Strong Man Of God Blog |

On March 9, 2014 in Instruction by Robert Kelley

Alert readers of my March 2, 2014 blog, The Testing Of Our Faith under the category, Instruction found me susceptible as all other Christians not only to the sin of unbelief, but also offering fear driven prayer to God that seeks His ratification of my solutions over what His might be. I should have known better by now--no doubt one of the reasons the Lord allowed me to go through the painful consequences. My youth in Christ is filled with those kinds of prayers that were not all treated with severity in the failed aftermath. Our God is a Father with no equal; a perfect balance of patience, wisdom and mercy as well as firmness and severity as needed with His sons. All praises be to Him!

Lusts of all kinds, mental and emotional distresses, fear, worry and anxiety easily overrule our faith in God in this life when we are not careful and very important, willful. Rather than taking both our negative state of mind and need to God in prayer, most of us take only our need in a negative state of mind! For example, in the blog I referenced, I revealed that fear of outcomes from which I never asked deliverance led me to pray only with my solution in mind. My prayer was not, “Lord, here are the problems, what do you want me to do?” It was more like, “Lord, here are the problems and I am concerned (code word for afraid) that certain terrible outcomes are imminent if I do not act now!”

Does the foregoing sound familiar? For the record, I am not up in your business; we redeemed sinners are more alike than we admit and there is no temptation or sin that is uncommon to all (1 Corinthians 10:13a). The temptation and sin to doubt whether God cares about us in our time of jeopardy is the most common which when He saw it in His disciples, the Lord Jesus directly rebuked their lack of faith (Luke 8:22-25). We have the blessing of spiritual hindsight from the experience of the first disciples now knowing exactly who Jesus Christ and God the Father are and still we doubt that Heaven appreciates the real peril we face in our situation. We are so weak in faith today.

Not only are we weak in faith, but we are also extremely impatient with God. In this, we are very much a product of the hurry up world we live in. Some willfully resist the Holy Spirit’s regenerating work and the Father’s discipline standing firm on their right to have the things they want now! However, resistance is futile! And save your prayer for the immutable God to adapt His ways to the times we live in. He will require faith and patience in His sons out of love for Him forever (1 Corinthians 13:13). Therefore, all who aspire to be strong men and great women of God in the image of Christ should adapt themselves to His will and let go of your tenacious clinging to this world’s narcissism in all repentance (James 4:1-6)!

When we have a problem or need or find ourselves in jeopardy, God wants us to first of all, own up to any negative state of mind asking for deliverance (and forgiveness if needed) from what will most certainly diminish faith in Him (Psalm 34:4, 56:3-4). Then, with renewed faith in, reverence for and thanksgiving to God present your problem, need or peril to Him requesting His solution for remedying the situation--He needs no helpful suggestions from us--after which we are to wait in continuing faith and peace (Psalm 27:1-3, 13-14, 33:18-22, 34:5-7, 56:5-11; Isaiah 26:3-4; Philippians 4:6-7). Otherwise, impatience only leads to sin and consequences--natural and/or divinely imposed.

Waiting on the Lord in patient hope is admittedly the hardest of things to do while in jeopardy. Nevertheless, we are commanded repeatedly in Scripture to do so. Of course, God’s act to deliver in remedy will come how and as quickly as it suits His purposes. This again is why we must avoid trying to tell God how to fix our situation. Our job is to trust Him fully to the point of loss, ruin or death. Is He not God, the living God, Maker of the heavens and the earth? Is anything too hard for our God (Jeremiah 32:16-27, 36-44)? Even so, our attitude is that of the three Hebrew boys facing certain, fiery death who affirmed God can and will save, but if He does not, that’s okay too (Daniel 3:16-18)!

Obviously there are situations when we know exactly what must be done but understand that unless God helps us, our efforts are doomed to fail. In those cases, we take the steps we are responsible for and pray seeking for the Lord to help in the ways only He can like king Asa of Judah (2 Chronicles 14:8-12). Truly, God in His Word has already warned us severe persecution awaits the saints as Christ’s return nears and that faith and patience are called for. But we have become “sluggish” in ignoring these truths or am I the only one seeing how weak and worldly we are here in the West (Hebrews 6:11-12, NKJV)? Thanks be to God that in His judgments underway to shake us from our lethargy and revival shortly to come He prepares His saints for the times unfolding before us.

Tagged With: God requires faith and patience of His sons

The Testing Of Our Faith

On March 2, 2014 in Instruction by Robert Kelley

As the Lord has led, I have been writing a lot about His testing of saints and sinners. Christians new to the faith especially have to be asking “why does God need to test men since He already knows what is in our hearts?” The question is valid with multiple answers in which I will focus on Christians and our faith momentarily. In general, though, while God knows our hearts, we often do not. Also, we easily deceive ourselves thinking we are better and stronger than we are. God tests men’s hearts to prove the content He knows of that we may be judged accordingly, see our true state and repent or praise Him for His work in us (Psalm 7:9-17, 17:3-5; John 3:16-21)!

Every would be faithful Christian; every aspiring strong man and great woman of God in the image of Jesus Christ must come to accept that our God and Father is going to test our faith to the end of our journey on this side of glory. He tested His only begotten Son who afterward became “the Author and Finisher of our faith” (Hebrews 12:1-2, NKJV); so now, He tests us who have become adopted sons through faith in Him (Galatians 3:26; Hebrews 2:10-18). The most elemental expression of faith has brought us into God’s promise of salvation; thereafter, God expects and labors so that our faith will grow and mature into settled character (Romans 5:1-5; James 1:2-4).

With that end in mind, Peter teaches that God purposely allows us to go through painful trials that test the “genuineness” of our faith. God has every right to insist that our faith be real along with deep and enduring since what we get as the end result is so overwhelmingly glorious (1 Peter 1:3-9, NKJV)! Superficial professors do not long hang around when serving Jesus involves personal pain as the Master taught in His excellent parable (Matthew 13:3, 5-6, 20-21). This is why as a matter of faith’s authenticity, willingness to persevere through the fire of painful trials is a fixture of God’s testing because faith can be real, but without depth and endurance it is useless in the marathon we run.

The truth is all of us authentic, born again Christians and saints on the way to glory fail to display the requisite situational faith in our God more often than we care to admit. I have seen and heard unbelief in pastors, elders, teachers, faithful church members and most of all, myself. This past year I cost our Ministry and my family dearly by making what I thought was a sound, prayed over business decision that turned out to be wrong. In the midst of the natural consequences, I asked the Lord to show me my sin and He did. I had failed the test of faith in and waiting upon Him by putting more stock in outcomes I feared. Everything I had feared in my decision came upon us!

Nevertheless, God rich in mercy and grace picked me up in forgiveness after this seemly millionth time of confession and repentance for failing to walk with Him in faith as I should have. In the fire of the righteous consequences which are exceedingly far less than what my sin deserved (Psalm 103:8-14), God has re-tested me in a similar set of circumstances and this time to His praise and glory, the Father who disciplines us for our good has proven me obedient to His will for faith in Him (Hebrews 12:3-11). With the humiliation and joy of the lesson freshly learned, I have shared my most recent faith test and results to encourage you, but I also have a sober warning from the Lord.

Indeed, God has made faith the foundational character trait He forges in His sons and aspiring strong men of God in the image of Christ because of the impossibility of pleasing Him without it (Hebrews 11:6) as I discuss in The Strong Man Of God. However, the corollaries of faith as character such as perseverance, patience, joy, hope and love for God are also important in enabling our endurance through still even more painful trials to come until we reach the finish line of the race marked out for us. Each one of us runs our own race before the Lord. Then there is the race we run together as the Church in this present age which by faith in joy we see nears its finish.

Up until now, God in great patience and longsuffering has given us many do overs as I just testified of my own recent faith test. However, the days are fast approaching when like suicide, failing a faith test will become fatal and not subject to re-testing. For the record, a Christian that commits suicide is not displaying biblical faith or knowledge (Genesis 1:26-27, 9:5-6; Exodus 20:13; 1 Corinthians 6:19-20) nor is one that in spite of stern, fair warning from God in His Word denies Christ or worships and takes “the mark” of the beast to save himself or his family (Matthew 10:34-39; Mark 8:34-38; Revelation 13:14-17, 14:9-13, NKJV). As it is written, ‘“Now the just shall live by faith; but if anyone draws back, My soul has no pleasure in him,”’ (Hebrews 10:38, NKJV). The risen, living Christ continues His cry among American churches, “Who is on the Lord's side?”

Tagged With: God continually tests the faith of Christians!

Strong Man Of God Blog

Robert Kelley's weekly instruction, observations and reflections inspired by the Lord posted each Sunday night.

Search

Categories

Archives