“And he believed in the LORD.”
As I was collecting my thoughts this morning, establishing the priorities for the day and realizing I had less time than I wanted to spend communing with God before I left for work, I saw a rainbow on the floor. The morning light reflecting through the bureau mirror had created a rainbow of color, and I was reminded that some things are not what they first appear, that there is more behind what we see on the surface. Such as it is with light. Who would have thought that white light was comprised of red, blue, yellow and green colors. The eye does not see this until the light is presented in a different way. So go the circumstances in our lives.
Presently, I am experiencing a walk in faith with God. This walk is significant to me for several reasons. First, I believe that God has anointed me with the spiritual gift of prophecy. Coupled with that is the gift of scribing His words in a way to which others can relate, thereby, impacting their lives and their relationship with God. Second, God has given me specific instructions to follow and a timeframe on which to focus. Third, walking in faith is not as straightforward or pleasant as I thought.
As God begins to speak to you during your times of communion with Him, He will place more demands on your behavior, your responses to the circumstances in which you find yourself. Consider God’s promise to Abram when He declared that Abram would be the father of nations:
After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Do not be afraid, Abram, I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.” But Abram said, “Lord GOD, what will You give me, seeing I go childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” Then Abram said, “Look, You have given me no offspring; indeed one born in my house is my heir!”
And behold, the word of the LORD came to him, saying, “This one shall not be your heir, but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir.” Then He brought him outside and said, “Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.”
And he believed in the LORD, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.
Then He said to him, “I am the LORD who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to inherit it.”
And he said, “Lord GOD, how shall I know that I will inherit it?”1
Abram believed in the LORD. But what did Abram do? Abram believed in the LORD. How? Abram believed in the LORD with his heart.
God knows your heart. Communing with God is about understanding His heart for you, for He understands your heart for Him. Walking in faith is not about going through the motions of righteous living—doing things because you are pretending that if you go through the steps of faith that then, you are walking in it. The walk in faith is a consequence of a heart of belief, for if you believe with your heart, you will profess with your words and demonstrate with your behavior God’s righteousness, for He will be living through you, and you will be walking in His Spirit:
But when the Holy Spirit controls our lives, he will produce this kind of fruit in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Here there is no conflict with the law.
Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. If we are living now by the Holy Spirit, let us follow the Holy Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives.2
God has shown me on several occasions during my walk in faith that going through the motions does not demonstrate faith. Faith is believing in what you cannot see—like the white light. Believing God if He told you without you seeing it, that white light was comprised of red, blue, yellow, and green colors! Walking in faith is not determining the outcome or reward for “believing” and suggesting to God—or even demanding it—that, “If I go through the steps of relying on you, I then expect a reward at the end”—the end defined by you when you are finished relying on God and wish to be “in control” again. This is not faith! This is switching the roles of God and servant! You established your parameters for righteous living, “walking in faith,” and the outcome and timetable for His response. Doing this makes a mockery of your faith in God.
Abram asked God, “Lord GOD, how shall I know that I will inherit it?” Abram was seeking confirmation of how God’s promise would be manifested. How would he know? When would it occur? Abram did not establish the answers to his own questions, but rather, Abram listened to God and carried out His next set of instructions:
So He said to him, “Bring Me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtle dove, and a young pigeon.” Then he brought all these to him and cut them in two, down the middle, and placed each piece opposite the other; but he did not cut the birds in two.3
And Abram waited for God’s response.
Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, horror and great darkness fell upon him. Then He said to Abram: “know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years. And also the nation whom they serve I will judge; afterward they shall come out with great possessions. Now as for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried at a good old age. But in the fourth generation they shall return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites in not yet complete.”4
God gave Abram a sign that Abram would understand that a covenant had been established between them—the cutting of a calf in two and walking between the halves was a customary way to ratify a contract:5 This vision symbolized God’s commitment to honor His promise to Abram:
As the sun went down and it became dark, Abram saw a smoking firepot and a flaming torch pass between the halves of the carcasses. So the LORD made a covenant with Abram that day and said, “I have given this land to your descendants, all the way from the border of Egypt to the great Euphrates River—the land of Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, and Jebusites.”6
With the same commitment, God established a covenant with Noah, symbolized by the rainbow in the clouds after the Great Flood that wiped out all living creatures except for those within the Ark.
Then God told Noah and his sons, “I am making a covenant with you and your descendants, and with the animals you brought with you—all these birds and livestock and wild animals. I solemnly promise never to send another flood to kill all living creatures and destroy the earth.” And God said, “I am giving you a sign as evidence of my eternal covenant with you and all living creatures. I have placed My rainbow in the clouds. It is the sign of my permanent promise to you and to all the earth.7
Noah had faith in God and believed in the LORD. Noah did everything exactly as God had commanded him.8 Abram and Noah were asked by God to do extraordinary things, to carry out extraordinary instructions that you and I may have questioned, faltered, or disobeyed. You may be told by God to do something extraordinary that requires you to walk in faith with God. God woke me this morning to the vision of a rainbow to remind me of His covenant—God is Faithful and True.9
Praise to Our Father for the words He has given me. ~Jeff Cambridge
Written July 11, 2004, Copyright © 2004, 2005, 2016 Stellar Rhema Ministry, Jeff Cambridge
References:
1. Genesis 15:1-8 italics added
2. Galatians 5:22-25 NLT
3. Genesis 15:9-10
4. Genesis 15:12-16
5. Jeremiah 34:18-20
6. Genesis 15:17-20 NLT
7. Genesis 9:8-13 NLT
8. Genesis 6:14-22
9. Revelation 19:11
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