How God Builds Faith

I would like to begin today’s blog by looking at two verses:

“According to your faith, it will be done unto you.” Matthew 9:29

 “Everything is possible for the person who has faith.” Mark 9:23

These two verses are huge. They give us the key to living the Christian life, because they both focus on faith. God says, “If you have faith in Me, I will bless you.” He says, “If you have faith in Me, you can choose what I do in your life.” So let me ask a question – would you like to choose how much God blesses you? Well, you can, and the way you do that is by strengthening your faith. A question that I’m frequently asked is, “Why is this, or why is that happening to me? – “I don’t understand what’s going on.”   Well, the answers are based on knowing how God works.

God works on building our character, and He does that primarily by strengthening our faith. Faith is like a muscle – it has to be exercised. It can be weak or it can be strong, depending on how much it’s used. So how do we exercise our faith muscles, you might ask? Well, God has a step by step program. He’s got a 24 hour faith gymnasium, and when we work out in His gymnasium – our faith will grow. God’s workout program has six separate phases that He systematically takes us through when He’s building our faith.

Today I would like to talk about the first three phases, so let’s begin with the first one.

Phase one in God’s faith building program is to have a dream.

Building faith always starts with a dream. The dream can be an idea, a vision, a goal, an ambition – whatever you want to call it. It always comes from God, because God is in control of everything.He knows the beginning from the end, and He has plans to accomplish all of His purposes. Many times God influences the hearts and minds of people to get things done, and He does that by giving them dreams. There are many examples of this in the Bible. God gave Noah the dream of building an arc. Now Noah lived in the desert – not the usual place to build a big boat.He was hundreds of miles from any known body of water. But he hung in there for 120 years with the dream, because God gave it to him.

God gave Abraham the dream of being the father of a great nation.God gave Joseph the dream of being a leader that would save his people, and He gave Nehemiah the dream of building a wall around Jerusalem. And there are many other examples we could cite. So let me ask you, do you have any dreams? Any visions? Any ambitions?Are they from God?How would you know?

Fortunately there are some ways to tell.First of all if a dream is from God, it will always line up with His will.It will always be something that He would do.A good way to find that out is to study the commands of God.God’s commands tell us what He wants us to do, so we can use them to evaluate our dreams. For example God says, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”And let’s say you have a strong desire to help homeless women with children.Is that desire from God?Well, it certainly fits in with His command to love. But most importantly It leads to further questions. For example:How persistent is the idea?Does it keep coming up?How strongly do I feel about it?Does it really impact my heart?How big is the dream?Is it something I can do on my own, or do I need God’s help to do it?And, of course, does it advance the Kingdom of God?

Now all these questions are good, and we should be asking them.But let me give you the best advice of all. If you want to know if your dream is from God – JUST ASK HIM. Ask Him, “Lord, are You speaking to me right now””Is this dream from You?””I see that it lines up with Your will.””It doesn’t conflict with anything else in the Bible.””I see that it advances the Kingdom of God.””So, Lord, is this from You?”

When we ask God those kinds of questions, He ALWAYS answers them. ALWAYS.Take a look at James 1:5.

“If you need wisdom, ask our generous God and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking.” James 1:5

OK, that’s the first phase in the faith building process – have a dream.Let’s go to phase two.

Phase two in God’s faith building program is make a decision to do something about the dream.

Nothing is going to happen until you decide to do something. You’ve got to make the decision, “I’m going to go for it!” There are lots of dreamers in the world, but there are few decision makers. So you have to make a decision. Now in phase one we asked God to confirm our dream, and we believe God will do that.Take a look at James 1:6-7.

“But when you ask Him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind. Such a person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord”. James 1:6-7

We are following the advice of the passage, and we are not wavering.We are expecting an answer from God.That’s how faith is developed.Faith is a verb — it’s active and not passive. Faith requires action. OK, let’s go on to the next phase.

Phase three in God’s faith building program is to expect delays.

Many times God will give us a dream but He will not fulfill it immediately. Many times there is a delay – a waiting period.Take a look at what God says in Habakkuk 2:3,

“These things I plan won’t happen right away. Slowly, steadily, surely, the time approaches when the vision will be fulfilled.” Habakkuk 2:3

Habakkuk had asked God when He was going to save Israel, and this was God’s answer.God says, “I will do it, but it’s going to take time.”When we get to phase three, we often find ourselves asking the questions: “When, Lord? When are You going to fulfill the dream?” How long do I have to wait? I don’t have to tell that most of us hate to wait. We don’t like waiting in doctor’s offices, traffic jams, restaurants or for anything else. But what we hate the most is waiting on God. Have you ever been in a hurry when God wasn’t? It can be irritating. You’re ready – but God isn’t.

Noah waited 120 years from the time he started building the arc until it began to rain. Abraham waited until he was 99 before he had Isaac — God’s child of the promise. The Jews were in slavery for 400 years, and then it took 40 more years to get them to the promised land. Joseph spent years in prison before God freed him, and put him second in command in Egypt. God anointed David as king, and then he waited for years before he took the throne. Even Jesus had to wait 30 years before He started His ministry. We learn from having to wait. We learn to trust God. We learn that His timing is always perfect. We learn to deal with doubt. But the bottom line is having to wait always strengthens our faith.

Well that covers the first three phases in God’s faith building program. Next week we will cover the remaining three phases.

Until then have a blessed week……………..