Living by faith

(Galatians 3:11b; “the just shall live by faith”)

Faith according to the word web dictionary is defined as:

1. “A strong belief in a supernatural power or powers that control

human destiny”; going by this definition, living by faith will then mean –
Living your everyday live by a strong belief in a supernatural power (God)
that controls human destiny. As a Christian, we are expected to be conscious
of Jesus Christ (i.e. the supernatural power in our definition above) in our
everyday activities, talk, actions reactions etc and that He controls our
destiny. Our destiny is inside of Him; He is the master designer and has
designed our destiny which is for a purpose.

2. “Complete confidence in a person or plan etc”; Living by faith according

to this definition will mean we let go and have a complete reliance on God.
We are not expected to have a double mind about His existence, His powers
and His Love. We are expected to love Him and put all our complete trust in
Him with no backup plan for the scenario “IF He fails”. Jesus Christ failing us
should never be a consideration. It should be a “Complete Confidence” that
He is in charge and nothing can go wrong.

3. “Loyalty or allegiance to a cause or a person”; Living by faith means we

are expected to be loyal to God and His cause. To exhibit a complete
allegiance (“allegiance is the act of biding oneself intellectually or
emotionally to someone”) to Him. To be sold to Him, to be totally submitted
to Him and His cause. His cause in this definitions are His ways (Salvation)
and His vision (That all will be saved, that we should dwell in love, that we
should live Holy honoring our body etc).

A good example according to the scripture is Father Abraham (Gen 15:5-6) whom
the lord spoke to at an old age saying look up in the sky and count the stars, and as
it was countless to Abraham, the lord said so shall your descendants be. The most
intriguing part of this conversation with God is in vs. 6 that said: “And Abram
believed the lord” no wonder the next statement in the verse said: “and the lord
declared him righteous because of His faith”. This is a man of over 75years old
(Gen. 12:4) who never for once bear a child and the lord spoke to him saying his
descendant shall be as the stars of the sky, and right there he believed. Most of us
would have contemplated, how could this be? How many wives would I have to
produce this much? How many children will I have to meet up with the countless
stars of the sky? Most importantly, his wife’s age. In the presence of all this agent of
doubts Abraham just believed. Personally, when I ruminated on this scripture I knew
it was a VERY GREAT thing that Abraham did. He fulfilled the 3 definitions
highlighted above within seconds of his conversation with God.
 1. He strongly believed what the lord said with no iota of doubt; he believed the
lord has the powers to make this happen. He believed God is the architect of
His life, that it was God that designed Him so if he is saying that his
descendants will be as numerous as the stars of the sky, that means this
must have been part Abraham’s blueprint (destiny) in God.

2. From that conversation, Abraham showed a complete confidence in God (i.e.”

the person” as in our definition 2 above) and His plans. He is so confident
that he never asked further questions as to how God will work this out. It
should be noted that this is a great thing to do, making the descendants of a
childless 75year old man as numerous as the stars of the sky and with an old
woman who is probably 8 to 10 years old younger, yet Abraham believed and
was confident about this promise with no questioning.

3. His response to the promise of God showed his allegiance – a total binding of
his intellect and emotion to the plan God showed him. No rationing, no
calculation, no exhibition of Abraham’s intellect as to how this will happen.

Brothers and sisters reading this message, living by faith is a key action that is
requested of us, but for us to get to this level of faith, we need to start walking with
God. We need to study our bible day in and day out and pray to develop this kind of
faith in the Lord. Abraham by his faith was made righteous, by our faith also in
Christ Jesus, He has made us righteous. Therefore, let us not at this time look away
from the faith like the Galatians did. We have started by faith, let us continue to
walk and see by faith.

Prayer: Father Lord, I pray in the name of Jesus that you grant me the grace to
consciously see you in all my affairs. Help me to grow daily in you that my faith in
you will also be totally established in Jesus name I pray amen.

Shalom

Written by: Bro Yinka Fadehan