The Nature of Faith In God

Modern conversation about faith often revolves around believing in the existence of God. However, believing in God is actually of little value in the kingdom by itself- to understand this, let's talk a bit about some major players in the Old Testament. It is where our journey begins.

Here's the thing. When God came to Abraham, he didn't say "Believe in me because I exist." He asked Abraham to believe that he would have a son, even though his wife and himself were quite along in years and having a kid at that point seemed to require a miracle. This is a pattern that we see consistently in the Bible. God asks his people to believe things that are borderline insane or perhaps even completely insane. We could mention Noah, who believed a major flood was coming and that he should build a boat to house his family and animals to preserve the lives that got on the boat. We could mention Joseph, who believed that God was going to have him be a ruler over his brothers and father- after which he was sold into slavery, and later thrown into prison. Then we could speak of David, who was anointed king of Israel, only to find himself hiding in the wilderness being chased around by a megalomaniac. In these stories, God says something fantastic and unbelievable, and really only the listener believes that what God is saying is true. Everyone else viewed it as rubbish. This is foundational in the kingdom. Anyone with a big purpose in the kingdom has to go through this. If you don't believe God is asking you to believe anything magnificent and seemingly crazy, then I would question whether you are a major player in the kingdom. The major players all have dreams that can only be accomplished by faith in the one who gave the dream. I think it takes more faith to believe God for a modern day miracle than to believe Jesus rose from the dead, something many modern Christians believe and is quite common. God wants you to believe in your own miracle- that vision God is giving you for your own life that you cannot accomplish on your own.

This is the truth right here. God is looking for people who will believe what God tells them and trust God implicitly. If you hear God say something to you that sounds too good to be true, it's only because by trusting God you will see the miracle God gave you come to pass. The bigger and more meaningful the vision, the greater the miracle inside you that needs to happen before the miracle around you can come to pass. David was just a shepherd when God had Samuel anoint him as king. It's because David believed that he was able to walk with God through all the trials between David and his becoming the next king of Israel. That is what true faith looks like- go and do likewise.