GROWING FAITH

Let me share with you my journey of faith. I have been praying "Lord I want to go deeper with You". So He began to show me about faith, where I have been, where I am now. I know where I want to be in my faith journey and I know one day, Lord one day I will be. To tell my story, I will be using scripture along the way.

Romans 1:16-17 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 (Gentile). For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, "The just shall live by faith."

See the words "from faith to faith"? Our faith matures and grows as we travel through this life, and we find that in the middle of adversity that will be the soil our faith grows in. See the words "the just shall live by faith"? We the believer, followers of Christ are the "just", not "just" by our performances but "just" based on His finished work. And we are counted "just" by God and we are to live by faith, not in what we can see with our eyes but in who we have placed our hope and trust in, Jesus. As we live by faith, we will begin to see His fruit grow within us, we will see evidence of Him working all around us and we will see our faith move and grow with each season in our lives.

So here is my testimony the way God revealed to me.

At 9 years of age I had just "a measure of faith" in Romans we are told a measure of faith is given to all men, just enough to believe and receive. Oh I believed there was a God, yet I had an unhealthy fear of God; a fear of dying, because my daddy had died I became angry with God and began to run from Him instead of to Him. I was unsaved, yet God was pursuing me.

At 27 years of age I had a "little faith". I had stopped running from God, had begun to seek God. I had come to realize that the void in my life could only be filled by Jesus and I received His gift of salvation. I got active in church and bible studies. Yet in me was a false expectation of what being a Christian was suppose to look like and I had a preconceived idea of how God was going to make my life and marriage perfect.

At 38 years of age I had "fleeting faith". Before I start, here is the verse God showed me that I had "fleeting faith". Hosea 6:4b.....For your faithfulness is like the morning cloud, and like the early dew it goes away.

Did you see it? God was speaking to Ephraim and Judah how their faith was fleeting, here today and gone tomorrow. And when God took me back to my timeline He said "Here you had fleeting faith". Just let me add what I now understand today; God corrected me as a father would his child just like He did with Ephraim and Judah, there are always consequences as a result of stepping out of the will of God, yet God is waiting with open arms to receive you back, His desire is always for us to repent and return. During these years of running, my sin was always before me, I could not run from it or hide from it, I was continually aware of my sin (this was the conviction of the Holy Spirit, and the evidence of God's grace and mercy pursuing me.) And though Satan was sifting me like wheat, Jesus knew the day was coming when this prodigal daughter would come to her senses and return to her Father's arms. But let's go on.

At 50 years of age I had "some faith". What do I mean by the word "some" well my faith had grown during my journey,  I spend 12 years in fleeting faith, and though I would have preferred not taking that detour in my walk with Jesus, the detour was the catalyst that brought me from "little faith" to "some faith". I had been gone from church and running from God for 12 years, and now as I sat in the church pew and heard the word, got back into studying His word, back into prayer, back into serving in His kingdom I began to grow in my faith. I saw God at work in my life, I saw that even in the years of running God never let me go, I have now learned He set up markers in my life that would remind me of His goodness. Yet when circumstances around me became storms and mountains i would relinquish my peace to the problem and become fearful and weep and cry. Yet, what I would learn at 62 would be:

At 62 years of age I was growing in "enduring faith".God moved me from the church I was at and loved; but He had somewhere He wanted me to go that I might learn what He wanted me to learn and grow in my faith. This is the church I am at today, it is here that I began to truly understand how to praise Him in worship, how to battle in prayer and how to die to self. Perhaps a year or so ago, my pastors did a sermon series called From Death To Life it lasted 12 weeks and was probably one of the most life changing and faith growing series of sermons I had experienced. It was here that I found myself dying to my desires, my wants, my ways. It was here that I laid myself in the grave and said not my will but Your will be done. Here I lay and realized that in the struggle of the storms of life I had been expecting God to change my circumstances, WAIT A MINUTE!! That was exactly what I was expecting from God when I was 27 years old! But here I am now probably 67 or 68 and suddenly realized God wasn't changing my circumstances He was changing me in the middle of my circumstances.  God is a faithful God and many times He has supernaturally changed what was happening, He is always with me, He is with me by the calm seas and the raging seas, these times of struggles most were brought about by my own bad decisions, yet witnessing His faithfulness to always provide, changed me. Suddenly I realized no matter how bad things may appear, my trust in Him would not falter. So it is here my faith went from "some faith" to "enduring faith". There is a song out today that says "like a mountain my faith will not be shaken" since I can never remember songs or song titles I probably quoted this wrong (smiling).

Now here I am on the doorstep of 70 and God says you have "more faith". My faith has grown because I have seen the markers He has placed in my life. I have experienced, His grace, His mercy, His love, His forgiveness, His faithfulness. I have witnessed His provision, His protection, His favor. One day at a time He has continually shown me He is my rear guard, He is always working for my good and on my behalf. 

As God was showing me all of this I was reminded of the scripture in Matthew 8:5-10 the account of the Centurion's sick servant and in verse 10 " Assuredly I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel. " Here is the continued  direction of my journey of growing in faith. I said Lord I want great faith. Immediately fear whispered in my ear "this will harm you." but faith rose up and shouted not today Satan, my God was with me yesterday and He will be with me today and with me the next day and the day after that. His word says the fire nor the waters will bring me no harm. God told me years ago He had a better plan for my life"  this is "boldness of faith", a faith that rises up and declares victory over the  enemy and fear, "boldness of faith" stands courageous over fear.(I guess you could say "\more\\\ faith" just went to "boldness of faith") I just looked up the definition of great it means to be "above normal", yes Lord my desire is to live an above normal life, being on fire for Christ, seeking those things which are above,  walking and serving with kingdom purpose,  letting my life glorify God, lifting up Jesus and walking in obedience to the direction the Holy Spirit is leading. I desire an Above Normal faith, a faith that says "come what may I stand believing".

1. We have all been given a measure of faith to believe  Romans 10:17

2. It is God's grace through our faith that saves us Ephesians 2:8

3. Jesus is both the author and finisher of our faith Hebrews 12:2

4. Jesus is both the object and substance of our faith Hebrews 11:1

5. Without faith it is impossible to please God Hebrews 11:6

6. We have been called to walk by faith and not by sight 2 Corinthians 5:7

7. Our faith in our true Healer will heal James 5:15 and all through the gospels and the book of Acts. This is as true today as it was then.

8. We are to remain steadfast in our faith Colossians 1:23,

1Peter 5:8

Faith and fear cannot coincide, they are opposite. You cannot live in fear and walk by faith. So a decision must be made are you going to live pleasing God or live surrendered to the roar of the enemy who screams FEAR??

Hear the words of Jesus: Luke 18:8b......Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith in the earth?

I use the New King James version of the bible and in it faith or some form of faith is mentioned 389 times. While do not fear or some form of do not fear is mentioned 365 times.