Faith Life 20 (FAITH THAT RESPONDS TO GOD)

GRACE ABOUNDS ONLINE BIBLE STUDY
THEME: FAITH LIFE OF CHRISTIAN BELIEVERS (Part 20)
TOPIC: FAITH THAT RESPONDS TO GOD
SPEAKER: Peter Ayoola Fakeye (PAF)

At times, we feel that it is very easy to respond to God's call. Sometimes, we feel like “Let God just call me, and I will respond.” But the actual truth is that, if we have been responding to God's call, then our lives would have been radically transformed than it is now. Moreover, it is also easy to respond to God's call, when faith is engaged. Therefore, I say that the reason we have not been responding to God's call is because faith is not being engaged.

God told Abraham to leave his country, and his father's house to a land that He will show him. In all sincerity, no one will be able to answer this kind of call, if he has not yet encounter the Lord. An encounter with the Lord impacts faith in us to yield to Him. The reason we have not been yielding to God is because we have been occupied by self.

When we look at the background of Abraham, we will find out that Abraham is the heir to his father's wealth. He is supposed to take over from his father and continue the legacy. He has been so comfortable in His father’s land. So, how will someone ordinarily leave his comfort zone, if it is not that he has been supernaturally encountered by God.

When we look at Genesis 12:1, and we see the tense, “the Lord had said...” This tells us that the Lord had visited Abraham before this time. It is only an encounter with Jesus Christ, that makes a man responds appropriately to the call of God. What makes the call more intriguing is that, he was to go to a land that God will show him, which means he didn’t even know the location in the first place. The question is “who answers such call? Only those that have encounter the Lord Jesus Christ.

God has called us from a land of sin, self-occupation, even though many are still drifted back to the place where they have called us from. We are still tilted to self, sin and the world. Why? Because we are not having a personal relationship with Jesus. Although, if you are not yet a believer, you will still be suffering in the hands of sin, and the devil except you yield to the savior of your soul.

Here, we’ll see the new testament version of the Call of Jesus. And Jesus was saying (by applications) that, if we are focused on externalities, we can't follow Him. Considering the scripture very well, you’ll see that Jesus intentionally make use of people that are close to man, so as to explain our response to God’s call He used Father, Mother, Daughter and Son; that is, as close as a father or mother is to a man, if they are then prioritised above CHRIST, then such is not worthy of Christ kingdom. Jesus must be the closest to you, even more than your wife. "Not be worthy of me” in the above scripture also mean that such can't be Christ disciple. A disciple is someone that is in only concern about His master’s interest.

Matthew 10:38
Jesus further explain what he was saying in the previous verses, He said "he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me." So, what is this Cross that Jesus was referring to? As we have seen before in our previous discussions, that we are not taking up another cross apart from the cross of Christ which He bore for us. Our identification with the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus is really the encounter. The more we identify with what Christ has done, we get impacted with His Faith to navigate through life and to move in the direction which God has called us to walk in. Therefore, a disciple is someone that takes up his Cross. When we look at the tense used in that verse, it is a present continuous tense, which means it is something we must not leave behind us. It must be the fore runner of our disposition, actions and reactions. It must take the center stage of our thoughts, motivations and inspirations. I am talking about our Identification with Christ and what He has done

Folks! I want you to know that we need a daily encounter with the resurrected Christ. We need to daily update our thinking, our perspective and intention with the revelation of the resurrected Christ. What we’ve known of Him before is not sufficient to make you move in the direction He wants you to go. But you need to have a quest and hunger to be daily loaded with Christ revelation. We need to start yielding the Spirit of God.

If you have been prioritising your opinions, people's opinions, and the society opinions above God opinion, what you need is an encounter and not change of ways. No one encounters the resurrected CHRIST, and doesn’t get transformed as a result. What you need is an encounter!

Stay blessed!

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