Faith is obedience to the Lord! II
I am glad to greet you again in our column “Daily word for spiritual strength”!
Each of us is willing to please God. The Bible says it´s impossible to please Him without faith:
«Without faith it is impossible to be well pleasing to him, for he who comes to God must believe that he exists, and that he is a rewarder of those who seek him.» (Hebrew 11:6). As we mentioned earlier, faith means acting in accordance to the word of God. Quite often God calls us to do impossible things, those only God Himself can accomplish. God is not inviting us to demonstrate our own capabilities, but what He is able to do through us. That´s why God often gives us the tasks we cannot accomplish without Him.At such moment many people miss their opportunity to experience the mighty power of God in their lives. Quite often when people are unable to see how things are going to happen, they don´t even start to do anything. Other people want to walk with God by vision not by faith.
Enoch pleased God with his faith, because he walked with God. You can only walk with God by faith not by vision. While faith always require action. When the Lord talked to me about buying a building for our church we had account in red. It appeared to be impossible without God. Today it´s a well known fact. Though, before it happened I had to determine what did I believe into and who God was to me? Afterwards, I had to prove my faith by certain actions. It reminded how Abraham, the father of our faith moved out to the promised land without any knowledge about where to go and how to get there:
«By faith, Abraham, when he was called, obeyed to go out to the place which he was to receive for an inheritance. He went out, not knowing where he went.» (Hebrews 11:8).By that time I got to know about a building being sold. I applied for that building, we started negotiations about price of few thousand lats, but we had no cash at all. Meanwhile, I knew that God told me to act that way. So He was faithful! At the day we had to pay for the building we had the amount of money we needed at our disposal. It´s only God who knows how to make it possible. The Lord is not willing to demonstrate my capabilities to the world, instead He wants the world to see His power and capabilities through my life. It will only happen if I walk in faith.
Faith also requires to renew your mind. It requires me to adjust my way of thinking to the way of God´s thinking. You can´t walk with God and stay on the same place at the same time. Faith requires changes in your mind, in your circumstances, in your relationships and actions. Faith prompts you to live different way, to think different way, differently act and differently tackle your problems.
When you do things God tells you to do, it doesn´t matter how silly it looks, – God is doing His feat through you, and you begin to experience His presence and power like never before. It will happen not only to you, but also to those who are watching you, they will begin to experience God´s power in their lives too.
If you trust the Holy Spirit, God has sent to help us, He will help you to introduce yourself to God, enter intimate relationships with God and trust Him in everything.
«But the Counsellor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and will remind you of all that I said to you.» (John 14:26)God is able to accomplish much more than we can ever think about or ask for, and He will do it with His power. We just have to let Him do it.
All in all, one who wants to experience God and His power in his life has to:
* bring himself at His disposal;
* maintain fellowship with God, so that he learns to hear God´s voice and receive His guidance;
* trust God and prove it with his deeds, obedience and his actions.
Lord bless you!
Rufus Adjiboye, pastor
