The Activity Of The Church Is Faith

"But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him" (Hebrews 11:6)

At GLCC we believe that in order to discover God's will and to see God work we must take a step of faith. Without venturing out in faith we will never see what the Lord wants to do. In the Old Testament the Philistines had amassed a huge army and invaded the land of Israel. The Philistines were such an awesome threat that most of the Israeli army deserted and fled. Saul's son Jonathan woke one night and said to a young man, "Come let us go over to the garrison of these uncircumcised, it maybe that the Lord will work for us" (I Samuel 14:6). In other words Jonathan took a step of faith, he said, "let's see if God wants to work today. Let's see what God might want to do today." Without this venture of faith they would have never discovered God's will or seen God work.

But this venture of faith was not without precaution. As they were on the way to the Philistine camp Jonathan wanted to make sure God was in this wanted venture of faith. He said to the young man, "If they say to us, wait until we come down to you" (I Samuel 14:9) then we will know God is not in it. "But if they say to us, come up to us" (I Samuel 14:10) then we will know God is in it. When we are not sure a little precaution is always wise but it is only when we take a step of faith will we know God's will and see God work. Faith is often risking but remember nothing ventured, nothing gained.

If you take a step of faith and you discover God is not in it, you need to retreat. The worst thing you can do is to try to make a thing succeed when God is not in it. If God is in our venture of faith doors will just open, we will not have to force things or manipulate things. If God is in it, it is going to go His way. It is going to go smoothly and we are not going to have to make compromises. One mistake the church often makes is trying to keep alive a ministry or a program that is dying. There's a time when God uses a particular kind of program, but then that time passes. But because it is a tradition of the church people try to keep it alive. We need to learn to let things die a natural death instead of trying to keep things alive by artificial means.

It is always a sign of degeneration when we have to look back to the past to say what God has done. It is only as we venture out in faith that will we be able to say, "look what God is doing."
 

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