Focus: Meaning Of Faith

Text: Gen.12:1

"Now the LORD had SAID unto Abram…"

Stephen tells us in Act.7 that the God of glory APPEARED to Abraham and SAID to him… Moses focused mainly on God speaking to Abraham. So we have two things: God appears and God speaks. The reason for the vision is for the voice. We see the vision of God in order for us to hear and heed the voice of God.

The universe exists as a result of God's spoken word. Paul describes the preached word as "the word of faith." So faith and the word of God belong together. Faith functions by the word of God. Paul tells us that "faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God" (Rom.10:17). The word of God produces faith in the hearer. Faith is born of God's word in the heart of the hearer. Faith is, therefore, a human response to divine revelation. Paul has also said that "God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith" (Rom.12:3). We have faith for the sole purpose of relating with God in all things. Faith is a God-given capacity or faculty that sees all facets of life from God's perspective.

Now let us go to Hebrews 11 and learn how Abraham by faith responds to the revelation of God. Abraham is mentioned three times in Hebrews 11. First, we read in verse 8 that Abraham heard and heeded the call of leaving his father's land to an unknown place. By faith he obeys and steps out to an entirely new territory. He receives and embraces the call by faith and by act of obedience he ventures out into a new frontier. Second, in verse 9, we read that by faith he sojourns in the land of Canaan. In the very land of promise he lives like a stranger in confident hope that God would keep his word. Third, in verse 17, we read that by faith Abraham offers up his son Isaac. He did the most difficult thing for anyone to do - sacrificing his own son and the child of promise.

He leaves his homeland, lives in a strange land, and sacrifices his own son. There is nothing convenient about faith. Faith is risky, and it stretches us. Faith takes us out of the comfort zone. Faith makes sacrifices. Faith has the believing and the doing parts. It is not enough for us to believe; we must also obey. Abraham steps out of a known place and steps into an unfamiliar place, and ultimately sacrifices his only child - all in the name of faith. From start to finish it is about faith in action. Faith is both responsive and responsible.

Faith means believing or trusting God's word, obeying God's commands, and doing God's behests.

May the Lord help us to embrace faith in its totality and live out its implications!

by Bishop Moses E. Peter