I woke this morning overwhelmed with the magnitude of my mandate, the severity of my discipline and the financial budget it entails. It just dawned on me, I will have to believe God for all my desires to become a reality. It got me thinking. It sparked a fiery debate in me that consumed me with an earnest desire to dissect the word “believe” and to grasp its significance, and expectation on my life as a Christian. What is belief? I queried in my mind. The search was on and I was not letting up until I have some concrete biblical facts that could unlock the reality of my expectation.
The dam of ignorance was broken and the flood of divine revelation flooded my soul sprouting the bud of understanding. I realized I have slipped into the same passiveness that had knocked out many church goers who called themselves believers. The word “belief” has become a casual word that we declare to express our expectation in God. Does believe relinquish our responsibility of actions. Do we just park our mandates while we are left in the wake of ambitious unbelievers who just scramble to achieve and possess everything in their path? Does believe mean we do nothing? I wondered. As I pondered on these and searched the living word, I noticed that believe is not just a passive state of “do nothing” but a call to trust the Lord in the path of obedience. Believe is not initiated by your whims, the pressure of your needs or the religious norm that is prevalent in your denominational circles but it is based on the word of the Lord. You cannot believe until God has spoken.
So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. (Rom 10:17)
God’s promises in His word or divine revelation is the foundation of our belief. However belief is not complete until you have embraced God’s word as true and taken an action in obedience. Our belief must also be reflected in our utterance. You cannot be speaking against what you believe. What you say in the heat of your circumstance is an evidence of your belief. Your belief must also affect your emotional responses to your challenges.
Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste.
(Isa 28:16)
This flood of divine revelation eroded away any root of ignorance that had been planted in my soul. Now I know what it really means when I say am believing God. I accept His promise as true; I walk in obedience, full of expectation, drowned in the rivers of His peace, with my mouth filled with praise and the declaration of my affirmations of his promise. I believe, am believing, I AM A BELIEVER.
~ Reinforf Mantey
(General Overseer, Crusaders Ministries
– www.crusaders.biz)
