This post has already been read 1121 times!
Discipleship is about how to walk with someone. There is a man or a woman that is doing something, and you love the way and the manner the man or woman is walking; You love the kind of result the man is producing or commanding and you choose to follow that man, to join with the man or the woman, to copy or imitate the man; that makes you a disciple of that man. Even if it is not God, it makes you a disciple of that man. There are disciples of men, there are disciples of institutions, and there are disciples of gods. For instance, if you come to the southern part of Nigeria where there are many gods, in fact, everywhere in the world, I understand that in Japan there are many gods today, and all of these gods have disciples.
Listen to Podcast: The Law of Faith
Walking with God, perhaps, could be deeper than the experience of walking with human beings, but it is you following. God is going to a place and you are following. God is doing something and you are copying Him, you are imitating Him.
Our goal is to walk with God, and we are not walking with God in the days of Abraham. Do you still remember the time when God said to Abraham, “Walk before Me and be perfect”? We know that the time of Abraham was different from the time of Adam and Eve, yet unlike Adam and Eve who could have seen God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, there was never a mention of such an experience in the life of Abraham except for the time that the Bible says three men appeared to Abraham and he recognized them and said, “My Lord, if I have now found favor in Your sight, do not pass on by Your servant. Please let a little water be brought, wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree. And I will bring a morsel of bread, that you may refresh your hearts. After that, you may pass by, since you have come to your servant.”
Apart from that experience, most of his relationship with God was done via Faith, because he could not see God. We’re not even in the days of Abraham, we are in the 21st century, how can I walk with God that I cannot see or how can I pattern my life after God that I cannot see in the age where everything we do or say is driven by what we see? We put-on the TV; we watched shows, and programs and sometimes we pattern ourselves after the host or the guests on those TV stations. So, we see things and we copy them; including the dress of a person. We are in a generation in the 21st century that is driven by vision — the things we see.
Today, we want to learn how to walk with God under the title; The Law of Faith. Join me to read the Book of Luke chapter 18 from verse 1 to verse 8: “Then He spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart.” Whether dry season or wet season; weather day or night; whether they have eaten or hungry, men ought always to pray, and not to lose heart.
In verse two the Bible says; There was in a certain city a judge who did not fear God nor [a]regard man. 3 Now there was a widow in that city; and she came to him, saying, [b]‘Get justice for me from my adversary.’ 4 And he would not for a while; but afterwards he said within himself, ‘Though I do not fear God nor regard man, 5 yet because this widow troubles me I will [c]avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.’ ”6 Then the Lord said, “Hear what the unjust judge said. 7 And shall God not avenge His elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them? 8 I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He find Faith on the earth?”
In verse 1, He said, “Men always ought to pray.” This is what is expected of them. No matter the circumstance they’re going through: whether they’re happy, or they’re joyful, you know, there are two different things, whether they are not happy, or they are not joyful. He said, “Men ought always to pray.” But we know that we don’t always pray. We don’t always do certain things that we ought always to do. He says Men ought always to pray and not to lose heart. That means the moment a man or a woman loses his or her heart, such a man will not be able to do what he or she has been doing before. So, if you can help your heart as it were, if you can gain control of your heart, if your heart is not lost then you will sustain whatever momentum you have. Whatever good you’ve been doing, you will continue. Whatever life you have been living, you will continue. But the moment you lose that heart, you will not be able to continue. That was the genesis of the conversation.
Jesus gave a parable so that we can understand this issue very well. He said there was this judge, and there was this woman, and the woman came and said avenge me of my enemies. Imagine the woman keeping quiet at that time: losing momentum, even though the judge is not ignorant of what she willed, because of the lack of follow-up, build-up, and continuation of whatever she started, though, the judge was aware of our desire, the judge did not have any reason to push on to help her. So, it’s not enough for each one of us to start anything. It is not enough for each one of us to have a desire, even to say this is my desire. Why those things could be good, they are not enough.
Jesus said even though the man, the judge, was unjust because of the continual requests of that woman; because this woman would not lose heart; because this woman would not stop asking, though that judge did not fear God, he still did what the woman wanted. The man, even though he was an unjust judge he did what the woman wanted, but why? The woman kept asking.
The woman kept asking because she didn’t lose heart. I asked yesterday, and you said No, but I’m asking again. You said No, but I’m asking again, I wouldn’t lose heart. I won’t be discouraged. “It doesn’t matter the way you are deflecting, blocking me.” “It doesn’t matter the discouragement that has come my way, nor the result I’m getting.” Somebody could be in a marriage, but the marriage is not working. The easiest thing could be that you want to get out of it, but you say no, even though the circumstance of a marriage is not okay, I’m still going to continue. You’re continuing because you don’t lose heart — indirectly your Faith. You believe that God who brought you into the marriage, no matter what you are going through in the marriage is still there with you; He is going to keep you in it. Do you get it? That is the genesis of the law of Faith.
The law of Faith is not built on desires, feelings, sight, thinking, wishes and so on. There is a Faith issue. Faith is not by what you see; that is the challenge with Faith. You see a beautiful woman, and you marry her, no! You see a woman, she’s not beautiful, but you marry her, there’s something else. God didn’t give you a Word, but you say, “I will die there.” This thing will become better then there is no foundation for that Faith. The true foundation for every Faith is “God said it, I believe it, and that settles it.” It begins with God; resting in hope on what God has said.
When Jesus observed everything, he said, “Nevertheless, When the Son of Man comes, will He find Faith.” Let’s calm down and look very well, quietly among the body of Christ particularly among the leaders, when He looks among the brethren, will He find Faith in their hearts? I’m sure you know or admit that when the Son of Man comes, there will be religion on the earth, do you agree? So, what Jesus was talking about was not a religion. Will He find people who call themselves Christians?
Remember in the Book of Matthew where Jesus said, “Many will say to me, Lord, Lord, didn’t we cast out demons in your name, but He will say away from me, you were workers of iniquity.” You were doing great things, but you were doing them with different intentions, because of the problem with your motive — even though it looks obvious or in the open that you were working for me, in reality, you are serving your interests. So, He said, even though Christ may meet people who will be serving him openly, will He meet people who believe every Word that He has given to them and live their lives by those words? Will He find people who don’t do things to show off or because they are persuaded by it? Whether you meet me in the day or at night, this is my persuasion, will He find people like that? Jesus raised this question, and it is now important for you and me to answer it either publicly or within our hearts.
In Galatians chapter 3 from verse 1 to verse 9, see what the Bible says; “Oh foolish Galatians.” I’m sure you know the relationship between the Galatians and apostle Paul; it didn’t start from this chapter 3, but it started well at the beginning — these people started well. He didn’t leave them after their conversion as foolish Galatians — they didn’t start their relationship like that; they started well. Things were working Well, perhaps, they were being pious when they saw Apostle Paul; they showed that they were spiritual: they were no more in darkness, they had been translated into the kingdom of light. So, Apostle Paul was very free with them, and he was enjoying the spirit with them. But it came to this point in chapter three which could even happen to many people in the body of Christ. Though there could be a moment in our lives when we say Jesus is Lord, and we are so zealous for God, we could get to a point like the Galatians that will become foolish based on how we live our lives, and so that we don’t live our lives in the manner that we could be foolish is why we’re looking at the law of Faith as the alternative to us being foolish.
Look at it: “O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you [a]that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was portrayed [b]among you as crucified? 2 This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of Faith? 3 Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh.” The beginning was okay for them, they started well. We could even conclude that there was a time the Galatians were speaking in tongues, they were on fire for God. They were passionate about God and they were willing to follow God anywhere God was leading them.
Verse 4; “Have you suffered so [c]many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain? 5 Therefore He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does He do it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of Faith? — 6 just as Abraham “believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” 7 Therefore know that only those who are of Faith are sons of Abraham.” This makes it looks as if being a son of Abraham was going to be the tag that qualifies you as a man or a woman that God is pleased with. Yet, if you will be called a son of Abraham is going to be by Faith, not by how many times you come to church; not by many things that people could put as a standard but by Faith.
From verse 8, see what the Bible says, “And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by Faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, “In you, all the nations shall be blessed.” 9 So then those who are of Faith are blessed with believing Abraham.” It is those who are of Faith. Not those who were of Faith, not those who began with Faith, who had some Faith at the beginning. No, it is those who are of Faith. In the beginning, they were of, at the present, they are of, and in the future, they will be of Faith. So, like Jesus said, “Men ought to always.” It means when it comes to Faith, you and I must always be in it. It must not be said of us that when we were teenagers, we were Faithful; we were people of Faith. When we were in university, we had a lot of Faith. In fact, by the time we got married, there was so much fire in us, we had Faith.
When we started your ministry, we had a lot of Faith, it must never be said that when you were less than 40, you had a lot of Faith. Whether you are 40, 30, or 60; whenever anybody checks your life, they must find you to be a man or a woman of Faith. That is what makes it a law. It is indispensable. We cannot do without it. Again, in verse 9 of Galatians chapter 3, the Bible says; “So then those who are of Faith are blessed with believing Abraham.” Sir, those who are not of Faith, what are they? They are a curse. So, what qualifies us for a blessing is this Faith. And Jesus was very worried that when He comes back will Faith be found among the people, even though there will be people who will still have titles, administering ministry projects, even though people will call them men of God. They could be called bishops. Then when Jesus shines light upon their lives, will Faith be found in them?
Apostle Paul said, “Would it be said of you that you started in the Spirit and you want to be perfected by the works of the flesh?” So, it looks as if the opposite of Faith is working in the flesh; being ruled by your senses. In the book of Isaiah chapter 11 from verse 1, the Bible says: There shall come forth a [a]Rod from the [b]stem of Jesse, And a Branch shall [c]grow out of his roots. 2 The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him, The Spirit of wisdom and understanding, The Spirit of counsel and might, The Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. 3 His delight is in the fear of the Lord, And He shall not judge by the sight of His eyes, nor decide by the hearing of His ears.”
The opposite of Faith is you and me judging by what we see, and what we hear. Thomas said, “I won’t believe that Jesus has risen until I have to feel it; I have to see the blood, then I believe.” And Jesus replied to Thomas, “Blessed are those who do not see yet believe,” that’s the law of Faith. You don’t see anything; nothing gives you the impression that in the flesh things will be all right. You believe. If you are going to also walk outside of Faith, that means you are going to be led by the things you see. You will see things and then you will believe them, such belief will not be permanent. Many of us have been driving like that; we see to believe and what we see doesn’t last.
Let me give you an example as the Lord permits me. Before I got married, I knew there was a need for me to get a job before I get married. So, a lot of prayers, “Oh Lord, Oh Lord, give me a job.” And there were some lights oppositions from my spouse’s family: “My beloved daughter, my beloved sister, you are too important to me; you can’t marry a man that says he wants to do full-time ministry, please, go and pray again let God show you a correct man that has money; who job.” As God would have it, the Bible says, “On the amount of need it shall be provided,” just about the critical time I needed to be presented to her family, there was a job. But about a few days or a few weeks before the wedding, I had to leave the job.
So, I got married jobless, don’t worry, I did all the major processes with the job. So, for those who wanted to be led by what they see and hear, they saw me as a man that has a job, and they accepted me. I entered the marriage without a job. What I’m saying is this, the things you see; are temporary. Have you not read it in the Bible? The things we don’t see, are permanent. So, if you build your life based on ‘I want to see,’ the world says, “seeing is believing.” You know, you can’t find that in the Bible, if you see it to believe it, what you have believed may not be real.
If somebody’s waiting, I want him to be perfected first before I go in, he might not be perfected at all, because you don’t have Faith. So, let’s build our lives, our ministries, and our relationship with God on Faith, not on other things. Now, let’s go to Galatians chapter 2 verse 20, the Bible says; “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live.” This was not Apostle Paul’s ministry issue; he wasn’t talking to them about apostolic ministry, he was talking to them about himself; his life. He said, “I [that you read about, you know] have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.” The question is, how many people around him saw Christ in the flesh in him?
Christ is not to be seen in the flesh. Look at it. He said, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by Faith in the Son of God.” “The life that I am living that you see, I live it by Faith,” as if to say ‘the law of Faith governs me’. “I do my things as dictated by Faith.” The Bible says, “You will not see the rain, you will not see the wind, yet the valley will be filled with water”. “I don’t live my life based on the things I see.” Of course, ‘Faith comes from hearing and hearing by the word of God.” Every other thing outside God does not build Faith. If you want to have Faith to the point that you’ll be able to walk with God by Faith, then it will be because you hear God. Not that you hear other things, but that you hear God.
The Bible says, “Let God be true and every man a liar.” So, people can tell you a lie. Government can tell you lies. When a matter is even mistakenly made public before you know it, you will hear that the matter is classified — it can’t be disclosed. Even the spokesperson who’s supposed to be a public relation will no longer have any word for the public. If you hear any other thing after is classified, you are hearing lies; makeup stories.
People can lie and, the government can lie. So, you can’t build your life on what people or government tell you. But what God expects of you is that you listen to him, and you build your life on what you hear. That’s why Jesus said, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every Word that proceeds from the mouth of God”. So, when we’re talking about your Faith, we’re not talking about you just reading some books or reading newspapers, you now want to have Faith, have Faith in a party, Faith in people, Faith in a church, it is Faith in God. Listening to God, God, what are you saying?
Apostle Paul said, “I live by Faith.” He added that it is not just any kind of Faith. We must understand also another thing Faith in God is built on the Word of God; God speaks to you, and you believe it. By so doing, you understand you have Faith in God. He said, “Faith in the Son of God, that means his life was lived solely on hearing Jesus. So, he would do nothing until Jesus has spoken to him about it. And as long as Jesus has spoken to him about something, he would never doubt it.
He said further, “I live by Faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me”. Faith is not something that you can say, okay, let me believe, let me not believe, no! It’s a law. We ultimately become what we believe. The kind of Faith we have determines the kind of future ahead of us. Where you are is a product of what you have believed. And if you are going to become anything in the future is going to be by what you choose to believe. When God says to a people, “I place before your life and death,” God is speaking and you are hearing God. And God is telling you to choose life so that you and your children may live. Don’t forget, God called it death, but people will not call it death, it could be opportunities, it could be other things. Usually, when we disobey what God has said, we have left the realm of Faith, and have gone into something else.
What we must do in this 21st century is do nothing except what the Lord has commanded it. Even if you can tell yourself, ‘I’m not seeing God physically,” are you hearing God? Is God speaking into your heart? Are you doing what you are yearning for? Are you following the leadership that you are hearing, or you are following what you see, saying to God, ‘what You are telling me is old school; it doesn’t work again. God, you don’t understand, in this 21st century that we have WhatsApp, Lord, this is the time for 5G and we are going to 6G, Lord, there is a way we do things in this era. This is the era of YouTube and so on”. And you begin to tell God about now, and God is speaking to you now, yet you choose not to believe Him. Our destinies are at the mercy of our Faith. When we don’t have Faith in God, the truth is we will have Faith in Satan; we will have Faith in the world.
Hebrews chapter 11 from verses 1 to 3, see what the Bible says, “Now,” now in this 21st century, even when we get to the 22nd century; we will still have “now” in the 22nd century. The Bible says, “Now Faith,” which is a law, “is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not thing”. If you look at that verse very well, when you are talking about your Faith, you are talking about something you have never seen before. The Bible didn’t say the evidence will be physical or tangible. Bible says, “Faith is the substance of things you are hoping for,” I’m hoping, “and the evidence of things not seen,” you have not seen it, but you have evidence.
Another way we can put the even literal evidence is you have a witness; something is witnessing within you that the thing you have not seen is going to be possible. The Bible now added, “By this Faith,” which is also a law, “the elders,” those who have gone ahead of you —those who have come and gone, “they obtained [received] a good testimony.” Like they fought; they won.
Moreso, “By Faith, we understand that the [c]worlds were framed by the word of God so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.” So, even the things we are hoping for, what produces them are not visible. When God speaks to you about your future, you can see your future tangibly or physically; you can’t touch it, but you still believe it; you hold on to that Word; that word is a piece of evidence. That Word is a testimony or a witness to what God has said to you. Remember the Bible says, “In the mouth of two or three witnesses, every word shall be established”. Two or three witnesses, what will witnesses do? Somebody who will say something is so, and so. Another person could say, ‘that’s true; I saw it; I believe it; it is true’. God said it; you carry the Word like a treasure. What is the treasure? God! What God said; the Word of God, the promises of God. The Bible says, “The promises of God in Christ Jesus, they are yes and amen.”
You carry the promises of God, and begin to say what God has said, it is already two or three witnesses; that word must be established. But we don’t always tarry in the place of waiting, patiently expecting, that what God has said to us is going to happen. Many who began this race before us, if they want to be honest with us to tell us their life story, they are glorious and celebrated today, but there were moments when they were struggling. But when any one of them wants to tell us the story, they can help us to understand that these things didn’t happen overnight. There were times, physically, when things were not looking like a possibility. There were times they were telling their own people ‘in the next ten years, we will be so and so,’ and the people were almost smiling; ‘If the Lord opens the windows of heaven will these things ever be?’
But to the glory of God, we are seeing them today, thinking they just suddenly jumped here, and we too want to suddenly jump into our future not knowing it could have taken some of them 40 years, 30 years, 22 years. So, when God spoke to them about the days that they are in now, what God would do in their lives, even though they could not see it, they needed to have a substance for it; they needed evidence, what was the evidence? God said it.
This is how your life shall be, although your beginning may be small, your latter end shall be greatly increased. But some people are telling you now that the way you are dragging your feet in life, ministry or marriage, maybe God didn’t call you. When you choose to abandon what God said and embrace what they are saying, then you are not being driven by the law of Faith. You are not allowing Faith to guard your heart. Faith is not guiding you and is not guarding you. But when what God has said is more important to you than what people are saying and what you are seeing now, then you are a man of Faith. You are the one that the Bible says you are blessed with believing Abraham.
Would you get to that point or are you at that point where the Word God told you in 1986, 2006, or 2016 is more important than the sufferings or the excitement of your life right now? When will the Words of God in 2018 be more important than the insecurity around you in 2023? When it looks as if you are a nobody but God told you, ‘You will be great,’ but the circumstances of your life keep telling you, ‘nobody in your family has ever done anything great,’ are you going to side with that voice that is telling you, ‘you are nobody’ or you would put your weight with what God told you; even if it were a month ago that you will be great? Will I doubt what God said because of what people are saying now?
Remember what God said to you at the beginning. Let the word of God be important to you. That is what God expects of us. When you read through Hebrews chapter 11, all the men there did different things, but they all did what they did by Faith. The Bible says God has not left any generation without a witness; the witness is the witness of Faith; the witness of things that have never been seen. Your today is looking miserable but you are having a witness in your heart. There is a witness from God that your tomorrow shall be all right. And are you going to believe that witness or you’re going to be overwhelmed by the things around you today that are going to tell whether you are a man of Faith or you are not man of Faith?
In Revelations chapter 2 from verses 24 to 29, see what the Bible says: 24 “Now to you I say, [q]and to the rest in Thyatira, as many as do not have this doctrine, who have not known the depths of Satan, as they say, I [r]will put on you no other burden. 25 But hold fast what you have till I come. 26 And he who overcomes, and keeps My works until the end, to him I will give power over the nations— 27 ‘He shall rule them with a rod of iron; They shall be dashed to pieces like the potter’s vessels’— as I also have received from My Father; 28 and I will give him the morning star. 29 “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”
Spirit is speaking, and when you hear Him and you believe it; it will be said of you that you are a man or a woman of Faith. Jesus said, “That which you have, hold fast to it”. Don’t lose your heart. Don’t give up. Your beginning may be small; you may be unknown; you may be uncelebrated; you may be abandoned or rejected, but assuredly, your tomorrow shall be great. There was a president in America in those years when many of us were not born, Abraham Lincoln, he attempted to be a leader in America for many years, but failed. All his attempts to rise to any of the political offices failed until he attempted to be president.
The person that discovered the lightbulb tried many times, but on the last attempt, he got it. How many of us would get to the last attempts, or we are going to give up on the first attempt? You did something small; they criticized you, and they blamed you until you gave up. Will you ever get to the point where you will do things and people will be paying you for what you do? Many of us want to start life at the point of celebration: I do something, people love it; they appreciate me, perhaps, they even pay me for what I do, because that’s what we see around us. We see people that are performing, not knowing that the people who are celebrated today among us, were once neglected; they were criticized, but never gave up.
I was watching some documentary maybe last year or so, there’s a man in the southern part of Nigeria, an actor, they call him Adekola. At one point, he was going through a scandal, and some oppositions within the industry, acting industry, were criticizing him, and some were envying him. And he was like some of them were even wondering that he just suddenly became popular. He mentioned that some of them didn’t know that he has been acting for the last 25 years. How many of us can say the things we want to be celebrated for; we have been doing them for the last 20 years? Our celebration can’t come to us suddenly. It won’t be like that. The woman that Jesus gave the parable about, did not stop petitioning the judge. The judge rejected the case many times, but she kept coming.
Many of us can’t hit the target on the first attempt, we could fail occasionally or at certain attempts, but if we continue; if we don’t give up; we will succeed. Let us not be people that believe that everything is easy. People complain a little about it, we conclude that we are rubbish. No! Didn’t people complain about Jesus, yet all of us are following Him today? There are times when people will criticize your work, but that doesn’t mean they’re criticizing you. They’re only criticizing what you did, you can do something better. You can improve for your good so that you can get to excellence. I pray that we understand that none of us is expected to be an abandoned project in the hand of God.
There is nothing God is doing with you that God cannot take to perfection. There is no experience that you’re having with God today that is expected to kill you or destroy you. There is something He is expecting to build up in you. It could be a character; it could be perseverance; it could be anything, but if you continue in well doing; you will get the reward.
