It Starts Small

When you start your discipleship journey it is such an exciting time. God is revealing himself and his truth and it’s a joyous and exciting time. I got accused once of being drunk because I was trying to share something with another person and in my excitement I was having a hard time articulating with my words something I had learned. I find it funny now to be accused of being drunk, because at Pentecost, the disciples were accused of being drunk. My brain wasn’t connecting my thoughts to my mouth very fast. It’s part of the lovely effects of chemo. Sometimes I can see the words but they don’t connect to my mouth.

Sometimes we need to do a huge timeout in the middle of the excitement. God had been throwing out the pieces of the puzzle that didn’t belong and start putting the right pieces on the table. I had all these pieces and knew I needed to slow down a bit and put it all together.

I had to take a few days to just meditate and look over everything he had shown me. To make it more than just knowledge. To really sink my teeth into understanding how it all worked together and figure out what is the ask in it all. What do I need to be doing to build my faith through Jesus.

This is what I’ve learned about faith. I think in our own journeys, God reveals all these things to us in different ways, but the truth is the same as we discover it.

Faith is not a bunch of positive thinking. Faith is taking God at his word. Faith is not responding to emotions or feelings. Faith is not believing Gods can, it’s knowing God will. Faith is death to doubt. Faith is death to disappointments. Faith makes blind impossibilities and makes them possible. Faith knows God will.

I believe faith is a gift.

Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all, Romans 4:16

Grace is unlimited favor of God. It’s not the reward it is the initiative. I do not generate faith, faith is generated in me through Christ. Our faith is a gift of God’s grace.

For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith. Romans 12:3

God gives me faith and puts faith in my heart. You must believe. You’ll never have faith without believing his promises.

13 For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. 14 For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect: 16 Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all, Romans 4:13-14,16

Faith is our response to God’s promises. Pastor Adrian Rodgers describes faith perfectly. God gives us lungs to breath (promise). God gives us the air (faith). But, you have to believe to breath!

17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Romans 10:17

Faith is a gift from God and it comes from the Word of God. Strong faith receives the gift of God. Strong faith is released through the grace of God. Faith is the confidence in God. Unbelief holds grace prisoner in our lives. Strong faith respects the greatness of God.

Strong faith looks to God alone and respects His Character.

¹⁷ (As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were. Romans 4:17

I love this verse! God specializes in raising the dead and making something out of nothing. Strong faith is getting to know God. Weak faith makes God small. God gives us hope for ourselves. Human hope believes everything is impossible, but heavenly hope believes with God ALL things are possible. Strong faith believes that God has hope for me. I do not have to suffer in hopelessness. God brings life out of me. It’s by becoming nothing he makes something. God enables me to believe through strong faith by releasing his grace and giving confidence.

20 He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; 21 And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform. Romans 4:20-21

Real faith responds to the guidance of God. Faith is belief with legs on it. Strong faith not only believes God can, but God will and he will do it through me. Faith is acting upon what we know is true. Obedience and faith are hand in hand. You can’t obey until you hear the Word of God. We have to get into the Word of God and let him reveal his truth. When he does, we act upon that truth. Conviction is not a feeling. Conviction is confidence in obeying the Word of God.

Real faith reflects the glory of God. The greatest thing we can do is glorify God and believe in him. All of him! All of his written word is truth and all his promises are for us. Faith is saying God, you are trustworthy and I’m going to lay everything in your hands and trust in you.

Adrian Rodgers says a faith that can not be tested can not be true.

There was a giant river coming in the days after this. It would be the failure in this crossing that changed everything….rather a better way to say, is my faith became more than just words on paper.