Living For Such a Time as This

Henry Blackaby FCCI 2007 International Conference.

A Time For Faith

Suggested Reading:

Experiencing God

The Man God Would Use

Matthew 4:18 - 22 (NASB) ¹⁸Now as Jesus was walking by the Sea of Galilee, He saw two brothers, Simon who was called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen.  ¹⁹And He said^* to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.”  ²⁰Immediately they left their nets and followed Him.  ²¹Going on from there He saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets; and He called them.  ²²Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed Him.

Look at the simplicity of the invitation of Jesus. He called the first disciples to “follow me” or “to become” in the fullness of time, “fishers of men” these who were fishers of fish. This call is immediate and will allow no argument, obedience must be immediate. When such a call comes to delay is a form of disobedience and may result in one being too late for what God intended. You may by such a delay totally miss out on a great move of God in your life and in your church and in your society that you were to be a part of, but were not because of your lack of faith and obedience.

Matthew 17:14 - 21 (NASB) ¹⁴When they came to the crowd, a man came up to Jesus, falling on his knees before Him and saying,  ¹⁵“Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is a lunatic and is very ill; for he often falls into the fire and often into the water.  ¹⁶“I brought him to Your disciples, and they could not cure him.”  ¹⁷And Jesus answered and said, “You unbelieving and perverted generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring him here to Me.”  ¹⁸And Jesus rebuked him, and the demon came out of him, and the boy was cured at once. ¹⁹Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not drive it out?”  ²⁰And He said^* to them, “Because of the littleness of your faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you.  ²¹“^£But this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.”

We must have the faith of a mustard seed to see the Kingdom of God come in power in our lives and our world. The Bible is designed to bring us into intimacy with our Lord and is to be read with that in mind. The Church is to be a “World Mission Strategy Center” totally indwelled and empowered by the Holy Spirit.

Faith is the confident expectation that what God says is true. In fact you honor God by the size of your requests to him, given in faith. Little requests honor little, big requests honor much. How big is your faith, does it reach out beyond all you can think and imagine to the living God of the universe?

Remember it is not what you can do for God, but what you believe God can do through you! Your faith reaches to sublime heights and it the very thing that touches God’s heart and causes Him to move on your behalf.

Mark 11:22 - 24 (NASB) ²²And Jesus answered^* saying to them, “Have faith in God.  ²³“Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is going to happen, it will be granted him.  ²⁴“Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they will be granted you. 

“Have faith in God” With God nothing is impossible. These promises are all over the word and they don’t change. Every time we come back to these promises they still speak the same.

The presence of a child of full faith in a workplace, or church, or any place in this world is of great significance. They can impact that place because God will act according to their faith and do wonderful things.

Faith is not a doctrine, but a living relationship with the Living God. Doctrines though important, are not the stuff of reality, but the Living God is, He works not doctrines.

Discouragement is believing the circumstance, and disbelieving the promises of God. How many people in the Church today have God so limited in their lives because of unbelief. They will not be able to move into all God has for them unless they learn faith. God’s presence and change any circumstance. Don’t bring scripture down to your level of experience, bring your experience up to the level of the scripture. Ask God to show you how to do that, to show you His glory like Moses. He will answer you speedily.