FIGHTING THE GOOD FIGHT OF FAITH! “Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.” (1 TIMOTHY 6:12). “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” (II TIMOTHY 4:7). As believers, Jesus has already defeated our enemy for us. However we must continue to battle for the steadfastness of our faith. Notice that we are to fight the good fight of faith. It’s called “the good fight of faith” because that’s the fight we win. We are not promised immunity from problems. It may even appear that our problems increase when we begin walking with God! But this seems to be the case because we are no longer rushing along with the world down the river of life on a fast track to hell! We’ve turned our boat around and are now paddling upstream, against the vicious currents of our enemy’s taunts, the world’s lures, and demanding flesh. We know well that PSALMS 34:19 reads, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all,” and that Jesus said, “.....in the world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33). But what specifically do these scriptures mean for us believers? The word for tribulation in the latter verse means: “pressure, oppression, stress, anguish, adversity, crushing, squashing, squeezing, distress.” Listen to Paul in II CORINTHIANS 4:8-9: “We are hard pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed.” God warned us that we would face difficulties in life. He knew well the tremendous challenges His people would encounter on a hostile planet. Therefore He made every provision for us to conquer these obstacles with the certainty of absolute victory, even as we are going through them! When we were born again, the Lord gave each of us (Romans 12:3) the “measure of faith” necessary to “quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.” (EPHESIANS 6:16) Our faith is the victory that overcomes each of the negative circumstances brought our way by life. (I JOHN 5:4). Faith acts as our hand to receive from God specifically what we need. That’s why what we do with our faith will make the difference between success or failure as we encounter these tests and trials. Let’s look for a moment at what faith is, and how we can fight the good fight of faith to receive God’s best. Faith is simply believing right now that God has done and is doing everything He promised to do! Faith is acting as though God’s word to us is true right now. Because it is, regardless of how we feel. HEBREWS 11:1 reads, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Weymouth’s translation renders this as: “Now faith is a well grounded assurance of that for which we hope, and a conviction of the reality of things which we do not see.” The Amplified Bible elaborates, “Now faith is the assurance (the confirmation, the title deed) of the things we hope for, being the proof of things we do not see and the conviction of their reality - faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses.” The New Century Version, my favorite translation of HEBREWS 11:1, bears further light on what faith is: “Faith means being sure of the things we hope for, and faith means knowing that something is real even if we do not see it.” Faith is never for what we already possess, but only for what we do not presently have. Hope always looks to the future, but faith is always for now! Someone has said,“if it’s not now, it’s not faith!” Through hope, we connect with our desires, our goals, our dreams. We may hope for healing from sickness, or for the finances to pay a bill. We hope to have the strength needed for an upcoming task, or for the opportunity to lead someone to Jesus. Wanting things to work out in some area of life is hope. Hope is a great planner, a wonderful dreamer, but a poor receiver. I CORINTHIANS 13:13 says, “Now abide faith, hope, and love…..” We need hope. Without it, we’re expecting nothing; therefore; there’s nothing upon which to base our faith! But we should not stop there. We must add faith to our hope. It takes more than “hoping and praying” to receive from the Lord; it takes praying and believing. Notice again what Hebrews 11:1 says, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Substance is defined by Webster’s dictionary as “the physical matter of which a things consists; essence.” Faith takes the place of what we hope for until we can see it. You may be hoping that prayers for your finances or for healing will be answered. But faith goes beyond hope in that it believes that you are healed, that the finances are sufficient, before anything changes! In fact, the situation may look worse, or you may feel worse. But faith still believes you are healed simply because God said you already are. Faith remains confident that all your financial needs will be met just because God promised to do so. Period. Your faith takes the place of what you hope for until it comes into being. Again, faith is never for what you already have; rather it’s only for what you don’t presently possess, but have been promised by God’s Word. Notice that Hebrews 11:1 also reads, “Faith is the…...evidence of things not seen.” Evidence is “that which supports the existence of something.” Let’s explain this using an example. Suppose you were names in someone’s will as the beneficiary of a piece of property. You could receive the title deed to that property without ever having seen it. That land would legally be yours before you physically possessed it! You would know for certain, by having acquired the title deed, that the land belonged to you, that deed would be the evidence of your ownership. In the same way, when we are standing in faith to receive from the Lord, our faith acts as the title deed, proving our present ownership of what we don’t yet see. So when I pray in faith for something that God says belongs to me, my faith in God to answer that prayer takes the place of the actual answer until it manifests. ROMANS 4:17 says that God “calls those things which do not exist as though they did.” God changed Abram’s name to Abraham (“the father of a multitude”) while he was yet childless. Jesus is called the “lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” (REVELATION. 13:8). God said to Joshua, “See! I have given Jericho into your hand, its king, and the mighty men of valor.” (JOSHUA 6:2). Before He raised Lazarus from the dead, Jesus looked up to the Father and said,”.....Father, I thank you that you have heard me.” (JOHN 11:41). God operates on the principle of faith, and faith “calls those things which do not exist as though they did.” Abraham believed that God had granted him a child when all outward evidence said it was impossible. He was 100 years old, and his wife Sarah was 90, but “he did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform.” (ROMANS 4:20-21). Of course, this principle is still valid today. To receive from the Lord, we must believe and act as though the prayer is answered before we see the answer manifested. Jesus said in MARK 11:24, “.....Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.” Notice in this verse that the believing comes before the receiving. Our responsibility is to “believe that we receive,” that is, to stand in faith and let our faith take the place of what we are believing for until it materializes. God’s responsibility is the “you will have them” part, that is, to bring about the manifestation of the answer in the physical world. In the same way, you may have a problem that has been in your life for years standing, but when you reach out in faith, and believe that you receive the answer while the circumstances still seem unchanged, eventually the answer will come. God always “watches over His word to perform it!” (JEREMIAH 1:12). “Therefore do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise.”(HEBREWS 10:35-36). “And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart (or ‘give up’). (GALATIANS 6:9). I encourage you to stand your ground, mixing faith with your hope, and believe God for His best in your circumstances. His word is “forever settled in heaven” (PSALMS 119:89); and His promises will bring you through to victory every time
Posted on: Fri, 26 Jul 2013 21:12:41 +0000
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