Kingdom Faith: Calling Those Things That Are Not as Though They Were

Kingdom faith is faith that comes from the heart, not the head, and it lifts a believer above the drag and gravity of this corrupted world. In this first message of the series, the pastor teaches that God has already given us our inheritance, and that we take hold of it by calling those things that are not as though they were, the same way God taught Abraham to do.

Below you will find the full video, a structured summary of the sermon, the Scripture behind each point (linked to the New King James Version on Bible Gateway), the Hebrew and Greek words he explains, a timestamped outline and practical steps you can take this week.

Sermon at a Glance

This message opens a new series at NTC Ministries and was posted on January 17, 2022. It runs about 72 minutes. The pastor has just finished a series on matters of the heart, and he builds directly on it: faith is the production of our hearts. Whatever is in your head can be stolen or destroyed, he says, but what is in your heart cannot.

He gives the message its own title, calling those things that are not as though they were, and works through Romans 4 and the life of Abraham to show how it works. He closes with an invitation to receive Jesus as Lord.

Two Kingdoms: God Is Good, Satan Is Bad

The pastor begins with two kingdoms. Jesus said to give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s (Matthew 22:21), acknowledging that we live in both. But our home is in heaven. We are pilgrims passing through, called to show forth the praises of Him who called us out of darkness into His marvelous light (1 Peter 2:9), and to declare the kingdom of heaven in this earth.

His foundation is simple and unchanging: God is good and Satan is bad, and there is no variance. Every good gift comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning (James 1:17). Every bad thing comes from the corruption in this earth. The world system, he says, is not here to help you but to put you in bondage.

Debt is his example. The borrower is servant to the lender (Proverbs 22:7). He tells those in the church who have become debt free that their liberty is more than a few extra dollars; it is an inner freedom. Israel lived 400 years in Egypt and did not understand freedom until they were free, and then had to learn to live by God’s principles.

God is also greater than all evil. It is not a wrestling match, he says; the Lord destroyed the devil’s weapons, and all he has left is lies. That is why we cast down imaginations and bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5). It is not bad people, he says, “it’s just a bad devil.”

The Aerodynamics of Kingdom Faith

Many Christians, the pastor says, believe they will receive their inheritance one day in heaven and must simply suffer through this life. He grants that there is a fellowship in Christ’s sufferings, which he defines as persecution from a world that opposes us. But Jesus said He came that we may have life, and have it more abundantly (John 10:10). “The scripture didn’t say I come to give you life eventually.”

To show how believers rise above the world’s pull, he turns to aerodynamics. There are four forces: gravity and drag, thrust and lift. Get enough thrust and an aircraft breaks through the drag and lifts above gravity. He describes planes carrying hundreds of people flying at six or seven hundred miles an hour. That, he says, is what God wants for us.

Most Christians complain about the drag and the gravity and never get any thrust. God promises that those who wait on Him will mount up with wings like eagles (Isaiah 40:31), but many never study how that happens. God said His people are destroyed for lack of knowledge (Hosea 4:6). Applying the Word lifts us above what Paul calls the beggarly elements of the world (Galatians 4:9).

Jesus went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil (Acts 10:38), and as He is, so are we in this world (1 John 4:17). So do not put it off. Now is the day of salvation (2 Corinthians 6:2). If you do not see results, act again the next minute, and the next, until the thrust lifts you.

Altitude also changes what you see. From a plane you see farther than from a car. Whoever lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness (2 Peter 1:9), but those who apply them see far off and know the goodness of God ahead of them.

Confession Is the Thrust

In Psalm 27:13, David says he would have lost heart unless he had believed that he would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Not in the sweet by and by, the pastor stresses, but here. The spiritual heart is a factory that produces good or bad depending on what we allow into it. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty (2 Corinthians 3:17), and we walk by faith, not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7).

He notes that in the first and second centuries Christianity was called the great confession, because believers understood the importance of what we speak. Romans 10:9–10 says that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. That, he says, is the thrust and the lift: reading the promises, seeing them, declaring them, until life rises from the heart.

He faces the same problems as everyone else, he admits, but he does not see them the way the world does. Some people only ever prophesy what the devil is doing. Only a third of the angels fell, he reminds the church; two-thirds remain, and the kingdom of heaven is far greater. Those who only see corruption have the wrong fuel in them.

He then explains two Hebrew words for hand. One describes the enemy’s hand that holds you down, which he likens to his father’s warning, “watch it or I’ll cuff you.” The other, yad, is a hand that reaches out to help. When Peter began to sink, Jesus reached out His hand and lifted him (Matthew 14:28–31). God’s hand is not holding you back; He is drawing you with love into a stronger, more prosperous place.

Jesus, he adds, is either a stumbling block or a stepping stone. That is how God’s will moves from the pages of the Bible into our marriages, families and jobs. Begging God to do what He told us to do is like a child who says, “Mom, you do it,” when told to clean their room.

Abraham and the Promise of Many Nations

The heart of the sermon is Romans 4:13–18. The promise that Abraham would be heir of the world came not through the law but through the righteousness of faith. Faith and grace, not faith and law, is how we live. If blessing were payment for good works, the pastor says, the next mistake would cost you everything. God gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did, and Abraham, contrary to hope, in hope believed.

He traces the story from the start. Under the curse of Genesis 3:17–19, the ground brought toil, thorns and thistles. Then in Genesis 12:1–4, God called Abram out at 75 and promised to make him a great nation, to bless him and to bless all the families of the earth through him. God wanted His blessing to overtake Abram and lift him out of the earth’s curse system.

By Genesis 13:1–2, Abram was very rich in livestock, silver and gold. In Genesis 14 he took the servants of his household, rescued Lot and recovered the spoil (Genesis 14:14–24). He refused the king of Sodom’s offer so no one could say a man made him rich, and gave a tenth to Melchizedek, whom the pastor calls a type and shadow of Jesus Christ.

But one promise this world could not deliver: two people past the age of having children. In Genesis 15:1–6, God told Abram to look toward heaven and count the stars. “So shall your descendants be.” Abram believed the Lord, and it was counted to him for righteousness. The stars, the pastor notes, are beyond our ability to count, just as God is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us (Ephesians 3:20–21).

That power is already at work in us, he insists. Jesus is seated at the Father’s right hand until His enemies are made His footstool (Psalm 110:1). A pilot, he says from his own experience, cannot just sit in the plane and tell it to go; there are things he must do, and do right, or it will not fly.

A New Name to Say Every Day

The pastor says he has learned, as a school principal over 30 years, that discipline is training, not punishment. He recalls being taught in the Navy to march left, right, left, right until it became how he walked. In the same way, for 24 years God trained Abram, but nothing happened, because there was something Abram and Sarai were not doing.

So God changed their names. In Genesis 17:1–6, when Abram was 99, God said, “I have made you a father of many nations.” Note the tense, the pastor says: it was already done in God’s mind. Abram, exalted father, became Abraham, father of a multitude. In Genesis 17:15–16, Sarai became Sarah, a mother of nations.

From then on, every time Abraham introduced himself or someone called his name, he heard “father of a multitude.” Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God (Romans 10:17). After 24 years of nothing, within a year Isaac was born, because Abraham was calling those things that are not as though they were, just as God does.

The pastor applies it: I am not denying my sickness; I am declaring that He has forgiven all my sins, healed all my diseases and crowned my life with lovingkindness, so my youth is renewed like the eagle’s (Psalm 103:3–5). God has chosen the foolish and the things which are not to bring to nothing the things that are (1 Corinthians 1:27–28).

So command debt to leave in the name of Jesus, he says, and declare that wealth and riches are in your house (Psalm 112:3). Saying it once is not enough. Keep at it until the thrust becomes so great that you defy the laws of the world.

Speak to the Mountain

Jesus showed the same principle with a fig tree. He cursed it in Mark 11:14, and the next morning Peter saw it dried up from the roots (Mark 11:20–23). Jesus answered, have faith in God: whoever says to this mountain, be removed and cast into the sea, and does not doubt in his heart, will have whatever he says.

The pastor contrasts this with people who only say “God heal me, I’m sick.” Even the demons believe and tremble (James 2:19). “I don’t want devil faith, I want Jesus faith.” By your words you will be justified or condemned (Matthew 12:37). God is not in control of everything that happens, he says; He is in charge. It is His will that all be saved (1 Timothy 2:4), yet not all are, because we have free will.

Giving works the same way. Give, and it will be given to you, good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over (Luke 6:38). After you give, the pastor says, declare that it is given to you. He testifies that when he could no longer take a salary, people from around the world contacted him to give, and his mortgage and taxes were paid. Without faith it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6).

To those who say this is lying, he answers with a lost dog. Nobody stands on the porch shouting “dog gone.” They call, “Here, Fido,” and keep calling until he comes. In Luke 17:5–6, when the apostles asked for more faith, Jesus said faith like a mustard seed could tell a mulberry tree to be uprooted, and it would obey you. It is not the amount of faith, he says, but what you do with it.

He closes with Isaiah 53:5, by His stripes we are healed, and with the words he says Romans 10 uses. The table below gathers the original-language words he explains.

Living Kingdom Faith This Week

The pastor reminds the church of the written confessions he prepared for healing, deliverance, marriage and children, and points to Ephesians 4:29: let no corrupt word come out of your mouth, only what builds up and imparts grace. Here are the practical steps drawn from this kingdom faith message:

• Feed your heart, not just your head. Read and hear the promises until they become the production of your heart.
• Cast down the lies. When a thought contradicts God’s goodness, reject it rather than rehearsing it.
• Speak the finished work. Thank God that by His stripes you have been healed, instead of begging Him to heal you.
• Call what is not there. Like Abraham with his new name, declare God’s promise daily and keep calling until it comes.
• Declare after you give. Once you have given, thank God that it is given back to you, pressed down and running over.
• Keep the thrust going. If results are slow, act again the next minute; saying it once is not the end.

Timestamped Outline

• 0:01 A new series: faith from the heart
• 1:16 Pilgrims in two kingdoms
• 2:32 The bondage of debt
• 5:07 God is greater than all evil
• 7:19 Abundant life now, not someday
• 8:30 The four forces of aerodynamics
• 11:11 Destroyed for lack of knowledge
• 13:25 Calling those things that are not
• 14:30 Psalm 27:13: the goodness of the Lord
• 17:09 Romans 10: confession is the thrust
• 19:44 Two Hebrew words for hand
• 22:13 Jesus lifts Peter from the water
• 24:31 Romans 4: heir through faith
• 29:17 God calls things that do not exist
• 31:36 The curse and the call of Abram
• 34:50 Rescuing Lot and the tithe
• 37:00 Genesis 15: count the stars
• 39:09 Ephesians 3: above all we ask
• 42:53 The withered fig tree: Mark 11
• 46:23 In charge, not in control
• 48:56 Genesis 17: new names
• 53:41 Faith comes by hearing
• 1:00:12 Giving and the lost dog
• 1:02:37 Faith as a mustard seed
• 1:05:54 Kurios, sozo and soteria
• 1:09:42 Prayer of salvation

Kingdom Faith Series

This is the first message in a six-part teaching series at NTC Ministries. Continue with the next one:

• You are here: Kingdom Faith: Calling Those Things That Are Not as Though They Were
• Next: Kingdom Faith #2: Confession Leads to Possession

Frequently Asked Questions

Is calling those things that are not the same as denying reality?

No. The pastor says plainly that we do not deny the corruption of the world or the sickness in front of us. We declare what God has already done, even when the physical eyes cannot see it yet. Abraham did not deny he was childless; he started saying the name God gave him, father of a multitude, because in God’s mind it was already done.

Why did God change Abram’s name?

The pastor teaches that God had already promised and made Abram a father of many nations, but 24 years passed with nothing, because Abram and Sarai were not saying what God said. Changing their names forced them to speak the promise every time they introduced themselves or were called. Hearing it again and again built faith, and within a year Isaac was born.

How long should I keep confessing a promise?

As long as it takes. The pastor says it might take a year or two, and that does not matter; you simply do what God says. He compares it to calling a lost dog: you keep calling “here, Fido” until he comes. Saying it once is not enough. You keep it up until the thrust lifts you above the situation.

Scripture References

All passages open in the New King James Version on Bible Gateway:

• Romans 4:13–18 — calling things that do not exist
• Romans 10:9–10 — confess with your mouth
• Genesis 15:1–6 — count the stars
• Genesis 17:1–6 — Abram becomes Abraham
• Mark 11:20–23 — speak to the mountain
• Luke 17:5–6 — faith as a mustard seed
• Psalm 27:13 — the goodness of the Lord
• Isaiah 40:31 — wings like eagles
• John 10:10 — life more abundantly

How this summary was made: written with AI assistance from the sermon’s own transcript and checked against the Scriptures listed above.

Watch More Messages

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