A Strong Response of Faith by Bill Pevlor
If I were asked to describe Abraham in one
word, my description would be "Faith!" (with a bold exclamation point). Abraham
is the "Father of Faith." Were it not for his remarkable faith, Abraham would
have been nothing more than another unnoticed, Bedouin wanderer in the background of
ancient history. But, of course, Abraham was noticed. His incredible faith positioned him
as the central figure of the Old Testament.
For those of us who strive to walk by faith,
Abraham is a portrait of inspiration. One New Testament passage that has inspired me and
occupied my thoughts, as of late, is found in Romans 4. The whole chapter is an
explanation, by the Apostle Paul, of the fundamental truth of Christianity - that of
justification by faith, using our forefather Abraham as the ultimate example.
The verses that have intrigued me most are
Romans 4:18-21…"Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the
father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, ‘So shall your offspring
be.’ Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as
dead--since he was about a hundred years old--and that Sarah's womb was also dead. Yet he
did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his
faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do
what he had promised."
As I read it, the Spirit urges me to
stretch my faith. It teaches me to hold steadfast to the promises of God. It warns me to
not be moved by the nay-sayers or circumstances that mock me and my faith. It assures me
that a promise from God, no matter how outlandish or unlikely, from a human standpoint, is
to be trusted and held tightly. We can learn much about getting our promise fulfilled by
faith as we examine Abraham’s example.
Abraham’s great faith began with a word
from God. All faith begins with a word from God. True faith is based on God’s word.
As our pastor often says…"Faith begins where the will of God is known." You
can’t begin to act "in faith" if you don’t know what God’s will
is. Faith is nothing more than our active response to the will of God.
Those who "actively respond" to
anything other than the known will of God are not acting in faith. They may be acting in
supposition, hope or personal desire; but it is not faith. They live ineffective,
tentative lives marked by indecisiveness and erratic behavior. They may start out in
boldness, but soon their plans crumble around them because there is nothing of real
substance to support them. The person who knows God’s will has a rock-solid
foundation to build upon. Get a grasp of God’s will, first. God’s will is
expressed in His Word. If you want to know what God’s will is - read your Bible.
Often people will sigh and say "I wish I
knew what God’s will for my life is." Most often these wishers are living
"fruitless" lives, as they languish in indecision, under the pretense of waiting
for some divine sign, vision or voice from heaven. I believe God has a specific, unique
purpose and plan for each individual. Every person should actively seek and, once found,
expend every effort to fulfill that specific plan. However, your specific purpose and plan
is built on the broad-based, foundational plan for all mankind; a standard of living and
scope of purpose relevant to every life. This broad-based plan is clearly revealed in His
Word. Waiting for the specific and neglecting the foundational is foolish. Great maturity
is developed as you attend to the foundational purposes. As the foundation is built the
plan for the rest of the structure becomes clearer. Discerning God’s perfect will for
your life takes a great measure of maturity; maturity that is developed in the building of
a proper foundation.
You don’t have to know the intricate
details of God’s specific plan for your life before you can be a productive member of
God’s Kingdom. You can begin to act in faith on the Word God has already revealed to
you. You already know that God wants you to be a witness and care for those in need, so
why sit around and wait? Act in faith; roll up your sleeves and get to work. You
don’t have to wait for a voice from heaven to begin helping the poor. You don’t
need a "sign" to begin caring for the sick. You don’t have to have a
"vision" before you visit those in prison. If you’re more than a few months
old in the Lord, you already know a great deal of what God’s will is. The specifics
will become clear as you are faithful to move in what you already know.
Back to Abraham…he was able to believe
"against all hope" because he had a word from God. He could believe that he
would have children, even though he was about a hundred years old and Sarah’s womb
was dead, because God told him. God first hinted of it in Genesis 12:2 "I will
make you into a great nation…", and then talks of Abraham’s
"offspring’ in Genesis 12:7…"The LORD appeared to Abram and said,
‘To your offspring I will give this land." Many times, through the following
chapters, the Lord is continually reminding Abraham of the promise that he and Sarah will
bare a child. Still the promise was not fulfilled for many years. It would have been easy
for Abraham to forget the promise or give up on it because of the human impossibility of
it. But Abraham held on.
As exciting as receiving a word from God is, it
is not the end of the process. It is only the beginning. To see the word manifested
requires a strong response of faith. Let me point out a simple example. Think of all those
who have heard the Gospel, died and still missed heaven. All of mankind have been given a
promise, a sure word from God, of eternity in heaven. If they heard this sure word from
God, the Gospel, how could they have possibly missed it? Hebrews 4:2 reveals the
answer…"For we also have had the gospel preached to us, just as they did; but
the message they heard was of no value to them, because those who heard did not combine it
with faith." They missed it because they didn’t respond in faith to
God’s promise. Simply knowing God’s will is of no value. Only your active
response to it will bring you any benefit. John 3:16 is a sure word, a promise (one of so many). It is a word of God’s love for all
and a promise of not perishing, but having everlasting life. It is dependant, however,
upon each person responding in faith ("…whosoever
believes…"). Without a strong response of faith, the
promise will not be fulfilled. That’s why 1 Timothy 4:10 says "…we have
put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, and especially of those who
believe." God doesn’t save only certain people. God has (past tense - not present or future tense) provided
salvation for everyone, yet everyone will not benefit from it; only those who believe. All
of the Kingdom of God operates on the same principle. If you are going receive anything
from God, it will be because you responded in faith to His word.
In the same way, God promised a child to
Abraham and Sarah, but without a strong response of faith, Isaac would never have been
born. If God has made a promise to you, no matter how great or small it may be, it will
require a strong response of faith on your part to see it come to pass. As much as you may
desire what God has promised, "desire" won’t bring it to life; it will take
faith.
When I say a "strong response",
I’m talking about a single minded faith - not riddled with doubt - that propels you
to action. When you really believe something, it will affect your actions. Faith without
works (a corresponding action) is dead (null and void). If your faith has no noticeable, outward
effect on your life, it is useless. Let me say it again - if you really believe something (good, bad or otherwise) it will affect your actions. That
is why it is necessary to saturate your mind with God’s Word and believe the right
things. Falling for the lies of the Devil is dangerous, not so much because it violates a
loyalty to God, but because it affects your behavior. If you saturate your mind with
worldly trash, you will begin to think and act like the world.
Abraham’s faith was evidenced by an
outward response. What he believed affected the way he behaved. Have you ever thought
about what Abraham must have done after God told him he would have a son. I’ve
thought about it, and I believe Abraham began doing the things a father-wanna-be might do.
I don’t know how much a hundred year old man engages in (or
even contemplates) the kind of physical activity that is necessary
to bring about conception…but I’ll bet he increased his efforts. Remember, if
you really believe something, it will affect your actions. It was a long time before Isaac
was born. Abraham was an old man. It would have been very easy (and
"natural") for him to give up after a few years of trying.
But, you see, there was strength behind Abraham’s response of faith. If you have a
promise from God, don’t give up, don’t waiver, keep standing in faith and doing
what you know to do. I wonder how many miracles have been missed because someone gave up
just a few inches this side of victory. Hold on to your "word" with a bull-dog
grip of faith. Keep believing! At the moment you least expect, in your darkest hour, you
could be at the very threshold of victory!
To make my point about putting action behind
your faith, allow me to use our own experience as an example of what I mean when I say
"Receiving your promise requires a strong response of faith." We received a
"word" from God calling us to the Algoma area. As I prayed about that, God told
me that He would use us to establish a Strategic Stronghold of Faith there. (Request a copy of the January ’98 issue of the Victory! Banner for
details.) God has given us a BIG vision for Algoma…beyond our
imagination…beyond our abilities…beyond our resources…far beyond human
reason! Along with the vision, He has promised to provide all that we need to be
victorious in this calling. Though we have no earthly idea of how God is going to bring
this about, we are excited about seeing God’s promise fulfilled in our lives.
So, here we are, with a clear "word"
from God about establishing a Strategic Stronghold of Faith in Algoma, and, as you know,
we live in Missouri. Not only are we 750 miles away from our "promised land,"
there are some huge mountains blocking our path to make a move. We are committed to
God’s call and ready to move the moment those "mountains" are removed and
thrown into the sea. Looking at it from a natural stand point, it seems impossible to
fulfill God’s calling on our lives.
It would be easy (yes,
even natural) for us to say "I guess we didn’t really
hear from God." Or we could easily say "God goofed when He picked us; we
are just not able to do it." It would be easy to focus on the impossibility of
our situation and forget the whole thing. We have, instead, chosen to respond in faith.
And it will be a strong response, not a limp "Que sera, sera. What ever will be, will
be" kind of response.
We have chosen to believe God will open the
door for us to move and to supply all that’s necessary for Uncompromising Victory!
And as we wait, expectantly, for God to move the mountains, we are going to do all that we
can (our strong response of faith) to begin
building that Strategic Stronghold of Faith. We maintain a strong confession of faith for
the work in Algoma. We hold up the promise, the work, the area, the people, and the
churches of the area in daily prayer. We have committed ourselves to be in Algoma as much
as possible until we are permanent residents. We are making contacts, building
relationships and doing our "homework." It doesn’t seem possible to do
everything God has given us a vision for while we still reside in Missouri, but we can
begin laying the foundation.
I do not doubt that many of you reading this
have, sometime in the past, received a promise from God. At first you were excited at the
prospect. Maybe, like Abraham, it was the promise of a child. Maybe it was the promise of
a ministry, a healing, financial stability, a restored relationship, the salvation of
someone close to you…the possibilities are as boundless as God, Himself. But, your
excitement was dampened by the mountains that blocked the path to your promise. The more
time that passed, the more impossible the promise seemed, until, eventually, you gave up.
Maybe you haven’t actually given up, but just set it aside. Maybe you’ve waited
for so long you’ve just forgotten about it. Let me assure you; God has not forgotten
it. You can pull that promise out of its coffin, resuscitate it and breathe new life into
it with a strong response of faith. There may be some things that you can’t do until
your circumstances change, but there are always things you can do if you will look at the
situation with eyes of faith and do whatever your hand finds to do. All this time
you’ve been waiting on God to do something and, quite possibly, God’s been
waiting on you to do something. Referring back to Abraham and Sarah…I doubt they were
gawking at each other from opposite corners of the tent waiting for God to drop a baby
from heaven. My guess is, from the moment they had faith for God’s promise, they were
busy, doing all they knew to do to make a baby.
When you do decide to respond in faith to the
promise God has given you, be prepared for the nay-sayers. They will freely offer you
their wise counsel, urging you to be rational and not go "overboard." (Any strong response of faith would be considered "overboard.") I’m sure, as Abraham shared his belief that he and Sarah would have a
child, the nay-sayers were quick to point out the impossibilities. And when Abraham
wouldn’t be moved from his faith, I’m sure they wrote him off as delusional.
Don’t expect a swell of support from others to accompany your strong response of
faith. If you’re just hoping and wishing no one seems to mind. But when you put some
definite action behind your faith, critics come out of the woodwork.
Some people think it might have been better if
they hadn’t responded quite so strongly. After all, it was their exuberant effort to
bring about God’s promise of a child that led them to cross the line of decency, out
of God’s will, to drag another woman (Hagar, Sarah’s
maidservant) into the picture, wasn’t it? If they had just
taken a "wait and see" attitude, they would have avoided the unseemly problems
that came with that whole Ishmael deal…right? Well, not quite.
It wasn’t their strong response of faith
that led Abraham and Sarah off the path to God’s promise. It was actually a
compromising moment in their faith. They fell victim to the phenomenon of "shrinking
faith." It is a malady common to those who do not see their promise come to pass in a
"reasonable" amount of time. As time goes by, the vision they have for
God’s promise begins to change. Instead of believing for their circumstances to
"expand" to the outer edges of the big picture God has painted with His promise,
they begin to shrink God’s promise until it fits into the small frame of their
circumstances.
When we receive a promise from God, we want it
now. It’s easy to grow discouraged or complacent when it doesn’t arrive in, what
we would consider, a timely fashion. We need to understand that God’s timing is
rarely the same as ours. We need to be vigilant in guarding against discouragement in the
wait. Time is one of the greatest tests of true faith. No matter how long the wait, no
matter what the circumstance would lead you to believe, you need to live everyday with the
expectation of your promise being fulfilled. That’s a strong response of faith.
After waiting several years for the promised
child, Sarah suggests that Abraham sleep with her servant girl. "Now Sarai,
Abram's wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar;
so she said to Abram, ‘The LORD has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my
maidservant; perhaps I can build a family through her.’ Abram agreed to what Sarai
said." (Geneses 16:1-2)
This was not as
unusual in their day as it may seem to us today. When the mistress was unable to conceive,
as a last resort, her servant girl would be pressed into service as a surrogate mother.
The resulting offspring would be raised as though it were the child of the mistress. Not
so different as it is when the services of a surrogate mother are procured today. The only
real difference was they didn’t have modern medical technology to implant the
"seed"; it had to be done the old fashioned way.
Now, was it Abraham and Sarah’s over
zealous response to God’s promise that produced this faith blunder? I think not.
Through the long wait they had allowed the combination of discouragement and desperation
to shrink their promise to a size that would fit within their circumstances. They knew
God’s promise was for the child to come from Sarah or they would have brought in
Hagar at the very beginning. Instead of continuing their strong response of faith to
God’s promise, they compromised and convinced themselves to settle for something
less. They didn’t give up…they just modified the promise. You can imagine the
conversation…"God promised us a child, but nothing seems to be happening.
Maybe what God meant was…."
In the same way, the Body of Christ has
allowed many of God’s promises to shrink. The Word of God is clear about divine
healing and yet, when we didn’t see healing happening as we thought it should we
said…"Well, maybe when God said He desired that we would be in good health
and that He sent His word and healed us, what he meant was…that we would be healed
when we get to heaven…maybe he wasn’t even talking about physical
healing…maybe…." A good portion of the Body of Christ has allowed
God’s promise of healing to shrink to a size where there is no room for real healing
anymore. And divine healing is just one example. So many of the promises found in
God’s Word have been shrunk so small that there isn’t even room for God in them
anymore.
If Abraham and Sarah would have stuck with
God’s plan and held fast to their faith for the full measure of the original promise,
the Ishmael problem would have never come up. It wasn’t their strong response of
faith that caused the problem. It was, in fact, their willingness to settle for less than
God’s best. In a moment of impatience, they chose to work out a compromise with their
circumstances.
Sara and I are determined to hold out for
God’s best. We have a sure word from God about Algoma and we aren’t letting go.
At the moment, while we are still living in Missouri, things are not going nearly as fast
as we want them to. We are as impatient to see the promise manifested as anyone ever was.
We have an exciting, ever-expanding vision and we can’t wait to see it a reality.
I’m sure if we give in a little here and there, lower our expectations a bit and
settle for what our circumstances will allow, things could go a little easier. We
wouldn’t have to work so hard, travel so often or pray so much. But we aren’t
willing to settle for less. We not only believe it was God who gave us this promise, we
believe He is able to do all He said He would do. If He is able, there is no reason to
allow our promise to shrink and settle for less. We don’t want an Ishmael -
we’re holding out for an Isaac. We will fight the good fight with our strong response
of faith until we can claim Uncompromising Victory!
Has God made a promise to you? Is it still as
big a promise (or bigger) in you as when you
first received it, or have you allowed it to shrink? Are you still responding in faith or
have you forgotten or given up on it; willing to compromise and settle for whatever comes?
If your promise has shrunk over the years, if you’ve settled for a compromise, even
if you’ve given up, it’s not too late. A strong response of faith can put you
back on course. God hasn’t taken it back. It’s still there, waiting for you to
claim it by faith.
In spite of their faith compromise, Abraham and
Sarah still received their Isaac. They realized the Ishmael they received was not the
child of promise. They didn’t give up. They kept responding in faith to the promise
and, in God’s timing, received the victory. Of Abraham, the Bible says "Yet
he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in
his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he
had promised." (Romans 4:20-21)
Be fully persuaded that
God has the power to accomplish what he has promised to you. Allowing your promise to
shrink, in essence, is believing that God has shrunk. Be strong in your faith and magnify
the Lord.
© 1998 Victorious Faith Ministries
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Victorious Faith
Ministries
219 State Street, Algoma, WI 54201
Phone: 920-487-5775