Faith and Obedience

Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble. (James 2:19)

I want us to look at what faith is as opposed with what many think and say it is.

Much of the preaching nowadays seems to treat faith as that something that gives us the ability to push God to do what we want Him to do for us with no relation at all with what God may require of us.

We are therefore taught to drive God up the wall to force Him accede to our requests. All the time thinking that nothing but faith is required of us. We are taught that God responds only to our expectation and nothing else.

But is that what Biblical faith is? Is that the faith we have inherited from our fathers? Is that the faith the ancients are commended for in Hebrews 11?

If we think that faith is just believing that God can do what we want Him to do we are thoroughly and completely deceived. Believing only in the ability of God is no different from the kind of belief the devils have. In fact theirs is even more advanced because it produces fear and trembling.

A belief that is a mental accent to God’s ability is what the devil has. Yet it cannot be saving faith because that is where it stops, mental acceptance of God’s ability. Knowing that God can do is not faith just as knowing a car can take you to a destination will not take you there if that is where you stop.

Faith is what I do to a revelation that I have from God and nothing else. Faith is obedience to what God has showed and/or commanded me. Again a faith that does not take any steps to obedience is the kind of faith demons have. And it has no capacity of changing their lives because they have chosen to trash the revelation that proceeds from the knowledge of God. And it will also do nothing in our lives if that is where it stops.

Noah believed and built the ark. I do not think he was the only one who may have received the message from heaven. He found favor (saving faith) because he was willing to play the fool for what God had showed him. He condemned his generation because he was willing to do what nobody else was willing or ready to do.

Abraham believed and left all his security to expose himself and family to the dangers of the unknown because he followed an order he had received. But even more powerfully he was ready to offer the promise as a sacrifice to the One who had given it when the order came.

Moses believed and left the princely living of Egypt to connect to the faith of his fathers. He thrived because that voice became the hallmark of his life.

Where do we base our faith? What gives our faith hands and feet? Are we content to just believe that God can or are we willing to join Him in what He asks of us?

The Bible in its entirety comprises of what revelation should guide our lives. Faith that is not the product of this revelation can be equated with presumption. Faith that is not the response to a command is not the faith the Bible talks about. And a faith that receives a word from somewhere other than God is dead.

You are a fool to think you can build your faith on the excellent proclamation of your favorite preacher or writer. Faith that is not built on a personal and consistent intake of God’s word is as unreliable as the exclusive intake of snacks to a healthy body.

A faith that is not a response to a command from heaven has no capacity of being the kind of faith God approves. In short faith is the action that results from an interaction with God and in response to His command.

Believing is the doorway to faith. But that is just the introduction to the God we believe in. It should lead to a desire to know God more and more so that we can accurately know what He requires of us. Then we will be able to walk the faith walk as we grow in obedience to God’s revelation and command.

In short, faith is simply obedience, only that it is an obedience that is many times removed from the normal and common understanding of reality. That is because it is guided from a higher reality than what is seen and heard on earth. Faith allows us to accept the reality of God even where it appears folly to our minds and experience. That is what we see with the heroes of faith in the Bible.

The Bible gives general revelation. It introduces us to the reality of God. It shows us the character of God. It directs to the general direction of His revelation.

We must therefore become consistent in our intake of God’s word. We must develop a habit of spending adequate time not only reading but also studying the Bible. We must establish methods to enable us store as much of what we read and study in our minds and hearts. We must determine to grow as we share the truths God is inspiring on us as we consistently take in His word.

But it does not stop at a consistent intake of God’s word. Though it is impossible to develop anything unless the disciplines around the word are established, it does not end there. The word forms the foundation on which our faith is built and developed. Again it is important to know that the word is not an end in itself. The Bible guides God’s people to God.

Again it is possible to be completely soaked in the word of God and not be a person of faith just as the devil knows the Bible more than most yet is as disconnected from it as someone who has never encountered it.

I will remind us that the miserable comforters Job had were for the most part theologically sound. Their arguments were Biblically sound. They became enemies to righteousness because they applied Biblical truth without caring to know what God had to say about Job’s situation.

Knowing the Bible and obeying it is very important to guide us to a richer level of faith. This is because we are sure that God will never speak contrary to what He has already spoken in His word. It is the basis on which we test whatever word we receive to be sure that it is from God. The validity of any word will be tested against the word of God.

That is the reason one of the greatest burdens I have is to make God’s people consistently read the Bible. This is why we prepare Bible reading plans to help them read through the Bible consistently.

But faith must go beyond the general revelation (knowing and obeying what the Bible says) to a specific word for me as a person of faith. Here God will give me His word tailored to my situation and issue specific orders for me to obey. I do not want us to forget that this word has to be in agreement to His general revelation contrary to what most people who call themselves prophets may infer.

This word has no guess work in it as it will be the word God will use to judge your faithfulness to His call. It would be better to spend a lot of time to establish the accuracy of that word than rush through a word that is for the most part general. Agonize, fast and pray, go to prayer mountains, ask for adequate signs and lay fleeces so that you will be in no doubt about the order God has for you. Then with the assurance that it is what God is asking of you dive to the deep end because you are sure that He who has called you is faithful. But please do not attempt anything before you know it is your specific order. Do not do it just because your spiritual superior feels that it is your order. Establish with heaven first.

We love being safe as we judge what we think God is saying and doing and I will give an example. In discipleship when prayer is being studied we will talk about God giving three answers to prayer; yes, wait and no. And it appears foolproof.

Why do we defend God as if He can’t defend Himself? You see we are arguing that you have an answer to prayer but inferring that any answer could be it. Why don’t we teach people to ask what their answer is as opposed to safely saying any answer is right and unknowable? Why are we content to defend a vague answer instead of teaching people to receive ONE answer to their prayer? I doubt our arguments add much value to the people we are teaching prayer.

For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him. (2Chronicles 16:9a)

I pray that our faith grows from the general to the specific. Noah was not dealing with guesswork when he built the ark. Abraham was not following a general revelation when he left all or sought to sacrifice Isaac.

But it will start with taking His general revelation (Bible) serious enough to spend adequate time in it. Second is that you will establish in your heart that you will obey whatever that revelation will ask of you. And finally you will seek to know God beyond that general revelation so that He can deal with you at the personal level by giving you clear orders to obey from heaven, orders that agree with His word.

That will determine your giving habits. Not just how much you give but where specifically He wants that money to go. He will even give orders beyond the giving to what else or more you should do with the resources He has entrusted to you. I suspect He could order you to stop giving any coin to that church as an indication that you are now listening to Him.

Hearing Him will determine how you spend your time. He could order you to go off line for some time to learn to reduce the noise from many sources. He might order you to get off social media to learn to be still. He could order you to trash that TV to get adequate time to spend with Him in prayer and the word.

I could go on and on about the orders He could give. But it is important to realize that He issues orders to help us appreciate the reality that as the creator and Savior He is best placed to guide us. In other words He is the safest guarantee we can get on living life to the fullest.

There are orders He will give as He gave Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. They are meant to help us appreciate His Lordship over our lives. And I have gone through a few such.

Let me close by saying that faith is more about obedience than about belief. People of faith are always obedient people. In fact their faith is known by the distance they went in their obedience. We therefore gauge their faith not by how they believed but by what they did.