Against The Grain // Living By Faith
Hebrews 11:1 (ESV)
“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”
John 3:8 (NIV)
“The wind [Spirit] blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it is going.”
“If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.”
“As it is written: ‘I have made you a father of many nations.’ He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed—the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not.
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. This is why “it was credited to him as righteousness.”
Stages of living by faith:
1. A word from God.
Genesis 12:2 (NIV)
“I will make you into a great nation…”
2. A decision to align your actions to what God has said.
Genesis 12:4 (NIV)
“So Abram went, as the Lord had told him”
3. Waiting period.
Genesis 16:1 (NIV)
“Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children…”
4. Circumstances start to affirm your doubts about what God said.
Genesis
17:17-18 (NIV)
“Abraham fell facedown; he laughed and said to himself, ‘Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old? Will Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?’ And Abraham said to God, “If only Ishmael might live under your blessing!”
5. God will ask you to surrender the promise you now hold.
Genesis 22:2 (NIV)
"Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac— and…Sacrifice him"
6. God will prove himself as the provider and protector of his promise.
“But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, ‘Abraham! Abraham!’
‘Here I am,’ he replied.
‘Do not lay a hand on the boy,’ he said. ‘Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.’
Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called that place The Lord Will Provide. And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.”
The angel of the Lord called to Abraham from heaven a second time and said, ‘I swear by myself, declares the Lord, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.’”
“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.”