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Episode 087--This Thing Called Faith

Faith is foundational on our Spirit-Led Transformation journeys. Without it, we have no transformation. Without it we cannot be Spirit-led. So what just what is faith and how do we know if we are really living our lives based on faith?

I\\u2019m a words person, so let\\u2019s see what the dictionary says faith is. First definition is \\u201ccomplete trust or confidence in someone or something.\\u201d Second definition says it is a strong belief in God.

Hebrews 11:1-2 has long been the go-to verse to explain faith. In NIV is says, \\u201cNow faith is confidence in what we hope for\\xa0and assurance about what we do not see.\\xa0This is what the ancients were commended for.\\u201d But we read that and say what does that mean?

To help us understand better, let\\u2019s read this scripture the Amplified Bible, which has a way of explaining things better.

It says, \\u201cFaith is the assurance, title deed, confirmation, of things hoped for or divinely guaranteed, and the evidence of things not seen or the conviction of their reality. Faith comprehends as fact what cannot be experienced by the physical senses.\\xa0For by this kind of faith the\\xa0men (and women) of old gained divine approval.\\u201d

Remember the dictionary definition of faith we see that faith in God, or complete confidence in Him, comes from our foundational knowledge that we can trust Him to lead us.

In other words, we must have complete assurance that God is leading us and the eventual outcome of where He is leading us is for our good and His glory (as it says in Romans 8:28). We have the title deed to whatever the outcome is that God wants to happen. We have the title deed to whatever God has already put in our hands!

Several years ago we reached a milestone on our financial journey and paid off our house. We now have the title deed to our home. It is ours. Whatever God is telling you and me, if we have faith then we have the title deed to that. It is ours. It\\u2019s not just guaranteed by a financial institution, it is divinely guaranteed by the God of the Universe, who just happens to be our Daddy.\\xa0

The next part is harder to understand because it is in the future. \\u201cFaith comprehends as fact what cannot be experienced by the physical senses.\\u201d God already sees it. He has called what we can\\u2019t see as if it has already happened because He stands outside of time and can see the whole picture of our lives.\\xa0

Our faith in God has to help us comprehend as a fact what we cannot actually see, touch or feel right now. We cannot experience it by our physical senses right this moment but we trust God and have faith that what He has said will come true. This goes back to 2 Cor. 5:7 where Paul tells us, \\u201cWe walk by faith not by what we see.\\u201d \\xa0Friends, it wouldn\\u2019t be faith if we could see it!

In the Bible, especially Hebrews 11, it lists men and women of faith who have gone before us and gained God\\u2019s approval because of how they lived lives of faith. They are examples for us of how to walk in faith even when we cannot see the future. We, like they did, have a divine promise, which is our guarantee of what will happen when we put feet or action to our faith.

In Romans 4, Paul seems to go off on a tangent about Abraham, whom he calls our forefather according to the flesh or humanly speaking. For this series, I was originally going to skip over this passage, but God kept calling me back it because faith is a foundational pillar on any Spirit-Led Transformation journey.\\xa0

However, my big question with Abraham\\u2019s story was why does God call Abraham a man of faith when he failed so many times? As I read his story, I saw that every time Abraham failed, he recognized his failure. Whoever he had wronged forgave him and so did God. He is not our forefather of faith because he was perfect. He is the forefather of faith because at critical junctures in his life, he listened to God and followed Him.

To understand why Paul is talking about Abraham we need to begin in Romans 3:22 NIV. \\u201cWe are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are.\\xa0\\u201c

In continues in Romans 3:27-28 NIV:, \\u201cCan we boast, then, that we have done anything to be accepted by God? No, because our acquittal is not based on obeying the law. It is based on faith.\\xa0\\xa0So we are made right with God through faith and not by obeying the law.\\u201d

In these verses Paul is trying to get those who are still following Jewish laws and sacrifices for their salvation to understand that faith is the foundation for salvation, not the law. Although the law is good, it is no longer how God counts salvation.\\xa0 We are not saved by what we do, but if we have faith, it will move us to appropriate actions without following a set of elongated rules.

Paul explains in Romans 4:14, 16-17 NIV: \\u201cIf God\\u2019s promise is only for those who obey the law, then faith is not necessary and the promise is pointless.

\\u201cSo the promise is received by faith. It is given as a free gift. And we are all certain to receive it, whether or not we live according to the law of Moses, if we have faith like Abraham\\u2019s. For Abraham is the father of all who believe.\\xa0That is what the Scriptures mean when God told him, \\u2018I have made you the father of many nations.\\u2019\\xa0This happened because Abraham believed in the God who brings the dead back to life and who creates new things out of nothing.\\u201d

How did Abraham\\u2019s life show He believed in the God who brings the dead back to life and who creates new things out of nothing? I see three times his life revealed this belief.

First, Abraham left his homeland to go to a place God would show him. In doing that God promised to give the land to his descendants. This was when Abraham had no children at all.\\xa0

Hebrews 11:8-9 NIV says, \\u201cIt was by faith that Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land that God would give him as his inheritance. He went without knowing where he was going.\\xa0And even when he reached the land God promised him, he lived there by faith\\u2014for he was like a foreigner, living in tents.\\u201d\\xa0

His actions revealed that he believed God could create new things out of nothing. My friends, that\\u2019s faith!

The second time God brought the dead back to life for Abraham was when He opened Sarah\\u2019s womb at age 90, way past child-bearing age. Abraham was 100 years old!\\xa0

In Romans 3:18-20 NIV Paul explains, \\u201dEven when there was no reason for hope, Abraham kept hoping\\u2014believing that he would become the father of many nations. For God had said to him, \\u2018That\\u2019s how many descendants you will have!\\u2019\\xa0And Abraham\\u2019s faith did not weaken, even though, at about 100 years of age, he figured his body was as good as dead\\u2014and so was Sarah\\u2019s womb.\\u201d

Now we understand why they both laughed when God told them Sarah would have a baby. (See Genesis 17:17, 18:11-15). I would have too!

When the baby was born, Sarah said, \\u201cGod has brought me laughter. All who hear about this will laugh with me. Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse a baby? Yet I have given Abraham a son in his old age,\\u201d (Gen. 21:6-7 NIV). They named the baby Isaac which means \\u201che laughs.\\u201d

The third time was when God told Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, his son of promise from God. Yet, Abraham trusted what God had said and by faith believed that somehow even if he had to go through with sacrificing his own son, God would bring him back to life.

We see this clearly in Hebrews 11: 17-19 NLT: \\u201cIt was by faith that Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice when God was testing him. Abraham, who had received God\\u2019s promises, was ready to sacrifice his only son, Isaac,\\xa0even though God had told him, \\u2018Isaac is the son through whom your descendants will be counted.\\u2019\\xa0Abraham reasoned that if Isaac died, God was able to bring him back to life again. And in a sense, Abraham did receive his son back from the dead.\\u201d

Ok I have to say it again, Friends, that\\u2019s faith. I really don\\u2019t think I have that level of faith to even begin the process to sacrifice either one of my children.

Lest we think Abraham was godlike, we need to remember the two times he passed his wife off as his sister and in trying to protect himself stepped right into a few messes. He lied about her partly out of fear because she was so beautiful and was afraid someone would kill him for her. In truth it was a part lie because she was his half-sister to whom he was married, which is the part he failed to mention. At the time it was a legal union and wasn\\u2019t forbidden in scripture until much later.

God got him out of both situations by sending plagues on Pharoh who had taken her to be his wife (Gen. 12:14-20) and revealing the truth in a dream to Abimelech, who also wanted to marry her (Gen. 20:3). In the first instance, he was lucky to be escorted out of the country with his wife and possessions. In the second, we see clearly that he was sorry and paid restitution to Abimelech.\\xa0

Another decision that wasn\\u2019t Abraham\\u2019s finest moment was listening to Sarah who told him to sleep with her maid Hagar in order to have a child because Sarah felt she couldn\\u2019t get pregnant. It\\u2019s clear from scripture that Abraham did this willingly. It likely made sense to him because God had promised to make his descendants as numerous as the stars, (Gen. 15:5).\\xa0

God used both Ishmael, the son of the servant, and Isaac, Sarah\\u2019s son to accomplish that promise. But God made it clear that Isaac was the son of promise. When Isaac was about to be weaned, Abraham prepared a celebration. During the party, Sarah saw 13-year-old Ishmael making fun of Isaac and demanded that Abraham send Ishmael and his mother away.

Scripture tells us that this upset Abraham because Ishmael was also his son. Then in Gen. 21:12 God tells Abraham to do what Sarah says because \\u201cIsaac is the son through whom your descendants will be counted.\\u201d He added that he would also make a nation out of Ishmael\\u2019s descendants. So Abraham sent them away.

The promise Abraham was given was a promise only Isaac inherited. In Gen. 26:4 NIV, after Abraham\\u2019s death, God tells Isaac, \\u201cI will cause your descendants to become as numerous as the stars of the sky, and I will give them all these lands. Through your descendants all the nations of the earth will be blessed. I will do this because Abraham listened to Me and obeyed all my requirements, commands, decrees and instructions.\\u201d

Did you get that last part? It\\u2019s really why God called Abraham the forefather of faith. It\\u2019s because \\u201cbecause Abraham listened to Me and obeyed all my requirements, commands, decrees and instructions.\\u201d It\\u2019s not because of the times he messed up. It\\u2019s because his actions revealed that at critical times in his life, when God showed him what to do, he trusted God and did what He said.

The first part of the book of Romans is really about the struggle between those who still wanted a law book to follow and those who understood that Jesus was teaching a deeper truth\\u2014the spiritual truth of living by faith, living in God\\u2019s grace.

As people we tend to want a rule book, but then we don\\u2019t follow it! We say, \\u201cJust tell me what to do and I\\u2019ll do it.\\u201d This seems easier than trusting God to lead us. I remember when I was in my 20s I would say to God, just tell me what to do like you did Noah in giving him the exact dimensions of the arc. I think I failed to understand the extreme ridicule he went through spending years building a huge boat. He was the laughing stock of the neighborhood, until the floods came!

Faith is not a difficult concept to grasp. We have faith that when we go to work that we will get a paycheck, right? There have been a few times when we were newly married that my husband was working at small businesses and his paychecks started bouncing.

That will cause you to lose faith in your boss really quick. We think when we do xyz, we are promised a certain result. For instance, if I follow the latest, greatest diet to a tee, I will lose x amount of weight. This might work, but nine times out of 10 it doesn\\u2019t work like promised because we are all different.

When I was into diets, I would always blame myself because I never could follow the diet perfectly. When I did I might lose some weight. The issue was when I stopped following the diet and went back to normal eating, I gained it all back plus more.\\xa0

Why? I hadn\\u2019t learned anything. I was following someone else\\u2019s rules. I had no intention of making those any part of my ongoing lifestyle.

This is the same thing with the law. God doesn\\u2019t want us to just follow a set of rules. He wants us to follow Him. And that\\u2019s so much more difficult than following the rules. At least then we think we know why we failed. When we are following God it seems more difficult to discern what to do. Maybe that\\u2019s because our faith is in the rules, rather than in God.

Faith in God has to be the main ingredient in any Spirit-Led Transformation. What that means is we trust God no matter what He says. Our faith, then, will always result in Spirit-Led action. Any other action is useless.

James 2:21-24, 26 NIV adds, \\u201cWas not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar?\\xa0You see that his faith and his actions were working together,\\xa0and his faith was made complete by what he did.\\xa0\\xa0And the scripture was fulfilled that says, \\u2018Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,\\u2019 and he was called God\\u2019s friend.\\xa0\\xa0You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone \\u2026 As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.\\u201d

\\xa0

Fear many times keeps us from stepping out in faith. What if I didn\\u2019t hear from God right? What if that wasn\\u2019t even God? But Abraham gives me hope. He definitely didn\\u2019t get it right all the time. Maybe Ishmael wasn\\u2019t in God\\u2019s plan, but somehow that act did not get counted against Abraham.

What God saw were all the times Abraham\\u2019s faith moved him forward on his own Spirit-Led Transformation journey.

Romans 4:20-24 NLT says it this way: \\u201cAbraham never wavered in believing God\\u2019s promise. In fact, his faith grew stronger, and in this he brought glory to God.\\xa0He was fully convinced that God is able to do whatever He promises.\\xa0And because of Abraham\\u2019s faith, God counted him as righteous.\\xa0\\xa0

\\u201cAnd when God counted him as righteous, it wasn\\u2019t just for Abraham\\u2019s benefit. It was recorded\\xa0\\xa0for our benefit, too, assuring us that God will also count us as righteous if we believe in Him, the one who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.\\u201d

The important thing about Abraham\\u2019s life is that he showed God he had faith when he did something God told him to do. Like when he left home headed to who knows where or when he trusted God to give him a heir of promise or when he raised the knife to sacrifice that same beloved gift from God.

His faith led to action. Now any of these actions without direction from God would not have the same result. We can\\u2019t go out and copy Abraham\\u2019s actions and be counted as faithful. That was Abraham\\u2019s journey.

Ours may seem even more difficult than his. How can we see a way to pay the insurmountable amount of debt we have? How can we restore the broken relationship in our marriage, with our children, with our friends? How can we lose the mountain of weight that has attached itself to our bodies?\\xa0

FAITH in what God asks you to do is always the answer. But that FAITH must be backed by whatever action God is telling you to take. It might be to wait for the promise, like it was with Abraham. I hope you don\\u2019t have to wait until you are 100, but hey he lived to be 175 so there\\u2019s that, too. It\\u2019s all relative, my friend.

I feel like I really started living by faith around 2009, when I was 56. It took me lots of years to lose 250 pounds. First I had to totally surrender to God and trust Him for the next step on my journey. I had to get His lifestyle change plan for me and do what He said to implement it. I made a lot of mistakes on my journey and as such I am well-equipped to steer others away from my same mistakes.

One of the most beautiful and spiritual part of any transformation journey is learning how to have faith Jesus Christ, and to be led by the Holy Spirit in each step we take. Then the grace, mercy, favor and glory of God will surround us as we walk in tandem with Him.\\xa0

Is it easy? I mean some of the things Abraham did look easy. Who knows, maybe he was glad to get away from his mother and father and go somewhere that he had inkling of. However it definitely wasn\\u2019t easy waiting for the promised son. And I don\\u2019t think for a minute it was easy preparing to sacrifice his promised son.

Yet, through it all, He trusted God. I like to think it all started with that first step out the door of his homeland, going to a place God said He\\u2019d show him. That\\u2019s faith.

Let me ask you, what would it look like for you to have that kind of faith on your Spirit-Led Transformation journey? What would it take to do whatever God is whispering in your heart to do?

It\\u2019s time. He\\u2019s calling you. Will you have the faith to take the next step?\\xa0

Father God, I lift your children to You today. Give them clear directions. Remind them of Your promises and help them take that next step on their journey whatever that may be. Make it clear to them. Give them faith to take action.

As always the action steps and challenges for this lesson will be in the Spirit-Led Transformation course along with the video and transcript. This course is only available in Overcomers Academy. Go to: teresashieldsparker.com/overcomers/ to join.