Whether you are going through a time of extreme hardship, or whether you are actively pursuing a vision God placed on your heart, it will take faith to see the physical victory or manifestation of what you are hoping and believing for.
In a previous post we saw that the Bible says it is impossible to please God without faith. Not only is it impossible to please God without faith, but it is also impossible to access supernatural favour and blessing without faith.
I’m not saying miracles won’t happen when we don’t have faith. My life was saved more than once through a miraculous intervention from God while I had no faith at all. The miracles that happened served as proof that God loved me even before I was saved, and later on when I became born-again I could truly appreciate the times the Lord was there for me while I was as lost as a mosquito in the arctic.
However, once you become a born-again child of God, it is not unreasonable to expect that faith will be required for every significant task God is calling you to do.
All Things Through Christ
1 Corinthians 3:9 says we are fellow workmen, labouring with and for God. This means God will very likely give you a vision to follow through on, and then back you up as you step out in faith to pursue it.
God’s vision will always be bigger than what we feel comfortable with. Why? Since God wants to be pleased, why would He give you an assignment that won’t require faith? Noah had an incredible assignment given to him against all odds, but I can only imagine how pleased God must have been when Noah remained faithful till the end. Likewise, Abraham allowed his faith to work an impossible situation and surely God was more than pleased with him as well.
In addition to receiving a vision from God that is bigger than yourself, you should also realistically expect to encounter problems bigger than yourself. The Christian’s real enemy is the devil, who thinks that he still has unfinished business with the Lord.
As Christians we are representatives of Christ in this world, and we can naturally expect to encounter opposition from a force stronger than what we are able to overcome by ourselves.
But thank God we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. Thank God the victory already belongs to us, and all we have to do is to step out and take hold of it by faith.
We can realistically expect God’s omnipotent hand in whatever assignment we have from Him, as long as we remain humble and stay focused on what God’s ultimate purpose for mankind is.
Great Opposition
The Israelites had to deal with extremely difficult situations, and in Deuteronomy 7:1-2 God said to them, “When the Lord your God brings you into the land which you are entering to possess and has plucked away many nations before you, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than you, 2And when the Lord your God gives them over to you and you smite them, then you must utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them, or show mercy to them.”
Notice that God was talking about seven nations, stronger than them. Also notice God said He would give those nations over to them. In the Bible the number seven is usually attributed to the number of perfection.
I think it is safe to conclude that while we are still on this side of eternity, there will regularly come battles we can’t win by ourselves. However, if we who love God are called according to His plan and purpose, He will make all things work together for our good and give us the victory as long as we continue to live by and remain in faith, as Romans 8:28 says.
Faith As A Dimension
To explore faith as a dimension means we want to learn more about the measurements of that dimension. Similar to the tesseract image used for this post, we want to know what the length, the height, the width and the breadth of faith is, so we can work our faith effectively.
Every biblical principle works either by faith or through faith. It is through faith we become born-again, as we believe Jesus Christ paid our fine for our transgressions in full so we can stand clean before God. Also, by faith do we believe we are the righteousness of God and that Satan has no longer any power over us. In the same way, faith must be used for everything else we hope and believe for.
Having enough faith for something you are hoping for is the same as already having the very thing you are hoping for, provided that it lines up with God’s will for your life. When I buy a house by paying the money and walking away with the title deed to the house, I know the house is already mine even though I am not seeing the house yet. Once I arrive at the house, I can take occupation of that which already belongs to me.
Hebrews 11:1 explains it this way, “Now faith is the assurance (the confirmation, the title deed) of the things [we] hope for, being the proof of things [we] do not see and the conviction of their reality [faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses].”
Therefore, whether you are going through a time of extreme hardship, or whether you are actively pursuing a vision God placed on your heart, know it will take faith to see the physical victory or manifestation of what you are hoping and believing for.
Once we understand the importance of faith, our next question should naturally be, how do we activate this faith?
How do we have faith and let it work for us?
In the next post we will talk about the foundation of faith, and how we activate true faith.
My goal is to know God deeply. I want to know Him for who He is. I want to know how He can view us with such kindness, after all that men have done to destroy one another? How He cannot quickly give men what He deserves, because He takes no pleasure in seeing them die. How can He be so overwhelming with kindness and long compassionate love