1) Definition: Faith is “visualizing what God intends to do in a given situation and acting in harmony with it.”
This definition that I have always
appreciated. The term “visualizing” has
taken on a bit of a “mystical” meaning these days, but the definition is saved
by referring to what God intends to do.
In my theology, that means it is a Spirit-led visualization, recognizing
that the Spirit always works in sync with the Scriptures. Having said that, if I believe that God wants
me to move in a particular direction then I must make decisions in the rest of
my life that accord with that direction.
Having said that, over the years I have seen
too many situations where people said, “I just believe this is what God wants
me to do” that were, from the beginning, pretty clearly “this is what I want to
do.” There was the young family living
upstairs from us when I was in seminary.
He believed God was leading him to leave his wife and young child to go
into youth ministry. How “stupid” can
you be! But then there have been more
than one situation where someone made a big decision, believing it to be God’s
will, only to fail in that direction and then quickly conclude that God didn’t
want that after all but had something else in mind.
The key is the ability to be disciples of
Christ, people who follow Him in the walk of faith. Stories from the Bible indicate that it was
not always clear at first where the Lord was leading. Paul’s decision in Acts 16:6-10 involved a
little bit of “trial and error.” But in
the end he did have God’s plan and when he did he ordered his life accordingly. We will speak a little more on this as we do
our Bible Study.
2) Scripture:
Prov. 11:24-25; 12:22; 13:12; 16:20; 21:22; 25:19; 28:20,25,26; 2 Cor. 5:7;
Jas. 2:14-26; Heb. 11:1,6 and the rest of the chapter (plus many other books,
chapters, verses … the Bible is a book of faith).
3) Underlying
principle: The faithfulness of God. The
only reason we can and must walk by faith in God is because the One we believe
in is certain, unchanging and trustworthy.
4)
Illustration: Again, the Bible is full of illustrations.
a) 1
Sam. 14:1-5 is the story of Jonathan and his armor-bearer who determined in an Old
Testament manner that God wanted them to attack the Philistines. They were unhesitating and God blessed them
and Israel in it.
b) In
addition, let me mention the life of Abraham.
He is the father of faith. His
entire life was the supreme illustration of faith for the “believers” who
followed him. He illustrates the ups and
the downs.
c) And
lastly, if you are looking for illustrations of “faith vs. presumption” you can’t
do much better than to study each story in Heb. 11.
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