Courageous Faith

God has placed much more in believers than we realize, and some of those things require courageous faith and pressure to bring out of us. The right kind and amount of pressure to see the impurities brought out of us and the Godly righteousness developed in us.

When you are under pressure, it can feel like you are alone with nobody who can identify with you, nobody that can understand what you’re going through, but God understands. He understands but also knows that without that pressure, what He has put in you cannot be brought out of you, and your faith cannot grow. God wants us to exercise our will and trust Him and His plan.

He is looking for believers that will abide and remain steadfast in their walk with Him until the day of His coming. He wants to refine you like gold and silver, to pull out your impurities, and help you grow in godly righteousness.

“He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and He will purify the priests, the sons of Levi, and refine them like gold and silver, that they may offer to the Lord offerings in righteousness.” – Malachi 3:3 (KJV)

Refining precious metals like this require heat, pressure, and great attention and care from the one doing the purifying. They have to watch and keep a close eye on things, for too much of either will lead to a broken and brittle metal, but too little will leave impurities behind, causing it to fail when tested. God knows, without a doubt, the amount of pressure needed to help you grow.

We are not alone when we struggle with pressure, fighting with ourselves to do what we know to be correct and what God has called us to do. The Bible tells us that Jesus experiences great anguish during His prayer in the garden of Gethsemane before His betrayal. He struggled with what He knew needed to happen.

Jesus went to Gethsemane because he was pressed to make a decision. God sent him to earth to be a sacrifice for all of humanity, but He had to resolve to surrender His will for God’s will and make that choice. Jesus was in a place of pressing, but out of that pressing came something extraordinary. The opportunity to receive salvation through Him and a restored relationship with our Heavenly Father.

God is not caught off guard by your prayers or the situations in your life. He is ahead of it with an answer. Put your trust in his hands rather than anything else, and be willing to risk everything because you trust in Him. He only allows things into your life to get something to you or to bring something out of you. He has already placed something or someone in your life to provide the answers you need—the answers to your prayers.

God knows what every believer needs, but you and I have a part to play. Exercising our faith requires courage. It requires trust, hope, and action. You have to engage your will, just as Jesus exercised His will by choosing to trust His Father and do His will in the garden of Gethsemane.

Exercising your faith will require doing things that may not always make sense to you. Something that might be the opposite of what you think you should do. When God is telling you to do something, rarely is it in an audible voice. He will speak to you through His word as you read and study, in prayer, through the Holy Spirit and the people in your life.

Listening to and following instructions from the Lord can be the difference between success or failure and victory or defeat. God will tell you to do something and then give you wisdom on how to do it. You must follow His instructions, whatever they may be, and sometimes despite how silly they may appear or make you feel.

From my experience, the Holy Spirit often leads me to do things outside my comfort zone. It will help me grow, but I wouldn’t do it without His pressing because it causes fear and anxiety to spring up in me; fear of failing, fear of looking foolish and making a fool of myself, or fear of making mistakes. When I set aside my feelings and trust God, when I exercise my faith with courage, things will work out regardless of my circumstances or how things look.

Courageous faith is boldly pursuing what is desired with absolute confidence and trust in the Lord as your source of protection, provision, and strength. Exercising your faith requires courage and being courageous in pursuing an answer from God. You might be in a desperate situation, but resolve to go to God first.

We see one example of a person with courageous faith in the book of 2 Kings 4. We see the telling of the story of a widow who had just lost her husband and was facing a seemingly impossible debt and the loss of her two sons. In this time, if you had a debt you could not pay, you or your sons would become slaves until the debt repayment was complete. Her two sons were her only source of future income, meaning she would have been homeless and destitute without them.

“A certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha, saying, “Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that your servant feared the Lord. And the creditor is coming to take my two sons to be his slaves.” – 2 Kings 4:1 (NKJV)

This widow had courageous faith. She boldly decided to go to the prophet instead of the king as protocol dictated. In going to the prophet, she was going to God. She put her trust in God rather than the government, which could have ended badly for her. She was willing to risk everything based on her belief and trust in God. Do you have faith enough to trust God for the big things?

God uses His prophet, Elisha, to answer the widow’s prayer (request), but He does so using everyday things around her. The prophet instructs her to borrow empty jars from all her neighbors, not just a few, and fill them with the jar of oil she had.

“Then he said, Go, borrow vessels from everywhere, from all your neighbors—empty vessels; do not gather just a few. And when you have come in, you shall shut the door behind you and your sons; then pour it into all those vessels, and set aside the full ones.” – 2 Kings 4:3-4 (NKJV)

Imagine things from her perspective. Logically, what the prophet was instructing her didn’t make much sense, but she came to Elisha by faith, one she knew was a representative of God and trusted God would use him to give her an answer. I don’t know about you, but I would have definitely at least raised an eyebrow at the solution. I imagine she felt silly asking all her neighbors to borrow empty jars, but she did not let that deter her from following the instructions. She set aside her feelings and followed the instructions exactly. When she finished, Elisha instructed her to sell the oil to pay her debt and live off the rest.

“Then she came and told the man of God. And he said, “Go, sell the oil and pay your debt; and you and your sons live on the rest.” – 2 Kings 4:7 (NKJV)

There was a shortage of oil in the land, so she and her sons made enough selling the oil to pay off the debt and live on the rest! She exercised her faith and came to God through His prophet with a specific request. He answered her above and beyond her needs.

You might be in a desperate situation, but resolve to go to God first with your petition. Be specific in your prayers and what you want to achieve. You may be dealing with uncertainty, but your faith has a place to be as long as you have hope and trust in God. Pray and wait on God when facing a challenge. When you pray in faith, mountains move, and situations change. You must pay attention to prayer to see conditions change, miracles, and transformations.

Through prayer, you insist that what the word of God is saying to you is true. When you pray in faith with the awareness of your identity in Christ, God will move and answer your prayers. Pray, knowing that Christ has given you victory, He has already delivered you, and the devil is only trespassing. Destroy the devil’s foothold in your life through the word of God and prayer. Whatever situation you are facing, don’t limit God. Believe him for his best and stand on His word.

 

The information expressed above are excerpts from the sermon “Courageous Faith” preached by Dr. Lee A. Simpson. You can listen to the complete sermon on our YouTube channel.