Faith: Full Assurance in the Heart

This message was delivered by Nick Vujicic from the pulpit of the Crystal Cathedral. It was aired during the Hour of Power program on Hong Kong's ATV World Channel on 11 July 2010.

Today is all about faith. F-A-I-T-H. Faith stands for Full Assurance In The Heart. Faith is when you have full assurance in the heart, knowing the truth of who we are in Christ and the power of his resurrection living in us through his Holy Spirit. This is what I want to talk about today.

I don't know how many of you know about me. We have a ministry called Life Without Limbs, I'm an ordained evangelist, and now I'm associated with the Crystal Cathedral. That is huge, thank you to Dr. Schuller. It is an honor, really is an honor.

It is also an honor to be a child of God, to be a servant of the most-high King. I'm so joyful to report that last year, the Life Without Limbs ministry went across fourteen countries in just over ten weeks to reach out to half a million people. Ten countries, ten weeks, one hundred and ten engagements. And I met a king - the King of Ghana. I also met the president of Liberia. It's really cool, these kings in Africa. They have thrones and scepters. Everywhere we went, we were ambassadors of Christ. And we're all ambassadors of Christ. Amen? It's because we have full assurance in the heart that Christ is our Savior. That's faith.

In that faith, my parents had the strength to raise a son with no arms and no legs. I was born this way and no one had any clue that by the age of twenty-six that I'd be able to preach to three million people face to face. I'm so thankful to God that we've seen, so far, two hundred thousand first-time decisions for Christ that are being followed up by local churches.

And it's just amazing to be here with you and I pray that this is encouraging for you today. I want to talk about faith and courage because the reason I have accomplished things in my life, by the grace of God, is because I've had courage to try. You don't know what you can achieve until you try.

Fear is the biggest disability of all that stops us from trying - fear of uncertainty, fear of inadequacy, fear of not knowing what's around the corner, fear of not knowing if you're going to make it to the corner. We all have brokenness, and I want to give you an illustration. Here I'm on the edge of this table, and I look down - don't you think that I'd be a little bit scared to jump off it? Just a little bit? Then the fear grows stronger if I stay here for a longer time and I stare at that ground thinking, "Okay I'm ready, no, no, okay, now I'm ready." No matter how long I stay here, I will always have a fear that I have to overcome.

I've heard many preachers say that courage is not an absence of fear, but courage is what you do when you're afraid. That's what courage is. Courage is raising a baby without arms and legs. My mother took four months to come to terms with the fact that God allowed her son to be born without limbs. My parents were leaders of a church. They planted a church eleven months before I was born.

How can you have faith when you have fear? F-E-A-R. The acronym for fear that I've heard is "False Evidence Appearing Real." You face that false evidence and gain courage by faith that it's no longer I that lives, but Christ that lives in me. It's not by my strength that I can smile. It's not by my strength that I can thank God for what I have instead of being angry with him for what I do not have. That was not the strength of Nick Vujicic, but I stand before you as a miracle of God.

Many people, when they talk about faith, ask believers how they can believe in a God that allows bad things to happen, and it's a fair question. We all have questions like that. Many spend a lifetime learning, but never come to acknowledge the truth. You see, the truth is so important to acknowledge because the truth will set you free.

I am in vigorous pursuit of God because I know whatever I put my heart and mind to here on earth - a job, a career, a home, a family - that whatever I pursue here on earth to gain security is temporary. Everything but Jesus Christ is temporary. Everything but Jesus Christ is limited. You can be married and still feel alone. You can be rich yet be poorer in spirit than orphans I've seen in Africa. What is it that's missing?

It's faith. How do we get faith?

Trying to believe that God has a plan for a man without arms and legs - come on, are you serious? If you were at the bedside of my mum as she was giving birth to me and you said to her, "Don't worry, it's all good. Come on." Don't you think there was a little bit of fear there? Yes there was. Nevertheless, she trusted in the One who can do all things, the Giver of life, itself. She trusted in God.

The value of knowing Christ is greater than any temporary pleasure high or possession here on earth. Money can't heal a broken heart, but Jesus can. If I tell you that you have a choice to believe it or not, then see, I can't change your heart. I can't convince you to believe in Jesus. I'm an evangelist, yet I've never saved a soul in my life. I can't even save myself. It's the Holy Spirit, as you hear the Word this morning, that gives the gift of faith. For it comes by hearing the Word and then, by God's grace, making a commitment to walk and trust and pray and thank and grow and learn and love and hold on to our God who never fails. He will never fail you. It's a promise.

You might ask, "Well, Nick, how can I believe that?"

One of the first songs that I ever learned as a child, was "Jesus loves me, this I know…" Why? "For the Bible tells me so…" Man, that's all I have. That's all I need. By his grace, I believe. Faith - it's an amazing thing. Without my faith, I wouldn't be here. At age eight, I did not have faith; I did not find purpose. I felt that there was no meaning and there was no purpose in pursuing anything here on earth if everything is temporary and nothing can actually penetrate my heart. I could be crying on a friend's shoulder, but that's all they could do. They could only hold me but they couldn't understand me. However, Jesus can. The truth of knowing that tears are a language that God understands is the greatest comfort of all. That's why, today, I'm happy.

I was recently at The Brooklyn Tabernacle in New York, and one of the "sisters" was taking photo of me and the best word to describe her is "happiness." I'm thinking, "This is so cool."

What is happiness? What is it? It's when you know who God is in your life. It's the greatest purpose to live for. At age eight, I didn't have that purpose, I didn't have that hope, and I tried to give up in a bathtub. I tried to drown myself. Thank God that I'm still here. Thank God that at least one soul has seen this miracle. Not glory to me, not power to me, but all glory and all power to him.

In Psalm 37:3 it says, "Trust in the Lord and do good. Dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord. Trust in him and he will do this, he will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun. Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him." In the King James Version, it says "rest." Everybody say "rest." Rest is so great. Rest is so good. We get so busy digging holes trying to find things that are going to give us rest. And we never stop digging. If you never stop digging, you'll never find rest. When you stop, you find out that rest is not from down below, but from up above. That's what he's done for me. I've seen God in my life and I delight in him.

Who is Jesus for me? He is my King, he is my Savior, he is my Redeemer, and through his power, I become more than a conqueror. Who am I conquering? The devil and his lies, saying, "Nick you're not good enough. Nick this is too hard for you." No, by the Word of God, this is the sword of the Spirit that can break any chain of depression, any chain of addiction, any chain of loneliness. And he doesn't have to change a circumstance. This is God. This is who my friend is. His name's Jesus.

You may ask, "Nick, are you always happy?"

The answer is "No." Just ask my caregiver. Am I always happy, Brian? No. Do I wake up in the morning saying, "Hello, Brian, are we ready for the day?" No. Nevertheless, I delight myself in the Lord every day knowing that no matter what happens, he is with me. God can use this. If God doesn't give you a miracle, you are a miracle for someone else.

Can I share with you an amazing story? Last year I was speaking at a church in Orange County, California, and in the crowd was a little 19-month-old boy named Daniel. He had no arms and he had no legs except for a little foot down here, just like me. He was so cool. When we brought him up on stage, everything stopped. You could hear a pin drop. Why? Because it was a miracle. God let me go through this suffering, firstly, so I would need him, and, secondly, so he could use me to encourage other souls, like Daniel's family. I can imagine that his parents went through the exact same thing my parents went through. The doctors told them, "Your son may not walk. Your son may not go to school. If he needs a wheelchair, we have no idea what wheelchair will work. We are so sorry; we don't know what to do. We don't know of anybody else like him. You're alone."

That morning that I met Daniel, my parents had arrived on a plane from Australia to visit me in California where I now live. I saw them speaking with Daniel's mother, who later came up to me and said, "Nick when I hugged you for the first time, it felt like I was hugging my son twenty-four years later. You have no idea that I've been praying that God would send me a sign to let me know that he has not forgotten my son or me. You are a miracle. You are a miracle."

God can use all things if you, first of all, delight yourself in the Lord; delight in who he is to you.

Through the power of Christ, whatever Christ conquered, I can conquer. There are no other religious leaders ever in the history of humankind who pointed to themselves as divinity except Jesus Christ. Jesus was the only authority to forgive sin because he had no sin. No one who has sinned has that authority, but Jesus did for he was holy. He died on the cross, and whatever Jesus conquered, I will conquer. He conquered the grave; I'm going to conquer the grave. Jesus conquered the devil and the lies; I'm going to conquer the devil and the lies. Jesus is the foundation of all that I am. You take out my eyes, take out my nose, take out my tongue, take off my ears, but you'll never take away my Jesus.

Whether you believe me or not, by his grace, I hope that you do. Are you one who wants to believe, but just can't? Maybe this illustration will help:

People may say to me, "Nick, you have one foot."

I say, "Why do you say that?"

They say, "Because we can only see one foot."

People also say, "Nick, I don't really believe what you believe."

I say, "Why do you say that?"

They say, "Because I feel that your own faith determines your reality."

I say, "Faith is not about seeing; faith is not about feeling; faith is believing whether you see or not, whether you feel it or not."

I don't always feel like praising God, yet is God worthy of our praise? Yes. He is the greatest delight of my life and I can trust in him. Every human being has to come to terms with surrendering what happens to their soul after their last breath. My soul is in the hands of God. And the evidence of his Spirit in me gives me peace, love, and joy beyond compare. Without God, I am alone.

I don't know what you are going through today, but I know that he does. I know that he loves you and there is nothing that you can do or not do that would change God's love for you. He has such a plan for your life. And even though I don't understand what you're going through, I don't know your pain, just wait upon the Lord, and call upon him. Seek him and you'll find him. His grace is sufficient. If money holds your world up, today it may crumble. However, if you let Jesus hold your world up, today he will lift you up and never fail you.

Say this prayer with me: "Lord God, I need you. I can't do this on my own. I want to know you more. Help me to trust you, help me to believe in you, and help me to rest in your arms. Father, I ask that your Holy Spirit would touch every person who has heard this message this morning around the world. They may be experiencing depression, sadness, or loss. We thank you, God, that you are with us and will never leave us. In Jesus' name, Amen.

© Copyright Hour of Power 2009. This message was delivered by Nick Vujicic from the pulpit of the Crystal Cathedral and aired on the Hour of Power, March 15, 2009.