Faith Life 29 (Elements of Faith)

GRACE ABOUNDS ONLINE BIBLE STUDY
THEME: FAITH LIFE OF CHRISTIAN BELIEVERS (Part 29)
TOPIC: Elements of Faith
SPEAKER: Peter Ayoola Fakeye (PAF)

Faith is the life that exist in God. When you live according to Faith, then you are living like God.

The bible made us understand (from our text) that all the patriach died in faith. The words 'in faith' (translated kata pistin in Hebrew) could more literally be translated 'according to faith', which shows faith to be the rule of their life till death. They could actually be able to make Faith in God as the rule for their life because they saw something.
 
What we are seeing will determine if we will live a faith life or not. Living a faith life is not automatic, rather it is as a result of what we see. If you always see yourself via your circumstances and what the world is telling you, then Faith can not be inspired. But when we start seeing ourselves in the light of the revelation of Christ and what he has done, then Faith will always be inspired.

The bible says they (the patriach) died in Faith in spite of the fact that they didn't literally receive what God has promised them or experience it. Brothers and sisters, we need to learn from this; we need to start believing God based on what He has said and not based on our experience. We need to start proclaiming the truth about His word. For example, many people find it difficult to proclaim God as the healer because they are sick. 

Although these patriarchs didn't experience the promise but they were able to see it afar off. This was what keep them in Faith. What is our focus? These men got a revelation of Christ. They saw what God will do through the promised Messiah. When we look at Genesis 49:18, we'll see the testimony of Jacob (one of the Patriarchs) when he was about to die; he said, 'I have waited for your salvation, O Lord!" This means that he saw the salvation of Christ - the work on the cross, and that was his expectation; that was his focus. 

From our text, we can highlight about four elements of Faith which are very important for our existence here on earth. These are:

1. Faith sees beyond experience, but sees into God. When we put our faith in what Christ has done, we will be able to see into God. We will be able to see what He has prepared for us and all that He has installed for us. The reason we are running up and down is because we are not seeing into God (1 Corinthians 2:9, 1 John 3:2). The reason we sorrow and allow anxiety is because we have not been seeing into God. When we look at what was recorded about the patriach, the bible tells us that, they confessed that they are pilgrims and strangers on earth. They were not engrossed with the activities of this world, neither were they engulfed with the possession they can have in this world. When you also know that you have a heavenly Father, you won't be engrossed with these earthly possession. Of course, I am not against having possessions, but the problem is that many believers has placed value on them such that they see it as the essence of life.These patriachs saw into God, and these coordinate their living. They lived in accordance to what they saw, In fact till death, they never lose sight of it.

2. The second element that we can see from this verse is that, Faith produces a firm assurance or persuasion. When you start seeing into God and see what he has for you, you'll be fully assured of what He has purposed for you. The reason we easily doubt and get overtaken by fear is because we have not been seeing into God. Jesus says 'if we have seen him, we have seen the Father' (John 14:7-9). We have placed value on the external and have ignore what we have become in Christ. Due to this, we live in fear and intimidation because we don't really know what God has done for us in Christ.
The bible says they (the patriarchs) embraced it. The 'embrace' in that verse is more like you are welcoming a friend. This means that they were so excited and joyous about what they saw. We need to start seeing ourselves in the revelation of Christ. We need to start seeing ourselves that what's true about CHRIST is true about us. Even though you might not be experiencing it right now, we need to embrace what we've seen about ourselves in Christ, in other words, we need to see ourselves in God's plan and arrangements irrespective of the present situation. These men embraced what they saw, welcomed it and were joyful about it. Even though they didn't experience those things, yet they lived in the reality of them, just because they were so real to them due to their Faith in Christ.

In the next article, we whall be considering the other elements. Thanks and God bless!

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