Renew Your Strength God’s Way (Full Sermon)

Many people, especially young people, find themselves quickly tired in modern life, often due to addiction to screens. If your reliance is solely on youthfulness or natural strength, disappointment is inevitable, as the Bible teaches that even the youth shall faint and be weary, and young men shall utterly fall.

The ultimate answer and God’s way for believers is to embrace their identity as supernatural people. The promise is clear: “Those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength”.

The Principle of Renewal: Changing Your Strength

The Hebrew word for “renew” in this context literally means “change” (halap). This waiting on the Lord is an art. It involves exchanging natural strength, which has an expiry date, for God’s ceaseless strength. If you work expecting rest, your rest will often only be recovery; God’s holy paradigm dictates that man enters into rest first, spiritually speaking, then works effectively with boundless energy.

When you learn to wait on the Lord, you will run and not be weary, and walk and not faint. Furthermore, you will “mount up with wings like eagles,” symbolizing a strength—like the renewal of youth—that lifts you above your natural limitations.

The Key to Waiting: Silence and Beholding Jesus

The key element in waiting upon the Lord is silence. This practice is a crucial time to receive supernatural strength.

This silence is paired with beholding the glory of Jesus. As stated in 2 Corinthians 3:18, “We all with unveiled face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even by the Spirit of the Lord”.

How to achieve this beholding:

1. Come to the Lord and rest: Sit down, relax, and focus on Jesus.
2. Be quiet: Avoid talking too much, as human speech can interrupt the flow of beholding.
3. Trust the Holy Spirit: As you focus on Jesus, the Holy Spirit takes over and begins to “paint the picture” of the real Jesus, His kindness, and compassion. This is not merely imagination.

After this period of silent waiting, there is a strength that was previously absent. Believers are encouraged to “just see and just rest”.

Understanding Your Supernatural Identity

Many people are raised in a culture that prioritizes logic, mind development, and scientific deduction. Consequently, they limit their potential by operating only based on what they can logically deduce or see physically (“If I can’t see it, I won’t believe it”). However, the Word of God is infallible, unlike science, which is prone to change and contradiction.

To realize full potential, believers must understand their true, supernatural composition:

1. You are a spirit (the real you, made in God’s image). The spirit is created in righteousness and true holiness in Christ Jesus.
2. You have a soul (mind, will, and emotions). When you feel despair or depression, that is your feeling (of the soul), but it does not define the real you (the spirit). The soul is being restored and renewed.
3. You live in a body (referred to as a “tabernacle” or house). The body is not naturally righteous.

It is essential to reject the mentality that tangible matter is more real than the spiritual, as matter changes, ages, and decays, while the spirit is eternal.

Faith: The Currency of Heaven

Faith is essential in the life of a believer. Receiving anything from God—including healing—is done by faith.

Key facts about faith:

• Currency of Heaven: Faith is the “currency of heaven”. Just as a QR code or special payment allows access to goods, showing God your faith causes Him to dispense “heavenly goods”.
• Zeroing In: Faith causes God to “zero in” on the person who possesses it, even in a great multitude, as seen when Jesus responded to the woman who touched the hem of his garment.
• Pleasing God: The greatest thing that pleases the Father is faith. While character development is important, without faith it is impossible to please God.
• Purification: Hearts are purified by faith (Acts 15), not through self-effort.
• The Power of Amen: The Hebrew root word for “Amen” (imuna) is faith. When a believer says “Amen” to God’s promises, they are declaring it to be truth, and the promise manifests in their life, bringing glory to God.

Operating by Sight: Seeing What the Father Does

To walk in the spirit and receive direction, believers should follow the example set by Jesus. When Jesus healed the man at the Pool of Bethesda (who had been lame for 38 years—a duration symbolizing Israel’s wandering under judgment), He healed only one person out of a large multitude. Jesus clarified this method of operation by stating, “The Son can do nothing of himself… but what He sees the Father do”.

This “seeing” means God often communicates through pictures or spiritual visions.

• New Covenant Guidance: The New Covenant indicates that God will write His laws upon our dianoia (imagination), rather than just our dialogismos (logic).
• Prophets as Seers: Prophets of the Old Testament were also called “seers,” emphasizing that seeing direction is a primary way God speaks.
• Avoiding Distractions: The Lord constantly speaks through these pictures and thoughts, but people often dismiss them as distracting thoughts or mere imagination.
• Discerning Pictures: God’s pictures are always “ennobling” and bless people. Conversely, the enemy places pictures based on the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, or the pride of life (seeking attention or material gain based on covetousness or vanity).
• Obedience Brings Power: When the Father shows a picture of something to be done (e.g., talking to a child or being generous), acting on that vision brings “strength” and “grace” for execution. If a believer is not obedient to the small things God shows, they cannot be shown the “greater works”.