The Power of Faith to Transform Your Life
Abraham “Believed to Become” What God Had Promised, You Can Too
If you learned how to receive what God promises in His Word, how would that change your life?
That’s one of the questions that drove me to a deep dive on the multi-layered topic of receiving the divine nature, receiving what God wants us to have. Because I know, and you know, that if we learn to receive those thousands of God-given promises, which are by the way, His desire for us, we will experience more and more of the abundant, overflowing life Jesus emphasized.
As a result we will be living the way God designed us to live, glorify God, and help others want to follow God too.
Abraham and Sarah learned to do this.
At the ages of 100 and 90, respectively, they received the miraculous healing and creative power of God in their bodies to such an extent that they were able to conceive and have a son.
These types of biblical stories are intended to strengthen our faith, because if God can do that for imperfect people like them, then He can do that in my life as well. And, they teach us many valuable lessons about how faith develops and how God works through faith.
One of Our Biggest Advantages
One of the biggest advantages all believers CAN have over non-believers is in the realm of personal growth and transformation.
I say, “can” because some unbelievers see more positive growth and development in their lives than Christians do because they actually work at it and have discovered principles and practices (solidly Biblical) without reading the Bible, that really do work.
I’m sure you’ve heard self-help experts teach on things like goal-setting, visualization, declarations, gratitude, purpose, and self-discipline. What you may not realize is that all of those things are endorsed by the Bible, but with God’s guidance and help
These practices work to a degree, even without God’s direct help because God set them in place, and to a degree they work whether they believe in God or not.(That’s another topic).
But what non-believers do not have is the grace, presence, power, and resources of God available to them. And all of that is available to us through faith in God and His word.
Some expression of faith is necessary to receive almost all of what God has promised. Hebrews 6:12 tells us we inherit God’s promises through faith and patience. Jesus said when we pray, we believe first, then we receive it. Mark 11:24
And Romans 4:18 tells us “In hope against hope he believed, SO THAT HE MIGHT BECOME a father of many nations ACCORDING TO THAT WHICH HAD BEEN SPOKEN….”
Faith based on what God has spoken is at the heart of becoming who God says we are.
This passage teaches us that God had already declared Abraham to be the father of many nations BEFORE he had any children and the age of child bearing was long past. But God said it was a reality.
This is so like all the words God has spoken and put in writing in His Bible about us. We are holy, we are righteous, we are more than conquerors, we overcome the world, we are strong, loving, peaceful, joyful and so much more, based on God’s unbreakable words.
That is who God says we are, even when we are not yet fully living it.
One of the most powerful ways those words become reality in our lives is by believing them and holding on to them. “ABRAHAM BELIEVED SO THAT HE MIGHT BECOME.”
When we determine to believe God’s words, despite contrary circumstances (Abraham was 100, “in hope against hope) we open the pipeline and keep it open of God’s power to turn His promises into experience in our lives.
Abraham didn’t get to this place of faith overnight, and neither will we. If you read his story, you’ll see he had some very major faith and integrity failures along the way. But, he didn’t quit. He kept going with God and eventually he got to the place where His believing led to him becoming what God had promised him.
Standing with you!
Mark
P.S. If you’ve received Jesus, the promises of God are for you. 2 Corinthians 1:20
