Heb.
11:6 "But without faith it is impossible to please Him"
1 Peter
1:7 “These have come so that your faith--of greater worth than gold, which
perishes even though refined by fire--may be proved genuine and may result in
praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.”
Hebrews
11:1-39 “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we
do not see.”
Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary describes faith in this
way: “11:1-3 Faith always has been
the mark of God's servants, from the beginning of the world. Where the
principle is planted by the regenerating Spirit of God, it will cause the truth
to be received, concerning justification by the sufferings and merits of
Christ. And the same things that are the object of our hope, are the object of
our faith. It is a firm persuasion and expectation, that God will perform all he
has promised to us in Christ. This persuasion gives the soul to enjoy those
things now; it gives them a subsistence or reality in the soul, by the
first-fruits and foretastes of them. Faith proves to the mind, the reality of
things that cannot be seen by the bodily eye. It is a full approval of all God
has revealed, as holy, just, and good. This view of faith is explained by many
examples of persons in former times, who obtained a good report, or an
honourable character in the word of God. Faith was the principle of their holy
obedience, remarkable services, and patient sufferings. The Bible gives the
most true and exact account of the origin of all things, and we are to believe
it, and not to wrest the Scripture account of the creation, because it does not
suit with the differing fancies of men. All that we see of the works of
creation, were brought into being by the command of God.”
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When I started going through the wilderness with God, there are
times I truly did not know what to do and I needed help figuring out my next
step. As I went through this process, I understood Abraham’s decision to go to Egypt
As I was seeking help to understand how to move forward with God,
I went to three different leaders of the Church (two were elders) on three completely
separate occasions I got the same scripted answer every single time. The answer
was for me to start doing stuff, choose between the choices that I have and pray
God to block my way if He does not want this for me. In their defence I have to
say most of the pastors all throughout the internet, the mega television
evangelists and many more out there have all used this analogy. What is strange
is that I have seen pastors who have solid faith in God also used this analogy.
Sometimes, I am not sure if they use it because they want to please more people
out there or if it is due to the lack of experiencing God. Either way, God
taught me that this way is wrong on so many levels, I would need to write a
specific post to talk about it.
About 18 months after
I left the Church, the guy who led me to Christ invited me to work with him in
church planting. As I went there to investigate things I was already on my
fourth year in the wilderness and I was still waiting for God’s leading before
getting involved in any kind of big venture. While I did not ignore any opportunity offered
to me, but I always left it to God to make the call. So, I was talking to two
people that I met and these people were already involved in the Church planting
ministry, they were trying their best to entice me. I started explaining to
them how I am waiting for God to show me where exactly He wants to use me
before I make a commitment to any project. One of the past elder of the Church
that I left behind, interject himself in the conversation as if because of his
status he had something that I did not have. So, he interrupted us to tell me
how wrong I was to wait for God to make decision for me and that we are given common
sense and we ought to use it. Somehow he thought this would be a big finale as
he stood there, and said: “there is nothing wrong with using common sense along
with God.” – I did not say a single word and since the people I was talking to
did not know Him, no one made any comments.
What this guy did not know is that years prior to this encounter
with him, God showed me how disobedient
he was and how in spite of everything that God put Him through, (believe me
when I tell you he was going through a lots of trials in his life) God was not
able to get this guy to a place where he would stop and think in the spirit
before making the numerous decisions He made in order to go forward with God. As
God is my witness I am telling you the truth. At one point God showed me so
much about this guy, I wrote an email to my Bible group leader and explained
all that I have been seeing and how deep this guy disobedience was getting with
God. I received an email back saying “you cannot confront him.” I replied back
that was not my intention. You see, the
reason I sent the email to my group leader was because they were all part of
the same leadership consortium and I was hoping that someone in the leadership
would get hold of what was going on and perhaps come alongside of this guy at
one point. Did I handle it wrong? YES BIG TIME.
This was during the time God used to show me things about people
and I did not know I was supposed to pray for them. Nevertheless God always
sustains me when I get bad advice from people and He always walk alongside of
me to make sure I stay the course. Walking
in the Spirit is so essential to our Christian faith. This ex Church elder
never realized that his walk with God is the equivalent of the Israelites walk
of faith that we find when reading 1 & 2 Kings. We find that many kings
failed because they could not bring themselves to the point of destroying the
high places their predecessors erected. So, they have learned to worship God on
their terms. (Man’s way) If we say we believe in Scripture, then we have to
believe that God recorded these things about the high places in 1 & 2 Kings
for a reason. While we might not have
high places in the same way, today’s Christians have to deal with high places
in their hearts.
The truth is, when
it comes to faith we can’t be satisfied with words we repeat like in Hebrews 11:1
“Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do
not see.” We have to learn to live
diligently as we are told so that we can grasp the opportunities that God bring
into our lives to get us there and to test us. Yes we find solace and great joy
in repeating those words, but God wants us to take them one step further by
allowing Him to work them out in us. That’s what’s pleasing to Him.
