Holly and I recently finished the book Sun Stand Still. If you haven’t read it yet, we HIGHLY recommend you do so. It will give your faith a shot in the arm by reminding you of just how GOOD and how GREAT our God is. Below are key excerpts from the book that really stood out to us:

If you’re not daring to believe God for the impossible, you’re sleeping through some of the best parts of your Christian life. And further still: if the size of your vision for your life isn’t intimidating to you, there’s a good chance it’s insulting to God.

There’s nothing our world needs more desperately today— in individuals, families, businesses, churches, and communities— than God’s saving, supernatural acts. And he’s ready to act if we will be bold enough to ask, not just for a good day or a better life, but for the impossible.

You and I may not see the same miracles Joshua did, but we serve the same God. His nature never changes. The same power that stopped the sun and raised Christ from the grave lives in every believer. God still demonstrates his power and supplies his provision in direct proportion to the faith of his children.

God gives people the exact experiences he wants them to have in order to shape the specific destiny he’s designed for them.

It’s not wrong to feel fear. It is wrong to let that fear have the last word in your life. The people who accomplish the most astounding things for God’s glory aren’t the people who feel the least fear. Often they’re the ones who deal with the most intense fear. But instead of letting that fear disable their dreams, they start increasing their capacity for faith. They act on the part of God’s direction they do understand. And they leave the rest up to him.

To really pray with power and to trust Jesus radically, you need to consume as much of God’s Word as you possibly can. Increase your exposure to teaching and preaching about Jesus. Prioritize the presence of God in your daily life. That’s where the power of belief takes hold and the process of true faith begins.

Between the promise and the payoff there’s always a process. That process is where your audacious faith comes into play. Without the process, there is no progress. But the process is usually filled with pain. And if you don’t know how to process the process, you probably won’t make it to your promised land.

If you’re going to have the audacity to ask God for something, you’d better be ready to act. Audacious prayer must be tethered to practical obedience. Or else it’s not faith. It’s just wishful thinking and positive mental energy. No wonder so many of our prayers aren’t answered. We pray for a miracle, but we fail to make a move.

The ability to stay tuned in to what you’ve heard when you can’t see any proof is what separates audacious faith from wishful thinking.

When what you see around you doesn’t match up with what God has spoken inside you, you’ve got to hold on to what you’ve heard.

Hope is a desire. Faith is a demonstration. Hope wants it to happen. Faith causes it to happen and acts as if it’s already done. Faith is not content to want it really, really bad. Faith consults the drawings and gets busy building. Hope is the blueprint. Faith is the contractor.