LIVING
BY FAITH
For
all believers the key word is faith.
Evangelicals
were taught from childhood that we are “justified, not by the works of the law,
but by faith”; that we are saved, not by our own righteousness, but by faith.
Rediscovery
of "justification by faith" inspired the Protestant Reformation,
which set off a spiritual awakening that swept over
This
spiritual awakening began when Luther and others like him stressed that people
were brought into a living relationship with God, not by their own efforts, but
by faith in Jesus Christ.
One
day I had a conversation through a half-opened door with a lady who was
lamenting that she was not enjoying a sense of the presence of God as she once
experienced it.
“But to have the presence of God”, I said
to her, “there are some things we have to do”.
“Wait a minute!" she protested,
“We’re saved by grace not by works!”
Most
of us are like that woman.
We have the doctrine down cold.
We know that everything hinges on
faith.
But
adhering to the doctrine of faith is one thing – living the life
of faith is quite another.
When
Moses was a young man, he was aware that he was different from the people
around him.
He
was the adopted son of Pharaoh’s daughter and enjoyed all the privileges of
nobility. He had his own apartment, his own chariot, a fine horse, and bags of
money to spend. But Moses knew that, by birth, he was a Hebrew.
And
Hebrews were people of faith. They believed in the Unseen God. Moses began to
think of himself as a Hebrew believer – a man of faith.
The
only trouble was he lived like all the Egyptians around him – not like a man of
faith.
When
Moses was forty, he saw an Egyptian beating on a Hebrew. Here was his chance to
prove to himself that he was a man of faith.
He
killed the Egyptian, saved the Hebrew.
But
killing the Egyptian was not an act of faith.
It was not inspired by the God of the
Hebrews.
It was inspired by Moses' ego.
Word
got out that Moses had killed an Egyptian. His life was in danger. So he fled into the wilderness of Midian where he lived as a
shepherd for another forty years.
Sometimes
when Moses would lie on the hillside watching his sheep, he would say to
himself, “Nobody knows this but me, and I’m not going to advertise it, but I’m
a Hebrew---I’m a man of faith.”
But
Moses was not yet living the life of faith.
He was merely clinging to an idea in his head.
Let's be honest with ourselves. Much of
the time you and I are like Moses was before he stumbled into the burning bush
– we think we’re “Hebrews”, we think we’re people of faith, we adhere to the
doctrine of faith like all good "Hebrews," but we live like the
Egyptians around us.
Sometimes we take a swing at an Egyptian,
at least with our mouths, to convince ourselves that we are really
different.
But
we are driven most of the time, as Moses was in those days, by our egos---not
by the Spirit of God.
Many times we
claim the inspiration of the Spirit of God---for what our ego decides to do.
“The Lord, showed me," we say with
great piety. But did he? Were we even seeking his light?
The thing you did, the thing you said, the
way you imposed yourself on the group – that wasn’t the Spirit of God! It was your ego.
One
day Moses is leading his sheep around
“Moses!
Take off your shoes! You are standing on holy ground.”
Moses
falls on his face, tears off his sandals trembling
like a leaf in the wind.
“I am the God of your father, the God
Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Stand up Moses. I have work
for you. Come. I will send you to
“Who me? They won’t listen to me. They
won’t believe me.
They’ll say, ‘The Lord did not send you. The Lord did not appear to you.’ “
“What’s that in your hand, Moses?”
“A rod.”
“Throw it on the ground.”
Moses throws it,
and it becomes a serpent.
“Pick it up.”
He picks it up and, it’s his faithful rod.
A few more samples, and Moses still
protests, “Wait a minute…Lord, I can’t speak. I’m very slow of speech.”
“Who made man’s tongue?”
The
Lord has his way, and soon Moses is traveling toward
And
as Moses does the things God tells him to do, he becomes a man of faith.
So when do you and I begin living lives of
faith?
When we start doing the things God calls
us to do.
When we start doing the things Jesus
commands us to do.
Faith
is not a doctrine. Faith is not a feeling. Faith is not cold chills running up
and down your spine.
Faith is action!
You
believe Jesus saved you, when you walk in the salvation He gave you.
You
have faith in Jesus Christ, when you begin living the life he calls you to
live.
“Not
everyone who says, ‘Lord, Lord’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who
does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” Matthew 7:21
Saying, “Lord,
Lord,” is assenting to the doctrine of faith.
Doing the will of
the Father is living the life of faith.
“Therefore
everyone who hears these words of mine and does them will be like the wise man
who built his house upon the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and
the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did
not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears
these words of mine and does not do them is like a foolish man who built his
house upon the sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew
and beat against that house and it fell with a great
crash.” Matthew 7: 24-27
Every time we gather in the name of the
Lord, the Heavenly Father calls to us out of the
burning bush. Our burning bush is Jesus.
We gather in His name. We draw near to be strengthened by Him---to be refined and purified as we
watch the fire of His Spirit going up through the bush toward heaven.
Out of the bush, comes the voice of God:
“You’re standing on holy ground. Take off your shoes …I call
you this day to move beyond the doctrine of faith to
enter with me into the life
of faith.”
What a change we will find in our lives
when we leave the doctrine of faith—all our hard, preconceived ideas, all of our opinions, all those "experiences" we
take pride in –leave them like Moses' shoes at the burning bush---and follow
the Lord Jesus into the life of faith!
The life of faith can be distinguished
from all of its counterfeits by four clear marks, and
if any one of those four essentials is missing we need
to turn to the Lord and seek help.
First or all, the life of faith is a life of risk.
In this world where everybody plays it safe, you can buy insurance to cover any possibility. But to start living by faith, to truly follow
Jesus, involves risk.
“Then Jesus told his disciples, ‘If any
man would come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me.
For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my
sake will find it’ “ Matthew 16: 24,25
To take up my cross means that I allow
Him to lead me on a road, which involves all the things that happened to
Him—rejection, danger, possibly death.
Day by day I lose my life in His life. I
give up my program for His program. I walk out there with Him not knowing where
He’s going to take me.
If
His Spirit instructs me to stop and listen to what that stranger is trying to
tell me, I stop and listen.
If
His Spirit moves me to reach down inside my pocket and share some of the money I have with someone in need, I do it.
If
His Spirit urges me to open my mouth and say something that will make me
unpopular with my best friend, what choice do I have?
If
His Spirit comes to me through the voices of three or four brothers or sisters
and says, “We feel that you’re out of line”, I need to submit.
It is a life of risk that goes on as long
as we are alive in this body of flesh and blood, and it’s a lot more satisfying
than the "Christian pussyfooting" most of us have substituted for the
life of faith.
Secondly, the life of faith is a life of discipline.
Discipline as opposed to Christianity of
convenience, which is so popular these days:
“If I
feel like it, I’ll pray. What good would it do for me to pray, if I don’t feel
like it?”
“If I
don’t get to bed too late and there’s nothing better to do, I’ll gather with
the saints tomorrow.”
“If I
have a few dollars left over, I’ll share it with somebody in need.”
To live the life of faith, we follow the
example of our Lord---and of every man or woman of faith that has ever walked
this earth.
We
discipline ourselves to pray whether we feel like it or not.
We
discipline ourselves to gather with the saints even if we’re up half the night
with a headache.
We
discipline ourselves to take the first and best portion of whatever provision
comes into our hands and offer it back to God in thanksgiving.
If we don’t discipline ourselves to do
it, it won’t get done.
If we don’t discipline ourselves to form
a prayer life, our prayer life will evaporate into a thing of convenience.
“If anyone would come after me, let him
deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow me.”
Daily.
Day in and day out we discipline ourselves in this life of faith.
Thirdly, the life of faith is a life of joy.
Joy! After Moses met the Lord at the
burning bush, he had an ingredient in his life that had never been there
before, and it was there continuously, even on the roughest days. Moses had joy
in his heart!
Happiness depends on what happens to
you…when nice things happen, you’re happy…when bad things happen, you’re sad.
But the joy of the Lord is there all the
time, no matter what.
“Sorrowful yet
always rejoicing”
“Rejoice in the
Lord always, again I say rejoice.”
The life of faith is a life of
continuous, deep-down-inside, steady, unbroken joy. It's a joy that no human
being, and no circumstance, and no demon can take from you.
Finally, the life of faith is a life of
power.
Moses came away from the burning bush
carrying the rod, which he had used as a shepherd for years and years.
But now this rod is a sign of the power of God.
When
Moses lifts the rod up over
When
Moses takes the rod and strikes the rock in the wilderness, water gushes out.
When
Moses raises the rod over the battlefield, the Israelites are strengthened in
their death-struggle with the Amalekites.
Moses was the meekest of men, but as he
lived a life of faith, the power of God flowed through that rod in his hand,
and delivered the people again, and again. .
As we live the
life of faith, the power of the Holy Spirit within us is our rod.
“You shall receive power when the Holy
Spirit comes upon you; and you shall be my witnesses."
As we move in His will, follow His leading, walk in His light, the words that we speak in
faith, the things that we do in faith, the way that we learn to submit to each
other in faith---all this releases the power of the Holy Spirit through our
lives for the healing and blessing of others.
Our witness to Jesus is confirmed with signs following.
The issue is simple:
Am I
adhering to a doctrine of faith, while living like the Egyptians around me? Or
am I living a life of faith?
The God of the burning bush is urging us
to renew our commitment to the call, which is upon each of our lives.
“Trust
me, not just in theory, but with your life.”
“Turn
from your own way, pick up your cross,
and follow me into a life of risk,
a life of discipline,
a life of joy,
a life of
power
and I will bless you beyond anything you could ask or
think.”