Today I would like to share the grace of God under the title, “The ABC’s of My Faith.” We need to continue to grow our faith by examining it. To improve our faith, we need four basics which include thoughts, dreams, faith, and spoken words. To make our faith grow, we must control our thoughts as one of the materials of faith. God says that our thoughts are the source of our life. People’s lives follow their thoughts. Even if they have complicated and various thoughts, God always focuses on our central thought and works according to it. Proverbs 4:23 says, “ Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.” The biggest obstacle of faith is fear. When does fear happen? When we look at our situation instead of Jesus, fear comes to us. When Jesus’ disciples got into the boat and went on ahead of Jesus to the other side, great waves swept into their boat. High waves hit their boat so it began to sink and the disciples were terrified. Then Jesus was walking on the water toward them. They cried out, “It is Jesus!” Peter said to Him, "Lord, if it's you, tell me to come to you on the water." "Come," He said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came towards Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, "Lord, save me!" Immediately Jesus reached out His hand and caught him. "You of little faith," He said, "why did you doubt?” We can have small faith or big faith. Not only in the rough sea but also in our life of the world great waves of problems sometimes hit to drown us into failure. Then what shall we do? If we focus on our difficult situation rather than on Jesus, we will be swept into the sea of fear. Faith requires us to focus on the Lord whatever situation we may be in. Regardless of any circumstances we must pray while looking up to Jesus only. Hebrews 12:2 says, “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.” Whatever crisis we may be in we can have bold faith if we fix our eyes on Jesus. Abraham lived in his hometown until he became 75 years, but God appeared to him and told him that he should leave Ur of the Chaldeans and start for the land of Canaan He would lead. Genesis 12:1-2 says, “The LORD had said to Abram, ‘Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.’” This thought totally changed the life of Abraham. Even though he had settled in his hometown for 75 years, a God-given thought led him to leave it. We must not have any negative thoughts, but always positive thoughts. This is not an easy thing. While we think positively, we tend to share negative thoughts whenever we gather together. However, we must stick to positive thinking all the time without having any negative thinking. Mark 9:23 says, " 'If you can'?" said Jesus. "Everything is possible for him who believes." No matter what, whenever we think we should not have any faithless thinking. However, to control our thought life is not all easy. In order to control our thoughts, we must diligently read the Bible and meditate on it and have a dream in our hearts. There is a clear reason why people emphasize to dream continually. God asks us to bring a vessel when we pray for something before Him. When Elijah visited a widow, God told him in advance, “When you go there, ask her to first make a small cake of bread for you from what you have and bring it to you, and then make something for herself and her son.” She had only a handful of flour, but God asked her to bring the last bit of flour. Then she obeyed and made a piece of bread with the last handful of flour. After that, the jar of flour was not used up and the jug of oil did not run dry until the day the LORD gave rain on the land. The Lord always gives His grace to whosoever is ready to accept it. Whoever is not ready to accept it can’t receive any grace from Him. Therefore, we should have our dream for tomorrow in our hearts. Whoever has no dream will cast off restraint and perish. The Holy Spirit says in Acts 2:17, " 'In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.” Don’t merely put your dream in your heart, but look to it with a strong desire. Desire and dream are almost synonyms. Those who have desire will dream and vice versa. Philippians 2:13 says, “for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.” The Lord first pours out desire into our hearts if He wants us to do something. Desire is also a dream. God gives us a dream in our hearts. Psalm 71:14 says, “But as for me, I will always have hope; I will praise you more and more.” With hope and a dream in his heart, the Psalmist wanted to cry out to the Lord. After we dream a dream, next, we must check if we have faith to act upon it. “What do you think? What kind of dream do you dream? What kind of faith do you have? Do you live with faith in your daily life?” The Lord praised those who had faith, but rebuked those without faith. In Matthew 9:20-22, then a woman who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years came up behind Jesus and touched the edge of His cloak. It is because she believed, "If I only touch his cloak, I will be healed." And it was done according to her faith! Jesus turned and saw her. "Take heart, daughter," he said, "your faith has healed you." And the woman was healed from that moment and came home with a healed body. Jesus’ praised faith, when Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him and said, "Lord, my servant lies at home paralyzed and in terrible suffering." Jesus said to him, "I will go and heal him." The centurion replied, "Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, 'Go,' and he goes; and that one, 'Come,' and he comes. Even though my servant is sick, the Lord can’t enter my house. I say to my servant, 'Do this,' and he does it. But just say the word, “Your servant is healed!’ and my servant will be healed. Therefore, don’t bother Yourself." When Jesus heard this, He was astonished and looked at him and said, "I tell you the truth, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith. This man believes that his servant will be healed if I just say a word!” The Lord blessed the Italian centurion and said, “Your servant is healed.” And his servant was healed at that very hour and came out of the house to welcome his lord. Likewise, the Lord wants us to use this great faith in our lives. When we know who Jesus is and look up to Him only, we are able to maintain faith in whatever situation. The Lord has already given us mighty faith because He promised, “You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.” As we have this wonderful promise of God, we can pray with boldness. Listen carefully to Matthew 16:7-10, “They discussed this among themselves and said, ‘It is because we didn't bring any bread.’ ” When Jesus asked them about the yeast, they talked to each other. “ Aware of their discussion, Jesus asked, ‘You of little faith, why are you talking among yourselves about having no bread? Do you still not understand? Don't you remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many basketfuls you gathered? Or the seven loaves for the four thousand, and how many basketfuls you gathered?’ ” Matthew 17:20 says, “He replied, ‘Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.’ " Hebrews 10:38 says, “But my righteous one will live by faith. And if he shrinks back, I will not be pleased with him." Here faith is not an academic discipline but a power to change our life. If we have faith as small as a mustard seed, it will bring real change to us; faith is not a decoration in our life. Some may say, “I have faith like a mustard seed. I have a spoonful of faith!” It is of no use to the Lord. That kind of faith is just for show or discipline. Faith is to change life and with that faith problems are solved. Faith must solve our real problems. If not, it can’t be called faith. Therefore, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the Word of Christ. When we have faith through listening to the Word of God, it will bring change and miracles in our life. Next, our spoken words and declaration are needed for our faith to grow. When we dream a dream and have faith, we must declare that it changes our circumstances and brings creation. Jesus always declared boldly. Dream think, see, speak, and declare and confess the things that are not as though they were. Psalm 21:2 says, “You have granted him the desire of his heart and have not withheld the request of his lips.” Numbers 14:28 says, “So tell them, 'As surely as I live, declares the LORD, I will do to you the very things I heard you say.’ ” If we confess something God hears us say, He will do it to us. Faith is more active and powerful than we think. Once I had an interview with a TV announcer and he asked me, “Pastor, please say what faith is. If you explain it in detail, I can’t follow it.” So I said, “Okay. What will happen if I hit a rock with an egg?” The TV announcer laughed at this and said, “The egg will be shattered.” I said, “No, the egg won’t be shattered.” “How can that be?” “If I hit the rock with an egg, the rock will be shattered.” He suspiciously looked at me to check whether I was insane and said, “How can that happen?” I answered, “Faith is like that! Why? If an egg is shattered when it hits a rock, it belongs to the third dimensional thinking. It is reasonable, scientific, and experiential. However, if a rock is shattered by an egg, it is the fourth dimensional miracle. What is faith? It is to believe that miracles will happen! In the world of faith, the rock should be shattered! If not, it can’t be faith.” Then he nodded his head and said, “It is not an easy thing.” You know, when you have faith, it should produce miracles for you. When the Lord Jesus healed the sick, He said, “Your faith has healed you. Go in peace.” Generally the sick could not be healed with that ease, but when the Lord said these words, the sickness fled from them. Today, do you believe in miracles? Amen! Hallelujah! Any sinner can be saved if he or she believes in Jesus! Someone may resist, saying, “Don’t tell a lie! How can that person be saved?” You know what? That kind of person can be saved so Christian faith is miraculous! If you accept faith and dream through the Word of God in your heart, you can live a wonderful life of faith and a happy life. When you open the Bible, it is full of miracles. As we believe in the God Almighty, we must also believe that all those miracles in the Bible can happen even today. Therefore, when we believe in Jesus Christ, we do not think of it as a religion. Christianity is not religious knowledge or religious rituals. We regard it as change in our life. Those who are hungry will be fed and those who are thirsty will drink and those who are sick will be healed. Changes come from death to life, from darkness to light, from nothing to something, and from failure to success. Therefore, Jesus came to us in human flesh and was torn in His flesh and shed His blood to give us this faith and died on the cross. We must accept Jesus in our hearts and read the Bible and pray and believe in the Holy Spirit, each of us will be changed! Jesus did not just say that we must believe in Him but sacrificed His life for us. John 6:53-58 says, “Jesus said to them, ‘I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your forefathers ate manna and died, but he who feeds on this bread will live forever.’ "