Start with my video introduction here:
These verses are repeated for memorization. These and others are the backbone of the Christian Faith. I would encourage you to commit them to memory.
Romans 1:16-17
The Just Live by Faith
For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.”
Philippians 1:20-21
According to my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
Philippians 1:27-29
Only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together (as opposed to against each other) for the faith of the gospel, and not in any way terrified by your adversaries, which is to them a proof of (their) perdition, but to you of (your) salvation, and that from God. For to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake,
There are some incredible verses in the scriptures. A lot of times they are just one-liners taking but a second to read. However, if we do not pause to consider what we just read, its importance just slips by us. Let us examine a few stories and then make application. The first one is in 1 Samuel 14.
1 Samuel 14:4-7
Between the passes, by which Jonathan sought to go over to the Philistines’ garrison, there was a sharp rock on one side and a sharp rock on the other side. And the name of one was Bozez, and the name of the other Seneh. The front of one faced northward opposite Michmash, and the other southward opposite Gibeah.
Then Jonathan said to the young man who bore his armor, “Come, let us go over to the garrison of these uncircumcised; it may be that the LORD will work for us. For nothing restrains the LORD from saving by many or by few.”
So his armor-bearer said to him, “Do all that is in your heart. Go then; here I am with you, according to your heart (what a great armor-bearer).”
There is a reason why Samuel spent time describing the terrain. It was not an easy hike for them to get to the Philistine garrison, it took effort. We will read in a bit that it was so steep that they had to climb on their hands and knees. Not a great position to be in when going to face your enemy. It would have been very easy to say, “why go to them, by the time we get there we will be too tired to fight.” As believers God asks us to do things, how many times do we say that it takes too much effort. Drive down the block and share Christ with a friend, or a classmate or co-worker, or volunteer for any of the needs of the church. The church relies on volunteers. There is a saying that 20% percent of the people do 80% percent of the work in the church. This should not be. That’s how burn out happens and it’s a bad testimony for the church.
Now let’s look at Johnathan’s statement. For nothing restrains the LORD from saving by many or by few. Where does this kind of faith come from? He definitely did not get it from his cowardly, self-consumed father the King. Let’s put Johnathan’s statement in our language. The game of football is a 11 man sport. Imagine that today we are playing for the Western Division Championship and all the opposing team shows up but only 2 of your teammates show up and neither of you are the quarterback. Johnathan would say, let’s play ball. We would say, “Johnathan I don’t think you understand the situation we are in. We don’t have enough players to play all the positions, we will get slaughtered.” Johnathan would look back and smile and say, “what is it to God whether we have a full team or not? He can win the game by many or by few, so let’s play.”
Two critical points here. For this kind of faith to work you must make sure your on the right team. There is the team for self and then there is the team for God and sometimes we think we are on God’s team but in reality it’s for ourselves. It takes the Holy Spirit to reveal the true motive of our hearts. It makes all the difference. The saying happy wife happy life, a similar thing could be said about the Lord, “right with God equals right in life.” Being on “Team Self” equals frustration and defeat.
Next lesson, God becomes the God of your faith. If you believe that God will do it, then He will. Johnathan believed that God could bring victory though it was approximately an eighteen to two proposal. The term uncircumcised means one thing to us, but it meant something much more to Johnathan and it was at the core of his faith. The male Jew was circumcised as a baby because of a Convenant God made with the Jewish people. These Philistines were outside the Convenant of God therefore they could be defeated. Though Johnathan and his armor bearer were only two, being under the Convenant meant that the full power of God was on their side and numbers didn’t matter and sure enough they were defeated.
Another example of extreme faith was the women that had the issue of blood.
Luke 8:42-45
But as He went, the multitudes thronged Him. Now a woman, having a flow of blood for twelve years, who had spent all her livelihood on physicians and could not be healed by any, came from behind and touched the border of His garment. And immediately her flow of blood stopped.
And Jesus said, “Who touched Me?”
When all denied it, Peter and those with him said, “Master, the multitudes throng and press You, and You say, ‘Who touched Me?’ ”
The word touch is haptomai in the Greek meaning, “ to apply oneself to, or the handling of an object as to exert a modifying influence upon it or upon oneself.” Though many touched Him only one touched Him with desperate faith. In other words when we approach God our Father with this kind of faith His virtue is released. That is what this story teaches. Christ healing power was released even without Christ commissioning it so. He didn’t say “I will, be healed,” she was just healed for she “met” the criteria.
Hebrews 11:6
For without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
This woman was desperate beyond measure. She had no more money, she had spent it all with the doctors and was no better. Something about Jesus gave her hope. Maybe she saw him heal others, or maybe her friends spoke of his kindness and love, we don’t know. We only know that she knew that if she could just fight her way through the crowd and touch the hem of his robe that’s all she needed to be healed, she didn’t even need to speak with him. That “touch” as the English puts it was so much more than a touch. It represented her desperation, her hope, and a new life and it released Christ healing virtue.
Luke 8:46-48k
But Jesus said, “Somebody touched (hapsomai) Me, for I perceive that power (dunamai – achieving power) left my body. Now when the woman saw that she was not hidden, she came trembling (to dread, to be terrified); and falling down before Him, she declared to Him in the presence of all the people the reason she had touched Him and how she was healed immediately.
And He said to her, “Daughter, be of good cheer; your faith has madeyou well. Go in peace.” Jesus obviously saw and felt her fear and wanted her to be happy and rejoice. She seemed by nature timid and shy and confronting Jesus directly for her healing with the crowd around him would have made too much of a scene, especially since her ailment was personal. Another point, had it not been for her faith and persistence to get to Jesus, she would not have been healed. Application, Jesus is present, He’s not hidden, but how willing and to what lengths are we willing to seek Him out, are we desperate? If we saw our condition from Christ’s perspective we would be, and we would do everything in our power to not miss a day of fellowship and study with Him. It would be the high point of each day.
This kind of faith represents the fullness of confidence, not even a shadow of doubt. We were on a mission trip in Mexico and had just completed the final touches on a new church for the first ever evening service happening that night. We had gone out into the community earlier to invite everyone to come. It was around 5 o’clock, we were going to eat, shower and dress for church that was starting at 7. I had noticed earlier that the wind was picking up which concerned me, that maybe rain was coming. Sure enough by 6 I knew that rain was coming.
We had worked so hard to get the church ready for tonight’s service that I saw this as a ploy of the enemy and I was mad. There was no way that Satan was going to win, no way!! So I stepped out of the dinner room and walked up a small hill where I could see the storm coming. I rebuked the storm and Satan and told them that this was Jesus’s night and in the name of Jesus it was not going to rain on God’s night. It was not happening! There was not a shadow of doubt in me, all I felt was anger and authority. You might call it righteous anger for I was contending for my Father. It was a total of about 3 minutes, I came back down the hill and back to dinner. My wife asked me what I was doing pointing my arms at the clouds and shouting who knows what. I told her I was rebuking Satan and the storm, she gave me this look like what did you just say? Her eyes said everything. She just simply said that after the service I needed to go right to bed and not stay up to talk. As she walked out she said “I told you that you were working too hard today”. I felt a little silly afterwards, but it didn’t last long, we needed to get ready.
That evening the church was full. I introduced our group and spoke a little bit about us – where we were from and what our purpose for coming was (being bilingual helps) but then I turned the service over to the pastor with whom we were staying. By God’s Grace he did a great job. The new pastor for the church was suppose to speak this night but at the last minute he could not come, so in a moments notice our host pastor had to speak. After the service we said our good byes to the people and hopped on the bus to head back to the pastor’s church. There was about ten of us.
I had all but forgotten about what I had done earlier, I was so happy about the service. However as we got about 10 minutes out from the church I saw wet roads, then I heard the rain hitting the bus and then the windshield wipers started going full speed. Then it hit me, that we truly did rebuke a storm in Jesus name, just like Peter truly walked on water. We know of these stories in the scriptures but the reality of them and what they teach we seldom take seriously. We regulate the stories both Old and New to folklore or cute stories to teach to children but seldom seek to apply them to ourselves. However, to the people involved in the stories, these events were life and death situations where God came through for them. And as He came through for them, TODAY He will come through for us. These stories are factual as God is real and they are meant to strengthen our faith; especially in “impossible” situations. As long as Peters eyes were on Christ he did the impossible, and so can we.
That night Satan lost and God won all because God listened to a man willing to be His fool and a pastor who took seriously God’s command to “be ready in season and out of season (2 Timothy 4:2).” Here’s one take away from this story; how many times do we under achieve in our Christian walk because we are too worried of what others will think of us? I would rather be God’s fool and see miracles than appear wise in the eyes of man any day.
Now let me regress a bit and come back to the woman with the issue of blood. Which is the greater healing, to be healed of an infirmity, or to continue to worship and maintain a thankful disposition in our infirmity? Which is the greater testimony? Here’s another question. If Jesus didn’t answer a single prayer you prayed but promised you Eternity with Him, would that be enough of a “healing,” or would you need more? Is it right to seek the healer just for the healing? I am benefitted much by the healing but I am benefitted the more by learning to praise Him through my suffering.
Going to Heaven is my greatest healing, changing my sinful nature over into robes of righteousness far outstrips anything that could happen to me here, would you not agree? And my testimony of His faithfulness in my suffering touches and encourages more people than a healing. Testimonies of healing are great, they give hope, but they are also soon forgotten. However testimonies of God’s consistent ongoing presence through our struggles are even greater.
To be able to say I went through that, just like the Psalmist says “even though I go through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil,” is a great testimony for people in the valley. Also we are not suppose to “camp” in the valley. We are meant to learn the lessons of the valley, being made the better through our struggle and go on our way. Unfortunately there are Christians who camp in the valley. They fail to yield to the lessons, just like the Israelites took forty years to travel a months journey because of their continued complaining and worshiping of idols. We can waste so much of our life in the valleys just because we continually substitute worry, fret, lust for this world, idols etc., for trusting the true and living God.
A great prayer, “ Father I am yours, make me completely yours and do with me as that which brings You the greatest honor and testimony of Your faithfulness and love. Cultivate in me a love for your Word and prayer.”
Thank you for this study and Amen,
Move Forward in His Grace – ArthurArthur Navarrette
Vida4U.com is the website where all past Vida’s are archived. In addition to the weekly devotionals, the yearly inspirational writings featured in December’s House2Home Magazine are archived under “Faith Talk.” Please use this site for your benefit and refer your friends to it as well. If they would like the weekly series emailed to them, they can send their requests to Arthur@Vida4U.com.