When we begin to understand the supernatural nature of the kingdom of heaven and how it comes to earth through us, it can be hard to believe. When we start to hear God’s voice as He speaks rhema and instructions to us, it may seem to be too good to be true. But it is true. God loves to speak, and God loves to use His children to build the kingdom in ways that can only be explained by His intervention.
So, when we have doubts, how do we move forward to belief. Or, when we believe in part, how do we move to full belief? The journey toward believing the unbelievable is one that God loves to walk with us.
A good starting place for the journey is the story of Abraham in Romans 4:17-21…
17 “(as it is written, "A FATHER OF MANY NATIONS HAVE I MADE YOU") in the presence of Him whom he believed, even God, who gives life to the dead and calls into being that which does not exist.
18 In hope against hope he believed, so that he might become a father of many nations according to that which had been spoken, "SO SHALL YOUR DESCENDANTS BE."
19 Without becoming weak in faith he contemplated his own body, now as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah's womb;
20 yet, with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God,
21 and being fully assured that what God had promised, He was able also to perform."
Abraham’s story is fitting because he believed God against all odds. His test of faith was one impossibility and years of waiting. Yet, he was able to work through his doubts, overcome his unbelief, and reach a point where he was fully persuaded that God was able to do what He had said. He eventually knew God would do what He had spoken. Abraham believed God would give him a child in spite of the old age of he and his wife.
How did he do it? He did it by staying in relationship with God and sticking with the journey of faith. He did it together with God. It flowed out of their relationship. Specifically, Abraham knew God in a face to face relationship.
Knowing God is essential to the walk of faith. If we do not know God, and we are not in relationship with Him, we will not be inclined to believe what He says and follow Him. If we know Him, and we are in relationship with Him, then we will naturally follow Him. We will seek Him with all our hearts.
So, what did Abraham know to be true about God? There are four characteristics of God that are mentioned in this passage. He is the God who gives life to the dead. He is the God who calls into being that which does not exist. He is the God who is able to perform what He speaks. He is the God who is worthy of all glory.
There are also four descriptions of Abraham’s belief that guide us on our own journey of faith. First, Abraham believed based on the fact that God had spoken. He believed that nothing could prevent the fulfillment of His word.
Second, Abraham believed with a hope that was against all hope. He maintained his hope when all the physical circumstances were against the fulfillment of the promise. Abraham was old. Sarah was old. By all human standards, it was impossible for Abraham to have a child that would fulfill the promise of God. But he still believed.
Third, Abraham did not become weak in his faith. The word “weak” means to be feeble, without strength, or powerless. He never went to a point of giving up on the promise of God. In fact, he did battle against anything that might weaken his belief in God’s promise. There were probably many circumstances and people who spoke against the promise of God.
Abraham even battled in his own mind. The passage says that “Without becoming weak in faith he contemplated his own body, now as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah's womb.”
In other words, Abraham was realistic. To contemplate means to perceive, observe, understand, and to consider attentively. This was not a passing thought. It was something he took time to process. And as he processed, he never allowed the processing to weaken his faith in God’s promise. God had spoken it; it would be done.
Fourth, he did not waver in unbelief with regard to the promise of God. To waver means to be at variance with one's self, hesitate, doubt. This doesn’t mean that he never had doubts. In fact, we know that he did because of the birth of Esau. However, he did not stay in a place of wavering. As we stay in dialogue with God and continue to process our faith with Him, He is able to bring us through out doubts to a place of faith.
Abraham’s story also gives us three steps to help us understand what processing faith looks like with Go. First, it says he grew strong in faith. The idea of growing strong is to receive strength, be strengthened, or increase in strength. As we process instructions and rhema with God, we need to be strengthened by Him. We do not grow our own faith; God grows it for us.
This process stresses the importance of being in relationship with Jesus, with the Spirit, with God. It is in relationship with the holy trinity, that we find strength. When we spend time with Him, He continually reveals more and more of His character and he finds ways to reiterate his promises and instructions.
Second, Abraham gave glory to God. The glory of God is the outward expression of all we know to be true of His greatness, beauty, and splendor. Glory belongs to God and we are obliged to find ways to articulate and demonstrate His amazing glory. When we are in relationship with Him, we will naturally rehearse the things that are true about His nature and character. And when we do this consistently, our faith will be strengthened.
Third, Abraham was fully convinced that God could perform what He had promised. Perhaps, the most important aspect of processing truth and rhema with God is a willingness to be fully persuaded by God. This is often a process that speeds up over time as we walk with God for years. But initially, our role in interacting with the promise or rhema of God is to come to God, be willing to be persuaded by Him, and then enter a dialogue with Him, asking Him to bring us to that point where we are fully persuaded, or fully convinced that God is able to perform what He has spoken and that He will perform it for us.
As we struggle with our faith, we can also pray that God gives us hope to stick with the process. It is His work. He must do it. We do not have to struggle on our own to receive hope and faith. On the contrary, we can ask God to give us hope through the power of the Spirit of God in us.
Romans 15:13 says…
“Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”
First, our prayer begins by imploring the God of hope. What makes God, the God of hope? He is the author of hope. All hope originates with Him. He is the author of hope because He is the creator of the universe and our creator. He created us to be in relationship with Him and to hope for the best based on His promises. Hoping is what we were made to do.
He is also the author of hope because He is the one who speaks His promises. When He speaks them, they are already done. They are finished. Because God lives outside of time, His promises are already done in His mind and in the realm of heaven. But since we live in the time, space compendium, we must often wait for the fulfillment of the promises. And when we do, we can wait in hope, because He is the author of hope.
The prayer starts by asking that the God of hope would fill us to overflowing with joy and peace in our believing. Second, the prayer goes on to ask that the God of hope would cause us to abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Both parts of this prayer are for a super-abundance of what we need to continue following God and believing the promises of God with full expectation that He will do what He has spoken. Both also address the combination of hope and faith that it takes to walk with God toward the outcome of His promise.
First, we pray that the God of hope would fill us to overflowing with joy and peace in our believing. The context here is our faith, our believing as we process the promises and rhema of God. This process is not meant to be a struggle or difficulty. Just as God’s voice and word is very near to us and not far away, our processing of truth is an enjoyable process. It is not meant to be chore.
So, we pray that God would fill us to overflowing with joy and peace. Literally, that He would cause us to abound, fill us up to the top, so that nothing is left to be wanting. We are asking Him to fill us up to the brim with two things: joy and peace. Joy is the complete enjoyment of everything as it should be in the Kingdom. Both the process and the outcome of our faith journey is supposed to be enjoyable. We enjoy the journey and we enjoy the destination. In the journey, we see God bringing us closer to the truth every single day and in the end, we rejoice that we are one with the truth. The promise or the rhema has been fulfilled and is now a part of our life and life story.
SHALOM, or peace is the wholeness, health, healing, prosperity, unity, tranquility, provision and protection that God allots to us as children of the King. Every faith journey of every child of the King is marked by SHALOM. As we process truth and rhema with God faithfully, He brings us a covering of SHALOM. As we are fully persuaded of God’s promise and truth, we come into alignment with this covering of SHALOM. We become one with it. We fully experience the SHALOM of God. What a beautiful faith journey we can have daily!
Second, we pray that the God of hope would cause us to abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. The first thing that comes to my mind when I think of hope is a positive attitude. It is the expectation of good. And because God is good and God is the God of hope, we can experience joyful and confident expectation that what He has said will indeed come to be. It will happen. It will be so.
But, this positive, joyful, confident expectation of what is good is not something that we can muster up within ourselves. Hope is not the result of self-talk or positive thinking. It is something that comes by way of the power of the Holy Spirit. It is spiritual hope. Because it comes from the power of the Holy Spirit, it is far more powerful and influential in our lives than hopeful thinking or positive thinking. Human hopefulness is weak and failing compared to the hope of the Holy Spirit which is powerful and abounds.
The idea of abounding is to bubble up and overflow. It is hope, abundantly furnished so that we have more hope than we need. It is affluent hope that rises up in us to be preeminent, to excel, to exceed our expectations and take the number one spot in our hearts. It is powerful hope, hope powered by none other than God, God the Holy Spirit. It strengthens us with power from within, power to hope, power to continue in our faith journey, day after day, during good days and difficult days.
Because the Holy Spirit lives in us, He brings us hope and power. He causes both to remain in us, becoming part of our nature, settling in as the virtue by which we live. It is not ordinary hope, it is supernatural hope. It is a wealth of hope that we will never fully spend. It is the riches of hope that will never run dry. It is hope against hope. It is hope that never fails. It is hope that always brings us to God’s intended result of the truth, rhema and promises that He speaks to us.
This is the unstoppable, unbreakable process God takes us through to get us to belief. He speaks his promises and instructions. Then He takes us by the hand and walks with us until we believe. Finally, His promises come true and His instructions are carried out with all the power and authority of the kingdom of God. The only thing we can do to stop the process is to give up trying, to stop the dialogue with God. So, enter in, be willing to be persuaded by God, and he will persuade you.
WORSHIP: Worship God as the Almighty. He gives life to the dead. He calls into being that which does not exist. He performs what He speaks. He is worthy of all glory. And after speaking to you, He does everything else in His power to make it so.
PRACTICE: Is there something that God has spoken to you that you are struggling to believe? If you have not already done so, write down what God has said. Next, write down why this is so hard for you to believe. Then, go back and read through the two passages we covered today. End by saying the prayer of hope and take some time to see what God has to say to you.
MEDITATION: For today’s meditation, think back on your life. What are the times when God broke through, when He did things that you never thought would be possible? If you do not have stories of the supernatural, think back on any testimonies where you know God showed Himself to be great. Keep rehearsing them in your mind. Stay in that place of amazement until you begin to realize how much He is capable of doing.
ABIDING: By this time, it is very possible that the Father, your Spiritual Director, has led you to a place in Scripture where He wants you to abide. As you go back and read through this teaching one more time, ask the Father if there is anything in these passages specifically for you. Look for the things that reinforce what God is teaching you at this time. Write down anything you hear from Him. Spend some extra time listening to see if the Spirit has anything more to say to you or if there is a deeper teaching for you today. Write down whatever you hear. Ask the Father if there is someone, He wants you to share this with and follow through with His assignment.