FAITH - 3

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“whosoever shall say unto this mountain...and shall not doubt in his heart but shall believe…”
The third issue of faith is the demands of faith which is expressed by the word “say” and backed with authority by the word “believe”  Faith makes demands and not confessions. Without backing our sayings with believing then it remains mere confessions and not faith. Faith has two components
  • subjective component - believe
  • objective component - sayings
No one can act or behave outside what he or she believes.We may pretend for a while or even years but what we believe in carries the day. This is why believing is the bedrock of faith. When we get the matter of believing right, the sayings will always be right. Believing is a matter of the heart and “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.” If your heart is filled with doubts,whatever you say (making a demand of faith) no matter how positive and good it may sound, it will be nothing but wind.
“But when you pray, you must believe and not doubt at all, whoever doubts is like a wave in the sea that is driven, and blown about by wind, people like that, unable to make up their mind and undecided in all they do must not think that they will receive anything from the Lord.” - James 1:6-7
The father of the boy who was possessed of a spirit from childhood came to Jesus asking “if you can do anything.” Jesus responded saying the matter is not “if I could do anything” but that “if you can believe: all things are possible to him that believes” (Mark 9:21-23 DARBY)
We know that “with men” some things “are impossible; but with God all things are possible” (Matt. 19:26). Balancing these two scripture, we will not be out of place to say “with men who believes in God, nothing shall be impossible”
Lord, help thou my unbelief!

Lastly, faith can only be said to be complete when its demands are realized.
"...believe that those thing which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith… "
There is usually a time lag between what is being requested and receiving the request. This lag phase is so critical to faith’s expression in that it is the period of trial - “the trying of your faith.” This is the period where doubt persecutes our patience. Patience is defined as the capacity to accept or tolerate delays, problems without becoming annoyed or anxious. I once wrote in a post titled “waiting patiently” giving this simple illustration -
I was to meet with a friend by 5pm. I got to the venue in time for the meeting and was waiting for my friend. By 6pm he had not showed up and I couldn’t reach him on phone. He had the solution to pressing problem of mine so I had to wait for that long. By 6.30pm I was already getting annoyed murmuring and muttering and was about leaving when suddenly he appeared…
Would you have said I waited patiently? Yes, I waited from 5pm till the time he came. But waiting patiently, No! I ran out of patience around 6.30pm. If I had left before my murmuring and muttering, I still could have said that I waited patiently. And if I had left before my friend came, it would have stilled been said that I did not wait patiently since my friend later showed up.
The true test of faith is in our patience with God to act on our request.
“...he that believeth shall not make haste.” (Isaiah 28:16)
Most time we fail in this area but God is always patiently waiting for us to learn.  Put yourself in the shoes of these heroes of faith. What will you do
  • if you were Abraham and you are at the point of sacrificing your only child. Would you not doubt whether it was truly God that gave such instruction?
  • if you were one of the Hebrew boys (Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego) and you were at the verge of been thrown into the fiery furnace just because you refuse to bow to an image. Would you not bow to save your neck and ask God for forgiveness later?
Whenever we do not wait patiently for God and chose whatever means to overcome the challenges, we lose a chance to experience God and thereby grow in faith. The seeming victories we get by our means becomes the “Ishmaels” of our lives and God response is “cast him out”

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