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IS NOT FAITH
... FAITH – GOES – FAR – BEYOND – THAT...
faith free in
thanksgiving
beyond understanding!
or trust in God is sometimes confused with expectation on a particular matter that we have brought to Him in prayer, and therefore our faith becomes mixed with expectation as to what will happen, but on the contrary the Bible makes a very serious and important difference between these two.
The life of Abraham presented to us in the first book of the Bible demonstrates this important distinction!
had made awesome promises to Abraham in response to his obedient faith and these promises centred on the son of his old age – Isaac. Ishmael was also loved by Abraham and God had also promised to bless him as well, but Ishmael with Sarah's advice was a product of works not of faith. So Isaac was the key to what God had given concerning Abraham's future.
It was very natural that Abraham's faith in God's promises should produce an expectation concerning Isaac.
Isaac encapsulated for Abraham his expectation of the promised future in God's hands. So Isaac represented his faith.
Abraham had left Ur of the Chaldees, Abraham had no destination. He went simply because he trusted unconditionally, beyond understanding. This is not well understood and so the comment in the New Testament that Abraham sought a city whose builder and make is God (Hebrews 11:10) has sometimes confused persons to think that he went forth from Ur with expectations of a better future, but this comment refers to the spiritual state and not to any human destination of any kind.
NOT
a defined
expectation
The Bible specifically says that –
| "By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going." |
We are human, and Isaac represented what God had promised, so the faith of Abraham now needed to be set free from its definition, its limitation, in Isaac, as the horizon of Abraham's faith.
faith in God, of which the Bible speaks, does not hinge on any expectation ever! It is faith in God beyond understanding, faith – as that of a little child holding its father's hand in heavy traffic, regardless of how things seem, of when it 'seems' right to cross that road, for:
expectation – by defining our view – unavoidably sets a limit.
Abraham's faith in God therefore needed to be set free from his expectation.
for this reason that God, who loves beyond measure, put Abraham through a time of terrible pain. This was not a test as though God was testing Abraham's endurance. This was an act of healing for Abraham's faith which required spiritual surgery.
Therefore God told Abraham to offer Isaac as a burnt offering: to kill him on an altar as a burnt offering. What a horrible thought!
has plans for our lives that are larger than our thinking can ever contain. Therfore any definition is unavoidably a limit in itself. It was very significant that Abraham left Ur not knowing his destination. God's plans are bigger than our comprehension, even an informed comprehension, and therefore our expectations must never be allowed to set the framework of our faith in God concerning any aspect of our lives.
Faith in God is not faith in His plans. Faith in God is not faith in the results of spiritual formulas derived from Scripture.
Faith in God has no definition outside of God. It is faith in His character: faith in Him, beyond definition!
And expectation always requires definition. and therfore our faith needs freedom from expectation.
And expectation always requires definition. and therfore our faith needs freedom from expectation.
Satan's
Primary Tactic
