Growing in Faith
by Pastor Shannon Pinto
Good theology always makes stand in awe of God. Good bible study does not deceive us into making God look tame and predictable. Rather it helps us see how awesome, wonderful and amazing God is, in His nature, His ways and works.
God is unchangeable in His character but amazingly unpredictable is His ways and works and He is continually desiring and working to reveal His amazing ways and works to fill us with greater joy for His glory.
Psalm 77: 18 - 20
Your way was in the sea and Your paths in the mighty waters, and Your footprints may not be known. You led Your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.
The Christian is a life and a journey of faith through mighty waters. To grow in God always means to grow in faith (Romans 1: 17; 2 Corinthians 5: 7)
There is no issue with one having doubts from a heart position of faith. Doubts that come from a position of faith and doubts that come from a heart condition of unbelief are completely different (Mary and Zacharias). They look and sound completely different. The growing in faith does not imply the complete absence of doubt but a continual progressive victory over it by seeking to learn and know the heart of God and having the basis of our present faith on His experienced goodness and faithfulness in our lives. We should not look back in regret; we should look back in gratitude standing strong in faith.
Your present victories and breakthroughs and future destiny is completely dependent on how well you grow and progress in faith. Your blessings exist in entitlement because of Jesus’s finished work on the cross. But to bring that blessing into reality requires stepping out in faith by the grace of God.
Show me any record in scripture where a miracle happened in the Bible where someone did not step out in a simple act of faith and obedience. We see in scripture that every time a miracle happened someone had dared to take a “risk” to believe God for the impossible to become possible by the power of God.
Is God speaking to you something right now? Has God spoken something to you?
DO IT!!!
How will you grow and progress in faith?
Simple, God will always up the bar of faith. See the example below…
Matthew 8: We read the story…and we see Jesus can take your boat across in a storm
Matthew 14: We read the story…and we see Jesus can take you across even without a boat in stormy seas.
Are you ready to walk by faith upon the waters. Some places cannot be reached paddling or boating. You will need to walk on water. You choose: stay in the boat or walk on the water.
Faith is like a little fuse
This fuse of faith (like a seed) though little is powerful to move mountains for it is connected well to infinitely powerful power generators.
India ranks third in the world in terms of the number of dams after USA and China. We have 4710 completed dams. It helps us tide over the unpredictable rainfall to ensure a steady supply of irrigated water for farming, drinking water, industries and hydropower for electricity. The largest is the Tehri Dam in terms of power generation (2400 mega watts). In terms of water retention, the Bhakra Nangal stores up 9.34 billion cubic litres of water enough to drain the whole of Punjab, Chandigarh, Delhi and even parts of Haryana. And now with Nuclear power stations it’s another level of power generation altogether. A nuclear reactor on board a US aircraft carrier can provide power for an entire state.
Power generators!!!
But we have our power generators to light up our little fuses of faith.
THE WORD OF GOD, THE CROSS, THE EMPTY TOMB, THE THRONE OF GOD
And we come with our little fuse and plug into these awesome power generators with prayer, proclamations, thanksgiving, praise and worship and we get fired up in our faith to take steps we have never taken before to experience the power of God and see the glory of God
ARE YOU READY TO GROW IN YOUR FAITH?