The faith to receive

Our General Overseer, Pastor E.A Adeboye, has declared 2008 as the year in which The Almighty God has decreed new things in our life. Daddy G.O has repeated over and over again the words of Isaiah 43:19, “Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.” Can we comprehend the scale of the Lord’s proclamation in this verse? When God does something that is new in the life of a brother or sister, that means if they were previously unmarried, they would find their own God-chosen life partner; if they were childless, they would have babies; if they previously lived in a rented apartment, they would buy or build their own; if they had a house in Lekki, they would have one in London or New York; they would be lifted up in ministry; they would excel in their professions or businesses where they used to be average; in short the Lord will do something in their lives, that would give them a new and glorious testimony.

Moreover Pastor ID has assured us in City of David that this year, all prophesies of God concerning us will be fulfilled. That means that our set time, the appointed time in which God will do a new thing in our lives; in which God will take us to the next level has come (Psalm 102:13). But even though once God speaks, it is done, men need faith to receive. The Webster’s New International Dictionary defines faith as, “belief without evidence; confidence; trust…allegiance; faithfulness, truly, honestly”. The same dictionary also includes “belief in God, the Bible” as meanings of faith. The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary on the other hand, says ‘faith’ is “trust in subject’s ability or knowledge; trust that subject will do what has been promised …strong religious belief”. In the Old Testament, the word translated as “faith” is ‘emunah’ meaning ‘certainty and faithfulness’. In the New Testament, it is ‘pistis’ meaning ‘firm persuasion or conviction’. These give us an idea of what we must do to receive the promises of God. We must be certain that what God has promised concerning us shall, will, must, come to pass, because God is faithful and true. We must have the full conviction and be firmly persuaded that this year, God will do a new thing, indeed many new, good and excellent things concerning us, in 2008. According to Romans 4: 20-21, (speaking concerning Abraham)-“He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform.”

There are several dimensions of faith. Faith leads to TRUST ( 1 Cor 2:5; 1 Cor 15:14; Phil 1:25)- If we have faith in God, we will trust completely in his promises; It implies TRUSTWORTHINESS (Rom 3:3; Gal 5:22)-if we trust in God, that is because we believe he is worthy of our trust. But we would also want to be worthy of his trust since trust is reciprocal; faith implies FIDELITY (meaning loyalty, faithfulness, accuracy)-God is loyal to his word, he is faithful and just (1 John 1:9), but we will also be faithful and loyal to his words and to his commandments. We will also have knowledge concerning THE FAITH, because we can not exercise faith in that which we do not know (Gal 1: 23). We would “study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needed not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Tim 2: 15). Most importantly faith manifests as OBEDIENCE. The well-known story of Noah and the building of the Ark, was according to one notable Bible scholar (Dake), “an example of perfect obedience”.
There are other well-known Biblical examples of faith manifesting as obedience-even when it looked foolish or stupid so to do. We know of Abraham who was prepared to sacrifice his son Isaac in obedience to God’s word (Gen 22: 1-18) even when he had waited until old age before his wife Sarah bore him Isaac. He believed God’s promise that he would be a father of nations even when men would have laughed at any such notion. Hebrews 11: 1-40 in that brilliant exposition on faith, tells us “faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen”. Now that is opposite to human understanding. In the courts of men, the evidence of things not seen, would be deemed inadmissible evidence-hearsay, uncorroborated, unreliable-but not in the courts of God. As Christians, like Noah, Abraham, Sarah and others, we believe the word of God, even when we have not seen the physical manifestation, but we have the firm assurance that whatever God has decreed concerning us, is exactly that-a decree, and is settled in heaven, and will manifest imminently before the eyes of men. Amen.

Faith is the active ingredient in all miracles, as clearly demonstrated in the ministry of our Lord, Jesus Christ. In Mathew 4: 24, “they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with diverse diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatic, and those that had the palsy…” because they had faith that he would heal them, “and he healed them”. The disciples followed him because they had faith in his promise to make them “fishers of men”. The Leper of Mathew 8: 1-3 believed that “Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean” and “immediately his leprosy was cleansed”. The Centurion believed Christ could heal his servant by merely saying the word (Mathew 8: 5-13), and so it was done unto him; the woman with the issue of blood believed that all she needed do was to touch the hem of his garment, and her faith made her whole (Mathew 9: 20-22); Jesus cautions us not to be of little faith, and not to doubt (Mathew 14:31) so that we can receive that which he has promised, because he is the “author and finisher of our faith” (Hebrews 12: 2) for our hope is both sure, and steadfast (Hebrews 6: 19). We must believe in order to receive.


Opeyemi Agbaje