From Faith to Faith Strength to Strength and Glory to Glory # 4

Faith Strength Glory Overview

In this fourth installment of the series ‘From Faith to Faith, Strength to Strength, and Glory to Glory,’ the pastor explores the progressive nature of spiritual growth and what it truly means to walk with God beyond a one-time conversion experience. Drawing on Romans 1:16-17, Psalm 84:4-7, James 1:2-4, and John 17:20-23, the message distinguishes between the legal side of redemption — everything believers already possess in Christ — and the practical side, which requires active faith, obedience, and a prepared heart to bring those realities into daily life. A central theme is the concept of ’tilling up the fallow ground,’ drawn from Jeremiah 4:1-4, which calls believers to break up the hardened, uncultivated places of the heart so the Word of God can take root and produce lasting fruit. The pastor uses vivid personal illustrations, including a supernatural inheritance, a prophetic instruction to dance in his office, and the story of Smith Wigglesworth, to demonstrate how obedience unlocks God’s glory. The message is a pastoral exhortation to stop relying on human strength and instead cultivate a heart ready to receive God’s transforming presence, so that His glory becomes practically manifest in every believer’s life.

Faith Strength Glory Outline

• 0:00 – Series Introduction and Context: The pastor reintroduces the ongoing series and explains that spiritual growth is a progression God takes every believer through, from faith to faith, strength to strength, and glory to glory.
• 7:30 – Praise, Worship, and Inner Transformation: Drawing from Psalm 95:6 and Psalm 8:2, the pastor distinguishes between praise and worship, showing how worship — knowing who God truly is — produces lasting inner peace, joy, and the fruit of the Holy Spirit.
• 16:00 – Legal vs. Practical Redemption: Using the illustration of an unexpected inheritance, the pastor explains that while every believer legally possesses all things in Christ, there is a practical side requiring active faith and obedience to bring those realities into present experience.
• 26:00 – Faith Comes by Hearing Again and Again: Referencing Romans 10:17 and Romans 1:16-17, the message emphasizes that faith is built through repeated exposure to God’s Word, and that God brings revelation — not intellectual self-convincing — to those who keep sowing the Word into their hearts.
• 36:00 – Strength to Strength Through Trial: The pastor unpacks Psalm 84:4-7, James 1:2-4, and 1 Peter 1:6-8, showing that the valley of weeping can be made a well when the heart is properly oriented toward God, and that trials tested and endured in faith produce patience and completeness.
• 46:00 – Glory to Glory and John 17: From 2 Corinthians 3:18 and John 17:20-23, the pastor reveals that Jesus prayed for every believer to share in His glory, so that the world would not merely hear about God but experience His presence through believers who are one with Christ.
• 55:00 – Tilling Up the Fallow Ground: Drawing from Jeremiah 4:1-4, the pastor defines fallow ground as idle, uncultivated, and unproductive places in the heart. He calls believers to break up this ground through genuine repentance so the Word of God can produce righteousness and God’s glory can flow through their lives.
• 1:04:00 – Obedience, Repentance, and Purification: Using 1 Peter 1:22-23 and Philippians 3:7, the pastor challenges believers to count their self-reliance as loss, sow the seeds of repentance into a prepared heart, and trust God’s strength rather than their own to produce lasting change and transformation.
• 1:10:00 – Closing Exhortation and Call to Action: The pastor closes by urging the congregation to make a genuine commitment: to choose God over the many distractions of life, till up the fallow ground of their hearts, and position themselves to carry His glory as a tangible, experiential presence to the world around them.

Scripture References

Psalm 95:6, Psalm 8:2, Romans 1:16-17, Romans 10:17, Psalm 84:4-7, James 1:2-4, 1 Peter 1:6-8, 2 Corinthians 3:18, John 17:4-5, John 17:20-23, Isaiah 42, Isaiah 48, 2 Corinthians 5:21, 1 Samuel 2:8, Jeremiah 4:1-4, Philippians 3:7, 1 Peter 1:22-23, Ephesians 2:8-9, Galatians 6:7-10, 1 Timothy 6:12

Key Takeaways

• Every believer legally possesses all things in Christ at salvation, but there is a practical side of redemption that requires active faith, obedience, and a prepared heart to experience those realities in daily life.
• Worship goes beyond thanking God for what He does — it is a deep acknowledgment of who He is, and it is in truly knowing God that lasting transformation takes place in the soul.
• Fallow ground in the heart — areas that are idle, hardened, and uncultivated — must be broken up through genuine repentance before the Word of God can take root and produce the fruit of the Spirit.
• Faith grows not by intellectual effort or self-convincing but by continuously sowing God’s Word into the heart until God Himself brings revelation, just as Peter received revelation about who Jesus truly is.
• Trials are not sent by God to harm believers but are allowed to develop patience, which has a perfect work — bringing what is legally ours in redemption into practical, lived experience.
• Jesus prayed in John 17 that every believer would share in His glory, and God’s design is for that glory to rest upon His people so visibly that those around them experience His presence without needing an explanation.
• Obedience to God is always better than sacrifice — choosing to do what God asks, even when it feels small or foolish, is the key that unlocks the practical manifestation of redemption in a believer’s life.

Faith Strength Glory Notes

Two Sides of Redemption Explained

One of the most clarifying teachings in this message is the distinction between the legal side and the practical side of redemption. Legally, every born-again believer has received everything God has to offer — healing, peace, righteousness, provision — the moment they placed faith in Christ. Paul confirms in Romans 8 that God who did not withhold His own Son will freely give us all things. Yet many Christians live far below what has been provided for them. The practical side requires believers to actively engage through faith, obedience, and a cultivated heart so that what is already theirs in the spirit becomes tangibly real in their everyday circumstances.

The Inheritance Illustration That Clarifies Everything

The pastor shares a powerful personal story about his wife receiving an unexpected inheritance from a distant relative she could barely remember. A letter arrived confirming the inheritance, and legally the money was already theirs. Yet until they completed every required step — proving identity, satisfying probate court requirements — the money remained inaccessible. This illustration perfectly captures the Christian life: God’s promises are already yours, but there are steps of faith, obedience, and heart preparation required before those promises become usable in your hands. It is not about earning what God has given, but about meeting the conditions that release what is already legally settled.

Breaking Up Fallow Ground Through Repentance

Jeremiah 4:3 commands believers to break up the fallow ground of their hearts and not sow among thorns. Fallow ground represents the hardened, uncultivated, and unproductive areas of a person’s inner life — places where self-reliance, unresolved sin, or spiritual dryness have made the soil unable to receive God’s Word effectively. The pastor draws a sharp parallel: sowing seeds of repentance into an unprepared heart produces nothing, just as seed thrown into a thorn bush cannot grow. True repentance is not merely repeating an apology but allowing God to dig into the heart, tender the soil, and make space for His Word to take deep root and flourish.

God’s Glory Made Tangible Through Believers

Jesus prayed in John 17 that the glory the Father gave Him would be given to His disciples — and not just those present with Him physically, but every person who would ever believe through their word. This means every believer today is included in that prayer. The glory of God is not meant to remain an abstract theological concept but is intended to rest upon believers so practically and visibly that those around them experience the presence of God without needing explanation. The pastor references Smith Wigglesworth, whose presence alone caused an entire train car of religious people to fall to the ground in conviction, as an example of what God’s glory on a prepared life looks like in practice.

Strength to Strength in the Valley of Weeping

Psalm 84:5-7 describes those whose strength is in the Lord passing through the valley of Baka — a valley of weeping and difficulty — and making it a well. This is the essence of going from strength to strength: it is not that believers avoid hard seasons, but that with God as their source, even the driest and most painful places become a source of refreshing. The pastor is careful to clarify that trials are not orchestrated by God but are the work of the enemy, and that the believer’s role is to submit to God and resist the devil, trusting that patient endurance will perfect and complete what faith has begun.

Commitment Over Comfort in Modern Life

The pastor closes with a sobering observation drawn from African pastors serving immigrant congregations in the United States. Believers who once walked for three days to attend a prayer meeting and gave their only shoes as an offering became inconsistent church attenders within six months of arriving in America — not because they loved God less, but because the abundance of options diluted their commitment. The application is pointed and personal: the Christian life demands a genuine, daily choice to prioritize God above the endless alternatives modern life presents. Tilling up fallow ground begins with an honest decision to choose obedience over comfort, every single day.

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