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