Describing Faith III

The Facets of Faith
Today I would like to continue our exploration of faith and its many facets. But first let’s have a quick recap of the first three facets of faith. In part two of "How to describe faith" we discovered that the first three facets of faith are: 1) it stretches your imagination. It causes us to look beyond our current circumstances and mentally picture the future. 2) It taking the initiative. It causes us to move and take action. 3) Faith is taking risk. By faith we take big risks and step into what we cannot see, into the unknown.

Remember, when we talk about faith it's impossible to really describe it in just one word or sentence. So, now let’s continue to explore faith and its many facets.

Beginning with the fourth facet of faith; Faith is expecting the best. Let’s go back to the women with the issue of blood in Mark 5:25-29. The woman after hearing of Jesus followed behind the crowd of people surrounding Him as he traveled down the round. In verse 28 she thought to herself. "If I can put a finger on his robe, I can get well." Mark 5:28 (MSG). The woman had an expectation. She expected to be healed when she touched Jesus' robe. And the minute she touched His robe, she was healed. Expectation is an essential part of faith. Think about this: how many times have you gotten a craving in the middle of the night; jumped out of bed; Got dressed and jumped into your car; and drove to the fast food restaurant knowing it was closed? Never, the reason you drove to the restaurant is because you expected it to be open and still serving food. What caused you to get out of bed that late and drive to that restaurant? Your craving for food caused you to think to yourself, "Hmmm, Wendy's is open" at that moment you expected Wendy's to be open and still serving food. This woman heard about Jesus and no doubt about how He healed the sick. And here Faith kicked in. Romans 10:17 say's Faith comes by hearing. The moment she heard about Jesus, she developed a faith for healing. And her faith caused her to think of the best outcome for her current situation. She thought the best thing that can happen to me if I touch Jesus' robe is, I will be healed. I have heard many people say in difficult situations “What's the worst that could happen". Stop asking that question. Start using your faith, and ask "What's the best that can happen." Faith is expecting the best.

The fifth facet of faith is: Faith is following instruction. Hebrews 11:8-9 Abraham by faith left his family and home and traveled to a placed that he didn't even know how to get to. Genesis 12:1-4 God spoke to Abraham (then named Abram) and told him to get his family and things and leave. But to where? God simply told Abraham, "To a place I will show you how to get to." So, God has told Abraham to go to a place and doesn't tell him where the place is. What the name of the place is. Or even give him the coordinates to punch into to his GPS. But yet in Genesis 12:4 Abram departed, as the LORD had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran. By faith, Abraham followed Gods instruction. Faith is going without knowing, where you are going. You’re just following Gods instruction. Another key aspect to following God instructions is to make sure your faith is strong enough for the level you are seeking Gods instructions for. It's impossible to follow Gods instructions for a Mercedes with Ford level faith. When you listen to God, you will experience decrease before you experience the increase. Judges 7:1-18. In the book of the Judges, God spoke to Gideon and told him that he was to gather the men of his tribe and take them into battle against the Midianite army who had come in to take their land. And in chapter 7 God begins to do something a little different than what would be considered normal for an army going into battle. Gideon had assembled all the troops’ together 30 thousand men ready to go and fight against the Midian army. Then God tells Gideon to send 20 thousand of the men home; Two thirds of the army. Then God tells Gideon, you still have too many men, send more home. I will tell you which ones. He then tells Gideon to send another nine thousand seven hundred soldiers home; leaving them with only three hundred to fight the Midianite army. Why was God sending soldiers back home, instead of adding more to the assembly? God was building Gideon’s faith. It took a tremendous amount of trust and faith to follow the directions God was giving him. Going against all of the normal procedures of war; go into battle with only three hundred men; against over fifteen thousand men. That’s kind of like saying something crazy like, ohh I don’t know; Love you enemy; repay evil with good; bless them that curse you. That’s just not normal stuff to do...unless you have faith in God; who told you to do it. The fifth facet of faith is, follow Gods instructions.

The sixth facet of faith: Faith is being persistent. People of faith don't know how to quit. They keep on keeping on. Things will always come up when God calls you to do something. There will always be something for you to use as an excuse. Genesis 6:14-17 God commanded Noah to build and ark. Then in Genesis 7:4 God tells Noah He is going to cause it to rain and flood the whole earth. So, here is Noah’s first chance to give an excuse. God says "Noah build an ark; I am going to make it rain for forty days and forty nights." Noah’s response is, "Ok God, but what’s an ark. And what in the world is rain." See, up to this point it had never rained on the earth. The water currently on the earth was coming up from the ground. Genesis 2:5-6 so if Noah wanted an excuse; being told to build an unknown object called an ark to float on this unknown rain stuff was a good one. How do you do something that has not yet been defined? No doubt Noah was talked about and ridiculed for this ridiculous ark thing he was building. And then when friends questioned him about why he was building it. And he explained the water in the sky was going to fall to earth. They must have thought he was nuts. But Noah remained persistent. After God gives you something to do, you have to endure being accused and ridiculed. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Galatians 6:9 (NIV) how do you stay strong. You keep on praying and keep on believing. Faith is being persistent.

The seventh facet: faith is rebuilding and rebounding from failure. Everybody fails and most of our hurts come from our attempts to succeed at something and fail at it. But the thing about failure is not the failure it's rebounding from the failure. This is the hard part, because being a person of faith means being persistent. So that means getting up, dusting yourself off and getting back up on that bull. This is when the ridicule and persecution happens. People don't really talk about you when you fail. But when you keep on moving; Keep on persisting. When you jump back up on that same bull for another attempt; that’s when they talk about you. Why would you operate by faith, fail and still have faith; because faith is rebuilding and rebounding from failure. Faith sees productivity where there was bareness. Success where there was failure. Fulfillment where there has been frustration. Faith sees a useless life; turned into a successful life. Faith says, “I will not dwell on the past, but what I can become.” Faith is rebuilding and rebounding from failure.

As you can see from this lesson faith is multi-faceted. It has some many valuable aspects to it. But one thing that can be summed up in one word, Is the focal point of our faith. God is the focus of our faith. He is the object of our faith. What God does in and through our lives by faith is for His and only His glory. Adam was created to glorify God, Jesus gloried his father. From the first man, to the only begotten son, faith glorifies God. The seven facets given in this lesson, build us up in faith so that we can bring our heavenly father glory.

13 "Let me tell you why you are here. You're here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth. If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste godliness? You've lost your usefulness and will end up in the garbage.14 "Here's another way to put it: You're here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We're going public with this, as public as a city on a hill.15 If I make you light-bearers, you don't think I'm going to hide you under a bucket, do you? I'm putting you on a light stand.16 Now that I've put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand—shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you'll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven. Matthew 5:13-16 (MSG)