What happens when we exercise our faith? That’s easy, it gets ________.

Increasing your faith- There is a scripture given in Luke where the disciples asked the Lord to increase their faith.

Luke 17:5 And the apostles said unto the Lord, _________ our faith.
Find the answer in the textbook and read the scripture in your KJV.  Click the correct answer in the following list.

    What do you think the Lord did in response to their request? Did He stand tall and ominous looking in front of them? Hold one hand high over their heads and contract and twist His fingers into clawlike shapes like we see the actors do in the portrayals of Him in the Hollywood movies? Did He pronounce the words in a sonorous voice, "I COMMAND YOUR FAITH TO INCREASE!!" And as the omnipotent God, Creator of the universe and all that is in it, did strength and power flow from Him to them with a light as of a thermonuclear explosion and the sound of a thousand thunderclaps? Did the shear force of the energy flowing from Him cause them to momentarily shrivel and then begin to shine back with a glow like that around the core of a nuclear power plant? And in the end did that energy distort their images as the light coming from them bent and shimmered from the superheated air around them? Then as the phenomenon mellowed did the energy they had absorbed settle and center around their heads like the circles seen around the heads of Mary and Jesus and the Saints in a medieval painting as their faith, now increased to world shaking and miracle performing size, could not be contained completely in their mere human bodies but shone forth for all to see?? Sounds good doesn’t it. If I wanted to go back to work for the devil, which by the grace of God I will never do, I could probably sell that phoney-baloney story to Hollywood so they could turn it into another lie about Christ to mix with the thousands they have already propagated. They could easily foist it off on an anti-God world that is ever ready to gobble up such mixtures of scripture and science-fiction. Probably could be worth millions, don’t you think? Well, if you have read your Bibles at all you already know baloney when you hear it. At least when it’s stacked that high. Let’s see what Jesus really did.

 Click on the correct answers in the yellow boxes.

Lk 17:5 And the apostles said unto the Lord, _______ our faith.

Lk 17:6 If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should _____ you.
Read the scripture in your KJV and click the correct answer in the following list.

3. Then He told them a story that shows that the servant should serve the master, not the master serve the servant.

Lk 17:7 But which of you, having a ________ plowing or feeding cattle, will say unto him by and by, when he is come from the field, Go and sit down to meat? And will not rather say unto him, Make ready wherewith I may sup, and gird thyself, and serve me, till I have eaten and drunken; and afterward thou shalt eat and drink?
Read the scripture in your KJV and click the correct answer in the following list.

    What is the context of this passage? A request by the Apostles for an increase of faith. The application of this story to their request can be found in the textbook.  Read it! The idea being given here is: faith is your servant, not the other way around. You tell faith what to do, when to do it, where to do it, and when it must work and when it can rest. It must serve you unfailingly, and that is merely its duty as a servant.

Lk 17:9 Doth he ______ that servant because he did the
             things that were commanded him? I trow not.
Read the scripture in your KJV and click the correct answer in the following list.

    Finally Christ tells them that faith is like an unprofitable servant in that it will only do what it is told to do. It will not grow and expand into new work on its own initiative, it has none. Your initiative is its only initiative. If you give faith new things to do it will accomplish those things; but it will not go beyond the tasks you set for it. If you want it to increase then give it more things to do. Otherwise you both will stagnate. We are told to strive toward the perfection of Christ; not tread water in the middle of some spiritual lake. If you tread water long enough you will begin to sink. Your faith is the same way. That only makes sense because it is a part of you. As the part goes, so goes the whole.

    The idea here is that they are expected to use the faith they already have. That will help it to grow and expand, on their own, by their usage of it.

Analogies- If you want your faith increased then go about increasing its sphere of action. I will illustrate this for you with several simple analogies.

    According to Luke 17:6, you have an amount of faith sufficient to perform any task. To do so is as simple as setting the faith to task so that the task is enclosed in the sphere of action of the faith.

    How about one more. Maybe you want faith to bring about an increase in some particular ministry. An analogy for that one would be: If you want the crops to grow then you have to give them water.

    Faith is yours to command just like a channel; in this case however, we are calling the channel by its country name- a ditch.

Summary- That was a long and detailed dissection of the scripture. It and the analogies given to help understand it may have seemed complicated but they can be summed up quite easily and briefly. Christ taught that if you want your faith to increase- then use it. Tell it what to do and it will do it. The more you use it the more it will increase. The wider you open the flood gates of prayer and the more directions you extend faith out to reach various areas of your Christian life and ministry, the more of God’s power will flow through the channel. The more you want it to increase in its sphere of action the more you have to use it; that’s what will enable it to grow. Like every talent and ability that God gives you- you must "Use it or Lose it!" If it is not being forced to become stronger, then eventually it will stagnate and begin getting weaker.

Read the Textbook, we're now on p. 38, and click the correct answers in the yellow boxes.