Quiet and Thunderous Assurance

 

“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Hebrews 11:1 (NASB)

 

What is faith? Strong’s Greek dictionary says, “(Faith) for the believer is ‘God's divine persuasion’ – and therefore distinct from human belief (confidence), yet involving it. The Lord continuously births faith in the yielded believer so they can know what He prefers.” Faith comes from the Greek word “pistis,” which has its root word meaning “to be persuaded” or “to persuade”. What we must realize is that faith, for the Christian, always comes from God. 

 

Strong’s continues to teach about faith by saying, “It is God's warranty that guarantees the fulfillment of the revelation He births within the receptive believer. “ That’s powerful! Faith is God’s warranty, His guarantee, that what He promises will happen. Without faith, then, we believers would have no hope that we are saved from our sins, that God is real, that Jesus is God’s Son, and that there’s an eternal life. There’d be no purpose in believing in anything and no purpose for living. God, in His loving graciousness, gives us hope by giving us faith in Him, the entirety of the Trinity. 

 

Now, this faith God gives us is our assurance in what we hoped for. God’s gift of faith birthed in Christians undergirds them. Faith is the guarantee for what God says, reveals, and promises. As Christians, it guarantees the inheritance of God’s promises to believer’s because He is always faithful and Christians are co-heirs with Christ as sons and daughters of God. Rightly understood, God’s gift of faith is the undergirding, the guarantee, of our inheritance—the fulfillment of His promises to us, our hopes.

 

The hope about which the author wrote is actively anticipating and waiting for the fulfillment of promises by God. Without faith, hoping would be futile. It would be like trusting in the role of dice. Hope, to be worth anything, must have a firm and assured basis or it would just be chance, coincidence, and happenstance. God, who is YHWH (I AM), has always existed, created all things, is always faithful and loving, is almighty, omniscient, and omnipresent, is the only one who can know and does know all that will occur in the future, has power over all things, and provides a definite and unchangeable eternity for each person who yields his/her whole self to Him in recognition that He is God, the One and only true deity. Belief in YHWH means Christians can know and trust what He promises is true and will definitely happen. That is hope. It comes from the faith God births in each believer in Jesus. That faith is the guarantee that what the Christian believes and hopes will occur. True faith and hope are not a game of chance. Hope and faith in God comes from God’s love for all people. He wants only the best for us and offers that best through belief in Jesus, His Son.

 

This faith God births in Christians that guarantees in them the hope of God fulfilling His promises is a conviction that propels each believer forward in their faith and in their relationship with God. This conviction  is the proof, certainty, or persuasion of something. The faith inbirthed in a believer by God, that a person actively pins their hopes to and is assured by God because of who He is, becomes the conviction—the proof and persuasion—of the believer’s soul that leads to living out his/her faith in the world and his/her circles of influence fully yielded to God’s plan.

 

Looking at this verse in another way, faith comes down from God to a person to create hope in the person’s heart that leads to assurance of the mind, and transforms to conviction of the soul, which is enacted by the body in the world so that others see and hear about Jesus and lean towards God to hopefully seek and begin this process of faith within themselves. Faith is an all-encompassing gift. It affects a person’s heart, mind, body, and soul. That makes the Shema of Judaism more understandable. This Jewish prayer is from  Deuteronomy 6:4-9. It says,

 

“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”

 

Millennia later, when asked byJewish scribes what is the greatest commandment, Jesus replied, 

 

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” 

 

Notice the difference between the two passages; Jesus added to the Shema that a God/believing person must love God with his/her mind. What’s most important to note is we are to love God with our whole being—heart, mind, soul, and body. God wanted to redeem the whole person. That’s one of the reasons why faith affects the mind, heart, soul, and body. When a person is redeemed in totality, that person is able to love God with his/her whole being. That enables each of us to be totally renewed. It gives us total redemption from Satan. 

 

God loves us—people whom He created—so much that He sent His only Son, Jesus, to earth to live without sinning and die the perfect holy sacrifice as the sin offering for anyone who chooses to believe in Him so he/shewill not die and be eternally separated from God—His goodness and love—but will have everlasting life with Him in His kingdom. 

 

Faith is a God-given gift to people who yield their lives to Him. It activates hope in the heart. It  provides assurance to the mind. And that assurance becomes active proof in the soul, which leads to actively living out their faith in their sphere of influence. When God speaks, though it’s a nearly silent whisper to your ear, it loudly thunders in your spirit and heart. God desires all people be saved—rescued—from their sins and Satan. He loves each of us and wants to save us. 

 

Hear God’s voice. Recognize His conviction.

 

Seek God. Receive Faith. Accept His assurance. Gain hope. Live convicted. 

 

Be a life wholly yielded to God. For faith is the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things unseen.

Sacrifice to Purity

Genesis 22:1-12

¹AFTER THESE events, God tested and proved Abraham and said to him, Abraham! And he said, Here I am. ²[God] said, Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah; and offer him there as a burnt offering upon one of the mountains of which I will tell you. ³So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him and his son Isaac; and he split the wood for the burnt offering, and then began the trip to the place of which God had told him. ⁴On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. ⁵And Abraham said to his servants, Settle down and stay here with the donkey, and I and the young man will go yonder and worship and ^[a]come again to you. ⁶Then Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and laid it on [the shoulders of ] Isaac his son, and he took the fire (the firepot) in his own hand, and a knife; and the two of them went on together. ⁷And Isaac said to Abraham, My father! And he said, Here I am, my son. [Isaac] said, See, here are the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt sacrifice? ⁸Abraham said, My son, ^[b]God Himself will provide a lamb for the burnt offering. So the two went on together. ⁹When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built an altar there; then he laid the wood in order and ^[c]bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar on the wood. ¹⁰And Abraham stretched forth his hand and took hold of the knife to slay his son. ¹¹But the ^[d]Angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham! He answered, Here I am. ¹²And He said, Do not lay your hand on the lad or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear and revere God, since you have not held back from Me or begrudged giving Me your son, your only son

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It seems so easy to read this as if it is obvious that, of course, Abraham would do as God asked.  I mean, look, he listened as God told him to leave his home, his family, and his country and walk to where God leads him; why wouldn’t he follow this?  But is actually so obvious; we have just heard the story so many times that we don’t doubt Abraham’s faith. 

The first verse states that God tested and proved Abraham.  God gave Abraham the option of bowing out from this sacrifice.  Abraham walked for three days.  He had plenty of time to think of what God wanted to do.  He had lots of time to come up with a reason for not doing it.  (Wouldn’t we?)  He had people to talk to about it and get their opinion and surely they would agree with Abraham that he shouldn’t offer Isaac.  Why would God promise you descendents through your seed if He was going to ask for him as a sacrifice?  I can hear the servants’ reasoning and Abraham’s thoughts.  Yet, Abraham continued on in following God’s command to him.  Even Isaac asked where was the ram or ewe.  I am sure that Isaac was scared, too.  Look, even though he was probably frightened, the passage does not show that Isaac was fighting God’s command.  Did Abraham teach him to trust God so much that he obeyed willingly?  Would that we taught our children so well that they trusted the Father as much.

Abraham and Isaac reach Mt. Moriah and prepare the altar, probably of earth and rocks.  Abraham places the wood he personally chopped in order on the altar to be Isaac’s funeral pyre.  Nothing from God yet; God seems to really want him to offer up his last hope.  He binds Isaac’s feet and hands and places him on the altar.  Still God does not stop him.  Could we do this or would we be pleading to God with tears and continued prayer and reluctance that God not let this happen?  We do not see Abraham doing that.  We see him continuing with the process of preparing the sacrifice.  There is only one further step in the process, the killing of the offering.  Abraham pulls out his knife and poises it above Isaac to kill him.  And then…a voice from heaven, a voice that Abraham recognizes, not something that he wonders if it is God.  It is God, the God who called him out of Ur and the God he worships every day. 

The question, would we have wondered if we interpreted God’s telling us to offer our child as a sacrifice and questioned again?  Or, would we have known his voice and followed His command?  Even further, would we actually know God’s voice?  Abraham loved this child that God had given him in his old age.  He would not have thought he heard wrong if the Lord told him to offer him as a sacrifice; look, he proceeded immediately to offer the sacrifice.  Abraham did not question if it was God speaking to him; he knew God’s voice.  Now our question, do you know God’s voice intimately enough to know God speaking and not doubting his calling you to action?  Would you prepare to do what He told you to do or would you question it?  (Moses questioned God and then he was not allowed entrance to the promised land.)  A person’s character determines how he or she interprets God’s will.

God wanted to purify Abraham’s faith.  Based on Abraham’s belief, he interpreted that he had to sacrifice Isaac.  For the point Abraham was at, God could only purify Abraham’s faith in this way.  Maybe this was the one big thing, at this time, that stood between Abraham and God.  Likewise, God purifies us for Him.  God will take us through an ordeal that will serve to bring us into a better knowledge of Himself.  Are we like Abraham, are we willing to do anything for God?  He was willing to obey God in this even though it was not a belief he held from his background.  If his God required it, he would do it.  If you will remain true to God, God will lead you directly through every barrier and right into the inner chamber of the knowledge of Himself but you must be willing to give up all of your own convictions and beliefs to embrace God.  Abraham remained true to God and He purified him.  We must remain true to God, even when the thing He asks is not in our beliefs.  If we do that, God will purify us beyond our selves and our thinking.  He will bring us closer to Himself and we will know Him better and we will become more like Him.  Now the question, what has God asked you to do today; have you heard His voice?

(Thanks to Oswald Chamber for some of the commentary.)