and Hestands ready to helpin time of need

I have found, in the same way, that God is a constant force in the universe, and He stands ready to help in time of need, if we will just turn to Him and exercise faith. God exists, and He sent His son Jesus to prove to the world that He loves us. He wants you to know Him in a personal way, and He wants you to experience a full and purposeful life. He also wants to go through the storms of life with you. Jesus put it this way:

Have faith in God. For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, Be removed and be cast into the sea, and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says.

Mark 11:23

A mountain in this context is an obstacle or a roadblock. In this book, as well as in the companion volume Building Dynamic Faith, I will tell you about a number of mountains that have blocked my way. What mountains are blocking your path right now? It may be a relational hurdle. It could be a financial challenge. You may have physical complications to overcome or emotional hurts that need to be addressed. Whatever problem or difficulty you are facing right now, your heavenly Father stands ready to help you not only meet the challenge but overcome the hindrance.

Read and take to heart one of the most encouraging passages in the Bible about Gods faithfulness:

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written:

For Your sake we are killed all daylong;

We are accounted as sheep for theslaughter.

Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.