Applying Faith, I

One of the key points of Rekindling is to search the Scriptures and find practical, real and impactful applications for Christ-centered, God-glorifying living.

The fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5 and the spiritual growth in 2 Peter 1 are two of my favorite passages for this.  A third is 1 Corinthians 13, where it explains what exactly agape love entails.  At the end of this passage, in verse 13, it makes a striking statement that is often quoted, but not always embraced and lived out.  So I'd like to take some time in diving into that three-fold verse, and see how it may affect our daily living.

The NIV states,

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

The Message puts it,

But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.

And the Amplified describes it as,

And so faith, hope, love abide [faith--conviction and belief respecting man's relation to God and divine things; hope--joyful and confident expectation of eternal salvation; love--true affection for God and man, growing out of God's love for and in us], these three; but the greatest of these is love.

So this week, I want to start with the first element of Christian living:  faith.

Faith is the Greek word pistis (which is related to pisteuo, translated belief)  and it touches on the idea of "reliance upon" and "leaning on".  When I think of relying upon or leaning on someone else, there are two quick examples that come to mind:

A COMPLETE RELIANCE.  Let's say I am extremely sick and bed-ridden.  I need some chicken noodle soup, but I don't have the energy (nor, let's say, the money) to get it.  And so I rely on my mother (or spouse or friend) to go to the store and purchase it for me.  There is nothing I did, other than ask.

A CO-RELIANCE.  Let's say I have a broken leg and I need to get down the stairs.  A friend can shoulder up next to me, and as I put my arm around them for strength, support and guidance, we can walk down the stairs together.  I cannot do it without them, but I also have to be doing my part to get myself downstairs.

In the same way, there are two types of faith in God.  Sometimes there is a complete reliance, for example with our salvation.  All we can do is seek it out, ask for it in repentance and submission, and then it is God who does all the work to accomplish it.  Christ took human form and died for us, taking our sins upon Himself, so that atonement was achieved for our imperfection and wretchedness, and we are now considered righteous (of right-standing) in God's eyes. [Rom 4:5]

Other times, God expects us to come along-side Him, working out our salvation with fear and trembling.  We need to lean on Him heavily as we take steps and actions for some given situation.

So whatever you are dealing with right now, you can know that you must place your faith in God.  Only He has the power, wisdom and desire to fully see you through it.  So your first job is to come to Him to place your faith in Him, acknowledging that you need Him.  Second, you must determine (by asking Him) if this is a complete or co- reliance situation.  When it comes to the trial, problem, dilemma, question or challenge you are experience right now, you must ask God to tell you whether you are 'bed-ridden' or 'with a broken leg'.  Don't determine that for yourself, because we humans always give ourselves more credit than we deserve (pride).  And then submit to what He tells you, either getting out of His way and letting Him handle the situation completely, or coming alongside Him, leaning heavily upon Him and walk with Him through the circumstances.

We can say that there are four possibilities when determining how to approach a situation:

• Complete reliance.  (a good thing)
• Co-reliance.  (a good thing)
• Self-reliance.  (not a good thing)
• Ignoring the situation and doing nothing.  (not a good thing)

I feel that aggressive-minded non-believers tend to pursue self-reliance, whereas passive-minded non-believers tend to skip out on tough challenges.  In the same way, aggressive-personality Christians tend to pursue self-reliance, while calling it co-reliance, and passive-personality Christians may be avoiding a situation while saying they are simply relying on God completely.  We must remember that our take on our actions is skewed and imperfect, and so the odds are we are not exactly doing what we are thinking we are doing or saying we are doing.  So if you feel you are pretty good at co-relying on God, keep in mind there's a good chance that you are a little too self-reliant.  And if you feel you have put something completely in God's Hands, make sure that you are neither taking matters into your own hands in subtle ways nor actually ignoring the situation.  Ask God to show you the truth of your actions and His will.

Let's take a look at some central passages regarding faith.

2 Thessalonians 1:3-7,

We ought always to thank God for you, brothers, and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love every one of you has for each other is increasing. Therefore, among God’s churches we boast about your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and trials you are enduring. All this is evidence that God’s judgment is right, and as a result you will be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are suffering. God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels.

Here we see that faith is not a one time, all or nothing thing.  There is more faith and less faith.  There is more dependence upon God and less dependence upon God.  We can increase or decrease the amount of faith that we have in God.  We can partially trust in Him for our salvation, and add to it our own works (which we want to avoid!).  We can offer a prayer up to Him, but then take matters into our own hands; i.e., we can ask Him for help, and then try to get to the store or walk down the stairs on our own.  Maybe as we're walking down the stairs, we grimace in pain as we walk on our own, but have Him nearby just in case we start to fall. (Talk about pride.)

Matthew 8:5-10,

 When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking for help. “Lord,” he said, “my servant lies at home paralyzed and in terrible suffering.”

Jesus said to him, “I will go and heal him.”

The centurion replied, “Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”

When Jesus heard this, he was astonished and said to those following him, “I tell you the truth, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith.

This is a complete faith issue.  The centurion approached Christ and asked for help, but then he trusted that Christ would do all the work of the actual healing, right then with just a word.  He sincerely believed that Christ would heal his servant.  And Jesus marveled at that sincerity and the choice to not take action himself.  The centurion simply stood and let Christ act.

Matthew 8:23-26,

Then he got into the boat and his disciples followed him. Without warning, a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. The disciples went and woke him, saying, “Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!”  He replied, “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?” Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm.

This is an interesting passage.  At first glance, it appears the disciples were doing the right thing.  Instead of taking matters into their own hands (i.e., moving the ship out of the storm), the came to Jesus and asked for help.  But they were rebuked for little faith.  Why?  Two reasons:  because of their attitude and their expectations.  Specifically, they wanted a change.  They expected a different set of circumstances (deliverance from the storm).  So in actuality, they were indeed taking matters into their own hands.  They made a decision and then told God what they wanted to happen.  So while they did have some faith (they knew God had to accomplish the result), they did not trust in Him enough to let Him decide the result.  Apparently, Christ wanted them to simply experience the storm, trusting that He would not let them die.  He wanted them to have courage and perseverance in the midst of the storm, they wanted deliverance from the storm.  And so while they trusted that God had to do the delivering, it was only a little faith, since they wanted to retain the final decision on what was to occur.

Think of it this way:  imagine some negative situation X that you want to avoid or a positive situation Y that you want to experience.  There are several options of what God may want:

• He wants you to experience X, and He is going to stand by your side and experience it with you.  And the joy of having Him by your side will outweigh that pain of X itself.
• He wants you to avoid X as well, but He is going to do all the work.  You must let Him deliver you from X; if you try to escape X on your own power (in your own way), it will complicate things.
• He wants you to avoid X as well, and He wants you and Him to work on it together.  He will show you what steps to take (when and where), so you must first come to Him, then listen to His direction, the obey it.  Let Him lead in the dance.

• He does not want you to experience Y, and so He wants to keep Y from you, so that you can focus on something else (whether that be Him and/or some other positive Z that you haven't realized yet).  So you cannot make a move towards Y.

• He wants you to experience Y, but He is going to do all the work to bring it about.  You must simply stand and be still, and let Him bring Y to you. You are to make no effort whatsoever, other than enjoying and stewarding Y when it comes.
• He wants you to experience Y, and He wants you and Him to achieve it together.  He will show you when, where, and how to grasp onto Y, and you and Him can laugh and enjoy the process together.

Look at the three healings of Matthew 9.  The friends of the paralytic were rewarded for a co-reliance faith, as was the bleeding woman.  In both stories, they knew God had to do the healing, but they knew they had to do their part as well.  The friends had to carry the mat, and lower it through the roof.  The woman had to find Jesus, come to Him and touch His cloak.  And then they let God do the rest.  But the blind men were rewarded for a complete reliance. They simply asked Christ to heal them, and trusted that He could and would do it.

I'm reminded of the joke about the guy on his roof during a terrible flood.  A jacked-up truck, a boat and a helicopter all came to rescue him, but he chose to wait for the LORD to deliver him miraculously.  He ended up drowning, and standing before God, he complained that he was killed despite having faith.  God explained He had sent a truck, boat and helicopter.  I've never liked that joke.  Because while it does touch on the importance of co-reliance faith, it does so by belittling complete reliance faith.  We in the West rely too heavily on ourselves and mundane resources, being apprehensive of miraculous faith.  And it a fault of ours.  Yes, there are co-reliance faith opportunities, but there are also complete reliance faith situations, and we must have Spirit-given discernment (NOT human discernment) on which kind of faith any given situation calls for.

Think of Moses and the rock at Meribah in Numbers 20.  God told him to speak to the rock and He would provide for water to come from it.  Moses instead struck the rock twice (apparently out of anger and maybe for theatrical elements).  Yes, Moses had faith that God would cause water to come from the rock, but he still took matters partially into his own hands.  And he was rebuked severely for that.

A perfect example of co-reliance is Joshua.  He trusted God, and worked with Him, to claim the Holy Land.  He did exactly as God commanded at Jericho, and Jericho fell into the Israelites hands.

A perfect example of complete reliance is Jehoshaphat in 2 Chronicles 20.  Enemies were approaching and he inquired of the LORD what to do.  God told him to simply stand and watch as He would deliver them from their enemies (which He did).  Jehoshaphat let God make the call on what was to occur and let Him do all that needed to be done for it to be accomplished.

Another great example of co-reliance and complete reliance in modern times is that of George Mueller.  In once specific example, his orphanage had run out of food and milk for the kids.  He showed complete reliance by simply praying for God to provide what He wanted to provide.  He did not take matters into his own hands; he did not call around or go seek out supplies.  He simply waited in faith.  Meanwhile, unbeknownst to Him, God had woken up the town baker in the middle of the night and weighed on him to bake a bunch of bread and bring it to Mueller's orphanage first thing in the morning.  God also arranged for the milkman's cart to break a wheel, while out on his deliveries, right in front of the orphanage.  The milkman offered Mueller the milk, since it would go sour by the time he fixed the cart wheel and finished his deliveries.  So while Mueller sets the example for us of complete reliance, the baker set the example of co-reliance.  He did his part in getting up and baking all the bread and taking it over to the orphanage, not knowing why, since the orphanage had never failed to have food for the kids before.

We see this pattern of co-reliance and complete reliance throughout Scriptures.  Hebrews 11, the Hall of Faith, gives us numerous examples of both co-reliance and complete reliance.  God loves it when we place the faith in Him that He asks of us.  And Paul touches on complete reliance while James touches on co-reliance (faith and deeds).  The Old Testament, as mentioned above with Joshua and Jehoshaphat gives us plenty of examples of both as well.

So what can we take from all this?

1. God is the ultimate source for all good things, and we must realize that we cannot do life on our own.  We must approach God and ask Him for His help.  (And realize this brings a smile to His face and a joyful tear to His eyes when we do this.)

2. We must ask God what outcome He wants (regarding negative Xs and positive Ys).
3. We must then ask Him whether this is a complete reliance issue or a co-reliance one, and to what degree.
4. We must then obey and act on what He has directed us to do.
5. This correct faith will make us righteous, and we can rejoice in that.

Or, to put it another way,

1. Submit to God's Way in your circumstances, rather than your own (no matter how good your own way may be).
2. Depend on God to decide what the final outcome of circumstance should be.
3. Depend on God to determine what your exact role is to be in pursuing that outcome.
4. Do what He tells you to do, including waiting and doing nothing, if that is His Will.
5. Rejoice in the fact that by doing these things, you are honoring Him, contributing to the well-being of others (even if it doesn't always appear that way), and growing in spiritual maturity.

I want to wrap up the blog here for this week.   What I would like from each of you, is to email me various examples, whether real or theoretical, where we can apply these lessons on faith.  And then next week, I will post a collection of such examples, to allow us to better grapple with this 'increasing of our faith'.  Let me give one specific example, to get us started.

LOOKING FOR WORK

The first we thing we need to realize is that we must include God in this process, and in fact let Him lead on it.  We may be hesitant to do this, as we are afraid of what job He will call us too.  But we must recognize that His way is better than our way, and the job He wants us to take, in the end, will bring Him more glory, impact others better and will mature us more fully.

So we can ask God:  which opportunity do you want me to be a part of?  (What type of work? What industry? etc.)  It makes logical sense for us to choose a better-paying job with better benefits (deliverance from the storm), but God may have something else in store that pays less (perseverance through the storm).

And we also need to ask God how much effort we are to take alongside Him.  Are we to hit the pavement and apply to 50 places?  Maybe He will call us to apply for only 4 jobs.  Or maybe He will tell us to wait, and He will clearly bring us the job He wants us to have.  We often feel uncomfortable to talk this way, but it aligns with Scriptural teachings and shows itself in reality around us.  When I look back on my life, at the jobs and situations where God was most glorified, others were most impacted and I was most matured in the process, almost every single one of them came about by God bringing the opportunity to me, rather than me seeking such a one out.  My job with Berlitz, my job with Harvest, my job with Dr. Smith, and my job with ELI all came about by someone approaching me and offering me the position.  All these jobs fall under the complete reliance category.  Now, once I had those jobs, I had to lean on Him heavily to give me the wisdom, patience and love to do those jobs well.  So the actual performance of the jobs fell under the co-reliance category (such as what lesson to teach any given day, how to handle a personality conflict, etc.).

Now I'm not saying that this will be the case for everyone. Sometimes, God will call you to initiate and actively pursue a job.  But sometimes He will ask you to stay still.  The key is discerning which approach He wants you to take.  (This discernment is a key issue, and we will be diving into it deeper in coming weeks.)

Again,

sometimes God decides what the meal is to be and other times lets you decide.

and sometimes He wants you and him to make the meal together; other times, He wants you sitting at the table and waiting for Him to cook and bring the meal to you.

and other times, He wants you to fast from the meal altogether.

So make a list of the decisions you are trying to make (or avoiding) in your life right now, and ask God what He wants you to do or not do. 

Ponder on these things, and send me real or hypothetical examples, so that next week we can try to apply these principles to them.

with love, excitement and trust,

shannon

shannon@rekindlingministries.com