The Life of Faith

In the last few years, my definition of what it means to live by faith has changed. For the longest time I thought this was in regards to salvation- I believed that living by faith meant trusting God that I would be saved, and that this trusting in God would keep me in God's hand and make it so that I would spend eternity with him.

The thing is, a guy named Graham Cooke is challenging this belief. It is not that this belief is inaccurate, just that this belief is inadequate. Living by faith really means being placed in situations where you must actually trust God for your circumstances to work out. An example of this from the bible would be Abram moving to a foreign country purely in obedience to the will of God. He had no guarantees from a purely natural perspective- how would he know that he wouldn't be killed by the land's current inhabitants? All he had was God's word. This way of living, this experiencing the life of faith for ourselves, is what God had in mind. He wants to take us to a place in which in hearing God's voice, we would be willing to get into situations where essentially only God can get us out, so that we might be completely dependent on him. Let me give an example from my own life.

At one point I was forced to move out of this college guys house, for reasons that involve the fact that I was not a college guy. Anyways, I temporarily lived in my parents house while figuring out what to do. I distinctly heard from God that I was to get a two bedroom apartment, and that God would provide the roommate. Doing this would require faith though- a two bedroom apartment is more expensive and I would have great difficulty affording it for any length of time on my own. I did obey God in this situation, and God did indeed come through- within a few weeks I had a roommate, which I have lived with and for the most part, got along well with for the last 6 months. The truth is clear- if anything, God wants to gives us many experiences like this so that we can come to a place where we deeply trust God.

My prayer is that you would come to a place where you trusted God like this. For then you really can perform miracles- the presense of God will be with you in a tangible way as you follow the leading of the spirit. We were born to know God's character, and yet we just give lip service to the idea of really trusting God. I hope we all develop truly mature relationships with the lord of all.

Your companion in Christ,
Sean