Faith Life 35 (The proving of Faith)

GRACE ABOUNDS ONLINE BIBLE STUDY
THEME: FAITH LIFE OF CHRISTIAN BELIEVERS (Part 35)
TOPIC: The proving of our Faith
SPEAKER: Peter Ayoola Fakeye (PAF)


We need to know that Faith is not something that we decide to have. It is a life that is born of the Spirit when we accept what CHRIST has done for us. The Holy Spirit impacts us with the Life of God, which is His Faith. So, when we are talking about Faith, many believers felt that it is work-based. No, it's righteousness-based! The bible calls it a gift in Ephesians 2:8.
We possessed the Faith of Jesus. We have all been given the same measure of Faith (Romans 12:3). As a child of God, in your spirit-man where you are complete, you have the complete faith of Christ. Of course, its manifestation differs, and the bible tells us that Faith is manifested by hearing the word of Christ (Romans 10:17). Therefore, even in manifesting faith; it is not work-based but also grace-based. As you begin to consider CHRIST and hear His word about you, the Holy Spirit impacts faith as a fruit in us, and this makes us gets committed and attached to the life of God experientially. So, we will begin to see the hand of God in action in our academics, businesses, marriages, relationship, and many others. Living a life of faith is not a burden laid on you, rather it's a life in the Spirit.

From the above text, we saw emphatically that it was God testing Abraham. Although the testing does not mean to place inducement before one to lead him to do wrong, because same scripture also tells us in James 1:13 that a man is not tempted by God to sin.
This kind of test is to subject one's faith to a trial so to validate its authenticity. If your faith is not tried or proven, then you will just be mediocre, and may just be at a spot in the kingdom with no significant progress in your walk with God.  

God doesn't test people by inducing pain on them or subject anyone to what Christ is not subjected to. If you want to know how God treats you, then see how He treats Jesus now. Does he induce pain in Jesus now..? No! Then what is true about Christ now is true about you. I will want us to understand this foundational truth if we will understand what it means for our faith to be tested.

I want us to look at four things God intended the test of Faith of Abraham to be.

1. He wanted to make Him an example of a man who walked with Him based upon the faith he had in Christ. We could easily call Abraham 'the father of Faith' because He passed the test of Faith.

2. God made scriptures out of the act. Abraham's act of faith is now a scripture we read. This is what God wants to achieve in your life, such that He makes you a visible expression of His beauty and grace. God intends to make your life a scripture that will point people to Christ.

3. God made a parable of what he would later accomplish in CHRIST from the test. Do you know that that act was a parable?

When we look at the above scriptures, we will discover that when Abraham and Isaac, his son were going to the land of Moriah, where he was to offer his son, the son asked his father for the lamb for the sacrifice. Abraham responded, “the Lord will provide” (Vs 8).  And when he was about to slaughter the boy, the Lord stopped him and provided a ram for him. However, when he had slaughtered the animal, Abraham still named the place, “the Lord will provide” (Vs 14). 

Have you not thought about it that the Lord had already provided a ram for the sacrifice, then shouldn't Abraham have named the place, “the Lord has provided?”  What I can see is that Abraham knew what God's eternal provision is. He knew it is not a ram, but it's a person, the son of God – Jesus Christ. The ram was just a stop-gap, it was not the essence, but a picture of things to come. And the Bible made us understand that that's the name of the place up until the time the Book of Genesis was written. This means that the scene and the place will always create a consciousness in people's hearts that there's a provision that the Lord has promised to provide.

Hallelujah! We now have God's provision – Jesus, the Christ. God is the one that is always reaching unto us with His provision, and He has reached to us already in the person of His Son, Jesus Christ. Therefore, He wants to make your life an emblem of his provision, just as He did with Abraham.

Stay Blessed!

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